Wine recommendation

[dontfollowme]

I'm really struggling with a xmas present for my parents so I am thinking of getting them 6 bottles of nice wine. Funds are limited so budget is limited to £70 so I need recommendations on what to buy, aiming for 3 red/3 white.

My first thought was just to ask Oddbins to put something together for me and present it nicely - is this a good idea?

[williaa68]

That's a nice present and £70, or roughly £9 a bottle will find you some nice wine. If you have a majestic anywhere near you, they are better than oddbins and have recently reduced their minimum purchase to 6 bottles. Do you know what they like at all, or can you take a sneak at the empties? No point in buying them sauvignon or a good aussie shiraz if they dont like them for example. I think this is exceptionally good value for the red: http://www.majestic.co.uk/find/category-is-Wine/ca... but you'll need to buy two or four to get the discount.

Happy hunting - majestic usually do tastings so get something you like too!

[whitechief]

Majestic do six bottle gifts.

http://www.majestic.co.uk/find/category-is-Gift+So...

[mattdaniels]

I've recently been pointed towards Majestic by a wine buff at work and have been really impressed with the advice and service I've received when I've gone in there.

[Beardy10]

It certainly is a nice present. Oddbins are doing 25% off if you are buying a case of 6 at the moment so not a bad place to try.

If your parents preference is red wine I'd seriously look at having some of this in it

http://www.oddbins.com/product-details/craggy-rang...

It's absolutely fantastic wine, if it was French it would be twice the price. Here's another review of it

http://www.farrvintners.com/wine.php?wine=28182

I'd be tempted to go with three bottles of that and get something cheaper for the white.

[Bullett]

Majestic and generally pretty good but also Laithwaites seem to know thier stuff and I've had nice wine from Nicholas.
Try and find an indie/small chain wine merchant if possible. I like these guys www.caviste.co.uk they usually have 3-5 available to taste and a good range of prices for what you want.

[alfa pint]

A good indie wine merchant will be even better than Majestic, if there's one near you. Whatever you do, stay away from the supermarkets. (Although waitrose have a decent quality wine range).

[dontfollowme]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I'm going to give Tanners a call tomorrow which is a local ish indy wine merchant. Its just going to be 3 bottles of red now as I've got my mum something else. I'll ask Tanners to recommend a Rioja, a Merlot and possibly a Malbec. I know to go for a Spanish Rioja but will my dad's preference for Chilean and S African wines tally up with the Merlot and Malbec idea?