Worked out a good one!
What we spent on that wine, which to be honest we didn't really think too hard about, is about £50 more than I spent on buying my last Disoc 1 (v8, manual, lpg)
So if wifey gives me earache about what I spend on Landies I can always remind her that we spend far more on wine than I do on Landies!
Perfect excuse!
(We won't be spending this much on wine after Brexit kicks in on Jan 1!) At €8.67 per bot who can complain? :):):):)
(Just checked. one of 15 vineyards we buy wine from though sadly, due to death in the family, one of them has ceased making wine. such a shame!)
 
Gotta love cats..

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I put it down for 5 minutes!! ;)
 
Why not?

we pay about that for a really really really good one here. But the house wine is a lot cheaper and just as good for most.:)

J
Each to his own!
But as for the Brexit thing, after it kicks in every bottle of wine we import will cost us an extra £1.60 in duty. which explains my comment.

As for our taste in wine, we see wine bought direct from the grower at about €6 to €8 as being everday drinking wine. At the weekend we go more for stuff costing about €12 to €15, and for special occasions, dinners with guests, special occasions etc, €16 to whatever we've got! So that is what we fish out of the cellar, open and decant.

When we eat out, we too usually go for the house wine as it can be trusted to be good enough. If it wasn't they would lose trade pretty rapidly, so we just ask for a carafe of 50 cl or 75 cl depending on how many of us there are.
If a place does not do house wine we don't really trust it as it usually is trying to rip off the tourists. e..g the place I ate at in Limoges a coupla months ago.
No house wine, couldn't see the menu as I don't have a smart phone. Steak, (not great) salad, cheeseboard, glass of white, fizzy water bottle of wine €65. FFS!!!!!
Yes, even a seasoned francophile can still get ripped off!!!:(:(:(
Fortunately this is rare, and I really didn't have that much choice as we were travelling.

But when the meal out is a celebration we buy a bottle and to celebrate our 30 years together, (yesterday) we had a meal which cost €124 of which €24 was the wine.
I used to be a wine waiter and have been drinking wine since about 1963, as my dad loved wine although in those days it was a rare treat. As with beer your tastes change as you get on in years. We are both retired and drink at least a bot every day. It is something we both enjoy and as we are retired we see it as being a real pleasure and we do not see why we should stint ourselves. Others have a collection of paintings, some have a huge collection of cars e.g. Jay Leno, and we have a cellar in each country which gives us pleasure.
If you are ever in the Montagne Noire. Let us know, we would be pleased to crack a bot with you!:):):)
 
If you are ever in the Montagne Noire. Let us know, we would be pleased to crack a bot with you!:):):)

Thank you for the offer, same goes if you ever find yourself in BG.

I used to be a wine waiter and have been drinking wine since about 1963

My god that was a good year:D


But as for the Brexit thing, after it kicks in every bottle of wine we import will cost us an extra £1.60 in duty. which explains my comment.

Where did you get that info from, is it back to the old rules of allowances? (Please don’t go into a brexit rant:eek:)

J
 
Thank you for the offer, same goes if you ever find yourself in BG.



My god that was a good year:D




Where did you get that info from, is it back to the old rules of allowances? (Please don’t go into a brexit rant:eek:)

J
I was 8 in 1963 and that was the first time that my Pa, a francophile since for ever took us to France.
After Brexit, we will not be able to import wine for our own consumption without paying duty on it. (£1.60 per bot.) This is how it used to be before we joined the EEC back in what 1974? In those days you had a very small "duty free" allowance, and on the rest you had to pay duty. But once we joined the EEC you could import as much wine, beer, tobacco, spirits as you liked as long as it was for your own consumptiom, i.e. you weren't going to flog it. The customs blokes and blokesses couldn't really argue with you, even if you brought a ton of wine with you. How could they prove you didn't simply like to party? They had to prove you were floggin it in car boot sales or round the back of the Coop.
So ever since Brexit became a reality we have been importing more wine to ensure we had a decent stock without the extra cost. Two years ago we brought back 1038 bottles. But you have to be careful cos if you do not store it right and drink it quick enough it can go off. And we got caught with about 8 cases of wine that should have been good for a few years and has since gone off.
This is why we are buying large quantities at the mo, although we will not be buying much more as I worked out it would take us about 5 years to drink what we already have at home in the UK at our normal drinking rate!
So once Brexit bites, peeps will no longer be able to import wine etc, perfume, spirits, de dah, de dah. without paying duty. Only Eire makes its population pay more duty than we do in the EU.
"Only 50% of Member States levy any duty on wine and several levy duty on spirits and beer at or close to the EU minimum level. There is at least a 10‐fold difference in the effective duty rate per unit between the highest‐ and lowest‐duty countries for each beverage type. Duty rates for beer and spirits stay constant with strength in the majority of countries, while rates for wine and cider generally fall as strength increases. Duty rates are generally higher for spirits than other beverage types and are generally lowest in eastern Europe and highest in Finland, Sweden, Ireland and the United Kingdom."
from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...es 2 and 3 present,wine and 40.0% ABV spirits.
 
But you have to be careful cos if you do not store it right and drink it quick enough it can go off. And we got caught with about 8 cases of wine

Lay it down should be good for years? Cork cork?

although we will not be buying much more as I worked out it would take us about 5 years to drink what we already have at home in the UK at our normal drinking rate!

Good stock :)

J
 
Lay it down should be good for years? Cork cork?
I did say I used to be a wine waiter?
Well that entails learning how to store wine not just serve it. Oh and I also ran the food and drink store for Bath uni for a while which meant storing wine for the Senior Common Room!
It is worth knowing that even if wine is stored as it should be which means, onits side so the cork stays wet and cannot shrink, in the dark and at an even temparature, preferable quite cool, not all wine will age well.
Cheap wine which is not allowed to come into contact with the atmosphere for too long before bottling and which is more likely to have a bit more sulphite in actually stores well for longer than you would think. For instance we drank a fabulous rosé tonight which had 2013 on the cork and we know cost no more than about €5. (This was from the vineyard that is no longer selling due to a death in the family and is a great shame cos they did the best value for money wines we have ever bought.)
If wines are "oaked" i.e. spend some time in oak vats or barrels, they are open to the atmosphere for longer and they often throw a much bigger deposit. This in itself is not a problem and obviously lends itself to more complex tastes, but the hazard is that they can turn faster and sometimes the window in which they are at their best is quite narrow. We find that when a wine is going off it goes slightly brownish in colour and there is a slight smell of acetone when you open the bottle. If that is there you have left it too late. And when you decant it you will find a large deposit.
You really do need to question the vintner when you buy the wine. They usually are dead accurate with how long the wine can be kept for. We bought some very expensive wines last year from a vineyard run by a mother and her daughter. They cost 3 to 4 times what we normally pay but they are fascinating wines, made form grape varieties that are nearly extinct and they also therefore run a kind of preservation place where they keep these grape varieties for posterity as well as for others to graft from. Their wines they keep for ages and test regularly and they tell us that they can be kept for fasr longer than most wines. We tasted some very old vintages and it was true what they said. But they were pricey!
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As you can see! (page from our cellar book for the UK)
Note the 2008 wine which we drank at Christmas, hence none left!
 
Morning All :D
Up early for a Sunday because... today I may be moving them out to their new house. :)
I have a small table & chairs to pay for and pick up and deliver (£30) so they have something to sit/eat at until their worktops get fitted.
All hands to the pumps today to get them unboxed and unpacked, all beds re-constructed and somewhere for the kids and them to sleep.
Hoping to get them in today, if not, then tomorrow.:)
Have a great day everyone :D
 

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