OT: Wine Aficionados - What's your favorite wine?
Since cigars and wine pair well, thought I'd toss this one out there. I'm not an aficionado, but I like to drink wine.
There are no wrong answers except for Franzia and Barefoot. Three buck Chuck is okay.
I think wine is strongly influenced by where you are and who you're with, so that's probably going to influence my top two:
1. I may get mocked for this, but I had a delicious rosato made from cabernet grapes at a small, family owned vineyard in Napa. It was a warm day, sitting in the midst of gorgeous scenery, with my beautiful wife, drinking a bone dry, totally unsweet rose, which was quite unique to me and entirely unlike the run-of-the-mill grocery store rose.
2. Had an awful day and was super stressed. Decided to open a bottle of chateau gigognan chateauneuf du pape clos du roi 2013. It was really good so I went and bought a case.
Franzia is actually great for cooking. No need to use nice stuff, as ingredient combinations and heat will change the profile and nose, and the bag keeps it fresh for much longer.
Also slapping the bag is still fun...
Major key to staying young...slappa da bag mon
2011 Edelgraben Weissburgunder. Went to Vienna once and the friends we were visiting took us out to a very nice dinner, and they served that wine with one of the courses. It was like nothing I've ever tasted before or since. I'm not all that sophisticated about wine but drinking that was a memorable experience.
only drink wine when I am out of beer, and I am only out of beer when I have drunk a lot of them. So, I don't have a favorite or a least favorite one, only the one that I drink before I black out. As a general rule, if wine enters my life for any reason, I am going to have a rough morning.
Just the sight of this bottle brings back the memory of my first job, working in a warehouse around Christmastime. My buddy and I went to lunch and polished off a bottle of this in his car (toasting the holiday, I guess.) Then, half in the bag, we went back to stocking shelves.
As an aside, remember Corelle Ware, those dishes that didn't chip? Fun fact: they would shatter if you dropped them from enough height. So in our Mad Dog-fueled state, we did - three times. By the time we finished, three boxes of the French Country pattern sounded like a maraca.
Good times. Shitty wine, but good times.
1. don't let anyone tell you there's a problem with rose. some roses are great.
2. most wine connoisseurs i know (and i agree with this) don't have a favorite wine. it's not like having a favorite soda. it depends on what you want at that moment, what you're eating, etc.
3. since it's summer, and many people prefer whites given the temperature and lighter food we tend to eat this time of year, for this period, i recommend you look into sauvignon blancs from malborough, new zealand. although they're starting to become very popular, they're still pretty cheap and good ones can be found in all price ranges. some easy to find ones are oyster bay and kim crawford. those are pretty basic and will give you a sense of what malborough SBs taste like.
German.
Potato
OSU 2015 is a particularly rare and expensive vintage, but we understand the vinyards may be increasing their production in the near future.
....I like a more sweet wine....
I'm not a huge wine drinker, but I've liked anything by Menage Trois that I've had so far. It has been pretty decent and inexpensive.
The wife and I are big fans of Spanish wine. Anything from the Montsant vinyard, specifically Canblau and Zerran are big favorites of ours.
When we want to go cheap though, we buy Bota Box. 3 bottles worth for $17.00. It tastes like you'd expect so you get what you pay for, but it works for us when we don't want to go out and buy a nice bottle.
Not much of a wine person myself, but I was once given incredible words to live by when selecting wine:
"The quality of a wine is inversely proportional to the viciousness of the animal displayed on the bottle."
Which is why the finest wine in the world is Mildly-Sedated Pomeranian Puppy Pauillac.
I'm a big fan of their zins: Earthquake, and Seven Deadly Zins. At ~$30 and ~$15 respectively, very well priced.
I am judging each and every one of you
We've been members of the wine club at Casa Nuestra for many years, they fit that description (Saint Helena, though, Napa-adjacent) and have a very nice Rosado.
I second ish's comment above that you shouldn't paint rose' with too broad a brush. It's not all like white zinfandel.
... of a story about a wine ad that appeared in the NY Subway.
A couple toasting with glasses of wine above the caption:
"Having a wonderful wine ..."
To which a subway wit had appended "... wish you were beer."
There are exceptions of course, but on balance 2010 is a much better vintage for Brunello than 2011. I'll hang up now and take my insults off the air.
matters.
Sounds like it wasa fun trip!
<<<self checks username. it checks out.
Some of my favorites regions/styles:
Washington and Oregon cabs and syrahs. Anything from Owen Roe is damn good.
While Italy is perhaps most famous for Tuscan wines, Piedmont way in the north is where it is at. Nebbiolo, whether it's plain Nebbiolo, or from Barolo or Barbaresco can be fantastic, if pricey. Also from Piedmont is Dolcetto and Barbera-- two grapes that make super flexibile and approachable wines that won't break the bank. Roero Arneis for great Piedmontese white. Vietti is a very solid producer and fairly easy to find in wine shops.
For value, Garnache is your grape. Check the pallets at Costco for wines from Spain or Portugal.
For an alternative to tried and true Napa cabs: Priorat (Spain)
Cheers!
Had a nice grenache the other day and I think I may start to drink more of it. Has the jamminess of pinot noir that I like. Doesn't tend to have as much acidity, though, and I like a lot of acid.
I have a few that come to mind:
Chateau Palmer 2006.
Opus One 2010 (people will say it's overrated/overpriced, which, yeah it probably is. But my girlfriend and I visited the winery in Napa a few years ago and have incredible memories from the trip, so I'm sentimental about this wine).
Any Duoros from Portugal. Fantastic wines for $30-$40.