Thursday, March 18, 2010

One old favorite or a lot of variety?

One old favorite or a lot of variety?

A lot of people I know have one favorite beverage and whether that is a wine, beer, whisky or other alcoholic drink, they pretty much order the same thing every time. I just can’t do that. To me that practice is just too limiting and I need a bit of variety in my drinking life from time to time.
For example when my wife and I were newly weds we drank a lot of sauternes and sometimes a Chablis. Wine seems to go in fads to me and while we drank a lot of those for a while one day they became very difficult to find and something called a White Grenache and White Zinfandel came on the scene. The story as I remember it about White Grenache is that someone came up with it and sold a ton of it only to find that they had neglected to copy right the name and the next year most wine companies had a White Grenache and the original sort of went by the wayside. Not that it mattered as White Zinfandel seems to have taken that market niche and held on to it quite well challenged only by the venerable Chardonnay. So today when I want a white wine I see my choices are Chardonnay, White Zinfandel, and Pinot Grigio as the main offerings. I really like the White Bordeaux and to a lesser extent the Sauvignon Blanc which I find a bit more bitter than I care for. I have stated in several posts that I just don’t taste all the foo foo things in whisky and wine that most experts and wine snobs say they do as in the pear, vanilla, almond, and other assorted flavors, but in the case of White Bordeaux I have to make a sort of an exception. Its not really a flavor I taste but more of an experience and that is when I take a big drink of a good cold glass of White Bordeaux it puts me in mind of taking a big bite of a cold crisp apple. Weird, yeah I know, but that is what it reminds me of. It doesn’t taste like an apple but it is the experience that is similar.
Reds, reds, reds! I started with Chianti probably as my first real red wine along with Italian meals and yes I like it fine. Red Zinfandel is probably my old favorite although today I love Pinot Noir as my red of choice. Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and of course Red Bordeaux are all wonderful. No I don’t have a clue as to which year is best but if you know that kind of information please do post so we can all learn more about which vintages are best.

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