The beer (and occasionally wine) thread

verylonglegs

As a sometimes indecisive person that selection would be a pain, I just wouldn't know what to pick up.

focuszing723

verylonglegs said:

As a sometimes indecisive person that selection would be a pain, I just wouldn't know what to pick up.

Yep, and it just a load of printed branding anyway. What has that got to do with the taste?

pblakeney

focuszing723 said:

surrey_commuter said:

focuszing723 said:

I bet on a blind test none of you would be able to choose between a four to a fifty quid bottle of wine? You just don't get bad wines now within reason.

I rarely go above £30 but the difference between that and £5 is chalk and cheese.

If you do blind wine tasting with wines from the same producer then the difference is obvious.

I bet on a blind test you couldn't, it's just a different taste. Would you buy 500g of grapes for thirty quid? No, no you wouldn't. Half of it is swank factor and making sure your green bin box doesn't look fookin poverty spec.

Bet accepted.
At my convenience and your expense.

focuszing723

pblakeney said:

focuszing723 said:

surrey_commuter said:

focuszing723 said:

I bet on a blind test none of you would be able to choose between a four to a fifty quid bottle of wine? You just don't get bad wines now within reason.

I rarely go above £30 but the difference between that and £5 is chalk and cheese.

If you do blind wine tasting with wines from the same producer then the difference is obvious.

I bet on a blind test you couldn't, it's just a different taste. Would you buy 500g of grapes for thirty quid? No, no you wouldn't. Half of it is swank factor and making sure your green bin box doesn't look fookin poverty spec.

Bet accepted.
At my convenience and your expense.

There ain't no bet. I'm right and you're wrong.

Herbaceous, red fruit and a soupcon of almond.

ddraver

veronese68 said:

Not quoting Brian's post as it's quite big, but is the beer called Slalom in the first image because of the way you walk after a few too many?

I assume (hope) there's a GS, Super G and Downhill version too...

Would they increase or decrease in strength tho... 🤔

veronese68

Increase surely 😂

MidlandsGrimpeur2

I bet on a blind test you couldn't, it's just a different taste.

Isn't the whole point of a blind taste test to to pick up on different tastes and therefore differentiate between the two? You have proved SC's point for him there 😂

briantrumpet

veronese68 said:

Not quoting Brian's post as it's quite big, but is the beer called Slalom in the first image because of the way you walk after a few too many?

I used to buy a cider in Bristol called Cripple Cöck (at £2 a gallon). That was the least of your worries if you drank four pints of it.

MidlandsGrimpeur2

I remember reading Frank Skinner's autobiography. He used to go to the grocer's where they would sell "loose cider", basically a big plastic container and you would fill your own bottle.

Any booze sold cheaply by the gallon can surely be labelled under the term 'harzardous to health'.

pblakeney

focuszing723 said:

pblakeney said:

focuszing723 said:

surrey_commuter said:

focuszing723 said:

I bet on a blind test none of you would be able to choose between a four to a fifty quid bottle of wine? You just don't get bad wines now within reason.

I rarely go above £30 but the difference between that and £5 is chalk and cheese.

If you do blind wine tasting with wines from the same producer then the difference is obvious.

I bet on a blind test you couldn't, it's just a different taste. Would you buy 500g of grapes for thirty quid? No, no you wouldn't. Half of it is swank factor and making sure your green bin box doesn't look fookin poverty spec.

Bet accepted.
At my convenience and your expense.

There ain't no bet..

Imagine my surprise! 🤣

webboo

MidlandsGrimpeur2 said:

I remember reading Frank Skinner's autobiography. He used to go to the grocer's where they would sell "loose cider", basically a big plastic container and you would fill your own bottle.

Any booze sold cheaply by the gallon can surely be labelled under the term 'harzardous to health'.

They used to sell wine by the gallon in the states, that Paul Masson stuff. Given their gallon is only seven pints you could leave out the health warning I guess.

rjsterry

focuszing723 said:

pblakeney said:

focuszing723 said:

surrey_commuter said:

focuszing723 said:

I bet on a blind test none of you would be able to choose between a four to a fifty quid bottle of wine? You just don't get bad wines now within reason.

I rarely go above £30 but the difference between that and £5 is chalk and cheese.

If you do blind wine tasting with wines from the same producer then the difference is obvious.

I bet on a blind test you couldn't, it's just a different taste. Would you buy 500g of grapes for thirty quid? No, no you wouldn't. Half of it is swank factor and making sure your green bin box doesn't look fookin poverty spec.

Bet accepted.
At my convenience and your expense.

There ain't no bet. I'm right and you're wrong.

Herbaceous, red fruit and a soupcon of almond.

focuszing723 said:

pblakeney said:

focuszing723 said:

surrey_commuter said:

focuszing723 said:

I bet on a blind test none of you would be able to choose between a four to a fifty quid bottle of wine? You just don't get bad wines now within reason.

I rarely go above £30 but the difference between that and £5 is chalk and cheese.

If you do blind wine tasting with wines from the same producer then the difference is obvious.

I bet on a blind test you couldn't, it's just a different taste. Would you buy 500g of grapes for thirty quid? No, no you wouldn't. Half of it is swank factor and making sure your green bin box doesn't look fookin poverty spec.

Bet accepted.
At my convenience and your expense.

There ain't no bet. I'm right and you're wrong.

Herbaceous, red fruit and a soupcon of almond.

🐔

veronese68

MidlandsGrimpeur2 said:

I remember reading Frank Skinner's autobiography. He used to go to the grocer's where they would sell "loose cider", basically a big plastic container and you would fill your own bottle.

Any booze sold cheaply by the gallon can surely be labelled under the term 'harzardous to health'.

You can buy wine from what looks like a petrol pump in many Italian vineyards, presumably in other countries too. Then once you get home decant it into table sized bottles.

MidlandsGrimpeur2

They used to sell wine by the gallon in the states, that Paul Masson stuff. Given their gallon is only seven pints you could leave out the health warning I guess.

That's the stuff that comes in the odd shaped bottle with the foil top isn't it? I would probably go with the loose cider over that 😂

MidlandsGrimpeur2

You can buy wine from what looks like a petrol pump in many Italian vineyards, presumably in other countries too. Then once you get home decant it into table sized bottles.

That sounds okay, wine from a proper vineyard should be fairly decent you would hope.

veronese68

MidlandsGrimpeur2 said:

You can buy wine from what looks like a petrol pump in many Italian vineyards, presumably in other countries too. Then once you get home decant it into table sized bottles.

That sounds okay, wine from a proper vineyard should be fairly decent you would hope.

Definitely a good thing, plenty of good wine around Verona.

webboo

MidlandsGrimpeur2 said:

You can buy wine from what looks like a petrol pump in many Italian vineyards, presumably in other countries too. Then once you get home decant it into table sized bottles.

That sounds okay, wine from a proper vineyard should be fairly decent you would hope.

Used be a thing in France as well. Back in the day you could buy red and wine in French supermarkets in returnable bottles. Blind tasting couldn’t tell the difference between the red or white.

gethinceri

Armadillo anyone?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HLfUdGMekw

surrey_commuter

webboo said:

MidlandsGrimpeur2 said:

You can buy wine from what looks like a petrol pump in many Italian vineyards, presumably in other countries too. Then once you get home decant it into table sized bottles.

That sounds okay, wine from a proper vineyard should be fairly decent you would hope.

Used be a thing in France as well. Back in the day you could buy red and wine in French supermarkets in returnable bottles. Blind tasting couldn’t tell the difference between the red or white.

That does not surprise me at €2 a bottle

shirley_basso

MidlandsGrimpeur2 said:

I remember reading Frank Skinner's autobiography. He used to go to the grocer's where they would sell "loose cider", basically a big plastic container and you would fill your own bottle.

Any booze sold cheaply by the gallon can surely be labelled under the term 'harzardous to health'.

Plenty of those in Devon. Or your local cider festival. Always remember arriving, never remember leaving. Lucky my parents live opposite so don't need to travel far / put myself to bed

surrey_commuter

MidlandsGrimpeur2 said:

You can buy wine from what looks like a petrol pump in many Italian vineyards, presumably in other countries too. Then once you get home decant it into table sized bottles.

That sounds okay, wine from a proper vineyard should be fairly decent you would hope.

tbh unless you knew what you are buying you would get more consistency buying cheap new world stuff as they are allowed to water the vines and then blend it so that it tastes how they want

rick_chasey

There's another controversial opinion I have; I much much much prefer old world wine over new world.

webboo

rick_chasey said:

There's another controversial opinion I have; I much much much prefer old world wine over new world.

I prefer wines from Italy and Spain, I haven’t drunk much French stuff in years. Although that will rectified in the next couple of weeks.

Dorset_Boy

I'd say New World vs Old World is far too general a distinction.

We get a lot of very generic new world wines in UK supermarkets. But there are some areas that produce exceptional wines, but only a very small amount gets exported.

For example, the Margaret River region in SW Western Australia produces just 2% of total Australian wine grape production, it produces over 20% of Australia's premium wine market.

surrey_commuter

rick_chasey said:

There's another controversial opinion I have; I much much much prefer old world wine over new world.

Rick - a glass of wine ruins your meal, gives you reflux and renders you incapable of reading to a 4 year old. You need to accept that you do not like wine, or if not then wine does not like you.

I assume you typo'ed your controversial opinion

surrey_commuter

Dorset_Boy said:

I'd say New World vs Old World is far too geral a distinction.

We get a lot of very generic new world wines in UK supermarkets. But there are some areas that produce exceptional wines, but only a very small amount gets exported.

For example, the Margaret River region in SW Western Australia produces just 2% of total Australian wine grape production, it produces over 20% of Australia's premium wine market.

The generic nature of them is their selling point as you don't get the utter filth from a good region that you can get with old world classifications

MidlandsGrimpeur2

We get a lot of very generic new world wines in UK supermarkets.

This is part of the problem, most wine in the UK is, I would imagine, purchased from supermarkets. Obviously the focus is on price and making wines that are easy to drink, so high residual sugar/alcohol etc. to make them more palatable.

If you go to a decent wine merchant, there are so many grape varieties and styles of both old and new world wines that you can pick up loads of tasty and interesting wines at various price points.

The one big problem now is the price of the best producers. The well known and high quality US and Australian producers now rival Bordeaux and Burgundy. I think Spain, Italy and Portugal are probably still the best value as they seem to be less popular wine producing countries and don't have the same hype associated.

I may open a can of worms here, but I actually buy a fair bit of sherry. If you like oxidative style wines, there is loads of reasonably priced stuff around (although it has seem a resurgence of late and prices are creeping up).

rick_chasey

Not bragging as it's not a money - they cost the same as the supermarket - but I get the wine from Cambridge Wine Merchants and their wines tend to be pretty reflective versions of whatever the grower was trying to do; so not generic tasting.

It's whatever they're chosing from the new world, but when i get a case i'll usually stick one or two new world in to taste and in general, they are too boozy, too jammy and fruity for my taste.

MidlandsGrimpeur2

It's whatever they're chosing from the new world, but when i get a case i'll usually stick one or two new world in to taste and in general, they are too boozy, too jammy and fruity for my taste.

That's a fair point, I think the grape varieties and climate tend to produce bigger and fruitier wines. There is a school of thought that the influence of the wine critic, Robert Parker, was a big part of this. He used to give high scores to really powerful cabernet and shiraz from Aus and the US. A lot of wine industry types think this pushed more and more producers to go down this route, get a good Parker score and sell more of your wine.

rick_chasey

Yeah. It's just taste, right? I know a lot of people who absolutely love that style. Not snobby about it.

Hell on the topic of booze, I love myself Bourbons over Scotches, so it's not just Euro snobbiness.