The Final Gear Wine Society

Maybe so, but I just can't force myself to drink a warm beer - first sip and i will give up. Shows that i'm uncivilized :p
It is just an axiom for me - beer so cold your teeth hurt.

Off-offtopic: I just waken up without hangover, having drunk three bottles of wine i was writing about above. So i guess the wine was as good as it tasted yesterday.
 
https://pic.armedcats.net/2008/03/11/BerberanaDragon_flaske.jpg
This one's been one of my favourite wines for quite some time now. It's a Spanish Tempranillo wine from the Castile region in Spain. It's a lovely supple red wine with a spicy touch to it. Hints of red fruit and dark chocolate with a tangy, dry aftertaste. Every time i open a bottle of this, it's empty before i know it and i wonder why there's so little in the bottle. It's a wine i can recommend to anyone.
 
So this evening I finally completed a personal quest of mine that's been bugging me the past few months - to try some zinfandel. Bugging me since Oz and James series 2, oddly enough.

Bear in mind my situation, in France 99% of a supermarket's wine selection (which will be pretty damn big) is French wine and they might have 10 or so 'world wines' to choose from, max. Since I'm not willing - or able - to splash out, I've gone without until now. Not even trips to local wine merchants have sorted me out.

However, by chance today I went out of town to a big hypermarket, simply out of nosiness, and whilst browsing the wine section I spotted the elusive zin! Admittedly, it was a bottle of Gallo family 2005 Californian zin (read : the cheap stuff), but it was indeed zinfandel. ?5 lighter, I took it home.

So I'm now sitting here, sipping it. It is definitely different to the wines I am used to - Bordeaux region reds. To me, it doesn't have 'woody high notes', or indeed high notes at all. If wine were music, this would be a bass line. It's a very pleasant bass line, at that. It sits well in my mouth. It's not hugely complex. It is more sweet than I am used to. I can taste rich chocolate gateau and can smell a hint of tobacco. I'm sure this isn't a particularly great wine, but in this context - as something I've searched for for a while, and as a 'taster' to the world of zin, then it does admirably. I'm looking forward to being able to try some 'proper' zinfandel when I'm next back in the UK.

edit - exciting! If I return the empty bottle in Canada I get a refund!
 
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Yep, zinfandel is the American V8 of wines, in that even the crappiest ones (ie smog-strangled 70s examples or $5 mass-market wines) retain their fundamental character.

I'm sipping at yet another nice malbec, which, to continue the car analogy, is more like the Japanese car of grapes: does things well at good prices, but lacks its own identity. They always end up tasting like shiraz or carbernet, with nothing that makes them stand out. Not complaining, mind; this one's $8.50 and compares favorably with most sub-$20 reds, but conniseurs may sniff at a lack of "character".
 
Yep, zinfandel is the American V8 of wines, in that even the crappiest ones (ie smog-strangled 70s examples or $5 mass-market wines) retain their fundamental character.

Maybe this is me showing my naivety to the world of wine here, or maybe I'm having one of my 'really stupid moments', but I'm understanding your analogy. If I can continue it, if we take an American muscle car as being a straightforward recipe of naturally-aspirated V8 and RWD...

Here's a snippet of chat that just happened :

<@teeb> that's weird
<@teeb> i'm actually tasting flavours
* @teeb stupid comment
<@teeb> not that i'm usually taste-deficient
<@teeb> but you know when people eat or drink something and say "oh, i can taste coffee in that" or "oh, it has a hint of raspberry"
<@teeb> i can actually see what they're getting at for once
<@teeb> i taste blackcurrant and it is nice

I have to admit that in the past I've not been able to pick out distinct flavours before (look on the last page, where I cheat by saying a ?50 bottle of wine has "a number of fruity flavours" and then don't name them) but I can definitely recognise different flavours in this. I'm pleased! It makes the wine that bit more fun.

Maybe it's because in a simple recipe of V8 and RWD it's easy to spot the ingredients, I don't know. I may be taking this analogy way too far.
 
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Oh no that Gallo Zin didn't even taste like real wine to me, I've had it before. It was right after I watched that episode of Oz and James which was only a month or so ago. It was crap in my opinion and not anything like a real Zin at all, it was more like a white zin than the red zins in the Oz and James episode. I had a bottle of the cheap Ravenswood Zin like they did in the episode and it was much better, there was a more expensive one in the store but I settled for the cheaper. It was much more characteristic of Zins than that Gallo one, that to me tasted like a winecooler you'd drink only to get drunk. After we had it my Dad made a new rule to never buy cheap wine in a 1.5l bottle because he disliked it so.
 
Big bump.

VirginVinesShiraz_op_240x600.jpg


I had a bottle of beardy Branson's $7 Shiraz today. To my surprise it's really very good, especially considering the price. Nicely fruity, and spicy, but has a bit of mint and caramel to it. Tastes not unlike a Andes desert chocolate-mint candy. I think I prefer it over almost any cheap wine I've had. Not much for Chardonnay but I think I'll have to give that a go as well. Hell he can start a record company from nothing, run cheap a cheap Airline against British Airways, Balloon around the world, I guess he can do wines too, although that cola thing didn't work out to well did it.

EDIT: MOVE TO FOOD SUBFORUM
 
I approve of Twerp's thread necromancy, because it meant I went on the internet and I found this:

I had a bottle of the cheap Ravenswood Zin like they did in the episode and it was much better, there was a more expensive one in the store but I settled for the cheaper. It was much more characteristic of Zins than that Gallo one.

That's exactly what I did after watching that episode of Oz & James for the first time. I'd only ever heard of "White Zin" up to that point, on one of those circulating-on-email jobs which was a helpful guide for women showing how what wine a man drank corresponded with his personality: "White Zin" = "he's gay". I wondered why that was, and soon found out that "white" Zin is ros?...

So I thought I'd give the proper red Zin a go. And as bafranksbro says, even the cheap Ravenswood version (Vintners Blend) is a proper job. I'm lucky enough to be able to get the next one up (Old Vine) for ?8.50 in my local Sainsbury's, so if anyone this far from California wants to give it a shot, this is the one to go for if you can get it; otherwise, the Vintners Blend will do fine.
 
So I thought I'd give the proper red Zin a go. And as bafranksbro says, even the cheap Ravenswood version (Vintners Blend) is a proper job. I'm lucky enough to be able to get the next one up (Old Vine) for ?8.50 in my local Sainsbury's, so if anyone this far from California wants to give it a shot, this is the one to go for if you can get it; otherwise, the Vintners Blend will do fine.

I'll have to remember that. Morrisons had an actual Napa Valley Zin for ?15 (don't remember which), but sadly it's outside my budget.

I also amused myself by playing 'price compare' - as far as I can tell, the French wines cost 2.5 times as much in the UK than as in France (for the same bottle!).
 
I also amused myself by playing 'price compare' - as far as I can tell, the French wines cost 2.5 times as much in the UK than as in France (for the same bottle!).
While in a supermarket in St. Malo, the words of Oz Clarke flashed through my head. "Never buy a Ch?teauneuf-du-Pape for less than 20 quid, because it will be no good." So I passed up the opportunity to buy the Ch?teauneuf-du-Pape on offer at 12 euros - even taking into account the price difference that I'd expect when buying in France, I didn't think it would pass the Oz test. Maybe it would. What I went for in the end, a 9 euro St. Emilion Grand Cru, was a fine substitute.
 
I'm getting more and more interested in wines these days. Especially after some real nice wine tasting in Tuscany. Most of the wines from the Tuscany region are made mainly with Sangiovese, a grape I had some bad experience with in the past. As it turns out because too cheap version are almost always BAD (too much tannine, often sour). But in Florence, supermarket Chianti Classico's at >?8 were fantastic.

Another grape I'm exploring at the moment is Carm?n?re, mostly grown in Chili. Even the relatively cheap Casillero del Diablo Carm?n?re (from wineproducer Conchya y Toro) is wonderful, although the alcohol is not hidden very subtly. Can anyone recommend other Carm?n?res?
 
I approve of Twerp's thread necromancy, because it meant I went on the internet and I found this:



That's exactly what I did after watching that episode of Oz & James for the first time. I'd only ever heard of "White Zin" up to that point, on one of those circulating-on-email jobs which was a helpful guide for women showing how what wine a man drank corresponded with his personality: "White Zin" = "he's gay". I wondered why that was, and soon found out that "white" Zin is ros?...

So I thought I'd give the proper red Zin a go. And as bafranksbro says, even the cheap Ravenswood version (Vintners Blend) is a proper job. I'm lucky enough to be able to get the next one up (Old Vine) for ?8.50 in my local Sainsbury's, so if anyone this far from California wants to give it a shot, this is the one to go for if you can get it; otherwise, the Vintners Blend will do fine.
Oreally?

IMG_3446.jpg

Bought this the other day, went with Sonoma over Lodi and Napa. Haven't tried it yet, but I have had the vintners blend which is smooth but still just OK. To be honest I can get wines just as OK as the Ravenswood Vintners blend for much less than $8.99. Hoping this Zin has more character.
 
IMG_3446.jpg

Bought this the other day, went with Sonoma over Lodi and Napa. Haven't tried it yet, but I have had the vintners blend which is smooth but still just OK. To be honest I can get wines just as OK as the Ravenswood Vintners blend for much less than $8.99. Hoping this Zin has more character.
I've not seen that one before. Possibly it hasn't arrived on this side of the Atlantic yet.
 
I'll tell yous guys how it is when I crack it open, I got that Virgin Shiraz, the cheapy vintners blend zin, and a 12 pk of Guinness (Which I bought for $6.69!) that are all priorities before the good stuff, I just hope it is better than the vintners blend stuff. No Wimpy wines. . . right :confused:
 
I think it is an OK wine (well the make - my mate is into the Reds in a big way) and I think that he liked the make (he can afford the 25 GBP cost too!). I did not try it out - I was on a French white Chablis, Mrs Cobol74 was driving home, God bless her.
 
So this evening I finally completed a personal quest of mine that's been bugging me the past few months - to try some zinfandel. Bugging me since Oz and James series 2, oddly enough.

However, by chance today I went out of town to a big hypermarket, simply out of nosiness, and whilst browsing the wine section I spotted the elusive zin! Admittedly, it was a bottle of Gallo family 2005 Californian zin (read : the cheap stuff), but it was indeed zinfandel. ?5 lighter, I took it home.

So I'm now sitting here, sipping it. It is definitely different to the wines I am used to - Bordeaux region reds. To me, it doesn't have 'woody high notes', or indeed high notes at all. If wine were music, this would be a bass line. It's a very pleasant bass line, at that. It sits well in my mouth. It's not hugely complex. It is more sweet than I am used to. I can taste rich chocolate gateau and can smell a hint of tobacco. I'm sure this isn't a particularly great wine, but in this context - as something I've searched for for a while, and as a 'taster' to the world of zin, then it does admirably. I'm looking forward to being able to try some 'proper' zinfandel when I'm next back in the UK.
I can pretty much agree with you, though my taste is different. The "complex" (and dry) Stuff actually puts me off, so when I tried Zin (5? too) some weeks a ago ... it was like I finally found the grape for my taste. What It tasted like was how (in my mind) wine should taste like ... a bit basic and I would love to taste some carefull blends ... but as a drink (and not as a fancy lifestyle) it?s what I?d expect from wine. Thx to Oz and James :)
edit - exciting! If I return the empty bottle in Canada I get a refund!
:lol:
 
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