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Fine wine thread (Read 136075 times)

Houdini

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#50 Re: Fine wine thread
February 27, 2008, 06:11:40 pm
No opinions on plastic corks?  Fuck ya then, back to boozin'.

There's mutiny afoot @ Chez hOU's, today I ran for an hour, and swam for an hour & am finally under 58Kg- so I feel I am deservedly breaking the booze ban one day early - and for good reason.  I lurve Portugals' Douro valley:



Very nice indeed from an indie weinplatz.  You UK lubbing fools will pay double what I did for this.   :whistle:

Houdini

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#51 Re: Fine wine thread
March 09, 2008, 02:13:05 pm
I may be an amateur wine buff, but I'm good at drinking.  I can take 2 bottles of red now (though I usually stop at 1 & 3/4 & throw the last away in some kinda "maybe it's best this way" gesture, before hitting the water ) & don't really get hangovers . . .  Unless it's Rioja.

Question:  What's the deal w/ Rioja?  Everytime I drink Rioja (half or full-bottle) which I enjoy (great dry oaky taste) I always end up w/ a total bastard-behind-the-eyes in the morning. 

Is there anything peculiar/idiosyncratic about Rioja or it's manufacture that could account for this?  Murders my swede . . .

Joepicalli

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#52 Re: Fine wine thread
March 09, 2008, 05:31:11 pm
Houdini, Tannins are what give you the "nails intothe eyeballs axe to skull base" hangovers red wine has has its own tannins which more full bodied, richer reds have in spades anyway. With Rioja's you also have the obligatory time spent in oak, the vanilla flavours this imparts to the wine while delicious are more tannins: so rioja is a tanniny wine with added tannin= "oh god oh god just let me die" any morning after you've done the best part of two bottles.
Enjoy

Bubba

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#53 Re: Fine wine thread
March 09, 2008, 07:23:11 pm

Damn - Riojas are my favourite thing to drink at the moment.

Percy B

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#54 Re: Fine wine thread
March 09, 2008, 08:03:42 pm
Big up to the Boreal boys in Spain - I had the luck to get given a very expensive and delicious bottle of 1999 rioja off Mr Browning earlier on this year (Jesus and the bosses at Boreal sorted him out a case for Christmas - the good stuff!), and which I accidentally drank the other night. Seeing as I'm currently 'drinking for two' I can vouch for the effect of the tannins on my head the following day, but it was absolutely lovely stuff.

Sloper

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#55 Re: Fine wine thread
March 09, 2008, 09:23:25 pm
You wait mate, the days of drinking for two with a chauffeur will come back to haunt you.

Houdini

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#56 Re: Fine wine thread
March 18, 2008, 06:09:28 pm
Zweigelt  Drinking this variety of late.  Light, fruity, & recommended.  Very popular in Austria, read the link (wiki).

Yet to try a more pricey bottle.  But drunk a few up to the €6 mark.

The export fortunes of the variety may, oddly enough, be hampered by its originator's uncompromisingly Germanic surname. If only he had been called Dr Pinot Noir . . .


   

Joepicalli

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#57 Re: Fine wine thread
March 19, 2008, 03:11:52 pm
So who has any good suggestions for veggie food which shows off fine wines? Indicate which wine and then describe the food or better still give recipe.

Houdini

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#58 Re: Fine wine thread
March 19, 2008, 03:38:09 pm
OK I'll run w/ this.  I'm w/ you on the big red/risotto thang.

Matter of fact we ate risotto few nights ago (nothing fancy - arborio rice, red onion, creamy-brown 'shrooms, simple stock, splash of wine) w/ a Montepulciano D'Abruzzo.  The Frau & I thought it went well.  Actually if I'd had a crisp white I would have put it in the stock . . .


Joepicalli

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#59 Re: Fine wine thread
March 19, 2008, 03:59:33 pm
Boglietti do a brilliant dolcetto that works

Yossarian

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#60 Re: Fine wine thread
March 19, 2008, 04:35:05 pm
OK I'll run w/ this.  I'm w/ you on the big red/risotto thang.

Matter of fact we ate risotto few nights ago (nothing fancy - arborio rice, red onion, creamy-brown 'shrooms, simple stock, splash of wine) w/ a Montepulciano D'Abruzzo.  The Frau & I thought it went well.  Actually if I'd had a crisp white I would have put it in the stock . . .



my personal preference would be for a bottle of "crisp white" first, and then the barbaresco afterwards, with the risotto...

Joepicalli

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#61 Re: Fine wine thread
March 19, 2008, 04:42:35 pm

[/quote]

my personal preference would be for a bottle of "crisp white" first, and then the barbaresco afterwards, with the risotto...
[/quote]

Followed by a well chilled Tokjai to accompany the pot au chocolat.
couple of glasses of brandy to finish and..... oh there goes tomorrows climbing

Houdini

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#62 Re: Fine wine thread
March 19, 2008, 04:51:19 pm
What would you recommend w/ ricotta & spinach tortellini?  For that is tonites dish.  I've already opened an Austrian zweigelt, this is rather light (12%).  Oh we don't do white very often at all. 
« Last Edit: March 19, 2008, 04:56:47 pm by Houdini »

Houdini

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#63 Re: Fine wine thread
March 19, 2008, 05:03:30 pm
To allow a little wander . . .  I'll try this soon: (I love the taste of Marsala, I think it fine wine)

(I've done something similar using Marsala).

Mushroom Risotto with Marsala

3 Tbsp. butter
1 medium white onion sliced
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
3 cups risotto (Arborio rice)
6 cups chicken broth, warmed in saucepan
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup Dry Marsala
 

In a large pot (or Dutch oven) over medium-high heat, combine butter, onion and mushrooms and sauté for five minutes. Add the risotto and continue to sauté for three minutes. Add one cup of the warm chicken broth and stir until absorbed. Continue to add the chicken broth one cup at a time as it absorbs while you stir. When all of the chicken broth has been added, stir in cream and the Marsala. If a thinner consistency is desired, add up to one cup of water. Place the risotto on a platter and top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Best dry Marsala I've found thus far, it's hard to find good stuff.



« Last Edit: March 19, 2008, 05:08:45 pm by Houdini »

Houdini

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yankeepete

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#65 Re: Fine wine thread
March 19, 2008, 06:47:06 pm
In Portland, Oregon USA it's all the rage to pair foods with the in-house microbrew beer.

The theory:

Some say beer beats wine in this pairs competition
By Ann Cortissoz, Globe Staff  |  August 8, 2007

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- If foods are paired successfully, their flavors will dance together, brewmaster Garrett Oliver told members of the cheese industry at a seminar during the American Cheese Society's annual conference here last week. It is a centuries-old tradition among many epicures that wine is the best drink to match with cheddar or chevre. Oliver, however, the head brewer at Brooklyn Brewery in New York and author of "The Brewmaster's Table: Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer With Real Food," believes that cheese can find a more complementary partner. He thinks beer should cut in.

In a ballroom full of tables covered in white tablecloths and formally set with cloth napkins, flatware, and plates of artisanal Vermont cheeses, the energetic brewer offered his take on beer and cheese pairing. "I've been in several 'Iron Chef'-style competitions with sommeliers, and beer has never lost," the animated, affable Oliver said. "I would like to claim it's because I'm a genius, but beer has certain affinities with cheese." The Brooklyn brewer pointed out that both cheese and beer start with grass (barley in the case of beer) and use a microbe in the fermentation process.

"We have a lot of flavors to work with imparted from the grains, but also from the hops," said the 45-year-old beermaker, flavors like caramel, coffee, and chocolate that result from the roasting of the barley; grassy, tangy, and citrusy flavors from the hops; and banana and clove flavors, among others, imparted by certain yeasts. While wine can only contrast with cheese, Oliver continued, beer can contrast and complement.

"And beer has another weapon: carbonation -- scrubbing bubbles," Oliver explained excitedly. "Cheese coats the tongue so you can't really taste the wine, but beer scrubs the tongue" leaving the palate clean and able to taste all the flavors of the beer and the cheese.

grumpycrumpy

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#66 Re: Fine wine thread
March 20, 2008, 09:23:26 am
To allow a little wander . . .  I'll try this soon: (I love the taste of Marsala, I think it fine wine)

(I've done something similar using Marsala).

Mushroom Risotto with Marsala

3 Tbsp. butter
1 medium white onion sliced
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
3 cups risotto (Arborio rice)
6 cups chicken broth, warmed in saucepan
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup Dry Marsala
 

In a large pot (or Dutch oven) over medium-high heat, combine butter, onion and mushrooms and sauté for five minutes. Add the risotto and continue to sauté for three minutes. Add one cup of the warm chicken broth and stir until absorbed. Continue to add the chicken broth one cup at a time as it absorbs while you stir. When all of the chicken broth has been added, stir in cream and the Marsala. If a thinner consistency is desired, add up to one cup of water. Place the risotto on a platter and top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Best dry Marsala I've found thus far, it's hard to find good stuff.




I do something very similar , but I tend to add lemon juice to the mushrooms after I've stewed them in their own juices .... 

Houdini

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#67 Re: Fine wine thread
March 20, 2008, 07:59:16 pm

Drinking now having raped the cellar w/ out KY  :whistle:

Woody, tres.  Good, but the woodiness is dicking my ring.

Houdini

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#68 Re: Fine wine thread
March 20, 2008, 08:05:24 pm
In fact, having sampled the Taste Vinage Borgoyne Pinot Noir 2005 twice, I'd say the differential betwween that and the 04 was ludicrous. 

I'm for the 05. I'm not a fan of pencil shavings woodiness.  I want berries.

webbo

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#69 Re: Fine wine thread
March 20, 2008, 08:33:30 pm
as a late comer to this thread my two penneth may have already been said.does anyone else find french wines lacking in body espically if you've been drinking new world wines.i have recently become a bit of a fan of pinot noir,however i brought home a couple of bottles of alsace versions of this from my recent trip to font.it was like piss in fact nearly all of the 10 bottles i brought home i would have been better used as drain cleaner.

Joepicalli

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#70 Re: Fine wine thread
March 21, 2008, 09:27:11 am
as a late comer to this thread my two penneth may have already been said.does anyone else find french wines lacking in body espically if you've been drinking new world wines.i have recently become a bit of a fan of pinot noir,however i brought home a couple of bottles of alsace versions of this from my recent trip to font.it was like piss in fact nearly all of the 10 bottles i brought home i would have been better used as drain cleaner.

I think it depends on what you've been drinking and personal taste- I tend to find new world wines like alcoholic ribina unless I go £20+ a bottle. What you see as lack of body I tend to call "subtlety". That said American pino can be sex and death (but again not at much less than the above mentioned price).

Houdini

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#71 Re: Fine wine thread
March 21, 2008, 09:38:40 am
Oz Shiraz.  Blows my swede it's so earthy (occasionally the frau buys it as shiraz/syrah is her thing. I'm getting fascistic about keeping true to local wines; I want all the money to go on the wine & not the mode of transport it took to reach me).

Webbo, I've not tried it but I read Chat' Neuf Du Pape is tres heavy/bodysome (14 to 15% ABV) best w/ strong meats.  Doesn't Slopes bathe in Du Pape?

 :-\

webbo

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#72 Re: Fine wine thread
March 21, 2008, 10:18:26 am
we used to buy c,n,p quite often you could get a case at macro for a reasonable price but i'm sure last time we got some we weren't impressed,i tried to find some when i was in france could only see a white version.
i brought home stuff we bought at vinyards in the past but as before it just seemed lacking in something.yes i know the stuff the aussies and the yanks fill theirs with.
maybe my paletes just knackered.

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#73 Re: Fine wine thread
March 21, 2008, 10:26:24 am
I know very little about wine despite drinking lots of it but I do know that (for me) you can't beat a good CNdP.

Houdini

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#74 Re: Fine wine thread
March 21, 2008, 11:09:25 am
Wine's a minefield.  There is so much to learn.  So in a way it's like Slopes said to me about liking port It's great as it's only one region to learn about.  Luckily I really like Douro wines too.   

I can't afford CNdP right now.  Though I have looked around and it can be as low as €10 a bottle up to crikey price.  Maybe next month . . .

 

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