Wine Notes, or, Things I'm Learning to Love

[Eaquae Legit]

For a long time, I did not enjoy wine. Thus begins my adventure. Actually, I didn't enjoy any alcohol. All I could ever taste was ethanol, and that's a pretty nasty taste, if we want to be honest. Whenever I was somewhere where wine was being poured, I'd gamely take a small glass but I could rarely finish it.

Very recently my tastes shifted, and I'm finding I can stomach and even enjoy things I never could before. The first thing I noticed was that I could enjoy a sweeter drink (grasshopper martini being the first). Then I found that I could enjoy wine. I've since discovered I can handle beer, in small amounts, and coffee, if I put a lot of milk and chocolate syrup in it. (To be fair, the coffeemaker I have does more of an espresso type brew than your conventional drip machine.)

But it's the wine I'm most excited about and that I most enjoy.

I've found I like very dry wines, in general, but can go as sweet as a 2 without complaint. A 5 is unpleasant.

I've also learned that Canadian wine doesn't deserve the poor reputation it seems to have. France, Germany, Chile, and the rest do some very nice wines. But so do we. My favourite local winery is Pelee Island - I've consistently enjoyed just about everything I've had from there.

But without further ado, here are some of my favourites. If you happen to have one, share it! I'm looking to branch out a bit, but still unsure enough of my own tastes to be hesitant. I don't pretend to give great notes, I just feel like sharing what I've enjoyed.



Pelee Island Riesling (Ontario) - Dry but not too light, goes excellently with spicy dishes such as curries. The flavour of both the dish and the wine improve when they're paired, IMO.

Pelee Island Baco Noir (Ontario) - Very dark, heavy tannins (what makes it "bite"). Went very well with a chicken-and-proscuitto recipe a friend gave me.

Pelee Island Gewurztraminer (Ontario) - Sweeter, light, all-around enjoyable.

Lindemans Cawarra Shiraz-Cabernet (Australia) - Heavy, mellow, highly enjoyed.

Lindemans Cawarra Semillion Chardonnay (Australia) - Less oak than most chardonnays, which seems to be why I don't normally enjoy chardonnay as much.

Pelee Island Shiraz (Ontario) - I had great success mulling this one. Star anise, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, peppercorns, nutmeg, maybe something else I can't remember, all in a crockpot. Just have to be careful not to use too much spice.

[Rei]

I'm also a fan of those two from Cawarra. Another winery I quite enjoy is Tinhorn Creek, also Hester Creek (both are in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia). In particular, Tinhorn Creek does a Trebbiano I quite enjoy (white, and I'm not sure of the sweetness). As well, both wineries do a very good Merlot (heavy, red, 00)

Santa Rita's Merlot is quite good, as well, which is a Chilean wine (also heavy, red, 00).

I definitely prefer the heavy, dry wines when they are red. With whites I tend to be less observant, although I do often enjoy Gerwertztraminer (it's like trying to spell Nietzsche), Riesling, and Trebbiano.

[eriador]

For a long time, I did not enjoy wine. Thus begins my adventure. Actually, I didn't enjoy any alcohol. All I could ever taste was ethanol, and that's a pretty nasty taste, if we want to be honest. Whenever I was somewhere where wine was being poured, I'd gamely take a small glass but I could rarely finish it.

Very recently my tastes shifted, and I'm finding I can stomach and even enjoy things I never could before. The first thing I noticed was that I could enjoy a sweeter drink (grasshopper martini being the first). Then I found that I could enjoy wine. I've since discovered I can handle beer, in small amounts, and coffee...

Ditto. But I can't legally drink yet.

[Eaquae Legit]

As yes. I should add a disclaimer:

Pweb does not support underage drinking. Also, drink and drive only if you are incredibly stupid and want to cause a lot of pain and sufferring.

[neo-dragon]

You probably just gave more people than you realize permission to drink and drive, but they were likely going to do it anyway...

[Eaquae Legit]

True. Okay, then, don't drink and drive because my uncle was killed by a drunk driver and that makes me very angry at drunk drivers and you don't want me hunting you down.

Any better, Jason?

[Young Val]

i'm a huge fan of white wine, particularly riesling. i don't often enjoy red wines, although i'd like to change that.

[Eaquae Legit]

See if you can find the Shiraz-Cab, Kelly. It's very mellow, so I don't get overwhelmed. (Red overwhelms me sometimes, somehow. And I don't mean drunk, I just mean taste-wise it gets too intense.)

[neo-dragon]

True. Okay, then, don't drink and drive because my uncle was killed by a drunk driver and that makes me very angry at drunk drivers and you don't want me hunting you down.

Any better, Jason?

Much.

[Jayelle]

i'm a huge fan of white wine, particularly riesling. i don't often enjoy red wines, although i'd like to change that.

I'm the total opposite. I find white wines thin and acidic. I like a thick red Merlot, or even a Pinot Noir.

Little Penguin Pinot is really good.

[anonshadow]

I am generally more of a red wine person, but I'm not so much of a wine person. I prefer margaritas and dacaris.

[daPyr0x]

I've come to enjoy wines more lately myself. I can only drink reds if I'm mating them with my meal; otherwise I do not enjoy them at all. Whites I can do with food, on their own, or pretty much any time.

Ice wine is good stuff too. It's one of those things you can have a little of after dinner, like a dessert; but you can't do too much because it's too sweet (not to mention expensive).

[Ela]

Darn it, EL, now I want a glass of wine.

[eriador]

Ice wine is good, but it's a little too sweet to have more that a couple sips, IMHO.

[Platypi007]

I love wine, and alcohol in general. Wine I'm not nearly as picky about as I am with beer. I prefer ales to lagers and I will NOT drink the mass-produced american pisswater that is tha favorite of so many americans due to American's lack of good taste (a trend that I see changing).

I will, however, drink cheap wines. For instance I just enjoyed a nice cheap single serving bottle of some Black Swan shiraz.

Of course price with wine means nothing. But this is crappy grocery store stuff. Good wine DOES taste better than crappy wine. And there have been wines that I have hated.

I had a great Spanish cabernet sauvignon in September where I was "bar tender" for the opera's opening season dinner. While serving drinks (wine, beer, and soft drinks) I was also drinking a lot of the wine. The spanish white wine was rather good too. I had rather a lot of wine that night. The wines were all spanish in honor of our first show being Man of La Mancha.

Wine is also wonderful for cooking with.

[Slim]

I've just had a Root Beer. Mmmmm!

[ValentineNicole]

I love wine. I've taken a few wine tasting seminars, and I think many people would be surprised at the difference wine can actually make in bringing out the tastes in certain foods.
I think I'll always prefer sparking wines.
Banfi Rosa Regale is my favorite desert wine, and a nice glass of champagne or Asti Spumante is always good.

[the HiveQueen]

Although I can't legally drink yet either, my parents are HUGE wine buffs and I'll have a glass with dinner every once in a while. What I love most about wine is how well it goes with food, and trying to match up the right wines with the right foods. But in general, I love a good Russian River chardonnay or anything Bogle.

[Petra]

Red. Dry. Tannins. The moreso the better. I like whites, I drink Riesling and I drink pinot grigio. But I love a really good, dry red. My mum got me started on them, it really can't be too dry.

Any suggestions for a generic dry red that can be found in the states?

[Platypi007]

Speaking of tastings... In a semi-related note:

Has anyone had fresh roasted single-origin coffee? I used to work at a shop that specalized in such amazing things and it is quite interesting the flavor difference in various coffees. From the slight sweetness of a celebes kalossi or galapagos island coffee to a woody smokiness of the monsoon cured india malibar, quite amazing.

The relation is in that a lot of the flavours used to describe these quality coffees are similar to the terms used in wine tasting and the range of flavours from year to year, farm to far, and region to region are as vast as those in wines from various years, vinyards, and regions/styles.

Yeah, I love coffee.

[ValentineNicole]

Speaking of tastings... In a semi-related note:

Has anyone had fresh roasted single-origin coffee? I used to work at a shop that specalized in such amazing things and it is quite interesting the flavor difference in various coffees. From the slight sweetness of a celebes kalossi or galapagos island coffee to a woody smokiness of the monsoon cured india malibar, quite amazing.

The relation is in that a lot of the flavours used to describe these quality coffees are similar to the terms used in wine tasting and the range of flavours from year to year, farm to far, and region to region are as vast as those in wines from various years, vinyards, and regions/styles.

Yeah, I love coffee.

The guy I've been seeing works in a coffee house, so oddly enough, lately, I've been trying a lot of different fresh roasted single-origin coffees. We've been working on latin america - and I love the differences in taste. It's really interesting - I used to just assume coffee was coffee, unless it was flavored or made in an expresso bar.
Do you have any in particular you might suggest?

[Eaquae Legit]

*bump-post spree continues*

Since this thread last appeared, I have learned that I still love the Pelee Island wines very very much. Their Gewurtz and Cab-Merlot were the wines we had at our wedding. I had three people tell me I picked their favourite wine! (The Gewurtz.) One of them drank two bottles on her own and then chased a rabbit on her way home. It's just a great wine, if you can get it.

I've also learned to love Screech, a Newfoundland rum. Jan and Caspian, you should try it when you move, in a pub. It's lovely and smooth and has a great flavour. Non-canucks will have a hard time finding it, but I totally recommend it if you take a trip north.

Gin has become a big favourite as well. I can enjoy Gordon's, but I enjoy flavouring it with an infusion of saffron, elderflower, or jasmine first (highly recommended, btw). I like Hendricks best, garnished with cucumber and/or muddled rose petals. Bombay Sapphire is popular, I know, but it doesn't do it for me. Tonic is great, and so is bitter lemon, if you're in the UK (Fresca isn't the same, but it's the closest in North America). Sloe gin is a category in itself, and I adore it. The real stuff, mind, not the McGuinness crap. Best with bitter lemon.

As for wines, I haven't had anything new catch my eye or my tastebuds that I can recall. Does anybody have a suggestion?

[Rei]

I still recall loving the Ravenwood (I think that's the winery) Zinfandel. It was spectacular.

Also, a toddy of Screech (or presumably some other caramelly rum) in rooibus is really tasty.

[Luet]

EL, when you first started tasting wine, did you really hate it or just not mind it? Because I have never tasted a wine that I could stand that taste of. And people always tell me that it's an acquired taste but I wonder if you have to start out at least tolerating the flavor as opposed to hating it. I hate all beer too.

[Eaquae Legit]

Hated it for years. Hated all alcohol for years.

You might try something like a port, which is very sweet, or sangria. A very inexpensive way to try sangria is red wine mixed 1:1 with tropical Five Alive. A real sangria has other stuff in it, but if you're not sure you'll like it, I'd go with the simple version first.

[megxers]

Oooh, I do love sangria. Wine is pretty much the only alcohol I actually like, rather than just tolerate in other things, unless it is a very well mixed cocktail. I also adore Limoncello. There is a winery a couple miles from here that has won quite a few awards, so I am looking forward to trying it and maybe going to a tasting.

Though I really shouldn't be in this thread until next week....

[Eaquae Legit]

Oh, and I hated all beer, too.

Then I realised I have very snobby taste buds. I still don't like almost any major commercial brews, and tend toward microbrews. I also hate bitterness (a common complaint among women, which is why men drink more beer than us). So I look for smoother, hoppy beers with little bitterness, and I drink them the British way - cellar-cool instead of ice cold. The flavours are more complex that way and I can sip a pint slowly and savour it.

[Luet]

I'm not too worried about it. Alcoholism runs in my family and I'm a cheapskate, so I don't have big plans to force myself to develop a taste for it. I was just curious.

[locke]

beer and wine tend to have strong bitter flavors on the first touch of the tongue, and that's why I didn't care for them all that much for years. I have learned though that as one continues to drink you lose your ability to taste the prominent bitterness. I call it taste bud fatigue. I've been to one wine tasting and liked several of the reds there, though as a rule I don't like reds or tannin heavy wines. I like wines that are brighter. sometimes these tend to be sweeter which I can take or leave, but a very mild reisling (not sweet) tends to be what I like most for just relaxing and enjoying wine. I hate drinking wine with food as I think it just makes it hard to taste and enjoy the food (and I'm too damn lazy to pair it) though it can bring new flavor notes from the food as well, though I have rarely had that happen, usually it just shuts down most of my mouth. Too my taste buds drinking wine while eating food--particularly fish--is no different than dousing sushi in soy sauce before eating the sushi (and yes I have friends who completely immerse their sushi in soy sauce before eating it, I've never been so horrified in a restaurant in my life!). Besides, water tastes better than wine anyway (though beer often tastes better than water).

I would rather have grapes than wine. I want to taste the grapes, not the barrels, which is not to say I want grape juice, which is more or less no different from syrup and about as appetizing. I'd rather have wine than grape juice.

I don't much like espresso either, since it's really nothing more than concentrated bitter coffee.

The bitter flavors I like are those in coffee and dark chocolate. I like the single origin chocolates and coffee both. and I tend to prefer tangy fermented and sour flavors over pronounced bitter flavors. With both coffee and chocolate bitterness can be indicative of a careless roast (ie any roast bigger than 10lbs) and so the bitter qualities of a batch can be carefully controlled and directed by skilled makers. Unfortunately coffee is still highly brew dependent and will result in a substantially different final cup based on brewing method as well as grinding method and particle uniformity and size. Chocolate is much easier, the bar is good or it isn't. Milk chocolate is like the lattes of the chocolate world, can be really good, but generally too sweet and cloying for me.

Didn't I have a chocolate thread somewhere?

[Petrie]

Didn't I have a chocolate thread somewhere?

Chocolate.


Syphon, you fail. You're the official link boy.

[Jayelle]

I've also learned to love Screech, a Newfoundland rum. Jan and Caspian, you should try it when you move, in a pub. It's lovely and smooth and has a great flavour. Non-canucks will have a hard time finding it, but I totally recommend it if you take a trip north.

I had heard of it, but was frightened by the name, now I'll have to try it! (When I'm un-pregnant, that is)

[Rei]

I was a little disappointed that Screech didn't live up to the legend, but that aside, I quite enjoy it.

[Eaquae Legit]

I think I'm going to make a post about something non-alcoholic.

Fruits and vegetables everyone should try sometime:

Dragonfruit/pitahaya - It looks like a pink hand grenade, but slice it in half and scoop the soft inside out with a spoon. It's delicate and refreshing and tastes a bit like a cross between kiwi and watermelon. So very delicious.

Papaya - It's great for your eyes! Lots of vitamin E! Like a melon, cut it in half and scoop out the seeds (they're weird and caviar-like). Then slice it and throw it into a fruit salad.

Passionfruit - Once you've had the real thing, fake passionfruit flavours will never satisfy again. Don't be put off by the strange appearance of the seeds, the taste is out of this world. The one thing I've found which comes close to the actual flavour is Sumol fizzy drinks.

Guar beans - I just love these things. They've got such a great texture and don't go mushy like your standard green beans when reheated.

Methi/Fenugreek - Get a bunch fresh and chop it coarsely and fry it like spinach. Add some salt and lemon and cumin and maybe a dollop of thick yoghurt. A great side dish.

Taro - A Polynesian root vegetable very popular in China, Thailand, and surrounding areas. It is firmer than a potato, with thin purple veins running through it. Put it in a Thai curry or chop it into fries. The "fake" powdered version is entirely different, but makes great ice cream, or you can mix it into butter for a spread, or make a drink of it.

Garlic greens - great in a stir-fry. You can buy them in some asian markets, but you can also make your own by letting a head of garlic sprout and then putting it into a glass with a little water on your windowsill. These young shoots are infinitely better in my opinion anyway. Use them like chives, or in a stir-fry as long as there's no heavy sauces to overpower them.

[buckshot]

I've been consuming a bit of local dry apple cider lately. I like the change from the usual and it is super refreshing on a warm evening.

[megxers]

I've discovered I don't really like wine as much as I thought I did.