Wine

xpost - rioja is a good example of one that you don't have to spend a lot on to get a good bottle.

Also, you can buy wine boxes for a bit cheaper. They're pretty cool.

We've had a banrock station box, and it was perfectly fine.

Not sure of the year but Wolf Blass/Berringer were both bought out by Fosters. Berringer used to be used by Nestle prior to that one.

Can anyone recommend anything on the plcb list for twenty bucks or under that I might like to drink?

saintsbury pinot noir carneros 375 ml

someone please recommend me a good Riesling thats 20-30 bux

dry, semi-dry, or sweet?

semi-dry

Where are you? Are there wine stores or do you have to go to a state-run store (lol, Pennsylvania)?
Dry to sweet - for German, QBA-> Kabinett-> Spatlese; some years will be sweeter than others.

Try a Hugel & Fils or Trimbach.

I am in Texas, i was thinking about hitting up the nearest Spec's if the World Market was too pricey

Hugel & Fils, 2005 should run you about $16-20

Trimbach 2005 about the same. My wine stroe loves the Trimbach.

World Market's online selections are not very convincing: Boony Doon Pacific Rim is okay, Hogue is not to my taste, Polka Dot is probably cheapish and maybe too sweet for me (I have a rule of thumb to not by rielsing that is in blue bottles!), and I don't know Moselland Ars Vitis.

Spec's site has a couple of nice rieslings in the $20-30 range, Selbach Oster, Christoffel, Dr. Pauly, Kerpen:
http://tinyurl.com/mkjjo7
(sorted low to high)

I prefer Alsatians like Trimbach and Hugel, myself.

i like the pacific rim dry riesling for a nice cheap one. have for years, ever since someone brought me a bottle based on liking the label!

i must try this .. Trimbach

i just bought this 2006 Kendall Jackson Grand Reserve Chardonnay instead of the Trimbach because HEB didnt have that grand of a riesling selection, plus someone told me most ppl like Chardonnay

is it good or wat?

Had my first beaujolais noveau ever this last weekend and I liked it. Was sent home with a bottle and am quaffing like a barrel full of quaffing monkeys.

The Price of Wine

http://blog.priceonomics.com/post/46618070248/the-price-of-wine

In 2012, top French wines (including the premier cru Château Mouton Rothschild) barely defeated wines from New Jersey in a professional tasting. The Jersey wines cost 5% as much as the French wines.

Surprisingly light colored semi-transparent blood color for its 14% alcohol and it's youth. Nose is attractive raspberry fresh fruit, a hint of lamb's blood and a backbone of fresh-sawn plank wood. Surprisingly little heat given the high alcohol. Palate is soft plummy Merlot-driven fruit with firm but well-balanced young tannins and a finish of dry fresh-sawn plank wood.

what kind of plank wood?

Is there a reasonable way of sending someone one bottle of not-expensive wine, in the UK?

That’s a neat analogy.

And yeah a quick google sees M. Chapoutier call all natural wine ‘defective’ so I dunno what I was thinking of there. I’m sure there are relatively large operations out there who will prove my point tho! (Zind-Humbrecht?)

On a recommendation from a very nice member of bar staff in a good bar in San Sebastian, I found myself drinking this: https://www.decantalo.com/en/ube-miraflores.html

I thought it was absolutely outstanding, I don't know that I fully understand the process(es) by which it's made but I think it's kind of manzanilla without the fortification process, which winds up with a v dry white with lots of sherry notes but also amazingly fresh and zingy.

(This comment not in respect of natural wine, just a bottle of wine I was excited about. the natural wine stuff is v interesting but I don't have much to add.)

Great recommendation! I know v little about sherry, and have only really drunk the sweet stuff (which I enjoy a lot) - I’ll keep my eyes peeled...

If you find any in the UK (and particularly SE15/ SE22 :)) let me know.

sherry is so good and such a great way to get legitimately high quality wines at very reasonable prices (due to its relative unfashionability (in the mainstream))

here is the pet nat we had: https://dzwonsemrish7.cloudfront.net/items/2b0Q3i2T0w1a2a3Q3Q0M/IMG_8581.jpg

warning my wife likes ipas and kombucha

^^^That label is so charming.

I am going to be on the lookout for the Ube or a similir wine from that region. Dry sherries used to freak me a out a lot because I thought they tasted like bone broth. That salty umami.

I always think of sherry as something I should avoid because of its association with with a local bus station legend who was known as QC Mary. Might try some out this week, under the dodgy pretext that it is needed for a risotto!

I was into tawny port for a while a few years ago, but have drifted away. Good with many cheeses. Hardys (Australia) was one I liked that was affordable, US$12-14.

Tawny is my preferred port, particularly 40 yr OF COURSE

xpost There are some nice sherry cocktails.

The uk supermarket premium sherry brands aren’t bad at all. Sainsbury Taste the Difference and Morrisons’ equivalent are both made by Lustau which is a reliably good maker. In both cases the dry oloroso is decent and I like the fino too. Tesco’s was Barbadillo iirc but they’ve stopped stocking that at the local big Tesco.

I haven't had a cream sherry in decades, sometimes I wonder whether it's nice.

The folklore regarding cider armadillos is long-forgotten around here but that is what comes to my mind whenever anyone mentions sherry cocktails (I've tried a few proper sherry cocktails at reputable places but I can rarely detect the sherry involved).

Yeah, a lot of people still associate sherry with Harveys Bristol cream from the 1970s.

Sommelier cheating scandal!

http://www.laist.com/2018/10/10/sommelier_cheating_scandal_23_master_sommeliers_stripped_of_titles.php

Some of them already took the tasting retest and passed.

My boss was one of those stripped of his MS status after the scandal--my heart hurt so badly for him! We had congrats banners hanging in the restaurant...general jubilation and then the title got yanked away. CMS fast tracked a new tasting trial a few months later which he didn't pass. He's going again this fall.

oh damn. I know some people opened and drank once in a lifetime bottles, printed up new business cards, accepted $$$ gifts and higher speaking fees related to the new title. SUX.

Gruner Veltliner is the best white wine grape.

Cancel me if you want, this is my opinion.

It's okay I like Napa cabs more than Bordeaux so you can judge my suburban mom or shallow businessman tastes to make yourself feel better.

If someone wants to buy me some 1er cru to try and sway me, please do!

In recent blind tastings organized by the Austrian Wine Marketing Board, Grüner Veltliners have beaten world-class Chardonnays from the likes of Mondavi and Maison Louis Latour.[1]

Gruner Veltliner is a good, cold picnic wine and I like that most bottles are actually liters and not 750ml

I know there are high-end Gruners but I've mostly quaffed the sub-$20 bottles, which are nice and crisp

who here drinks sherry?
If you don't, it's okay.. I got you covered

I prefer fino (with a few olives on the side) and will go with amontillado but not really a fan of oloroso

But I'm worried about this tariff bullshit

I drink oloroso, after dinner usually, but you can make a good martini with fino in place of vermouth

I drink tawny port, which I guess is sherry-adjacent.

manzanilla!

I like manzanilla, don't see it in shops all that much

If we’re talking sherry brands, my go-to is Lustau, but right now I have a bottle of González Byass “Alfonso” in my fridge.

It's a sometimes thing for me, but I have (or had?) a bottle of Lustau Pedro Ximenez that made a fine dessert sipper.

Manzanilla is easily found in my neighborhood, in fact I also have a bottle of that it my fridge right now, La Guita brand. I think I actually bought that to make martinis with.

I am dumb about wine, and need some recommendations. Our dry reds and whites run $7.50-$8.50/glass or $20/bottle, and are stuff like Josh Cellars cab sauv, Clos du Bois merlot, Apothic Red Blend, Kendall Jackson chardonnay and sauv blanc. My boss wants me to find some bottles that we would sell for roughly $50/bottle. Any general recommendations? They need to be pretty common labels, something I would be able to find for sale in Mississippi.

YeraC would be able to tell you a few things

Do you have clientele who might want something adventurous? Or do you want to stick with classic grapes/techniques?

The latter, I'd say.

I don't think it would be priced at $50 but a step up from the ones you mentioned might be the one with the bird on it? I'll find it....

in the past i recall you sharing a list of what was available in MS? was that just spirits or is there one for wine that someone could skim?

I meant Bonterra, as it turns out.

Seghesio Zinfandel (Old Vine or any others you can find) and sparkling wine Roederer Estate and Gruet.

Looks like this MS distributor has Arrowood, Copain, Hartford Court, and Matanzas Creek wines, which would all be good and potentially the right price. Also from that distributor: Two Hands Gnarly Dudes and a bunch from Charles Smith.

Looking at the list Eazy has provided you might find some options by looking at less popular Italian grapes like Barbera or Dolcetto. That's not going to be popular stuff that will be as easy to sell, but should be better wines and more food friendly than trying to find a California cab or a red Burgandy in your price range. Like the following should all be in your price range (unless inflation has pushed them out the last couple of years):

FEUDI DI SAN GREGORIO PRIMITIVO 12/750 - Wine - Italy - W-RED - AL
FEUDI FALANGHINA 12/750 - Wine - Italy - W-WHITE - AL
FEUDI FIANO DI AVELLINO 12/750 - Wine - Italy - W-WHITE - AL
FEUDI GRECO DI TUFO 12/750 - Wine - Italy - W-WHITE - AL

Those whites in particular are lovely.

in the past i recall you sharing a list of what was available in MS? was that just spirits or is there one for wine that someone could skim?

regular list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UEGAYdKuwTQDCmbVV2b-gQvWQTmyRm2c4quQAt3ns54
special orders: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RMZfUUnN4tpTLWVVgTNgQJ3ry2gP5vthi9kaN3tzAIA

Bumping for cad in case he missed my Monday post.

Also, thanks IO, Eazy & PBKR for input! I've got a few bottles in mind now.

late to the sherry conversation, but I like manzanilla and amontillado. i got into sherry to mix it in cocktails, but those styles work well to sip on their own.

that said, I don't buy any wine as much as I used to because my wife no longer drinks, and so a whole bottle ends up going to waste.

xp i had to request access to those sheets, just did so

access updated, meant to make it visible with link

ok this is good....i'm sorting by case price, not sure how your markup gets to $50/bottle but a few i would take a look at (with their cost/bottle to the bar)

rombauer zinfandel $25
daou cabernet $17 (nice step up from the joshes of the world)
frank family cabernet $43
ruffino reserve ducale $19
catena alta malbec $19
DOMAINE ALAIN GRAILLOT CROZES HERMITAGE ROUGE 18 - $34
CH BELLES GRAVES LALANDE DE PROMEROL 15 $31
GRGICH HILLS ZINFANDEL RED $31
VACQUEYRAS ROUGE LES AUBES $27

Thank you so much for taking the time for this!!!! I will pass this info on to the boss and impress him with my (secondhand) knowledge.
Reading up on some of those, I really want to try the Ruffino -- it looks like especially good value.

From the second list, in the gamay grape section, Domaine Chapel and Lapierre (assume this is Marcel Lapierre or else idk his cousin, lol) would both be very good I would imagine. Lapierre is a sort of legendary producer, Chapel is bit newer I think but have never had one of their wines I didn't enjoy.

I recently learned about WINE FORGERIES, i.e. ppl passing off wine as being from famous brands and vintages it doesn't actually belong to. As with art forgeries, it's often in no one's interest to acknowledge the fakery.