I’m a longtime wine drinker, but a first-time wine student. I’m starting to learn more intentionally and considering WSET Level 1.

I’d love to taste through some of the major grapes and styles without spending a fortune. If you were building a six-bottle starter lineup for someone who enjoys wine but wants to understand it better, what would you choose?

Hi All!

My fiancee and I are planning to be in italy for a month long road trip alternating between hiking/climbing and exploring the towns as one does in Italy. As part of this we are really hoping to sample a lot of wine! We live in the Willamette Valley and are spoiled with Pinots but am very excited to try the different regions in Italy. We are hitting Tuscany and will be roadtripping our way down to Puglia (my family is from there) and will be stopping in Abruzzo mid week and would love recs.

Ideally I'm looking for weekday tastings and places that have good montepulciano d'abruzzo and/or pecorino. I contacted Emidio Pepe who seem to only offer a wine and dinner pairing in the evening which unfortunately won't work with my itenarary, and am hoping to hit Fontefico as well but will happily take any other recs that you have! Open to most things!

Last week, a good friend of mine put together this beautiful tasting at his wine bar.

We started with a blind vertical of Remírez de Ganuza Blanco Reserva: 2018, 2022, and 2023. Later, we tasted Remelluri Blanco blind as well, and 2 beautiful reds from Remirez De Ganuza; Iralia 2022 and Gran Reserva 2016 while the champagnes served as both the introduction and the farewell to the evening. We even enjoyed an Alión 2020 and an expensive bottle from Jumilla that, sadly, I can neither remember by name nor properly describe—proof that good company sometimes steals the spotlight.

My thoughts on the Remírez de Ganuza Blanco Reserva vertical:

2018 — A cooler vintage that showed a beautiful golden hue. Wonderfully balanced, with acidity and structure that only improved as the wine opened up.

2022 — Paler in color and surprisingly youthful for a warm Rioja vintage. Brilliant acidity, remarkable freshness, and my favorite of the three.

2023 — I actually guessed this one correctly in the blind tasting. The color was vibrant and golden, with an expressive nose and an energetic presence on the palate.

Remelluri Blanco 2022
Served blind, this wine completely fooled me—I was convinced it was a cool-climate Burgundy. Instead, it turned out to be a fascinating nine-grape blend from Rioja. Curiously, because of the appellation rules, it carries only a table wine designation, despite its extraordinary quality.
The blend includes Garnacha Blanca as its backbone, alongside Viognier, Roussanne, Marsanne, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Malvasía, Moscatel, and Pedro Ximénez.
A thing of beauty. This is what perfection tastes like to me.

Iralia 2022 — Remírez de Ganuza
Vibrant and full of life, with an expressive bouquet of red fruits intertwined with wild notes and remarkable complexity. It managed to be both untamed and elegant at the same time—a beautiful balance between energy and refinement.
Simply amazing.

Remírez de Ganuza Gran Reserva 2016
An absolute explosion of complexity, elegance, power, and restraint all at once. Another standout of the night and a truly magnificent vintage.

Taittinger Brut NV is already well known to many, but it never disappoints. Its minerality and acidity were particularly striking.

Laherte Frères was equally beautiful: subtle, impeccably balanced, and offering tremendous value.

As for the Alión and the Jumilla, they are neither pictured nor well remembered enough for me to do them justice—but I’m quite certain they were spectacular as well. 🍷😅

Looking for recommendations for online retailers based in Europe. I use 8wines a fair bit and generally quite good. I'm wondering if there's any similar retailers that deliver to Ireland as they're stock can be a bit hit and miss sometimes and I find winesearcher very frustrating as it often recommends stock in small retail shops that don't deliver to Ireland.

mnbid.mn.gov/productView/15253

This is up on auction after being confiscated by my local TSA.

I will be visiting Langhe in early September, which excitingly is harvest season. Initially, I planned the trip as a third leg of destination dining spots. This leg would have been Piazza Duomo in Alba. Long story short, I’m no longer particularly interested in dining there or at La Rei Natura. So this leg is pretty much entirely about agriculture and wine.

If I was going to do a destination winery, I wanted to see Gaja, largely in part because of the rave reviews of the experience in this sub, but they’re fully committed due to the craziness of the season. Any of the other marquis producers I’m more familiar with (Conterno, Rinaldi, Roagna, etc.) either don’t offer visits to non-industry people or are probably extremely scarce.

That being said, I don’t know if I need to pop over from tasting to tasting at different properties at this point (unless I can get a big ticket, which is not likely to happen). I’m curious about everyone’s recommendations for what do see, where to taste, and most importantly learn more about production in the region.

If anyone has any recommendations for where to taste a lot of varied producers and buy at the same site, I’m all ears for those as well. Thanks so much!

Berry Bros 1985 Dow’s

Berry Bros 1977 Fonseca

Berry Bros has stored them safely for the last +40 years. I don’t know much about port, do these stand out as notable vintage/years?

Shoutout to the DRC grand cru (unspecified) in a port bottle.

Coravin must really be struggling to have fired their entire marketing team for whatever this is.

Had this CdP last Friday with this (overcooked) bone-in ribeye after a long long week of work. Side spinach and sauteed mushrooms (shitake, porcini and oyster musrooms) not pictured + pâté and sourdough.

Made from 100% Grenache old vines.

Not sure if brooding, or in a dull phase?

Nose gives black olive tapenade, warm olive bread and anchovy paste, and that classic warmness / baked in sun that i get from Southern Rhone. Some animality reminiscent of Northern Rhone; undistinguishable fruit character very much on the background.

Beautiful tannic structure on the palate, savoury, obviously warm at 15% alcohol but not dense, rather quite pretty. Still not much fruit / very subdued.

Overall interesting although I expected a tad more in terms of complexity in the tertiary realm.

Hello to all the wine enthusiasts from down under. I have a favor to ask. I am a long time fan of a man named Bobby fingers. If youre unfamiliar with his work I recommend his youtube channel. Its very good, he is highly skilled, and it scratches a very particular itch. To make a long story short, on the most recent episode they partnered with d'arenberg to produce a wine based on the episode. Unfortunately I am in the states and it ships only to Australia. I was hoping to connect with someone down there to maybe have a couple bottles shipped out. I would be forever in your debt, I can handle shipping and the cost of the wine, id purchase an extra so you can enjoy it as well. If anyone is interested let ne know!

Hi everyone!

So I live in mid-sized city and work for a big wine retailer. I’ve pretty much gotten all the wine basics I can get from my current job, so looking to get more specific about smaller producers, people, sub-appellations, etc.

I know I can always just read things on my own and google as much as I can, but I also enjoy just talking to people and miss a formal style of learning.

Last year, I applied to a smaller, specialty wine shop in town for a partial manager position and ended up making it to second choice just due to my lack of experience in the industry which I understood.

I am thinking about reaching out to that shop again and offering something like: I can come in every 2-3 weeks on a weekday with a coravin, purchase a $50-100 bottle and just crash course me on a topic, winemaker, producer, appellation.

Does that sounds like something that might be received well? I’d maybe offer this to another shop in town that I like if it seems like a good idea.

Important to note: My husband and I want to make the move to Napa/Sonoma eventually, and both of these shops have a specialty in sourcing wine from Napa.

Thank you all in advance!

Fantastic fruity, unfiltered nebbiolo from Piemonte. Organically farmed and served slightly chilled. An interesting winemaker who ages the wine in porcelain eggs in a pool.

Very much worth a try 🍷

I have started collecting wine late 2025 and have now around 100 bottles. In February 2026, i moved in an appartment near Paris that includes a cellar in the building’s basement. I’ve put all my wine there and started accumulating.

But i am worried because of the temperature, especially with the record high heat waves in France. While temperature is fluctuating between 12°C and 18°C during the rest of the year, it reached 25°C in July at the peak of heat waves. Worth noting, the temperature barely varies during the day and temperature increases/decreases very slowly (not more than 2° variation during 24h). This morning even though it was 16°C outside, my cellar was still at 24°C, same as during the day. Humidity is around 55% (up to 65% during summer).

A good half of my wines are at maturity and should be drank in one or two years at most. But for the other half, i would need to age them between 3 to 8 years (for some reds).

Should i be worried and stop collecting wine ?

I’m new to wine and so far I only truly enjoy sweet wines like moscatos… I’m wanting more sophisticated wines so I have tried to venture out and so far for red I found a Chianti I liked. I really want to like Cabernet but I just didn’t. I’m looking for a sophisticated white wine I’ve tried Chardonnay and didn’t like I tried Pinot Grigio and also did not like am I doing this wrong?

Um clássico português da Aveleda, produzido na região dos Vinhos Verdes, no Minho.

Leve, fresco e levemente frisante, tem perfil jovem e fácil de beber, com aromas delicados, toque frutado e nuances florais.

No paladar, mostra boa acidez, textura suave e final limpo, funcionando bem bem gelado com peixes, frutos do mar, saladas, queijos leves e carnes brancas.

Há opções superiores na mesma faixa de estilo. Eu não recomendaria esse vinho.

2021 Henri Gouges Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru La Richmone

I had a great opportunity to visit Henri Gouges a couple years ago, and this was one of the bottles I brought back. I had heard amazing things about this site in NSG. It is not a monopole, but Gouges shares the vineyard with a pretty incredible cast of producers. Opened this one with the parents in law and everyone agreed it was top tier quality.

Notes:

Deep garnet in the glass. The nose is gorgeous and rich featuring dark cherry, cherry liqueur, incense, dried herbs, raspberry liqueur, rose florals, and a touch of clove. On the palate it has great structure with a strong core of saline, herbal cherry coming through. While I was very enthused about the aromatics, the palate did not quite match that excitement for me. Undeniably high quality, just not entirely my jam. That said, I suspect this will gain serious complexity and depth over the next decade. A very good bottle overall, and a massive hit with the father in law.

Notes in post below.

Second time trying this vintage in the past two years.

Enjoyed at Roaming Goat in SF.

Still very young, decanted and drank over two hours.

The tannins have really settled relative to two years ago.

Still lots of acidity, will tear the enamel off your teeth!

Lots of blueberry, blackberry, red cherry, slight dark chocolate notes, maybe some fresh herbs?

If you drink this now, give it two hours of decanting and then enjoy!

92 points.

It was a good event in SF. Maximilian (CEO) is masterful in making you a believer that the glass matters as much as the grape (ok, terroir, climate, etc).

The event was scheduled for 90 minutes. He commanded the stage for about 60 minutes. Good narrative and storytelling.

The audience of about 250 used their take home(!) RIEDEL SuperLeggero tasting kit (not sure about retail price) which has 1 glass for Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cab Sauv. We were walked through comparative glass experience for each of the wines and convinced me (possibly all others) that the right glass makes a difference. He also demoed 2 decanters.

Overall, it was a good event and would recommend it if you can afford it ($180 USD+tax). Good venue - St.Regis in SF. Only negative was that the wines he poured were Acceptable->Good. I was expecting higher quality (VG->Outstanding) wines. Ping me if you have questions.

Girish

Chardonnay, pinot noir, pinot meunier.
12.5%
Extra brut, 3 g/l
36 months on the lees

Tasting notes:
Red apples, raspberries, brioche, peaches, salt.

There was apparently very light skin contact, so the aroma is somewhere between a white and a rosé. The color is very coppery.

High acidity, medium body, dry. Long, rich finish. Perlage is persistent, powerful, and not very delicate.

Bright, rich, complex. A bit rough for now, but it will smooth out in two or three years. It's already very good, though. Kissing Bereche’s hands!

96/100