Giorgia_G

Hell all,

Thrilled to be part of this forum. I was looking on the browser for an easy non binding course to learn wine tasting and food and wine matchings. I live in London but I don't have a lot of time to attend courses. I heard speaking about wine boxes delivered at home with their tasting cars. Have you ever tried them? Is the wine good quality? Do you have other suggestions?

Thanks guys

Giorgia

sparkchaser

Why not just go to your local wine shop?

bilboburgler

There are a bunch of cheap and nasty delivered wine companies out there. There are also some "banker" type wine tasting companies who only offer over priced rubbish. If you do decide to chose delivered wines look at the Wine Society. Stay above the £10 a bottle price and you will find good wines. They offer meals, tastings and large tastings in London and around. You need to join the society (a one off fee which is about £50)

Good Luck and come back if you want more help

Bilbo (Diploma WSET)

StCirq

I agree about going to your local wine store - they are always more than happy to help you. But more to the point, use your own tastebuds. Cribbing off what works for experts isn't going to help you in the long run.

sueciv

Just sort of a rule of thumb...if you are eating a particular cuisine...drink the wine that that cuisine inspired. I had some really nice dry white Chinese wine once!

But I pretty much don't bother with the white wine with fish or chicken...or only reds with red meat. That, I think, is truly outdated.

One win expect I paid to see summed it up for me very nicely. Drink what you like with what you like to eat.
That lesson, sponsored by one of my town's best wine shops, was a $175 lesson.

bilboburgler

But I pretty much don't bother with the white wine with fish or chicken...or only reds with red meat. That, I think, is truly outdated.

We were in the Vosges and ordered a very pale Pinot Noir to go with some trout. The whole restaurant went silent, the MD stalked to the kitchen and shouted "the crazy Brits want PN with fish, can they?" Chef came to the door and looked at us... and noded. Whole room came back to life.

The rule lives on...

bluestar

Do you ever read Fiona Beckett's wine articles in The Guardian?
( http://www.theguardian.com/profile/fionabeckett )

One of her blogs, called matching food & wine, should help you out.
http://www.matchingfoodandwine.com/n...rings/tag/top/

For the basics of wine tasting you should watch these videos.
http://www.bbr.com/wine-knowledge/virtualwineschool

dwdvagamundo

Bilbo--we drink Pinot Noir with many kinds of fish--trout, salmon, swordfish. No one ever gives us a second look. With sole, though, I don't think so. We drink reds about 90% of the time, however.

Giorgia--as you're interested in food/wine combinations, one way to approach this would be to go to a good but not terribly expensive restaurant with a good but not terribly expensive wine list (and a small notebook). Order the dish you like best, then trust your server to recommend a wine to go with it. Even though wine by the glass is quite expensive, I'd start with a glass as it gives you more flexibility. Bring a notebook to write down the combinations you like.

The number one rule is that the best wines are those you like the best, regardless of what anyone else thinks (See Bilbo's comment above). If you find something particularly good, note the winery, variety and year then see if you can pick up a bottle at a wine shop where the price will be at least half of what you'd pay in the restaurant.

Repeat until you've got a pretty good catalog of combinations, and you'll have your course more or less for free.

I never thought of having wine delivered to my home and probably would never do so.

Cheers!

Hans

My experience is that it helps if the people in the wine shop know your taste, i.e. try to find a good one and then stay with it so that they know you as a regular and learn about your taste.

If professionals know what you like, my experience is that their recommendations for wines are nearly always okay and 80% of the recommendations are really good.

Hans

The wine shops often also supply restaurants, so they very well know about matching the right wine to a menu.

If you provide them feedback about your experience with a wine, they are very happy to help you to find the optimum, especially if you show a willingness to experiment a little.

Christina

There is a reason for the concept of white wines with seafood and red with beef, and it isn't outdated. A Pinot Noir with a strong fish like Salmon is fine, but there are limits, and a white wine with a steak would be mine, or a very heavy fruity red with filet of sole would be another.

bilboburgler

But I pretty much don't bother with the white wine with fish or chicken...or only reds with red meat. That, I think, is truly outdated.

No I don't think it is outdated, and while I understand generation Y think everything is down to their opinion, I think there are too many mistakes made this way. For instance the Chinese way of mixing Coke with Bordeaux just does not work.

I'd not normally drink PN with salmon, but this was a very light Alsace PN and so acceptable. Still I was in a Mich 1 star recently who would not allow me order a Sauvignon St Bris after a Chablis. Not because the wines would not go with the food but because the wine sequence was wrong.