Some folks I know recently came back from holiday in France. I asked them if they had a nice time and if they’d sampled any nice French wine? “Oh no, we don’t like French wine” was the reply! I think they were self catering but it still seems strange to me to buy Australian wine in Sainsburys to take on holiday to France? Especially as the duty on wine is so low over there compared to the UK, £0.03 a bottle versus £2.35.
Strange Wine?!
- Thread starter Vulcan
- Start date
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That would be like taking some white sliced bread and cheddar cheese, I miss regular trips to France and being able to get really solid wine at decent prices.
Sun, baguette, cheese, maybe some saucisson and a nice Cote rotie
Sun, baguette, cheese, maybe some saucisson and a nice Cote rotie
Phil Pascoe
Established Member
I haven't bought French wine since 1983.
okeydokey
Established Member
Not at all the same but I only buy English Apples and not those originating in far off lands.
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Can't beat a Cox 
I hope you won't mind me saying it Fitzroy, but I hear that there is a lot that is overpriced across in Aberdeen!
It has gotten much better in the last 10yrs, the oil industry has calmed down considerably. We’ve had a lot less price rises in houses and the service industries. People used to commute in for labouring etc but the differential to the rest of Scotland and uk is now no longer worth it. The ‘bad’ side is my house is still worth the same as I paid for it 13years ago. Not economically bad, and of no real issue to me but when everything else has gone up 50% it just feels you’re being left behind.
Phil Pascoe
Established Member
Much of the best wine in the world is French, but much of the worst is as well. Their wine trade in this Country hit a bit of the doldrums 20 - 25 years ago when they wouldn't accept that the rest of the world was catching up and in many instances overtaking.
I worked briefly with a very well qualified and experienced French sommelier, though his knowledge ended at the Frech border. A group of us used to have a small wine tasting after work sometimes and I gave him a small glass of a NZ dessert white (Selaks, now Nobilo) and asked him what he thought it was - he thought it was one of two Premier Cru Sauternes. I showed him the (half) bottle and he asked if he could have the label to take home - no one at home would believe him when he told them how he'd been fooled. In a blind tasting of top class wines years ago two NZ reds were in the top ten, the cost of the French entries - £3000, the NZ ones £300.
The German wine trade went down the pan in this Country exactly as I prophesied in the '70s and early '80s - they sold so much rubbish to nascent wine drinkers they now struggle to sell us good stuff.
I tend to stick (not always) to Argentine and Chilean, my wife usually NZ. Tesco have reductions on some and 25% off six atm - if you like sauv. blanc, Te Pa works out at £6.75 down from £10.50. Errazuriz Max Carmenere is £7.50 down from £13 - treat yourself, both are excellent. (No, I don't work for Tesco.)
I worked briefly with a very well qualified and experienced French sommelier, though his knowledge ended at the Frech border. A group of us used to have a small wine tasting after work sometimes and I gave him a small glass of a NZ dessert white (Selaks, now Nobilo) and asked him what he thought it was - he thought it was one of two Premier Cru Sauternes. I showed him the (half) bottle and he asked if he could have the label to take home - no one at home would believe him when he told them how he'd been fooled. In a blind tasting of top class wines years ago two NZ reds were in the top ten, the cost of the French entries - £3000, the NZ ones £300.
The German wine trade went down the pan in this Country exactly as I prophesied in the '70s and early '80s - they sold so much rubbish to nascent wine drinkers they now struggle to sell us good stuff.
I tend to stick (not always) to Argentine and Chilean, my wife usually NZ. Tesco have reductions on some and 25% off six atm - if you like sauv. blanc, Te Pa works out at £6.75 down from £10.50. Errazuriz Max Carmenere is £7.50 down from £13 - treat yourself, both are excellent. (No, I don't work for Tesco.)
stuart little
Established Member
Taking cheddar cheese is not strange, but since Brexit knackered everything, it's not allowed. I have a second cousin, married to a French guy, living over there who always stocked up with it.
Cabinetman
Established Member
You’re not going to let that stop you though are you? I doubt they have special sniffer dogs for Cheddar
Phil Pascoe
Established Member
I see a fraud has just been discovered - £millions of cheap Italian wine being sold as top class Burgundies.
Phil Pascoe
Established Member
That was mainly Austrian. Oddy, it was discovered by a VAT inspector - he noticed a volume of ethlene glycol put through a winery's books in the middle of summer.
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