My other half is a big fan of wine, white and red, but I've never really drunk it. I want to try and get into it s bit so can anyone give me any tips on what is good, what is bad and what to avoid. What wine complients meals, what can be drunk while watching tele, and are there any good books or websites for a novice like me. Thanks in advance and happy new year to you all.
well when I was stationed in Germany I looked into it a little finally decided that there was a lot of rubbish talked and a helluva lot of "Wine Snobbery". Drink what pleases you is my advice matey. I love Red wines as a general social drink but also like white preferably german white. also Rose is a great drink anytime, but like I say just drink what you find you like the taste of. As for what the proper choices of wine types to meal types ...there are a good many books available on that and not too expensive or complicated...I generally go with red meat/red wine white met/white wine...and as for sea food well owt realy goes for me.
Oh dear - can you find a harder and more devisive question A good analogy would be Music and how to get into it what is good etc. There are loads of books etc but really a lot is down to taste - I'd start by Asking the other half Only good general rules I can offer is generally new wine drinkers prefer sweeter wines to start with tastes getting drier with practice Really cheap wines are rarely any good and if you are new to wine drinking no point spending lots on it either as you wont appreciate it Oh and there is lots of snobbery - in general if you like it I wouldnt care too much whether it is an approved combination - if you like a sweet white with steak go for it
I agree with the previous posting; however, the red wine - meat/ white wine- fish and poultry pairings are not such a big deal any more. Some good light or medium bodied reds go well with, for example, turkey. There are a lot of good resources on the internet, but the best thing to do is drink! Wine is really complicated, and people can get really snobbish, but drink what you like. Your tastes will develop over time. BTW, Roses are becoming really popular (and they are much better than the Mateus my parents use to drink)... and there are some fantastic Roses available at reasonable prices.
As others have said, the important thing is to enjoy what you're drinking. Blind tasting can be quite fun - you might well find that what you like is not necessarily the expensive stuff. For example, I really like a Burgundy wine called Passetoutgrain which is essentially a blend of two different grapes and not what you might call a pedigree Burgundy. And it's cheap as chips compared to some of those. But I like it so that's good enough for me. When you find stuff you like make a note of what grapes it's made from and this will help you to choose similar wines but still have a bit of variety.
Agree with everything above, you'll drink what you like rather than what's meant to be 'good'. Personally I like South Australian red wine, something like a Cabernet Shiraz, if I'm drinking white I don't like it dry so usually avoid French, I like German white, but most 'connosieurs' seem to turn their nose up at it. And if you get into Champagne, Moet is fantastic, but a bit pricey.
ASDA are selling 3 for £10 and there are some really good uns in that range too individually priced from £4 -£9 so if you get 3 priced £9 you only pay a tenner for all 3....not bad, but thats if you believe the price tags.
Try Laithwaites 3 seasons mixed case scheme if your other half already drinks wine at home already it delivers 12 bottles every 3 months at cheaper than same quality in shops. Laithwaites do excellent offers as well. Bottles tend to be medium quality & you get drinking notes with each case. If you want to learn what you like without a huge outlay over a year I'd recommend it. I've never had a bad bottle. If you do get a bad bottle they do a great return scheme too. Taught me I like relatively uncomplicated wines - Rioja for red & muscadet for white. http://www.laithwaites.co.uk/xsite.aspx?xsite=QA74.xml&papv=z&brand=LAIT&mrc=PL48&cid=search|googlepl48 good introductory offer on at the mo £49.99 for 12 mixed bottles plus 3 bottles of very nice rioja (I know I've drunk that rioja & it is good) so £49.99 for 15 bottle - £3.30something a bottle not bad eh?
Difficult But as a general rule Dont pay less than 5 quid and dont pay any more than a tenner and you should end up with a decent tipple without wasting money. Having said that there are occasional deals at Morrisons, Asda etc when you can pick up a decent wine for less than a fiver. Plenty of web wine guides and books around though but its best to simply try a few and see how you go on. Get to a decent wine tasting session for a better appreciation. Sand Piper Carignan Shiraz 3.99 and High Tide 4.99 are a couple of decent reds on offer at Morrisons until sunday.
Introductory 4 seasons case has 15 bottles & a carving set they have good dining & drinking accessories too. £39.99 no supermarket mark up buying straight from the importer ,eans better quality wines for less money
