Need Wine Advice? Ask me here!

[crowmst3k!]

I'm in the wine business at a high-end shop nestled in between Ruxton and Roland Park. I've been selling wine professionally for five years now, and I've tasted thousands of bottles.

Need any tips or recommendations? Have a question about wine in general? Are you a novice and want to learn more? Ask me here.

Note: I'm not a fan of snobbery. No question is stupid, and no preference is "wrong". I'd just love to be able to pass on any advice I can.

I also have a strong working knowledge of various liquors and craft beers. I can help you party plan, too. I'll try to respond to this thread often.

[bobmc]

I'm a fan of mid-priced reds and like Ravenswood, Lindeman and others of their ilk. As an aside, I loved the movie Sideways. Sometimes (like most days of the week) my wife and I go cheap and buy the Trader Joe's 3 Buck Chuck or here in OH, Kroger's or in FL Publix' Tisdale (Modesto, CA).

o What makes a Tisdale or others so cheap in comparison?

o How can they ship that Lindeman's and Red Tail from Australia and retail it for $11 the 1.5 liter?

More questions to follow. My wife and I average one "nice pour" a day.

[Miller192]

I'm a fan of mid-priced reds and like Ravenswood, Lindeman and others of their ilk. As an aside, I loved the movie Sideways. Sometimes (like most days of the week) my wife and I go cheap and buy the Trader Joe's 3 Buck Chuck or here in OH, Kroger's or in FL Publix' Tisdale (Modesto, CA).

o What makes a Tisdale or others so cheap in comparison?

o How can they ship that Lindeman's and Red Tail from Australia and retail it for $11 the liter?More questions to follow. My wife and I average one "nice pour" a day.

That's a good question.

[TGO]

When those companies started exporting the Australian dollar was really weak, so your USD bought a lot of Australian wine. Grapes were also really cheap there because domestic wine demand was not very strong (they drink a lot of wine per capita, more than us, but there aren't that many people in Australia).

The AUD is much stronger now (roughly at parity with USD) but those companies have obviously scaled up to massive operations than can make profits even on lower margins.

[AgentOrange]

I'm a fan of mid-priced reds and like Ravenswood, Lindeman and others of their ilk. As an aside, I loved the movie Sideways. Sometimes (like most days of the week) my wife and I go cheap and buy the Trader Joe's 3 Buck Chuck or here in OH, Kroger's or in FL Publix' Tisdale (Modesto, CA).

o What makes a Tisdale or others so cheap in comparison?
o How can they ship that Lindeman's and Red Tail from Australia and retail it for $11 the 1.5 liter?

More questions to follow. My wife and I average one "nice pour" a day.

I work for a wine distributor. A lot of the pricing comes from 2 things, Quantity Discounts and Margins.

Tisdale is actually a pretty nice inexpensive wine. The Sweet Red is very popular in my area and it sells for $3.99 a bottle.

I am assuming you are talking about Yellow Tail? I would guess its all about how much they are making that makes it cheap. Smaller vinyards actually have more labor intensive practices when picking the grapes and turning it into wine. That is a main factor in the costs.

[bobmc]

I work for a wine distributor. A lot of the pricing comes from 2 things, Quantity Discounts and Margins.

Tisdale is actually a pretty nice inexpensive wine. The Sweet Red is very popular in my area and it sells for $3.99 a bottle.

I am assuming you are talking about Yellow Tail? I would guess its all about how much they are making that makes it cheap. Smaller vinyards actually have more labor intensive practices when picking the grapes and turning it into wine. That is a main factor in the costs.

Yellow Tail - yes and thanks for the info! It's almost five o'clock!

[NewMarketSean]

If people from the Baltimore area want to take an awesome day trip -- head out to Loudon County, VA. Tons of wineries out there, beautiful scenery, and many wineries out there produce really good wines. My wife and I have been taking our friends down there a lot lately and they all love it.

[crowmst3k!]

I'm a fan of mid-priced reds and like Ravenswood, Lindeman and others of their ilk. As an aside, I loved the movie Sideways. Sometimes (like most days of the week) my wife and I go cheap and buy the Trader Joe's 3 Buck Chuck or here in OH, Kroger's or in FL Publix' Tisdale (Modesto, CA).

o What makes a Tisdale or others so cheap in comparison?

o How can they ship that Lindeman's and Red Tail from Australia and retail it for $11 the 1.5 liter?

More questions to follow. My wife and I average one "nice pour" a day.

They can ship and retail YellowTail at that price because it's a 2 million case a year production. What they do is contract out with various growers in Australia and buy their grapes (on the extreme cheap) and basically massive vat-ferment the stuff.

Because Australia is so lenient with growing practices, and the climate is so conducive to growing ripe grapes, the price for bulk fruit is extremely cheap and the quality is fairly consistent year to year. While some snobs may not like Yellow Tail, and while some purists may look down on the "industrialization" of wine, Yellow Tail has opened up the world of wine drinking to the masses and have made a decent bottle easily affordable for everyday consumption.

[crowmst3k!]

If people from the Baltimore area want to take an awesome day trip -- head out to Loudon County, VA. Tons of wineries out there, beautiful scenery, and many wineries out there produce really good wines. My wife and I have been taking our friends down there a lot lately and they all love it.

Agreed. Virginia has a very good climate for wine grapes, and many growers down there are producing world-class wines. I've tasted some amazing stuff from Albemarle and Monticello.

[bobmc]

They can ship and retail YellowTail at that price because it's a 2 million case a year production. What they do is contract out with various growers in Australia and buy their grapes (on the extreme cheap) and basically massive vat-ferment the stuff.

Because Australia is so lenient with growing practices, and the climate is so conducive to growing ripe grapes, the price for bulk fruit is extremely cheap and the quality is fairly consistent year to year. While some snobs may not like Yellow Tail, and while some purists may look down on the "industrialization" of wine, Yellow Tail has opened up the world of wine drinking to the masses and have made a decent bottle easily affordable for everyday consumption.

Thanks! Keep posting here from time to time with tips, recommendations, etc. particularly on good "cheap" wines that aren't too famous.

btw - from a non-snobbery point of view - I actually like ice in my red wines - can drink it either way but especially with the cheaper varieties.

[TonySoprano]

Go to Boston. There's plenty of whine to around town there. Be careful though. Most of it is made from sour grapes.

[allstar1579]

They can ship and retail YellowTail at that price because it's a 2 million case a year production. What they do is contract out with various growers in Australia and buy their grapes (on the extreme cheap) and basically massive vat-ferment the stuff.

Because Australia is so lenient with growing practices, and the climate is so conducive to growing ripe grapes, the price for bulk fruit is extremely cheap and the quality is fairly consistent year to year. While some snobs may not like Yellow Tail, and while some purists may look down on the "industrialization" of wine, Yellow Tail has opened up the world of wine drinking to the masses and have made a decent bottle easily affordable for everyday consumption.

My wife loves Yellowtail, not her FAVORITE per say, but it's a nice go-to. Linganore has some more of her favorites, but they've started raising their prices the past couple years and it's almost to the point where it's not worth it. I think Santa Margherita is another one of her favorites (she's a pinot grigio girl).

[NewMarketSean]

Drank a nice Petit Verdot last night from Willowcroft in VA. Not the best PV to be had from VA but not bad either. Went great with steak!

[crowmst3k!]

Go to Boston. There's plenty of whine to around town there. Be careful though. Most of it is made from sour grapes.

A nice sour whine will pair great with some Chowdah.

[srock]

Chianti!

My wife and I went to Tuscany last October. Obviously, we tried a bunch of good Chianti's and Sangiovese based wines.

But it seems decent Chianti is wildly over-priced in the US, assuming one can find a decent bottle to begin with.

Any suggestions? Particularly for an everyday table wine, "rosso" as they say.

Have you run across this label:
Boscarelli: We did a tour at this winery and they had some top notch product. The Vino Noble di Montepulciano 2006 Riserva was incredible. They wanted $35 EU a bottle at the winery which is not in my wine price range