Red Wine bargain in Phuket

[xylophone]

I know this thread will be a little short lived, however I don't know how else to put this point over to other Phuketian's here who may be in search of a good wine bargain, so here is a copy of the post I have put on another wine thread and it refers to the big Tesco Lotus here in Phuket town, although it may be nationwide, I'm not sure, anyway here goes...........

 

"Okay for those looking for a well priced wine at a bargain price, here is a tip for you........

 

My local Tesco Lotus store here has a wine on the shelves which has been discounted quite substantially, although the prices shown are not always correct.

The wine is one of the "Tesco's Finest" range, which by the way is a very reputable label/range and it is a Pinotage 2017 from South Africa, and it is normally priced at 549 baht, however now it can be bought for 327 baht a bottle.

 

The back label describes it as a full-bodied wine, but I would go as far as to say that, IMO it is a medium bodied wine which given time shows up just a little taste of its Pinot Noir heritage and develops somewhat, provided it is slightly chilled in the initial stages.

 

Now as per the norm here you will not see this advertised as a "big discount/for sale" item because they just don't do that on alcohol, so you have to search for it and even if you see a bottle which is priced at 549 baht, then take it to the price point checker to see what the exact price is.

 

This may be just a local Tesco initiative, or it may be nationwide, however it would pay to seek it out anyway because to pay 327 baht for a wine which is streets above the equivalent Peter Vella/Siam winery crap, would be an opportunity to good to miss".

 

Any feedback appreciated.

[schlog]

Thanks xylo catched some bottles for 327 baht......1 last bottle to go

[xylophone]

21 minutes ago, schlog said:

Thanks xylo catched some bottles for 327 baht......1 last bottle to go

Good to hear..............but there are others dotted around the place schlog if you look for them. Some on the big/main shelves and a lot more in the small "Tescos Finest" small area between the bakery and the Pharmacy.

 

Good hunting.

 

 

[xylophone]

Wine bargain in Big C.........

 

Siam winery wine in the main, produces wines which tend to have fruit juice added (think Montclair).

 

One of the exceptions appears to be the Montclair Langhorne Creek Shiraz, which is made from grapes/juice from that area (I'm not sure if it is fermented in Australia or here in Thailand) which was launched as an effort to be able to give Montclair a mantle of respectability after many people had criticised its "fruit wines".

 

At the time I thought they were pushing the proverbial uphill and it seems to be the case – – trying to launch a premium product on a brand which is considered low quality is a Herculean task and it appears it hasn't worked?

 

The reason I say that is because the Langhorne Creek Shiraz which was originally launched at a price of around 660 baht is now on sale at my local Big C for 454 baht, and talking to someone from their head office who oversees such things, it has been reduced in price to be able to clear the stock, mainly because it hasn't been selling.

 

So if you're in for a bargain, take a look at that Montclair Wine (dark red/burgundy label with silver) as it is a pretty good drinker if given time to open up, and Langhorne Creek is a well-respected wine region, south of Adelaide.

[schlog]

Not wine but some real good beers are reduced by 50-70% at Makro Patong. Like Korbinian. One of the best Doppelbock beers. Usually about ~200 baht per bottle now there only 85 baht. 

[madmitch]

12 hours ago, schlog said:

Not wine but some real good beers are reduced by 50-70% at Makro Patong. Like Korbinian. One of the best Doppelbock beers. Usually about ~200 baht per bottle now there only 85 baht. 

 

13 hours ago, schlog said:

Not wine but some real good beers are reduced by 50-70% at Makro Patong. Like Korbinian. One of the best Doppelbock beers. Usually about ~200 baht per bottle now there only 85 baht. 

They seem to have been doing this at many of their stores; clearing stock I should think. I stocked up at Kata a couple of times, though missed the Fullers beers on offer at 65 baht!

[cyril sneer]

Here are Tesco's wine prices from last week to any that are interested...

 

 

[xylophone]

Still waiting for this wine to come back in stock, along with their Late Bottled Vintage Port.......been out of stock for months so have have got to wonder if they have deleted them??

 

[eezergood]

7 hours ago, madmitch said:

 

They seem to have been doing this at many of their stores; clearing stock I should think. I stocked up at Kata a couple of times, though missed the Fullers beers on offer at 65 baht!

Probably getting ready for the Oktoberfest beers that should be available soon

Thanks for the share

 

[eezergood]

7 hours ago, xylophone said:

Still waiting for this wine to come back in stock, along with their Late Bottled Vintage Port.......been out of stock for months so have have got to wonder if they have deleted them??

 

I have Stilton at the ready! 

[xylophone]

40 minutes ago, eezergood said:

I have Stilton at the ready! 

Good to hear but have not seen any of the LBV Port for a long while sad to say, as it was extremely good value and a good port into the bargain. Fingers crossed then!

[schlog]

At Promphan today. Nice offer for Rioja friends.

[xylophone]

52 minutes ago, schlog said:

At Promphan today. Nice offer for Rioja friends.

Yep. I am a bit of a Rioja lover so will get down there on Monday to buy some.......thanks Schlog.

[paddypower]

Supercheap in Phuket offers great wine prices. I live in NST. Even if I drive down and buy a dozen mixed wines, the travel cost makes it not worthwhile.

Can you order wine online, from any distributors?

[xylophone]

4 hours ago, paddypower said:

Supercheap in Phuket offers great wine prices. I live in NST. Even if I drive down and buy a dozen mixed wines, the travel cost makes it not worthwhile.

Can you order wine online, from any distributors?

You can order online from Tesco and their real wine stars at 349 b a bottle!

[schlog]

Found yesterday at Tops in new Central in Town this Rioja. Right now at 895 baht what i guess is cheap compared with 700 baht this wine costs in Austria. 

 

Great new find in the beer section. Schneider Weisse Aventinus. One of best Doppelbock Weizen on this planet.

[xylophone]

3 hours ago, schlog said:

Found yesterday at Tops in new Central in Town this Rioja. Right now at 895 baht what i guess is cheap compared with 700 baht this wine costs in Austria. 

 

Great new find in the beer section. Schneider Weisse Aventinus. One of best Doppelbock Weizen on this planet.

Thanks for the tip Schlog, always nice to get feedback on different wines.

 

I was a great fan of Rioja Gran Reserva at one time in my life, however seem to have moved away from them to more fruit driven wines, this especially as some of these wines can seem a little bereft of fruit – – or maybe it's my palate that has changed!

 

I'm not a great beer drinker so your comments about the beer are completely lost on me, sad to say.

 

I'm just finishing the last few bottles of an Italian wine from Veneto, called Gran Verosso (Gold edition) which I managed to get from an importer at a discounted price, but no more I'm afraid so I'm going to have to look around for another wine which is fairly unique in the way that it's made.

 

Good hunting and keep up the feedback.

[steelepulse]

22 hours ago, schlog said:

Found yesterday at Tops in new Central in Town this Rioja. Right now at 895 baht what i guess is cheap compared with 700 baht this wine costs in Austria. 

 

Great new find in the beer section. Schneider Weisse Aventinus. One of best Doppelbock Weizen on this planet.

How much were the beers and were they 500 ml, or some other size?  Would be nice to find a great beer at a decent price!

[schlog]

8 hours ago, steelepulse said:

How much were the beers and were they 500 ml, or some other size?  Would be nice to find a great beer at a decent price!

Only 0.33l and not cheap with 159 baht. 

 

Best bet for good beer for a better price is makro. Like Korbinian 0.5l for 169 baht.

But compared with europe where you pay only 35-50 baht for the best beers it's a sad beer story here lol.

[steelepulse]

21 minutes ago, schlog said:

Only 0.33l and not cheap with 159 baht. 

 

Best bet for good beer for a better price is makro. Like Korbinian 0.5l for 169 baht.

But compared with europe where you pay only 35-50 baht for the best beers it's a sad beer story here lol.

Thanks.  Yes I agree about the crazy pricing on decent to good beers.

[steve2112]

LOL, the OP wrote 'I know this thread will be a little short lived' on dec 25, 2018

[bokningar]

Is there any descent BIB to buy? 

Seen some carp with 10% alcohol. And stuff like that don't hold much nice taste. Or is some of that stuff OK?

[xylophone]

11 hours ago, bokningar said:

Is there any descent BIB to buy? 

Seen some carp with 10% alcohol. And stuff like that don't hold much nice taste. Or is some of that stuff OK?

Depends upon your taste and what you've been used to drinking!

 

I see that the OZ wine "Bushman's Gully" is back on the shelves and in its early days it didn't have fruit juice added, but now it seems that it has.

 

You can only but try and see or, try the cheaper wines from Tesco Lotus (the Vineyard series at 349 b a bottle), or Wolf Blass is available at 399 b a bottle, and a few from Sth America called "Brisa" are around the same price.

[madmitch]

For me, at the moment, the Brisa range is the best value as it's real wine and doesn't taste like cheap plonk.

 

Not much more expensive than Montclair but a class or two above.

[bokningar]

On 12/24/2019 at 8:27 AM, xylophone said:

Depends upon your taste and what you've been used to drinking!

 

I see that the OZ wine "Bushman's Gully" is back on the shelves and in its early days it didn't have fruit juice added, but now it seems that it has.

 

You can only but try and see or, try the cheaper wines from Tesco Lotus (the Vineyard series at 349 b a bottle), or Wolf Blass is available at 399 b a bottle, and a few from Sth America called "Brisa" are around the same price.

Thank for your advice. And Merry Christmas

Can you find any of them as BiB (bag in box wine)?

[xylophone]

25 minutes ago, bokningar said:

Thank for your advice. And Merry Christmas

Can you find any of them as BiB (bag in box wine)?

The BIB wines are the wines which have the fruit juice added, although Bushmans Gully could be one of the better ones??

 

Merry Christmas to you as well.

[bearpolar]

it's been a long time, its crazy that no one has had the brain power to create a wine in a box business with actual wine that is also drinkable

 

We've sent ppl on the moon, we can video chat with people across the world with no lag but we cant have half decent boxwine in thailand!?

 

 

Cmon entrepreneurs!

 

whoever figures this out will be a multi millionaire.

 

[xylophone]

11 hours ago, bearpolar said:

it's been a long time, its crazy that no one has had the brain power to create a wine in a box business with actual wine that is also drinkable

 

We've sent ppl on the moon, we can video chat with people across the world with no lag but we cant have half decent boxwine in thailand!?

 

 

Cmon entrepreneurs!

 

whoever figures this out will be a multi millionaire.

 

Well there were some available in the "early days" and of course they were of low quality (no-one puts a good wine in a plastic bag, in a box) and the tax made them as expensive as the better wines!

 

Adding fruit juice to the mix ensured a lower tax applied, therefore cheaper to the consumer and that's how it all started.......the tax laws have changed now which is why the BIB wines went up in price!!!

 

So now, no real benefit to for a winemaker/company to put wine in a plastic bag/box, unless it is for domestic consumption, whereby it is extremely cheap, and very often seen at BBQs and the like, so no new millionaires to be made in Thailand I'm afraid.

 

Now if the Govt decided to alter the punitive taxes on imported wine...........that would be a different story.

[xylophone]

Tut-tut, must be getting old, because I can't remember where I posted about a Penfold's 2016 wine called MAX'S which I found here.

 

Obviously it is celebrating Max Schubert, who was responsible for producing "Grange Hermitage" (as it was called then – – just plain "Grange" now) and which became one of Australias best known wines.

 

Anyway the point was that I spied it in one of my wine shops for 1800 baht a bottle, but then scouring the shelves in Tescos I found it at 899 baht a bottle and I wanted to let anyone who would be interested in it, know about the find.

 

Searching around a little more it appears that my first wine shop must have mis-priced it at 1800 baht a bottle, because it is priced elsewhere at 899 baht a bottle.

 

Tried it the other night and.......... and it's going through what I believe is its "dumb phase", that is where wine is so big and complex that it hasn't had time to merge basic components, or to reveal its depth of flavours and character.

 

So although I could tell it was a well-made wine and had great potential, I really couldn't get to the bottom of it, so to speak, even after decanting it for about an hour.

 

I believe this will be drinking well in many years to come, but for drinking now, IMO, I wouldn't recommend it.

[schlog]

Chianti Leonardo normal price 775 baht. Right now at Lotus for 445 baht.