How cheap can you get?

[Roy and Katie]

When we first started visiting PP 3 years ago we bought lots of wine and our favourite was Marque de Caceres which sold for about €6.70 - €8 depending where we shopped. The more we travelled the cheaper we got, and for a long time our favourite was the Navarra Tinto sold at Caprabo for €1.89. However, being the meanies that we are, we kept looking for something better. We found that Mercadona at Alcudia is significantly cheaper than most places - and have noticed some restaurant owners shopping there. We found a tinto at €0.69 which is reasonably good - that is 40 pence!! Can't remember the name except it starts with Ho... there is only one there. Why pay €6 or €7 when there is a lot of good stuff at less than €3?
If only we could say the same for the whites...... We have still to find one to our taste.

 

[JH02JLH]

Hi Roy and Katie,

For some reason I've only just spotted this post tonight - I've no idea why!

I'm glad that you've been able to find cheaper wines that you like, but without wishing to cause offence, can I ask why you keep looking for cheaper and cheaper wines?

I've just finished 2 years working in a wine shop and enjoyed every minute of it, but one thing I did learn whilst there was that, generally, the more expensive a wine, the better it was.

Now, this is not always the case, but when we tasted blind I generally preferred those wines which were more expensive. I can remember tasting a Rioja at the London Wine Fair which retailed at about £28 and it was just exquisite. I'm talking layer upon layer of delicious flavours and aromas, all blending into sheer heaven. There are Riojas and then there was this...

This wasn't just wine (oh I sound like an M&S advert now ) - it was true indulgence in a glass - it reminded me of why we're alive and able to treasure memories of such a wonderful product of man and nature in harmony.

Over the top maybe, but it was how I felt when I tasted that wine and the memory is still with me now, nearly a year later.

I can remember having this good-natured argument with Robjay a while ago - would you hunt out the cheapest cuts of meat in the supermarket? The cheapest vegetables?

Most of us wouldn't. So why do the same thing with wine?

Jane

 

[debz1]

Life's too short to drink cheap wine..that's my motto

 

[Just Joan]

Poor Roy and Katie. Didn't you know that life was too short to be drinking cheap wines? here you were thinking that 40P was a good price for a nice bottle of wine when infact you should have been paying 28 pounds for a nice bottle. Jane can i ask you what was your mark up on that bottle?
Not everything in life that has an expensive price tag on it is better.How much extra do you pay in your favorite resturant for the same bottle of wine you could have bought in Caprabo? does it taste any better because you paid more for it?
Maybe robjay had one too many cheap cuts of meat with his bargin vegetables.
Not all the members on here can or want to pay that kind of money for a bottle of wine they can sip whilst they watch the sunset over Pollensa.

 

[Snowy]

Wine is like most things in life you only get what you pay for, I do however begrudge paying over the top prices for named items, when you can get the same items for less money but not branded. Now I wonder how much Roy & Katie’s wine would cost if it were put in, say an M & S bottle and sold in Palma any guesses?.

Roy if you like it that’s all that matters, it’s a bit like tea I wonder how many use Sainsbury’s Red Label which is more than likely all the old tea left overs, but it makes a reasonable cuppa.

Roy you carry on looking I am sure you will find many other bargains and good luck to you, people can take a look at your offerings, and take it or leave it.

By the way Easyjet have some great offers on right now, sorry forgot we all fly BA or Iberia. Not cheap and cheerful airline. !

 

[Marsha]

Being an absolute wine philistine, I like to drink my red wine cold, with ice and soda or if I could still get it, casera and I don't care how much the wine costs!

 

[debz1]

Snowy it's always easyjet then I have more money to spend on wine Just looked up the the latest bargains and going to book a 2 night midweek break in December for £33 rtn! Then I can load up with Marques de Riscal from Caprabo..not expensive at 8 euros a bottle but absolutely delicious :b

 

[pollensa]

For once, I'm going to add my twopenny worth on buying wines. I really think that buying and enjoying wine is very personal. I have a friend who is a great wine buff and whenever we go out to a restaurant he has the knack of choosing something that we all love - & it is not necessarily expensive. He now lives in France in Burgundy and buys cases from the local vineyard for 3-4 euros a bottle.

However wheneve I ask him for recommendations, he asks me what 'type' of wine I like. I like South American reds which he tells me are much 'fruitier' than French wines. So that what he considers an excellent wine I may not.

We regularly buy wine in Sainsburys and have found that some of our favourites only cost £3 or £4 pounds and others may have cost £7 plus. We've also tried some that have been recommended either here by Jane & in newspapers etc. - some we have loved & others we've hated. So for me the more expensive the better doesn't ring true but that may be because I just don't feel so strongly about wine.

In a way, this is similar to art apreciation. I love art and am prepared to spend any spare money I have on pictures and sculptures but many other people would not spend the money and if they did would probably choose something very different. So I really think that both the amount you are prepared to spend and what you like is very personal.

 

[Roy and Katie]

I am glad I have stimulated some discussion. I think the point I was trying to make is that Spanish red wine is so good that even at very low prices it is still very drinkable. It obviously depends on ones taste on what you prefer.

You will notice that I only mention the red wine. I am unable to find any spanish white wine that we like - at any price. Cava excepted. We have found most of the whites astrigent and tasteless.
The New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs of Montana and Nobilo are the other end of the spectrum in our humble opinion.

I always view wine as a bottle of sunshine and every evening we enjoy our sunshine.

 

[JH02JLH]

It's been a refreshing change today to see, as Roy put it so well, a discussion about wines as this particular part of the forum can often be neglected...:rolleyes

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I am very passionate about wine. Since studying wine and then working in the shop, I've tasted hundreds of bottles of wine and I have to agree that, yes, sometimes, the price does not reflect the quality.

But...in that case, why are some wines so expensive? And in such great demand?

Wine is very personal and I think my use of the £28 bottle of wine was a mistake. I have never, in my life, bought a bottle of wine that expensive and if I did, it would be for a very special occasion. The most I have ever spent is about £15 and that was for a friend's birthday and was a particular bottle that I knew they would like.

Like most people I buy my wine in the supermarket and don't normally spend more than about £7-£8. And like a lot of people I look out for bargains in the store. You only have to take a look at my posts to see that.

We often forget how much work goes into a bottle of wine, all the different stages the grapes go through to end up in our glass, and what I was trying to say was that a 40p bottle of wine would not have had as much work put into it as say, the £28 bottle of wine (which was a Gran Reserva by the way and would have been aged for years).

Rioja 904 Gran Reserva


The mark up on a bottle like that would not be that high, either. The reason the wine is that price is because of the amount of work that goes into producing the wine - it could be the grapes are hand-picked and the whole process of making the wine is more intensive. There are so many factors as to why a wine is priced as it is.

But I was not being snobby in my post at all and anyone who knows me well on here (Portofan in particular) will know that I will drink almost anything!

I've served red wine cool in the summer and there are reasons why this is a good thing to do. I'm a big fan of Sangria and love Tesco's demi-sec Cava at about £3, but don't much go for champagne.

Each to their own!

Cheers!
Jane

 

[joey36]

How cheap can you get

Syp/Eroski Centre
1 litre of red wine in a box 45c (30p)

Dont think it had a name.

 

[Snowy]

Re: How cheap can you get

Did it begin with C and end with a Pee

 

[Roy and Katie]

Re: How cheap can you get

Maybe another thought to stimulate discussion.

In the past there used to be a lot of wine snobbery, because if you didn't know the best year for a wine then you could indeed end up with bad wine. Is this because most of the wine we drank at that time was from France and their wine is often inconsistant?

With the New World wines, the consistancy is good so there is little need to have a great knowledge of the years. Nor do you have to pay a fortune for a good wine. It obviously depends on one's taste, but for us we can get wonderful tastes from South Africa, Australia, Chile and my beloved New Zealand in the £5-£6 mark.

We tend to avoid wines from France as, for us, we find them overpriced and inconsistant. I just wouldn't appreciate a more expensive wine.

We have found Spanish reds quite consistant and it was a little bit of fun to see how cheap we could go before we ended up with what we might call a "bad wine". I am pleased to say that even at €0.69 we haven't found a bad red.

We have done the reverse with Spanish white wine and even at €15 we haven't found a good one!

Which takes us back to where we began!

 

[flamencodancer]

Re: How cheap can you get

Roy and Katie

here here!! Have to agree with what you say, you certainly seem to know your background on wines.
Especially 'your beloved New Zealand' wines.

I can't say I'm a particular wine fan, I like nothing better than to sit over looking the med whether in Puerto Pollensa or other beautiful parts of Europe with a long, cold G&T, however, I was holidaying recently with some friends and they introduced me to a amazing NZ wine. Made from the syrah grape, apparently a french grape?and although stored in french oak for 6 months is NZ made. It had a deep dark berry colour with spicey aromas and I must say I did enjoy every drop.
Apparently it was very reasonable too though I can't tell you how much.

 

[Belladonna]

Re: How cheap can you get

Can only say - Can Videlet - white - chardonnay (which I dont usually go mad on) is a favourite of ours. I CANNOT find a Majorcan/Spanish red that is smooth enough for me to order again! Sorry, obviously in the minority here, but surely not the only one!!?