Good Wine Hunting

Aside from the obvious reasons to go wine tasting you may be surprised by some of the reasons we go taste. First and foremost is the thrill of the hunt. Yes thats right 'the hunt'. A wine adventure, or as we are prone to calling a WineWalkabout! We love to venture out and hunt for the next amazing wine. You know, the excitement of going to new places to meet new people, to taste new wines and to find the next perfect one, or at least the next great one to amaze your friends with. It is often not a 10 on the scale but a great buy for good wine. 
Maybe it’s to say you went to this winery or that because of their reputation, and how just going there improves your standing with the cool wine group. Those are important to us because as most of you know we are shallow.

While finding the next fantastic wine is always a hope, what we believe should at least occasionally be the goal, is to find good wine at a good price, from good people trying to do a great job. Family owned small production wineries working hard to produce the best they can with what they have. Now we know this sounds like pre-election rhetoric about supporting the poor and middle class wine makers, but really, it’s not. This is not to say that these types of wineries don’t produce some magic wine but more often than not it is, well, just good. Rather than looking at this as a shortcoming, we believe that this is a great place to find unique and interesting good wines that are priced in the **** category and are very worthy enjoyable everyday wines. We need more Weekday Winners (WWs) that we don’t feel guilty opening or heaven forbid not finishing (ha ha fake out, we never have left overs).

The other advantage that hunting off the mainstream gives you is the element of pure surprise. The surprise you feel when out of the blue and off the beaten track you do taste an inexpensive wine that makes you say, strewth, bloody good drop that!

Every time you go to the wine fridge is your selection based on cost or rarity or can you just pull one out cause their all good and inexpensive.

Just one great example of cost / taste surprise.

Let ‘s face it we don’t all have the budget to open $100 plus bottles of wine every night for dinner or for that matter even $40-$50 bottles, so finding good enjoyable drinking wine for about $25 or less is a great find and a part of a responsible budget. Obviously, a low price alone isn't enough. The real surprise lies in finding fantastic quality and then looking at the low price. Of course neither of these surprises happen with expensive wines.

We can’t overstate the fact that there is a lot of good wine made in this price range and finding it is not that hard. But maybe it does take a little bit of a different focus while out tasting. You are perhaps tasting a little more for the mmmm factor not the OMG factor. In some ways just being able to open a bottle without thought to cost or occasion and just pour a glass, grab a book or watch the All Blacks thrash the Wallabies (again) is how wine is meant to be enjoyed. There should be no concern as to cost or availability or whether or not you may not drink the whole bottle before it turns, or share it with troglodytes that may not appreciate it the way you do. Simply relax and enjoy a good drop and enjoy the hunt as we do.Go and enjoy your WineWalkabout...

Happy hunting Adventures,

Cheers,

WineWalkabout

Kiwi & Koala