Yeah, you'd be shocked to see Kentucky wages then, they don't pay at all. Except for Louisville, there's also no culinary scene. Of course, Louisville is a foodie city, and while I don't think it's "cut-throat", it does take food and drinks very seriously.
This was last night's poison: It's a French Bordeaux, which means it's from the Bordeaux region and I believe the "Controlee" appellation listed about the vintage there is in the middle of their classifications. Basically it's in the middle of the road as far the standards for the region go. Bordeaux is essentially the birthplace of Cab and Merlot and the famous blend of the two that has been copied a billion times over in the US (think Duckhorn Decoy, Coppola Claret, and any of the red blends from California littering the shelves of your local liquor store). This one is Merlot heavy: 70% Merlot, 20% Cab, and 10% Cabernet Franc. Other Bordeaux blends will break 50/50 Cab/Merlot or throw in a little Sirah for variety. American Bordeaux blends will add Zinfandel to the classic Cab/Merlot mix but I don't think the French do that. This one is a good wine. About $15 a bottle but on sale for $13 this month. Fun wine fact: Cabernet Sauvignon, the most popular grape varietal in the world (what we commonly call Cab), is actually the bastard love child of Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc. About a thousand years ago those two grapes mingled in a field somewhere and birthed what we now call "Cab."
Damn, you're making me want to pick up some wine! Need to save the dollars right now, but next week I'll have the extra funds. Maybe one bottle wouldn't hurt though...XD Priorities suck sometimes. haha
I haven't kept up with the thread but since I opened a bottle tonight I figured I'd share. Silk & Spice - an anonymous Portuguese blend with "flavors that can only be found in the indigenous grapes of Portugal." I'm not well-versed in Portuguese wines (Castelao and others?) so I'm not sure what it is but its good. Medium red with vanilla and spices going on. Label definitely sold me haha
Tonight I am drinking Toad Hollow 2015 Unoaked Chardonnay from Healdsburg, CA. It is quite delicious!
We sell the hell out of that wine in our store. I've never had it but I think I prefer unoaked chards. California oak bombs is most of our sales so its nice to see an unoaked chard do well. Have you bought your fancy cab yet (I just read through the thread)? Homer is spot on about most of the big napa cab brands. I'm partial to Michael David winery though who are in Lodi which is hotter and the grapes tend to be more fruity but they do amazing things with them and they sell a cab called Rapture (I think we have it for $62.99?) that I've always wanted to try. Just saying, that's what I would do If you wanted to try some of their other wines though, I would definitely recommend. They are mostly $15-20 and their artwork is a lot of fun. I really love their "Petite Petit" which is a Petite Syrah/Petit Verdot blend with a whole story about two circus elephants named Petite and Petit. They also do the wines Freakshow and Seven Deadly Zins as well which are pretty popular and also pretty good. Edit: Actually, maybe I would buy a Barolo
Not familiar with that one or Portuguese reds in general. We've had some success with whites like Vinho Verde (Portuguese Pinot Grigio) and Alvarinho, which can be awesome in the summer. I know Portugal does a bit of the Temparillo, though obviously nowhere near as much as Spain. Mainly they're known for their Port and Madeira, which I've really been into. I'd much rather have a Strega, Amaro, or even a Frangelico for a digestive. I'll keep my eye out for it though, but in general I've never been big into anything Spanish or Portuguese. Hard to talk me out of French and Italian reds. ETA: looks like the Silk and Spice is not available in NH but the Toad Hollow is. That's a Mendocino chard... interesting. I will definitely grab one of those. I can go either way with the oak or unoaked. My fav is still probably the Grgich Hills, but that one's really pricey.
I will consume pretty much anything alcoholic, but I could never drink regular Chardonnay without grimacing. There's something about oak that doesn't sit well on my palate. When I discovered unoaked Chardonnay at a food and wine tasting event last summer it was as if the heavens had opened. I have yet to make the wine splurge, as I've not yet gotten the check for my short story. Should be within the next 30 days though. It looks like my local Total Wine carries a few of the Michael David wines including Freakshow and Petit & Petit. I'll have to try one or both next time we make a trip there. I have had Seven Deadly Zins and really enjoyed it.
Osaka is known as the kitchen of Japan; if your restaurant can make it here, it'll thrive anywhere else. That having been said, I have been to far too many chef-owned restaurants that served brilliant food, yet had no concept of how to run a business. A lot of smaller places take one or two days off during the week, since otherwise the chef/owner would never have a day off. Problem is, they don't tend to list those days on the outside of the business, leaving new customers to play a game of "Battleship" when they're trying to dine there. "Tuesday" "Miss!" "Thursday" "Miss!" "Friday" "Hit! Did you remember to make reservations?" Or the places with twenty five seats and two flames in the kitchen, or (at the Middle Eastern places) the bellydance show that shuts down all food and drink service for twenty-five minutes.... But great food.
Cracked this open today. This is my go to Rose, the Chateau Montaud from Cotes du Provence, France's premier Rose region. Great Rose, very dry, very refreshing, and only $10! Of course, when it was 90 degrees out when I bought it, but now it's about 45 and rainy. Fun wine fact 1: "Cotes" as in Cotes du Provence or Cotes de Rhone literally means "slope" and refers to the banks of the river where the wine is grown. So the Rhone River Valley is the major wine region and the Cotes du Rhone is the sub appellation. As always, climate climate climate. Fun wine fact 2: The pink color of Rose comes from red grapes plucked before they fully ripen into a deep red. You can actually make white wine this way too. All red grapes start with white juices that gradually deepen over time.
Dude we just got that rose in about 2 weeks ago. Wasn't able to taste it when it was presented but heard it was tasty.
I'm a writer; of course I like wine! Beware the deep reds that come in the jug though. I once drank some while I started writing about Santeria and the Devil in Franco's Spain and found myself lying on the ground shivering and praying.. I recently discovered Caduceus Cellars here in Arizona and tried Merkin Vinyard's The Diddler. I drank it with a chicken dinner and it was so nice and warming. It was a white table wine and cost about 29.99. Right now I'm drinking fucking Red Moscato from Walgreens though... Go figure.
Deep reds in a jug? What exactly where you drinking? haha If it's a 3 liter, you're not suppose to drink the whole thing at once...XD That sounds like an interesting wine, I suppose it's just local though? Oh well, if you like wine but can't always afford better quality, then there's no shame in having something more cost effective. Your wine facts are awesome, almost starting to feel cultured over here. Did not know that about rose, I figured it was a mixture of white and red grapes. Even more interesting that white wine can be made from red grapes...who knew? haha Yeah, for $10 that's great. I'd be interested to see what your opinion about the Roscato Rose is. This is the one I had a couple weeks ago. This is about $12-$13 I think. I know your opinion on Italian rose, but this wasn't too bad, I liked it. They also have a sweet red that's pretty tasty as well. It's not quite as sweet as the label suggests either, but yes it is a tad sweet - I don't think it's too much personally, but I also don't have much experience in rose wines, it could simply be a downright tragedy, I'll have to try another rose sometime to see for myself.
I went to a local shop just now, it was a "fine wines and gifts" store. Well I browsed their wines...and they should definitely take the word "fine" out of their name, there were only a couple that seemed like they might have been good. Overall it was a really small (and I mean really...small) selection of stuff you see everywhere. Mostly kentucky wines, and not even any of the better ones I know of. They tried to make it look fancy, mostly with the displays and stuff, but it wasn't what I'd hoped it would be by any means. Cupcake was probably one of the better things they stocked there, and there were only a couple. Nothing was priced, and I realised it was probably over priced is why. The 'gifts' were worse, and that's when I knew something was really wrong. I had my hopes up that there might be a good wine store nearby...and just like that they were dashed over the rocks. They probably get by because none of the hicks out here know any better. Sad but true.
Okay, so I found a Santa Christina Toscana, couldn't find any Antinori that you mentioned @Homer Potvin but I hope this is a good representation of Toscana in general. I also picked up a bottle of Barbera D'alba Veglio just to see. Read some mixed ratings on it, but overall it didn't seem too bad. And finally I bought this: It's a 2014, which one site said was a very good year for it. Most prices online ranged from $21 to $26, but I found it for $24, a bit in between. Maybe I'm just talking to myself now...but that's okay. haha
I haven't had that one but Santa Christina tends to be dogshit underwhelming. They're kind of like the Yellowtail or Woodbridge of Italy, but you never know until you try it. The Barbera is an Italian table wine, which means it's safe to drink with anything. You can plop it in the center or the table and it will be met with approval by all, hence the term "table wine." They're also very low in tannins, so they might pair too well with steaks or other meaty/fatty dishes. A high tannic wine, like a cab, will literally scrape the fat from your tongue if you pair it with a ribeye or the classic steak frites of French bistro fame. The Simi is awesome. We ran that for a special once and sold a like fifty cases of it in a month. Alexander Valley is nice sub-region of Sonoma. It tends to be a bit cooler than Napa so their cabs are a bit more herbaceous. Higher minerality too, which you won't notice as much in a red but will definitely taste in a Chardonnay.
So the only one that was a miss was really the Toscana, but I guess I'll find out soon enough. I'll probably try it fist maybe, sometime tomorrow night I'll report my experience. I was skeptical on it to be honest, and after checking out some reviews I got mixed results. It was like $10 or $11 I think. Looking forward to the other two though, 2 out of 3 ain't bad.
@Homer Potvin The Santa Cristina (added an "h" after the "C" which isn't there) is as you said, but I will say this, it is still slightly better than Yellowtail, though not much. I started a wine diary as some others suggested, and I didn't have much to say about this wine...just kinda bland with nothing going for it. Will drink it simply because I spent money on it, maybe more than it's worth. haha
This Duckhorn Decoy is the shit @Dr.Meow if you can find it (and as far as I know, you can find it everywhere--one of the most popular wines in the country) It's technically a proprietary red but it's is really a American version of the famous French Bordeaux blend. I don't remember the percentages, but its Merlot, Cabernet, Cab Franc (those 3 are the Bordeaux influence), Petite Verdot, and Petite Syrah. Great, great wine. Balanced tannins and acidity, great nose, long finish, medium fruit, a little oak, and a little tobacco. Just about every restaurant carries it, and I've never met anyone that didn't like it. I don't have stats or anything, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't one of the most popular wines in the country. It's pricey, $20-22, but on sale in NH this month for $15. Needless to say, I will be picking up a case before the end of May. Duckhorn's cab is big league. About $60. The Decoy blend is Sonoma but the Cab is Napa (I think).
Yeah, you have to be careful with Italian wines. They make a lot of cheap dogshit over there and ship it off to the US. The Chiantis and Toscanas in particular. They're just not high end wines (with a few exceptions), unlike some of the Tuscans and Super Tuscans that can run you more than a car payment. I rarely take France's side over Italy in anything, but their wines tend to be of higher quality, if only that they don't ship as much swill over to the states. They're more territorial though and tend to pimp their vineyards so the names become hard to tell apart. Half the time I can't remember which ones I've had and which I haven't. I should probably give the diary thing a shot. When I used to brew a lot of beer I had an extensive diary of notes, but I've kind of fallen off of that lately. There was a time when I brewed a batch a week and didn't buy beer in the store for a couple of years. Now, it's more of a twice or three times a year thing, and usually only when somebody wants to come over and see how's it done.
Always wanted to try brewing beer, but just never got into it. I'm particular about beer anyway though. Had so much that I've narrowed my tastes down to like three or four different kinds. If it's not Lagunitas, Arrogant Bastard or Break in the Law, then I'm probably not too excited about it and won't buy it, but will always drink any free beer offered. Had enough whiskey, bourbon (which I don't really care for most of them), and rum to last a lifetime. Plus, rum is the thing I used to drink excessively, so I don't do that anymore. lol Wine is new for me kinda, and now that I've experienced stuff outside of Yellowtail, I'm really starting to enjoy it. Everyone always has freaking Yellowtail, and it turned me off. I'm glad I branched out, and now I have a new taste for it.
Excessive rum? Dear lord God, I'm getting hungover just thinking about it. Whiskey on the other hand is sublime. I like bourbon a lot but am more into scotch. I would floss my teeth with scotch if not for the side effects.
I tried a $100 Malbec yesterday and it did things I never thought a Malbec could do... (and I really like Malbec)
I would go through a lot of rum, and almost became an alcoholic back then. Loved rum, and I don't get hangovers easily so I didn't notice that. haha Whiskey, especially single malts that are aged 12+ years, are great, always had a thing for them, I just don't do that stuff anymore because my stomach gets made at me every so often...did a little too much straight alcohol back in the day. Scotch is also awesome, but not for everyone, I'm one of very few people I've found that like it. Gin was also a favorite, flowery and so awesome, love the smell. Even harder to find people that like gin though.
