A nice cuppa
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That is a cool story about the name origin. Also it is interesting (or sad?) that it was the best selling wine in the UK for several years.martyn94 wrote:But that’s the interesting thing about blind tastings: some people might like wines like that: evidently the marketers think they do. I wouldn’t do it with Santiago’s wine unless he was content to put it on the line (and I paid for all the wine). But this is all theoretical for the moment. Unless dozens of people here pipe up and say that they’ll come to it chez moi: I’m not going to buy 60 paris goblets on spec.Santiago wrote:I'm taking offense at my wine even being mentioned in the same sentence as these two crimes against oenology!I was semi-joking, but am warming to the idea. There’s an outfit round here which has monthly jollies for anglophones and allied trades, called Le Cercle des Old Gits de la Côte Vermeille or something like that. I might try and piggy-back on one of their gigs, if the management will oblige: they might welcome some recruits if anyone here isn’t already a member. But get it anyway.
The only cool thing about Le Piat d'Or is how they came up with the name.
As you know, it started as a British brand of rough Vin de Table. They did public market research to choose the name from a list of suggestions but instead of asking "Which of these names do you prefer?", they asked "Which of these wines have you had before and liked?" Even though nobody had ever actually heard the name before, something like 60% of respondents said they had enjoyed Le Piat d'Or. And so the brand was born!
So, was that popularity just driven by marketing and is it as dreadful as the wine elitists would like us to think? It reminds me a little of music and art, anything that a lot of people enjoy becomes branded as unsophisticated and too commercial.
I confess that I certainly cannot be qualified to judge, having just enjoyed a crisp, citrusy bottle of house white for just 3 euro, accompanying some fabulous seafood in a Naples restaurant this evening.
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Blind tastings are an interesting measurement and a way of testing your prejudices. Most of us can't even tell what grape variety we are tasting, even though we hold strong opinions about our preferences.martyn94 wrote:But that’s the interesting thing about blind tastings: some people might like wines like that: evidently the marketers think they do. I wouldn’t do it with Santiago’s wine unless he was content to put it on the line (and I paid for all the wine). But this is all theoretical for the moment. Unless dozens of people here pipe up and say that they’ll come to it chez moi: I’m not going to buy 60 paris goblets on spec.Santiago wrote:I'm taking offense at my wine even being mentioned in the same sentence as these two crimes against oenology!I was semi-joking, but am warming to the idea. There’s an outfit round here which has monthly jollies for anglophones and allied trades, called Le Cercle des Old Gits de la Côte Vermeille or something like that. I might try and piggy-back on one of their gigs, if the management will oblige: they might welcome some recruits if anyone here isn’t already a member. But get it anyway.
The only cool thing about Le Piat d'Or is how they came up with the name.
As you know, it started as a British brand of rough Vin de Table. They did public market research to choose the name from a list of suggestions but instead of asking "Which of these names do you prefer?", they asked "Which of these wines have you had before and liked?" Even though nobody had ever actually heard the name before, something like 60% of respondents said they had enjoyed Le Piat d'Or. And so the brand was born!
Large numbers of wine drinkers do like relatively simple wines compared to those of us who have allowed ourselves to become obsessive about it. If you ask someone with no experience of "fine" wine to choose between a bottle of mass-produced wine and an expensive Burgundy, they'll probably choose the former because that's what they are used to.
It's more than just an acquired taste because it's so subjective. Even among wine afficionados there will be lots of disagreement on which is the best wine in a particular group. The point is that wine is not generic. There is no scale of worst to best. There are quality levels but once you get beyond the faulty and boring level, it all becomes very diverse. It's impossible to compare a fine Riesling with a fine red Burgundy or a fine Roussillon. They are all different beasts.
One thing is for sure. Avoiding becoming a wine afficionado will save you loads of money.
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Please count me in too
Allan wrote:It should be an interesting blind tasting then 😊Santiago wrote: I'm taking offense at my wine even being mentioned in the same sentence as these two crimes against oenology!
The only cool thing about Le Piat d'Or is how they came up with the name.
As you know, it started as a British brand of rough Vin de Table. They did public market research to choose the name from a list of suggestions but instead of asking "Which of these names do you prefer?", they asked "Which of these wines have you had before and liked?" Even though nobody had ever actually heard the name before, something like 60% of respondents said they had enjoyed Le Piat d'Or. And so the brand was born!
Martyn, you can count me in, just say when and where?
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I was just going to start a sub-topic about tinned tomatoes. Santiago seems to think that they just generic. Wrong, bigly.Gus Morris wrote:Holy Moly!
I kicked off this thread talking about coffee. But it’s somehow drifted off into the wine debate. Just now, of the 12 most active threads, 6 are about wine. Maybe just a bit excessive?
Gus
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There’s a much-loved, though not particularly good, delicatessen in New York called Zabar’s (at 80th and Broadway). Their biggest-selling espresso blend is called French Italian, which seems a bit schizophrenic. Perhaps that’s why it’s no good. But it is kosher, if that’s a consideration: Jehovah alone knows what you have to do to coffee to make it non-kosher.Richard and Sharon wrote: Amusing to me, my most frequented coffee shop across the pond, in the small Californian town where my daughter lives, sells a coffee they call "French". It tastes nothing like anything I have had in France and should be avoided. Fortunately their espesso based coffees are good. They do serve a decent croissant for outside of France and it always makes me smile when they correct my pronunciation to "Krussontte" when I order.
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So do you lay down cans of tomatoes made from unique sites in Italy to sell at auction years later?martyn94 wrote:I was just going to start a sub-topic about tinned tomatoes. Santiago seems to think that they just generic. Wrong, bigly.Gus Morris wrote:Holy Moly!
I kicked off this thread talking about coffee. But it’s somehow drifted off into the wine debate. Just now, of the 12 most active threads, 6 are about wine. Maybe just a bit excessive?
Gus
Domaine Treloar - Vineyard and Winery - www.domainetreloar.com - 04 68 95 02 29
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No, I just buy good ones rather than less good ones, and eat them rather than auction them. (Let us know when your gear is next at auction.) The differences are at least as obvious to me as those between any two middling bottles of wine. And not materially less significant to the success of a meal. And I have the money to do so. Other choices are equally valid for other budgets.Santiago wrote:So do you lay down cans of tomatoes made from unique sites in Italy to sell at auction years later?martyn94 wrote:I was just going to start a sub-topic about tinned tomatoes. Santiago seems to think that they just generic. Wrong, bigly.Gus Morris wrote:Holy Moly!
I kicked off this thread talking about coffee. But it’s somehow drifted off into the wine debate. Just now, of the 12 most active threads, 6 are about wine. Maybe just a bit excessive?
Gus
I doubt that they improve with age. But good tinned sardines do improve with age. Elizabeth David, who forgot more about food and wine than either of us will ever know, waxed lyrical about it. There’s a reference here
https://www.ft.com/content/4ca2831c-a78 ... 144feabdc0
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Last time I was in Australia, Woollies had three sorts of Heinz Baked Beans: British flavour, with a little Union Jack on it, for homesick people like me; Original (ie presumably Australian flavoured); and beans with ham-flavoured sauce. I didn’t have the foresight to set up a blind tasting, but I was curious enough to try them all: I can’t recall any obvious differences. I think they were all made in New Zealand.Owens88 wrote:I have no doubt of the outcome of a blind tasting of Heinz vs. Cross and Blackmans Beans but what about pre-2010 Heinz vs. post 2016 Heinz ?
Despite its enviable diversity, and climate, and living standards, there is still a part of Australia which is Old England, circa 1958. Except that the sliced bread is even worse.
It’s Crosse and Blackwell, if you want to look for them, and they still exist.
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Following the news that 400 000 hectolitres of Côtés du Rhône and Chateauneuf have been found to be fraudulently labeled, perhaps that’s why there is no wine left to make Le Piat D’or
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