When I used to enjoy a wine with a meal it was always a good Claret for me . I basically kept to the rule " red wine , red meat ----- White wine white meat but not always .
The wine I’m looking for you to list in this survey is that which you prefer to drink rather than that you feel obliged to serve at a meal due to wine etiquette
In my case , as previously stated , I would drink Claret with a meal but my go to wine ,when friends dropped in for instance , was Queen Adelaide White Burgundy served off the chill.
Style or country of origin, Aussie wines are great. And plenty of great wines from NZ too.
For warm tropical days in the north of Queensland, Brokenwood Cricket Pitch Semillion (not too chilled) is full of zest and refreshing flavours. It might be better to avoid the Howard vineyard vintage labelled bottles if the choice is more about value. Food optional, although great with any light snacks and fresh seafood fruit platters. Goes further with a large glass of chilled rain (roof tank) water in between sips.
It’s often much more enjoyable and better value to eat at home than out. A nice change from the predictable quality of chateau cardboard. I wonder also which cask wine might be a favourite?
Rarely drink any alcoholic beverage as it does nothing for me. Wine connoisseur friend said I had “all the palate for cordial” and, if I have to drink wine, prefer a sweet dessert wine. I have liked Brown Bros Moscato, Banrock Station, a Peach wine from the Granite Belt (given away at a conference, and then given to me as too sickly sweet …)
My neighbours have been value adding to their orchard business by making Liqueurs (5 years later I am still working through the first bottle) and have just started making wine. A sip of their Sweet White Lychee Chardonnay and I was convinced. I bought a bottle. It might take a year to finish it. Mr Z wouldn’t be caught with anything as poncy as Wine. He has a beer (no preference on brand or type) and averages about one a year. A very unsophisticated household.
Years ago I would enjoy something sparkling and light when dining out.
Loved Asti Spumante at end of year
celebrations. And Strega and Amaretto Disaronno served in cute little glasses.
Now I don’t drink at all. Even the slightest hint of alcohol in my drink makes my face
go bright red. Embarrassing for me and confusing to those I’m talking to, as they
didn’t think their jokes were that bad.
My preference is red and a durif (irrespective of the wine meat ‘rules’…white with white and red with red). While I do tend towards the De Bortoli Vat 1 durif for a good priced bottle to share…but does need a little age to soften the tannins. Last bottle was a 2013 which was the start of its prime. I’ll also try other makers to see how they have handled the grape. This includes local winemakers in Queensland through to those in NSW, SA and Vic region.
I also enjoy trying full bodied local/regional reds when we travel such as these tried last year…Fetească Neagra, Kékfrankos and Blaufränkisch.
In relation to white/red wine with white/red meat, last year in Paris a local restaurateur was flabbergasted when I ordered a reasonably light (compared to Australia) local red to accompany mussels and chips. He did question me and suggested I changed to something more appropriate (a ‘white’) to which I said that mussels were a dark meat and a light red was made to do the job. He had a puzzled expression on his face and said no more…until after the meal when he asked how the meal was to which I said the wine was a good accompaniment and possibly he should also give it a go.
While considered uncultured by some a solid red goes with almost anything
We get lots of mixed reds packs from Cellarmasters and Wine People but prefer singe selection cases. Our favourites include:
Mollydooker – Boxer, Blue Eyed Boy, Carnival of Love <- All Shiraz
McLaren Vale Associates III – Descendent of Squid Ink, Squid Ink <- All Shiraz
Wirra Wirra – Church Block <- blend
Summerfield – Traditions <- blend; Shiraz
Pirramimma – GSM, Shiraz
Hugo – Shiraz
We actively seek out Montepulcianos, Primitivo il Mandurias and Zinfandels; rare to find good domestics although Mr.Riggs Montepulciano and Warrabilla Zin are good efforts.
We keep 4 bottles of assorted whites and 1 moscato for company
The cellar has about 600 bottles +/-. We buy often enough so our costs are well below Dan’s or typical wine club prices.
Above and beyond the bottle-shop quaffers such as Rouge Homme, Wynns, Grant Burge and Taylors … good staples …
Katnook Estate and Balnaves in the Coonawarra region, also Redman … from there still a host of others that I’d need to sample before buying but usually excellent, but the aforementioned are in my experience safe to buy without checking, typically …
Also enjoy a few from the McLaren Vale region - Wirra WIrra as @PhilT mentioned and an assortment of others.
Barossa has many … more of an excursion experience than ordering for me …
Clare Valley - Tim Adams (though they are slack on online communication) and Sevenhill, Skillogalee, Jim Barry, Knappstein and many others.
Red - heavy is the preference, Cab or Shiraz, they can vary so much, but if it doesn’t leave my tongue feeling raspy I’m not so much into it, unless the fruitiness is intoxicating (not literally). White - dry, like a desert (one ‘s’). Sweet, I might as well drink Coca-Cola … unless it’s port or the like …
I’ll try non South Australian wines when I run out of South Australian options
The other ‘wine’ I like comes predominantly from Scotland in the sense of a malt, but that is a different topic …
Broad tastes @draughtrider with the opportunity to extend by a longer excursion?
Some might suggest when casks arrived the better quality wines always came in glass. Do flagons rate, or only when they have biblical names for the volume of the contents? Should I even admit to drinking cask wines except when there is company?
A good wine could always be judged by the lingering after taste? Comparable to the occasional mouth full of petrol resulting from the need to start the siphon (length of short garden hose) from the jerry can. Which was more preferable?
I just like wines from those regions, probably some parochial aspect to it … i must admit wines come in three basic categories for me, great, quaffer and blech - they vary a bit in those ranges of course, but i always get a bit lost when people start talking the technicalities of the taste … (I think mostly they do as well, the difference in the admission).
I haven’t had cask wine in well over a decade - I seem to recall there were some in the quaffer category, most in the blech - I’d have to drive a long way to find a store that sells it (maybe 700km but probably 1200 km) …
I subscribe to a dozen case of mixed reds ( with a bonus 13th bottle thrown in ), once a quarter, from Kemeny’s ( an independant liquor store ) in Sydney.
The wines are almost exclusively Australian. I have seen an NZ bottle on the rare occasion.
There are so many great wine producers in Australia that I don’t have time to research, and so leave the selecting to others. I’ve never been disappointed with any bottle to date, and some have been quite exceptional.
In my younger days, I drank whites as well, but these days they seem to cause me some sinus grief too often.
An appealing Sauvignon Blanc from Tasmania, or New Zealand are always within the wine collection; as is a lovely Pinot Gris from New Zealand. I also enjoy a lovely Chardonnay from South Australia when the mood arises. When I’m feeling particularly mellow I do enjoy a wondrous Icewine Vidal from Canada. In good health people
When my liver was younger, I would take it on a tasting trip twice a year (when whites are bottled, when reds are bottled) and purchase direct from wineries, and then store the wine until time to drink it. These days I simply include wineries in our holiday raod trips.
Some wineries hold bottles back from certain vintages and then sell them direct to customers and/or club members - so you can get matured wines that way without having to store them yourself.
Last night we opened an Australian wine made in the burgandy style that I had purchased direct from a Hunter Valley winery a long time ago - Lindemans 1975 Hunter River Burgandy Bin 5103
I am not an oenophilian. In fact I hardly drink; but when I do it would be a Moscato. Any Moscato costing no more than $5 per bottle will do. Easy and cheap to please.
From the planet Oenophilios - strangely grape shaped? “Planet of the Grapes” ?
Well at least when you arrive, therapy for those withered muscles might be at hand …
Apparently a regular snort of red might help one ‘keep upright’ on other planets, so to speak:
As Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin sat in the Lunar Module and slowly worked through their checklists, they munched on ham and salad sandwiches. On such an historic occasion you’d think they might have popped a fine bottle of red.
It would have actually done them good.
A new NASA-funded study from Harvard University suggests that a regular glass of vin rouge may solve the crippling effects of long-term space flight, a fundamental challenge to humans exploring other planets.
Full justification for drinking more wine when space travelling here:
(yeah, I know what you are thinking, Harvard convinced NASA to fund their wine purchases … I can hear it now, “did 12 rats really drink 250 cases of the finest red?” - sure they did …)
