Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler wine thread

A friend of mine has one of those kits you mention Chess. I don't think I want to take that step - at least not yet. I don’t want to be trying to figure out “what” a wine tastes like when I’m drinking it. I just want to “like it”, or not. I’ve had some pretty knowledgeable folks over for get togethers and I watch the way they drink wine. They don’t just drink it and enjoy it, they study it. I don’t want to end up like that, at least not yet.

As far as the oak, I’ve built numerous pieces of furniture out of oak. And the sawdust tastes like crap. I get the smell though……the smell is nice. Not nearly as nice as cherry, but nice. I’ll try picking out a couple different chardonnays to see if I can taste/smell the oak differences.

I saw sideways on the plane coming back from London a few months ago. I should rent it and watch it again. I liked what I could see on that itty bitty little screen.

And I was serious, I am a redneck, and I do chew Copenhagen. Even got big tires on my truck and never leave home without a roll of duct tape

mdrew, i found that trying to figure out the flavours in wine has helped me define what wines i like better, rather than just random sampling.
Much like audio, certain characters of speakers work for some and not others. I'm not big on spicy foods and as such, i've never really liked Shiraz as a wine. One of its defining characters is a spicyness or peppery flavor and i've always found it sharp.
Once i started to 'study' the wine in a bit more depth, i came to realize that is probably why i don't like shiraz. The other flavour i despise is plum and believe me, there are a TON of red wines with plum notes.

As for the redneck thing, i think most ppl i met in the Yukon had big trucks with big tires and ducktape. I don't think it made them rednecks. However there was an oil crew i met from northern Alberta once....

You may have just changed my perspective on this subject with some excellent points that I had not considered before.

Dammit....Now I have to think....and I just hate that.

I just returned from a wine tasting/buying tour in Temecula, Calif. I bought about 3.5 mixed cases. What surprised me most was the dessert wines. I've always dismissed these, but I found some real winners. Beautiful stuff.
Highlights:
Van Roekel's Gewurztramminer, which won the gold at the Calif State Fair apparently. Beautiful, soft and fruity. No acidic bite at all. Worth every penny.
Maurice Carrie's Summers End dessert wine. Steep, but it has great depth. Raunchy nose turned my wife off.
Mount Palomar's Riesling. It was from our first stop - I forget how it tasted, but I know it was good.
Hart's Silverstone Merlot (Silverlake?). So much wood in the nose I'm afraid it may be unbalanced, but I really liked it. $32 a bottle was a little steep, so I got only one. Their $32 Cab Franc was also very, very excellent - I can't remember if I got one of those or not (last stop ).
All the wineries seemed to have excellent Sangiovese and Fume Blanc/Sauvignon Blancs. Brought back a lot of both.
Great fun, good wines, friendly folks, and the classy Pechanga Indian hotel/casino is just 5 miles away. Two thumbs up.

Thanks for the tips, bigwill.

Anybody else notice the synchronicity between the advent of the Wine Thread and the new forum names (connoisseur)?

I like a (not-too-expensive) late harvest Reisling drizzled over peaches and ice cream as a dessert.

Gewurztraminer is a dessert wine? I find it goes excellently with spicy asian food, especially Thai. Mmmmmm.

Speaking of gewurz, it is 25C out and finally sunny today.
Wine on the patio deck anyone?

Vive le Canada!

No, gewurz is a summer sipper, eh?. I only mentioned the dessert wines because I was surprised to find that I like them. I don't like port or sherry so I expected to not like these either.
The wines I listed were just some that I liked, dessert wines or not. BTW, the Pechanga rooms are around $100/night but are WAY nicer than anything else in the LA area for that price (at least from what I've seen). The whole place is nicely done (except the smallish pool).

You don't like Port?!?!

I'll bet you could learn with enough practice on the right subjects.

chess, what's 25*C in American? I was out at the river a week or two ago - it was 113*F and raining. Yuk.
Tom, I've only tried a small handful of ports and sherries. A couple were in friends' kitchens during high school, so I'm sure they were low grade. If I remember right, the flavors are of dried fruit, like figs and prunes, right? Not my cup o' tea.
Here's the local guys' website if you're interested:

http://www.temeculawines.org/