[ds968]

Oh, those whacky hominid ancestors and their indulgences in sweet fruits , lol.

Some people like to taste soil in their glass so they lean toward the French wines . Others ( myself included ) are fans of big California cabs and zins. Chaq'un a son gout . :-)

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[Roboman]

Okay well I've enjoyed browsing this thread. I love the senserity ..... "After opening, it should be drank within 15 minutes"!!!

Seriously though, I love wine as a topic as well as a drink/sensation (because I think wine is more than just a drink). The subjectivity makes it interesting as does the passion. Wine tasting here is generally a pleasure, though one does on occasion run into the infamous French ####. In France they talk about "le terroir" , so not just the grape variety but also the slope of the terrain, the soil type, the preceding crops etc etc. Now I'm not an expert so cannot really judge, but the local vigneron have something to say about every aspect of producing wine, absolutely everything makes a difference. ... do they remind you of impassioned 968 owners??

I forgot to add my best tasting wine ... I added "tasting" to separate from wines and occasions like Chris's birthday as mentioned earlier. Cyril Cordina Syrah 2015, Lagrasse. Absolutely spectacular nose, I could have spent the evening just sniffing it instead of drinking. Good solid taste, no roughness. It is a one-off, preceding and following years have not been close on impact, but typical of a small productor he has sold out and is unlikely to match it again; I was lucky.. I have wine tasted through Chateau Neuf, Bordeaux, Gammay, and other regions of France, Rioja, Emporda, Tempranillo, in Spain, Alsace, Riesling, Mosel, in Germany, some vineyards in UK, and would you believe the Rift Valley in Ethiopia? Rift Valley Red is not bad when you've had nothing for a week or so! But this 2015 Syrah was great, I seem to remember my concerted opinion was "bloody hell, what is this?!" ....

I'm going to have to look for American wines in the "foreigner" section of Carrefour. I'll let you know how it works out, and if it doesn't, then where else to search.

Santé.

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[Rap]

Rift Valley red is not bad when you’ve had nothing for a week. Geez that sounds like Mark Twain. That’s a great line to remember.

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[Roboman]

Happy to add to the cultural melange Rap. Today I took some photos for you guys but now am a bit tired and tomorrow I'm tied up, I'll try to post them on the weekend. Shots of the vineyards hereabouts and South to the snow covered Pyrennes. I also tried to find American wine in Carrefour. They had a section "Californie" .... but it was filled with South American stuff so, more later ......

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[Roboman]

Hi Rap, et al, Autumn is a wonderful time of the year hereabouts. That's a fairly scrubby set of vines (though the grapes may be just fine), but look at those trees in the background; they are on fire!!


My neighbour tells me that the wind has normally got up by now and blown the leaves off the trees. This year has been calmer, and so many many trees have spectacular coulorful displays; it makes for great top down driving.


   

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[Rap]

Marvelous pics. Nothing like a spirited drive on a beautiful day! We are sitting under a coating of ice and snow and the cars are up for the winter.

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[Roboman]

"Spirited drive" ... entirely agree. Summer is wonderful, but somehow the crispness in the air makes it more exhilarating. Here the winter is short and sharp, but rarely dull. Crisp sunny days, top down, heater on, a scarf to protect the neck .... great driving! Sorry your cars are "impounded", until next time .....


Actually I don't believe you do nothing, so what "racing" happens in Winter?

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[ds968]

A scarf to protect the neck ?! That’s just sooooooo French !

All you really need is a twist top bottle of wine, as opposed to a cork bottle , for obvious reasons : it’s much easier to open ...while one hand is on the steering wheel !

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[Rap]

Actually contemplating a simulator. Slicks don’t grip so well in the cold and snow!

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[ds968]

So you guys will laugh, and Ill likely be ridiculed for this , and while no way near the best wine Ive had , its ( IMO ) the best wine Ive had below a $ 100 retail price point . Way, way below, which is the remarkable aspect ; about $ 15.


And no I havent picked it because of the elegantly sexy label design.. ( even though for some reason the posted photo is squashed ! but it looks very nice in reality ). Heck , I didnt even know what it looked like because I only had a glass of it and really liked it , so I asked the waiter to bring the bottle over so I can get the details and buy some . Ordered a case of it the next day


Its a 2014 .


Yes, a Lodi winery of all places .


.        

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[Roboman]

Actually contemplating a simulator. Slicks don’t grip so well in the cold and snow!

Ah, okay I understand, racing only. My 968 is in DD mode, unfortunately I came late to Porsches. I've done many "time trials" but not raced, I'm sad about that!

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[Roboman]

my understanding is that above $50 you are not paying for the quality of the wine, you are paying for rarity/exclusivity of some sort. The cost of producing a bottle of wine in France (Chris will know) is only around $2, and the rest covers other costs; advertising, salaries, leasing, etc. etc., .... after that the price is down to marketing. I'm not comfortable paying $100+ for a bottle of wine, but suspect I might be disappointed with the taste of a $200 bottle, but might appreciate the occasion. I have a 1987 bottle of Paziols wine in my cave which I won't open. The cave was in poor condition when we bought the house, so to me it is better to leave the bottle "as is", rather than open it and be disappointed. Wine ... wonderful conversation!

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[ds968]

My taste buds are not refined enough to detect and appreciate the difference between, say, a $ 200 wine and a $ 500 ,or more, wine . ( and Ive had many in those categories , courstesy of the rather unlimited expense accounts of the commercial insurance industry with which I have dealt since 1980 ; a group of fine people but also who seem incapable of speaking about business unless its over a high priced meal, with an even higher priced wine ..) However, in my real time ( and using my wallet ) I have consumed wines as inexpensive as $ 10 / a bottle to maybe as much as $ 120 , or so / bottle . I have a mental block which stops me from spending more than that for a bottle ..

Now, I can definitely and easily tell the difference between that $ 10 bottle and the $ 100 bottle in probably 90% of the cases ( no pun intended ) the higher priced wine tasting consistently better to me -and I dont think its a price-driven psychosomatic effect. But sort of agreeing with Robomans statement about pricing criteria, because in the $ 50 to $ 100 category, I have a much harder time distinguishing a marked difference as consistently as I do in the lower price categories.

Just my own palette speaking here, which does not mean much to wine aficionados who might put up a strong argument against my opinions validity ...

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[Rap]

Agree with your assessment. We always speculate what a bottle of wine in a restaurant actually costs in the state store. I’ve found that in decent restaurants the cheapest bottle of wine can often be a find. This is due to the fact that they are not going to put a bad bottle of wine on their list just because of its price. 

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[Roboman]

"My taste buds are not refined enough" ..... mine too, and actually I don't wish to go down the path of describing wine to the minute detail as I believe ... though am probably going to get punished for this .... it misses the point.  I REALLY enjoy wine, have a reasonable stock, and as you can imagine it is not far from any conversation here in France. But the wine growers don't go on about the taste of blackberry or honey or prunes etc, they are more interested in the balance of tannins, when that will diminish to their own palate, and the complexity of taste .... rarely trying to describe the layers of complexity, more just that it is there.  Having said that, a bottle of Syrah is one of my favourites; it seems to have complexity without the need to blend with other varieties.

 

"[color=rgb(40,40,40)] in decent restaurants the cheapest bottle of wine can often be a find .... " good point, good restaurants value their reputation.  Frequently I don't know the labels available and tend to aim mid-range, I think next time I shall test your theory Rap. [/color][color=rgb(40,40,40)] [/color]

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[Rap]

While I might get punished for this, I was referring to restaurants here in the states. I have no reference point for others. Although it is somewhat logical to assume the case might be the same. I’ve had luck with it though I don’t do it all the time, only when I’m stuck with that I’m unfamiliar with. We often joke about the descriptions of wines and wonder who thinks these things up.

chris might comment on this!


Do others notice their post number doesn’t change or is it just mine?

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[Chris Vais]

So, the story on restaurant wine markups, at least in the US, is that most bottles are offered at anywhere from 2 to 3 times their wholesale cost. It isn't unusual for wineries who want to move product to discount their wholesale price to a distributer. The price you pay for a glass of wine in a restaurant or bar is usually the the wholesale cost of the bottle. There are three or four glasses of wine in a bottle depending on how generous the pour is. The business needs to recover the wholesale priced paid with the first glass because if the bottle isn't consumed by the end of the day, it generally gets dumped. Some winery tasting rooms will hold a bottle over to the next day if they have a way to gas the bottle. You are seeing more wine bars the use a nitrogen to move wine from bottles to glass which keeps the wine fresh in a partially full bottle, which can lead to a lower glass price. More and more wineries are offering wine in small kegs.

 

When I settle into a permanent residence here in Oregon, I'm going to have a small wine bar in the house where I can have say 3 or 4 different bottles on tap. 

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[Roboman]

Hi Chris et al, we use a "pump" to create a vacuum in a partly used bottle ( I know, I know, what is a partly drunk bottle??) I'm not sure how long it lasts or how it compares with using nitrogen, but it seems to extend life to the next day at least. I also think that possibly has to do with the strength of the wine, usually 14% or more.


Tonight was a strange experience .... once a month in our village we have an "atelier de cuisine" (cooking workshop), usually about 15pax, mainly French. The food is great but the wine variable; this is not a rich area, people bring all sorts of stuff.


Tonight was a slightly larger group, it is pre-Christmas, there were 20 people, and the conversations were very loud.


I found it impossible to concentrate on the wine. Given our recent conversations my thoughts were directed towards the wine rather than the food, so I bought a 2006 Grenache from a few villages away and tried to savor the moment. But it was so noisy I couldn't "keep the taste" in my head


Has anyone else experienced this?

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[Rap]

Do you have that problem in noisy restaurants? Noise generally means people and this implies conversation which reduces keeping the taste in your head.

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[Roboman]

Eeee Rap, I wasn't dribbling!


Seriously though, it was a strange experience not being able to concentrate on the wine. Quite frustrating.

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