Has anyone any facts regarding the lack of availability of wine casks ?

If you mean the 4L / 5L boxes then there is a shortage, something to do with the government and tax based on what I heard.

 

Apparently they will be available in 2L boxes in April sometime, maybe for the same price as the previous 4/5L size but nobody appears to be too sure on the new pricing.

 

There's a couple of threads on this dating back a few weeks.

 

All the major retailers here in Ubon has been without wine casks for sometime. 

Same reason  given: out of stock. 

However, this past week, Lotus has brought in a few 5 l boxes and jugs. 

Not a lot. But available. 

Noticed a large number of 3 litre and 8 litre boxes of wine at Makro Samui this week.

Understand it was to do with the "wine" being declared  by importers as having fruit therefore avoiding excise tax. 

 

When payments are made it will be sorted but box wine will be more expensive

 

 

Plenty of everything in Nakhon Sawan and so far at the same prices with the exception of Mont Clair in 2 litre bottles now at 749 baht.

You can still buy 5 litre box for 969 baht, why would anyone buy the bottle at that price?

No. there is no lack at least at Makro and no leaks as well as far as I know.....

5 hours ago, cracker1 said:

Noticed a large number of 3 litre and 8 litre boxes of wine at Makro Samui this week.

Mont Clair "fruit wine" boxes only now left in Makro Samui's Bo Phut branch, however in pallet lots, besides a few old stock 3 ltr.  French "real wine" boxes at usual price around 700-800 baht each.

 

Tesco-Lotus has no more red wine in boxes, and that's for both cheap "fruit wine" and the little more expensive "real wine", however still some few boxes of white wine left the day before yesterday (probably all gone by now)...

5 hours ago, cracker1 said:

Noticed a large number of 3 litre and 8 litre boxes of wine at Makro Samui this week.

We were told by Makro in Ban Phe that  "Mont Clair" wouldn't deliver anymore...

Fruit wine would be ok if you could get it with 50% alcohol then you could do something useful with it like put in lamps, maybe. Maybe fine filter it and mix with gasoline and run your two stroke bike on it.

4 hours ago, janpharma said:

We were told by Makro in Ban Phe that  "Mont Clair" wouldn't deliver anymore...

Thank God for that, its Rats Piss!    

Thailand aiming for a better class of expat :)

Wine "cask", that conjures up images of French Bordeaux, aged to perfection in oak barrels, bursting with a bouquet they are among the finest wines in the world.

 

Sadly the OP is talking about cardboard boxes of Mont Clair.

On 3/20/2018 at 9:43 AM, ICECOOL said:

Understand it was to do with the "wine" being declared  by importers as having fruit therefore avoiding excise tax. 

 

When payments are made it will be sorted but box wine will be more expensive

 

 

Yes, the mont clair 'wine' boxes are now in short supply where I live - and the price has jumped up from just under 1000 bht to 1450 bht .

20 hours ago, overherebc said:

Fruit wine would be ok if you could get it with 50% alcohol then you could do something useful with it like put in lamps, maybe. Maybe fine filter it and mix with gasoline and run your two stroke bike on it.

 

15 hours ago, Acemaker said:

Thank God for that, its Rats Piss!    

 

1 hour ago, Yme said:

Thailand aiming for a better class of expat :)

 

1 hour ago, simoh1490 said:

Wine "cask", that conjures up images of French Bordeaux, aged to perfection in oak barrels, bursting with a bouquet they are among the finest wines in the world.

 

Sadly the OP is talking about cardboard boxes of Mont Clair.

Wine is incredibly expensive in Thailand - but to look on the bright side, it gives the arrogant types a chance to 'prove' their superiority by demeaning those that can rarely afford to pay a fortune for a genuinely good wine . 

 

I suspect that those posters (assuming they live in Thailand) rarely pay the extortionate price for a genuinely good wine either, but it makes them feel better to proclaim their superiority .

Talking to my supplier the other day.She said the main importer has just stopped importing the casks since the stupidity of the government and its crazy price rise. Most of the bars around me have just stopped selling wine and I hear from friends that a lot of bars all over the country have also stopped  as who is going to pay 150 to 200 baht for glass of pretty poor wine.

I visit Macro and Tesco 4 to 5 times a week and not one bottle of wine has been sold since the rise.

 

I hate to think what this has cost this place in lost revenue.

40 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

 

 

 

Wine is incredibly expensive in Thailand - but to look on the bright side, it gives the arrogant types a chance to 'prove' their superiority by demeaning those that can rarely afford to pay a fortune for a genuinely good wine . 

 

I suspect that those posters (assuming they live in Thailand) rarely pay the extortionate price for a genuinely good wine either, but it makes them feel better to proclaim their superiority .

An acceptable bottle of wine can be had for 5/600 baht.

4 a month 2000 baht. Nice meal at home on a saturday, either me or she cooking, with a bottle is more enjoyable than most of the meals served in most of the restaurants and 20% of the price.

If someone wants to drink 10 glasses of wine then by all means go for the cheap sweet crap fruit juice added wine.

Everyone has a choice. ?

1 hour ago, dick dasterdly said:

 

 

 

Wine is incredibly expensive in Thailand - but to look on the bright side, it gives the arrogant types a chance to 'prove' their superiority by demeaning those that can rarely afford to pay a fortune for a genuinely good wine . 

 

I suspect that those posters (assuming they live in Thailand) rarely pay the extortionate price for a genuinely good wine either, but it makes them feel better to proclaim their superiority .

Indeed. There is wine and then there's really seriously good wine......and then there's Mont Clair. The thing is, wine good wine doesn't have to be expensive, anyone who's ever been to France knows that. The thing with MC is that it's expensive and it's worse than paint stripper or rats piss so rather than drink it I choose to drink water.

22 hours ago, khunPer said:

besides a few old stock 3 ltr.  French "real wine" boxes at usual price around 700-800 baht each.

If that "wine" is called " ..........Galetis" then that is also a Fruit Wine!

39 minutes ago, overherebc said:

An acceptable bottle of wine can be had for 5/600 baht.

I have just posted a list of wines under 500 b a bottle on the Montclair red Wine thread, with some being very acceptable........and there are others out there.

 

With the price increases for Fruit Wine, these "real" wines are worth seeking out.

 

Also agree with your sentiments about the wine situation here.

30 minutes ago, overherebc said:

An acceptable bottle of wine can be had for 5/600 baht.

4 a month 2000 baht. Nice meal at home on a saturday, either me or she cooking, with a bottle is more enjoyable than most of the meals served in most of the restaurants and 20% of the price.

If someone wants to drink 10 glasses of wine then by all means go for the cheap sweet crap fruit juice added wine.

Everyone has a choice. ?

Everyone to their own - but a good bottle of wine cannot be bought for 5/600 bht.

 

But you're now talking about "acceptable' - which depends on 1) personal taste 2) budget and 3) whether one has an overwhelming desire to 'show one's superiority".....

9 minutes ago, simoh1490 said:

Indeed. There is wine and then there's really seriously good wine......and then there's Mont Clair. The thing is, wine good wine doesn't have to be expensive, anyone who's ever been to France knows that. The thing with MC is that it's expensive and it's worse than paint stripper or rats piss so rather than drink it I choose to drink water.

But we're talking about wine in Thailand - not France!

8 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

But we're talking about wine in Thailand - not France!

It doesn't matter, a person is either going to drink wine or they are not, drinking MC is not drinking wine and I'm not joking in any way on this point.

Funny story.  Friends went to France for their holiday, asked if I wanted them to bring back some wine, and of course I said "YES"!

 

They brought back wine akin to paint-stripper, and I threw it all down the sink....

 

But my 'standards' are FAR lower nowadays as a result of the price of wine in Thailand .

Just now, simoh1490 said:

It doesn't matter, a person is either going to drink wine or they are not, drinking MC is not drinking wine and I'm not joking in any way on this point.

In which case, I'd be interested to learn how much you pay in Thailand, for a genuinely good bottle of wine?

 

As opposed to your idea of an 'acceptable' wine - which I'm pretty sure is 'geared around' your concept of 'I pay more, therefore it must be superior - proving that I'm superior' .

2 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

In which case, I'd be interested to learn how much you pay in Thailand, for a genuinely good bottle of wine?

 

As opposed to your idea of an 'acceptable' wine - which I'm pretty sure is 'geared around' your concept of 'I pay more, therefore it must be superior - proving that I'm superior' .

This has nothing to do with superiority or expense but it has everything to do with the definition of what is wine.Take a glass of MC to France and try to serve it in any cafe or bistro and you'd be laughed out of town, it simply doesn't fall into even the same category as a simple vin rouge ordinaire or similar.

 

I very very rarely buy wine in Thailand anymore. But if I wanted to buy a reasonable bottle of dinner wine here I could, as said, buy one for around 600/800 per bottle. What I wouldn't do however is to spend that same amount to buy a 5 litre box of MC or similar and pretend it was wine, even though I was able to buy five times the volume for a similar price.

No pun intended but here's the acid test - if you were in the UK and you could buy MC, would you? Imagine you're sat at home in the evening when that feeling comes over, Mmm, I could really fancy a pint of Pedigree or Old Wallop. Can you imagine doing the same thing with MC. 

Edited March 21, 20188 yr by simoh1490

Terrible quality, ridiculous price and apparently much more soon. Where can I buy some more ?

24 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

Funny story.  Friends went to France for their holiday, asked if I wanted them to bring back some wine, and of course I said "YES"!

 

They brought back wine akin to paint-stripper, and I threw it all down the sink....

 

But my 'standards' are FAR lower nowadays as a result of the price of wine in Thailand .

 

7 minutes ago, simoh1490 said:

This has nothing to do with superiority or expense but it has everything to do with the definition of what is wine.Take a glass of MC to France and try to serve it in any cafe or bistro and you'd be laughed out of town, it simply doesn't fall into even the same category as a simple vin rouge ordinaire or similar.

 

I very very rarely buy wine in Thailand anymore. But if I wanted to buy a reasonable bottle of dinner wine here I could, as said, buy one for around 600/800 per bottle. What I wouldn't do however is to spend that same amount to buy a 5 litre box of MC or similar and pretend it was wine, even though I was able to buy five times the volume for a similar price.

And yet the wine brought back from my friends holidaying in france was undrinkable - at the time....

 

It has everything to do with a few posters trying to pretend they are 'superior'.

 

It's impossible to buy a good bottle of wine here for 5 to 800 bht.  But I'm sure a few are convinced that their bottle of plonk proves them to be part of the elite foreigners in Thailand. 

 

But this is way offf topic.
 

In short - yes, wine boxes are scarce - and when found, 50% more expensive.

 

 

Agree, it is off topic, and it's a pointless argument/discussion and it falls into the same category as, "how long is a piece of string".

 

We all have different tastes, like different styles of wine, prefer different grapes and so on, so one drinks what one likes. There was never a more convincing argument to this when a French winemaker dismissed the bottle of Grange I had given him to taste as, "too fruit driven, not enough complexity, in your face (or his equivalent) and with no finesse". That about perhaps one of Australia's finest bottles of red wine!

 

You can buy a decent bottle of red wine here for under 800 baht, and indeed I have sourced one which I now buy at 460 baht (selling elsewhere for 520, but IMO could easily be in the 750 baht plus bracket) and it is very good indeed and I buy as much of it as I can store at any one time. There are some good examples of Italian wines made in the appassimento style for around 700 baht and even a couple of wines from the USA which I particularly like.

 

It has nothing to do with superiority and everything to do with individual tastes, and sometimes with one's individual budget.