Red wine education

[theshadeofgreen]

So... I'm mid 30s and all of my friends and family drink red wine. I've always stuck to white and am always the awkward one who can't share a bottle if we go it for dinner

Last night, DH had a bottle of red open and insisted I might like it... apparently it's a 'mature' taste and now i'm a responsible mother of two he thought I may enjoy it. I took a sip and OH MY GOD I AM CONVERTED.

So... this one was called 19 crimes. I have absolutely idea if they all taste similar or are wildly different but I want to find out

Are there other red wines that are similar to this one (but maybe less that £10 a bottle ) or is there a better type out there?

Help me MNetters

Campo viejo is another that’s often on offer for around £6 a bottle (or try to get a buy 6 get 25% off offer). I like it as much as 19 crimes 😊

I looked it up and 19 crimes is a blend of Shiraz, cabernet sauvignon and grenade, if you check bottles for the grapes you can find other similar mixes. My guess as it's Australian is the mix is predominantly shiraz so you could also try that by itself. I wouldn't recommend grenache by itself, it can be a very acquired taste, and cheaper cab sav is a bit hit and miss. What did you like about it? Was it sweet, punchy, fruity, vanilla tasting etc?

Grenade? I mean grenache.

I know very little about wine but I used to only drink merlot, but now i only drink Rioja!

There’s an interesting price in price of wine vs quality, I’ll try to find it

“A lot of the things you get in a bottle of wine are fixed prices,” he said. “The tax you pay in the UK is the same on every bottle, no matter how expensive.

“The cost of the glass is roughly the same and the transport is probably the same. So if you buy a bottle of wine for £5 the value of the wine inside that bottle is just under 50p. It’s actually 47p.”

His advice is to buy a bottle for a tenner because that means the quality of the wine inside is just under £3 - you’re paying twice as much for wine that’s six times the quality.

Link; www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/wine-why-buy-ps10-bottles-ten-pounds-mark-price-waitrose-a7655806.html?amp

9 Crimes has loads of added sugar to make it more palatable so it’s not a dry red wine. Similar wines would be the Yellowtail Jammy roo or Apothic red which both have added sugar. You’re not allowed to add sugar to most of the wine from recognised old world wine regions such as Rioja/ Rhône/ Bordeaux etc so you’ll probably find wine from these regions.

19 crimes has a distinct sweetness to it, its rather moreish!
There are a few cabernet shiraz blends that I like, hardys and lindemans are nice and usually on offer. A Californian merlot might be worth trying.

For special occasions I like a St emmilion or chateau neuf du pape.

Meant to say you’ll find wine from those regions less palatable!

If you like that you might like the Yellow Tail Jammy Red Roo. It's Australian, very fruity/sweet/jammy, and very drinkable.

Jamshed is even sicklier, so you might like that too OP. It was too sweet for me, but similar to 19 Crimes.

As an incredibly experienced by quantity wine drinker, I feel there's a scale to reds:

Montepulciano
Merlot
Cabinet Sauvignon
Rioja
Malbec
Shiraz
Borolo

Obviously loads more in between!

Is it from the Australian brand 19 Crimes? Because if so they have several different red wines. If you still have the bottle, can you post the label? I'd look up the specific wine and see what varietals are included (if it's not one of the singles like their Shiraz or Cabernet Suavignon) and then try to sample those individually to see what it is that you like. (Unfortunately, this brand seems to be quite coy about their blends, so you may have to search offsite to get a good description.)

Barefoot merlot is absolutely delicious as is their jammy red, you drink it chilled it's like a sangria!

I love 19 crimes.

Also like barefoot malbec.

Oh you're all amazing! Thank you so much, I've actually made notes on my shopping list for tomorow

In the interest of not hanging around to start my mission I've opened this, it's a bottle DH had for his bday but seems fair game in the name of research.
It had been mentioned on the thread and it seems whoever suggested it was right, I like this one too!

From what everyone has said sweeter seems to be the way to go for me. For the op who asked what I liked about it, I liked that it didn't taste of vinegar which is what I was expecting, it tasted of fruit.
I actually described it 'like a really good cranberry sauce' because I'm eloquent like that

I seem to have accidentally bought a bottle of 19 crimes that has coffee added to it! Has anyone tried this to tell me if it’s nice at all?

Oh now that's something I want to try!

I do like red wine but I always find it a strange drink (even though I like it) because there are very few drinks that we habitually drink at room temperature. Most things we drink are either chilled or heated. Just a thought I had.

This is it

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing that's always been one of my reasons for not liking it. I've always been an ice cold white drinker.

Although I must say there is a positive in being able to just grab it, open it and drink it without having to remember to put it in the fridge in plenty of time as if I don't have 3 bottles in the fridge at all times anyway

I made the 19 crimes coffee error, I had to pass the second bottle on to my parents… Love red wine, love coffee, the combination was not to my taste!!

I don’t actually drink coffee (except the occasional espresso martini ) which is partly why I’ve avoided it…

Sweet red wine is an abomination.🤮 If you like sweet drinks just stick to zinfandel and leave delicious red wine alone.

I think you’d like a Grenache, they’re quite sweet for red. And Shiraz or Shiraz blends, very juicy and fruity.
I think the Yellow Tail brand of wines are all quite easy drinking. I find Australian reds to be soft & fruity no matter the grape.