Favourite Wine

[Theguyfromvictoria]

I will be the first to admit that I am not a wine connoisseur. Truly, I don’t think I could tell the difference between an inexpensive and mid-range or high end wine.
That said - had occasion recently to dine recently with some high rollers who are out of my league - and who are wine connoisseurs.
And WOW - they kept bring out bottles of Cabernet from Cakebread Cellars - was absolutely phenomenal.
At $250/bottle though I won’t be sourcing on my own

 

[JimDandy]

I will be the first to admit that I am not a wine connoisseur. Truly, I don’t think I could tell the difference between an inexpensive and mid-range or high end wine.
That said - had occasion recently to dine recently with some high rollers who are out of my league - and who are wine connoisseurs.
And WOW - they kept bring out bottles of Cabernet from Cakebread Cellars - was absolutely phenomenal.
At $250/bottle though I won’t be sourcing on my own

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I had a $50 Cabarnet at Xmas last year and was blown away on how good it was compared to my regular $20 bottles. But even $50 is more than I would want to regularly pay for a bottle of red.

JD

 

[80watts]

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I had a $50 Cabarnet at Xmas last year and was blown away on how good it was compared to my regular $20 bottles. But even $50 is more than I would want to regularly pay for a bottle of red.

JD

For special occassions when you know the wine is very good....

 

[SilverFoxx]

My fav BC reds are from Tender Hope at Kelowna, particularly their Sunset (a Sangiovese blend) and their Fire Dance Meritage, both under $30.
Sperling Vineyards, also at Kelowna, makes an outstanding Pinot Noir, $35.

 

[PuntMeister]

I drink BC whites, cuz they are good tasting and good value. Particularly Sav-Blanks, Gwurtzs, and select PG-os and Chards. Drink local when it’s worthy.

I drink Australian Reds mostly because of their big taste and solid value. These big bold Aussie shiraz’s can be really fuking awesome. For $18-35 I get the depth and quality better than much more expensive reds from old world regions. No snobbery, but those fuking Aussies have the audacity to make reds taste really good and not gouge too much for it. If you don’t like Molly Dooker (the boxer), or Peter Lehman “The Barossan”, then your pallet is may be sufferring from Vino-Pussy-ism, a common but unfortunate disorder distempering the victim from enjoying long deep rich tastes and sexually resplendent olfactory ascension.

 

[rekun]

After watching the 'Sour Grapes" documentary I feel good about not spending more than $20 a bottle. I don't want to spoil the movie but Rudy Kurniawan was not caught because one of the buyers spending thousands of dollars for a bottle noticed that something was off with the wine. Basically this guy was mixing cheap wines in his sink and passing them off as vintage Bordaeux wines. No one could tell the difference. He even fooled one of the Koch brothers.

I don't think that movie invalidates the legitimacy of expensive wines. Rudy was well known for having a great palate and being able to identify wines through blind tastings. It's because of this that he was able to pull off his scam. He wasn't mixing two buck chuck... He identified the key notes of a specific wine and was able to recreate that taste using a mixture of legitimate older wines and cheap ones.

Anyways one of my accessible favorites has been Laughing Stock Portfolio from Naramata, BC. A great big bold wine that goes well with steak.

 

[BigCgaijin]

This...

 

[Gaius_Baltar]

A point worth mentioning is that when we interact with an expert, we tend to believe in their expertise. They are the experts in their field right?!? So complacency and the lack of critical thinking (or in this case critical tasting) caused the wine experts who believed in Rudy to go astray.

To explain how this lack of critical thinking and complacency is possible among experts, we need to look no further than the example of Bernie Madoff before he got caught for fraud. Prior to his Ponzi scheme blowing up, Madoff was a well respected and influential financier. He ran a multi-billion dollar hedge fund. He was a former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange. You don’t get any higher praise than that. What he said was gold. What he touched became gold. He provided real returns on investment (until he couldn’t). He was beloved by finance experts for his knowledge, ability, accomplishments and wisdom. You just didn’t question Madoff, he was gospel. Until he became a pariah.

Same analogy can be applied about Rudy with regards to wine. You just didn’t question his taste buds. And that is the downfall of the wine experts because they failed to exert critical thinking, ask the relevant questions, or make any observations that are critical to their review. Like the finance experts with regards to Madoff, the wine experts didn’t challenge Rudy. And hence they were misled.

My memory about the movie is a bit vague, but from what I recall Rudy was a newcomer to the wine auctions. He had no expert credentials, unlike Madoff who had a decades old track record in finance and was managing money for people with little knowledge of finance. Rudy came on the scene and splashed some cash and gained the trust of long time big money wine collectors.

I still believe when it comes to wine there is a huge confirmation bias and if you tell someone its good they'll believe it. Obviously I'm not saying there isn't a difference between a $10 bottle of wine and a $100 bottle of wine, but after a certain price point I don't think there is a difference. There is another movie with Alan Rickman called Bottle Shock based on the true story of the 1976 blind wine tasting competition in France. I don't want to ruin it but the premise is that the greatest wine experts in France are judging the competition and lets just say the title of the movie is self explanatory.

 

[travelfreak]

After spending time down in Cile I have got a taste for their Carmenere wines. So many great ones down there, up here we only get the OK ones. Wish we would get more, but I was told the wineries are too small to keep up with world wide exports. Ah well, have to enjoy during every trip then