Your wine preferences & any changes over time?

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Originally Posted by smilingcat

Do like Alsace dry Riesling. It's good that most don't know that really good Riesling is dry. It really goes well with good bratwurst and cabbage.

I'm not a wine snot!!

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I love a good, crisp, dry Alsacian Riesling with spicy or German foods - can't stand the sweet whites, but I thought they were just fine when I was much younger. For me, it's all about what food am I having with it, and what is the season? Summer, more dry crisp whites and roses; winter, mostly reds - I especially like the French Rhone-style wines and French, Washington and Oregon burgandies/pinots. Not much of a fan of California reds as they tend to be too heavy in the alcohol department and not as food friendly.

As they say at my local wine shop (grocery stores cannot sell alcohol here): A day without wine? Why bother?

I love, love, love dry rose wine. I drink it in the summer, but also with some types of Italian food all year round. Good rose is so different from the sweeter stuff and most of all, from that horrible White Zinfendal. I also love rose sparkling wine.

White Zin is not rose. :) My very recent ex brought a bottle of white zin over on our second date. That should have been clue. ;)

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Originally Posted by TrekDianna

I am partial to Oregon Pinot Noir and Merlots. I am surrounded by vineyards and wineries. There are two within 2 miles of my house.

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I too am partial to Oregon Pinot Noirs. After a trip last year to Sonoma, I've found that I love Russian River Pinot Noirs too. Add in malbecs, and some tempernillos (always taste a bit harsher, but I do like them) you've hit my go to wines.

In the summer I love proseccos and other sparkling whites (but they can't be too sweet -- moscotos are just too much for me).

This is all recent -- before that I didn't like wine as much.

Oh yes, I know White Zin, is not rose. But many people put them in the same category.
Aromig, you named all of my favorites. I also love Prosecco and love the northern Italian custom of a glass of it before the meal.

I only drink wine on rare occassions, however when I do drink them they are typically the more fruity flavored white wines. My favorite is one from Childress Vinyards (but I don't remember the name of it.) I like the Muskadine ones quite well also. Once the local vineyards also makes a muskadine cider that wonderful.

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Originally Posted by OakLeaf

That's funny ... as I learn more about wine, I'm getting over my prejudices against the sweet whites. No teenage soda pop, but with some foods, particularly spicy dishes, a wine goes better if it's not bone dry.

I think the cheap sweet whites tend to have a lot of propylene glycol and other additives, and maybe that's what you're having trouble with when you say "your body." They always taste really chemically to me, and many give me an instant headache. I do find I have to spend more for a drinkable sweet wine, where you can often get away with a dry red for $10 or less.

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Originally Posted by Crankin

I love, love, love dry rose wine. I drink it in the summer, but also with some types of Italian food all year round. Good rose is so different from the sweeter stuff and most of all, from that horrible White Zinfendal. I also love rose sparkling wine.

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These two. We've hit a subject that is near and dear to my heart and that's a discussion on wines! Rather than go into a big spiel on this subject, because if you let me loose I'd write volumes, let's just say that my wine experience has been an evolution. Started with dry and semi dry whites, moved to all the reds and, yes I love nearly all reds, and have come full circle to enjoying dessert wines including sweet whites. Like the dry whites too, particularly the Chardonnays from France without so much oak like American whites. Ahhh and a good rose is a treat for the senses and can be oh so delicate. Yes, the real rose, not that apparition called "white zinfandel." Overall, I like too many to mention because they all have a time and place and a certain food to go with.

Yeah, I can be a wine snob, but not about price - I've had expensive swill and it's still swill.

Ok, I changed my mind and I'll go with one all time favorite, Champagne because of it's versatility, you can serve it with an appetizer, dinner or apres dinner.

Anyone seen the documentary "Somm?" It's about five (?) people studying for their Master Sommelier certification. It's very engaging, and while anyone with an interest in wine will enjoy the technical aspects of their study, it's really a story about their personal journeys.

I've actually had an example of the dreaded white zinfandel that I actually liked. I can't remember what it was, though.

I can't really drink any more than a glass and a half of wine at a time. I don't really care for it (I'm a beer person, and I'm still cautiously dipping my toes in the mixed drink area), and I come across random wines I like, and I never remember what they are. I prefer whites to reds, though. I don't like Malbecs. That's about it. It depends on the individual wine, and what I'm eating it with.

Oregon Pinot Noir has been mentioned a couple of times in this thread. Can anyone give me a specific name that they recommend? I'd like to try a bottle or two. My price point is usually $10, but I'm willing to go up to $24 for the sake of trying something new. It's okay to tell me that I have to expand my price range, I just don't want to pay twenty bucks if it isn't any good.

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Originally Posted by roo4

Oregon Pinot Noir has been mentioned a couple of times in this thread. Can anyone give me a specific name that they recommend? I'd like to try a bottle or two. My price point is usually $10, but I'm willing to go up to $24 for the sake of trying something new. It's okay to tell me that I have to expand my price range, I just don't want to pay twenty bucks if it isn't any good.

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Hey roo4, where are you located? (you can PM me if you want to not advertise that. I'm just asking because I know some good local ones that don't distribute all that far so need to know if I can recommend them or not)

Sadly for the purposes of alcohol purchasing, I am in Pennsylvania.

I used to order Chardonnay quite a lot, mainly because that was all I knew of white wines, other than Rieslings, which are too sweet for me (except for dry Rieslings). Then I tried Pinot Grigio, Pinot Gris, and Sauvignon Blanc and liked all better than Chard. Just don't care for the oak. I love dry rose as well. I don't like reds quite as well but occasionally will find one I like. Don't laugh, but I love the Bota Box "Redvolution", a boxed wine we buy at Costco. It's a blend of about five different red grapes and is slightly sweeter than most reds (for exampler, Merlot).

Chards are generally too sweet for me, and to my taste not very food friendly, but I did have an exquisite Robert Sinskey chardonnay a couple of years back. I want to say it was an '06 or maybe even earlier, so they'd likely be past their drink-by date by now, and I have no idea about their more recent vintages. It does seem that they've upped their overall production quite a bit recently, which is probably not a good thing.

Are Chards still made with the "hint of grapefruit, citrusy fruit bouquet.. and aged in French Oak barrel..." blach! If I want the real stuff, I'll spend the money for real white Burgundy. The problem with Burgundy is that majority of the vineyards are rather small such that most labels do not produce in sufficiently large quantity. Just about every label is a rarity. Another varietal ruined alongside good zinfandel by the perceived market desire.

And I never could understand the hype about Beaujolais nouveau. Wait at the airport for the delivery from France, then have a wild party to swig that stuff down.

I'll stick to Voignier, Riesling, semillon, muscat, and few others for whites. No I'm not a wine snot. If two buck chuck is better than a Grand Cru or even a First Growth then I'll drink two buck chuck. Or something even from Gallo. Actually, Gallo being so big and with such financial clout, they can and do produce some really good wine.

The other day, I did pop a cork on a red Beaudeaux 1988. Cork was in excellent condition, wine had not oxidized, good clarity, good nose... Everyone liked it. Still have two maybe three bottles left. It actually outlasted oh never mind.