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Thread: Ymm, Wine

  1. #41
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Durham, within a couple of miles of Cameron
    I gave up, many years ago, trying to appreciate the differences. The best red wine I ever had was in a small restaurant in Paris, and after I realized how incredibly expensive it was (dollar was good against the franc then -before Euros), I decided reds were beyond me. Then, when I started having hangovers after just a glass or two of whites, I accepted the fact that I was a top-fermented heavy ale kind of guy. Unfortunately, some of my favorite IPA's are causing some am headaches now...

  2. #42
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Emerald Isle, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by JStuart View Post
    I gave up, many years ago, trying to appreciate the differences. The best red wine I ever had was in a small restaurant in Paris, and after I realized how incredibly expensive it was (dollar was good against the franc then -before Euros), I decided reds were beyond me. Then, when I started having hangovers after just a glass or two of whites, I accepted the fact that I was a top-fermented heavy ale kind of guy. Unfortunately, some of my favorite IPA's are causing some am headaches now...
    That's sad I have a bartender friend who recommends a glass of milk before going to sleep after imbibing. So far, it works for me as long as I add a little ibuprofen.

    Back to the thread. There is no way I can be considered a wine snob. The few times I've had really good wine, I enjoyed it. I also adore Trader Joe's 2 Buck Chuck not to mention Almaden's white zinnfandel in the box

  3. #43
    I really appreciate and enjoy good wines, but I'm hardly a wine snob. I'm just as happy with the 3 Buck Chuck or the Beaujolais Nouveau.

    JStuart, really sorry about your headaches. I love Champagne but have to be careful with it or I'll get vicious heartburn.

  4. #44
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Raleigh
    Quote Originally Posted by CathyCA View Post
    I have participated in wine tastings all over the Napa and Sonoma valleys. I can't tell the difference between an expensive wine and a cheap wine.

    I can tell you that I don't like red wines. They don't taste good to me.

    I like white wine. I don't like the oaky taste in some of them. Apparently, that means that I like cheap wine.

    When I discovered Two Buck Chuck at Trader Joe's, I was thrilled--nice tasting white wine at $2 a bottle? YAY!

    I'll never make it as a sommelier either.
    I mentioned it on another thread somewhere that I think it is now 3 Buck Chuck, allowing for inflation after its' introduction several years ago.

  5. #45
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Raleigh
    Quote Originally Posted by TheTrain View Post
    You only develop your palate by trying everything. Back in 1999, I knew absolutely nothing about wine. I ended up dating a girl who was head of marketing for Antinori wines in the US. She used to give me bottles to try. She also recommended reading Wine for Dummies (as silly as it may sound). I had a great wine store a block away (67 Wine near Lincoln Center) and I befriended the staff. Over time, I became a guinea pig, try multiple wines from different regions from all over the world. I would come home from work and essentially hang out for 30 minutes to an hour at the store. Some people actually thought I worked there. That said, by trying all of the varietals, my palate developed and matured. I can taste most but not all of the components...my wife, however, has a superior sensory system and is really good at defining smell. The crazy thing is that you can find great bottles of inexpensive wine if you are willing to take the time like the poster above to befriend people at the wine store. And most people can develop their palates if they put in the time (and it won't break the bank)...in fact it is a heckuva lot of fun. I was at a private tasting the other night for a "cult" producer....the wine was a mystery and nobody knew what they were tasting ahead of time....after the tasting, I actually told him that I much preferred his $40 2nd tier cabernet to his $250 cult cab...the wines were more or less equal in quality and there really was no compelling reason to spend $210 additional dollars. He was not thrilled with my answer, but funny enough...I looked at multiple ratings after the fact and most experts agreed with my assessment.
    IIRC, I read a year or so ago that some of the 2 (or 3) Buck Chuck fared reasonably well in some wine tastings. It did not win many/any awards but had some respectable scores by the experts. Disclaimer here: I am not a wine taster or reviewer nor did I stay in a certain brand of hotel chain last PM either.

  6. #46
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Raleigh
    Quote Originally Posted by rockymtn devil View Post
    As several have noted, attempting to pull out flavors, as a beginner, in an isolated glass of wine isn't going to work. I think the way to start is to learn the differences between types of wine (cabs from zins from pinots, for example). From there, once your learn the basic profiles of those types, you can begin dissect different wines of the same style.
    Kinda, sorta like beers, eh.

  7. #47
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Raleigh
    Quote Originally Posted by JStuart View Post
    I gave up, many years ago, trying to appreciate the differences. The best red wine I ever had was in a small restaurant in Paris, and after I realized how incredibly expensive it was (dollar was good against the franc then -before Euros), I decided reds were beyond me. Then, when I started having hangovers after just a glass or two of whites, I accepted the fact that I was a top-fermented heavy ale kind of guy. Unfortunately, some of my favorite IPA's are causing some am headaches now...
    But are they affecting your vision?

  8. #48
    Do a Google search on Tim Hanni; he is a leader of the "anti-wine-snob" movement. I love this guy....

  9. #49
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Denver, CO.
    Quote Originally Posted by devildeac View Post
    Kinda, sorta like beers, eh.
    Shhh! This is a wine snob thread. Part of being a wine snob is not admitting that maybe, just maybe, beer is as complex.

  10. #50
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Greenville, NC
    Quote Originally Posted by devildeac View Post
    I mentioned it on another thread somewhere that I think it is now 3 Buck Chuck, allowing for inflation after its' introduction several years ago.
    Yes, we've talked about this in another thread. In California, it's still available for $1.99 at TJ's. Here in N.C., it's $2.99 at TJ's. I inquired about the price disparity, and learned that even though Trader Joe's owns the company, there is some sort of regulation in N.C. that requires TJ's to sell their wine to a distributor who then sells it back to TJ's for sale in their N.C. stores. Therefore, the $1 bump in price per bottle.

    Now if only we could get a Trader Joe's to open in Greenville. . .

  11. #51
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Durham, within a couple of miles of Cameron
    But are they affecting your vision?

    Oh, I see far, far better after a pint or three...;-}

  12. #52
    Was looking for something else and stumbled across this thread. Should've thought to look here earlier.

    Some of you may know, but many may not --- I've recently gone into the wine business. I'll go into the boring details of how I turned a Duke graduate degree in Pharmacology into a wine importing business if anyone's interested, but suffice it to say that for the last six months, I've partnered with a colleague out of Charlotte to open a Raleigh/Durham branch of Bond Street Imports.

    Briefly, we import boutique wine from all over the world. By boutique, I mean hand made in very, very small batches, giving the wine maker maximum control over the final product. Many of our wines are made in quantities of less than 1,000 cases/year. For perspective, Opus One, Mondavi's "cult" wine, makes 20+ thousand cases per year. We've 50-75 wines in our portfolio at any given time ranging in price from $12-$200/bottle with a median price of about $35.

    I've had a ball learning about wine, wine making, importing, serving. It's a fascinating field that, much like Pharmacology, is chock full of conventional wisdom that's completely wrong.

    I know this isn't exactly a recent thread, but I hope that means you've all been drinking lots of wine since this thread debuted. I'd love to have a little DBR wine club.

  13. #53
    Quote Originally Posted by Genedoc View Post
    Was looking for something else and stumbled across this thread. Should've thought to look here earlier.

    Some of you may know, but many may not --- I've recently gone into the wine business. I'll go into the boring details of how I turned a Duke graduate degree in Pharmacology into a wine importing business if anyone's interested, but suffice it to say that for the last six months, I've partnered with a colleague out of Charlotte to open a Raleigh/Durham branch of Bond Street Imports.

    Briefly, we import boutique wine from all over the world. By boutique, I mean hand made in very, very small batches, giving the wine maker maximum control over the final product. Many of our wines are made in quantities of less than 1,000 cases/year. For perspective, Opus One, Mondavi's "cult" wine, makes 20+ thousand cases per year. We've 50-75 wines in our portfolio at any given time ranging in price from $12-$200/bottle with a median price of about $35.

    I've had a ball learning about wine, wine making, importing, serving. It's a fascinating field that, much like Pharmacology, is chock full of conventional wisdom that's completely wrong.

    I know this isn't exactly a recent thread, but I hope that means you've all been drinking lots of wine since this thread debuted. I'd love to have a little DBR wine club.
    Do you import anything from Louis Bernard? I'm not sure how large they are but I had a bottle of his Chateau-nuf-de-Paup 2000 last summer that was excellent - I thought. I went back to buy another bottle several months later and they had no more. I know if had to have been ridiculously inexpensive for a Chateau or I wouldn't have bought it. The local distributor doesn't have it anymore. (I learned a lot about wine distribution in Johnson County, KS than I was expecting in the search - which was fruitless.)

  14. #54
    Quote Originally Posted by rockymtn devil View Post
    Shhh! This is a wine snob thread. Part of being a wine snob is not admitting that maybe, just maybe, beer is as complex.
    I beg to differ. Anyone who said that would be considered a wine jerk in my opinion. Wine and beer are remarkably similar in their complexities. Bad beer and bad wine aren't very enjoyable. Great wine and great beer are amazing and complex experiences.

    I've heard this cut both ways. I've seen beer snobs laugh at the write up of a good wine only to spend half an hour arguing about the appropriate amounts of hops one should taste from a good IPA.

    Wine (and beer) tasting is like a musical instrument or a high performance car. Nobody walks up to a cello for the first time and sounds like Yo Yo Ma. Nobody gets behind the wheel of a NASCAR 1,000 horsepower machine and drives it to it's fullest capacity. Similarly, nobody picks up their first glass of wine and starts waxing poetic about the under ripened tannins or the excessive malolactic fermentation. You learn by trying and doing, and once you start getting it, it's a whole lot of fun.

  15. #55
    Quote Originally Posted by DukieInKansas View Post
    Do you import anything from Louis Bernard? I'm not sure how large they are but I had a bottle of his Chateau-nuf-de-Paup 2000 last summer that was excellent - I thought. I went back to buy another bottle several months later and they had no more. I know if had to have been ridiculously inexpensive for a Chateau or I wouldn't have bought it. The local distributor doesn't have it anymore. (I learned a lot about wine distribution in Johnson County, KS than I was expecting in the search - which was fruitless.)
    No, we don't import for them. But don't feel bad. I've not yet had anyone ask me "Do you carry/import _____" and had the answer be "yes". We make it a point to seek out and carry very, very small wine makers. We feel that gives the highest quality product and the best value. We do have a Chateauneuf-du-Pape. From Domaine Porte Rouge. It's not ridiculously inexpensive for a Chateauneuf-du-Pape, but it's a very reasonable $39 for a 2003.

    Chateauneuf's are interesting beasts. They're not really like anything else I've experienced in the wine world. When they're good, they're amazing. When they're bad, they're really rough. They tend to get sold/consumed too young very frequently, I think.

  16. #56
    Quote Originally Posted by Windsor View Post
    So I ask...is it me? What is a smokey finish anyway?
    The best way to "get the taste" of a smokey finish is to buy a bottle of Islay single malt such as Lagavulin - drink a few glasses, THEN try your wine.
    ~rthomas

  17. #57
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Watching carolina Go To HELL!
    Quote Originally Posted by Genedoc View Post

    Chateauneuf's
    I wouldn't know a Chateauneuf's from a Manischevitz , but if you're interested in an Italian connection, I can refer you to someone (another Duke engineer doing something completely different) you can connect you with Italian wine makers and do the importing for you. PM me!
    Ozzie, your paradigm of optimism!

    Go To Hell carolina, Go To Hell!
    9F 9F 9F
    https://ecogreen.greentechaffiliate.com

  18. #58
    Quote Originally Posted by Windsor View Post
    I whole heartedly recommend http://www.thenakedvine.net/

    For reasonabley priced (and sometimes downright cheap) wines. Excellent recommendations and reviews...and a dukie to boot.

    I've tried several of the wines he's tasted and been pleasantly surprised with everyone. His descriptions are usually spot on.

    There is a link to all of Mike's tasting on the right of the page...start there and look for the type of wine you are interested in...I like fully body fruity cabs and there are several very reasonable very nice ones there.

    Enjoy
    The guy who writes The Naked Vine blog used to be a regular poster on DBR in the old days. Maybe he still does. I like his blog too.
    ~rthomas

  19. #59
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    A ten year idle thread back from the dead?

    If you like rioja, Cerro Anon is just $9 at Costco and a very nice drop.

  20. #60
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Undisclosed
    Quote Originally Posted by fuse View Post
    A ten year idle thread back from the dead?
    Some things get better with age.

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