The wine and you : do you drink wine ? what kind ? how is wine in your country

[kaceps]

I just started reading the manga, but I am wondering how much it got you interested about the subject.
So tell us a bit about how much you are into wine.

Have you ever tasted some ? What kind was it ? did you enjoy it much ? Do you wish you had the occasion to taste "great" wines ?

Also, I was wondering how wine is considered in you country. What are the popular wines, how many people drink wine ? How much does a good wine cost ? Do you have wine stocked, aging ? A few bottle somewhere ?

And just because I wouldn't be fair to ask without answering first, I am actually from france, Bordeaux. (Some of the best wines in the world are from here.) Obviously, wine is a very common thing around here.
I don't drink wine regulary, but enjoy it when it comes with a good meal and company. (And around here, a good meal ALWAYS comes with a good wine.)
Best wine I ever had where Pomerol 82, Lattour 81, and St Emilion 71. (Wich are around the best wine anyone could have.) But pretty much all my friends had the occasion to taste this kind of wine on some occasion.
Most of them have at least 3/4 bottles of wine at all time, for sharing with friends. And at least 1 or 2 "decent" ones. By the way, what you call a decent bottle around here is something you buy for 10 euros (15$) and drink when it's about 10 years old. Since it's generally around 4 years old when you buy it, it means waiting a few years for it to age.

Not everyone is that much into wine, of course. But at least 3 people out of 4 drink like me, occasionaly, and can appreciate a good bottle over some basic one.

Though we don't disregard foreign wine (Italians are great, spanish can be pretty good, so does californian and australian.) there is so much good ones from the region that we don't often drink any others.
And we still consider our region produce the top class products

Ho I also worked a few month in wine-making a local producers. Here again, half youth from the region have.

But as I said, you can't really consider that the general situation, we're one the most wine-centered region, in one (if not THE) most wine centerd country.

So, how is it for you, and where YOU live ? Being concsious that people around here are uncommonly familiar with the subject, I am really curious about how wine is peceived in other countries.

[loraline]

I know what you are talking about. I'm living in france too, in toulouse but i was born in Cahors area, one of french wine producing areas. I like wine, mostly because my grand father and my uncles are wine-growers. they taught me how to drink it. it's quite complicated but i like wine's history and complexity.

As you i only drink wine with good meal, and with people i like. Personaly i prefer white wine. i like chablis and sauterne.

What i like in this serie is that they speak about dream wines, especially the famous Chateau Yquem. I really want to drink once in my life!
In a restaurant i used to work, the wine-waiter said that it's amazing and it's as drinking some part of the sun...



Ps: Excuse me for my poor english....

[FallingStar]

Hi, I really like your topic!!
I am from Grecce and here we drink wine a lot!! With our meals, when we go out with friends to drink, when we invite friends over..
In the county, farmers usually have a vineyard and they produce their own wine for family and friends to drink!! My father has one too!!! He takes care of it!! My sister and I help him sometimes! It's really fun producing wine!!
It's taste is quite different from the ones you buy, because it has no conservatives and such!
I hope sometime I'll be able to taste the ones you mentioned above!!

[coffeebean]

Red wine for me!! and i like the sweet ones like ice wine

[foggyflute]

Chilean cabernet for seafood, French sauvignon blanc for meat. Dont care much about brands and years but prefer some 97 chilean red and 2002 french white from certain brands through my own taste. In our country - Vietnam - where traditional drinks are similar to vodka (high percent of alcohol) and we have no limit about age to drink. Wines are hard to buy here because we rarely use them in our daily meal. Whisky, Scotch, Vodka are easier to find and have far more options to choose.

[Xydan]

Canada. People here seem to be more mixed up about drinking. I live near a nieghbourhood of Italians, and they make wine every year, though I'm not sure what kind. But I know for a fact that the Okanagan and Ontario produces one of the world's best icewine.

[bigred01]

im from australia, my mum is a big wine drinker but we tend to lean towards the sweet fruity reds. or wine is cheap here for brand names that are just devine, its amazing what you can get. But of course the beer here sells better

[uvgreen]

I'm from Quebec, the French part of Canada, Quebequers are the people who consume the most wine per capita in north america, this is because of one simple reason, here wine is sold by the government, instead of having small stores who import there own wine we have the Société des Alcools du Québec (SAQ) wich is the biggest importer of wine in the world, a tipical SAQ store will have between 1000 and 5000 different wines and alcohols from 53 different countries.

Now personally I drink between 3 and 5 times a week with supper and spend anywhere between 12$ and 20$ for a bottle. I prefer shiraz (or syrah for the french) in general as its not to fruity and has a good acidity and tannins but if I eat something thats finer (like less taste, I'm not that great with english wine vocabulary) I will drink cabernet sauvignon, malbec or even some pinot noir.

I'm 21 and I'm a trained bartender, I work at the SAQ and studying to be a sommelier in montreal, if I'm lucky the school might send me to bordeaux during the vendanges (grape harvests) to get intimate with the some of the oldest wine producers in the world

Life is like wine, enjoy, cherish and share it.

[Okashira]

My home country (Chile) usually swings within the 5 or 8 best first positions when it comes to quality wine producer, so I'm pretty lucky when it comes to that (beer supposedly ranked nicely long ago, dunno about now). Also when it comes to drinking everyone is very into it and there is a wide, heavily developed culture when it comes to it (heck, when I was a kid underage drinking wasn't actively pursued by the law, since everyone was doing it anyway).

..... Hmmn, I'm kinda losing myself here. Bottom line is, when even store bough wine has some pretty neat quality, and when 1lt of wine is cheaper than 1lt of milk you tend to drink a lot on both, health factor (supposedly 1 glass a day is good for the heart) and you drink a lot when people gather; wine is considered an "adult drink" over here, so it's always with the appetizers when the lads of the gang decide to meet.

[Jessa08]

I recently moved to Oregon where I fell in love with Pinot Noir. Previously, I really did not like it at all. I'm really more of a Cab. Sauv. person. However, there are some fantastic local vineyards in the area so it's really a dream for me! I really enjoy imports, however, nothing beats having high quality local wines. The Pacific Northwest (Washington particularly) and California, of course, have many phenomenal vineyards. I try to buy a different bottle of wine every week, but local wines are so abundant that I haven't made my way out of the Oregon Pinots and Cabs yet. It's a challenge I am very much enjoying!