Wow, it's been so long. I think it mostly had to do with growing up. I was no longer just looking for a buzz. I've always had an appreciation for anything done well and made with pride. I enjoy good BBQ, good cigars, good bourbon, and good wine. They all seem to pair well. I don't care for anything sweet but I will drink a dry white wine on a hot day. But mostly it's reds for me
Yuppers usually go with lemon and lime slices, sometimes orange slices.
Sliced strawberries, halved blue and raspberries with halved grapes so everything gets infused....boy, I'm getting thirsty....
I know some of you are stressing about proper pairings of wine and essential foods so your ol' Uncle Bob comes to your rescue.....................you're welcome...........
22” Blue Weber Kettle with SnS insert
Kamado Joe Jr with Kick Ash Basket
Char-Broil Smartchef Tru Infrared Gasser
Anovo Hot Tub Time Machine with Custom Hot Tub
I’m all about drink what you like! If I am just pouring a glass to have (after work, while cooking, etc), then I usually grab a simple chardonnay or sauv blanc or non-complex red. I am a sucker for GSMs and other blends, and I am with you SmokinFool loves my wines on the dry side.
But there are just certain wines that are made for certain foods, imho.
rich fatty meats: reds heavy on the tannins
fried foods: bubbles! Dry, not sweet
Oysters, ceviche, sushi: crisp whites like Chablis or…..
I do not care for sweet wines like Riesling, etc. but that said, serve me a ruby port and there better be pears and bleu cheese nearby.
My Dad would always open Chateau Ste. Michelle Cabernet Sauvignon whenever we would have family dinners and I quickly learned to appreciate it once I reached legal age. It was also something the girl I dated and married both enjoyed. Once married we would buy 6 bottles at the grocery store once a month to get the extra 6 bottle discount.
Most of our wine now comes from Washington Wine Clubs but I still belong to one California Club and love Oregon Pinot. I like most anything Red, White, Rose, Sparkling, even port, but would put Bordeaux style wines at the top, the blends and single varietal’s, including Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and Washington also produces some really nice Syrah and other Rhone Style wines I enjoy.
Covid led to a lot more wine drinking then we were accustomed to and the wine cellar was getting bare but I just picked up the last of our spring release pick-ups and my wife and I are back to more moderate consumption and the basement "cellar" is the fullest it has ever been.
Midway, we lived on Magnolia at the time as did the AW bottler, so that was an interesting coincidence. Another, similar bottler, lived there as well. He did the same buy grapes, contract vinting, though not quite the same character. I remember his first name was Randy, but CRS blocks the last name and his label name. Although I recall he had a Vincent Black Shadow and was one crazy, but likeable dude.
Very nice cellar. I only have rackage for about 350 bottles. I let the racks get to almost empty so I've set out to restock. I home brew so I tend to buy wine and port kits to stock most of the racks. Right now I have about 100 bottles aging and six 6 gallon kits in fermenters or secondaries - including two Bordeaux kits. Yield is usually 5 bottles per gallon. I have three kits still in the box waiting for fermenters to be emptied.
Cooking gadgets
Weber Summit Charcoal Grill Center
Weber Summit Platinum D6
Blue Rhino Razor
Dyna-Glo XL Premium Dual Chamber
Camp Chef Somerset IV along with their Artisan Pizza Oven 90
Anova WiFi
Thermometers
Thermapen Mk4 - ThermaQ High Temp Kit - ThermaQ Meathead Kit - ThermaQ WiFi - ThermoWorks IR-GUN-S - ThermoWorks Signals & Billows - ThermoPop -ThermoWorks ProNeedle - ThermoWorks TimeStick Trio x2 - and a Christopher Kimball timer - NO, I do not work for ThermoWorks...I just like their products.
Other useful bits...
KitchenAid 7-qt Pro Line stand mixer
A Black & Decker food processor that I can't seem to murder
A couple of immersion blenders, one a "consumer" model & the other a "high end" Italian thing. Yes, the Italian one is a bit better, but only marginally
Instant Pot Duo Evo Plus 8-qt + accessories like egg-bite & egg holders
All-Clad pots & pans, along with some cast iron...everything from 7" Skookie pans to 8.5qt Dutch ovens
Weber GBS griddle, pizza stone, and wok
Knives range from Mercer to F. Dick to "You spent how much for one knife? One knife?!" LOL
I started young… My mother has always been a wine drinker…we even had a little bit as kids growing up on "special occasions." She was also known to give us a little whenever there was something like a flu outbreak at school. We were rarely sick. It was probably terrible…she’s never been one to drink great wines IMO. LOL (At least as best as I can recall, today is no different.)
My parents also used to drag us kids along to various wineries whenever people came to visit. I managed to pick up a few things on those trips apparently.
My father OTOH, NEVER drinks wine. I don’t believe I’ve EVER seen him with a glass of wine. He’s a beer drinker only.
So when I was older, I started with what I knew: mediocre white wine or yellow beer. LOL Pretty much hated beer at the time. (Still very rarely drink a yellow beer.) I figured there HAD to be something more…and a reason so many people love it. So I purchased a few books and started learning.
Along the way I discovered reds…and have enjoyed them since. I’ll also have an occasional white wine, but it’s probably 30-1 to reds. And my GF and I will often have champagne when I’m in town. If I’m making breakfast/brunch, it’s almost certain that I’ll open some bubbly. I get a dozen or so wines delivered from NorCal regularly…and she gets roughly the same from a Temecula winery or two.
My Mom always liked wine, but back in the Mid 1980s, I was a young Marine on a deployment (Med Float) had a chance to take a USO sponsored wine tour in France...sine then I have enjoyed wine, still like visiting vineyards and tastings.
This is terrible, but years ago I was dating a girl who loved Martini and Rossi Asti Spumante. It soon became very clear that she was noticeably friendlier after an couple of glasses so I tried it. I’ll be darned if I wasn’t friendlier after a couple of glasses also. That got me started. My preferences have changed greatly, but I still like a glass once in a while.
The story of fun Italian wines that have been ruined in America by big commercial brands is not short. There's Riunite that basically ruined Lambrusco for two generations of Americans, and then there's Moscato D'Asti that was ruined by Martini and Rossi. Never mind Chianti as a whole. ;-)
Grew up in Europe from age 3-13. We always had wine for dinner. Special occasions we’d start w champagne then a white then a red (depending on the food). After about age 10 my folks would give me tastes and sometimes a tiny amount in a glass. So wine was always a part of life for me. However, it wasn’t until the late 90s when I took a wine class w Kevin Zraly at Windows on the World at the top of the World Trade Center that I started to figure out what I actually liked. I highly recommend a class like this if you’re interested bc it exposed me to about 10 different wines every week. Lots of blind tastings too so you’d learn to trust what you like instead of thinking oh this is supposed to be good.
Mine came about growing up in a house where mom was a gourmet chef and my old man was a trained sommelier. We had a full walk in wine cellar in the basement. My dad loved reds over any other. I also spent time in Paris going to culinary school so that also helped me to learn more about wines and pairings.
I developed my wine preferences late in life by visiting wineries (Italy, Napa, Niagara, VA and NC), reading about it in books and Wine Spectator magazine and drinking it with nearly every evening meal. I’ve also taken a couple of wine courses from Jancis Robinson (international wine critic) and Madeline Puckett of Wine Folly. I use Vivino and Wine Spectator apps on my iPhone to help select good wines when dining out. I’ve no shame scanning bottles with Vivino or looking up vintage rating with the WS app.
I generally prefer reds and have been known to drink a big, bold red in midsummer. I've more recently developed a fondness for Roses from Provence on those dog days of summer. For old world wines, I prefer Italian because I think they provide a better QPR (quality/price ratio) than most French wines of the same caliber. I’m a Tuscan and Veneto region Italian wine junkie. For new world wines, I really like Willamette Valley Pinots and Napa cabs that are not fruit bombs, which are becoming increasingly hard to find.
But, I won't try to bs y'all. I enjoy a buzz as much as the next person, so much so that I wrote this homage and justification to this realization a few years ago.
"The subtle euphoria, colloquially known as a 'buzz', experienced as the result of the consumption of fine wine and spirits, is one of life's greatest pleasures. It clears the mind of all unnecessary thoughts and opens it up to transcendental possibilities, otherwise clouded by the pressing issues of the day. It transforms our world outlook to one of affirmation and acceptance, pushing the cobwebs of cynicism and doubt to the outer edges of awareness. It is capable of bringing food, friends and conversation into a harmonious balance, blurring the lines of difference and polarity. A well stocked wine cellar and liquor cabinet promote civility in a way that sober diplomacy never can."
As others have said, drink what you like and do t worry about food pairings.
when cooking with wine, they say dont cook with a wine you wouldn’t drink a glass of.
we used to guess about wines and buy based on the front of the label. that meant that we didn’t care for wine in general until somebody gave us a $100 bottle. OH, so THATS what wine is supposed to taste like!!! Apparently, we thought wine was meh because we were buying cheap, not great bottles.
now we know more about what a good or bad wine tastes to us, and that really kick started it for us. There are plenty of quality drinkable wines in the $15-20 range that we like a lot (our house wine is typically $12-13). . (With a good eye, you can find quality around $10). Big fan of a lot of Costco Kirkland bottles, where you can get good wine for lower than expected prices for the vintages. Costco pricing on other brands is good too.
BIG fans of the SOMM movies and related tv shows etc. gives you a greater appreciation and education about what makes a grape and region taste different from others.
Comment