Finally - affordable Bubbles!

With HMR&C continuing to pillage from wine drinkers, a decent Champagne can perhaps absorb the whopping £ 33.37 of Import Duty per case but this same amount applies to all the also rans with bubbles – Cava; Franciacorta; Lambrusco; & Prosecco etc. Apart from a half-decent Prosecco we have tended to dive straight in at Champagne and leave the hangover inducing Cava’s that rarely cost more than a Euro to the lesser Supermarkets though with taxes etc end up not far short of a tenner. Spend a smidgen more and you can get something not fractionally better but many times better. This Crémant de Bourgogne is a really good foil as a budget Fizz and I picked this up as one of three selections at the London International Wine fair last month.

Crémant de Bourgogne “Blanc de Noirs” at £ 12.50 per Bottle

With ever continuing concerns over higher alcohol wines (many recent Bordeaux 2010’s circa 15%abv!) this is quite refreshing and modest in comparison at bang on 12% abv.

Here is a full-bodied, flavoursome but classically dry alternative to Champagne. If you can survive without Champagne then this is a cracking and sensibly priced alternative.

Most non Champagnes I find can have a curious after taste to them but no such criticism here.

A few cases in stock and more to follow.

Temporary Insanity – Bordeaux 2010

Fortunately there are unequivocally some 2010 Bordeaux, mostly around the circa £ 200 a case range, that are definitely worth buying but the doors of the asylum have really now been open in Bordeaux. Château-Pontet-Canet has increased their opening price by almost 39%! The raison d’être of buying En Primeur is slowly being eroded. Château Giscours has increased their price by 20% today. This is just pure greed, utter stupidity in my view. The Giscours 2010 should be on the U.K. Market today at circa £ 500 to 525 a case. Given that you can still buy the Giscours 2009 (in my view, a better wine) for £ 385 you’d have to be daft to buy the 2010. I cannot see a single good reason to buy Giscours 2010. Until some of the biggest names in the Wine Trade publically reject (and humiliate) those offending Châteaux we are destined to be offered overpriced examples for many years. Thankfully some Châteaux are still playing fair and pricing as I see it, correctly. For most of us as wine loving buyers I simply recommend going retro or reducing the net and honouring those that aren’t taking the proverbial Mick. Selectively, even 2005 & 2009 are worth topping up on. So, don’t dismiss 2010 altogether but I’m afraid do dismiss most of it. That is my job discern and whittle down appropriately and I will ruthlessly and fully opinionated as ever, tell you which I think you should simply (sadly) no longer bother with. But also advise those still worth gunning for.

Silly-season:

I am so incensed with Bordeaux’s greed today that I am taking time-out from my usual weekly rants. I need to go off and watch my son play Cricket, have a good lunch somewhere and re-align!

Local Councils; Britain Has Got (not much) Talent; The Apprentice etc will all have to wait ‘til next week.