What's your favorite red wine?

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by johnapril

A lot of the pinot out of America tastes medicinal.

Glad you think so. I will no doubt be healthy for a very long time then.

Go have a Merry Edwards, Sea Smoke, Siduri, Loring, AP Vin, BettScholls, Chrisom...and come back and talk to me. If any of those taste medicinal to you, your pallette is amiss or you have a bad bottle.

 

[xchen]

I bought my first bottle tonight. It's a bottle of Yellow Tail Reserve pinot noir and it ran me about 10 bucks. It's definitely pretty bitter. Can anyone suggest me a bottle of red wine that will run between 12-15 dollars that I can find in either Kroger or Publix?

Also, which wines will likely be sweeter and easier to start off with as I build up more of a taste for it?

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by xchen

I bought my first bottle tonight. It's a bottle of Yellow Tail Reserve pinot noir and it ran me about 10 bucks. It's definitely pretty bitter. Can anyone suggest me a bottle of red wine that will run between 12-15 dollars that I can find in either Kroger or Publix?

Also, which wines will likely be sweeter and easier to start off with as I build up more of a taste for it?

$19.50 for a bottle of 2006 Siduri Sonoma Coast pinot noir. It will not be sweet however, it will be a pinot noir, and a fairly good one at that. Decant an hour prior to drinking this. If you want sweeter wine, yet a "real" wine, try a good Riesling. A bottle of 2005 Schloss Vollrads Riesling Trocken, about $14. Or a Loosen. Both are off-dry but a wine worth drinking.

If sweetness is really a factor, try a late bottled vintage port. Or if you do not mind bubbly, try 2006 La Spinetta (Rivetti) Moscato d'Asti Vigneto Biancospino for a white, 2005 Vigne Regali (Banfi) Brachetto d'Acqui Rosa Regale for a red.

 

[Brian278]

Originally Posted by xchen

I bought my first bottle tonight. It's a bottle of Yellow Tail Reserve pinot noir and it ran me about 10 bucks. It's definitely pretty bitter. Can anyone suggest me a bottle of red wine that will run between 12-15 dollars that I can find in either Kroger or Publix?

Also, which wines will likely be sweeter and easier to start off with as I build up more of a taste for it?

When I first started drinking red wine I was quite fond of Rioja. Marques de Caceres is a very drinkable iteration that they nearly always stock at Publix for $10-12 or so. It has a burgundy label.

 

[vinouspleasure]

This is like asking "Who is the prettiest girl?" or "What is the best painting?"...the question is essentially meaningless. While there have been many fine suggestions in this thread, this is not the best place to educate yourself on wine. Better choices would be forums devoted to wine like Robin Garr's winelovers forum or Brad Harrington's west coast wine forum.

My standard advice to people new to wine is to start with beaujolais or zinfandel, They are easy to understand and inexpensive (by today's standards).

 

[johnapril]

Originally Posted by Piobaire

Glad you think so. I will no doubt be healthy for a very long time then.

Go have a Merry Edwards, Sea Smoke, Siduri, Loring, AP Vin, BettScholls, Chrisom...and come back and talk to me. If any of those taste medicinal to you, your pallette is amiss or you have a bad bottle.

Thank you for the suggestions!

 

[johnapril]

Originally Posted by xchen

I bought my first bottle tonight. It's a bottle of Yellow Tail Reserve pinot noir and it ran me about 10 bucks. It's definitely pretty bitter. Can anyone suggest me a bottle of red wine that will run between 12-15 dollars that I can find in either Kroger or Publix?

Also, which wines will likely be sweeter and easier to start off with as I build up more of a taste for it?

Columbia Crest Grand Estates has been consistently good and cheap.

 

[Concordia]

Originally Posted by xchen

I bought my first bottle tonight. It's a bottle of Yellow Tail Reserve pinot noir and it ran me about 10 bucks. It's definitely pretty bitter. Can anyone suggest me a bottle of red wine that will run between 12-15 dollars that I can find in either Kroger or Publix?

Also, which wines will likely be sweeter and easier to start off with as I build up more of a taste for it?

Find a good wine salesman and tell him/her your tastes. Buy 3, and report back with likes and dislikes. If it is a good salesman in a good shop, you'll be off to the races. In the meantime...

Beaujolais (look for the better villages, like Moulin-a-Vent, Julienas, Fleurie, etc.)

Rioja or Ribero del Duero from Spain. Styles vary, but it's generally pretty mellow.

Burgundy. Can be fiendishly expensive, but we've had some good years recently, and the cheaper stuff will shine in those times. If you have a shop that does high-end, ask for a generic Bourgogne from one of their better producers. You might get lucky.

Some of the lesser 2003 Bordeaux, especially those with more Merlot than Cabernet.

Cotes du Rhone, e.g., Parallele 45.

For whites, I definitely second the idea for German Rieslings. We're coming off a bunch of great years, and the best quality is almost always underpriced.

 

[xchen]

Thanks for all the replies. I am going to drink a glass or two per day until the pinot noir is off and then I am going to pick up a couple more bottles. Also, should I refrigerate the bottles after opening them? I don't plan on keeping them on hand for more than a week or two, tops.

Next time I go I'll pick up 3 bottles and see what's good to me. I'll make a list of some of these suggestions and see what I can find.

 

[Faded501s]

Originally Posted by xchen

I bought my first bottle tonight. It's a bottle of Yellow Tail Reserve pinot noir and it ran me about 10 bucks. It's definitely pretty bitter. Can anyone suggest me a bottle of red wine that will run between 12-15 dollars that I can find in either Kroger or Publix?

We don't have those stores here but one of my favorite wines is a pinot noir from Erath (Oregon) that is readily available for about $15-16. I can highly recommend it but, (see below).

Originally Posted by vinouspleasure

This is like asking "Who is the prettiest girl?" or "What is the best painting?"...the question is essentially meaningless. While there have been many fine suggestions in this thread, this is not the best place to educate yourself on wine. Better choices would be forums devoted to wine like Robin Garr's winelovers forum or Brad Harrington's west coast wine forum.

My standard advice to people new to wine is to start with beaujolais or zinfandel, They are easy to understand and inexpensive (by today's standards).

+1. I wholeheartedly agree. When first introduced to wine I was told what the important thing is that "you know what you like". The point being that everyone has different tastes...it can be very subjective. My own preferences are towards dryer wines. There are many resources out there ^^^ where you can educate yourself as to the finer points of wine appreciation.

 

[greg_atlanta]

Originally Posted by xchen

Can anyone suggest me a bottle of red wine that will run between 12-15 dollars that I can find in either Kroger or Publix?

In Atlanta I think you'll be much happier at Trader Joe's or a liquor store which has a bigger selection of European and South American wines (France, Spain, Chile, etc.). Grocery stores tend to carry a lot of American and Australian wines, both of which tend to be heavy/chalky/bitter.

 

[vinouspleasure]

Originally Posted by greg_atlanta

In Atlanta I think you'll be much happier at Trader Joe's or a liquor store which has a bigger selection of European and South American wines (France, Spain, Chile, etc.). Grocery stores tend to carry a lot of American and Australian wines, both of which tend to be heavy/chalky/bitter.

Most American and Australian wine is not chalky or bitter and I'm not sure what you mean by heavy...they do in general have higher alcohol content and can be over-extracted. But this is now happening internationally thanks in no small part to Robert Parker.

 

[redgrail]

I'm a huge huge fan of Chateauneuf du Pape AOC wines. Especially the ones with a relatively large percentage of Mourvedre. Makes for some gloriuos heavy yet very very elegant wines. You can really taste the herby Provencal soil. Great stuff.
A favorite is Clos du Pape, which you can grab for around 50-60 bucks or so depending on where you are located. The 2003 vintage is great. I have a few cellared. These need a couple of years to really bring out all the complexity in the wine, but it's a great great wine.

That being said, as any fan of big reds will have to admit, it doesn't get much better than Premier Cru Bordeaux. Lafite Rotschild being my personal favorite. Again, needs at least 5 years of sitting in a cellar to do it any justice.

 

[horndog]

IMO best bang for your buck is Cote Du Rhone and Malbec

 

[grunhauser]

Burgundy is it. Everything else exists to make Burgundy wines look even more attractive. Finding your producer/vineyard/vintage at price point is like, good luck to you. Cool thing thing about it, money don't always mean you're getting it. There are other beauties, like wines from obscure villages in Loire where producers are fighting the good fight. Luckily most people do not get them because they drink too much of "local stuff", keeping the prices low. With that said, Chardonnay, believe it or not, is not as bad as they paint it. Fantastic with rich seafood dishes like scallops and lobster, some of the best examples are extremely affordable and learning how to differentiate between fluff and the real thing is worth the effort. Cheers to all!