[Mrs Willy]

Hello all.

 

I know a few of you are into drinking wine, i am too. I am no expert, but went through a good few years of swilling the posh stuff, going to tastings etc and remain a fan of all things plonk.. but nowadays, really into seeking out bargains. There are always wines that are stunning for the price of a wolf blass red, or a jacobs creek, hardys etc. You just have to look about , or someone to point you in the direction of a good one.

 

As an introduction.. some do's and donts...

 

DONT..

Buy your wine from petrol stations, local walk in supermarkets, spar, corner shops. They are over priced, stored incorrectly.

Buy stuff because it is on offer. Example. Tesco may say wolf blass chardonnay reduced from £9 to £6 in store, but actually it should be £6 normally.

Go for the brands such as Hardys, wolf blass, faustino .. these are mass produced stuff that may taste ok, but trust me there is way better for the money.

 

 

DO...

Go to your local independent wine merchant. (Not unwins etc). They should have wine to taste on the counter.

Visit your local majestic. www.majestic.co.uk  (6 bottles at a time, but well worth buying six at a time, or twelve).

Buy online from supermarkets from mrs willys recommendations.

Ask the people at the shops for advice and get their recommendations. Pretty much every time i do this, i take home a stunner and be truthful about your knowledge of wine. Say if you like what they recommend today, you will come back again and again. 

Take advantage of tastings (majestic have loads on offer on a weekend) and any independant wine merchant worth their salt, wil have a few to taste.

If you like what you taste, buy it.

 

So here are , imho, the best 2 white wines in the world. (avoid cloudy bay, the imposter to that title). If you can afford the price, which is a shade over a tenner, you should not be disappointed with the Nautilus sauv blanc....

 

http://www.majestic....chterm:nautilis

 

whilst not as good, but pretty close, this one online from tesco is a brilliant deal.. You can pick this up in store but likely to be £12. But at £7.45 online, with free deilvery on 6 bottles. Even if you bought this in store at its normal £10+ premium, it is very special wine, but well worth going for the nautilus over this...

 

http://www.tesco.com...CFWjJtAodBQYA2g

 

More soon, ill do a reds for under a tenner next update.

 

Both these wines go particularly well, with a mindblasting sativa, such as the MMG, SSH. Or a bog standard Skunk 1.

 

Swilly.

 

 

 

[WanderinBloke]

Nice one, Swilly. I'm partial to a drop or two of red myself. Not that I know a great deal about it which is strange when you consider the staggering quantities Ive quaffed. Clearly it takes more than just drinking shitloads to gain proper appreciation

 

I waffle.

 

I'm actually brewing my first barrel of red currently. A Beaverdale kit, Rojo Tinto. I'm sure I've fucked it up a bit but we'll soon see. It's clearing now and should be drinkable within another week or so, though it improves, apparently, from being laid down for a few months.

 

Now that I've bought a bit of the kit and only need the basic wine kits I can (hopefully) knock up some very good wines for around £2 a bottle

 

I'll drop by with a review when I pop the first bottle :hic:

[weedtroll]

I do like a nice glass of red occasionally  

 

still trying to find the odd bottle like a barramundi cab sauv, god the stuff was drinkable and hardys did a sparkling shiraz which I thought was gonna be horrid and it was well nice.

 

But usually like trying different wines from around the world anything from a rioja to a shiraz or merlot and a nice cab sauv. A friend and I like to polish off the odd bottle of french

over priced but very tasty wines bought for him by rich relatives who have no idea we swig em straight from the bottle pirate style

 

Looking forward to the reds selection

[Up2nogood]

I never buy bottles as I always make my own. I have made some excellent red and white and about 20 bottles for under £15 for a kit that's a bargain!
Usually get mine from Wilko's for the kits, but sometimes look online , longer you leave it the better it tastes so try to leave it as long as you can as wine needs to sit for quite a long time to mature and remember to de-gas the wine unless you want sparkling wine, it's great to have a nice glass or two of your home made wine after a long day

[WanderinBloke]

I never buy bottles as I always make my own. I have made some excellent red and white and about 20 bottles for under £15 for a kit that's a bargain!
Usually get mine from Wilko's for the kits, but sometimes look online , longer you leave it the better it tastes so try to leave it as long as you can as wine needs to sit for quite a long time to mature and remember to de-gas the wine unless you want sparkling wine, it's great to have a nice glass or two of your home made wine after a long day

 

Fucking degassing has been the bane of my existence with this barrel. No matter how much I stirred I'd still get shitloads of bubbles. I tanked into another bucket to make sure I'd got rid of all the sediment then carried on. Still didnt seem to make much difference lol, and that's despite me picking the fucker up an dshaking the shit out of it! It wasn't till a few days ago when I was drinking sdome store bought stuff and decided to shake the shit out of it and see what ahppened... well, it fucking fizzed so I've now given up degassing any further and have added finings. Soon slurp time

 

The Beaverdale kits are supposed to be very drinkable straight away, but as you say they improve with a bit of ageing.

 

What're the wilkos kits like?

[Up2nogood]

Lol yeah it's a pain de-gassing but get yourself a drill and add a plastic or wooden spoon and drill drill lol
Wilko's is fine mate just as good as any other, dîd you add anything to stop the yeast from fermenting again after you put the wine into another container? I use yeast stopper or something like that but you should get something in your kit anyway.
I also use Milton tablets to clean my jars and fermenting buckets and used for cleaning baby bottles etc and they don't need rinsing out.

[WanderinBloke]

Lol yeah it's a pain de-gassing but get yourself a drill and add a plastic or wooden spoon and drill drill lol
Wilko's is fine mate just as good as any other, dîd you add anything to stop the yeast from fermenting again after you put the wine into another container? I use yeast stopper or something like that but you should get something in your kit anyway.
I also use Milton tablets to clean my jars and fermenting buckets and used for cleaning baby bottles etc and they don't need rinsing out.

 

I'd already added the stabiliser, which I think is what stops fermentation?

 

I'd also bought one of those long plastic spoons and had been using that in my drill for degassing. But honestly, picking the fucker up and shaking it worked better than the spoon! Well, it certainly created a lot more fizz. I was thinking of buying one of those proper degassing tools for my drill for the next batch...

 

Milton tabs sounds good, prob cheaper than buying thos elittle pots of sterlising granules too. I read that thin bleach mixed wth a little water is fine for doing the wine bottles prior to filling. Gotta do that in the next few days in readiness for filling 30 of the fuckers

 

Will give the wilko ones a try.

[Up2nogood]

Yeah the stabiliser powder..I know,pain in rear de-gassing..How long did you do it for? and how many times a day? how many days?

breaks ya back shaking those 25l barrels lol..  I usually leave my wine in the barrel and sometimes I put the wine in a few bottles if I need some for the night..I  tend to get a wine glass and just used the tap on the barrel to pour it into the glass

[WanderinBloke]

Yeah the stabiliser powder..I know,pain in rear de-gassing..How long did you do it for? and how many times a day? how many days?

breaks ya back shaking those 25l barrels lol..  I usually leave my wine in the barrel and sometimes I put the wine in a few bottles if I need some for the night..I  tend to get a wine glass and just used the tap on the barrel to pour it into the glass

 

I ended up doing it for just over 2 weeks! lol. At least 3 times a day for 3-4 mins each time.... well, that's what it was when I was stirring using spoon/drill. When I started shaking the fucking thing I did it for about a minute with lots of breaks inbetween lol.

 

Hmm, I have a barrel with a tap. I might just transfer the fucker over; gotta be easier than bottling

[Up2nogood]

well you certainly did it for long enough. You never bought a sparkling wine did you lol