Which wine do we get?!?!
Answers: My husband is planning on buying a bottle of wine from a restaurant that we are going to on Saturday to celebrate Valentine's Day. We are going to take it home and have it there...my question is, what kind would you suggest? Neither one of us has had wine in our entire lives, and we have no idea of the difference or how to choose. Also, please mention how much your suggestion usually costs. Thanks!
I would definitely not get the wine from a restaurant. As was pointed out by another answerer, they charge way more than most wines are worth.
Don't worry about paring it with foods. You can drink any kind of wine with any kind of food. However, if you're having it with dessert, be sure to get a sweet wine, like Niagara (white) or Concord (red).
If you're just taking it home to enjoy, I'd go with a slightly drier wine, such as a Merlot blend (cherry or blackberry) or a Muscato. They're sweet without making your teeth hurt.
If the wine shop you go to will let you sample the wines, all the better for you. You can explain that you've never drunk wine before and would like to sample some. They should start you off with a slightly drier wine than you think you might like, and then work up to sweet. You'll find "the one" that's just perfect for you.
No one can really tell you what kind of wine to get. The ultimate choice is yours. Our tastes all vary, but the one thing I see in common is the Merlot choice and Chardonnay. Then again, I suspect we've been drinking wine a while. lol
I wouldn't pay much more than $10 to $15 for a bottle of wine. If you pay much more than that, you're just buying a fancy label. The absolute most I've ever paid for a bottle of wine is $16, and that was at a wine and jazz festival.
Once you develop your taste for wine, you could look up local wineries, and make a weekend of visiting them. Be sure to ask questions about the wines, the grapes used and suggestions they'd have for food parings. Vintners love to talk about their wines. Plus, you'll be able to choose your favorite winery, and can go back often. Do it often enough, you'll be treated like family. lol (One I go to, the vintner and his wife confuse me with my older sister.)
Good luck, and have fun.
.................I would personally buy a red wine.... It will make you real mellow.......... and it will make it happen for you ....???? if you only believe.............Go for it...
Well that would depend a lot on what you are eating and how much you want to spend. Not to mention that no one has every wine.
Many restaurants have suggestions on the menu, and if not the waiter or wine steward can help out.
Added: DON'T buy a bottle just to take home. It's like three times more expensive there than at the store. Go buy a bottle and leave it home for when you get back if you want it for later.
i refuse to buy wine from restaurants. the cost is way too high, and i don't believe in this "the more aged it is the better" crap. i read in one of my wine magazines in an interview from random wine aficianado number 249823792 that it's actually quite ridiculous, and rather pretentious to pay over 20 dollars for a bottle of wine (some people may differ with me on that opinion - as i'm only an average, not professional wine taster..... but i totally agree with the man - it all tastes the same to me once you hit the 20 dollar mark) - but you won't see those kind of prices at a restaurant - more like 40+ depending on the kind and the place you're buying it from.
my favorite is cabernet sauvignon. many of my friends recommend reisling - i, however, think its too dry. but i don't like overly dry wines. if you're new to wine, i suggest starting with white zinfandel - its the easiest starter wine in my book....its sweeter and not so much subject to the "acquired taste" category wine can often be in.
Why on earth would you buy wine from a restaurant? They jack-up the price 100% and have a limited selection. Go to a wine store for cryin out loud. Get a red zin from Lodi that is in your price range.
That will put some pep in your step!
I wouldn't buy it from a resteraunt either. Since you don't have gobs of money like you said. I would go to Wine & Spirits store and seek some help there. If it's a good store then they will have some information for you there.
It actually depends on what you're going to have to eat. The wine is supposed to match the food. There's different foods and tastes to go with red wine, white wine, champagne, etc.
Paul Laurent Brut, a champagne, is really nice. It's really "energetic" and full of flavor, with a nice finish. It's also really cheap, running at about $26 per bottle.
A nice chardonnay goes great with heavier foods. It's a white wine, and it's price varies, depending on which chardonnay you get. They are really cheap, running less than $20 per bottle.
Dom Perignon is a champagne, to drink for relaxation and light fun. It's prices run higher, at least$100.
An excellent dessert wine is Domaine Pinnacle Ice Apple Wine, very smooth and well balanced, this one is really nice. It's a good price at around $30 a bottle.
The 1999 Cuvée sparkling wine is 70% Pinot Noir. It's crisp, and the 30& chardonnay makes is rich and complex. It may be hard to find, it's a good price at about $30
Don't buy a bottle of wine at a restaurant and bring it home to drink. Restaurants have extremely high markups on wine. You'll pay twenty bucks for an eight dollar bottle of wine.
Go to a liquor store or a grocery store with a decent selection. You can usually find a fairly good bottle there. If you've never tasted wine before you might not like it, so don't spend a whole bunch of money. Try buying a bottle that costs ten to twelve bucks at first- I'd consider about 8 bucks for a decent, drinkable dinner wine at home during the week, ten or twelve for a nicer dinner or if I were bringing it over to to someone else's house, and a bit more if I was going to serve it to guests or if it was a birthday or something. For an anniversary I might spend twenty or twenty-five bucks.
Try a Merlot (red) or a chardonnay (white). Autralian wines are good, reasonably priced, and easy to find. California wines are often overpriced.
You might not like the taste at first, so don't spend a bunch of money sight unseen. You could try a lambrusco- it's a fruity, slight;y fizzy red wine. It's like fermented grape juice. It's wine for people who don't like wine. The same goes for blush wines like white zinfandel. It's a party wine for people who don't generally drink wine. Most wine lovers won't drink it, but if you don't have a taste for wine you might prefer it.
Good luck.
Don't make it a pressue issue, the odds are not in your favor of finding something that is really going to make the moment great.
Just buy a cheap bottle of sparkling wine. If what you choose sucks, you can always pour it all over each other! What could be better than that!
If you can find a sparkling wine named: 1+1=3 Cava it's cheap and really great!
Then, next week go to a good wine tasting and have even more fun!