The Red Wine Thread
Yeah it was quite good but I've had 20-25$ bottles that were just as
Thanks for the suggestion I'll keep an eye out for that
Yeah it was quite good but I've had 20-25$ bottles that were just as
Thanks for the suggestion I'll keep an eye out for that!
Well, OMG, great CA Pinot Noir increased recently where it is more of a luxury item - Littorai, Kosta Brown, Occidental - great Pinots but ...
I've gone down to 2-3 bottles per offering. I mean, they are special wines but ...
If you like Zinfandel and Rhones, Jeff Cohn Wines, formerly of Rosenblum (one of the 3 R's) is producing tasty wines from his Wine Club, which gives a discount. WIth many CA/OR wines, you can be a member but discounts? Forgeddah about it.
I've gone down to 2-3 bottles per offering. I mean, they are special wines but ...If you like Zinfandel and Rhones, Jeff Cohn Wines, formerly of Rosenblum (one of the 3 R's) is producing tasty wines from his Wine Club, which gives a discount. WIth many CA/OR wines, you can be a member but discounts? Forgeddah about it.
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This Pinot Noir from Bodega Headlands is/was quite great.
Occidental, Steve Kistlers's Latest Adventure Cuvee Elizabeth 2017 - Agree with this review. "Wow. This wine has an amazingly complex, bright structure to it. Beautiful violet color, lovely depth of flavor (spices against crisp coastal fruit)."
Decanted through an aerator, put in a decanter for 2.5 hours, put back in bottle and BYOB'd it. Opened up and it was ready.
It's a $100 bottle at the winery where I get about 3 bottles a year - this one waited for 2 yrs before I opened it up.
Occidental, Steve Kistlers's Latest Adventure Cuvee Elizabeth 2017 - Agree with this review. "Wow. This wine has an amazingly complex, bright structure to it. Beautiful violet color, lovely depth of flavor (spices against crisp coastal fruit)."
Decanted through an aerator, put in a decanter for 2.5 hours, put back in bottle and BYOB'd it. Opened up and it was ready.
It's a $100 bottle at the winery where I get about 3 bottles a year - this one waited for 2 yrs before I opened it up.
Buckeyegolfnut
Well-known member
I've been to that movie! Was selling fine wine and we had a winery that was up and coming. Oddly enough, I do not recall the name of it, but it will probably come to me in a day or two. All I have is "stop" thinking about something when my mind will reveal it to me. But, they received several mid-90's scores for their Cabernt Sauvignon which I had on glass pour in a bunch of restaurant! Guess what they did? Of course! They jacked up the price to where it could not be glass poured around here any more, and I lost them all!
Then I had a chance to work with the arrogant a**hole of a "sales mangler" who caught a whole lot of crap on my route! And he screwed up my route royally, because I had to run him to Cleveland airport in mid-afternoon, and my route was nowhere near there! Once I dropped him off, I gave up and went home! I just called everyone else on the phone.
I am so sorry for that! I once went to a tasting, back when the release of the Beaujolais Nouveau was a thing, of the entire line of DuBoeuf Beaujolais! That was where I discovered that I absolutely hated the taste of the Gamay grape!
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Z1319
always looking to improve
yeah...the Nouveau can be very variable year to year
the annual Villages vintages are generally good and some years are very good
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2017 corley state lane cabernet sauvignon. decent price from total wine. decanted 6 hours. by the bottle this showed some of the most impressive tannins i can recall. a single sip would engage every salivary gland in the mouth. pretty wild tbh. went great with filet, roasted potatoes and brussels sprouts. needs another 3-5 years to get where it wants to be but wow this impressed me.
Buckeyegolfnut
Well-known member
The only ones I found palatable were the Moulin a Vent, and the Chiroubles (I think). Also, I recall the Fleurie as passable. And let's not forget that Burgundians call the Gamay grape, the "disloyal plant"!
Agreed.
In my limited experience lately, it's the Moulin-a-Vent that is remotely interesting. It's been a while since I had Fleurie or Chirobles. I went to the Nouveau Parties in the 90's and while fun, the wine was more like a light event.
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Buckeyegolfnut
Well-known member
Exactly! Because Beaujolais is a lightweight wine made by a lightweight grape! Nothing wrong with that, but my palate wants something more impressive.
I don't know if you are aware of a wine importer named Kermit Lynch, but we were lucky enough to welcome him to our portfolio one year. His wines were absolutely incredible! They were unlike anything I had ever tasted before! So intense! So full of life! So charming! So evocative! So alluring!
He wrote a book called "Adventures Along the Wine Route" which chronicled his travels through France searching for good wine! It is an excellent read, and I would advise you to look for it. Well worth the read!
I don't know if you are aware of a wine importer named Kermit Lynch, but we were lucky enough to welcome him to our portfolio one year. His wines were absolutely incredible! They were unlike anything I had ever tasted before! So intense! So full of life! So charming! So evocative! So alluring!
He wrote a book called "Adventures Along the Wine Route" which chronicled his travels through France searching for good wine! It is an excellent read, and I would advise you to look for it. Well worth the read!
Buckeyegolfnut
Well-known member
Well, puttering around the wine cellar, I came across my remaining 2 bottle of 1982 Chateau Mouton Rothschild! I scraped my butt with glass back when I was young and poor, and bought 3 bottles for $85 a piece! I can't imagine what they'd be worth today! But, I did not buy them for an investment, I bought them to drink! I opened one 20 years ago, on it's 20th birthday, and committed an infanticide! It was nowhere near ready to drink! There were articles in the Wine Spectator in the years after the '82 vintage that claimed that the wine were too "fat", too ripe to have the structure to age well. That bottle 20 years ago put the lie to that!
So, I will have to invent some occasion to open one more of these with my dearest friends and loved ones. Here's my issue. I know that corks can get crumbly when they get old. I also know that some Bordeaux producers do "recorking" tours where local collectors can come and have their wine recorked. I never hear of any such thing in my area, so these are the original corks. Also, I know that Grand Cru Bordeaux corks are extraordinarily long! I'm thinking of going to a local wine shop to see if they have any of those CO2 decorkers. This is a chamber which holds a CO2 cartridge, and has a needle that you push through the cork. Less resistance, and no twisting! You then press a button on the back of the chamber to disharge CO2 under the cork, and the pressure of the CO2 pushes the entire cork out of the bottle.
What think you, enophiles?
So, I will have to invent some occasion to open one more of these with my dearest friends and loved ones. Here's my issue. I know that corks can get crumbly when they get old. I also know that some Bordeaux producers do "recorking" tours where local collectors can come and have their wine recorked. I never hear of any such thing in my area, so these are the original corks. Also, I know that Grand Cru Bordeaux corks are extraordinarily long! I'm thinking of going to a local wine shop to see if they have any of those CO2 decorkers. This is a chamber which holds a CO2 cartridge, and has a needle that you push through the cork. Less resistance, and no twisting! You then press a button on the back of the chamber to disharge CO2 under the cork, and the pressure of the CO2 pushes the entire cork out of the bottle.
What think you, enophiles?
Might try the butler's thief first - the 2 prong tool that slides prongs down both sides of the cork - try it slowly to test the condition of the cork. If cork begins to deteriorate, stop and slip it out. That's my old reliable when corkscrew starts to crumble cork.
Without further research, I would do the needle/CO2 project but air it judiciously to pop it out slowly and gently. I'd experiment first with an inexpensive bottle. But see below.
OR
What to do if your wine cork breaks or crumbles - ask Decanter
It's happened to all of us - but what should you do if your wine cork breaks or crumbles? How do you prevent this, and can you still drink the wine?
www.decanter.com
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winebottleopeners.net
We don't have a collection or a cellar or anything (I'm definitely more of a whisk(e)y, cognac and beer guy), but we like red wine on occasion. Had remainders of a bottle of Don Miguel Gascon Malbec last night with pasta e fagioli, good stuff. We tend to gravitate towards Malbec, Pinot Noir, and Zinfandel when going for reds.
Buckeyegolfnut
Well-known member
Might try the butler's thief first - the 2 prong tool that slides prongs down both sides of the cork - try it slowly to test the condition of the cork. If cork begins to deteriorate, stop and slip it out. That's my old reliable when corkscrew starts to crumble cork.
Without further research, I would do the needle/CO2 project but air it judiciously to pop it out slowly and gently. I'd experiment first with an inexpensive bottle. But see below.
OR
What to do if your wine cork breaks or crumbles - ask Decanter
It's happened to all of us - but what should you do if your wine cork breaks or crumbles? How do you prevent this, and can you still drink the wine?
Contact Support
winebottleopeners.net
I see what you're saying. What we call the "AH SO" opener up here. I have several of those openers, and they require you to twist the cork, and also that the blades are long enough to cover the length of the cork, and I do not know if that is possible! The ones that I have seem to be sized to American length corks, not Bordeaux Pemiere Cru length corks!
I'm leaning more and more to CO2!
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I like the CO2 idea but go soooo slowly so it barely oozes out of the bottle.
I've used the ah-so and it does require some subtle twisting - done it before to test the cork...
But I'm a high tech guy
so going slowly with CO2 would probably be my option 1 with that bottle
It's not that popular, because it's usually big, tannic, and acidic and needs years to settle down. But I see more people making it. Foppiano about 12 yrs ago was once about the only one known for making it, now I assume many others have surpassed it. And prices have gone from $20 in 2008 to double that for many of them now... I have a bottle of 2018 Bedrock that will stay down for at least 2 more years.
Merlot is bottom of my list of reds, but this Merlot from my personal favorite winery, Obelisco (WA) drinks more like a Cab Sauv and is simply fantastic. If you ever see a Washington State wine sourced from Red Mountain, 9/10 times it'll be a good purchase. 
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Buckeyegolfnut
Well-known member
I like the CO2 idea but go soooo slowly so it barely oozes out of the bottle.
I've used the ah-so and it does require some subtle twisting - done it before to test the cork...
But I'm a high tech guy
Oh, I'm right with you! I've used one of these in the past. I've never been one of those people who say, "If a little is good, more must be better!" When I used that opener I would just tap the button on top, and release small amounts of CO2 into the bottle until I could feel the cork starting to push out. Then, just a blip, and a blip, and maybe one more blip, and the cork was out. I saw another guy who, I guess, was a "more is better" guy, who just jammed his thumb on that button, and the cork blew out of that bottle like a bullet! Thank God the bottle didn't blow up!
Mark_UK
Legal Alien
An old vine zin that I’ve not had before. Going down very well whilst watching the Rick Shiels podcast with Nick Faldo on YouTube.
Buckeyegolfnut
Well-known member
I guess that I've been out of the market for a while. Renwood has a new label, and some new wines! I notice that it's Amador County, and there are some incredibly old Zin vineyards up there. Really old Zin vines don't give much yield, but they make fantastic wine!
Buckeyegolfnut
Well-known member
The Little Penguin - Eastern Austrailia
Cabernet Sauvignon
$6.99
I don't think I've ever opened a bottle and said "this literally tastes like strong grape juice". It's fruity, but pretty smooth and the price is under where I feel it should be.
Out of 3.......I give it
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.......I give it This is the tyranny of the internet! Do you not realize how they are controlling us!?