I drank too much alcohol. AMA

[Torco]

I haven't tried argentinian in a decade, but I remember it being vastly inferior to local wines. chile is kind of weird in this sense: you can pay three bucks for a bottle of wine that's as good as a 10 euro one in spain, but it's kind of a chilean meme to laugh at the perceived inferiority of transandine vino.

french wines are nice, really different from chilean or californian tho. spanish reminds me of argentinian, but better. I haven't tried italian. all in all, yeah, this vibe of 'oooh, the best terroir blablabla' is kind of snobbish, even though chilean is the best

[hwhatting]

Champagne is about as far north as the common grape vine grows.

That's maybe true for France; in Germany, you have major wine-growing areas farther to the North, e.g. on the Middle Rhine, the Mosel, and the Ahr. (There are isolated small vineyards further North at particular warm spots, e.g. in Hamburg or Berlin, but those are mere curiosities without economic importance.)

[Raphael]

(There are isolated small vineyards further North at particular warm spots, e.g. in Hamburg or Berlin, but those are mere curiosities without economic importance.)

For now.

[Ares Land]

Champagne is about as far north as the common grape vine grows.

That's maybe true for France; in Germany, you have major wine-growing areas farther to the North, e.g. on the Middle Rhine, the Mosel, and the Ahr. (There are isolated small vineyards further North at particular warm spots, e.g. in Hamburg or Berlin, but those are mere curiosities without economic importance.)

Ohh, that's right! For some reason, I never quite place Germany right in my mind; I see you guys a bit to the south of where you actually are

[Ares Land]

I haven't tried argentinian in a decade, but I remember it being vastly inferior to local wines. chile is kind of weird in this sense: you can pay three bucks for a bottle of wine that's as good as a 10 euro one in spain, but it's kind of a chilean meme to laugh at the perceived inferiority of transandine vino.

french wines are nice, really different from chilean or californian tho. spanish reminds me of argentinian, but better. I haven't tried italian. all in all, yeah, this vibe of 'oooh, the best terroir blablabla' is kind of snobbish, even though chilean is the best

I haven't tried Argentinian for a while either. Chilean a bit more -- Chilean wine is a pretty good bargain, even over here.

[Torco]

I know! like 15 years ago I found cheap chilean wines in supermarkets in prague, berlin and barcelona. i think a big chunk of our economy is just exporting wines.

... okay, no, not that big of a chunk, only 2e9usd, comparable with wood chips at 3e9, and much smaller than fruit at 7e9. it is still the case that 50% of our exports is either copper or copper ore.

[Linguoboy]

I haven't tried argentinian in a decade, but I remember it being vastly inferior to local wines. chile is kind of weird in this sense: you can pay three bucks for a bottle of wine that's as good as a 10 euro one in spain, but it's kind of a chilean meme to laugh at the perceived inferiority of transandine vino.

I don't recall much a difference between Argentine and Chilean wines available locally. They're both broadly similar to California wines but generally a bit less for the same level of quality. Then again, I'm not much of a wine drinker generally.

For some reason, I found myself having a conversation about Missouri wines recently. When I was growing up, only the sweetest wines were remotely palatable. Now there's a bit more range in the whites (though the best still tend to be on the younger, sweeter end) but the reds are still largely undrinkable. In that respect, it's a lot like Germany.

[foxcatdog]

I've drunk a lot of wine and most of it is a bit to strong for my tastes. The wine i drink the most is Moscato which is wine for people who don't like wine due to its sweet profile. I also just recently (about a week ago) had a red wine which was much sweeter and milder than the others and it was rather nice. I do not think i have ever drunk an non australian wine except on cruise ships.

[Torco]

if you like moscato because of that i recommend a late harvest white, or a cava, as things you might also like.

[Raphael]

Alcohol-related question: is it true that the British and the Irish drink their cider they way they drink beer, while the French drink their cidre more like the way they drink wine?

[foxcatdog]

According to a quick google search it has about the same alcohol content so i assume they drink it the same way. Also it mentions they are quite sweet and i don't know if that means sweeter than regular cider so perhaps it is too sweet to drink on its own.

[Ares Land]

I don't know, sort of?
It's served in champagne-like bottles, is served in cute little bowls and we drink it with a few specific dishes. I think the Brits serve their cider on tap, while we (generally) don't.

I'm really more familiar with German Apfelwein -- my wife has friends from Hesse. It's really completely different. Our cider is less strong and sweeter.

[Raphael]

I don't know, sort of?
It's served in champagne-like bottles, is served in cute little bowls and we drink it with a few specific dishes. I think the Brits serve their cider on tap, while we (generally) don't.

Thank you, that's exactly the information I was looking for!