I am drinking a bottle of Pinot Evil right now, and for the first time in a long time when having a new wine, I am underwhelmed. It has a pleasant look and aroma, but it just finishes poorly. Kind of vinegary, and not the kind of fullness I usually expect from a good pinot noir.
Oh, well. If I have two more glasses I won’t care anyway.
*** Update ***
On second thought, I will just cork it and give it to my friend who has a tongue and palate seemingly made of boot leather. The Two Oceans Sauvignon Blanc is ready to be uncorked. I will get back to you.
*** Update #2 ***
Jackpot! Light, refreshing, with a delightful citrus taste and aroma. This is a refreshing, sit on the deck and enjoy on a cool spring afternoon kind of wine. I see more of this in my future.
myiq2xu
Maybe they should rename it Pinot Obama
Ninerdave
Sure it’s not going bad?
Wilfred
And for dessert, Thomas Friedman likes pie
Andrew
Long time reader, first time commenter, John.
Given how you like the Sauvignon Blanc, I strongly suspect you’d enjoy an Ontario wine, the Inniskillin Riesling. Try it out! :)
some guy
What are you, twelve years old? Are you planning to behave like a childish dweeb for the remainder of your online life?
John Cole
That was actually one of the funnier things MYIQ has said here, sadly.
Andrew
The problem with pinot is you basically can’t get a good one for cheap. I’d say if you’re not paying at least $15 you aren’t going to get one that is worth much.
If you generally like pinot noir, next time you go to the wine shop ask for a Cru Beaujolais (Bo-zho-lay). It’s some of the best value in red wine.
The Grand Panjandrum
Just don’t drink any fucking Merlot! We would have to renounce, denounce, reject, and disavow you.
John Cole
I fucking hate merlot. I would rather drink robitussin.
Seriously.
Andrew
Two buck chuck. Listen to Andrew.
Just Some Fuckhead
Yeah, I thought the same thing. The sad part, of course, is that even this wasn’t very funny. More of an “oh, I get it” kind of thing.
JoshB
Have you tried Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc from the Malborough region, New Zealand? It is pretty fantastic, and not terribly expensive. It’s definitely worth looking into.
sidereal
These guys make outstanding Pinots for reasonable prices.
We just cracked a bottle of the ’05 Sharecroppers and were quite satisfied.
Also, if you like Pinots you should try out a good Barbera. A local sommelier kicked my ass with one a couple of weeks ago.
Mary
Yes, the Two Oceans Sauvignon Blanc is very nice and surprisingly cheap. I can’t go near red wine for a while, and I have to take it easy even on the white, so enjoy it for both of us, OK?
jake
Typical elitist sissified dimocrat. You should be down at the local bar bellowing along to the Country(TM) hit, pounding back MGD and annoying the shit out of your waitress.
Krista
Andrew, I’ve heard good things about the Inniskillin — will definitely have to try it out now.
JR
Jake nailed it. You effete, elitist snob.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to have a drink of whiskey–a REAL man’s drink.
(12 year-old Highland single malt scotch counts, right?)
wineRealist
— I fucking hate merlot. I would rather drink robitussin.
Seriously. —
Very few people can actually tell a merlot from a cabernet when tasting wines of similar price and quality blind.
Try it sometime — get a few decent merlots (as opposed to the over-oaked and over-fruity California style) and a few cabernets, and try them blind.
Similarly, almost no one can tell French from California, unless the Cali is, again, over-oaked.
You can learn a whole lot, and a lot about what you don’t know, drinking wine when you can’t see the label.
Incertus
White wine, John? Are you sure you were a Republican once?
Andrew
John,
You don’t hate merlot. You hate bad, generic, insipid, American merlot. When merlot is done right, it’s a very noble grape.
SteveinSC
US wines suck from coast-to-coast (Canada, too.) Second the motion on Barbera’s, Dolcetto’s and any Nebbiolo. Old Beaujolais is cheap and very good. An old Chianti is a great wine. Problem is, somebody’s stretching the stuff. As the old saying goes, there’s far more Chianti sold than made. Buy the stuff while you can. The dollar’s tanking.
Doug
I’m not really a wine guy, so maybe those who know better will knock me around a bit, but in honor of Indiana mattering a bit in the political cycle, I’ll go ahead and mention that Indiana’s Oliver Winery makes a good Gewürztraminer. (Yeah, I don’t know what the hell that last word means, either; but my understanding is that it’s similar to a Riesling.)
Anyway, it’s crazy delicious.
t jasper parnell
Box wine is under rated. I was in France for a while and used to take a sort of lawn mower gas deally to the the wine shop and get 5 liters of great wine for 8 Euros, before the Bush collapse. When I lived in upstate NY my local wine guy, who was a kind of an unofficial mafia fellow, sold D-Tour for half what I could get it else where and it was great. There is a bunch of these box wines that are really nice, relatively cheap, and, given the amount of water and whatnot that goes into production of a bottle, environmentally friendly. There are also a bunch that are undrinkable. The nice thing about the good ones is that the wine does not oxidize. Get the ones with the push button tap and not those with the twisty one, which seems to let air in. Plus and also as they are mostly 4 750 ml per box, one doesn’t run out. Do not believe me, however.
myiq2xu
That is incorrect.
Napa Valley wines are great, and Sonoma Valley wines are pretty fucking good too. They often beat frog wines in tasting competitions.
Beaulieu Vineyards are killer. Get the BV Napa if you can, but the BV Coastal is almost as good and a little cheaper.
For low budgets, Gallo wines.
Jess
Oh come on–despite his/her awful taste in candidates, MYIQ is actually pretty witty. You guys are just being “bitter.”
I’m in the cheap wine bracket, and I usually go for Australian wines–nice and dry with interesting flavors and a bit of an edge (kinda like Aussie chicks, come to think of it…). I hope I’ll still be able to afford them in the months ahead. Maybe it’s finally time to stop drinking like a fish. *sigh*
Jess
Thanks for the tip! I love Gewürztraminer with Thai food–everything else tastes too watery in contrast to the spice.
mitch
A great wine I had recently was:
2005 marietta cellars zinfandel, sonoma county, california
Unfortunately, I had it in a restaurant, and the damned ontario liquor stores don’t have it, so i gotta find some other way to get it.
The Other Steve
SCREW WINE BLOGGING!
I want to know why you have not yet condemned K-Lo!
She’s really on the crazy path now
She also wants to ban porn from the bases.
Mary
Cave Spring (Ontario) makes a kickass Gewürz that’s complex and not too sweet.
The Grand Panjandrum
OT: John, your buddy Lisa Schiffern is at it again. Whoa! Did she really just put that up on NRO?
I agree that single parents in the junior enlisted ranks could be problematic, but dayamn! Rather inartful at best.
Xanthippas
This is pretty much my approach to all wines.
jcricket
Hi Everyone,
May I recommend MacMurray Pinot Gris to you? It is a Russian River White – beautiful coloring, and nice flavor. A favorite of mine for many years. Don’t know how they come up with such excellent stuff year after year, but they do!
As a piece of trivia, the vineyard was once owned by Fred MacMurray of My Three Sons fame. His family still owns the land, but I do not know if it is his widow or his children who run the winery.
At any rate, if you get a chance give it a try. Enjoy!
The real jcricket
rts
Would recommend the A to Z pinot gris (from Oregon) instead of the Italian pinot grigios. Really nice wine with more character than the italian versions which tend to have a flaccid finish. Another nice choice would be the Trimbach pinot gris from Alsace.
jake
That brings back memories. Sort of.
My first day of law school: Orientation.
My first evening of law school: Hauled out to Oliver Winery (AKA Disorientation).
My first night of law school: ???
Zuzu
Well you know, there’s an old Italian saying: you can make wine from grapes, too.
protected static
SteveinSC wrote:
Dude… You’re in South Carolina, so I’ll spot you this one, but here’s a hint: Night Train and MD 20-20 don’t count as wine.
jake
Shorter K-Blow: Dear God, will I never get laid?? [sob]
I must ask and I’d ask if her last name was Smith so don’t crawl up my ass: Is English her first language? It isn’t just that she expresses her idiotic in a moronic manner, but everything she writes is always off somehow.
myiq2xu
C’mon Jake, do your duty and take one for the team.
Put a smile on her face.
jake
I’d rather take my chances with the DRoC cock snatchers.
Now give me your address. I have a boot full of puke here and it has your name on it.
cbear
Don’t do it Jake, IT’S A TRICK!!!
Myiqey just wants you to sap your vital spirits and take you out of play for the rest of the primary season.
Plus you’d have to triple-bag her (and double-bag yourself) for safety before you took the plunge. Think of the poor dead trees.
b. hussein canuckistani
The best thing about the fall of apartheid (aside from justice and all that crap) is the ability to get really nice South African wines, and enjoy them without feeling like a racist monster.
That’s where I go for good cheap wine – there, and Chile. California and Australia are excellent, but the prices have gone up a lot in the last decade.
Shirt
Burell School estate zin’s are very nice, especially when >4 years old. It’s even well worth buying and keeping for several years until it matures. If’n you’re in silcon valley for a weekend, drive up there. It’s one of my regrets in leaving the bay area that some really nice wineries were left behind.
The Other Steve
I’m pretty certain K-Lo is a lesbian.
Not that there is anything wrong with that.
The Other Steve
BTW, I’m glad that Congress finally did something right and passed the genetic discrimination ban.
McCain also showed signifigant anger about gender discrimination. He just didn’t think people ought to be punished for it.
Punchy
John, actually most of your last posts have been whine blogging….
Zuzu
Well, if it’s K-Lo doing the standing athwart, I suppose that’s the logical yell.
I’d guess even the repressed Bucky might chuckle at such a freudian misappropriation of his own freudian moment.
tBone
Christ, why don’t you just order some orange juice to go with your waffles, you merlot-sipping elitist? Supporters like you are the reason Obama can’t connect with the working class.
Bu-bu-but the War on Terrah is the Mostest Important War Evah! Why do Lisa Schiffern and K-Lo hate the troops?
Imagine if a liberal had said something like this (from Schiffern’s post):
The wingnut brigade would be in a full-on Beauchampion frenzy of countertop inspections, culminating in the construction of a sandbox scale model of a transport ship to prove that it’s impossible to fornicate with a prostitute in one of those bunks.
Pelikan
Boozeman here:
While Oregon and Cali Pinots are skyrocketing in price, and let’s face it, no-one can afford the wonderful vintage that is the ’05 Burgundy, you can find a lot of decently structured pinots for under $20 from elsewhere in the world.
I reccomend Alsace (ex: Baur) Italy (Kris) or New Zealand (Crossings, if you don’t mind a bit of green in your pinot)
Sadly, Sideways was one of the biggest events in recent boozamalogical memory and demand for good pinot noir has quadrupled since.
Me, I like a nice American Zin, what with the grill getting cleaned off for the spring and all.
Pelikan
Also, how many freaking people in this comment section are from Indiana? I used to help the folks at Oliver Winery bring their harvest in…
DrDave
Robin Williams’ best wine review ever:
“Absurd, yet flaccid.”
Back to the tequila….
jon
If it’s red, has a pretty label, and goes down easy, I’ll probably buy it again.
I’m more of a beer guy, and kind of saddened to see so many ads for Negra Modelo in national magazines. I used to feel like a Latino Elitisto in some secret, clandestine, make-Lou-Dobbs-cry kind of group. Now I know I just like the good darkish beer made by the Mexican Budweiser people (and yes, Corona is swill.)
Svensker
POTD
rob
I’ve tried to like wine, but I just don’t. Tastes like medicine / kerosene to me.
I will stick with my watered down American beer.
Throwin Stones
Been on a Zin kick the last couple of years…
Ravenswood, Rocking Horse, Seven Deadly
Anything from Sterling Vinyards is good, but Elite
Mrs. Stones is 6 mo prego, so I’ve been sticking mostly to beer.
We’ll pop the SVR (meritage) upon the new arrival.
The Other Steve
Now with rice prices going up, do you think this will impact the price of Budweiser?
b. hussein canuckistani
Free advice. Don’t buy the $1.50 wine from the clearance bin.
uh_clem
Pinot Evil? The one with the picture of a monkey holding his hands over his eyes? You bought that?
That’s gimmick wine: a “clever” label on a bottle of mediocre wine. You shouldn’t be surprised that it’s crap.
Tom in Texas
Kym Crawford is a wonderful sauv. The Inniskillin mentioned above is great as well, though as an ice wine it definitely has more sweetness and less crispness than your typical sauv. Another Canadian wine I loved is Jackson Triggs Merlot. Nice plum flavor and not overly oaked. Whoever mentioned MacMurray Ranch, I would recommend their Pinot Noir as well. Reasonably priced and very tasty.
casual observer
Have you tried Carmenere yet? Many labels. Only grown in Chile now, as it has died out everywhere else. Very distinctive among the noble grapes, usually cheap, usually big, round, full. Deep inky purple. A real tongue-stainer. Not to be taken lightly.
Darkness
If you like wines with unserious names (and given that you actually bought something called “Pinot Evil” clearly you do) try Fat Bastard or Goats Do Roam (the regular, not the reserve). Those are both pretty drinkable and good value. Cat’s Pee on a Gooseberry Bush is also much better than it sounds and best of all you get to appall your guests with the bottle.
Zuzu
I got turned on to NM in Mexico and have stocked it ever since. That and Modelo Especial.
t4toby
If your wine tastes a little like vinegar, it has turned. It happens to more wine than you’d think. Especially if it has a real cork ‘cork’.
I bet if you tried that wine again, it wouldn’t suck so bad.
protected static
re: punny wine names – The South African producer Goats do Roam make some quite lovely wines; their table red is a delicious bargain.
Or you’ve made a bad food match… We ate out last night; I ordered a smoked black cod steak and a nice WA Pinot Noir. I figured that since black cod is rich and meaty, the pinot would be a good match. The wine was delicious on its own, but tasted like piss with the fish; it totally clashed with the alder smoke.
protected static
Or, I could have read Darkness’ comment more closely and just blathered about my tragic fish/wine intersection last night…
breadnbeer
Pinot Evil is usually pretty good, though I’ve never seen it in a bottle just the box kind. And having bought it over the last year or so it’s always been pretty good (not excellent and not bad), except for the last time I bought it about a month ago – maybe this last batch wasn’t good and we’re both drinking that.
I second “t jasper parnell”: box wine is underrated. And Pinot Evil, sure it’s gimmicky, but at $16 for 4 bottles (a 3L box that doesn’t spoil) it rarely goes wrong. Enjoy.
mere mortal
Andrew is right about Pinot, you either need to get very lucky, or get out your wallet.
uh_clem is also right, you should know better than to buy any wine with a clever hook like “Pinot Evil” or beautiful art on the label.
I suggest Mont Pellier Syrah (California), it is far and away my favorite wine, and under $10. Syrah also has the advantage of pairing well with just about every food you can think of (Pasta, grilled chicken, steak, tuna, salmon, pizza, hamburgers).
Anything by Smoking Loon has been pretty good to me (I’ve tried their Pinot and their Petite Syrah).
Bogle’s Petite Syrah is also drinkable, but a little pricey for what it is.
Old vine Zinfandels have been good to me recently, they tend to have more fruit and bigger flavor than other Zin’s.
Finally, if you absolutely must drink a wine with a bad pun on it, try Seven Deadly Zins.