bought my wife a wine refrigerator for Christmas, and I wanted to get her a few bottles as well. She loves Chardonay. Possibly some Pino's. Any suggestions?
man I have no idea. She doesn't really drink expensive wines, but that's kind of the plan here (to turn her on to some higher quality wines). I'm not much of a wine drinker at all. Would there be some good wines in the $50-$100 range?
If she doesn't drink expensive wine, and you don't like wine, why buy expensive wine? Fill it up with champagne for new years.
You can get some great Cabs for not super expensive. Some of the traditional favorites and well recognized Cabs that I've enjoyed would be Justin, Stag's Leap, and Caymus. Caymus is probable my favorite of those. I just did a check online to see if there were any specials anywhere, but didn't find anything, though my search was brief. Some other Cabs that are really good and maybe not as well known would be... Kenneth Volk Zenaida L'Aventure Most of those I drink on more special occasions or really nice meals. The good cheaper everyday drinking Cabs I enjoy are Avalon, or 337. Those are around $6-$9. I buy six of those at a time, and they are really good for the price. A Pinot that might be hard to find but is exceptionally nice would be something from RN Estate. There are others, but most of those you could probably find online or order direct from the wineries. The Justin, Stag's Leap, and Caymus can probably be found at any place that sells a decent variety of wines. If you want or need some more suggestions, I'll be happy to offer you some suggestions that I've enjoyed. There are other full bodied reds besides just Cabs that are really good. I like those usually more than the lighter Pinot's, though occasionally there are some really tasty Pinot's out there as well. I'm by no means an expert, and my taste may not match your wife's, but I do enjoy wine a lot, and love to go to tastings and wineries fairly frequently.
Go to your local wine store and ask for help. Give them a budget and tell them how you will be drinking the wine (by itself, with a meal, fish or steak, etc.). You don't have to spend big bucks to get good wines, in fact for beginners some of the expensive wines can be a bit funky. IMO you can generally find better values by going outside the US - Chile, Argentina, Australia, Spain, Italy, France and South Africa all have great value wines.
Chardonays Le Crema is a good lower cost one. Trefethen is a good medium cost one. Grgich Hills is a good more expensive one. DD
Four Graces, Oregon winery, makes a great pinot noir. I believe you can find it at Spec's. $30 - 40 range.
Whomever bought my Sony Playstation Visa number was a huge wine buff and purchased $1,200 worth of wine in New Jersey. (TIL Wine snobs are grammar Nazis)
For a chardonnay - buy her a bottle of far niente and a bottle of cakebread. You will be repaid very handsomely.
A delicious pinot noir for ~$50 is Domaine Serene. Not hard to find, oh so good. My favorite special occasion wine.
