Winemakers Choice, South Eastern Australia, Shiraz, 2013 - Wine Review

You say Shiraz, I say Syrah. Shiraz, Syrah, Shiraz, Syrah...........

Yep, this is another wine review.
Well, I say review, but I'm sure it's pretty obvious from my previous wine review blog posts that I'm not especially serious about this topic.
No, actually that's not entirely correct. I am serious about wine, I love red wine, which is why I drink it - a lot of it. But as our budget only allows us to drink the lower priced wines, there's obviously not that much I can say about many of them. It's not the wines are bad, they're perfectly drinkable, they're just not complicated or complex.
I mean, at the moment we aren't exactly buying fine wines, we're buying basic supermarket cheap plonk.
So, not to generalise too much, the wines we're buying, and drinking, are all pretty much the same - they look, smell, and taste - like red wine, with subtle differences but nothing so specific that it merits mentioning.

Mr.R purchased his bottle of Winemakers Choice, South Eastern Australia, Shiraz, 2013, from Aldi.
We hadn't been to our local Aldi since we moved here, but a couple of days ago we decided to pop in and see what it was like.
The wine selection was alright, so we were happy.
Crikey! This 'wine review' is more like a nonsensical rant, followed by an Aldi supermarket review - oh well, it is what it is.
But there are two photos of wine, so I think that makes everything alright.

From the bottle label -
A smooth and fruity, easy drinking Australian Shiraz. Great with roast or barbecued red meats or full-flavoured pasta dishes. 

We obviously liked this Winemakers Choice Shiraz; the bottle is empty, and it's in the recycling bin. :)
Do you like Australian wines?

Ciro DOP Classico Superiore, 2011 - Wine Review

I seem to have an obscene amount of booze photos on my camera roll, mainly photos of red wine bottles.
I don't like to throw anything away, even digital images, so I'm sharing them all on blog posts on this blog.
Trouble is I can't remember how the majority of the red wines we've drank tasted.
This bottle is a good example of my bad memory. I can't exactly remember what I thought of it.
Also a lot of the wines we have are basic bottles of cheap generic red wine that the budget supermarkets in blighty like to sell. I think this bottle was a Lidl bargain.

From the bottle label -
Ciro DOP Classico Superiore is one of the oldest red wines of Italy. 
It was handed to the successful athletes as they returned from the Olympics. 
This wine is made from Gaglioppo grapes that ripen under Calabrian sun and is characterised by a bouquet of dark ripened cherries, black olives, figs and eucalyptus. 
This dark red, aromatic wine is an ideal accompaniment to lamb, game and pork. 
Best enjoyed within 2 years of purchase. Once opened, consume within 3 days.


That all sounds lovely doesn't it?
I say -
This wine must have been fine.
The bottle was full.
Then it was opened.
And pretty soon it was empty.

Yep, that's about it.
Have you tried a bottle of this 2011 Ciro?

Saluti Sangiovese 2012, Rubicone, Red Wine

Red Wine!

I've pretty much always enjoyed drinking alcohol, but I've never drank at home - apart from special occasions such as Christmas or parties etc. I only ever drank booze when out socialising with family and friends.
That is until now. Since we settled back in England I have enjoyed drinking at home. In fact I look forward to my nightly medication, or more accurately my large glass(es) of red wine.

I'm not exactly sure why I now drink at home, but it could be because I'm a product of my environment. Drinking makes living back in Blighty bearable - almost.
What a sad, but true, thing to say about my home country. Seeing that sentence in black and white makes me fancy a drink. Haha!

Mr.R also likes a drink, and especially enjoys supping red wine in the evening. So our supermarket shopping always includes a generous number of bottles of red wine.
We definitely help the recycling men to keep fit, although judging from their expressions as they lift and then chuck our empty wine bottles in to the back of their lorry, I don't think they fully appreciate the effort we go to on behalf of their health. You just can't please some people.

We consume quite a lot of red wine, although our appetites are not quite as healthy as those of Malcolm Gluck or Robert Parker, and I doubt our bank balance is as healthy as theirs either - which is why we buy cheap plonk as well as higher priced red wine.

Recently Mr.R returned from doing a supermarket shop with lots of bottles of lovely red wine. In amongst which he'd purchased a couple of bottles of Saluti Sangiovese, an Italian wine, for the bargain price of £3 a bottle.
We weren't expecting much from the Sangiovese, especially considering the amount of duty etc. on a bottle of wine, which means the actual wine probably only cost about 70p, but it was ok.

When you enjoy drinking a decent amount of red wine, as we do, but have a limited budget, also as we do, it's not always possible to purchase high end wine.

Having said that, over the years of drinking red wine, we've had cheap as chips basic plonk, and seriously expensive wine, and it hasn't always been the higher priced wines that we've enjoyed the most. It is possible to buy very good red wine at reasonable prices, especially when you live on the Languedoc - the biggest vineyard in the World because the whole area is full of vines. But that's another topic for another blog post, maybe.

Anyway, cheap, mid-priced, or blow-the-budget expensive, we love red wine.

Although I'm not sure my recent increase in alcohol consumption is something I want to do permanently, so I guess we'll have to move somewhere were I don't feel the need to imbibe quite as much.

Hmm, where to go?
We fancy living in Monaco, but as we're not quite as wealthy as Prince Albert II, we're not rushing to make the move.
Maybe we'd better buy a lottery ticket, oh and some red wine, either to celebrate with or drown our sorrows.

On re-reading this blog post prior to hitting 'publish' I realised that I hadn't actually said how the wine tasted. Well, as we drink quite a lot of red wine I'm racking my little grey cells to remember.
I think it was very fruity, with hints of cherry, mulberry, plum, rhubarb, and possibly lavender. It was quite quaffable, and for £3 a bottle it was a bit of a bargain.

Also I am aware that this blog post is mainly about an Italian red wine, and that apart from the shot of the Saluti Sangiovese I've used photos of various other wines and several wine images of France, but hey-ho I like adding lots of photos to my posts and as I only had one image of the Sangiovese I uploaded other random photos. I think I'm reminiscing a little for my past life.

Don't mind the little yellow Duck who features in a few of the photos, he was the responsible adult during our last bout of World travels.

Do you like red wine?
What's your favourite alcoholic tipple?