anybody know a good wine forum?

[Joel_Cairo]

I currently work for an importer of norwegian salmon, but an opportunity has opened up for a position as a regional rep. for an importer of South African wine (more pay, more travel, more opportunity to dress dashingly). However, my wine knowledge is cureently very limited. Anybody know a good place to lurk, in hopes of knowing my Edward Greens from my Kenneth Coles in the world of fine wine?

 

[bigbadbuff]

winespectator.com's forums

erobertparker.com

 

[saint]

Web sites tend not to be that helpful in gaining basic knowledge. Pick up Oz Clarke's and Hugh Johnson's Pocket Encyclopaedias of wine. Also pick up Johnson's World Atlas of Wine and Michael Broadbent's New Vintage Book of Wine. Read through those and you will have a very good knowledge of wine, but the fun part comes when you start gaining knowledge through tasting.

The good thing about the pocket guides is that you can keep them as reference guides in your briefcase.

 

[Joel_Cairo]

Originally Posted by saint

Web sites tend not to be that helpful in gaining basic knowledge. Pick up Oz Clarke's and Hugh Johnson's Pocket Encyclopaedias of wine. Also pick up Johnson's World Atlas of Wine and Michael Broadbent's New Vintage Book of Wine. Read through those and you will have a very good knowledge of wine, but the fun part comes when you start gaining knowledge through tasting.

The good thing about the pocket guides is that you can keep them as reference guides in your briefcase.

Oh I'll certainly be studying up with some texts to build a general knowledge base, thanks for those recommendations, but I often like browsing message-boards and forums to get a feel for what's current: what is a pet favorite of devotees, what is considered over-hyped by those in the know and so on...

 

[cuffthis]

I recommend the Mark Squires board associated with erobertparker.com. Top notch posters with excellent moderation. Parker posts on there frequently.

Winespectator.com is also good but there is a lot of hijacking of threads there which, imho, is a little off putting.

 

[Aus_MD]

Originally Posted by cuffthis

I recommend the Mark Squires board associated with erobertparker.com. Top notch posters with excellent moderation. Parker posts on there frequently.

Winespectator.com is also good but there is a lot of hijacking of threads there which, imho, is a little off putting.

I agree with Tom, and would also add Aus Wine Forum.

 

[Homme]

Originally Posted by Aus_MD

I agree with Tom, and would also add Aus Wine Forum.

I like the look of this forum - thank you. Hopefully reading it will do to my knowledge of wine what reading here (and AAAC) has done to my knowledge of clothing & style.

 

[kabert]

The best I've found is westcoastwine.net: http://www.westcoastwine.net/ubb/ubbthreads.php The tasting notes forum is amazingly lively, as is the general one. I also like mark squires' forum, mentioned above.

 

[arenn]

The best wine forum out there is Robin Garr's forum's on www.wineloverspage.com. Robin is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, extremely knowledgeable about wine without being pretentious in the slightest, and a great guy to boot. I haven't been reading in a while, but that site had hand's down the best discussions I'd ever seen of wine.

 

[Zubberah]

Aprt from Auswine in Australia (ee above) there is also Starforum at http://www.winestar.com.au/forum/

PS - I post on both regularly and know most of the guys on there plus Parker plus about half a dozen other sites!

 

[kabert]

Originally Posted by arenn

The best wine forum out there is Robin Garr's forum's on www.wineloverspage.com. Robin is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, extremely knowledgeable about wine without being pretentious in the slightest, and a great guy to boot. I haven't been reading in a while, but that site had hand's down the best discussions I'd ever seen of wine.

I used to go to Garr's page exclusively until I discovered westcoastwine.net. Both are very good, but I still prefer westcoastwine. Garr's page is perhaps more broad-based and less California focused. Westcoastwine.net, for example, has regular posters on the forum who are THE winemakers for some of the best California wineries.

 

[mrchapel]

For when you've sustained enough knowledge, http://corkd.com