I've been given a bottle by the boys who I help coach, for a christmas present. I have never had the pleasure before but been told it's a nice drop of plonk. So do I open it up Christmas Eve whilst I'm preparing the veg for the next day (this way I keep it to myself), or do I share it with others on Christmas day. I'm leaning towards the Christmas Eve option, however will I have the mother of all hangovers if I go solo.
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It depends what neuf du pape you have. Some are excellent and some are rank - it can be made from a variety of different grapes and no two vineyards produce the same taste and quality, even if they're next to each other. The Rhone region for neuf is about 10 square miles and like a St Emillion in Bordeaux they can be very cheap or very expensive. With French wines I'd always go for quantity over quality :-)
The Italian neuf partner is Gandolfo, which I think is a better wine generally.
Neuf used to be thought of just another quaffing wine until some American wine critic began to tell the world how fantastic it was.
Out of interest what did you pay for the Isla Negra?
I always pour the "tasting" glass from a few inches up to get air into the wine as it hits the glass, but people look at me as if I'm mental.
IdleHans, having seen a friend of mine who has his own restaurant do the same, so do I. It works quite well.
In answer to Steve's question, kneck it yourself as you have too many to share a proper glass with on Xmas day.
Chateauneuf du Pape is best consumed with a good meal but also benefits from being drunk when mature, so leave it in the rack and save it for a later date, like 24 hours later when everyone has gone home.
Decant it if you can and let it breath for a couple of hours. Also pour small a small amount into a large glass when drinking.
I'd rather have an nice Barolo though.
Got a lovely 2007 Barolo ready for Christmas day.
Mmmm... Barolo...
If you can get it in the UK, I recommend a Portuguese red called Cartuxa if you like CNdF and Barolo.
An expensive wine may well have a full body, a delicate nose and good legs, but the odds are your brain will never know.
A
survey of hundreds of drinkers found that on average people could tell
good wine from plonk no more often than if they had simply guessed.
In
the blind taste test, 578 people commented on a variety of red and
white wines ranging from a £3.49 bottle of Claret to a £29.99 bottle of
champagne. The researchers categorised inexpensive wines as costing £5
and less, while expensive bottles were £10 and more.
The study
found that people correctly distinguished between cheap and expensive
white wines only 53% of the time, and only 47% of the time for red
wines. The overall result suggests a 50:50 chance of identifying a wine
as expensive or cheap based on taste alone – the same odds as flipping a
coin.
All tastes like sarsons to me...........................