Share your wine quirks...

[Steve Kirsch]

OK, quirks, not simply preferences. Many of these have already been mentioned.

I love Riesling, but I have no affection for Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin. Almost every red we drink gets a little time in the refrigerator, and we dislike ice-cold whites. Can't stand sediment in my wine glass, so I decant to avoid it. I have no problem drinking simple wine from a tumbler.

I am horrified when someone removes a cork without trimming or removing the capsule. That's how $5 chardonnay is opened in roadhouse bars. I have a friend who does it with fine wines--ack!

My f-i-l will tip back his head and drink the last couple of ounces of (my good) wine glug-glug-glug as if it's beer or Coke. Makes me shudder.

[Tom Troiano]

When cutting the capsule never spin the bottle.

I save the corks for no good reason and then throw out a bunch when I get sick of them.

Despite being 100% convinced that port tongs are the way to go for older pot I remain afraid to use them. This is going to be huge problem in 2013 when I turn 50.

[Brian K Miller]

I always tear the capsule off of a wine bottle rather than cut the top off.

Me too. And is it a quirk to feel so upset about Robin's attitude towards Riesling?

I like to tear myself.

[Steve Kirsch]

I like to tear myself.

That's different from being a cutter, right?

[Andrew Bair]

I also tear capsules, or simply pull them off if they are loose enough.

Aside from nobly sweet wines, I have a hard time getting into Gewurz. Madiran is another wine that does nothing for me. On the other hand, I like deliberately oxidative wines.

As for a real quirk, I have had more Cserszegi Fűszeres than Pomerol.

[Bill Spohn]

I like all sorts of wines and in fact find it interesting that some people find they just don't like some of the ones I like at all.

I dislike people that feel that they have to tout mediocre varietals. I've had decent wines from hybrid grapes, Pinotage, Vidal, Carignane, and dozens of other odd varietals, but I have no trouble discerning between decent wine and very good wine, which IMHO none of these minor varietals ever, or almost never produce. Yet many people seem to feel that they have to be apologists for a wine that is 'just decent'. Heck, a just decent wine is a thing to be sought out, but I have no need to praise it to the heavens as if it were the next Lafite (Carmenere likers please note).

I also deplore people that taste corked wine and then try and apologize for it - "Gee, it has good fruit...." If a wine is corked, you can't assess it at all - it is spoiled and no matter what amount of fruit it may have remaining, that doesn't allow you to say anything about what the wine might have been if it hadn't been tainted. Maybe I just dislike people that can't assess wines objectively. Crap is crap - tell it like it is.

I dislike people that quote Parker (or Speculator) scores as evidence that a wine they brought is worthy. I don't care what a dozen critics may have felt about a wine (maybe as much as 20 years before) - all that matters is what the group thinks of it that day when you taste it.

Aside from wanting objectivity in wine tasting, I like good glassware, but I'll drink good wine out a water tumbler if that's the only option.

[Jim Cassidy]

I almost never drink other than with food.

[Tom Troiano]

I almost never drink other than with food.

if you include the words "or while preparing food" I'm with you 100%!

[Jeff B]

Peanuts are my main "food" to pair with champagne.

I don't find that to be a quirk per se, as they seem like natural partners to me, but perhaps it is...

Jeff

[JC (NC)]

Along with Jonathan K I like a lot of reds a bit chilled--Pinot Noir, Beaujolais, sometimes Tempranillo.

[Salil]

Oh, plenty of quirks here. Some that go beyond quirkiness into full blown insanity, I'd reckon.

I believe Cabernet Franc in the right soils and hands (Clos Rougeard and Baudry) can make wine every bit as profound and ageable as many of the best Bordeaux out there. And I do wish there was more of it in Bordeaux, though I notice I tend to really like some of the right bankers who have larger Cab Franc plantings - Lafleur and Conseillante among others.

I don't see this as a quirk, but I hate using Champagne flutes. I would much rather drink a good Champagne from a proper wine glass, and for something as layered and aromatic as a Taittinger CdC, Ledru or Chartogne-Taillet Fiacre can be, I prefer using wider Burgundy stems to really give the wines air.

I'm mildly obsessed with ungrafted vines. I love the light, finessed, almost pillowy texture that so many of the better Franc de Pied wines out there have - particularly Baudry and Breton's FDPs, the old Schmitt-Wagner Auslese or Tarlant's Vigne d'Antan Champagne.
I'm also obsessed (perhaps more so) with old Northern Rhones made with the Serine clone rather than modern inferior Syrah clones that don't (for my tastes) show the same textural refinement or aromatic complexity and brightness. Give me a bottle of Levet Chavaroche or one of Eric Texier's Vieille Serine bottlings from Brezeme or St. Julien en St. Alban over most Hermitage or other Cote-Rotie these days.

This may be taken as insanity certain places on the web, but Dönnhoff ages pretty damn well.

I love Jura reds, and think they're some of the most refreshing, transparent and delicate reds out there. I'd much rather buy a good Jura Pinot from someone like Puffeney or Bindernagel rather than a lot of cheaper village Burgundy these days.

To the Sauvignon Blanc haters, btw: Vatan!

[Bill Spohn]

Oh, plenty of quirks here. Some that go beyond quirkiness into full blown insanity, I'd reckon.

I believe Cabernet Franc in the right soils and hands (Clos Rougeard and Baudry) can make wine every bit as profound and ageable as many of the best Bordeaux out there. And I do wish there was more of it in Bordeaux, though I notice I tend to really like some of the right bankers who have larger Cab Franc plantings - Lafleur and Conseillante among others.

Salil,. I share both of those with you to some degree! The quirkiness and the appreciation for CF. A lot of my friends appear to be bothered by much green at all in a wine, and mistake the character as being a flaw rather than a virtue. Not all CF is always all that green, but having some in a wine doesn't put me off much at all, and the other herbal/spice components that it adds are admirable as well. And for ageability, some of the Loire CF NEEDS long maturing times!

I think that the problem with Loire reds is that they don't conform to the Speculator/RP Californian big fruit idiom of what is GOOD in a cab based wine. Which is fine with me as it leaves more CF for those who do appreciate it. The weedy reputation of CF in the popular press is a combination of not matching that Calcab idiom, and poor vintages and/or winemaking, but when the Loire gets it right....

BTW, I'd add Raffault and Breton to your list of reliable houses.

[Salil]

I'm with you on Raffault and Breton for quality and ageability. I've had two tremendous bottles of '85 Breton Perrieres in the past, and recently '85 Raffault Les Picasses that were every bit as good as a lot of top growth Bordeaux of the same age range. I find Raffault slightly more inconsistent as I've had some rather bretty wines from them every now and then, but in general they're right up there for top CF when the wines are clean. Coulaine in Chinon has also been making some great wines lately. Though the Loire section in my cellar's very heavily weighted towards Baudry and Rougeard.

As for the greenness; the best producers' wines never are shrill or weedy or whatever other adjectives RP will find - I've found them more evocative of something more fresh and herbal/forestal, and as you say it certainly adds a lovely complexity to the wines particularly with age.

Though not a bad thing for us to be in the minority when Raffault Picasses and Baudry Grezeaux still sell in the mid $20s...

[Fredrik L]

If a wine is corked, you can't assess it at all - it is spoiled and no matter what amount of fruit it may have remaining, that doesn't allow you to say anything about what the wine might have been if it hadn't been tainted.

Quite simply not true. I recognized a 96 DRC Richebourg in a blind tasting in spite of the fact that I had only had a corked bottle earlier. The same thing happened with Bonneau´s 98 Celestins, although I had had two corked bottles of that one. Sometimes one can indeed find the truth by comparing the lies.

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L

[Bill Spohn]

Quite simply not true. I recognized a 96 DRC Richebourg in a blind tasting in spite of the fact that I had only had a corked bottle earlier. The same thing happened with Bonneau´s 98 Celestins, although I had had two corked bottles of that one. Sometimes one can indeed find the truth by comparing the lies.

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L

I didn't say whether or not you might recognize a wine, I said that there was no point in trying to assess it. You can't say what quality it might have been if not corked.

[Robert Helms]

Joining this thread a bit on the late side...

My biggest quirk is that I have drifted away from Bordeaux almost completely. Several years ago, I realized that our consumption of Bordeaux had dropped below a case a year and, therefore, it made no real sense to maintain a stock of wines that we would probably never drink. So I sold most of my Bordeaux. What a mistake! Today, those wines have mostly doubled or more.

Anyway, on reds, we like most other good reds with few exceptions although we mostly drink Rhone, Burgundy and Italian with the odd California and Oz thrown in.

Whites: like others, I have never been a fan of cat piss Sauvignon Blanc. I am also not big on Gruner Veltliner and high oak, New World (mostly fairly cheap) Chardonnays do not rock my boat. I like white Burgundy, a lot of the better Italian whites, selected whites from the US, Oz and NZ, Austrian and Alsatian Rieslings and quite a lot of other things.

As to glasses, we use Reidel Vinum water glasses for almost every wine unless we are being fancy.

Regards,

Robert

[Steve Slatcher]

Quite simply not true. I recognized a 96 DRC Richebourg in a blind tasting in spite of the fact that I had only had a corked bottle earlier. The same thing happened with Bonneau´s 98 Celestins, although I had had two corked bottles of that one. Sometimes one can indeed find the truth by comparing the lies.

I didn't say whether or not you might recognize a wine, I said that there was no point in trying to assess it. You can't say what quality it might have been if not corked.

Corked or not, recognising a wine and vintage after exposure to only one or two other bottle is impressive. Give most people a taste from two different bottles of a mature wine, and I bet they will find differences and assume they are different wines.