We talk about wine in different threads, so I thought I’d create a separate one dedicated to wine and wine-related topics.
Post your favorite (or least favorite) wines in here. tell stories. Any tips, share them.
I use an app Vivino to track what I drink (when I remember to add it).
It’s a neat little app to track and and make notes. Een has the ability (with varying success) to tell you where you can get a bottle near you and what it might cost.
You can make a review and post it, so when people search or add that wine tot heir app, they can see your review.
It cracks us up sometimes reading the reviews of the wine we might be drinking at the time.
I can certainly point out some notes in wine (oaky, some fruits, tobacco (yep), smoky, etc).
But some people get a little specific or, um, creative, with their descriptions.
Some descriptions we’ve come across lately:
Grass
Biscuit
Yeast
Paremesan
Bubblegum
New leather
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When I was young and afraid of alcohol - ice wine.
Now I cringe at the sweetness (and the price!!)
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My favourite is Klingon blood wine. My least favourite is “Melbourne Old-and-Yellow”, which is particularly heavy, and should be used only for hand-to-hand combat.
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The best wines are big, bad California cabs.
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I have actually tasted bubblegum in a wine. It was the most distinctive taste in that wine of the six we were tasting that day, which was a tasting of six-month barrels. When I asked the pros how they determined now what will become a great wine in a few years when it’s released, they really didn’t know. Just a feel, though they do have a lab working out all the objective numbers.
A few weeks ago, we (wife and I and our wine buddies couple who belongs to too many wine clubs) watched a documentary “Somm” about several people taking the test to become Master Sommoliers. They had thousands of index (flash) cards they wrote themselves and were quizzing themselves and each other. Reminded me of my distant past.
I prefer Pinot Noir, but I’ll drink our wine buddies’ wine. Had a Syrah and a Cab last weekend. This weekend we are attending a Vertical (same grapes, different years) tasting of Chardonnays at the winery that we belong to, then visiting a winery and an in-town (Arroyo Grande) tasting room. Last year at our beach weekend, our wine buddies set up a Vertical of Pinot Noir that were different yet all tasty. This year they set up a vertical of Syrah, one of which was very tasty (the others, eh). While I have two small wine refrigerators (18 pinots or 30 cabs each), our buddies have one giant 150+ bottle fridge, AND a bedroom full of boxes of wine. Oh, and that fridge just went on the fritz!
I’m spoiled that we live a few hours from Central Coast, and we belong to two wine clubs that provide us with wines that are not sold at Total Wine, but I’d rather buy wine and drink it than wait a few years for it to be that much better (if it really will be). Plus, in our wine clubs, we get some expensive wine and don’t want to open them except for important occasions, and those just aren’t happening as often as they should. And, I don’t want to open them for swiggers who just want the buzz.
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100% of the time I read that type of wine’s name, I start singing the song from Kimmie Schmidt.
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They drink well young but not so good for cellaring.
There are a small number of individuals who are good at predicting a wines future success at the barrel stage. Robert Parker is the most famous, and the wines value can increase tremendously depending on his announcements. He’s not always right but right often enough to affect the market. It requires an excellent palate and a good memory of how past wines tasted at an early stage.
I disagree. Try a bottle of Hess Allomi cab young ($25 or $30 per bottle), and then buy a couple of bottles and put them up for 4 or 5 years. Man that bottle really tamed out, I thought. The tannins grew more subdued, and the fruit started to shine.
Top-quality CA Cabs generally will cellar well. (Probably not 2-Buck Chuck.)
I’ve found that most California Pinots will peak at 5-7 years.
I stole a Wine Enthusiast mag (hotel copy) that had a chart based on region and grape, which was pretty enlightening. French wines tend to last a lot longer.
There are always exceptions. My wine buddy had a 20-year old NoCal Chardonnay at a tasting that he found excellent, though it was probably always excellent. Not an expert, but storage quality and cork quality probably have a lot to do with whether a wine will age well or go bad. Go into a store and find an old wine and you have no idea how it’s been stored or where it’s been.
Having a 14-year old Chardonnay this weekend at our tasting. Will post about it.
I got my spouse a wine of the month thing for Christmas. They drink wine, I don’t. So in comes a bottle of ‘fortified wine’ from a Canadian winery. They weren’t a fan. I tried it, and liked it.
Some googling later, it turns out I like port. Cheap, $9/bottle 18% alchohol port.
So then I started trying different ports. I’ve tried a bunch at different price points. Tried the $12 stuff, the $20 stuff, even tried the $40 bottle (I skipped the $60 bottle). turns out I like the $9 bottle as much as any of the others, and more than most.
I’m a cheap drunk.
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Cali cabs will cellar in the short term yes but beyond 10 years they start to fade. Barolo, top end Bordeaux, South Australian Shiraz and Burgundy are barely getting started at 15 years.
Also, sorry for posting in your thread.
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I love port. One of the few wines I can still distinguish cheap from oh damn that’s good.
Somewhere in the past 10 15 years I lost the ability to distinguish top end wines. It is an odd story of loving cheap wine and malt liquor and yet enjoying fancy ass expensive wines pared with fine food. So many wines sour notes emerge so I prefer sweeter (cheaper!) wines.
Now I drink mostly blends unless I can get a recommendation for a paring with a good meal.
That’s kind of how I am with sparkling wine. Give me either Dom Perignon ($225ish) or Martini & Rossi ($13ish / sweet). I don’t want Moet & Chandon or Vueve Clicquot ($50ish).
Had some wine yesterday. Bread and Butter pinot noir. 2019, $14.
Tasted this and that on the palate.
Often, my wife and I write down the notes we think we taste and compare our lists. Then we compare those to the reviews people enter into the Vivino app (It’s also good app to track what you love, what you like, what you’ll tolerate and what you won’t try again).
One of the reviews mentioned bubble gum. It was not on our list of notes. But after we read ‘bubble gum’ it dominated my brain. Dammit.
Do you realize that Dom Perignon is produced by Moet et Chandon?
Moet (well now it’s really LVMH) owns the brand, but it is produced separately and certainly branded separately.