What are some good wines that you guys have had over the years? I am actually thinking of going to the local wine store to get educated on wine.

Varieties, or specific vineyards?

In general, the wine you buy depends on its purpose. Are you drinking it alone? With dinner? If so, what are you eating?

For general sipping, I prefer a sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio (white wines) or merlot or pinot noir (red). But again, it depends.

I am starting to drink merlots. I like the way they taste. When I go out I mostly order steak or some sort of variation that has that. If not that then seafood.

With steak (or any red meat) you obviously want a red wine. White wine is good with salmon* (in fact, the two white wines I listed are particularly good with salmon, I think). Other seafood varies, but most seafood goes better with white wine.

* Does salmon count as seafood, since it's a freshwater fish?

White Zinfandel or Pinot Grigio, I don't really like red wines as much.


Of course, if you want something cheap there's always Franzia Sunset Blush <3

^ I am completely the opposite. I rarely drink white wine. About 99.9% of the wine I drink is red.

Like Michael said though, it sometimes depends on what you are eating (although quite frankly, I'd still prefer a red no matter what haha).

Javonn, what do you prefer? I really like reading reviews. I'd try some of that. I used to get Wine Advocate magazine, but can no longer afford it (it's way expensive). There are other, cheaper wine magazines out there (if you're going to become a serious connoisseur, you should consider getting one. I'll be honest, men who know their wine are a big turn on for older women lol).

A couple of online review sites (the second I can vouch for).
http://www.winereviewonline.com/wine_reviews.cfm
http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Free/WS_...0,4519,,00.html

Sometimes it's about finding "your" wine dealer. There is one I pretty much always go to (although I just discovered a really good new store) and the reviews they post next to the wine has never done me wrong.

OH, varieties. I like cab/shiraz mixes alot. Pinot Noir can very good. Again though, it depends on the wine. I've had excellent cabs and I've had some vomit worthy cabs.

In general, white wines are going to go better with lighter meals such as fish, poultry, and other white meats. Reds, well, opposite. I love chicken, but I also prefer red over white any day. If you want to start on some cheap but decent wine, try out Riesling for their whites or, well I can't think of any reds (my parents are wine snobs, I only know expensive )

this weekend I will be drinking sutter home and berringers lol
the serious wine stuff starts monday. This and other future inquiries you can thank Arjuna. He is the one who has told me to start on my hobbies.

WINE ISN'T A HOBBY IT'S A WAY OF LIFE


Ok, not really. You can really get into it though. Hit up wine tastings. Some are cheap and you can experiment some.

^Truth. I am going to try and do that. I just feel so inspired to do all of the stuff that I was scared to do before.

I"m not going to lie though, I've gotten pretty into beer, and it's way cheaper to enjoy than wine. I'm not talking bud or miller, I'm talking Kostritzer or Chimay. I'm trying to learn all I can about beer, as there's way way more than meets the eye. Optimus personally prefers the Paulaner Oktoberfest Brew.

I can totally vouch for Chimay.

Agreed, I'm more into beer than wine. Until I moved (recently), I lived near a place that was a great outlet for microbrews and other smaller breweries.

But I don't live there anymore, so now I mostly just buy Guinness, which is easy to find and is a great beer.

(I had a Victory Storm King last weekend though, which was great. But I digress.)

Have you had the Guiness 250? It's their 250th anniversary brew that's only out for something like six months. In Houston we have this pub called the Flying Saucer, which has one of the largest selections of beer I've seen. They have great / cheap beer food to go with it too, i.e. bratwurst, burgers, chips/salsa, nachos.

Yeah. I didn't think it was significantly better than the usual Guinness.

I thought it tasted like Guinness combined with the carbonation of normal beers. I liked it, but not as much as Guinness from the tap.

THIS THREAD IS ABOUT WINE PEOPLE!!!!

I tried this banging ass sparkling rosé the other day. Can't remember the name of it, but I'll find out.

I *love* whites and reisling is my favorite type of wine. I generally go for wines that are lighter and fruitier.

I can third that.

ok so what is the difference between the wines? like a cabernet and a pinot and merlot and so on and so forth?

Go read/watch the book/movie Sideways, and you too can pretend to be a wine connoiseur!

Lol my parents are wine snobby, not wine snobs, but know wine snobby things like all the differences. They thought sideways was hilarious lol.

My understanding is that the difference is usually in the grape, or region.

Here's a decent blurb about it:
http://askville.amazon.com/whats-differenc...questId=8497651

I prefer cabs over merlots anyday. I think that merlots tend to taste more bitter and acidic than cabs.

Some people decide based on what food they are eating. There's the whole white meat/white wine thing. I don't really buy into that though.