Comments on: Presents for men at 40 http://www.winewire.co.uk/2010/02/12/presents-for-men-at-40/ Just another WordPress weblog Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:10:06 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: admin http://www.winewire.co.uk/2010/02/12/presents-for-men-at-40/comment-page-1/#comment-1894 admin Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:11:34 +0000 http://www.winewire.co.uk/?p=919#comment-1894 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! 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!

]]> By: Ciaran Harron http://www.winewire.co.uk/2010/02/12/presents-for-men-at-40/comment-page-1/#comment-1838 Ciaran Harron Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:32:19 +0000 http://www.winewire.co.uk/?p=919#comment-1838 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! 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!

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