Wine

[Jimi75]

Well, it seems as if it is pretty hip nowadays to know something about wine and to have at least 4-5 bottles, red or white, at home to be able to serve the right wine for each and every meal.

I must admit that I gave wine a chance, but I can not understand the different tastes as described by good sommeliers. Fruity, short, open, close, bla bli blu....

I still like to serve a fresh and icecold beer when I invite friends and never ever was there one to complain about it or asking me for a shadowy close but fruity and mild wine, because it fits the steak a little better :thwap: :munch:

How 'bout you guys? And by the way, if you have the chance to see a movie called "Sidewalks" then watch it!!!! It's funny, has good jazz music, and teaches a lot about wine and philosophy....:)

[Plank_Spanker]

I enjoy wines, and I lean toward the full bodied reds for the most part. Believe or not, once your palate gets enough exposure, you really can taste the oak, vanilla, berries, etc. Your sense of smell plays a keen part in appreciating a wine, also. There really isn't a correct wine to serve with "X" meal. Whatever tastes good to you is what works. And a bottle doesn't have to cost you half of the mortgage to be good. There are lots of great wines out there for around $10 a bottle.

But I'm no pinky in air wine snob. Sometimes there's nothing better than a well chilled beer to soothe the soul. :beer:

[Justaguyin_nc]

Hmmm...my thoughts on wine...

Blue Nun Liebfraumilch, Like most white wines, Blue Nun is the ideal accompaniment to any meal, but it is perhaps best enjoyed with white meats and spicy foods because it complements and enhances these flavours along with pastry after dinner etc etc etc

Riunite lambrusco, Everyone's favorite Riunite. This lively red wine with a forthright fruitiness,
tingle and quaffability that bursts in the mouth etc etc etc


ummm then back to beer..:beer:

[Ro3b]

Learning about wine is easy. Just drink a lot of it and figure out what you like. With experience you can start to parse the wine-reviewer vocabulary and map it onto wines you've tried. You don't have to stand there going "oh! Sour cherries! And new-mown hay! And -- brussels sprouts!" every time you taste a new wine, but if you like, say, beaujolais, and you know beaujolais is generally regarded as light and fruity and not very tannic, you're on you way to knowing what other wines you might like.

[kerc]

I just love syrah. :D

[Tim]

My wife and I are just beginning to get into wines. Neither one of us like the drier wines. They are just too bitter for us. We seem to lean towards the sweeter wines. We serve a very nice red wine for a spaghetti dinner we had one night with friends. It was a hit with our guests also. It was an excellent wine and smooth to the taste. I don't remember the name to save my life. I am still in hot water for not saving the label.

We are having a difficult time trying to figure out which wines are sweet. We do not have enough knowledge to even begin guessing which wines to try for a nice sweet and smooth taste. So in the meanwhile I have been drinking Manischewitz concord wine. I normally kick it up a notch by adding a shot of either cherry or blackberry brandy.

Anybody have ideas on different sweet smooth wines for us to try will?

[Tone2TheBone]

We like cheap sweet wines like Lambruscos and the white kind of wine that comes in those long tapered neck bottles. I can never remember the type of white wine those are. We also like Rose' s. I tried some fancy unpronounceable deep red wine at dinner once during a business conference and the taste definately matched the description as being "peppery". Bleck. Give me a sweet red wine anyday. I'm a beer man anyway....

[jpfeifer]

I have to admit, that I don't know very much about wines. But I do know what I like. My wife and I really enjoy red wines of all varieties but mostly Merlot. I've found that Shiraz tend to taste better with spicier food and grilled meats. Chianti taste great with Italian food, and usually doesn't affect me as fast as other wines.

We limit ourselves to $10 or less for most of the wine that we buy, and we've been able to find some really good wine for this price. A lot of times I will ask friends for reccomendations because we tend to get the same brands and varieties.

-- Jim

[Ro3b]

Anybody have ideas on different sweet smooth wines for us to try will?

Merlot is the quintessential smoothness grape. You might try out an Australian Merlot blend, like Rosemount Cabernet/Merlot, and see what you think.

You might also like Beaujolais, which tends to be a light, summery wine. George Duboeuf and Louis Jadot are two labels to look out for.

[Justaguyin_nc]

We like cheap sweet wines like Lambruscos and the white kind of wine that comes in those long tapered neck bottles. I can never remember the type of white wine those are. We also like Rose' s. I tried some fancy unpronounceable deep red wine at dinner once during a business conference and the taste definately matched the description as being "peppery". Bleck. Give me a sweet red wine anyday. I'm a beer man anyway....

What the heck am I doing in a wine thread...:thwap:

I see our taste buds agree here Tone.. I just like the sweet wines and table wines also.. tried expensive.. yuck... Oh and Zinfadels are good if ya just want to get drunk..High alcohol content..lol

I was going to mention those long tapered are German Rhine wine bottles.. Blue Nun being one also.. so I went to make sure on the great net.. and learned.. the bottle also let's you know the type of wine inside.. well.. basicly...

http://www.sha.org/bottle/wine.htm

Sonofagun...

[marnold]

I'm not much of a wine guy, but I have become an unapologetic beer snob. Too many Americans think that the colder and more flavor-free a beer is, the better. To which I say, bah humbug! I can taste things like yeast-imparted fruit-like flavors and can point them out to people. However, I will also poke fun at the whole thing sometimes and say things like, "The beer is energetic, but a bit Episcopalian in its predictability."

[SuperSwede]

MMmm.. A intense red wine to a nice pasta! I really want to recommend the hungarian wine Egri Bikaver! Cheers and bottoms up!

[Tim]

These are great recommendations on different wines to taste. For us newbie wine drinkers, I would ask to please indicate weather the wine you are recommending is sweet, semi-sweet, fruity or something completely different.

I myself am making a list of the ones mentioned so far. I will buy a bottle or two each weekend and sample the many varieties from different countries.

I was told to look for wines that are made from grapes left on the vine well into the fall season. These grapes make for sweeter wines. The only problem is I do not remember the name given to this wine made from fall picked grapes.

This sounds like it just maybe an interesting and fun experiment. (Hick-up!) :drool:

[Bloozcat]

Somebody say wine...?

Both my wife and I love wine, and we are both partial to full bodied reds. Whenever we dine out, we always order a bottle of wine, and we'll also have wine at most full meals at home.

For a number of years, I had very good luck at finding red wines rated in the low 90's (Robert Parker ratings), for $20.00 a bottle and under. Now it's more like $25-$28 and under for the same. As much as we love wine, our wine storage cooler only holds 60 bottles. That might sound like a lot to a novice wine drinker, but I have friends who have coolers with an excess capacity of 500 bottles or more (and they're mostly full).

For someone new at wine drinking it can be a little intimidating with all of the different varietals available. And the snobery and pretention that often accompanies it can be pretty off putting. The best advice I could give to someone in this situation is to ignore the "experts" who try to force their opinions on you, and simply drink what you like. An expensive, highly rated Paulliac or Cabernet might make a wine connoisseur rave, but if it doesn't taste good to you, what do you care? There are lots of reasonably priced wines that you can experiment with while learning...without breaking the bank either.

Some of the best bang for the buck wines IMHO, are the Australians. The wines bearing the "Yellow Tail" label for example, are very inexpensive, and very drinkable. I especially like their Shiraz. The Shiraz goes for $10.79 for a 1.5 ltr. bottle at the local wholesale club (that's like$5.40 for a std. size bottle). Some other decent wines for the money; Wolff Blass, Rosemount Estates, Lindermans, Black Opal - and one of my favorites, Ravenswood Shiraz (which is actually an American vintner making a Shiraz down under). Particularly good regions for red wine in Australia: Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, and Coonawarra.

For California, I prefer the Sonoma's - particularly the Alexander and Russian River Valley's. Much of Napa has become very pretentious and pricey in recent years, although there are still deals there if you search.

I'd better stop here....I could talk all day about wine... :D

ETA: At Tim's request, the wines I spoke of are generally full bodied reds. Big fruit, & on the dry side.

[Tim]

Excellent review there Bloozcat. 60 bottles of wine do you say? And here I thought I was doing good with 5 bottles on the shelf and 2 in the refrigerator. I wish you could have done the same review on the sweeter wines. Hopefully another Fretter will provide that info. Cheers and happy drinking!

From what I have read, wines do change their taste. It all depends on the food being served.

[Bloozcat]

Yeah, I'm not into sweet wines, Tim...except for some dessert wines. About as sweet as I go with table/dinner wines are some of the German Rhine and Mosel white wines...and they're really not considered all that sweet. They're sweeter than a Fume Blanc, and are quite a bit sweeter than a Chardonnay by comparison, but that's about it.

[sunvalleylaw]

Somebody say wine...?

Both my wife and I love wine, and we are both partial to full bodied reds. Whenever we dine out, we always order a bottle of wine, and we'll also have wine at most full meals at home.

For a number of years, I had very good luck at finding red wines rated in the low 90's (Robert Parker ratings), for $20.00 a bottle and under. Now it's more like $25-$28 and under for the same. As much as we love wine, our wine storage cooler only holds 60 bottles. That might sound like a lot to a novice wine drinker, but I have friends who have coolers with an excess capacity of 500 bottles or more (and they're mostly full).

For someone new at wine drinking it can be a little intimidating with all of the different varietals available. And the snobery and pretention that often accompanies it can be pretty off putting. The best advice I could give to someone in this situation is to ignore the "experts" who try to force their opinions on you, and simply drink what you like. An expensive, highly rated Paulliac or Cabernet might make a wine connoisseur rave, but if it doesn't taste good to you, what do you care? There are lots of reasonably priced wines that you can experiment with while learning...without breaking the bank either.

Some of the best bang for the buck wines IMHO, are the Australians. The wines bearing the "Yellow Tail" label for example, are very inexpensive, and very drinkable. I especially like their Shiraz. The Shiraz goes for $10.79 for a 1.5 ltr. bottle at the local wholesale club (that's like$5.40 for a std. size bottle). Some other decent wines for the money; Wolff Blass, Rosemount Estates, Lindermans, Black Opal - and one of my favorites, Ravenswood Shiraz (which is actually an American vintner making a Shiraz down under). Particularly good regions for red wine in Australia: Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, and Coonawarra.

For California, I prefer the Sonoma's - particularly the Alexander and Russian River Valley's. Much of Napa has become very pretentious and pricey in recent years, although there are still deals there if you search.

I'd better stop here....I could talk all day about wine... :D

ETA: At Tim's request, the wines I spoke of are generally full bodied reds. Big fruit, & on the dry side.

My wife and I very much enjoy Yellowtail Shiraz. We both prefer full bodied reds. We used to like Woodbridge Cab, for another cheapy, but have moved away from it. I like Zins also. "Jest Red" table wine is pretty good too. SS, I will have to try that hungarian wine. I know very little about European wines, being a West Coastie. Thanks for the good suggestions and review Bloozcat!

[Spudman]

I'm really confused. Wine comes in bottles? How do you stack the wine in the fridge then?:confused: :D

But seriously, I'm lucky because of the events that I've catered I got to try wines for free that I otherwise couldn't afford and probably never would have tried because of the price. Some of the more expensive reds are really similar (Marnold) to Guinness. You drink them slowly, or try to, and let the flavor fill your pallet. A small glass of good red is like a nice warm pint of dark. You savor it (unless you are a professional musician).;)

Unfortunately (or fortunately) Mrs. Spud is allergic to alcohol so my consumption has diminished. Now I have more $ for man toys, but I still love a glass of good wine from time to time. Just not a whole bottle all at once, and I don't care what I drink it with because I've never gotten the whole food association thing.

[Jimi75]

What a feedback to this thread!
Thank you all for sharing your experiences with wine. You really made me want to buy a bottle of red wine.

I will buy one or two bottles this weekend and let you know what my experiences were.

:beer:

[duhvoodooman]

I love good wine, especially full-bodied, bone-dry reds. Don't drink it as often as I used to, since my wife is a tea-totaler (there's an unfortunately high incidence of alcoholism in her family) and my main wine-drinking partner--my dad--passed away in '95. But I still enjoy a good bottle from time to time.

Hey, BC--sounds like our tastes are similar. The Alexander Valley and Russian River areas are my favorites for California reds, too! Not only Cabs, but big, beefy Zins, as well. And I'm very fond of Australian wines, too. There are some excellent values in Chilean and Spanish reds, also. And on and on....

If you're ever up this way, I have a bottle of '70 Cos d'Estournel that I've had since about '75 that should be drinking pretty well by now. And a '66 Berry Bros. & Rudd vintage port that my dad picked up for me at their shop in London. Tempted? ;)

[Bloozcat]

I love good wine, especially full-bodied, bone-dry reds. Don't drink it as often as I used to, since my wife is a tea-totaler (there's an unfortunately high incidence of alcoholism in her family) and my main wine-drinking partner--my dad--passed away in '95. But I still enjoy a good bottle from time to time.

Hey, BC--sounds like our tastes are similar. The Alexander Valley and Russian River areas are my favorites for California reds, too! Not only Cabs, but big, beefy Zins, as well. And I'm very fond of Australian wines, too. There are some excellent values in Chilean and Spanish reds, also. And on and on....

If you're ever up this way, I have a bottle of '70 Cos d'Estournel that I've had since about '75 that should be drinking pretty well by now. And a '66 Berry Bros. & Rudd vintage port that my dad picked up for me at their shop in London. Tempted? ;)

Let's see....any trips, meetings, weddings, anywhere near Upstate NY...rats!...none. And to think, I was in NYC just a week ago...almost there! :drool:
I haven't had a good Cos d'Estrounel in ages DVM (probably because it's sooo expensive), and a 1970 to boot...wow! And I have some great Cuban's that would go WONDERFULLY with that Port...if only...:(

The Russian River Valley is like Zin and Pinot Noir heaven...

Some of our favorites:

Joseph Swan Vineyards
Gary Farrell Wines
DeLoach Vineyards
Harvest Moon Estate and Winery
Belvedere Winery and Vineyards
Hartford Family Winery

(Some of the above are hard to find outside California. Wine club mailing lists are the best bet)

For Sparkling Wine (champagne), Iron Horse is hard to beat (another great view too). The venerable Robert Parker had this to say about Iron Horse Sparkling Wines: "These impressive Sparkling Wines...possess more texture and flavor than just about any sparkler I have tasted from California." High praise indeed. Reagan and Gorbachev toasted the end to the Cold War with Iron Horse Sparkling wine. When my wife and I were there, we were greeted by a really attractive (read-HOT :eek: ) co-ed who was pouring that morning (yes, morning, like 10:00 am!). She only added to the visual beauty of the scene (well, for ME anyway!).

Not only do we love Russian River Valley wines, but the valley is also one of the most beautiful and picturesque places we've ever been to. Highly recommended for a romantic get-away with the significant other. Need another excuse to go? Well, there's the annual Healdsburg Guitar Festival, which is a showcase for Luthiers, with plenty of musical entertainment as well. This years show was just held within the last month. Healdsburg is right next to the Russian river valley. Close by in Windsor California, is Luthier's Mercantile International, Inc. (formerly of Healdsburg), so you can combine two loves - wine and guitars...works for me...:D

*Argentina is another up and coming wine producer...especially for Malbec's...*

[duhvoodooman]

Oh, yeah....I also have a '74 BV Georges de la Tour Private Reserve CS that really should be drunk up. Sure you can't finagle a trip up this way?? ;)

[Bloozcat]

Oh, yeah....I also have a '74 BV Georges de la Tour Private Reserve CS that really should be drunk up. Sure you can't finagle a trip up this way?? ;)

You're killing me here, DVM...:thwap:

Beaulieu George De Latour Private Reserve is a FANTASTIC Cab! I remember going through a case of 1978's that we brought back from one of our first trips to Napa like the stuff was never going to run out. What was $18.00 a bottle back in 1982 is running about $125.00 a bottle now. The 1974 is going for even more at about $135.00 a bottle. Great stuff...

Despite having good storage for the wine, I can never seem to keep any really good vintages for very long. The biggest problem is my wife (Miss Patience), who wants to drink everything NOW.

Speaking of my wife and wine, a funny story. We brought back several bottles of 1980 Sattui Cabernet on the same mentioned trip to Napa. The following New Years Eve, when we were down to the last bottle that I wanted to save, my wife was promising anything if I'd open it. So, I said to her, "OK, but if it's as good as we remembered it, tomorrow you're going to get on the phone and order a case of it". She foolishly said, "yes".

Sattui is a wine that isn't distributed very far from the Napa Valley, so it's hard to come by on the east coast. The 1980 Sattui had won gold medals in the four major American wine tastings that year, and was hailed as the best American Cabernet Sauvignon of the 1980 vintage. As such, the wine was going quickly. Still, my wife got off lucky as the wine that we had paid $18.00 a bottle for (there's that $18.00 again), was $28.00 a bottle when she called. A deal's a deal, so she did buy the case. It only cured her for a little while though...:D

[Spudman]

I feel like I'm in an online version of Sideways. Which one of you gets to get clobbered with a motorcycle helmet?:D

[Bloozcat]

I feel like I'm in an online version of Sideways. Which one of you gets to get clobbered with a motorcycle helmet?:D

The guy in the movie was the one who deserved to get clobbered with the helmet....what a schmuck...

Besides, we're talking about much better wines than they were in that movie...:cool:

...and we would never think of drinking out of the spitter bucket...yuck! :nono:

Just to show how impressionable the general public is, Merlot sales dropped noticably after that movie came out. Oh yeah, I'm sure going to listen to an actor who pretends to be someone he's not, while he mouths words written by a screen writer who has some kind of vendetta against Merlot. Brilliant.

I did take advantage of some great deals on Merlot after that, though, so it wasn't all bad...:D

[Spudman]

I remember that Pinot was everywhere after the movie. I never even thought of looking for deals on Merlot (my favorite).:(

[Tone2TheBone]

You guys talk about wine like we talk about guitars and pedals....

:Dude:

[Tim]

Hmmm! I thought a glass or two of wine was required before playing the guitar. I figured it was part of the warm-up procedure.