Must be a German vintage....

Hey - I'm German!! Part anyway!

I have to give big cudos to the Aussies for their wines. Absolutely lovely, and usually fairly reasonably priced. No, I can't remember which ones I really liked. I tend to buy wines rarely and somewhat at random ... often based on the pretty colors on the label. Really. But I know the Aussies make nice 'uns.

Achtung baby (apologies to U2) - don't worry, we still like you...

Apology accepted! :blush:

Now, I have this feeling that I might just be getting myself into trouble here, but honesty being the best policy, when I said 'U2', I didn't mean 'you too' but U2 :o

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so used to the kids typing on the computer - I did think you meant you too!!!! Again, sometimes I must apologize for being a blonde! :lol2:

Never apologize, and never admit you aren't actually blonde.

Lindeman's (Australian) is a decent, inexpensive table wine. Both their Chardonay and the Cabernet.

Tonight, I picked up a bottle of Rabbit Ridge Zinfandel. Medium bodied, a little on the fruity side, and definitely spice-ay! A little better than that overexposed Ravenswood Zinfandel, cute bunny on the label, and not too intense, overall. Hey you single kids, this is a good wine to keep on hand for those "impromptu" dates...

Cost: about 18 bucks.

Told yah cool label was the way to go. Bully Hill with the picture of the Goat wine is really good.

Sorry Wolf but I must contradict. Bully Hill made several of the very worst wines I've ever had. Back when I was involved with the CompuServe Wine Forum (ca 1988!), they had an acronym for these kinds of things: DNPIM (Do Not Put In Mouth).

The Bully Hill whites are passable, but the reds are foul (including "Goat du Rhone" IMO) and only to be used for gifts to neighbors you don't like.

I had the Goat Blush, which definitely had the best label.

I've never tried any of their reds.

One wine I buy in quantity when in France (Calais Hypermarkets) is J P Chenet.

It retails at about £1.50 (about $2.75) per bottle there and about £4 ($7.25) in the UK. Despite the very low price, the flavour is very good and quality consistent. It is instantly recognisable by its 'bent neck' bottle - says a lot for the marketing dept as well.

Judging from the link above it is available in the US. I'd be interested to hear the cost of it over there and, if anyone has tried it, what they think of it.

I'm not a wine guy, I'm a beer snob, but my wife wanted to go Nappa Valley for vacation (so of course we went). I ended up having a great time and actually enjoyed much of the wine. It was amazing to me that you could have the same type of wine from two places next to each other and they tasted totally different.

The wineries we enjoyed the most are:

• Sterling: Really liked their merlots. The Three Palms Merlot is the best one but is $60/bottle.

• Niebaum-Coppola: Their chardonneys were great.

• Praeger: This is actually a Port place. They had great ports and the owners were super cool and friendly. The shirts they sell are all tie dies.

I recommend a trip to Nappa Valley or Sonoma to anyone even if they're not huge wine fans. It's really cool to wander through the places and just try out a ton of different wines.

JErry