Wine Suggestions for a Newbie

KnowItAll wrote:

Actually, you should go to erobertparker.com and go to their free message board and post this exact question. Give them a price range, what you're eating and you will get suggestions from people that actually know what they are talking about. It's the message board where real wine snobs hang out.

We'll say things like Erbaluce di Caluso 'Cascina Cariola 2005

or

Nord Family Vineyard Pinot Noir 2002 from Tulocay Winery

.......just try and find them !!!!!

(hi Hannah!!)

Gewürztraminer ..... a nice after dinner desert wine.

Yellowtail Shiraz is the Walmart of wines. Do not bring it if you're goal is to impress.

Marques de Riscal

It's a Spanish Red my in-laws bought for us when they were last visiting from Europe. They are big-time wine snobs who have a very extensive wine cellar at home and they were ecstatic when they found it at Trader Joe's for $11. The bottle is wrapped in a thin gold wire net so you can't miss it.

Hey, quit dissing one of my mainstay wines.

KnowItAll wrote:

Yellowtail Shiraz is the Walmart of wines. Do not bring it if you're goal is to impress.

Nighttrain baby!!!

In reality, spend a few on a good but inexpensive ice wine. very nice.

Actually, Charles Shaw is the Walmart of Wines. Yellowtail Shiraz is not a bad wine and it is quite popular for that reason. It's just so popular that it automatically gets associated with bad.

But I would still recommend the La Crema first.

Amusing (or maybe not, you decide) story:

Every year a friend of mine hosts a little wine-tasting party. Each person brings a bottle of wine and $10. Each bottle is catalogued and then put in a numbered, brown paper bag to conceal its identity. Then the party breaks up into small groups who taste some of the wines and vote for them by taste. Finally a "tasteoff" is held among the winning bottle from each group. Whoever brought the winning bottle gets all the money.

Every year, people bring all sorts of wines to this thing. Some exotic, some cheap and some very expensive ones. As many as 35 bottles. And 3 years in a row, Yellowtail Shiraz was the winning wine. I think they finally banned it.

French wines always impress people, and there are some great values to be had in French reds.

The French vinting style is generally more subtle than the "fruit-bomb" wines from California or Australia.

A $10-16 bottle of Cotes du Rhone might be a good choice. One thing is for sure, it will be worth your while to find a good wine shop and ask for advice.

Have you asked whether her family gives a rat's ass about wines? No use getting all worked up about this if no one in the house cares whether they're drinking plonk or Bordeaux.

so you want to impress the parents..?

Bring a bottle of Scotch

They will "want" you as their son-in-law

Trust me

Tom Hyland

So your friends have no taste in wine. Fine. haha. Now I'm being a wine snob. No, Yellowtail Shiraz doesn't taste bad, but it's not a wine I break out to impress people. Come on. When I said it's the Walmart of wines, I meant it is so common and cheap. If someone brought me a bottle of Yellowtail as a gift, I'd think, "Thanks dick, you put a lot of thought into that one."

screw all this-

go with a malbec. argentina has been knocking it out of the park the last few years. i haven't had a bad malbec in a while, if you spend 12-15 bucks you'll do fine.

Average_Joe wrote:

Amusing (or maybe not, you decide) story:

Every year a friend of mine hosts a little wine-tasting party. Each person brings a bottle of wine and $10. Each bottle is catalogued and then put in a numbered, brown paper bag to conceal its identity. Then the party breaks up into small groups who taste some of the wines and vote for them by taste. Finally a "tasteoff" is held among the winning bottle from each group. Whoever brought the winning bottle gets all the money.

Every year, people bring all sorts of wines to this thing. Some exotic, some cheap and some very expensive ones. As many as 35 bottles. And 3 years in a row, Yellowtail Shiraz was the winning wine. I think they finally banned it.

The more I think about this story, the less likely it seems. Yellowtail winning a tasting of 35 wines? 3 years in a row? Now you've got me interested. I'm going to throw the Yellowtail Shiraz into every blind tasting I do for the next year and see if it ever wins. Or even comes in in the top 5. I'm hosting a party this Saturday. I can't wait to see the results.

KnowItAll wrote:

I meant it is so common and cheap.

I agree. I was just saying it's cheap as in price, not as in taste. (Or maybe it's me that's common and cheap, I can never tell...)

If someone brought me a bottle of Yellowtail as a gift, I'd think, "Thanks dick, you put a lot of thought into that one."

I'd think, "thanks".

He didn't say if he was trying to impress them or not but I guess he was. By all means if that's the goal, go get some fancy schmancy label that nobody recognizes. Actually the La Crema is very good and not too common that they'll know it unless they're wine people.

My Favorite wrote:

Marques de Riscal

It's a Spanish Red my in-laws bought for us when they were last visiting from Europe. They are big-time wine snobs who have a very extensive wine cellar at home and they were ecstatic when they found it at Trader Joe's for $11. The bottle is wrapped in a thin gold wire net so you can't miss it.

\

The wire is called a "red " or a "malla' in Spain and is used only on red wines --was done to keep people from pouring out the good stuf and replacing it with inferior plonk! Now they sometimes put it on the plonk too!!

I'll keep my eye out for that tempranillo,thanks.

Me So Horny wrote:

Gewürztraminer ..... a nice after dinner desert wine.

a potential problem there is that those wines are often VERY sweet, not to every one's liking.

2nd, at some point he will be asked to pronounce it and my guess his german might be lacking.

a good friend of ours often serves "mer LOT" - pronounced like parking LOT. no one has the heart to correct her. if for no other reason than pronouncing wines correctly one should have a semester of french.

as for Gewürztraminer a hint to the original poster, in many languages in europe, the "w" is pronounced like a "v."

for about $10 you should be able to get a nice red wine. if you go to a liquor store ask somone who in the wine area. unless you live in the middle of no where there should be a nicer liquor store you can go to. just find one with a big wine selection. i would not sweat it over whether they are having fish or meat, the hostess/mom may or may not open the wine with dinner. dont be offended if she does not. the wine is a gift and that is her call.

another option would be to ask your girlfriend what kind of wine her parent drink. (or if they drink wine).

btw, flowers would be fine as well. do either one.

sam w wrote:

a good friend of ours often serves "mer LOT" - pronounced like parking LOT. no one has the heart to correct her.

Hilarious. My mother-in-law is clueless about wine too. She always gets Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio mixed up. She was dumbfounded when I opened a bottle of Pinot Noir and it was red. "I just had one of those Pinot things the other day and it was a white wine," and then she shows me a Pinot Grigio bottle. Hilarious. What makes it even more hilarious is that she's visited a few wineries, so she likes to "educate" us on her expertise as we drink the wine. Classic.

Manitoba wrote:

2 buck Chuck

this is the right choice if you enjoy the taste of box wine.

however, you are being jerked off if you pay more than 15 for a bottle of wine. keep the alcohol %under 12%. californias are tooooo sweet.

1st impressions wrote:

I am young and sort of on a budget. Any suggestions?

How young? Under 21? Then bring a floral arrangement. If you're under 21 and bring a bottle of wine, you'll look like a tool.

Bringing a floral arrangement is always classy. But I said arrangement, not a bunch of flowers you got from the guy on the freeway offramp. Should be in a decorative vase.

Bringing wine is awkward. There is food pairing to keep note of. The parents migh be afficianados, and your budget wine migh make them laugh. The parents might also be Budwieser drinkers and your wine will go unappreciated. Are they any former alcoholics in the family, or any other reason why bringing wine might cause an uncomfortable situation? Bringing wine might be more appropriate at a subsequent visit.

I would never get a wine suggestion from a liquor (package) store. Having worked in liquor store for 5 years while in college, I can tell you that the entire staff knew crap about wine. We knew beer, booze, porn and lottery tickets. The big wine was Boone's Farm, always trying to be scored by the kiddies, and Andre was the champagne of choice. Cold Duck, no less. Try a BevMo, Whole Foods, Bristol Farms, Trader Joes, or similar where they actually take pride in their wine selection.