Wine Aficionados?

[KikiSashaFan]

Mostly girly type drinks like cosmos, sour apple martinis and uhh since you said it, anything with sourpuss etc don't taste very alcohol-y. Sometimes when I go out I can't have a drink because of my migraine meds, but rather than answer questions I just go to the bar and ask for something virgin that looks just like a normal drink and no one says a thing.

If your only options are wine and beer, trying mixing a bit of wine with some club soda and making a spritzer.

[oleada]

What would be a good drink for someone who does not like alcohol (beer or wine, no reason other than just never acquired a taste for it) but has to go to a monthly work happy hour for 'team bonding' and I don't wanna look like a sourpuss for not having a drink? Is there something that taste almost like fruit juice?

Amaretto sours are tasty and don't taste like alcohol at all.

[MOIJTO]

No experience what-so-ever but my husband and I do like the box wine, yes you can all shudder now, but we like the Franzia chillable red and actually mixing 1/2 and 1/2 with the sangria its very good. I do like pinot grigio and chanti but I will not spend over $4 a bottle and the box wine at $13.99 for 5 liters is a bargin, I cook with it too!

[mrr50]

I bet there are some vineyards in your state that have wine-tasting rooms. Take a drive.

[MOIJTO]

I bet there are some vineyards in your state that have wine-tasting rooms. Take a drive.

I have 5 just within a 25 mile radius of my home, I have visited one of them. It was nice but nothing I would do again.

[Aceon6]

If you're having a cookout, get Ball Buster or 7 Deadly Zins. Both hold up well to bbq sauce!

[bobalina77]

What would be a good drink for someone who does not like alcohol (beer or wine, no reason other than just never acquired a taste for it) but has to go to a monthly work happy hour for 'team bonding' and I don't wanna look like a sourpuss for not having a drink? Is there something that taste almost like fruit juice?

I more often than not drink Malibu rum and pineapple juice with a splash of sprite or 7 Up when I go out. It tastes tropical with a bit of fizz (the 7 Up takes away some of the thickness out of the pineapple juice. I'm not big on drinks that taste like alcohol and I'm not a beer or a wine drinker. Careful though.. drinks that don't taste like alcohol tend to go down a lot quicker

[IceAlisa]

Amarone di Valpolicella is probably one of finest wines I've ever tasted but it's pretty expensive, innit?

Well, Two Buck Chuck it certainly is not. The cheapest I could find was about 36 USD. Special occasion?

[flyingsit]

Going back to the wines... I can't drink red wine at all, only white, and lately I like wines which are fruity without being overly sweet. One from Trader Joe's which fits the bill very well is called Symphony, from Ironstone vineyards.

Another, not found at TJs but not too expensive either is Evolution, a blend of several wines. It's made by Sokol Blossom.

[skamper23]

I'm a red wine girl! I'm really liking Pinot Noir right now. There's one called Pinot Evil and it has 3 monkeys on the label...see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil... it's from France http://web.mac.com/ian_gillespie/iWe...955C00CD1.html

[Allskate]

Hi guys--
I've had several people tell me to go to Trader Joe's and have a look around, but no one can suggest what I should buy!

I love Trader Joe's! The quality of the wines varies widely there, though. (The two buck chucks usually taste bad to me and the sulphites in them give me a rash. The two-buck Shiraz seems to be the best of the two-bucks and may be the most appealing to you if you prefer sweet wines. You might like some of the Australian Shiraz more and they have some pretty affordable ones.)

There's a blog devoted to affordable wines that focuses heavily on Trader Joe's. You might start there. http://jasonswineblog.com/

If you see a particular wine recommended, just do a quick google search to see if that's the type of wine that sounds appealing to you.

What would be a good drink for someone who does not like alcohol (beer or wine, no reason other than just never acquired a taste for it) but has to go to a monthly work happy hour for 'team bonding' and I don't wanna look like a sourpuss for not having a drink? Is there something that taste almost like fruit juice?

A stawberry daiquiri or strawberry margarita? My sister calls them girlie drinks, but I love them.

[Rob]

BaileyCatts - vodka has very little taste so if you ask for a Madras (vodka, Cran, Orange) or a Sea Breeze (Vodka, Cran, Grapefruit) and don't hesitate to ask the bartender to go light on the vodka. Pomegranite juice drinks are also popular. If they have a frozen drink menu, you can find some fruit smoothy like drinks there, but ask them to go light on the vodka or rum and stay away from tequila. Margaritas are good, but tequila can sneak up on you.

It is easy to find good wines in the $15+ range so I just listed the less expensive ones I tend to go back to again and again. I don't like the TJ 2 buck chucks either.

I am not big on sweet wines, but I do like Moscato for a refreshing low alcohol sparkler. There is also an Argentinian dessert wine called Santa Julia Tardio that is a good value.

In the $9.99 category (less if on sale) I like:

Cline Zinfandel (has more expensive reserve labels)
Ravenswood Zinfandel (has more expensive reserve labels)
Menage A Trois Red, White, or Rose (Folie a Deux is their more expensive label)
Essay Shiraz
Ergo Tempranillo
Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc (has more expensive reserves)
Graffigna Pinot Grigio
Sea Glass Sauvignon Blanc

In the less than $9.99 category:
Agua de Piedra Malbec (has more expensive reserves)
Buffalo Grove Cabernet
Santa Maria Sauvignon Blanc

I marked the ones where the more expensive labels are readily available so you should pay attention to the price if you don't want it to double.

[iloveemoticons]

Costco's another great place for wine. Affordable, good quality and selection, no membership card needed.

[FiveRinger]

Costco's another great place for wine. Affordable, good quality and selection, no membership card needed.

That is good info. I did not know this (about needing membership for boose). Do you just tell the attendant that's what you need at the door?

[numbers123]

I bet there are some vineyards in your state that have wine-tasting rooms. Take a drive.

I second this - we have a new hobby which is to visit locally owned vineyards, usually the owners do everything from planting, picking, fermenting, etc.. The owners are willing to talk to you about their product, why they chose the grapes to plant/harvest/make into wines, they will often give you their recommendations for other wines

Many of the owners email us with special events that they have, they let us buy the end of the season product for a discount - although when we know them, they know what we like. Several of them have Saturday eve or Sunday afternoon concerts. One place has barbeques.

And even if you think you don't have any wineries near you, I suspect that you would be pleasantly surprised when you do an internet search.

Happy wine trails to you......

[Badams]

i love NY wines. bully hill, love my goat is a sweeter red wine that i like. i am not a fan of dry wine either. http://www.bullyhill.com/

i also love the kat knapp wines from knapp winery. kat knapp, which is a rose wine; kat knapp white and knapp superstition are my favorite wines. sweet and fruity and delicious! also very affordable...but probably not considered high class or whatever. https://checkout.inertiabev.com/knap...alog/index.jsp

[iloveemoticons]

That is good info. I did not know this (about needing membership for boose). Do you just tell the attendant that's what you need at the door?

Yup! Apparently there's some law that says you don't need a membership to buy booze...our legal system is beautiful

[zhenya271]

I really love Moscato d'asti and the red Brachetto d'acqui. They are both Italian sweet sparkling wines. I used to get the red Brachetto d'aqui when I lived in Germany and visited Italy but couldn't find it when I moved to HI. HI had the Moscatos though so that became my replacement and I think I like them even more, but it may just be that I haven't been able to find a good Brachetto yet. I like them better than champagne, which I've never cared for because they are so dry. When I was in Rome for New Years one year all the grocers had the above wines, but I didn't see any champagnes.

Costco has a yummy Moscato d'asti in a beautiful cobalt blue bottle called Risata. I think it's about $14.

[made_in_canada]

I bet there are some vineyards in your state that have wine-tasting rooms. Take a drive.

I third this! I didn't have any experience with wine at all and then spent an afternoon in and around Naramata in the Okanagan Valley... I now am a wine fan! If you can go with someone who knows what they're talking about it helps. If not, ask lots of questions! They can help educate you! I'd advise not trying to taste a lot or you might get overwhelmed

[Quintuple]

OK, so ... people in lots of places will throw terms around and they might fit into larger or smaller "categories" and get mixed up ...

Me ... I've got the sweet tooth, and I've got a crazy wine snob friend, so I'm always asking if random crap at the store is worth a try or not, and he always says it's a complete crapshoot because of course he hasn't heard of a maker of something random and cheap.

So if you're wandering around Trader Joe's and want something sweet and amazing, get their $5.99 Asti. Asti being the supposed trashiest (and sweetest) of the champagnes, but it's my favorite, and theirs is great. Brut, Prosecco being the dryer champagnes, and of course you can get into crazy stuff like white Russian wedding cuvee and stuff like that.

It isn't really enough to just go for a random gewurztraminer or riesling. Most out there at supermarkets will just say gewurztraminer or riesling - so it will most likely be "dry", and ungraded. California and Washington examples are around everywhere, and really don't give an idea of where it can go. You can go Austrian or French (Alsatian) with riesling, and I don't know too much on those. But for German riesling, ya gotta read the label. First of all, if something claims to be ice vine and is under $50 for a half bottle, I'd be suspicious. It's probably just syrupy crap. If it's German and says Qualitatswein, that's "just passable" for German rieslings. If it's labeled Qualitatswein mit pradikat, that's better, but it may not give you an idea of the sweetness. If it's labeled with the sweetness, then it's implied it's a QmP, so there's an assumed high quality (though I've been burned on something labeled Kabinett that was just glorified fruit juice). So the scale from dry to super sugar rot-your-teeth sweet for German rieslings is:

Kabinett - Spatlese - Auslese - Berenauslese - Trochenberenauslese

But many people even find kabinetts to be super sweet (in comparison with the rest of what they drink). Generally, kabinetts and spatleses can be "dinner wines", though spatlese already crosses the threshold of dessert!

Now, wineries can make dessert wines out of most any grape. I've had late harvest zinfandels, zin ports, and late harvest chardonnays, sauvignon blanc, viognier, muscat, etc. Don't be fooled by things that say "pink zin!" or "white zin!" or "rose!" (rose of *what*?). I mean, yes please, go out there and experiment, but don't go for everything.

Ach, too scattered. Basically, if I were to give you a few cheaper wines to try out first, also knowing that you want to start sweet, but venturing into reds as well, this is what I'd recommend:

- the $5.99 Asti at Trader Joe's
- Pinot Noir from Oregon in the $10-20 range, or even better, French in the same range if you can find it
- Beaujolais Nouveau around Thanksgiving!
- Quady Elektra Late Harvest Orange Muscat for $10 at BevMo (my favorite cheaper wine ever ever ever)

Also, if you do get to go out on wine trips, go ahead and try more known places, but it's so fun to just walk into random small wineries, because you might find a gem! And of course, overall, all advice is both great and moot - don't be afraid to like what you like!