Help with wines

[yoyo2929]

Very nice thread i must admit.Two wines that have gotten my attention lately are from a little country called greece.

Amethystos red wine
Magic Mountain red wine

For all wine lovers a must try.If you didn't read the label you would think it is from france.Not that greece doesn't have good wine it just is not as much advertised.They only invented wine I think they know a thing or two.

 

[sny100]

How much alcohol in that wine?

Not much, about 13-14% alcohol! Also, the red wine makes your teeth turns to charcoal color.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Yellow Tail

You can get a bottle of Australian red wine, Yellow Tail (Shiraz), for under $10. It's a very good wine. There is no need to pay anything more, and anyone who says otherwise is a wine snob who has seen too many reruns of the movie "Sideways."

 

[chateaulafite]

Yoyo, I agree with you for the Mountain Magic and I'm very surprised that you heard about this wine. SAQ received only few cases and it was distributed in only three store.

EB, I didn't see Sideways yet , but I will certainly do it eventually. The Yellow Tail is sold at SAQ around 15$ or 16$. For that price you can find much nicer one. For example the Borsao at only 11$ from Spain and plenty of nice french wine from the Languedoc region. I'm not a wine snob, I work in the wine business and it's my job to taste hundreds of wine per year.

Yes there's a very big difference between tasting a 10$ wine and a 50$ wine. Off course you can find bad experience with expensive wine (bad vintage, good region but bad producer, etc...). A lot of Bordeaux are overprized (Chateau Pétrus, Lafite, Mouton, Cheval Blanc, etc...) I admit. If you have the chance to compare one day a glass of your shiraz from Yellow Tail with another glass of australian shiraz but from a top producer (Torbreck, Black Pepper, Henschke, etc...) you will experiment the same difference between an LDL and a HDH.

 

[sybaritic]

This discussion...

reminds me I need to get up and fill my glass right now! Just our table wine though; my wife prefers quantity over quality....

Yoyo, I agree with you for the Mountain Magic and I'm very surprised that you heard about this wine. SAQ received only few cases and it was distributed in only three store.

EB, I didn't see Sideways yet , but I will certainly do it eventually. The Yellow Tail is sold at SAQ around 15$ or 16$. For that price you can find much nicer one. For example the Borsao at only 11$ from Spain and plenty of nice french wine from the Languedoc region. I'm not a wine snob, I work in the wine business and it's my job to taste hundreds of wine per year.

Yes there's a very big difference between tasting a 10$ wine and a 50$ wine. Off course you can find bad experience with expensive wine (bad vintage, good region but bad producer, etc...). A lot of Bordeaux are overprized (Chateau Pétrus, Lafite, Mouton, Cheval Blanc, etc...) I admit. If you have the chance to compare one day a glass of your shiraz from Yellow Tail with another glass of australian shiraz but from a top producer (Torbreck, Black Pepper, Henschke, etc...) you will experiment the same difference between an LDL and a HDH.

 

[EagerBeaver]

If you have the chance to compare one day a glass of your shiraz from Yellow Tail with another glass of australian shiraz but from a top producer (Torbreck, Black Pepper, Henschke, etc...) you will experiment the same difference between an LDL and a HDH.

Chateaulafite,

I will defer to your superior knowledge on this subject, but for me the LDL Yellow Tail shiraz is fine. By the ways, I can get it locally here in the USA for under $10 (US). I also use it in my cooking in recipes calling for red wine. So for me it's an all purpose wine, also to be used with escorts.

 

[Boston]

Champagne

What about a bottle of Champagne? or just have some Vodka and make them a full blown drink

 

[voyageur11]

You can get a bottle of Australian red wine, Yellow Tail (Shiraz), for under $10. It's a very good wine. There is no need to pay anything more, and anyone who says otherwise is a wine snob who has seen too many reruns of the movie "Sideways."

Yes you can have a good wine for between $10 and $15 But to call wine snob people who appreciate the product more than you do is uncall for

 

[EagerBeaver]

V11,

What exactly are you saying, that there are are no such thing as wine snobs? Excuse me, but have you seen the movie "Sideways"? I happen to have such characters in my family (they worked in the industry). I have eaten dinner with them. When I dine with them I am told and lectured that I am ordering an inferior port wine, an inferior this, an inferior that, blah blah blah. I don't need to hear that shit from them. Wine is not that fucking important, in the grand scheme of things. But I will admit I do not know as much about wine as they do. So what!

Maybe I will send these family members up to Laval and you can have dinner with them. But if you do, you better bring a wine encyclopedia with you, and you better be prepared to have your wine selections insulted. They are wine snobs, just like in that movie. And to call them such is VERY CALLED FOR.

 

[voyageur11]

So your relative are trying to make you appreciate a beautiful product shame on them that doent make me and millions of peoples on this planet snob

 

[Nugie]

Absolutely right, wine snobs do exist. There are lots of people who truly appreciate fine wine and unfortunately some of these people happen to be condescending assholes who think they know everything and make a point of telling everyone else how stupid they are. Good wine is the wine that you like, period. If you like to drink Chablis with roast beef or a Barolo with poached fish, then that's the right wine for you, and don't let any snobs say otherwise.

Best advice ever given: "Drink what you like, and like what you drink."

Diminishing returns are present everywhere.

Yes, that 82 Margaux is fun. Grange is like a punch in the mouth with a fist full of jam. BUT...

Three bottles of Joseph Phelps Insignia for one Grange... or, to compare shiraz to shiraz, four bottles of Amon-Ra for one Grange. Is the Grange better? Sure. But I'll take four really really great Amon-Ra for one excellent Grange.

My bang-for-the-buck pick of the moment: The Black Chook. 94% Shiraz, 6% Viognier, cofermented, 15% abv. In my opinion, nearly as good as D'Arenberg's Laughing Magpie, at half the cost. Can be found for $15 USD.

For white drinkers that are tired of over-oaked butterbomb chardonnay from California, try Kim Crawford's Unoaked Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc. He's a Kiwi that is making great wines at a great price point ($12 USD).

 

[MySP_love]

Hmmm, this thread has become reminiscient

of the HDH thread...

I believe the same thing about everything... there are certain things (SPs or whatever) that are worth indulging, for the quality and more. However, I believe you become a snob, when your focus on this subjective "higher quality" leads you to overlook, and thus, not taste, an abundant variety of "qualities"

It is kind of like when I was a kid, I hated Asparagus, wouldn't touch it, look at it or smell it, until much much later in my life. Once I tasted it again I still hated it (ha, you thought I was going to say I loved it now, didn't you?)... but it was important to me to keep my mind open about trying something else, experiencing the flavour and texture again. There are things, that I liked and no longer enjoy, and still more that I enjoy anew, each time I taste him, I mean it.

Melanie

 

[Nugie]

yummy!

I know this isn't a wine board, but I couldn't resist.

I don't know if you can find Paul Hobbs wines up north, but if you can.... it's worth it.

Russian River 2002 Chardonnay... very nicely balanced. Blah, blah, oak, malolactic butter, tropical fruit, etc.

Typical, but a well-balanced typical.

And then, the surprise of the night - riesling that had seen some bottle time.

Dessert wine in taste, but the smelled almost exactly like kerosene poured over limestone rocks. Not that I've ever drank kerosene and limestone, but if I did, I probably would have said, "Wow! This crazy shit smells like limestone and kerosene!"

Or, if not, someone would have punched me in the mouth and told me to keep quiet.

 

[MySP_love]

I think it only means you are a snob if you wouldn't even consider sitting down with a 10$ bottle of wine, or when doing so, spend the entire time critiquing the wine instead of enjoying it qualities.

I have my own little wine cellar, and truly, I do enjoy a beautiful spanish Rioja (depending on the year 20-80$ and more), or a sexy Shiraz from Australia (about 30$/bottle)... and, I can enjoy a cheap Red Chilean wines just as much. I honestly think it has more to do with my environment, the food I am eating and such. Funny, I am just as pleased drinking a cheap wine as I am sipping on a splurge.

One thing I DO hate - regardless of the bottle being served, is those by the glass BS in restaurants... why do I always get the last glass?! Complete with sediment!! Aaarrrggh!

Melanie

Anyway I guess that means I'm a minor snob. I would never even think about lecturing someone about ordering an inferior wine though. That's really "in poor taste".

 

[Lawless]

SAQ IS CHEAPER
I find wine in Quebec is consistently priced $2 or $3 cheaper than in Ontario for exactly the same wine. Provincial taxes I guess.

You mean LCBO is cheaper!!!!!!!!
If not, tell us which SAQ outlet you visited!!!!!!!!!!

 

[voyageur11]

Port dégustation at the Hyatt on the 26. Cost $25. Wine was cheaper in Ontario last time i check

 

[spiky]

Here is an example

Excellent Duckhorn vineyard White 49 $ at SAQ 44 $ LBCO

Spiky