Red vs White

Yes, I certainly do and the prices reached at auctions seem to confirm that generally. I won't be too surprised if someone comes up with examples contrary to this; Tokaji Aszu perhaps.

Yes, I'd say so. My price range for white is generally $10-30, whereas my red budget is more like $15-40. And, while I occasionally splurge with reds above my stated price limit, I virtually never do that with whites. This is all related, I'm sure, to the fact that, while our cellar runs about 8:1 red:white, our consumption these days is about

60/40 white:red.

Mark Lipton

Hi Bill,

Like the others I generally expect to pay less for white at the high end, and in general we drink more red (and like Mark have a high red:white ratio.) Although as we get older we do find ourselves drinking more white, and at the low end at least here in France it is possible to get pretty decent red at a price where decent white is harder to find.

-E

I tend to agree about the cellar composition. I think my expectation is to pay less for whites but like Emery I seem to find better inexpensive reds these days in the US market than whites. Interesting that our perception th at we should pay less for whites is probably a throw back to the days of lo ng term reds requiring years of cellaring and the immeadiacy of whites in c onjunction with the prolific planting of white varietals in almost any soil type which led to a glut of poorly made white wines.

We balance both red and white and pink as well. In the summer, we drink muc h more white and rosé and, generally, less than $20. Price range for reds maxes at $30 except for special wines. We're in a number of wine clubs tha t have reasonably priced wines.

I tend to find the opposite to be true (generally for wines bought in the UK, if that makes any difference). I have always rationalised it by thinking that when you remove the skins from the wine it is one less thing to worry about and get wrong.

Thinking about higher end wines, I am not sure it was always the case that reds commanded higher prices. German wines used to be very highly valued. I blame Parker :)

Yes. I think that there's a limit to how good a white can be, while reds ha ve no limit. The limit of white is a bit above beer which is very limited, still. I dont really drink much white. I buy a bottle for cooking and drink some.

Sometimes I'll look for an oaky chard, CA or aussie, to drink. Ardoleda Cha rd from Chile is quite nice, too.

Sometimes Im stupid enough to try a chablis and get very disappointed at sp ending 70$ for that when I could get a 20$ supermarket CA/aussie thats much better.

The best white I ever had was Vina Tondonia Grand Reserva 1976 (drank aroun d 2002). That was the type you'd mistake for a red in the black tasting gla ss. As I wrote in my tasting note "this is for people who only drink red wi nes". Another interesting white was Alsace Pinot gris reserva which was kin da whiskey coloured and not fruity at all (not a fan of fruit juice). 35$

So most commonly I get a white for partial consumption and cooking for 10-2

0$, while the typical range for reds is $20-50, 10-15$ for cooking/drinking the rest. $80-100 for special occasion or very curious.

However, a person in one of my winestores said that its curious that people have this idea that whites should be cheap when it is harder to make. dont know where that comes from. maybe it really IS hard to make a really good white, which is why we never tasted it :)

I was at a German white tasting and most were around 40$. When I review I writ ehte price I would give for it and then see if hte price is right. I wrote around 8-15$ , so its not my cup of .. wine. Tasting notes include words like "mix of pee and honey".

Ive had great austrian reds though.

Yes, generally, I expect to pay less for white wine than red. This phenomen on brings to mind a related question: Do you take red wines more seriously than whites? Or to put it slightly differently, Do you think there are more serious red wines than white wines? I'm not referring only to preference, but to which type of wine you perceive as more "important". I know, "seriou s" and "important" are vague terms. Nevertheless, this is a perspective tha t I have encountered frequently.

No. I drink Franzia Chillable Red in the big cardboard box. Just need to shop around and see which store is cheapest. Takes a lot of guess work out of the equation. The more of it a person drinks..the smarter and healthier they get.

Well, looking at my Cellartracker inventory, if I rank by value almost all of the first two pages is red wines (and the whites are mostly dessert- Cuvee Constance & Germans, except for couple white Burgs and some mags of Trimbsch CFE). But not sure I can articulate why. If I had to list my all time great wines, several whites would probably make top 20, so why don't I splurge on old Clos Ste Hune or HBB?

I don't know why for sure, but I have always (OK for a long time) been intrigued by Le Chevalier de Sterimberg a white Hermitage that commands a pretty penny for a white.