Wine lovers... - by ercles
DeargDoom on 13/8/2007 at 14:35
Quote Posted by PigLick
MUAAAHHHHHHHHH THE FRENCH
Please, please tell me you are'nt american.
Im irish and i think that does affect the quality of the stuff exporteed from aus. I'd have to say i disagree with scots taffer, french and italian wines are known to be some of the best when it comes to ageing unless of course you are talking sangrea (correct spelling anyone?) which of course are best drank fresh from the vine.
Starrfall on 13/8/2007 at 14:46
Hot South American Cabernet blends with copious amounts of charred yet bloody cow is the only way to live.
PigLick on 13/8/2007 at 14:58
I am as american as they come buddy.
Without actually being american, of course.
rachel on 13/8/2007 at 15:03
Jurançon whites are certainly among the best I've ever tasted. Domaine Cauhapé in particular are an absolute delight (both sweet and dry), and the domain's 10 minutes away from my parents' place, which makes it easy for refills. ;)
Alsace whites are also good, Riesling and Gewurztraminer especially. I'm not really into Champagne unless it's rosé.
I wasn't much into Red wines until recently, I'm still learning to appreciate those. Can't really recommend any except for the oblig. generic "Bordeaux", although I know a Argentinean restaurant near my place that serves a near perfect Uruguayan Cabernet with their steaks. TASTY! :D
37637598 on 13/8/2007 at 15:38
I'm with Scott on leaving the French to the champagne! Never took much liking to their wine... Maybe just not had the right stuff though...
Oskar Cruo on 13/8/2007 at 16:27
This is the second time buying this california rosé and Im loving it! Cheap, and good! Good combination. :p
DeargDoom on 13/8/2007 at 17:26
Quote Posted by PigLick
I am as american as they come buddy.
Without actually being american, of course.
I hope your not one of those right winged anti french people over that stupid iraq war.
Arondil on 13/8/2007 at 18:09
Quote Posted by Scots_Taffer
I'm a big wine drinker.
Avoid French (save for Champagne!!) and Italian (save for Chianti and Sangiovese) like the plague, in my opinion. They are very acidic wines and often don't tend to age very well either, at least those that I've tried anyway. Most of their varietals are enjoyed young and fresh, even the reds are best served cold as they are so vivd in flavour, the ones I've tried seem to grow bitter and vinegary as they age. But I am quite plain about the fact that I haven't tried LOADS of them, as I just never found many that I liked... so I could be missing tons of goodies.
There are some very good French wines if you know where to look. Spent some time working out in Switzerland, sharing a lab with a couple of Frenchmen who commuted over. Finished off many a day with a good bottle of something. The only one which wasn't worth it was a Champagne, but I've never understood why anyone would want to have a sparkling wine.
Scots Taffer on 14/8/2007 at 00:14
Quote Posted by raph
I wasn't much into Red wines until recently, I'm still learning to appreciate those. Can't really recommend any except for the oblig. generic "Bordeaux"
I must admit, that's another problem with French wine and a barrier to my ever trying to appreciate it - the varietal names confuse the hell out of me, everything's a bordeaux or a chablis and if I tried one I liked, I easily tried ten I didn't! I'm guessing you have to know your grape-producing regions and hone in on a particular feel and character.
I will freely admit to being inexperienced about French wine, in all my years of glugging wine I've simply never been bowled over by anything that didn't come out of Champagne so I haven't ever expended the effort to go higher in price range - if I can't find a decent drinkable bottle in the 20 quid range when back in the UK, I'm sort of inclined to leave the rest for the connoisseurs.
Italian is another matter. I've drank a lot of Italian red and I'd like to know what wine outside of Sangiovese is worth a toss. It
does age well, but it's pretty much one of the only Italian reds I've tried that does.
ercles on 14/8/2007 at 03:14
Well if you are a fan of pinot noir you should to make the effort to try more french stuff, assuming that it's the subtlety and complexity of the style that attracts you. The unfortunate thing about french wine is that it is very very french, in that they have made it quite difficult for an outsider to easily interpret labels and figure out what they are buying. The appelation controlee system has many flaws, this being a large one.
Also if you are into your pinot, a shortlist of decent ones I have had recently are Ashton Hills (considered one of the best in aus), the kooyong massale (ridiculously cheap for such a nice wine), Stefano Lubiana in Tassy, and the good old Escarpment from martinborough in New Zealand. Unfortuntaly this tends to be the most expensive variety of all due to the difficulty involved in producing it, it is ridiculously finnicky.
I've always found Italian wines really interesting in their complete left-of-centre aspect. Their wines are so different to what you normally taste, and they seem to be much lighter bodied than most. There also seems to be this oily, minerality in their white wines that is just awesome; I have never tried a Pinot Grigio outside of Italy that has achieved this as nicely as Italian wines do.
