I want to say thanks for the responses so far. Good and cheap seem to be the best things to look for, but I am not against spending a little more to get something decent. I think we are going to have to try some of these suggested over the next few weeks and if we find a new favorite it will be wonderful. Sorry for the quick response but I am posting from my cell phone. I will post some more later tonight from the pc. Brendon
So many wines, so little (liver) time. Some wine columns can be a big help, as was suggested earlier. I like this guy’s approach: (Jurgen Gothe, in Vancouver’s Georgia Straight)
http://www.straight.com/archives/section/62
A wine lover without being a wine snob, he does a quarterly “wines under $10” review as well as reviewing the higher end stuff.
There’re a lot of good guides out there. I like The Wine Expectorator (spectator actually, but can’t resist). Also Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate. Advocate, not critic.
I must confess this is a new one on me, this rotten egg business. Don’t know what that could be from, age maybe, bad cork, maybe heavy on the sulphites?
Anyway, as a doper and a wino, I wish you happy researching!
Rotten eggs is definitely a sulfur smell, so the excessive sulfite usage is probably the thing.
Exactly the one I’d recommend. I know several ladies that have gone absolutely gaga over this, it’s that good.
What I was going to suggest. Ordered this during a night out with friends based solely on the name, and we all ended up loving it.
Heh, that’s exactly how we found it too. What a pleasant surprise even though there were four of us!
It is excellent, isn’t it? And such a great value - during sales, you can sometimes find it for $5 bucks or so. It’s definitely a regular in our cabinet.
If you like it, you might try McWilliam’s Hanwood Estate Shiraz. It’s another cheapie at around $9/bottle, but is sometimes hard to find - there’s only a few liquor stores that reliably stock it around here. It’s not as peppery and spicy as some shiraz, but big and fruity and buttery (so there’s some oak in there - avoid it if you don’t want oak). So tasty. I might need to open some tonight.
How about a Lambrusco?
That usually means that the wine is corked or otherwise off.
I’d suggest she try French wines - Pouille Fume for white and Nuit St Georges for the red. Or Pinot Noir and Pinot Blanc from Alsace.
Agreed - the Oyster Bay is a very nice white.
I actually find it difficult to find whites I can drink - they all tend to leave me feeling sick, which wasn’t the case when I was younger and only drank white… weird! Anyway, my preferred drop atm is a merlot from the Yarra Valley region (Victoria, Australia.) Actually, most wines from the Yarra Valley are very nice and reliably-good. Margaret River (Western Australia) also produces some very nice wines.