Wine question?

[sachabear]

I ate lunch at TGI Friday's yesterday and they're promoting a new addition to their wine list. It's called one.6 Chardonnay and one.9 Merlot. They are new low-carb wines. I know we aren't doing a low-carb thing but I was curious if anyone has seen this brand in stores and if it's a better alternative for P2 than some other wines. Their web site is www.lowcarbchard.com if you want to check it out.

I personally prefer a brand from a local winery here in IN. It has a sweet taste to it so I'm sure it has more sugar than some other brands, but they don't put their nutrition data on the wine bottles.

I hate wasting money on alcohol I don't like, so I wondered if anyone had seen this and if it was a good choice for SB.

I can't find it in our stores yet, but we're slow to get new products. I tried to get Friday's to let me look at the bottle, but they wouldn't.

Thanks,

Sacha

[Audrey]

They tell you to refrain while on P1. On P2, a little red wine is ok with food.

[recipelover]

My personal opinion: drink the regular Merlot or Chardonnay wines. They are fine on SB and I am sure that these low-carb wines have other things in them or taken out of them that make them not as good. I went to the website and they don't really have any information about what ingredients are used or not used. And, when they compare them to other drinks, they only compare them to mixed drinks, not other wines. It looks like a gimmick wine to me.

Stick to regular wines. This isn't a low-carb diet, which is what these wines are designed for. Why spend money on less of a wine.

[sachabear]

Thanks for the insight. I am a wine lover! I love, love, love Chardonnay (a no-no I know) but for a treat every now and then I indulge. By no means am I a gourmet I just go for what tastes good, kwim?

Anyway, just by the taste you can tell if there's a lot of sugar in it. I wish the FDA would make them put the nutrition data on their labels so I could make a better sugar choice. For now though I'll keep buying what I usually get which is probably cheaper than this one.6 stuff anyway.

Thanks,

Sacha

[recipelover]

If you don't like merlot, why not try a Shiraz or a Syrah wine for the red wine. We found a brand that even my brother (who doesn't really like wine) drinks: Black Swan shiraz. It is quite reasonable. We also like their Cabernet/Shiraz blend. We really enjoy wine (maybe too much) and keep these type of wines for everyday use. We save the more expensive wines for special dinners.

Red wine is better on SB.

[rosie103]

A good syrah is absolutelly heavenly, of course I don't buy wine often as I certainly won't finish a bottle.

[recipelover]

We use what is called a wine pump. It is very reasonable and consists of a small plastic pump and two rubber corks (for two bottles). You just insert the rubber cork and using the pump, pump the air out. It lets you keep open bottles of wine fresher, and then you can just have a glass and pump the bottle again. The name is Vac u Vin.

[RedRox]

While not an exact indicator, in general you can look at the alcohol content of a wine which is listed on the label and make a general determination about sugar content as there is a general inverse relationship. Since it is sugar converting to alcohol that occurs during fermentation, the higher the alcohol content, the lower the sugar content (more of the sugars were converted) and vice versa. So very sweet dessert wines will have a lower alcoholic content than a dry red or even dry white wine. It's not foolproof, but at least gives you some relative indicator.

[DarthMom]

I had two glasses of merlot the other night and was DYING For a sandwhich afterwords. For me the danger would definitely be wanting to eat.

Maybe munching on cheese and veggies during the glasses would help that.

[mehitabel]

As I understand it, a bit of cheese would act as a block to stop the sugar triggering the insulin reaction. It's always best anyway to eat a little something when drinking alcohol - in Mediterranean countries you very rarely drink even a glass of wine without being offered something to eat - a plate of olives, a slice of cured meat or salami, for example. Obviously you'd have to be careful, especially with salami which often has a lot of fat in it, but the principle is a good one, I think. And this isn't particularly Mediterranean, but myself I try and drink a glass of water to each glass of wine, which at least dilutes the dehydrating effect.

[Ziploxx]

I know some people think it's cheezy but I like to keep a chardonnay wine in the box for two reasons. 1: it stays fresh because no air gets into the wine bladder, and 2: it's inexpensive and tastes pretty good. They come in many varietals now, such as Merlot, Cabernet-Sauvignon, white wines, etc. There is even one I REALLY like (too much) called Delicious Red. It's a sweet red, so I know it has some sugars in it, but it is pretty yummy. Drink what you like

[mehitabel]

How is the alcoholic content of wines classified in the US? In Europe they are all marked with a percentage, a proof. Generally speaking, the higher the proof the drier the wine, unless it's a late-picked or a sweet variety (ie more sugar than usual in the grapes), or a fortified wine (with added concentrated alcohol, such as sherry or port). Most good table wines land up between 11.5% and 13.5% - anything lower and it's likely to be weak and sugary, anything higher and it's likely to have you under the table in all too short a time. Around 12% is reliable.

But US wines, I find, are often inherently sweeter than European wines, I don't know whether you have sweeter grapes or whether it's something in the way you process them. You undoubtedly have much better weather!

[RedRox]

European wines (most notably the French) also tend to have a higher acidic content I think than American wines. They "go better" with food for that reason, but aren't necessarily as palatable when drinking them by themselves. Americans tend to drink wine just to drink, while most of the rest of the world views wine as something that is consumed along with a meal. Wines in the US are also labeled by percentage of alcohol.

So I think it is more in the way that we process our wines, as the percentages of alcohol are essentially the same. We value (and therefore sell more) wines that may not necessarily be sweeter, but are likely fruitier and more easy drinking because we tend to drink them by themselves. Dr. A tends to recommend light to moderate wine consumption more in the European model, with food at dinner, rather than just for Happy Hour or a nightcap.

[Ziploxx]

Just a afternote ::: Keep an eye out for Texas wines!! There are some very nice TX wines available that I think are just as good as any foreign wine.

In fact, Texas grapes saved France when they had a grape plant virus. I want to call it redfox virus but I'm not sure that is correct. Anyways they imported new grape plants from Texas to rebuild their orchards So if you are drinking French wine you are actually drinking Texas wine!!


Addendum: I was just trying to find an article on Texas saving Foreign Vinyards from certain peril, but couldn't find it. I was told this story by a good (and wise) friend. Hehehe even if it's not true, it's a good tale.

[mehitabel]

I've heard of Californian wines but never of Texas wines - perhaps they are too good to export... The thing you're thinking about is actually phylloxera, which is an aphid-borne disease that in fact came from America in the first place, but it's true that European vines were then grafted back onto American root-stocks which were resistant. See
http://www.bartleby.com/65/ph/phylloxe.html
for a quick overview.

In fact, there do still exist a few pre-phylloxera vineyards in France, but these tend not to be the commercial producers.