The Wine Thread -- what have you been drinking?

School me please people!

I really like Rioja, but after a couple of duds I realize I need a primer. Orbit?

i was looking at their schedule online today. i haven't gone yet, but it's something i keep meaning to do. tomorrow is australian wine.

oh i just had that last nite. nice

I'm drinking Renwood's sierra series zin from 2001 right now, it's decent but far from my fave. I love Peter Franus's zins, and highly recommend them if you can find them. I'm about to drink a 1997 Rosenthal Malibu Estates cab, and expect it to be fantastic as I had some about a year ago or so and it was getting really good. Had a 1997 Liparita cab from Napa a few days ago, great stuff. I'm running out of good wine though and have been falling back on the cheaper stuff as I am tonight, but cheap wines have been getting better lately.

Castle Rock cab is very very good for the money -- they're a Napa producer, but their cab is Washington fruit.

Jim, you sound like you're pretty into the Aussie stuff. I envy you getting to drink that Henschke -- sounds awesome. Have you Yalumba's unoaked chard? Very tasty.

I cant drink reds, I'm allergic :(

I wished I had a bottle of wine whilst watching Foopballers Wive$ last night but I did not :(

The label says J P Garrafeira 1995 Palmela. It's got some kind of D.O.C. style registration cert on the back. It's 100% Perequita varietal from Setubal peninsula, and I have no idea in hell what any of that is about, I've never had perequita. It's quite good. I think it's rather like a strong finishing Garnacha. You ever heard of this style Clarke? I got it on sale from a heavily raided case.

The question now is, what is the Miller High Life of champagne?

Orbit wrote: The best under $20 Champagne/Sparking Wine is Domaine Ste. Michelle Extra dry

Yes!! Yes!! It's never let me down. I can't think of anything even close (quality-wise) for that price. (Suggestions?)

Hunter wrote: At $11 Duck Pond Willamette Pinot Noir is a pretty decent, and obv. way cheap for PN.

Seconded! I was surprised...good stuff.

Also, there's a $5 Amontillado Sherry at Trader Joe's that's pretty decent for the price. That is, if we're counting fortified stuffs.

(Me? Good South African white. Gosh, that's a strange form of words.)

OK, so rose is red wine grapes with a brief exposure to the skins, whereas orange wine is white wine grapes with a long exposure. Interesting. Will look for it maybe when the weather gets warmer.

Somehow we wound up with a half bottle of Rose -- I literally do not remember how we got it, but I didn't feel like drinking a beer so I said fuck it and poured it. The brand is Schlumberger, no idea if this is good. It's kinda ok but kinda weird, like something vaguely pukey about it compared to other sparkling wine. Anyway tastes like something I should be drinking at some high class party and not alone in my apartment.

Schlumberger is some pretty high-end ish out of Sonoma County. Probably not too sweet. Enjoy it.

What he drank came neither from the decent-to-good (Cabernet especially) Michel-Schlumberger winery in Sonoma's Dry Creek Valley, named first for the Swiss banker and oilman who founded it in the late '70s and second for his later partner and ultimate owner, a Texas-born Californian descendant of the old French wine family (not sure whether a connection to the Houston-based multinational oilfield services company of that name), neither of whom was the winemaker or is involved any longer, nor from that family's much better-known Alsatian estate winery Domaine Schlumberger, which makes some very well-respected Rieslings and Gewurztraminers and is probably what "Schlumberger" means to most wine people, but from the Austrian mass producer (and therefore "brand") of sparkling wines named for the country's first such, who founded the company (now GmbH) in the mid-1800s.

the charles shaw at TJ's is pretty decent this year

That was a really enjoyable sentence to read.

"something vaguely pukey about it compared to other sparkling wine"

butyric acid... sometimes it goes away with age, but it's probably the most oft-putting off flavor.

Yeah, in sum it was fine but not something I'd seek out again.

the charles shaw at TJ's is pretty decent this year

― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, April 26, 2016 9:01 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I like when people call it "TJ's" because it always makes me think of "Like a Sunday in TJ, it's cheap but it's not free."

Charles Shaw makes an awesome Riesling for under $12ish. I think it's called Kung Fu Girl.

Other awesome inexpensive Rieslings (dry) Hermann Wiemer and Ravines from the Finger Lakes and Leitz Ein Zwei Dry from Rheingau.

imo riesling just tastes like sparkling sugary white grape juice

which I mean, it kind of is, but I don't really need that

yeah way too sweet for me

Charles Smith (better than Charles Shaw) makes Kung Fu Riesling and lots of other good wines. Also can appear high as a kite in person.

German riesling (Mosel) and riesling from the 70s and 80s is what you are associating with off dry riesling (typically Mosel). A good rule of thumb is if it's less than 12% alcohol it will be off dry.

Oh Charles Smith is the 2 Buck Chuck brand?

If you enjoy spicy food or asian takeout, riesling is a win. Or Champagne, Cava.

Ugh, Charles Shaw I mean for $2 Chuck. Charles Smith has those graphic wine labels.

spicy food or asian takeout cannot be eaten with my Dad around without a reminder from him that it's good with Gewurtz/Riesling

it simply cannot be

Ha. Riesling is like somm gatorade. Basically for anything spicy salty you need either residual sugar or a high level of acid to cut through the salt/spice. Although I do know people who love to drink tannic, robust wines with spicy food because they like the bitter burn.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ChBoQcNWkAA5Y9K.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ChDJ5GmWwAEu85H.jpg:large

https://twitter.com/FredericBillet1/status/725301524210024448

If Terrence Malick was a winemaker...

wow

We found this Argentinian Malbec for $11 called Las Piedras. Damn good, think it will become a go-to.

gobelsburger cistercian rose has quickly become my favorite rose

Malbec is definitely one of my go-to reds. Spanish tempranillos and garnachas are also good value.

I feel like Malbec's flavor profile is sort of in the same general range as Cabernet but usually cheaper for similar quality, and that's usually the kind of flavor profile I like most in reds.

I've discovered that there is actually a type of french wine I don't like - Fer Servadou. Just a weird profile all around, started out a little bit manichevitzy and ended very astringent.

OTOH have been loving Italian reds. Barbera D'Alba *chef's kiss*

Just drinking the usual red plonk. Nothing special.

We have a wine bar we occasionally go to now because it's literally five minutes drive from our house, the owner is a local, and he has very good taste. I have a tendency to want to try whatever I don't know, which is how I wound up with Fer Servadou last time, but I guess that one was a bust. Other times it's served me really well. He has a few Georgian "orange wines" and I'm thinking I might try one next time.

I brought a bottle of Spanish orange wine back from Spain many years ago. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but really not good wine.

Since January I've been getting into wine by drinking a bottle of something new every week. I'd always been a beer guy, then got into cocktails, then sherry but for some reason wine had never been my thing. It's fun - turns out there are lots of kinds of wine.

Anyway, for UK folks I highly recommend https://www.vincognito.co.uk - it's amazingly well-curated and I kind of want to try everything they have in stock.