Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

GF,

I drink plonk, it seemed suit the lubrication of tongues when we sat down to a meal or just to talk.

Bearing the above in mine try Limoux AOC at about £7 a bottle from Aldi. (Their wines are as promised.)

But cool it. let it breath for 15mins and ask you wife if she likes it. If so go back and buy the case.

If not send the half full bottle to the address below.

Good luck.

Manuel,

The 70s. Augustus Barnett.

Introduced the masses in UK to wines,

Some beautiful wines a reasonable prices.

Bought 40 year old port from them.

Always wondered how it survived the WW2.

easily; portugal was neutral
but think about 45, 47 and 49 clarets, which were stunning, or so history tells me

=============

surely limoux is primarily just a cheap sparkling wine
if you want cheap but good sparkling, i'ld be more inclined towards a decent prosecco

Thanks guys, I write a note out and pop down Sainsburys. Appreciated.

they have a decent selection too - or at least they do around here!

don't forget that duty is a flat rate as of course are all the shipping and delivery costs, so the more you can afford to spend, the better value you get, or at least relatively speaking

Of course!

Forgot!

Got a feeling didn't even think of it at he time!

=====

Don't listen to the wine snobs on here, get some of this

used to sell that as my house wine in my very early days (mid 70s) at the brasserie in portobello

I worked for the company that produced Hirondelle for 8 years (Hedges & Butler, part of the Bass group). The wine came in in tankers and was then chemically stabilised and blended. It was drinkable, I suppose. They sourced it from Bulgaria, Romania etc. They were debating where to get supplies from and had narrowed it down to two major suppliers. They chose an eastern European country over the other. The second supplier was Argentina and the decision was made a week before the invasion of the Falklands; very lucky.

H&B were a really good company with 1st growth en primeur wines (Mouton R), the agency for Sandeman's ports (inc vintage of course) and really good sherry from Gonzalez Byas, and not just the standard garbage either + exotic madeira (i still have a bottle of 1864!) and all sorts of other serious goodies

in due course, H&B disappeared, as did a number of other very fine wine merchants, but fortunately i had already built up a good cellar by that time, and i still have some of it

H&B still exists as a company. Their shop is at 153 Regent street. There are cellars full of wine stretching almost to Baker Street. They have private dining rooms down there. Baron Rothschild used to come over a couple of times a year for dinners. They were sole agents for Mouton Cadet, Sandemans, Gancia, Chianti Ruffino, Remy Martin, Bacardi (bottled in east London) and plenty of other major brands. We kept a couple of million gallons of Bacardi in underground tanks at over proof. They used to sell a disgusting brand of sherry called Emva. It was from Cyprus. We kept it in huge tanks like gasometers and bottled it in Stratford. The bottling lines were all manned by Pakistanis as they could mostly be relied on not to drink the stock.

http://news.sky.com/story/1395057/research-ukip-surge-wont-deliver-many-seats

Research: UKIP Surge Won't Deliver Many Seats

UKIP will struggle to convert its recent surge in support into a sizeable number of MPs at the General Election, new research suggests.

The Plymouth University analysis also says the Liberal Democrats could confound plummeting poll ratings and avoid the Parliamentary catastrophe some are predicting.

The research found that while Nigel Farage's party is winning a lot more votes, Nick Clegg's is much more effective at converting them into seats.

UKIP will get more support on May 7 but will end up finishing second behind the main parties in a large number of constituencies, it concluded.

Researchers examined the votes cast by over one and a half million electors in more than 1,000 local council by-elections since the 2010 general election.

Since its impressive showing at the 2013 local elections, UKIP candidates have contested 346 council by-elections, winning just 21 and coming second 150 times.

By contrast, despite garnering far fewer votes than UKIP, the Lib Dems have won more than twice as many seats - 53 from 318 contests.

Latest polls put support for Mr Clegg's party in single figures and predict they could lose at least 34 of their 57 MPs.

However, the Plymouth University data shows the party's national vote share is estimated at 14%, about six points higher than the pollsters' average.

Professor Michael Thrasher, of Plymouth University, said: "Support for the Liberal Democrats is 10 points lower than its 2010 vote and indicates losses of 17 parliamentary seats.

"But that situation is a lot better than if the polls are right.

"The Liberal Democrats have proved more successful than a small party should be under Britain's first-past-the-post system precisely because its support is concentrated in some areas.

"Relatively speaking, UKIP's support is evenly spread.

"This evidence points to UKIP doing well enough to win at best a handful of seats in 2015, but at the same time garnering enough votes to finish as runner-up in scores of constituencies."

f** mouton cadet; that's only a couple of leagues up from hirondelle!

from Bambi - an interesting comment
Elsewhere in the Economist interview, he (Balir) remained defiant about the decision to go to war in Iraq, insisting he would not “until my dying day” concede it was wrong to remove Saddam Hussein.
He said: “What annoys people is my refusal to change my mind. I don’t shut up about it and I know that strikes some people as provocative.
“But it is much more progressive to get rid of Saddam than leave Bashar Assad to murder 200,000 of his own people in Syria.”


hmm ... make of that comment what you will

This will do nicely!

No one expects ukip to win much outright, but they will upset the applecart across the board. No one can accurately predict which way the voters will go in a lot of seats, never mind the marginals where anything can happen.


"This evidence points to UKIP doing well enough to win at best a handful of seats in 2015, but at the same time garnering enough votes to finish as runner-up in scores of constituencies."



Squeaky bum time for sitting/aspiring mp's in the less safe seats :-)

What do you expect to come out of the chaos which may arise.

The government reflects the populace and vice versa.

You can't even bothered to vote Fred, what does that say about the party you support?

cynic
Mouton Cadet was an excellent wine originally. Rothschilds had Mouton Rothschild, Mouton Baron Phillips and Mouton Cadet plus a few more obscure brands. Mouton Cadet went wrong about 1976. The
66 & 70 vintages were as good as many better wines.

UKIP may well upset traditional voting patterns but are unlikely to achieve what UKIPers want. Their votes are more likely to prevent a referendum. If they help get a Labour government then they will get lots things they don't want.

Did somebody say 'Fishfingers'?

When we are having fishfingers and chips, or scampi and chips or even egg and chips, a nice bottle of Aldi's 2013 'Gavi' goes down nicely.

It's an Italian wine made from cortese grapes and is from their 'Exquisite Collection'.

It is fresh and crisp and absolutely beautiful. So is the tall slim blue topped bottle and the label isn't bad to look at either. Price is a ridiculous £5.49 per bottle.