Begginers Guide Suggestions

On Wed, 23 Jun 2004 18:43:29 +0100, "Gizmo"

Lambrusco stands out on a limb a bit in the wine world, so it is difficult to recommend similar things.

For the fizziness you might try a Cava - Spanish sparkling wine.

For the sweetness and the low-alcohol, try German wines - most of these have some sweetness.

I personally very much like the German Kabinett style. According to their website Safeway do a "Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett"

- this will be more expensive than what you are used to paying, but it is certainly one I would like to try next time I am in Safeway. I think you will find it a lot more interesting than the Lambrusco and the cheapest of German wines.

For Sunday lunch, if you branch out a lot more you will probably discover eventually that a red wine is more appropriate. For a general guide on wines available in the UK under £8.00 checkout

What brand of Lambrusco is that one? Maybe if you could find a good brand one, you'd like it much more.

Vilco

Giz,

Another reply mentions German Rieslings and that is a very good place to start.

The Rose (sorry for my non-international keyboard) category is a great place to play. You did not mention the area of the world that you reside in, so I'll throw out an international and a US domestic to try: Tavel a French Rhone from the Grenache grape by most producers is excellent with a hardy chill. In US, Beckman (Central Coast, CA) does a fine Grenache Rose. (Dang, I need to program this keyboard!)

The Cava recommendation is excellent, as well. Along those "sparkling" lines, there are many Asti (Itallian) sparklers that pair well with food, but many are too sweet, unless you are doing something very spicy.

Spanish Alberino (with a ~) is usually a very light, slightly effervescent, white, with a slightly sweetish taste and pairs well with seafood in most cases, especially oysters on the half-shell.

While Safeway probably provides a suitable expanse of wine, you might also want to look into some wine specialty shops in your area. Talk to the salesperson, and tell them exactly what you like and get recommendations as to where to go from there. You don't need wine-speak to converse with a good wine salesperson, just your descriptions of +'s and -'s should be good enough. They can also take your budgetary concerns into account.

Try everything you can get your hands on. Don't be afraid if you do not like a suggestion, as that experience can build for later reference, and don't be afraid to go back to something that did not sit well with you, because your tastes WILL change in time, and with experience. Most of all - have fun and enjoy!

Hunt

Salut/Hi Hunt,

le/on 26 Jun 2004 16:32:44 GMT, tu disais/you said:-

I note that's the second time you've mentioned that your keyboard is internationally challenged. Relax, no-one minds. If you do, (as do I) then you might like to know that Alt-Gr vowel produces the vowel with an acute accent, useful for Rosé for example.

Michael Pronay uses a special applet that facilitates accents and you could install that. Alternatively you could use my luddites pre-windows solution. Keep NUM lock on. Then for you can type ALT and these number pad numbers and then release ALT to get a full range of exciting diacriticals and accents. (Oh joy oh rapture.)

The commonest ones not counting acutes (and using the HTML refs)

When you want to go really fancy «» (open and close french quotes 174 175 ½ ¼ half and quarter 171 and 172 ± plus or minus 241

and so on. Hours of fun

Just to make a minor corrections, while most Tavels contain Grenache, of course, they can be made from exactly the same mix as Chateauneauf du Pape according to the proprietor of Ch Trinquevedel (sp) when we visited him a hundred years ago! So it's hypothetically possible to get a Tavel containing nothing but Syrah and Cinsault, for example - though I doubt if anyone does. I suppose it's possible that the rules for Tavel have changed, and that you're right.

Thank you for the info on the Tavels.

I also appreciate the keyboard information, as well. On that topic, after my first complaint (complaining of my keyboard), an astute subscriber pointed me to a URL with an add-in for all characters for the laptop keyboard. I'll try that and see if it helps. My other solution is to get a USB numeric keypad, or just restrict my posts to this NG to my workstations with full keybooards. Heck, I'm still struggling because this one only has one Ctrl key on the far left and I continue to hit Ins, thinking it's my other Ctrl key!!!!! ... as if typing was not difficult enough for me ;-{

Hunt

keyboard is

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vowel with

and you

I don't know whether Michael uses the same one I do, but I use (and like very much) a little program called AllChars (allchars.zwolnet.com). It lets you type non-English and other special characters by pressing the Ctrl key followed by a two-character mnemonic. So, for example, to get é, I type Ctrl-e-' to get ü, I type Ctrl-u-" to get ç, I type Ctrl-c-, to get ½ I type Ctrl-1-2 and so on.

"Hunt" in news: snipped-for-privacy@news4.newsguy.com...

I don't know how many people have M+cros+ft W+rd, but it is common, and whatever its shortcomings (not the subject for this newsgroup), it is loaded with preprogrammed special characters and diacriticals. "Help" under "accent marks" can retrieve a list (not easily, of course). I don't know how broadly universal are the resulting codes, but they are correct on various machine displays I've tried in various countries. If any of my accent marks on this newsgroup appear correctly on your display, those were made that way.

e.g.: è é ä ö ü ñ Å

No URLs or supplemental software necessary.

They're all key sequences: control-@ A, for the last one, which I never remember. control-: before character for umlauts, control-singlequotationmarks for acute or grave accents, and so on. (I also don't transfer Word text into a newsreader directly but filter it -- N+tepad will do -- to remove the baggage.)

HTH

• I disagree.

If you want to learn something about wines, I would recommend to any new wine drinker that they first become familiar with a few (three or four) wines -- total.

Let's pick two reds and two whites:

Red: Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir White: Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc (also called Fume Blanc)

Steer clear of any Rose, any sweet wine, any meritage, any German wine, merlot, reisling, zinfandel -- you can learn about those later.

Use the Cabernets with full bodied red-meat meals: Beef, etc. Use the Pinot Noirs with lighter meats: Salmon, Duck, pasta, etc.

Use the Chardonnay with the more flavorful chicken and fish dishes. Use the Sauvignon Blanc with very light dishes: Sole, shrimp, etc.

Price range:

Cabernet: About $8.00 to $200.00 -- that's a helluva range! Decent California cabernets range from $8 to $20. French Bordeaux (they are mostly cabernets or cabernet blends) can go from $12 to $200 and more.

Pinot Noir: California -- from $8 to $20. Oregon pinot noirs are good. Also the pinots from the Russian River area and Alexander Valley in California.

The french red Burgundies (all pinot noir) are horribly expensive. BTW, champagne (the real stuff from Champagne in France) is made from Pinot Noir -- a red grape with a white meat -- only the skins are red. Some of them have a small bit of pink (eye of the partridge) color from the skins.

Chardonnay is where California excels. They go from $8 up to $40. Napa and Sonoma chardonnays are very good. Australian chards are also good and at good prices. In France, white Bordeaux are chardonnay. Very nice wines, a bit more delicate and refined than the big oaky California equivalents. And more expensive.

Sauvignon Blanc (Fume Blanc) wines are really good with light fish dishes. There's nothing like a delicate filet of sole with Sauvignon Blanc. This wine has a light, crisp almost grassy flavor

-- serve it very cold. Both California and New Zealand sauvignon blancs are good. The French sauvignon blancs are the white Bordeaux wines -- very nice but expensive.

I like to serve Chardonnays not quite so cold. Just like beer, it is difficult to really taste a wine right out of the refrigerator.

Tip: Don't buy those cheapie wines -- "Two-buck Chuck" Charles Shaw and the like. They are all right for a picnic with someone who knows nothing about wine. Avoid jug wines. I would advise you to drink less and get better quality wines.

Surprise: Gallo, the largest winemaker in the world, has, during the past few years begun to make some very nice varietal wines. Their Sonoma County Caberenets are *very* nice and the price is right.

The latest trend in California is the screw-cap bottle wine. Someone (I think it's Sebastiani) is making a "Screw-Kappa Napa", which is not too bad -- I had their chardonnay (about $8) tonight with Chinese food.

Good luck -- and enjoy your wines!

earle

Salut/Hi Earle Jones,

Interesting comments. I don't live in the USA, so I'm not really qualified to comment in detail, however there's just one tiny thing I should correct.

le/on Fri, 09 Jul 2004 05:42:51 GMT, tu disais/you said:-

Not a bad idea, though - with respect I'm not sure I agree with your choice of reds.

Cabernet Sauvignon is often pretty tannic and it can be hard to get to grips with. So I'd prefer to recommend something like a fair priced Australian Shiraz. They're often lovely mouthfilling wines without aggressive tannins.

Equally, I have some reservations about the Pinot Noir, mainly because it is such a pig to grow well, that most cheap ones are awful. So I'd recommend moderately priced italians, why not a Chianti Classico? They've got that acidity too, aren't tannic and go well with many dishes that a big booming Shiraz would smother.

Can't disagree 100%, though the Riesling is a wonderful grape and it can be educational to see how widely it can vary.

Agreed, (same for shiraz)

With some reservations, but Chianti or other light italian red would certainly do.

Agreed.

(almost all - Bourgogne Passetoutgrains aren't)

Along with Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay - a blanc de blancs is 100% chardonnay.

Agreed.

Agreed with some reservations.

This is what I wanted to correct. You made a mental typo here. It's most white _Burgundies_ that are Chardonnay, Bordeaux are Sauvignon/Semillon/Muscadelle.

Seconded.

Well that's pretty bad advice given the OP's background and likes. He should start exactly with some roses - and some of the California and French ones are nice, and not sweet. Beaujolais of course, and some whites with a little acidity should appeal to his palate.

Some Champagne is also chardonnay.

Actually, the Burgundy are chardonnay.

Sounds a bit snobbish, eh? Some of those wines are fine and would make a good introduction to the OP. Fine for everyday too.