What is the ideal gift or present for a man who’s turning forty? Possibly an Aston Martin if your budget is limitless, but for those of us in the real world we need to find an affordable present!
At forty you’d expect he has a fully furnished house, which the wife has filled with ornaments. He’s already set up with his ipod and plasma tv, he’s got his golf clubs and his playstation. So what can you buy him? 40 is the big one so you don’t just want to give a tin of biscuits, it has to be something special and thoughtful. The answer is simple – good wine! We’re not talking about a £5 bottle of plonk from the local off license - that shows no thought or effort whatsoever. We’re talking about something exotic and unusual, maybe a single bottle of something exceptional or possibly a whole case of good wines if your budget’s big enough.
Everyone’s drinking wine these days, and even those of us who ten years ago used to drink a pint of ale from a handled glass are exploring wine and looking for something better than the plonk on the shelves in the supermarket. It’s a fascinating world which is becoming a ‘hobby’ for many people, as good wine is becoming more widely available.
So you’ve decided his present is good wine then, but now where do you start? There’s an awful lot of expensive wine out there which frankly isn’t good. Remember Britain is viewed as ‘the toilet of Europe’ by our European cousins in the wine trade, who’s attitude when they have bad wine is simply ‘put a fancy label on it and sell it in the UK at an extortionate price’. According to renowned wine writer Malcolm Gluck, the European wine trade have a term for the naive UK consumer – ‘Indian customer’, which means someone who can be conned into paying a hefty price for poor wine! So beware! My advice is avoid anything French as it’s all overpriced and under quality. There are some sensational wines coming out of new world countries like Argentina, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Italy’s also a great country for top quality wines but deciphering their labels can be a minefield for the inexperienced!
If you’re looking for something special visit www.goodwineonline.co.uk who import a range of exclusive hand made wines, often made in tiny quantities of only a thousand bottles or so. But this doesn’t mean they’re expensive! In fact they have a policy of ensuring they’re the cheapest retailer of each of their wines. They have some truly impressive limited production wines from all the main wine producing countries, with superb presentation. They offer a ‘life saving’ next working day delivery service too ( for only£8.99 for any quantity) which can get you out of trouble if a birthday’s snuck up on you by suprise! They also include a complimentay (hand written) card if required, so you can send a personalised gift anywhere in the UK next day with the click of a mouse! That’s my kind of shopping!
Interesting statement: “My advice is avoid anything French as it’s all overpriced and under quality”. France has these famous wine regions called Bordeaux, Burgundy, Alsace, Cotes du Rhone, Loire Valley, etc. They’re not famous by accident. They are famous because they produce the best wines in the world and set the standards by which others are judged and try to live up to.
Agreed some of the best are overpriced due to demand and consequently don’t represent good value and yes there is lots of plonk despite having AOC status. But there are lots of great wines which are not overpriced. You need to know what you’re looking for of course but that’s always the case and what makes it enjoyable.
You can get excellent reds in terms of quality and value from the petit chateaux in Bordeaux. From Cotes du Rhones you have Chateauneuf du Pape, Cornas, Gigondas. Even Burgundy you can get a good Mercurey without paying too much. And then there’s the whites. Alsace: Riesling, Gewurtztraminer, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, all wonderful and not expensive. Some of the best white wines are Hermitage Blanc. They are not expensive given the quality as they are not fashionable being made from obscure grapes like Marsanne and Roussane and the 10 year wait for them to mature is well worth it.
If people who didn’t know better were to take your advice and skip on France they would really be missing out. The reason why Europeans (and I guess it’s the French you’re referring to) see people from the UK as an easy target for poor overpriced wines is because they know that the vast majority of UK wine drinkers do not make the effort to understand and appeciate wine. The way to address this is to encourage people to increase their knowledge about wine so they will know how to identify and appreciate the value wines. After all if people are reading blogs like this, then some of them must be interested. I’m turning 40 this year and I know what I would love for my birthday: a feww good bottles of red from Chateauneuf du Pape and whites from Alsace. And I will be opening my 2001 Hermitage blanc!
Hi Ciaran.
Thanks for your comments. It’s difficult to get a message across in a brief article so I choose to make some sweeping statements like this one! I agree good French wine does exist, in fact Alsace whites – particularly Tokay Pinot Gris are a favourite of mine, as are good Rhone reds. The difficulty lies with finding them in the UK. Most good French wine is consumed locally in France where the people understand and appreciate it. French wine has a large market share in the UK and there’s plenty of companies exploiting this by importing poor quality wines and selling them at high prices, making it a real game of roulette to find a good one unless of course you’re well up on your producers and vintages. Even then it’s difficult to get real value for money. This is where a quality independent wine retailer who can give good honest advice is invaluable.
My statement is meant as general advice to avoid the pitfalls. The AOC regulations which were designed to protect the reputation and integrity of French wines, have in fact done the opposite as they’ve been consistently flouted since their inception. But the producers with AOC status have charged hefty premiums for their wines, hence value for money has gone out of the window.
The new world is producing wines of a quality undreamt of 15 years ago, and as many of these countries like South Africa have weak currencies, they represent excellent value in the UK. It also simplifies the vintage system as weather and climate tend to be a lot more consistent in countries like Argentina than in France, so while some vintages are better than others you rarely get a bad one! Unlike France where there can be a vast difference like the Rhone 2002 to 2003! One was excellent, the other terrible!
Perhaps you’d like to keep us informed of what you’ve been drinking and recommend some good French wines (and where to buy them) for our readers? I’d love to get some good French wine at the right price, and I’d be delighted to write about it too!