EDF Wine thread

[KDawg]

that one is pretty dry

[estoysinblanca]

Still need to do some posting as well.. Last week Vacqueyras,Gigondas, St-Joseph,Crozes-Hermitage tasting which was pretty amazing. Three days ago french wine expo and yesterday Alto-Adige tasting 60+wines... bear with me, heaps busy @ the wine bar so i'm not home much. 4 more weeks and i'll be in Champagne region again

[Cancuk]

House got broken into a couple of weeks ago and along with some cash they took the 6 bottles of wine that I had on a rack in my living room (luckily they didn't find my "cellar" under the stairs).

What wines?

Marc Kreydenweiss Moenchberg Pinto Gris Grand Cru 2007 x 2
Some random Portuguese bottle
Dettori Tenores 2005
Jean Jacques Confuron Nuits St. Georges 'les fleurieres' 2002
Soldera Brunello 1999

I'm sure they appreciated it.

[KDawg]

serious ouch on the soldera

[jorgejuan]

Originally Posted by Cancuk

House got broken into a couple of weeks ago and along with some cash they took the 6 bottles of wine that I had on a rack in my living room (luckily they didn't find my "cellar" under the stairs).

What wines?


Dettori Tenores 2005
Jean Jacques Confuron Nuits St. Georges 'les fleurieres' 2002

bizarrely enough I've had both of these wines this year, you'll be glad to hear they were relatively disappointing!

[mvoss]

We had an offer at work on the following Australian wines. Is any of this worth buying? Prices are in Danish Kroner (1 kr = $0.18 or $1 = 5.66 kr). Thanks in advance.

R WINES Marquis Philips, Hollys Blend 2008, South Eastern – 85kr (100kr)
RedHeads Support, Tangled up in Red 2010, McLaren Vale – 80kr (80kr)
McPherson The Full Fifteen 2010, New South Wales – 45kr (45kr)
Blackstrap Shiraz 2010, McLaren Vale – 55kr (65kr)
Hollow Tree Shiraz 2008, Barossa Valley – 80kr (89kr)
Woodstock Cabernet Sauvignon 2007, McLaren Vale – 89kr (98kr)
McPherson, Basilisk Shiraz/Mouvedre 2008, McLaren Vale – 89kr (100kr)
Rack One 2008, Shiraz Cabernet, HedHeads Studio, McLaren Vale – 115kr (189kr)
RedHeads Studio, The Red Sedan Shiraz Malbec 2006 – 55kr (59kr)
The Boxer Duriff 2010 – 60kr (69kr)
R Wines Marquis Philips Grenache 2008 – 85kr (100kr)
R Wines Marquis Philips Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 – 85kr (100kr)
Cleanskin 2008 – 50kr (59kr)
Hickinbotham Shiraz / Cabernet 2009 – 80kr (89kr)
La Curio the Nubile Grenache Shiraz 2009 – 139kr (189kr)
Pieri Azzardo Shiraz 2009, RedHeads Studio – 225kr (250kr)

[KDawg]

I wouldn't waste my money on any of the stuff that I'm seeing

[mvoss]

Originally Posted by KDawg

I wouldn't waste my money on any of the stuff that I'm seeing

Excellent, thanks

[ChrisV]

It's like there's two versions of Australian wine, one for Australia and one for everywhere else. The only wine on that list that would ever have been widely available in Australia is the Woodstock Cabernet, a few of the others you could probably track down. Some of them are trash that is simply not sold here (yes this means you, R Wines). None of them are worth buying. If you held a gun to my head and made me buy one it would either be the Woodstock or the Pieri Azzardo which may (or may not) be a decent wine but is definitely not worth that money.

[mvoss]

Thanks Chris

I think I need to start searching for some decent Australian wine. Do you (for some reason) have any suggestions for decent Australian wine that could be available in Europe?

Thanks again.

[franzinator]

Penfolds?

[ChrisV]

Penfolds make generally decent wines but they are hideously overpriced these days. The Penfolds brand commands a markup of something like 50%, I'd say.

Don't really know what's available in Europe but I'll list some producers that generally deliver on quality and value and are probably big enough that their wines make it overseas. Obviously individual wines will vary, even great producers sometimes turn out poor wines (for instance, 2011 was an awful vintage in Clare - vast amounts of rain and humidity in summer - and the Tim Adams 2011 Riesling isn't that great). I'll break it up by region.

Margaret River, WA (Cabernet, Chardonnay, Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc): Cape Mentelle, Howard Park, Vasse Felix, Voyager Estate.

Barossa Valley, SA (Shiraz, red wines generally): Peter Lehmann, Spinifex, Teusner.

McLaren Vale, SA (Shiraz, red wines generally): d'Arenberg.

Other Regions: De Bortoli (Yarra Valley, VIC: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Shiraz), Tim Adams, Grosset (Clare Valley, SA: Riesling), Shaw and Smith (Adelaide Hills, SA: Chardonnay, Shiraz, Sauvignon Blanc), Wynns (Coonawarra, SA: Cabernet).

If you buy from any of these within the varieties indicated, you'll have a good chance of getting a good wine for the price.

Also, in general, if you want to buy a random Australian red, you are safer buying from McLaren Vale than Barossa imo. There is more overplanting in the Barossa so there's plenty of grapes for companies to churn out random wine. The Barossa brand is strong enough that just putting "Barossa Valley Shiraz" on a wine means it sells, so they don't need to bother making it good. One other thing, some Australian wines don't identify a region, they simply say something like "South Eastern Australia" or just a state like "New South Wales" - there's a couple of examples of this in your list above. You want to steer well clear of this, it means the wine was made with poor quality grapes and it's pretty much impossible for it to be good.

[pimmelsau]

Originally Posted by mvoss

I think I need to start searching for some decent Australian wine. Do you (for some reason) have any suggestions for decent Australian wine that could be available in Europe?

why? australia is 15k kilometers away.

[mvoss]

Originally Posted by pimmelsau

why? australia is 15k kilometers away.

Yeah, I would love to go there sometime, but there seems to be a time/money issue right now

[mvoss]

Originally Posted by ChrisV

Penfolds make generally decent wines but they are hideously overpriced these days. The Penfolds brand commands a markup of something like 50%, I'd say.

Don't really know what's available in Europe but I'll list some producers that generally deliver on quality and value and are probably big enough that their wines make it overseas. Obviously individual wines will vary, even great producers sometimes turn out poor wines (for instance, 2011 was an awful vintage in Clare - vast amounts of rain and humidity in summer - and the Tim Adams 2011 Riesling isn't that great). I'll break it up by region.

Margaret River, WA (Cabernet, Chardonnay, Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc): Cape Mentelle, Howard Park, Vasse Felix, Voyager Estate.

Barossa Valley, SA (Shiraz, red wines generally): Peter Lehmann, Spinifex, Teusner.

McLaren Vale, SA (Shiraz, red wines generally): d'Arenberg.

Other Regions: De Bortoli (Yarra Valley, VIC: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Shiraz), Tim Adams, Grosset (Clare Valley, SA: Riesling), Shaw and Smith (Adelaide Hills, SA: Chardonnay, Shiraz, Sauvignon Blanc), Wynns (Coonawarra, SA: Cabernet).

If you buy from any of these within the varieties indicated, you'll have a good chance of getting a good wine for the price.

Also, in general, if you want to buy a random Australian red, you are safer buying from McLaren Vale than Barossa imo. There is more overplanting in the Barossa so there's plenty of grapes for companies to churn out random wine. The Barossa brand is strong enough that just putting "Barossa Valley Shiraz" on a wine means it sells, so they don't need to bother making it good. One other thing, some Australian wines don't identify a region, they simply say something like "South Eastern Australia" or just a state like "New South Wales" - there's a couple of examples of this in your list above. You want to steer well clear of this, it means the wine was made with poor quality grapes and it's pretty much impossible for it to be good.

Cool, thanks a lot for all the advice. I will start looking for some of those

And btw we do get Penfolds but they are, as you said, insanely overpriced.

Thanks again,
Michael