The beer (and occasionally wine) thread

MidlandsGrimpeur2

Yeah, it's definitely just about preference and personal taste. I think most people really just drink what they like (taking into account personal budgets).

I guess there will always be people who buy certain wines because of the prestige, but with the price of a top Burgundy or Bordeaux, you would need to be pretty loaded just to do that!

surrey_commuter

rick_chasey said:

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.

I agree with you on the too much alcohol and not being a fan of Shiraz or Malbec, however that still leaves you a lotof the rest of the world with a cooler climate to keep the alchol down and growing different grapes.

You should ask the dude in the shop to suggest some new world wines based upon your preferences.

With your £30 a bottle budget you could knock yourself out on Cloudy Bay and have change.

bobmcstuff

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'.

Lots of places in the west country you can get cider in milk cartons.

Most of them are definitely hazardous to health though.

rick_chasey

Think you can get Cloudy Bay at Sainos, their SB anyway.

pblakeney

surrey_commuter said:

...
With your £30 a bottle budget you could knock yourself out on Cloudy Bay and have change.

Must admit that I enjoyed Cloudy Bay being a "pub wine" in Queenstown.

rakkor

pblakeney said:

surrey_commuter said:

...
With your £30 a bottle budget you could knock yourself out on Cloudy Bay and have change.

Must admit that I enjoyed Cloudy Bay being a "pub wine" in Queenstown.

£90 a bottle in Gaucho's in the City

MidlandsGrimpeur2

If you like sauvignon, then Greywacke and Tinpot Hut from NZ are well worth trying. Or the Loire Valley, Chateau De Tracy is one of the best.

surrey_commuter

rick_chasey said:

Think you can get Cloudy Bay at Sainos, their SB anyway.

honestly, =just tell your winos merchers what you like and ask him to chose you a new world equivalent. My point about Cloudy Bay is that it is only £25 a bottle so for £30 you literally can not go wrong

rick_chasey

Sure. I should add I'm not always dropping £30 on a bottle. Tend to aim nearer £15 on average for the case.

briantrumpet

shirley_basso said:

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

If you are managing that, you obviously have been quite restrained.

focuszing723

rjsterry

focuszing723 said:

Seems to show that proportionally you get what you pay for.

rick_chasey

Because Americans don't list the tax price on it, they've just missed out that.

Given that you'd pay the same amount of tax regardless of the bottle or at least it was (no idea if the rules changed here on around that or not), you actually end up getting proportionally more wine for your price.

As I said before, my own view is anything over £30 you're paying for scarcity, not necessarily anything better quality, so at that point it's about your taste and how much value you attribute to a certain style etc.

blazing_saddles

focuszing723 said:

Any particular reason for using US pricing as the example?

£5-99 supermarket wine, by the time tax of £3-26 is taken out, bottling etc and approximately 30% mark up, leaves about 40p for the wine.

Tax on a £9-99 bottle is a little more at £3-90 or there abouts. (About 15% lower)

webboo

blazing_saddles said:

focuszing723 said:

Any particular reason for using US pricing as the example?

£5-99 supermarket wine, by the time tax of £3-26 is taken out, bottling etc and approximately 30% mark up, leaves about 40p for the wine.

Tax on a £9-99 bottle is a little more at £3-90 or there abouts. (About 15% lower)

When we went round some of the vineyards in Rioja. You could get decent wine for 40p, it didn’t come with a label so as to avoid tax.

focuszing723

pblakeney

I question the use of the word "expensive" in the example given above.
Appears to be more grog v base level.

focuszing723

It's the only example I could find to support my correctness that you're a load of wine snobs.

pblakeney

focuszing723 said:

It's the only example I could fined to support my correctness that you're a load of wine snobs.

You can use my opinion that £10/bottle is baseline bottom bracket for an example of snobbery if you wish. I don't like anything cheaper (in this country) that I have tried but why let taste get in the way of getting a bargain.

blazing_saddles

focuszing723 said:

It's the only example I could find to support my correctness that you're a load of wine snobs.

Even the example you found proves your correctness to be incorrect.

I know I have come late to this party, but I read earlier in the thread where you said that none of us on here could tell the difference between cheap swill and the pricier stuff.
Yet your example shows that about half could tell the difference, even with "cheaper" pricier wine that was being talked about at the time.

focuszing723

blazing_saddles said:

focuszing723 said:

It's the only example I could find to support my correctness that you're a load of wine snobs.

Even the example you found proves your correctness to be incorrect.

I know I have come late to this party, but I read earlier in the thread where you said that none of us on here could tell the difference between cheap swill and the pricier stuff.
Yet your example shows that about half could tell the difference, even with "cheaper" pricier wine that was being talked about at the time.

Yes, but it still means my correctness is fifty percent correct.

focuszing723

Another well-publicized double-blind taste test was conducted in 2011 by Prof. Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire.
In a wine tasting experiment using 400 participants, Wiseman found that general members of the public were unable to distinguish expensive wines from inexpensive ones. "People just could not tell the difference between cheap and expensive wine."

Expensive wines are an example of a Veblen good, a luxury good for which the demand increases as the price increases. Unlike with common goods, where demand goes up when the price goes down, Veblen goods, such as diamonds, mechanical watches, perfume and wines are more desirable for consumers when the price is higher. Consumer perceive Veblen goods as better quality, exclusive and associate them with status or special occasions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_wine_tasting

I'm right you're all wrong.

Wine snobs!

focuszing723

Snobs!

focuszing723

I only drink my wine at 17.72c...

TheBigBean

focuszing723 said:

Another well-publicized double-blind taste test was conducted in 2011 by Prof. Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire.
In a wine tasting experiment using 400 participants, Wiseman found that general members of the public were unable to distinguish expensive wines from inexpensive ones. "People just could not tell the difference between cheap and expensive wine."

Expensive wines are an example of a Veblen good, a luxury good for which the demand increases as the price increases. Unlike with common goods, where demand goes up when the price goes down, Veblen goods, such as diamonds, mechanical watches, perfume and wines are more desirable for consumers when the price is higher. Consumer perceive Veblen goods as better quality, exclusive and associate them with status or special occasions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_wine_tasting

I'm right you're all wrong.

Wine snobs!

You can add musical equipment to that list too.

pblakeney

TheBigBean said:

focuszing723 said:

Another well-publicized double-blind taste test was conducted in 2011 by Prof. Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire.
In a wine tasting experiment using 400 participants, Wiseman found that general members of the public were unable to distinguish expensive wines from inexpensive ones. "People just could not tell the difference between cheap and expensive wine."

Expensive wines are an example of a Veblen good, a luxury good for which the demand increases as the price increases. Unlike with common goods, where demand goes up when the price goes down, Veblen goods, such as diamonds, mechanical watches, perfume and wines are more desirable for consumers when the price is higher. Consumer perceive Veblen goods as better quality, exclusive and associate them with status or special occasions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_wine_tasting

I'm right you're all wrong.

Wine snobs!

You can add musical equipment to that list too.

...and bicycles, and...
Well, pretty much anything.

TheBigBean

pblakeney said:

TheBigBean said:

focuszing723 said:

Another well-publicized double-blind taste test was conducted in 2011 by Prof. Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire.
In a wine tasting experiment using 400 participants, Wiseman found that general members of the public were unable to distinguish expensive wines from inexpensive ones. "People just could not tell the difference between cheap and expensive wine."

Expensive wines are an example of a Veblen good, a luxury good for which the demand increases as the price increases. Unlike with common goods, where demand goes up when the price goes down, Veblen goods, such as diamonds, mechanical watches, perfume and wines are more desirable for consumers when the price is higher. Consumer perceive Veblen goods as better quality, exclusive and associate them with status or special occasions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_wine_tasting

I'm right you're all wrong.

Wine snobs!

You can add musical equipment to that list too.

...and bicycles, and...
Well, pretty much anything.

Not really.

rjsterry

focuszing723 said:

I only drink my wine at 17.72c...

Bet Musk thinks he can tell the difference between cheap and expensive wine.

Says here he even prefers a fancy glass.

Checkmate.

Stevo_666

For me, once you get over a tenner it's the law of diminishing returns. Best to have the first glass or two of nice wine then move onto the cheap stuff as by then you won't notice.

focuszing723

rjsterry said:

focuszing723 said:

I only drink my wine at 17.72c...

Bet Musk thinks he can tell the difference between cheap and expensive wine.

Says here he even prefers a fancy glass.

Checkmate.

Obviously that would change everything.