Wine Suggestions?

used to work at a liquor store during my arizona daily star part-timer/salad days. for a white, Edna Valley Chardonnay ($15ish) or, for a tad more, Byron Chardonnay. both superb. chardonnays are great "big" whites and work with anything from fish to steaks. for reds, any of the Ridge Zinfandels are magical. same with central Calif. coast pinot noirs - Saintsbury in particular. cheaper? aussie and chilean wines are amazing, especially in the $8-10 range. and the whole matching a white/red with food is bogus. whatever wine tastes good will pair perfectly with food that tastes good. or doesn't. drink. be happy

 

"Whatever's free."

 

There have been a couple of threads over the last year or two. Think Hustle started one. Do a site search and you'll find some good suggestions.

 

(1) How much are you willing to spend?
(2) Are they French? Italian? Spanish? South American? Depends on the company/quality of the table.

 

Woodbridge by Mondavi. It's respectable and affordable.

 

I'm guessing from the name and the spelling of "favourite" that you'll be buying win in Canada. If so, there are good suggestions on there, but you'll be paying more for US wines than we are down here. The Australian wines are going to be a better value up there because the British commonwealth contries will tax less on each other's imports than those from the states, France, Italy, etc.

And when it comes to good wine values, there are too many good ones from Australia to name. If you're looking for something a little more spendy for a gift, one of my favourite wineries from down there is Two Hands. They have some high end stuff that'll run you into the $50-60 range, but also some very good wines (The Wolf Riesling, Gnarly Dudes Shiraz to name a couple) that are a little more reasonable.

 

There are damn few reds I don't like, as long as they're not too young. The winemaking processes now are so good that everybody is turning out good stuff.

 

I'll second the Coppola suggestions.The claret is the best we've had of that label.

Frei Brothers also makes a pretty good wine, too. I like the reds best, but the whites certainly aren't bad.

Rodney Strong makes a good cab.

I've never found an Oregon pinot noir I didn't like.

Here's a link to a central Texas wine association that have very good vino. www.texaswinetrail.com

My favorite is Dry Comal Creek www.drycomalcreek.com. Try the unoaked cab. Good stuff.

Becker Vineyards www.beckervineyards.com has a really good cab they call Texas Iconoclast. The reisling is good, too. Good stuff, there, too.

Texas Hills Vineyard www.texashillsvineyard.com had some good stuff, too.

 

You must have one of those snooty high-end TJ's where you are. It's Two-Buck Chuck here. And it's not bad.

CSC: I'm partial to California wines, especially cabernets. Look for some from the central coast (Santa Barbara and Paso Robles areas).

If you're looking for a nice light white, you can't go wrong with Shockey's suggestion of Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio. It's down to around $17 (U.S.) but you might actually find it cheaper up there. Chardonnay is the most popular white, but I don't particularly like the ones that are oak-barrelled--they have a real heavy buttery taste to me, which I don't like.

The cool thing about wines is that experimentation is half the fun. If it doesn't have a picture of Boone's Farm on the front, it probably won't be too bad.

 

Estancia makes terrific reds and whites at very reasonable prices . . . $9-$12. You will enjoy them; I guarantee it.

 

I'll second Woodbridge ... a nice mass-market, cheap option. You can usually taste the savings, but you really do not here, or at least I don't. I've been into this Australian wine called Banrock Station of late. Again, it's cheap but you don't taste the savings. Nothing worse than a red that makes you pucker or stings the back of your throat and both of these are smooth.

If you want to spend a little more, anything by Kendall-Jackson is nice and you can't go wrong with Ravenswood. Both are moderately priced -- Ravenswood goes about $12 a bottle and K-J is about $15.

 

Stumbled upon an $8 wine called Big House Red from Bonny Dune Winery in Santa Cruz. Pretty damn good. Certainly the price is right. Found it at BevMo.