bartolimu posted:

The best I've managed is to be familiar enough with a couple of regions/varietals/styles I like to be capable of some critical thinking about costs within that genre. For instance, I know a decent amount about German Rieslings - enough to know I tend to prefer those from the Mosel region over others (there are always exceptions), and I have some idea of years in which weather influenced the quality of the wines. Based on that bit of knowledge I can usually pick out one of the better Rieslings in my price range. Occasionally I'm still surprised, though.

Being able to do that for all of winedom is probably beyond the grasp of anyone besides Master Soms, and even they can't know everything.

Kasumeat posted:

You can consistently get mind-blowing Bonnezeaux for $40, Juracon for $20, or Auslese for $30. Why spend $60 for half-bottle of something half as good?

idiotsavant posted:

SF-wise Bi-Rite should have it right now and Ruby carries it most of the time. Terroir has had it but I don't know that they have any right now. Bay Grape carries it in Oakland, and so does Ordinaire. I just started working with a distributor in CA, so there should be a few more places on the list soon. If you're drinking lots of Beaujolais right now you'll probably like it. It's pretty juicy but in that lighter Bojo way, with a little bit of green in back.

Comb Your Beard posted:

• Where to go? I realize it's a huge region. I could skip the west (Muscadet) and the far east (Sancerre) if need be.
  

PT6A posted:

This is doubly true if the wine has a bit of age and the cork requires any level of finesse to remove.

Ola posted:

Premox isn't TCA though. And also selection bias. Where did the can of worms emoticon go?

Overwined posted:

Or you could put them back into your wine cooler and do what all the cool kids are doing these days -- drink gallons or pet-nat while wearing flip flops and gaudy-colored Ray Bans.

Nephzinho posted:

tl;dr Help an aging beer snob become a better wine snob.

Kasumeat posted:

So now that the '15s from the Old World are starting to hit the market, what are your thoughts? Wines from the coolest regions such as Chablis and Sancerre seem good, especially at the village-level-or-equivalent where more ripeness than usual might be welcome, but almost unrecognisable: Chablis is tasting more pineapple and peach than citrus and pome fruit; Beaujolais more kirsch and Chambord than cherry and raspberry. Acids are definitely lower than usual. I worry that more prestigious sites that see more ripeness had too short of a season to develop aromatics. If I had to put my money down now, I'd say this vintage is going to prove more like 2003 than 2010 (or even 2005).

Octy posted:

I love seeing Australian wines in foreign restaurants. I'm in Singapore and the prices are so jumped up, like the 2013 Tyrrell's Rufus Stone Heathcote Shiraz which was at $130 a bottle. It's a good, perhaps unappreciated wine, but one I can get for less than $20 in-store.

idiotsavant posted:

Uhhhh. If you're freezing Napa Cabs because you're sensitive to alcohol levels you might be doing wine wrong.

Edit: like not to say that I love big Cali Cabernet, just that no one is forcing you to drink it...

Crimson posted:

Although my list is an anecdotal example, I have built and maintained two WS Grand Award winning wine lists in Vegas and SF, and am currently attempting to build another. I'm also intimately familiar with most of the fine dining lists in the Bay Area, and I don't know anyone who is dedicating a large portion of their lists to natural wines

nervana posted:

I am visiting NYC for the weekend and want to buy a nice bottle of wine for a couple in their late 30's. They live in Chicago (as do I) and travel often, and they enjoy wine, so they've probably tried a whole bunch, but are not wine snobs. Is there anything in New York that I can buy that is decent and not readily available in Chicago? I am thinking under $100, but can go over that if needed. It doesn't have to be rare or anything, but I just want to get them something nice and show that I put some thought into it.

Comb Your Beard posted:

1991 Carmenet Cabernet Franc (Sonoma) - Awesome. No bell pepper notes here. Quite unlike the aged left bank Red Bdx I had, this showed age in a very different way. Definite aged notes.

Kasumeat posted:

Agreed, but the true pinnacle of the grape is screamingly acidic off-dry rose

Furious Lobster posted:

Furious Lobster posted:

‘06 Taittinger Comtes is drinking really nice now. I bought a couple of cases to age and have already gone through 1.

Crimson posted:

As far as Vine & Rare, I have bought tens of thousands of dollars of wine from them, and the failure rate on their bottles is perfectly in reasonable range for the age of their offerings. They also offer full refunds on all manners of wine faults. The guys behind it are good friends of mine, really good dudes.

Furious Lobster posted:

I’ve been spending a lot in the fb razzle groups

Skooms posted:

I pretty consistently read this thread, and I'm based out of NYC. I also know Caleb. Just to throw a little more world touching out there. I work at one of the the restaurants in NYC that is half (two thirds?) way to establishing itself as a wine (spender) destination.

quote:

We decided on the Bollinger Special Cuvee, and it was great last night! It tasted much better after it was given time to "breath", which I think I remember Roger Moore actually saying in some Bond film.

Snowy posted:

Vague request: I'd like to give a bottle of red wine as a gift, but I don't know exactly what the recipient likes. Is there something I could get in the $40-60 range that's a surefire hit and also likely for me to be able to find easily? I'm in NYC so I have a few good wine shops but their suggestions can be hit or miss so I figured I should see what you guys think. I'm guessing something like cabernet since it's easy, but I'm open.

Trimson Grondag 3 posted:

Thanks, I'm limited to three 750ml bottles duty free so each one is precious. Other than being way cheaper its mostly about being able to get things you won't ever get in Australia like auction german riesling or a lot of priorat (I loving love priorat). Bordeaux is actually about the same price so probably a bad example.

PT6A posted:

I need a reality check here. Wine bars (not restaurants, self-titled bars) that take reservations: complete bullshit, right?

Jerome Louis posted:

Welp the cooler we use to store all our wine sensory bottles froze over the weekend and destroyed over $10,000 of wine, cool stuff

Kasumeat posted:

Look on the bright side, you probably have a bunch of wine that needs to be consumed ASAP. I drank a lot of Leflaive when our fridge at work froze, it really wasn't so bad.

Kasumeat posted:

Depends what you're drinking. France, Italy, and Spain are the worst offenders, particularly in wines bottled before the late 2000s—as many as 10-15% of these are corked, though they've pushed it down to around 5% in the past decade or so. California is the only New World wine region where it's relatively common, with incidence hovering around 2-5%.

So if you're drinking a lot of high-risk bottles, yeah, you're almost certainly just missing it. If you don't, them you're probably just lucky/smart.