WINE - Red, White, or Other - Discussed Here!

Started by SonicMan46, April 07, 2007, 06:14:18 PM

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Bogey

Thanks, Dave.  It was for our 20th year of Oscars with our friends that enjoy wine.  However, a blizzard made it stay on the rack.
There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

SonicMan46

Inventing Wine: A New History of One of the World's Most Ancient Pleasures (2012) by Paul Lukacs - just over 300 pages of text; the author (who has written a number of wine books that I've read) does a great job of covering the 'historic' development of wine from the BCE to the present - a difficult task and objections will be made, but this is a good read for those interested in the history of wine - having read many books over the decades on wine history (and watched a number of videos), this is a well done and concise book - a recommendation, especially for wine lovers not knowing much of the history or just getting into enjoying the 'beverage' - Dave :)


Bogey

Quote from: SonicMan46 on March 03, 2013, 05:17:18 PM
Inventing Wine: A New History of One of the World's Most Ancient Pleasures (2012) by Paul Lukacs - just over 300 pages of text; the author (who has written a number of wine books that I've read) does a great job of covering the 'historic' development of wine from the BCE to the present - a difficult task and objections will be made, but this is a good read for those interested in the history of wine - having read many books over the decades on wine history (and watched a number of videos), this is a well done and concise book - a recommendation, especially for wine lovers not knowing much of the history or just getting into enjoying the 'beverage' - Dave :)



Sounds like a book for me!

I also found this on the bottle I posted:

http://www.louisjadot.com/en/index.php

Fun to dig into the site to discover more about the wine. 
There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

Brian

Sonic Dave, speaking of pinot noir from Oregon, I just picked up a bottle of 2011 Ponzi 'Tavola' pinot noir. Don't know much about wine but it came highly recommended... recent enough that I think I would be wise to keep it a while?

Bogey

Quote from: Brian on March 03, 2013, 05:25:11 PM
Sonic Dave, speaking of pinot noir from Oregon, I just picked up a bottle of 2011 Ponzi 'Tavola' pinot noir. Don't know much about wine but it came highly recommended... recent enough that I think I would be wise to keep it a while?

Here is a bit on it.

http://ponziwines.com/assets/uploads/general/11_Ponzi_Tavola_PNR_Notes.pdf

I am guessing it will go for a few years, Brian.
There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

Bogey

Dave, concerning the book, is it ALL text?  Or are there plenty of illustrations?
There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

Sergeant Rock

In the last two weeks I've opened two bottles of my dwindling cru classé Bordeaux stash: a 1995 fifth growth Margaux, Chateau du Tertre, and a 1991 second growth St. Julien, Chateau Léoville Barton. I was afraid I might have waited too long. The last time I opened a bottle of the Léoville it seemed on the edge of oblivion. But this bottle was great. Mature and still concetrated and complex, lovely cedar notes. The du Tertre was good too, but along with the red berry it had a slight vegetal taste and was very earthy...in a good way. Both times we drank the wine with a steak dinner: filet medium rare, roasted rosemary potatoes and broccoli with garlic slices.






Sarge
the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

SonicMan46

Quote from: Sergeant Rock on March 24, 2013, 06:02:45 AM
In the last two weeks I've opened two bottles of my dwindling cru classé Bordeaux stash: a 1995 fifth growth Margaux, Chateau du Tertre, and a 1991 second growth St. Julien, Chateau Léoville Barton. I was afraid I might have waited too long...........



Sad to say that my last classified Bordeaux were consumed a few years ago - nada now!  ???

BUT, I did have originally a half case of that Ch. Léoville Barton 91 bought as futures probably in 1993-4?  My last bottle went @ 20 yrs of age - Dave :)

Sergeant Rock

Quote from: SonicMan46 on March 24, 2013, 08:13:09 AM
Sad to say that my last classified Bordeaux were consumed a few years ago - nada now!  ???

BUT, I did have originally a half case of that Ch. Léoville Barton 91 bought as futures probably in 1993-4?  My last bottle went @ 20 yrs of age - Dave :)

I bought my full case of Léoville, not as futures but still shortly after it was released. So, twenty years in the cellar. I can't believe my patience ;D  I have one bottle left. Also one bottle remaining of the du Tertre (bought a half case in the late 90s).

Sarge
the phone rings and somebody says,
"hey, they made a movie about
Mahler, you ought to go see it.
he was as f*cked-up as you are."
                               --Charles Bukowski, "Mahler"

MishaK

Nice. I still have a 2002 du Tertre in my cellar.

The new erato

My mature Bordeaux Reserves are dwindling as well (I'm still holding on to my single Lafitte 86!), but I have kept on buying the occasional bottle through the 90ies and 2000s. But the prices are getting sillier and siller, my Grand Puy Lacoste 2004 were $75 (bought 3), the 2009 were $120 (2), and the 2010 are $150 (0). I have some Leoville Barton 1994/2001/2004, some Pontet Canet from a couple of vintages, some Cantemerle from various vintages, some Dom de Chevalier (99, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006), Dominique 2005 and assorted odds and ends. Nothing really major.

Brian

Quote from: Brian on March 03, 2013, 05:25:11 PM
Sonic Dave, speaking of pinot noir from Oregon, I just picked up a bottle of 2011 Ponzi 'Tavola' pinot noir. Don't know much about wine but it came highly recommended... recent enough that I think I would be wise to keep it a while?

Cracked this one open with a friend last night and we had almost the whole bottle. After sitting out a few minutes, it developed into a very fine wine - smooth, well-rounded medley of berries, pepper perhaps, a bit of a tart "fold" (for some reason I think of flavors as shapes a lot of the time).

Octave, when you click through to this thread - I'm a bare-bones beginner and just learning my way. As you can see, I don't know the vocabulary or tasting notes anything like our experts, but am trying to do the same thing they do - just report on what they taste.

A book I highly recommend is Oldman's Guide to Outsmarting Wine. And a price range I recommend is $16-24, with a little research and diligence you can find very very satisfying stuff there. The Ponzi pinot was one such - $24 for a 2011 I think. I'll be going back to buy another bottle and keep it a year or two (something I've never done before, gonna be an experiment).

Octave

Thanks Brian for bumping this and Sonicman-Dave for the pointer.  How could I mess up a keyword search for 'wine'?   :-X
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kishnevi

I've been exploring what is probably a niche market--inexpensive Israeli wines (in this case, defining inexpensive as being under $20US) , and having discovered that the Israeli equivalent of Gallo is Recananti and Yasmin wines,  and that overall there's a wide variation in both quantity and price,  I've stumbled over a nice red wine, from Dalton Winery, a blend they call Canaan wine (it comes in both red and white versions;  I've only had the red),  for about $17 a bottle.  What's now available seems to be the 2010 vintage.


The winery website is here:
http://www.dalton-winery.com/

Their own write up follows.  The 'tasting notes" match my own impressions rather closely.
Quote
Red Canaan

WINEMAKING:
Red Canaan is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Sirah and a little Shiraz and some mourvedre, the proportions of which may vary from year to year.

Close proximity to the winery allowed for immediate crushing and fermenting. The colour of the wine is extracted by a rigorous regime of pumping over and warm fermentation. The Canaan wines are our earliest release wines and do not see influence of oak before bottling.


TASTING NOTES:
Canaan is an easy drinking medium-bodied red wine with sweet fruit, with notes of black pepper, cherries and plums, low tannins and soft vanilla tones. This is a wine with very few pretensions and is made for immediate consumption.



SUGGESTED SERVING TEMPERATURE:
16-18〫 Celsius but can also be served slightly chilled.



SERVING SUGGESTIONS:
The Canaan wines were made with the Israeli climate and cuisine in mind so they particularly suitable for Mediterranean cuisine. The Red Canaan is a good accompaniment to pasta, pizza, poultry, and mixed grills, it is also an excellent party wine.

The reference to "warm fermentation" is probably a reference to the mevushal process used for almost all kosher wines.  (Non Mevushal wine is rendered non-kosher if the bottle or drinking vessel which contains it is touched by a Gentile or a not so observant Jew like myself;  if it sounds bigoted,  remember that this rule dates back to the days when Gentiles worshipped Bacchus and poured wine libations to the pagan gods, and therefore one could assume that any jar of wine handled by a Gentile had been involved, if only incidentally, in idol worship.  Full explanation can be found on Wikipedia under the term "mevushal".  In my experience, the mevushal process as now practiced has little or no effect on the quality of the wine.)

Another winery which seems to have good quality control,  but is even less expensive (starting at $11 or $12US a bottle), is Barkan;  they produce a series of wines, the worst of which can be called "decent"--certainly not as cheap tasting as other brands might be..  (They also have some higher end, higher priced wines which I have not tasted.)

jlaurson

Checking into the wine-room with a report of a recent order of quality German whites.




http://www.weingutwittmann.de/home

Sarge: Put in my first oder with Wittmann day before yesterday...

Silvaner trocken, 2012

Weißer Burgunder trocken, 2012

Grauer Burgunder trocken, 2012

Riesling trocken, 2012

Riesling 1l , 2012



Didn't go for Scheurebe & Rosé ... for no particular reason except that I can always get more Rosé when a woman that has a penchant for Rosé frequents my place on a regular basis...
a few boxes of the basic stuff... plus one box "Vom Schiefer" of his wife's stuff. Not usually (or until now at least not) a fan of slate (shale/shist)-taste... but I suppose a well made Riesling could well convince me. Aside, I like to surprise the palate. Which makes me wonder why I didn't go for the Scheurebe...

If those tickle my explorin' buds, without satisfying them, I'll try their Ortsweine. But mainly I was interested in their Pinot Blanc...

SonicMan46

Quote from: Brian on June 20, 2013, 06:27:54 PM
Cracked this one open with a friend last night and we had almost the whole bottle. After sitting out a few minutes, it developed into a very fine wine - smooth, well-rounded medley of berries, pepper perhaps, a bit of a tart "fold" (for some reason I think of flavors as shapes a lot of the time).

Octave, when you click through to this thread - I'm a bare-bones beginner and just learning my way. As you can see, I don't know the vocabulary or tasting notes anything like our experts, but am trying to do the same thing they do - just report on what they taste......

Hi Brian - well, if you liked the Ponzi Pinot Noir, then explore the grape - probably my favorite 'red' as I've gotten older; although my 'wine cellar' has dwindled over the years, I probably have a dozen cases @ the moment w/ over 2 cases of different '09-'11 Oregon pinots - yesterday, after sharing some woodworking projects w/ a few friends, we had a little wine & cheese over some OR PN below.  As I've likely mentioned before, the OPNC (Oregon Pinot Noir Club) HERE is an excellent source from some OR wineries that may not have a national distribution - been shipping to me for years now.  Dave :)


SonicMan46

Below a series of pics sent to me from a 'wine' friend - gave me a chuckle and certainly approve of the dosages suggested - :)  Dave










jlaurson


Got completely drenched earlier, from filling up the cellar with white & gray burgundy, riesling, and sylvaner. My favorite kind of workout! My rack is full now... so I have to do some work!

One bottle, as a reward for hard labor, went with me upstairs and awaits its decapitation now.

Arrived two days after above order... alongside a few beer orders because I'll be having a 'gentlemen's evening' (except afternoon, grilling on the river) in july for which everyone brings some of their favorite beers. Time to expose those Austrians and Germans (and other assorted internationals of that crowd, with a slight emphasis on musicians) to some of the better Anglo brews. Or at least those I enjoyed. Couldn't get Dogfishead here, but got a few ones one would and could drink with assurance, abroad. Anchor Liberty Ale (a favorite at CATO, not just because of the name but also because of the SF origin of both), Sierra Nevada (bit plain-Jane choice, but a staple in my days), Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale, Newcastle Brown Ale, Boddingtons (my favorite to have on a Saturday, breaking the law by way of public consumption strolling about Eastern Market in DC),
and perhaps the best German "Helles" I've ever had... Kloster Irsee Urtrunk. Rumor has it that the beer was the reason Bruno Weil used to choose Irsee for his annual performances in Germany. :-)

MishaK

Quote from: SonicMan46 on June 21, 2013, 10:45:11 AM
Below a series of pics sent to me from a 'wine' friend - gave me a chuckle and certainly approve of the dosages suggested - :)  Dave











Oooh! There is a store in the city of Bordeaux that looks like that, but bigger. It's just one big spiral staircase with wine all around.

SonicMan46

Quote from: MishaK on June 21, 2013, 12:13:16 PM
Oooh! There is a store in the city of Bordeaux that looks like that, but bigger. It's just one big spiral staircase with wine all around.

Well had to 'google' that one!  ;D   I think the pic below is really impressive - remains me of the stacks in my medical school libraries, but w/ delicious libations rather than old smelly books!   Yeh - :)