Would you have known?

I know my company takes expenses seriously and entertaining has limits on the amounts you can spend per head. We’re also not allowed to accept excessive gifts or dinners which could be construed as bribery.

Aldi do a rather fine Malbec!

Jilly Goolden - yes. She was fun but her descriptions could put you off wine!

Being somewhat opposite to Tillybelle I was teetotal until I was in my forties so came late to the party. I don't drink red wine and I switch between a pinot grigio and a sauvignon blanc. I have honestly got no idea why a bottle of wine should cost more than a tenner or so, but a very dear friend once told me not to buy wine for her, that she liked 'good' wines and so would bring her own. It suited me as up until then I thought paying more than a fiver was a rip-off. Now I know which wines I like and actively seek them out; my current favourite is a Mud House Sauvignon that scored 88/100 using willa45's wine score system. Cost is less than £8.

Yes. But I know exactly what she meant!! On TV you can't taste it yourself so good descriptions are helpful.

Completely disagree Maxdecatt. I spend between £8-15 for a bottle and can definitely tell the differences between them and the descriptions used are often very accurate. However, I do agree some descriptions are ludicrous - does anyone remember Jilly Goolden describing a Sauvignon blanc as “like cat’s pee in a gooseberry bush”

The reasons some wines are sooo expensive is the rarity of them, but I agree there is a definite difference between a good and less good wine, and it’s not always the price. Maxdecatt forgot that the tax on wine is quite high.

Don't drink wine myself, but what struck me was the fact that the enormous value wasn't appreciated at the time of drinking, so the customers' didn't gain a thing from the experience.

willa the pun was unintended

DS likes 19 crimes
I like a Clare Valley Riesling
Yalumba wines are good too, and Marlborough

you can keep the French ones.

I could charge some dreadful price for my wonderful Damson Gin.

I have never understood the love affair people have with wine. I just do not like it, sorry, have yet to find one that I enjoy, and have never felt the need to drink something I do not like, just to be sociable. Love to see the effect it has though when out with friends, it certainly helps to make a happy atmosphere, so good luck to all those who like a glass or two - just don't drink and drive.

How ridiculous that a bottle of wine is worth £4,500 personally think £20 a bottle is expensive can't see how it can taste any better.
Reminds me of my sons father-in-law, he had kept an expensive bottle of wine for ages 'for a special occasion' and then after having a few drinks one night whilst my son was visiting opened it by accident, he was horrified (shock)

Gillybob my SIL loves 19 crimes but he buys it in Morrison’s. Haven’t tried the other one

A relative of dh's who has a large and well stocked cellar, once gave us a case of some white Burgundy, though I forget which. He said it needed drinking up - he was making space for another large delivery and whites don't keep as well as reds.

A good old nose online showed that it would retail at a 'mere' £80 a bottle.
Every one of the 12 bottles was so much past its best as to be undrinkable. (Not that we told him that, since he'd genuinely meant to be nice.)

For myself I prefer a NZ Sauvignon Blanc, can get lovely ones in supermarkets for £7-8.

I dont drink wine.. i cant stand it. I drink vodka or shots

Pretentious stupidity. Water quenches your thirst and is more or less free.

I do like a decent wine ,not every day but I have a rack full of good stuff and a second thats under £20 a bottle .I'm not snobbish about it and when friends come round I usually tell them to help themselves to whatever they fancy with no mention of what it costs .I remember one evening when we drank our way through half a dozen bottles of Chateau Margaux ..of a very nice year and when the friend took one of the empties so he could buy some he was horrified at the price.At the end of the day why buy if you dont want to drink it and my OH says the best is always for sharing ..he has a very fine whisky collection that he loves to share too.I dont think I would order it with a business lunch though ,we have a very good friend who is a Master of Wine who used to spend a fortune on wines when we all ate out together and we reigned him in .

Years ago I was given 3 bottles of red wine (I preferred white wine and no longer drink alcohol but in the spirit of the thread...) Values were approx £4, £12 and £40 - I tried them all and the £4 bottle was the nicest, so in my experience more expensive does not automatically equal better. Even if I won £100m or so on the Euromillions I can't imagine wanting to pay £4,500 for a bottle of wine (even £200 is taking the piss a bit) - I'd sooner get the £4 bottle and donate the rest to a worthwhile charity!

I have just bought a bottle of Prosecco from the co-op....don't know the name...I only know it costs £7 and has a blue label . Tomorrow my son and family are coming over for dinner ...today is their joint birthdays (different years). So we will have that. I'm sure they are used to better, but this is all they get when they come to me.

Have a you red wine lovers tried

Head Honcho merlot ( Morrison’s) 2 for £10 at the minute
19 crimes (Asda) Australian ? Around £7-£8

Both delicious wines ( in my opinion of course) .

Callistemon

Great pun by the way!

Agree.....inexpensive wines can be surprisingly good too.

To mimic that well worn slogan about great minds......my version of of the same would be "A good wine is a terrible thing to waste".....

I normally know if I'm drinking a good wine, but I'm not sure if I would know it was £4,500 worth of good!

That seems utterly pointless, doesn't it. willa!

Wine is meant to be enjoyed, not as an investment.

My favourite red is only around £7-8 and the white about £10 - sometimes on offer too.

Another thought, surely such a restaurant would have a sommelier? Not that I know much about it but when we ate at the Oxo Tower the S opened the wine and tasted it before giving it to us. If that is normal (and how would I know) surely he would have tasted the difference?

Many years ago I was staying with a friend and we went to have lunch with one of her neighbours. We had a lovely bottle of wine and a nice lunch. When her husband came home he was really upset, not because we had drunk a bottle he had put down to mature but because we hadn't appreciated it.

Not really an expert here, so I recommend use of the scoring system when it comes to wine. Open a bottle of wine that has a score of 90 or more and you really can appreciate the difference in taste.

www.wine-searcher.com/wine-scores

When it comes to cost, like most I can't afford to spend thousands of dollars on a bottle of wine either. I also happen to believe that the enormous difference in price can never justify the maximum difference in taste and quality. Normally I look for 'very good' (85 point) wine for no more than $20 a bottle.

Having said that, it's mostly collectors' wine in the hundred to thousand dollar range that wine enthusiasts store lovingly in their cellars; and sadly, without opening or tasting ever.