Red wine question

I'm not a big fan of wine, so that's the first part of my question - any suggestions for a good red wine for someone just becoming familiar with wine?

Also, my husband has been told that red wine should only be served at room temperature, not chilled. Is this true?

Start with Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon for playing with reds. Go on from there.

I would recommend you purchase Andrea Immers Book, great wine made simple. You will learn more then you ever thought and you and your spouse will have fun learning.

Click on the book it will get you to the ordering site.



To answer your red wine question. Many many red wines are server at room temperature. However, since you are paying you can enjoy it anyway you would like it.

But the nose and aromatics of most red wines show better at 57 F to 75 F than any other temperature range.

Kendall-Jackson Merlot from California is a good starter for reds.

Matt

Great - thanks for the tip!

A very good, but not too expensive wine is a Louis Martini cab (also available in reserve for a touch more money). It was my first wine and loved it!

As for room temperature, each wine has its own character. I normally drink wine with a great meal. But when I am drinking a wine to taste/test it, is start tasting the wine after breathing for a few minutes just after being open (when it is still fairly chilled). Then I repeatedly taste it every few minutes or so as it warms. As the wine warms, you will personally be able to taste the flavor/aroma/bouquet become more intense. There will come a point where it reaches its heighth and further temperature increase won't make the flavor any better (and may make it worse).

In my experience, I don't believe that solid room temperature has ever given me the best flavor...but letting it sneak away from 55F does increase enjoyment. Hope that helps.

I think it is all about personal preference with the temperature...My mom drinks red wine with ice, which I think is terrible. But whatever works!

Also important to note... room temperature 72 degrees f. is not really room temperature. Original room temperature was down in the high 50's so even the big reds deal well with a little chill. There is a restaurant in Vegas call 55degrees which is a play on the "perfect" temperature to store and serve wine. I still prefer white a little colder and reds around 60. It is indeed preference.

I would not go just merlot on your first time out. I would save up a little and get a few different ones to compare and figure out your tastes that way your second venture will be more enlightened. Maybe a cheap 05 Bordeaux ($13), they can get exorbinately expensive but if your drinking it right away as opposed to aging it the cheap one will taste plenty good enough particularily to a beginner, then maybe a Tannat ($20) which will be taste of berries and will give you an idea of how much you like those flavors. Cabernet Sav. is kinda looked at as big dog and you might run into tannins and they're all over the place in price but expect to pay at around 20 for something decent. Shiraz/Syrah is great from Australia and the Petit Syrah from California rocks but this wine is very peppery so I usually reserve it for when I make steak au poive or am eating something bold and flavorful.

Hope this helped. Cheers:beer:

Sauvignon

A red wine to try - Bouwland Cabernet Sauvignon - Merlot - 2004... a nice powerful wine . bottlenotes(an online website) is a good place to learn more about wine if your just getting familiar with wines. Also a great place to share your tasting notes and reviews
To answer the second part of your question - Most red wine should be served at room temperature. The noteable exception being a French wine called Beaujolais which is to be served chilled.

Try the Spanish produced RIOJA , this one exists in red white and rose(pink) , It is dry and excellent and usually very cheap, I was stationed in South East Asia, and as these countries don't have a tradition of Wine drinking, one can get excellent wines there for price of a song, Rioja was around $4 in Bangkok and Osaka, the French were slightly higher, so if you cant get it at that price go for it, other wise the locally produced ones, with Usual fictitious and grandiloquence Appellation, like Genuine Rhine Riesling from Wondiligong in Western Australia!

zinfandel and cabernet are best served at room temperature. white wines are the ones to be served chilled. :beer:

Shiraz from Australia would be a good starter, a McLaren Vale or a Margaret River. In some situations red is nice slightly chilled - if you are having dinner al fresco, or a bbq in the garden -a nice red with an hours chilling is great with bbq'd steak or lamb

You live in california so your picks of Merlot are many. Pick anyone of them, you can't go wrong..........Drink Merlot, try different wineries and then after a year move up to cabernet Sav. There are 1000's to choose from in Napa Valley..............Good luck...Bill

That may depend on what "room temperature" actually is:), if it is in the 60s, OK, above 70°F. begins to get "tricky".

If you have a Trader Joes out there, go get your wine there. Cheap, good wine all around. I prefer the dry Italians. Charles Shaw has had some great reviews, very inexpensive.

Hello There,

In my opinion that's too broad a question to ask. The range and variety of wines, red or otherwise, is such that it is near impossible to suggest something only on the basis that they are a beginner. Its kind of like asking what sort of juice is good. Or what kind of meat is good. The answer is totally depended on you. What kind of tastes do you like? What can't you stand? Do drink alcohol at all? What do you like in texture of beverages? What sort of textures pluck at your gag reflex? This sort of information is important because I would hate the thought I might recommend a wine to somebody really interested in appreciating the stuff that might offend them. The whole experience could grind to a halt right there.

--Al

I couldn't agree more with this. Basically, wine all comes down to personal preference and the only way you get to know it is by trial and error. This is where Trader Joes comes in. They offer Charles Shaw wine in many different varieties for $2. Yep. $2. In fact, my mom and I call it "2 buck chuck" for short.
It is delicious, seriously. I personally love their cab or pino. BUt try them all! It can't hurt and you can get to know what kind is best for you.
Same goes for temp. If you order red wine in a restaurant they would never give you it cold or iced, because thats not the way its served, but I know plenty who prefer it that way. So really, it's up to you.. Enjoy!

I like the Fetzer wines, when I'm looking for a cheap fruity wine.

I have found that wines below $6 aren't worth drinking.

I'm in total agreeement with that. I've never heard any one say any thing good about two buck chuck. I won't even cook with that.
A few bottles that I have tried lately from Costco if you can find them:
2003 Siderall, an imported blend but excellent at $16
2006 Savenelli, These were $16 a bottle and they rate an easy 90 points. If you find them in stock at Costco buy every bottle. It really is that good.
Trapiche Oak Cask Cabernet runs around $13 a bottle and is a very good bottle.

Haven't had those two, I'll have to check my local Costco.

Costco surprisingly has really good wines. I was in there one time and two collectors came in wanted a few cases of one particular wine, and said they needed the boxes and everything.

Last Holiday season Costco here sold Duckhorn Three Palms Merlot for around $70 a bottle. That's an absolute steal. One local store here has a few French wines up to $600 and they even stock a Louis XIII cognac at X-mas. ($1600)
This year I cleaned out a local store when they stocked a 2006 Trapiche Vina Adriana Venturin Malbecat $40 a bottle. This one was rated at 95 points. This is a great bottle to either hold a few years or drink now. It is with out question one of the best wines I have ever had in $40 price range.
Having said that the 2006 Savenelli Malbec can give it a serious run for the money. If I find that at Costco again I will buy every bottle I can get my hands on.

Perhaps my cooking isn't quite up to the level of some others', but I cook almost exclusively with Two Buck Chuck.

In the reds, I find the Shiraz is especially useful for many things because it's quite juicy and reduces well; and the Merlot is very useful too, especially for saucing or dishes calling for a drier, burgundy style red (even though Merlot isn't a Burgundy grape).

Among the whites, the Chardonnay has very little oak -- a good thing for a cooking white, but the Sauvignon Blanc is more useful. It has practically no varietal character at all -- the archtype of "generic white wine."

I also use Charles Shaw to make wine punches, such as Sangria, Kir, and wine coolers. Their Beaujolais Nouveau is very good for this, and the Shiraz is no slouch either. You can even use the Beaujolais Nouveau for a wine spritzer. Just make sure you use plenty of ice.

We go through a case of Two Buck Chuck every couple of months, easy.

In my limited experience cooking with and drinking wines, a mere forty years or so, I find that most of the characteristics which make a good wine good (as opposed to a simple table wine) cook off quickly or are completely masked when mixed as a punch. I mean which eno-subtleties will you notice coming through the 7 Up?

IMO, Two Buck Chuck is a completely reasonable and wonderfully thrifty choice for quite a few things. Of course that's just me. Your mileage may vary, and "a votre sante!" if it does. A gezundt on your kepeleh even.

As to actually drinking Charles Shaw straight, well it's drinkable. But not exactly a first choice if you can afford even a little more. Trader Joe's (Charles Shaw's primary outlet) certainly sells much better wines in the still inexpensive $4 - $7 price range. For instance, Big House Red is a heck of a bargain, very suitable for barbecues, tippling while you cook, and filling a carafe for an informal meal.

There are a lot things to consider when pairing. Expensive wines tend to be "big" wines, and not always an appropriate pairing because many simple dishes will disappear in comparison, while dishes with their own big flavors might compete. For instance, I'd choose a big red to go with a steak, but not with smoked brisket sauced in a regular tomato-based barbecue sauce.

Inexpensive, simple table wines certainly have their place. While Shaw isn't my first choice for that purpose (table wine), I'm not going to look down on it or someone who likes it either.

De gustibus non disputandum,
BDL

All this talk about two buck chuck has me laughing. We, in this country, are such snobs. I have a friend who grew up in France and his story used to be that his parents used to buy wine from a guy who drove in with a water tanker truck (a small one) and would distribute wine that way. All the families brought their own liter bottles and just had them filled up, costing the equivalent of a few bucks. The average Frenchman doesn't drink AOC wines, he drinks what we would call table wine. If he is drinking a few glasses a day he can't afford to be spending the equivalent of $15-20 a bottle. We are so label coincse that we turn our noses up at any inexpensive wine without ever giving it a try.

I disagree with this. I don't know a whole lot about wine but I like what I like. I always buy a Sicilian dry red wine and a chianti, both between $5-$7. They are great in my opinion. I don't drink the two buck chuck but Charles Shaw won the International Eastern Wine competition. Can't be that bad........;)

'Two-Buck Chuck' Snags Top Wine Prize : NPR

I've had those, are you talking about the ones in the wicker baskets?

The one's I have had support my earlier statement.

The wines I buy are under the Italian Reds sign on the shelf. No baskets.

Oh, the ones I have had, were with wicker baskets, to make them look fancy.

I can understand why the uber thrifty with a deaf palate cook with TBC based on the price point alone. I can't say I see the need for most to drink such poor quality when there are so many better choices for just a few dollars more. Even the cheapest Cru Bourgeois at Costco would be a nice step up. If I ever digress to drinking that so I can drink daily then I might have a bigger problem than my wine selection. Suggesting that many are simply label concise may be true to some degree, however that over looks a lot of factors. I worked with the airlines for a few years and part of what I managed was the duty free. A considerable portion of what alcohol and many wines cost is tax. The table wine you were getting from a truck in France was likely a LOT better than TBC. Charles Shaw still has to pay tax, TJ's still makes a profit. Now subtract the label, freight and bottle cost and what do you think a bottle of TBC actually costs?
There is a reason for that. All things considered you were likely paying a lot more for that wine off of a truck in France than what TBC costs.
As a Chef I try to be a conscious consumer at work and at home. Consider the way Charles Shaw/Bronco wines has treated their immigrant workers. By some accounts they are the equivalent of a US based sweat shop. There's part of your cost factor. Then there is the fact that they were prosecuted for fraud after using inferior grapes in their varietals that can't be over looked. In short this is not a company I would ever opt to support. I rather doubt you had those issues with bulk table wine being delivered in France.

I still agree. Have you tried the Fetzer Gewurztraminer at TJ's? About $7.
Another good find at Costco this weekend is a Washington wine:
2007 Chateau Ste Michelle, Indian Wells, Cab Sav- $13.

Duckfat,

I agree with you on those choices............

Speaking to a sommeliere helps alot.