Hello folks,
I have a few questions regarding wines in general, then, just other questions...
The whole wine jargon is a language unto itself...I'm a tech guy, and can understand how stuff like this happens...
I mean, I know "nose", etc, but, how you guys can "detect" butter, pepper, blackberries, whatever amazes me...
In general, when I go to the liquor store, I don't generally want to spend more than $10, but I also realize that this may be, essentially, ridiculous...although, if I'm just sitting at home having a bottle of wine with my wife on a Saturday night, that might be acceptable.
Here's a question...when I read on the back of a bottle (and, do I trust what I read?), "hint of pepper, blackberries, tobacco", or whatever...with regard to making of wine, are these things ADDED to the wine, and what it's aged in? I mean, they must be, right? How could the same variety of grapes be SO different from region to region...or maybe I'm wrong...climate and environment makes such a difference.
In my limited travels, some of the stuff I have really liked is as follows...(please forgive spelling mistakes)
Sausal Zinfandel, from California, I believe, Goat-Rotie, from South Africa, pretty much anything from Nederberg, once again, South Africa...I USED to like Yellow Tail, but now eschew it as pretty much junk, now that I've had a lot of other choices...I'm afraid of almost anything I see a LOT of at the store, looks too mass produced...from SA, anythign with KVM makes me shy away...
One thing I really enjoyed the other day was a Vassey Felix Shiraz from Australia...Now that time I could REALLY taste a pepper flavor...was I wrong? I've only found one store that has that...hard to find...
Liked a cab from Argentina...Catena? Not sure...A Norton Malbec, once again from Argentina, was pretty good.
And, amidst all these deep dark red wines, I also like a nice light, crisp Sav Blanc sometimes. RH Philips comes to mind...
I'm just afraid of wasting money...which I don't have a lot of...even for one bottle...
What are my options...
Sorry for the rambling post...
Jeff