Wine

Actually, 90% of my wine use is in cooking lately.

I make my own beer. I hope to try a mead again soon.

As to beer and food try “The Brewmaster’s Table.”

I use beer in cheese dip all the time.

Beer (2 oz), 4 Jalepenos, 12 Ounces Cream Cheese, 1/4 Onion, 8 oz Hard Back Cheddar Cheese Food.  Whip it up, serve with Nacho Cheese Doritos.

Decanting reds - you can add around $10-20 to the perceived value of wine by decanting it 30-60 minutes before drinking.

Aussie reds - McGuigan’s cab-merlot is really nice (so’s their Shiraz), as are Rosemount, and of course the gold-label WolfBlass.  Aussie whites - not so impressive.

California Rose’s - There’s a saying - scooters are like fat chicks - fun to ride, but you don’t want your friends to see it.  Same goes for these.

Canadian Ice Wine - If you like syrupy dessert wines - no place better in the world.  Our whites are pretty nice too.  Forgo the reds.  For now.

Germans - Rieslings are nice, Gwertztraminers are nicer, liebfraumilch (milk of a young lady) is the nicest.
French - Champagnes, reds, whites - it’s all good.

Fav red’s - from the Chateau-neuf-de-pape region - expect to pay $30 for a decent bottle.

@Chengora:

Thanks for the suggestions.  I’ll check out Naked Mountain next time I head out to Virginia.

We picked up a couple bottles (okay more than a couple) of truly excellent wines out in CA.  Anything from Martinelli was astounding, but especially their Shiraz (2001) and Chardonnay (2003) - I could have the dates reversed.  There was also a vineyard called Ridge which had some great red blends, and I generally don’t like blends.  Perhaps the best, though, were these fairly inexpensive bottles of tawny port from Wellington vineyards.

can’t call it “port” any more dude . . . .  I’m sure it’s a lovely “fortified red” tho’  :-P

Speaking of which - Had some lovely “port” experiences in Oporto.  One place overlooking the Douro river had a “port-sampling house”.  You could buy just about any age of any kind of port, and they had the ice cream/fruit to go along with it . . . very nice.

@Chengora:

Well, they call it port, so that’s what I’m sticking to.  :-D  Is it some new labeling/bottler problem?

Basically you can’t call an Aussie/US/S.African etc. fortified wine “port” anymore as this term is reserved for those from Portugal.  This goes the same for Champagne - from now on, unless it’s actually from the Champagne region of France, it’s simply a “sparkling white”.  It’s basicaly a new convention, but a throw-back to old ones, i guess.

It´s about some EU decree that “national” food and wine names are trade marked to the region, Grecce have it´s goat chease, Scotland it´s hagis etc etc…

@Chengora:

Ah, I see.

I wonder what this is going to do to the whole Shiraz/Syrah debate?  Are the French going to claim Syrah is a national wine name (and it is - genetic tests recently confirmed it) and destroy the Shiraz name?  That’d be awful…

Wierd . . .

i just purchased a bottle of Penfold’s “Port” today . . . .

I love me some sake, which is usually referred to as rice wine.  However, I believe it’s actually closer to beer.

As for actual wine, port isn’t bad on occasion, and Merlot is my fave.  I don’t like sweet wines at all, so most whites are out.