Wine

Worth the hype, for the price(MSRP). Very well balanced. Big fruit, jam on the nose with a “refined” natty funk palate, if that makes sense. Nice, dry natty wine finish with moderate acidity. Tastes almost like a young, mass-produced wine from a large, established winery.

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A few months ago, I would not have answered this question. But I didn't choose the specialty booze retail life; the specialty booze retail life chose me. Oh wait. I did choose it.
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It seems counter intuitive, but over the past year or two, I've had a harder time finding beer on the shelf that I genuinely love to drink. I think it's a combination of me getting too picky about it, and being annoyed by the price points on the styles that I typically enjoy. And it doesn't help that there are so many bad breweries, enjoying the craft boom honeymoon, packaging stuff that should have never made it past QC.

I started buying a cheap red from TJ's every now and then, and now I've found myself drinking those more than beer when I'm at home. I like berry-forward pinots and blends, and have been enjoying a lot of their lineup... most of which has been like $5 or less... which is an added bonus.

Is this just blissful ignorance? Is my palate going to catch up with me? Am I going to turn into a wine snob? Will I go broke? Is my wife going to leave me? I thought flavor came from carbohydrates?
 
It seems counter intuitive, but over the past year or two, I've had a harder time finding beer on the shelf that I genuinely love to drink. I think it's a combination of me getting too picky about it, and being annoyed by the price points on the styles that I typically enjoy. And it doesn't help that there are so many bad breweries, enjoying the craft boom honeymoon, packaging stuff that should have never made it past QC.

I started buying a cheap red from TJ's every now and then, and now I've found myself drinking those more than beer when I'm at home. I like berry-forward pinots and blends, and have been enjoying a lot of their lineup... most of which has been like $5 or less... which is an added bonus.

Is this just blissful ignorance? Is my palate going to catch up with me? Am I going to turn into a wine snob? Will I go broke? Is my wife going to leave me? I thought flavor came from carbohydrates?

This was a large part of what drove me to drinking wines more frequently. I found that I was less critical of wines compared to beers and just enjoyed more of whatever I picked up at the store. I think this has a lot to do with the amount of underwhelming craft beers (even though there are also more excellent choices than ever before) on shelves. I also found some funkier natural wines had characteristics similar to those I enjoy in lambic and sour beers but were more easily available to me. Now I probably buy wine more frequently than beers but am pretty evenly split on what I might drink on any given day.
 
This was a large part of what drove me to drinking wines more frequently. I found that I was less critical of wines compared to beers and just enjoyed more of whatever I picked up at the store. I think this has a lot to do with the amount of underwhelming craft beers (even though there are also more excellent choices than ever before) on shelves. I also found some funkier natural wines had characteristics similar to those I enjoy in lambic and sour beers but were more easily available to me. Now I probably buy wine more frequently than beers but am pretty evenly split on what I might drink on any given day.

This is about the exact same thing for me. I also love to learn about things I’m drinking, so the rabbit hole of wine has been fun. Since you’re already into ‘craft’ I’d suspect you’d progress away from TJs stuff and you try other things. Wine doesn’t have to be expensive to be good though, there’s some much great stuff out there in the $20 a bottle range, you would have to ever spend more.
 
This is about the exact same thing for me. I also love to learn about things I’m drinking, so the rabbit hole of wine has been fun. Since you’re already into ‘craft’ I’d suspect you’d progress away from TJs stuff and you try other things. Wine doesn’t have to be expensive to be good though, there’s some much great stuff out there in the $20 a bottle range, you would have to ever spend more.

TJs in CT doesn’t stock wine :-/ but I’ve found some cool sub-$20 wines. I do tend to find that the consistency in quality of the wines I buy does take a noticeable step up around the $25 mark tho.
 
Funniest thing is I used to be into wine quite a bit and shifted my focus to local craft beer which then took me to international craft beer (US) where I discovered sours and then (EU) lambic. Lambic actually got me back into wine though now my focus is primarily "natural wine" versus classic wine. I find there is a lot of stuff at decent prices that will scratch my lambic itch without being too pricey but while also being way more available.
 
I'm in the same boat as most of you on this page, save the TJs wine because NJ also doesn't carry it. Like blckout20 and SpentBrain, what I drink on any given day is just dependent on my mood. My wine consumption went from 0 to 100 pretty fast though, as of course you can't really work in a specialty wine shop and keep deferring to the wine manager every time someone has a question. (Also I hate not knowing things or seeming like I don't know things. Many of you can confirm this. BravoDawg)

Another difference in some (not all) price points, aside from taste, is knowing the wines came from a specific region. The $14 Austrian Gruner is good, but not as refined as the $22 Gruner that specifically lists the Kremstal region as the source of its grapes. Think olive oil here.

I'm not really on the hip natural wine train. Biodynamic wines which receive minimal intervention/no fining/filtering/added sulfites, without the clear bottles and precious labels, are just as good as anything out there. But I do enjoy most of them, and I have brought a few to shares because of its similarities to lambic. My favorite is this one, and some of you know of my affinity for it due to its fun lime juice flavors and lava lamp sediment.

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I'm not really on the hip natural wine train. Biodynamic wines which receive minimal intervention/no fining/filtering/added sulfites, without the clear bottles and precious labels, are just as good as anything out there. But I do enjoy most of them, and I have brought a few to shares because of its similarities to lambic. My favorite is this one, and some of you know of my affinity for it due to its fun lime juice flavors and lava lamp sediment.


What do you mean by this? The labels and such make them hype?
 
But I do enjoy most of them, and I have brought a few to shares because of its similarities to lambic.

This is honestly what made me more hip to natty wine. I would keep seeing crossover on beer forums, Instagram, etc. I always drank “traditional” wine with my parents and friends at dinner, but I didn’t dig deep into the wine world. I also thought it was something that was super expensive and out of my league, but I find many good natural wines to be moderately priced. I started drinking them for aforementioned reasons, but I really like the idea of a natural grape expression and not fucking with the product to make it consistent. I also really like the commitment to organic/biodynamic practices and respecting the land. I’m drinking less beer, and I only buy natural wine. There’s so much cool stuff coming out, I don’t even want to mess with regular wine world lol. We have a couple good shops here, and I’m able to get some of the nicer producers offerings without much hassle. When Frank Cornelissen’s stuff dropped a few weeks ago, my guy let me buy 11 bottles no problem 😀 Smaller city perks.
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I went to Donkey & Goat about a year ago and did the tasting. Tasty offerings overall, but this is my favorite. It’s drinking great. The pet nat was enjoyable there, but I haven’t loved how the bottles have developed. Maybe it’s still going to take some more time for the sugars to die down, but it’s seemingly sweet, even more so than I remember fresh.
 
What do you mean by this? The labels and such make them hype?

What is considered "natural wine" has a certain aesthetic. If you look at a lot of them, they have artsy label styles and clear bottles. Even in this thread you can see it. Not applicable to all, and not necessarily hype, but there's definitely some common design, compared to what is viewed as "classic" wine.

It's not a bad thing, it's just something that I've noticed.
 
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