Inexpensive wines of value

Leap to Australian Wine Country with Yellow Tail Merlot!

CAN WINE THIS CHEAP ACTUALLY TASTE GOOD?

I am not much of a red wine drinker, many of them just taste bitter and too bold with bad aftertaste in my mouth. I do enjoy occasional deep glass with the dinner, that is about it.

Last December my husband brought bottle of this wine home on a chilly evening. Not a special occasion, not a special wine, he just wanted something to warm our bones after freezing outside most of the day. I asked how much he paid for it. Under sever dollars he said. My eyebrows rised, cheap red usually equals bad taste in my mouth and a headache next morning even after glass or two..

So I peel the bottle out of the paper bag. It looks nice, classic design and easy to read label. It states to be vintage 2005 and to have 13.5% alcohol volume. Funky looking kangaroo makes it clear you are looking at Australian wine.

Not a real cork, the rubbery version but this IS under $10 wine so I’m just happy to have a cork! Smell? Not bad, it is little sweet and grapy, very merlot but not so dry. After pouring it to glasses I tell my husband this will give me a headache for sure, it smells so sweet..

My husband gives me his “at least I did buy wine not beer” speech and I decide that it is a good time to stop complaining, I could be staring at Budweiser instead..

First sip. Hmm, weird, sweet but not really that bad aftertaste. What is this staff? Back to the label, behind it states that it “jumps from the glass with crushed berry aromas and a touch of typical Aussie spice”. My wine is not jumping anywhere but the second sip is very smooth and I’m actually liking it! This wine has flavor which does not overpower your taste buds but still gives them something to do. I am curious so I did go to their website to see what those “Aussie spices” are. According to the site wine has dark plums and a touch of mint and soft vanillin oak flavors. It sounds bit much! I’m trying to taste the mint but all I can find on my taste buds is the vanillin, very nice.

That evening we had chicken alfredo with some garlic bread and the second glass washed it down just fine for me. Bottle states that the wine can be enjoyed with any meat dish and is perfect for a barbeque.

Well, I don’t know about the barbeque but if you want to warm your soul and bones after frigid temps outside glass or two of Yellow Tail Merlot will do just that.

And another happy note about this cheap Aussie find, it did not even give me a headache! I would not serve it with expensive dinner for the party guests because some might find it tad too sweet but I definitely will keep it in my list for an occasional evening delight with my hubby.

Pros

No bad aftertaste, very smooth and surprisingly tasty.

Cons

No real cork, if you like dry dry wines, this is not your choice.

The Bottom Line

This is very good Merlot for the price, great wine to drink just alone but still not too sweet to enjoy with dinner.

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Does it matter if your beer is American brewed?

NNo. In fact, given my experience of American beers, Budweiser and Coors, I would not be concerned if I never tasted it again. It is sold here, mostly as a fashion accessory, but I find it gassy, weak and tasteless.

When there are so many top quality beers produced here in England and many more in Belgium and Germany I cannot for the life of me understand why we should import such a poor quality product across the Atlantic.

When will the Americans wake up and realise that there is life outside their parochial borders? They are missing out on some of the best taste experiences.

We don’t need to serve our drinks at the temperature of liquid nitrogen in order to get them down. Forget the fizzy pop beers and try a decent English pint, served at room temperature so that you can fully savour the full range of real flavours that proper beer can give you. It may take a few pints for you to acquire the taste and become a true believer but believe me; it is well worth the effort. There are so many great tastes to be tried here, from the heavy tasting porter beers to the light and quaffable light Ales available across the south of the country. Every county has its own special brews, here in Dorset we have the Badger Brewery at Blandford Forum, where there is a range of strengths and tastes to satisfy even the most demanding palate, and they are all brewed in conditions that allow the full flavour to be appreciated. The people who brew them are skilled artisans and the strains of yeast used have been developed over many decades to ensure that the end product is of the highest quality.

If you want bright beers try a German Pils lager, which are brewed under some of the World’s most stringent conditions of quality and purity. They are truly refreshing and tasty beers, although here in the UK they do attract a premium price.

The great advantage of German bright beers is that they are so pure that, even if you over indulge; you will rarely suffer the misery of a hangover.

Even a small country like Belgium has numerous different brands on the market, beers made from all manner of ingredients, such as honey bananas, wheat and chocolate. If you live in America the only good reason for drinking home brewed beer is the huge environmental cost of importing European beers across thousands of miles of ocean.

Does it matter if your beer is American brewed? – Part 5

Welcome to the backyard barbecue. It’s the quintessential American pastime that wouldn’t be complete without a can of beer to sip while waiting for the coals to heat up. And for generations, Anheuser-Busch has been the company to provide patriotic Americans with their domestically-brewed Budweiser for just such an occasion. So when the company announced that it might sell out to InBev, a Belgian brewing company, there was of course a backlash by the Americans who cherish their beloved beer company. Sell Anheuser-Busch? Never!

But does it really matter if our beer is American-Brewed? Would Americans actually stop buying Budweiser simply because the company that owns it is run in Belgium rather than the good old USA? A-B has become a national icon, and it seems unlikely that Anheuser-Busch’s sale will dampen Americans’ taste for their beer. Additionally,selling A-B is simply good business on the company’s part, and won’t necessarily affect operations in the United States. And finally, quality of the product is far more important than opinions of the sale. If InBev upholds the quality of the original products, Americans will continue to buy them.

Anheuser-Busch began in 1860 as a single struggling brewery and has since grown into a brewery giant that produces forty different beers and malt liquors, all of which have become an integral part of the American beer industry. If Americans were to truly stop drinking Anheuser-Busch beers because of its sale to InBev, we would need to stop drinking most of the varieties of beer which we have grown to know and appreciate. It is highly unlikely that enough Americans would give up nearly every variety of beer they like simply to protest A-B’s sale.

Another point to consider is that selling Anheuser-Busch is simply a business deal. InBev is currently the world’s second-largest brewing company with regards to sales, and merging A-B with InBev will help the company to reach a wider demographic of beer drinkers and make greater sales. InBev has stated that it will not alter operations in the US, which means that the workers and plants that may have suffered from the merger will be spared. The sale of Anheuser-Busch will be purely a business deal, and shouldn’t affect Americans’ enthusiasm for or supply of A-B’s products.

Finally, there remains the fact that as consumers, Americans value the quality of the product more than the company or country that made it. For example: we may protest the outsourcing of factory jobs to China, but we still buy products made in that country. Statistically speaking, Americans will choose the product that best suits their needs regardless of where it was made or who it was made by. The same principle applies to beer. Americans, although still upset about the sale, will still choose the best product they can find, including Anheuser-Busch beer. Ultimately, if InBev continues to produce quality A-B beer, they can expect the sales of the products to remain relatively stable.

While some may consider the sale of Anheuser Busch to InBev a national tragedy, the reality is that the sale will do little to affect Americans’ enjoyment of A-B’s products. Anheuser-Busch products will remain an integral part of the American beer industry, and Americans will still choose quality products regardless of the company that produces them. Finally, selling A-B is simply a business deal that will not severely alter Anheuser-Busch operations in America. Considering all of these factors, it seems likely that the sale of Anheuser-Busch will not affect Americans’ choice of beer, and the company will likely still be providing refreshments for our backyard barbecues for years to come.

A beginners guide to the different types of beer – Part 3

There are literally thousands of different breweries, concocting beers of many strengths and many tastes and many colors! There is a beer for everyone, in there somewhere, so let’s go try some.

First of all, I am British and in 1986, I received the shock of my life, when I moved to the United States of America! My first beer in this country, was a Budweiser!

I grew up in a little community where it was mandatary for young men to acquire a taste for a lean pint of bitter, by the time he was eighteen years old.

Now, my first pint of bitter, was indeed bitter! I got it down and I started to notice hairs on my chest! A good pint of bitter in Great Britain, depends upon which Brewery it comes from and at which Franchised, Drinking Establishment you are visiting at the time.

Usually the bitter is a light golden in color and comes with all kinds of names, like Boddington, Devonshire, Cornish, Whitbread…the list goes on, depending on whish County in Great Britain, you’re in.

As I got older, I got tired of the bitters and moved onto the Ales. Ales are darker, sort of a red brown in color. I liked these beers better, because they were more palatable, they were stronger and you didn’t need to drink so many of them. They were sipping beers, as I called them. Again, Ales vary from Brewery to Brewery.

There are many micro Breweries, throughout the UK and the USA. These Breweries do their best to make the best Beer in the world. They compete with each-other, to come up with the most palatable and the most full bodied taste.

Now, back in 1986, there weren’t many Micro-Breweries in the USA and this leads me back to the Budweiser! Not only had I left my country of origin behind, but I had also lost a great part of my essential diet!

For some reason, when ever I try an imported beer, from the UK, it doesn’t taste as good as it tasted back in the old country! However, the US Micro-Brews have tasted more and more Awesome in the past few years!

So now I have the best of both worlds! If I want a good Draft pint, all I have to do is jump on a plane and fly to Heathrow; Or simply pay less than ten bucks for a great tasting six-pack, from my local liquor store.

Guinness to me, is by far, the King of all! However, the only place in the world where a pint of Guinness tastes the best, is in Ireland itself! They say, it’s all to do with the Liffey water! Bottled or canned Guinness has no comparison, to a great pint of the ‘Dark Stuff’, right on it’s home