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1 hour ago, F250 said:

We will need a $50 and under thread for the non-douche wine aficionados.

 

 

This.  I love good wine and would like to hear about QPR finds. 

I did open a 2000 Don Melchor last night to go with steaks. Was drinking great. Still have a 2001,2003, 2004, and 2006. 

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Ok here's a question for the experts. (would that be considered an oxymoron?) I originally started on wine years ago drinking Shiraz. I found the acidity along with my poor diet caused me to have acid reflux. My diet has been corrected and I have since shifted over to Pinot Noir. I normally stick to the $10-15 dollar bottles. Any suggestions on brands or even different types of wine? Not big into the sweet stuff, red or white. Thanks. I'll hang up and listen.

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13 hours ago, nivek3 said:

Ok here's a question for the experts. (would that be considered an oxymoron?) I originally started on wine years ago drinking Shiraz. I found the acidity along with my poor diet caused me to have acid reflux. My diet has been corrected and I have since shifted over to Pinot Noir. I normally stick to the $10-15 dollar bottles. Any suggestions on brands or even different types of wine? Not big into the sweet stuff, red or white. Thanks. I'll hang up and listen.

Interesting.  Typically Shiraz wines (at least the ones that garner big scores from Parker, et al.) have been lower in acid than average over the last 10-15 years.  Pinot Noir (especially from Oregon) would by higher in acidity, generally speaking.  Big sweet stuff usually means lower acid.

 

 

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Blew through several 1999 Hermitage's last night with pork tenderloin.  Forgot to take pictures.  One was a Delas (that was corked).  The Guigal was good but not great.  None of them really stood out to me as memorable.  Disappointing showing for them.

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1 minute ago, DDD Dad said:

Interesting.  Typically Shiraz wines (at least the ones that garner big scores from Parker, et al.) have been lower in acid than average over the last 10-15 years.  Pinot Noir (especially from Oregon) would by higher in acidity, generally speaking.  Big sweet stuff usually means lower acid.

 

 

Wonder if it had anything to do with the specific brands I was drinking? Honestly I've always bought on the cheaper side until my taste matures enough to settle into something worthy.

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Hard to find good New World Pinot Noir that shows varietal typicity in the sub $15 category.  If you are willing to spend $30-40 a bottle there are lots of really good options, though.  

Burgundy is a whole different animal (and you could spend years digging around there to find a style and price point that works).  Best bet for Old World Pinot Noir is to try village wines.  There are lots in the sub $30 category that are decent and typical of the grape with generally (but not necessarily always) a little earthier flavor profile than their New World counterparts.

Village meaning, "Bourgogne" and similar on the label as opposed to a 1er Cru or vineyard specific wine.

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On 3/25/2018 at 1:55 PM, F250 said:

We will need a $50 and under thread for the non-douche wine aficionados.

 

 

If you like bubbly wine, I strongly recommend Conundrum Sparkling Rose.  Had it when we did a tasting at the Caymus winery in Napa.  Fruity, but not sweet.  One of my favorite champagnes ever.  And only $25 a bottle.

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5 hours ago, DDD Dad said:

Hard to find good New World Pinot Noir that shows varietal typicity in the sub $15 category.  If you are willing to spend $30-40 a bottle there are lots of really good options, though.  

Burgundy is a whole different animal (and you could spend years digging around there to find a style and price point that works).  Best bet for Old World Pinot Noir is to try village wines.  There are lots in the sub $30 category that are decent and typical of the grape with generally (but not necessarily always) a little earthier flavor profile than their New World counterparts.

Village meaning, "Bourgogne" and similar on the label as opposed to a 1er Cru or vineyard specific wine.

The layers of knowledge behind can be a little daunting. Hell I just bought a Vinturi a few months back and was surprised at the difference it makes. Which I am guessing in some circles it is frowned upon to use this device. 

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What are the wine douches thoughts on the Beckstoffer wines out of Napa?  I've had a few of them and while I think they are very good wines, the price (usually in the $150 range retail) is a bit offputting.  I'm not sure they are twice as good as Caymus Cab, for example.  And what makes his grapes so special?

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7 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

If you like bubbly wine, I strongly recommend Conundrum Sparkling Rose.  Had it when we did a tasting at the Caymus winery in Napa.  Fruity, but not sweet.  One of my favorite champagnes ever.  And only $25 a bottle.

Is this one dry? I normally don't drink fruity, but it might be refreshing come summertime. I'll make a note to get a bottle for that first hot summer night on the back patio. 

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Just now, nivek3 said:

Is this one dry? I normally don't drink fruity, but it might be refreshing come summertime. I'll make a note to get a bottle for that first hot summer night on the back patio. 

Not super dry, no.  I don't like really dry champagne.  Can't stand Veuve, for example.  

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12 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

What are the wine douches thoughts on the Beckstoffer wines out of Napa?  I've had a few of them and while I think they are very good wines, the price (usually in the $150 range retail) is a bit offputting.  I'm not sure they are twice as good as Caymus Cab, for example.  And what makes his grapes so special?

Andy Beckstoffer owns some of the most highly regarded, oldest vineyards in Napa on some of the best property in the region.  He charges a high premium for grapes from there, and a number of the top (most sought-after) wineries feature single vineyard designate wines from them.  Off the top of my head, the Beckstoffer-Tokalon and Beckstoffer Georges III are among the most famous, which he bought from Beaulieu Vineyards.  The Tokalon vineyard is shared with Robert Mondavi, who owns the other half of it.

I've had many Cabernet Sauvignon (primarily) wines from both of these as well as the Dr. Crane vineyard.  They all have been, pretty much without exception, fantastic wines.  Are they worth the tariff?  Probably not, but it all depends on your price point comfort level, I suppose.

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Yeah, I've had the Dr. Crane Vice Versa Cab at French Laundry and it was fantastic.  Visited a small, newer winery called Fontanella while we were out there. They were able to get some Georges III grapes from him and that Cab is great as well.  Holy shit, does everyone in Napa suck that dude's cock, though.

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2 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

Yeah, I've had the Dr. Crane Vice Versa Cab at French Laundry and it was fantastic.  Visited a small, newer winery called Fontanella while we were out there. They were able to get some Georges III grapes from him and that Cab is great as well.  Holy shit, does everyone in Napa suck that dude's cock, though.

In the past I found a wine from a basically unknown winery in Calistoga (I'm thinking this was back in 2005 or earlier) that had bought George III grapes and sold under their label.  I want to say the price point at the time was well under $50 a bottle (maybe $30?).  Was fantastic stuff and relatively cheap.

Have never seen that wine available again.  I imagine their contract expired and the winery likely went out of business.  Will dig around my old inventory to see if I can find the name of it.

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Tried Vivino's "scan wine list" function for the first time this past weekend, and am blown away how quickly and effectively it worked. Take a pic of the entire page of the wine list, and it overlays the ratings right onto it with color coding so you can easily see the highlights of the list. Worked even quicker than a single bottle scan, probably because it just had to do OCR and send text for search instead of doing image matching.

On the old board someone recommended Cellar Tracker to me - turns out that app uses Vivino's database. I wasn't able to get much further with it as it never could finish matching a label scan (despite trying multiple devices and multiple internet connections), so I went back to using Vivino.

Got a chance to compare prices across US, Thailand duty-free, and Thailand normal shop (with duty). Phelps Insignia, US price via Vivino was $215. Thailand duty-free was $281. Thailand normal shop was $515. Brutal. That said, I've also found a few instances where a wine is priced high due to demand in the US, but noone here knows about it. Kistler I found a little cheaper here than the Vivino US price.

Other than Coravin, maybe with BottleThief adapter to use bulk Argon, are there really any other alternatives to keep wine yet allow partial servings? I simply don't drink enough and don't have enough friends living remotely nearby to open a bottle very often. Plus, I'm trying to learn and try different wines, so the goal really isn't to drink a whole bottle. It's expensive, a Coravin+BottleThief comes out to around $400, but I have far more than that in wine already. I've started ordering occasional glasses to try if I spot something really well rated and priced at a restaurant (hence my pleasant experience with the Vivino list scanner above), knowing I'm getting killed on the price.

Sam

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1990 R. D.  Great vintage for champagne. 

I have a csb story about 1990 vintage champagne. I was in NYC walking to a show and ran across this little wine shop and decided to walk in and peruse. Found a 1990 Salon for $300 and I was like seriously? The little Indian owner said of course and was happy to sell it. Took it to Jungsik and enjoyed with some fantastic Uni. Beautiful wine. Anyway, carry on. 

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Edited by b_p
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Love that story.  Reminds me (not quite to your extent though) when I found a couple of bottles of a cab I love in a random liquor store between Sacramento and Reno.  They were 2004s (this was 2014) and the price tag must have been on there since they bought them.  I think they were $65 and the vineyard was selling those library bottles for $140 or so.

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10 hours ago, b_p said:

1990 R. D.  Great vintage for champagne. 

I have a csb story about 1990 vintage champagne. I was in NYC walking to a show and ran across this little wine shop and decided to walk in and peruse. Found a 1990 Salon for $300 and I was like seriously? The little Indian owner said of course and was happy to sell it. Took it to Jungsik and enjoyed with some fantastic Uni. Beautiful wine. Anyway, carry on. 

84myh4D.jpg

BdJNA72.jpg

AWTvuJJ.jpg

Jealous.  I've been wanting to get my hands on Salon for a while.

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2 hours ago, Reynolds Woodcock said:

Went to Fausto last night, a new italian place in Brooklyn, and they had this gem on the menu. Was delicious, and for only $60 I thought it was a great value.

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Wow, aged Barbera for $60.  Was it at the end of its drinking window?  Even if so, still a great find.

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