Sunday, July 5, 2009

"I only drink white wines"


Recently I met a friend at a wine bar on the upper eastside. I ordered a 2004
 Rioja from a producer I was not familiar with, but thought since it was a 
good vintage and it had some age on it I might like it. My friend ordered a 
New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. In our discussion I was a little surprised 
that my friend did not like red wine. I know it is common, but I guess I 
never noticed or talked about her dislike for red wine.I started to ask 
questions and realized it was not a dislike of red wine it was the fact 
that she had only tried one red wine she liked. I think she had the same
 problem as a lot of other people- they are afraid to try red wines because 
they have had bad experiences. Well I have tried a lot of bad wines over 
the years and I continue to search for ones that I like.  As I explained to 
my friend she should start out with a lighter red such as a pinot noir. 
The selection was limited to a California Pinot Noir or a Red Burgundy 
(not from a great producer), so we went for the California Pinot. 
It was a good choice, since we proceeded to taste our way up to an 
Australian Shiraz. It was supple, ripe with cherry and blackberry 
flavors ending with some spice. To her surprise she liked almost 
all the wines we tasted.
 The moral of the story is if you think you only like white wine “give red a chance”. 

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