Bargain! 25% off Chateau Lafite Rothschild

It seems the credit crunch is biting hard into the wine market (or should that be glugging deep). Berry Bros & Rudd are reporting a 25% drop in the price of 2005 Chateau Lafite Rothschild along with similar drops for very fine wines across the board.

At the other end of the market ASDA are seeing people dip below £5 for an average spend, pushing 3 bottles for a tenner to value thirsty shoppers.

The winners in this market seem to be Aldi and Lidl, the 'cheapo' supermarkets who are seeing average wine spend per customer go up along with average bottle price as people who would previously not have set foot in the stores notice that they have some intersting wines at inviting prices.

Let's hope we see more reasonably priced good wine rather than just jugs of Sutter Home finding there way onto the shelves over next few months.

Lyngrove Chenin Blanc Chardonnay 2007

We recently had a really good Semillion Chardonnay. I was delighted, a bit confused I admit, but really happy. I decided I'd reassess my view of lame Chardonnay blends, give them another go, forget my past disappointments and step forward happily into a new world of taste.

I tried a Lyngrove Chenin Blanc Chardonnay 2007. My old predjudices came flooding back, bland, characterless, dull wine filled my glass and disappointment filled my heart. I will recover, I'll drink another day. There are plenty more bottles on the shelves.

I had a beer last night to give myself a little time before stepping back out there though.

Reserve Domaine d'Aubaret Merlot 2006

We had a 2006 Merlot, I expected big plummy fruit, fresh and juicy, so when the glass was poured and the colour was a deep mahogany with a smidge of orange creeping in I had to check I'd opened the right bottle. It smelled spicy, toasty and even a tad meaty. So far it had the look and smell of a much older wine.

It tasted more mature too. There was integrated spicy oak, rich dark fruit, marmite and even a hint of leatheriness. It was good.

At £6 it seemed to be a great deal, I looked it up, the wine comes from 'Cotes de Thongue' which made me laugh - an added bonus. It lurks in Languedoc. The wine maker likes making Merlot from his 35 year old vines so he does. So there. To get the local Appellation it would need to be a more standard southern Syrah blend.

Well done on ignoring the over-zealous French wine police! This wine is good value, different to other wines and there and with a uniue personality. Maybe if the French want to sell more wine they should encourage more personality.

Congratulations Barack

Wine news seems to have been overtaken a little this week by Barack Obama winning the US election. I'm happy to drink to that.

We felt quite confident of the victory in New York recently when we saw this poster. I know the US has some weird voting machines and devices, but this was by far my favourite - easy to count and environmentally sound.

The Regent Semillon Chardonnay 2007

Semillon does not fill my heart with joy. It tends to signal watered down, bulked up, thinned out and other uninspiring phrases. Aussie chardonnay on the other hand makes me think big - fruity fruit, toasty toast, oaky oak and spicy spice, alcohol galore - lots of everything like a kid's dream ice-cream sundae.

The Regent Semillon Chardonnay 2007 was a pleasant surprise. It has a measured amount of the Chardonnay goodness with melon and peach, a smidge of the honey, but not to an intrusive degree and some zippy lemony-ness which served to balance rather than thin the fruit. 13.5% alcohol is a sensible amount and won't see you wobbling after a large glass.

It benefits from being cold, just above frosty cold. At about £6 a bottle it's reasonable value and a wine I'd happily drink again.

Calabria Shiraz Viognier 2006

It's turned cold, it even snowed yesterday - in October! What's that all about? I needed something to warm me up. We opted for a Shiraz Voignier - a Rhone blend that normally perks me up on a cold evening. This one came from Australia so I expected extra sunshine in the bottle.

It was a thick rich purple colour, it was positively gloopy in texture. There was lots of fruit, which smelled cooked. If you wrapped blackberries and plums in tin foil with a smidge of vanilla and cinnamon and popped it on the barbeque, then had a drink too many and left it on there until it started to smoke a bit then you could create something rather like this wine.

At 14% alcohol, this could be the drink too many, it packs quite an alcohol punch as well as a fruity one. Expect to pay £7-8.

Wine As The Healthy Option

I've just come back from a short break in New York, we had a blast, but with the pound swirling down against the dollar faster than, well, a New York minute, we weren't on a wine buying trip.

With two teens in tow who had never eaten in a TGI Friday's we felt it would be cruel not to let them try "the great American restaurant" in all its Times Square gaudy glory. I prepared myself to dislike it, but the waitress had the good grace to ask me for ID before serving drinks.

One curious characteristic of New York is the publishing of calorific information on some menus. TGI's being a chain that falls under the Board of Health's rules which seem focussed on fast food and chain restaurants (is it a class issue?), it had the calories. Some were quite scary, with a raspberry limeade coming in at over 500 calories, and the milkshakes being enough to induce diabetes. The wines were positively healthy by comparison, at around 150 per glass, but the choices were nasty so I took the chance to enjoy a Samuel Adams.

It's interesting that calories are listed, yes it can help people make better choices, but it could also help them make bad ones. At another restaurant in Hell's Kitchen on another night I shared a bottle of Chianti. It was good. The food was good. We had a good time. Our younger diners had a fresh squeezed apple juice and a banana health shake. I'm pretty convinced that both drank more calories than we did with the wine, but did they make worse nutritional choices?

Credit Crunch Wine - Altano Reserva 2003

You know times are tough when Berry Bros & Rudd start sending you 'Sale' emails and actively promoting their Outlet centre.

I like the outlet centre, everyone is utterly charming, the wines are good and you get discounts. These aren't wines to be stored forever, so they have the added bonus that you need to drink them up within six months of purchase.

We had a Altano Reserva 2003 from the Duoro, down from £11 to £7.50. It's a style of wine that's growing in popularity, still table wine made in the Port region. This example was thick and dark with a well cooked jam of black fruit with a splodge of ill defined spice.

A glass spilled on the carpet will act as a permanent reminder of the tannins. It comes with a reasonable thunk of alcohol, which softens the blow of the stain.

The Wrong Kind Of Money Saving

We have Laithwaites 4 Seasons cases delivered, one every, well, season. There aren't expensive, and they provide lots of opportunities to play 'guess that wine' as they often have non-traditional grapes or combinations, and wines from places and producers I wouldn't normally select.

Each case came with natty little tasting note cards which included a picture of the label, a map of the region, serving and tasting notes along with some random puff piece about each wine. The really useful thing was that each set came pre-hole-punched to go into a binder, so you could keep all the notes, and know what you liked not only wine by wine, but also spot any trends.

This month they've switched to a little booklet with all the same notes, supplemented with extra marketing copy, but no individual cards and no holes punched. It's a step back. The booklet quickly made its way to the recycling as it has no sensible home.

I keep notes on wine, write down what I've had, even photograph bottles, so I know what to shop for and what to avoid so this wasn't an essential service for me. I did like it though. I thought it was a useful introduction for people who don't normally keep wine notes and provided accessible information in a non-patronising way to help people build their love of wine. I'm sure it will save Laithwaites a few quid in the short term, but it looks to me like a way to reduce loyalty and decrease customers learning, reducing the chances of trading up.

The Luck Of The Italians

There's a few things clogging up the headlines around the world today so you may miss the top story this week. The good people of Marino, a town south of Rome, Italy turned on their kitchen taps and found that in place of the more traditional water flowing through them, they had wine.

Being sensible people they assumed that they were enjoying good fortune and the city had switched on the wine supply as a gift to celebrate the local grape festival. They were close. The wine was supposed to replace the water supply to the town's fountain as part of the celebrations, but a 'technical error' caused the wine to flow to homes instead.

It's good to know that there are still people who would view free wine on tap as a delightful bonus and make the most of it rather than complaining and worrying about potential downsides. Let's raise a glass to the happy people of Marino.

The Butcher’s Tree Shiraz Cabernet Merlot 2004

The Butcher's Tree is an interesting name for a wine.  Heaven knows what butchers do with trees that other people don't.  I think I'd rather not know.

The wine is suitably macho.  It's a dark purple-garnet with thick legs and a heady aroma of cooked, spiced fruit and leathery smoke, accompanied by a wallop of alcohol.  It's dry and smooth with a full body.  The fruit is almost chewy with blackberries and blackcurrants.  I'd expect more plums but they're rather overwhelmed, but not in a distressing way.

14% alcohol is noticeable adding warmth and texture, and it doesn't take a lot of wine to whizz to your head.  It's a powerful wine, good with powerful autumn dishes.

Pinot Grigio Superiore 2007 Cantina Breganze

It's been unseasonably warm lately. I'm not complaining, after a summer of cold rain it's a relief, but it has caused a run on white wine in my kitchen.

We had a Pinot Grigio Superiore 2007 Cantina Breganze. It was very pale, and best served very cold. It had a slightly floral aroma, with just a smidge of citrus. It had a crisp acidity and was bone dry. There was some lemon and lime with a soft hint of honey.

It's not the finest wine in the world, but if you want someting bright and fresh, Majestic are currently selling it for under a fiver.