novice requires help

[escargot]

I am an Australian who resides in Belgium. I have only just begun getting passionate about wines- particulary Aust Shiraz. I have the oppurtunity to try French wines whilst here and wanted some recomendations of French wines. The Shiraz I have sampled here pales in comparison to those oz wines I have tried(very watery). My palate is untrained and can only distinguish like and dislike at this stage. My price range is 10-30EUR as I have no cellar in place - I require ready to drink wine.
Cheers.

[Guest]

My price range is 10-30EUR as I have no cellar in place - I require ready to drink wine.
Cheers.

Goodluck! Most Frenchie are unbearable at that price range.

[Guest]

My price range is 10-30EUR as I have no cellar in place - I require ready to drink wine.
Cheers.

Goodluck! Most Frenchie are unbearable at that price range.

[escargot]

Ok, we can lift the ceiling so I can try something half decent......because I haven't tasted anything to my liking. I am currently on imports from Oz but it would be a shame to live here and not experiment.

[Guest]

I think you are asking the wrong group of people. We get very limited french wine selection here in Australia, and those we do get are frightfully expensive due at least in part to high import duties (you would likely pay much less for the same wine).

My suggestion would be to go into a good wine shop and tell them what style of wines you like and your budget; any half-decent shop should give you some good recommendations.

Cheers,

David

[Ian S]

Escargot
Bruxelles had a couple of very good independant wine shops, not always cheap, but with a good range. Nicolas, the French giant was a massive disappointment, a dull & bland shop with too many unimaginative wines by massive producers.

There's a really useful utility available called Wine-searcher, that many of us use to track down specific wines. However it also lists all the merchants who are registered with them. This will be a decent start point for some internet searches of decent merchants. Attached is a link to the Belgium merchants listed:
http://www.wine-searcher.com/merchants/ ... 5955TH00BW

As for wines, you should be able to get very good french wines at those prices. I'm not quite sure of your prefences, but for starters I'd suggest
Gigondas by Santa Duc - available in Bruxelles at €16+ local sales tax. Big but stylish wine from Southern Rhone.

Searching for AUSTRALIA SHIRAZ brings back a short list, which suggests there's not much Aussie wine in Belgium. Producers such as Hollick, Grant Burge, Wirra Wirra, Capel Vale,Mitchelton, Cape Mentelle have wines there. One merchant in Antwerpen listed Grant Burge Filsell Old Vine 2002 at just over €17+ local tax, which might be a good starting point.

So I'd echo the sentiments of scouting out a local merchant that looks to be passionate about what they do (i.e. not a supermarket or Nicolas!) and ask them to suggest a good couple of wines (give them whatever advice you can to help e.g. I think I prefer fruity/savoury styles; I like Bordeaux(Cabernet)/ Rhone(Shiraz) / Alsace(Riesling) styles; etc.

Go back to them after you've tried the wines & (whether you liked them or not) say whta you thought, what you liked & hwat you didn't and that will allow the merchant to suggest different wines. If they run wine tastings, then sign up for them, as it's the cheapest way to form judgements.

Hope this is useful & that you find lots of good wines.

Ian

p.s. I'd just like to declare that Pierre Marcolini chocolates of Bruxelles are the best in the world - absolutely stunning.

[escargot]

Thanks for the advice Ian, appreciated!!!!

[Glen]

escargot

At the price range you mentioned, there are some absolutely fantastic wines from the Languedoc-Roussillion regions.

St Chinian is a very warm hillside region that produces some extremely intense wines from low yielding bushvines. Faugeres is another.

For something good from down on the flats, don't go past Ch. de Grezan.