Wine Recommendations?

[mrtr33]

So, my wife has long been into wine, whereas I come from a more dark liquor and beer school. I enjoy wine as well, definitely have some favorites from years past, but wanted to know what the wine drinkers of CS have had lately. Could be anything, really. Cheap wines, expensive wines, wines you've liked, wines you didn't, or what pairs well with a cigar. I've always heard that summer time brings out more white and rose wine drinkers, probably because those are usually served chilled.

We attended a tasting last night of:
2007 Alexander Valley Vineyards Dry Rose of Sangiovese
2006 Retour Old Vine Pinot Noir
Domaine Ste Michelle Frizzante
and left with a bottle of the Sangiovese. If we had the money, though, we would have left with the Pinot. That's an amazing wine, but the price is a little steep for us right now.

Just wondering. I've seen a few other members talk about wine in the past, and just wanted some more ideas.

[DeeDubya]

There are so many wines available now. Winery's are popping up all over Texas, not that Texas wines would be ones to choose, some are pretty good. You might want to set some paramaters like by type, vintage, price, region, etc. You can get a real good cab or merlot under $12 these days. Some chards too. IMO good Pinot's $12 and up. We've found some really good Chilean and Australian wines too. IE, Jacobs, cab, merlot, shiraz, and chard all around $7 are hard to beat at the lower end. Casa Diablo produces some good cabs. The sky's the limit with more expensive wines. Have fun.
As far as wines to drink with a cigar. IMO they are going to need to be sweet like a port. I've gone from the dinner table out onto the deck with a glass of cabernet and ruined an otherwise good cigar. It doesn't work.

[mrtr33]

Thanks for the tips.

I guess I was looking more for specific wine brands, sorry I didn't specify.

We were in Marshall about a month or so ago, and went into a little shop that sold Texas wines. She explained that there were several cropping up. Are they usually all Cabs and Merlots? If I had to choose one bottle from a winery, I would go with the Cab. But lately Merlot's have been impressing me. So have Malbec's. We generally try to stay in the $8-$12 range in terms of wines. Nothing snobby about it, we just find those suit our needs a bit better. I'll try to keep posting what we've drank recently.

I've even updated my profile, but I enjoy red wines from Alexander Valley, CA, and Hungary the best. I enjoy whites from Italy and Sonoma, CA. I haven't drank enough rose to know any better. My favorite Boone's Farm Vintage is 2007, Strawberry Hill.

[DeeDubya]

You're going to be hard pressed to find many good whites from Texas. Our climate is going to be a little too harsh for white grapes, while we have the wild red muskodine grapes growing all over the place. I have some in my back yard.

Unless you were born with a silver spoon and a Partagas 150 in your mouth you probably wouldn't be drinking $50 wine all the time. Normal consumption would be special wines for "special" occasions. I got Diane a bottle of Dom for her birthday and she got $150 worth of pleasure out of it. One flute for me and I was back to drinking Miller Lite. But then I was born with a toothpick and a Henry Clay in my Mouth. Sad isn't it?

[mrtr33]

Any good Texas-based reds you could suggest? Have you been to a winery in Texas?

We normally don't do the sparkling. And I think we only have like 2 bottles of wine that are over $50 in our whole wine rack. Like I said, most of the wines we buy are in the $8 - $12 range. Sometimes a little bit over, but not often.

I gotta get me some Henry Clays.

[DeeDubya]

That's easy. Llano Cabernet. IMO Texas' best.

http://www.llanowine.com/

[JFellows]

I was born with a toothpick

That's unfortunate.

[BigMacFU]

You'll rarely if ever be disappointed with either Pichetti Wines (Santa Ynez Valley, Ca) or Del Dotto (Napa). Also, explore Israeli and Greek wines of all brands, they've been making wine longer than just about everybody else in the world and because they're not as popular, they're cheap!