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On 5/2/2018 at 1:37 PM, Chewbacca said:

Any recs on specific wines?  My experience asking the store folks for help is hit or miss, at best.

What kind of wine do you like? Big, bold, fruit forward? Earthy? A little lighter on the palate? High/low tannins?

If $40 or under is the range, I'm going to Oregon and buying a bunch of $30-$40 Pinot. Much higher than that and I'm thinking splurge on some lower end Premier Cru Burgundies. But those are my tastes - lighter on the palate, less uber ripe fruit, more earthy.

$40 and under also opens the door for a lot of great Tuscan Sangiovese wines as well - again, lighter on the palate. 

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Also - for those that want to get their foot in the door on trying new wines from different regions, check out www.lastbottlewines.com . They have a decent mix of wines including some far out there ones and quite often, they can be had for well under $15 a pop and up to well over $100. For the given price I've paid, I've always been happy with my purchase. They do a good job of curation, IMO.

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20 hours ago, dieucla98 said:

What kind of wine do you like? Big, bold, fruit forward? Earthy? A little lighter on the palate? High/low tannins?

If $40 or under is the range, I'm going to Oregon and buying a bunch of $30-$40 Pinot. Much higher than that and I'm thinking splurge on some lower end Premier Cru Burgundies. But those are my tastes - lighter on the palate, less uber ripe fruit, more earthy.

$40 and under also opens the door for a lot of great Tuscan Sangiovese wines as well - again, lighter on the palate. 

I primarily like Napa cabs right now.  Don't care for tons of tannins.  Like Duckhorn merlot a lot.  Caymus is good.  I like Abstract for more of an everyday drinker.   Meiomi Pinot is decent. 

 

Would be willing to venture out to other kinds,  but that is what I like at the moment.  

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23 hours ago, dieucla98 said:

What kind of wine do you like? Big, bold, fruit forward? Earthy? A little lighter on the palate? High/low tannins?

If $40 or under is the range, I'm going to Oregon and buying a bunch of $30-$40 Pinot. Much higher than that and I'm thinking splurge on some lower end Premier Cru Burgundies. But those are my tastes - lighter on the palate, less uber ripe fruit, more earthy.

$40 and under also opens the door for a lot of great Tuscan Sangiovese wines as well - again, lighter on the palate. 

I think Washington needs to be in the mix too. Yakima has some fiiiiine options at that price point. Sheridan is hard to beat. Drinking the L’Orage ($45 wine club price) now and it’s a 96-97 point cab. 

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3 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

Lulz.  So Napa Cabs are a bad thing now,  too?  

They aren’t a bad thing. There are just so many great wines to choose from. We went to Napa in November and I was very impressed with some Cab Francs and Petit Syrahs. 

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15 hours ago, VABuckeye said:

 was very impressed with some Cab Francs and Petit Syrahs. 

Really enjoying both of those out here

 

15 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

I like what i like. 

 

Nothing wrong with that I love Napa cabs too, just don't limit yourself as there is a ton of good to great wine out there. Another varietal I was not that familiar with but have been loving it is grenache

Edited by Smax
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Does anybody have a line of Yarden Hermon Red? I think they liquor stores got cleaned out during Passover. I haven't seen it in months. 
Really good for the price.
 


If you are Houston area, the Kosher selection at Belden’s is pretty impressive.
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On 5/4/2018 at 4:49 PM, Chewbacca said:

I primarily like Napa cabs right now.  Don't care for ton41s of tannins.  Like Duckhorn merlot a lot.  Caymus is good.  I like Abstract for more of an everyday drinker.   Meiomi Pinot is decent. 

 

Would be willing to venture out to other kinds,  but that is what I like at the moment.  

for Napa, I like Frog's Leap Rutherford cab.  around $45, I think, and consistently solid in that Napa flavor profile.  If you are looking to stay away from the high tannin flavor profile, look to Washington cabs.  Not as easy to find, but producers like Delille, Abeja, Feather, Januik (single vineyard offerings), Soos Creek, Spring Valley, Woodward Canyon, L'ecole No 41, and others.

 

You get a touch more fruitiness in Washington cabs, bluer fruit than Napa (generally).

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On 5/5/2018 at 12:29 PM, Smax said:

Nothing wrong with that I love Napa cabs too, just don't limit yourself as there is a ton of good to great wine out there. Another varietal I was not that familiar with but have been loving it is grenache

I'm just getting into good wine and have been to Napa, hence liking Napa cabs.  Haven't really ventured into other good wines, but I would like to.  Just don't know where to start.

 

I know I don't like Chardonnay (even expensive ones).  And I'm not a fan of wines with huge amounts of tannins.  Other than that, I don't know what I don't know.  But would love to find more good wines in the $30-40 range.

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Check out Washington cabs like mentioned previously. You'll likely come in under that price point and they are a great next step. Generally speaking, a little less sweet, a little more blue fruit as opposed to the red fruits of Napa. Tannins should be similar. 

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Fun night with neighbors over the weekend tasting 1975 California cabs.  All were in great shape and easy to drink.  The fruit tasted nice and soft.  The lack of tannins took away some body, but they could still stand up to the food, including the filet.  The Chappellet and the Christian Brothers were certainly the best (for me).

2h5lifa.jpg

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42 minutes ago, bularry1 said:

you and your neighbors all just had some perfectly stored '75's sitting around?  Or did you provide the wine?  how acquired?

 

sorry to pepper with questions, just really curious.

A neighbor bought the cellar of a friend who became ill.  The collection had, from what I understand, a remarkable library of California wines and was perfectly stored.  He generously donated the ‘75s to a neighborhood silent auction.  Two other neighbors bought the wine  at the auction and invited the donor to dinner.  They also invited me and I brought the steaks and some other food.  Apparently, there is much more old wine left and he intends to share it.

Edited by DFWTexEx
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So I've been meaning to post on this thread for the last couple weeks but never did. 

The past 4 months or so I have really started getting back into wine. especially since the last month of Wine.Woot threw up some great deals while they closed and reopened as a new company not under the amazon umbrella as Casemates.com Also, in DFW I was introduced to the Weekly tastings of 10-15 wines each week at Sigel's in Dallas. Seriously some small production wineries making some really good wines from Sonoma and Napa grapes. My CellarTracker is back over 100 bottles, edging and I'm about to really but a hard limit on future purchases for the year, but so many things are tempting on Casemates with my free shipping.

I love and know mostly American wines. Preferring drier reds than sweet and is pretty rare to buy any non-sparking whites (rather just drink a craft beer) but if I do, it's a dry Riesling or a few other varietals. Also interested in trying more sparkling also, Iron Horse is by far my favorite and my standard. I get the winemakers selection club from them every month. 

So come check out https://casemates.com/ 

Or if up in DFW come check out one of the free Tastings at Sigel's. 

This week is French Rose's, they will be tasting 5 from 2016, the other 10 are from 2017 and super fresh. On sale from $9-20.  Sigel's-Greenville  Wednesday, May 16th  5-7pm

Next week is 14 different Brunello di Montalcino wines. From a 2007 rated with 98pts to 11 2012's. Sigel's-Elite (3209 N Fitzhugh) Wednesday, May 23rd     5-7pm

No I don't work for them.. I just find it a great time to come try some very good wine, with the owner in-store..and not having to travel to wherever the wine is made to try most of their tasting room.

I'll post about individual wines in other posts in the future as I drink certain bottles. 

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, DFWTexEx said:

Fun night with neighbors over the weekend tasting 1975 California cabs.  All were in great shape and easy to drink.  The fruit tasted nice and soft.  The lack of tannins took away some body, but they could still stand up to the food, including the filet.  The Chappellet and the Christian Brothers were certainly the best (for me).

2h5lifa.jpg

 

 

Now that's pretty freaking awesome..Man I would love to try those. 

Edited by msudawg
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Hit up 2 vineyards in the Russian River valley yesterday, the first was Fogcrest

The drive up


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The patio overlooking their vineyard

 


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This is a smaller place recommended to us by several locals, the grounds are beautiful (all of them are ..) and it was unfortunate that most of the day was over cast

The tasting menu, very reasonably priced, The estate Pinot and Chardonnay were my favorites


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Next up was Macrostie
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As we were walking up the pathway to check in, the 2 very cute hostess came to us with glasses of their clockwork sav blanc, no big deal most places have a welcoming wine but we were easily 50 yards away waiting on a member of our party who ran back to the car for something, dumb but I appreciated it.


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We had 3 whites all chardonnays, the Wildcat Mountain was great,  wasn't all that buttery a little more going on with it which I liked

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3 Pinots, all were fantastic, the Goldrock Ridge was my favorite followed by Thales


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The clouds finally started to clear


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I guess I did not get a pic of the menu but this was the line up for the most part, we did get to try their only cab which is sourced from Oakville, it needs to lay down for quite sometime

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The interior, I enjoyed this place and recommend it to anyone who comes out the Russian river Valley/ Dry Creek area, you wont be disappointed


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To end the day we headed up the road to Healdsberg and had an early dinner at Campo Fina


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All in all it was a fun day

Edited by Smax
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On 5/14/2018 at 12:21 PM, DFWTexEx said:

A neighbor bought the cellar of a friend who became ill.  The collection had, from what I understand, a remarkable library of California wines and was perfectly stored.  He generously donated the ‘75s to a neighborhood silent auction.  Two other neighbors bought the wine  at the auction and invited the donor to dinner.  They also invited me and I brought the steaks and some other food.  Apparently, there is much more old wine left and he intends to share it.

That is very cool.

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Is there a website I can check out that would help me out as a noob to French wine? I’m not looking for the PhD version but more than the 2 minute slideshow. 

www.thewinecellarinsider.com

It is Bordeaux and Rhone Valley centric and there are tons of under $30 wines to get started. Find the articles on value wines and start there.

You also can buy pretty much any French wine imported by Robert Kacher and it will be solid.
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On 5/5/2018 at 11:29 AM, Smax said:

Nothing wrong with that I love Napa cabs too, just don't limit yourself as there is a ton of good to great wine out there. Another varietal I was not that familiar with but have been loving it is grenache

Personally, I think Grenache is a perfect wine - at least for the type of food I often cook, and what I'm in the mood for from a bottle. Really like Quivera for example. 

Edited by Txzen
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Vivino app is pretty slick.  You just have to be wary about the reviews. Doesn't always line up with my tastes. 

And be aware that while my ratings on there are genuine, my write ups are haughty garbage full of hubris meant to mock the entire wine drinking community.
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8 hours ago, Smax said:

Lets talk about decanting, who does it or does not and whats your reasoning

 

I was wondering about a few bottles posted here especially the older ones if you guys did decant

I decant pretty much every bottle that gets opened.  There are different reasons for decanting and each wine is different. 

I highly recommend a Durand corkscrew for older bottles! 

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