Wine

[eMTe]

Since I plan to abandon drinking beer (maybe it already happened, because it's been weeks since I last drank it and I have absolutely no desire to do this), but dont plan to relieve myself of this nice feeling when your head dances in the clouds I turned into wine-drinker. Partially because I have some wannabe-experts at work and they influence me. It's funny how many GOOD wines you can buy for only 15-20 złotys (a couple of euros) and these are at the moment the only ones I plan to drink since I dont want to spend fortune on my new interests. But I believe that this is gonna be more and more tempting once I get into this... Ive never been into wine and I hardly remember any names from the past, especially that I drank it only occasionally and with people not knowing anything about them asking in shop for "some good not too expensive wine" for family meetings or celebrations. My friends, who slowly become experts, plan to establish internet site and promote wine-drinking lifestyle among youths as one of them described it.

Being an amateur still I dont have many recommendations, but I'm getting in love with Kadarka for the time being. For those unaware, wines are usually recognized for their varietals, not brand names. There are various Kadarkas available, usually Hungarian or Bulgarian. If youre interested, just visit the nearest shop, there's good chance youll buy it.

I also had in mind the name of some good Chilean wine, but I lost it. But everything's yet ahead me.

[Chroelle]

I have some knowledge about wine. My dad is a big winecollector, and we spent alot of my childhoodsummers driving down to France to visit winepeasant and vineyards to taste their newest bottle, and sometimes their oldest bottle - depending on how well we knew them.
I have a couple of favourite peasants/winemakers.
Chopin Groffier - Makes a GREAT Bourgogne
Philip Amiot - Makes one very close to Groffiers.
They lkive not too far from eachother, so it easy to go both places in a day. We mostly get to buy about 12 bottles each place. But that means we are exclusive in Denmark to this specific bottle.

[Zyx]

Whiskys, my good man, whiskys.

As for wines, I'm pretty much for Australian and Californian wines. I've no idea why.

[eMTe]

@Chroelle

So you know much it seems. You have a dad who is interested in wines, so you can always rely on his taste. I plan to go to wine tasting meetings and my friend is able to arrange me an invitation card for one. You know, the one where you meet conoisseurs and wine importers. Not the thing I desire most, but Im a bit interested in how such a meeting looks like. All I know is that France is the most represented country in such meetings. And that youre not obliged to spit wine. Sometimes this wine is worth hundreds or thousands. Worth trying, huh? Even if one is not the most sophisticated guy in the world.

[Chroelle]

I have never been to one, but my dad has. He always say that they are worth the visit. Oh and funny thing is that me and my dad dont share taste in wines. He is a chateu neuf de pape kind og guy, and into some really heavy redwines - I am more into lighter reds. The heavy ones tend to give me a headache. Well the light ones do that too, but I ahve to drink alot moree of it for that to happen

[Pager]

As part of my bartender certification, I was getting a wine certification as well, but you know I've never had the taste for wine, and thus thought it would be more important if I could develop a palette for wine before trying to become an expert. I tried, but it just didn't happen for me.

I still have some awesome books on wine. I just need to find them...technically the wine cert. is at own pace, but it has been 5 years since I took the course.

Although, if I do drink wine, I tend to stick to the fruit Zinfandel, strawberry tends to be the most popular one, but I have had peach and blackberry, it is also really good mixing it with club soda.

Just remember, Shiraz is not a chugging wine...it'll mess you up.

But after I left beer I sort of went the other direction and got into drinking martinis, which has vermouth (a fortified wine) so I guess I am a wine drinker technically...

[SFault]

I see no reason to quit drinking beer for wine. There is a great variety of beer types, it's cheaper, it's easier to drink and most of all it tastes much better.


For a wine I could recommend Montes Limited Selection Pinot Noir...

[Scythe]

Well, since I drink alcohol 3-4 times a year, I'd never feel comfortable recommending anything.

[eMTe]

I'll be on my first tasting on Thursday if nothing goes wrong. The only restriction my friend said is that if he takes me with him it would be good if I become a client of the shop in future. Fair enough, if I were shopkeeper I wouldnt like accidental people waltzing down into shop and drinking free wine for fun.

I have also some stories about policy of Polish supermarkets and expensive wines. The most expensive bottles are usually those really old and rare, but what's interesting they're probably not drinkable. Even best wine loses quality after 30 years and after this time becomes only some sort of collectible for snobs. You buy it and put it onto display. The most expensive DRINKABLE wines, according to my friend, cost around 1500 złotys (over 300 euros).

As for markets. They have some of those wines. Even the small wine houses do. The problem is that quality of these wines comes not only from the grapes, proper insolation and so, but also from proper storage conditions. If shop puts the bottle on display it loses the quality it's famous for. Wines from the upper quality shelf must be stored in dark places with proper temperature, humidity and so on. The question is: do shops simply cheat unaware clients and put original bottles on shelves waiting for morons always ready for little cut-a-dash and buying "expensive wine" or do they put fake bottles on shelves. The latter is quite improbable as all those bottles have original excise stamps. Result (my friend supposes) = cheating. The etiquette is proper, the bottle content - not exactly.

[eMTe]

Back. Nothing I havent expected. Small shop, lousy-talking bearded owner in his fifties in oriental shirt, mix of people aged 20-50, discussions about philosophy, wine, sex, art and sex with occasional visitors from the street who wanted to know what's happening in this funny shop and why it's so loud in there and why the door are still open 2 hours after closing hours. . Take piece of Woody Allen film and you get the feeling of the meeting.

I bought two bottles of magical Beaujolais Nouveau. Magical, because it's outdated and forbidden to sell (I havent "bought" it officially), but somehow it is still drinkable; it was turned upside down during transport and got new qualities. Only 15 bottles or so left from this transport, so I had to buy it.

I also learned how to open wine with professional wine opener. Not with the lousy corkscrew.

http://www.lakewoodconferences.com/dire ... er_Set.jpg

Pretty complex task in terms of number of moves to perform, but cork pops out with no sound and with minimal pressure applied. Tricky.

[SFault]

sex with occasional visitors from the street

Wait, what? Should I spent my summer holiday in Poland?

On topic... I just bought a bottle of malbec wine. Usually I drink merlot so it's a little unclear if I'll like it.

[eMTe]

Damn punctuation!

...discussions (about philosophy, wine, sex, art and sex) with occasional visitors...

On the other hand...who knows.

[eMTe]

I'll be on my second d tomorrow (to be precise - today) and Im almost sure I'll buy Tannat from Uruguay which is a bit more extensive from what Ive planned to buy... But you know, when youll drink real wine at some point youll start seeing differences... Terms like aroma and bouquet which mean nothing for occasional taster start meaning something when you drink wines from let's say middle-shelf. You immediately see the difference.

Sigh. I really should not.

[eMTe]

Well, if you need good CHEAP wine for tuna salad or other fish dish check Cono Sur Tocornal Sauvignon Blanc. It's damn cheap and widely available, but it really stands out from other cheap wines and you can recognize it immediately after opening by strong lemon aroma. Really really nice

And yes, this is the Chilean wine mentioned in my first post.

[eMTe]

Another good cheap wine - Gato Negro Merlot from Chile, very mild, but with deep blackberry flavour. Good to drink straight from the bottle if youre out of the city and want to sit under the tree.

Moderately good wines - Quara from Argentina. Nothing special for me, but at least they didnt turn my tongue upside down.

To avoid: white Leon Cavallo - Chilean piece of **** tasting more like Jabol than true wine. One thing may be that it wasnt bottled in Chile, but in Germany (one should avoid wines not bottled in vineyard), but I doubt that it can alter the overall experience so much.

More to come.

[eMTe]

I kinda abandoned this thread, so it's time to restore it.

Continuing my enthusiastic recommendations of Cono Sur wines, check this if youll have opportunity:

http://www.conosur.com/en/our-wines/con ... carmenere/

It has deep strong taste and is relatively cheap for the quality. It costs about 8 euros in Poland.

Ive also discovered shiraz variety through Jacob's Creek wines,

http://www.jacobscreek.com/ .

If you need real killer for some reason, shiraz wines are for you. This is - seriously - wine for two or three sips during dinner. I made a mistake and drank whole glass of it at evening (because it is damn good) and my cheeks dried completely from the inside, so much that I had problems to sleep even after two huge glasses of water drank after. Great but strong.

And now the real smasher. Georgian white wine of Mtsvane variety from telavi Wine Cellar:

http://georgianwinesociety.co.uk/white- ... ne-cellar/

Ive been browsing shelves in an alcohol shop 150 metres from my workplace and couldnt find anything interesting I bought it, because I never drunk Georgian wine, at least not intentionally. And boy, what a wine! Probably the best white wine Ive ever drunken and very different from sour, lemmon-tasting wines. Very deep apple and flower taste and even if it's dry it is very mild and relaxing. Relaxing is not the word used by experts, but that's how I felt it. Circa 9 euros here. Next weekend Im going to try another Telavi Mtsvane wine, this time red one.

[eMTe]

My friends started to organise wine meetings (first took place outdoors, second one indoors [see photos below] in french wines shop) - loose plan is to organise them wherever possible (outdoors or indoors) and gather as many young people as possible to drive them away from beer/vodka binge drinking and teach a bit about wine (and other things like philosophy or good music ). Ciggies and foul language disallowed. Ten people, but this is only a beginning and maybe beginning of something really great. Everybody who wants to attend needs to pay small amount of money to organisers, then they buy wines for it and make kinda traditional wine-tasting meeting. Sparkling wine for a start, then white ones, red ones and sweet dessert wines at the end. Mix of newbies and people who drink wine for years and have something interesting to say about viniculture in general as well as can share some tasting knowledge.

As I said - it can even be in a forest - they try to fight popular conviction that wine is expensive and is drunk only by white collars in restaurants.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2 ... 1007603898

[Chroelle]

I am guessing these pics are in a friends photoalbum... I cant see them, as I am not allowed.
The concept sounds really nice. And cosy!

[Maz]

eMTe abandoning beer??? I guess that's what happens when one is not watching what his friends are doing... I know I should have visited here more frequently... Other than that, you've done damn fine job guys!

[Chroelle]

Nice to see you Mazzie - long time since last. Chillum was in here asking for you (well for everyone from back when actually).

On-topic. Anyone has any really good fruity whites I could use for a sunny-day picnic this sunday (wedding anniversary). I could really use something nice and light, because I have to drive from there to the restaurant, and in Denmark there is a 2 spirit minimum, so the first one should be light, so the red wine for the meat-dinner at www.mashsteaks.dk (in english) can be a bit more heavy, and I can still drive home without feeling too heavy in the head. (yes there will have passed several hours between the two spirits, but nonetheless.)

Oh and Maz - stop by the Inn. I want to know what is going on with your life. Hows the family etc?