French wine or California wine?

California wine is the shit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgment_of_Paris_(wine)

Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. And I will give an additional, personal recommendation for the Ridge wines. Fucking awesome.

Where do they make Manishevitz?

I live in Oregon and the Oregon and Washington wines are outlandishly expensive here. I have yet to open a bottle that I have not had to pour down the drain.

Look for a lot of interesting wines to come out of KY and IN in the next decade. Prior to Prohibition, Kentucky was the 3rd largest grape growing region in the country. I was reading that the state is encouraging farmers to switch from tobacco to grapes.

California makes some great wines but there is a tendency to over-oak and to focus on trends. I’m lucky enough to live five minutes from wine country in inland SoCal and there are a couple local wineries doing some very nice stuff, Mount Palomar in particular.

My tastes personally run to French red wines most of the time, they tend to be a little more nuanced and subtle.

IMHO, a good wine is a good wine, I don’t care where it came from. You should just find a grape you like and go from there.

Oh, and see the film Bottle Shock. It addresses this issue pretty well.

That is fantastic. I have to see that movie! Thanks.

@swfpdx Before you pour a bottle of King Estate Pinot Noir down the drain, let me know. I’ll take it off your hands. I live in Oregon and featured Oregon and Washington wines in my restaurant. I personally think the Northwest wines, especially Pinots can hold their heads up anywhere.

Perhaps I haven’t stumbled across the right ones?

I like a lot of wines from Oregon and Washington. I also like a lot of the Australian reds. And I’ve enjoyed some reds from Chile. You can get some really good wines from a lot of places all over, and you can get some crap from a lot of places.

French white, California red. White with chicken and fish; red with red meat. Spanish reds are very good and not as expensive as Italian reds. But the best whites are the french and the best reds are Italian. There is not cheating on them.

Having lived in NZ and now in Western Australia check out these in your local bottle shop.
Wine from Houghtons in WA is great and priced well. Anything from the Margaret River area of WA.
And try some Cloudy Bay wine from NZ.
cheers

Thanks, I will do that. I guess I should have mentioned that I do not drink white wine at all. I much prefer reds.