A Lidl bit of Xmas Cheer - Updated

I can't believe I'm finally doing a wine post. Apologies to the fans of the grape, it's been a little while since I wrote about anything other than the grain. Anyway, I headed out into the cold Dublin mountain air earlier with the aim of buying some cheap booze for the Chrimbo to Lidl on the Grange Road .

I was hoping to find some of the Cepa Lebrel reserva, which I have been enjoying for the last year and a half and my luck was in and I bought a few for the very reasonable price of €8.49. I figger they'll be handy to have for last minute entertaining. The other two I got are pictured below:

Medici Riccardi Morellino di Scansano 2011  - €10.99
This is almost the most expensive wine I've ever bought in Lidl, but I have to say that the 10-12 euro wines from Lidl are generally pretty solid so here's hoping this follows on trend.

Herself isn't crazy about this but I quite like it. It's warm, rich and full with some nice cherry and plum notes. Would I buy it ahead of the €8 Lidl Rioja? Probably not, but if you are a Sangiovese fiend you'll find a lot to like here...
 
Chianti Riserva Corte Alle Mura 2010 - €6.99
Total punt here. The standard (cheap) Chianti comes at about a fiver but that's not great. I'm hoping for the modest addition of two euro that magic will occur and transform this wine into a winner.

So this is...not bad. There's a little plummy fruit, a touch of acidity; perfectly pleasant with a decent finish. If you are a Chianti freak this is probably not for you but otherwise this might be worth a try at 7 notes.

Superquinn Italian Wine Sale

A little bird, my friend June in fact, let me know on Friday that Superquinn was having an Italian Wine Sale, and they never told me! Anyhoo, after a lovely weekend in Kelly's in Rosslare, en famille, we all ventured down in search in bangers, spuds and Vino.

I bought four reds, seemingly at random, as detailed below and pictured above. I know they were all reduced but I don't have the brochure to hand and the receipt only showed two of the four reductions, for some reason.

Emotivo Montepulciano 2011 €8-00 (reduced from €11-49)
Superquinn Classic Collection Chianti 2012 - €7-00 (reduced from ???)
Santa Christina Toscana 2011 €10-00 (reduced from 12-49) 
Sammicheli Chianti Riserva 2009 €11-00

I'll be drinking them over the next few days  but tonight we start with the 

Santa Christina Toscana 2011. I'm not trying to damn this wine with faint praise but it was very...easy drinking.Some nice acidity and fruit, well balanced and no food required to enjoy it. Decent value for a tenner.

Emotivo Montepulciano 2011. We're not loving this. It's a bit vegetal both on the nose and to taste, in a not entirely pleasant way. But, given our shockingly precarious financial situation, there'll be no more pouring wine down the sink. I even went to Lidl tonight and bought 6 bottles of cheap red (of which more anon).

Part 2 is here

Superquinn Classic Collection Chianti 2012
As with the Santa Christina, this was a tasty "easy drinking" little vino with some subtle cherry fruit and a little acidity. Its not going to knock your socks off if you are an Italian wine buff, but is very good value as priced and should be liked by most folks.


Sammicheli Chianti Riserva 2009
This was definitely the pick of the litter, a classic Chianti with lovely plummy fruits, and some nice complexity at the finish. Definitely a buy at 11 europes.

Next Up - I continue my voyage down the plughole with the first two IPA semi-finals.

Bargain Bin-end

As is the norm, whenever I am in Tesco Dundrum, I hunt around for the bargain wine area. It has a tendency to shift around within the off-licence area but the yellow bargain stickers are a give-away. I picked up the above bottles,I think they were all half price, so do the math. Left to right, they are:

Reserve Des Tuguets Madiran 2007 - €6-99. From the South-West of France, I don't think I've had a wine from Madiran before. The main grape is Tannat along with Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc and this is supposed to be a chewy, tannic wine not unlike a full bodied Bordeaux.

Marques De Carano Gran Reserva 2001 - €7-99. A very good price for a Gran Reserva, although I didn't realise until I got it home that it comes from the Carinena region of Spain, a region, I confess, I had never heard of until today. The wine is a Tempranillo/Garnacha mix and I could be onto a loser here but at the price its worth a punt.

Piccini Gran Selezione Oro Chianti Riserva 2007 - €5-99. I can't find this wine on the Piccini website, but I am a big fan of their Chianti Riserva which normally goes for about €15. We are currently drinking this and so far so good, lots of nice plummy flavours and a decent finish. It has not been open long so it should get better. At this price all you'd expect is something barely drinkable so it's all gravy (not literally) from here.

All your hangovers are belong to us

It's Saturday morning again, and as per usual I'm blogging and minding the nipper while herself sleeps off the manflu. I'm hungover but it's OK, I have an excuse - I was out drinking last night.

It was a race night to support sending some guys somewhere*, or something.

There are two long posts I have been thinking about doing for a while. The first is a sort of best wines you can get in each Supermarket while the second is a post about the various things that wine reviewers claim to be able to taste when reviewing wines and my own abilities or lack thereof. However, both of those would require energy and industry, neither of which I am replete with at the moment.

So a few word on a couple of wines I picked up this week. The first is the famous Lidl Montepulciano, famous for being indecently cheap at €4-25. I first reviewed this about a year ago at the dawn of this blog when it cost a heady €5-25 and I liked it then. Since then I have had it a couple of times and it's always been drinkable, not much more than that, but for the price of a pint how much more do you expect?

Next up is a white that I think is on special in Oddbins. Its a Burgans Albarino 2009 The in-laws bought a few because of the name and when offered one I could hardly refuse. The Oddbins blurb is here. Sounds like the kind of white you'd drink on a hot summers day, so here's hoping today turns out nice.

We are not going on the winetrip/holiday this year to Bergerac, but I am going to ask BE to pick me up a couple of dozen of the local brew. It's always a risk having someone else buy wine for me as I am so picky but BE and I go way back in wine.

*It was these guys

I first posted this without a title...

I've been seeing a wine in Tesco my last few visits there and finally took the plunge today. Its a Finest Tempranillo 2009 from the Extemadura region of Spain. I've king of been spoiled on Spanish wine by the Alta Rio and rarely buy Spanish anymore. BTW has anyone else noticed a distinct lack of non-Rioja reds, particularly in Supermarkets? Give me a Toro or a Ribera for a change. Anyway, this was priced at a modest €9-99, so I gave it a go.

I also picked up a Tesco Nero D'Avola 2008 €8-69, I couldn't resist after having a lovely Nero D'Avola on the weekend. The last time I had this wine, it was the 2007 vintage and I wasn't impressed, but every dog gets one bite so I'm offering up my other cheek, so to speak.

What I hadn't noticed when I was shopping was that certain wines were part of a "2 for €12" promotion and lo and behold at the check-out I was pleasantly surprised by the saving (€6-68 to be precise). I didn't notice what wines are covered by this but if you are going down Tesco way it might be worth a look.

Into the West...

A couple of quick reviews of bottles bought in the last few days before we head off with Little Bill to the social event of the season "The Wedding"

Dino Sangiovese Di Romanga 2008 - €5-99. Rough, but we drank it (sigh). Not worth the money. Avoid.

Bethany Old Vine Grenache 2007 - Reduced from €14-45 to €9-95. Very jammy and much too sweet for me. Tasted more like a Shiraz to be honest and completely at odds with any Old World interpretation of this grape that you might be used to. The Label says "well textured palate and the long soft tannin finish". My foot. I couldn't find any tannins whatsoever. If you like this style of big unbalanced fruit bomb you'd probably be better off spending a couple of quid less (than the €14-95) on a proper Aussie Shiraz. I will admit, however, that their own G6 Shiraz while more expensive (€17-69), is a fine tipple and does indeed deliver a fruity red that has some lovely structure to counterbalance the jamminess.

Experimental Wines 101

I've been reading a lot recently about Austrian wines and as I found myself in Donnybrook Fair this lunchtime, doing some more tasting for Lil Sis's wedding, I decided to avail myself of a Gruner Veltliner and a tasty "Negramaro" from Puglia.

The Gruner Veltliner I got is from Hopler, in my ignorance I don't believe I have ever had any Austrian wine so I am looking forward to this. It's not a cheap wine at €13-99, but it was recommended by Damien, DF's buyer so here's hoping.

The "Negramaro" is part of the Donna Marzia range from Conti Zecca in Puglia, the heel of Italy. I do like wines from this region, earthy reds made from Primitivo and Negro Amaro. I did taste this and while my palate was polluted with various Sauvignon Blancs and Cotes Du Rhones, I did like this (€11-99)

On a related note I spotted one of my recent favourite wines the Chateau Phelan Segur 2003 which is a gem, at €55 though it's a bit rich for my pocket.

BTW - anyone know how to do umlauts (the two dots over certain vowels in German) in Blogger?

In order to understand recursion*

It's Sunday morning, I've just washed the decanters and Little Bill is jumping around the living room as is his wont. Rather than waffle on as is my wont I'll just do a few quick updates...

We drank the two wines below last week:

Chateau De Villeneuve Saumur Champigny 2006 - I liked this, herself less so. It took ages to open up and develop and it was only in the last glass I really got all the flavours. It was somewhat acidic, fruity and at the end showed some nice tannins. It was quite a lighter style then we usually drink but nice for a change.

Masi Campofiorin 2006 - Also liked this a lot, it was different it style to its Tesco Cousin, more refined and a touch lighter and easier to drink.

Los Robles Fairtrade Carmenere 2006 - We drank this at the end of the night last night and didn't enjoy it. It had that "taste" that I get from cheap Chilean wine which I cannot abide. It's that cheap oaky, tannic flavour. Herself hated it.

What I will be mostly drinking this week are the fruits of our entertaining...

Seigneur D'Albret Medoc 2006 - The Times liked it...

Paul Jaboulet "Les Jalets" Crozes Hermitage 2006 - Snooth liked it..

Chateau Lapelletrie Saint Emilion Grand Cru 2005 - this guy liked it and I'm thinking I might lay this down in the "cellar", given the vintage.

* it is first necessary to understand recursion

Updates and some nice shiraz...

Hola amigos. Its been a while since I blogged at you, I don't have any excuse, I'm just lazy.

Anyhoo - I was in O'Briens on the weekend, I picked up a Protocolo for the happy couple to try but alas this was not a runner. I also picked up a delicious Chanson Macon Villages which went down better and is a frickin' steal on special at €9-99 (from €12-99).

Lastly, after a blind taste I was persuaded by my man Ramon to buy a bottle of the 2006 Bethany G6 Shiraz. As regular readers will know I have a curious and snobby relationship with Aussie Shiraz, I only like the expensive stuff. The cheap stuff I find too jammy and unrelenting.

I brought this home, we drank half on Saturday and I brought it down to the out-laws on Sunday and everyone loved it. Its big and fruity, yes, but complex, full bodied and wonderful. Its currently reduced from €17-39 to €12-95 so go try some.

Herself had a birthday also this weekend we ventured to Ananda in Dundrum with June, BigNose and BigHead. Haven't been for about a year but goddamn the food is good. Expensive but good. We necked some delicious Hugel Gewurztraminer with our food, which I think was a good match.

Next: I'm still trying to get to my nearest Aldi which I think is in Churchtown to see what it has to offer.

Local Supertuscans et al

It has been an interesting weekend here at Casa di Willie. Since the snow on New Years eve our estate has become periodically impassable to two wheel drive vehicles, like tonight after the slush refroze. On New Years day no non 4WD cars could get out at all, one in the eye for all the Eco-weenies, perhaps they have nowhere they need to go... (oooh contraversial!)

Anyhoo - the wine above is one Herself got in the new offie in the village, before Xmas for the not inconsiderable price of $19-95, a Brancaia 2006 from Tuscany. Reading the back label this appears to be a budget Supertuscan of sorts, with the usual Sangiovese, Merlot and Cab Sav. For this dough I'd expect a lot and while this wine was pleasant and well balanced, neither of us thought it was worth that money, unf. Herself had also bought a bottle for my oenophile elder Bro, so it'll be interesting to see what he thinks of it.

Lastly we are drinking the Lidl Chianti I bought earlier in the week as I write but firstly I should comment on the Lidl Vacqueyras I picked up at the same time and which we again loved, especially at the reduced price of €9-59, or some other odd amount, great value for a complex, dark, delicious old world taste.

Now the Chianti which was purchased for the piddling amount of €7-39. I didn't have time to decant this for more that about 10 minutes so when we first tasted it, there wasn't much going on and to be honest at this point in the proceedings, I wouldn't have been upset if this had stayed as it was because generally, you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. However, after an hour or so this opened up and started to taste quite pleasant and Chianti-ish. If you like thsi style you could do worse than have a punt on this.

Invisible airwaves crackle with life

or something. Lots to get through so let's get this moving along fairly lively.

Firstly I made a quick pit stop at the new Off Licence in the Village (the Vineyard) and had lovely chat with the(I'm guessing French) chap inside who I presume is the boss. He recommended the wine above a Morellino Di Sansano Serpaia 2007 , priced on the not inconsiderable level of €16. This is 100% Sangiovese from Tuscany. I liked this but I didn't love it, it was perfectly fine, some nice cherry bitterness and a decent finish but for the money I expected a little more.

I was also recommended the Altitude 450 Cotes Du Ventoux for the visit of the Outlaws, "lil" sis and the flyboy on Sunday which I had intended to pick up on the day. Unfortunately I had to work all day (mutter mutter) and I had to pick up spuds and ginger and a couple of other things on the way so Tesco was the only place for me (Ever tried buying root ginger in a Spar/Londis/Centra?).

The wine above was on special offer and me being a dedicated bargain hunter (cheap) I got three. Tesco Cotes Du Rhone Villages Reserve 2007, our guests all opined in the positive and I liked it too. A little lighter and fruitier than recent Rhone wines we been drinking, this went well the leg of "lamb chicken" ( Little Bill only eats chicken- beef chicken, lamb chicken, bacon chicken, pork chicken - you get the idea)

Last but not least I also picked up a Tesco Tautavel 2005, a snip at €10-49 (I hope), it's an Appelation Cotes Du Roussillon Villages Tautavel Controlee by Gerard Bertrand, phew. Don't know much about Tautavel except its in the Languedoc and Dunnes used to sell one for €8-50 (half price, they said) which was delicious but it absolutely had to be decanted for best effect. Anyhoo - back to Kenny Powers.

Il Tarocco Chianti Classico - Liveblog

19-30 Finally made it into the local Oddbins this evening on the way to the chipper for a very lazy family dinner. Didn't have much time so I grabbed one of the specials, Il Tarocco Chianti Classico 2005 reduced from €15-99 to an oddly priced €11-19.

I decided I should liveblog given that we are watching a movie tonight (Withnail & I) as there often seems to be an (often very tenuous) correlation between the movie and the wine. So I have just decanted this and it has a pleasant nose, I'm going to give it another 30 mins or so and then tuck in.

20-00 Have just the first few sips and this is a surprising beast. Not very Chianti like at all. Herself noticed Cinnamon, not I but there you go. She also described this as "French" and she's not far wrong, there is a Bordeaux like minerality to it , along with some slight oaky tannins. In the film the boys have just left Monty's house.

21-15 This definitely is an interesting wine. Not much in the way of cherries but some blackcurranty fruits and still full bodied and and unusual. A bit like Uncle Monty (you see what I did there?)

22-00 The Movie ends with Withnail quoting Hamlet and drinking a '53 Margaux, this wine is still very Bordeaux'y and I'm not sure it should be, although some of the reviews I've read have mentioned the minerality. I think I need to drink it again to form a better opinion.

M&S Montepulciano

The last of four wines we got last weekend in M&S.

Name: M&S Montepluciano D'Abruzzo

Year: 2007
Price: €9-99
Notes: I didn't give this a long time to decant, for various reasons, so this was a little bitter at the start, not unpleasantly so, though. After a while the fruit began to come through, Herself said cherries but I think I got some raspberry. Either way the wine became more balanced and there was a little tannic kick at the end. While the wine was well structured I still found it a little bitter and think that this would go best with food rather than as a stand-alone tipple. Still, not bad at the price.

Note1: Before we opened this we opened Lidl Sangiovese di Romangna, which as predicted was pi$$, down the sink it went.

Note2: We had some good news on Wednesday so I cracked open a bottle of the 2005 Chateau de Clotte that I brought back from France in May. It was delicious - the big struggle for me is not to drink the rest of this and the Chateau Guillou now. I'd really like to see how they age.

Il Meridione Nero D'Avola

This is the second of three wines I got in O'Briens Beacon on the weekend.

The only remarkable thing about this wine is how unremarkable it was. Like the Tesco Finest Nero D'Avola, this was a little bit disappointing.

Name: Il Meridione

Year: 2008
Price: €9-99
Notes: There was nothing at all wrong with this wine but even drinking it I couldn't describe exactly what is was I liked or didn't about this wine, or even what the major flavours were. It just was what it was. Not one I'd buy again.

Next: Another OT Whiskey post

Lidl Redux

I wanted some cheap beer so I headed off to Lidl for some Grafenwalder, at €1-15 a pop for a 500 ml can, it ticks all the boxes; it's cheap, cold and beer flavoured. Not to mention its tastes pretty OK. Anyhoo, while I was there decided to again buy some cheap-ass wine, most of which I had tried before and see how they all taste six months later.

Of the four wines above, the Rioja is the only one I didn't buy in the famous and very early in my blog-life post.

Lidl Montpulciano 2007 - €4-89. At this price I should have bought a dozen, but I only got two and we had one last night. It tasted a little sharp at first, I didn't decant it (long story), but it smoothed out and became rather tasty, just let me repeat FOUR EIGHTY NINE for a decent wine!!

Lidl Batturica Tarragona Reserva 2002 - €6-99. I owe this wine an apology, I said here that this previously tasty wine had become nasty. Now I realise that the 2002 was theGran Reserva and the 2004 was the Reserva, some difference.

Lidl Sangiovese di Roma 2007 - €6-99. I hated this last time, all the booze must have clouded my memory, dang.

Montecielo Rioja Reserva - 2004 - €8-99. They also had the Crianza and the Joven but I figured I'd start at the top. If the Reserva's not nice then there's not much point with the younger and cheaper versions.

Ogio and Milano

Just back from Milano (the pizza place not the city), where for the first time ever, I reckon the pizzas weren't great. Herself's was burnt and mine was slightly undercooked. The staff however were as good as ever and we only paid for one pizza. We had a lovely Barbera D'Alba with the pizzas; one thing I always liked about Milano (Pizza Express in the UK) is that you can eat cheaply and well and the wine list although short, is well priced and everything I've had from it has been good. The Montepulciano is a favourite of mine and can be had for €23-95 I think.

Anyway, on the way home from Milano we stopped into Tesco for some essentials and I noticed this wine on special offer - 50% off - €5-99 reduced from €11-99. It's a primitovo from Pugia, the "heel" of Italy. I have had good experiences with Primitivos before. They are not subtle but are typically fruity, spicy in-your-face wines that deliver lots of flavour for a moderate outlay.

I'll update later when we've made a hole in it.

Note: DNA testing has confirmed that genetically Primitivo is identical to Zinfandel.

**Update**

Both of us liked this - it opened up to be a fruity, slightly new worldy red. It's not as good as something like the Protocolo but at €5-99 you can't go wrong.

Friday Night, Saturday Morning

Lots of wines to taste at June's on Friday night. I spent most of the evening drinking the above Chianti which June had gotten from Tesco. I'd like to say the wine was fruity and complex but I had been reprimanded by another guest of June's for overusing the word "complex" and phrases such as "dark fruit", so I won't say much except that this was a delicious wine which went very well with our expertly cooked steaks and also with June's magnificent baked American cheesecake.

My reprimander, who shall remain nameless for his own protection, brought the above Sardinian wine. As with the Munus, I tasted an unpleasant meaty, spicy undertone which made me unable to enjoy this wine at all, although this opinion was met with derision and disbelief from the other diners, which either means I'm right and they are all wrong or vice versa, guess which way I'm leaning?

Meatballs, Chianti and the Pope

My oldest friend (COH) called over last night for dinner, I had made the meatballs the previous night so I went to Dunnes Ballyogan (yes - again) on the way home to pick up some last minute supplies and hopefully a couple of bottles of Italian wine to go with dinner*. My luck was in and a spotted the wine at left hidden on a bottom shelf. A Cecchi organic Chianta for €9-99, definitely worth a punt at this price given that my experience with Cecchi wines has generally been excellent.

Name: Cecchi Natio Organic Chianti

Year: 2007
Price: €9-99
Notes: A typical Chianti, lots of acidity with some lovely dark fruit. This was a surprisingly complex wine at the price with a long well rounded finish.

Rating: 8/10 - perfect with any tomato based dish and a steal at this price.

After dinner we drank the wine brought by our guest, which had been decanting. Our guest had been in Harvey Nics that afternoon and had picked up a Chateauneuf-du-Pape there, his favourite.

Name: Bosquet Des Papes Chateauneuf-du-Pape

Year: 2001
Price: ???
Notes: Its been so long since a had a Chateauneuf-du-Pape that I had forgotten how big and spicy they are. This was a complex, warm spicy beast that went well with our cheese.

Rating: 7/10 - This should be an 8 but I'm docking it a point as I'd say it was expensive.

* Jamie's Ministry of Food - Meatballs and Tomato Sauce - georgeous

Dunnes - Valpolicella Ripasso - Colognola Al Colli

I was in Dunnes in Ballyogan this weekend and it was my only opportunity to buy wine, otherwise I wouldn't have been buying wine there as there is a half decent Molloys around the corner.

Anyhoo, long story short, I bought two bottles new to me, a Valpolicella Ripasso (pictured) and an unbranded Cotes du Rhone.

Name: Valpolicella Ripasso - Colognola Al Colli

Year: 2006
Price: €10-99
Notes: This was an OK wine. Tasted much younger and sharper than the Tesco Ripasso from last week. Not much in the way of depth or balance but with some decent dark fruit.

Rating: 5/10

Note: The Cotes Du Rhone was poor, drinkable but poor. 4/10

Tesco Valpolicella Ripasso 2006

This (at left in picture) is wine three (of three) Tesco branded reds I picked up in the MerrionCentre on Saturday. Apologies - I've now used this picture four times - I'm way too lazy to take individual photos of the three wines, given that I had a "group" photo.

Name: Tesco Valpolicella Ripasso

Year: 2006
Price: €10-69
Notes: The best of the three. Lovely full flavoured, complex wine. Some cherry flavours and a little fruit but very well balanced and a long finish. A cheaper alternative to Amarone, using a similar production method.

Rating: 7/10