Constant Wines

I

Ian Fitzsimmons

Ian Fitzsimmons
I wonder if community members would be willing to talk about their 'constant wines.' By this I mean wines you can drink up to a few times a week with real pleasure, but without drama. Wines that are effective in a background facilitating role - like fifth business in opera - but rise above the level of mere plonk. They open your senses without dominating them, they upgrade a decent meal and social setting without hogging attention. Price is not necessarily a factor, but the cost should settle into the background as easily as the wine's flavors do.

Some wines that fit this bill for me are decent AOC Chablis (2002 Fevre Champs Royaux, 2005 Bessin), decent Beaujolias (2005 Jean Marc Lafont Roilette was about ideal, 2006 Vissoux Traditionelle a runner-up), decent MSR Kabinett (2002 Christoffel UW). 2002 Michel Magnien Bourgogne Grand Ordinaire at $13 was a poster child.
 
With Cantonese food - Light as fairy kabinetten from 2002, fresh QbAs from 2007
With Hokkien food - Kabinetten from 2005, especially Haart's
With French - C et B Savigny and its peers from 2000, Tyrell's Vat 1 from the same vintage (a hemisphere and 6 months apart, but still...)
 
deux anes l'enclos
montevertine
anything made by marc olivier

also, somewhat off topic, but a classically proportioned, stirred plymouth martini, olives on the side.
 
As you may have gathered my constant wines tend to be Clos Roche Blanche. But they're more invigorating and affirming than background.
 
Cru Beaujolais (Vissoux, Roilette, Tete, etc.)
Muscadet (Pepiere, Luneau, Bossard, etc.)
Cava
Nebbiolo d'Alba (Giacosa)
the wine I make.
Best, Jim
 
originally posted by Jay Miller:
As you may have gathered my constant wines tend to be Clos Roche Blanche. But they're more invigorating and affirming than background.
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Yeah. I have friends who drink a bottle of Clos Roche Blanche Touraine Sauvignon and a bottle of Clos Roche Blanche Touraine Gamay at lunch everyday of their lives. I think they are so lucky. But this is the Coad Curse (not the one that Johnny B invoked a few posts back): there is no constant wine. Even within a single day, instead of constant wine (well yes, there should constantly be wine), there must be constant variety.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
I don't have any. I get excited about my ordinary pours, or I drink something else.
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Gotta go with this take on things. My problem is that I'm equally passionate about craft beer and whisky, and so those compete very effectively with wine for my liver's capacity to process alcohol.

Cheers,

Dave
 
I don't drink wine more than a few times per week and it's rarely the same thing.

But on a more general level, I don't get tired of any of the wine styles I enjoy over the short-term. Over the long-term I need some rotation. I.E. dry Austrian riesling when I'm tired of off-dry German riesling and then chenin blanc when I'm tired of those. I'm a diverse fellow.
 
Well, some things work through the rotation more often than others. Olivier, Luneau-Papin, Brun, Vissoux, Dom. du Cros, Montpertuis Counoise come immediately to mind.
 
originally posted by Ian Fitzsimmons:
Constant WinesI wonder if community members would be willing to talk about their 'constant wines.' By this I mean wines you can drink up to a few times a week with real pleasure, but without drama.
Click to expand...

Gee, considering a bottle stays open for me about 3 days, I'd guess every wine I have is a 'constant bottle' according to your definition, so, look at my notes for the wines that get high praise and you will find those wines (too many to count).
 
originally posted by Jay Miller:
As you may have gathered my constant wines tend to be Clos Roche Blanche. But they're more invigorating and affirming than background.
Click to expand...

Well, maybe background was the wrong word. I don't mean dull or uninteresting wines, quite the contrary! I do mean wines that don't hog the limelight. Invigorating and affirming sound just about right.

Thanks for the lead to CRB Gamay, by the way; our last bottle was the best so far. This is an ideal 'constant wine.'

I'm surprised Gruener Veltiner isn't mentioned. We had some Bauer out of liter bottles a few years back that was remarkably good, especially for the price. Also no Saumur.

Is Vat 1 Tyrell's legendary Semillon?
 
Aaack! Chambers was all out of Clos Roche Blanche reds today!

I bought a Puzelat Pinot instead, but still. I hate to seem inconstant.
 
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