Wine...your favourite plonk?

oooh, pdawg. I've gotten into Spanish wines of late. Riojas are my new favorite. A they are quite resonably priced.

I used to like Renwood Old Vines Zinfandel from Amador County as a special treat after a wine afficionado introduced me to it. I remember it was $23.00 a bottle at the stores that might have it, back in the days I had that kind of money, but not the precise year. So, not plonk to me, but good. Wonder if I'd still like it?

Prolly. You can't expand your operation with old vines. At least not very fast. I've been through a few cycles of "hey-this-is-good/hey-they-sell-this-everywhere-now/hey-this-has-turned-to-****" now, and am realizing that wine really is about exactly where the grapes come from.

Not a problem for the beer snob -- barley is barley, hops are hops (though I remember hearing something about problems with the Cascade hops in recent years, which would be a damn shame), and yeast -- well, yeast is not just yeast, but it's easy to make bunch from a little when you've got a strain that's working...

I like Fish Eye wine ... Merlot or Cabernet. Around $8 / bottle.

Kenwood had an old vines property, that was good. A while ago now. I sound like I know what I'm talking about. I don't. I just know if someone who pays attention poured me a glass and I liked it, I remember it, if it is other than just instantly pleasant.

The Renwood zin glass came after he and his wife picked me up from Sacramento to stay at their lalapalooza house in Napa (la la meaning big old creaking victorian in a state of maybe we can fix this up if we live long enough), showed me my bedroom in the sort of, mm, octagonal offshoot, with vases of garden roses, and asked if I'd like a glass of wine before retiring. Took me back downstairs to the room with the antique stencils, and so on, and poured a glass for each of us. Height of a kind of civilization between old friends.

On the other hand, the same maven of the Renwood and the Kenwood took myself and his wife to Beniger, and I didn't like anything at the tasting bar. Ptui.

I type this while imbibing some dreck chardonnay.

Hah, it's the Fish Eye Chard I've a glass of now.

I don't care for the whites.

Right...

Lived in an octagonal room in an big old drafty Victorian (no heat!) in Santa Cruz for a couple of years. Pile of bricks from chimneys that fell in the landlords less fortunate houses during the Loma Prieta quake under a thin layer of turf in the backyard. Room had been the parlor/sitting room at the front of the house back in the day. Was there that I drank many of the bottles of the early (and local) Bonny Doon Big House Red. Hardwood floors, inexplicably painted red. Windows on six sides.

Sounds like the same place.. almost. The whole floor the octagonal (hexagonal?) room was on had no heat. But they had a four poster with lots of down comforters. Or clown dumperters. Good lamps, lots of books.

http://www.cheapwinecritics.com/wine-news/oak-leaf-vineyards/
Oak Leaf Merlot - $2.97 a bottle - I know it seems like it would taste like crap - but if really is quite good for an everyday type of table wine.

Ah, I miss those big old clackety Victorians on the California coast. The summer homes of the turn-of-the-century elite cum crash pads/fixer uppers of post-hippie-chicks, surfers, skaters, and general pothead ne'er-do-wells. With the odd grand residence, of course.

I'll have to keep an eye out, Mismi. There'll be an uptick in the drinking come spring, and an eye toward a cheap drinkable bottle.

If you can get to Niagra, I'll bet you can get to Buffalo - where I had one of the best wines I've ever tasted: "MasterPeace", Cabernet Sauvignon mix, ca. 2004ish, by David Peace Winery, South Australia. @ about $6/bottle - a steal.
Unfortunately I live in Northern Calif. and can't get anyone to distribute/import it for me. But I did buy a case and have it shipped from liquor stores in NYC and southern Calif.

Welcome to a2k, LoveWine...