Teach a fool all about wine

[Dinner]

BTW there are many great wines from Napa but there are also many over priced so-so wines. Don't EVER buy a case of high priced wine without first tasting it yourself. This is especially true with Bordouexs since the place is populated with crappy fly by night wineries which are trying to live off of the reputation of their more illustrious neighbors.

Personally I've found tons of low priced wines from California, Chile, & Australia which have blown the doors off of wines costing three times as much. Argentina, Washington State, New Zealand, and South Africa are real up and coming areas where the quality has been growing by leaps and bounds but the price has yet to rise. If I was just getting into wine I'd try getting my feet wet with a few wines and find out what you like before investing big time into styles you won't even taste until years down the road.

[Asher]

I didn't even know wine bars existed.

BTW, when you say don't buy boxed wines, does that mean boxed as in Costco or boxed as in those cute little things in the wooden-type boxes with hay-like padding in them?

I had one of those once and I quite liked it...

[Giancarlo]

Avoid French Wine. It sucks.

Go with Spanish, Chilean and Californian wine. Argentine wine is excellent too but hard to find outside of Argentina last time I heard.

Remember, taste the wine before you buy large quantities of it.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Ming
Last great year for California wines... 1999... 98 was excellent as well, with 97 close behind. 96 sucked

2000 to currrent day are all average at best.

Depends on the region. Monterrey, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara counties have had some real winners. I'm an especially big fan of Santa Ynez valley (in Santa Barbara) Sarahs, Paso Robles (in SLO) Zinfandels and just about any Chardonnay (or better yet a Semillon-Chardonnay blend) from Monterrey.

Other favorites are Washington State Pinot Grigios, Cabraunet Sauvignons from Chile, and Italian Sangiovese.

For off the wall flavors and shear novelty try Hungarian Boluda (spelling? It means Blood since the wine’s color is almost the same as blood), Greek Resina (aged in unaged pine so it gets a slight pine tar flavor), or just about any South African desert wine.

[Asher]

Originally posted by BeBro

http://www.sbwines.com/usenet_winefaq/tableofcontents.html

This may help you.

Most excellent, thank you BeBro.

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by Asher
I didn't even know wine bars existed.

BTW, when you say don't buy boxed wines, does that mean boxed as in Costco or boxed as in those cute little things in the wooden-type boxes with hay-like padding in them?

I had one of those once and I quite liked it...

Ever have one of those little Capri-type fruit drinks for kids? Little aluminum(?) foil bags you stick a straw in and drink the contents? "Boxed wines" that I'm refering to are like that, but the bag-thing they come in is inside a cardboard box with the product logo all over it. There is a functioning spiggot on most types, but I've seen simple caps sometimes. Sorry, but you'll have to provide YOUR OWN straw for them.

Costco has both "boxed wines" and "bottled wines." I'm going to assume that wooden-type decorative boxes are fine, since they hold bottled wines. I don't drink any type of alcohol, but I trust the word of Rob on this subject.

[Spiffor]

I only know French wines, and I know they are overpriced on the other side of the pond, so my advice won't really help you (besides, Oerdin is absolutely right about Bordeaux, which doesn't help).

First, it takes some time to appreciate wine. Like beer, there is a specific taste that might not be pleasant for the beginner. It took me much time to get used to it, and to start appreciating the great taste that was behind it (granted, I have started drinking in my early teens, it might help not liking wine at such an age ).

White wine feels "lighter" to the mouth, since it is often less sour than Red. The taste is also closer to the taste of the grape. White wine is also better designed for apetizers (is that how you call the course before the main course ? ), fish, and some deserts.
Red wine goes better with meat. The redder the meat, the older/stronger the wine. As a red wine goes darker, it has usally a stronger taste.

You can look for a compromise with pink wines. While they are often quite correct, I don't think any pink wine has ever been high-end.

Don't let the age/price/prestige of the wine dictate your taste. Some overpriced or prestigious wines are utter crap, while some rather cheap and unknown wines can taste great. If there is a specialized shop in Calgary, don't hesitate to go there and talk to the shopkeeper. I know that in Paris, I can find good wines for 6-8 € in such a shop, it shouldn't be much different on your side of the pond. If there is a wine bar, same thing.

If you are an absolute beginner in wine, I'd advise you to start with sweet wines. Gewurtzraminer and Muscat de Rivesaltes are very sugary. They aren't similar to other kind of wines, but can be a good introduction, if you drink them on desert or so. Other than that, Riesling has a light taste, but try to get at least mid-level quality : low-end Rieslings taste bad and hurt the head.

Overall, if you're to drink several kinds of wines during the same meal, avoid to drink a white wine after a red wine. White first. Red second. Otherwise, you are much more likely to have headaches and stomachaches.

[Jaguar]

Listen to him. He's French.

[Asher]

Is Champagne actually a wine?

[Sten Sture]

Yep. Made from grapes. (the process makes the bubbles)

[DRoseDARs]

Ahhh...it's all so clear now. I'd been wondering that too. Good question, Asher.

[Asher]

Ah, so basically Champagne is bubbly wine. Gotcha.

[Sten Sture]

Originally posted by Asher
Is Champagne actually a wine?

Champagne is technically only from the Champagne region of France. Other places have to call it something else, like sparkling wine. iirc

[Spiffor]

Absolutely Sten Sure.

There are very different qualities of Champagne. From what I reckon from American TV series, champagne has a huge prestige on your side (and it has quite some prestige here too). But in fact, like in any other region, there are goods and bads. Some champagnes are too bubbled, which hides the taste, and give an terrible headache afterwards.
Good champagnes can really rule (I think my favorite wine ever is an impressive champagne I had the opportunity to drink once), but they are often really overpriced, even here.

[Sten Sture]

Bin 905 in Calgary (found on the web) looks pretty good as a store - you can probably call them for info on where they recommend going for tastings to learn about different wines.

If you have a couple of friends that want to make it a regular thing, you can have tasting dinner parties where you try some different things - though I did that with some rugby guys and they brought some CRAP!!