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Thread: Ymm, Wine

  1. #21
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Charleston, SC
    i'm a big wine fan as my gluten intolerance means beer is no longer an option for me.a couple of years ago i attended a conference in san francisco and we extended our stay with a few days in sonoma. we visited farrari-carano (?sp) vineyard, foppiano, J vineyards, a couple of wineries and, our favorite, iron horse vineyards.

    iron horse is a family owned vineyard that specializes i sparkling wines but produces some delectable other varieties as well. one of my recent favorites is a blush wine made from the sangiovese grape. you can drink a whole bottle before you realize it. it has a light slightly sweet berry flavor with a slightly dry finish. their wines have been featured at the white house for decades and they also have a special sparkling wine made for disney. they have an online store:
    http://www.ironhorsevineyards.com/wines/order-wine.html

    foppiano is known for their petite syrah and is a smooth medium bodied red wine. farrari-carano produces an amazing, but relatively pricey, reserve chardonnay with a big oaky flavor and buttery finish like the older california chardonnays. both of these are readily available nationwide.

    another great red wine i've enjoyed recently is muirwood pinot noir. less than 15 dollars a bottle with full bodied flavor.

  2. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by DevilAlumna View Post
    I'd be interested to learn more about Cab's -- any starter suggestions?
    What's your budget?

    In general, cabs will be more expensive-- it can be a challenge to find inexpensive bottles that will inspire you to drink more of this varietal.

  3. #23
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Clearwater, FL
    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
    Windsor (aka Loni)

    a wasted youth is better by far than a wise and productive old age

  4. #24
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Orange County, NC
    Been offline for a few days - just wanted to thank everyone for the great suggestions. I'm headin' to the grocery store tomorrow!

  5. #25
    Smoking Loon is good and cheap.

  6. #26
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Louisville, KY

    the ocho

    This winter I have taken a deep dive into Cellar No. 8, an 8.99 cab with respectable balance and full flavor. I keep my wine chiller at 58-60 degrees, and a slight chill makes a rough edge or two from your cheaper bottles much rounder and softer. Don't go below 55 though - that's white territory. I think my fiance and I have drunk several cases already, and the chiller lets me store 60 at a time. Happiness is walking down to the basement after work to pluck that evening's sedative.

  7. #27
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Louisville, KY
    Quote Originally Posted by mpj96 View Post
    Smoking Loon is good and cheap.
    and the cork says "warble warble cough warble." reason enough to enjoy a bottle.

  8. #28
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Orange County, NC
    forgot this one

  9. #29
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    St. Louis, MO
    I've been trying to develop a taste for red wine and was inspired by this thread to get a bottle of Pinot Noir (I went with Smoking Loon on a friend's recommendation). While at the liquor store, I got to taste a specialty drink made locally: cream of limoncello. There's a bottle in my freezer now. The cream makes it a bit smoother than regular limoncello. It's been a specialty for several years at a local Italian restaurant and was so popular that they've started bottling/selling it.

  10. #30
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Clearwater, FL

    I'll never make it as a wine snob...

    I went to dinner at Berns last night (a Tampa institution - a somewhat over rated one in my opinion, but an institution just the same)

    I was the only cabernet drinker in the group so I knew I would be ordering from the by the glass list (the extensive by the glass list). There is a cab. I had a few times (one someone elses expense account ) that I really really liked. I looked it up and found it described as "rich black currant and plumb with a smokey finish hinting of oak"...so I researched some of the by the galsses and found 'rich black currant and plum with a smokey spice finish' - close enough for me. Ordered it, it was wonderful...just loved it.

    I tried (really I tried) to taste the 'rich black currants' or the the plum or a smokey anything. Nada. I taste....wine.

    So I ask...is it me? Do I have a defective palate? Do people really drink wine and taste black currant (or plum or cherry) and a hint of oak? What is a smokey finish anyway?

    Clearly I have no future as a sommelier.
    Windsor (aka Loni)

    a wasted youth is better by far than a wise and productive old age

  11. #31
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Newport News, VA
    Anytime I am involved in a wine discussion, I always say: "My favorites are those that taste like fermented grapes." Nobody has laughed yet.

  12. #32
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Greenville, NC
    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.

  13. #33
    Quote Originally Posted by ArnieMc View Post
    Anytime I am involved in a wine discussion, I always say: "My favorites are those that taste like fermented grapes." Nobody has laughed yet.
    If it makes you feel better, you made me laugh!

    I can't always taste the subtle flavors in the description but that doesn't keep me from trying. Every once in a while, I get one that I can really taste what they have mentioned. Of course, to know if I am tasting black currant in the wine, I need to know what black currant itself tastes like.

  14. #34
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Rent free in tarheels’ heads
    My guess is the vast majority of people have no clue about wine even though many of them like to think they do. When we lived in Chicago, my wife and I became friendly with our locally wine store owner and he was great at recommending inexpensive wines for us to try. So that's what we did. We continually bought a bottle of this, a bottle of that, and would tell him what we liked and didn't like. Then he would point us in the direction of other bottles he thought we'd like. Over time, he really had our taste pegged. I think it's silly for people to pretend they know what they are doing when they really have no clue. Wine posers suck.

  15. #35
    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.

  16. #36
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Seattle, WA
    Quote Originally Posted by ArnieMc View Post
    Anytime I am involved in a wine discussion, I always say: "My favorites are those that taste like fermented grapes." Nobody has laughed yet.
    Reminds me of my dad, who says he has two criteria for a good wine:

    1) It pours when you tip the bottle, and
    2) It costs less than $10 at the Class 6 store.

  17. #37
    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 have always preferred Richard's Wild Irish Rose for a red and MD 20-20 for a white.

  18. #38
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Back in the dirty Jerz
    I think the best way to train your palate is to try a bunch of different types of wines side by side to note the differences. I won't claim to have any kind of advanced palate, but I'm at the point where I can at least tell fruity from non-fruity (but I can't necessarily tell you if it's currants or cherries), spicy or non-spicy, high tannins or low tannins (the pucker factor), etc.

    If you want to try a wine that is smoky, try a South African Pinotage. It's like eating smoked sausage and drinking wine all at the same time.
    Last edited by DukeUsul; 12-11-2008 at 01:59 PM. Reason: misspelling

  19. #39
    Quote Originally Posted by Indoor66 View Post
    I have always preferred Richard's Wild Irish Rose for a red and MD 20-20 for a white.
    I like Thunderbird for my whites.

  20. #40
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Denver, CO.
    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.

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