AMEN! It’s good and it’s cheap.
There is no shortage of real cork for wine bottles, not sure how this myth got started, but I’ve seen it before. (There is currently a *glass *shortage that is making my world a little hectic right now though.)
Screw caps are more than fine for wine, including those that you can expect to cellar up to 10 years or so.
I’ve yet to meet a winemaker that would prefer to put his wine in a bottle with a cork over one with a screw cap for wine quality purposes. Most are forced to stick with natural cork simply because the public is still not receptive to screw caps.
That’s not my understanding of why a lot of winemakers are moving away from natural cork. The problem is cork taint, which happens with natural corks but not with synthetic ones or screw caps. Cork-tainted wine isn’t unsafe to drink, but its flavor is diminished and it has an unpleasant musty taste.
Do you like White Zinfandel? Wine snobs diss it, but I don’t think liking White Zinfandel is a problem unless you’re one of those people who won’t drink any wine that isn’t White Zinfandel (and some of those people, incomprehensible as it seems to me, manage to live perfectly full lives that way). Like any wine, there are better and worse White Zinfandels. I’ve found that the lighter-colored ones are generally better than the darker ones, and most of the White Zin drinkers I’ve put this theory to have agreed.
If you do like White Zin, you might want to try Riesling. It’s a white wine, usually a little on the sweet side. There are really expensive German Rieslings, but California Rieslings tend to be reasonably priced. I like Jekel and Mirassou Riesling- you should be able to find at least one of those in your local grocery or liquor store.
Or you might want to branch out into dry rose wines. Bonny Doon has a good California one that’s not too expensive- Le Cigare Volant (I think Cost Plus carries it). It’s still the exception, though- most dry roses come from France or Spain. They’re usually reasonably priced.
There are two very different styles of Chardonnay. There’s the oaky, buttery style, as exemplified by most California Chardonnays (especially the expensive ones), and there’s an unoaked style that’s lighter and fruitier. Lindeman’s makes a good inexpensive unoaked Chardonnay, and a lot of unoaked Chardonnays come from Australia. I like unoaked Chardonnays much better than the oaked ones. If you don’t like Chardonnay, but you like other white wines, you might want to try the Australian style before writing off Chardonnay totally.
Trader Joe’s has lots of good, very inexpensive wine- not just Two Buck Chuck, but lots of wines for $5 and under. When you go to Trader Joe’s, take a chance on one or two of those. You’re not out much money if you don’t like it, and you might just find something really inexpensive that you really like.
Another tip that I just realized I’ve done-
Pennsylvania has a state store system. Some of the employees are quite knowledgeable. I’ve become friends with a few who tell me when an especially good bargain comes up (good wine on sale). On a few occasions, I’ve been able to buy up the last few bottles at great discount. In return, I give the clerks a gift from time to time. In my case, a bottle that I’ve made, but I’m sure they’d appreciate five bucks.
I agree on the Yellowtail and prefer the Black Opal for a bargain priced Australian selection.
I’m going to put in a plug for Washington Rieslings, here you can get a very decent bottle for under $10. They might be more where you are. I like sweeter wine and these tend to be on the sweeter side.
Also, wine shops and wineries often have tastings. They pick a few bottles, open them, and let customers try one or more of those wines. Tastings are often free or inexpensive (but check your area to find out) and it’s a good way to at least try some varieties.
The thing about German Rieslings is that there are many different grades, and the lables can be **very **confusing. The most common types are: Kabinett, Spätlese, and Auslese (the middle 3 of 7 categories). Those are in order of less to more residual sugar. But don’t confuse “residual sugar” with sweetness. There are plenty of dry (trocken) Rieslings-- the winemakers just have get the right balance of residual sugar and acidity. Starting out, I’d stick to the Kabinett style, and that’s probably what you’d get from US Rieslings. There are a few good CA Rieslings out there, but I’d stick with Washington State if I was going with a bottle from the US-- much of the stuff from CA is pretty crappy. A general rule of thumb for US Rieslings is that the ones that copy the German bottle style (long and thin) seem to be better tasting.
Pair up a good Riesling with some spicy Thai food, and shock your wine-snob friends who think Riesling = sweet = bad. I’ve ruined a few good Cabernets by trying to drink them with some (even just slightly) spicy Asian food. Gotta have some of that residual sugar to cut thru the spices!
my tastes run to sweeter wine. i loathe chardonnay as a rule if the vinter uses too much oak. it’s just nasty to the tongue.
like many others, i’ve developed a taste for african, new zealand and australian white wines:
zebeka, which is south african, is my new sauvigon blanc of choice.
francis coppola (american??) comes up a close second, and monkey bay is my second, rounding out the top three.
surprisingly i’ve found the only merlot i really like is californian - gallo - i’m ashamed to admit. <G>
ymmmv.
They’re not free here (I think there’s a law that they have to charge for them), and they can be quite expensive if you go to a winery in the tourist areas of Napa or Sonoma counties. But if you’ve got a Beverages and More near you, they have tastings on Saturdays where you can taste a wide selection of wines for 25 cents (or at least the one near me does). Just designate someone else as the driver…
Exactly. I’ve never had a problem in the really fancy restaurants, because the sommelier (wine guy or gal) acts like there’s nothing but pearls spilling from my lips, no matter what I say. And I’ve mostly found them to be good guides to pick wines. But be aware – restaurants mark wine up something fierce, so it’s not really a place for playing around.
My only advice is to keep track of what you like; buy a little notebook and write things down. I have a horrible memory, and so whenever I have something I like, I inevitably forget about it.
Yep, this is my new obsession. So far I’ve found no one else interested in it, but it’s rapidly becoming my summer drink of choice (or it would if stupid summer would get here already).
Yes, but it’s still a bit of a shock when I encounter a screwtop! We had a fume blanc last night with dinner, and it was a wine I thought I remembered when I bought it (see my earlier comment about bad memory and writing things down). I was utterly shocked to see it was a screw top, but it was still quite good.
I guess my only advice is to experiment; start with the sweeter wines and work your way down to the more complex reds. But remember that it’ll likely take you a couple years to get to the point where you can appreciate a wide spectrum of things. Wine can be an acquired taste, but it’s fun to acquire!
OK - are we talking about developing the next generation of wine snobs, or trying to get the OP something acceptable to drink on an everyday basis?
Both Hubby (the Chef) and I are quite knowledgeable about wines. We have a nice cellar (actually, half of one of the closets in our bedroom) with some awesome wines.
We both agree on some of the selections you’ve mentioned. Australians are really a good buy as the government subsidizes the wine industry. When that support fails, the $12/magnum wine will disappear. The South Africans are starting to become world class as well as many of the South American wines. Hubby was one of the early proponants of Chilean reds in the 1980s and has been proven right.
However, since the OP is looking to appear knowledgable about ordering off a winelist, let me give you some tips:
The cheapest wines are cheap. Don’t even think about them.
The most expensive wines are overpriced. They are usually a well-known vineyard or had received a high score in the Wine Spectator. They are the usual “wine of the month”, and in a restaurant, the price is usually 4 times retail, as opposed to 2 1/2 times.
The best bet is to order something from the middle of the price range. Most of them are priced to sell. You usually will find a bargain or two in that range. Most restaurants will price wines that are at their saleable limit in the middle (sometimes as little as 1 1/2 times retail) as well as good wines that they got a good deal on. The place I work will buy wines expected to be stellar in several years and will cellar them, just to be able to sell them at a lower price when they hit their peak.
Honestly, our everyday wine is Almaden, from a box. 5 Liters, $3 a liter - $15 a box. It’s actually better than bottles, since we don’t feel the need to finish it in one sitting (although, whites will last a couple of days when you store them in the fridge, and a red will last at least a day if you put it in the cooler, and then let it come back to temp before you drink it).
Also, screw tops are not an indication of a ‘cheap wine’ anymore. One of our favorites, Conundrum, by Camus Vinyards, is now sold only in screw tops. At $30 a bottle, it’s not the average everyday wine (at least, for most people). Hubby remembers Anthony Dias Blue advocating screwtops in the 1980s. There are several vintages that cost over $100 a bottle that are in screw tops. Cork has the inherent problem in that that it allows air to pass. Synthetics weren’t much better. Screwtops have almost a 0% failure rate, although, they haven’t been in use long enough with ‘good’ wines to really get a feel for their longevity.
If the OP is looking for a fecent wine to serve at home, look at the boxes from California. If you want something with a good value off a restaurant winelist, pick from the middle.
Olive
As a recent college student, I definitely look for cheaper wines that are still a good taste.
My current faves for cheap wines are Macaroni Grill’s Chianti and Twisted Zin Old Vine Zinfandel (not white zinfandel, regular red zinfandel). The MG is $7.49 and the TZ is $11.99, both for 1.5 liter bottles, in my area. Both have a pretty bold, decently complex flavor, which is harder to find in a cheap red, especially in the limited selection available in Tennessee, which is one of the few states in which you have to buy wine from a liquor store, and as such the selection is a bit narrower than other states I’ve been in, AND you can’t get wine (or liquor) on sundays.
Thank you! I’d tried a few wines with Thai food, and figured that it really had to be beer (not that there’s anything wrong with that). I’ll give it a try.
There is a sizable Portuguese population in Massachusetts, so it is readily available here. In fact, my in-laws always have a bottle or two on the table during family dinners. I like it, and you certainly can’t beat the price (here, at least).
My theory is go to Trader Joe’s or Costco, choose a varietal and then buy a $5, $8, and $10 bottle. This is the same amount of money you’d spend for a few drinks at a bar. Adjust upwards if your budget can handle it. Drink them at your leisure, and then adjust mean and standard deviation of your price range. Choose a different varietal then rinse and repeat until you figure out what varietals, wineries, terroir and price range you prefer.