/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>6077416
Pinot Noir is usually safe. Or a Cabernet Sauvignon.

>>6077576
I wouldn't call anything from california "safe", especially not pinot noir

>>6077416
Dry is the opposite of sweet. If she wants something sweet and red, try a Merlot or a Cab Sauv. Other varietals to try include Barbera, Sangiovese, or Petite Sirah if you can find them.

>>6077416
>she asked me to get her a bottle or two.
Dumb bitch, who asks friends for specific shit for christmas?

>>6077590
>everything in this post

>>6077590
>sweet
>merlot
>cab sauv
stop trolling faggot

dornfelder is a great babby's first wine. it's sweet but it's not moscato, which is a known palate stagnater and is also generally an inferior quality wine anyway. it also, depending on which you get, has a bit of a dry finish to it, so you get the best of both worlds

old vine zinfandels are also phenomenal for new wine drinkers. the older the vine, the better (which is sometimes hard to determine, as most labeling won't say)

>>6077596

I don't like 'old vine zinfandel', not that old vines are a bad thing, but it doesn't really mean anything and it's kind of a red flag to me. Not quite as bad as seeing cheese that says "made with real milk", but something analogous. It's something you see most commonly on not such nice zins.

>>6077416

Geyser Peak makes a decent cab. Fetzer is inexpensive but decent. Paul Newman is also acceptable and a bargain. I'm talking about cabs. There are lesser wines, but why bother? Throw in a Secco Italian sparkling rose while you're at it, just for laughs. And a Merlot, maybe even a Zin, which I don't like much. Some varietals like Malbec can also be very good, real bargains. Chilean wines are worth looking at. Or Tempranillo.

Cupcake, Mad Housewife, Yellowtail are all on the bad side of cheap. Avoid them, IMHO. Delicato is way, way on the wrong side of cheap. I'd avoid French cabs... but if you have a good wine shop, see if they don't carry a white Burgundy, which is outstanding. Find a good wine shop and pick their brains. Don't listen to bullshit, find someone who knows what they're talking about. Just throwing money at a bottle does not guarantee you're going to end up with anything palatable.

>>6077416
Trader Joes Charles Shaw

2 buck chuck

#thread

You're getting her wine for Christmas? You should, if you're able to, get her Glühwein. It's a traditional spiced wine served on Christmas in Germany, and it isn't dry.

>>6077616

Nah... they tweaked their processes, it's not what it once was IMHO. It's worth buying some 2.5 buck chuck to mix with another cheap wine and end up with a wine better than either 'parent'...

>>6077615
>paul newman
>fetzer
>geyser peak

dude what. he can get a bottle of something decent for his budget, maybe a clos du val cab leaving enough leftover for something light and non-flashy from europe... an inexpensive blaufrankisch or a young mencia from ribeira sacra or something like that.

california cabs just aren't a very good value, so you're going to need to throw some money at it if you don't want a mouth full of chemicals and oak powder.

>>6077610
i've had a few decent old vine zins but only one absolutely mindblowingly good one, though i seriously doubt the vines are as old as they say they are

good wine is good wine though. a good ovz is tons juicier and smokier than it's "regular" counterpart though, which would lend many favors to new wine drinkers

>>6077620
and it's disgusting as fuck. very low quality wine.

Buy a languedoc with mourvedre and a decent cote du rhone.

>>6077682
>people buy gluwein
>people buy pumking

after working in the industry, i could safely say that if someone carefully placed rat turds in a bottle of wine or beer once a year and called it a "seasonal release", it would sell out in droves guaranteed

>>6077416
I know a lot of white women who go ape shit for this stuff. I'm not really much of a wine drinker, but I liked it. It's bretty sweet.

>>6077699
grocery store wine

it tastes like those neapolitan coconut bars though, which is interesting -- but not good

Apothecary red all the way!!

>>6077690
underrated post

>>6077710
It's definitely not high quality wine, but hey, there's worse ways to get drunk for $10.

>>6077733
you could chuck in about ten more bucks and get a halfway decent moelleux that's 14% abv

and there are vitners out there that make really decent affordable wines. one of my favorite chenin blancs is like... 13 bucks with tax

>>6077744
Usually I just stick to gin, but if I'm ever out getting a wine I'll keep that in mind.

Op here thanks everyone,went to the large liquor store in the area, should have came earlier in the day because it was all 18 year old shit heads who had no idea about anything i asked.

Photo is what i grabbed so far, it was only 24 bucks for the lot so going to go back tomorrow when actual real employees are working who can give me real advice.

thanks everyone for your comments and help.
And Merry Christmas

>>6077593
I should have explained, we tell each other roughly exactly what we want each other to get. I asked for a Fitted hat and Dark chocolate Truffles

>>6077416
Handy little image I got for wine

>>6078027

that image is bad and you should stop posting it

same goes for the other one

just get some cab sav and some shiraz. they are pretty much the standard go to reds

>>6077699
Came into this thread just to see how people treated it.

It is the only red wine I've tried and enjoyed, which isn't to say I've tried a lot. I'm guessing this makes me pleb as shit.

>>6078030
Why is this bad? is it just blatantly wrong or is it something else?

>>6078071

The random mixing of appellations and varietals and the inconsistent inclusion of stylistic descriptors makes it just seem confused and misguided.

For example you have "Barbera d'Alba" (not to be confused with "Barbera" up top which is inexplicably tossed in with "Zinfandel"). And then stuff like "Chardonnay" (not to be confused with "Unoaked chardonnay" - does that mean "Chardonnay" on its own means oaked? And then all the meursault /maconnais/etc... why have "chardonnay" at all if you were already going to go into that level of detail?

If they had gone for something 2 or 3 levels of detail lower, they might have pulled it off without having it turn into a retarded clusterfuck.