Wine Alerts and Wine Shops

Eslite opened a new wine shop on Anhe Road next to Jason’s. I give it a year max. No people around, Jason’s is like a ghost town most of the time.

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誠品酒窖(安和店)
No. 46號, Lane 81, Section 2, Dunhua South Road, Da’an District, Taipei City, 106
02 2755 2889
https://goo.gl/maps/3dqT28czBS32

Wine question: is there anything worth trying at the current Carrefour promotion?

At the moment Carrefour has a big promotion on wine (which happens every few months, I think). I know next to nothing about wine - I keep whites and reds on hand for cooking, and then enjoying drinking the rest of the bottle; my normal shopping practice is “Look for whatever currently costs $350-400, and has the biggest discount to get down to that price.”

So anyway, if any forumosans know more about wine, I’m interested in getting to know more about wine and generally educating my palate. Any tips on how to do this in Taiwan?

Can you actually drink in there as well?

Well, I’ve never seen anyone do that, but now you’ve got me wondering if I should wander around with a corkscrew and sample before purchasing.

I believe I’ve seen wine samples at Costco, but I don’t remember seeing them anywhere else. And even then it’ll just be one product that’s having a promotion.

They stock a rather nice French Riesling called Trimbach if that’s your bag.

Ah my bad, that reply was for @tango42!

Occasionally.

I’d better stock up!

Hmm. Well, part of my issue is that I don’t really know if Riesling is my bag, but I’ll keep it in mind - thanks.

What is your bag?

I walked by this the other day on my trip to Jason’s. It didn’t look like it was open quite yet. There are quite a few wine shops in Taiwan now so they’ll have to offer something unique or a great price. It looks like they have a few locations. http://www.eslitewine.com/Store/Store.aspx Looks well thought out to me.

Dunno, which I realize helps no one! I usually buy dry whites for cooking, and I enjoy drinking them. Or reds (almost always Cabernet Sauvignon I think), once again for cooking. I suppose I’m wondering if anyone has a “Beginner’s Guide to learning about wine available in Taiwan”, or if anything in that Carrefour sale strikes anyone as “Oh, good wine for a good price - try that!”

I do know that I will never, ever again buy white wine with a Chinese-language label from PX Mart, not even if I’m halfway through cooking a recipe and realize that I don’t have any white wine in the apartment, and PX Mart is the only place within quick walking distance.

I think I need a winery tour. Or maybe persuade some friends to have a wine party, so I can try more than one wine at a time. I guess that’d be cheaper than flying somewhere which has winery tours. Oh, I can start making plans to visit the Okanangan during next summer’s visit-the-family-in-Canada trip!

The rieslings come with varying levels of sweetness. Germans seem to drink a lot of sweeter riesling (that I also like); they’re also lower ABV because the natural yeast fermentation has been halted. I am not a fan of many wines above 13.5% ABV and this is another reason I like German riesling.

Not sure about the wines at Carrefour, but the ones at Costco are iffy. I think Costco carries a lot of plonk, red and white.

Years ago I used to pay like US$2/month for a Wine Spectator app on my phone. It seemed like a good way to learn about wine, but frankly I don’t think it’s of much use in Taiwan because a lot of wines just aren’t available here.

Wine at home with friends might be a good idea. In general, though, Taiwan probably isn’t the optimal place to drink wine.

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Eslite Wine in Taipei strikes me as being one of the most expensive wine shops in the city. More expensive than other Taipei wine shops and when comparing the sames wines in Hong Kong, literally double the price.

Having spent 2 weeks in Rhine/Mosel valleys (the heart of German riesling production), I got the sense that dry riesling is more popular in Germany itself. Sweet riesling is more popular outside Germany.

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A basic ability to interpret the label helps. You can find a lot of info online such as this

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Have you guys tried Il Mercato?They have a few locations that sell wine. They import from Italy and the prices are pretty good, considerably cheaper than other places for same quality.

Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay are a couple of my favorite white wines. From Marlborough area New Zealand. Prices range up to nt$4000 but Costco sometimes has offers close to nt$1000-1500. Try it.

This Charmer Sauv is on par with really good ones and for some reason on sale cheap at Jason’s. 2019 was also a good year for it. Dry with hint of fruit.

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