OK. I know little about wine but want to learn. I know that experts are here though I haven't bothered to use search tools to learn what they might have said in the last several years, that's a lot of work, but I would be grateful if someone could brief me. Completely please. You know, about varietals, and Shiraz vs. Syrah vs. Sirah, and why Alsatian wines have so many German names if they're actually from France (is it fraud?), and what are all those numbers on German bottles, and why doesn't everyone put the grape name on the label and use English like normal people. Also vintages and stuff. Please be concise, I don't have much time to spare. I may need to ask follow-up questions, if I have time for those. Oh yes, also, where can I get exceptional well-aged but inexpensive wines that few people know about but with high ratings. (Those will impress my friends.)
We have a bottle of Silver Oak Cabernet that my nephew gave us in 1999 after going to California for his high-paying dot-com job. He was new to wine at the time but assured us that this wine was advocated by a newsletter that was absolutely definitive. The wine got 96 points which means it must be near perfection, yes? He said that in the old days people needed years to learn about wine but that was obsolete now, all you need is to look up the numbers in the newsletter (anyway that's what people did at his dot-com firm). With his sharp clothes and the car and new wine vocabulary, he sure was impressive. He had his new penthouse too then, and was buying expensive wine with the advice of the newsletter. The bottle is unopened, it's been carefully on its side behind our refrigerator and not too hot (except a few weeks each summer), some stickiness outside the bottle but I can clean that off, and still almost three-quarters full. I have heard that bottles of this age (five years storage!) can be worth big money. What do you think? I want to do something nice for my nephew from the proceeds. (After his layoff and the trouble over payments, he was living in his car when we last heard from him.)
"Max Hauser" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:
For that incredible experience qith QPR that is unfathomable one word- Gibeletti-nobody does wine like Gibeletti As to the 96 point wine Drink it today! today only.Tomorrow it's toast
How rude of you to blame the yuppies for their thirst for knowledge ;-)
Well, let me pick out one of your sheets of modest questions: "Why are Alsatian wines labelled in German?"
The not so simple reply is that the Alsatians got very, very wicked due to their unlucky political situation during the last few centuries - they hate both French and Germans. One day one of the winemakers had a splendid idea. He exposed one bottle of his wine production on the street pretending he wanted to sell the wine. But this was just a faint attempt as he wrote some Geman stuff on the label. Now he just had to wait for a Frenchman to come along, take the bottle, and listen to his effort to pronounce the hieroglyphes on the label. This was so funny that he couldn't help to burst out laughing. But that's not all. All Germans watching the scene got purple heads - so angry the were when hearing the violation of their beautiful language. It is reported that these incidents frequently ended up in riots.
A great post! This is the epitome of the newbie post. Nearly 3/4 full bottle of expensive wine, and car-living to boot. Vague,, broad ranging questions and impatience to have them answered in 1 or 2 sentences. Nice to be amused once in a while.
le/on Thu, 1 Apr 2004 03:24:16 -0800, tu disais/you said:-
Excellent. For a start, there's Mr Hawkins book, "A brief history of Thyme." It details the way in which thyme has affected wine growing world wide.
Well varietals are a bit like people, you know, some are blonde and some are redheaded. But they can all get on more or less well and if you know how to treat them, they can all make a contribution.
Ah yes, that was once a town in Persia, but it got bombed by mistake, so it's now in Australia making wonderful raisins. It was the home of Omar Sharif. You know, the guy who said "A glass of coke and a thou, and thou, and thou and thou beside me." Though I may have that a touch wrong.
Well, the alsatians are always barking, you see. And they cultivated them first, and anyway they speak it.
The Germans are so proud at being allowed into the Common Market, that this has gone to their heads, and from time to time their printers slip a cog and print enigma code series.
They do. All except the french, who never do what anyone else does on principle.
Ah, but only Americans use english line normal people, Orstrilians speek crook, and Brits can't speak english, everyone knows THAT. Who else is there?
Well, that's when they were picked, loike.
Ah, that's easy. You go to an auction house and pay cash.
That's the Ernie Arfterburn bottling isn't it? He was hooked on minced habaneros, and so he sometimes put a few Red savinas in his bottlings. I have also heard it called "Red Rim Cabinet."
Absolutely.
Well, with really old bottles like this, I strongly recommend re-corking, this is much easier than you may think. You get one of those corkscrews called "Waiter's friend" or less politely "Dishonest Butler", it has two prongs which you push down the side of the cork. So take the foil off (it's useless and not even decorative by the time it's got a bot corroded). Take out the cork, and very carefully pour in a mixture of brandy and some cabernet, to top it up again. This is most important and it helps the cork to seal again. Then using your cork screw again, push the cork back into the bottle. Don't worry too much about the capsule, many good winegrowers don't use them nowadays.
As long as you've recorked it, and topped it up, yes, that's right. Just put it into auction. Actually, thinking about this you could always have a look on the auction website and see the wines that seem to sell really well, and print up a nice fresh label with its name on. You might get a lot more that way, and as no one ever drinks these old wines, but only keeps them for showm it won't matter, will it.
(For an example of the venerable tradition of 1-April postings on newsgroups, see my salute to today's 20th anniversary of Piet Beertema's Chernenko / kremvax hoax, and its subsequent effects, posted early yesterday (31-March) to comp.misc and soc.history. It was technically impressive at the time, as well as wit. --MH)
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