Wine-savvy

[caloy76]

oh I see....since when pa kayo wala sa Galleria? It's been ages since I was there. Where exactly in Horseshoe?

i think 2-3 yrs na. Horseshoe village is in Q.C. near SJ. N. Domingo, C. Benitez banda. The name of the place now is "THE WINERY"

[Spurt]

bods, pm me na lng about the sched.

[bods1000]

i think 2-3 yrs na. Horseshoe village is in Q.C. near SJ. N. Domingo, C. Benitez banda. The name of the place now is "THE WINERY"

ok thanks for the info pare. Para ngang may nakita akong wine store dyan sa Horseshoe. Btw, puro German wines pa din ba kayo?

[bods1000]

bods, pm me na lng about the sched.

Sure will, pare! I assume you're here na...

[fatso8]

what's the best wine (red) under P1000? Thanks!

[zhaowushu]

what constitutes the "best" is very subjective indeed, depending on taste, occasion, etc. some like fruity, forward wines, others like more the complex ones. a "find" may be the 2000 solanes priorat selling less than 1k in santi's. this was given 90 pts by the wine spectator, and may be drinkable in a year or two. if its instant consumption, you can't go wrong with the aussie major labels (wolf blass, rosemount, etc.) that go for 500+. the other night, i had with friends a 1996 terra alta from spain selling for p600 and a 2000 louis latour mercurey from france selling for $16 at the duty free. if the wine is to your liking and you imbibe it in the company of friends, then this i think is what's the best.

[caloy76]

ok thanks for the info pare. Para ngang may nakita akong wine store dyan sa Horseshoe. Btw, puro German wines pa din ba kayo?

Nope pre but majority of our wines are German though. May austrian (gruner feltliner and tba), portuguese, spanish, champagne (besserat de bellefon), italian, s.african (golden kaan) and romanian (prahova valley).

[agxo3]

California has more good value wines than you can imagine. Turning Leaf is a cheap wine - it's Gallo's "other" label trying to fool those that know that E & J Gallo is not fit for human consumption.

 

I like reds - cabernet sauvignon from Napa and Sonoma Valleys (Hess, Noah's), zinfandel from the Sierra foothills (Noah's!!!), pinot noir from the Russian River Valley (Armida, Davis Bynum). Neibaum-Coppola (owned by Francis Ford Coppola of "The Godfather" fame) has a great red table wine that at $6/bottle is a steal. Livermore has Fenestra (mourvedre). Calistoga has Summers (charbono). All at $8-18 a bottle at retail.

 

I guess since I live close by all these places, I've become spoiled by the sheer variety and availability of wines. I could go drink a different wine every day for years and not run out of new choices!

 

With all this at my doorstep, I find little reason to buy European or Australian wines. (But I do anyway!) For those who like the sweet wines, go find and taste a passito de Pantelleria - from the island of Sicily. One of the best dessert wines around.

[Spurt]

what's the best wine (red) under P1000? Thanks!

dude, marami.... penfolds/rosemounts/lindemans- Australians. puro less than 1000 yan. california wines naman... searidge, salmon creek, esser

[boomouse]

pare halos pareho lang tayo..I haven't tasted a lot of wines pero preferred drink ko lang talaga...I haven't tasted port like you do. Port is fortified wine - with a higher alcohol content (wine ranges from 10 to 15%), and I do think that port is not made anywhere else but in Portugal only.

I never realized Canadian Icewine is expensive. I think it has to do with the added process of chilling that makes the price prohibitive. Ordinary wine basically just goes through fermentation.

When I saw these Chinese wines, I never really bothered to try them because, well let's face it - do the Chinese know how to make wine? But knowing the Chinese, time will come when I think they will get the hang of making wine - and that's when I will get to taste their product.

Hmmm....riesling. i've heard so much about it and I have never personally tasted it . It's an indigenous German grape variety but it's cultivated everywhere now and Australians have gotten good at making superb rieslings. More often, rieslings are made into sweet dessert wines - the ones Australians call stickies.

Thanks, ccl for the contributions and hope you visit often. We can share some wines...

Okay, here's my two cents from someone who went to a finishing school for young men and tutored by the late great gourmet/gourmand Lord Anthony "Lucullus" Moynihan of Leeds (the daddy of actress Maritoni Fernandez):

 

It used to be that the best and greatest wine for me would have to be French for that country truly boasts of some of the best fruits of the vine provided you have the bucks to part with. Forget he Chateau Petrus '82s we are not Erap, we do not have his money, clout, nor even a desire to be like him. But certainly, for important occasions, we could not afford to play russian roulette with the success of a business dinner. Experience with what is available will in fact drive you into greater economy. For the art of wine selection is to get the best wine for the least money. And there are gems out there. The inexperienced will go with rep*tation to ensure a successful. Here learning to read a wine label would be the best place to start.

 

A wine lover must be on the lookout for a few bits of information in the label:

 

1. The place where the grapes where grown

2. The year the grapes were harvested

3. The name of the vineyard, house or chateau

4. They type of grape used

5. The certification of origin of the wine which is regulated in different ways in different countries.

 

1. The place where the grapes are grown

 

This has to do with the nature (not quality) of the soil and weather in the area which has a large influnce in the personality of the wine. Also note that there are countries in the world that have not been tainted by the scourge of winemakers, the phylloxera virus that infects the grape. This is the bug that almost killed the French wine industry and is the same bug responsible for the emergence of wine growing areas in California and South America and even Australia.

 

To illustrate, the gravelly soil of the Tuscany region of Italy produces tart, dry reds which make perfect partners with the rich, often spicy sauces of Italian and Tuscan cooking. Drank with something else first timers would especially find these wines a bit sour as in Montepulcianno d'Abruzzo and some Chinatis. Contrast this to the heavy Merlots grown in the rich loamy soil of California.

 

The French are especially sensitive about the Loire valley wines and are finicky about which side of the Loire river the grapes were harvested from. The great Lucullus explains: it may seem frivolous but remember that there is only a small space tha separates the front side of a woman from her backside but the smell is very different. Same rule applies.

 

The bottom line is: paying attention to the source of the wine will not tell you where the best wines would come from. There is no such thing. Wine is very subjective. What agrees with you may not agree with the other guy. So be aware of the place that produce the wines that tickle your fancy.

 

Next installment... Coming soon.

[zhaowushu]

waxing nostalgic, it was a delight to have read the late great lucullus' columns at the defunct business day.

[bods1000]

what's the best wine (red) under P1000? Thanks!

If you're looking for good wines and hindi naman connoisseur yung makakasama mo, you'd be surprised at the number of very good wines under 1000. More likely than not, hindi mo minsan ma-distinguish yung difference between a wine that sells for 800pesos and a wine that sells for 500.

 

As the others have said, depende yan sa preference mo. If you will drink it now, don't buy the more expensive wines kasi kadalasan kailangan pa ng mga yon ng aging for several years before its full potential is realized.

 

Go look at wines with vintages 2001 or 2002 at price range of P450 to P600 - dyan safe ka na. You can choose French, Australian, California, Chilean, South African.

Kung red, you can go for a cabernet sauvignon or a shiraz; kung white, chardonnay or riesling are the best bets.

[bods1000]

what constitutes the "best" is very subjective indeed, depending on taste, occasion, etc. some like fruity, forward wines, others like more the complex ones. a "find" may be the 2000 solanes priorat selling less than 1k in santi's. this was given 90 pts by the wine spectator, and may be drinkable in a year or two. if its instant consumption, you can't go wrong with the aussie major labels (wolf blass, rosemount, etc.) that go for 500+. the other night, i had with friends a 1996 terra alta from spain selling for p600 and a 2000 louis latour mercurey from france selling for $16 at the duty free. if the wine is to your liking and you imbibe it in the company of friends, then this i think is what's the best.

pare thanks for the contribution!

As they say ang pinakamasarap daw na wine ay yung pinakahuli mong nainom

 

Pare where is the Terra Alta available?

[bods1000]

Nope pre but majority of our wines are German though. May austrian (gruner feltliner and tba), portuguese, spanish, champagne (besserat de bellefon), italian, s.african (golden kaan) and romanian (prahova valley).

thanks pare!

Aside from the Germans, I'm interested in the South African. How is Golden Kaan?

Pinotage ba ito?

[Spurt]

I attended a fine foods/wines exhibit in shangrila makati last april yata, then i got this brochure for ice wine (Pilliteri Estates Winery) Icewine Vidal from Canada, tried it and it's sweet. "Nectar of the gods", they say this wines are produced from frozen grapes when crushed/pressed giving minimal juice that is very concentrated.