What's in your glass tonight?
- Thread starter Boatboy24
- Start date
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Interesting. You're from the UK so join a Wine Club that offers California and generally West Coast wines. I'm from the U.S and I am a Laithwaiter (I think I made up that term), a UK-based Company. Plus, we keep our clothes on!. . . I'm a member of a wine club, I'm a so called Naked Angel.
I was in Laithwaite for a couple of years. I never had a bad wine, the worst was merely "good". The periodic Mystery Cases were fun, but ya gotta have an open mind, as ya never know what yer gonna get.
The plus side was that I tried wines I would never otherwise heard of. The down side was getting more of any wine was pretty much impossible. The up side to that is that the next case would contain interesting wines.
Nuttin'!
Other than gin & tonic or margaritas, I usually drink liquor straight up, and I rarely drink sodas. I like sodas, but if a drink has a high calorie count, it better contain alcohol!
Mineral water helps ensure I drink something other than coffee, wine, and liquor ....
That sounds interesting. I've made a number of the flavored port kits, but not that one.
winemanden
Senior Member
It's a question of tasteYou can't make great wine unless you know what a great wine taste like!
Boatboy24
No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
Rose of Tempranillo. Pretty tasty.
thunderwagn
Member
Well it is world whiskey day!
In the past I'm mentioned Vivinio, a phone app I use for wine selection. Take a picture of a label and it matches to consumer ratings. So far, I've not picked a bad one using this app.
Until now. The overall consumer rating was 3.6 out of 5, which so far has been an acceptable wine. I opened this one and found it to be raw and acidic. Wow! The flavors were raw, in general, not a good combination.
I opened Vivinio up and checked the rating -- nope, I didn't misread it. But upon closer examination, the picture is the 2011 vintage, while my bottle is 2018, and the fine print says the ratings are across all vintages. This makes sense, as trying to identify the year on labels is nearly impossible.
Unaerated, the acidic nature was very disappointing. Aeration softened it, and with food it actually went well. I left the bottle on the counter with the aerator in place. The following night, when finishing the bottle, the wine had mellowed. Still best with food, but better than it had been. IMO this one is too young and needs to age another year.
I still recommend Vivinio, but when looking at the rating, look at the fine print. And while I've been a fan of aerators for years, this taught me that slow and steady (time to breath) may win the race.
Until now. The overall consumer rating was 3.6 out of 5, which so far has been an acceptable wine. I opened this one and found it to be raw and acidic. Wow! The flavors were raw, in general, not a good combination.
I opened Vivinio up and checked the rating -- nope, I didn't misread it. But upon closer examination, the picture is the 2011 vintage, while my bottle is 2018, and the fine print says the ratings are across all vintages. This makes sense, as trying to identify the year on labels is nearly impossible.
Unaerated, the acidic nature was very disappointing. Aeration softened it, and with food it actually went well. I left the bottle on the counter with the aerator in place. The following night, when finishing the bottle, the wine had mellowed. Still best with food, but better than it had been. IMO this one is too young and needs to age another year.
I still recommend Vivinio, but when looking at the rating, look at the fine print. And while I've been a fan of aerators for years, this taught me that slow and steady (time to breath) may win the race.
I use WS or WE reviews (always for a specific year) as a wine is not the same each year (as we all know). When in doubt and especially when I get an online offer from "Last Bottle" or WTSO or "Full Pull" etc I always go to Cellar Tracker and see what the "collective hive" has to say. CT is usually VERY conservative in their public ratings so if its getting good reviews their your probably very safe purchasing something blind.
@ibglowin, my preference is to use reviews or go someplace like TotalWine, where I can get qualified help. The value of Vivinio is that I can walk into a grocery store and use more than guessing. I've purchased 100+ bottles using it, and this was the first dud, so overall it's been positive. But it was a lesson learned.
winemanden
Senior Member
Naked wines do offer a few Californian wines. One great thing about this club is that if you have a wine that's not up to standard, or a wine you don't like, they give a no quibble guarantee, money back or replacement. I recently tried a Pedro Ximenez sweet wine. This was so intensely sweet it made your teeth and ears zing., completely undrinkable. Money paid back into my account no problem. Lady on the phone said pour it over ice cream or dump it.Interesting. You're from the UK so join a Wine Club that offers California and generally West Coast wines. I'm from the U.S and I am a Laithwaiter (I think I made up that term), a UK-based Company. Plus, we keep our clothes on!
I'm saving it for future back sweetening.
Yet another minor celebration at the Grapes household! Today was the last full day of work. I still have some things to clean up and straighten out, but this was pretty much it. Bittersweet, but a hell of a lot more sweet than bitter!
Boatboy24
No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
Awesome! Congrats, @sour_grapes !!
Congrats Paul...!! 
Congrats Paul and welcome to the Club!
Yet another minor celebration at the Grapes household! Today was the last full day of work. I still have some things to clean up and straighten out, but this was pretty much it. Bittersweet, but a hell of a lot more sweet than bitter!
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Just finished mowing the yard so it's officially "beer-thirty"!
Congratulations Paul!
