Someone up there likes me, Smithers

On Tuesday I mentioned that I thought the Gerard Bertrand Tautavel in Dunnes was overpriced at €13-99. Lo and behold when I was down there again yesterday it had been reduced to a mere €6-99. Either somebody in Dunnes reads this blog and listened to my screed or they looked at the sales figures and realised nobody wanted to pay full whack for a decent, around a tenner quality wine, I guess we'll never know.

I bought two specials in O'Briens on Tuesday also:

Louis Bernard Chartreuse de Bonpass Cotes Du Rhone Reserve 2006 - €9-95 reduced from €10-95. I liked this a lot. Good full fruity flavours, a bit of body and nicely balanced. Decent value at a tenner.

Chateau Remaury Minervois 2008 - €9-95 reduced from €12-45. This wine, not so much. As the nominally more expensive of the two I was hoping for more. When Minervois is done right like here, it is delicious. The Remaury was initially a little sharp , even after a couple of hours in the "decanter", and it never really evolved much beyond that. Maybe it needs another couple of years in the bottle but it's not one I'll be buying again.

BTW - Mary Dowey has a very good article in the March Issue of "The Gloss" on ways of expanding your wine horizons, I can't find an online version but if your better half buys this mag then it's worth a look.