Wine recommendations

Thorough first hand research is an essential phenomenological methodology for understanding one’s subject…

No its a Samsung.

If it’s an Android tablet, you need to install multiple language keyboards. I have UK English and French. When the keyboard pops up for you to type, there will then be an icon to the left of the space key that looks like a planet, similar to :globe_with_meridians: but not coloured. Pressing that will swap keyboards. You will then get an AZERTY keyboard. Holding down the letters that have accents will then give you a list of accents to choose from, auch as éêáûç etc.

On my Samsung tablet if I leave my finger on a letter I get a little popup menu of possibilities, like this (I just screenshot it).

2 Likes

You can do this on the QWERTY keyboard too

Normally, I love the anarcho-democratic aspect of thread drift, but when discussion shifts from wine to keyboard shortcuts I despair for SF humanity!

1 Like

Thanks, I’ll look at that.

Could be worse, might digress to trumpism

Back to wine then…

Everybody’s taste is slightly different, so best way to get to know wines is to drink them! Vero likes Pécharmant (and so does my hair cutter) but it’s just too strong tasting for me.

If you like Bordeaux wines, for example, then work your way around the areas and vineyards noting down the mix of grape varieties in the bottles you like best/least. (Although often wines from just outside the AOC area are just as good and much cheaper.) Or any other wine area!

We have a very old, tatty IGN map that we had the ambition to drink our way round as we criss-crossed France. Covered with our notations that we no longer remember what they signified. But it did help me work out which wines I like and which not so much.

3 Likes

That’s because you have the French AZERTY keyboard enabled by default. That gives you the popup accents. If the have the UK English keyboard by default, you don’t get them.
Edit: As @JohnH says, you get these on the UK English keyboard as well. Never noticed that, I just switch keyboards automatically if I want to use accents. You learn something new every day :+1:

I live in the Cabardès wine region, which I don’t think many people have heard of, never mind drunk. I highly recommend it. Went into a very posh wine shop in Clifton last year, run by a supposedly very knowledgeable French guy, and asked if he had any Cabardès. He’d never heard of it :open_mouth::joy:. Went into a Sainsburys in Westbury-on-Trym a few days later and found one ! Mind you, this was Westbury.

The appellation is fairly recent which might account for it, 20-odd years I think. Montagne Noire, Carcassonne etc isn’t it?

My Xiaomi tablet is in English by default and still has that menu :slightly_smiling_face: I just didn’t do a screenshot of it because Jane has a Samsung.

1 Like

I thought it was 1970’s, which in the grand scheme of things is still very young. Many Cabardès wines are a blend of Mediterranean and Atlantic varieties, which is what gives them their distinct taste. It’s north and north west of Carcassonne, west of Minervois.

Even more recently acc to Wikipedia, I’ve just looked


Obv wine has been made there forever :slightly_smiling_face:

Having similar tastes, I think, I was recommended to try anything Haut Médoc, Cru Bourgeois. Although a bit more than your target, at about 12,50 in Leclerc, I have found Chateau Larose-Trintaudon to be consistently good over the last few years.

Thanks - I will look out for some

The appellation is the only AOC in France that permits the blending of grape varieties typically found in Mediterranean climates like Syrah and Grenache with varieties typically found in Atlantic climates like Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon.[1] Winemakers are required to grow 50% Atlantic varieties and 50% Mediterranean varieties, and must also blend them - the new requirements from 2011 rule that the proportions of both Atlantic or Mediterranean varieties must be 40% or higher.[4]

The above Wikipaedia Cabardés entry is actually incorrect (as is often the case and why I would never use it for serious writing). Gaillac, which I mentioned above, allows similar combinations of ‘Atlantic’ and ‘Mediterranean’ grape varieties (don’t like the distinction). However Gaillac doesn’t insist on a mixture of grapes associated with both maritime regions. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are others too.

For me the problem with appellations that allow umpteen different grape varieties (yes, I’m looking at you Chateau Neuf du Pape) is that while one can recognise the style, it’s much more difficult to grasp the characteristic taste of the wine.

On a personal level, rather than as a recommendation for Michael, I find it easier to learn about 100% varietal wines eg the Beaujolais wines particularly the cru villages, Cahors (malbec), Marcillac and the one whose spelling Vèro corrected (negrette) . I’m also partial to the occasional Cab Franc from the Loire, and at Christmas, varietals from Alsace.

I’ve been going into Bordeaux since the 1980s and still enjoy trying to identify the blend of grapes, but that’s a different sort of experience. Also these days, in food as well as wine I tend to follow the S African maxim the local is lekker - there so much to learn about in one’s region, why look further afield,

Yes, we had this explained to us by the owner of the Domaine de Cabrol where we are frequent visitors :wine_glass:.
Many of the AOC Cabardès are 60/40 or 40/60 Atlantic/Mediterranean. There are also plenty of non AOC Cabardès that have different blends of the two in different proportions that are very good.

I drank my way driving along the Côtes de Nuit in Burgundy using a similar map. Problem is, after the 3rd property it’s all a bit of a blur…So it has to be done more than once :slight_smile: .

What can I say… I like living dangerously, so I love Burgundy. Not for me the solidity and reliability of all those Bordeaux appellations so loved by the British… I love the risk of fungus, vulnerabity to weather etc., that’s available every year in Burgundy. Because when a Burgundy works, it has subtlety and refinements unavailable elsewhere… :slight_smile:

2 Likes

I know exactly what you mean……I have been striving to enjoy a bottle of French red wine all my life in the UK and I am up to £20 per bottle and most of it is rubbish. I talk with many French folk when I come and go and they all agree with my theory that the French keep the good stuff for themselves and send the crap to the UK. It has always amused me to see our home grown UK idiot expert in wine going on about this and that which must crease the French and myself up!
A prime example of this is Mouton Cadet……currently in UK at £9 and almost reasonable to enjoy minimally yet the same bottle of wine in France is a different wine altogether……bearing in mind of course the influences of year and shipper. In France this is about 11 Euros so comparable in price but the French tastes more like an English £30 bottle.
We visited our French friends recently and whilst having our best meal in France from his cooking…….that is another bug bear of mine!..…and his selected table wine was excellent so I will tell you what it was and you can try it too.
Bearing in mind that we only drink red wine mostly French unfortunately but hardly ever white as the majority of white in the UK is mainly brut and really horrible though the English lap it up. We tend towards the Demi-sec which is nicer on the pallet……our French friends always feed us on champagne in Demi-sec which is superb but again in the UK most is of the brut variety and for me is a waste of time. I am convinced most of the people celebrating with a brut champagne in the UK cannot stand the stuff.
My friend had a bottle of Faugeres which was at 4Euros!!! Which was very good but in Le Clerc he recommended Sauverplaine Faugeres….Cuvee Anne Sophie which we bought at 5 Euros and he said this would be better. He also had a rose on the table called…VERY RAMP…… at around 5Euros but although we had this accompaniment it was actually used as an aperitif normally! So he suggested also for us to try Les Calandieres also about 5Euros which is also a rose and a 2022 gold winner no less……all from ale Clerc.
On the Brittany Ferries boat to St Malo we were looking to buy Mouton Cadet but the French guy insisted we buy Chateau La Tour de By a Medoc 2018 which was selling at about 5Euros….the Mouton was on at 11Euros……we took a chance and the By was excellent for the money……a brilliant general table wine for you to try.
To close…no I wouldn’t say I am a connoisseur with wine…….try spelling that even before a bottle of wine!….but I most DEFINITELY know what I like in wine and food and people too.
Good luck….let me know if it helped!
Watch all of the wine wallys come out of the woodwork…like an English disease!