On our regular jaunts to France we only ever buy French wine as I feel bad buying foreign wines on French soil. The other week I treated myself to six bottles of Redwood Creek Merlot from the US and six bottles of Ocean's Edge Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand to pad out our sorry looking wine rack. We still have a few bottles of red hanging in there from France and I opened one tonight, a Southern wine that looked as if it might be OK.
I decanted it into a jug (which looked remarkably like a container for a very large sample!) and let it breathe for a while, sloshing it around every now and then to release all those - hopefully - lovely aromas. When I took a mouthful, Keith knew at once how I felt about it - it was horrible. I think that over the years my palate has changed and I love all the gorgeous tastes and smells you get from New World wines, such as the US, South America, South Africa and Australia. I stuck with it for a while, but as my title says, life really is too short to drink something that you don't like. Keith thought it was acceptable (and it probably will be with a hearty meaty stew) so it's back in the kitchen and he can drink from it whenever he wants. There wasn't anything bad about the French red, it just tasted thin and bitter in comparison with some of the reds I've had lately, and that includes a wonderful red German wine which should be thin but certainly wasn't!
I have a theory that French wines are made to be drunk with food, whereas a lot of the New World wines are happy to be enjoyed on their own. It's amazing how a French wine will transform into something delicious when it has a partner!
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