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benito posted:Also, learn what goes into the price of a bottle. Sometimes it's hype, sometimes it's justified. A lot of times it's small production or expensive real estate. Sometimes it's pricy because it required 15 years of careful storage before it could be properly enjoyed, and you've got to pay the back rent and air conditioning. Can we get people to go into a little bit more detail on this? I would love to be able to look at a bottle and go, "Ok, it cost them about 15 dollars to make this bottle so a price of 20-25 is really reasonable." Or, "This wine I never heard of looks like it cost 2.50 to make but they want $25? Pass." For instance, I have heard that if the wine is aged in 'New French Oak' that adds an easy $5 directly to the cost of manufacture because the barrels themselves cost $2500 and you only get so many bottle out of it. e: to help things a little does anyone have numbers on shipping costs? What about storage costs in the barrel vs out of the barrel? What things done in production can you think of that add directly to the cost of a bottle that you should look for on a label or the producers website?
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Sep 28, 2011 15:35
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Mister Macys posted:And what is the goon opinion of blended wines? That is, wines using more than one varietal? Not to confuse the issue but many (most?) wines are blended to some extent. Only a few areas have single varietals that are enforced by law. Most areas allow a single varietal to be listed on the label and still contain 5-10% (or more) of something else. Heck, the famous wine from Bordeaux is always a blend (to a greater or lesser degree) of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Merlot and Carmenere and there isn't a wine snob in the world that would turn his nose up at a bottle from a first growth vinter. So, don't worry about whether something is blended or not, drink what you like. It's not like whiskey where a blending that mutes the distilleries/regions distinct notes is considered a bad thing by purists. A good blend is often celebrated in wine circles.
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Dec 22, 2011 20:52
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Shooting Blanks posted:YES. Sorry to break rose chat, but for the first time in awhile I've found one of my favorite inexpensive Spanish reds locally, Volver. At $8.50/btl, I'll probably be buying a case or three when I get my next paycheck. I like Volver a lot, still have a few bottles hanging around. Frankly, I'm fond of the $6-$15 Spanish reds in general, they are certainly some of the best wines at that price point.
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Jan 13, 2012 22:52
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paradigmblue posted:Lately I've been getting requests for me to come to people's houses and do private tastings, pair wines for gourmet dinner clubs, and to select wines and host tastings for different charity organizations. Sounds straight forward to me. Offer your services as a teacher instead of as a consultant. 40 or 50 bucks a head plus costs. Instead of hosting a tasting you would be providing instruction on say, regional differences of selected single varietals. Instead of pairing wines for a dinner you could be teaching what wines go with what dish during the course of a meal. Pointing out what makes this sweet wine better with this spicy asian food and maybe providing a contrasting example. Does it mostly amount to the same thing? Sure, but the perspective is totally different. If you provide classes for a cost then people aren't going to expect you to provide the same service for free. If you still find you have more work than time, up your fee.
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Jan 31, 2012 19:06
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Riedel makes basic Red & White stems. Just get a set of each (or just the reds if you want, that's all I have). They sell them at Target: http://www.target.com/p/Riedel-Vivant-Red-Wine-Glasses-Set-of-4/-/A-10077707 http://www.target.com/p/Riedel-Vivant-White-Wine-Glasses-Set-of-4/-/A-10077706 And as you move on you can flesh out your collection into other, more specific designs if that appeals to you.
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Mar 6, 2012 16:26
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idiotsavant posted:I think the biggest problem with the various natural wine movements aren't necessarily the winemakers, but the writers, bloggers, and other bits of flotsam surrounding them. Most of the "natural" winemakers don't give a poo poo about the label; they care more about the wine. It's all the writers and bloggers around the business that stir up the pot, and for most it's because they're grasping for something with real meaning while doing poo poo all thats actually meaningful. It's trying to ascribe a cause->effect relationship to something that is inherently unmeasureable and largely the result of random chance. Did that wine come out great because the wine maker sang to his vines every night or did he just happen to have a nice plot of land that had better than average conditions a few years in a row? If you refuse to use the all the science and methodology that has been accumulated over the centuries of wine-making and yet you still get a good result does that invalidate the science? No, but some people seem to think it does and like to tout their observations very loudly.
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May 31, 2012 15:07
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pork never goes bad posted:The point is not to make the wine that tastes best (presumably what you mean by "the wine [came] out great"), the point is to make the wine that tastes truest, or most honest, or perhaps the wine that is truest or most honest. This sentence has no apparent meaning. It has words and they seem to be in some sort of order but there is no actual substance there. Define an 'true or honest wine' in some way that has meaning other than "didn't use some long established methodology and got a good result anyway" and maybe I'd be able to parse it.
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Jun 1, 2012 14:06
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pork never goes bad posted:You're either an idiot, or you're being obstinate. And you're being extremely pretentious. If the wine tastes bad, then no one cares that it represents the badness of the land it comes from. It has to be at least palatable to even have a discussion of it. So, so much for truth regardless of taste as you have expressed it. Honest, the way you've defined it here, is even worse. Wine has no inherent honesty, it is a manipulated product from the get go. It's very first step to becoming a thing requires considered human intervention, when to plant/pick the grapes. Screw it up by a little bit and you have changed there character of the wine entirely. So, for a wine to not 'mis-represent itself' it should seem to have be void of human intervention, yet, that is impossible. So, yeah, philosophy again posits to understand something by not making any attempt at understanding what makes it a thing, as usual.
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Jun 4, 2012 21:07
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As part of our pre-wedding events my wife and I took our guests to Clo Du Val for the tour and a tasting which is $30 a person and includes their classic & reserve wines. They also have a great outdoor area with tables and umbrellas where after the tasting we had a picnic lunch. They have wines starting from around ~$16 a bottle (up to $120) with case discounts when you buy there. It was a great time, I highly recommend it.
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Jul 12, 2012 15:34
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Longtiem posted:One thing that always amazes me still is that a table of 4 guests will all order 4 separate glasses of 8 dollar wine, but be really taken aback at ordering a 40 dollar bottle of wine. Same price per glass really, comically better quality of wine, but people can never wrap their heads around it. btg is a scam in every restaurant, especially with whites. If our whites weren't kept at 40 degrees Fahrenheit no one would enjoy them. 4 separate glasses of the same wine? Then, yeah it's pretty silly. However, the only times I have ever seen everyone at the table order individual glasses is when everyone has different dishes. If my wife wants a Pinot to go with her roast chicken dish and I want a cab to go with my steak and the other couple has mussles and a lamb dish then making everyone drink some compromise choice is probably the worst option even if it's a 'better' wine.
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Aug 1, 2012 15:09
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kirtar posted:At the moment I would just end up taking something at random and maybe check on cellar tracker to make sure that it isn't really bad. Is that probably about all I can get away with for now or are there better ways that I could actually use to pick stuff out? You know how to learn what kind(s) of wine you like? Drink lots of wine.
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Sep 25, 2012 00:30
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himajinga posted:What's the thread's thoughts on affordable-ish bubbly wines? I was always kind of meh on Champagne until I had a glass of a nice (Pierre Gimonnet 1er Cru I think?) blanc de blancs at Jean Georges last year and would like to get a few varied bottles to have around for special occasions that aren't cheap but don't break the bank. I'll probably get a bottle or two like that PG (should be around $50 apiece, yeah?), but someone mentioned Baud Cremant du Jura Brut which isn't "champagne" but would you say it fills that niche at a lower price point? Ideally I'd like to be spending around $30 a bottle, and maybe get 3 or 4 different ones to mix it up a little. Cava, Cava, Cava. Did I say Cava? Oh, yeah, Prosecco too. A $30 bottle of Cava is going to be a better 'bubbly wine' than a $60 (or even higher priced) bottle from Champagne.
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Feb 28, 2014 21:02
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I went with my wife to Napa Valley in 2010 and we stopped in at Castello di Amorosa and brought home a few bottles of Il Barone 2007 and stuck them in the basement under the stairs with my other special occasion wines and forgot about them. There is a note on them that says "Try one in 2016". Looking at cellar tracker and magazine comments it looks like it should be a good time. e: VVV Barolo is my favorite. That caramel-nut-berry thing you get in the good stuff is just amazing. Murgos fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Feb 17, 2016 |
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Feb 17, 2016 15:23
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skooma512 posted:Grifone Chianti from Trader Joe's is going to ruin my loving life. It's so pleasant to drink. Excellent with pepperoni pizza, btw.
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Mar 14, 2016 18:42
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Overwined posted:Please make a rational proof necessitating the existence of wine in the modern era. It tastes good and it makes you feel good (except when it doesn't) and enough of it might get you laid.
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Apr 11, 2016 20:44
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Overwined posted:All wine is sentimentality. Everything about it. What, even Manischewitz and Mad Dog 20/20? How about the stuff I made from my MRE dehydrated fruit ration in Africa?
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Apr 12, 2016 13:27
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That's kind of reaching a bit to posit that looking for consistency in a purchased product is a irrational behavior. Makes me think you're not very interested in having a real discussion. e: "Oh no, this wine tastes good every time I open a bottle! My life is sterile and boring!!!"
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Apr 14, 2016 13:18
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pork never goes bad posted:- if it's relatively more restrained, has less hang time than is typical, resists the "international" style and parkerization. Eh, Parker is completely trustworthy. If he rates a wine highly you know exactly what you will get. That may not be what you want, but that's not a failing of the reviewer.
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May 2, 2016 16:39
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Stitecin posted:I quit my Assistant Winemaker job at a high end winery making Russian River Pinot & Chard and Napa Cab and am starting next week as Winemaker for a little producer of Zin, and Rhone varietals just south of Healdsburg. I'm going from managing a crew and crushing ~475 tons to being the crew and crushing ~90 tons. So I should plan on stopping by in 2-3 years so I can compare your first bottles with your predecessors?
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Jun 7, 2016 20:13
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Comb Your Beard posted:Intrigued to try a Barolo, but put off by the expense and possibility of huge tannins. Just ask the store buyer which one is drinkable today. It really is his job to know. Then go and buy the best steak you can find and give it a nice char with a warm red center (I like the Alton Brown method indoors or a really hot hardwood fire for outdoors) and slip into greasy bliss.
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Jun 10, 2016 13:19
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Comb Your Beard posted:How do you successfully regift wine you don't want? Bring 2 bottles. One of something you want to drink and one of the thing you're trying to dump. Then only drink the one you actually like.
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Aug 18, 2016 23:00
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GTO posted:I've had a bunch of reidel glasses for the last few years and they're great. Despite being quite slender none have broken except when dropped and they've been through the dishwasher hundreds of times and look brand new. I had the opposite experience. I splashed out on a lot of Reidels and they were all gone after a year. Even once we started hand washing them they would just shatter randomly.
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Aug 26, 2016 08:09
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The whole natural movement is pretty suspect. There is absolutely no way to remove the winemakers decisions from the wine itself. You grew this specific grape in this place with x amount of watering and decided to pick the grape on day whatever and do some huge number of things to it and blend it with who knows what in some unknown proportions and age it for this long in that type of container and now it tastes like rear end. Congratulations! You made lovely wine, the grape varietal and the terrain had almost nothing to do with it. Heaven forbid you do everything 'natural' and the wine comes out tasting like a Robert Parker 97 point fruit bomb. You'd be laughed out of the movement.
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Nov 21, 2016 19:50
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idiotsavant posted:Yeah that's kind of sort of exactly what the natural wine movement isn't about. Amphorae and oxidation aside, the idea is to NOT do a huge number of unknown things to it, let alone to aim for a 97-point Parker wine. I'm not sure why this comes across as threatening and controversial to people, especially considering how small "natural wine" is, but whatever. Sorry, but I think you are deliberately missing the point of why I was using vague terms. The point is that everything that is, or is not, done during the wine making process is a conscious decision and nature plays almost no part in it. I've made wine in a bathtub. That's about as natural as it gets but no one is shilling that as the epitome of the natural wine movement.
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Nov 22, 2016 01:11
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