olasek's Profile
Buying a new range. Help.
When I saw your $2000 I immediately thought of my brand new NXR 30" DRGB3001 range which has excellent broiler (infrared 16,500 BTU) and this is almost exactly what I paid for it. But the range has 4 burners (all large) and is 30", its 36" version is much more expensive.
Any comments on KitchenAid refrigerators and Bosch ranges (or other 30" gas range suggestions)?
See my reply in another different thread that I just posted about my purchase of the 30" NXR gas range. If you are looking for a pro-style range that would be my choice considering its phenomenal price-performance point. It has 4 (identical) 15,000 BTU sealed burners (my wife now loves the fact that all burners are the same though in the beginning we considered it controversial), convection, but is not self-cleaning.
Opinions on NXR or Bluestar gas range?
I have had a NXR range (30") for about a month and I absolutely love it. It is extremely tough built, pro-style range. It has German burners (same as in Wolf), US made sensors, Italian doors and some other key Australian parts. Yes, it is put together in China. Contrary to some statements here Duro is not a Chinese company, it is American company headquartered in California. And the range completely transformed the looks of out kitchen. My wife loves it and she not only adjusted to the fact that all 4 burners are identical, now she could not imagine going back to difefrent size burners. We really knew nothing about NXR and never planned on getting a pro-style range but went to local gourmet-appliance store and after spending about 30 min with a very knowledgeable salesman, looking at many ranges we returned next day and bought it. They said they sold about 300 of these NXR ranges in 2010 and never had any complaints (there was something about the legs that you have to watch for during installation but it is minor). At about $2400 delivered and installed I could not think of another product with more bang for the buck.
Beginner Question - Nose
After years of trying to "smell" different things in wine - I gave up. By the way, if Robert Parker is guilty of inventing this "BS" then it must be highly contagious because on this very forum self proclaimed anti-Parkers anti-new-world-wine often launch into long evaluations of wine's smelly bouquet. But for me the bottom line is how it tastes in my mouth - I noticed this is where I am getting a bang for my buck.
Anyone else starting to see more free corkage?
Does anyone know how this corkage stuff is practiced in different European countries? I heard that in some it is simply not welcomed at all, you do NOT bring your own wine period.
2 great Cabernets: Caymus and Kenwood Artist
Hey, for me the more oak the better. I am yet to drink wine with too much oak but I certainly had many wines were there wasn't enough oak for my taste. Sodas have no oak..he, he. Too bad I never had a chance to drink the above mentioned wines.
High-end Wine Discussions
If someone doesn't care for California wines that may be the case. For me personally who generally favor California wines I find them priced fairly reasonably (and this Girard's Petite Sirah I was raving about is an excellent example), again, it all depends what is your point of reference, price-point expectations. And I very rarely buy wines in the $50 range.
Top 7 World's Most Expensive Bottles Of Alcohol
Correct. And the third one - its price is mostly dictated by who owned it before. So really the the first bottle that counts is this white wine for $90,000.
Food/Burgundy wine pairing on steak tartare night
I hope you know about the egg yoke, etc . that you put (mix) with the steak tartare. This happens to be one of my favorite dishes.
good buy at Costco
This is interesting however I have hard time understanding why they would sell something at a cost - why not at some profit that can still beat other suppliers, certainly their wine section can take up a great deal of floor space. But nonetheless I am glad to get confirmation that Costco's wine pricing is excellent. At least at Costco I have a fairly decent selection of low medium and higher end wines, I can't say this about Trader's Joe which I avoid for wine purchasing.
He avoids these reds/whites under $20...What say you?
Had similar experiences with Cabs (unfortunately no one offered me a sip of >$100 cab) until I came across Turnbull 2005 which sells for a mere $33 mail order. I said to myself - wow, this is a cab I could drink 24/7!
good buy at Costco
My reply was to you but perhaps I misunderstood your post, sorry. But I am also greatful to RicRios for providing a substitute source in case all else failed...
good buy at Costco
Not sure what you mean, $2 per bottle better than competition still counts at least in my checkbook .. and frankly I rather pick up the wine myself then have it shipped and spoil during transit. So yes, it is a great deal for me....
good buy at Costco
Came across a phenomenal wine at Costco - Girard 2006 Petite Sirah, Napa Valley. It sells for $22 while the winery lists it for $28. This is for someone who likes BIG intense wines. I collected 20 bottles but had to go to several Costcos because it goes fast. (Robert Parker 91).
CA Zin - French Oak
Dashe Cellars in Oakland, Ca specialize in Zins and they use only French oak.
very good bouillabaisse?
Where in the larger Bay Area can I find a great bouillabaisse?
I live in Oakland but will drive up to 90 minutes for this dish.
buying wine before harvest?
Anybody heard of practice of purchasing wine (say a few cases) before grapes are even harvested and therefore realizing substantial discount?
Argentinean Malbec recommendations?
Altocedro Reserva.
I don't know about the Chicago market.
I am a beginner at this so please be kind.
>> The acidity is what turned me off.
Understood. This is precisely what turned me off in my early days. Excessive acidity may be an indication of cheap wine but generally on the average French wines will have more acidity than California wine. To test your tolerance to acidity try different red wines at different prices. For example try some full bodied Zinfandel at just below $30 (I admit I don't know about wine prices in N.H.) and if you picked right you should be pretty far from acidity. This is what happened once to me - I had artificially limited myself to wines below $20 but when I tried something outside this range I discovered the whole new world of wines.
Screw Capped Wine in the Fridge
>> but during those 2000 years what chance has wine had to develop at lower than 55 degree temps?
I think people had more opportunity, were more resourceful than you give them the credit for. France definitely experienced winters, many caves were probably at less than 55 for prolonged periods of time, people also used "natural" refrigeration with collected/transported ice well before advent of modern household electricity and trade/transport for sure moved bottles of wines to more northern geographical locations, different countries. Lets not dismiss all this trial&error accumulated knowledge over centuries and reduce the whole thing to modern "studies" published in some scientific paper (I frankly wonder if any scientist would consider the topic worthy pursuit).
Screw Capped Wine in the Fridge
People have been making wine now for over 2000 years. It has been determined over this time that 55 is close to ideal temperature for wine storage. Any departure from this makes conditions "less than ideal", the more you depart the "less ideal" it becomes. Now you can keep splitting hair whether "less than ideal" means the same as "harmful".
wine pairing for asian foods
>> i often end up defaulting to a good lager instead. have you had success pairing wine and asian food flavors?
Lager is always good bet. But I found out that semi-sweet wines work well with Asian (often spicy) foods. For me personally full bodied & semi-sweet Gewurtztraminer work exceptionally well in this area.
How About A New What Are You Drinking ?
2002 Arrowood Syrah, Saralee's Vineyard.
This is a type of wine I have to discipline myself to not consume too much.
Screw Capped Wine in the Fridge
For traditionally sealed bottles of wine keeping them in the kitchen refrigerator for extensive period of time could dry out cork (your refrigerator has insufficient humidity for long term wine storage) and let the air pass through that could ultimately damage wine. But we are talking very long months not a single month or even two.
Many wine experts also point out to occasional vibrations your refrigerator goes through when compressor kicks in. They can be harmful (or not helpful) too.
Opening Wine in Advance
>> How do people normally do that ?
You don't need Ph.D. to do it. Just uncork the bottle and let it sit. You can stare at it if you want ...
Dirt Cheap but good wines
Some excellent points. I was always a big fan of Zinfandel so with the zin grapes being more 'economical' I thought I would be just happy drinking a lot of good Zin. But life likes variety so all of a sudden I found myself getting some really excellent $28 Syrah or a $40 Sonoma cab (which all I tasted ahead of time). I like my present arrangement - I found a local wine store that does offer wine tasting of multiple wines every Saturday (for a symbolic fee). Now I will never buy a wine that I will regret its purchase later.
Dirt Cheap but good wines
>> You said you find wines that pass your threshold in the $15-$30 range. Do you find that $30 wines are exactly twice as good as $15 wines?
And do you find a $50,000 car twice as good as $25,000 one? Or do you find a $100 hotel room twice as good as $50 one? Or do you find a $9.00/lb New York steak 50% better than a $6.00/lb tri-tip? Such questions make little sense.
>> Maybe you could recommend the 5% that weren't a disappointment, and we'd all benefit from your experience.
You must know that it is impossibility. Such wines are gone very quickly, availability of wines is very dependent on what local merchants carry. Also you must excuse me but I stopped buying wines in your price range long time ago and you should see why - I was losing too much $$ on mediocre or poor wines so occasional good wines I came across were simply not worth all the $$ I lost in between. My life is too short, I am limited by how much alcohol I can consume daily therefore I decided I have no time, monies or room in my stomach to conduct experiments with cheap wines in vein hope I will come across a real gem.
Dirt Cheap but good wines
>> Are you absolutely sure that it's not a psychological thing?
I assure you it is not, and it applies to other wine connoisseurs (pardon for counting myself in this group) too, not just me. Maybe you should really check prices on bottles your brother is feeding you .. ;)
Dirt Cheap but good wines
>> Price has almost nothing to do with quality
I beg to differ with this.
Price is not a guarantor of quality but is a good indicator - I am probably 20 times more likely to find wines that pass my own threshold of drinkability when I shop in the $15-30 range than in below $10 range. It all amounts to where is your threshold and what you consider "good". I would love to keepy buying bottles for less than $10 but I have given this up long time ago - in 95% of cases I was so very disappointed and felt it was all wasted money.
