your favorite wines?

[quijote]

Aetre, I lived in Buffalo for three years (1996-1999), and I go back 4 or 5 times a year because my significant other still lives and works there. In some respects, I know Buffalo much better than I know Milwaukee!

Where do you work at the waterfront? I don't remember too much commerce or industry along the waterfront....

[aetre]

sry for the latent reply. I didn't know it went to another page =)

anyway, yeah right on the harbor, its a 'waffle' building it looks like, right below the skyway exit (if you go towards lackawanna on the skyway, look right, its the only one)

anyway, I work for the cable company's internet support there...tired of the bytes, not enough taste!

but that makes sense..for a while I thought you just knew all the wine stores lol =)

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the best things in life take most of life to accomplish.

[Punkoz]

When I first had saki, I did not like it at all. It was hot saki though so I guess it's not the premium saki. But after trying it a few more times, the taste started growing on me. Now everytime I have sushi I order saki.

[Kcwhippet]

OK, time for another little sake primer. There are four basic types of premium sake, graded essentially by how much the rice is milled and whether any alcohol has been added to lighten the sake. Here they are in ascending order.
Junmai - 30% of the rice milled away, no added alcohol.
Honjozo - 30%, alcohol added
Ginjo - 40%, alcohol added
Daiginjo - 50% to 65%, alcohol added
There are also Junmai Ginjo and Junmai Daiginjo which have no added alcohol. Some of the very best are the Daiginjo which have a bit of added alcohol and are very light and flowery. All the above sakes are pasteurized and there's is a sort of fifth type, called Namazake which is any of the types above which have not been pasteurized. So, a sake with 50% to 65% of the rice milled away and no added alcohol and unpasteurized is a Namazake Junmai Daiginjo-shu. All the above premium sakes only account for 20% of the total produced. The other 80% is called Futsu, which just normal table sake. There aren't any minimum milling regs and it can or not have alcohol added. Incidentally, the US taxes sake with added alcohol at the distilled spirit rate rather than the brew rate, so it's rare to find any non-Junmai sakes here. There's actually another type called Nigori which is lightly filtered or non-filtered and has some of the brewing rice residue in the bottle making the sake look cloudy. It tastes a bit sweeter with hints of coconut and honey and goes very well with spicy foods as an alternative to Riesling. As to hot or cold, all the premium sakes are best served chilled, but can be warmed to no more than body temp in the winter. No sake should be served as many restaurants do - close to boiling. Futsu-shu is usually best served warmed at all times to ameliorate it's less than premium qualities. Hope this helps. BTW, there's a US sake producer from Oregon called SakeOne that produces a line called Momokawa, and their product is quite nice. They make four types -
Silver - a nice Honjozo style
Diamond - a Ginjo style that goes well with both seafood and lighter meats
Ruby - this is a light style for pwople who generally drink lighter red and white wines
Pearl - a really nice Nigori sake

[MIA22]

HELP!!! I AM NEW TO WINE TASTING AND WOULD LIKE TO NOW WHAT ARE THE FRUITY AND SWEET WINES????

[winoweenie]

Very comrehensive explanation KC. I love SakeOnes products and here in the desert tend to keep them in the cellar for all our Sushi needs. The plonk most of the fast food sushi joints serve are replaced by Kirin on my order. WW

[MIA22]

I GAVE UP BEER FOR LINT. AND, WOULD LIKE TO GIVE WINE A SHOT, BUT I ONLY WANT THE SWEET AND FRUITY ONES.....AN EXPERT PLEASE HELP ME!! THANKS AGAIN MARIA

[aetre]

mia, don't type all caps that's the equivelant of screaming your head off =)

I'm no expert as you can tell by now but I know white zinfandel is sweet and very fruity (just had beringer 2002 w zin today!). Other kinds you'll have to ask the others. You'll get more attention if you make a new thread too (not that you're hijacking this one or anything =P)

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the best things in life take most of life to accomplish.

[Innkeeper]

Hi Mia, and welcome to the Wine Board. Aetre gave you good advice regarding the White Zin. That is a good place to start if you are just getting into wine. If you want to go to the white direction, there are many choices. Almost any North American or German Riesling that does not say "Dry" or "Troken" on the label will be both fruity and at least off dry. Chenin blanc from the Loire Valley of France, called Vouvray you will enjoy, as well a chenin blanc from North America that does not say "Dry" on the label. For reds, start with an Italian Lambrusco. If that is too sweet for you, come back for more suggestions.

[Springer29710]

dry
How dry is dry? This is the question. Literally, the term applies to the amount of sugar remaining in the wine. Bone-dry wines have had most if not all of their sugar fermented out (most wines whose residual sugar level is below 4/10 of a percent can be called Dry). Late-harvest wines can have sugar levels ranging from the 6 to 20 per cent levels and are called sweet (isn't that a surprise?).

[Innkeeper]

The wines referred to that don't have "dry" on the label will be perceptibly sweet as advertised. Grant it could be anywhere from slightly sweet to very sweet. Further education is necessary to sort that out.

You are correct in ascerting that not all dry is bone dry. Some so called dry wines, are not dry at all. Since this is illegal, one could get in trouble here naming names.

Just to throw another iron into the fire, it is possible for a dry wine, even a bone dry one, to taste sweet. This is because overtly fruity flavors can taste sweet, even without any actual sweetness being present.

[quijote]

Thanks for the sake primer, KC. Little by little I'm learning in that area. One of these days I'm going to go to Japan....