Rate my total TotalWine haul, got the pick for $60 and everything else was $8-$18.
>>20969660*Pio for $60
>>20969660Stewart?
>>20969660Pretty obscure selection thats for sure. I respect that. Stellenbosch South Africa produces some good wine. Uruguay is also up and coming and producing some good Tannat and Albarino suprisingly. I like to see these sorts of regions get some love.The Vernaccia and the primitivo are fine table wines. The Pio Cesare will be delicious but give it a good decant.
Bump
>>20969660What kind of wine do you like?
>>20970654The good kind. Love Nebbiolo and Champagne from Cote de Blancs. I had a delicious chenin blanc earlier this week from Santa Barbara and I think I’ll open the steen later today, never had South African wine before and this stellenbosch gets great reviews on cellar tracker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IF6cddJX6A
>>20970884Can you give reasons for your ratings to someone who doesn't know what makes some wines better than others? Have you tried each one of those or are you assuming how good they'll be based on the type/location/winery/year?
>>20971142Nta but he’s rating them by country and variety.
>>20971217How does he know? I'm looking at the picture and I can see the first bottle is a south african chenin blanc and the third bottle is a tannat from uruguay, but the second bottle is just a cabernet / merlot / something (does that mean it's a blend?) from an unknown country, and I can't tell the country or variety of the other bottles.Even if I could see the country/variety of each bottle, how would I know if they're good? Do you guys memorize the taste differences between all those varieties of grapes grown in all these different regions?
>>20971102you into any bordeauxs yet?
>>20971241The blend has a silly Dutch name like sneedingfeeding which is an indicator it may be South African. The white has an Italian DOCG label on the neck. Puglia is a region in Italy and Primitivo is their name for Zinfandel. Pio is a famous producer and Barbaresco is a famous Italian variety. You can’t really read the sparkling wine label from this picture. Good wine leaves a lasting memory on you that’s different from other less memorable wines.
>>20971263Not yet, I was thinking of nabbing this Ch La Gaffeliere.They also had 2021 Ch Quinault L’Enclos and 2021 Ch D’Armhaillac Paulliac each for $45.
Had a bottle of this with lunch on the weekend. Very nice, and went well with the food. Probably about the limit of what I am willing to pay for a Malbec.
>>20971304miss the 17s and 21s, both are terrible and their value suffered from being right next to great vintages11s, 12s and 14s are drinking great right now despite being bad vintages, and should be reasonably priced if they're still on the shelfI believe you can scoop up Chevalier Rouge 2016 for a similar price, and that wine's great
Hey winefriend, just a PSA from someone who used to be in your shoes and was super stoked about the big selection: I'd recommend not shopping at total wine--their entire gimmick is pushing you towards their house brands that they get for almost nothing and mark up to an equivalent level of everything else they sell in that category. Any winery direct wine they're making 300-400% on your purchase rather than the standard 60% margin common in retail. The selection and prices seem great, but if you look up the price of any of their other offerings, the prices are markedly worse.If there are any small wine stores near you, you should consider giving them your business instead. You'll get consistently more interesting wines at every price point.
>>20971295>The blend has a silly Dutch name like sneedingfeeding which is an indicator it may be South African.>Good wine leaves a lasting memory on you that’s different from other less memorable wines.lmao couldn't make it any more obvious you're pretending you don't know where stellenbosch is
>>20972439I don’t touch total wine without using some 25-30% discount on a mixed half case of entry bottles of weirder shit I want to try out (like the South African stuff) or bottles that I already know what I’m kind of getting. plus my butcher is right around the corner from the totalwine but usually I go to the little boutique wine bar that retails all their bottles half off, the problem is their wine list changes 2-3 times per week so I can’t order ahead online or see their wine list like picrel on their website
>>20972628Yes I couldn’t tell you if stellenbosch was a producer or appellation.
>>20972649except it's on two of the bottles and on one stellenbosch clearly isn't the producer on the second, so in that case you'd be a retard with shockingly poor reading comprehension
>>20972660When the producers names are blowmequickens and sneedingfeeding you don’t really bother with anything else on the label
>>20972672*blowclippin’
>>20972672except sneedingfeeding could only be mocking stellenbosch on that label which happens to be some of the smallest text visibleyou're literally too stupid for this shit, almost sad considering how hard you try
>>20972672Stellenbosch is a reasonably renowned area for vineyards in SA.
Getting into Red Wine. Currently liking Shiraz and Malbec the most.Not biggest Merlot fan. Any other recs?
>>20972679It could, but it isn’t according to you. Seems like I did a good job picking a couple bottles. >>20972703I wouldn’t know I’ve never drank anything from South Africa before
>>20972879100% bullshit
Ok, so, hear me out,Peach wine mixed with fireball, 2 to 1 parts.It's absolutely delicious and it's what I classify as "danger booze" meaning it's ridiculously easy to chug it and get completely shitfaced.
>>20972918What is bullshit about finding two entry bottles from the South Africa section?
>>20971304You should looks for tags that say premium selection at total wine or look in the glass case in the front.
>>20973466I try to but the overwhelming majority is beyond my budget. In typical total wine fashion all their coupons and discounts almost never apply to their good shit, the pio barbaresco was one of those exceptions.
>>20972772Gutturnio
>>20972772sounds like you like juicy wines that are still drybarbera, cru beaujolais (morgon, fleurie, moulin-a-vent), st emillion, southern rhone, priorat
>>20972772Grenache, Tempranillo, Sangiovese.
>>20972439Not a winefag but a whiskeyfag.Some years ago Total Wine consistently had very low prices on whiskey, across the board.Nowadays their prices are quite high.They've gotten worse in recent years.
>>20974304I did a little shopping a month ago and less than a week apart the prices for premium bottles INCREASED 20-30% AND had a "new low price" tag on them. it's been a bad couple of years for sales across the board but fuckin hell.
>>20971102Update: the chenin blanc was very smoky and I think a bit mousy. Picrel was better, tasted like peaches and cream.
>>20969660>TotalWine
I'm glad I got into coffee snobbery instead of wine
>>20969660If I like Verdicchio, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc what should I try next?
>>20975099Albarino
>>20969660you got a pio cesare barbaresco 2019? nice. i would not open it before 2026, it will be too young. and if you do open it, sample it and if it's not amazing, consider letting it sit open in the fridge for a day and drink it on day 2 after an hour of warming up. barbaresco might be my favorite wine.
>>20971304>>20971523i sorta disagree. id rather recommend a better vintage but older. 2000 or 2005. i would even buy a less reputable but mature wine from these vintages than from 2011i have had 2009s who are not ready yet (because powerful vintage)
>>20972772depends on your budget:low budget: cotes du rhone village and simple chianti classico riservas, perhaps some beuajolaismedium budget: value nebs and sangioveses or chateauneuf du papesbig budget: anything goes. bordeaux and burgundy are mostly overpriced tho
>>20973472all bundling in all industries involves combining something good with godawful stuff that you cant sell otherwise. all bundling is for suckers
>>20969660You're an alcoholic.>inb4 typical alcoholic denialI've seen your posts before. You drink a lot.
>>20975099Chenin Blanc, 100%.Assyrtiko, Semillon and Albarino also good as that other anon mentioned.
I can't drink wine. It tastes good but anything more than two bottles and I go full retard.
>>20975099Muscadet
>>20976598Can you not drink less than 1.5L of wine?
>>20975367What kind of prices should I expect? Hard to find anything that old under $100 where I live but I don’t know what I’m looking for with Bordeaux terroir.
>In 1960 almost 80% of wine consimed in the US was fortified or dessert wineRetvrn
>>20969660>+ on SA Chenin - good value, SA Bordeaux blend >hear a lot about Uruguayan Tannat, never had though>not so sure about that Brazilian sparkling, looks booky>no opinion on Vernaccia>Primitivo Puglia pretty unexciting, has a Maroni sticker, bad sign>Pio Cesare not great but at least it's Barbaresco6/10 overall>>20978102>Etna rosso always fun>ditto Ruche>always like a good looking Muscadet>Chenin always good7.5/10 good picks but nothing massively excitingI'm a harsh marker
>>20978894What’re you drinking these days?
>>20978569You can even pair it with 1960s American cuisine!
>>20971263my advice remains to buy older bordeaux even if it means buying a slight notch beyond the quality level you were originally aiming at. for a great vintage like 2009 from a decent to good chateaux 15 years can be nothing and the wine can be still in its development. a primary concern should be avoiding wines are not showing their tasting profile yet. the younger the vintage, the more powerful the vintage, the more structured the chateaux's general profile, the more time it needs
>>20978282depends on where you live. in europe, near france, you can find bargains in the 80 to 130 bucks range, so yes under 100 euros/dollars is possible. but even then you're paying a premium for bordeaux. you can unironically find equally as enjoyable wines (or more!) in tuscany or piedmont or chateauneuf. the difference is not so much quality but in what fruit profile the wines show case. in the case of left wing bordeaux it is usually cassis.if you're more constrained on budget it makes no sense to buy bordeaux (or you insist and save up for a bottle of pontet-canet 2003, which i just had and which is excellent).this wine here was wine spectator's #7 on its top 100 last year and it has excellent quality:>https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/tenute+tignanello+marchesi+antinori+rsrv+docg+chianti+cls+tuscany+italy/2020/it's affordable and it completely changes it's tasting profile over 5 hours in the bottle from feminine to masculine. magical. make sure to serve your wine at right temperature in any case, slightly below room temperature
>>20975362*half an hour or warming up. or for however long it takes to be slightly below room temperature
>>20979761I’ve tried the Tignanello Sangiovese+Bordeaux varietal blend, but never their Chianti Classico label. The budget I can work around much more easily with Italian wines like in picrel. It’s Napa, Burgundy and Bordeaux I’m having trouble getting into because of the market and classification system. Im considering just ordering a bunch of $30 futures from different subappelations and just committing mass infanticide to see if I can score on something.
>>20979763I’m looking to get a case of Pio’s latest single vineyard barbaresco which is supposed to be one of those age worthy barbarescos that’s also ready to drink right now. this 2019 pio apparently has a much higher percentage of grapes coming from that single vineyard than their other releases so I’m opening this 2019 within the next couple weeks.
>>20980006i generally try to age barbarescos 7+ years before opening and barolos 10+ years. for younger wines, i prefer chateauneuf-du-pape.the antinori chianti classico riserva opens very feminine and floral with a tannic aftertaste because it is too young. but after a few hours in the open bottle, all those notes have largely disappeared and given way to very pleasant tobacco notes like you find in aged cab sauv from bordeaux. it's pretty good value imho.
>>20980070So if I wanted a Cab Sauv/Franc dominant blend thats more elegant, refined, restrained style with lighter extraction, what am I looking for? Is the value play to hunt “bad” vintages from respected producers in appellations famous for big bold styles? Or do I have it backwards, and should just try some literal who out of Margaux in a very highly rated vintage?
>>20980165i recently had the chateau du tertre 2000 for 80 euros and it was very enjoyable. not more enjoyable than the chianti classico riserva for half the price but that's bordeaux for ya. you must appreciate the green bellpepper flavor of cab franc for that thoconversely I also had the 2012 beychevelle which has been underrated by wine advocate imho. it's a very elegant wine just lacking oomph because poor vintageyou may want to consult winecellarinsider for your eventual pick though he's also off sometimes. there's no guarantees it's an expensive gamble
>>20980180Saved. my favorite cab franc from Santa Barbara had a lot of green bell pepper. As long as it’s not like shitty Chilean Carmenere half raw half rotten green bell pepper thing.
Thinking Ruche or Barbaresco for this one. Will make tagliolini tomorrow.
>>20979970if you want great bordeaux for the money, your best bet are sattelite appelations like fronsacst emillion is generally pretty affordable too, but it's a big region and quality is sporadicChateau Capbern is great wine for the money, used to be sub-thirty, but I think it's crept up to around 40 thee days
>>20979389Lots of Grenache, Riesling, getting into Cabernet Sauvignon/Bordeaux blends too.Lots of underpriced Cabernet floating around at the moment that doesn't have too much new oak or ripeness. No one's drinking it anymore.
>>20971304La Gaff '21 was mid compared to any other similar price range St. Emilion. Even then I'd strongly suggest not to buy any '21 Bordeaux that is over 13.5% ABV as it's likely to have been chaptalized given the disease pressure they had and not as hot summer as 18-19-20. Unironically Pessac-Leognan and Saint-Julien had the best wines from '21. If the store has Lagrange or Olivier from '21 get those instead.
>>20972772Priorat reds are fun if you wanna go heavier fruit and earth and softer tannins (usually) from the Malbec side.Also try some Syrah from Northern Rhone crus like Saint-Joseph and Crozes-Hermitage and some examples from Ardeche. Lots of value and stylization from lean and floral to meaty and rich Syrah.
>>20973522This is actually the best pick in this thread.Or better yet, try Macchiona. That wine will change anyone's opinions on Emilia-Romagna as a quality wine region that doesn't just make Lambrusco.
>>20975099Arneis or Savagnin.
For last year's Christmas I bought pic related for all my family, as well as a single bottle of Khvanchkara for the table, it was so delightful and novel I bought another case this year, and am also looking to explore more Georgian varieties leaning towards their white/amber wines next, anyone have knowledge/recommendations they can throw my way?
>>20982882Pheasant's Tears is a widely available producer that's pretty solid. I think all of their wines are dry and pretty savoury though, so pretty different style to the bottle you've bought.Most white/amber wines from Georgia are dry I'm pretty sure btw.
>>20982771Noted.
perro bodeguero
picked this up for Thanksgiving.I don't really buy wine except for holidays.
>>20982618nta but i cant get into merlot except as a supplement and wont buy if it's more than a third
>>20984090Winery dogs are peak soul. Every single one I've met have been so fun and they're always so curious about who the visitors are.