White wine recommendations

Discussion in 'Art & Culture' started by Lilalena, Apr 27, 2011.

  1. Lilalena Registered Senior Member

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    266
    Would this be a good place to ask about wine?

    What type of dry white wine is the least sweet? Or what brand have you found to be the least sweet?

    Do you know one that isn't too expensive (read: not expensive at all)?
     
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  3. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    I'm certain there are some "lushers" around here.

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    I know very little myself but red with meat, white with fish and chicken. I prefer Saki myself.

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  5. Spud Emperor solanaceous common tater Registered Senior Member

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    Time to grow up and drink red wine (it's really the least sweet).

    I do enjoy a good Western Australian white (and W.A reds as well) .

    I'm having a lovely W.A white at the moment Goundrey's semillion sauvignon blanc and just ten bucks a bottle - good wine great value.
     
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  7. chimpkin C'mon, get happy! Registered Senior Member

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    This is very dry...

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    Sorry, when I drank wine I went for port-yummy and with extra alcohol!

    I don't always have a drinking problem, but when I did, I drank port. In a peanut butter jar.
    Stay thirsty, my friends.
     
  8. chimpkin C'mon, get happy! Registered Senior Member

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    This is very dry...

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    Sorry, when I drank wine I went for port-yummy and with extra alcohol!
    And the white I liked was Riesling...that's a sweet white wine, not dry.

    I don't always have a drinking problem, but when I did, I drank port. In a peanut butter jar.
    Stay thirsty, my friends.
     
  9. Spud Emperor solanaceous common tater Registered Senior Member

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    Chimpkin, twice for effect.

    Glenlivet, yum!

    Make mine a double.
     
  10. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    The best dry whites are the semillion Chardonnays from the yarra valley. They also make the best sharz, because its a cold climate area the whites are very acidic (dry) and the sharz is peppery. Delicious
     
  11. Spud Emperor solanaceous common tater Registered Senior Member

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    From South Eastern Australia.

    Next we'll have the Kiwis on here telling us about Marlborough whites (yummy and unique as they are, they aren't dry, seriously fruity though!).

    Australia figuring heavily so far. Where are the froggies and Sevriggens?
    Califuckers?
     
  12. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    Um yes from Victoria. Apart from tassie its the coldest climate for wine growing in Australia. haven't tried many NZ wines but they weren't bad, WA wines are to fruity for my tastes, same with SA wines (which is a pity because I live around the corner from mclaren vale
     
    Last edited: Apr 28, 2011
  13. Spud Emperor solanaceous common tater Registered Senior Member

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    Yeah, shitty old S.A wines!, talk about being spoiled for choice.

    Vic. does have some magic wines (and underrated{in the Barossa's shadow}).
     
  14. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    24,690
    Wine is culture; some people even think it's an art.

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    Sorry, I prefer my white wines fruity (the oenophiles' word for "sweet"). Gewürztraminer is my favorite. Stay away from that one!

    A quick Google search validates what my friends tell me. Sauterne and Chablis (French wines) are well-known dry whites, and so are Riesling (German) and Moselle (made in several countries through which the Moselle River flows).

    The best place to get information about wines is in the stores that sell them. Chances are good that you'll find someone on the staff who can answer your questions.
    One of the rules of life that we all learn sooner or later, depending on how many horrible experiences we can tolerate before we turn over a new leaf, is that you get what you pay for. Cheap wine tastes cheap. No matter whether it's white or red, dry or fruity, it's very likely to taste like a mixture of Kool-Aid and rubbing alcohol. You'll get better flavor and probably a better buzz, for about the same money, from a glass of rum and cola. I don't know your definition of "cheap," but in the USA you're not likely to get a halfway decent bottle of wine for much less than ten bucks, and for fifteen you'll have quite a selection.

    Again, ask the people who work in the store. They'll be happy to tell you about the great bargains their buyer found, on pretty good wine at a budget price.

    That said, this is a good time to be in the market for dry white wines. They're very popular since everyone pretends to be on a diet and less sugar means fewer calories. I have a hell of a time finding much variety in fruity wines without spending a fortune.

    And yes indeed, unless you're the buyer for a five-star restaurant, you'll do well to look at the wines from the non-traditional countries in South America, Africa and the Antipodes, which won't cost as much as the European wines that don't taste much different to us proletarians. Not to mention California. If it weren't for the damage done to the industry by Prohibition, we would now be the world's leader in wine. As it is, we're giving the French a run for the money. And there are other areas of viniculture in the USA, including Virginia and even New York.
     
    Last edited: Apr 28, 2011
  15. brokenpower Registered Senior Member

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    I am partial to a brand called "White Cat"

    and for the Red version, simply "Red Cat"

    super delicious!
     
  16. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    FR I have bought clean skins ( wines sold with no brand lable) for $5 for cooking which have turned out to be better than $20 bottles. One red I buy called hocus pokus is $7 a bottle ( oh and before you say I'm just drinking goon I was brought up on good quality wine). You don't have to spend a lot to get a good product ( at least you don't here where its made so low transport costs) you just have to know what to look for and price is no indicator. An example of this is 2 bottles of bubbly my parents bought. 1 was Moe (French champagne) and the other chandon (a yarra valley sparkling). The French was pig swill even though it cost about twice the chandon which was one of the best wines I have ever tasted.
     
  17. quadraphonics Bloodthirsty Barbarian Valued Senior Member

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    Careful there - there are indeed dry Rieslings, but most of the ones you'll encounter in your average store are sweet. Often, extremely sweet - typically served as desserts. Even the very dry ones I've gotten ahold of have been on the sweet side, for me.

    Except that wine is one of the markets in which that holds the least, supposing the "payment" you're talking about there is the price of the bottle. Most expensive wines are overpriced shit. And there is no shortage of very cheap wines that are great. The difficulty is in distinguishing which ones are which - which costs a lot in terms of time and experience. But with some investment in such, you can drink great wine on a budget quite easily. My French coworkers rarely spends more than $7 on a bottle of wine, despite having a taste for the very best stuff (has an entire collection of impressive wines sitting in the family cave back in France).

    The very cheapest wines live down to that: 2-buck chuck, the shit that comes in boxes, etc. But you'll have no trouble finding similarly-crap product in bottles that cost upwards of $20. Only a tiny percentage of wine buyers are savvy enough to make really informed decisions about this, so there ends up being a huge market for swill in fancy bottles. See also: liquor.

    I'd put that lower limit at about $5, actually. Trader Joe's reliably has good quality stuff in the $5-7 range. And I would not spend over $15 unless it's for a gift or some kind of special occasion. But then, there's a limit to my appetite for extremely good wine. I'd rather spend my money on high-end beer, which tops out at a much cheaper price (at least, if you're lucky enough to live in a major craft beer producing area like I am).

    I thought we already were, since the Judgement of Paris?

    Well, we are still only 4th or 5th in wine production by volume. But didn't I read somewhere that US wine consumption surpassed that of France this year?
     
  18. gmilam Valued Senior Member

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    3,522
    Rieslings are a bit sweet for my tatstes. Muscat even sweeter.

    A Texas brand, Llano, makes a nice Chardonay.

    @Chimpkin, although not a wine, Glenlivet is quite nice. Sign of good taste.
     
  19. chimpkin C'mon, get happy! Registered Senior Member

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    I don't need to be drinking very much or very often, but I happen to know one bar that has the magical blend of local punk rock and $3 shots of Glenlivet...I like straight whiskey, as liquor gets me there quicker...and leaves my system more speedily as well, it seems.

    I'm on psych drugs...and one shot's enough to make the walls wave.

    Alcohol and oreo cookies are things I just can't keep in the house...actually more so the oreo cookies.
     
  20. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    24,690
    Well thanks. I thought I was losing my mind. I remember Rieslings as being fruity too.
    Let's hear it for TJ's! We used to live in the Pasadena area, near the first Pronto Market and the first with the new Trader Joe's name. Unfortunately I'm now living away from home in Montgomery County, MD (e.g., Bethesda, Rockville), which is run for the benefit of a cabal of corporations and public- and private-sector unions. A chain like TJ's can only sell beer and wine in one of its outlets.
     
  21. Lilalena Registered Senior Member

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    266
    Thank you everyone for a lovely, non-stressful thread. Now I have a lot of things to try over the coming weeks. I hope you don't mind if I respond to your respective posts without using the quotes function (just for now).

    In the past I've had random luck with nice wines for around $5 but I can't find those brands anymore. I've also had a sip of cooking wines that tasted suprisingly OK, but feel weird about using them to drink. About asking the store assistants I get a bit embarrassed by the fuss they make over you you see, especially since I am only looking for their cheapest stuff.

    I used to like rum and coke but due to a traumatic incident in my student days ( I drank a whole bottle of rum after cooking and eating some pasta with tuna in tomato sauce. I threw up for about a week). Now everytime I see rum I remember my aunt's words: Tuna and tomato sauce don't go together, how can you not know that? .

    Sadly I am not at the stage yet to be able to have Gewurtz. regularly. A few days ago, I tried an $8 wine, a sauvignon blanc that had the sticker label a little bit scrunched up (what's the story with these labels, does the store attach them themselves?). I had only a small glass before bed because it tasted like denatured alcohol with 1/2 kilo of sugar. I woke up in the night and vomited.

    I agree about $20 range wines that are no better than the cheapest stuff. And also about high quality beer being safer but find my trouble with beer to be that it is a little heavier to swallow. I feel like it goes down as a whole chunk instead of softly like wine does (is it just me?). Someone also noted to me that beer will eventually give you a pot belly unlike wine - is this true? That was enough to scare me off beer anyway.

    @Spud Emperor
    I wish I liked red wine because it's healthier. But I don't for some reason. I always assumed it was sweeter than white based on what I've tried, so I'm surprised by what you say. I also don't like the room temperature rule with red wines but still try to have them once in a while due to the supposed health benefits.

    About Rieslings I have had no luck with them. I've found them to be too sweet.

    I have no problem with fruity if it means medium to full-bodied and not necessarily sugary. That may be an oxymoron I realize (I don't know much about wine yet so must go by what I've had a chance to try).

    Chimpkin I will definitely look for the glenlivet, and also I will try out every single suggestion here.

    Cheers everyone, thank you very much, you have taken away the desperate feeling I had about this the past few days.
     
  22. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    24,690
    "Fruity" is the oenophiles' ("wine connoisseurs") word for "sweet."

    "Full-bodied" means that it has a rather strong flavor and perhaps even a higher alcohol level. I've only heard the term used for red wines, but I'm no expert. I googled "full-bodied white wine" and got zero hits.
     
  23. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    I like my white wines fruity too! I would recommend St Julian's Blue Heron but it is most definitely sweetish - but its fresh and light and goes well with most salads and fishy cocktail snacks

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    When I last bought it, it was around $7 - not an expensive wine, not very sweet and its a screw cap!

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