Other wine ...

[Roy Hersh]

Outside of Portugal, what is your favorite wine region to drink? To visit?

[Brian C.]

I have yet to run across a wine from Spain that I didn't like, except for sherry. If you mean appelations,ones that have stood out include Rioja, Priorat, Toro, Yecla, and Rueda. (I have yet to try Ribeira del Duero.)

For the most part, I approach wine as what grapes are in my palate. From Argentina I like malbec and bonarda, for instance. From California, I usually like the pinot noirs, but very little else. I do not have a taste for cab, merlot, sauv blanc, or chardonnay, so that means I don't spend too much time in the California or Bordeaux section at a wineshop. Honestly, when I was a lot younger, that's all I saw, and because of that I thought I'd never like wine.

I haven't tried much from Chile, but I'd be interested in trying more from there because they have the original ungrafted vines there. Is there anything to that at all?

I usually enjoy what I've tried from Italy, though I still have a lot to try from there, it seems.

At this point in my life, I make it a point to try something new if it's offered on a menu whenever I go out. I figure in ten years, I'll have a pretty good idea.

[Eric Ifune]

I love riesling. My favorite places to visit are Alsace and the Wachau. Beautiful scenery, lovely people, great food which matches the great wines. And if you're not in the company of only wine fanatics, there's a lot of non-wine things to do.

[Eric Menchen]

To visit? All of them, really. I can't think of a place I've been to that I didn't enjoy. Of the California regions, I prefer in order Russian River and Dry Creek Valleys, Sonoma, and then Napa. In France? Alsace and Provence are both great, but really I think anywhere outside of the big cities is good. (Oh, and the food is excellent too.) Argentina? Mendoza is a wonderful town. I've been to other wine producing countries, but not visited the vineyards in depth.

To drink? Spain is o.k. and my wife and I both like tempranillo. I like Italian wines more than my wife; the net result is that we don't drink those much. We both love Cabernets from Napa (and perhaps Sonoma, where B.R.Cohn is) and Zinfandels from the Dry Creek Valley. Our problem with these is that we don't eat enough meals that can hold up to them. Chateauneuf du Pape is one of our favorites, but not something we drink everyday. We do like most of the Rhône wines. (Is Gigondas a Rhône?) From South America and Australia we drink a variety of medium bodied reds. I made a Carménère-Cabernet sauvignon blend with juice from the Maipo Valley that turned out nice, and one of my friends thinks it really is coming around now (2006 vintage). I used to love most of the whites from both sides of the French-German border, but we haven't been drinking a lot of those in recent years.

-Eric

[Moses Botbol]

Can't say I have been to too many wine regions outside of Switzerland, but my favorites outside of Portugal for drinking are Burgundy then Rhone, followed by Piemonte or Bordeaux.