We started talking about German beer vs. German wine (vs. other countries like Spain, Canada, Australia etc) and every-one of the 6 German’s I was with reckoned that both their beer and wine is Ze best in the world! Hands down no questions asked.

But yeah, thanks GrapeRadio for re-affirming my idea that it doesn’t matter how much, how good or how many ppl like a certain wine it is really a personal thing for which wines one likes and doesn’t…I personally like inexpensive cab sav and sav blanc.

Rich

I too have trashed cheap wine when among friends and have found it to be highly entertaining, personally! One mans cheap wine appears to be another mans prized elixir, and opens up great debate. Love your comment and this article was great!

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Draeconin

Jay

Candy & I really enjoyed hearing this show. In Oct.’03 we went to Europe for the first time, spending our first several days along the Mosel. Too bad we hadn’t started our exploration of wines yet–there was no Grape Radio to get us going!

Nonetheless, we’d grown up in wine country, and dearly loved all of the steep vineyards along the banks of the river. We stayed at a hotel who offered a house label wine, which we safely carried on the rest of our vacation and back home to California. We’ve still got the label.

We stayed at the Hotel Haus Lipmann. The website shows a great photo of the little town of Beilstein, which its overlooking castle and vines.

Just wanted to tell you that I love your show !

I listen to your programmes in Switzerland not far from Geneva amongst vineyards that slope towards the lake Leman and that face the Mont-Blanc and the Alps.

Best regards.

Sarah Jefford

I just got back from a trip to Germany and after hearing your ad on the
Daily Source Code, I had a few MP3s of your show on the iPod.

I just thought it was great.

As soon as I got back I copied them onto my wife’s iRiver.

The show about Champagne was the most informative podcast I have
listened to.

Thanks again.

We’ve had the good fortune to grow up in wine country most of our lives (grew up in Lodi, bought our first home in Livermore), but never fully appreciated what was around us! Now we’re in Santa Clarita, a bit further from vineyards, but not so far. Candy likes wine more than I do–I’m still looking for that “ah-ha” bottle you talk about, slowly but surely. In the meantime, I’m enjoying learning about all of this.

Yesterday I went to a wine retailer, picked an Argentine Malbec just for the heck of it, and grabbed a copy of Wine Spectator. Then I got home, looked up the Malbec online, and read some pretty iffy comments. Oh well, I’m learning!

-Mark

P.S. The Malbec was the El Felino 2002, though Wine Spectator named the El Felino 2003 as one of the recommended affordable wines. Maybe I’m getting close.

Also, I would be interested to find out what you guys thoughts are on the question, “What type of wine is appropriate to bring for social occasions.(Pricepoint and Selection)

– Bosses house
– House Warming
– New Friends
– Large Party
– Small dinner party etc…

No need to reply – just an idea for a future podcast.

Regards,
Brad

I feel one should always attempt to be tactful. If you would have said, “this wine sucks, I would rather drink dog vomit”, it could cause others to get upset. Especially if they brought the wine, or profusely proclaimed their love of the wine. People take this kind of thing very personally. Its like you are telling them they have bad taste.

Sounds like you were very polite. I tend to say “I feel this wine is sour” as opposed to “this wine IS sour”. The former implies an opinion,the latter that it’s a fact. I think its great that you gave the wine a 2nd chance to come around for the problem to dissipate. Don’t feel you need to convince (“insist”) others that you are right and they are wrong. You have your opinion,they have theirs. I would drop the issue and not have consumed any more of the wine (discreetly).

My only criticism of your behavior that evening is that why did you and your friends decide to open only one bottle?

Jay Selman
Producer
http://www.graperadio.com

Stick to your guns. Taste is a very personal thing and I always seem to disagree with the group.

In fact, last week someone brought a bottle of wine and I thought it was corked (it was nasty) but no one agreed with me. They all got defensive about it.

The problem is that whoever brings the bottle of wine always seems to have this personal connection to it like they made the wine or something. They will usually die before they admit that it is bad.

Best Regards,

Brian Clark

I want to thank you for producing such a great show. I am learning so much about wine and the wine industry, it is amazing. Keep it up!

Question for you…

One of your shows discussed “speaking out” if you do not like the flavor of a wine when you are with friends. I did that, but got unexpected results.

One Saturday night I was with friends and as usual, a bottle of red was broken out to be shared. We were cooking out NY strip and and planning on having a very casual evening.

So, I was offered a glass of a French wine that I had never tried before. Naturally I accepted. Only to find that the wine was absolutely sour. No question in my mind. It was cheap and/or sour wine.

So, inspired by your show, I spoke up, “This wine is sour.” Normally I would not have been so frank, but I was with really good friends and we take such liberties with each other.

They tasted and declared, “It tastes fine to me.” So, I cleared my palate and had some water and bread, and tried again. Sour.

They tried it again and insisted that it was okay. I disagreed (in my mind.) I politely added, “perhaps it just needs to breath.”

I let it sit for a while, and tasted again. It was still sour. But they were insistent that it was good wine. (No other wine was offered to me at this point.)

I was in a predicament. If I insisted that it was bad wine, I would come across as a jerk. Also, there was the possibility that I was wrong.

So I continued to drink the sour wine through the coarse of the evening. There was no question in my mind that this was cheap wine.

Then as we were finishing dinner, came the kicker. The host admitted that he had purchased the wine for around $11 and that it was recommended to him by the sales clerk (at a supermarket).

Now I am not a wine snob, I have had very good California & Australian wine that is under $20 a bottle.

However, this wine was from France and it was being sold for $11 a bottle. Ball-parking it, I am guessing that there was a retail markup of 20%, an import fee, a distribution fee, the cost of the bottle and cork, I am guessing that I was drinking a $3 French wine with my $12 NY Strip.

What is the proper etiquette in such a situation? I do not want to always have to bring the wine to the dinner. Perhaps I am the only one that this has happened to, but maybe some of your listeners have been in similar situations.

Have you done a show on wine etiquette yet? I think that would be an interesting topic.

Regards,
Brad

Brian Clark
Grape Radio

Cheers,

Doug