Any Wine Drinkers in here?

Jhayman

You betcha I love my Californians , Cab Savs and Merlots are my fav's, but here in Ontario in the Niagara region we do have some very nice wines coming out over the last 5 years or so that have ranked Very High in the World of Wines especially our Ice Wines, which I'm not a fan of..lol

mantis

Jhayman wrote: »

You betcha I love my Californians , Cab Savs and Merlots are my fav's, but here in Ontario in the Niagara region we do have some very nice wines coming out over the last 5 years or so that have ranked Very High in the World of Wines especially our Ice Wines, which I'm not a fan of..lol

What is ICE WINE?

mhardy6647

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_wine

These are sweet/dessert wines not unlike Sauternes or a German Trockenbeerenauslese. There's a very nice one made from apples from a little family winery in the village of Still River MA (just a couple of miles from our old MA home in Harvard)... You can google to find it (Still River Winery) but their website is setting off malware warnings from our servers' online security, so I won't provide the direct link :-(

WagnerRC

I brought back a second suitcase when I returned from Verona Italy. Fun times

Moose68Bash

mantis wrote: »

What is ICE WINE?

Canadian ice wine, like Trockenbeerenauslese, is made from grapes that have been picked after having been frozen on the vine. It's a bit like making wine from raisins in that the sugars are very concentrated. It is great dessert wine, and the Ontario winemakers are producing a wide variety of them. They are worth trying -- albeit that they are on the expensive side.

Face

mhardy6647 wrote: »

Back when Chardonnay got popular in the US (early 1980s), the US wineries latched on to the Burgundy style and - like US automakers of the era! - made it "longer, lower, wider" and turned their oak-aged chardonnays into what I like to call "cartoon Charonnay"; so buttery/vanilla-y/oaky that they were just too much.

US wineries, unfortunately, seem to have a tendency to do this IMO - take a good wine idea/style and amp it up until its just not a good idea any more. Recall the Merlot debacle of the 90s :-P (there's a reason that the French blend Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc to make Bordeaux!). I am afraid that the next varietal to get run into the ground is going to be Malbec :-(

FYI, French Chardonnay is commonly aged without oak too.

tonyb

Not a fan of desert wines though I do recognize their place in the chain. Too much sugar content in any wine will give you a massive headache the next morning. The American taste is always geared for the sweeter side of things. Desert wines are ment to be sipped slowly and in small portions. A sweet regular wine.....garbage in my book, and you'll notice a lot of cheaper wines have that sweetness to accommodate American tastes and over shadow or hide inherit faults in the wine itself.

Chardonnay is about as arguable as a cable debate. Sometimes I like a buttery one, sometimes I like a fruitful, crisp one. Depends on my mood.

Face

I agree with you about desert wines, except I get the headache during my second glass.

zingo

tonyb wrote: »

Not a fan of desert wines though I do recognize their place in the chain. Too much sugar content in any wine will give you a massive headache the next morning. The American taste is always geared for the sweeter side of things. Desert wines are ment to be sipped slowly and in small portions. A sweet regular wine.....garbage in my book, and you'll notice a lot of cheaper wines have that sweetness to accommodate American tastes and over shadow or hide inherit faults in the wine itself.

Chardonnay is about as arguable as a cable debate. Sometimes I like a buttery one, sometimes I like a fruitful, crisp one. Depends on my mood.

I'd rather do this with a port than a dessert wine.

Jhayman

http://winecountryontario.ca/wine-101/story-icewine

mantis wrote: »

What is ICE WINE?

mhardy6647

Face wrote: »

FYI, French Chardonnay is commonly aged without oak too.

hmmm... now... I gotta tell you... I haven't drunk much Chardonnay nor white Burgundy wine for literally decades, but I didn't recall that the aging in oak was a US... umm, innovation. I don't doubt you; I really just didn't remember. I do know that the US (California) style that evolved for Chardonnay was quite different than the white Burgundy style made using (at least predominately) Chardonnay. Truth is, I just generally kind of avoid white wines - in the summer and with certain foods, I like Loire Valley white varietals (Vouvray & Chenin Blanc) and I do like the occasional Riesling or Gewurz :-) Also, occasionally, Sauvignon Blanc (the principal varietal used in white Bordeaux) and (truth be told) some of the white hybrids, too -

I generally like my wine red (tending towards black, even!), thick and chewy :-)

evhudsons

I went with my wife and artist Thomas Arvid and got a personal tour with the owners of the various wineries, and even were vip's at Silver Oaks big gala which was nice. I am a beer drinker. My wife embarrased me one time when the winery owner asked me a question regarding the wine and my opinion and I could only give a blank stare. My wife then said to the whole table that I am a beer drinker and have almost no knowledge or valid opinion of the wine or at least the question he asked. I can tell you if I like it, that's about it. But... I learned so much about the wine making process that I have a much better grasp and appreciation of the various wines. Therefor through education the wine actually tastes better.
my favorite restaurant was the French Laundry. It was supposedly one of the tops in the country, and being a foodie I can understand why, it's awesome.
It was my first trip, and I had no idea how beautiful the scenery of napa is, really nice. I would go again in a second. My one advice though is to drink a lot of water.

tonyb

zingo wrote: »

I'd rather do this with a port than a dessert wine.

Absolutely....has more flavor and character to it. Everyones tastes are different, it's easy to become a wine snob just like an audio snob if you lose sight of just letting people enjoy what they like.

Good food, good wine, good scenery, good conversation....and a joke or 2 about skinny jeans. Life doesn't get any better.

Mikey081057

I used to have a glass or 2 or 5 every day. In my travels, I visited an ex brother in law near San Jose, and he took me to a small winery inNear Santa Cruz called Kathyrn Kennedy. I had at one time probably 200 bottles (drank em all too) at my peak, and never tasted anything close to a KK cabernet. If you get the chance do not pass it up.

http://www.kathrynkennedywinery.com/inner.html?fnv=current

Absolutely destroys any California cab IMHO

Face

mhardy6647 wrote: »

I generally like my wine red (tending towards black, even!), thick and chewy :-)

I also enjoy red, but I don't enjoy the amount of heartburn it causes.

vcwatkins

mantis wrote: »

What is ICE WINE?

Initial reaction was "mobile BBQ app", but I see now where I ran amuck.

vcwatkins

Love an occasional beerenauslese (sp?). Never had a trockenbeerenauslese though. Not even sure I've seen one in a store.

Mikey081057

vcwatkins wrote: »

Initial reaction was "mobile BBQ app", but I see now where I ran amuck.

Eiswein is a dessert wine that is made after the rare occassion when the grapes get frozen on the vine... After they thaw they shrivel somewhat as some of the water is depleted from the grape concentrating the sugars.. They are usually low in alcohol content, and quite intense in flavor... They are a bit on the sweet side. After a few bottles of wine with dinner, they can be quite nice.

mhardy6647

vcwatkins wrote: »

Love an occasional beerenauslese (sp?). Never had a trockenbeerenauslese though. Not even sure I've seen one in a store.

Spelled correctly; sehr gut! :-)

headrott

Face wrote: »

If it's a chardonnay that hasn't been aged in oak, I'll drink it.

Mike, I highly recommend the Rombauer Chrdonnay. It's great.

mantis

tonyb wrote: »

Absolutely....has more flavor and character to it. Everyones tastes are different, it's easy to become a wine snob just like an audio snob if you lose sight of just letting people enjoy what they like.

Good food, good wine, good scenery, good conversation....and a joke or 2 about skinny jeans. Life doesn't get any better.

I can see how you can lose yourself in wine. I so agree with this post.

mantis

tonyb wrote: »

Not a fan of desert wines though I do recognize their place in the chain. Too much sugar content in any wine will give you a massive headache the next morning. The American taste is always geared for the sweeter side of things. Desert wines are ment to be sipped slowly and in small portions. A sweet regular wine.....garbage in my book, and you'll notice a lot of cheaper wines have that sweetness to accommodate American tastes and over shadow or hide inherit faults in the wine itself.

Chardonnay is about as arguable as a cable debate. Sometimes I like a buttery one, sometimes I like a fruitful, crisp one. Depends on my mood.

I learned that exact thing on my tour. Most americans like the wine sweater and usually before it's actually done aging. It's very common.
I grew up on Riesling( I come from a German family) which by nature is a sweater wine. In my time in Napa Valley I got to try a Off-Dry and a Dry Riesling. I never cared for a dry wine. I actually hate them. Just like I don't care for IPA beers when they get to hoppy. I find that takes the enjoyment out of the drink. But for some reason I loved the Off-Dry and even more so loved the Dry. I just found it was the right balance of removing some of the sweetness and making the drink more mature if you will. I was so taken by that wine. I plan on only buying my Rieslings this way from that day forward.

It's so funny I have never been a huge wine guy. Yeah I liked my wine when it was the right time to drink it , but now I'm hooked. I learned so much and want to learn so much more. It's like Audio / Video in so many ways. The History , the story behind every single bottle , I so love all that. I got heavy into craft beers because of this very same thing not to mention they taste so much better then the regular stuff.

mantis

Mikey081057 wrote: »

I used to have a glass or 2 or 5 every day. In my travels, I visited an ex brother in law near San Jose, and he took me to a small winery inNear Santa Cruz called Kathyrn Kennedy. I had at one time probably 200 bottles (drank em all too) at my peak, and never tasted anything close to a KK cabernet. If you get the chance do not pass it up.

http://www.kathrynkennedywinery.com/inner.html?fnv=current

Absolutely destroys any California cab IMHO

I'd like to try it which I will be looking for it. Right now the best one I had was Franks Family which you should give a try if you have not. They won best Cab last year overall and I believe rightfully so. It's so balanced and beautiful , it was heaven in a bottle to glass passed along. My god is it good. Not to mention Cab's are CA's specialty and man to they do it well. Every Cab I had was awesome but Franks Family was the best IMO.

Oldfatdogs

Dan one of our local colleges has one of the best viticulture programs in the country.There's good info on their site if your interested.

http://wineserver.ucdavis.edu/

tonyb

Actually Dan, Napa does a fine job of educating the general public about wines. From how to taste it, to how it's made, the vineyard, the grape, and so on. I was very impressed at the knowledge base even in store front wineries. I guess if you live and work there, you better know your sh$t huh ? I've spent time on both sides of the valley, Napa and Sonoma. Napa has the better wines in my opinion. Sonoma is more laid back, but either side the people have been friendly as can be. Ledson winery on the Sonoma side is a must taste wine if your ever there. Their reserve Zins are fantastic. A lot of wineries on both sides go for the flash, big wineries, gorgeous grounds, etc, but the wines just don't cut it for me at most. I walk in an immediately ask for flights of their top wines, don't waste my time with the crap you ship out to Binny's/Walmart/or other local liquor stores. I'm looking for wines that blow your skirt up, wines that when opened are special. I can get every day drinking wines for 20 bucks a bottle anywhere. Which btw, check out some Spanish wines and south American, pretty darn good and most are 12-20 bucks a bottle.

Yeah, I compare to audio too, makes me let go of old audiophile leg irons and just let people enjoy what they like and can afford. Life's too short to quibble about the small details in both wine and audio. Just enjoy both regardless of the level your at.

GFOviedo

Well, the actually likes the sweet white wines or dessert wines. I forgot the name of the one she liked. I haven't bought any wine for a while now.

I've tried to get her to do a tour / wine tasting, and she isn't really too fond about it.

mantis

Oldfatdogs wrote: »

Dan one of our local colleges has one of the best viticulture programs in the country.There's good info on their site if your interested.

http://wineserver.ucdavis.edu/

Very cool thanks.

mantis

tonyb wrote: »

Actually Dan, Napa does a fine job of educating the general public about wines. From how to taste it, to how it's made, the vineyard, the grape, and so on. I was very impressed at the knowledge base even in store front wineries. I guess if you live and work there, you better know your sh$t huh ? I've spent time on both sides of the valley, Napa and Sonoma. Napa has the better wines in my opinion. Sonoma is more laid back, but either side the people have been friendly as can be. Ledson winery on the Sonoma side is a must taste wine if your ever there. Their reserve Zins are fantastic. A lot of wineries on both sides go for the flash, big wineries, gorgeous grounds, etc, but the wines just don't cut it for me at most. I walk in an immediately ask for flights of their top wines, don't waste my time with the crap you ship out to Binny's/Walmart/or other local liquor stores. I'm looking for wines that blow your skirt up, wines that when opened are special. I can get every day drinking wines for 20 bucks a bottle anywhere. Which btw, check out some Spanish wines and south American, pretty darn good and most are 12-20 bucks a bottle.

Yeah, I compare to audio too, makes me let go of old audiophile leg irons and just let people enjoy what they like and can afford. Life's too short to quibble about the small details in both wine and audio. Just enjoy both regardless of the level your at.

Agreed , Life is to short to Quibble over trivial stuff anyway.

mantis

GFOviedo wrote: »

Well, the actually likes the sweet white wines or dessert wines. I forgot the name of the one she liked. I haven't bought any wine for a while now.

I've tried to get her to do a tour / wine tasting, and she isn't really too fond about it.

My wife isn't into drinking anything actually. She has a very low tolerance to alcohol. She totally enjoyed herself on the tours. She got very drunk but all in all loved every minute of it. You learn so much and really get a understanding about wine and where it comes from.

If you have any local tours , try to take her on just one. If she's still out , then let it be and find a good friend to go with.

jflail2

I handle the beer consumption; the girl takes care of the wine side of things. That being said, if you're ever in VA, central VA specifically has some nice vineyards. Look around Charlottesville or Culpeper, and you can certainly find a wide variety of options.

Brand-wise, I'd recommend Casillero de Diablo, and specifically their Carmenere. This is a consistent crowd pleaser at my house, and is usually between 10 and 12 bucks a bottle. Great choice for a "don't break the bank" bottle.