Wines

[QuarterMillionMan]

Red or white? Cheap or expensive? Warm or cold? Merlot, Cabernet, Reisling, etc? Pairing wines with food? Which is your preference. For me it all taste like sour grapes. I've tried mostly the mid range to lower cost wines and it all tastes the same to me. From Kendall Jackson down to the $2 chuck from Trader Joes it is horrible. Do more expensive wines become more palatable?

[rennigade]

Wine is alright. I cant really tell the difference between expensive and cheap wine. A saw an article where they took people who thought they were wine experts and did a taste test, not blind though. They purposely took an expensive bottle of wine, dumped it out and filled it with cheaper wine. They also served them the same cheaper wine in the actual cheap wine bottle. You can probably guess the results. Each one picked the expensive bottle filled with the same cheap wine as the "better" wine. Of course they did it with more than 2 wines and mixed it up but that was the jist of it. Apparently your mind has much more influence than your taste. Just planting that seed that this wine is superior magically makes it superior. Very interesting stuff.

[scfr]

"Cheap" is a relative term. For me, there is a big taste improvement going from a $3 bottle to a $15 or $20 bottle. I realize that for some oenophiles, $20 is still "cheap." For me, $20 is a celebration bottle. I'm not a teetotaler and enjoy an occasional glass of wine or bottle of beer, but to give you an idea of how much I drink, today I will be using up the last of a $3 bottle of white that has been sitting in the fridge for a month in a homemade Portuguese Cabbage soup. P.S. - As I type this, I realize that is an advantage of drinking really cheap wine ... you don't feel bad using it for cooking.

[HappySaver]

For me, $20 is a celebration bottle.

Agree. We usually spend $10 - $12 for casual wine, sometimes we'll inch up to $15. Recently we found a good wine for $7, but that's unusual. At Christmas/New Year's we really blew the budget by splurging for a $30 bottle and a couple $20 bottles. By the way, they were worth it.

[disneysteve]

I am not a wine drinker but my wife is. She has definitely learned over the years that price and quality have nothing at all to do with each other. It is all about personal taste and preference. We've been to wine tastings where the sommelier was raving about a particular selection and she hated it and vice-versa.

I've also read numerous studies where they did blind taste tests and the supposed experts couldn't tell the cheap wine from the expensive wine. I even saw a study where they couldn't tell the red wine from the white wine when blindfolded. It is all perception with a hefty dose of snobbery thrown in.

My wife almost never spends over $10 for a bottle. When we've had guests over, they've often commented how good the wine was not knowing that it was a $5 or $6 bottle they were drinking from.

[kyoko]

I love red wine. I drink mostly Merlot, but I like Syrah and Ganache... and some more..
My husband and I are members of one local wine cellar (we don't live in Napa unfortunately but still have quite good winery here in WA... ). They are quite pricy but quality is really great. We buy six wines from them every quarter (that's the condition to become a member) and that is only time we get expensive wines.
Sometimes I go to World Market. They have quite good selections with reasonable price (around $10).

[corn18]

I get to drink very expensive bottles of wine at work dinners and $10 bottles at home. A good bottle of expensive wine does drink better than a good $10 bottle of wine. But I have found that a bad $200 (or more) bottle of wine tastes just as bad as a bad $10 bottle of wine. So you better know what you like BEFORE you start dropping stupid money on wine. Not sure how you do that. I don't necessarily like what my co-workers like.

So what do I have in my house? A collection of Costco wine. I like it. My wife likes it. It costs $10 a bottle. Life is good.

Tom

[bjl584]

My current favorites are the Merlots from Chile.

[ua_guy]

I prefer white. Most of my favorites are in the $7-$20/bottle category. I don't subscribe to wine snobbery, but I find there is a difference between truly cheap wines (they taste like alcohol with some grapes thrown in) and good wines that have different notes of appealing flavors.

I don't get into higher-end stuff, although I did have a $60 bottle of red once, that a friend brought over for dinner. It was the bottle that would convince me to enjoy more Red wine, he said. He was right, it was a red blend and had a wonderful smokey flavor, would do again! (as long as it's on someone else's budget)

[mppaul271]

I have just discovered my 'always on hand' wines. La Crema Sonoma Coast Pino Noir, Santa Margherita Pino Grigio. Everything else I will give a try and either mark it off or label as 'good back up' to my 'Always on hand' wine. I have not had one yet to add to the list or replace the current ones. But I really enjoy looking for the next best thing I just drink what I like with the food I like..not into absolute pairings.