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+--- Thread: Mondavi's Woodbridge Wines (/thread-16484.html)
- barnesy - 01-18-2006
For around $15 on the red side, Look for Cline Ancient Vine Zinfandel it will beat just about any at that price range. Since you don't have your city listed, not sure what kind of wine store situation you have. You can get a lot of really nice, ready to drink now reds from Southern France in your price range. I shop mostly in the $10-$20 for my everyday drinkers myself.
Barnesy
- Deputy - 01-19-2006
Hi Kip, here are the recommendations from the wine steward that I discussed earlier, maybe you have some of these available (basically, I asked for something smooth and relatively soft, not too harsh as well as a couple other recommendations):
Chile - Cono Sur Pinot Noir - $9.99
Germany - Wollsteiner Rheingrafenstein Spatlese - $9.90
S. Africa - Sinnya Robertson Merlot - $10.99
USA - Beringer White Zinfandel - $11.99
USA - Zunio Old Vines Zinfandel - $13.99
Chile - Cremaschi Furlotti Reserve Carmenere - $16.95
Italy - Frescobaldi Nipozzano Riserva Chianti Rufina DOCG - $23.99
Hopefully you have some of those around and you can try some of them. This woman is very knowledgeable and really tries to help as much as possible. She even stuck to her guns on her selections when I told her that my best friend's dad is the head winemaker at one of BC's top wineries - she didn't even start trying to sell me on some of their stuff, she told me the truth that she wasn't a big fan of some of his recent stuff, which makes sense because some of it has been a bit iffy, lately.
Good luck, Kip!
- Kip - 01-19-2006
Thanks for the suggestions, I might try those sometime soon!
For now though I just bought the Dr.Loosen Riesling 2004, and can't whait to try it. I will tell you what I think when I have it, I am sure it will be good, from what I hear on this board!
P.S. It's a cap and not a cork, why is this so?
[This message has been edited by Kip (edited 01-19-2006).]
- Kcwhippet - 01-19-2006
The reason for the screw cap rather than a cork has to do with wine producers and consumers concerns over something called TCA, which is shorthand for 2,4,6 trichloroanisole. Cork producers have long used hyperchlorite, a form of chlorine, to sterilize their corks after they're stamped out. Unfortunately, the chlorine can react with a microscopic fungi and will produce TCA. The problem is that TCA can be detected by humans at a level of about 5 parts per trillion, so if any is present the wine will definitely be perceived as bad. The presence of TCA has been described many ways - wet cardboard aromas and taste, like licking a sweaty horse, moldy, musty, etc. At the very least, the wine will suffer from a definite lack of pleasant aromas and fruity tastes. There's more, but that's it in a nutshell. Since there's no cork to be tainted with a screw cap, many wineries are bottling their wines thusly, even some of the high end wines. When you consider 5% to 8% of corks can have TCA taint, that's an awful lot of wine going bad. Consider a large winery that makes 10 million cases of cork sealed wine a year. They could be selling 500,000 to 800,000 cases of wine with TCA - every year. That's as much as 9,600,000 bottles from that one large winery. Unfortunately most wine drinkers aren't aware of this, and they think they just don't like that particular wine because of the bad taste. As a result, they may never try what's probably a very good wine just because they got one with a TCA infected cork.
- Kip - 01-19-2006
Kcwhippet,
That's very interesting, thanks for the info! The impression I got from other people is that if a wine has a screw cap on it, it's a cheap wine. This cleary is not the answer, and I will proudly tell the people that they are wrong. I already told a person about my Dr.Loosen wine and said it was only $15 and he stated "that's because it's a cheap wine, it would of at least have a cork".
- robr - 01-19-2006
I have it on the inside dope that more and more wine makers are going to screw caps in the future. Watch it happen.
- Kcwhippet - 01-19-2006
Very many of the wines from New Zealand are now sealed with screw cap, and very, very few of them could be considered cheap wines.
- VouvrayHead - 01-20-2006
I totally agree. Tradition is nice, but not when every once in a while it ruins a bottle of Hermitage... Vivre En Screw-Cap!
- WileECoyote - 01-20-2006
[i]wondersofwine wrote -
"I don't have experience with that wine. Give it a try and tell us what you think of it. (I used to like Fetzer Gewurztraminer--a white wine-- but now prefer the Gewurztraminer from Alsace).
Anyone else had the Fetzer Valley Oak Zinfandel?
[This message has been edited by wondersofwine (edited 01-18-2006).]"[/i]
I like the Fetzer too but now will have to try the one from Alsace. Any specific brand that is good?
- robr - 01-20-2006
Try any one you can get -- I found it to be hard to find!
I still like the Fetzer, the flavors are not as intense, but it's sweet, which I like better than dry in Gewurtz.
- stevebody - 01-20-2006
I've always liked the Woodbridge Zin the best out of that line. I second the recommendation on their Port. Nice stuff. The Zin actually tastes like Zin, if smallern in scale than a "serious" Zin.
- VouvrayHead - 01-21-2006
Lucien Albrecht is not too hard to find and is usually good (Alsacean Gewurtz)
Trimbach too, if you can find an affordable one.
- winoweenie - 01-21-2006
Just a note on the screwcap issue. Brian Loring bottles all of his Pinots in them and since 1999 many other top flight wineries have been experimenting with them, ie Plumpjack. WW
- Kip - 01-21-2006
Well...
I tryed my Dr.Loosen Riesling, and didn't like it. Perhaps, I will tell you what I didn't like about it and maybe someone can give me a different direction? The aroma was pleasant, but when I took a drink I got this very light taste of artificial apple like flavor, and then some irratating after taste that I don't know how to explain. What I want is a more bold flavor in fruits and spices, that you can taste each and individual thing thats in the wine. Any suggestions? Maybe something drastic?
- robr - 01-21-2006
Hmmmm... maybe you should try a chardonnay. It's white, but has a much "bolder" flavor, dry, but tart, sometimes buttery and nutty, and usually fruity, like tart apples. And, almost all of them are good, since it is one of the easiest grapes to cultivate and make into wine.
- TheEngineer - 01-21-2006
Hmmm...I would agree with Bern. If what you describe you don't like, it's most likely that you won't like other Rieslings for at least a while (but do go back and try them once in a while as you may fine your tastes change. Rieslings are the most noble of white varietals.
I would try a North American Chardonnay for the "bold" flavors, but remember that this is a white wine. Perhaps, ask your wine store for a white that has undergon Malolactic Fermentation. It will give the wine a bit more Umph... Also perhaps try a an Italian's North Eastern area like Oslavia (Goriza). There is a maker there that is passionate about whites... Gravner and the varietal is called. Ribolla. It will cost you about $100CDN though if you can find it. There are others from the same area though, again pretty hard to find.
- Kip - 01-21-2006
I am just mad that I can't find something that tastes good, I tryed all sorts of alcoholic beverages, but wine just appeared that it was about pure flavor to induldge your self in. I haven't came across that yet, but I will keep looking for a little, till I get too frustrated.
Are Chardonnay's complex? Also, how is it different from a Riesling?
[This message has been edited by Kip (edited 01-21-2006).]
- barnesy - 01-21-2006
I will drink riesling over chardonnay almost every time, given a good selection of each. To me, chardonnay has a univeral quality that takes extraordinary land to make it unique. You can take an oaked chard from italy, australia, california, south america or some of the new style french and it will taste the same. Blah!
To me, chardonnay is at its best when its filled with bracing minerality that you find in chablis, but then you have to either look really hard to find a good priced one or take a 2nd or 3rd mortgage out to afford the primo stuff. I love chardonnay in its french stylings of burgundy, as long as its traditional.
But riesling is a true connection to the land. In Alsace, the riesling is bold, powerful and minerally. A few hundred miles to the east, in Germany, it is softer, sweeter, acidic but also conveighs its own minerality. In new zealand, you get a riesling that is different still from the previously mentioned zones, but equally enjoyable.
You had an accurate tasting on the basic Loosen. The mosel wines almost universally have a strong green apple quality to them. The aftertaste was probably due to the mineral notes. Maybe you should step up a notch and try a Kabinett level from Urziger Wurztgarten region of the Mosel. It means the spice garden of Urzig. Or get a gewurtz from Alsace, France. You will get quite the snoot of spice there as well as some bold fruit. Since gewurztraminer means spicey grape.
Barnesy
(prepares to be burned in effigy by the chardophiles.)
- robr - 01-21-2006
Actually to me there are three different styles of chardonnay:
1. the tangy, fruity, tart and mouth puckering hot weather drink...
2. the oaky mellow minerally good with cheese and chicken and fish drink...
3. the nutty, buttery, almost oily drink, again good with almost all strong tasting foods, except perhaps for beef...
thus it's a bit more mutable than reisling.
- Deputy - 01-21-2006
Kip, a couple of fresh recommendations from Sari (my local wine steward who is just fantastic, as mentioned above)...
1. (Italy) Feudo d'Elimi Sicilian Grillo - 2003 - $11.99
2. (Spanish) Burgans Albarino Rias Baixas - 2004 - $19.95 (apparently about half that price down in the US)
Both whites and both apparently quite interesting.
Did you try any of the other recommendations that she gave me that I listed above?