Domaine Michel Caillot Pommard Premier Cru 2011

 We got this wine from France and it cost 60 Eur a bottle, but don't think that I am rolling in money. The Domaine is based in Mersault. We drank it with some special friends. It was immediately identifiable as a top red Burgundy and it had all of the characteristics of the region. We drank it with poultry. This wine is superb with food but it is light enough to drink on its own, but not at a barbeque please. The 2011 is at the height of its maturity and it won't be long before I open the second, and our last bottle, with some special friends. You could tell that it is superior wine, but does it deserve such a high price? Well to me it does even when I have paid less for a wine that tastes almost as good. The wine world needs such good producers and they deserve my support. 

The price of standard Burgundy has gone up so much, even in France , that I am now reluctant to buy it, but I can still, just about, find a bargain. In a restaurant you would be expect to pay around 150 Eur, so it is best to buy the wine at a wine merchant and enjoy it with good food and friends at home.

Like everything else, as the prices rise higher and higher the margins of better quality become smaller and smaller. This is why I limit myself to paying no more than 15 or 16 pounds for a wine in the UK. I should expect a really good wine for that, but 5 years ago my limit for a really good wine was 10 or 11pounds.

Wine is becoming so expensive that many people will be put off from drinking it , this could be a disaster for the wine industry in general. I hope that I never see the day when I can't enjoy a really good wine such as Michel Caillot's Pommard, even if it just once a quarter.

 

Christian Pattat Appassimento 2021 and another wine strong in alcohol

Some friends brought this wine around when they came to dinner but we didn't drink it at the time.

We saved it for a couple of weeks and drank it by ourselves with some beef stew on one evening and with some venison stew the following evening. The wine is similar in style to Valpolicella Ripasso and Amarone from Italy. The wine is from Puglia in southern Italy and is produced from a blend of several Italian red wine grapes and I get the feeling that the wine is not produced from a single vineyard.  Appassimento  wines are produced form withered grapes which augment the sugar content. 

This wine is full bodied and tastes of concentrated red fruits. The wine is not dry but it does not taste sickly sweet whatsoever.  It is strong in alcohol at 14.5%. The tannin is well integrated for a 2021 vintage which has matured in oak. It will easily keep for another 3 years. It is a very good quality wine at a reasonable price. Like all good wines it goes well with food and our beef and venison stews went perfectly with it. This is not really a wine for drinking on its own because of the alcohol content and its powerful taste. The wine clears the palate. I recommend this wine it  and compares well with Amarone but it does not achieve the same quality. However, on a cost to quality basis it is more than competitive. Enjoy it. 

https://www.nakedwines.com/products/christian-patat-appassimento-2021

Recently, we went to France to a party in the Ardèche, here we sampled another wine which was strong in alcohol at 15%: Château Mossé 2019 rouge Côtes du Roussillon. I only took one sip of this wine to taste it as I was driving. But everyone else who was drinking the wine agreed that it was of very good quality and had a taste typical of the region. This wine went well with a mixed meat couscous. Another excellent wine for drinking with food rather than on its own .It is well recommended.

Château Mossé Côtes du Roussillon Rouge 2019

100 ml wine tubes "come off it": just another gimmick

 British wine drinkers are supposedly turning to 100ml tubes of premium wine  to reduce their wine consumption. This comes off of the back of dry January. 

Drinkers may want to consider this;  £5 for a 100ml tube for Azevedo Vinho Verde 2022 is rather a lot of money, it is the equivalent of  £37.50 for a 750 ml bottle. A 750ml glass bottle of this wine is £14.95. Your best bet to reduce the cost of your drinking would be to buy a regular bottle and drink it with a partner in two stages. You can easily reseal a bottle of wine and keep it in the fridge for a couple of days or use a vacuum system which will often keep wine for a week in a fridge.. If you can't face drinking a whole bottle of wine then why not pour the wine into a stew and cook off the alcohol. For the price of a couple of  100ml tubes you could afford to throw away a half bottle of this wine. The wine in the example is standard wine and  tastes very good but it is not premium wine, do you really want to pay a lot of money for what is less than a standard small glass of wine?

I can't help but think that the wine industry is using hyperbole to market their products to make up for the general trend for people to drink less. It's another ruse to extract money from you.

The best thing that the individual could do would be to drink less, but to spend their £37.50 on a genuine premium wine in the bottle and drink it with friends, rather than just slugging down a tube of ordinary wine all on your own .

Another gimmick is dry January, I am never going to indulge in this unless I get too ill to enjoy a glass. Nether my wife nor I drink too much and most weeks we have at least 3 days when we don't drink. My opinion is that if you drink so much for the rest of the year that you have to abstain for one month, then you are already damaging your health and you would be better of, health-wise, to give up completely.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/27/britons-smaller-higher-quality-alcoholic-drinks

As for the ban on 250ml glasses, I think this is another gimmick. Sometimes, I treat myself to a large glass of wine when I don't have to drive. I do this to ensure that I don't order a second 175ml glass. I control my drinking and I do not need to observe the blandishments of others to make sure that I don't drink to much. I don't drink more than a sip if I have to drive and in some countries I do not drink anything if I have to drive. It is all my choice, I do not need the health authorities to tell me what to do.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/large-wine-glass-ban-cuts-drinking-by-76-study/ar-AA1nbZX9