Decent red wine for a tenner? (better than Barossa Ink)

[richard at home]

I love a bottle of Barossa Ink, very fruity, smooth and very drinkable. Hangover free too.

I'm struggling to find anything better for around a tenner a bottle.

Any suggestions for a good quaffing wine?

I like full bodied, fruity wines with little tannins.

Already tried Carnivor Zinfandel, Apothic (yeah, its super sweet) and Dark Horse Cab. Sauv.

Cheers!

[richard at home]

beedj said:

+1 for Barossa Ink (especially at £7.50 when Tesco have 25% off six), also +1 for Porta 6 but not as good as Barossa - but that’s just me, the best wines are the ones that YOU like

Yep, gets expensive working my way through the tesco top shelf and being disappointed, bottle after bottle, once you've had 'Ink'! I even converted an Aussie to it...

And the 25% off means loading up the trolley with 12 bottles, every time!

[richard at home]

M22s said:

Porta6 is my go to

That's a new one to me. I'll give it a go. Cheers!

[richard at home]

Mobile Chicane said:

Pigassou:

Delightfully blackberryish, 14% ABV, light on the tannin. What's not to like.



https://www.laithwaites.co.uk/product/0056320

Another new one to me. Thanks! I'll give it a try.

[richard at home]

Bullett said:

I like - Bread & Butter Cabernet Sauvignon 2019, California - I paid £10 a bottle last time but it seems a bit higher at the moment.
The Porto6 is a good choice as well.
Velvet Devil - again around £14 a bottle in a lot of places but often a lot cheaper in Costco.

Thanks, some more to add to my tasting session!

[richard at home]

garyhun said:

£10 at Tesco and very smooth.

Hmmm, I do like a nice Pinotage...

[richard at home]

Evolved said:

19 crimes is a lovely Australian drop.

There are a few different ones within the range. All delicious. Full bodied and full of flavour.

Yep, drunk a lot of that, but Barossa Ink is better IMHO...

[richard at home]

Riley Blue said:

For extreme fruitiness try their Jammy Red Roo, £7 or less.

Yep, that's another fave of the misses. She loves Apothic which is like ribeena. Very very easy to quaff....

[richard at home]

oddman said:

Wine bore alert.

'quaffing', 'smooth', 'easy drinking' are all a bit of a trigger for me. They speak of thoughtless heavy drinking for intoxication rather than taste. How do I know - I'm as guilty as anyone - I keep simple wines like these around if I want to open a second bottle to stop me wasting the good stuff when I've already pickled my palate.

Shamefully these wines are designed for us Brits and our barbaric drinking culture. As one poster put it 'alcoholic ribena'. I would hazard you could make a nice 'wine' to satisfy this craving with a bottle of vodka shaken with a jar of jam diluted appropriately. Decent wine should offer everything it has for a sip not a gulp. They are part of a trend to industrial food and distance the producer from the consumer.

Look at the names and labels of most of what has been posted. They are designed by a marketing team and intended to disguise rather than inform you of what's inside. Most of these wines will have no information about vineyard or wine making practices. Some don't even have vintage statements. They will have been subjected to trickery such as late harvesting to maximise sugar, addition of sugar if required and reverse osmosis. They will have been filtered to within an inch of their lives so that some poor punter doesn't encounter a nasty residue.

I tried a case of Laithwaites wines on special introductory offer and expected great things. They were ludicrously alcoholic, jammy, smooth and characterless. I think The Wine Society is probably the best online source for value wines of character.

There are loads of producers working hard to make wines that express the character of the grape and place they are grown. They tend to be wines that go better with food as the alcohol and fruit is balanced with acidity and tannin which taste less pleasant when food (particularly fat and salt) isn't taken together with the wine.

Rant over - in answer to the question I think you can't go wrong with Rhône Village wines Cairanne, Vacqueyras, Ventoux and Rasteau. Also supermarket 'Taste the Difference' tyoe wines of the French South West such as Languedoc, Cahors, Pays d'Oc, Catalanes. These are usually 13.5-14.5% full bodied but with balancing tannins and acidity and interesting aromatics.

Reds to swerve a under £10 are Bordeaux, Burgundy and big name Rhônes such as Châteauneuf, Crozes Hermitage, St Joseph.

Portugal a good call too.

Yep, agree 100%.

BUT, I drink wine as a drink, to chill out and relax with. I totally respect people who like to explore the nuances of fine wine, but that ain't me. Fine ales on the other hand....

That's why I like Barossa Ink so much. You can drink it before a meal, with a meal, you can drink a bottle of it, its always reliable. It's never harsh.

Talking of the finer things in life, I once had a glass of 100 year old brandy. It was mind blowing (and I don't really like brandy) but at £2500 a bottle (probably more now), it was well, well out my reach as a Friday evening tipple!

I like cocktails too! Red Legs Rum, Ginger Beer and lime. Yum... Yeah I know I am a heathen

[richard at home]

otolith said:

Personally, I am more frequently disappointed with wines from France than from anywhere else. They make some wonderful wines, and an awful lot of overpriced crap. But one man's "austere and elegant" is another man's "thin and sour", and as the French say (while urinating into the vats headed for British supermarkets) "chacun à son goût"

100% agree. French=thin and miserable. (or what we get to drink in the UK)

However, I have just drunk half a bottle of Cellier des Dauphins Merlot Grenache from Waitrose, well under budget and while a bit light compared to the broadside of Barossa Ink, and other Aussie Shiraz wines, its not bad.

I am a great believer in decent 'cheap' wine, but we just don't get it over here. I once bought a giant bottle of Italian table wine from a tiny grocery shop in Sienna. In our group there was a cerified wine snob (£300 a bottle purchases) and guess what he was piling into? Yes, the very cheap table plonk. After a few glasses, its hard to tell what you're drinking!

[richard at home]

2gins said:

I'm going to come in with the Ravenswood Zin. Over budget at 11.99 in Tesco at the moment, prices were around the 9 mark but the fx rates I guess did for it. I'll grab a few bottles while it's there, it's usually nearer 15 these days.

Beronia rioja good too, and we like the Cafayate malbec which is in Sainsbury's now. It's unusual in being from Salta, even higher altitude than the Mendoza malbecs. Goes better with a well seared fatty ribeye

Edited by 2gins on Friday 13th May 21:23

Think I can stretch to 12 quid!
I like Zinfandels so I will check out the Ravenswood.

[richard at home]

2gins said:

Popped in today and bought a couple of Ravenswoods, and while at it a bottle of the barossa ink which is new to me. Also to please our resident Jilly gouldon wine buff, a couple of sw Frenchies. A cahors malbec for 7.50 which went well with a slice of grilled cow, a 14.5% CDR villages and for those in the mood for a bit of white, a Tesco torrontes which is a bit of a go-to for me for Asian stuff.

Please report back on your opinion of Ink vs Ravenswoods.

[richard at home]

croyde said:

Thanks for the heads up on the Ink. Just opened a bottle, very nice.

Nah Worries Mate!

[richard at home]

Been having a browse of Laithwaites.

Cabalie gets a lot of mentions and is compared to a lot of other wines.

The annoying website orders by rating giving a single 5 star a better rating than a wine with 3000 reviews of 4.5...

Interesting that some of the popular wines get reviewed as 5/5 and 1/5. The 1/5 reviews nearly always say it's too sweet, like cheap supermarket wine etc etc.

I'll give the Cabalie a try and see if I can pick out one or two others to try...

[richard at home]

OK, let the tasting commence...

Edited by richard at home on Friday 20th May 23:45

No idea why this shows upside down...

Edited by richard at home on Friday 20th May 23:45

[richard at home]

2gins said:

I'm going to come in with the Ravenswood Zin. Over budget at 11.99 in Tesco at the moment, prices were around the 9 mark but the fx rates I guess did for it. I'll grab a few bottles while it's there, it's usually nearer 15 these days.

Beronia rioja good too, and we like the Cafayate malbec which is in Sainsbury's now. It's unusual in being from Salta, even higher altitude than the Mendoza malbecs. Goes better with a well seared fatty ribeye

Edited by 2gins on Friday 13th May 21:23

Well the Ravenswood went down well. I'd rate it up there with Barossa Ink. Thanks for the tip.

[richard at home]

Tried the Moillard Bourgogne Gamay Red Burgundy 2020 mentioned above a page or two ago. Tastes to much like a French wine for me! Bit thin. OK once you get over taninns but not a quaffing wine. I had 3/4 of a bottle with a big steak.

Next up is Porta-6.

[richard at home]

Tried the Porta6. Very nice, but not quite up there with Ink.

[richard at home]

Broke my own rules (>£10) to try a bottle of Tesco's Amarone. Never heard of it before. Italian Valpolicella made with dried grapes. Very strong, very dark. A lot more going on than the alcho ribena wines.

The bottle didn't last long! Very nice.

Not a quaffing wine though and I suspect that at £17 a bottle, this is probably a very cheap Amarone.

Tried Diabolo too. Very nice, so thats on the list for buying again, along with Ravenswood.

[richard at home]

Tried Diabolo Black and Bellingham Pinotage. Both very nice, added to my list!