Bottle of Wine?

[jamesdeanmartin]

Can anyone

suggest a good bottle of wine? I have a close female friend\'s birthday coming up and I figured I\'d get a her a

nice bottle of wine, but I know little to nothing about wine. I don\'t mind spending a decent amount of

money.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

JDM

[metroman]

</font><blockquote><font class=\"small\">Quote:</font><hr />
Can anyone suggest a good bottle of wine? I have a

close female friend\'s birthday coming up and I figured I\'d get a her a nice bottle of wine, but I know little

to nothing about wine. I don\'t mind spending a decent amount of money.

Any suggestions are greatly

appreciated.

JDM

<hr /></blockquote><font class=\"post\">

You might do a search online...I hear \"The

Wine Spectator\" has a point system where the pros evaluate the wines &amp; rate them up to 100 points...Sounds

like a hot date...

[Holmes]

Sag, where are

you?


Holmes

[metroman]

Any full service

liquor store has people that would be able to advise you as to the best selection for your occasion...

[tallmacky]

</font><blockquote><font class=\"small\">Quote:</font><hr />
Sag, where are you?


Holmes

<hr

/></blockquote><font class=\"post\">

More like Sacogoo where are you? And while you\'re at giving him advice

degrade him a little too. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[koolking1]

MD 40/40. Choice

of the most very devoted of wine lovers.

[koolking1]

try to find a

wine store that uses the above posted rating systems. Often you can find a very highly rated wine at a decent

price.

[Elana]

</font><blockquote><font class=\"small\">Quote:</font><hr />
MD 40/40. Choice of the most very devoted of wine

lovers.

<hr /></blockquote><font class=\"post\">

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif Classy

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Sagacious1420]

</font><blockquote><font class=\"small\">Quote:</font><hr />
Sag, where are you?


Holmes

<hr

/></blockquote><font class=\"post\">

I wondered what that strange sensation in my ears was from....

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I\'m not in the habit of offering my consultation services for

free...and they\'re not cheap. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif Suppose that I could help out a

forum brother though, if he\'s interested.


JDM-

If you\'re interested, send me a PM. I\'ll need to

ask you a few questions, e.g. price range, her tastes/preferences, her level of \"discrimination\", etc. I could

make plenty of recommendations, but my tastes aren\'t necessarily hers. There are plenty of great \"value\"

wines from around the world, just as there are plenty of over hyped/ over priced wines out there. Having tasted

literally thousands of wines \"blind\" over the years, I never cease to be surprised and amazed whether it be for

good or bad. Personal tastes are really important...not everyone likes the same juice. As for myself, I\'ve

never failed to identify Chateau Lafite-Rothschild in blind tastings whether it be a 1900 (magnum), \'45, \'53

(considered by many to be one of their all-time best efforts), \'59, \'61, \'66 or even newer vintages such

as \'70, \'75, \'82, the highly underrated \'83, \'88, \'89. I personally don\'t care for the stuff

and would never drop a dime on any...of course, that\'s never stopped me from tasting someone else\'s.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif I\'d rather have a great valued Chateau Gloria from St. Julien

before I\'d buy a bottle of Lafite, but then again I have a general preference for the St. Julien appelation over

Paulliac w/ the exception of Chateau Latour (one of my personal favorite producers...their \'45 vintage was an

epiphany).

[Sagacious1420]

</font><blockquote><font class=\"small\">Quote:</font><hr />
You might do a search online...I hear \"The Wine

Spectator\" has a point system where the pros evaluate the wines &amp; rate them up to 100 points...Sounds like a

hot date...

<hr /></blockquote><font class=\"post\">

IMO, you should take the ratings of \"The Wine

Dictator\" w/ a grain of salt. It is a very politically and advertising driven publication. Can\'t count how

many times I\'ve tasted a wine that got a high or low rating and it left me scratching my head thinking WTF after

tasting it myself...I\'m not alone on this one either. Don\'t know if anyone\'s ever noticed how their

descriptions of different wines can begin to sound virtually identical, just imagine if you spent your day tasting

50+ wines before noon. In their defense, you must consider factors like palate fatigue, becoming more intoxicated

as the day progresses, editorial pressures (i.e. politics) and/or trying to meet deadlines. This Friday is the

annual international merlot tasting that represents over 100 producers worldwide, each offering several wines. If

you were to actually make it through every wine (I haven\'t ever yet, even after much effort over the past several

years) it would work out to something like 500 wines, maybe more if you include the carmenere varietal widely grown

and long mistaken for merlot in South America. It doesn\'t take long to get a good buzz on even if you\'re

spitting the whole time and eventually your palate is shot. You have to hit specific products strategically to get

a clear impression and it\'s pretty amusing to look back on your tasting notes, especially those from later in the

day.

Unless you\'re out to impress ppl who \"buy by the numbers\" don\'t worry so much about the rating. I

live in an area w/ an ever growing number of \"boutique\" wineries that get over hyped and have overblown

reputations despite having little or no \"track record\". They fetch ridiculous prices, due more to the hype that

surrounds them and their miniscule production levels. A case in point would be Screaming Ego, I mean Screaming

Eagle. Now if you\'re a wine reviewer who gets free samples each vintage of a wine that\'s virtually impossible

to get your hands on (someone on their list has to remove themselves or die for anyone else to have a chance) and it

costs up to $300+ a bottle, would you give it a bad rating? So much for those \"extra\" samples that end up in

your wine cellar. Funny thing is that virtually all of these wineries contract w/ a wine maker who belongs to a

small, exclusive clique of \"celebrity\" wine makers who are typically the child of someone who has earned their

reputation the \"old fashioned way\"...not to mention the use of questionable manipulation in the cellar that is

far from \"natural\" wine making, better wine through chemistry if you will. I\'ve tasted several vintages of

the above mentioned wine (and many like them) in blind tastings and have always been underwhelmed...typically they

end up some of the lowest rated wines by the ppl in the tasting group.

IMO, it\'s more important to consider

the general conditions of the vintage for a particular region, whether it\'s from a producer w/ a long standing

reputation for quality and if the general description or house style matches your personal tastes.