Posted by:
dogzilla
(
)
Date: January 14, 2014 03:44PM
Every single wine recommendation in this thread is garbage. In my opinion. Moscato is vile. Sutter Home is a terrible brand--I won't even cook with it.
What I suggest -- and I'm not sure this is available to you where you live -- is attend some wine tastings. People can recommend wines all day, but without having any idea what you like and what things taste like to YOU, all recommendations are pointless. We have liquor stores here (I'm in the South) called ABC stores and they have wine tastings, where you get to sip a bunch of different wines (as many or as few as you like) and then if you like one or four, you can buy them right there. Great way to market wine.
So I'm a big fan of Pinot Noir (that's a red wine on the lighter side of reds), and my favorite Pinot Noir is by King Estate. King Estate also makes a lovely Pinot Grigio (that's a really light white wine). King Estate is located in the Willamette Valley, OR region. (Get it here:
http://www.wine.com/v6/search/?term=king%20estate)
I'm also a big fan of Penfold's wines, specifically the Cabernet Sauvignons, but also some of the Shirazes. Cabernets are a little heavier than Pinot Noirs, and Shiraz is a little heavier than a Cabernet. Merlot is heavier yet, in general. Some people love Merlot, but like the guys in Sideways, I can't fucking stand Merlot.
And now a word about corks. This advice of "get wine with a cork, screw top is crap" is really outdated advice. Do not judge a wine by its closure: many quality wineries have gone to screw-caps and other tops.
Wine Spectator explains:
"So why are some wineries abandoning the traditional cork stopper? Alternative closures, including things like screw caps, plastic corks and glass toppers, are one way to deal with an unwanted compound called 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, or TCA, which makes wines taste musty and dank. TCA is created by an interaction of phenols (organic compounds found in all plants) with things sometimes found in wineries, like mold and chlorine. TCA is often traced to faulty corks; hence, the flavors it imparts are often simply referred to as "cork taint," and a wine that suffers from TCA contamination is often called "corked" or "corky." In fairness to corks, though, TCA can also originate in cardboard cases or wooden pallets; it can even contaminate an entire winery. But corks are probably the most common source of TCA, and that's the principal reason wineries are abandoning them."
All of the Mollydooker wines from Australia come with screw caps and they are rated as some of the best wines coming out of that country. Get them here:
http://www.wine.com/v6/search/?term=mollydooker