The Red Wine Thread
Went to one of my favorite "anytime" wines last night: Giribaldi Barbaresco to go with linguine in a walnut pesto sauce.
It's a great drinking wine by itself, but shines with even a small bit of salt and fat from food.
It's a great drinking wine by itself, but shines with even a small bit of salt and fat from food.
Buckeyegolfnut
Well-known member
Anytime that I go out to dinner with my siblings, I need to peruse the wine list as well as the menu, since I have to know what I am eating before I can decide what I will be drinking!
Wine for tonight is from one of my wife and I's favorite wineries. This is a blend of 84% Cab Sauv and 16% Syrah. Big and bold just the way we like it.
Buckeyegolfnut
Well-known member
I have never seen that here, and I keep an eye out! But, there's a lot of stuff from the west coast that doesn't make it to Ohio!
100 percent Syrah for tonight. 2012.
Buckeyegolfnut
Well-known member
How long had it been open? A truly old vine zin can be really fruity upon its initial opening. And that's exactly what I like about them. I would usually prefer a zin to a cab sauv with a steak. Of course, I'm channeling this from back in the day when cabs, expecially California cabs were all about 12.5* alcohol and tannic enough to age. Drink a young cab with red meat, and you had tannins from the wine clanking against tannins from the meat. It was kind of an unpleasant experience.
Nowadays, California cabs are are made at around 14.5* alcohol and more! They are much more pleasant to drink upon release, but they will not age as well. And, they will never develop the flavor complexity of wines made the old way. It's kind of sad, but I understand it. Nobody really lays wine down to age anymore. At least not many. Back in the day, I had a cellar full of 1970's California zins and cabs! I was in heaven!
It was from initial sip to further along in the glass, just opened and breathed for 5 minutes or so.
I have maybe a dozen bottles at a time and keep them in my modified liquor cabinet downstairs, stored on a rack horizontally and rotate them a little every month.. at least that's what I read that I'm supposed to do haha and they're nothing extensively fancy or expensive bottles either
Buckeyegolfnut
Well-known member
Cool! That might be what you could expect from that winery, depending on the vintage! These outfits are basically farmers who are subject to the whims of nature. They take the crop that they harvest, and try to make the best wine they can out of it. It is not an easy job!
Few take homes this week.
Hosted a brown bag blind tasting last night. Was pretty successful! Fun time. Wife made. A huge food spread but I only have individual pics and don't wanna clog thread with those. 
Personal favorite of mine is the bottle second from left, a 2009 Bordeaux (merlot/cab franc blend) or far right, a 2014 Tempranillo from Oregon (WA sourced grapes)
Personal favorite of mine is the bottle second from left, a 2009 Bordeaux (merlot/cab franc blend) or far right, a 2014 Tempranillo from Oregon (WA sourced grapes)
RatFink
Carnivore
Had a Penfolds Bin 389 with dinner on Saturday. Such a great wine - picked up a few a couple years back at $50/bottle instead of $120 and I wish I had bought more.
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- #889
Yummmm
Buckeyegolfnut
Well-known member
If you don't want to shell out the big bucks for Duckhorn, Decoy is a solid choice!
Buckeyegolfnut
Well-known member
I should have mentioned earlier, that back in the day, I was a member of a monthly tasting club. We would pick a topic, and everybody would bring a bottle to taste, and then vote on the best wine of the night! I forget what the topic was, but we were served an astounding wine that night! When the winner was revealed, it turned out to be Gallo Hearty Burgundy! Apparently, that member recognized that the wine had more to give, and bought a case of it, to allow it to age! The bottle that we tasted was 10 years old, and it's owner said he had just two left. Wine doesn't have to be expensive to denefit from some aging. And it doesn't have to be long aging.
Also, I forgot to mention, that I have had some absolutely wonderful Pinot Noir from the Otago region in New Zealand. I know there's a Pinot Noir fan on this thread. They aren't easy to find. But I've tasted Pinots from Belle Glos and Craggy Range! They are pretty phenomenal!
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- #892
Finding a bottle for <$25 that is THIS good is pretty rare.
if you like Shiraz.......wow
if you like Shiraz.......wow
Finding a bottle for <$25 that is THIS good is pretty rare.
if you like Shiraz.......wow
View attachment 9106553View attachment 9106554
Buckeyegolfnut
Well-known member
Finding a bottle for <$25 that is THIS good is pretty rare.
if you like Shiraz.......wow
View attachment 9106553View attachment 9106554
Must be a limited release since I have never seen that around here! The fact that it is confined to South Australia says something about it. The more general the appellation, the wider afield the producers have to go to find juice, or grapes, to make their wine!
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- #895
Buckeyegolfnut
Well-known member
bought a case at a local shop just south of Cleveland.
I'll have to broaden my search around here, which is Youngstown. Of course, that could be the problem. It's Youngstown! I've found things in Cleveland that I would never imagine finding in Youngstown. Like a bottle of E. Guigal La Turque, a single vineyard Cote Rotie, which routinely get 100 point scores in the Wine Spectator. I spotted the bottle in a bin in a customer's shop. I was a member of a monthly tasting club, and our next topic was Syrah/Shiraz. I looked up the vintage, and it wasn't rated that highly for the upper Rhone. I asked another customer whose wine knowledge I respected about it. He told me that the reason that Guigal regular Cotes du Rhone was so good that he de-classified higher ranking appelations down into that wine if they didn't meet his specifications! You can go down, but you can't classify up!
If he was willing to label that bottle under the single vineyard name, then that meant it passed muster for him! So, the next week I went armed with cash to buy that bottle. I made my sales call, went to the bin, and brought the bottle to the counter. Well, the owner of the store started effing with me! He said, "Oh, I haven't even been taking my markups on this! It's still at the release price!" The release price, BTW, was $125! I told him that it had been laying in his store for 10-12 years, I had no idea what condition it was in, and that he could turn it into cash, or I would put it back! He said, "I'll do you a favor kid! I won't charge you sales tax! Give me $125 and the bottle is yours." I handed over the cash, and we both walked away smiling!
I put that bottle in the tasting. We would put our bottles in paper bags, strip the foils, and open the wines when we got there and swap out the corks, so nobody could do any "reading"! There were really some nice wines entered, and one that I even recognized! It was the Rosemount "Balmoral" Shiraz! Just before it was to be revealed , I had a flashback! I had tasted that wine before! It is very distinctive. I told the group what I thought it was, and when it was pulled from the bag, people freaked. That is very hard to do, and the only time that I have done it in my life.
However, one thing that was very sure when my wine was to be revealed was that it was my wine! There was no doubt that it was the best wine in the tasting! It so far overshadowed everything else in the field, that it wasn't even funny! Just a giant of a wine! I am actually grateful for the opportunity to taste it!
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Some of our summer wines are finally getting shipped.
Excited about these guys.
Excited about these guys.