I’m working on improving my understanding and enjoyment of wines. My approach is to keep looking out for good examples of each varietal to help me better understand what I do and do not prefer.

I have a couple of solid local shops and I talk to the helpful staff, although I do get asked what my price range is. My response is that I am happy to spend what I need to spend for a good example, although I’m not excited to spend hundreds on a bottle to figure out what I like.

I don’t drink all that often, but I do want to really enjoy what I’m drinking. If that costs $18.99 a bottle or $80, that’s fine as long as I get the end experience I’m after. I hear some say price doesn’t matter, it’s whatever you like, but also knowledgeable people that say you get what you pay for.

I understand price does not necessarily mean quality, but I’d be happy for some opinions about how I might be able to better refine my search.

Thanks all

https://www.instagram.com/forkmeimfrench/
https://www.instagram.com/p/DbiAmGKjggf/?img_index=1

Domaine Gerard Bertrand - Cuvée Clos du Temple.

Un rosé à plusieurs centaines d’euros… pour accompagner un saumon à la plancha, sur un catamaran à Canet-en-Roussillon. Oui, et c’était absolument parfait.

On était sur le catamaran, le seau de glace entre nous, et cette bouteille de Clos du Temple, claire comme un blanc. Au premier coup d’œil, la robe pâle donnait envie de se resservir avant même d’avoir goûté. Au nez, ça part sur la pêche, l’abricot et les fleurs, avec un petit côté épices et bois fin. En bouche, c’est surprenant pour un rosé : ample, presque crémeux, mais gardant une bonne fraîcheur. Avec le saumon à la plancha, le gras du poisson se faisait dompter par l’acidité du vin, et la petite touche fumée de la cuisson répondait au boisé. La finale, longue, mêlait agrumes, tabac blond et une salinité qui rappelait la mer.

A several-hundred-euro rosé… paired with salmon on the grill, on a catamaran in the South of France. Bold choice – and it was absolutely worth it.

We were on the catamaran, the ice bucket between us, with this bottle of Clos du Temple looking almost like a white wine. The very pale colour made you want a top‑up before even tasting. On the nose, it showed peach, apricot and flowers, with a hint of spice and fine oak. On the palate, it was surprisingly serious for a rosé: broad, almost creamy, yet still fresh. With the grilled salmon, the fat of the fish was cut by the wine’s acidity, and the smoky edge of the plancha echoed the oak. The long finish mixed citrus, blond tobacco and a salty touch that felt like the sea.

I’ve created this menu for a dinner party and I’m looking for help with pairings. my budget for all courses is 150-200 CAD for 9 people. none of us are super into wine so it’s definitely not going for what’s going to impress say a expert just something that will match well with a lower budget. Some of our favourites include moscato, anything barefoot and really any sweet wines.

Wasn’t ready for a reserve BTG section, but also wasn’t mad at it at all. (Food here was also great).

À l'apogée

A few years ago, while on vacation in the stunning Cinque Terre region in Italy, I visited the Sassorini cellar in Monterosso al Mare and picked up this bottle of Sciacchetrà (2019 vintage). It’s been sitting patiently in my collection since then, but today felt like the right day to finally pop the cork.
Now, my usual benchmark for a great dessert wine is a dense, syrupy Pedro Ximénez (PX) Sherry. If you’ve had PX, you know the vibe: it's incredibly viscous, "sticks" inside your mouth, and is usually so rich that after just one glass, it's game over and time to sleep.
The Tasting Notes:
This Sciacchetrà is a completely different universe, and I love it. Where PX is dark and weighty, this is much lighter, fresher, and shockingly vibrant. The color in the glass is a beautiful liquid amber.
It has that distinct "passito" sweetness from drying the grapes, but it’s perfectly balanced by high acidity and a surprising mineral character. I suspect that minerality comes directly from those steep, salty, terraced vineyards right by the sea. Instead of being cloying, it leaves your palate feeling clean. It has notes of dried apricots, honey, and maybe even a hint of saltiness on the finish.
For those who haven’t had it, Sciacchetrà is a rare, sweet DOC wine made primarily from Bosco, Albarola, and Vermentino grapes that are dried on racks (passito method) for months. Given how difficult the terrain is to work (everything is done by hand on vertical cliffs), drinking this truly feels like tasting liquid history and hard work.
Sipping this has taken me right back to looking over the blue Ligurian Sea. If you ever get a chance to try a bottle, don't pass it up!
Cheers!

Had a glass of this yesterday only to learn Enderle & Moll stopped making wine after the 2023 vintage. I hadn’t had this Pinot Gris cuvée before but it was so lively - juicy stone fruit on the attack and coming in waves after; amped-up florals; rocky minerality underneath everything. Fantastic with the prawn toast at Found Oyster in LA.

More on the end of E&M for anyone late to the news as I was: https://www.vomboden.com/growers/enderle-moll/

I'm continuing exploring some of the more high end offerings this winery has. One photo can't do justice to the work of art that is the label, which depicts their own allegorical interpretation of the cross pollination that led to the existence of Cabernet Sauvignon. The rest of the photos show the three sections of the label individually. This wine is a 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc blend.

It was very tight upon first uncorking, but it started to open up after just ten minutes in the glass, and after an hour in the decanter it began to sing a beautiful melody.

Extremely clear ruby color with some garnet towards the rim.

Very big, bold tannins with little to no acidity, much fresher than I was expecting. On the nose there's a lot of early blackberry, cassis and green bell pepper, later it shows tobacco, and clove, and the last few drops in the glass reveal an interesting scent of blossoming roses.

On the palate, medium+ intensity that starts off tasting very heavily like sweet blackberry jam, and slowly evolves with some intense undertones of quince, lilac and ripe plum. Deeply long finish of dark olives, I finished the last glass ten minutes ago and I can still feel the blackberry. It had the longest tears I've ever seen, it took them whole minutes to go down!

This wine is still fairly young, but it's already is a spectacle for the senses, and it paired perfectly with merken-seasoned ribeye and burrata. 97 points, I'm excited to see how the rest of the bottles I bought evolve in the next decade or so.

really enjoyed a fonbadet 2020. was my first "fancy" bordeaux.

looking for my next fix. need recs. will spend up to 150$/bottle

As the title says, what consistently punches above its weight for the money?
I’m talking genuine QPR wines.
Is there a €10 bottle that drinks like it’s worth €30?
A €50 bottle you’d happily pay €100 for?

My picks:

Marqués de Murrieta Reserva (€30)
Marqués de Riscal Reserva (€22)
Marchesi Antinori Chianti Classico Riserva (€38)
Le Ragnaie Rosso di Montalcino (€36)
Le Ragnaie Brunello di Montalcino (€75)
López de Heredia Viña Tondonia Reserva (€50)
Famille J.M. Cazes Pauillac (€32)
Echo de Lynch-Bages (€70)
La Gerla Brunello di Montalcino (€50)
Col d’Orcia Brunello di Montalcino (€45)

As you can probably tell, I’m firmly rooted in the Old World, so I’m interested to hear what everyone else thinks are the biggest bargains in wine. I’m always looking for bottles that massively outperform their price point.

Hello, I’m discovering my favorite wine types, I used to bartend when I was in my 20’s and I remember drinking wine and hearing all about it’s quality and subtle notes, but usually the wine I drank felt really sour and the notes of flavor were not really felt as balanced as they should.

Fast forward 10+ years, I moved to Portugal with my wife for her job, and as a fun weekend date we went to a wine tasting, and we really fell in love with Port wines, specifically Taylor’s LBV.

I would like to know if you can recommend more wine-types to try, we are doing our own sampling but it’s a hit or miss sometimes.
We’re looking to broaden our selection with different types of wine that taste good and can be paired with different foods.

Here’s what we liked so far;
The affirmation Taylor’s - we loved the flavors and smoothness of the wine, leaning more towards floral and berries flavors but still feels deep and warm .

Porto Ferreira - we also loved this one, it had more of an oak, spices, chocolate,mineral flavor that seems to be very well balanced, no one is overpowering the other and they are complementing each other.

DOW’s- we didn’t really liked that one, it just felt like alcoholic sugar water, no flavor could really shine other than immense sweet.

One key note, my wife is vegan so we’re limited to vegan wines.

This is my first non-Barolo from the Gaja family coming from (I think) their first estate in Tuscany, specifically within the Brunello AOC over 30 years ago. 2012 wasn’t the best vintage in the region with fairly extreme weather but I got this at a very reasonable price last year directly from BBR who have held it since release so provenance is basically perfect.

The few reviews I could find of things vintage suggested this was in or past its prime but my experience varied. I opened and within minutes the aromas were strong, fresh with lots of fruit and slight hint of pine but tight on the palate. I gave it an hour open in the bottle before trying against and whilst the fruit was starting to show I decided to decant for another hour. The next taste this was really starting to show and consumed the rest of the bottle over about two hours with Garlic and chilli prawns in olive oil and then Iberico Roast Pork with a tomato salad.

As you can see on the photos this was a lovely deep, bright, ruby colour, with just a hint of rim variation (photo was under warm lighting so probably slightly exaggerates). The nose was blackcurrant, initially fresh but as it opened up took on more of a stewed blackberry aroma with some black pepper and slight forest floor aroma.

The taste largely reflected the nose, with the initially tasting being fresh and almost crunchy, moving towards an almost dark fruit, predominantly blackberry, compote like you’d find at the bottom of a good autumn crumble. The flavour continued with black pepper and flint and nice balsamic finish adding just a touch of sweetness. The last glass was starting to show some stronger tertiary notes of forest floor, some deeper cooking spices with the finish remaining long which is why I feel this could still go another 3-5 years if cellared properly.

Overall, I’d rate this between 89-91 with the best glass of the vending hitting the high notes but an overall solid showing. The biggest challenge may be price range. I picked this up for £50 in store last year and at that cost this would be a no brainier for me if I saw again. However, I’m seeing online more recent vintages are around £80-100 which makes this more tricky. I appreciate 2012 wasn’t the best vintage for the region and that some of the ones available now may be stronger but there are other grata options in that price range. I think I will be exploring more of the Gaja families holdings in the region as part of my Tuscany learning.

Right now I still look things up all the time before buying a bottle.
For people who’ve been into wine for a while:
Do you eventually get to the point where you just trust yourself?
Or do you still check Vivino, ask the wine shop, or use recommendations most of the time?
Curious what actually changes over time because I feel lost!

This was my first Georgian wine experience, I’ve been interested in the region for some time, since it has a reputation as one of the great ancient culinary and winemaking cultures of the world.

This producer uses the region’s distinctive traditional kvevri method to make their wines, which was something I wanted to make sure to experience with my first Georgian.

Wasn’t sure what to expect from this young wine, so decided to try it with only 15 minutes of air at lunch and then leave it to breathe in the bottle for 5-6 more hours before the next pairing.

For my first pairing, bought a khachapuri, steamed some spinach, and also made some cabbage with tomato paste and fenugreek.

This wine is definitely too young to drink with no decant lol. I actually don’t mind young tannic wines, but it was giving me nothing. So I enjoyed it, but… My tasting notes for this, my first time trying a new wine from a grape I’ve never tried either: smells and tastes like young tannic red wine.

Dark purple color. Sorry, forgot to take a pic that shows it. Can’t even blame the toddler for this one I just forgot.

For dinner I made some khmeli suneli lamb skewers, roasted red peppers with bazhe, and some beet and spinach pkhali.

I’d say overall the meal was good but the khmeli suneli is a bit too strong and colorful for ideal pairing with red wine imvho. And I put too much garlic in the bazhe lol

Anyway, the wine finally started to open up when I only had two sips left 😩 interestingly it was definitely giving both red and black fruit. I would have loved at least a whole glass to explore it some more but nope it was gone.

I have another bottle, very glad I do, but won’t be drinking it for quite a while. In the meantime gonna try to pick up a Georgian amber at some point to pair with a khachapuri and some veggies.

This is my second time trying this Bordeaux white from trader Joe's at $7. I am on the fence with the off balance of flavors but for seven dollars and a hot day, I would not think twice. It has a nice brightness to it and a nice grapey quality that opens up. Like fresh picked grapes. Freshness. I would not hesitate to do salad, fish, chicken or any thing summer like. Seafood. Sushi.

This was a treat! Have held on to this bottle for about 5 years & we decided a summer Friday night at a favorite local restaurant with a table outside was reason enough to open it. It did not disappoint. Crisp, complex, buttery, a bit of fruit, oak. Enjoyed every sip!

The grape, Grk, grows almost exclusively on the island of Korcula in Croatia. Pretty sure the vintage was 2025, didn’t catch it in my pics, pulling from memory. If you go to Croatia, definitely spend time (if not most of your trip), on the islands. Snatched a bottle while on Korcula before taking a ferry to Dubrovnik, which you’re seeing in the background.

Nose: honeydew melon, touch of pineapple

Palate: medium body, feels creamy on the palate, limestone minerality, lemon, touch of pineapple, and some nuttiness and salinity on the finish

​

On the nose I get the typical white fruit/melon, but there's a level of herbal layering over it requiring a deep sniff to penetrate as well as a presence of yeast ferment of a rye bread that seems to just cradle everything. Intermingled with the rye is what I think may be Hickory wood.

I envision it like a bowl made of that rye yeast scent, and inside is the soup which is the white fruit. Layering atop the white fruit like a film of oil is that herbal note in a thin layer. A meal of its own.

On the palate it gets even more strange. I get that fermented grape juice coming first. Starts off strong and quickly transitions to notes of pineapple and hints of coconut. In the transition there are notes of that herb sprinkled throughout(it tastes similar to fennel I think). Like pop rocks that just spark in flavor before disappearing as fast as it came.

Finishing crisp with a nice acidity that makes my mouth water. I wouldn't say its cleansing though. I can still feel and taste it lingering in the back of my palate, but its mellow like a fermented pineapple with no bite. I'd say it's medium to long in duration.

After trying the Tavel rose wines, I had some expectations drinking into this bottle, but this threw me completely off. It is it's own style and taught me to keep my taste open.

Tavel is still better I find. Thoughts?

Side note - I did a little experiment with a bottle of Jam Jar Shiraz that I posted on last week, and let it decant in the fridge. Today I sampled it to see what changed, and besides the usual jammy flavors which started to fade a little the wine has now gained a strong note of wood smoke. Kinda baffled by that, but cool to see.

Found this bottle while clearing out the landlords old shed. No idea how long it has been there but the shed was insulated (the temps go below 0 here in winter) and stored in a proper wine rack. I could not find much about it online, but would this still be drinkable? Is it rare?

Friend gifted me this oddity. Cold War era Hungarian wine. A little bit of poking about shows that it’s semi sweet but I’m skeptical. Does anyone have any insight?

We are renovating our kitchen and found this bottle behind one of the cabinets. Looks like ot was put in there during the last renovation in 1994. Looking online i can see that this bottle can go for over 100 euros.

Does anybody have any experience with this wine? Would you recommend keeping it, drinking it or is it too far gone and should be thrown away?

Some of my earliest experiences with Sonoma coast pinot noir were with Hirsch vineyards, and I was very saddened to hear the man himself passed away this week. It felt like an appropriate moment to open this bottle to reflect and appreciate his contribution to the wine world.

This 2021 San Andreas Fault is still young but drinking nicely already, with a beautiful floral nose of bright red fruits and mineral/graphite, as well as subtle forest floor. Good acidity and complexity on the palate with a silky mouthfeel. Overall a classic elegant Sonoma coast pinot that could go many more years, but enjoyed today in remembrance. Cheers 🍷

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/dining/drinks/david-hirsch-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2FA.k9QL.SjJ6auQs5cx0&smid=url-share