Any Wine drinkers?

Anyone like wine with dinner?

What varieties do you prefer?

I like:

Cabernet Sauvignon
Syrah/Shiraz
Zinfandel

Make mine red and full bodied, please.

I'd always thought Syrah and Shiraz were completely different.

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GJW said:
I'd always thought Syrah and Shiraz were completely different.

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Same grape, but different country. The grape is call "Shiraz" in Australia. In France, its called Syrah. It can be called either, depending on its style, in California.

Cabernet,Merlot,Shiraz and blends in that order.

Best buys are from Australia and South America right now.

There's also petite syrah(or sirah),to further complicate matters.
I have an in-law who is the chief winemaker (a combined scientist,artist,magician kind of profession) of a small Sonoma winery(Fieldstone).So I'm flush in vino. They make a brilliant Petite Sirah,a lighter red but at it's best,still complex wine that will go with about anything. What is considered to be a "Rhone style" wine. A hard to find label because of small production. Yummy.

Although I love red wine, it tends to give me a headache, so I end up drinking whites as well. A good chardonnay can at least have some good complexity. For reds, I like cabernets and pinot noir. I also tend to like Italian wines, high quality chianti as a table wine, and brunello di montalcino has become a mad fave.

Don't drink as much wine as I'd like to because my wife doesn't drink wine, and I'm not up to drinking a bottle by myself, so I only drink it with friends.

I used to like reds as well, but found that I prefer the taste of the whites with more of my favorite foods.

Try a ressiling next time. It you get the chance, Monchoff makes a good one that's not too pricey.

If anyone gets to take a road trip towards Austin, check out Fredricksburg, TX. Lots of wineries and lots of tasting opportunities. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/party.gif

-Jason

When I have wine its usually a zinfandel I was enjoying mead when I lived in Oh. A local vinyard produced this very old "wine" only from the vinyard store. chablis or a good chianti are great with a pizza. I was a member of a wine club for several years and if you are interested in learning wines they are an outstanding opportunity to sample some of the great wines of the world for a years membership plus the food is varied depending on the wines to be sampled that meeting.

Ahh.. Zinfandel. Gimme anything from the three R's, Ridge Ravenswood, Rafinelli. Of course plenty others are making some awesome teeth-staining zins, too.

There are some good cabs to be had these days for cheap, all from outside the U.S. :-( Seems as if the Cali crowd is a bit too proud of their wines to offer it at a price that working stiffs are willing to pay.

Look out for NY reds in the future. Don't laugh, the best pinot I've ever had came from relatively new vineyard north of (honestly) Buffalo, NY. I'm not a pinot fan, but this place has their crap together.

Ordin

Currently, My favorite wine for EDD (Every Day Drinking!) is the Beringer Chennin Blanc.

Not as fruity as a White Zin or other blush wine, But more quaffable than a Chardonnay.

When shopping for reds, I usually end up with Red Zin's. BTY, I HATE haveing to SAY RED zinfandel, as ALL zinfandel before the 1980's was RED. But I am sure that anyone reading this post would probably know that.

If money were no object, and political differences aside, my favorite, even over a Good Zin, is estate bottled Burgundies, both red and white.
Article on Burgundy, and estate bottled wines
Becky Wasserman, represents some of the best estate bottled Burgundies!

I really do not buy Burgandies anymore, occasionally I will find a nicely priced Macon Village, and OF COURSE, I do the Beaujolis Nouveau every year, the third Thursday of Novemember, the new Beaujolais gets released, but that's the "other" burgundy, not a Pinot Noir.

My feeling is that there is more consistancy in American wines, but some of the best wines I have ever had, have been french.

The most expensive bottle of wine I have ever owned, (it was given to me), I waited too long before opening it up, and it was bad.

It was a 1979 Compte Lafon Le Montrachet (it might have been a 80 or 82). I kept it in the referigerator but, I waited too long, and the wine was rancid! It was probably a 1000 bottle of wine, that was bad!

I have a bottle of 1982 Ch. Mouton-Rothschild, Pauillac . This is the 1st wine that Robert Parker gave a perfect 100 score.I think I paid almost 100 dollars for this, back in 1985. It is selling for almost 1000 a bottle now! I am very tempted to sell it, but, still hoping for that perfect "cooking dinner at home, for my date, with a special woman", (hasnt happened yet!) I am keeping it.

To tell the truth, while some of the best wines I have had, were French, if I had to find a GREAT Pinot Noir tomorrow, I would go out and buy a Calera single Vineyard California Pinot Noir, over a "quality to be determined" french Burgundy. I would also consider some high end Oregon Pinot Noirs too!

Italian Reds used to be fun too, when they were cheaper to buy!

Clos Du Bois, Gewurztraminer

We usually have a box of the finest Zin in the frige. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yellowlaugh.gif

1999 Charmes-Chambertin Jean Raphet.

Most any red rhone, good values, funky smells.

The guigal 2000 cote du rhone is a great value . It's been a consistent wine through a number of vintages but 2000 has been particularly good.funky smells,yeahhh.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

As a value wine, I like the St. Francis "50-year vine" Zinfandel. At about $15 per bottle at Costco, it offers a lot of flavor in its price range.

For half of the cost of the St. Francis (which is a great wine!), a bottle of the Ravenswood Vinter's Blend can be had. Very decent wine, ol' Peterson knows his black grapes, that's for certain. It's not a overtly complex as any of the single vineyard designated wines, but at $7 a bottle you can drink twice as much! Gotta like that...

Throw another $10 on top of the $15 already willing to be spent and get a bottle of Ridge. Any Ridge. The vineyard designation is almot immaterial (although the Pagani Ranch is consistently awesome.) There hasn't been a dud to ever come from them.

Ordin

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Ordin_Aryguy said:

Throw another $10 on top of the $15 already willing to be spent and get a bottle of Ridge. Any Ridge. The vineyard designation is almot immaterial (although the Pagani Ranch is consistently awesome.) There hasn't been a dud to ever come from them.

Ordin

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The name of the vineyard is ridge? Or is that short for something?

I'll give them a try, but I want to make sure I get the right name.

Do they have Cabernet Sauvignon as well?

Your on the right track. Ridge is the vineyard. You won't be dissappointed... Any wine merchant worth his weight will know of it. Ridge, along with Ravenswood, Rosenbloom and Rafinelli were at the cusp of the Zin revolution 20 years ago. Prior to that it was mainly a local Napa jug wine not distributed very widely. Those vineyards spent time, effort, and care on those under-producing black grapes and developed the firey, chewy, tooth-staining wine that so many of us love.

Those vineyards carry the status of royalty among the Zinfanatics of the world.

There are plenty others that make a fine Zin, too. Frog's Leap, Howell Mountain, Dry Creek, are just a few that quickly come to mind. Experiment, try a bunch!!

Ridge used to make a Cab. Never had one, though. Stopped at their Zin's. No reason to change.

Ordin

357,

Go here (www.ridgewines.com), look at at label, remember what it looks like, find one just like it in a liquor store. Open. Enjoy.

Geyserville has always been my personal favorite, but it can't legally carry the Zinfandel labelling because it consists of only 75% Zin grapes and the rest some other half breeds that snuck in the vineyard. Either way, it's awesome.

Ordin