What should i get?

I'm new to the wine world and have begun my journey with an afiniti for merlot wines. If you can suggest another good red I'm open but i like teh smoothness of the merlots. I'm wondering if you could suggest the best options under 30$ that I can get my hands on in the GTA??? any help would be appreciated.

Reply to
Robbienorth
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First thoughts for "smooth reds," are Syrah and Zinfandel. Very many are definitely below US$30/btl. OZ and CA Syrah's are particularly fruity, as is much of CA Zin.

Just a few of the many reds that might fit your bill, Hunt

Reply to
Hunt

WTF. this is a ING. GTA means NADA here. EYYM!

FRTT(feeling rather testy tonight) Myron from NF or is it NL now

Reply to
Young Martle

GTA? DUOA MBACT! STFOB!

Greater Toronto Area? Dumb Use Of Abbreviations Must Be A Canadian Thing! Sort This Fellow Out Bill [Spohn]

Reply to
st.helier

Wtf is that all about. IATC. (I am totally clueless)

Ron Lel

Reply to
Ron Lel

Greater Toronto Area. The joke in "The Rest of Canada" is that Toronto regards itself as "The Centre of the Universe". Robbie shows us why... :-)

Robbie, even the smallest LCBO will have a decent selection of Aussie Shiraz, and most will be well under $20. As somebody else suggest, they tend to exhibit that smoothness quality you like.

If you pick an LCBO store with a Vintages section, try asking the product consultant for advice. I've found them to be very knowledgeable and very willing to help. I've noticed that at the store I frequent people will grab a cart and then follow the consultant around picking up a few bottles of whatever he recommends.

Reply to
Al Rudderham

Dolcetto is a very smooth, appealing wine similar in body to Merlot but with a more appealing palate. Made in Piedmont, Italy. Prices range from about $10 to $25. Dolcetto has 7 sub-varieties, the commonest of which are d'Asti and d'Alba. The biggest and boldest is the Dolcetto di Dogliani, fine examples of which are made by Chionetti.

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Reply to
Uranium Committee

Greetings Robbie; If you have a car I strongly suggest you take a few weekends from the GTA to cruise the Niagara Wine Route and go taste the Canadian Merlots available right under your nose from dozens of Niagara wineries. You'll learn a lot and have a great time to boot.

Reply to
Chuck Reid

Thanks for the clarification. I assumed that it was a geographical reference and saw the CA (as in Canada, my neighbor to the North, not CA the state that a lot of my wines come from), but did not make the connection. Since I have no idea of what wines are imported to GTA, my suggestions may have been way, way off base. Sorry for that.

Hunt

Reply to
Hunt

For my education, how common are California Zins and Syrahs in Canada, through LCBO, which is, I assume, the national distribution/sales arm of Canada's version of ATF, or similar? In US, some states have stores that have a limited list of wines for sale, so state controlled liquor stores all have about the same line up. Is this true in CA (the country)? I've noticed some subscribers, primarily in the BC area, mentioning that they do not have access to some of the wines talked about in the group. Are there different levels of stores, as you mentioned "Vintages section?"

Thanks for the info.

Inquiring [SIC] minds want to know, Hunt

Reply to
Hunt

Merlot from Niagra? This comes as a complete surprise to me. Thanks for the rec. I've done quite a few tastings that were, at least co-sponsored, by producers/distributors in the NY and Canadian area, but all they have ever poured were "ice-wines," Rieslings and quite a few hybrids. Maybe they just don't bring the "good stuff" south. Also, these tastings were all in FL, and maybe their offerings were to fill that perceived market. I'm surprised that they didn't completely open their portfolios. Live - and learn.

Thanks, Hunt

Reply to
Hunt

Reply to
Lonnie

Actually we have quite a wide range of wines from the Niagara area although the hybrids are falling by the wayside. Foreigners usually only get icewine samples because they are bloody high margin stuff and somewhat of a global rarity. Although our wines have made and are still making giant strides in quality, I don't think it's economic to try and export more of the same to countries already drowning in a sea of their own making.

Reply to
Chuck Reid

K, i know where I am, I'm in toronto, and we are the center of Canada. Anyone in the GTA who would be able to help me with a local reference would know what I'm talking about. If your from Newfieland or anywhere else less important than just disregard this post. How sad are you really? i just wanted some advice on wines in a wine newsgrp. If i wanted anything from you guys who are so crititcal i woulda posted in the 'idiot responses to genuine questions grp.' To those who answered me with a real answer thank you.. to all others.. bite me...

RC

Reply to
Robbienorth

Salut/Hi Robbienorth,

le/on Fri, 1 Oct 2004 16:17:23 -0400, tu disais/you said:-

No, I'll just plonk you for being an aggressive little twerp with no idea of what it means to post to an international newsgroup. Talk about parochial!! Don't bother to reply. I won't read it.

Reply to
Ian Hoare

Since the subscriber base of this NG is international, you might want to place "Canada Only," or similar in your subject line header. That way, those of us who are geographically challenged, won't waste your time.

Hunt

Reply to
Hunt

Your prescriptions in Canada are almost 1/2 of what ours are in the USA. Therefore I suggest you stop buying wine immediately.

Instead buy Prozac...lots of it. It might help with you real issue.

Skip the wine...don't pass go...don't collect allowance...go get Prozac.

Reply to
Richard Neidich

First off, the LCBO is the provincial, not national. There are similar liquor commissions in other provinces. But since Ontario has about 40% on Canada's population, it is the biggest. They claim to be the biggest distributor of wine and liquor in the world. So the rest of this is applicable to Ontario only.

Vintages is a "program" they run of twice monthly limited release items, as opposed to their regular listing items. In general the Vintages products tend to be the higher priced items, although there are plenty of fine/expensive wines in the regular listings and lots of low priced Vintages items too.

There are many "levels" of stores. I live near Kitchener/Waterloo, which are twin cities of about 250,000 people. There are a couple large stores that carry a large selection of "regular listing" items, and have pretty good Vintages sections. There are also a lot of smaller stores that carry a more limited selection of products. While the smaller stores don't stock as much, they will order in anything in the catalog without any minimum or extra charge.

Vintages has a good website at

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There is also the main LCBO site at
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Remember that prices are in Canadian dollars.

Back to your intial question, there are plenty of California Zins available. In the Syrah/Shiraz market the Aussies rule in terms of product selection. But Vintages did a feature on California Syrah/Shiraz in one of the summer releases.

I hope that helps.

Reply to
Al Rudderham

SNIP

Thats "you're" you SF.

Myron (from NF who has friends in the GTA) :-)

Reply to
Young Martle

And I am in Whangaparaoa, New Zealand My brother (who lurks here) is in Wooloomooloo, Australia My Cousin (who doesn't even drink wine and doesn't lurk) lives in Mbabane, Swaziland And my Great Aunt Ethel in buried in Reykjavik, Iceland.

How on earth are they supposed to know what you are referring to, huh?

And what about our regular, *polite* contributors in France or Austria or Norway or the UK?

You might be in the centre of Canada, but you are so far up your own RC that you are in a different universe.

Go form your own newsgroup alt.moronic.abbreviations - and learn some bloody manners.

Reply to
st.helier

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