Next wine tasting - 1st or 4th May

The next tasting will be at my flat. Which day works out best for those who are interested. The tasting will have a theme of Syrah/Shiraz red wines and Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio white wines. More details later.

Is there a cover fee?

hey WG, here's an NPR story for you: standardizing wine terminology

the reporter said cat pee is good, I thought it was always bad? Barnyard is a matter of taste, I remember that from last time... I'm interested in coming again btw.

I'm definitely up for this, and at the minute it looks like I could make either date.
Looking forward to it, last time was fab.
@UA - you bring a bottle of expensive wine, and that's the fee. Or that's the way we did it last time, anyway.

Just a reminder, the comedy club will also be on Sunday 1st May, so I am now in a dilema, which ? 4th would be better for me !

I'm in, but not for the week 1-9th may as will be back home.

But then I may be back home this weekend too, and in Taiwan all May, so don't plan around me

Not sure yet aboot the date, but I'll be up for this sometime as well.

I'm not sure I can make either date (Plzen trip collides with first date) but maybe I can make it next time!

@Gen, I can't hear at the article now because this computer doesn't have speakers. I'll listen later. But I guess cat pee is a matter of opinion really. It's not a fermentation defect like sulfur smell for instance. It's also not a bottling problem like the moosy, wet cardboard smell from a corked wine. However, I can't say that I enjoy the smell of cat pee so I'd call it bad. To each there own, though.

I want to be there too!! How expensive should the wine be? Need some advice for noobees like me...

I'm definitely up for this, however I don't know yet whether I'll be travelling and can therefore only confirm closer to the date.

Btw, I found an interesting article in the "Wine Gourmet" magazine. It's in German, anyway, they tasted 104 different wines from German discount supermarkets like Aldi, Lidl, Plus, Penny etc. priced below 5EUR. The result was that actually only three of them were rated good, 71 were evaluated drinkable but not worth the money (even though they were cheap) and the rest was more or less undrinkable.

Besides, the quality varied a lot even for wines with the same label of the same year. So even if you're lucky to find a wine you like and you buy some more bottles of it, there's no guarantee that these bottles taste the same. No wonder when considering that of some of the labels there's more than 1 million bottles sold per year, practically meaning that there is a mixture of wines from totally different areas and of varying quality sold under the same name.

I agree, the is one from Lidl called something like "Carena", a spanish red from a region near Rioja... the first bottle was a gift from a friend and ab-fab. The second was wrecked, and the third was good value.

I'd say the whites are fine for making Schorle or for catering at big parties, but I'd prefer to spend a bit more and enjoy a proper drop. I usually pay 6-12 € for something from Hertie/Kaufhof, haven't had a bad wine from there yet.

None of these dates work for me, but I would love to throw some of the grape down my coarse palate. Are these the only two dates on offer?

I think I wil hold a tasting on one of these dates and another in mid to late May. Now that I have a place to hold tastings they will be more of a regular event.


Yes this is true. Because these wines are such mass production they are generally made up in batches. So a blend will be made, usually from wine that is purchased from other wineries, in a smaller amount and bottle. This blend may represent say a forth of the total. The blend will be bottled up and then another blend will be made. The winery will try to make the blends as similar as possible. But this is difficult because the wines used in the blends are different to begin with in addition to having longer aging time before bottling. Other factors that affect the variability of the wine are the cheap corks that these major bottlings usually use. The last factor which is also a major one is the poor storage conditions that these major discount outlets use. THey are packed away in warehouses then shipped all of which is generally not climate controlled. I have bought wine from these stores a couple of times and have never found anything I would drink. I wouldn't pay the money for the few bottles Aldi has in the plus 10 range because I don't trust how they've been stored.

Never really tried wine tasting before so I think that sounds interesting.

Both dates are OK but the Sunday is probably better since Wednesdays are Curry Nights...

@ Ski, my thoughts exactly

When I was last home, there was a wine with the intriguing name: "Cat pee on a gooseberry bush".

It was one of those wines that should be served well-chilled. (so that the taste is minimalized)

A wine tasting sounds great. Never tried it before, but certainly up for it. Definitely want to learn more about wine. May 4th looks good as the 5th is a no work day.

Cheers.

I think it's happening on the 5th, I saw a thread and pm'd Winegirl that I wanna go. Do a search on Winegirl's topics, you should find it.