The Wine Thread -- what have you been drinking?

Lately I've been buying the Frontera Cabernet Sauvignon in the 1.5L bottles for something like $9 a pop. Crazy cheap, and tastes pretty good.

I brought home a Spanish orange wine from a vacation about 15 years ago. I was intrigued at the time, thinking it was a fermented orange/grape mix, but I later read that citrus is too acidic for yeast, so the orange was likely added later. Too sweet, and not very good really. It took me several months to finish it.

the orange wine itt is white wine that sits on grape skins for a while, giving it an orange colour.

quite a few new restaurants here in sydney now have an orange wine section on the winelist & i really like them... they're not any more expensive than other wines, but i think that's because a lot of the young australian 'natural' wine makers enjoy making them.

OK, I've never heard of that, outside of "white zin" type abominations.

the orange wine itt is white wine that sits on grape skins for a while, giving it an orange colour

I thought that was how rose (imagine an accent over the e) is made. Is there something different about the process that makes it orange rather than pink?

wikipedia says -

This winemaking style is essentially the opposite of rosé production which involves getting red wine grapes quickly off their skins, leaving the wine with a slightly pinkish hue.

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

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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.