The Auswine Forum

Hi there, I'm new here, from Melbourne, searched around couldn't find any newbie guides

I'm 22, i've only had a bit of wine over the years, been more into beer, i like them both, but want to get more into wine

Whenever I order a house red it doesn't taste great, but when I order a more expensive glass >$10, then it tastes sooo much better, and I'm not sure why. its less harsh, the lingering aftertastes are much much better, and theres no bitterness/heavy spiceness as with the cheaper stuff

I havn't drank much white, but when i drink house white, its disgusting. much harder to stomach than crappy red. i had a good bottle of Semillon which had honey in it. i just dont like drining white

Anyway, I really dont know what is a good wine and what isn't. i just assume the more expensive the better

is there anyway i can find that out, or should i just experiment. i havn't tried much varietels yet, mainly shiraz and cab sav

what are the good brands i should go for? honestly i only know two brands, penfolds and wolf blass (because they advertise)

should i go for the more expensive wine straight away >$20?

i've got a few Toolern Vale Hills reds lying around, from 2004ish, a bottle of Mount Macedon 2001 Pinot, very badly stored. will crack them open and try them soon

i've been thinking, on a whim, of buying a wine refigerated wine cellar/fridge from Big W for $188 for 28 bottle, and start my collection

i basically go into coles/safeway liquor section and choose any red thats >$20 and on sale and buy that.

been eyeing the Penfolds Thomas Hyland 2006 cav sab fot $15 each

any advice/words of wisdom will be much appreciated!

sorry about long post

cheers fellas

Firstly, welcome!

lordson wrote:Hi there, I'm new here, from Melbourne, searched around couldn't find any newbie guides

Try reading "A Good Nose & Great Legs" by Robert Geddes, Master of Wine.. it's very good for a beginner.

Whenever I order a house red

Dangerous word here, 'house wine'. Just kidding.

i had a good bottle of Semillon which had honey in it.

The honey-like character comes from age and being oaked. The Hunter Valley makers tend not to oak their varietal semillon (classic semillon) whereas Barossa Valley and Margaret River often do.. depends where it's made and how.

Anyway, I really dont know what is a good wine and what isn't. i just assume the more expensive the better

Sometimes, but not a good general rule. Don't forget economy plays a large role and emerging winemakers usually have lesser prices, although their wines are often very good.

is there anyway i can find that out, or should i just experiment. i havn't tried much varietels yet, mainly shiraz and cab sav

Next time you're at your local bottle-o or restaurant/cafe, try a different varietal each time and try to remember what it's like. Read up online or loan books on wines. Always a good place to start!

what are the good brands i should go for? honestly i only know two brands, penfolds and wolf blass (because they advertise)

Rule of thumb, from a sommelier's point of view, ignore advertising! Search online for tasting notes.. actually TORBWINE is very good for tasting notes for a wide array of wines. The more advertising a wine has, the bigger the winermaker's budget but not necessarily the better the wines! (penfolds excluded!!)

should i go for the more expensive wine straight away >$20?
Find wines within your budget but if you can afford it, yes, search for wines that have had positive reviews by others (search James Halliday's website for starters if you like).

been eyeing the Penfolds Thomas Hyland 2006 cav sab fot $15 each
Only my 2c, but don't...it's too young and from what you said above, I don't know if it's for you! Try visiting a more boutique wineseller than the local supermarket chain and ask their advice on their current stock. My recommendation, try a 2004 Margaret River WA cabernet to start with.


Hope that assists you. Any questions, feel free to PM.

Have a look at http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=8549 where folks have posted some good value wines they liked ...

In general $20-25 aud gets you some pretty good drinking if you are selective. What people think and reviews *are* useful when you are learning or selecting wines you might like.

Don't spend too much per bottle until you work out what you like ...

Read here. There is a wealth of knowledge and lots of people happy to help.

Cheers -- Jay

Another hearty welcome, lordson

Have a look at this recent topic/thread: http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=8549.

Daniel's recommendation to look at James Halliday's site is a very good suggestion - it probably has the most readily accessible info on Australian wine site and is excellent value for the low subscription cost :
http://winecompanion.com.au. I'd think it may better suit your requirements at present than Ric's (TORB) but there is a lot of good stuff there too, particularly the tour diaries and access is free: http://torbwine.com/home.shtml. http://www.winefront.com.au/ is another site at a reasonable subscription rate. http://redbigot.info/RBG.htm is well worth the cheap subscription cost.
http://www.winorama.com.au/ is now moribund but free and there's quite a bit of still-recent info using the Winorama Search facility (thanks Gary).

The Penfolds range is Rawsons Retreat, Koonunga Hill, Thomas Highland then the bin series that ends at Grange, with a few others such as Magill Estate. Halliday rated the Hyland Shiraz 05 92/100 (very good) and given the general opinions I've seen of the SA 06 vintage, the Hyland Shiraz 06 is likely to be very good too. Buy a bottle to try. Have a small taste after opening the bottle then pour a glass and allow it to breathe for half an hour or so. Re-seal the bottle and put it in the fridge. If you want more pour another glass from the refrigerated bottle a while before you finish the previous glass, just when depending on how chilled the bottle has become. $15 seems a fairly good price and if you like the wine you could confidently buy more. There are quite a few other very good wines in the $15-$20 bracket - I've not had a Hyland red for years.

I suspect the honeyed semillon you had was a McWilliams Mount Pleasant Elizabeth (unoaked) from the Hunter Valley.

Cheers and again, welcome

daz

lordson wrote:i basically go into coles/safeway liquor section and choose any red thats >$20 and on sale and buy that.

I'm no expert, but I've learned enough to avoid the supermarket liquor section. Instead, find a good small wine specialist - there are several dotted around Melbourne - go into the store, and talk to the people there about what you like and what you can afford. Building a relationship with a reliable local retailer can be invaluable.

i've been thinking, on a whim, of buying a wine refigerated wine cellar/fridge from Big W for $188 for 28 bottle, and start my collection

I would recommend waiting for a while before even thinking about starting a collection. You don't really know what you like yet, and your taste will change/develop over time also, so if you rush into it you will definitely buy bottles that you will regret six months or a year later. At the age of 22 you have plenty of time ahead of you to explore and learn about different wines!

Cheers, Furuhata.

hey lordson,

good to see that some other younger people are around, im your age and have been collecting wine for a little while.

i was in the exact position you were in terms of knowing hardly anything and wanting to start somewhere. i ended up buying a wine fridge after heaps of research, i went with a vintec because i got it brand new as an unwanted prize. mine is a 40 bottle fridge, i suggest if your going to get into wine and make something of collecting some good wines, get one that is a little larger than 28 bottles. I say this because it took me about 3 months to to go from half full fridge to having to add a wooden box as additional storage for excess that doesn't fit in the fridge. all it took was buying few bottles here and there, and then a case (12) and now i don't have anymore room.

in terms of buying wine, you will find that safeways and coles do stock some gems, but it's very limited. i unfortunately dont have the luxury of living in sydney or melbourne and dont have small wine specialist stores i can visit, i would definitely be making the most of them.

as is, i turn to my james halliday guide that a friend bought for my birthday which has been very informative, and then also the internet and places like this.

if you want a good starting point get a bottle of d' Arenberg footbolt shiraz, i know that safeways stocks it and for $15 you can't go wrong.

peace,

I am that age as well, and I have a cooler i manage to stuff 28 bottles into. I have most of my 'serious' collection offsite in cellarit, which I recommend. Why? it's so tempting to drink your good bottles when they are just sitting there, especially when you ran out of money, had to buy 2 bottles of st henri instead of 6 bottles of quaffers, the st henri starts looking very tempting

I found when I first "got into" wine that there was a huge jump in quality once you got past the $10 per bottle mark and initially drank a lot of $10-15 wines such as Hardy's Oomoo Shiraz, Mount Pleasant Philip Shiraz, Leo Buring Riesling etc.

I would recommend trying wines as many different varietals and regions as you can, usually wines in the $10-20 price bracket are fairly good indicators of what you can expect flavour and style wise - the more expensive examples just tend to be more intense or have more finesse etc.

thanks for the information guys

unfortunately, alot of the wine suggestions, dont mean terribly much to me, so many different wine makers!

i just bought a bunch of penfold thomas hyland cabernet sauvignon 2006 to put away to drink later

wondering if i should buy the wolf blass grey label shiraz 05, which i read was good, and the cabernet savignon 06, for $30, from $47

i'll have to keep buying lots of varieties and experiment for now

all that reading is exhaustive

also a question, i probably will drink a bottle every two weeks

do any of you have beer bellies from drinking alot of wine?

lordson wrote:
do any of you have beer bellies from drinking alot of wine?

Not mine, tight as a drum
it's seasonal though

[quote="lordson"]do any of you have beer bellies from drinking alot of wine?[/quote]

Not I, far too much running back and forth from the cellar downstairs to customer's tables for me!

But seriously, one bottle a fortnight shouldn't affect you in the slightest, unless you're diabetic, for example!

Daniel Jess wrote:

lordson wrote:do any of you have beer bellies from drinking alot of wine?

Not I, far too much running back and forth from the cellar downstairs to customer's tables for me!

But seriously, one bottle a fortnight shouldn't affect you in the slightest, unless you're diabetic, for example!

I did have a beer belly once but then I substituted almost all of the beer with wine, more red than white, and have since been well within the average weight for my height/age. As a lazy 50+yo the "middle-age spread" is simply that - I weigh the same as I did 30+ years ago.

Unless you're a glutton or have an unfortunate genetic inheritance, you wouldn't add to your girth by drinking at least a bottle a day as I do, let alone a bottle a fortnight.

Cheers

daz

lordson wrote:thanks for the information guys

unfortunately, alot of the wine suggestions, dont mean terribly much to me, so many different wine makers!

i just bought a bunch of penfold thomas hyland cabernet sauvignon 2006 to put away to drink later

wondering if i should buy the wolf blass grey label shiraz 05, which i read was good, and the cabernet savignon 06, for $30, from $47

i'll have to keep buying lots of varieties and experiment for now

all that reading is exhaustive

also a question, i probably will drink a bottle every two weeks

do any of you have beer bellies from drinking alot of wine?

Hope you tried the Hyland Cab 06 before buying, I'd probably have had a bit more confidence in the shiraz, just a feeling.

Wolf Blass Grey Label Shiraz is from McLaren Vale fruit and the Cabernet is from Langhorne Creek. The Shiraz 05 is a good buy for $30, it may be able to found a couple of dollars cheaper but convenience is a factor. I've only tried the 04 in recent years that I got for $20, a once only price, have a couple of bottles stashed. Not much between the 04 and 05 vintages in McLaren Vale.

I'd be a bit wary of the GL Cab 06. According to Halliday:
"Good depth and hue to the colour; very powerful, full-bodied with unexpected firm and persistent tannins; may or may not achieve balance with prolonged cellaring. 14.5º alc. Rating 89 Drink 2020". The Langhorne Creek region is a bit enigmatic to me and the wines from it can be quite challenging but still most enjoyable.

Reading is knowledge. Do you want some links for beer and/or whisky?

Cheers

daz

If I was you I'd try as much wine as you can get your hands on. Go to as many tastings as you can, and while I know that a whole bottle of wine seems like a lot when your 22, it is a mere aperitif by the time your past 30, so you can safely up your consumption to a bottle a week.

I'd imagine that you probably only drink red (or you suffer under the common misapprehension that one doesn't cellar white), so I can only urge you to try some white, because their are some great whites out there at good prices to cellar, Clare, Eden Valley Riesling, Hunter Semillon and the great Tahbilk Marsanne.

As far as price is concerned it is a reasonable guide, but I've tasted some expensive rubbish. You might be surprised what a bit of time will do for a wine. An acquaintance of mine cellars a load of bottom shelf bargains, Queen Adelaide, Stump Jump, Windy Peak, Lindemans Bin range etc, and three years ago I had a 1997 Queen Adelaide chardonnay and it was superb.

I don't agree about the not shopping at big chains, I shop at about seven bottleshops, including DM and VC's, a couple of local chains, and some independents.

Insofar as the Penfold's or the Wolf Blass, well I wouldn't buy either of them as I've never been a fan of the Thomas Hyland range and most of the Wolf Blass stuff is pretty ordinary unless you want to pay big bucks.

I'd try and get some of the 2005 Cotes Du Rhone that is floating around, yes I know it is French, but there are some great examples at reasonable prices. It ages beautifully, I just stumbled across some 1995 Guigal Cotes Du Rhone, at the knockdown price of $25 and the first one I opened was in my all time top five.

What a classic !

Me thinking this may be Jules alias Nth Syd Cellars!

Good Lad!

Possibly.. either way, promoting that particular cellar door on this forum won't bring in the numbers.. lol.

Maroon&Blue wrote:What a classic !

Me thinking this may be Jules alias Nth Syd Cellars!

Good Lad!

Impossible that Jules from NSC would rate a $25 Gigal Cotes du Rhone in his all-time top five.