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What other reds should I try?

16 years ago

Joined GW not too long and have been mostly lurking in Home Dec and am happy to have come across this forum too!

I usually drink red wine and like pinot noir, malbec and merlot so far. Did not care for a few cabarnet sauvignons that I've had. I'd appreciate any recommendations for other red wines to try. (preferably in the $10-$15 range)

TIA

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Comments (6)

coffeehaus
16 years ago
I'll take a stab at this question, although many others on this forum are more qualified to answer.
Remember that an experience with a given varietal may be influenced by other factors, such as what food you consume with the wine. Did you drink the Cab alone, or with food? In general, I don't consider Cab a wine to just drink without food.
I like (red) Zinfandel and Syrah/Shiraz. Marietta Old Vines is usually a consistent choice in your price range. Cline is another good choice. These are both California wineries. For Shiraz, look to Australia...lots of choices and reasonably priced.
Recently, I've come to enjoy Pinotage from South Africa's Stellenbosch region. What I've had has been slightly smoky in character with berry-like flavors, and goes well with hearty dishes.
That should get you started. I hope some others chime in.
mmh1
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks for the info Coffeehaus! When several days went by without a response, I posted over on the cooking forum and got quite a few responses there.
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rosesinny
16 years ago
You should try a lot. CA doesn't do very good cabs or merlots in your price range, so I'm not surprised that you didn't like them. I suppose there are a few around now that there is such a grape glut, but you're better off looking elsewhere at that range. CA has nice whites in that range and a few different varieties that may be of interest.

There are 2 other threads you can look at.

"Cheap wine, or wine snobs (long)" in which I tried to address that question, and then there's another called "what's your favorite cheap wine".

Lots of responses in those. You might want to keep in mind the difference between making wine on an industrial or a smaller scale. One way to think about it is to imagine that things like Yellow Tail or Two Buck Chuck or many of the Gallo or Kendall Jackson wines are made like Wonder Bread as opposed to the guy in the bakery down the street who rolls out his dough by hand. I suppose it can be consumed, but I'm not sure why.

There's a lot of good wine out and you don't need to pay a lot of money for it. For reds, CA seems to do a lot better once you pass the $15 mark. It's unfortunate, because I'd like to support the home team, but perhaps part of it is that in Europe a lot of families have owned vineyards for many generations so they don't have to amortize recent expenditures.

Cheers!
mmh1
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks for your reply, rosesinny. I realize that I have lots to learn and will try to do some reading as I continue to sample more wines. (It certainly doesn't help that DH does not drink wine.)
Two reasonably priced wines that I like are Castle Rock Pinot Noir and Alamos Malbec. I mention these two because I'm not sure how to properly describe them. I noticed in one of the posts that you sell wine(Manhattan?)and would love more info since I live nearby. Can I e-mail you?
rosesinny
16 years ago
Sorry for responding so late. Of course you can email. I'm even having the owner of an Argentine winery in town in a few weeks - we sell his wine so I'm taking him to some clients. Next couple days there's a guy in town who makes some of the great wines in Spain. I don't sell his wine but I drink it!

I hope my earlier resp didn't come off as snide, because I hate that, but if you're buying, this is the time to be a customer! Importers are clearing out wine, distributors are clearing it out, and there's a glut of juice that's getting put into less expensive wines. Plenty of really great deals out there and probably for the next year or two because of the way the business works.

Cheers.
PRO
Roxie Paone
16 years ago
I just tried a Carmenere from Chile. Calina 08 Reserva. Where I live it goes for 8.50, or try Kaiken Malbec from
Mendoza/Argentina sells for 9.50

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