My first post here!

Sorry for any grammar/spelling errors...

I would like to start out by asking for some advice. Here in Brazil we drink a lot of South American (Chile/Argentina) and Europeans wines. Other new world wines (US/Oz/Nz/SAfrica) are not well known. I'm pretty familiar with all the wines above, except for the American ones, and I couldn't think of a better place to ask for advice!

We don't have many American producers imported, so I'll give a list for you guys of what we have down here and ask what would you recomend, ok? Keep in mind that US$ = 3 reais (our currency), so I'm talking about QPR, because for us a wine would cost 3x more (Imagine you would be paying US$30 for a US$10 wine)

The American wineries we have in Brazil right now are:

Arrowood Vineyards
Caymus Vineyards
Chateau Montelena
Domaine Drouhin
Dominus Estate
Dry Creek Vineyards
Grgich Hills Cellar
J. Lohr
Kenwood Vineyards
Laurel Glen
Markham Vineyards
M. Trinchero Vineyards
Robert Mondavi's Lot (Mondavi, Oakville, Opus, Byron, Coastal, Woodbridge etc.)
Rutherford Hill
Seven Peaks
Silverado Vineyards
Silver Oak Cellars
Spottswoode
Stag's Leap Wine Cellars
Sutter Home
Tablas Creek Vineyard
Trefethen Vineyards
Wente Vineyards


Besides, we might not have all the wines from these wineries, but if I were to write the specific wine list, I would go nuts!

Thanks a lot for any help you can give me, as you always talk about US wines and I feel completelly lost in that matter!

PS: If there are enough Australians here, I might ask the same favor for Oz wines too!

Welcome Mars, nice to have the South American contingent represented here!

You best picks:
Caymus Vineyards
Chateau Montelena
Domaine Drouhin
Dominus Estate
Grgich Hills Cellar
Spottswoode
Tablas Creek Vineyard (likely to be the best value from your list)
Stag's Leap Wine Cellars

Average:
Dry Creek Vineyards
J. Lohr
Kenwood Vineyards
Silverado Vineyards
Silver Oak Cellars (likely to be terribly overpriced)
Trefethen Vineyards

Avoid:
Laurel Glen
Markham Vineyards
M. Trinchero Vineyards
Robert Mondavi's Lot (Mondavi, Oakville, Opus, Byron, Coastal, Woodbridge etc.)
Rutherford Hill
Seven Peaks (unless the price is REALLY good - not bad, just nothing notable)
Sutter Home
Wente Vineyards

Welcome, Mars. It's a pleasure to have you posting here. Eric White gives great advice.

Welcome aboard, Mars! Eric's list is very similar to the one that I was compiling in my head. As Board-O said, it's good advice.

Quote:

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(Imagine you would be paying US$30 for a US$10 wine)

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Sadly, I can imagine that. It seems like we have lots of $30 wines here that taste like they should cost only $10. Fortunately we have this Forum and Friendly Fellow Forumites (that's FFF to you & me! ) to steer you away from those nasty bottles and towards the ones that you will enjoy.

welcomes mars. my post office zip code is actually for a town called mars. eric summed it up just right for you.

Welcome to our planet, Mars!

I think Eric compiled an excellent list. The only addition I would consider is Arrowood.
I expect you will find that a good number of these wines are pricey.
If you let us know what sort of budget or price point you have in mind,
we can probably be a little more specific.

Hmm, indeed - through the wonders of cut-and-paste Arrowood seems to have gone missing I'd stick Arrowood in the 'average' column.

Eric, I would have at least put Markham in the "average" column. At a minimum, they are at least as good as J. Lohr. In fact, I think Markham is significantly better than J. Lohr and Kenwood.

Otherwise, I completely agree with your list.

Just my .02.

Mars - nothing Arrowood produces is worth a $70 price tag, imo. If you post specific pricing examples we could likely be more helpful.

BTW, Mars is still beautiful in the night sky here in the Northern Hemisphere

I like the 98 Domaine Drouhin. Should be drinking fairly well now. Which reminds me.. I need to revisit this wine myself.

Eric,

I find American wines to be much more expensive here, since we have all the shipping and import taxes...

Just so you can have some examples:

Stag's LW: Fay Vineyard CS 95 - US$100 / Hawk Crest Vineyard Select. Merlot 97 - US$30
Ch. Montelena: Calistoga CS 97 - US$45 / CS Estate 95 - US$90
Domaine Drouhin: Oregon Pinot Noir 98 - US$40
Spottswoode: CS 97 - US$90
Caymus Vineyard: Caymus CS 97 - US$100 / CS Special Selection 97 - US$230
Dominus 95 - US$180
Arrowood: CS 98 Sonoma County - US$100 (97-US$110) / Chardonnay 99 Sonoma County - US$70

And so on...

On the other hand, SAm wines are normally cheaper than in the US, so I buy a lot of Catena, Catena Alto, Lapostolle, Montes Alpha, Hormigas etc. But it's always nice to try new stuff, and that's what this post is all about

Thanks again!

Those Montelena prices actually aren't all that bad, especially the Estate.

The price on the 97 Montelena Calistoga (their second wine) is only $10 above what it would be here and the $90 for the 1995 Montelena Estate is a very good price even in the USA.

it is a very small community north of pittsburgh. i think the pop. is like 600-700. i actually live in a town called seven fields pop. 1900, but we use their post office.

AI...

Now YOU I would believe were from Mars!

Gudday Mars,

Welcome on board. Although I know stuff all about US wines, I'm pretty good on Aussie and NZ wines. TORB and Gavin trott are two of the more prominant native Aussies here.

don't listen to jeremy. he doesn't know a lick about NZ wines

Finally found a picture for me!

Thanks, Jeremy!

I'll ask you and the other forumites about Aussie and NZ wines soon, but since it's my first day in Vinocellar, I don't want to start too many posts at once...

anthonyiez: and I thought South Bend was small! I wish I could live in a quiet city. Here everything is always sooo crowded...