Wine drinkers…nice bottle of red for about £30?

I know nothing about wine, but a mate has just rescued all our photos and music from a dead mac. I want to get him something, and know he likes wine. I guess there’s lots of variables, but anything recommended?

Cheers

Not a connoisseur, but I’d rather have 3 £10 bottles than one £30 one…

I thought that, but I would like to get him something he wouldn’t buy himself….if you know what I mean. I’d prefer a bottle of Grey Goose.

In that case I would go to a real vintners, and ask for a wine from somewhere that means something to him, if possible, I mean his heart may belong to Stockport, but its not famous for wine…

Is he a (1) red blooded ballbuster or a (2) man with discerning tastes?

(1) Try an Italian Brunello di Montalcino (Waitrose do a good one at £29.99), or a more conventional Chateauneuf du Pape (Bosquet des Papes or Clos des Papes at that price), or even the slightly wacky and powerful Aussie D’arenburg Dead Arm Shiraz (just under £30)

(2) Any nice burgundy (pinot noir) will be a treat – Gevrey Chambertin, Nuits St Georges all around that price

He’s a 2 before the first bottle, a 1 after!

Thanks – I’m go up the offy later

chateauneuf du pape gets my vote

We’ve done very, very well from Chile recently. Domus Aurea Cabernet and Casa Silva Microterroir de los Lingues Carmenere have been fantastic at around £25 – both came from Oddbins so may not be available. Dead Arm is an awesome wine too, very punchy but also very complex and fairly easy to get hold of.

If you’re going French I would suggest a good Burgundy from a good wine merchant, or a southern Rhone but not a Chateauneuf du Pape – seems very overrated – sure the top wines are amazing but you don’t get them for £30. A good Gigondas or Cotes du Rhone Villages Cairanne will outdo a CdP at that sort of money.

[EDIT – nothern Rhone is also good – he may appreciate a Cornas or a good St Joseph, be careful when buying the latter as there is a lot of expensive but not very good StJ about.]

Bordeaux has always been a mystery to me.

That’s brilliant, thank you. There’s a decent wine shop in Stourbridge, I’ll have a wander down tomorrow and read out some of these suggestions!

Thanks again

sc-xc – Member
I thought that, but I would like to get him something he wouldn’t buy himself….if you know what I mean. I’d prefer a bottle of Grey Goose.

Bottle of blue nun mixed with ribena and a 1/8 of skunk.

What does he like? If a friend bought me any of the wines suggested by Stu I’d be miffed that someone else’s taste was being imposed on me but if it were a cru bourgeois Bordeaux (more specifically Medoc) I’d know the friend had been intelligent and asked my wife what to get.

Drinking a nice Chateau neuf de pape someone gave me at the moment. I love wine but I am not sure the jump from 10 to 30 quid says much that is obvious to most recipients. For a gift at that price point I’d be thinking Whisky, Armangac or Champagne.

For me it would be a barolo- lovely Italian stuff!

How much is an 1/8th nowadays then?

The question being could he genuinely tell the difference between a £10 bottle and a £30 bottle?

It’s all just a load of pretentious bollocks and I used to work in the wine trade as well..

The question being could he genuinely tell the difference between a £10 bottle and a £30 bottle?

Usually there’s a noticeable difference.

But you might be better to go to a decent offy or supermarket (M&S are very good) and get two £15 bottles in different styles.

Perhaps a good quality Aussie red and something nice from France, Italy or Spain.

http://www.bbr.co.uk

Just as well they didn’t check out your taste buds before givng you the job eh! Travellingman.

If we’re talking Bordeaux then the grapes in the £30 cru Bourgeois Bordeaux will have been hand picked and sorted. The Vines will be within a certain age range and the terroir will be within a well-define area in which the growing conditions conform to the the caiher de charges of the appelation. Vinification and ageing in new oak barrels will have respected another caiher de charges. The odds of being disappointed are very low.

On the other hand with a £10 bottle you might get lucky with a producer who does just the same but isn’t in the right area. Or you might get machine picked grapes with leaves, snails and bits of vegetation that have been summarily fermented with various additions and shown a second-hand barrel for a few months.

I used to work in the wine trade as well..

I think that there is normally a quite noticeable difference between a £10 & £30 bottle. Furthermore if you go for the subtedly of a burgundy there is no point in buying one for less than £25-30. This is not to sound pompous merely stating a fact. No point wasting money on cheap burgundy better to get a Pinot Noir from the new world.

Plus not many people treat themselves to £30 bottles so I think one bottle would make more of an impact than two £15 bottles. Just my opinion and I am sure he will appreciate whatever you buy.

as the others have said, an independant off licence is a good bet, although I would get 2 at the 15 quid mark as the law of diminishing returns starts to kick in if you aren’t totally sure what you are getting above this point

Nicholls and Perks in Stourbridge will sort you out. The main man there us an astonishing wine geek but he will find something for you. I got my inlaws an Italian red for about that which blew them away with how good it was, can’t remember what it was though, sorry!

If that’s the one opposite the mitre lunge, that’s where I’m a heading….

from above 1 dead arm or 2 dead bolt, if you can find a bottle of rockfords basket press shiraz or cab sav well worth it if not some ladies who lunch from Naked Wines

Black stump Shiraz
Muga gran reserva Rioja
Or if your struggling you can’t go far wrong with a decent Pinot Noir
🙂

If I was giving someone a £30 bottle of wine I’d be leaving the price on. 🙂

“I’m getting hollyhock & a smokey autumn bonfire”… 🙄
I love wine talk.

Marques de Riscal rioja gets my vote. This is my favourite one http://www.drinksdirect.co.uk/acatalog/Marques_De_Riscal_Rioja_Gran_Reserva_1998.html very easy to drink (on it’s own or with food…)

Enjoyed this last night while watching Dexter season 6

Edukator- bit late coming back to this but I think you deserve an answer.

I suspect you are implying that great wine is as much subjective as objective. We’ve just had a very pleasing 2001 Gigondas – I loved it but can see it is a good (but not great) wine.

Hopefully a £30 bottle in the UK will be technically very good even if it is not to everyone’s taste. And someone who “likes their wine” will get more out a £30 bottle that isn’t exactly to their taste than a tenner bottle that is. For example I’m deeply sceptical about mid-range Bordeaux (maybe £30 a bottle), but if you give me a very good Rhone then I will almost always love it – and if it doesn’t say “Hermitage”, “Cote Rotie” or “Chateauneuf du Pape” for that sort of money it will be very good.

Similarly I will state categorically I’ve never spent a tenner on a red Burgundy or Bordeaux and be happy (acid PN and medicore CS or Merlot).,

I will be delighted with (for example) Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference Cotes du Rhone Villages at about 7-8 quid. Unfashionable areas rule for me. I am trying to learn Bordeaux but cool(ish) climate Chilean CS always beats left bank of Gironde and Merlot based wines have never hugely excited me if I am honest. Such is life, and such is wine.

Chateau la Tour is left bank Gironde. I’ve never drunk it but Chateau chantelys is a few minutes ride away and can be bought direct fom Christine for 13e a bottle or so. It doesn’t break the bank, and bring backs memories of picking grapes in the morning sun and sitting around a huge table with the rest of the gang being fed the best of rural French cuisine by the lady herself.

You might not like either La Tour or Chantelys, Stu, but to say they are “beaten” by Chilean CS (which would be missing one grape if you were trying to make a direct comparison) is demonstrating a taste for Ribena rather than being objective.

I know the anglo-saxon world likes to simplify things by just talking in terms of grape varieties but making wine isn’t that simple. French wines have a marketing problem the French are aware of: complexity. Complexity of aromas and complexity of Chateaux/appelation/cru bourgeois/grand vin/terroir/grape mix/vinification which make working out what the stuff in the bottle is likely to taste like less than simple. Complexity and not tasting like Ribena… .

Anyhow, my original contribution to the thread has little to do with wine: ask his wife and buy the man what he likes whether it’s wine, beer, whisky or a tyre. What did you get OP?

Something called Amarone, 2006. It was about £25. The shop blew my mind a little to be honest, so much choice. They were recommending this Lebanese wine, but the guy said it took some getting used to.

Either way, my mate was delighted – probably expecting some Lambrini off me! (I didn’t ask his wife because I don’t really know her)

It’s interesting reading what your posts Edukator…you sound like you know your stuff!

Not enough to know about Amarone, I had to Google it. The sort of thing I’d appreciate as a present though and obvious you didn’t pick it up for a tenner in Tesco.

I should have typed Latour not la Tour in my previous post.

Edukator – should have qualified that last para with the “at 10-12 quid mark”. There are bargains out there but there is a lot of mediocre wine as well. I have never tasted cru classe Bordeaux, but don’t doubt it is amazing stuff. It is also far beyond my price range.

I doubt the best Chilean wines are even mid-ranking overall, but £30ish will get you (for example) a single vineyard wine from a top producer (who often have input from Old World winemakers), and more and more it is about terrior which the French excel at. Having tasted 3 very different white Burgundies made from distinct parcels on the same hillside in the same year, it is clear to me that it matters.

Anyway the OP’s mate seems to be happy – if the Lebanese stuff was Chateau Musar probably a good call to avoid, it is a bit of a powerful one and may not be to everyone’s taste – and that’s the main thing.

And I’m looking at a half case of Bordeaux as I type this hoping something in there will convince me…

that lebanese stuff (musar ?) is nice – haven’t had any for a longish time though. the geezer who makes (made) it was quite well known before he stated in lebanon

I agree that in the 10-12 quid mark (things we buy here for 5-7e) the Chilean reds are quite good. I brought out hidden bottles of cheapish cabernet sauvignon/merlot reds from Chile, South Africa, California, Australia and Bordeaux for a group of French oil drillers I was training to taste. They correctly identified the Bordeaux, weren’t very enthusiastic about the Californian or South African bottles (characterless pop), gave the Australian a thumbs up and were very positive about the chilean wine.

I’d have gone for a 2010 Pimgini 😛

Not a pimmbuca Daz?

There was a very interesting wine survey recently that was quite different to the normal offerings.

What they did was put two bottles of the same wine in front of people from the same grape & region, but one was worth between £5-£10 and the other between £25 & £50.

You only got to taste one of the wines and then you had to decide if it was the cheaper or more expensive option. Well….out of 3000 regular wine drinkers, 52% got it right, which is virtually the same result as if it was based purely on guesswork.

Says it all really…..and I love my wine!

I’m sure a good oenolog could have chosen wines to get exactly the blind test result he/she wanted.

I guess it was less about the taste, more that I wanted him to know how much I appreciated his help….

Amarone is great. Meaty, rich and full of flavour. My fave wine/

Rippaso is a cheaper kind of Amarone-jeycore-lite.

Chasse du pape is a great chealer alternative to Chateau neuf du pape