New World vs. European Wines??

Steve_o

Which do ye prefer drinking?? I must say i used to be a solely European Wine drinker, but recently i started drinking Australian and Chilean wines, they're excellent wines. Australian "Yellow Label" and 'Santa Rita' from Chile. very good indeed!

happy_acid_face

It all depends on what mood I'm in really...

Is it white or red your talking about? and which grapes?

As with red's my favourite new world wine (at the mo) would have to "Little Yerring's Shiraz/Viognier" or "The Black Chook" of the same grape combination. They both have that spicey shiraz charactistic but are well rounded using just 5% of the white Viognier grape to smooth off the edge. These Austrailian's currently do it for me. This does change around quite a bit though... Coming into the summer, a nice, light Cote Du Rhone will probably replace them.

One of my favourite regions for Whites would be New Zealand. I love "Villa Maria's Sauvignon Blanc" (They also do a fantastic Pinot Noir in their Cellar Selection). Although not as promenant as last years vintage i still find this Sauvignon Blanc holding Apple, Citus and Melon flavours. "Montana Reserva Sauvignon Blanc" is another beauty (which won an award at the Irish Wine Awards last year) filled with lovely "in you face" tropical fruits.
One also worth a mention would be "Vergelegen Sauvignon Blanc". This is South African and has notes of cut grass, gooseberry and green pepper. Definatly worth a glass! And don't forget South Africa's "Iona Sauvignon Blanc" either. Tropical Fruits with a hint of Pear

Steve_o

Red Wine.....I suppose i enjoy all types except Merlot....always plays hell with me, (head aches).

rediguana

I don't think a person should confine himself to either New / Old World wine. There are differences, to be sure, but the gap is narrowing as the New World belatedly returns to more classical styles with lower alcohol and less extraction, at the same time as Europe drags itself into the 21st century with cleaner, higher quality, more clearly-labelled, consumer-friendly wines.

I drink a lot of wine - too much, my girlfriend tells me - and I would be hard pressed to distinguish between much New / Old World stuff. At the end of the day, it's generally the same grape juice a person is drinking whether he is buying from the Northern or Southern hemisphere.
Cabernet-Merlot -> Bordeaux
Pinot Noir / Chardonnay -> Burgundy
Shiraz-Viognier / Grenache -> Rhone
Sauvignon Blanc / Chenin Blanc -> Bordeaux Blanc / Loire (Sancerre etc).
Malbec -> Cahors (Fra.)

For me, a person would need to be either a bloodhound or an expert taster to tell where the wine came from. A possible exception is New Zealand (Marlborough) Sauvignon Blanc, which has been aptly described as "Sauvignon with the volume turned up". Even I can make a good stab at where a wine from this grape has come from - the Kiwi stuff is amazingly ripe, pungent and enticing. Everyone goes crazy for "Cloudy Bay" but nobody can get it. Forget it, "Astrolabe" is widely available and has beaten it in blind taste tests.

Anyway, I digress. I guess people like New World stuff as the labelling is so clear and attractive, relative to the more esoteric Euro variety. I'm a sucker for nice labels too. As an aside, one of the simplest marketing ploys a winery can use to boost sales is to put a picture of an animal on the label - all things being equal, sales soar. In the USA, these wines are called "Critter Wines"!

I think, for someone who usually avoids European wines, Spain can be a good entry point. The reds are beautifully supple and easy to drink. The predominant grape is Tempranillo and the Spaniards like to use American oak to age the wines. The result is strawberry-vanilla wine that is very difficult to dislike. This Bank Holiday weekend, O'Briens are having a Spain (and Portugal!) promotion whereby if you buy 4+ of any wines from Iberia, you can knock 20% off the price.

jos28

I am no expert but I really like the new world wines. I am enjoying some of the Chilean wines on special in Superquinn at the moment.I worked with a girl from Argentina and she introduced me to some delicious wines.
http://www.2basnob.com/argentina-wine.html

El Stuntman

I've gone full circle with my wine and become almost exclusively an Old World wine drinker....

mainly because most of the Aussie/Chilean (the main new world supplier countries we get here - Santa Rita, Rosemount Estate etc) wine that is sold in Ireland is awful, mass produced plonk. Ditto for South African wines (Long Mountain, bleh)

New Zealand is better, Argentina still not much to be seen

I just find that you can get better variety and more interesting wines for similar money from Old World sources. Especially Italian, Spanish or lesser known French appellations

of course if you are actually in Australia/NZ/SA etc, then it goes without saying that you should drink local! I think the point of this rambling is that you will get better value from markets that we are physically closer to....