***The Official Wine Thread***

[BennyLaRue]

Totally official.

I'm really good at getting drunk on whatever but some peoples have standards when it comes to wine. WTF?!?!

For you people who care about wine, I want to have nice shit and not embarrass myself again. But I'm only a thousandaire. Whatever am I to do?

Please recommend nice wines under $20/bottle, pls. Lemme know how dry your reco is, k, thanks.

[wufwugy]

wwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh

[BennyLaRue]

Sorry, Stephen, you're looking for the things that don't not tilt me thread.

This is for people with healthy relationships with alchogol.

[BennyLaRue]

Or people that drink wine. Whatever.

[wufwugy]

i sure hope you're pronouncing that correctly

[Jack Sawyer]

El Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon is pretty good. I also like 12 Lunas, which is a mix consisting more of Tempranillo.

I drink pretty much always red, never white wine.


Right now I got a box full of Golden Kaan's, yet i haven't had a chance to do them yet.

[flomo]

Any New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Dry, white and unoaked.

Kim Crawford and Tohu I really like and Cloudy Bay is the classic wine snob pick.

[BennyLaRue]

Any New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Dry, white and unoaked.

Kim Crawford and Tohu I really like and Cloudy Bay is the classic wine snob pick.

Success! Thanks. Reasonably priced in Canada. Will try.

[daven]

a chef friend of mine has always said that if he's faced with a supermarket/liquor store wine selection he's completely unfamiliar with, then he gets a bottom/mid-priced merlot - his rationale is that merlots are rarely bad, flipside being that they are rarely great. I'm not sure what to make of this though...

[daven]

if you want to drink good wine cheapish then find out what grapes are grown locally, find out which of these local wines are internationally known as being decent. If you find a combo then you're likely onto a winner. Like Sav blanc here in nz...

most decent sized towns or cities have a liquor outlet that understands wine, if you're able to go there when they aren't busy and have a chat with staff (often wine geeks/snobs) then take their recommendations you can end up drinking good stuff. Be completely honest about your preferences and/or ignorance - you gain nothing at all by trying to bluff. There is a lot of merit in writing a quick note for later reference regarding how much you enjoy a wine as you are drinking it. (as simple as: xxx malbec, 2009, fruity, heavy, tasty! or yyy pinot gris, 2011, sweet and insipid)

there is a lot of good aussie shiraz around the place
good nz pinot noir is amazing, but there is a lot of nz pinot noir that isn't good - be careful

note that sweet rieslings are dessert wines - late harvest especially and they typically get sold in smaller bottles. The grapes picked later -> higher sugar content etc.

Any New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Dry, white and unoaked.

Kim Crawford and Tohu I really like and Cloudy Bay is the classic wine snob pick.

go the cloudy bay first.
kim crawford sav is about US$6 at the supermarket just down the road from me at the moment. And you can generally find a really good bottle for under US$12. Then i'll see it for five times that in a shop in bangkok. It's like when i buy argentinian wine here in nz vs in argentina, or, you get the picture.

[BennyLaRue]

El Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon is pretty good. I also like 12 Lunas, which is a mix consisting more of Tempranillo.

I drink pretty much always red, never white wine.


Right now I got a box full of Golden Kaan's, yet i haven't had a chance to do them yet.

Thanks but unfortunately, none of these are sold in Canada.

[flomo]

Beer is the new wine, and they want us to pay for it.

Craft cocktails are slow to catch on because so many places suck at making them. You can just open a bottle, pull the tap, and pour it in to a glass.

[WillburForce]

Get some off-dry German Riesling. between 8-10%. I can drink that shit alll day. Great with Asian food.

[bigred]

Get some off-dry German Riesling. between 8-10%. I can drink that shit alll day. Great with Asian food.

I'm not sure what the off-dry Riesling is like but I will say Riesling might be the worst wine you can drink. It's like sweet, sweet grape juice with alcohol.

[WillburForce]

I'm not sure what the off-dry Riesling is like but I will say Riesling might be the worst wine you can drink. It's like sweet, sweet grape juice with alcohol.

Oh Mr Red....

Shitty over sweet Riesling is indeed disgusting, but good bone dry or off-dry Riesling is the nectar of heaven. Chilled Riesling with a nice spicy Korean meal is the stuff I dream off...

[jyms]

I would love to learn more about wine. I think I could get into red far sooner than white

[bigred]

Ok...here we go...

White:

Sauv Blanc: Anything from Malrlborough, NZ is typically good. Specifically I like Oyster Bay (10-12) and Rain (15-18).

Chardonnay: I only like the super oaky/buttery ones so beware but Kendall Jackson ($10-14) and Sonoma Cutrer (15-20) are my usuals.

Red:

Malbec: Easily my favorite drinking wine. Trapiche ($15), Norton ($12), and Layer Cake ($15) are all good.

Cab: Louis Martini is arguably one of my favorite wines regardless of price and you can find it for $12-$18 depending on the place. There's a few variations (more expensive versions) but the Sonoma valley one is the one I'm referring to. The cab Jack mentioned is also good and generally anything from Argentina or Chile (Montes Alpha comes to mind) in the 10-20 range will be drinkable and have a little more spice/complexity than its Californian friends. California cabs will be a little more smoother but I don't enjoy them, a few exceptions, as much as South America. The Francis Ford Coppola vinyard (claret, Cab, a few other blends) are usually around $15 and good.

If you like cabs, try Haut-Medoc's from France. Basically a cab base but with other grapes blended in. Very good with steak or anything else rich. I like them as a drinking wine but most people find it too full bodied alone. You can find some of the cheaper (Chateau Greysac is the one I usually get) for like $16.

All above pricing is based on my NYC experience. I've found in Texas thigns are much more affordable. For example, Kendall Jackson was $16 in NYC but $9 at Walmart here in Texas.

[flomo]

Bigred,
Dry Riesling is excellent, usually the Alsatian region and some American.

Try Mt. Veeder for a Cali cab sometime, it more $ than OP's range(about $30). It is my favorite red currently. I will admit that I have not been drinking much wine lately especially reds.
Sparkling wine and cocktails are my indulgence right now.

Gruet from New Mexico is a great reasonable priced sparkler.
Korbel is worth drinking, either the brut or extra dry. Brut is the drier of the two.
I also love the dry Spanish Cavas, which also I prefer in cocktails.

[supa]

TWO BUCK CHUCK!!!

[swiggidy]

Bolla (brand) is $9-10, but almost always on sale around me for $6-8. Valpolicella is my favorite, but they are all solid. I've sort of have ass tried to get into wine, but don't get the subtleties either.

[kingnat]

My favorite wine is beer.

[Galapogos]

Go to a local winery, take their tour, then buy their wine. Through the tour you will learn what kinds of wines to buy to impress people. You'll also learn all kinds of stupid facts about said wine to impress all your friends at what an insufferable douchebag you can be.

[flomo]

Any other NZ SBs to try other than cloudy bay?
And hopefully that are available in North America.

[daven]

Any other NZ SBs to try other than cloudy bay?
And hopefully that are available in North America.

I was standing in front of a wine shelf this evening on my way to a drinking and thought about this thread. Anyway, we drank the 2011 Tohu sav blanc reserve (NZ$11) this evening. It was fine, nothing amazing, but just fine.
Other sav blancs in the line-up i was looking at that i would recommend = stoneleigh, mudhouse, church rd, ngatawara (some), st clair (usually good, but occasionally marginal), cloudy bay

there are two places i generally buy sav blanc from - the above list covers the decent that i'm familiar with at one (plus, some waiparas are good). There are several that are expensive there that i'm not confident about. I'll post a correspondins line-up next time i'm at the other place i buy wine from. I don't know which of those export in quantity, sorry. FWIW, Kim Crawford selection or whatever it's called was the third cheapest option out of around 40.

generally i buy those that i listed above whenever they drop to around the US$12 a bottle mark. Much cheaper and i buy a case. Let me know if you buy any and they disappoint, i'm sure you have paypal or whatever.

[Eric]

I usually drink red wine by the glass, not by the bottle.

Cab Sauvignon seems to be a safe choice for me. I also like Pinot Noir but they say it is harder to get the grapes right for it.

[BennyLaRue]

Go to a local winery, take their tour, then buy their wine. Through the tour you will learn what kinds of wines to buy to impress people. You'll also learn all kinds of stupid facts about said wine to impress all your friends at what an insufferable douchebag you can be.

This should be sound logic but I'm of the opinion that nobody in Ontario buys cheap Ontario wines. The expensive stuff is good but everything less than $20 is suspect. Would love to be proven wrong though.

More Ontario blasphemy: Ice wine is horrible and the beers from the K-W region are mostly awful.

[WillburForce]

More Ontario blasphemy: Ice wine is horrible

You've prob not had it with the right food - on its own it is far to sweet.
Try it with cheese - Roquefort (salty French cheese) and Sauternes (the classic sweet French wine) is a an amazing combo. Try an ice wine with say a mature Canadian cheddar. They're both native and would taste great I recon.

And anything sweet! Apple crumple with cinnamon and a glass of chilled ice wine. YES YES YES!

[BennyLaRue]

You've prob not had it with the right food - on its own it is far to sweet.

No, I have had it with supposedly ideal pairings. Just not a fan of it. Ditto for port.

[Galapogos]

For some reason I thought you lived in BC, my bad.

[CoccoBill]

~Anything from Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
Torres Mas La Plana
All Amarones

[eugmac]

I think I generally like Italian stuff like Montepulciano. Berate away.

[WillburForce]

I think I generally like Italian stuff like Montepulciano. Berate away.

Italy does amazing wine - nothing to berate you for

[eugmac]

On the other hand I haven't warmed to Spanish wines in general.

[WillburForce]

fair enough.

A good, slightly obscure wine (you should be able to get in Canadaville) which you can show off to your friends with your leftfield tastes is Chateaux Musar or Hocar. Nice dry red (made from the same blends as Bordeaux wines). It's from Lebanon. Really really good!

[Tom1559]

I thought I had commented on this before but maybe not. Two favorite red wines are Jacobs Creek which is very nice but my all time favorite is a nice Spanish Rioja by Faustino. Preferably a Faustino V Reserva which is affordable.

[WillburForce]

I thought I had commented on this before but maybe not. Two favorite red wines are Jacobs Creek which is very nice but my all time favorite is a nice Spanish Rioja by Faustino. Preferably a Faustino V Reserva which is affordable.

I'd rather drink my own piss than drink Jacobs Crack...

[DoubleJ]

just out of interest, what's the availability of european wines like in the USA and Canada?

isn't there a fairly hefty import duty or tax or summink that makes 'em overly expensive on the shelves/in restaurants/in bars?