Domaine La Fage 2011 Novellum Chard

In the beginning of my wine education, I never had the liking for domestic Chardonnay. Too oaky, no character, no depth. It took some time for me to venture into white Burgundy territory and taste what real Chardonnay is before it gets juiced up on Red Bull and spray tanned. Following the lead of a friend who was more affluent in French wine than I, we drank through several different bottles. You can't begin to understand the concept of terrior until you sip and savor several wines from Europe particularly France and Germany. Having a someone direct you through the maze of wines from France helps tremendously. Pure terrior driven, flavor filled Chardonnay is something to try especially when trying several from different regions of France to see how the soil and climate influence what's in the glass. As with most whites, do not drink them ice cold as you will not taste any of the nuances intended. When I conduct my Wine 101 class, I always throw out French Chard as my first wine every student tries.

"How many people like Chardonnay?" I ask and usually only a handful raise their hands.

"what do you think this is?"

Generally people guess Pinot Grigio or Sauv Blanc. When I unveil that the wine in question is in fact Chardonnay everyone's mouths drop.

French Chards, for me, have layers of minerality, body, crisp acidity, green apple and/or peach notes and that flavor just keeps developing as the bottle gets lower in volume.

So, a few weeks ago I had to track down a bottle of French white for a customer's gift giving basket. The criteria was French, white, under $15, over 90 points, no Muscadet or Vouvrey or Alsace. Ok?? This is what I found, the Domaine La Fage 2011 Novellum Chardonnay. I knew it would be great, why? Again with the wine clues, the importer was Eric Solomon of European imports.

Here's The Wine Advocate's review...

"The outstanding 2011 Novellum competes with some of the finest Macon-Villages wines one can find. It is made from 100% Chardonnay (from 25- to 30-year-old vines), aged three months in a combination of Burgundy barrels (30%) and stainless steel tanks (70%), and, somewhat innovatively, is aged on Viognier lees which gives it a honeysuckle and white peach-scented nose. There is also a salty sea breeze character reminiscent of the crushed oyster shell-like note my colleague David Schildknect often detects in Loire Valley whites. This crisp, fresh, medium-bodied Cotes Catalanes exhibits lots of earthy/terroir characteristics. Readers should think of it as a brisk, zesty, authoritatively flavored Chardonnay from the cool, alluvial soils on the banks of the Aigly River"-WA 7/12

Stainless steel gives that clean zip for me at least while aging it on the Viognier Lees intrigued me. Mrs. Wine Snob and I opened the bottle last night over a thrilling game of Temple Run our son received from Santa. Fresh from my pseudo wine cellar (my basement) the bottle was a little chilly, so we popped it into the fridge for another 10 minutes. Once opened and then into glasses the magic starts to unwind. The color is a slight golden and when you swirl it into the glass you can see a little viscosity on the edge. The nose comes off with that green apple and ocean air. On the palate, the acidity opens your taste buds to the green apple and minerality I like to refer to as "licking a wet stone". The wine does have body and because of aging it on the lees, you pick up a little of that honey suckle of Viognier. The finish is long and lasting. A tremendous value at $12 by leaps and bounds. If you can find another retailer that has this then buy it by the case! We were both in heaven with the quality. Even though I work in the wine biz, my wife is the one who turns into the wine snob/critic when I open bottles. Funny how that works, but it works.

I wish more consumers would get off their high horse and at least try more French Chardonnay. I'm not saying abandon all domestic Chards, I'm just saying expand your palate and see what else there is to offer! How boring a wine world it would be to ONLY drink Kendall Jackson and J. Lohr all the damn time.

Out on the Town, New Haven

I don't get out much. Job and family will do that to you. But when Mrs. Wine Snob and I hit the town for our date night we live it up. On a recent Sunday afternoon we attended a show at the Shubert Theater. My gift from the wife, tickets to the Rat Pack Christmas Show, turned out to be a lovely evening. After the show we decided to use a couple of gift certificates from Xmas 2011 to Barcelona. I got this love hate thing going on with Barcelona. First time I went there the food and wine were delicious. The next time I went was for a distributor sponsored wine tasting and I was less than impresses with the spread they put out. Understandably that it's not a fair judgment all considering that it's just a trade tasting for us retail and restaurant people. My next visit with the group was a late Friday night after work for a drink with some friends. Did you see the clues there? Late, Friday, night...needless to say as I was walking down Temple St and I was happened to be the recipient of a 9 volt battery to the head by some Jersey Shore wanna be doing a drive by yelling profanity out the car window. Stay clear on college nights. Nothing of any fault of the restaurant's. It's either New Haven has changed since the last time I went out or I'm getting too damn old. Steer clear of Friday and Saturday nights when school is back in session.

Ok, let's put it all behind us. Sundays at Barcelona are half price bottle nights. Score! Sundays around 5PM in December are also a great time because with Yale gone for the semester, New Haven is a ghost town. We sit at a corner high top and order several tapas while I look over the extensive wine list. It's a novel. Barcelona's wine director, Gretchen, is sharp when it comes to wines from the Iberian peninsula. My feelings anytime I see a wine list at any restaurant that is the equivalent of the the entire Lord of the Rings series is that it's just too damn much. Kudos if they turn over that much variety but Damn!! that's a lot of inventory tied up especially with such esoteric varietals and regions. You really have to know your wines, but again this is where the staff and Gretchen's tutelage comes in. The staff is heavily quizzed on what is what when it comes to wine and also pairing those wines with food. Ask your server since they have tasted everything on that menu. 

After much deliberation I selected a Txakolina (sp) which is a very esoteric white wine from the Basque region located between France and Spain. The taste is something like Portuguese Vinho Verde and Spanish Albarino, light, a little acidity, minerality and crisp green apple. The waitress even gets a kick outta pouring the wine. The wine goes really well with the plate of hummus and warm pita chips, but not too tasty with anything else which is fine because I'm more thrilled to be drinking the wine on it's own. As we move onto the entrees I order another bottle, but this time I go for a Mencia from the Bierzo region. One of the up and coming regions turning out top quality highly rated red wines that over deliver for under $20. The taste is something of a cross between Washington State Merlot and Loire Valley Cab Franc. The wine is delicious as is the smoked duck breast I order. The pairing this time is a home run. My wife's Filet Mignon also nails the wine pairing. We top it all off with dessert and cappuccino. 

 The waitress we had that particular evening was one of the absolute best I've ever had at restaurants more exclusive than Ibiza. Again it's a testament to the training and wine knowledge passed down from management. As it was now 6:30-ish and the restaurant began to fill up with young hipsters, it was time for the old folks to get back home. 

Definitely without a doubt this place deserves your undivided attention. Go to Costco and purchase $100 gift cards for only $79.99 and order a half price bottle of wine. If you are in doubt about what to eat or drink ask ask ask! Tapas are good but in comparison to say Ibiza Tapas in Hamden, Barcelona's are just ok. Ignacio Blanco is a hard act to follow, but food like art or wine can be interpreted many different ways. Entrees are well worth the $20+ price tag as I had to be fork lifted outta there. I will tell tales of this terrific culinary date night for years to come!

Point System Shennanigans

I've spoke about the wine rating system or famously called the "Parker Point Scale" in previous post. I'm not a paid wine critic, so this is just opinion but the recent wave of wines scoring 90+ points that I've been sampling have been utter crap to put it bluntly. The descriptions that are laid out for the masses are so twisted and misconstrued as if meant as fodder for mindless sheep looking for something other than sweet reds or Moscato. Even when sampling the wines to customers, they first read the description and say "no, I don't like full bodied reds as the description says...oh wait this isn't full at all!" like I've said before, you can interpret a wine in many ways as your taste buds are subjective to what you like and what you can relate the sensory workout to. But c'mon some of these recent scores and description are so way off that they are basically pissing on us without having the courtesy to call it rain. Do they think we are all mindless zombies shopping in a post apocalyptic wine store? Sorry, just an epic fail! I drank a 92 point Garnacha last night that cost $8 expecting more than what I got. It baffles me. To each there own. Find an in store wine person that you trust to navigate you towards something good. If they say "Well it's rated 90+ points by blah blah from the Wine blah blah" then veer off the road. Ask them what they've been drinking lately as I'm sure it's something off the beaten path and very interesting. I can't stress enough to form your own opinions about what you taste. You don't have to agree with the critic or reviewer. Going back to that 92 point Garnacha... Honig 2007 Cab scored 92 points and was delicious. How do you compare the two? It's apples and oranges to put those two in the same category or even against other Garnacha scoring more or less! Shenanigans!

Breaking Down Rioja

Here's a quick lesson in wines from Rioja...
Rioja is not the grape, but rather the wine taking it's name from the region of La Rioja, Spain. Rioja is further subdivided into three zones: Rioja Alta, Rioja Baja and Rioja Alavesa.
Wines from Rioja are a blend of several different grapes. A typical blend will consist of approximately 60% Tempranillo and up to 20% Garnacha, with much smaller proportions of Mazuelo and Graciano. Each grape adds a unique component to the wine with Tempranillo contributing the main flavors and aging potential to the wine; Garnacha adding body and alcohol; Mazuelo adding seasoning flavors and Graciano adding additional aromas.
Rioja red wines are classified into four categories. The first, simply labeled "Rioja", is the youngest, spending less than a year in an oak. A "Crianza" is wine aged for at least two years, at least one of which was in oak. "Rioja Reserva" is aged for at least three years, of which at least one year is in oak. Finally, "Rioja Gran Reserva" wines have been aged at least two years in oak and three years in bottle. Reserva and Gran Reserva wines are not necessarily produced each year.
Got all that? Now get out there and sample!

Wine Words & the 5 S's

This is where the intimidation starts, but remember they're just words! Throw that dictionary out the window!

When you're in a room full of wine drinkers, inevitably you will hear the "one-upper" say something along the lines that the wine has tremendous structure, elegant nose or showing excellent potential. Maybe you'll see someone holding the glass of wine up to the light to check out the legs and color or making funny "sucky fish" faces as they take a swig. All of this nonsense does have a purpose, BUT if one goes to tremendous lengths to over exaggerate each motion and comment then it's all done for show. All of the adjectives that they use are just words. To each their own. Use what you know to express what you are tasting, seeing and smelling. There are no wrong answers. I can remember one person telling me that a Chardonnay we were tasting reminded her of drinking out of a garden hose in the middle of summer. Does that ring a bell with anyone? It's definitely more understandable across a large group of people rather than talking about the minerality and clay soil composition, right?

When we taste wine, we go through a series of 5 steps. This isn't an exercise routine...well in essence it is when it comes to fine tuning your senses, but it shouldn't be a spectacle for everyone to be witness to. Simple..in, out, done...no more than 10 seconds. Use words you can relate to and understand.

1. SEE...literally look at the wine in the glass. Is it red, gold, yellow, pink, purple? What shade of color are you seeing? Is it cloudy, dark? To a greater length you can also see how old the wine is. Red wines will have a brown edge to them. White wines will be more golden, like apple juice, in color. Hold the wine up to the light or against a white background.
2. SWIRL...this takes some practice. DO NOT WEAR WHITE! Seriously, if you're not used to swirling your wine in the glass you'll end up wearing it. Start with the base of the glass on a flat surface holding it by the stem and give it a little swirl. What you're doing is getting the air in and allowing the wine to wake up and breathe, aerate and give off it's aroma or nose. Think about if you were stuffed inside a bottle for years, you would need a good shaking to wake up too. Also, look at the wine while it's spinning. Does it look watery, does it have viscosity? This will give you some hints before you actually get it in your gullet.
3. SNIFF...get your nose in the glass. Take in the aroma of the wine. Yes it does smell like alcohol, but train yourself to get past that. Fruit, flower smells are easy. Reds usually lean towards berry fruit, chocolate, earthy/dirty (I'll explain later), oak. Whites go towards citrus, butter, oak, herbal, etc. Remember, it's what you are smelling. I opened a red once and it smelled like movie theater buttered popcorn. Hey it's my nose!
4. SIP...the best part! Don't gulp or shoot it. Put a small amount in your mouth and swish it around. Not like mouthwash, but gently ease it around the interior of your mouth coating your tongue all over. You'll now taste what you thought you were smelling. How much body does the wine have? Is it watery or light? Is it big, bold and dry or light, fruity, sweet? Also, while sipping the wine suck in a little air which will bring out more of the flavors in the wine. This is the "sucky fish" face my wife loving makes fun of when I do it.
5. SAVOR...slowly swallow the wine and savor the flavors as the ride comes to an end. What do you taste after the wine is gone? Does that taste stay to hang around? That's the finish and the length of the finish. When someone says that the wine has a long finish this is what we are talking about.

Now put all of that together and you are tasting wine like a pro! Remember it's what you see, smell and taste. You can use all of the BIG words you want, but if no one understands you or no one can relate to what you are saying then it's a wash. So I say keep it simple, understandable and relative. My colleagues and peers would think otherwise, but being too technical brings us back to the snobbery. If it taste like grape juice then so be it.

The more you really take the time to think about all the flavors and smells the more things will come to mind. One wine critic uses the best adjectives when he rates a wine. "This tastes like Trix cereal on a Saturday morning." I love that he's not afraid to tell people what comes to his mind first. Be confident, this is not the SAT's. There is no right or wrong answer. If you taste something like the fruit juice left over from eating a fruit cocktail snack pack then say it with confidence! "This red wine tastes like mocha covered cherries dammit!"

You'll be surprised at how many people agree with you. 9 times out of 10, people are just afraid to say anything for fear of being ridiculed. But c'mon we're all adults. It's wine and it should be fun to share ideas and understand what everyone else is thinking. After all, it is an experience to drink a great wine and remember what you tasted with a group of good friends. class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;">

Benefit Wine Tasting October 2

Local wine tastings are a great way to explore and learn about what you like in wine while at the same time helping an organization.  If you live in southern CT, Anthony's Ocean View, New Haven probably host 2 or 3 a week for various local charity.  Prices range from $30 to $50, but with that you not only get access to some really great wines, but also a smorgasbord of food ranging from several types of pastas to hot & cold hors d'oeuvres to chocolate fountains.  If you happen to be in the area, I'll be attending one on October 2nd.

"M.T.A Scholarship Fund is a privately funded scholarship program for Catholic Schools in New Haven's East Side.

M.T.A. Scholarship Fund's purpose is not only to assist children in our community by providing tuition assistance to low-and moderate-income families.  We are giving families an opportunity to choose their children's future, but also to demonstrate that community-based approaches can revolutionize the educational system and improve the quality of education that children recieve.Please join us at Anthony's Ocean View and sample wines from premium Domestic and Imported Wineries coordinated in conjunction with a local wine purveyor while you enjoy a feast prepared by Anthony's Ocean View of scrumptious hot and cold Hors D'oeuvres.
$30 per ticket
Contact Sal Decola at 203.641.1857 for tickets and/or donations."

 

Usually at an event like this you'll sample anywhere from 40 to 60 different wines.  Not a ton, but enough that it won't overwhelm your pallet. 

Check out www.localwineevents.com to find events in your area or ask your local wine shop for details.  Happy hunting!

Navigating a wine tasting

In the retail wine biz, September kicks off distributor tastings/shows with hopes of big buy ins for the inevitable holidays ahead. Sounds glamorous and fun right? Tasting 100's of different wines. Talking to some big wig winemakers. Drinking $200, $300 Cabs. Yeah right sign me up, who doesn't want to go? Here's the side maybe you don't see...

Maybe you want to try the new Far Niente or Caymus or Silver Oak? Well so do your 1000 closest friends and their family. Be prepared to wait in line. How do you get through a tasting of this size and caliber without going postal and without getting completely bombed outta your gourd?

First things first, you need a game plan! Your years of playing Stratego are now going to pay off! Understand your opponents. Depending on the size of the venue, expect 100's of wine drinkers of all different levels and experiences jockeying for position to try all the new and latest wines. They'll also be zeroing in on everything over the $100 price point just to say that they drank those bottles. They'll never buy those bottles but hey it's free, so why not right?

You need to come up with an idea of what you think you would like to try. Maybe it's a different country or a different style of wine. All summer you drank Pinot Grigio, but what other Italian whites are out there? This is the opportunity to find those gems! And they're will be tons of vineyard reps and winemakers to answer your questions.

Remember these three words; Sip, Spit/Swallow, move on.

Those five S's of wine tasting we talked about earlier are going to come into play now.

Ask quick questions as there will be many people behind you waiting to do the same. Be courteous to your fellow tasters and the person at the table serving you. Inevitably you will end up behind the "know it all" who insists on telling the rep or winemaker everything that he/she knows about their vineyard and how the grapes were grown. Seriously! You think that impresses anyone especially the guy/woman that spent 20 hours a day tending the vineyard, picking the grapes by hand, creating the wine while you were sitting in your lazy boy? We got a lot of ground to cover here.

If you can get a brochure of what and who will be at the tasting event that will give you an extra 15-20 minute head start, so ask whoever you can to get that booklet and look it over days ahead if time. You can't possibly taste every single bottle in the room so having an idea of what you really want to accomplish is half the bottle.

Plan your course of attack. Go through all the white wines first. Make sure to spit. Again, be courteous. I've had total tools spit on the ground and on my foot. Not cool. This is CT! You are a far cry from Europe.

Now that all the whites are done go find the food! Put together a nice plate and sit down to take everything in. Have a glass of sparkling water. Give your palate a rest and a cleanse. A nice cold beer would even work good at this point. Restroom trip, freshen up and on to the reds!

Pace yourself now since Reds will be bigger wines to take in. Spitting at this juncture in time would be a great idea. It's all fun and games until someone passes out!

By now you should be exhausted and your palate shot. 

Find the nearest restaurant and sit down order a tall glass of water and relax. Look over your notes and try to remember what all those check marks, stars, etc mean. Get some real food in your body, mission complete! 

Martin Scott Fall Tasting @ Lincoln Center in NYC

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wine cheat sheet

Ok...maybe you're the type that refuses to be helped by a salesperson or waiter when finding that perfect bottle the same way us men refuse to stop for directions when driving.  Maybe t's something in our genes passed down from generations of hunters and gatherers or maybe it's because some people do not want to be ridiculed.  I shop around a lot of stores.  I like to be sold to sometimes.  It makes me feel like I'm off duty.  There's nothing better than going into another wine shop and having someone help me pick something out.  The negative is when some Poindexter wine geek sticks his nose up to every inquire or suggestion I make.  If you don't have the wine, just say so. There's no need to ridicule what I like.  Once in a while you get a shop owner that likes to converse about your selections and offers up some suggestions of his own.  That's the fun part!

BUT what if you don't like taking advice or suggestions from someone else?  What to do what to do?  There is a cheat sheet to make it easy to spot a great bottle and it's FREE!

On the back of every bottle is a label and on that label should be who imports the wine into the U.S.  There are many different groups out there just like there are jars of tomato sauce on the grocery shelf...so how do you tell one from the other?

From France look for the following guys:

• Kermit Lynch
• Fredrick Wildman
• LaTour

From Spain:

• Jorge Ordonez is one of the top!
• Eric Solomon or European cellars
• Ole Imports
• Boedgas Olarra/Classic Wines of Spain
• Gil Family Estates

Italy

• Winebow
• Neil Empson
• Opici...not just the jug wine guy, but an entire empire of great wine selections.

Again with anything it's your taste buds.  This is 9 times outta 10, fool proof.  I've shown people and now when I see them in the shop, they are turning over bottles to see who is on the back.  Understand this though...find the importer, if you like the wine understand why you like it.  Then look at the region it came from and the blend of the wine.  Next start looking for similar wines from that region and you'll be progressing on your own without the "cliff notes".

Cheers!

What's with the ratings?

Ratings..today everything is based on a rating system of either stars, thumb or points.  Siskel & Ebert were notorious for destroying movies with their thumbs down "send them to the lions" movie ratings.  As a child I would get so upset to see them kill movie after movie that I wanted my mom to take me to go see, but I tuned into their show every Saturday afternoon to see the coming attractions and to hear what they would say.  Although, I have would agree on their ratings for Ishstar.

Yelp and other similar websites are changing businesses everyday especially with mobile technology.  Next time you're out dining and see people taking pictures of their food, chances are that they are on some website praising or destroying the place.

Wine ratings go the same root.  There are many critics out there that have a huge following of loyal readers that hang on every word they publish about a wine.  These wine afficiondos can make or break your vineyard with one swipe of the pen.  Some winemakers consider it an honor to have their wines reviewed by any critic, other vineyards choose not to play the games and simply refuse to ever submit their wines for criticism.

The most popular rating system for wines seems to be what is called the Parker Point Scale, made famous by "The Wine Advocate by Robert Parker" publication.  In this scale, the overall rating from 0 to 100 is evaluated by specific critics who specialize in certain areas of wine all over the world.  Parker's not alone!  Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, Decanter, Stephen Tanzer, etc. all have a subscription based neewsletter/ratings guide to wine.  Heck even your local wine shop jumps on this system like they were hired by the New York Times.  "T-Dog gives this Yellow Tail Merlot 95 points because he wants you to buy it so he can justify his over purchasing for the week!"

As the scale goes...If you're in the 80+ point range you're safe.  Over 90 points you're pretty darn good.  Under 80 points, pack up the vineyard and rethink your career choice.  Again it's not the golden standard.  It is merely one person's opinion on a specific wine in their respective region of preference.  Some critics only rate/review Italian wines, some only California wines.  And with that you have to submit your wines for the tastings for the inevitable smackdown.  It's like sadomasochism!  "Here are the fruits of my hard labor of the season for you to only destroy my hopes and dreams!"

Remember, it's a person's opinion about a wine.  You don't have to agree with it.  I don't agree with most of them.  I've drank some great wines that have never been reviewed, that refuse to play along.  In my honest opinion, it's a game and the game is called making sales.  Look through any wine publication and you can see by the ad space and size of the ads who gets the best ratings.  I can remember a few years back when Wine Spectator magazine published their "Best Wine of the Year" list.  They overlooked so many great wines that they themselves scored high on the scale only to give Yellow Tail Reserve Shiraz a spot on the chart.  How can you score a wine 93 points and overlook it only to put a 90 point mass produced wine in the spotlight?  Then you turn to pages 2, 26, 97 and see the huge color ads then everything comes full circle.

There are a lot of great writers out there.  Find one you jive with.  Eric Asimov writes a wine column for the NY Times that is great.  I find Food & Wine magazine to have great articles about wines.  Their reviews are from more obscure vineyards and wines.  Also, I like to see what they are pairing each wine with in regards to food which helps with the whole visualization process of what the wines is going to be like.  At the local level, get to know your wine guy or the people that work under the owner.  Ask what they drank this past weekend and chances are that it's some lonely bottle out of the spotlight tucked away on a lower shelf.  Those are the gems!

Wine ratings are a good guide to help you navigate through the maze towards making a decision.  By no means are they or should they be the BIBLE of the wine world.  Most wines/vineyards that I like either get horrible ratings or not rated at all.  It's not because I have bad taste, but maybe it's just because that particular vineyard took a stand and said "I don't care what you say about my wine.  I'm going to continue to make wines that people enjoy drinking!"  At some point in my career, I just began to call BS when I read the reviews and took bottle after bottle home to try only to discover that the review was totally off.  When you give a $10 bottle of wine 90 points and proclaim to the world that it's loaded with ripe berry fruit then that's what I should expect.  When I go home to open the bottle and taste oak, licorice, earthiness, minerality then it's something different which leads to believe that the critic is gearing his review for a market to drive up sales.  Whatever!  It's my opinion, it's there opinion!  My check is smaller than theirs so their opinion carries greater weight.  We both still put our pants on the same way.  Remember that!

It all comes back to try, try, try!  Make your own notes and compare them with your friends, family.  In my house, I've always allowed my son from an early age to smell the wine and tell me what he thinks.  It's amazing to hear the unadulterated and young opinion of a child.  "This smells like blueberries and rootbeer" was my son's first review of the Las Rocas Old Vine Garnache 5 years ago.  Now he's getting a little more descriptive as his palate evolves each year as he tastes new foods.  Maybe he has a future in this field??

Does Price Matter??

Because wine is so subjective to your own palate and opinion there is no straight answer to this, sorry. The long and the short is, it only matters to the person paying for it and the people drinking it.  Again, you don't have to spend a lot to get a lot.  Stay in the price zone that you are comfortable in. If you are use to drinking $10 bottles then once in a while pop open a $15 bottle to see the difference.  Dropping $100 for a bottle is a big leap and yes it will make a difference not only in your wallet, but you will taste the different nuances that come with something of that caliber. Will you appreciate it more? Again, that's up to you.  If you are on spending spree and want to treat yourself to spend $100, in my honest opinion, buy four bottles at $25 each and compare them. Work your way up the ladder gradually. There are many bottles out there for under $25 that drink far beyond that price range.

Try anything from Spain and South America right now, tremendous values! France and Italy are coming back into the scene with great value driven wines again. The Rhone Valley of France has oustanding red and white blends for under $20 that are mind blowing and wallet friendly.


“People give me crap for trying to charge $125 for a bottle of Nagual del Judith (Caduceus’ high-end Cabernet Sauvignon), but they don’t understand it’s on the side of a hill, it’s under one acre, it’s all hand-farmed and there are only 50 cases of it. If I charge you any less than a hundred bucks, then I’m paying you to take it! A metaphor I use is, I think there are some fantastic musicians out there that could walk into Walmart, pick up an acoustic guitar and one out of 10 times give you something you’ve never heard before. But if you really want to make sure it’s all consistent, just go buy a Gibson Les Paul. There is a difference! There’s an absolute difference between an old vintage Fender and something that you order from Kmart, the craftsmanship that goes into it. In wine it’s no different; there are absolute different focuses and farming practices that go into the finer wines. The price goes up as the demand goes up, but the demand goes up, generally speaking, because of the art that’s going into it.”- Maynard James Keenan winemaker @ Caduceus Cellars, Playboy 8/23/12

A lot of factors influence price when it comes to wine. Think of it like this...if you buy a plain cheese pizza then it safe to say you're spending under $10 for the pie. Start adding bacon, peppers, anchovies, etc and not only do you change the price but you're also changing the flavor. Also, the more exotic the add-ons are then the flavors change drastically and the price really starts to climb. White clam pizza with white truffle oil is not the cheapest pie on the menu, but it's ohhh so delicious.

With wine it's the same thing. Start adding all the extras; oak aging, premium grapes, location, limited supply, etc and viola you're now up over $50 a bottle. A Cabernet Sauvignon grown in the Howell Mountain section of Napa is going to cost more than one that comes from Central Coast. Better grapes, location, etc. Likewise, pizza on Ferry St. in New Haven costs less than pizza made at Pepe's on Wooster St. Coincidentally they taste totally different too...the pizza that is.

Again, it's all about you.  Be comfortable and confident when making your purchases, but once in a while treat yourself to something special without having to take out a second mortgage.

Aussie Wines

Where do you start with this? Ok, I'm not a big Aussie or New Zealand wine guy. Or let me rephrase that. I haven't seen/tasted anything new from down under that blew me away. Nothing personal at all trust me, but in the same respect I just started drinking Italian wines all over again. Maybe it's because I'm getting older, maybe because I appreciate the style more now than before. I dunno. Same with wines from down under. Maybe its because the little Kangaroos, koalas and penguins just destroyed the market not that I consumed those, but even still...10 years ago, if your vineyard did not make a Shiraz you were losing out. Much like the Pinot Noir phenom when Sideways came out and the negative demise of Merlot as a result. "I am not drinking any $@"& Merlot!"
Ok, back to the beginning. My first entry into Aussie Shiraz was a bottle of Yangarra Park Estate Shiraz, under $20 if I remember correctly. It was great! Literally flavors of dark cherries covered in mocha, velvety, silky smooth (Zohan reference) balanced tannins where they weren't killing my front teeth. Is that reaction to tannin just me? This was like textbook Shiraz. Like taking shop class and looking under the hood of a '79 Monte Carlo compared to today's cars. There's the carb, there's the timing belt, etc. From New Zealand I went for the Selaks Sauvignon Blanc. Again, text book NZ Sauv Blanc with tons of grapefruit, crisp acidity and balance between those two. Now over the years it's been a crap shoot of what's been brought to market but again ratings and reviews seem to drive that area of influence.
I once saw a great interview with the very lovely Laura Catena, famous winemaker from Argentina and doctor in her spare time. In relation to the grape Malbec, she stated that "now is the best time to drink Malbec before every winemaker gets one to market. In a few years the market will be so over saturated with garbage just so a vineyard can say that they have a bottle of Malbec on the shelves.". This was just three years ago and she wasn't kidding. I felt the same about New Zealand and Australia. Every NZ Sauvignon Blanc was like drinking battery acid mixed with a splash of Tropicana grapefruit juice. Every Aussie Shiraz was a huge fruit bomb and fell apart after that. Kim Crawford always gets huge ratings for their Sauvignon Blanc, but to be honest over the years it's changed so much. I will say this though, forget their Sauv Blanc and DO try their Chardonnay. That's some tasty wine. Crisp and clean without all of the humongous grapefruit overtones. Taste close to French Chard which is good for me. Now Australia seems to be making strides again. Here's my opinion as to what their problem was. They started off as a good valued wine producing region then as popularity grew so did the pricing. They were rushing products to market and losing quality. Then South America and Spain got into the game and are still pumping out tremendous wine under $10. Over the years I have tried some phenomenal red blends from Australia that have my attention. I'd like to try more once summer changes over to fall. Likewise I've had some great Pinot Noirs from NZ that were very Burgundian in style. Last week I sampled a trio from an Aussie producer called Vinaceous. A Chard, a Cabernet and a red blend with of all things Tempranillo which is primarily found in Spain. The Chard was very good but Aussie Chards just don't get the credit they deserve and likewise with the Cabernet. People don't "get" them. The blend was very interesting with little fruit and more earthy, smokey flint. That may appeal to some people but ehh, not right now or on it's own for me. So, hopefully we will see an influx of new wines from down under this upcoming season. Your homework, pick out something from down under and tell me about it! Make it something different. Tell me what you are tasting, smelling, etc. It's your palate and it has it's own opinion! Trust it.

What's with the pink stuff??

I don't know why the color of a wine would make anyone feel like less of a wine drinker. I mean, it's just a color. Maybe it's the mysticism associated with being a fruity sweet wine like White Zin as opposed to something more serious. Whatever! You press a lemon and the juice is tart. You press a Zinfandel grape and it's fruity. To each their own. So, with summer comes the consumption of the pink stuff otherwise know as Rose. I drink this style of wine all year round when the mood or food is right. For whatever reason why Rose wine is associated with summer is beyond me. I mean it's not like wearing white after Labor Day. Next holiday you make a glazed ham, try a Rose specifically one from Spain made from the Monastrel grape. Ahhh, match made in heaven. 

 Simply put Rose wine is made by letting the grape "juice" (for lack of scientific terms) come into contact with the dark grape skins for a short time just to allow some color. Think of it as dropping a white egg into a cup of water dyed with PAZ Easter Egg dye. Sometimes you put just enough coloring you get baby blue pastel and other times you go a little heavy handed and you get navy blue.

Some of the best Rose comes from the southern region of France called Provence. There, the wines are typically a blend of several different grapes such as Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, Carignane, Cinsult and others. The end result is a wine that, in most cases, is clean crisp with good acidity, light to medium body and tropical fruit to citrus on the nose. I'm starting to see more Rose from Provence blending in Cabernet Sauvignon for body, this year imparticularly.

Bringing the party back home...the big three wine producing states do their versions of Rose wine. Although, as of late I've been drinking rose from lesser known wine producing states such as Arizona and Long Island, NY.

Of all the places, who would've thunk that they can make wine outta AZ? One vineyard in particular, Arizona Stronghold, makes a wonderful Rose called Dayden. It's a huge blend of many grapes with a touch of red Zinfandel. A little darker in color than your typical Rose but tons of flavor and nose on this bad boy. It tastes more like biting into the last piece of rose colored flesh on a watermelon right before you hit the white meat on the rind. Good stuff, but I'll spare you the details for another post.

Coming back to the east coast take a gander at what Long Island wine producers from Wolffer Vineyards and Bedell are doing with Rose. Both are more Provence France in style and flavor. Beautiful, elegant, clean, crisp and dry. They both smell more like Sauvignon Blanc than anything else. Again, more on wine from wacky places for another post. But, seek these wines out and try them while they're in area stores.

You gotta chuckle when someone turns their nose up to a White Zinfandel. I mean, Beringer Vineyards makes world renowned wines. Their white Zin funds every project and keeps the place in business. When Christmas rolls into town this year, see what White Zin is stacked to the ceiling. No laughing, but for many people White Zin was their gateway drug into wine drinking. Hopefully you've graduated into other wines by now, but again you had to start somewhere.

Again with any wine, taste around and find out what tickles your taste buds the best. Try the wines on their own and with food. You'll be surprised at how much a better a wine tastes when it has something else to play off of.

This past week, we happened to partake in a private home wine tasting with around 20 of our closest friends and family. By the end of the evening we had changed everyone's mind as to how they felt about Rose wine. Get the people out of their comfort zone and show them what it's all about. Words can't explain what your palate is tasting sometimes so it's always better to pour the glass and sip, savor the night away....but I'm more of a hands on learner anyways! Cheers!

What's this all about?

Everyone starts somewhere...sometimes we forget where we began.
I'm by no means or would even consider myself an "expert" per say in the field if wine. I simply do this for a living about 60 hours a week, 6 days a week. I taste anywhere between 50 to 75 new wines a week depending on the season and the promotional push from the sales people. I just like what I do and probably taste more wine than the average person who does not work in this field.
My palate is no better than yours know that first and foremost! Your senses are like muscles, you have to work them out constantly in order for them to work in sync like a machine...or they get all flabby to the point where you get what I call "nonni arms". If you have an old Italian grandma, well you get the picture.
I was going to start this blog off by pointing out all the wrong that other guys in this field do and how snobby they can be which turns off and scares people. BUT, to be honest with you, I want you all to read what they say, hear what fire they're spitting at you and build some self-confidence about making wine selections on your own You know more than you think. You just need to fine tune it all in unison.
Let's face it, wine buying is intimidating! Nothing like a Poindexter ridiculing you over your choice of wine just because you like the pretty kangaroo on the bottle. You like it right and who is he to say otherwise. Wine should not be scary or intimidating rather it should be inviting and welcoming.
When did we all become wine snobs? Did we all just pop out and start drinking Screaming Eagle? I bet somewhere down the line all of these so called wine experts started drinking White Zin or Blue Nunn. Something brought you to the point where you wanted to drink wine, now it's just a matter of expanding your pallet and getting out from the rut you've been in.
My "colleagues" in this field all have their own swagger about explaining wine to you. Some throw out big terms while others like to name drop big vineyards which makes me believe that there is something more of a self confidence issue there that Dr. Phil hasn't fixed yet.
It is what it is and you should feel #1 comfortable while shopping/selecting your wine and #2 confident in making your own purchases. If your wine guy looks like my profile pic run! No just kidding. But if you hear someone spitting out that "They bottled left over Cherry Block juice ($100 a bottle) and are now putting it into XYZ wine for $10", run. It's a good sales pitch, but it's one of those too good to be true stories.
Ratings are all good to use as a guide line and I respect all of the wine critics, writer, bloggers, etc out there but sometimes you gotta pick you head up out of the Thesaurus and talk to people. I mean, fruit sounds appetizing but "gnawing on fresh upholstered saddle leather seats dipped in #2 lead pencil" does not sound like the optimal purchase for me at least. Again, to each their own just understand what you like. That is key! It helps me, the waiter, friends,etc. pick out better wines for you.
It's all about YOU! Don't let anyone tell you differently! If you've never had the pleasure or interest in drinking a first growth Bordeaux then all that jibba jabba isn't going to have any lasting impression on you to make a choice. There's a great scene in Jerry McGuire where he's yelling at one of his clients..."Rod! Help me help you Rod!" That's what we need from you. Know what you like...fruit, dry, earth, tannins, red or whites. There's nothing wrong with what you like after all it is your palate, but once in a while get out of your comfort zone and put something new in your glass.
So with that, I open up this chapter of my day to day life in the wine world to you with the hopes that one day we can sit around a table together and share a glass of vino! CHEERS!