When in France...

French wine is right up there with French cuisine. It’s refined, it’s distinctive, and it’s famous.

Connoisseurs and wine lovers from all over the globe travel to France to discover all there is to be known about this varied substance and along the way they have probably coughed up a fair few euros.

So it’s only understandable if you take matters into your own hands.

At least, that's what me and some of the other members of the CTR team decided when we thought we'd hold our own DIY wine tasting session. Of course this was all purely in the name of research!

After putting in a modest 10 euros each (there was 7 of us) and raiding the local supermarché we came back with a rather diverse selection of wines: be it cheap or slightly more expensive, we wanted a taste. 

A table of snacks, a score board, and our taste buds ready, we embarked on the skillful task of inspecting each wine. 

In our bid to share our (novice) expertise we came up with some rather interesting assessments: 

“Buttery – it just slips down the throat”

“Smells like chicken, but tastes like a bubbly version of a sweet wine”

"Feels like it's giving me a heart attack!"

"Tastes like horseshit" 

“Sweet lord! this is smokey, but it could work with some dark chocolate”

 “Notes of fish, with a really dirty aftertaste”

“I once had a shampoo that smelt like this”

A spittoon, in this case, was not required but the fact we didn't have may have influenced our scoring.. 

1) 2010 Bordeaux Red (1.99)
2) Mercier Demi-Sec (19.65)
3) 2010 Vin D'Alsace Riesling (3.45)
...
12) Petillant de Listel Peche (4.08)

And so, with the cheapest wine beating the most expensive on the list it seems that the price of a wine may not always indicate quality. Certainly in this case it worked out to be a myth!


Or perhaps the biggest lesson learnt of all is to not to actually consume the wine when wine tasting. After all, the spittoon is included for a reason. 


Au revoir!