Wine advice for the uncultured boob (1 Viewer)

[nolesrule]

I actually agree with you Johnny. Room temp is a little too warm for reds. But we were mainly talking about storage, not serving temp.

Red wines should be served between 57 and 68 degrees. A bottle of wine will raise approximately 2 deg. for every 10 minutes at room temperature once removed from a cooler. I store my reds at 55 deg, so if I wait 30 minutes, the serving temp out of my wine cooler will be at about 61 deg.

I found a chart online that I use as a general reference for serving temperature:

42-54 F - sparkling wine
48-54 F - rosé wine
48-58 F - white wine, light sherry
57-68 F - red wine, fortified wine, dark sherry

Serving a wine at too cold a temperature will actually mask the bouquet and taste.

 

[Yee-Ming]

And what about Chateau Petrus, the most expensive wine in the world? (BTW, featured as Arvin Sloane's favourite wine in Alias). IIRC, Petrus is about 90-95% Merlot or more, sometimes 100%, as indeed are most wines from Pomerol.

I wish I could try some. Maybe someday, when I can actually afford to blow around US$3,000 on a bottle of wine...

 

[Bob McLaughlin]

Wow, lots of great responses! Useful links as well. Sorry it took me so long to get back. The wine label says:

Talus Collection: Lodi Cabernet Sauvignon (2004)

Anyone have an opinion on this wine? How is it best consumed?

For the most part my diet tends towards "meat and potatoes", although I like pasta and Chinese as well. My wife will not eat seafood although I like to get it at restaurants on occasion.

 

[mylan]

Talus is one of the many inexpensive wines sometimes marketed under the "four buck chuck" labels, essentially a guy bought a bunch of wines from several different wineries trying to liquidate their assets and relabeled them. I've had Talus, not too shabby for around $6 a bottle.

 

[Radioman970]

Hum... I'll need to do some bookmarking on my PC at home.

I'm a wino waiting to happen.

 

[BrianW]

I'm an uncultured boob myself, but I do love a nice Cabernet. I think Cabernet goes absolutely best with pasta. Tomato-based sauces are best, but cream-based sauces work too. Stick to pasta dishes with dry cheeses, like swiss or parmesan. Don't drink Cabernet with mozzerella, cheddar, American, or any processed cheeses. Ricotta cheese (e.g., lasagna), for some reason, goes really we'll with Cabernet, even though it's not dry.

I like to drink it colder than most (being a neophyte), about 50 degrees F. Cabernet isn't nearly hearty enough for me to drink at room temperature. I keep the bottle in the refrigerator, remove it about 45 minutes before dinner, and it's the perfect temperature.

Take a bite or two of pasta before taking your first sip. As you take that first sip, I dare you to try not to smile.

Whatever you do, let us know how you consume it and whether you enjoyed it.

Great thread!

 

[Craig S]

Ditto on the Rosemount Shiraz. A very dependable, inexpensive wine.

 

[nolesrule]

This Danby is the specific model I have. I have seen this model at Best Buy and Sam's Club, as well as online. I purchased ours at Best Buy using one of those coupons you get every so often, so it ended up being a tad less expensive after delivery than getting it at Sam's Club.

I would rather have a larger red temp zone and smaller white temp zone, but we never got to the point where we exceeded the red zone's capacity because we stopped buying more bottles when my wife got pregnant. I use the extra space in the white zone to chill sodas.

 

[JeremyErwin]

a source

Besides, Chateaux Margaux is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. I'm not sure that it would qualify as a "Merlot." No Pinot Noir, though.

 

[Lew Crippen]

To be sure I did not check the link, but Chateaux Margaux is mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, but it is usually (as are all wines from Bordeaux) a blend. But grapes from Burgundy (such as Pinot Noir) are never allowed in wines from Bordeaux.

Such an occurrence would surely signal the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it.

 

[Cees Alons]

You're referring to the wine-cellar, right?


Cees

 

[Jim Sentry]

You can never go wrong if you ask the waiter for his "finest wine in a screw top"

 

[mylan]

The wine industry is challenging conventional thinking concerning the packaging of wine. I've read that boxes and even screw tops may not always indicate a cheap wine in the future. The plastic liners in boxes are air-tight and keep reds from oxidizing as quickly and are more portable for picnics, etc.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Actually the presence of screw tops does not necessarily indicate that the wine is second-rate right now. Several years ago, Jeffrey Grosset a leading winemaker in South Australia, led a group of mostly Clare Valley Riesling producers to put their best Rieslings in bottles with screw tops.

I had a discussion with him about this and he told me that he found that too high a percentage of corks were poor and especially with delicate Rieslings, resulted in a ‘corked’ presence that was very easy to detect.

To give you an idea of his prominence in the industry, Grosset was once named Riesling winemaker of the year by German winemakers.

 

[Bob McLaughlin]

Well guys, my wife had the brilliant idea of looking at the label on the back of the bottle, where they suggested drinking the wine with either a marinated steak or a pasta dish. By sheer coincidence, my wife had put a steak in the refrigerator the night before to marinate overnight, so we decided to open up the bottle. Lacking a wine refrigerator, we cooled the wine down in our refrigerator about a half hour before dinner was served.

I got a whiff of it while pouring it and my mouth started watering! I also really liked the color of this wine, it looked great in the wine glasses beside my dinner plate. After a few bites of steak, I had my first taste of the wine. My impression was positive, and I tried to let it linger in my mouth a bit before swallowing, so I could "feel around" for the different nuances of taste that I have read about. I think this is something I will have to learn over time, lacking a sophisticated palate, but hey, when else is learning so enjoyable?

One thing, I think I preferred the wine a bit less cool than we had initially cooled it, because the second glass had sat out for about 15 minutes before I drank it, and it tasted even better. Was this because of the temperature difference or because the wine had time to "breathe"? I confess when I was reading about that on various websites, I didn't believe it could make much of a difference, but I think it really did.

Oh, the reason that second glass had time to sit was because it was my wife's glass! I had poured one for her, which she took one tiny sip of and said "I don't like it", so I wasn't going to let it go to waste. She said she thought she'd prefer something a bit sweeter with less of an alcohol aftertaste. Does anyone have any suggestions for a wine my wife might like better?

As for me, I don't think I'm going to have a problem finishing the rest of the bottle myself!

 

[Cees Alons]

Not to mention the fact... well, why not? , that some of the better corks are no longer made of cork.


Cees

 

[Cees Alons]

Bob, she may prefer a white wine, and then not the dryer ones, of course.


Cees

 

[BrianW]

Try getting your wife a bottle of White Zinfandel (sp?).

I'm glad you enjoyed the Cabernet.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Piesporter is a sweeter white wine she may like. Also, the suggestion of white zinfadel above (although I kid my wife, who likes white zinfadel, that it's not really wine). Personally, I do not care for sweet wines, but that's me.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Your Talus cab is from Lodi (cue Creedence Clearwater Revival ) in the central valley, and my experience with those cabs is that they can be a little rough with a hint of 'candied fruit' to the taste. She may prefer a softer red, such as a Sonoma Merlot. Or try a Ravenswood "old vine" Sonoma zin.

The problem with non-dry wines is that they don't generally go well with foods, the residual sugar masking the flavor of the foods.