Jonny69
31-03-2007, 10:00
Yesterday I took advantage of the 40% off offer at Threshers. Now before a load of you jump in with the old "it's cheaper at Tesco" I did check my prices and my conclusions are as follows: Yes the cheaper bottles are cheaper in the supermarkets but as soon as you get to the £6.50 range and above they are the same price. What I did notice is that there is much more selection at this price range and there are no cheapo bottles marked up artificially high so they look like a bargain when they go on "offer" at £4 in the supermarket. Threshers also have a rolling 3 fr 2 deal so if you find a bottle you like in the £6.50 range you will find you can get a couple of nice bottles for the same price as the rough plonk that the supermarkets sell.
So here's what I got: 1 bottle of £6.50 Zinfandel to go with pizza or burgers, a £9 Shiraz with a gold medal from Decanter magazine (generally it has to be pretty good to even be sniffed at by them so I'm looking forward to that), a £15 bottle of Chatauneuf du Pape which I have had before and enjoyed and their house Pinot Noir at £12. Total for all 4 bottles came to £26 for reds that I would normally consider a bit out my price range so Jonny69 is a happy chappy :)
First thing I noticed about these wines vs the ones in the supermarkets: The alcohol content. These 4 are all 14-14.5% while the supermarket bottles are currently hovering around the 12% mark. I don't know a huge amount about the wine making process but at a guess I'd say that lower alcohol means the wine doesn't need as long or as much care so they can spit it out in no time at a lower price. The alcohol really adds something to the taste of the wine in my opinion and at 12% a red can taste quite watery if it doesn't have the flavour to back it up.
Last night I popped the Zinfandel to go with some takeaway pizzas from Zizi. I recommend trying takeway pizzas from Zizi or Ask. Both the same company I think but they do really good pizza and they are £5 each when you pick them up. Zinfandel is a big fat American wine, it's sweet, spicy, slightly oaky sometimes, strong in alcohol and strong in taste. Typical sort of American fare. It goes really well with salty food, red meat and cooked tomatoes like pasta sauce, pizza, burgers, bbq ribs and chips.
I've been getting tired of supermarket wine for some time as I feel the quality has been falling and for the first time in a very long time I really enjoyed the bottle last night. It went really well with my pizza that featured anchovies, capers and black olives and I drank half the bottle. I was happily warm and drunk by that point and felt it necessary to start singing at the music channel. In my opinion when you have a good wine it will make you feel like this, it should get you merry and red faced rather than rowdy. This morning I have woken up with no hangover whatsoever despite stumbling about to the same degree as I normally would do after a whole bottle of supermarket plonk. So I am happy with my purchases and I urge you to boycott supermarket wines and support your local offie!
So here's what I got: 1 bottle of £6.50 Zinfandel to go with pizza or burgers, a £9 Shiraz with a gold medal from Decanter magazine (generally it has to be pretty good to even be sniffed at by them so I'm looking forward to that), a £15 bottle of Chatauneuf du Pape which I have had before and enjoyed and their house Pinot Noir at £12. Total for all 4 bottles came to £26 for reds that I would normally consider a bit out my price range so Jonny69 is a happy chappy :)
First thing I noticed about these wines vs the ones in the supermarkets: The alcohol content. These 4 are all 14-14.5% while the supermarket bottles are currently hovering around the 12% mark. I don't know a huge amount about the wine making process but at a guess I'd say that lower alcohol means the wine doesn't need as long or as much care so they can spit it out in no time at a lower price. The alcohol really adds something to the taste of the wine in my opinion and at 12% a red can taste quite watery if it doesn't have the flavour to back it up.
Last night I popped the Zinfandel to go with some takeaway pizzas from Zizi. I recommend trying takeway pizzas from Zizi or Ask. Both the same company I think but they do really good pizza and they are £5 each when you pick them up. Zinfandel is a big fat American wine, it's sweet, spicy, slightly oaky sometimes, strong in alcohol and strong in taste. Typical sort of American fare. It goes really well with salty food, red meat and cooked tomatoes like pasta sauce, pizza, burgers, bbq ribs and chips.
I've been getting tired of supermarket wine for some time as I feel the quality has been falling and for the first time in a very long time I really enjoyed the bottle last night. It went really well with my pizza that featured anchovies, capers and black olives and I drank half the bottle. I was happily warm and drunk by that point and felt it necessary to start singing at the music channel. In my opinion when you have a good wine it will make you feel like this, it should get you merry and red faced rather than rowdy. This morning I have woken up with no hangover whatsoever despite stumbling about to the same degree as I normally would do after a whole bottle of supermarket plonk. So I am happy with my purchases and I urge you to boycott supermarket wines and support your local offie!