When your spouse really screws up dinner.

jp_nyc

jp_nyc

Kick Henry Jackassowski
Last night my husband decided to make one of his big Sunday night dinners. He finds a recipe he likes, buys ingredients, spends too much time making it, and I eat a little while he’s watching, eat real food when he’s out of the room, and throw the leftovers in the trash a couple days later. He has a habit of picking recipes that include wine and getting the wine from Safeway. Despite a reputable wine merchant being located approximately three doors down. So the food is usually bad. Yesterday he picked an Italian pinot grigio in a screw cap. Italian white, screw cap, chain grocery store. That’s three monstrous strikes. I don’t know what the food was, but he didn’t even mention it to me. It just disappeared. I guess he threw it in the trash and put the trash in the bin before I saw it. Moral of the story: there’s a reason stores that sell wine can stay in business despite big chain stores offering the convenience of mass-produced wine at seemingly low prices.
 
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Screw caps make for better seals than corks. It’s not about resealing a partially emptied bottle. It’s better than a natural cork. Period.
Although the new synthetic corks are giving screw caps a run for their money. Better seal and you still have something to sniff.

A bag o’ wine in a box is a better dispenser than a bottle if you can’t finish it off in a day.
The bag collapses as it empties and keeps the wine still in the container from oxidising. Just don’t “burp” the bag.
Here at least, you can get some pretty decent wines in a box. In some cases, the same wine that comes in a corked bottle….
 
Unless it’s a super wine-intensive dish (coq a vin, for example), wine quality in cooking isn’t that important. I mean cooking with cheap wine or using it for mulling/cocktails/etc. is sort of a time honored way of making good use of sub par wine.

Mostly wine is just adding some acidity and depth of flavor. Maybe your dude is just bad at food.
 
dodgechargerfan said:
Screw caps make for better seals than corks. It’s not about resealing a partially emptied bottle. It’s better than a natural cork. Period.
Although the new synthetic corks are giving screw caps a run for their money. Better seal and you still have something to sniff.

A bag o’ wine in a box is a better dispenser than a bottle if you can’t finish it off in a day.
The bag collapses as it empties and keeps the wine still in the container from oxidising. Just don’t “burp” the bag.
Here at least, you can get some pretty decent wines in a box. In some cases, the same wine that comes in a corked bottle….
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I’ve had a few bottles of wine where the cork had dried out. Vinegar! I’m glad the modern world has figured out screw caps and synthetic corks. But, you’ll probably never convince me that a wine box is a good purchase.
 
jrockbridge said:
I’ve had a few bottles of wine where the cork had dried out. Vinegar! I’m glad the modern world has figured out screw caps and synthetic corks. But, you’ll probably never convince me that a wine box is a good purchase.
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I’m not trying to sway you, but if you have big parties, it can be more convenient than multiple bottles.

Other than that, yeah, it’s not really the quality of the wine in the box that I question. It’s more like, “Do I need this much wine?”

To be fair, there are some bad wines that come in a box, but it’s not that the wine is in a box that makes it bad wine.

This is pretty good wine, but I don’t need it to last 6 weeks after opening.
…and i don’t need 3 litres of wine on any given day (or 2)

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dodgechargerfan said:
I’m not trying to sway you, but if you have big parties, it can be more convenient than multiple bottles.

Other than that, yeah, it’s not really the quality of the wine in the box that I question. It’s more like, “Do I need this much wine?”

To be fair, there are some bad wines that come in a box, but it’s not that the wine is in a box that makes it bad wine.

This is pretty good wine, but I don’t need it to last 6 weeks after opening.
…and i don’t need 3 litres of wine on any given day (or 2)

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The reason I have such a prejudice against bag o' wine is because, growing up, my parents bought cheap wine in a box. If I see wine in a box, my mind will ruin the taste of it, even if it's quality booze. Anyway, more often than not, when I want to get a buzz on, I drink quality vodka. It's virtually devoid of flavor, goes down smooth, and gets me gassed in no time. Good tip on the box wine for entertaining though. It makes sense.
 
There are some decent enough boxed wines. I have a box of pinot grigio in my fridge right now. I think it's Bota Box. Also, don't knock Italian wines. Like any region, they make wine ranging from excellent to virtually undrinkable. German wines are entirely different. They add too much sugar so German wines tend to be overly sweet. But you can even find good German wine if you know what to look for.
 
Bob411 said:
Way back when, I enjoyed way over my fair share of beer, bourbon and mixed drink but, I never enjoyed wine. I would take a sip and think, why would anybody do this to perfectly good grape juice.
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This is similar on the way I feel about champagne. Even Dom Pérignon taste like someone screwed up a batch of wine to me. I may as well be toasting with the cheap stuff because I don’t care for any champagne.

I went through my wine period. If it’s a good bottle, I still enjoy it. But, I prefer beer to wine most of the time. Dark is my favorite for taste even though it’s more likely to give me a hangover. Wine is something to drink with dinner for me.
 
If he's a shitty cook it doesn't matter what wine he's using. I can make something that would knock your fucking socks off with anything that happens to be in the fridge or cupboard using no recipes, just the accumulated experience of a guy who started out at 20 baking and cooking in a French-ish restaurant.
 
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