Quote:
Originally Posted by Juniper
I've never been much of a wine drinker. Whenever I do drink it, I've usually chosen a chardonnay -- something sweet. I like sweet wine. Obviously I have not developed a wine palate yet.  I always said I hated red wine, but hubby got a bottle of Turning Leaf merlot from someone on his route for Christmas, and it was yummy! I went to the store to get more, but alas, it was a different year and YUCK, that one just was not good. |
Merlots improve by keeping them around a couple more years sitting in the bottle. Preferably horizontal so the cork absolutely never dries out.
Reds in general smooth out if you cellar them like that for a couple years... even five years. They contain more tannins -- they taste astringent, puckery -- to start with, from being reds, made with the grapeskins. These tannins slowly react inside a sealed bottle to stop being puckery and start adding, well, depth and complexity. And they get smoother and smoother.
A wine tasting is a good way to gather some experience in this stuff. Mostly, it will show you some other stuff you like -- new experiences.
I like a merlot that's gotten some age to it. Ravenwood's Merlot cellars well. Kept around for a few years, it's a lot smoother than drinking it right out of the store. Cabernets (Cabernet Sauvignon) are reds I like better still, and there are like thousands of Cabs out there. You'll probably find one you really like, and a little later you'll find another.
Burgundies tend to make me twitch unless taken with beef dishes. Hey, burgundy beef, whaddaya know... but The Roast Beef Of Old England serves too.
White wines, with much less tannin, don't improve very much with age. They might benefit from another year's cellaring time, but probably won't get much nicer after that. I'm very fond of Central Coast Californians like Mirassou.
Since you like 'em sweet, try a genuine French Bordeaux -- they run sweetly complex. Bordeaux isn't just one wine; they are various blends, and very tasty. Or, in the same school, an American Meritage, which is just our wine marketers' idea of how to pronounce Bordeaux. They made the name up to sound impressive. You like the one, you'll like the other.
There are people who get really culty about their wines. Some of these creatures become capitalized Full-Fledged Wine Bores and can make you pretty durn tired. But really, it's all about what wines please
your palate. Drink those, cook with the less fancy ones that you also drink just for plain dinners -- where you figure the Tuesday night din-din only calls for the
vin ordinaire.
Nowadays is a good era to be drinking wine. Winemaking regions are all around the globe, both hemispheres. Australian table wine has long ceased to be a mere Monty Python punchline.