Red Wine

Well Tarky...

Red wine is a new one for me. Ny dad being hungarian brought me up with Bulls Blood (crikey its awful) Hated the stuff and always refused to drink red wine.

Just recently been trying red wine and finding the experience like " educating rita".

Veronika

That's very funny!!



Spock

Ring a bell huh!

hi,

Chateau neuf de pape is always a very nice wine.

You can get some nice chianti wines in supermarkets quite cheaply these days.

I also sometimes like a heavy wine such as the merlots.

regards

I heard something on the radio recently about how the English actually invented sparkling wine before the French.

Er . . . okay

But that aside, it must be great living in a non-wine producing country, because you get so much variety from all over the world. Most of the wine available in Australia is local product, which is seriously good and outstanding VFM. But French, Italian, South American and Californian stuff is less readily available here.

If you're new to red wine, I'd suggest avoiding the big Aussie reds - they're not for the faint hearted!

Steve

I don't know where you live Happy.
But, please, leave that south african wine and go italian.
It's not a matter of patriotism, but a matter of facts.
Italian wine is the best!
http://www.cal-italia.org/wine.html

Example:

http://www.italianwinemerchant.com/

The best wine I have had come out of tesco is Vina Mara, lovely jubbly.

I think Happy Chick you first have to try to identify what in red wine you are drawn to and what you are trying to get out of it.
Red wine is like making love to a beautiful woman....sorry, been watching Swiss Tony again..

Firstly, red wine for me is about associations rather than taste for tastes sake. Like you have a dark oaky smoky musty wine and it takes you to an autumn walk in the woods, or someting like a Shiraz or Zinfadel which gives you a vanilla tone which to me is more "indoors by a log fire". I know, I'm daft, but that's how it works for me. You just have to try all the grape types (unmixed) so you get to know their characters and make a note of what you like and dislike, and then you can go further into it.
Merlot is a huge subject and can give you the wrong impression of it easily, so be careful especially here and make the distiction between light Merlot and Heavy Merlot.
It's like Whisky in a way. It is a whole world of stuff in there. It isn't just a drink.
I envy you your first steps. You're going to have a lot of enjoyment.
Try Australia, Chile, Argentina, Italy. I'd skip French for now.
I have a bottle of Peter Lehmann 1998 Barossa Shiraz right here that will get drunk tonight. Good example of a quality wine that isn't stupidly priced. Australia does it again. I can't stop buying Australian personally.
Have fun.

Italian Barolla, I think a 2000 is considered to be a good vintage alhough I've just run out of a 1999 which I thought was even better.

Red wine gets fun around the £10 per bottle mark. I reckon there is a big leap in quality around this price. Of course there are always a few duff ones to disprove the rule and many good wines at a lower price point as well.

As for White wine it all seems to be Chardonay these days? I'm much more ignorant on the white wines as they all taste of chemicals to me.

Spock

I do always go "Refosco" for reds and "Prosecco" for white.
In whites there's "Cartizze" but hard to find because comes from a very small area close to the Prosecco area.
But the real Prosecco is "Verdisio" or "Verdiso".
Very rare as well but a dream if you can get some.

Try a malbec from argentina. V. nice wine for £5-10 imho.
cheers, matt.

Hi!
Yes.
We have Malbech here as well, but i find it a bit too much dense and fruity.
After the first glass i have to give up.
Generally i do prefer low alcohol content wines just to let more space to the flagrance and perfume.
I think that too much alcohol kills the flavour of the wine which is not only a matter of taste but of fragrance as well.

Happy Chick,

The Barolo is a lovely wine, you have fine taste.

I only wish I could afford to buy it on a regular basis.

P.S. Does Rodwsmith still post here? He was a good fella.

quote:

Originally posted by Rasher:
I have a bottle of Peter Lehmann 1998 Barossa Shiraz right here that will get drunk tonight.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm.....1998.....a great vintage in the Barossa.

Steve

Veronika

A suggestion. If you haven't already, get yourself a nice big wine glass specially designed for red wine, big enough to allow the wine to breathe and release its aromas. Riedel is a good brand to buy.

Steve

Yo-yo Master

Good point re a decent big wine glass. A must have upgrade.

Spock

Two recommendations from Marks and Sparks.

Both excellent v.f.m. at a fiver.

John.

And...............

hi,

Talking of spanish wines - The crianza wines will do very nicely.

regards

Wines vary sooooo much that you can't assume that ALL Barollos or ALL Chateau Neufs will be great. Applies to all "types" of wine in my experience.

But generally I do like (in general order of preference)

Nuit St George
Fleurie
Chateau Neuf

Barollo
Chianti

Bordeaux (too many)

Of course the first group are "lighter" and the Bordeaux tend to be more "full-bodied" and my preference varies from time to time and depends a little on what I might be eating.

I tend to buy from either Tesco or Berry Bros & Rudd.

Cheers

Don

"Rioja Grande Reserva"

Traditional Rioja is a bit boring unless you pay a lot of money. But there are some new style Rijoa's well worth trying. E.g. "Glorioso", Rioja reserva 2000 from Oddbins.

"Chateau neuf de pape is always a very nice wine"

It's frequently terrible in my experience. There are tremendous baragins in the Southern Rhone but not in Chateauneuf-du-Pape unless you really know what you are doing. For good value, everyday drinking from that region look more to Cote du Rhone and Gigondas.

"I also sometimes like a heavy wine such as the merlots"

Merlot is not really a "heavy wine" as it's over-riding characteristic is fruit and, when it has a fault, its the lask of structure from too little acid and tannin. If you are going to buy it as a varietal (it's usaully more of a blend) I'd go with the Aussie version -- its a wine that suits the in-yer-face OTT new world style more than most IMHO.

"The Barolo is a lovely wine, you have fine taste"

Barolo is either awesome or awful but almost always expensive. If you have specific recommendations for good ones at decent prices I am very interested.

Lots of talk of Italian wines and nobody has mentioned the king of Italian wines Brunello? Not cheap, but worth it.

My usual method of selecting red wines is to drive over to Calais, nip round a few of the wine hypermarkets, and try different cheapo wines til i find one i like (80p to 1.50 range) then buy a few cases.

Funny you never see anyone mention the German reds, one of the best reds i ever tasted was called spatburgunder, but i never see it for sale in the U.K. I suspect they keep it for their home market, and inflict hock and liebfraumilch on us.

Mike.

quote:

Originally posted by Tarquin Maynard-Portly:

quote:

Originally posted by Yo-yo Master:

But that aside, it must be great living in a non-wine producing country,
Steve

Living in England, I would not know...

Sorry, I meant a serious wine producing country.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Gianluigi Mazzorana:
Italian wine is the best!
___________________________________________________
Do you know of Taurino; Salice Salentino? Possibly my favourite red ever. Criminally unavailable from Oddbins in the UK for the last few years.