Cute post, Dezel. I fixed that graphic for you and put this as the featured post on the homepage.

I can’t say that similar things haven’t happened to me before. In my opinion, you were actually being pretty specific. It’s scary what you can get if you ask someone to bring just a “nice” bottle of wine.

Of course it’s all relative. I’ve had some great wines under $10 and some crappy ones above $50.

But this just goes to show that people don’t have an easy, obvious way to pick a “good” wine from a bad one. Sometimes the wine shop personnel are helpful, but often they just pimp the same old stuff poster-ed to the wall. Sometimes you can’t even get help finding the type or region of wine you want. I remember once asking for “a good wine to make sangria with” and being directed to some pre-mixed stuff.

Now I tell people to use WineLog to find a wine. It’s not perfect, because you never know what the availability of a wine is, but does pretty well if you note at least 5 options and go to a fairly large store. Best of all, people just need to look at my Wish List to find something that I would at least enjoy.

And as interstate shipping laws and other aspects of online ordering work themselves out, people will know right away if a wine is available and be able to order and over-night it online. As it works now, it’s pretty hit or miss online or at the store.

It’s hard to believe that a Pinot Noir connoisseur would make such a mistake! Do you really think he was serious about his Burgundy wine find?

Hello All,

Nice points Jason, Thanks!

Kim, that is how things really happened and I think he was scared to ask about things he did not know. I ‘m new to wine also, but it’s my hobby, so I research and taste quite a bit. I used to read more or listen to wine podcast, but for me it has been beneficial to taste globally, as well as visit some of the local vineyards and talk to the people making the wine. Reading and the blog has really propelled things also.

This guy caught the Pinot bug from watching Sideways, and I’m sure many people did. SO since the movie he has been sipping on Pinot. When he went to the store he says, he asked for Burgundy, and the salesperson gave him what he asked for and at a good price (lol). Perhaps the person in the store lacked a little experience to?

I have dealt with people in wine stores and tasting room telling me some really off stuff, and once again its because they might not know and do not want to look silly. I feel there are no dumb questions; you have to ask, read, taste and learn if you want to get into this.

Over a year ago I thought Chablis and Hermitage were people names: )

Have a great weekend.

Dezel

My sister likes pinot noir. Probably partly because of the movie but I have to give her credit that it’s due in part that she just likes it. She normally drinks the Cal/Oregon/NZ stuff which are ok, some can have decent spice and complexity once you get past the Grape kool aid on the front palate.
So I thought I’d give her a nudge up the scale and give a bottle of “pinot Noir” for her birthday. A Gevrey-Chambertain Grand Cru. I made the mistake of telling her how special it is and now she won’t drink it. So it sits at her house probably leaning toward the perjorative by the day since she does not have anywhere proper to store it. I’ll have to encourage her to bring it over to my place for my Cinco de Mayo wine tasting party, a ‘95 -’96 Bordeaux horizontal- vertical. An oddly appropriate event since it was the French forces of Napoleon III who were defeated by the Mexicans for which Cinco de Mayo is celebrated. Seven years earlier Napoleon III urged the institution of the 1855 Bordeaux classification system for left bank wines which is still widely recognised today.