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 not an advert at all . i just love this wine maker ...

McGuigan

try the Bin no 528 it's on offer at the mo in Sainsburys @ half price. pretty amazing stuff for only a fiver . ive had stuff over 10x the price thats far worse.

any other value wine suggestions would be welcome  : )

I tried that before, pretty nice.

Isla Negra, on offer in various places

http://www.tesco.com/wine/product/details/default.aspx?id=252954913&utm_source=google&utm_medium=product_feed&utm_campaign=TESCO_WINE_GSF&utm_content=252954913

(http://img.tesco.com/wine/UIAssets/pi/509/7804320404509/IDShot_150x300.jpg)

Absolute steal at £4.50, genuinely a £9 wine.

(http://s7v1.scene7.com/is/image/JohnLewis/230201489?$product$)

£5.50 in places. "It's a floral, bright white that works fantastically as a chilled aperitif or with light bites such as prawns on the barbecue. Delicious and crisp, with plenty of fun, aromatic twinges to keep you smiling."
Olly Smith, The Mail on Sunday, 29 August 2010 (2009 vintage)

Or if you really want to splash out....Manuel's Mumm Elderflower Champagne 2012, just about to harvest the flowers ;)
Made Elderberry from the same bush last year, absolutely incred.

Blackberry from last year. Pretty straightforward, very cheap (£1/bottle), lots of fun, quite educational

(http://i.imgur.com/gRRBc.jpg)

All you need, plus some bottles obv, a couple of buckets and airlocks...about £10 all in

(http://i.imgur.com/vtHAi.jpg)

Smash up the fruit, add sugary water

(http://i.imgur.com/cluzr.jpg)

After 1 week, fizzing away

(http://i.imgur.com/vWUR2.jpg)

After 2 weeks, ready to put in a secondary with airlock. There's a lot of alcohol here already. Tbh, you could probably start drinking 3 weeks after you've started the whole thing, but it improves a lot with age.

(http://i.imgur.com/7MYjB.jpg)

30 bottles didn't last very long

(http://i.imgur.com/zjwm7.jpg)

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/blackbry.asp

Sorry to hijack your thread :)

Made some great Elderflower champagne last year, only problem I had was filtering it as the pollen clogged the filters and it took ages!

Cheers, I'll watch out for that. Maybe wash it quite hard before the infusion?

Bit worried about explosions too, I've heard some horror stories.

Washing it is a pretty bad mistake apparently...

Explosions aren't much of an issue, just need to be careful and release the pressure every so often! (much like ginger beer)

I'm cooking for my Good Lady this Thursday, menu as below. Suggestions for a good Red/White would be greatly appreciated

Monk Fish Salad -  starter
Egg Plant Parmesan With Steamed Asparagus - Mains
Seafood Linguine
Kulfi (Indian Ice Cream)  - dessert


Thanks in Advance...   
 

(http://www.jjfoodservice.com/images/products/large/DRK851.jpg)

http://www.jjfoodservice.com/product.cfm/Lindemans%20Bin%2065%20Australian%20Chardonnay%206x75cl/DRK851

This is great stuff (not saying for your meal Bangbang)

(http://images.mysupermarket.co.uk/ProductsDetailed/71/108371.jpg)

http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/#/sainsburys-price-comparison/red_wine/vina_maipo_gran_reserva_shiraz_750ml.html

Bargain at £5.49. (I only ever got it from Sainsburys).

http://thewinetaster.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/vina-maipo-gran-reserva-shiraz-2010.html

"This Shiraz is really well balanced. It's a nice, smooth tipple with a very mature consistency. Normally I'm used to a snifter that punches me square in the mush with it's pluckiness or a wine which will tease on the fruits and blast with a long alcoholic sting and out-stay its welcome. This however: very nice. As far as food goes; this one has done the rounds over the months. I remember a fantastic lamb shank with dauphinoise potatoes and asparagus being made even more tremendous with a glass of this. As I remember, it was remarkable orange and duck pate. But culinary preference aside, this is just a remarkable wine.

8/10 - I'm a big fan of this particular wine; but must ease up off the marking until I can sample other wines from Vino Maipo"

If you want to try something diffferent, go for Condrieu if you can find it.  Waitrose used to sell it for £30 a bottle, but have stopped now, but you can find it occasionally in French Restaurants.  Or Wing Lei at the Wynn in Vegas have it.  Obv will be £80+ in a restaurant depending on vintage.

It tastes different from most whites - very foral and delicate - and I recommend with fish.

With this menu i'd be going for something white for sure.
Waitrose do a fantastic Riesling called DR LOOSEN ESTATE . i'm not usually a Riesling fan but this stuff is just the nuts. Fresh , clean and slightly sweet on the nose it's great  with seafood.
Id be surprised if you didn't enjoy this . I think its £14 or £10 per bottle ,can't remember which . good luck !

Thanks Treefella that sounds within reason too, plus I online shop from Waitrose so it'll be ideal...

San Pedro 35 South Latitude Cabernet Merlot (750ml)

£10 at moment at sainsburys but on offer every few months for £5. Stock up when it is.

Where's the best place over here for getting all the wine making gear?

I opened an old bottle of" Brunello di Montalchino Riserva, Franco Biondi Santi, 2004" that I received for a Christmas present this year from my Bank Manager, it was excellent...

It's dense, slender, floral, complex, peppery, spicey and powerful.. I'm not a wine connoisseur, but this wine took my breath away.. Most likely the finest wine I've ever had..

So thin you can see through it

Clean shaven with a mustache, shaved pushed back hair and was 5' to 7'11 tall... 

I've used these guys http://www.innhousebrewery.co.uk/

They have a shop in Glasgow, they do mail order too and only charge postage at cost.

Ebay is very competitive for yeast/nutrient etc. I've always used the Young's brand and it's been great.

If you can't get hold of a demijohn easily, you can just use those 5 litre containers that spring water comes in. I also have a 5 gallon drum (disadvantage is that if something goes wrong, you've lost 5 gallons. Nothing went wrong yet, I'm pretty careful about cleaning and I do use campden tablets)

Bought one of these kits for £40, I got the Barolo one, it was pretty good. £1.20/bottle for a £7-equivalent Barolo.And there's nothing to it.

http://www.beaverdalewinekits.co.uk/beaverdale-wine-making-kits.php?gclid=CI7AofO10LACFY5pfAodA0jTVg

Their reputation is very strong.

The Isla Negra cab sav is one of the loveliest wines I've ever sampled.  The merlot's not bad either.  Really smooth, although I'm obviously not a wine connoisseur :D

Shame that's not on offer :(
http://www.tesco.com/wine/product/details/default.aspx?N=8132+4294967176+4294967141&id=256267770

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/views/liverpool-columnists/put-a-cork-in-it/2011/03/17/put-a-cork-in-it-this-week-cabernet-sauvignon-100252-28351141/

""

First up is an excellent example from Chile’s Central Valley. Isla Negra is owned by Cono Sur, which in turn is owned by Concha y Toro - three brands familiar to our supermarket shelves and noted for their value and at times superb quality.

Morrisons is currently selling Isla Negra’s premium brand ‘High Tide’ cabernet sauvignon at just £4.99 a bottle (reduced from £10.19). Buy it while you can!


Dark in colour, this brooding 2009 would benefit significantly from an hour or two’s airing.

Without decanting, it developed impressively in the glass - opening up to reveal intense fruit and spices with a generous amount of creamy oak. Showing intense cloves, smokey church pews and ripe berries on the nose, this wine displayed a slight sweetness typical of ripe cabernet grapes from a warmer climate.

On tasting it revealed a damson and berry jamminess with cherry and vanilla.

This is a substantial wine with an intensity and structure far greater than its (temporary) £4.99 price tag would suggest.

""

Afaik, It's still available in Morrisons for £4.99, web search would seem to suggest so. I loved it too.

Also love Merlot, I'm not a connoisseur either ;)

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5PItDrtjOA

lol - amazing film!

buy 6 save 25% on all wine at sainsburys.

I just used a £1.29 bucket ;marks;

I think there's a natural yeast on the elderflower, so you don't need to add any, nor should you wash it off. Just leave on a piece of card, for any bugs to jump off. Just completed some elderflower wine, it's pretty good. Not so sure about the carrot stuff though. Very strong.

Epic deal at Morrisons, this stuff was pretty nice, about £4.80 at the moment.

(http://paulagoddard.com/images/stories/wines/castillo%20calatrava%20crianza%20small.jpg)

http://paulagoddard.com/component/content/article/13-wine/190-castillo-de-calatrava.html

""Morrisons Castillo de Calatrava Spanish Tempranillo Crianza is the Bargain of the Year (so far). Paying just £4 for this complex, fruity red is such a stonking deal (within their 3 for £12 offer which starts today) that buying just one bottle is a missed opportunity – my advice is buy as many as your purse will allow.
Morrisons assures me there is no limit on the quantity on this, or any other, particular bottle within the deal (which ends 25th March). So you can buy as many trios as you like but they will be subject to who gets there first.
And what a bargain it is: cocoa, blackberry, sloe and black cherry yoghurt flavours all nicely rounded off with some sucking-on-the-end-of-a-pencil woodiness. Which you’d think would be an ideal match to equally heavy-weight dishes such as beef stew or Sunday roasts but this wine is surprisingly light-bodied which means it can also match lighter, more aromatic meals such as pizza, pasta and sag aloo.""

La Vita Montepulciano

Came in the Xmas hamper this year, WOULD NOT RECOMMEND... Better off buying some KA Grape Drink from your local ethnic store... Very flat but on a plus note, very easy to drink if you like squash...   

Wilkinsons have a decent homebrew section and there is a 30% off offer at the moment.  You can order whatever you like and get it delivered to a store near you.

Demijohns are around £7 but the 5l plastic bottles from tesco are fine, drill a hole in the the lid to fit the air lock through.

You can make some very drinkable wines from supermarket juice, a litre of whjte juice, a litre of orange juice and 800 grams of sugar plus some wine yeast will do the job.

Plenty videos on YouTube showing you how to doit.

This xmas dinner the buzz family will be drinking rhubarb wine which I made 5l for 80 pence, and a sweet strawberry desert wine which cost £3 for 5l.

Plus plenty of beer working out at about 30p a pint. Its a very fun but addictive little hobby.

Think id be careful about wild yeast getting into the wine as it can cause infection. Soak the berries in a few litres of water with something called a campden tablet for 5 hours or so, strain, then use a normal wine yeast. Just to be on the safe side :-)

I can't recommend the Barefoot range enough. When I was a bit younger I used to buy a bottle of wine every time I went shopping (about twice a week). I had a method where I'd usually buy a different bottle of wine every week and just choose a bottle that I liked the label of. I didn't need to choose a specific type of wine because I like them all, I just figured if I chose a label I liked, I'd remember it for next time.

(http://drinks.seriouseats.com/images/2012/05/20120607barefootredsstory.jpg)

The Shiraz and Merlot is really good but I actually started out on the Pinot Grigio:

(http://sourmashed.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Barefoot-Pinot-Grigio.jpg)

This probably shouldn't be on a forum, but if you like to get smashed on white wine with easy drinking and without too much headache then I recommend the Pinot Grigio. I'm only 26 now but I feel those days have gone passed me :(. 2 bottles of wine now = 2 days of hangover. Wimp.

Will give it a go.

Any other reasonably priced favourites of the red variety. (Love South African)

Yes for me too..

Maybe a white to go with xmas dinner, Lobster not turkey and a nice Red for me & my good lady later...

Thanks in advance ...

The Black Stump, Casella 2012 Durif Shiraz

Laithwaites - £8.99 / bottle

It's pretty fine for £8.99

Brazin Old Vine Zinfandel is my favourite red tipple currently.

It's from California and is around £11 per bottle if you can find it.

I have two bottles of M&S Cava inside me - €22 the pair. Very effective and tasty.