Fairly new, looking for recommendations for the future

Hi all,

my girlfriend and I are pretty new to the wine scene (<6 months of drinking “good” wine) and we are both eager to learn and experience news wines. We have built up a small collection so far, most of which has been acquired from a local retailer. I’m just starting to get into ordering wines online and have put my name on several waiting/mailing lists. I’ve done what I can to find wines I think we’ll both like and have tried to be adventurous with what I’ve ordered. We are both looking for some suggestions for what to try next. I can give you a brief list of our better bottles and some of our favorites that we have tried so far.

In our possession: Achaval Ferrer (all three Finca malbecs), Bedrock Monte Rosso Zin, Dakota Shy Cabs (not sure what to expect with these), Hobel Cabs, Il Poggione Brunello, Château Léoville Barton, Lillian Syrah, Azienda Agricola Montevertine Le Pergole Torte Riserva, a variety of Peter Michael wines, a variety of Ridge Estate wines including a few Monte Bellos and two of the flagship Two Hands wines (Ares and Aphrodite).

Wines we loved: Bedrock and Turley zins were really the first wines we loved. We got to try several Bevan wines that were all amazing. Two Hands Bellas Garden and Mollydookers Carnival of love were both great. Our top two wines to date were the Finca Mirador from Achaval Ferrer and a Caymus Special Select. There are more that should be included here but these are off the top of my head.

I’d say our favorite varietals are malbecs, syrahs/shiraz, cabs, pinots and zinfandels. Any bottles/wineries you guys want to suggest would be greatly appreciated. I try to base my purchases based on notes from Cellar Tracker but it would be nice to actually talk to people about some of the purchases.

Thanks in advance!

Welcome to the most expensive (legal) habit I know of.

I’ll start by saying that the wines you like and own are all very different from each other in my humble opinion, so it’s hard to really give advice for me. What I’d say is try as many wines as you can…full stop. And also try to taste as many as you can blind so you are not influenced by labels.

Most peoples tastes change of time so I would recommend not going deep in one wine or even one varietal.

Join a local wine tasting group (there are many) and try to experience wine with some age (especially Leoville Barton, Ill Poggoine and Montebello; since you own some)

Hi. Welcome to the board.

My general advice to anyone just starting out with wine is to not really build a “collection” until you have drank wine for a number of years. And really you don not need to have a large collection of wine unless you really like wine with aged flavors and aromas. If you mostly enjoy wine with mostly “youngish” flavors then a wine cellar’s utility is pretty much just temperature control.

Part of the ethos of wine as a hobby is to have a “collection” so when people start off they typically have knee jerk reaction to start collecting and stashing away as much as they can afford. This is generally a mistake because your personal taste preferences will likely morph or even completely change with time. A better approach is to try as many different wines as possible to see what you guys subjectively like. There are lots of popular wines I don’t like and many wines I have real fondness for that aren’t critical darlings. You need to figure out what fits your palate and even what your palate preferences actually are. This takes years but luckily its a very fun journey with no real destination.

I’ll be the first to say it - taste, taste, taste. If you’re like 99% of us, your palate will change with time and experience. The generalization that we move from big wines to more nuanced is true for many of us, as is the observation that lots of us (myself included) have lots of wine in our cellars that is not the style that we currently enjoy. All that said, buy and drink what you like, and if you’ve found a retailer that you like and that works with you you’re already well ahead of the game.

Oops - already not the first!

What was your take on Brunello and the LPT?

What he said. Some (but certainly nowhere near all) of the wines you mention having are the types of wines that franking a lot of people like when they are starting out and then move onto other things from. Not at all a criticism. You are where you should be. But, as Berry said, be careful buying too much too soon.

General consensus seems to be to try as many different wines as possible (which I totally dig and is basically what we have been doing). I’ve been applying to a lot of the mailing lists that I’ve seen are popular on the board because I know it can take some time (years) to get onto some of them. In the meantime I’ve been buying from local stores and (as I said) just started ordering online. I live in Minneapolis so my current go to wine spot is France 44 in Edina. We’ve built a good relationship with the employees and GM there so we get first crack at a lot of their limited stuff. I’m planning on continuing this local relationship but they obviously don’t have everything, what would you guys recommend for online ordering?

All great advice above. Heed it or go the path many of us did. Learn from other’s mistakes. Not a very easy thing for us mere humans.
Have fun

Welcome JT
An interesting and nicely varied collection, though what really appears to appeal the most at the moment are the bigger wines. No worries as you can leave the like of the Leoville Barton (and Ridge) to rest. Your palate may take to such wines straight away, or with some age on it be the wines that set you off in other directions.

Many of the bigger wines don’t especially improve much, so are great for drinking now. Enjoy the riot of flavour and intensity when the fruit and acids are at their freshest.

Some other Aussies that might appeal if you see them: Charles Melton, Bleasdale ‘Frank Potts’, Baileys of Glenrowan, Saltram, Rockford, Jasper Hill, Primo Estate, Peter Lehmann, D’arenberg. All at the bigger end of town, but with a touch more subtlety (IMO) and fine track records so they may well gather interest in the cellar. There are others such as Best’s, Craiglee, Wynns that are a step further on with great cellaring futures, but not necessarily immediately ‘wow’ wines.

As you’ve hit on Italy, the one wine that jumps out is Amarone, which is similar to Valpolicella, but the grapes are dried on straw mats to concentrate the flavour. They can be very big these days and with that comes lots of intensity but not just simple fruit. Primo mentioned above do a brilliant copy called Primo ‘Moda’, and I’d also recommend a southern Italian wine called Graticciaia made in a very similar way. Maybe try a valpolicella as well, still quite rich, but more like 14.5% alc than 17% alc.

Chateauneuf du Pape and Gigondas in the Southern Rhone might also be worth a try - still big but may be an interesting variant.

At the moment don’t buy any Barolo, Beaujolais or Burgundy without trying first to see if your palate also likes wines that are really quite different.

Another variant in Italy will be the oaked style Barbera’s. Splash the cash on one from Braida, who must have been seen as a crazy maverick early on, but has been the name for along while now. Bricco dell’Uccelone was the original star, but Ai Suma and others have joined in. These are big and oaked without the tannins of nebbiolo, but Barbera retains it’s acidity well, so these should taste big and fresh.

France has some great wines from the warmer south, in Languedoc and Roussillon, as well as Provence. Lots of stuff happening here, so get recommendations or it may seem too confusing. For a few tips, local UK merchant Leon Stolarski (lsfinewines.co.uk IIRC) has a great reputation on the UK wine forum for knowing his region (no connections - indeed I myself haven’t ordered from him, but the folks on the forum speak very highly).

Portugal - The douro is famous for Port, but is now making some bold (and good) table wines. Niepport’s Redoma is a favourite of some friends of mine, and I see what they mean.

Most of all though, keep tasting, keep trying and enjoy the journey your palate takes you on. There are many great wine styles out there and an impossibly large number of great wines.

regards
Ian

Stop now and run the other way while enjoying all your money?

Seriously, do what everyone has said – taste a lot. And trust your palate, not anyone else’s. Getting suggestions is a great idea. Trusting those suggestions over your own experience is a bad idea.

You need to take a look at Jaffurs http://www.jaffurswine.com/ In the same vein as Lillian, but at a much better price point. Some of the best Syrah coming out of California and a great price. For Zins, also look at Carlisle. Sign up for the list now. You can also find it on the secondary market with a little searching. Both Carlisle and Jaffurs really deliver for the money.

One thing I would recommend is buying some wine that someone else has already aged for you from winebid.com. You’ll get a sense of where wine goes with time in bottle and it will help you learn if you like aged wine. Winebid also has a really wide variety of wines to expand your horizons with.

One caveat to my earlier advice is that you cant go wrong buying and cellaring champagne. That’s something you are highly unlikely to outgrow.

This is always a fun (re) read - THEY HATE THEIR MOTHERS - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers

I would strongly recommend that you buy at least 1-2 "really nice wines. From each major category(Barolo, Burgundy, Barbaresco, Bordeaux, Champagne, Port, Rioja, N.Rhone, Tuscany, S Rhone, ect). Buy wines that people that are into those regions & have long track records seek out. They are collected for a reason. I would expect that eventually your palate will shift and you’ll be glad you have them. For me the standouts I chose were the '96 Champagnes I bought on release. I didn’t like them at the time…but I love Champagne now. Other than that…just keep going outside of your comfort zone and try more wine. No matter how much you love a wine now…you may not crave it the same way in 5-7 years. But a wide variety for your cellar…you’ll be glad you have them later.

I’ve never had Jaffurs, but I agree that the SB County area is a great bet, especially if you’re into jucier/fruitier syrah. And some of those producers are a good “gateway” to more savory (“Northern Rhone”-ish) expressions of the grape if you’re interested in exploring that direction too.

I’m not a mailing list guy, and I don’t think you ever need to be on any mailing lists (but even more so when you’re just starting out). You certainly don’t need to be on any mailing lists to drink very good SB County Syrahs. All of the following are available at retail from any good CA wine store (and probably further afield as well): Beckmen, Stolpman, Ojai, Melville, Qupe (if you’re looking for some Rhone). You don’t need the more allocated, expensive single vineyard designates from any of these guys at this point (though if you get obsessed later on, you can join their lists and go bananas with SVDs and high end cuvees).

While you’re at it in SB, you might want to try some of the Pinot Noirs from that area as well, many of which should be on the friendly and fruity side (and still have some interest and savory components as well): Tyler, Au Bon Climat, Melville, Ojai, Hitching Post, Foxen, among others.

My mailing list comment was directed at Carlisle. Maybe that got lost in my rushed response.

Sorry - I wasn’t even paying close attn to that part of your comment (rather the Jaffurs part). Didn’t mean to critique!

Do something completely nutty - like show up at FMIIIs house for Falltacular or come to my house when we have another Berserkerfest - and get to drink 60+ wines (you should divide the job between the two of you because otherwise it looks bad when we have to pick the newbies up off the floor) and take notes on what you like AND WHAT YOU DON’T. and why. I agree with most of the general advice given above - try as much as you can. I will add TAKE NOTES so in the morning you will remember AND do not leave the notes on the table at the restaurant - I’ve done that way too many times. I used to take notes all the time and it helps. I don’t any more, but that is just laziness.

1-I would back down from the mailing list idea until you have more experience. Lists can grow quickly into a
perceived obligation.

2-Be aware of your budget. It is easy to read sites like this one and read glowing notes of wine at every level but mostly at (for me) top end. You can feel like you are missing out if you don’t taste the new baller special. There will always be more wine in your comfortable price rang that will be wonderful. I will not spend $100 on any bottle of wine and that is my limit. Know yours.

3-Reisling!!!

4-Take some chances. White wine is wonderful.

And remember all roads lead to Burgundy - just skip all the rest of the crap and get to know Dr. Weinberg (Alan). He will lead you into perdition!

Remember to not think that just because someone likes something and writes about it that you will as well. There is so much variety in wine that you literally will spend the rest of your life learning and thats what makes it such a fun hobby - albeit expensive.

Welcome to the board and start posting some tasting notes and the masses will chime in.