wine Wine Review Sites/Data Bases?

chuk hell

chuk hell

I'm looking to enhance my ( very limited!) wine knowledge and would like to know if anyone has links to good, but hopefully not too snooty wine review sites. I know there must be some out there.

I just blind bought 5 bottles of pinot noir and after googling each of them only one got a good review! I need help. I usually stick to the few California Zins and Australian blends that I know to be a "sure thing".

Obviously, I NEED HELP!
 
Intensity Academy said:
Beer and Sangria here...I don't get the wine snob thing.
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It's basically just a hold over from the fact that wine is/was seen as high brow. But you're denying yourself some good experiences if you're not getting into wine, because great bottles can be had for 20 bucks easily these days, and even less if you take the time to look. For example there's a guy at work I talk wine with occasionally. He's all about subtlety in taste and bouquet and what not, wereas I like fruit forward in your face varietals and blends that are't subtle at all. Well done alcoholic grape juice in essence. But we can both find reasonably priced bottles. And wine goes real well with spicy food too, especially some of the sweeter varieties. They realy pair well. One thing you might try is country wines, which are essentially wines made with fruit other than the noble grapes. Apple wine, banana wine, blueberry wine, etc. They tend to be sweeter than the usual stuff, and they're looked down on by many of the snobs so when you go shopping for them you're more likely to run into people who take the wine and themselves a lot less seriously. Connecticut has some real good country wines originating there, if you're from the US it's a good source. Oregon too.
 
chuk hell said:
I'm looking to enhance my ( very limited!) wine knowledge and would like to know if anyone has links to good, but hopefully not too snooty wine review sites. I know there must be some out there.

I just blind bought 5 bottles of pinot noir and after googling each of them only one got a good review! I need help. I usually stick to the few California Zins and Australian blends that I know to be a "sure thing".

Obviously, I NEED HELP!
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I'd recommend you start with Wine for Dummies. It's what I started with, and it gives you a good background. You could go to http://www.winepress.us/ which is a site I visit fairly regularly for home wine makers. You won't find that many reviews there, but they are a good general resource. There are some real advanced makers there who really know their stuff.

As for reviews, they can be sort of helpful but in the end, not much. Tasting is what counts. Your palate is where it's going after all, and the BS surrounding wine tasting is just that, BS. Once you learn what to look for, it's easy to pick out the subtleties of the ones you like and communicate what you're looking for to the store people. The raw basics are as follows:

Tannin: is basically the texture of the wine, meaning how it makes your mouth feel essentially. Wine that seems to suck all the moisture out of your mouth is high tannin, and usually expected to sit for a year or more before being opened so it can mellow a bit. If it just makes your mouth feel silky it's low tannin. Only an issue really with reds as tannin is gotten from allowing the wine to sit on the skins.

Acidity: similar to tannin, but instead of a dry texture this tends to make your mouth water the higher the acid contect gets, much like an orange or other citrus fruit.

Dry/Sweet: self explanatory really. Dry means low residual sugars/sweetness, sweet is high in those things and thus overall sweet in taste. Rieslings tend to be sweet as an example, and pair well with spicy fish and white meat dishes.

Now go to a few tastings with friends, and start getting a sense of what you like, not what some putz in a tight collar says you should like. Rent a limo and down the tastings. Chill out when you find a nice place and get a couple bottles. We do it regularly out by me, or at least we used to. And get the book Wine for Dummies, as it's a great primer and gives you good background on wine in general, how to tell what European wines are in terms of varietals and what not, etc.
 
Thanks for the General info CDB, I appreciate it. I'm not a total novice; my wife worked for a winery for a couple years and we honeymooned in Sonoma. I'm a little bit past the "Wine for Dummies" stage. I have some other "beverage reference" books around that explain the basics.

Like you I prefer "fruit bombs", big juicy raspberry, cherry, chocolate, peppery wines...as they say. I'm mainly into Zins, Cabs and some Merlots but after watching 'Sideways" ( again....he he ) I wanted to branch out and try some pinots. It seems you have to spend a little more to find some good pinots but I'm willing to go up to 20 bucks plus if I need too.

What I'm really looking for is info on specific brands/bottles/vintages when choosing varieties I'm not familiar with, like pinot noir.

I have to agree with you about blends. Some of the best tasting wine I've had has been Australian red blends. For everyday dining I think Folie a Deux Menage a Troi is hard to beat for under ten bucks. Seems like you can find it everywhere these days.

Anyway, I'll check out the winepress link..thanks!



Sickmont, I prefer reds though the women in my life have taught me to appreciate whites once in a while. I'm really more of a beer guy at heart. To me wine is a food thing...but an important food thing.
 
I got into the Pinots a few years ago. Seemed to me to be a big difference in space of a few years so I ended up just buying by the year. For my taste a 2 year old hit the spot. I should mention that I judge wine by how messy I get while drinking it against how rough I feel the next day. Real connoisseur :P
 
my friend is designing a site which will allow for wine, beer, spirits, and among other things, hot sauce ratings. will post more when i know.

get some 2000 lafite rothschild, you will be impressed. :hell:
 
chuk hell said:
Like you I prefer "fruit bombs", big juicy raspberry, cherry, chocolate, peppery wines...as they say. I'm mainly into Zins, Cabs and some Merlots but after watching 'Sideways" ( again....he he ) I wanted to branch out and try some pinots. It seems you have to spend a little more to find some good pinots but I'm willing to go up to 20 bucks plus if I need too.
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No need to over spend for pinots to be honest. That hasn't been my thing for a while now though, I'm not sure who is doing good stuff at a lower price. I've been sticking with regional wines mostly and pinot noir is a bitch to grow here in the northeast. Still, Jamesport has a good one, one of the few from Long Island. If you want get yourself a common bottle of Cavit. Won't be the greatest pinot ever, but I've never had a bad bottle from them.

What I'm really looking for is info on specific brands/bottles/vintages when choosing varieties I'm not familiar with, like pinot noir.
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Casillero Del Diablo puts out a great Carmenere, they may have a pinot out and it's a good solid brand. And cheap. And I definitely recommend the carmenere, it's a cab varient with a little more spice to it.

Edit: And it still comes down to a tasting I think. If you've got a decent shop in your area they should have them fairly regularly, and even on demand. There's some great places like that, who still have some stock open and can give you some samples and give you some judgements of the unopenned stock based on your response to the stuff you try.

Rosemount has great blends, and they have a 1.5 liter line of blends that are perfect table wines; shiraz and cab, merlot and cab, etc. Big, fruity, and cheap. Great for parties, and I love drinking them myself too. Torres is a Spanish vineyard/winery and their Sangre Del Toro is a great blend of grenache and carignane. Waters Crest is a winery out here on Long Island, and they have a red called Campagna Rossa that's excellent. It's a merlot, cab franc, cab sav, and malbec blend. And damn is it good. Little pricy in the 40 range, but no one I've had it with or sent a bottle of it to ever had anything but praise for it. The winery itself has a reputation out here already as a consistently high quality producer. His dessert wine Night Watch is insanely good. I'd also recommend, for a different white, Hunt Country's vignoles. Tart and different, perfect for before dinner refreshment or after dinner dessert. Goes great with spicy appetizers. Wouldn't call it for a dinner wine though.
 
CDB said:
1.5 liter
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1.5 liters are the equivalent of a 40 oz beer. they are usually drinkable, but it always begs the question: why? if free isnt the answer, then seek other wines / beers out.

chuck you have yet to mention a price range of stuff you are looking for.

if you want to spend 10 dollars there are some suggestions easily recommended, if you want to spend 50 theres alot more, and with 100 theres even more. if you want to spend 500 (doubtful) the sky is basically the limit.

pick up a wine spectator at your local store. they always have wines that are based on price and rating. they usually have several 90-88 rated wines that are under 10 dollars. those are always good buys.

do you have a total wine in your city? sure, those guys that run them are dicks, but you dont have to talk to them. there are tags on all the wines in the total wine here that tells what the WS / WA ratings are. usually i find wine spectator ratings to be better and closer related to my tastes.

since you like cabs be sure and check out the french bordeux wines. there are some 2003s that are under 20 dollars that are great wines. most bordeux wine is blends of cab, merlot, and cab franc.

sadly, there are more kinds of wines than there are beers. :(
 
ross said:
1.5 liters are the equivalent of a 40 oz beer. they are usually drinkable, but it always begs the question: why? if free isnt the answer, then seek other wines / beers out.
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For those who love subtlety the 1.5s aren't the best shot. For those like me, who like one good characteristic played to the hilt, they can be awesome or complete flops. Rosemount is a reliable producer and their shiraz is pretty universally liked. At my friend's restaurant they go through more of that shiraz than Coke it seems. It's from companies like them that you can get a good 1.5 liter. Of course that's coming from me, whose first wine making experience was just taking a boatload of grapes and squashing them, stems and all, and waiting for a while.

On the pricing I think going above 50 bucks, for me at least, is going too far. Maybe for a gift or for a special occasion I'd do it, but with modern methods and a little care I think if someone can't produce a good to great bottle for $50 or under, they're slacking.
 
Can't go wrong with Chateau Margeaux.

Of course, it is a bit pricey.

There are many consistently good bottles of wine to be had for under $20, and several for under $15.

Australian wines are a great place to start, but you have to be careful with which label you go with. For the money, Lindeman's is hard to beat. Yellowtail has a good product.
From WA state, Columbia Crest Merlot and Chardonnay are consistently good, year after year.
If you want to make your significant other happy, Pouilly Fuisse will work for a white...Sterling Vinyards Cab is always a winner in the red category.

I bet Wine Spectator Magazine has a website you could peruse.
 
Depending on what types of wine your after (I'm a merlot man), South Africa has put out some very decent & afforable wines. KWV & Nederburg are quite good.
Can you buy Canadian wines down where you are?
 
bentalphanerd said:
Most of the Aussie labels are world class, don't know how they are price range over there.
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10 bucks US for a bottle for the Rosemount shiraz. Not bad at all.
 
Chris Kewley said:
Depending on what types of wine your after (I'm a merlot man), South Africa has put out some very decent & afforable wines. KWV & Nederburg are quite good.
Can you buy Canadian wines down where you are?
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I got a tannat from South Africa that was very good, I'll see if I still have the bottle somewhere.
 
I was up in Nova Scotia this summer, and was shocked at the wine prices. In some cases, I paid double up there what I would have paid here....and TN has the highest alcohol taxes in the U.S.
I saw some interesting Canadian wines (ice wines I think?) but they were pretty steep as well.
 
yea, i've got a friend up in NS that i did a beer trade with..doesn't sound like living there is the best for alcohol price and variety. well particularly with beer. neither of us are big wine drinkers.
 
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