Beringer White Merlot

I put White Merlot in the same catagory as White Zinfandel. A great wine to get people started on wines in general. Most I know who start drinking wines prefer something simple and lightly sweet and then progress to more complex and/or drier wines.

However. My personal opinion is that White Zinfandel is a complete waste of an otherwise superb grape! lol Sounds like you had a nice evening and a nice dinner so the wine was the perfect choice.

I can't tell if you intend to, but I wouldn't dismiss all pink wines with such a broad statement. Beringer's White Merlot is indeed a light, off-dry quaff, and likely a *very* good match for Indian and Thai food, particularly if the food is a bit spicy.

There are many other pink wines which are built in a dry, more sophisticated style. Just to name a few 'local' examples...

St. Clement doesn't appear to make it any longer, but they used to bottle a dry white Merlot of their own called La Vache that was an outstanding as a summer sipper. I remember the hot afternoon when I offered a glass of this to a wine-enthusiast neighbor, who turned up his nose but went ahead and tried it at my urging - and positively loved it.

Miner Family's Rosato is a dry rose of Sangiovese, again, a great wine to chill and serve on a warm summer afternoon.

Boony Doon's Vin Gris de Cigare is pretty widely available and consistently very good to great.

I'm woefully ignorant of French rosé but have had more than a few delicious examples.

Dana

White Merlot and White Zinfandel to me are both very low end wines for people that for the most part are not wine lovers. They are simple non-complex wines for those that do not have an acquired pallet for wines in general. They are wines that people usually start out with when learning to enjoy wine. People don't often progress towards them but rather away as their pallets develop. Don't get me wrong though. Theres nothing wrong with these wines for the people that enjoy them. But I have yet to see an outstanding 90+ rated White Merlot or White Zinfandel. I did see a 'Reserve' White Zinfandel once and got a good laugh!

Wow, that's funny, friends brought me a bottle last week for my birthday. Me, a wine lover, my friends, not. My brother in law and I (only two wine drinkers here that night) enjoyed it. I wouldn't buy it, but if it's served with light food I wouldn't turn it down.

Only problem, we ripped through the 1.5L bottle in far too little time...I slept pretty well that night :-)

-ben

Miles: Yes, the dinner/evening was excellent, so no complaints. As for using Merlot though, think that Rosé is also a complete waste of a great grape. I've tasted a few excellent Merlots (primarily from South Australia), and otherwise think it's best in blends.

Dana: Will keep those in mind, although I'm not really a big fan of rosé - but haven't given it much of a chance either, in all fairness. Only time I've really found myself enjoying rosé was when I had Blanc de Pinot Noir at the Gibbston Valley Winery in Central Otago during a lovely summer there. Otherwise, give me a good aromatic white any day!

Ben: Share the same sentiments re. sleep. In fact, had about 3 glasses of this - remained fairly clear headed for the evening, and then ended up getting 10 hours of sleep that night. :-)

Salil

Hmmph. I don't think I have anything close to a novice palate, and I still think White Zin generally pairs well with spicy Thai and Indian food. Note that I favor more complex, dry pink wines, but not to the exclusion of appreciating a good food match, regardless of what is fashionable.

Dana

White Zin has always been a cheap mass production jug wine to me. Theres no such thing as a high end well defined White Zin. I believe the wine serves the purpose it was invented for very well but is still a waste of an otherwise very good grape!!

For any spicy food I prefer a full bodied dry red. I'm not much for any off-dry wines really.

Sure. So what?

Oof. There's all kind of tastes, but I wouldn't consider a dry, full-bodied red a particularly good pairing with spicy/picante food.

Cheers, Dana

A full bodied Zin is very commonly served with spicy foods. Far more than a White Zin. I just can't imagine serving a light rose style wine with a strong spicy dish. But yes, everyone has their own tastes. There is no perfect wine. What works for an individual is the perfect wine for them.

Perhaps we're differing on the definition of "spicy"; I'm referring to "heat", was thinking of Thai, Mexican or Southwestern food, with heat to blow away the nuances of even a big red. A simple, fruit-driven wine with a bit of residual sugar works much better in that case.

Of course I agree that something like a fruit-forward Zin, Barbera, Syrah, etc., work well with something that's spicy but not overtly "hot".

Dana

Yep. As an Indian (family of South Indian origin), I'm used to some phenomenally incendiary foods, and there've been a lot of meals in the past that would be almost impossible to pair with Shiraz. We're not big Zin fans (my dad likes it, but prefers Shiraz or Rieslings), so we haven't really tried pairing too much of it with that sort of food.

Whites tend to work much better. Rieslings and Gewurz stand up to a number of dishes quite well, and NZ Sauvignon Blanc also works very well most of the time (with Singaporean, Malay and Indonesian food, it tends to click brilliantly).

For other dishes with more moderate levels of spice, Shiraz does often go well and pairs beautifully with a lot of tandoori dishes, particularly the kebabs. Very little beats good seekh kebab and Barossa Shiraz in tandem.

Salil

Thats true to an extent if you like sweet or off-dry wines. I don't at all! For me spicy foods go well with a fruit forward potent dry red. Not just any full bodied red will do. I enjoy Zins and Syrahs but again, not just any Zin or Syrah. For spicy foods I like reds that many would call fruit bombs. They're also kinda loaded at around 17% alcohol and no appreciable residual sugar.

You don't think these huge dry reds typically have a bit of residual sugar? Dry is defined as < 0.5% RS - and just a touch of sugar makes a difference with spicy food.

Dana

Pretty much all dry reds have just a bit of residual sugar. Never heard of a wine with 0% RS.