Aw, come ON! I want to know.
sandman wrote:
Must agree on this one. Tried it a while back and was very unappealing.
Thanks for the extensive report sandman. I’m a pinot fan (long before “Sideways”) so I’ll give this one a go next time I’m in there.
TainanCowboy wrote:
In recent years me too but it is still a fun event to join if you are not looking for too much.
I highly agree. In recent years I have become a big fan of Chilean Cabs. One of the new boxed wines is such which made me wonder if it isn’t worth a try.
sandman wrote:
[quote]rice_t wrote:
RT market is the place to go right now for inexpensive French wine. I walked into the Neihu store for a completely different reason on Friday and ended up buying 20 bottles. I won’t tell you which my favourites are though.
Aw, come ON! I want to know.[/quote]
Me too, come on they won’t sell out.
[quote=“Interlocutor”]
My current kick for the last year or so has been on Cabernet Sauvignons from Chile. Costco now has one that has become my everyday wine as I find it to be a good bargain for the price, roughly NT$270 a bottle: Gracia De Chile Cabernet Sauvignon Carmenere Seleccion Limitada 2004 (don?t confuse it with the Reserva? of the same label at a slightly lower price, I didn?t think much of that one.) .[/quote]
yeah, that’s been my regular wine as well, like it a lot. $235 i believe, can’t beat that. like you, i haven’t liked most of their other reds i tried. at $209 their sauvignon blanc is hard to beat though.
have to head over to rt mart. where on bade?
Bade and Fuxing (north/south (?) road). From the intersection of Bade and Fuxing, head toward Jianguo. You’ll see a large new building on your left, and RT Mart will be in the basement.
Or you can reach RTMart from Civic Blvd. (Shi Min Da Dao), between Jianguo and Fuxing (but closer to Fuxing).
Looks like I’ll be heading to RTMart before the weekend (hope this sale lasts til then).
Any other recommendations for must-have wines that I should pick up?
when u guys buy wine to stock up your cellar, how many do you normally buy at a time? 1 case? 3 cases?
Speaking of marques, I recommend you give a try to:
PALMIRA , D.O. Maule Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.(Chilean) Look for the Estate Bottled. If you can find any 2003 or 2004 mores the better. They are hard to find now and the 2005 hit the market about 4 months ago. Its good now and will get better.
I get it for NT$250 - 270 a bottle and it is a great table red.
They also have a very good Chardonnay you might try.
Chateau Barat is a very nice Bordeaux. Also a 2002 Cahors. RTMart. I’ll be having a case or two.
thanks for posting about rt, felt like my wife at the cut-rate clothes bin picking out bottles today.
working through them, i liked the pierre chanau crozes hermitage best so far. may go back for a few more of that one.
I’ve been exploring some of the sweet dessert wines, such as Sauternes from France and some of the sweet German whites that smell the glove has introduced me to recently (he has taught me about the “noble rot”). Today I went to the Costco in Zhonghe and we looked to see whether they had any sweet wines. They were pushing Casa Brina Moscato d’Asti for just NT$ 399. We bought a bottle and tonight picked up some Tiramisu from the italian job and had a wonderful dessert at home. Here is some info re this type of wine:
[quote][url=http://www.stratsplace.com/rogov/moscato_dasti.html]No one will ever accuse Italy’s Moscato d’Asti of being sophisticated. Fair enough, however, for this is not a wine meant to be sipped, reflected and discussed. On the contrary, this frizzante (lightly sparkling) wine is meant to be consumed, almost as well chilled as you would Champagne, in large mouthfulls. What the heck, this is a wine so simple that if it strikes your fancy do as the Italians do and add ice cubes to the glass. In a phrase, Moscato d’Asti is a wine intended for pure and simple pleasure. but as Groucho Marx once observed (albeit with regard to a completely different subject), at their best, these wines are “worth their weight in smiling gold”.
Made in the Piedmont region from Moscato Bianco (the grapes the French refer to as Muscat Blanc a Petits Grains), these wines are always low in alcohol (5.5% maximum), remarkably fruity and fragrant and just sweet enough that some consider them a lovely wine as either an aperitif or a dessert wine. Delicate, light on the palate and with just the hint of musky aromas, some (including this writer) even consider Moscato d’Asti as the perfect wine with breakfast.[/url][/quote]
This bottle was 4.5% abv. For my money, it was delicious. Went very well with the Tiramisu from the italian job!
you could do worse than the french cellars beaujolais at welcome for $199.
Suggest you try a bottle of Beaumes de Venise, if you haven’t already. Some of the best that I have come across come from the Vaucluse area of France and are a delight to the palate.
Also, for those interested, The Wine Society on YenJi St. will soon shut it’s doors. A great loss, as they carried a great variety of hard to find bottles. The upside is that most of their inventory is significantly marked down for clearance.
Yellow Tail Cab Sav and Shiraz at RT Mart in Tainan for 259ntd. Not too shabby.
Last week I picked up a bottle of Eroica, vintage 2005, at Costco. I haven’t been that impressed with the few American Rieslings I’ve had, but I had to try this one - it’s a partnership that started in 1999 between Chateau Ste. Michelle (Washington state’s largest and oldest winery) and Dr. Loosen (well known Mosel winemaker) using Columbia Valley grapes. As far as I can tell, the grapes are not late-harvest, so it’s similar in style to a German Riesling Kabinett. At NT$765 a bottle it’s not exactly daily fare, but interestingly it costs a bit less here than in America (US$24.99 = NT$822). Must be a Costco thing – they are now the top wine retailer in the United States.
Anyway, my take on the 2005 Eroica: fucking outstanding.
one of the ones i got from rt was nice in this vein, chateau laurette 2003 ste croix du mont.
RT Mart has a sale on Chilean reds at the moment at an outstanding price. Merlots and Cavernet Sauvignons (and something else I can’t remember). The maker is Agustinos. The normal price for this line is already very good at NT$199 but is now selling at NT$179. I picked up a case of Cavernet Sauvignons yesterday (I hope it was not the last day of the sale). If you are a fan of Chilean reds, as I am, this price is a real bargain for a very drinkable cab.
I’ve probably gone through 4 cases of this wine in about 6 months and I find it to be my favorite choice in wine.
Ventisquero Gran Reserva Merlot 2003 from the Maipo Valley.
PM if you can’t find it.