Sainsbury's, England

Al B. · Post by **Al B.** » Fri Oct 14, 2005 4:39 pm

My local Sainsbury supermarket in Bracknell must have their Christmas stock in.

They are currently selling:

Malvedos 1996 @ £8.49 ($14.85) per bottle; and
Fonseca Guimaraens 1987 @ £13.33 ($23.30) per bottle

with an additonal 5% off if you buy 6 bottles.

I'm going shopping tomorrow.

Alex

Al B. · Post by **Al B.** » Sun Oct 16, 2005 10:02 am

I bought a bottle of the Malvedos 96 yesterday and opened it to try it. Its delicious but I didn't write up any tasting notes (it was opened after finishing a bottle of 1990 champagne between 2 of us).

I went back to Sainsbury's to buy some more this afternoon and they have all gone!!!!

Alex

Derek T. · Post by **Derek T.** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 12:54 am

Alex,

30 seconds after reading your posting yesterday I was in the car on the way to Sainsbury's to fill the boot (trunk for the guys over the pond) with Malvedos 96 @ £8 a bottle.

All the way there I kept telling myself it was too good to be true - VP for less than £10 a bottle! Unfortunately, it was too good to be true

, it seems you have been the fortunate victim of gremlins in your local store's pricing system. the Malvedos was for sale, but at £21.99 :x No wonder it was all gone when you got back later in the day - it may even have been taken off the shelf until the pricing system was fixed.

They did have the Fonseca 86 and 87 on special offer at £13.99 so I couldn't just leave them sitting there on the shelf. I also picked up a Warre's LBV 94 @ £10 which seems a good price for unfilterred LBV.
Will let you know how they go down.

Derek

John Holdsworth · Post by **John Holdsworth** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 6:20 am

Hi, saw these in M&S the other day and got a bottle of each they also have a vintage Port at 10 or 20 years for around £21.

Two of their Ports had a very good review by the Decanter magazine.

Marks & Spencer NV
Reserve, Port, PORT
(Red)

Mulberry, cassis nose. Very open and full, clean. Dark chocolate. Big, rich palate. Very fine savoury wine displaying maturity.
£5.99 on offer (£2 off)

Marks & Spencer 1999
Late Bottled Vintage, Port, PORT
(Red)

Ripe, rounded and balanced. Clean but mature. Hints of spice.Resolved tannin. Spirity on finish.
£7.99 (£2 off)

http://www.decanter.com/worldwineawards ... search.php

Al B. · Post by **Al B.** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 12:08 pm

Derek,

I fear that you were right. I was the (single bottle) beneficiary of a Sainsbury pricing error.

I went in to Sainsbury again today - just in case they had restocked and had made the same mistake.

They had restocked - but had not made the same mistake. This time there were half a dozen Malvedos 96 bottles, (all in wooden boxes, in contrast to last time) sitting on top of a sign saying "£21.49".

Oh well. At least I got one bottle and it was delicious.

Alex

Derek T. · Post by **Derek T.** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 5:19 pm

Alex,

I have now opened both the Fonseca 86 and the Warre's LBV 94. Tasting notes below:

Fonseca Guimaraens 1986 - dark brownish red colour with purple rim. Slightly spirity nose with not much fruit smell at 4 hours. Dark chocolate and black cherry taste but not smooth - too much heat. After 24 hours, smoother but still not much fruit. No heat. More enjoyable that on day 1 but not great.

Warre's LBV 1994 - lovely dark ruby colour with purlple/pink rim. Spirity nose whoen opened. At 2 hours, thick blackcurrent taste, very little heat but very dry. At 24 hours, Christmas pudding! lots of fruit, no heat and a very, very nice port for £10-15 a bottle.

For those outside the UK - Sainsbury's is a supermarket chain at the higher end of the market. The bottles were standing upright on a top shelf in full light. Maybe for a day, maybe for 3 months!

It would be interesting to trace the Sainsbury's supply and storage chain for these wines. From there TV ads they seem to pride themselves on speed to market (apparently their fresh vegitables are on the shelf 24 hours after picking!) so perhaps they take the same care with their premium wines. The Fonseca was disappointing but I don't know if this was down to bad storage or just sub-standard VP.

Derek

John Holdsworth · Post by **John Holdsworth** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 12:22 pm

Just bought a bottle of Dows 10 year old Tawny Port, bottled in 2003 for £15.82 at Asda. What do other people think to this one?

Derek T. · Post by **Derek T.** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 4:57 pm

John,

I haven't tried the Dow's 10 Year Old but I am sitting here drinking a very nice Sainsbury own label 10 year old which cost me just under £10.

It is produced and bottled by Graham's for Sainsbury. Obviously will not be the same quality as the Graham's labelled stuff but how bad can a Graham's be! This is very nice and excellent value for money.

Derek

John Holdsworth · Post by **John Holdsworth** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 1:17 am

Derek Turnbull wrote:John,

I haven't tried the Dow's 10 Year Old but I am sitting here drinking a very nice Sainsbury own label 10 year old which cost me just under £10.

It is produced and bottled by Graham's for Sainsbury. Obviously will not be the same quality as the Graham's labelled stuff but how bad can a Graham's be! This is very nice and excellent value for money.

Derek

Wonderul, will definitely give that one a try.

Going back to M&S to buy the 20 year old, this is what Janis Robinson had to say:
20 year old Tawny Port
£19.99 top 150 Marks & Spencer stores
this wine from Taylors is full and gorgeous but delightfully gentle. Serve very slightly chilled by a warm fire. Regular Taylors 20 year old Tawny retails at more than £30. http://www.jancisrobinson.com/winenews/jr7115

Rui · Post by **Rui** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 12:31 pm

My local Sainsbury's has Dow's 1999 LBV at GBP6.99, discounted from GBP9.99. Is it a good deal? Couldn't find any comments on this LBV by searching the board...

Al B. · Post by **Al B.** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:32 am

I was in Sainsbury this morning and saw the Dow 1999 LBV for £6.99. At that price, Rui, you cannot go wrong.

I didn't buy any but that is because I already have the wine that I will be drinking over the next couple of months.

My advice would be to buy at least two bottles and to buy them fast. Last time I saw a bargain like this I only bought one bottle and when I went back the shelf had been cleared.

If you buy two bottles and like the first then you can always go back in the hope that they have more. If you don't like the wine then you have an early Christmas present for someone else!

Incidentally, Sainsbury's have a very decent range of LBV wines in stock at the moment for what appear to be reasonable prices. I remember LBV's from 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999 and 2000. I don't remember the shippers although I think some of the wines were the Warre's unfiltered LBV's. I also recall seeing a Crusted Port, bottled in 2000. So if you're in the UK, it might be worth a trip to Sainsbury's, they seem to be one of the best supermarkets for port at the moment.

Alex

Rui · Post by **Rui** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 7:56 am

Thanks for the advice Alex, I indeed bought two bottles of the aforementioned LBV. Looking forward to tasting it...

Post by **Roy Hersh** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 3:24 pm

.

So when is Saintsbury coming to the USA ... or at least an outpost of BB&R?!?!?!?!

Derek T. · Post by **Derek T.** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 4:55 pm

Roy,

Unfortunately, it's not just Sainsbury's you are missing out on - we also have a few other supermarket chains such as Tesco, Morrisons, Somerfield and Asda in almost every town and city in the UK, all of which often sell good quality non-VP with 30-50% off, especially around Christmas.

All of them also do "own brand" Ruby, Tawny, 10 Year Old, LBV and sometimes VP. Most of these are produced (or at least bottled by) one of the Symington brands such as SW or QH. Not all of them are good but some of them are and all of them are cheap.

It's a real shame that you guys can't share the experience of picking up 6 bottles of Warre Unfilterred LBV for less than £60

You might want to have a word at your local WallMart store - they own Asda over here so no reason why they can't be giving you the same deals they offer us

Derek

John Holdsworth · Post by **John Holdsworth** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 2:14 pm

Just got a bottle of Warres 1999 LBV , bottled in 2005, reduced from £9.99 to £5.99 at Tescos.

Rui · Post by **Rui** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 4:09 pm

Me too, but I got two!

Johnny7 wrote:Just got a bottle of Warres 1999 LBV , bottled in 2005, reduced from £9.99 to £5.99 at Tescos.

John Holdsworth · Post by **John Holdsworth** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:27 am

Rui wrote:Me too, but I got two!

Johnny7 wrote:Just got a bottle of Warres 1999 LBV , bottled in 2005, reduced from £9.99 to £5.99 at Tescos.

Was it nice, as I would like to get some more in but haven't tried mine yet

Derek T. · Post by **Derek T.** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:43 am

John,

I bought 6 of these from Tesco at Christmas as they were doing the same deal then. They are all gone

I didn't take notes but from memory it is good for what it is, a filtered LBV. Don't confuse it with the unfiltered LBV from the same house - which is superb but costs £15, sometimes £10 with discount.

Derek

John Holdsworth · Post by **John Holdsworth** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 3:50 am

Derek Turnbull wrote:John,

I bought 6 of these from Tesco at Christmas as they were doing the same deal then. They are all gone I didn't take notes but from memory it is good for what it is, a filtered LBV. Don't confuse it with the unfiltered LBV from the same house - which is superb but costs £15, sometimes £10 with discount.

Derek

Thanks Derek,

Looking for just a nice easy drinking Port for the evening when the baby is in bed so I may have to get back soonish

This offer was not on at Tescos, Beverley Road in Hull, honestly, so no-one try there!!!

Derek T. · Post by **Derek T.** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 4:06 am

If it's not on in Hull then it's probably not on in Chesterfield either

I think everyone should head for Alex's local Tesco's and John and I can just take care of the bottles in the Midlands and the North East 8)