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Curious as to whether any folk use retailers other than supermarkets.
Cheers. 🙂
British Airways (via Laithwaites) for quaffing plonk. I have so many Avios I may as well get free wine! Case of LP rosé or mixed French reds earned by sitting in a plane eating and drinking. Which is nice. 8)
LWS for good stuff.
After getting a fantastic bottle of red at christmas I went on line and found it at Laithwaites. Ended up ordering some more plus 20 other recommended bottles. It came to £180, then with discount codes down to £100. I figured that at about a fiver a pop it only had to be as good as the usual stuff I buy in the supermarket - so far it has all been amazing. Plus we have a properly stocked wine shelf, all in all it's very exciting and no need to carry booze home from the supermarket.
Which ever supermarket has an offer on. Usually stock up and store it when it's cheap.
For the camper we usually stock up on boxes in the French supermarkets to hopefully last us the season. But the boxes as they don't roll about or rattle when we are on the move.
Supermarkets, small shops, specialists and direct from producers. But mostly Cahors and Riesling from Lidl at the moment.
Once you've used Laithwaites expect to be hounded on the phone if you don't keep up with the ordering!
We use naked wines when we've built up enough money, then a mixture of supermarket and local off-license (Corks in Bristol - highly recommended).
Either Aldi, Asda or the Coop when doing the shopping.
1. LWS 55% - he's brilliant. Use for good wines £££ and he has great deals too ££
2. Wine Society, Majestic, Laithwaites 35% - mainly offers or hidden gems. ££ plus cheaper wines £ anfor everyday/casual suppers/friends who are pi$$ heads and can't appreciate 1
3. Supermarkets 10% heavy discounts and bulk offers. ££
Two cases from Laithwaites arrived this morning - whites plus two Aussie Clearskins which work pretty well. First experiment with Clearskins white this time. We shall see...
Use Berry Bros for work quite a lot.
Local small wine merchant as much as we can. Have done since he opened. It's nice to have something in the village high street other than charity shops, estate agents and late night economy 'restaurants'.
Waitrose now.
I used to buy it off Laithwaites but recently they've been bothering me with phone calls about deals despite me asking them not to bother me.
I've never used anyone else TBH. Waitrose, for me, have a great selection of French Wine and since thats the only wine I like I've no need to bother going elsewhere.. also on occasion theres an offer or discount on so deals are available.
Recently popped into local wine shop and got such good advice and tasty wine I've decided only to buy from there from now on. Don't often buy wine, typically for a treat so happy to pay £10-12 for a bottle of something nice.
Morrisons
Various places...
Hay Wines, Ledbury
Enoteca Valentini, Canazei
Majestic
Laithwaites, but only in person
Cremant in Dijon, depending upon where we're going
Prosecco from Fara di Soligo, or Valdobiadene
And supermarkets.
Morrisons here too. Their cheap crap is as good as their expensive stuff (IMO).
Lifestyle Express. Buckfast for £5.99 a bottle.
@km79 - was I the only one that read that as 'Breakfast for £5.99 a bottle'? 😀
Co-cop, they do pretty decent wines (as far as my palate can tell)
Indeed Essel. Their own label Shiraz is a nice drop.
I've recently been buying more red wine than I used to. Coming from the "don't know much about it but I know what I like " school, one thing I've found at the Sainsbury's shelves is that for the better tasting gear, you need to spend over at least £16...
Currently schlurping some "Chateauneuf du Pape" at £23.
du Pape is just that - pap.
Lauded as a top wine - the Spaniards won't drink it themselves - not daft enough.
They sell it to the brits at massively overinflated prices and then drink their own Joven's.
As for shop bought - Yellowtail's Jammy Red Roo from Tesco's or Makro takes some beating at under £6 a bottle.
Wine society mainly, rude not to as i work nearby.
Sometimes buy from Costco too
Spaniards won't drink it themselves
[url= https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Châteauneuf-du-Pape ]Erm.....[/url]
The Wine Society
Excellent quality, deliver to your door and regularly wins retailer of the year.
I know [i]where[/i] it comes from CF - its one of the biggest sellers though in tourist resorts/restaurants in Spain and sold to the Brits as the best thing since sliced bread.
It isn't.
CaptainFlashheart - Member
Spaniards won't drink it themselves
Erm.....
😆
In cheap tourist restaurants in Spain it might say Chateauneuf de Pape on the bottle but the chances of it being Chateauneuf de Pape in the bottle are close to zero. You can try asking for an uncorked bottle with the original sealed cap but it's easier to ask for the vino tinto de la casa - it'll be better.
In the expensive restaurants where they open it at the table in front of you its still shite wine.
Like many of the "denominacion de..." its nothing more than the poorer quality stuff they export added to the fact they've got the rights to the name - nothing more.
In cheap tourist restaurants in Spain it might say Chateauneuf de Pape on the bottle but the chances of it being Chateauneuf de Pape in the bottle are close to zero.
hammyuk - Member
I know where it comes from CF - its one of the biggest sellers though in tourist
So, not, then...
hammyuk - Member
du Pape is just that - pap.
That's like saying American 29ers are pap - they aren't all the same. There are good and bad examples of wines from every region and winemaker, and there's some bloody good CdP.
Read the post above Woppit.
the poorer quality stuff they export
To Spain...
Anyway, this one's lovely. 8)
Generally Waitrose. Very good independant locally but somewhat stuffy atmosphere puts me off. Perhaps they are happier when you buy by the crate.
Do they use google translate when making CduP Spanish - or do they leave the original French label on?
Virgin Wines.
Some sort of special intro offer a year or so ago after travelling a fair bit on Virgin Trains. They're very good.
American 29ers are pap
That's not strictly true, depending on usage, 29 inch wheels have thier place.
Wine forgery and refilling bottles is a real problem for French wine. The biggest profits being made on the biggest names. Spain imports very little CduP yet you can buy it in many restaurants, it just doesn't add up when a very limited quantity wine is readily available in a country way down the list of purchasing countries.
It's not a question of a poor CduP, you'd have to be very unlucky and get a duff cork to get a poor bottle as the vigneron wouldn't risk his appelation and simply bottle it up a sell it as Côte du Rhone.
I worked les vendanges at a Bordeaux Chateaux where they had two labels, only the perfect production that respected le cahiers des charges got put in the cru bourgeois bottles, the rest was sold as vin de Brodeaux.
A group of us had an MTB weekend in Spain. House wines were drunk initially, perfectly drinkable, then one of the group generously offered a descent bottle of French wine. Having lived in Spain I watched peoples reactions (clearly unimpressed) and then sowed the seed of doubt. Tasting became a lot more intensive and the collective verdict was that the wine definitely wasn't what it said on the bottle and probably wasn't even French.
It's not just wine, up the hill in Spain I can buy famous branded whisky that tastes like [url= http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/article1412105.ece ]nothing that's written on the bottle.[/url]
Thanks for the responses, some ideas now of where to investigate/avoid.
Lidl for me... or Tesco Express as it's walking distance from my house.
CG, if in Salisbury, Cambridge Wines are superb. If in my neck of the woods, Caviste are equally superb.
The wine society.
By far better value than most supermarket stuff and plenty of daily drinkers at pretty fair prices.
Anyone buying French wine in Spain is asking to be ripped off.
To the OP - mainly Aldi, sometimes Lidl. Aldi have some really very good bottles in the £5-£10 bracket.
Had good wine from Times, Laithwaites (same?) and Naked.
Lidl and Also are better value IMO.
du Pape is just that - pap.
Lauded as a top wine - the Spaniards won't drink it themselves - not daft enough.
Spain should really wake up and get on this vino gravy train, there might be a bit of money to be made from it.
Of course the Spanish aren't going to drink that bloody French muck...
I generally buy from Tesco, there's some reasonable deals on decent labels, it's significantly more expensive than buying in Al Campo or Carrefour.
wine society.
excellent choice, good prices, and they took me on a beano to tuscany last year, which was amazing
Cap'n - thanks for those recommendations. 🙂
Looking for every day wine (up to £10) rather than for special occasions so not wanting to buy by the case just yet. Having it delivered does appeal though due to struggling somewhat these days with a heavy supermarket trolley. From Googling I've found a wine retailer not far from me so shall pay a visit as always keen to support local businesses.
Currently Waitrose are offering 25% off wine which is tempting.
I will say that some of the £5-10 bottles from the wine society are easily the equal of ~£15 bottles from supermarkets.
Marks & Spencer for everyday stuff
T Wright wine merchant in Horwich for the occasional special bottle.
I found a cru bougeois Medoc the last time I was in Waitrose, excellent it was too for about £13 IIRC.
as an extra the wine society are trying to broaden their [url= http://societygrapevine.com/2017/02/generation-wine/ ]membership[/url]; young females are the target at the moment.
but it is well worth the £20 membership (£40 but £20 credit)
Would anyone on here buy from CRC if you had to pay for membership before you could order?
yes, if it enabled you to get better stuff at cheaper prices
Wouldn't work with something like CRC, outside of the massive component producers the rest couldn't sell at the same or cheaper price point.
The beauty of the wine society is that in general they find the smaller less known producers (that are damn good) and import those.
They do include the big producers but in general they are not as good value
Gotta love a wine snob festation on STW.
Wondering which Jurançon wines the Wine Society have and if they are smaller producers or better known ones I typed Jurançon into their search (with then without the accent) and came up with zero results. I suggest that if you use the Wine Society you are missing out not just on good wines but whole regions.
Most likely they do miss areas, it isn't that big a company.
But then its a place to start.
I will say we get wine from lots of places not just them. But for the price their wine is some of the best
Looking for every day wine (up to £10)
https://caviste.co.uk/collections/red/products/gr4415ra
[img] 
?v=1480351368[/img]
£9.95 a single, cheaper by the case.
Or....
http://www.bbr.com/products-37885-2014-berry-bros-and-rudd-good-ordinary-claret
[img] 
[/img]
£9.75 single, cheaper by the case. Does exactly what it says on the tin.
they've had [url= https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=wine+society+jurancon&* ]jurancon [/url]as recently as last august. obviously run out
Spain should really wake up and get on this vino gravy train, there might be a bit of money to be made from it.
Of course the Spanish aren't going to drink that bloody French muck...
They make money from it ok; it gets shipped to France in tankers, where it is bottled as vin de table in the Languedoc (Italian wines get the same treatment)
The Languedoc wines are shipped to Bordeaux where they in turn are blended into various grandes appellations. Bordeaux sells way more than it produces.
as an extra the wine society are trying to broaden their membership; young females are the target at the moment.
Ageist!!!
Not a bad selection, pity about the membership fee.
Cap'n - only drink Chilean or Oz and both Berry Bros and Caviste are too dear for those. Awkward customer. 😳
only drink Chilean or Oz
And I had you down as a lady of finer tastes.
Only in bikes Cap'n. 😆
Virgin wine about a case every 3 months for what I think of as good wines and experiments and a couple of favorates from coop and waitrose and one from tesco , I only drink white .
Virgin is risk free as they will happily refund if you don't like the wine . I even got a bottle refunded without a complaint from me when I gave it a one star rating on their website.
It's not that great, but good as a table wine, cheap deals from vineyardclub.co.uk . I use a wine breather and the cheap stuff is very drinkable. Just bought 12 bottles of tempranillo for £49. Not expecting it to be great lol! But you never know. My last case came straight from Spain, maybe that's why it's cheaper.
Have been with laithwaites and virgin, the wines I liked cost too much 🙂 the mixed often came with a few naff bottles.
Over the years I've ordered lots of wine from both Laithwaites and Naked Wine. Naked Wine is much better IMO but if you are limited to supermarket choices then my preference would always be for Waitrose - I just think the selection is better, though I don't have CG's taste for the new world so much (more France and Spain for me).
Buy Wine? Good heavens! Did you have to buy your own furniture too!
Mine gets brought up from the cellar by my butler.
Some of the supermarket wines are very very good - Morrisons & Asda both have some decent bottles
Not tried Aldi n Lidl much but not been massively impressed when I did (even on recommendations)
Use Naked Wines (and occasionally Laithwaites) but only for the odd bottle when the funds build up. I like Montepulciano d'Abruzzo and NW does a great bottle
I make my own.
I'm lucky in that I have 2 damn fine purveyors of wine close by.
[url= http://www.lokiwine.co.uk/ ]Loki[/url] in Brum is the least pretentious wine merchant you'll ever visit and also has lots to taste too. Very good indeed.
At the other end of the spectrum is [url= http://www.nickollsandperks.co.uk/ ]Nickolls[/url]and Perks in Stourbridge, a proper old fashioned wine and whiskey shop that has been there since the 1700's. They've got some seriously goood stuff there.
Saying that, for every day wine, Aldi is very good value indeed.
Just picking up an order from Nickolls and Perks in the morning to see us through my dad's 80th. They are great for Bordeaux wines.
Mostly direct from small growers (Recoltant or Vigneron Independent) in France as prices are much lower for equal/better quality. Supermarket simple wines like Rose
In UK a vareity of sources mostly small wine sellers
"Chateau la Gravelle". A curious name for a wine as "gravelle" is the murky sediment found in the bottom of some bottles. I doubt it's sold in France. Google maps fails to come up with a chateau by that name so I assume it's a brand someone has invented. My money goes on the contents being blended Bordeaux so they can play with mixing wines to get a consistent taste that suits the Anglo-Saxon market.
There's nothing wrong with all this but I did do a double take when I read the label.
Living about 75mins from Le Tunnel, I wait for the £23 return offers and the jump on an early train to Calais, drive 15 mins to Calais wine warehouse and Majestic opposite. It all prepared in advance and within an hour I've full the car with around 300 bottles of various quality plonk and on my way home. Usually save £1000 on supermarket prices at home.
Wine society.
A few years ago a pal and I had a debate about wine buying. It was supermarket (with their buying in bulk power) against LWS (with the ability to source small numbers of tasty wines from different places.
To settle the debate we each bought half a dozen bottles, with a set budget. Six from supermarket, six from LWS, and all red. We then had friends round and did a blind tasting with everyone scoring each wine. Result was that the LWS beat the supermarket by a mile.
Also, our LWS knows what we like and gives great service. No contest really.
Under £7 a bottle from the supermarket, Waitrose are more reliable. Tesco and Morrison's are a lottery. Over £10 from specialist wine merchants.
Gauntleys (Nottingham) are very good for the Rhone and other less well-known regions.
Burgundy... we either go there each year or get someone we know to bring us stuff back.
£1.30 a bottle of stuff that's apparently wonderful.
Living about 75mins from Le Tunnel, I wait for the £23 return offers and the jump on an early train to Calais, drive 15 mins to Calais wine warehouse and Majestic opposite. It all prepared in advance and within an hour I've full the car with around 300 bottles of various quality plonk and on my way home. Usually save £1000 on supermarket prices at home
And the 300 bottles lasts how long ?
Usually buy boxes of white wine from English vineyards such as Biddenden or Chilford Hall and red wine from a supermarket close to the centre of Calais on a once a year trip. Usually go for the the medallion winning wines that are on special offer. Wines in this country that would be £10-£15 work out about £3-£5.
Laithwaites. Always had good wine which works out at between £5-6 a bottle. Beats anything you can buy at a supermarket. Never had any annoying phone calls though. My old man buy from Naked Wines, and I'm not as much of a fan.
The next case is going to come from either [url= https://thewhalleywineshop.wordpress.com/ ]The Whalley Wine Shop[/url] or [url= http://dbyrne-finewines.co.uk/ ]D. Byrne & Co[/url] in Clitheroe