Those brewing laws can be considered as a blessing also.
In general, I comply to your opinion.
Only belgium beers in my house though - by taste.
We all really appreciate the exact location of this particular watering hole....
The in-laws are in the north of France.. their local supermarket beer section (this is just the single bottles, not the isle of packs/kegs of beer behind me):
View attachment 1145712
There's and isle of wine 3x this length both sides, an a separate isle the same for sprints and champagne. Needless to say I buy there and bring back
Those rigid brewing laws stop any innovation - have you any experience of UK real ales?
As someone who actually lives in France - forget all about gold medal or other in Lidl = complete b/s. Carrefour - the only things worth buying are the large plastic jars of herbs but whoever buys their wines definitely knows their stuff. The 'black wine of France' Cahors - I once bought a bottle of Cahors Malbec @ €8.99 - absolutely brilliant I could as a hetorosexual male give a completely unacceptable description of this wine alluding to the wonderful Bantu women of west Africa. I have never since found a Cahors that came close to this wine. I pinned the chateau that created this wine to the notice board and on moving some 5 years ago lost it - there are'nt enough expletives to accurately define my anger at it's loss. All Carrefoures wines are well chosen.
Aldi's did a red wine a St.Chinian from the huge Languedoc region that was simply outstanding regardless of the price which was ludicrously cheap @ €3.69 but then stopped it and replaced with a crap version. I can never understand Lidl or Aldi rather than continue with a particular product and raise the price, they consistently abandon the good product and offer another crap version for the same price. This may work for Germans but not for the rest of Europe - do they never learn - no.
Aldi's did a red wine a St.Chinian from the huge Languedoc region that was simply outstanding regardless of the price which was ludicrously cheap @ €3.69 but then stopped it and replaced with a crap version. I can never understand Lidl or Aldi rather than continue with a particular product and raise the price, they consistently abandon the good product and offer another crap version for the same price. This may work for Germans but not for the rest of Europe - do they never learn - no.
We had a couple of bottles of Chateau Fleur Cardinale (2019, St-Emillion Grande Cru) - smooth, even the red wine officinados of the family commented on how good it was. Yes on the more expensive side for Carrefour at €37/bottle for the big family xmas meal and my way of inputting into the family get together (supposedly I can't cut tomatoes to an acceptable standard so I get banned from the kitchen) along with helping with any DIY work I can do whilst there (replacing rusted door hinges, replacing locks, fixing plumbing issues etc).
The wine at @ €4-9/bottle is better than any UK equivalent. I will buy a few bottles each time I go and I keep about 14 bottles in the dark, in boxes under the stairs out the way. As the Mrs doesn't drink and so I only get to open a bottle when someone comes around for dinner. Currently I have Pomerol, St-Emillion (favourite area for reds), Ch. du Pape, and other reds, I have a mixture of whites but they store for less time.
Years ago I've had a couple bottles of Cheval Blanc 2001 to experiment when I was at the height of my wine officinado craze (before I met the mrs). The taste set a reference point - 3 dimensional - pomerol, st-emillion and an under tone of slate (sounds bad when you say it like that - but to get that clarity and taste profile is quite exceptional - €220/bottle). Now a good red with meal and friends is better
I enjoy cooking, I taught myself a long time ago and that saying about 'birds of a feather' is true - all my friends back home are good amateur cooks. There used to be nothing better than to visit said friends and cook together whilst our wives and girlfriends sat back and waited for our work to materialise on the table. We all appreciated good wine and back then there was Oddbins. That was a first class wine shop. Saturday morning it was de rigeur to go wine tasting there. Then a French company bought them out and thought they could sell crap to the Brits, a big mistake.The peoples of northern Europe/Scandinavia know an awful lot more about wine in general than those of southern Europe who mostly only know about their own countries wines.
Since we moved to the Tarn we have become good friends with a neighbour, Jean-Luc who on finishing his national service in the French marines trained as a chef in Toulouse and went to work in Sweden where he became head chef at the Swedish royal yacht club. Nothing nicer than to sit on his patio eating excellent food and drinking lots of wine and using the mosquito killing tennis racket thingies without crashing into the table loaded with food.
There are lots of small French breweries now and regular promotions in the supermarkets but since these are mainly high alcohol strength beers and expensive I'm not interested. Also drinking out in France now is not cheap anymore. The thought of going back to the island and paying more than £5 for a pint of beer truly offends my lowland Scots blood when I can buy a bottle of good drinkable wine for €3.69. Since Aldi stopped selling the St. Chinian red I buy a 3L box of Languedoc Cab.Sav @ €7.99 - it's almost time for a glass (or two) of the same and fresh pan au cereal, goats cheese, Roquefort, stuffed spicy little red peppers, that should keep me going before thinking about what I'm going to cook tonight
Since we moved to the Tarn we have become good friends with a neighbour, Jean-Luc who on finishing his national service in the French marines trained as a chef in Toulouse and went to work in Sweden where he became head chef at the Swedish royal yacht club. Nothing nicer than to sit on his patio eating excellent food and drinking lots of wine and using the mosquito killing tennis racket thingies without crashing into the table loaded with food.
There are lots of small French breweries now and regular promotions in the supermarkets but since these are mainly high alcohol strength beers and expensive I'm not interested. Also drinking out in France now is not cheap anymore. The thought of going back to the island and paying more than £5 for a pint of beer truly offends my lowland Scots blood when I can buy a bottle of good drinkable wine for €3.69. Since Aldi stopped selling the St. Chinian red I buy a 3L box of Languedoc Cab.Sav @ €7.99 - it's almost time for a glass (or two) of the same and fresh pan au cereal, goats cheese, Roquefort, stuffed spicy little red peppers, that should keep me going before thinking about what I'm going to cook tonight
Exactly.
Alas, or long ago. When I do a trip to the UK, I'll drop you a pm for advice.
Wow.
You'd HATE to live in Ontario... The average pint of beer will cost about 10$ at a bar/resto. That's a pint of domestic crap like Molson Canadian or Budweiser.
A pint of Guiness will run you 12 - 15$ a pint.
The LCBO has 6 cans 473mL of Heineken on sale for 19.95$ right now!! What a bargain, eh?!
Yesterday, I bought a six of 473mL (maybe 500mL) cans of Labatt Blue for 13.25$ because I felt like slumming it and I'm broke.
The closest thing to wine for 3.70€ is a 250mL can of wine for 5.60$ - average bottle costs 20$.
a 3L boite du vin is about 45$ (VQA)
All of these comparisons are made using VQA wines from Ontario (https://vqaontario.ca/) using prices from the LCBO (Ontario's crown-owned liquor store) http://www.lcbo.com
When I was a teen, friends of mine used to drive to Canada to get a hold of real Canadian Molson. This was from mid-state New York. When I was in college (Buffalo, NY) Canada was a bit closer and I do recall making trips specifically for the Canadian Molson.
Being in my early 20's I guess that's when I could still taste stuff....and I could taste the difference. Perhaps things have changed up there, but we used to believe Molson kept all the good stuff for yourselves.
I've always disliked Molson beers. To this day the only Molson brewed beers I like are other brewers recipes that are just brewed by Molson for the domestic market like Rickard's Red.
These days it doesn't really matter anymore. Unless you go out of your way to buy "craft beer" and pay the premium, you're buying commodity beer anyway.
I'm fortunate enough to live 500m from a microbrewery called Granite.
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Cruelty to children: When we vacationed in Sint Maarten decades ago would send my two sons, ages 5 and 3, down to the commissary to pick up a pair of "Red Stripe" for me to start the day. $0.25 per.
A little bit of useless information, given that someone has posted on the Notre Dame thread. The French of the north-east "Hexagone", in the Merovingian to Medieval period, would "hibernate" and come out of their slumber to take a leak and sip some beer to replenish the lost liquid. Beer has always been safer than water.
A little bit of useless information, given that someone has posted on the Notre Dame thread. The French of the north-east "Hexagone", in the Merovingian to Medieval period, would "hibernate" and come out of their slumber to take a leak and sip some beer to replenish the lost liquid. Beer has always been safer than water.
In Andhra Pradesh State of India, ambient is 40 C in day time for at least 6 months of the year.
Monsoon is also humid and hot.
They serve it chilled, to beat the heat.
A kind of cooling drink for adults.
Volumes, among the largest in India.
10.757,987 cases projected to be sold this year, in that state alone. that is cartons of 12 bottles each of 650 ml...about twice the 330 ml. packs sold in Europe and North America.
Average about $ 1.50 to 2.00 a bottle at the shop, restaurants charge more.
49 million inhabitants, more than Australia or Canada....
Monsoon is also humid and hot.
They serve it chilled, to beat the heat.
A kind of cooling drink for adults.
Volumes, among the largest in India.
10.757,987 cases projected to be sold this year, in that state alone. that is cartons of 12 bottles each of 650 ml...about twice the 330 ml. packs sold in Europe and North America.
Average about $ 1.50 to 2.00 a bottle at the shop, restaurants charge more.
49 million inhabitants, more than Australia or Canada....
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