8 wines - 4 red sorts und 4 white sorts

[Rumpel]

If there is anyone here who has not tried Carménère yet, it would about time to start now.

 

[Decypher]

Reisling is the German, Pinot Gris the French, same grapes, same basic region, same method of wine making. The French is more snooty.

Zinfandel is an acquired taste, a cheap grape, often musty, syrupy, passed off in blends as something better than it is. A table wine that is often served over chilled in Germany with a small sugar cube at the bottom of the glass. It made it big in California as a grape varietal, blending well with fruit jams like blackberry, plum, peaches with peppery overtones. Originally from Poland, Crljenak Kaštelanski or Zin for short. About 10% of the California grapes.

You got the original name of Zinfandel right but it’s from Croatia originally. The Italians started to grow it in Puglia where it was known as Primitivo because it ripens early.

 

[Decypher]

Honestly, to create a list and leave out some of the universally acknowledge core of wine types is not acceptable:

Cabernet Sauvignon
Sauvignon Blanc
A French Burgundy or Bordeaux.
A classic Italian Chianti

And you want to know about an esoteric relic like Carmenere or a pedestrian blah like Merlot?

Shame on you. I would expect more from a European.

Merlot is one of the noble grapes of Bordeaux. You’ve mixed up regions and grapes in your list.

 

[Rumpel]

Zinfandel

"Zinfandel" is an interesting name!
It came into existence through a typo, probably.
In case your are interested, you may google for it!

 

[Rumpel]

Merlot is one of the noble grapes of Bordeaux. You’ve mixed up regions and grapes in your list.

So it is! Somebody else did - not me.
Lots of so-called "specialists" do so and betray that way that they do not have the least idea about wine.

For example: Beaujolais and Rioja and Chianti are regions and not grapes.
But all these names is often mixed up as grapes by self-styled "specialists".
Really laughable how those types out themselves as complete ignorants - who dare to "correct" others.

 

[gdgyva]

Lived in Germany for 4 years...and visited most of the wine regions in Spain, Italy, France, and Germany over that time

It was on my bucket list when i got there....and i accomplished most of the trips i wanted

Learned a LOT about wines while over there, but still am a novice at best....

I know what i like, but not necessarily what others think "should be" the best

my taste buds and theirs dont often mesh

I love Merlots and Cabs in the reds....and Pinots and Chardonays in the whites

Never been a big Rose fan at all....and the Spatlese's and Reislings from Germany were not my favorites either

I think a lot about wine is just personal preference and taste....some like sweeter, others more bold

And also what you are pairing the wine with

 

[Rumpel]

6 out of 7 voters now name Riesling.
Riesling may be called "the King of the white wines!" eace

 

[Rumpel]

I think a lot about wine is just personal preference and taste...

I agree - very much so!
On the other hand there are also some hard facts.
Knowing about wine is a mixture of both.

 

[OldFatGuy]

You got the original name of Zinfandel right but it’s from Croatia originally. The Italians started to grow it in Puglia where it was known as Primitivo because it ripens early.

The genetics of Zin show it as an earlier development in what today is western Poland. Strains traveling as far south as modern South Africa, at least a millennia before the rise of the Greeks. With stops in southern Europe and the Anatolian steppes. Grapes today are mostly promulgated by cuttings, but during earlier history, more likely seed carried by birds and other migratory animals. It can be found throughout the Balkans and the Greek Isles. Hybrids everywhere. Wild grapes found is southern Argentina, where few if any men had tread, were related to Zin genetically. Not grapes suitable for wine, small, relatively lacking in sugars but good for jams and preserves that weren't overly sweet. Zin may be one of the great grandmothers of grapes.

I won't say I thoroughly understand the science of genetics, but I do understand how AI is being used to backtrace genetic sources with modeling. Apparently grapes are of particular interest because of their great value and the value of the wine making industries where they exist today. It is not only for wine that grape juice is valued, but for packing and storage of other fruits, more desirable than their own syrups and apple juices. Only in the US are more apple juices consumed directly than grape, and not by very much. It blends better with other berry and fruit juices than apple juice, maintaining the flavors of those other juices, often far more expensive and rare. All those cranberry cocktails and blueberry blends are examples. Cranberry too tart on its own for many palettes, blueberry juices having shorter shelf lives unblended with grape juices. The best selling jarred pears and peaches today are packed in grape juice, less sweet than their own syrupy juices, viewed as more healthy and less cloying to the palette.

 

[OldFatGuy]

I think a lot about wine is just personal preference and taste....some like sweeter, others more bold

And also what you are pairing the wine with

That's the crux of it. Whatever makes you happy at the moment.

Please pass that jug of Gallo. Still the most well producing wine company in the world for volume, and among the least expensive. Rioja grapes from Spain, via Mexico, to California. Who would have thunk?

 

[maxparrish]

That's like saying Europeans are gourmets not gourmands. Being European doesn't make anyone a wine expert, an oenophile. Europeans have the same bad tastes as Americans, and not so unusually, worse. Some of the best US domestic wines are coming out of New Jersey and Minnesota. And they are much better than much of the adulterated over rated crap produced in France. English wines are bad joke. The grand vineyards of the Balkans, destroyed by endless wars. The same with the German vineyards. Spain, a last bastion for quality wines is battling depleted soil, desertification, and weak vineyards that haven't introduced new cutting for centuries, leaving many of the old vineyards unhealthy.

Today's best wines are coming out of South America. Unfortunately, the never ending ruff stuff going down throughout them, who knows.

Thank you for the head's up. I've never trusted wine from regions with excessively hot and humid summers...my California bias. Those summer breezes must be part of the secret. I'll look for an NJ wine, or Minn. (20 years ago I tasted a Cab from Oklahoma...it was horrible)

 

[OldFatGuy]

Thank you for the head's up. I've never trusted wine from regions with excessively hot and humid summers...my California bias. Those summer breezes must be part of the secret. I'll look for an NJ wine, or Minn. (20 years ago I tasted a Cab from Oklahoma...it was horrible)

I've tasted three wines from Minn. 1 sucked. The other two, very good, but not great. Then I was told that the lake country in Minn. was well known for some varietal grapes. Made sense. Reasonable humidity, temperate weather, plenty of rain usually. Early harvests before frosts set in, so short growing seasons creating limitations. General rule of thumb, where mushrooms do well, grape vines do better.

 

[nota bene]

Lived in Germany for 4 years...and visited most of the wine regions in Spain, Italy, France, and Germany over that time

It was on my bucket list when i got there....and i accomplished most of the trips i wanted

Learned a LOT about wines while over there, but still am a novice at best....

I know what i like, but not necessarily what others think "should be" the best

my taste buds and theirs dont often mesh

I love Merlots and Cabs in the reds....and Pinots and Chardonays in the whites

Never been a big Rose fan at all....and the Spatlese's and Reislings from Germany were not my favorites either

I think a lot about wine is just personal preference and taste....some like sweeter, others more bold

And also what you are pairing the wine with

Full disclosure: I'm all about the high, and so long as the wine doesn't taste like vomit or is gag-sweet like so many Muscatos, I'm good with it. :mrgreen:

But a member of my household works for a winery, and my BFF and her husband are hard-core oenophiles, so I've learned a bit about labels and tannin and pairings and production and blah-blah-blah.

I like some Zinfandels and Rieslings, and I voted for the Gerwurztraminer.

 

[Rumpel]

I like some Zinfandels and Rieslings, and I voted for the Gerwurztraminer.

Same here!
And the Gewürz-Traminer is a good choice - just as the Traminer is.

 

[Rumpel]

8 wines - 4 red sorts und 4 white sorts

Sorts - stands for grape varieties here.
Not for regions.

And never the two should be mixed up.

 

[Rumpel]

Reisling is the German, Pinot Gris the French, same grapes,

An interesting conspiracy theory!
I wonder who told you that! :mrgreen:

Pinot Gris is Grau-Burgunder in German.
Just as Pinot Blanc is Weiß-Burgunder in German.

Wheras Riesling is Riesling is Riesling and evermore will be so!

 

[OldFatGuy]

An interesting conspiracy theory!
I wonder who told you that! :mrgreen:

Pinot Gris is Grau-Burgunder in German.
Just as Pinot Blanc is Weiß-Burgunder in German.

Wheras Riesling is Riesling is Riesling and evermore will be so!

I suggest you visit the regions, same lands, same grapes, divided by the abstract of borders drawn on maps. And everyone speaks Bourgoygne at home and in the fields.

 

[Rumpel]

I suggest you visit the regions

I live there.
And I suggest, you get some serious information concerning Riesling and Pinot Gris - not some nonsense that you have heard from some complete ignorants.

Over and out.

 

[OldFatGuy]

I live there.
And I suggest, you get some serious information concerning Riesling and Pinot Gris - not some nonsense that you have heard from some complete ignorants.

Over and out.

Then you should know better, and not be constrained by nationalistic sentiments.

 

[Rumpel]

7 out of 7 say: other red wines

It might be interesting which ones

 

[Rumpel]

My motto is: ABC

= anything but Chardonnay!

 

[Rumpel]

ANYTHING BUT CHARDONNAY!

Gewürztraminer (guh-VURTS-trah-mee-ner) has roots in Alsace and Germany and now produced in many world wine regions. It is one of the best examples of an aromatic, floral-scented wine. This wine has notes of lychee, roses, and passion fruit. These wines come in a dry or “off-dry” style.

ABC's of Anything But Chardonnay

 

[Rumpel]

Merlot is very much worth talking about more.

Who else likes Merlot?

 

[Rumpel]

A French Burgundy or Bordeaux.
A classic Italian Chianti

Neither Burgundy nor Bordeaux nor Chianti are grapes.
One can't say so often enough!

 

[Rexedgar]

Neither Burgundy nor Bordeaux nor Chianti are grapes.
One can't say so often enough!