New to wine

[TheEngineer]

James,

Welcome to the board. This is one place that I think you will continue to fine useful as you grow in your understanding of wine. I know I did when I first found this board. The people here are great.

Which comes to the first item on your list. If you are looking for an artform, you may not find it here, most of us here think of it as a beverage, a drink, abet a very nice one that we always love and whether its $5.99 or $159.99, it does not matter much. (As I said, the people here are a great bunch!....really grounded!!).

If your wife likes a fruity white, I would suggest (and both are easy to find), look for a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc (which will have a lot of tropical fruit flavours and can be dry to just a hint of sweet) or a German Riesling (look for a Riesling Kabinett or a Riesling Spatlese which are indications of levels of sweetness, with the kabinett just a hint dry and the latter a bit more sweet). Take a look in the Germany forum here for some additional labels but for under $15 you will find plenty good such as Leitz dragonstone, Dr. Loose, Dr. L. August Kesseler R, and just north of $20, the wines will be very good. For another region where the wines are in general less sweet, look to tha Alsace from France and their rieslings. These two will start to get you away from Cali and Aussie

For Reds, away from Cali and Aussie, they in generaly will be less powerful (but not always). You can start off with a bang in Bordeaux (for sub $40 look for La Grange, Comtesse de lalande, Pontet Canet, for $40+ plenty of good stuff). For $40+, the sky's the limit. In Spain, there are a few in the sub $30 that are very good including Muga Reserva, Geol. For a big cali style wine, $100 will bring you a Torre Muga and a ton of others like that in the international style that might fit the bill. You might also try a few Malbecs from producers in Chile and Argentina.

There are Thousands of wineries out there that make great products accross a great price range (and price not being the final indicator of value). Great stuff coming from the Loire, Languedoc, Portugal, South America, Maybe if you can give us a bit of a price range, we can be more specific. Have fun!