Starting to learn about wine drinking :)

[krazypara3165]

Ok, so after getting the girlfriend a wine making kit and helping her ferment it (its currently clearing) it dawned on me that i know absolutely nothing about wine!

So...... tonight i went to my local sainsburys and bought three bottles of wine, a rose a white and a nice looking red. never been a proper wine drinker before and it dawned to me that i cant tell the difference between a dry and a sweet wine never mind a chardonnay or a pinot grigio!

just started on the rose which i now realise is a dry one. i think its rather nice but the girlfriend has told me its too dry!

Anyway its all part of the learning curve and i get the feeling this will be a interesting year!!!

Cheers!

 

[IOMMick]

Ok, so after getting the girlfriend a wine making kit and helping her ferment it (its currently clearing) it dawned on me that i know absolutely nothing about wine!

So...... tonight i went to my local sainsburys and bought three bottles of wine, a rose a white and a nice looking red. never been a proper wine drinker before and it dawned to me that i cant tell the difference between a dry and a sweet wine never mind a chardonnay or a pinot grigio!

just started on the rose which i now realise is a dry one. i think its rather nice but the girlfriend has told me its too dry!

Anyway its all part of the learning curve and i get the feeling this will be a interesting year!!!

Cheers!

Wait until you discover good wine, and good cheese - you're friends will almost certainly start to think you're a pretentious prick soon enough :lol:

 

[oldbloke]

The only thing that really matters is, do you like it? Ignore any snobbery about countries wine comes from, grapes used, vintages...
Personally I prefer red over white, dry over medium, rarely drink sweet at all.
I like a nice merlot, but then I like lots of others too.
And then when you come to make your own - well I don't do any kits or grape-juice based wines, I do "country wines" (dandelion, nettle, berries, veg) and "weird stuff" (coffee) and something I always recommend to beginners because of the great bang-for-buck - fruit teabag wine
Fruit teabag wine goes (per gallon) - pack 20 fruit teabags of any flavour that catches your fancy, 2l grape juiice 1 l apple juice maybe a bit of tannin, nutrient, yeast, about a kilo of sugar . Stupidly easy, great taste, doesn't need aging.
If you go for kits, you get what you pay for - the cheaper ones are not as good as the more expensive ones

 

[krazypara3165]

The only thing that really matters is, do you like it? Ignore any snobbery about countries wine comes from, grapes used, vintages...
Personally I prefer red over white, dry over medium, rarely drink sweet at all.
I like a nice merlot, but then I like lots of others too.
And then when you come to make your own - well I don't do any kits or grape-juice based wines, I do "country wines" (dandelion, nettle, berries, veg) and "weird stuff" (coffee) and something I always recommend to beginners because of the great bang-for-buck - fruit teabag wine
Fruit teabag wine goes (per gallon) - pack 20 fruit teabags of any flavour that catches your fancy, 2l grape juiice 1 l apple juice maybe a bit of tannin, nutrient, yeast, about a kilo of sugar . Stupidly easy, great taste, doesn't need aging.
If you go for kits, you get what you pay for - the cheaper ones are not as good as the more expensive ones

cheers! I will have to try that recipe now! I just realised I had nothing to compare my wine to and it would be nice to have a few bench points so I know how I am doing and how my wine compares to retail wine. i seldom used to drink wine but realised that i plan on making all three main types to please various members of the family. realised last night after cracking open a bottle of rose first that I'm beginning to really enjoy wine whereas before I could take it or leave it. looking forward to cracking open the red now during the week!

On another note........ How hard does it seem to be to get corked bottles these days?!?! I thought I would kill two birds with the one stone and get corked bottles so I could use them for later however it seemed easier said than done!!!

 

[oldbloke]

When I started I used to be very critical of my homemade stuff we'd have with the Sunday roast, then that evening we'd have a commercial one and realised mine was just as good. Or nearly.

Almost all my bottles have come from the Sunday Times Wine Club, we buy 5 cases a year off them. Lately they're about 50:50 corked and screwtops. You can re-use the screwtop caps at least a couple of times, and bobsbeer on here can sell you new caps. Pubs will be glad to get shot of any bottles you care to take away.

 

[krazypara3165]

Thankfully i have a pub across the road from me, unfortunately the only corked beverage they sell is champagne.

I'm only on my first batch at the moment but in a few months time I plan on having a drinks night at mine with friends where we can compare a few of the cheap store wines to my kit wine (and hopefully a WOW) to get a sense of idea of the differences.

 

[Michaeldonk]

The screw cap bottles have the same internal diameter as a corked bottle, my first kit used all screw cap bottles and some corks I got for free from the homebrew shop. Fit as snug as a bug so I wouldn't be too bothered, it's just aesthetically different, thicker glass around the rim to hold the threading. Other than that there is no difference. In my restaurant we have 19 different types of wine plus champagne, prossecco and sparkling rose, only one of the wines has a cork, it would take me a lifetime to save just the corked one as we sell about one bottle a week, but about 150 bottles a week for all the others.

 

[krazypara3165]

The screw cap bottles have the same internal diameter as a corked bottle, my first kit used all screw cap bottles and some corks I got for free from the homebrew shop. Fit as snug as a bug so I wouldn't be too bothered, it's just aesthetically different, thicker glass around the rim to hold the threading. Other than that there is no difference. In my restaurant we have 19 different types of wine plus champagne, prossecco and sparkling rose, only one of the wines has a cork, it would take me a lifetime to save just the corked one as we sell about one bottle a week, but about 150 bottles a week for all the others.

Cheers! That was my original plan however I was told by a few people the neck is thinner...... either way I have a lot of threaded ones that I plan on keeping and adding a new top from one of the members on here!

 

[Michaeldonk]

That's a good idea. Im just stocking up on plastic topped corks but will be using full corks for my port when it's ready to be hidden under the floorboards for maturing, hopefully I will have enough port bottles by then if I'm lucky

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

The screw cap bottles have the same internal diameter as a corked bottle

No, they have the same external diameter as a corked bottle. However a corked bottle needs to be stronger to withstand the force of the corks being put in and taken out, so they have thicker glass throughout the bottle, especially in the neck, resulting in a thinner internal diameter. Screw-top bottles have thinner glass to save weight, both reducing the cost of transport and allowing more bottles per tonne of glass. As a result the internal diameter of the neck on a screw-top bottle is too wide to form an adequate seal, especially if you're intending to let the wine mature for an extended period. Also, the thinner glass is more likely to crack or shatter when you are corking or uncorking it, as the bottle is not designed for this.

 

[krazypara3165]

That's a good idea. Im just stocking up on plastic topped corks but will be using full corks for my port when it's ready to be hidden under the floorboards for maturing, hopefully I will have enough port bottles by then if I'm lucky

Hows the rasp and lime? Thinking of doing one of these soon!

 

[oldbloke]

The screw cap bottles have the same internal diameter as a corked bottle,

Not all of them. There have been many reports here of people failing to get a good seal when corking a screwtop botle