In vino veritas - what wine are you drinking?

Lots in the UK and France. None here really. Its great for music festivals.

Almost a disaster… wanted to pick up a bottle of Georgian red wine ahead of their crunch game v Portugal on Wednesday night in the Euros. The local Polonez out of stock!

Luckily there is also a Polo store nearby and they sorted me out with a Badagoni Saperavi dry red wine for €11.30.
Dry is important here as mainly off dry reds stocked.

Something of a bargain as it is listed as €16 - €18 elsewhere.

https://www.thecorkscrew.ie/badagoni-saperavi.html

https://leonards.wine/products/badagoni-saperavi

I think M&S also stock a Saperavi now in their 'Found' range for those curious.

Was gifted this a couple of months ago. Decided it probably wasn't getting any better (1999), so decided not to wait for a special occasion (and also, greedily decided not to share it with future guests). Instead, Mrs beer and I had it with pork chops, rosti, roast tomatoes and spinach.

It was delicious, very dry - almost vinegary, in a good way, but really complex, if still quite light. Gorgeous - polished off the bottle.

Interesting data via Jancis Robinson newsletter, data on falling wine sales.

The drinks-market analysts IWSR released a report on 22 July that sheds light on why wine sales by volume are seeing such a steep decline. As they highlight, the UK drinks 14% less wine than in 2000, Australia drinks 11% less, and France, Italy, Argentina and Spain have all seen consumption decline since the turn of the century. But the number of wine drinkers has grown in many major markets. So what’s happened?

The issue seems to be fourfold:

• moderation is a growing trend, with 67% of wine drinkers between legal minimum drinking age and 27 years moderating intake; 61% of Millennials; 49% of Gen X and 43% of Boomers
• there is increased competition from other categories and younger drinkers are not category-loyal
• younger consumers are simply not drinking as much wine
• and finally, consumers of all ages are trading up to more premium wine but drinking less often.

12 quid in Lidl. A fantastic malbec at any price.

If you are about Dublin city centre next month… LIDL are hosting some sort of pop up wine tasting event… €15 for tickets.

Guests will sip their way through a carefully curated collection of sparkling, red, white and rosé wine by Lidl Ireland, guided by Richard Bampfield MW, whilst submerged completely in darkness. 

https://www.shelflife.ie/lidl-unveils-vino-sensoria-wine-tasting-experience-in-dublin

This was pretty special