The Wine Thread

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40Flipper

40Flipper

Master of Nothing
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www.rinnadvisors.com
I've been in the wine business about 10 years. I am full of useless wine knowledge that once impressed women but I'm married now. She's sick of me talking about it.

Fire away with any questions and I'll try to answer them accurately.


:cheers:
 
Rose isn't actually a blending or watering down of a red wine to make it pink. Rose' wines are made exactly the same way a red wine is made. The only difference is that the winemakers leave all the skins, seeds, pulp, etc in the barrel with the juice for only a few hours. Wine gets it's color from grape skins. The longer the contact with the skins the darker the wine. Some red wines are soaked (maceration) for a few days to 10 days or more. If you cut any red grape open the juice is clear and the innards are usually green.

Rose can be made from any red grape. I've had merlot, shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, etc rose's from all over the world and they all taste different from the different types of grapes used.

Rose's are one of my favorites and are one of the most under-estimated and best wines out there. Killer with many types of food. Drink the pink.....
 
johnny4ever said:
Which wine is best to compliment a butterfinger and a bag of cheetos?
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Anything in a box. Preferably a 5L size or bigger. Red or white unimportant.
 
jsaltlick said:
Rose isn't actually a blending or watering down of a red wine to make it pink. Rose' wines are made exactly the same way a red wine is made. The only difference is that the winemakers leave all the skins, seeds, pulp, etc in the barrel with the juice for only a few hours. Wine gets it's color from grape skins. The longer the contact with the skins the darker the wine. Some red wines are soaked (maceration) for a few days to 10 days or more. If you cut any red grape open the juice is clear and the innards are usually green.

Rose can be made from any red grape. I've had merlot, shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, etc rose's from all over the world and they all taste different from the different types of grapes used.

Rose's are one of my favorites and are one of the most under-estimated and best wines out there. Killer with many types of food. Drink the pink.....
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Yeah but who has that much time? My way's better.

Also, the whole red/meat white/chicken thing. What goes with fish? I'm having a can of tuna for lunch...
 
Whites generally go with fish but a rose is nice too. Salmon or other steak type fish work well with some lighter red wines like beaujolais or a pinot noir too. Sauvignon blanc is great because it generally has a bit more acid in them which scours out the fish taste and leaves you with a clean palate to enjoy the next bite. Spicy fish dishes work well with rieslings or other VERY lightly sweet wines.

Red meats are good with reds but if you have a fat chardonnay that is your favorite then have that with the steak. Whatever you like and makes you happy most is what should go with your food. Trying some wines that might clash will show you why some wines work and some don't.

At least you didn't put ice cubes and a straw in it.......


BTW Ozcal, happy 1,000th post!
 
Alright alright. What happened to California cabs after the seventies? Chards went through an awesome period in the eighties, witness Sonoma Cutrer les Pierres, but at the same time cabs just got so average...

I blame the Trader Joes effect for encouraging the wineries to strive for palatable $7-10 bottles of cab to sell to the cilantro chicken sausage crowd, to the detriment of bigger, sturdier wines.
 
Cabernet is a more expensive grape in general when you buy on the open market. This leaves you with great chardonnay at $10 and the equally priced cab maybe not so interesting.

Sonoma Cutrer still enjoys a huge following, deserved or not.

Trader Joe's is based 3 towns away from me but the effect has been almost worldwide. $2 Chuck (Charles Shaw Wine) is box wine stuck in a bottle. The cork makes people think it's good when in reality it's s*** they sweep off the floors of the wineries. It arrives in giant trucks and is bottled in Budweiser brewery sized wine facilities. People start with Trader Joe's stuff like $2 chuck and move upwards.

trader Joe's imports directly from the wineries. that's how they can keep the costs down. Professionally I am a wine middle-man between wineries and distributors. Distributors then sell to retailers who sell to the public. It's the "three tier system"

I have a winery that I import that Trader Joe's "stole" (slight exaggeration) from me called SantoNegro from Jumilla region in Spain. I literally have to change the name and re-design the label to continue importing it. TJ's does have great wines but the prices are so low because they cut out both middlemen.
 
I"m very sorry I'm missing the NOLA event... next time I hope.

Thanks again.

[/Hijack]

me
 
My wife is a whino. What can I do before she spends all of our money on bottles and bottles of cheap s**t? Any recommendations on a good place to go to learn how to make mass quantities in our basement? I also want to know how to make pumpkin wine. My dad has a great pumpkin patch in N. Colorado on the front range, good acre with similar conditionions on the west slope for vines, so I hear ?!?!?!? And possible way to pay for the equipment to make next season, any license or permits needed? School me!!!!
 
LUVMY804EVR said:
My wife is a whino. What can I do before she spends all of our money on bottles and bottles of cheap s**t? Any recommendations on a good place to go to learn how to make mass quantities in our basement? I also want to know how to make pumpkin wine. My dad has a great pumpkin patch in N. Colorado on the front range, good acre with similar conditionions on the west slope for vines, so I hear ?!?!?!? And possible way to pay for the equipment to make next season, any license or permits needed? School me!!!!
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You can literally buy full wooden barrels filled with unfermented grape juice. You can ferment the wine in you basement and bottle it up. I have a friend that is doing this now and I think he says it yeilds 275 bottles. makes a great gift and is fun to do. make your own labels etc and give it out to friends or just get hammered.

Pumpkin wine sounds painful. The acidity of pumpkin would make the wine a bit harsh I would imagine but I've never had any so that's pure speculation on my part.

As far as producing wines to sell, that's REALLY tough and REALLY expensive. You get the ATF, TTB and several other gov't organizations involved and you are talking about thousands of dollars just for permits.

Search the interwebs and find GOOD home winemaking kits. Spend extra $$$$ on the best grapes you can. If you buy s***ty grapes you'll get s***ty wine.

Get the wife in a bathtub and get her stomping.

I lived in CO and out in fruita and Paradise (maybe it was Palisades, it begins with a P) on the Western slope there were some cool wineries. Take a road trip and pick their brains. An amazing winery in CO is Terror Creek towards the Aspen area.
 
Do you thing California wineries are going to try selling in to the Australian market? With the huge rise in the Aussie dollar vs the US dollar, it could be a good move. Australians are generally fed up with their winemakers, and might be open to imports.
 
That's an interesting thought. The exchange is $1 USD = $.93 AUD. A year ago it was $.75 or so.

Australian wines are generally very good but very similar. There is an ocean of grapes down there. There is a statistic that a new winery opens in AU every 3 days. I heard that a couple years ago so it's probably not accurate anymore.

I don't really know what Aussies would think of US wines. Our $10 wines will probably be about the same quality as yours and maybe a bit worse. I could see some of the rare CA wines selling but would Aussies buy enough of it to cover the shipping/ effort??

I have one wine label that I think would sell great down there from CA. Might think about that a bit more.
 
jsaltlick said:
TJ's does have great wines but the prices are so low because they cut out both middlemen.
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Which of the TJ wines are the good ones? If you don't want to answer because they're evil and taking food out of your children's mouths that's :cool:...

I have to confess that I enjoy the Charles Shaw 2002 cabernet. Every other CS wine I've tasted was total swill but the cab seems fine, although the 02 is getting a little old now...
 
Yooper-

TJ's buys bulk grapes from many. many sources. Vintages have a little to do with it but at that price it's more winemaking and the quality vs amount that is available. they are constricted by price so some years they'll have great stuff and other years they are screwed.

I've not been in a TJ's for about 2 years now. Their $8 range is everyone else's $12 priced bottles. It really is a good place to buy wines. They have great deals on many items but I'm just bitter. Whole Foods grabbed 2 brands out from under me. That one was about $60K out of the my company pocktbook but that was more of a betrayal on the winery owner's part. he'll get his.....I'm flying to Spain on the 18th......
 
Cards81fan said:
Gruet

Duckhorn

Copain

Natalie's Estate Winery.

Not so much questions, but :cheers:
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Don't know of Copain or Natalie's. Geographically many boutique wines from CA never make it to the east coast since the productions are low. If the wineries can sell to western states and save $$$$ by not shipping to the east coast then they stay out west. Duckhorn is the merlot favorite of the merlot elite. gruet is just great shizz from of all places New Mexico!!!! That's about the only good wine from there but it really is great!
 
jsaltlick said:
Yooper-

TJ's buys bulk grapes from many. many sources. Vintages have a little to do with it but at that price it's more winemaking and the quality vs amount that is available. they are constricted by price so some years they'll have great stuff and other years they are screwed.

I've not been in a TJ's for about 2 years now. Their $8 range is everyone else's $12 priced bottles. It really is a good place to buy wines. They have great deals on many items but I'm just bitter. Whole Foods grabbed 2 brands out from under me. That one was about $60K out of the my company pocktbook but that was more of a betrayal on the winery owner's part. he'll get his.....I'm flying to Spain on the 18th......
Click to expand...


Kinda what I thought. Starbucks has the same problem with the coffee beans they sell - the quality is variable because coffee bean vintages are even more variable than grapes and the harvests are generally smaller.

I only go to TJs about once or twice a year when I visit the Chicago area. We don't have any up here in the boonies. I've had some good wines from there and some horrible ones, and have had no luck figuring out how to choose...
 
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