Winer!

[VeeGeeTea]

Anyone here have an exquisite taste for wine?

[PHXLT1]

Not me. I like but have no clue what to look for.

[trashmanssd]

Hate the taste of wine but love smelling the cork smells amazing. Weird I guess also I don't drink alcohol at all don't care for the taste I designated drive for friends and family they enjoy it.

[trm2]

Not much more exotic than something like Silver Oak Cabernet.

[11BEE]

I love a great red wine. My wife and I are not experts, but I can spell tannins and know the difference between 2 Buck Chuck and a Messina Hoff

[VeeGeeTea]

I've actually started this hobby, it'd be great if someone can walk me through and provide some tips Thanks!

[2012-1822]

Originally Posted by VeeGeeTea

I've actually started this hobby, it'd be great if someone can walk me through and provide some tips Thanks!

Drink what you like, don't worry about other people. Buy what you can afford to enjoy, if you're worried about busting open a couple of bottles when friends come over because it's too expensive then you won't enjoy it. It's okay to have a reserve stash for special occasions though. See if you can go to some tastings, sometimes distributors or stores that sell will have a good event for free or maybe $25 or something. Or, see if you can get together with about six friends, everyone bring a different bottle and everyone try a sip of each. Keep a record of what you did or didn't like.

If you come across any bottle of 2005 California wine, cheap or whatever, just buy it, it was a good year across the board. Price point, hard for me to interpret given that prices vary from state to state due to taxes on this side of the border and then convert to Canadian, but.... $10 per bottle(US) would be a good starting point, a lot of good wine for that price and up. So don't feel like you have to spend a fortune to get good enjoyable wine. I don't find much I like at Walmart and Target, but I seem to do better at grocery stores and actual wine or beverage stores. Not sure what's available to you up there.

[11BEE]

$10 bottles are just as good at $40 bottles that are well aerated. Get an aerater, and enjoy. Go to a few vineyards local and learn how to taste wine. Don't worry about fancy names or high prices. Drink what you like and enjoy. Get into a local wine group and admit you are a newbie. They will love that and teach you a lot. Finally, get a 40+ Bottle cooler and keep your wine chilled to the right temp.

[mikeyg36]

Not a big fan. Enjoyed it when I was in Italy though.

[VeeGeeTea]

Originally Posted by 2012-1822

Drink what you like, don't worry about other people. Buy what you can afford to enjoy, if you're worried about busting open a couple of bottles when friends come over because it's too expensive then you won't enjoy it. It's okay to have a reserve stash for special occasions though. See if you can go to some tastings, sometimes distributors or stores that sell will have a good event for free or maybe $25 or something. Or, see if you can get together with about six friends, everyone bring a different bottle and everyone try a sip of each. Keep a record of what you did or didn't like.

If you come across any bottle of 2005 California wine, cheap or whatever, just buy it, it was a good year across the board. Price point, hard for me to interpret given that prices vary from state to state due to taxes on this side of the border and then convert to Canadian, but.... $10 per bottle(US) would be a good starting point, a lot of good wine for that price and up. So don't feel like you have to spend a fortune to get good enjoyable wine. I don't find much I like at Walmart and Target, but I seem to do better at grocery stores and actual wine or beverage stores. Not sure what's available to you up there.

Great Advice! In Canada we have a dedicated liquor store call LCBO. It's own and operated by our government. Same with the Beer store. In LCBO, you'd often find different kind of wine with a bonus of fruity drinks and beer for the other audiences.

I guess I'll pay them a visit and try out your 2005 Cali wine.

[Sir Nuke]

Originally Posted by VeeGeeTea

Anyone here have an exquisite taste for wine?

nope......I will even drink the stuff that comes in a BOX with a spigot on the bottom! lol

[Stingr69]

Do Like wine!

Join a wine tasting group.

Some stores will have wine sampling days but it seems to be hit or miss as to quality. They tend to offer less desirable wine tastings for free and hope you buy some of it (for a few bucks more than its worth) so I tend to avoid anything they are pushing you to taste for free at the retail level. Wine distributors (not retailers) will have very good recomendations. Some wholesale distributors will even steer you twards wine that is actually great tasting for a value price. Find that guy and you are all set.

-Mark.

[2012-1822]

Originally Posted by VeeGeeTea

Great Advice! In Canada we have a dedicated liquor store call LCBO. It's own and operated by our government. Same with the Beer store. In LCBO, you'd often find different kind of wine with a bonus of fruity drinks and beer for the other audiences.

I guess I'll pay them a visit and try out your 2005 Cali wine.

Kind of my bad for mentioning the '05 stuff. It definitely applies, but it's scarce now. Unfortunately I learned about that from a guy named Ray. He passed away a couple of years ago so I don't get anymore little tidbits like that. But, again, get with some friends, try different years of the same wine if you can find it, see what taste good.

If you find something you like, buy every bottle you can and learn to store it. If it's $10-$15(US) per bottle you can drink it whenever and you don't have to worry so much about long term storage. If it's going to be around more than a couple of years then you might want to look into how you'd like to store it. But really 2 years or less you don't have to worry so much. I've got stuff I've had since '08, I didn't intend for it to be around this long. I have it in racks, not in a well lit area, away from windows, and I keep my house cool anyway. I open a bottle once or twice a month now. I haven't found any that are in bad shape.

My brother is a little more hard core. He built a cellar under his stairs in his house. It's insulated and cooled to whatever temp it should be, I don't know. But he stores more expensive wine that they got in France and other areas when they traveled.



I'll go ahead and say that a vineyard I really like is St. Francis in Sonoma(Cali). I went there, bought a bunch of wine. Really enjoyed it. But, I didn't buy enough. So I've picked it up occasionally at the store. Everything I've gotten from them has been good. They even have a "table" wine that was just really good.

[VeeGeeTea]

Oh wow! How long have you been wine tasting or into wine for that matter?