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PCF Wine appreciation thread. (3 Viewers)
- Thread starter stocky
- Start date
Whether we're talking about wine or poker chips or weightier aspects of life, it helps to have great friends and mentors who are willing to teach an eager student what they learned the hard way through experience.
I neglected to follow up here -- too busy drinking, I guess.
Anyway, I posted essentially my previous post in full on Ridge's Facebook page. A day later, the Ridge winemaker sent me an email thanking me for that post. And a few days later, a bottle of the Dusi 2016 arrived via FedEx overnight, with a note hoping that we'd enjoy this bottle more!
Now that's a winery that cares about its customers!
RoyalBluff
3 of a Kind
Well said, and with both wine and poker chips, they are always best enjoyed amongst friends.
I'm assuming from what I've heard wine is like beer in that it's an acquired taste. I've probably only drunk about 4 bottles worth of wine in my entire life. Mostly at client dinners or weddings were a glass is already poured and it may be construed as rude if I don't drink it.
If I do want to get into wine and generally like sweeter wines is there certain types/wineries I should look for? Note since I may not fully appreciate the wine right away for what it is, I wouldn't want to be paying more than $15-20/bottle to start.
If I do want to get into wine and generally like sweeter wines is there certain types/wineries I should look for? Note since I may not fully appreciate the wine right away for what it is, I wouldn't want to be paying more than $15-20/bottle to start.
horseshoez
4 of a Kind
In my experience, the gateway wines people tend to like first are sweeter white varietals like reisling or muscato, or perhaps a slightly less sweet sauvignon blanc.
thanks! I'll keep everyone posted with how it goes
At that price point, you might try St Supery Moscato or Chateau Grand Traverse Late Harvest Reisling. The later harvests are the sweeter ones, with the last harvest being made after frost sets in, leaving the sweetest of all... Icewine (but this "liquid gold" as they call it, is harder to produce and more expensive to buy as a result).
horseshoez
4 of a Kind
Calm yourself man. Let the guy first try to "acquire the taste" before you throw the background of what's what. Man's gonna feel like he's drinking water through a fire hose.
You may also want to check out some German Riesling. After Eiswein, Trockenbeerenauslese is the next sweetest (equivalent to a Late Harvest Riesling that didn't get cold enough long enough to qualify strictly speaking as an Eiswein).
pour it on I'll bring my tax return to the liquor store and leave with half a wine cellar full of wine
LMAO!!! @horseshoez just trying to let @ReallyGoodUsername know he might get overpowered with fruit sugar if he's not careful drinking from the fire hose of sweet wine. Unless of course he loves the stuff.
horseshoez
4 of a Kind
pour it on I'll bring my tax return to the liquor store and leave with half a wine cellar full of wine
The more the merrier, literally merrier.
Mrs. Wolf doesn't drink at all but still indulges me in trips to visit my father in Santa Rosa and drink great wine while we're in town (or Pliny the Elder DIPA). Mrs. Roo either seems to have excellent taste in wine and vacation spots (or perhaps she trusts Mr. Roo to find her the good stuff). Either way, I like your style @msuroo. Go Green!
I like your style too dude. Specifically love that KB Gaps Crown pinot, ha. One of these days I'll open it side by side with the Three Sticks version, which I also love (apparently they own the vineyard). Re: Traverse reisling, that's always a good time when we go back to visit the in-laws. If only Michigan could grow a red, lol.
Has anyone on the thread ever looked into sharing access to limited allocation wines? I have done some of that locally with a small handful of friends but would be interested in learning how to implement the idea in this type of context. I have some allocations I'd like help maxing out my orders of and would enjoy partaking of other hard to find wines.
Plus, if we could figure out an efficient and effective way to ship across the border, then we might be able to help @allforcharity try some awesome, reasonably priced wines.
Poker Zombie
Royal Flush
Long story, but I'll try to shorten it without losing the impact...
A looooong time ago, I heard about a NPR fundraiser wine tasting. It was at a nicer restaurant, about 20-25 miles from me. They still had tickets available, and I working the night shift, with the next day (night) off decided at 7 am that I would go.
I worked 2 more hours, and right at 9 am I called a limo company. I guess I could have just gone with a cab, but Uber didn't exist back then, and everybody knows cabs (in Detroit) are filthy and overpriced. A limo was the way to go.
The limo company offers me their 1930s rolls royce limo. I ask, "How much more would it be", and they say "No extra charge. It's available for tonight, and does us no good sitting in the garage". Only a moron would say no,
My date and I (not Mrs Zombie... it was a looooong time ago) arrived at the restaurant. We were dressed nicely, but not to the nines. I had a suit coat, nice shirt, and jeans. She had a older fashion dress (she was a model about 10 years prior). The wine tasting was on the patio. When we pulled up, we were in full view of the entire affair.
When we walked up to tables for a tasting, a number of the purveyors would reach under the table to pull out "the good stuff". People were talking to us like we were "'somebody'. My date, very adept at socializing (I'm best left as a wallflower) chatted back, and had no presumption about putting on airs - but could do it without being a neanderthal.
So there we were, getting yet another fine bottle from another vendor, and this man named Martin introduces himself to us. He tells us he's the editor of Wine Spectator magazine (I never heard of it at the time). As we are tasting the beverage, Martin asks "What do you think?"
My date says, "I don't really know what to think. I don't really know a lot about wine. I just usually drink Rose"
Martin smiles and says "We were all there once. You start on wine coolers, then Rose'. Then you start drinking whites, before you can enjoy sweeter reds. Eventually, you'll pick up on the differences, and the complexities of wine, and all the reds and whites open up to you. You won't ever want a rose again".
That line stuck with me. It turns out that wine is a lot like advanced mathematics. You have to go through the easy stuff before you get to the more complex functions. Then the world opens up, and you never view things the same way again.
Really, it's not unlike learning about poker chips when I think about it.
I couldn't agree more. Great story too @Poker Zombie! I think my buddy @TKO would concur. Once you've gotten Paulsons (or a superb cabernet) on your palate, it can be hard to go back to dice chips (or perhaps a box of rose). But whether your taste is for great wine or nice poker chips, you can learn ways to make smarter buying decisions that make it possible to get what you want at a price that works within your budget. I prefer quality over quantity, but I'm even more of a fan of value (high quality relative to price)!
TKO
3 of a Kind
Next time you deal it will be good practice for you...
TKO
3 of a Kind
Haha @horseshoez you were there to hear that inside joke @TKO is referring to. But perhaps we could all take a small lesson in humility. I don't hold it against the poor guy for wanting to teach us how to play poker.
Ignorance can be blissful when it comes to expensive tastes like wine and poker chips. For those new to either of these addictions (...I mean passions), take pride in it and enjoy if you're able to do it inexpensively.
horseshoez
4 of a Kind
I don’t either. Matter of fact, he was teaching it well and being a teacher helped his case.
horseshoez
4 of a Kind
Ya ok lol I was looking at the fields from behind the fence minding my own business shuffling some other chips until someone said, “hey so I’ve been on PCF...”
Game f*&$ing over
RoyalBluff
3 of a Kind
You want sweet and cheap? Joseph Handler Sweet Red (Germany). If you are in the US, readily available at Trader Joe's. My wife loves these and picked them up a couple of cases for $3.99/bottle, less than half the price of a Jack's 1000 chip. Not sure if they still cost this much. They go down really easily and have always been a hit. Guests always asks about them and assumed it was a more expensive wine. I just checked and it looks like they redesigned the bottle (right).
OK, a lot of good advice here. Sweet vs. dry wines? Read hosemasterofwine.blogspot.com. Satire, but a lot of truth there. 
My 2 cents: There's no point in trying to learn to like wine in a vacuum -- and that means without food. Wine is meant to complement food.
A great gateway food to learning about and appreciating a broad spectrum of wines is cheese. In Boston, you have places like The Wine and Cheese Shop, Bacco's Wine and Cheese, Fromage Wine Bar, and probably many others. Such places often hold wine and cheese tastings for anywhere from $5 to $25, where you get to taste a number of pairings of wine and cheese to see what works for you -- and even to taste wines with foods with which they pair horribly (e.g., Bordeaux reds with blue cheese). Check them out for such events...educational and fun.
We drink a bottle of wine almost every evening with dinner. Our wines generally range from $9 to $15 per bottle. Wine doesn't have to be expensive to be good. Yes, we open finer bottles for special dinners or occasions, but those are no more than twice a month. You don't have to go broke enjoying wine.
(We do have a friend who drinks only Amarones and Barolos. We like him and his wines, but think he's nuts.
Speaking of Amarones, they are sweeter than most wines, but the simple truth is that most sweeter wines are either cheap wines with added sugars, or are very expensive, like Amarones or dessert wines.)
Have fun!
My 2 cents: There's no point in trying to learn to like wine in a vacuum -- and that means without food. Wine is meant to complement food.
A great gateway food to learning about and appreciating a broad spectrum of wines is cheese. In Boston, you have places like The Wine and Cheese Shop, Bacco's Wine and Cheese, Fromage Wine Bar, and probably many others. Such places often hold wine and cheese tastings for anywhere from $5 to $25, where you get to taste a number of pairings of wine and cheese to see what works for you -- and even to taste wines with foods with which they pair horribly (e.g., Bordeaux reds with blue cheese). Check them out for such events...educational and fun.
We drink a bottle of wine almost every evening with dinner. Our wines generally range from $9 to $15 per bottle. Wine doesn't have to be expensive to be good. Yes, we open finer bottles for special dinners or occasions, but those are no more than twice a month. You don't have to go broke enjoying wine.
(We do have a friend who drinks only Amarones and Barolos. We like him and his wines, but think he's nuts.
Speaking of Amarones, they are sweeter than most wines, but the simple truth is that most sweeter wines are either cheap wines with added sugars, or are very expensive, like Amarones or dessert wines.)Have fun!
The Okanagan wine region just a few hundred kilometers east of me is coming into its own as a mature wine region. I prefer the white varietals from the region over the red: Gewurztraminer, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc. Great wines for the starter palate. And some very nice late harvest options. I don't try very many local reds - the wineries have gotten too big for their britches and have priced them so high that the locals don't (or can't) buy, hoping to be picked up exclusively by restaurants and hotels.
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