Originally Posted By: chesseroo
[quote=mdrew]

As for the 'test' wine, a Beringer Founders Estate cab sav i can get locally.
That is one option.
Any broad name zins and cabs from the US should be available here, but none of the ones mentioned so far other than the Beringers are familiar to me. I would have to check.
How about a Gnarly Head old vine zin?

Sounds like you will have an excellent time sipping good juice and talking audio. I’m jealous….

I have not had, or heard of the Gnarly Head, sorry. Pretty much any Beranger will be a good test. They tend to have a heavy Spice and Tobacco taste/smell to them. Aeration helps tame that, or so I have found anyway.

Another good one to try that may be available is a Stag’s Leap Petite Syrah. I just had a 02 the other night at a friend’s house and really wished we had a decanter. Great bottle of wine, but it took a good hour before it really opened up. Are they available where you’re at?

I'll give this some more thought and try and come up with some more vino's that might be good to test this with.

Another thought....Italian and French wines tend to have a heavy tannin to them. I don't care much for them for that reason. I know they intentionally design their wines for drinking with food and the tannin presence helps in that regards, but I buy wine to drink without needing food (although I do enjoy wine paring dinners), so I stick with US wines in general. So considering this, I suspect just about any heavy bodied red from Italy or France will be a good test candidate.