My birthday is on Thursday, and my wife and I are having a cookout. I have invited a few friends, and when one offered a gift, I told him just to show up and visit - I don’t get to see these guys a lot. One of my other friends insists that he buy me something, mostly because I bought him something for his last birthday. I talked him into getting nothing more than a bottle of wine that we can share that evening after everyone leaves and it is just a few close friends and my wife.
Herein lies the question - he asked me what kind. I haven’t drank wine in at least a year, and I hardly drank it then. I enjoy it, just never had the money then (very poor undergrad my first few years) so I got what I could afford, not what was good. He and I both have decent jobs now, and he mentioned that price of the wine is not an object to him. It is to me, as I would like a low-to-mid priced drink as to not sound like a jerk when I answer him about what kind. So, Dopers, what wine should I get?
(Note: I thought CS would be good, since it’s about wine, but if this thread is better suited for something else [IMHO or so] that would be fine…)
The Menage a Trois Red went over very well with the SDMB wine club. One of those drinkable red blends, $10 a bottle or so. Possibly the best received wine we’ve done.
I may mention to see if he can get a hold of Menage a Trois Red. I like red wine much more than white. I think our selection may be limited to the one store in town that carries a decent selection or the grocery (Kroger’s) which has a ton of cheap wines…
I may just say that he should pick up whatever he bought last, but knowing him it is something ridiculous. He admitted that at his house was a bottle he was given of homemade wine and a bottle of Boone’s Farm. I mentioned that if he brought me Boone’s Farm, I would possibly murder him (not really, but still, Boone’s Farm is something I drank in Jr. High, and it’s something I remember selling to all the old homeless wino’s, therefore I hope he would maybe break down and spend $10 for a decent bottle…)
If you have to rely on Kroger I’m not sure they’ll have the Menage a Trios Red. If not try the Black Opal Shiraz. At about $7 it’s good choice that’s usually available on the grocery store shelf.
While I agree that a sweeter wine may go better if it’s for after dinner when the fires are burning low, I can’t help but recommend Marietta’s Angeli Cuvée which is an absolutely wonderful dry blended red. It’d probably run around $30 a bottle, though.
Francis Coppola Claret is wonderfully full-bodied and rich with bright flavors of cherry and black currant; consistently well-received and often asked about when I’ve served it. You can find it easily for $15-17 a bottle.
I’m going to Kroger to buy bread today, so I’m going to take a quick look around the wine selection there. We usually buy it through a store back home, so I might buy a bottle up there where I know the people working and they remember what I buy and make suggestions - the same goes for cigars.
Black Opal Shiraz is good - that’s what we had after the rehearsal dinner for my wedding (my mother has no idea about wine, the clerk told her to pick that one)…
I may mention a few of these suggestions to him and see what he thinks, after all, he’ll be drinking it, too.
From my experience, and I’m not a wine connoisseur by any means, every $10 bottle of local wine I’ve tried has tasted better than the $30 bottles of wine that had been shipped in. I don’t know if it’s freshness or quality wine at low prices because it’s local.
It could very well be the latter because I took an old friend out to dinner when I was down in Las Vegas and the cheapest wine they had was about $38 a bottle. The irony of the situation was that I could have gotten the same bottle at the actually winery less than 10 miles form my house for $10.
You are in a part of the country where there is good soil and weather for wine grapes. Trust me, that isn’t a universal…there are parts of the country with good local wineries and parts of the country where…well, I’ve had some functional Minnesota wines, but never a GOOD Minnesota wine.
I think there may be a winery within driving distance, but not one that I know of. Of course, Southern Ohio isn’t exactly known for it’s massive winery selection…
WINE EXPERT: (Eric Idle)
A lot of people in this country pooh-pooh Australian table wines. This is a pity as many fine Australian wines appeal not only to the Australian palate but also to the cognoscenti of Great Britain.
Black Stump Bordeaux is rightly praised as a peppermint flavoured Burgundy, whilst a good Sydney Syrup can rank with any of the world’s best sugary wines.
Château Blue, too, has won many prizes; not least for its taste, and its lingering afterburn.
Old Smokey 1968 has been compared favourably to a Welsh claret, whilst the Australian Wino Society thoroughly recommends a 1970 Coq du Rod Laver, which, believe me, has a kick on it like a mule: eight bottles of this and you’re really finished. At the opening of the Sydney Bridge Club, they were fishing them out of the main sewers every half an hour.
Of the sparkling wines, the most famous is Perth Pink. This is a bottle with a message in, and the message is ‘beware’. This is not a wine for drinking, this is a wine for laying down and avoiding.
Another good fighting wine is Melbourne Old-and-Yellow, which is particularly heavy and should be used only for hand-to-hand combat.
Quite the reverse is true of Château Chunder, which is an appellation contrôlée, specially grown for those keen on regurgitation; a fine wine which really opens up the sluices at both ends.
Real emetic fans will also go for a Hobart Muddy, and a prize winning Cuivre Reserve Château Bottled Nuit San Wogga Wogga, which has a bouquet like an aborigine’s armpit.
