***The Official Wine Thread***

[flomo]

Any New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Dry, white and unoaked.

Kim Crawford and Tohu I really like and Cloudy Bay is the classic wine snob pick.

[BennyLaRue]

Any New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Dry, white and unoaked.

Kim Crawford and Tohu I really like and Cloudy Bay is the classic wine snob pick.

Success! Thanks. Reasonably priced in Canada. Will try.

[daven]

a chef friend of mine has always said that if he's faced with a supermarket/liquor store wine selection he's completely unfamiliar with, then he gets a bottom/mid-priced merlot - his rationale is that merlots are rarely bad, flipside being that they are rarely great. I'm not sure what to make of this though...

[daven]

if you want to drink good wine cheapish then find out what grapes are grown locally, find out which of these local wines are internationally known as being decent. If you find a combo then you're likely onto a winner. Like Sav blanc here in nz...

most decent sized towns or cities have a liquor outlet that understands wine, if you're able to go there when they aren't busy and have a chat with staff (often wine geeks/snobs) then take their recommendations you can end up drinking good stuff. Be completely honest about your preferences and/or ignorance - you gain nothing at all by trying to bluff. There is a lot of merit in writing a quick note for later reference regarding how much you enjoy a wine as you are drinking it. (as simple as: xxx malbec, 2009, fruity, heavy, tasty! or yyy pinot gris, 2011, sweet and insipid)

there is a lot of good aussie shiraz around the place
good nz pinot noir is amazing, but there is a lot of nz pinot noir that isn't good - be careful

note that sweet rieslings are dessert wines - late harvest especially and they typically get sold in smaller bottles. The grapes picked later -> higher sugar content etc.

Any New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Dry, white and unoaked.

Kim Crawford and Tohu I really like and Cloudy Bay is the classic wine snob pick.

go the cloudy bay first.
kim crawford sav is about US$6 at the supermarket just down the road from me at the moment. And you can generally find a really good bottle for under US$12. Then i'll see it for five times that in a shop in bangkok. It's like when i buy argentinian wine here in nz vs in argentina, or, you get the picture.