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Thanks TR, however I've already seen and explored that link and it is not the same label as the bottle from the Riverina, nor the same description as it describes the wine as coming from Victoria?? @Lacessit came up with a possible answer and it seems plausible although on the back of the bottle that I have, it mentions CV Wines?? Research of that shows that it has an address in the Riverina, but also notes that, "this winery might not be operating" or words to that effect? Never mind, it is a fair wine for the price and I would certainly drink it with Thai food and the occasional spicy pizza.

Back on topic and something which @Lacessit might be able to throw some light on....... I have discovered an everyday swigger here, which actually turns out not to be too bad at all, and it is called, "Riddle Creek Shiraz Reserve, 2020", so I thought I would try and find out a bit about its history, however that has become complicated, and where someone from that part of the world might be able to help? You see some Google searches point to the fact that it is a wine from Victoria (Australia) and that it is made by de Bortoli, whereas another Google search points to it coming from a farm/vineyard in the Riverina with no connection to de Bortoli? The two wines coming from those locations show different ABV percentage, so it would appear that this wine is being "made" in two locations, which doesn't seem right. Anyway, hopefully someone can throw some light on it, because I can't find any meaningful leads on it, other than to say that there are couple of feedback comments which suggest that it is a better wine than it would seem, given that the price range here is anywhere between 370 and 399 baht a bottle and IMO it is well worth a try.

Central in Phuket town has two Tops stores split between two separate aspects of this huge conglomerate. On the one hand there is a Tops supermarket side of things which also sells wine, and the other Tops store which is located in the new huge building, along with many other stores, has a small supermarket side of things and a well-stocked wine section, which has a temperature controlled room, in which they have the really top end wines from France, Italy and other countries. Don't know why Tops say they don't have a licence to sell alcohol, because both of the Tops stores here have a great selection.

Agree with all of the above, and some irrigation does allow for a certainty of outcome without diminishing the quality of the end product, provided as I said previously, it is regulated. As regards the Riverina, where irrigation is de rigueur, I have found that even amongst the wineries in that area, some wines really stand out, whereas others are just plain average and good for the everyday swigging wine. On a separate note, and as some of the posts have been about good Australian wines and those available at the cellar door, I remember visiting relatives in Melbourne and going to the winery of Dr Bailey Carrodus who produced some excellent wine called Yarra Yering, and buying a few bottles of it (Dry Red number 1 and number 2 as I recall) to take home to NZ, and this was in 1987 or 1988, and I held onto it for a few years and thought it was a very good wine indeed, and I should have bought a lot more at the time!

And they are a producer of fruit wines and the last time I looked at a bottle of the Laughing Bird dry red, it did have that notation on the back label. And as for "irrigated wines", well, provided the irrigation is controlled/regulated, then there is no problem with it, this especially as many countries do allow controlled irrigation (even Chile) and whereas at one time it was frowned upon in France, it is now an accepted part, especially in the south where the hot summers can really bite.

That is more likely the reason that the exorbitant taxes are put on imported wines, to protect the producers of Thai wines, as the powerful in the Thai hierarchy hold great sway/influence on the way things are – – especially in protecting their wealth.

I thought about trying that a while ago, but then discovered it was a Fruit Wine, although it had some grape content, so didn't bother as the fruit wines for whatever reason, give me a headache!!

Amongst other issues. Lol.

For a short while anyway!!

Both Grahams and Taylors Late bottled Vintage and Ruby ports are available in better wine shops, Tops being one of them, and I would think that Wine Connection would also have them. However as I said in another post, I get mine from a local importer and distributor and they are just as good as those, and just having checked again, can be bought for 800 baht a bottle.

Haven't tried a particular wine and was interested to see the grapes used, in as much as Roussanne is rarely seen outside of the Rhône wines, and is used to "soften" the Syrah (Shiraz) in that area, where allowed, and is allowed in the Ch Neuf du Papes blend. Also blended with Marsanne to produce white wines I will have a look around the "wine cellar" area of Tops to see if they have that particular wine, as would love to try it, with wines from Cote Rotie and that area once being a favourite of mine.

A Saturday night venture out into the party area of Patong, i.e. Bangla Road, produced much the same result as my last post, with only a couple of slight differences......... First of all I caught up with a friend at Blue Beach Café and Restaurant and this will certainly be my "go to" Food & Drink establishment in Patong, as the food is varied, from snacks to full on meals, there is wine by the glass, and the food is great, superb even; especially the chicken schnitzel which I had last night, which was to die for (luckily I'm still alive, with just a few dead brain cells after last night's excesses). Also it was fairly busy, so I think locals are starting to get the hang of the place and good that they do, and continue to support it. Wandering up Bangla after the meal and a few glasses of red, the words of a friend came echoing back to me – – "that Bangla Road was busy and full of Indians and Arabs"! Because it was, and because of this the bars were not exactly packed, however I did see one small group of Indian men walking along with a beer in each hand, and that is a rarity. The music bars, all bar one, were not very full at all, and my favourite, Red Hot, was only about 15% populated, which is the lowest of ever seen it, which in itself is sad because they play probably the best music in Patong. I had considered ending up at Red Hot, but after settling in to the Blue Lotus café for a few drinks with friends, time got away on me and the alcohol killed a few brain cells, so at around 11:45 PM I thought I had best trundle off home, which was a wise decision, considering how I felt this morning. Just a note, whilst I was sitting at the Blue Lotus café watching the world go by, it struck me that Bangla is no longer the place where one can see pretty/beautiful women, as they are few and far between at the moment, and also of note was the amount of very fat people wandering around the place, and indeed at the table in front of us was a party of six from Australia and five of them were enormous, almost blocking the view of Bangla!!! Perhaps Bangla/Patong is becoming a place for wrinklies/misfits/uglies/fatties and oddities, so I'm not sure quite where I fit into that mix!!!

It is quite possible that ThailandRyan has a wine cooler a bit like the one I have here, and it is temperature controllable for red as well as white wines, and as I only drink red wines and port, the setting is a given!

Nice work if you can get it/them, however I have tried a few French Pinot Noirs here, and some of the better ones, however have been hugely disappointed – – maybe that's because my tastes have changed since my days of buying it by the case (Pommard Clos des Epenots was a favourite) and I have become accustomed to the fruit driven and great range of Aussie wines.

I thought I might jump in here, mainly because there are few comments which interest me, especially having started my winetasting/collecting in or around 1970, so have tasted a fair few bottles, mostly red, in that time. Firstly, I have tasted a few Thai wines, and have visited a couple of vineyards, but cannot say that I have been overly impressed with them, especially with the prices being charged, so after my first few tastings, I've never bought another one. There have been some comments about the Napa Valley wine and Australian Shiraz, so my thoughts are as follows: – the Napa Valley can produce some great wines, and like other wine producing areas, can produce some very average ones, and an American friend of mine here who had only tasted "insipid" Californian Shiraz, thought that the Aussie wines would be likewise, and was stuck on Zinfandel. So I had to put him right with a good hefty Aussie Shiraz tasting. Having said that I have tasted a couple of wonderful Zinfandel's, which I can not find here in Thailand at the moment, although I keep looking. Talking to him, it would appear that the Californian Shiraz was a sort of everyday drinker and quite possibly from young vines and for mass production/cask wines, so he hadn't tasted the "real thing". Having said that, there are some average Aussie wines, although these days my tastes lean towards Aussie wines (with some Italian ones thrown in) and these are made for the mass-market, and some can occasionally be good. However there are some big bold Aussie wines which really do need to be tasted, and really do need to be left a few years, because in their youth they are damn near undrinkable! Some wine writers have criticised Robert Parker for glorifying these types of huge, almost undrinkable when young, wines, and I agree with that because he gives some huge scores to wines of this ilk and promotes them wherever possible. Max Schubert of Penfolds started the "next level" Shiraz in Australia, whereas prior to him it was a widely grown grape and produced a lot of average drinkers, in fact in the 1980s and a little beyond, the Aussie government promoted the pulling up of old/unproductive vines (and that included some Shiraz as many of these vines had been planted decades before) in Australia because there was a glut and the quality of the wine was not anything special. That has changed over the years, and it has been recognised that old vines can produce some stunning wines and the Aussie Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon wines from various areas are some of the best you will find anywhere. Vineyard techniques have also changed over the years and vine irrigation is often seen as necessary, and it has to be carefully controlled and regulated so that the end product is of sufficient quality and not purely driven by water (if you see what I mean). The object of the exercise being that the vine roots should be under a little stress so that they delve deeper into the soil searching out moisture and nutrients, thereby affecting the quality of the end result – wine! Regarding the above, with hotter summer temperatures and "climate change" I believe vine irrigation will become a key factor in the production of wines over the coming decade or two. Now an interesting fact if one wants to watch a good and interesting movie, which is based on actual events, and also stars the wonderful, late, Alan Rickman, and it is called "Bottle Shock" whereby wines from the Napa Valley beat the best wines that France could produce, in a blind tasting in Paris and the panel of judges were all French.........see below and it is well worth watching. The Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, also known as the Judgment of Paris, was a wine competition organized in Paris on 24 May 1976 by Steven Spurrier, a British wine merchant and his colleague, Patricia Gallagher, in which French judges carried out two blind tasting comparisons: one of top-quality Chardonnays and another of red wines (Bordeaux wines from France and Cabernet Sauvignon wines from Napa, California).[1][2] A Napa wine rated best in each category, which caused surprise as France was generally regarded as being the foremost producer of the world's best wines. Spurrier sold only French wine and believed that the California wines would not win.[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgment_of_Paris_(wine)

Have been there a couple of times and sampled the red wines on offer and IMO they were very average and certaily not worth the price tag. Nice location though.

Around 3000 baht a bottle as I recall?

In my opinion, yes there are few wines out there in that price bracket, which rate, IMO, better than Yellowtail, although they too come from the Riverina area, so vineyard management with regards to irrigation, the grapes and clones used and fermentation practices all come into the mix.

I buy mine from a local importer/distributor and although it is from a port house which is not one of the more famous ones, it certainly is one of the better ports I have tried in my life, and if I recall, I pay about 740 baht for it.

Although there are a few which are available at top end "supermarkets" and Tops here in Phuket has some top quality Australian wines, and one which I have tasted is the "Two Hands – Angels Share – Shiraz, and it was big, bold and beautiful. They have a few more top end Australian and French wines, as well as Italian wines, so I know where to go if I need a drop of quality! And as you quite rightly say, the everyday supermarket would not see/stock wines like this.

SORRY!!

That was also my intake/consumption here up until about two years ago, when I then decided that after more than 50 years of drinking a bottle of red per day, that I probably needed to cut back!!!! (A bit late I hear you say). So now I drink half a bottle, followed by a nice glass of Portuguese port, and the rest of the wine has the air pumped out and put back in the fridge for the next evening. In my former life, and earning a great salary, and in days when I had my own winecellars, my choices were the French Grand Cru Classe wines, plus the wines from Cote Rotie and just the occasional Burgundy, and a few from around the world, including some great Aussie wines. But now, and not earning that salary, I am more careful about what I buy and as in my previous post (or two) I seek out the midrange/good value wines and am particularly fond of those from Australia and sometimes Italy, whereas wines from Chile I haven't really taken to as yet. I will admit to splashing out on a top end bottle of red if I am going out to a nice restaurant, or if indeed I decide to cook a steak with a stilton sauce, at home. Everyone to their own and that's the beauty of wine because it is diverse enough to suit just about every palate.

I manage to buy it from a small local "supermarket/wine shop" here for 480 baht, whereas it is 599 baht in Central!! IMO it is the best wine I can buy locally in that price range, although no doubt it will be going up again soon like most everything else!

I hadn't thought about this before, but I have just looked at the few bottles I have in my wine cooler, and the Appassimento (Veneto, Italy) and the "19 Crimes" (Australia) both have orange stickers on the top of the bottles, as does the bottle of Port (Portugal) so despite what the link says, it would appear that the orange sticker, which denotes an imported wine??

As I have just mentioned in another post, Wine Connection does sell French fruit wine, and I believe one of the labels is "Le Solstice" and the cheaper end of their range has others of similar ilk. Used to be mixed/blended/bottled in Vietnam, but not sure about now. I think it's the blue sticker which denotes an imported wine. More info here.......... https://oasissoicowboy.com/ordering-and-buying-wine-in-thailand/