The Wine Thread -- what have you been drinking?

crozes
pommard
bierzo
cotes de ventoux
some nz sauv blanc

Does the shape of a bottle say anything about the wine it contains? I am asking this question after attempting to divide a bottle into 4-5 glasses based on the height of the label (level after the 2nd glass?) and finding it works differently for French (feminine) and Spanish / Portuguese reds (masculine). Spanish reds were featured in a Lloyd Cole song. If he were to rewrite it today, I imagine he would tie Greek whites to the drachma or something like that ...

It does: Burgundy and new world pinot noir have a rounded shape; Bordeaux and its grapes (cabernet sauvignon et al) have a straight cylinder shape; and Rhone wines (syrah, grenache, mouvedre) have an even more rounded, shapely bottle.

But, with a few funny exceptions, they all hold 750 mL of wine.

high shouldered = bordeaux, rioja, chianti
low shouldered = burgundy, rhone, barolo mostly

then there are those slender alsace/german things that new-world riesling producers kitschily copy

Giant photo, but here are the four common shapes (forgot to mention tall/slim for riesling, gewurtz, etc. from Germany and Alsace):

http://www.windowonwine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/bottle-shapes.jpg

traditional jura wines are still sold in some peculiar size like 620ml or sthing

I think I've seen those .. Please forgive the gender stereotypes ...

The shoulders are meant to capture debris when pouring the last of the bottle, so you see them on reds rather than whites.

the wikipedia page for vacqueyras is amusingly sniffy & embittered

Being a little brother of Châteauneuf-du-Pape and, arguably, Gigondas, the wine is moderately prestigious and can yield pleasing results when treated correctly.[2]

The best vineyards are found on Plateau de Garrigues. In the lowland, warmer temperatures result in more powerful and often inelegant wines.[2]

The red wine can be much like the wines from Gigondas but for some reason Vacqueyras rarely manages to match their northern sibling.[citation needed]

Vacqueyras is, like Gigondas, known for its power rather than its elegance.

G & V now seem ro be in a great place these days.

I almost never drink anything but cheap plonk, but lately when I want a wine with a reputable character I've been buying reds from the Cote du Rhone appellation, with invariably good results.

there is some excellent wine from vacqueyras and it's usually better than cheap chateauaneuf-du-pape

Trader Joe's has a cheap Cote du Rhone that I think is not bad. I think it's the one with a rooster on the label, in a kind of squat bottle.

i'll be visiting the states in about a week and will be visiting trader joe's promptly upon arrival. what bargain wines might you recommend, o ilx trader joe sommelier types? is that a proper recommendation for the roostery cote du rhone, or were you just giving it a backhanded compliment?

I don't know if they have this at Trader Joes, but Ravenswood 2009 Vintners Blend Cabernet Sauvignon is great value at around $9 per bottle. Very drinkable and balanced.

No, I do like the roostery CdR. I'll stop by again to see if that's an accurate description. It's about $6. I used to get their Black Mountain stuff, every varietal I tried I liked, and it was $5/bottle then. You'll have to try a 2 buck chuck, just to say you did. I "prefer" the Syrrah, but for all I know all the reds are the same wine.

I like the Casilliero del Diablo Carmenere, and a Bodega Norton Malbec, both $8.

Rooster-y Cotes du Rhone is La Veille Ferme--mass produced but from one of the Perrins, so related to the same family as Reserve Perrin and Chateau du Beaucastel.

TJs is good at having exclusives on $5-$20 wines, worth taking a chance based on the lengthy descriptions in the store. Wouldn't go for Two Buck Chuck or $5 pinot noir unless you're hosting an art opening.

good call o.nate - ravenswood was my go to cheap wine when i lived in california, you could get it at every corner store and supermaket in northern california for $7/bottle back then. highly quaffable. glad to know they're still putting out quality product! dunno if they have it at trader joes but maybe i'll see it somewhere

i've bought blindly at TJs before, never gotten anything undrinkable but some choices were definitely better than others

you know, there should be a rolling trader joe's cheap ass wine recommendations thread! i mean there's a lot of turnover/new products coming through, right? pretty much everyone i know loves tj's cheap ass wines, but not all cheap ass wines are equally good.

contributors could go all wine snob and rate the bouquet, finish, nose, discuss the composition of the blends and terroir etc, or just call out exceptionally awesome cheapie finds

The TJ's Caves du Fournalet Cotes du Rhone is the one I was thinking of. But the rooster one is good too.

http://www.cheapwinefinder.com/2012/09/2011-caves-du-fournalet-cotes-du-rhone-red/

thanks! off to tj's now and thought i'd check in, score. also, i can confirm that theirjunmai ginjo sake is v quaffable - if it's at all cheap i'll buy another one (tbh i stole that shit out of parents liquor cabinet and drank the whole thing in a day. yes i am 44 years old)

drinking a red st aubin atm

it's not that great, i don't think it's corked but it's quite astringent for village burgundy

I had a Maipe Malbec 2011 recently. Good value - nice balance of smokiness, fruit, astringency.

just wanted to point this out:

http://www.mnstatefair.org/_assets/pdf/competition/ahb_fruit_rs.pdf

page 6, Lot 001 Red grape table wine, 100% MN grapes

that's my dad's wine at #1 ^_^

'Good intensity with beautiful raspberry fruit. Good weight on the palate with a clean Pinot Noir purity, elegant with a good balance, finesse and long length. '

hmmmn

Also, the rooster wine actualy has a goat on it, but at some point it was a rooster, I think. And both are $4.99 here (LA area) rather than the $5.99 mentioned in the link I posted.

DJP: Your dad's wine as in a favorite of his, or one he's involved in making?

appelation minnesota contrôlée

how do you grow grapes in the american version of siberia?

OK, followed the link. Perry Vineyard! How large is the label, production-wise?

University of MN has an excellent agriculture dept all about creating delicious hardy fruits and vegetables to grow in the MN climate

Dad's vineyard is super small, with about 200 vines. He made about 30 cases of wine in the batch he submitted to the fair

in a fit of tightwaddedness i bought a bottle of 2 buck chuck: a charles shaw 2011 california chardonnay. it did the job and didn't taste revolting, but that's about all i can say about it.

also finally scored a bottle of j sparkling wine (the last one at whole foods) i've been looking for one since i had a really delicious bottle of the stuff back in '97, but this bottle tasted nothing like champagne - it was as if regular wine had become carbonated. not particularly impressed this time.

also, if you are going to try to re-enact the champagne blowjob scene from espedair street, i suggest you keep the bubbly at room temperature, not freezing cold, right out of the fridge etc

I picked up some Juan Gil Jumilla (Spain) yesterday. An earlier vintage got listed on one of those glossy wine mags in their "100 best of the year" roundup. It is very good and about $17. Vons supermarkets are having a 30% off everything sale with an extra 10% off if you buy 6 of anything, so I got it for under $11. Also picked up some Poppy Pinot Noir for about $8, also something I've had before and liked.

That one Vons I went to has a pretty impressive wine selection, with a special locked room where I could see $200+ bottles on sale. Never asked to go in, because that's out of my range.

Also a good beer selection.

Domaine Grand Cotes du Jura Trousseau 2010 (Jura, France): For some reason, my initial reaction was this wine tastes a bit like beer: I think my mother will like it. The Wikipedia entry for Jura wines states that yeast is used in the production of vin jaune. It is a light-bodied red, however, and has low alcohol content, unlike what is claimed in various Wikipedia entries.

vin jaune is aged like seven years in casks

that sounds like a pretty nice wine anyway, maybe like an alsace pinot noir or something? i would like to try more wines from places like jura and savoie

the other day i had some argentine malbec/syrah which was total dogshit and conceivably the worst wine in the world not containing antifreeze, assuming it didn't contain antifreeze

Malbec/Syrah sounds like a weird blend. I usually avoid those 50/50 blends - I had a Sauvignon Blanc/Chardonnay once that was pretty nasty.

The different wines that go into rose seem interesting together. For white wines, it seems the most you can do is to use sweet wines for effect. I think I've had good Semillon/Sauvignon blanc. I also remember liking the Qupe Marsanne Roussanne.

well semillon/s.v. is p. standard bordeaux shit; malbec/shirz is more like we don't know wtf we're doing

no it's like whatever the worst cheapest shit to bulk buy and sell we can stick in a bottle for something that costs barely more than the excise tax

usually different varietals are combined maybe 70:30 or 80:20, many of the famous bordeaux wines tend to be either merlot or cabernet sauvignon heavy, or better mendoza wines might be predominantly malbec with some cabernet sauvignon

it's less common to employ a roughy equal amount of two different wines, at least in the old world, though you might find it with grenache/syrah or grenache/tempranillo in southern france and spain, and in australia/chile/etc it tends to be pretty entry level stuff

The 2009 Dee Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is pretty good value for about $12.

A friend gave me a bottle of Joseph Carr's Josh Cabernet, and it's really good, and seems to only run like $10-15 a bottle according to my searches.

Annabella Napa Valley Merlot also good value in the $10-15 range.

Also like the Nimbus Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc (from Chile).