<p>Jym, my tastes are such that I’d rather have no wine than not-good wine. For a “sipping” chardonnay or pinot noir, you can do worse than Kendall Jackson. Jekel makes an okay chardonnay and Chateau St. Jean, particularly the Private Reserve, which is still modestly priced, is decent for the price. But if you’ve never tried the Far Niente, it’s well worth having. So is their cabernet but at restaurants a bottle runs $100-$125…and that’s the kind of occasion maybe once every couple of years.</p>
<p>Ari: for TheMom’s birthday, we once went to a “Sideways” wine tasting. Bought a mixed case, still have a couple of bottles left. We often now try to stop at The Hitching Post on our way to or from Cambria. The steaks are good and the wine is both moderately priced and very good. And then mushrooms marinated in cabernet appetizer…though TheMom prefers the flame-grilled artichoke.</p>
<p>TheDad-
You are making my mouth water. I didn’t realize Far Niente got that expensive. Ouch. If you are paying, I am drinking
Do you have any reccs for medium priced ($30-50) bottles?</p>
<p>A really interesting wine is Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc which my wine shop sells for $11. Everyone who I have served it to goes “Wow!” It would do well with many cheeses particularly when served with herbed crackers, veggie dips, shellfish and most fish dishes.</p>
<p>Did they specifically ask you to bring wine? If not maybe there is something you are more comfortable bringing. Often times I will bring a pound each of regular and decaf coffee from a local coffee shop as a hostess gift.
I know in my case I know little about wine. I have friends who drink cheap wine but also other friends who would say a $20 bottle of wine was a cheap wine. Depending on whose house I was going to I would or would not bring wine.
I have a funny story. A good female friend of mine is married to a man who loves good wine. He also in his work is often given gifts many times bottles of good expensive wine. His wife could care less. We were going to another female friends for a women’s night and she went in their wine cellar and grabbed two bottles. We got to the house and the friend who knew wine started laughing so hard. My girlfriend had grabbed 1 bottle of Charles Shaw (the famous 2 buck Chuck from Trader Joes) and the other bottle was a wine that was worth quite a bit more. One that her husband had been saving. We all had a good laugh.</p>
<p>I was beginning to think along the same lines as mom60 - unless you were asked to bring wine why not bring something else? Flowers or chocolates are other possibilities.</p>
<p>I agree with whoever it was that said returning invitations is even nicer than bringing something, but so many people bring something these days I tend to feel naked if I don’t.</p>
<p>Ha-ha-ha, what a contrast! I went to a local grocery store that is well known for their wine selection and asked if they had any Two-Buck-Chuck (I needed some cheap wine for cooking), and the wine steward got so offended “Well, excuse me, but we do not keep that kind of stuff around, we sell wine here!” and pointed me towards the shelf with some $4 bottles. It was surprisingly drinkable, and H and I ended up having the rest of the wine with the dish I cooked that night.</p>
<p>Mathmom, if my guests ask what they need to bring, my reply is ususally “Yourself, a smile and a good appetite, because I’m cooking a lot of yummies!”</p>
<p>I have a real mix of pricey, mid priced and downright cheap wines in my cellar (including 2 buck chuck, which costs 3 bucks here). Went to send a thank you gift to someone who had done something nice for me and grabbed a bottle from the cellar. I looked it up onthe web to read how it was drinking now, and found that it was selling for $250/bottle now!! I chose another bottle to send! Also, my h grabbed a bottle from the cellar to bring once to someone-- it was a 1982 Chateau Latour!! (wait, might have been a Lafite- I will have to check). Either way-- it was an anniversary gift from my parents many yrs ago-- a VERY nice bottle of wine. I snared it and put it back where it belonged!</p>
<p>Similar story here. We bought a really cheap wine(.99c) from Traders Joe, not Charles Shaw, for Chritmas dinner/gift for H’s BIL. My husband and I thougth what do you get for a guy who is kind of snoby. Sure enough, he turned his nose on the cheap wine, we did not tell him it was cheap. He brought out some expensive wine to show off. We ended up drinking better wine than we brought. It worked out in the end. :)</p>
<p>I love a good red wine. I have no problem with a pretty good one as well. I watch for the clock to turn 5 each evening before pouring myself of glass of one our favorites.
Try one of my everyday favorites:
La Crema Pinot Noir (about $18 at Sam’s club)
Edgewood Cabernet Savignon
Muirwood Pinot Noir
Stag’s Leap Petite Syrah
Coppola Claret (Cabernet)
I am not really into Merlot but we keep a bottle or two around for our less adventurous guests. Chateau St. Michelle is an ok merlot (for a merlot).</p>
<p>One year for my father’s b-day we decided to give him a wine-tasting as a gift. We bought three bottles- one two-buck chuck, one about $30 and one about $60, and then we did a blind test. He was the only one who chose the 2-buck chuck as his favorite. The funny part is that now, 5 years later, he believes that someone else chose it! I don’t know, maybe he drank too much of it or something.</p>
<p>And to the OP, I agree with the posters who had suggested that if you don’t drink yourself you don’t necessarily have to bring wine.</p>
<p>Hi andi!
There was actually a blind tasing done on one of the morning shows (Today show, I think) of reds and whites. The red that they all picked turned out to be the 2 buck chuck! Maybe they shouldnt be drinking wine at 7 in the morning?? Actually, a few of the earlier two buck chuck’s werent bad. If I remember correctly, Charles Shaw bought excess grapes from several pretty good CA vineyaerds and blended them himself. I some cases the results were pretty decent. I truid a Charles Shaw Chardonnay recently. Not too good. However, it was infinitely better than the medicinal- tasting Israeli Kosher stuff we sometimes try on the holidays.</p>
<p>doubleplay: you and I have the exact opposite type of headaches. Almost all California wines (red and white) give me a headache. Unfortunately most French and Italian Reds do too. I am usually OK with Spanish Rioja, Argentinian Malbec and Australian Shiraz. </p>
<p>One relativey inexpensive but excellent red wine is Tamari, an Argentinian Malbec. You can get it around $10-15, it tastes great.</p>
<p>But I agree with those who say it is better to bring no wine- best to simply bring a bouquet of flowers for the hostess, IMO.</p>
<p>Charles F. Shaw was a real person who had his own winery some years ago. Made some nice lighter red wines such as gamay. It went out of business and the label was bought by Fred Franzia (once of Franzia Bros.) who now owns quite a number of such labels under which an assortment of wines are made. The Shaw/Two Buck Chuck line is made for Trader Joes.</p>
<p>My personal preference in California wine is zinfandel. If you like a good medium-bodied one, the Baron Herzog (kosher) is quite good and the price ($10 or less) also is quite good. Otherwise, try a Rex Goliath pinot noir. In whites, Kenwood sauvignon blanc or a Washington state riesling or gewurtztraminer.</p>
<p>N.B., some people find gewurtztraminers and rieslings so sweet as so to be suitable for gargling and nothing else. Others find that only wines that sweet are drinkable. I’m in the former camp. And so it goes.</p>
<p>How about a dry, e.g, Alsatian-style, riesling?
I am partial to NY State rieslings, especially Dr. Frank’s.
<a href=“http://www.drfrankwines.com%5B/url%5D”>www.drfrankwines.com</a></p>
