I am inclined to go with Betris on this one.
If it tastes good,doesnt leave a hangover and gets me happy,Im well satisfied.
I do however have my own benchmark for judging the quality.
Thats the number of glasses required to get me legless.
It flows like water here and is much the same price.
Can have menu del dia at 7 euro each incl a full bottle of vino each if required.
Local farmers co-ops in every village producing it in huge quantities at prices from 75cent a ltr.up to 1.75 for the best which has won quite a few awards and is put in fancy bottles and sent off to make some serious money.
Locals go in with 5 ltr.plastic containers,often walk out with 5 or 6 of them full to the brim.Cant be bad eh what?

I will move to Valencia then

Where I live on CDS we can (if we know where) buy the wine they give with Menu del Dia for just over 1 euro an unlabelled bottle - have your own printed and looks good when people come round for dinner - don't matter about the taste.

I drink Champagne when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company, I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I'm not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise, I never touch it - unless I'm thirsty."
Madame Bollinger


Heres some names and prices of wines from Spain. I have taken out the Mucky Donna Specials.

Price is in the Norm per case of 12 75cl bottles.Delivery to Spain 55 Uk Pounds per case.
http://www.nickollsandperks.co.uk/se...=1&Verbose=Off

This is a wine I drank buckets of in the 80s then it was 48 pounds a bottle retail in the city wine bars a new version of the old bolly pinko is now available if your having a special occasion like ....There's a Y in the day then I implore you to buy half a case and put it away for the big occasion. Or quaff it now laid in a bucket of ice with a nice plate of Delta Oysters, Yummy.


http://www.nickollsandperks.co.uk/showdoc.asp?id=97

Yes ,theres nothing to beat a PINGUS DOMINIO DE PINGUS RIBERO DE DUERO with a plate of mortadella and pan de molde,

http://www.nickollsandperks.co.uk/de...B&cat=16&path=

what a good site.I can understand now why people invest heavily in wines after reading it.my van rouge that I bought in france many years ago may have gone up in value .I paid 5 french francs (10 francs = £1)for a 5 litre container maney years ago.
I wonder what its worth now.

Problem is what to do when you invest in it?
Its a bit of a conundrum,------

Do you sit and look at it........ and watch your assets go up?
Or do you sup it .....and watch your assets go down?...........the hatch..

Suppose whichever way you do it, you gonna enjoy it,
As the Actress said to the Bishop.

Dick Dasterdly a simple machine that converts wine to -iss

I sometimes think wine is very much like golf.

Me, if I can get round without losing more than a dozen balls, and can hit one good shot, I've had a good day.

Everyone I play with, if they hit one bad shot, they've had a bad day, and spend all their time moaning.

So if wine tastes OK, and does the job enjoy it.

Yes the Jalon valley is great for bodegas, plenty there as far as I can remember from when I lived there years ago!

I agree with Posh, there are some very good cheap wines on the market, Spain produces very good red wines, but I buy some of my wines from Lydls and they have a good selection from 1 euro up, but wine would be cheaper bought from the barrel. I wouldnt worry about what people think, if you enjoy it buy it, it is obviously cheaper bought from a bodega as you have to take your own bottle to fill up, but at least if you go to a bodega you can taste it before you buy it

Ouch those prices! Thankfully, Spain is not only good value for wine thanks to a much lower level of duty than the UK, but it has such a variety of wines that there's pretty much something to suit every occasion. If you stick to just a few plonk wines while you're in Spain, then you're missing out on some fabulous variety. I'm quite happy swilling Don Simon Sangria, tetrapack red, crianza Rioja, a gran reserva or bottle of sidra, so I've got no pretensions but I've tried enough to enjoy the differences. The plonk in Spain is much better than I've tasted from France, where it tends to make your mouth pucker, so stick with plonk for quaffing by all means but take some time to explore and get used to something different as well.

That 'getting used to' is a bit of a key. As with many adult drinks, wine can be an acquired taste but some perseverance is rewarded with a vast array of tastes, smells and colours. Making a conscious effort to remember, compare and contrast brings the reward of appreciating plonk _and_ good stuff.

I'm a huge fan of Torres and working your way through their white and red ranges is an excellent show of variety in itself. Try opening two bottles of different wine at the same time and pouring in to two glasses per person for comparison of colours, smells, taste and aftertaste. If you can't finish a bottle, recork it and try it the next day to experience how it's changed with time. Try the crianza, reserva and gran reserva reds from a single producer one night and see if it's worth the difference at the right time.

If you're skeptical about cava, try the Anna from Cordoniu. As good as many champagnes and better than more expensive cavas. If you like dry whites, push the experimental boundaries with a Manzanilla sherry; fruity white - try an Albarinho against what you normally drink.

We really are lucky that even young red in Spain is drinkable without having to wait, but try keeping a couple of bottles back to see what something tastes like against the same new wine once it's 1 yr older or 5 yrs older. I found a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau once in a cupboard that was well past recommended drinking time - it was a real surprise to find how much better it was.

Above all, enjoy, but a bit of thought, practice and memory can help you enjoy the wine as well as having the alcohol help you enjoy the occasion.

Anyway, got to get ready for the weekly commute back to London tomorrow, picking up another couple of bottles of Manzanilla at the airport for my flatmate and recent convert to said tipple.

I did use a bit of it as a degreaser and it pitted all my alloy engine and carburettes

Hey you vino drinkers have a little read of the link below.......Then stock up on the 2 euro stuff Then watch Dispatches tonight Channel 4 between 8-9pm when it shows you whats in your wine. Better put a bottle of the 1.95 euro cava on ice ready for the screening.


http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...cle1687695.ece


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...cy-labels.html

If Dispatches does indeed tell you what goes into your wine, don't watch it.

After my brief period in the wine trade it was several years before I could bring myself to touch it again. You really are better off not knowing. And the scams do not reduce much as the price goes up.

My time in wine was in the 80s, with a company who were then the largest wine traders in the world (there is in this instance a difference between a trader and a merchant)and Spanish wine then was much less adulterated than the other large wine producers. I really don't want to know if that situation has changed.

Best to buy it straight from your local farmers co-op where its first produced and not messed about with.Also cheapest,no crazy mark ups.

Remember there was a serious case in Italy about 10 year back,not sure if there were deaths, but definitely many severe poisonings due to illegal additives.Was it to do with gelatine or something else maybe?