British Expatriate Network

Are you a wine drinker? If so, what's your favourite tipple?

I'm no expert and am just as happy with a good blended wine as a vintage. At the moment we seem to go through quite a bit of Yellow Tail Shiraz from Australia and Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. The latter is some of the freshest, fruitiest white wine I've ever tasted and all the New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs I've tried (another is Oyster Bay) are delicious.

Also tried a red recently from South Africa with the unlikely name of Goats Do Roam that we liked very much. There's also lots of Pinot Noirs and Beaujolais I like although I've never settled on a favourite.

I occasionally like the mettalically dry Italian whites - Pino Grigio, Orvietto etc.

On the other end of the sweetness scale we both like Rieslings from the Canadian Niagara region, although I draw the line at that region's famous ice wines which are just too sweet for me.

All of these are reasonably priced too, probably much more so in the U.S where the tax on booze is a lot lower than here.

Of course it depends on your preferance at to what tastes better , dry is the preferred taste here and usually white .

We drink a lot of a brand called * fat bastard * its dry and reasonably inexpensive at $10 approx a bottle .

More expensive wine are not neceassily better tasting but some look good on a dinner table with guests present D when we have guests for a dinner we provide a selection of dry and sweet .
) ) ) ) )

Mostly have a bottle with dinner each evening and sometimes a extra one when soaking in the hot tub .

Favorite of all is Chablis Premier Cru, Vaillons, bottled by a small place owned by Lionel Bussy. It's nigh on impossible to get and I know of only one restuarant that serves it. So i go on my birthday and we down a couple of bottles and this year even tracked down the importer. All to no avail.

I like a very dry white and a full bodied red.

I love wine with bubbles as long as it's very dry.

All in all, if it ain't sweet I'll probably give it a go lol


Edited to add I get very tired of all the fruity under/over tones commented on by wine reviewers in California. If i wanted a piece of fruit I'd go get a piece of fruit, a glass of wine that tastes like a fruit salad is not a glass of wine.

Oh and for alcohol afficionados, California are now making a higher level alcohol wine, so 2 glasses and you couldn't legally drive. probably started by the dude from Motley Cru who has a vineyard, or maybe not!

At the moment I am mostly drinking a cheeky little mountain chablis, which at $11.99 for a 5 litre box is fine by me!

Cheapskate regards...

Debs x )

Oh and we like the "Yellow Tail" range of wines too, Lee!!)

El cheapo here too...

At the moment (not literally), we are drinking Tesco Aussie Chardonnay which was £1.87 a bottle - it's not bad and has a screw top to boot!

When we lived in the US, we used to buy Cotes de Gascogne or similar for about $6 a bottle, or Cava at about $10 a bottle.

I've never been tempted to spend $25 or more on a bottle of wine - I'd actually find it quite upsetting.

Ahhh wine in a box... one of the treats of life...

I am a big fan of the rich red wines like Chianti, Shiraz, Merlot. Can't stand blush. As for white, I am struggling to find anything as flavourful as the wines I had in Switzerland which were perfect for cheese fondue.

Forget the brand but we often enjoy an organic wine that is sulphite free. Strangely enough, there is no headache with the hangover the next morning which I'm very much in favour of.

My favourite. Welch's Jus de raisin. Around $4/ltr

I drink a lot of wine and never have a hangover ... :) Question is should my head always feel like its being hit with a hammer ???LOL :) :) :)

Not a wine drinker myself, but has anyone tried the wine known as *Two Buck Chuck* from Trader Joe's?

It's supposed to be quite good. For a $2 bottle of wine, that is!

Starbucks wink regards.....

I quite like the 2 buck chuck red, but I serve it with ice as it's so fruity, if it's warm you feel you should add ice cream -?

I drink lots of Australian, NZ and Chilean plonk.

Also a big fan of Yellow Tail, on sale in my local offie for the princely sum of $2.99 a bottle.

What did it taste like? We had something Coloradan that was organic, but Coloradan wine is just awful. No hangover though.

We tend to go for the ICE WINE ( pilliterri vineyards ), from the niagara on the lake region. They are pretty good, and I advise everyone to check them out, if you are in that area D

That would be just how I would like it, Annie! Hehehe :wink: