The Wine Thread -- what have you been drinking?

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.)

Columbia Crest Merlot/Cabernet $3.99 Woo-hoo!!!!! has withstood the multiple bottle test! A nice tobacco-y but smooth wine, it has pretty good body and mild tannins, great able wine! I am doing the wine dance now. *hop* *hop*

Orbit, inconsistency in most wine goes with the turf. I think I actually get more corked stuff than not. Go for screwcaps if you want consistency. Sadly, until the trade adopts them as an industry standard then you'll have to take your chances with most wines.

Next up to try is a bottle of '98 Tablas Creek Rouge -- Paso Robles Rhone-styled blend of mourvedre, grenache, syrah, and counoise. I've heard nothing but good things about Tablas Creek stuff, so I'm anxious to try this. Those southern Rhone varietals rock me.

Stolenbus and I are finishing up a bottle of 1999 Chateau Gueyrosse (St-Emilion Grand Cru) ($20 or so retail, but this bottle was a free sample -- thank you, job!), which has been extremely tasty. It's so nice to have a restrained, elegant wine once in a while. Everyone goes on and on about how BIG so-and-so California cabernet or Aussie shiraz is, and yeah it's fun to have a compeltely teeth-staining fruit bomb every once in a while, but come on. This wine has a soul, a personality -- it's there for you to talk to, to wonder about, not just to fuck.

When we woke up, I saw the bottle of wine. And instead of crying out loud in horror... I put it in the fridge, and we drank it that evening. Further proof that anything is nice just if it's VERY COLD.

I know what I'm doing. ;-)

I'm interested in the Trader Joe's phenomenon -- they seem to be extremely effective tastemakers. How many of you will buy something based solely on a Trader Joe's recommendation? How reliable do you find them in terms of finding good values?

Beer is more my everyday beverage; I tend to spend a little more on wines and drink them less frequently. I'd rather have an $18-$20 wine once a week than a $9-$10 wine twice a week. That's not to discount good value wines under $10 -- I definitely have my share of them, too -- but I think I've finally gotten my palate to the point where that extra bit of quality and complexity can make a real difference in my enjoyment of a bottle.

They usually come up with a good enough blend of 'hey, it's cheap to try' and 'come on, the description's just useful enough, isn't it?'

Trader Joe's carries a bunch of wines (100 or so?) from all over the world priced between $2 and $15. The thing is, none of them are really terrible. If it's sold at TJ's, then they've tasted it for themselves and will sell it, usually for much cheaper than at any other store. I don't think they're "tastemakers" or that I rely on their "recommendation", but if it's sold at Trader Joe's then it's probably drinkable and there's probably nowhere else to get it cheaper.

Related question, and pertinent to something I'm thinking about/working on right now: do you approach wine (and/or beer) with the same aesthetic rigor as you do music? In what sense? The more I learn about wine, the more I feel comfortable evaluating it aesthetically, even down to things like petty, playful disses based on the type of person who buys a given wine. Maybe this question deserves its own thread...

...when you meet up with all of us properly I HOPE AND TRUST.

The more I learn about wine, the more I feel comfortable evaluating it aesthetically, even down to things like petty, playful disses based on the type of person who buys a given wine.

! Are you turning into Christgau?

Gygax, you're probably kidding, but I've been thinking about stuff like that quite a lot lately!

Yeah, it's unreal - even cheaper than a Costco or something. I get Campari and Scotch there!

indie wine = bonny doon, who won my heart back in 97 with "le cigare volante". my half empty case sits there like demolition plot j-7, afraid to be enjoyed.

Anyway, this wine made me remember how amazing Pinot Noir can be. It was so deep, but the layers of flavor and nuance came through loud and clear -- if a heavy, rich California Cabernet Sauvignon is densely opaque, this Pinot is beautifully translucent. It's the Windy and Carl to Cab's Kevin Drumm. And the mouthfeel, holy crap -- silky but full, and you can hardly believe something so supple and soft could be in your mouth.

I know I'm not the only one drinking wine out there...

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.