/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.4942989]

Hey /ck/,

I'd like to get into wine, have only had small tastes before, enough to get that I prefer red wine to white but not much else besides that. Thanksgiving is coming up, and I've been invited to a friend's, and I'd like to bring a nice red wine, but having almost no experience I'm clueless as to what to bring. They're making a maple-glazed turkey, so is there anything that might compliment that?

I'd like to keep it on the lower end of the price spectrum, probably about $20 is the most I can do (already bringing several other dishes that are going to be taking up a chunk of my paycheck).

Alternatively, hard apple cider?

[Rikky Davis No.4942995]

>>4942989
I work at a wine hut and took a training video seminar:

A good rule of thumb is match the wine color 2 the food color, this help u get the taste matched down. For white turkey, use a white or clear wine probably a champagne is best for thanksgiving as its also traditional

for dessert with red pies like apple or cherry use a red wine like sherry which is the standard dessert wine.

These are advices we use on real customer!

[Anonymous No.4943002]

If you have a decent wine and liquor store in your area, go there and talk to someone in the wine section. Their job is to make you satisfied with your purchase, and if you can give a price range and what you're looking to put it with they can help you out a lot.

[Anonymous No.4943007]

>>4942989
Catena makes a malbec that is absolutely amazing. it's usually around $18 a bottle, and it needs time to acclimate, but it's one of the best reds I've found in that price range.

You should also consider looking at wines from the Jumilla region of Spain. Again, cheap bottle, fantastic wine.

[Rikky Davis No.4943015]

>>4943002
>>4943007
Yes these are what I said as I work at one of these jobs: use the color rule: champagne 4 turkey is the traidional choise!!

[Anonymous No.4943044]

Get a copy of that smug wine magazine and memorize a few key quotes about a few popular brands.

Bam, now you're a sommelier.

[Anonymous No.4943054]

>>4943044

Have you seen John Cleese's Wine for the Confused? Elitism and wine don't have to go together, and a good sommelier should be focused on the customer regardless of their price range.

[Anonymous No.4943059]

>>4943044
>popular brands

Those tend to be mostly featured in the most unsmug, lowest-common-denominator wine mags that cater to ignorant morons who drink Napa Valley garbage.

Have fun being culturally intimidated by middlebrow golf-playing fatasses who collect Thomas Kinkade paintings and lust after the latest vintage of Opus One.

[Rikky Davis No.4943058]

>>4943044
No dont do it that is a dangeorus magazine trick that will get u a disaster in no time at all! Hes lying 2 u 2 get u a bad advice: this is what is known as a troll's post.

[Anonymous No.4943104]

>>4943059
>talkin' shit about Thomas Kinkade

[Anonymous No.4943423]

>>4942989
Drinking a white wine with turkey is traditional, but it comes down to what you like.

Personally, there are very few white wines that I will drink, but I'll drink just about any reds. I prefer really cabernet sauvignon or a merlot. These are usually pair with something like steak, roasts, or bold cheeses. Basically bold flavors. If it's a maple glazed turkey, I'd lean toward something a bit sweeter, otherwise it will taste REALLY dry with the meal. I'll drink a cabernet with just about anything though. I really like Luc Pirlet Cabernet Sauginon Reserva ~$11 a bottle. It's a french wine. WoodBridge by Robert Mondavi makes some good drinking, cheap wines.

Also, the Chileans are making some awesome wines that are comparable to the $20 bottles from the Napa Valley, except for half that price. I drink in the $10-15 range, and I think I have expensive tastes.

Ultimately it comes down to what you like, and if the $6 bottle tastes better than the $26 bottle, for god's sake get what you like.

Also, if you haven't looked into HOW to drink wine, please do.

Here's a guide. Don't worry about the legs and shit, only worry about the swirling and sniffing and shit. It changes your experience.

[Anonymous No.4943457]

>>4943423
Forgot link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRDOQBPstEI

[Anonymous No.4943465]

>>4943054
>John Cleese's Wine for the Confused

GREAT MOVIE, great starting place. He's amusing and it's fun to watch.

If you don't know what you're doing, maybe don't bring wine to Thanksgiving. Unless the host/ess specifically asked you to do it. Bring some spiced cider instead.

[Anonymous No.4943469]

>>4943457
I think maybe this might be the gayest video I have ever watched. Seriously, what the fuck was that? "Place your nose in such a way as to..." I mean, seriously, what? It's like the person who made this was a non-native English speaker trying to demonstrate his "mastery" of English grammar, and going way way overboard. Why was this bizarre cartoon model of the nervous system mixed with an almost useless video about wine?

I mean couldn't you just have said "swirl it around and sniff it before you drink it"?

[Anonymous No.4943482]

The great thing about turkey is that you can have white or red and it'll still go great with the meal. If you're having flavorful, heavy sides, I'd try a pinot noir or syrah. If you're staying light, try a semi-sweet riesling (I think that would pair really well with the maple glaze)

[Anonymous No.4943563]

>>4943469
Oh you. If you weren't a huge faggot you would understand what the video was explaining.

Aerating and smelling the wine before a taste changes the way you taste it.

The diagram of the brain was simply explaining what happens when you sniff and drink and why it tastes different.

[Anonymous No.4943584]

>>4943563
I understand why wine has to be aerated, and I believe that smelling it has something to do with establishing a background on which the brain interprets the taste, but the video didn't explain either of those things.

I thought the point of your post, that the most important "snobby" things to pay attention to are the "swirl and sniff," was actually very good. I just think the video is bad. The voice over sent shivers down my spine (in a bad way), the script was all over the place (stopping short of explaining anything in enough detail to be informative, but also delving into too many topics to have any sort of focus), and the content wasn't even interesting. I'm sure there's a much better video out there explaining some wine basics.

Like for instance I'm watching this John Cleese thing right now, and it's pretty great.

[Anonymous No.4943593]

>>4942989

Back on track OP, I'd bring a Rosé Pinot Noit if possible (agreeable to most people), or any decent Oregon or Burgundy Pinot. Caution on some California Pinot's, they try too hard to be that they're not.

[Anonymous No.4943625]

>>4943593
>Rosé Pinot Noir
What is this abomination you speak of

[Anonymous No.4943662]

I found a sealed bottle of some shitty Cabernet Sauvignon next to a bus stop today. Yay dinner

[Anonymous No.4943664]

>>4943625

Pinot juice is almost white if you press it right after picking, it retains a lot of fruit but obviously lacking in tannin/anthocyanin content. I've had one with turkey before and thought it'd be acceptable for a wide section of tastes.

[Anonymous No.4943729]

This thread is hilarious. Anywho, if you want red for a turkey and have $20 the safest bet is to grab whatever $20 Rhone red at 12.5% abv strikes your fancy. As a cheat, anything 13% or north is going to overpower it, and most low abv reds come from Italy and generally have a high acidity that works well with tomato based dishes but would clash with turkey. As a rule, South Rhone reds (typically a GSM blend, check the back label since French wines like to talk region rather than grape on the front) should give you the lighter body with relatively low acidity. So. Yeah. Take that to the liquor store and use it as a starting point/ask so that you don't just get the "white with white" spiel.

[Anonymous No.4943733]

>>4943584
Couldn't "Good point, crappy video" have accomplished that?

[Anonymous No.4943739]

>>4943733
Yes. I was just freaking out a little and I said too much. Histrionics.

[Anonymous No.4943763]

If you don't want to spend the time to try different stuff, buy something Old World, the closer to the Caucasus the better. You're much less likely to end up with experimental crazy awful junk. Georgians and Armenians probably make Earth's best wine because they have been doing it for millenia.

[Anonymous No.4943771]

>>4943763
This is definitely a joke, right? I've never even heard of Armenian wine...

[Anonymous No.4943779]

>>4943763
>eastern europe
> best wine

do you even europe?

[Anonymous No.4943782]

>>4943779
>Georgia and Armenia
>Europe
No, they are literally on the continent of Asia. Don't let them fool you, they are not European (or white) no matter how much they try to convince you they are "Westernized."

And don't even get me started on the word "Caucasian."

[Anonymous No.4943785]

>>4943763
trullz


OP, go french or portuguese for quality yuro wine

some spanish ones are good too

[Anonymous No.4943786]

>>4943782
Yes, but do they make good wine?

[Anonymous No.4943787]

>>4943786
no

[Anonymous No.4943788]

>>4943786
No, good wine is made in Italy and France.

I actually had some OK wine in Germany and Switzerland too, but it tasted funny because they can't grow the right grapes there. They do alright with what they have though. Spain would be good for wine, except their wine culture is kind of underdeveloped.

This guy has a good lead though, >>4943785, Portugal can definitely be good news.

[Anonymous No.4943814]

>>4943482
listen to this guy!
I would go for a off-dry riesling for turkey, but if you really want red, id go for the pinot noir

[Anonymous No.4943818]

European wine is pretty safe, like around the mediterranean. as for wine from georgia, it IS usually good, but harder to find (assuming you are american), and people will either not know where it is and be taken aback, or (if they are russian), enjoy the wine and then immediate insult the country as being full of subhuman scum.

but really just ask the people in the store.

[Anonymous No.4943823]

>>4943818
> russian
> enjoy wine

[Anonymous No.4943834]

>>4943823
>alcoholics
>not drinking anything and everything

[Anonymous No.4943852]

Are all New World wines shit or just the American ones?

[Anonymous No.4943863]

>>4943852
In short, it depends. Sometimes they are amazing, sometimes they are absolutely vile. They seem to have dessert wine down though.

[Anonymous No.4944129]

This is probably the most disinfo filled wine thread I've ever seen on /ck/

Nice job guys, I didn't think you had it in you

[Anonymous No.4944140]

GODDAMMIT

[Anonymous No.4944154]

>>4942989
Wine from the Merlot grape is generrally really accessible for starters

[Anonymous No.4944194]

>>4943852

Even the American ones can be alright sometimes but they have a strong tendency to taste like fruit punch. Except Argentinian which just tastes like they age everything on a bed of new oak shavings in a new oak barrel while swapping with even newer oak barrels every 6 days.

And don't get me started on the whites, Finger Lakes riesling is just about the only white wine America can't fuck up, and New Zealand Sauv Blanc makes me wonder why they even bother growing grapes.