Pretty much title. I recently moved to SF and would love to join a regularly meeting group to taste and discuss wine.

Fun bottle of Les Sizies, we suspected this may be in a dumb phase as we let it breathe for a few hours and it didn’t give much but by the second glass it completely blossomed. The nose absolutely exploded from the glass with autumn leaves, spice, a hint of burg funk & really well integrated stems. The fruit character is really where the complexity comes around, this bounced between ripe cherries, black cherries, cranberries & raspberries all in various forms.. think luxardo cherries then immediately to ripe cherries etc. The palate comes across slightly thin with the acid seemingly carrying the structure. Overall gorgeous, elegant & understated but I’m not sure I see this going the distance.

I was just gifted some wine and I’m not sure how to store it. It’s Tinto Amorio 22’ Beehyo Orange Wine. Not a big drinker so I do want to make it last. Any tips on how to store a new bottle? Thank you!!

UPDATE: I spilt more than half the wine in my fridge bc the stopped I put must’ve been a bad fit 😓 Thanks anyway.

It’s not often that I describe a wine as sensual, but these two bottles of Meo-Camuzet certainly fit the bill. Had these last night with an old friend who first introduced me to fine wine. The occasion: baby #2 is coming soon and I’ll probably be unable to attend upcoming wine nights. Hence the title.

Nuits-Saint-Georges 2018

Initially muted on the nose but eventually showed sweet oak, caramel and soy sauce/hoisin. Some sweetness on the attack. Dried figs, dark cherries and blackberries, with pleasant notes of undergrowth and mushroom. Quite advanced for 2018 and reflected the warm vintage. This took about 1.5 hours to come together but when it did, it sang. 94 points

Morey-Saint-Denis 2019

Sweet oak, violets, brambly fruit on the nose. On the palate sour cherries, strawberries, cranberries. Vibrant, zippy acidity with a spicy finish. Exuberant, youthful and beautifully balanced. Oak seamlessly integrated with fruit. Faded a little as the night went on, but so delightful while it lasted. 94 points

Since it's mystery day, here's the mystery Far Niente box

Nice little Cab from Antinori, did not know they had wine in Napa. Very expressive with plum, citrus and chocolate on the nose. Medium to full body. Overall very good for the price!

What are your thoughts?

Hi,

I saw a bunch of posts on Reddit recommending Banshee Pinot Noir, tried it, and I really loved it.

If you like Banshee' Pinot Noir, what other wine red or white, do you recommend?

Thanks!

Nice little Cab… did not know Antinori had wine from Napa

Any thoughts on this wine?

So I’m a wine noob but I’ve found I really enjoy Iberian wines like Port, Sherry and Madeira. I want to get a bottle to purchase and let age for a long time and from my research Madeira wines seem to be very resilient to any kind of aging environment.

Now I’ve seen from this subreddit that some wines get better with age and others will just stay the same or degrade and that it totally depends on the wine. Will leaving a Madeira wine to sit for a long time make the flavour better? Or will it just remain virtually the same in all those years?

Also I’ve read they should be stored upright? Is this correct?

Seems like Spanish wines have solid value, which is what I really look for being a cheap ass. TGIF everybody

Didn’t snag a photo at the venue but this is their offering

Ive been lucky enough, through work and a few generous friends, to try some of the ‘great’ wines of the world. I’m talking $250-750/bottle; none of the crazy 1k+ stuff that you have to spend a whole life tasting wine to really appreciate vs something half the price. Picked this up from an auction house in Cape Town for $90, 10yrs old. Nothing I have drank ever compared. Obviously it’s white and many serious wine drinkers for some reason constrain themselves to red. This was more restrained yet tense than any red wine I’ve tasted. Can’t imagine drinking it with food, so near-overwhelming is the cascade of flavours. 99/100

Some of you may have read my previous post on this topic, but for those of you just tuning in, Open Your Wine Autumn is a new tradition I have inaugurated which is exactly what it sounds like: A season-long excuse to open any wine that needs an excuse for opening, a yearly cure to the plague of "waiting for a special occasion" to crack that nice bottle you're sitting on for no compelling reason. As autumn calls to mind the natural cycles of aging and death, the wise wino, never taking life, health, or time for granted, knows to drink up while they still have the chance. Or, to put things in a slightly more grounded way: I get really bored of only ever opening 'responsible' weeknight bottles ad infinitum when I know I've got more exciting stuff sitting in my fridge, and I want to go a little apeshit for going apeshit's sake from time to time.

To that end I have put my modest amount of money where my mouth is and opened a few of the nicer bottles in my collection since September. I've done this on random weeknights, I've had them with burgers and shawarma and Popeye's and Chinese take-out, and I've consumed every one of them on my living room couch, mostly in pajamas. Since I've got until December 21st to keep #OYWA up I've not yet escalated to the bottles I've been most precious about (stay tuned for the December roundup for those), but I have dusted off the far reaches of my wine fridge and cleared out a good number of lovely bottles which had been waiting patiently for anywhere from 1-3 years for me to get around to drinking them.

In no particular order, here is the most recent batch of the wines I have opened so far this autumn in the spirit of OYWA:

---

Alessandra Divella Dosaggio Zero Rose de Saignee NV - This stuff was incredible, I love good Franciacorta and having really enjoyed Divella's 'NiNi' at the Four Horsemen a year or two ago I was very excited to find another of her zero-dosage wines at a local shop. I didn't take very detailed notes on this ('strawberry' and 'yeast', ok, very helpful, past me) but with a bit of air on it it went from deceptively simple to absolutely screaming with flavor and aroma that'd make any grand cru grower champagne jealous. Not sure what the hell I meant by "almost carnal" but that's in my notes too? Fascinating color, a kind of rusty pinkish sultana raisin hue. World class Franciacorta, will be an insta-buy if I ever come across it again. This stuff begs to be paired with a meal; I think I had mine with fried chicken?

Catherine & Pierre Breton 'Les Perrieres' Bourguiel 2015 - This was a slightly shy Cab Franc that really wanted some time in a decanter to start expressing itself, but an absolute pleasure to drink once it did. Serious depth of flavor with your typical herby-peppery raspberry and earth accord, structured but easy drinking ("digestible" if you like) at the same time. Had it with a burger and mac salad and could not have asked for a better pairing.

Chateau Simone Palette Rouge 2009 - Had been seeing this gathering dust for ages at a local shop and I'm glad I rescued it. One of those interesting southern French blends, mostly Grenache and Mourvedre with a whole hodgepodge of supporting grapes. Reminded me a bit of a Bordeaux at first with its strong red fruit-mineral-leather thing it had going on, but with sufficient air and warmth it started showing really interesting eucalyptus and licorice and garrigue notes. Really beautiful at 15 years and seemed like it would only get better with more age.

Olivier Horiot "En Valingrain" Rose des Riceys 2018 - I had the En Barmont a little earlier this year and loved it, and I liked this one even better. Fascinatingly 'textural' Pinot Noir, it has this kind of mercurial combination of density and lightness I find very hard to put into words; at the risk of getting too silly here it has a certain mysterious, magical energy and otherworldly tension to it. In any case I could drink a pail of the stuff; very tasty strawberry and sour cherry notes, herbaceous, a touch of cedar or pencil shavings. Really cool dark ruby color too, the kind of wine you want to look at with a flashlight. If those red health potions you drink in video games were real, this is what drinking one would feel like.

Domaine de l'Enclos Chablis GC 'Vaudesir' 2020 - One of my favorite white wines I've had all year, the kind of Chardonnay that just puts a smile on my face. I was enjoying myself too much to take detailed notes (I recall lemon, mineral, and smoke) but I did note that it was both serious and deep enough I wanted to take my time with it and also delicious and refreshing enough I wanted to neck a liter of it and ask for seconds.

Domaine de la Chevalerie Grand-Mont Bourguiel 2015 - I enjoyed this, although after having sat on it for nearly 3 years I was left wondering why I waited so long as it didn't really feel all that momentous. (That's the benefit of OYWA, I guess.) Interesting lychee black tea and barnyard notes which I find typical of this kind of low-intervention Loire Cab Franc, a bit of spice, raspberry, leather, plum, a bit of earth. Deep purplish-garnet color. If you've had Chevalerie's other offerings you can imagine a somewhat more structured, ageworthy version of those and you'll know exactly what you're in for with this.

the internet is giving me too many different answers.

Hey, i normally go for pinot noir when choosing a restaurant wine, because its abit safe. so any recommendations for a good restaurant wine for the weekend?

2019, from vineyard planted on The Etna Mountain.

Looking for advice. I’ll be traveling to Spain soon. My first time in Europe and Spanish wines have always been my favorite. How difficult is it to bring wine back with me? Is the juice worth the squeeze? Looking to hear about legal obstructions, packing tips, bottle recommendations etc.

TIA!

Any suggestions, friends? Send help 😅 It's our anniversary and we're ballin on a budget.

For me this Santenay 2013 vintage 1er cru from Bachey Legros does it. Aged properly it is an earthy, blackberry and cassis dream nose with a cherry palate and that vanilla, tar and leather finish that only Bourgogne can do.

So in the process of moving and unpacking I saw two of my 10yr old mount peak bottles were leaking. I initially assumed they must have cracked in the box. But then I noticed these holes on the top. They look to be on purpose but I can't figure out why? Anyone have any idea? Is the wine still good?

Will this still be any good?

So I recently got back from a trip to Italy, we were lucky enough to visit Rome and Naples and I made it a point to try some local wines. In my first couple days in Campania I had tried a Taurasi Reserva and another Aglianico and noticed both had a sort of bitter taste or bitter finish that I wasn't enjoying. On a trip out to Amalfi Coast we stopped at Ettori Sammarco, a small winery right on the coast in Ravello. Which I highly recommend stopping in if you're in the area. Very family feel, they have a little tasting counter in the winery and the founder/owner was right there overseeing the work and chatting with us. I believe he is 92 and still involved!I tried some delicious whites and some of their reds and fell in love with their reserve that is 70% Aglianico, 30% Pie de Rosso. It had none of the bitterness and everything I loved about the other wines I had tried. Talking with the host and the owner they mentioned there are multiple types of Aglianicos and the terroir of Ravello is part of why their wines don't have the same bitterness as others.

I brought some bottles back that I'll sit on for a bit but I'm looking for other recommendations of Aglianicos that don't have that bitter note. As much as I'd love to order direct from Sammarco, ordering by the case with international shipping isn't in my budget at the moment (maybe as a treat down the road). I also get the feeling the other Aglianicos I tried may have been too young and those bitter notes may mellow out of the years. So I'm not opposed to grabbing some bottles to set aside.

Hi All,

In the first week of December I’m traveling from Switzerland to Portugal by car. I would like to fill up my trunk with wine. I’ve been in Beaune and Pommard before but not anywhere else. Im looking for suggestions about a good place to buy wine.(nices prices and good selection) Also if you have some wine suggestions please let me know (red and white) Price is always something to consider but I rather buy less but good quality. The goal is to buy a few bottles to age and some other to enjoy with family ( some wine enthusiasts). during a Christmas time.

Thank you all.