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Have you ever drunk crap wine? - 21 October
2008
Just got an email with the following link to a BBC
story on crap wine, or 'Vin de Merde'. One
enterprising Languedoc winemaker has had enough of
the constant jibes that the wines from the Languedoc
are cheap and nasty and has bottled his wine under
the 'Vin de Merde' label (roughly translated as crap
wine). Seems to be going down well with the
assembled tasters in the clip. I think the label is
pretty good, notice the fly in the corner. It's all
in the attention to detail.
Slightly serious undertone though as the Languedoc
is getting more polarised. On the one hand it is
still churning out cheap wine for the bottom shelves
where at the opposite end some seriously good wine
is produced at very serious prices. All the while
the EU is trying to encourage the vignerons to grub
up their vines. A consistent picture it isn't.
Never mind, enjoy the clip.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7681295.stm
For those who want to try it, me for one, it looks
like it was a sell-out so no luck, but let me know
if anyone knows where to get a bottle.
Feedback from a biodynamic producer in the
Languedoc - 16 February 2006.I was just browsing through Jancis Robinsons site
and I came across yours. I wonder if you read her
Wine of the Week at the beginning of the year ,
which were our wines, we are also in her 100 best
wines of the south of France.
I notice that your
Languedoc tastings last year were not particularly
impressive judging by your notes. That's a shame as
there are some wonderful wines down here.
We are trying to sell as much as possible direct,
as a small outfit such as ours with a high labour
input producing no more than 20 hl per
hectare needs to maximise its return. That way the
imbiber gets a good deal and so do we.
You may be interested to look at our website
www.lesclosperdus.com
You can also buy on line, should you be
interested!
Kind Regards,
Hugo Stewart Pieter:
I will be ordering one of the mixed cases and as
long as it arrives in time I'll include one of the
wines in the 'winter warmer' tasting on Saturday the
25th of February. I'll report back on the others in
due course.
Updated 26 February: Les Clos Perdus - Cuvee 21
2004 managed the highest score yet in our panel
tasting last night. See
Panel
Tasting Winter Warmers for the results. I will
report on the other wines soon.
Some Fiji/Australian Feedback on the
Chardonnay Tasting - 24 October 2005
Hi Pieter,
Was interesting to read your comments about the
Chardonnays at your recent tasting. Nice to see the
trusty Wolf Blass Chardy made it to the top of your list
and glad you're still flying that trusty Aussie flag....
It's also interesting to note, that you're not paying
very much more for it in Tesco's. From memory I think
it's about $15 - $18 a bottle in Australia depending on
where you get it from.
Now that I'm in FIJI, I've drifted away from my
favourite reds am leaning toward the Verdelho...however,
it's not terribly easy to source here, so most nights I
have to settle for a chardonnay.
I'd be interested to hear your comments about and
recommendations on any Verdelhos that you might have
come across. My favourite is the Margret River Verdelho
- somewhat classic style and light without being too
fruity - well that's my 'unqualified' tasting notes for
you.
Julianne.
Pieter:
Hi Julieanne,
Thanks for the info and pleasing to know that we're not
paying over the odds here for a change. Just having been
to Germany and France and seeing the prices they pay
still makes me depressed. Generally, whatever they pay
in Euros, we pay in Pounds, if not more.
I've tried the occasional Verdelho, originally a
Portuguese variety, used in the production of Madeira.
It's also grown in the Douro (Port) and in Galicia known
as Godello (Verdello). It is now grown quite widely in
Australia in the Hunter Valley and some parts of Western
Australia, but also very successfully in the McLaren
Valley in South Australia.
I'll try and source a couple and will report back to
you. I do remember tasting one at an Oddbins Tasting
back in May. I'll look up the tasting note, I think it
might have been Bleasdale (Langhorne Creek)
Pieter
Questioning the scoring system. 21
August 2005.
Pieter! Good morning!
Hope the
wine tasting went well the other day. So cool
that you have the notes on the site so quickly! I was
just wondering if the range of the scoring system (1 -
5) is enough to give the wines the end rating. Should
you perhaps explain how the scoring is done and what a
1/5, 2/5 etc represents? For example, you give the Old
Vine Grenache a 3/5 and say it did not do too badly
considering the overall score, but then the 2/5 for the
Domaine de la Rectorie was described as unpopular,
similar to old tea and potentially faulty whereas the
overall classification is one category below the Old
Vine Grenache. Is that maybe the reason why the Decanter
Magazine gives marks out of 100? I am sure that when the
word gets round the site will be popular! How often were
you planning to have a tasting by the way?
E
Pieter:
Hi Erwin,
Wow, how quick are you!
You’re quite right about the scoring system. It seems a
bit limited. Decanter Magazine actually use a 20 point
scoring system, where 12 is generally the lowest score
awarded and 20 the highest. Depending on the range the
score fits, they award one to five stars. It’s a good
system, but a bit complicated and I didn’t want to make
things to complex to start off. I could show the scores
out of 30 with a subsequent ‘star rating’, which will
make it a bit more meaningful to the reader. Once we all
get more experienced at it we can refine the scoring
system.
How often? As often as possible. We had a great time and
we’re setting a date for sometime in October for the
next tasting. However we’ll maybe try and get an
informal one in with you in September if you’re up for
it. Could there be an Italian theme in it, if Andrea
wants to join us as well?
Thanks for your feedback. You’ve just given me an idea
to include an actual feedback page on the site. Watch
this space.
Pieter.
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