The SCs complain about freebies

[PepperElf]

Just because it's $4 doesn't mean it's not good

Very true. I haven't gotten any recently but... Manischewitz is still under $3 a bottle isn't it? Heck I remember being able to pick up 2 for $5!

[KiaKat]

Warning: the following is a winegeek exclusive. If you want my response to the OP, scroll to the bottom of the post. See? I can occasionally avoid thread drift.

I'm training to become a Master Sommelier. In the last year, my palate has suddenly become more sensitive, and there are now very few wines under $10 that I can drink and enjoy.

Oddly enough, this doesn't seem to apply to whites. I know of several whites under $10 that are quite tasty.

Reds, however, are another matter.

The issue here is mostly oak. Most red wines are fermented and/or aged "on oak." This has many meanings. The better wines are made in a barrique (oak barrel), of which there are different types, I won't go into it now. Suffice it to say, all those warm, toasty, vanilla and butterscotch flavours you find in California Cabernets, or Chardonnays, are due to the oak.

The cheap ones are fermented and/or aged with wood chips and sawdust added to the wine, then filtered out before bottling. This gives a very chemical taste to the wine, and is intended to cover up a multitude of flaws, rather than enhancing the natural flavours of the wine. So instead of a lovely fruity wine, with a few warm notes, some good tannins on the backbone, and soft acids (oak strengthens tannins and softens acids), you end up with something that tastes like it came out of a paper factory.

I didn't start noticing it until about four months ago, when I realized I was trending away from the inexpensive domestics, and trending towards the Italian DOCG's and French AOC's. It's really quite fascinating.

/winegeek

RE: sales and specials and SC's: This is why my store puts our margins as low as we can, doesn't have sales, and doesn't do specials. We tried it ONCE, and were so innundated with idiots demanding our expensive stuff for cheap or free, that we decided it just wasn't worth it.

ETA: Pepper, last I saw, Manichewitz is going for about $8. But that could be the particular store I was in.

[RetailWorkhorse]

Anyone who likes wine in the "wine culture" believes that Beringer White Zinfandael (sp?) is the equivalent to Coors Light.

*Hunches down in shame* I cook with it, does that make me white trash because I still have it in the house? It's not like I drink it, whites are too harsh to me...

Reds, however, are another matter.

*Licks* I like red wines.

[KiaKat]

White Zin actually isn't white. It's a blush (NOT a rosé), made by taking not-quite-ripe Zinfandel grapes, fermenting them on the skins for a bit to get the colour, and then having a TON of sugar dumped in to kill the acidity.

They've taken the rosé method of production and the QbA Riesling method of production and combined them to make an alcoholic grape juice. Generally, if someone comes in asking for a White Zin (or a White Merlot), I point them at our sweet Rieslings - they're a whole lot better, and often about the same price.

RW, if you wander up towards the Northeast at any point, drop me a PM and I might be able to help stock you up with inexpensive reds that travel well. I also might be able to find a white that you like - you're probably just not able to handle the really acidic, light-bodied ones. A lot of people are like that, you're certainly not the first I've come across

[trunks2k]

He's what's referred to as a "wine snob". Just because it's $4 doesn't mean it's not good. Two Buck Chuck (even though it's $3 now) is actually pretty damn good wine. And I've had some really expensive, absolutely awful wine.

While my parents were on vacation for their anniversary, my brother and his wife spent a couple days at my parent's house so my brother could visit with some of his friends from high school. My dad has a decent collection of wine - not hundreds of bottles, but a few dozen are always on hand - some cheap wine that he drinks every day, a few good moderately priced ones, and a couple expensive ones. So my brother and my sister in law opened up a bottle, took a sip, gagged, and promptly dumped the bottle out. They're not snobby about wine, nor do they not know what good wine tastes like, so it had to have been really nasty. They then proceed to drink wine the stuff that my dad drinks on a daily basis.

My parents come home and my dad goes to open up a bottle of wine that's worth over $150 as an anniversary treat, but it's nowhere to be found. Guess which bottle my brother had opened and dumped down the drain?

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Riunite Lambrusco is $4. I love it.

He got run over by a car several years ago not long after his brother Merlot . . . oh, you're talking about the wine. I thought you were asking about one of my cats. . .

Inexpensive doesn't always mean battery acid. You can find some decent wines for less than $10/a bottle. It's a matter of trial and error, though. Everyone's palate is unique and what tastes good to one person might not taste so good to another.

[PepperElf]

hmmm well you could be right too... back then i was buying mine from the package store.

and im a little sad here. where my family lives there's a giant wine store the size of a regular grocery store. they don't carry any eos (cry cry) but they have tons of wines from all over the world, so i could always find something good, have fun, experiment.

here... so far all i find are the mom & pop mini stores with higher prices.

and if you want a moscoto... you'd better like Barefoot, cos they don't carry anything else

[Pagan]

Maybe I'm spoilt for wine living so close to the Barossa region, but I haven't had a good wine while in the US.

You haven't? What have you been trying 'cause we've got a lot of really good wines in the US. We've even got some good ones in New Mexico. Particularly Gruet methode and St. Clair Mimbres Red

And before you start laughing, viticulture in New Mexico actually goes back a few hundred years to the Spanish Colonial days. They had to grow grapes and make wine here for Communion. Getting it from Spain was logistically a nightmare.

Anyone who likes wine in the "wine culture" believes that Beringer White Zinfandael (sp?) is the equivalent to Coors Light. As a matter-of-fact, when I was waiting tables, if a couple order a Coors Light and a glass of Beringer's White Zin, this order was coined the "white trash special".

I've got a dry palate. I cannot stand sweet wines. I tried to drink a late harvest icewein once and couldn't even get a sip. I could smell the sugar.

Very true. I haven't gotten any recently but... Manischewitz is still under $3 a bottle isn't it? Heck I remember being able to pick up 2 for $5!

That's not wine. That's barely fermented grape juice....

My parents come home and my dad goes to open up a bottle of wine that's worth over $150 as an anniversary treat, but it's nowhere to be found. Guess which bottle my brother had opened and dumped down the drain?

Oh, no! Your poor, poor dad!

[Primer]

Sometimes I wish that I liked wine. DH makes his own, and everyone I've talked to loves it! I'll be taking 4 dogs into the vet next Sat, and I've been told that they will not be vaccinated unless I bring wine! I sure hope they're joking, but I'll be bringing in a few bottles, just in case!

[friggle]

Yeah, it's sad when people abuse a store's generosity in giving away free stuff. And it takes only a handful of SCs to ruin a good thing for everyone else.

[mattm04]

Gah! I hate that! We used to give away free cookies whenever someone bought a coffee, and all we would get is "Ew! I don't like these cookies!" or "I want a muffin instead!" We stopped giving away the cookies due to this, and now all we get is "I want my free cookie!!"

We used to give out free cookies to kids under the age of 12. We stopped that under the previous Store Manager because too many adults would bitch that the kids got them and they should too. The new SM has started it up again. Grrrrrrrr.

[otakuneko]

They still make that?

On the shelf at the local Kroger. I tend to stick with it because it's easy to get, cheap, and I know I like it. I probably like it because I have a sweet tooth the size of Texas, which probably comes from being raised on diet soft drinks.

[Sliceanddice]

.... i use my wine classes for lemonaid.....

[Jester]

Just because it's $4 doesn't mean it's not good.

Very true. I haven't gotten any recently but... Manischewitz is still under $3 a bottle isn't it? Heck I remember being able to pick up 2 for $5!

Yes, but THAT is not good! Sorry, but as one of the resident Jewboys in here, I am unfortunately all too familiar with that swill call Manischewitz. Absolutely freakin' awful stuff. One poster described it as "barely fermented grape juice" but that is being far too kind.

I am not saying you can't get decent tasting wine on the cheap. You can. Just not THAT "wine."

[Boozy]

As a general rule, you can find wine that is pleasing to the tastebuds for cheap. There are a few table wines I always have on hand that cost about $10. They pair nicely with meals, but they're also one-note. They're more pleasant than sophisticated.

But good wine is hard to find for less than $20 a bottle (using Canadian prices here.) Good wines for $10 or so are definitely out there, but they're usually flukes. Charles Shaw might catch a lucky break with a particular grape purchase out of one particular vineyard in one particular vintage year, but that lot will disappear pretty quick. It's near impossible to consistently churn out high-quality wines year after year on the cheap.

There's also supply and demand. If the weather is just right one year in Australia for example, the wineries will churn out so much product that they glut the market. The price of good Australian wines will be low for that vintage. But again, this tends to be a fluke.