Detecting oak taste test

[Menua]

Aye! The wines that I really didn't care much for were the ones that you could pour on the ground and have a sapling pop up next spring...

I've restricted myself to inexpensive Bordeaux (Mouton Cadet) and Languedoc (Fortant) reds and whites to get away fom the oak. Any thoughts on these?

I've tried some inexpensive Italian stuff (forget the names right off) and found that apparently trees grow in Italy, too. [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img] Any recommened inexpensive Italian reds sans oak?

Most of the Australian reda (Yellow Tail, Lindemans, Rosemont Diamond Label, etc) have tasteed very much...err, woody. What's up with New World and oak, huh?

I don't touch anything from the US anymore, except for maybe some from Va; I tend to avoid California like the plague. O what am I gonna do when I move to LA? [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/confused.gif[/img]

Taking a brave step I tried some inexpensive (notice a trend here? [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/wink.gif[/img] ) Chilean wine - Concha y Torro Xplorador Cab. Sauv. - cheesy name and New World, so I figured it would be sawdust soaked. I was pleasantly surprised to see little oak. If it was there, it was (refreshingly) drowned out by the fruit.

[This message has been edited by Menua (edited 05-06-2003).]