Wine. I know nothing. Help

Chiba

I've recently turned 21, and before which I've had little experience with alcohol. I went to the liquor store with some of my friends the other day and I didn't know what to do when it came to the wine section. There were so many different types and I didn't know where to start.

So. Help? Recommend some wines to me please. Please keep price range a factor. I don't want to pay more than $15-$20 for a bottle, but I also don't want anything really cheap (since i've had cheap wine before, and it was really bad).

Thanks for sharing your wisdom!

Elin

A lot of upscale liquor stores will do wine tastings, look online in your area and see if you can find one.

Ask someone working at the upscale liquor store for recommendations. I know at the one in my area there is a "wine guy" and he pointed me at a very nice local fruit wine that I love.

Pick a bottle and try it. Wine is a very different beast than most liquors. It's very dependent on personal tastes and what you can pick up from it. Something that you love, someone else thinks tastes like bottled piss.

Chiba

I forgot to mention that I live in Pennsylvania. Here in PA all liquor is sold in state stores, they're all the same as far as I know. So I don't know if any of those upscale stores you're talking about would exist here.

musanman

I'd suggest asking somebody who works there about a good bottle for around $10. If you spend more than $20 on a bottle of wine, and you aren't a wine drinker you're wasting your money.

Some wineries will put the same product in a bottle and sell it for $6 or the exact same wine in another bottle for $30. Just try a few different varietals for $10 and see what you like.

Elin

Go to restaurants that serve wine and ask the waiter to recommend a type that goes with your entree and buy a glass. Olive Garden or the like. Soup, salad, bread sticks, and a glass of wine.

Limp moose

While elin's heart is in the right place the advice misses the mark. Olive garden servers probably don't know much about wine other than to up sell what they are told. (no offense to you olive garden servers out there)
What you want to do is find a restaurant that is up scale and employs a sommelier

A sommelier (pronounced /sɔməˈlje/ or suh-mal-'yAy), or wine steward, is a trained and knowledgeable wine professional, commonly working in fine restaurants, who specializes in all aspects of wine service. The role is more specialized and informed than that of a wine waiter.

now they can talk your ear off about wine.

Also get this video.

http://www.amazon.com/John-Cleese-Alice-Faye-Eichelberger/dp/B0009NZ6P2

I could make a 10000 word post explaining the finer things of wine to you but this is a voyage of self discovery and you will have a much better time learning by drinking then learning by reading.

However the video will be a good place to get you started.

Improvolone

Upscale food markets (Whole Foods, Fresh Market) usually have wine events.

Elin

Limp moose wrote: »

While elin's heart is in the right place the advice misses the mark. Olive garden servers probably don't know much about wine other than to up sell what they are told. (no offense to you olive garden servers out there)
What you want to do is find a restaurant that is up scale and employs a sommelier

A sommelier (pronounced /sɔməˈlje/ or suh-mal-'yAy), or wine steward, is a trained and knowledgeable wine professional, commonly working in fine restaurants, who specializes in all aspects of wine service. The role is more specialized and informed than that of a wine waiter.

now they can talk your ear off about wine.

Also get this video.

http://www.amazon.com/John-Cleese-Alice-Faye-Eichelberger/dp/B0009NZ6P2

I could make a 10000 word post explaining the finer things of wine to you but this is a voyage of self discovery and you will have a much better time learning by drinking then learning by reading.

However the video will be a good place to get you started.

The reason I suggested Olive Garden or the like is he doesn't want to spend $Texas on wine. A place with a wine steward is maybe going cost a little more than he needs or wants. Someplace mid scale will give him enough to go on that he can figure out if he likes reds, whites, blushes, dessert wines, ect. It's a starting place for someone that doesn't have a lot of cash. Baby steps, ya know.

That and some of the "better" wines are a bit complex for a begginer. I enjoy a good wine, but when I was first starting out the better vintages all tasted harsh and not nice. Some of the lower end wines you find in a mid range restaurant are quite nice and not as nuanced.

RUNN1NGMAN

Depending on where in PA you live, you could take a road trip down to the Charlottesville area of VA and go to some wineries and do tastings. Everything I know about wine I learned at vineyards and wineries.

Quid

Just so you know we have an alcohol thread in D&D that has some good discussion about alcohol in general.

If there's one near you I'd try a Bonefish Grill to try wines with food you like. When I trained there I was given something of a crash course and while not experts, the servers know what to recommend both from cheap to expensive wines.

Tucanwarrior13

If you like to drink wine with your meals you should: buy a red for meats, a white for seafood, a sweet for after dinner, and a blush for kicks.

Khaczor

Wine tastings, wine tastings, wine tastings. I find them overall pretty cheap for the amount of different wines you get to taste. Make friends with the sommelier or whoever is doing it so they can explain everything to you.

Limp moose

Elin wrote: »

Limp moose wrote: »

While elin's heart is in the right place the advice misses the mark. Olive garden servers probably don't know much about wine other than to up sell what they are told. (no offense to you olive garden servers out there)
What you want to do is find a restaurant that is up scale and employs a sommelier

A sommelier (pronounced /sɔməˈlje/ or suh-mal-'yAy), or wine steward, is a trained and knowledgeable wine professional, commonly working in fine restaurants, who specializes in all aspects of wine service. The role is more specialized and informed than that of a wine waiter.

now they can talk your ear off about wine.

Also get this video.

http://www.amazon.com/John-Cleese-Alice-Faye-Eichelberger/dp/B0009NZ6P2

I could make a 10000 word post explaining the finer things of wine to you but this is a voyage of self discovery and you will have a much better time learning by drinking then learning by reading.

However the video will be a good place to get you started.

The reason I suggested Olive Garden or the like is he doesn't want to spend $Texas on wine. A place with a wine steward is maybe going cost a little more than he needs or wants. Someplace mid scale will give him enough to go on that he can figure out if he likes reds, whites, blushes, dessert wines, ect. It's a starting place for someone that doesn't have a lot of cash. Baby steps, ya know.

That and some of the "better" wines are a bit complex for a begginer. I enjoy a good wine, but when I was first starting out the better vintages all tasted harsh and not nice. Some of the lower end wines you find in a mid range restaurant are quite nice and not as nuanced.

The education you get from talking to the wine steward is usually worth the cost. If he is worth anything at all he isn't going to sell a beginner anything complex or extravagant. Plus the food is better at those places.

Quid

Tucanwarrior13 wrote: »

If you like to drink wine with your meals you should: buy a red for meats, a white for seafood, a sweet for after dinner, and a blush for kicks.

This is a good rule of thumb but not always true.

vonPoonBurGer

RUNN1NGMAN wrote: »

go to some wineries and do tastings

Probably the cheapest and easiest way to learn about wine. Doesn't cost much, you get to sample a bunch of different ones and see what varieties you like. Plus the people running the tasting should be pretty knowledgeable about wine, assuming the winery is doing a good job of educating their own staff (most do).

DeathPrawn

Tucanwarrior13 wrote: »

If you like to drink wine with your meals you should: buy a red for meats, a white for seafood, a sweet for after dinner, and a blush for kicks.

While that's an alright rule of thumb of "when you should drink x wine", I don't think it's particularly useful for someone looking to learn about wine.

I think the best way to learn about the differences in wines is to start with one variety. Find someone fairly knowledgeable at a liquor store and have them talk you through the different kinds of wine. Pick one that sounds good (if you think you'll like sweeter wine, for example, maybe start with a Riesling) and buy a handful of different wines of that style. This will give you a good base of understanding where people come from when they talk about the different qualities of wines. If you try a bunch of totally different wines, there are really too many variables - if you prefer one over the other, is it because you like that one kind of wine or just that specific vintage?

Thylacine

For what it's worth, White Zinfandel is a good starter wine(in my opinion). You can find some cheap ones that taste alright. It's not exactly fancy...probably about a step above a wine cooler lol. Personally it takes me while to get used to the taste of stronger/more potent things so I go in stages.

Regina Fong

Since no one's said it yet, I will just flat out say that unless you are buying it for a very special occasion, or just tasted it at a winery and it was omg so good there's no reason on earth to buy wine above your stated price range of $20.

In all the years I've been going to wineries and enjoying wine, I can only think of one time where I really felt a need to buy a bottle of wine for over $25, and that's because I had just tasted it and it was exceptionally good, and just happened to be expensive (for me). But price does not dictate quality in wine, and I would not have been shocked if that bottle had been a $20 cab instead of a $50 one.

And when we finished drinking it, I was pissed at myself for not buying a case and having it shipped to me in Washington.

DeathPrawn

jeepguy is very correct. I'm too lazy to search for it, but I remember reading a great piece of advice in H&A a few weeks ago: the difference between a $5 and a $15 bottle of wine is exponentially greater than the difference between a $15 bottle and a $150 bottle.

musanman

jeepguy wrote: »

Since no one's said it yet, I will just flat out say that unless you are buying it for a very special occasion, or just tasted it at a winery and it was omg so good there's no reason on earth to buy wine above your stated price range of $20.

I said this in the 3rd post, but yeah...at least with a bottle of whisky when you spend all that money it's for a good cause.

Regina Fong

musanman wrote: »

jeepguy wrote: »

Since no one's said it yet, I will just flat out say that unless you are buying it for a very special occasion, or just tasted it at a winery and it was omg so good there's no reason on earth to buy wine above your stated price range of $20.

I said this in the 3rd post, but yeah...at least with a bottle of whisky when you spend all that money it's for a good cause.

Not quite. I hate to quibble, but your post suggested that once you acquire a taste for wines, you should move into higher priced territory, and I completely disagree.

There is no reason to ever leave the realm of moderately priced wine unless it is, as I said, some sort of special occasion or a wine you have already tasted and know for certain that you really, really like and will actually get your money's worth out of it.

Limp moose

jeepguy wrote: »

musanman wrote: »

jeepguy wrote: »

Since no one's said it yet, I will just flat out say that unless you are buying it for a very special occasion, or just tasted it at a winery and it was omg so good there's no reason on earth to buy wine above your stated price range of $20.

I said this in the 3rd post, but yeah...at least with a bottle of whisky when you spend all that money it's for a good cause.

Not quite. I hate to quibble, but your post suggested that once you acquire a taste for wines, you should move into higher priced territory, and I completely disagree.

There is no reason to ever leave the realm of moderately priced wine unless it is, as I said, some sort of special occasion or a wine you have already tasted and know for certain that you really, really like and will actually get your money's worth out of it.

Aridhol

I agree with Jeepguy. We tend to stay between $12-$20 for wine, not because we're cheap but because there is MASSIVE variety and most in that range are pretty dang good.

chromdom

I have to throw in my 2 cents here: experiment. Don't buy the same bottle of wine twice. Taste, taste, taste. If you like something, write it down. Start a list. Maker, year, type, what you liked about it. Look at the list down the line, and see if you notice any patterns. Ta-daa! You now know something about wine. Then go ahead and start buying wines you think you'll like.
But yeah, do what these guys have said, some good advise here

Regina Fong

chromdom wrote: »

I have to throw in my 2 cents here: experiment. Don't buy the same bottle of wine twice. Taste, taste, taste. If you like something, write it down. Start a list. Maker, year, type, what you liked about it. Look at the list down the line, and see if you notice any patterns. Ta-daa! You now know something about wine. Then go ahead and start buying wines you think you'll like.
But yeah, do what these guys have said, some good advise here

Hmmm. If I find a bottle of wine I really love I'll get a half case or case of it. If I get sick of it before I've finished it all, well, wine is generally an acceptable gift for most occasions.

But then, I am the sort who will settle on one favorite dish in a restaurant and then always order that dish there.

Pocket Size Asian

It would honestly depend on what type of wine you like... if you want red or white... fruity or dry...

Red wine is better with red meat... but if you're just drinking wine to drink, I'd go with something more sweet. White wine is always fun to drink without having anything to eat with it. Pino Grigio is usually sweet and fruity without being overwhelming with either taste.

Chiba

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys. I'm mostly looking for wine just to drink, not to go along with food. So something fruity maybe that goes down easily. I've tried a few wines though I can't remember the names. The first wine I had i know was a boxed wine and it was pink in color and I could hardly tell it was an alcoholic drink. I had this type called "funky lama", it was yellow and it wasn't really dry (which i hate) but had a taste I couldn't stand. Any red wine I've had has seemed too dry, though I don't know if it's cause it was "too cheap" or not.

Finally I recently just tried arbor mist, which I know is pretty low in alcohol content, but it's so good. I wish I could find something similar with higher content?

Regina Fong

Chiba wrote: »

Any red wine I've had has seemed too dry, though I don't know if it's cause it was "too cheap" or not.

I'm not sure if you are using the word "dry" in the right manner for wine.

Dryness refers to the residual sugar content of the wine left after fermentation, and wines fall into 3 broad categories of dryness going from:

• Dry
  
• Off Dry
  
• Sweet

Obviously, there is some gradiation in between those three benchmarks. Desert wines such as port and madeira will always be sweet. Certain varietals are made sweet often, such as rieslings while others are typically dry, such as chardonay.

There is no price or quality judgment to be found on sweet versus dry wine, it is purely a matter of preference.

There are hideously expensive bone dry champagnes which have essentially no sugar whatsoever, and there are fine, very aged ports which are sensually sticky with sugar and both will cost you a pretty penny (and be well worth it if that particular thing is your thing).

You may also find that you like certain varietals to be sweet, but loathe sweetness in others and vice versa.

I myself enjoy an off-dry riesling now and then, despite not normally liking sweet wines.

On the other hand, I once tasted an off-dry gewurztraminer (my favorite varietal) and nearly gagged on it before ejecting it into the spitoon.

Turns out I only like dry gewurzt.

musanman

I make my own wine in 6 gallon carboys and it's awesome to drink on the cheap. You get a wine kit for like $70, wait a couple months and ta-da! 30 bottles of whatever you want.

Of the 3 batches i've done so far it's all been better than any of the $7-10/bottle stuff I usually buy.

Also, what the hell is mezza luna rosa? I drink it, it's good, but it's gotta be some kind of blend between the "big reds." I just can't find any info on the stuff.

Sam

Elin wrote: »

Go to restaurants that serve wine and ask the waiter to recommend a type that goes with your entree and buy a glass. Olive Garden or the like. Soup, salad, bread sticks, and a glass of wine.

Olive Garden does not have good wine.

MichaelLC

Sam wrote: »

Elin wrote: »

Go to restaurants that serve wine and ask the waiter to recommend a type that goes with your entree and buy a glass. Olive Garden or the like. Soup, salad, bread sticks, and a glass of wine.

Olive Garden does not have good wine.

Quoted and sig'd for snobby truthiness.

Arbor Mist is more wine cooler than actual wine. Do you have an Trader Joe's around you? Go get some of their "3-buck Chuck."

JeepGuy mentioned gewurztraminer, which is a good sweet wine usually served after dinner, so it stands on its own well.

Regina Fong

MichaelLC wrote: »

Sam wrote: »

Elin wrote: »

Go to restaurants that serve wine and ask the waiter to recommend a type that goes with your entree and buy a glass. Olive Garden or the like. Soup, salad, bread sticks, and a glass of wine.

Olive Garden does not have good wine.

Quoted and sig'd for snobby truthiness.

Arbor Mist is more wine cooler than actual wine. Do you have an Trader Joe's around you? Go get some of their "3-buck Chuck."

JeepGuy mentioned gewurztraminer, which is a good sweet wine usually served after dinner, so it stands on its own well.

Gewurztraminer is not generally sweet. It's generally dry, I've tasted an off-dry before, and I mentioned what the results were.

It is very fruity though, which some people mistakenly call "sweet".

Fruity notes, floral notes, and citrus notes etc are all independent from residual sugar content, and can occur in both dry and sweet wines.

MichaelLC

Have you had any Gewurztraminer made from noble rot grapes? Had some last year; very nice.

LaPuzza

I'm afraid that this is the sort of thing that the Internet can't do well. For a true wine rookie, we really can't tell you where to start. You need to find a RL tutor. Good news is, you have wino friends. You'll need someone that can hand you a bottle and talk to you about it.

Once you can give us some things that you like, we can point you from there.

Tucanwarrior13

Quid wrote: »

Tucanwarrior13 wrote: »

If you like to drink wine with your meals you should: buy a red for meats, a white for seafood, a sweet for after dinner, and a blush for kicks.

This is a good rule of thumb but not always true.

True, but I've found that for someone who isn't exactly well versed in wine it is a pretty good guideline.

I've found that more, and more people are also buying sake (rice wine) and plum wine to give their wine collections more variety. I really like sho-chiku-bai, Jun-mai-gingo, and Jun-mai-gai-gingo. They may be a bit more expensive than a normal bottle of wine though.