Are you a wine buff?

[TopGun]

I have tried without success to get into red wine but it seems to suck all the moisture from my mouth.

 

By contrast I enjoy white wine, the drier the better. Sauvignon Blanc from NZ or Chile suits me fine at about £6 a bottle at a supermarket. I also like Muscadet from the Loire area. I find sweet white wines repugnant though.

 

Any views on what I am doing wrong with red wine and what do other posters recommend for either red or white wine?

[Sergei Gotsmanov]

I have tried without success to get into red wine but it seems to suck all the moisture from my mouth.

 

By contrast I enjoy white wine, the drier the better. Sauvignon Blanc from NZ or Chile suits me fine at about £6 a bottle at a supermarket. I also like Muscadet from the Loire area. I find sweet white wines repugnant though.

 

Any views on what I am doing wrong with red wine and what do other posters recommend for either red or white wine?

 

Increase your budget!

[stu0x]

I used to drink only red, nowadays I'll go for a white every time (and in fact get killer hangovers from anything more than a glass of red). Tastes change, you're not doing anything 'wrong' per se. I know when I'm drinking something special like a pomerol, I just don't get as much out of it.

 

Instead try diversifying your choice of white, a South American Sauvignon blanc is worthy enough but you'll find far more depth in something like a pouilly fume, and far more clarity in a good Sancerre. You could even (dare you whisper it) try a rose...

[Colinjb]

Now, the dry mouth effect you've described. I get that from White. Much prefer a good Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon.

 

White wine just reminds me of vinegar.

[LVSaint]

Seems you just don't like red wine, don't drink it. You can buy plenty of decent stuff for a fiver. Have you tried fruitier stuff like zinfandel, pinot noir or syrah?

[Sergei Gotsmanov]

Seems you just don't like red wine, don't drink it. You can buy plenty of decent stuff for a fiver. Have you tried fruitier stuff like zinfandel, pinot noir or syrah?

 

The tax on wine is now around £2; that leaves £3 for production, packaging and transport. You cannot buy a decent red wine for a fiver.

[rocknrollman no2]

Im a wino.Does that help?

[trousers]

Go for a £10+ bottle of gran reserva Rioja. Smooth and scrummy

[ericofarabia]

All you need to know -

 

Next time you go out for a meal as the wine waiter if he has a Semi On (The LL's oare silent)

[dubai_phil]

10 quid is the start price for decent Red plonk.

 

Basically you need to pay 3 or 4 quid more than the cost of a standard bottle of Jacob's Creek

 

Plenty around for that Wolfblass Yellow Label Cab Sav, most Rioja's/Chiantis in Tesco.

 

For around 12/13 quid you can get a young Chateau Neuf Du Pape

 

For something lighter find a Loire Valley Red like a Samur and serve it chilled

[Barry Sanchez]

New Zealand Pinot Noir if you want quality, Kiwi whites are what I drink though.

[Danny R]

I have tried without success to get into red wine but it seems to suck all the moisture from my mouth.

 

By contrast I enjoy white wine, the drier the better. Sauvignon Blanc from NZ or Chile suits me fine at about £6 a bottle at a supermarket. I also like Muscadet from the Loire area. I find sweet white wines repugnant though.

 

Any views on what I am doing wrong with red wine and what do other posters recommend for either red or white wine?

 

Try a fleurie or a Beaujolais, they are both lighter reds that can even be chilled. I don't think there is any need to increase your budget hugely, it's all about what you like - never choose the most expensive wine on a menu; it's purely there to sting rich idiots.

[Block 18]

Asda stock a nice Portugese wine called Dao priced just under £6.00 really smooth. Red wine needs to be opened about half an hour prior to drinking to let it breath, then you wont get the dry mouth syndrome

Edited 3 March, 2013 by Block 18

[Turkish]

For those who live in Southampton Cloud Wines in Bedford Place is an excellent place to go if you're not sure what you want. Just tell the lads in there what you fancy or flavours you like and they'll pick out a bottle for you. They don't rip you off either, quite often they'll chose one cheaper than the one I would have chosen. Reds and whites from around the world and not at all expensive. And don't forget the taste of wine can alter if you're having food with the wine. On several occasions we've had wine on its own and not liked it or been bland yet having it with the right food it tastes lovely.

[Turkish]

New Zealand Pinot Noir if you want quality, Kiwi whites are what I drink though.

 

Had a nice New Zealand Malborough last night.

[Joe Kirkup]

Always prefer Italian or Spanish to French myself. Try a Valpolicella Classico to start before moving on to a Chianti then Barolo or Rioja, Can get decent bottles for the £10 mark ( a half decent Barolo woud be nearer £18 )

[scotty]

Asda stock a nice Portugese wine called Dao priced just under £6.00 really smooth. Red wine needs to be opened about half an hour prior to drinking to let it breath, then you wont get the dry mouth syndrome

 

Yep, I've tried that one as well and it gets the scotty seal of approval.

[suewhistle]

Go on holiday to a wine-producing country and go to a wine bar which sells by the glass; that way you'll get to try a wider range and find something you might like. Sounds like you've been drinking some quite tannic reds which often benefit from being drunk with food, or paying a bit more so that you actually get a bit of fruit and not just astringency. Try a lightly chilled Barbera Vivace or even a _dry_ Lambrusco (secco) for starters.

 

The fact that you like dry whites like Muscadet suggests that there are red wines you will like, and don't write off all sweet wines. The best of the dessert wines have a balancing acidity which makes them really moreish. Don't worry if you go back to old favourites if that's what you prefer, but exploring and trying new wines _IS_ fun..

[Kingsland Red]

A nice fruity wine from Tuscany - a Chianti or Montepulciano, or a delightful Spanish Rioja should see you good.

 

On the dessert wine theme countries like Hungary seem to have some nice 'sugary' reds. Had a fantastic Uruguayan red dessert wine in Winchester recently.

[CB Saint]

Waitrose ate doing a cracking cotes du rhone. £6 with multibuy

 

Try some of the spanish whites made with the alberinio grape. Best. Summer. Wine. Ever.

[John Boy Saint]

Cote du Rhone has to be the safest direction for Red, but never just pull the cork out and pour it down your neck that will more often than not result in disappointment. If you just can't wait decant it, even if it means pouring into a jug if you don't have a decanter.

One of my favourites recently have been Reds from the Duero region of Spain & Portugal, the same hills Port grapes come from, that needs to breathe for quite a while and be nice and warm. I have pulled the bung out of one before setting off down the Saints and left it on a sunny ish window sill, by the time I have got back around 6 it has been spot on. In Spain it always accepts being opened and drunk: strange.

Someone further up this thread hinted at Rose sheepishly from under their breath. There ain't nowt wrong with Rose these days, the dark days from the House of Mateus are long in the past, Cote du Province is your best bet, although I have found a little gem from Catalunya which stinks of Blackberrys and Blackcurrants on the nose almost like Ribena, goes down like Ribena did when you were a nipper then the room starts moving and your mouth starts misbehaving!!

 

Going back to Red and Top Guns issue, not knowing how old he is, I had a spell from late teens until late 20's where I lost the point of Red Wine, then my taste for it returned. Before you totally give up get a Camembert leave that out of the fridge to get all soft and gooey spread on some water biscuits with a glass of Red and see if that helps.

[Miltonroader07]

Increase your budget!

 

Yeah if you buy crap wine this happens, you cant buy a decent bottle of red for under twelve quid

[Saintandy666]

I still prefer a pint, but wine is growing on me. But I'm not very good at telling the difference between types! With red, I like a Merlot.

[Turkish]

I still prefer a pint, but wine is growing on me. But I'm not very good at telling the difference between types! With red, I like a Merlot.

 

Andy, you're barley old enough to drink FFS!

[Shroppie]

Yeah if you buy crap wine this happens, you cant buy a decent bottle of red for under twelve quid

 

Would dispute the £12.

 

Try a Villa Maria Pinot Noir. I get it for about £8, very drinkable.

[Saintandy666]

Andy, you're barley old enough to drink FFS!

 

But you know the youth of today. Right ruffians who start on alcohol aged 5.

[Wade Garrett]

I have tried without success to get into red wine but it seems to suck all the moisture from my mouth.

 

By contrast I enjoy white wine, the drier the better. Sauvignon Blanc from NZ or Chile suits me fine at about £6 a bottle at a supermarket. I also like Muscadet from the Loire area. I find sweet white wines repugnant though.

 

Any views on what I am doing wrong with red wine and what do other posters recommend for either red or white wine?

 

Wine w@nker.

[Bearsy]

I still prefer a pint

 

i secretly think grapes taster better when they is fresh than when they've been rotting in french barrell for 6 weeks or whatever. I don't like to tell people tho. I don't like to look philistine!

[Brussels Saint]

The best value good red wine available is Argentine Malbec from the Uco Valley. Aside from that, you do genuinely have to pay, so look out for Shiraz from the New World for 12-15 quid a bottle, more if you can afford it. Buy young big beefy French reds from Pessac or the like for a similar price and dont drink them for a few years......hard I know, but I promise its worth it.

Now after all that wine toss, I also recently drank a Portugese red from a box and it was cheap but brilliant, so what the feck do I really know!

Finally those of you nominating good white from NZ.........spot on..........best in the world and often spectacular, but not cheap.......apologies, more wine toss at the end there.

[Shroppie]

I don't like to look philistine!

 

But I guess it just happens that way anyway, eh?

[Doctoroncall]

i secretly think grapes taster better when they is fresh than when they've been rotting in french barrell for 6 weeks or whatever. I don't like to tell people tho. I don't like to look philistine!

 

Didnt realise you were a Beaujolais Nouveau fan there Bearsy.

[TopGun]

Wine w@nker.

 

Hmmm..

 

With the exception of the above post I'm quite pleased with the advice offered by fellow posters. Plenty to contemplate. Thanks

[Ruffo]

New Zealand Pinot Noir if you want quality, Kiwi whites are what I drink though.

Pinot from the otago region is best

[St Jim]

I guess it's like all in life - you get what you pay for.

 

I live in the McLaren Vale region (one of Australia's major wine regions) and one thing I noted when I first arrived was how sh17 the regular wine in the UK was, but now I realise I was just tight, thinking that a decent bottle of red was a Jacobs or a Yellow Tail for GBP 5 or 6. The major wine companies here will often make 'export quality' wine for the US & Europe markets for selling at around $5-$10 per bottle. Typically it is not good wine. It is mass produced without too much care for the flavour.

 

Now I don't spend anything less than the equivalent GBP 10 per bottle for quaffing wine and anything from GBP 20 upwards for occasion wine.

 

If you can get hold of Wirra Wirra Church Block, that's a pretty easy drinking red to get into and I think you should be able to pick it up for about GBP 12 a bottle. If you spend a bit more (about GBP 30) I recommend the D'Arenberg Dead Arm Shiraz (you can get it from Majestic Wines).

 

Also recommended is Brunello di Montalcino. Made form the Sangiovese grapes in the Tuscany region it is one of Italy's top wines. You'll end up spending GBP30 upwards but it is worth it!

 

As alluded to by one of the other posts, tastes change all the time. I used to love Beaujolais and other lighter reds but now (probably as a result of living in McLaren Vale, which is famed for it) I can't go past a Shiraz or any other red that is dark, thick, fruity, full of flavour and ballsy!

[Doctoroncall]

I guess it's like all in life - you get what you pay for.

 

I can't go past a Shiraz or any other red that is dark, thick, fruity, full of flavour and ballsy!

 

 

Have you tried any wines from Two Hands? I can highly recommend it.

[St Jim]

Have you tried any wines from Two Hands? I can highly recommend it.

 

I haven't but to be honest I'm McLaren Vale biased, partly because I want to support the local community by buying local produce but also I'm a Shiraz drinker and McLaren Vale produces some of the best Shiraz whereas the Barossa (where Two Hands is from) is more famed for its Cab Sav apart form the obvious ones such as Penfolds Grange.

 

Next time I'm out at the bottlo (off licence) I'll pick up a Two Hands and give it a try. Have heard good things about it.

[Doctoroncall]

I haven't but to be honest I'm McLaren Vale biased, partly because I want to support the local community by buying local produce but also I'm a Shiraz drinker and McLaren Vale produces some of the best Shiraz whereas the Barossa (where Two Hands is from) is more famed for its Cab Sav apart form the obvious ones such as Penfolds Grange.

 

Next time I'm out at the bottlo (off licence) I'll pick up a Two Hands and give it a try. Have heard good things about it.

 

 

They source wines from six regions including McLaren Vale. They specialise in Shiraz but do others. Let me know what you think if you do pick one up!

 

http://www.twohandswines.com/

[suewhistle]

I mainly drink Italian wines naturally, but recall some St. Hallett Old Block Shiraz which was pretty good. There's some increasingly good Sicilian Shiraz (Syrahs) now too. I think the Oz one was from Waitrose, and they're a good bet if you want slightly more interesting wines and can pay a little more. They keep (or used to) the mark-up per bottle pretty constant so that you get better value if you pay a bit more. St. Jim is right about Yellowtail and the like: confected rubbish, although they do have some fruit for novice drinkers. Chilean and Argentinian reds are also worth investigating: I'd leave Uruguayan Tannat (a grape from the Basque country) for when your palate has developed a bit.

 

In the meantime why not try some more interesting whites? Viognier from France, for one. Don't bother with cheap Italian whites, but if you want to try some, Lugana is the only one from Trebbiano grapes that I'd recommend (Zenato from waitrose, I recall). Only buy decent Soave from the hills (Pieropan springs to mind) and the Alto-Adige and Friuli whites can be really good; anything by Jermann for example (wish I could afford Vintage Tunina.)

 

It's discussions like these that are the only time I wish I had a bit more money than is common with English language teachers.. Anyway, back to my glass of Piemontese Gavi and digesting my bream.

[ART]

Due to health issues I rarely drink wine these days except when eating out with friends. I'm surprised there's been no mention of Rosé, and less found Gris wines which are growing in popularity. I understand the effect TopGun gets with some red wines/ In the past 10 years some reds cause me to have a cramp seizure in my right hand and lower arm. It's very painful and takes some time to free my fingers from the cramp. The doctor just laughed and shrugged when I tried to find out the reason. It was only one day whilst eating a lot of white grapes and having the same cramp appear, That Google provided me with the answer. It's the high potassium levels found in grapes and some wines that cause the cramps.

I was particularly partial to CORBIERE, found also in white and rosé besides the normal high quality reds for regular drinking.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corbi%C3%A8res_AOC

 

For special occasions I loved Medoc Reds, in particular Pauillac and Chateau LaTour. Rather pricey if you want a decent quality

[JackanorySFC]

Just smashed a decent bottle of 09 Borrolo(sp, I'm a bottle deep). Anything full bodied, red and double figured for me..,, life's too short to drink s### wine ffs. Keep the cheap stuff for bottles 2 and onwards, you'll notice f### all after 750ml of the 14% good stuff, trust me!

 

PS Rose (unless its Laurient Perrier) is for benders. IMO like.....

Edited 8 March, 2013 by JackanorySFC

[CB Saint]

Right, wine is out. Just discovered marmalade vodka made by chase. Amazing stuff

[suewhistle]

If you really had a bottle of 2009 Barolo you're really drinking it too young, it's not long been released and will really benefit from a few years in a cellar (or maybe under your stairs...).

[JackanorySFC]

If you really had a bottle of 2009 Barolo you're really drinking it too young, it's not long been released and will really benefit from a few years in a cellar (or maybe under your stairs...).

 

Yeah, 2009 "aged for 2 years in oak barrels" Sainsburys taste the diffence stuff, only £15 so prob not worth laying it down I'd thought?

 

Love this credit crunch living though, stay in with a pizza from M&S for a fiver each and a bottle of decent red for less than he house stuff in the pub. And no taxi home either...

[John Boy Saint]

Yeah, 2009 "aged for 2 years in oak barrels" Sainsburys taste the diffence stuff, only £15 so prob not worth laying it down I'd thought?

 

Love this credit crunch living though, stay in with a pizza from M&S for a fiver each and a bottle of decent red for less than he house stuff in the pub. And no taxi home either...

 

I think taste the difference Barolo is defo, un plug, decant, leave to breathe, and pour down your neck. Leave it under your stairs for a few years and it might be disappointing.

 

Sue might back this up, I sometimes like a bit of Pinot Gringo and have found that ones from Veneto are better than all the rest.

 

Right, wine is out. Just discovered marmalade vodka made by chase. Amazing stuff

 

Make your own, if you have the patience to leave it long enough it will probably be more potent, I made Sloe Gin and left it to fester for 12 months before bottling. The following year I made Sloe Vodka and Blackberry Brandy, a friend came round an asked what I was up to when *****ing the Sloes so I gave her a shot of Sloe Gin that she baulked at, I finished filling my jars, then finished what she had left of the Sloe Gin then drainer both the remains of the Vodka and the Brandy straight from the bottle: after the Sloe Gin there was Zero throat burn from the straight Vodka and Brandy.

 

I made some Dry Blackberry Wine once, it was superbly clear, tasted great and one glass had the mood round the table very giggly.

[CB Saint]

I think taste the difference Barolo is defo, un plug, decant, leave to breathe, and pour down your neck. Leave it under your stairs for a few years and it might be disappointing.

 

Sue might back this up, I sometimes like a bit of Pinot Gringo and have found that ones from Veneto are better than all the rest.

 

 

 

Make your own, if you have the patience to leave it long enough it will probably be more potent, I made Sloe Gin and left it to fester for 12 months before bottling. The following year I made Sloe Vodka and Blackberry Brandy, a friend came round an asked what I was up to when *****ing the Sloes so I gave her a shot of Sloe Gin that she baulked at, I finished filling my jars, then finished what she had left of the Sloe Gin then drainer both the remains of the Vodka and the Brandy straight from the bottle: after the Sloe Gin there was Zero throat burn from the straight Vodka and Brandy.

 

I made some Dry Blackberry Wine once, it was superbly clear, tasted great and one glass had the mood round the table very giggly.

 

That is the bit I struggle with.