I have a friend named Rob who isn’t really a wine guy. Rob isn’t alone, many people aren’t into wine.

The wine industry has allowed a perception that wine is more special than beer to permeate society. Working guys drink beer. Fancy pant elites drink wine.

I don’t know of any other industry that would purposely allow barriers to purchase to exist like this.

With wine, we’re not talking about unattainably expensive status symbol luxury items like Rolex watches, but there are many people who would more willingly buy a Rolex watch than a bottle of wine. With the Rolex, you know what you bought, an expensive, investment grade, time piece.

People just don’t know about wine, and not knowing are afraid to order it.

By allowing wine to be perceived as complex, a beverage for learned experts, the industry has fostered a fear in consumers. “I’m not James Bond, I don’t know a good vintage, or even a wine type; I’ll just have a beer, or a shot of tequila, or a Mojito, or a coke, or iced tea…anything but wine. I don’t want to look stupid in front of my friends or the waiter or the shop keeper.”

At the same time that Bacardi was marketing their rum through aggressive Mojito promotion, and selling more rum than ever, the wine industry was allowing fear to continue to be a wall most people won’t climb to try their product.

I could scream.

I read the blogs of many wine writers, pick up the wine magazines, keep up on marketing trends. 100 point wine ratings, 5 star ratings, indecipherable wine speak, Frasier Crane-esque reverence paid to a handful of producers of wines not available to the general public or too expensive to justify buying. Open a door or window and let’s get some air in here; most of what you’ll read about wine is from writers who have bought into the failed marketing of the industry – of absolutely no interest to anyone outside of the community of wine cognoscenti. Yawn.

Wine is so much better with most meals than beer, or iced tea, or coke, or just about any other beverage, but the industry is not getting that message across; it also hurts that restaurant wines cost triple what they would in a store and wine service is generally poor.

The next time you are in a nice restaurant, you will see many if not most people drinking beer or iced tea instead of wine. I can assure you that given a wine recommendation that would suit their meal better, and offered a glass of that wine at a reasonable price, most everyone would be drinking and enjoying both their wine and their meal more. I blame the wine industry for poor marketing.

Rather than be one of thousands of other wine writers bleating about the same unattainable cult wines, effectively bragging to my fellow wine writers about the wines I am drinking, I want to write about wine for the guy that would rather have wine with his meal but doesn’t want to feel like an ass.

Although wine knowledge is never ending, wine is simple. Let me say that again; Wine Is Simple.

Take the wine I drank my Christmas meal with, a 2008 Menage a Trois from Folie a Deux winery in Napa County’s St. Helena; while the wine goes for $12 a bottle, I just found the same wine on sale at Lucky’s supermarket for $8.99, so price needn’t be an obstacle to having good wine with food.

I appreciate that there are a wealth of wines in supermarkets that run from $8 – $20 per bottle, and some are good and some aren’t. I’ll try to taste a number of them and give you my recommendations.

Menage a Trois is a playful way of saying that the wine is a blend of three grape varietals, Cabernet Sauvignon, the king of reds, big, structured, dense, with black berry and currant notes, Merlot, Cab’s softer sister red, rounder, fleshier, with cherry notes, and Zinfandel, a brash, in your face red, with raspberry notes.

You have heard, “red wine with meat.” With three red wines in one bottle, this wine is a great wine for pairing with a host of meat dishes from hamburgers and hotdogs to pork shoulder and flank steak. Pasta in an Italian red sauce, Caesar salad; heck, I could drink this wine with just about anything and be happy.

Wine shouldn’t be about inviolable rules, but I will share a few “wouldn’t be a bad idea”s with you along the way.

The “wouldn’t be a bad idea” for today is not overfilling your wine glass just because you have the room to do so. My wine glasses are large, either 16 or 20 ounces, and I pour no more than 4 ounces in my glass. I get to swirl the wine, let it breathe, let the bowl of the wine glass collect wonderful scents, bury my nose in the glass, and inhale all the aroma and bouquet the wine has to give. A sniff and a sip, can change a bite of already good food into something almost transcendent. Doesn’t always, but, oh is it nice when it does!

I can get about six glasses of wine from a bottle at 4 ounces per glass. That means my $8.99 sale bottle of 2008 Menage a Trois is costing me about a buck and a half per glass.

The wine industry should be telling you that you can get a great wine to pair with food at home for about a buck and a half a glass.

That’s a lot more valuable information to most consumers than knowing about another garage winery whose entire release is sold out but just got a 10 page write up in a major wine publication after scoring a perfect 100 points in a possibly not blind tasting.

I’ll be visiting Fetzer and Bonterra in Mendocino County, doing some wine tasting close to home this week, hopefully I will be able to make some more recommendations. I also want to taste some of Topel Winery’s wines, they are also from nearby, but their tasting room is in Healdsburg, so tasting for me will have to wait a bit. I also should be seeing some wine accessory samples arrive this week that a distributer said they would send; I’ll try those out and let you know what I think. I’m also going to try cooking polenta a different way, and I’m going to make another batch of involtini this week. Lots of things to write about, I hope you’ll keep checking in.

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If you do have the time, and are near Healdsburg, CA stop into the Topel Winery tasting room and taste some wines before year’s end. They have a 2007 Sauvignon Blanc, Grace at $130/case ($1.80/glass) , 2004 Hidden Vineyard Cabernet at $190/case ($2.64/glass), and 2005 Cuvee Donnis Syrah at $150/case ($2.08/glass). These prices are discounted 43 – 51% per case, promo codes are “Grace”, “Hidden”, and “Donnis”, and the sale only runs through the end of December.

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Edited to add: A friend, and reader of my blog, Shannon let me know that the 2008 Menage a Trois was $6.99 at Costco. Seriously, at $1.16 a glass, this wine costs less per ounce than the bottled water I bought at the Fairplex in Pomona, CA at the beginning of this month. Buy it, pair it with meat. Thank me later.

Learning about wine can be very, very daunting.  There are so many grapes, wine regions, styles, producers, aspects of production, the list goes on and on.  Most people, sadly, give up on wine before they really give themselves a chance.   Truthfully, if you start off trying to memorize the entire 1855 Classification or every Grand Cru vineyard in Burgundy or trying to make any sense at all of the utter mess of a classification system in St Emilion, well, that fire hose will quench your thirst fast.  How then to make some headway into this apparent quagmire?

I had a real insight when I realized that wine is like astronomy.  You see, when I got interested in astronomy a year or so ago, I figured I would never be able to learn the constellations like all the astronomy geeks had.   But then I realized something: there’s 88 constellations.  Well, only half are visible from the northern hemisphere.  That made it 44 constellations to learn.  Only half are visible during summer, the other half during winter (you can only see those on the side away from the sun).  Now I was down to 22.  Then I figured only about half are bright enough and recognizable enough to be reasonably easy to see.  Aquarius, for example, or Camelopardis are dim and diffuse compared to Orion or the Big Dipper.  Now I was down to 11 from 88.  Even I can learn 11 things!  This’ll be easy!  Well, it might still be challenging, but it was definitely an easier way to ‘eat the elephant.”

Wine is similar.  If you sit down (like I did) with Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia and start chewing though it, you’ll likely end up overwhelmed by information; not all of which is really essential for a burdgeoning wine enthusiast.  But what if we break it down into more reasonable chunks?  I have come up with a technique:  I call it “I Can Learn Six Things.”

Can you learn six things?  Of course!  Anybody can!  So look at major wine regions: France, Spain, Italy, USA, South America, Australia.  That’s certainly not all of them, but it’s arguably the six most significant (no disrespect intended to Germany or South Africa).  Look at USA: California, Oregon, Washington State- that’s just three!  California has Napa, Sonoma, Central Coast.  Washington has nine wine growing regions, but two of them are shared with Oregon!  Look at France: Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Rhone, Loire, Languedoc-Roussillon.  Italy: Chianti, Super Tuscans, Prosecco, Barolo, Barbaresco.  That’s only five!  South America is only two: Argentina and Chile.  Two!  Each major part of the wine world can be broken down into six or fewer main parts.  Each of those parts can be broken down into six or fewer main parts.  If you go through only two or three levels (example: France- Burgundy- Cote d’Or) you’ll know more about wine than just about everybody. 

As far as grapes go, if you learn just the six Bordeaux grapes- Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Carmenere plus Burgundy’s Pinot Noir, you’ve covered almost all the significant grapes in the world.  Add the Rhone Valley’s Grenache and Syrah and the list is even more complete.  Add Spain’s Tempranillo and Italy’s Sangiovese and you’re really cooking with gas.  If I just listed all those grapes one through eleven and said ‘Memorize those’ you’d already be done with me!  But when we look at it as three separate steps it’s very approachable.  As you move around the world you’ll see all these grapes overlap.  Chianti and the Super Tuscans use Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah in addition to Sangiovese.  Corsica (in Italy) uses Grenache but calls it Cannonau.  Spain uses Grenache too but calls it Garnacha.  Argentina thrives on Malbec, while Chile kicks Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot butt.  Australia makes tons of Syrah, but calls it Shiraz.  The whole US west coast is almost completely described by Cab Sauv, Merlot, Syrah, Pinot Noir.  If you add California Zinfandel you immediately zing back to Italy where they call it Primitivo.  White grapes are even easier: take Burgundy’s Chardonnay, Bordeau’s Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc and you’ve really got most of the world’s whites covered.  Once you’ve got those down it’s easy to throw in Gemany’s Riesling, Vouvray’s Chenin Blanc, the Rhone’s Viognier, the Loire’s Melon de Bougogne, Italy’s Muscat and all of a sudden you know more about white varietals than the salesman at the wine store.  Once we build a six-item skeleton, we can decorate it with all the various tidbits to create a very complete understanding of the world of wine. 

There’s another aspect of this that initially adds confusion, but then creates clarity once all the pieces are understoon.  This fact is that the wine world is  quite, well, incestuous.  All the grape growing regions are cousins, as are many of the wineries.  I wrote in an earlier post how grapes are similar to tropical fish: all the tropical fish in the world dispersed from Indonesia.  Similarly, most of the grapes dispersed from France.  Vines from Bordeaux and Burgundy were literally taken (sometimes smuggled, sometimes outright stolen) from French vineyards and planted in California, Italy, Chile, Argentina.  It can be no surprise that grapes moved from France to Spain and Italy.  It can be no real surprise the winemakers from Bordeau bought cheaper land in Argentina and Chile and started wineries there.  It makes sense that big Champagne houses started wineries in Carneros (at the southern end of the Napa Valley).  All these pieces fit together.  Heck, American phylloxera resistant rootstock was grafted onto almost all French vines after most French vines were destroyed by phylloxera (a vine eating louse for which there is no cure) in the late 1800s.  So French vines grow on American roots!

I hope you can see how all the pieces of the wine puzzle can fit together with just a little bit of knowledge.  We’ll approach each piece in turn, limiting ourselves to six (or fewer) elements at a time.  Then we’ll stack these six-element pieces together to form the Big Picture.  This is The Journey Into Wine.  Each step will take us farther around the world, deeper into each region, connect us to our fellow wine lovers.  And the real beauty is that it’s all wonderful, delicious, fascinating.  Come along with me!

Stupendous girlfriend has given me a subscription to the Microbrewed Beer of the Month Club — specifically, the Three Microbrewed Beers of Every Other Month club (which by my calculations means I come out ahead). First installment to come in January. I expect it will be boundary-stretching and tasty.

Last night: Prosecco, Sauternes, eggnog from a local dairy out of a glass bottle in a tiny glass. Tonight a Sauvignon Blanc, which I tend to judge by the heuristic of exactly how much it tastes like grapefruit, and this one performed splendidly.

Oh — enjoyed a Bell’s double cream stout the other week while making fancy macaroni and cheese. More smoke than cream coming through this time for whatever reason. Left in our fridge from that evening are some kind of breakfast stout I’m excited to try and Xingu, which, not gonna lie, I’ll probably end up making into beer bread.

I recently attended a tamale making class bring given by our local Slow Food organization.  Our instructor was chef Robyn Doan, who recently started “True Natural Foods,” a company making organic and delicious frozen meals which she hopes will be found in a Costco near you.  My main curiosity in taking the class was to find out why it was that the great many tamales I’ve had over the years have been over-dry and sometimes even flavorless.  I also saw the big challenge awaiting me of blogging about this adventure. The tamale is about as complex a topic as you can muster for a blog which really is supposed to talk about what to drink with it. Would there be a way for me to even discuss this subject in so compartmentalized a venue as a weblog?

A tamale looking quite stylish

Let’s start with the five basic components of a tamale, four of which you absolutely need to create a sufficiently good tamale: (1) First and foremost you need good masa.  And herein lies one of the secrets to making sure your masa has a good texture and isn’t going to turn into cement upon cooking.  (2) You also need well-made sauces.  The three I tried were already made. There was: a homemade “sweet and spicy” mole sauce; a rustic guajillo red chile sauce; and a green tomatillo chile sauce. A recipe for a really good mole sauce can be found here.  (3) Obviously, you need corn-husks, the wider and flatter, the better.  (4)  You will need good produce and cheeses.  The fresher, the better.  For our class, we had at our disposal freshly husked corn kernels, mashed sweet potatoes, Oaxacan cheese (like mozarrella, except a bit saltier),  and some brown sugar.  (5) The fifth component is the meat.  Along with the masa, this probably requires the most preparation time, since you want the chicken or carnitas to shred off the bone with a fork.  Vegetarians can make good tamales without the meat, but I really enjoyed the ones I had with pork “carnitas” or chicken.

Sweet potato and corn to be added to the tamale masa mixture

Students busy making their tamale creations

Without getting into a long discussion into a topic of which I am a complete beginner, what separates a mere tasty tamale from a delicious, gourmet tamale is the masa.  You can get pre-made, but fresh, masa at a Mexican grocery store at a dollar a pound.  Or you can make it on your own.  To make it yourself, you need the masa flour (“masa harina para tamales”), baking powder, tomatillo husk infusion and either Mexican seasalt  or storebought seasalt.   The masa should be moderately placed in the tamale corn husk.  If you put too much in, you will get something which is bland and dry.  I observed it as though people were putting cream cheese on a bagel, and stopping about 1 inch of the borders of the husk.

A bin full of corn husks - just pick the winner

One of the fun aspects of making the tamale is creating the “envelope” or fold, which involves two pieces of flat, fairly wide husk and also some shredded husks to use as the laces or ties.  The tamales thereafter were steamed. Depending on the size of your steamer (a vegetable steamer will suffice) or the tamales, the steaming can take anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes.  Wait until the envolope rises a bit or is puffy.  I never did well in grammar school art class, so my tamales were no masterpieces.  However, to my utter amazement, these tasted great. 

Some of my more modest early creations

Steaming tamales soon to be eaten

  A Couple of Recipes For the Meat

Chicken Simmering for 2 Hours For Maximum Shredding Potential

Carnivores must also be cognizant that the best meat to put in a tamale must be very tender. This requires at least two hours of simmering either meat.  Here is the recipe for the Mexican shredded chicken:

5 lbs. of whole chicken or bone-in thighs with skin on;

2 tablespoons of canola oil;

1 medium white onion, quartered;

 6 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed;

2 teaspoons of dried Mexican oregano;

1 teaspoon of dried thyme;

2 teaspoons of kosher salt;

¼ teaspoon of ground black pepper.

Heat oil in a heavy duty large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the chicken pieces 2 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to a large pot or Dutch oven.  Brown the onions and garlic in the skillet for about 2 minutes. Transfer to the pot.  Season with the herbs, salt and pepper. Cover the chicken and garlic with water (about 6 cups). Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer for 2 hours until tender.  Remove chicken from broth.  Shred the chicken with forks.  Discard bones.  Chill the reserved strained chicken broth and discard the solids.

Here is the recipe for the pork:

5 lbs. of pork butt, cut into 2-3” chunks;

4 tablespoons of canola oil;

1 medium white onion, quartered;

5 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed;

2 teaspoons of dried Mexican oregano;

2 bay leaves;

¼ teaspoon of allspice;

Kosher salt to taste;

¼ teaspoon of ground black pepper.

Heat oil in heavy duty pot over medium high heat.  Cook onions in oil for 1 minute.  Add pork to brown, about 3 minutes per side.  Add remaining ingredients and enough water to cover, about 6 cups.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 2 ½ hours until tender.  Remove pork from broth and reserve strained broth.  Shred pork with forks.  

So What To Drink With Tamales?

I posed the question of drink-pairing with tamales to our instructor, and the answer wasn’t totally a surprise: Mexican beer – a lighter beer with a spicier sauce and an amber beer with the sweeter, mole sauce.  Or a margarita. 

I’ll also add a couple more suggestions here.  I think that a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, with its blast of tropical flavors, would balance really well with the ingredients of a sweet and savory tamale.  You can also drink a California chardonnay well with either chicken or carnitas tamale, especially if the corn is part of the stuffing in your tamale.  If you are enjoying a more savory tamale with some spice to it, an Argentinean or California Malbec, which are royal purple in color and have a fairly round, soft structure on the palate, would offer a supple, velvety counterpoint to the tasty, zesty dish.

Leaf removal in grapes is done to allow air to flow around bunches and to expose them to sunlight. This lowers the risk of botrytis (bunch rot) as the exposed bunches dry out quickly after rain.
Hand removal of leaves is the traditional method used and works well as the leaves inside the canopy can be targeted.
Machines have been developed to pluck the leaves off by sucking the leaves into the path of a cutter. This works well with leaves on the outside of the canopy, but doesn’t get the leaves that are in the middle of the canopy and often around or over bunches.
We use a Collard Leaf blower that works by blowing a large volume of low pressure air pulses that shatter the leaves while doing little or no damage to the bunches. We find it works really well as it takes a lot of the internal leaves out. We use it at the end of flowering to ensure that bunches dry out quickly if we get any rain and this greatly lowers our botrytis risk.

Cheers for now

Stuart
http://www.toreawines.co.nz/
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New Zealand’s top Sauvignon Blanc’s as selected by Cuisine magazine are just out <link>.

Congratulations to St Clair and Mudhouse who both get two wines in the list.

For us 2009 will be known as the year we embraced the internet. We have been active in social media for nearly 6 month and must say we have enjoyed every minute. It has been a real learning experience and we see that in this environment you must embrace change and always look to learn from the people around you. We have met so many interesting people and are now beginning to understand its breadth and power.

What has amazed us is the feedback we get from our customers. Traditionally wineries get feedback on their wines through the retailer / restaurant via the distributor. As you can imagine this is a long and difficult path and with so many links in the chain the message is not current and often diluted before it reaches us. The ability to talk directly to our customers has been fantastic and we have seen Torea come alive as a brand and grow rapidly.

We found Social Media is all about collaboration and the online Haka “Twaka” we did this year was a great example of this. It started as a celebration of Maori Language week on July 31st with a few tweeters coming together to take part. Everyone enjoyed it and had a great time so we were encouraged to do another Twaka to show our support for the All Blacks and give them a lift after the battering they had endured in the media. The response has grown with each Twaka we did through people spreading the word in NZ and around the world. We also collaborated with Teusner Wines in Australia who supported the Wallabies with a Twilda (The Waltzing Matilda online). Collaboration is fun and the key to social media.

People often say where is the return on investment for the time and effort you put in. We believe it is not about measuring your results and saying “If I do this – I want that”. It’s about being part of a community, listening carefully and really enjoying your time communicating. It seems when people get to know and like you in the right way they could be more inclined to try your wine in the future. We also try to educate our followers by posting regular updates on where our Marlborough grapes are at.

We have seen some great growth this year in the business? Is it because of Social Media? – Its hard to know, but something seems to be working.

If you happen to come across this article and would like to share your experiences on social media, we would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
Cheers for now

Stuart
http://www.toreawines.co.nz/
Join us on Facebook here
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The Bodega Salentein Wine Cathedral

HE SAYS: Our other stop in the Uco Valley was at nearby Bodega Salentein. This is also a new winery, an endeavor by a large Dutch company. They also spent about 5 years building this massive winery, and constructed a large art museum, sculpture garden and restaurant up front.

In addition, they have a lodge and chapel on site. The massive winery building is in back, and it was shaped in the form of a cross with two levels to allow for gravity flow of the wines from the stainless steel fermentation tanks into the aging barrels.   Their facilities are quite impressive, and our tour guide, Luciano, was really informative and good-natured.

The restaurant had fine food, but unfortunately tasting was limited to the two wines they poured. Admission was about $12 US for the pair of us and included admission to the wonderful art museum, so a very worthwhile visit.

SHE SAYS: Remember how I wrote in our first Argentina wine country post that only silly people try to visit 4 Mendoza wineries in one day and we are those silly people?  This is that day.  My husband is an admirable Olympic wine taster, I am a humble amateur.  I love this bodega, but I am not in on this tasting.

They call this bodega  The Wine Cathedral and for those of you who are making wine your new religion, this is the temple at which you will want to worship.  Wry and beautiful at the same time is the tasting room with a counter hewn from rustic limestone that looks like a sacrificial altar.  “You will sacrifice everything for the vine.  Everything. Mwa, ha, ha!!!!”   In a pinch, when the chapel is full, they can say Mass in the tasting room.

The first generation of my Italian family who lived in Argentina was in the construction business. (something about getting on the wrong boat?  Ah well…)  Anway,  Uncle Louie owned a marble and stone quarry and so my exposure to and appreciation of stone work  is a little more intense than the average person.  This bodega has some extraordinary stone work as well as a deep appreciation of the earth and a duplication of classical architecture to create that feeling of homage and mystery as you travel through the experience.    They even have a glass enclosed cross section of the bodega’s earth as a piece of artwork on one wall so you can see some of the details of the soil.  These people rock.

The structure is beautiful and gave us numerous unique photos which we will share with you here as soon as the wordpress photo uploader starts working again.  There seems to be a glitch tonight.  Sorry for the delay.

The art gallery is indeed fabulous and the food in the cafe – outstanding.  The best roasted vegetables I’ve ever had.  I have no idea why, but they were incredible.   Another item to take note of at the winery is the gift shop.  Winery gifts shops can be so much “the same” after a while.  This was not the case at Bodega Salentein.  Some very unique wine maps, descriptions of the grapes of Argentina, gorgeous leather goods and excellent books.  Be sure to allow time for the shop.

2006 Salentein Sauvignon Blanc – HE SAYS: This was the only Sauvignon Blanc I was able to taste in Argentina and it was really quite nice. Great balance of citrus flavors, with the complexity of a chardonnay. It spent six months in French oak and would make a great food wine. 15     SHE SAYS: I’m going shopping, honey.  See you later.

2004 Salentein Pinot Noir – HE SAYS: This was the only Pinot Noir I was able to taste in Argentina and it too was really quite nice. It was grown in the highest vineyard they have, over a mile high elevation. It showed off bright fruits of cherry, strawberry and raspberry, along with nuances of violet and rose petals. Barrel aged for about a year, then bottle aged for half a year. Not much tannin, so you’d want to drink soon. Very tasty 16
SHE SAYS: I’m back!  Thanks for the credit card! )

One of the most useful tools I have experienced as a wine guy is a wine aroma and bouquet nosing exercise.

When talking about how a wine smells, wine folk break down the scents into two main parts – aroma and bouquet.

Aroma refers to the scents that come from the varietal grape used to make the wine and are often fruit or floral in nature; blackberry, raspberry, cherry, apple, pear, rose, and honeysuckle are all examples of aroma.

Bouquet refers to the scents that come from winemaking choices. Put grape juice in oak barrels instead of stainless steel tanks, put the wine through a second fermentation called malolactic – changing tart apple flavors to round buttery flavors – and the wine you produce may have notes of oak, toast, cream and vanilla, these are examples of bouquet.

Together aroma and bouquet are described as a wine’s nose, as in “that ‘97 Cabernet is holding up just fine, it still has a great nose of deep rich blackberry and current, with a little rose and eucalyptus, served up in an oaken bowl.”

While at Windsor Vineyards, I worked with and for a good friend Mary Jean Dubé. Mary Jean used to put on a nosing exercise regularly. She would task several people with a few notes each, and on the day of the tasting she would collect raw ingredient samples from each of the people she had asked to help. Mary Jean would end up with about 40 different aroma and bouquet scent samples; lemon, fresh cut grass, vanilla, butterscotch, rose petal, pepper, and so on.

Mary Jean would pour about 4 ounces of base wine in a 16 ounce glass; the wines couldn’t have much varietal character of their own as that would interfere with the exercise. Gallo hearty Burgundy and Chablis served well, they were red and white, they were made from grapes, they had alcohol, they were wine; but they were almost aroma and bouquet free. They each smelled like wine, and that’s about it.

With 20 4 ounce pours of red wine and another 20 4 ounce pours of white wine in front of her, Mary Jean would start adding a bit of a sample scent to each glass; different red wine glasses would get some blackberry, cherry, oak, tobacco or pepper scenting ingredients while different white wine glasses might get a supplement of apple, apricot, butter, hay, or violet. Putting a petri dish on each 16 ounce glass to act as an aroma/bouquet lid, and the name of the scent in the glass on a 3″ x 5″ card placed answer down under the glass, the exercise would be ready for any and all to test their noses at nosing wine’s noses.

I took part in the exercise at least a half dozen times and loved it every time. It is always good to sharpen and test your senses, find out your weaknesses, and work to become a better wine noser/taster – at least it is if your are working in a professional capacity within the industry.

Le Nez du Vin and other aroma and bouquet nosing kits are commercially available to make nosing exercises easier to put on. A variety of aroma and bouquet essences are available in a collection of bottles within a kit; kind of like a chemistry set’s collection of chemicals.

Visiting some Oregon wineries a couple of months ago, Nancy Iannios reminded me of the existence of the UC Davis Wine Aroma Wheel by Ann Noble. I had a friend who likes wine, but isn’t “into” wine, that was going to visit wine country and wanted to spend a week together learning about wine. The wine aroma wheel is the best simple tool to help someone begin to find the magic that is wine tasting.

Essentially, the wheel helps you figure out what you are smelling, breaking down into 12 separate categories that are then further broken down into sub categories. An aroma might be defined as fruity as opposed to woody. Looking at the fruity section of the wheel, the scent might be further defined as berry as opposed to citrus or tropical fruit. Within the berry fruits, the scent might be further defined as strawberry as opposed to any of the other berry fruits. The strawberry smell was always there, you were smelling it, you either didn’t know you were smelling it or couldn’t precisely identify it. The aroma wheel helps you identify the different aroma and bouquet notes in the glass of wine you have in front of you.

ZAP, Zinfandel Advocates and Producers, have a Zinfandel specific aroma wheel.

Alder Yarrow has a downloadable aroma card here on his Vinography.com site available in either color or b&w.

Funniest note you’ll find often in Sauvignon Blanc (also known as Fume Blanc): Cat Pee. If you’ve drank Sauvignon Blanc and enjoyed it, you may be surprised the next time you taste and nose your favorite Fume. Often there, right next to a smell of hay or straw, will be the unmistakable scent of cat pee. Sometimes winemakers blend in up to 25% Semillon in an attempt to disguise the cat pee aroma. It isn’t really off putting. If you liked the wine before, you should still like it – just maybe with some wry amusement or chagrin each time you smell it.

Wine elites waxing poetic over scents of cat pee. The industry can do with a lot less of that and a lot more regular folks who happen to love wine, sharing their love and knowledge through their blogs.

Jakob Trollback를 다룬 documentary를 봤다.
목요일날 봤다. 금요일도 아니고 토요일도 아니고 목요일날 봤다.
많은 생각과 영감을 얻었지만 난 좌절을 맛보았다. 도대체 내가 무엇을 하는건가?
Jakob Trollback은 광고계의 종사하는 소위 말하는 광고쟁이다.
그는 또 음악산업에 조그만한 (우상화하진 않겠다) 힘을 보태는 DJ이기도 하다.
그야말로 누구에게나 말하던 나의 이상향이다.
그가 역설하고 설파하는 자신의 철학과 work ethic은 놀랍기까지 했다.
놀랍기도 하고 누구나, 나를 포함해, 선망하고 꿈꾸는 어떤 것이였다.
그가 근래에 진행했었던 프로젝트들이나 지금 그리고 미래에 진행하고, 진행할 프로젝트들을 열거한다면 그가 이룬 것들이 얼마나 대단한지 느낄 것이다.
그에 더불어 그는 자기가 사랑하고 좋아하는 것들을 자신의 일 그리고 취미로 삼고 자신의 삶을 꾸린다.

스물 한 살의 그리고 스물 두 살의 나에게 던져지는 질문이 있다.
나는 무엇을 하고, 나는 무엇을 할 것인가?

가장 얄밉고 야속한건, 지금 마시는 Sauvignon Blanc에 진한 청포도향이 그저 날 만족시킨단 것이다.
(Jakob Trollback에 대한 진지하고 심층적인 이야기를 원한 사람들에겐 미안하다.
A true apology to whom expects an entry of thoroughly examining about Jakob Trollback).

Leaf roller caterpillar can be a problem in vineyards as they set up sites for later botrytis infection. The usual method of control of this pest is with fungicides. There are soft fungicide options available but we are always looking for better safer options. Biological control of pests has become a real option thanks to some good research on the ‘Greening Waipara’ project.
The research indentified flowers that would attract the appropriate parasitoid to keep the leaf roller caterpillar under control. What does this mean down on the vineyard?
More colour as we plant every few rows in a combination of Buckwheat and Phacelia. It’s a win, win situation as we don’t need to spray insecticides, the leaf roller doesn’t cause unnecessary botrytis damage and the vineyard has greater biodiversity and colour.

Buckwheat (white flowers) and Phacelia

Cheers for now

Stuart

http://www.toreawines.co.nz/

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*Disclaimer: I received this wine as a sample from Rodney Strong.

Recently I’ve been coming up with bargain wines that I would peg as retailing for more than they do. I love these wines…I’m happily impressed when I finally look up price points and feel like if someone bought the bottle it would offer a lot of bang for the buck. I felt like a white the other night so I dug into a box of sample from Rodney Strong and came up with the 2008 Rodney Strong Charlotte’s Home Sauvignon Blanc. The wine retails for about $9, had a screw cap closure, and clocked in at 13.8% alcohol by volume. It may cost you a buck or two more than a critter wine, but it’s well worth it in my opinion…you actually get an interesting wine with character (not characters!).

My first note, which is the second time I’ve ever noted this in a Sauvignon Blanc, is that it smells a little hoppy like beer.  I also got lemon, grapefruit, melon, fresh cut grass, and tropical notes.  In the mouth I found melon, lemon, grapefruit, pineapple, tropical notes, and star fruit. The wine was crisp but had a nice round finish. I found it to be very refreshing and a good value.

So today, The Two Guys were wanting something a bit different for lunch.  They choose Bistro 561, which is the restaurant run by the Pasadena Campus of the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts.

The restaurant is only a few blocks from The Two Guys’ offices, nestled in the heart of Pasadena’s Playhouse District.  (It’s gets its name from its address — it’s located at 561 East Green Street, Pasadena.)  The restaurant bills itself as employing Le Cordon Bleu curriculum “in the training of tomorrow’s chefs.”  The way the restaurant works is that it’s supposedly run by students at the school, who are gaining their practical training, while displaying their skills learned thus far at the school.  The dining room needs a bit of an update, but it’s cozy enough, if not a bit relaxed.  We were told that every plate that leaves the kitchen is approved by a chef/instructor who oversees the operation.  Other than the school/training aspect of the restaurant, it really is just like any other bistro.

One key difference is that instead of one server, we were bombarded with no less than five, all a bit rough on the edges and sadly, lacking personality.  In their defense, it frankly appeared that with the exception of one of them, all were quite nervous and seemed a bit out of place.  (Think Bambi upon seeing those proverbial headlights.)

So first we were brought a plate of bread:

Bread

Nice.  Nick ate most.  We really wanted to hear that the bread was made on site, but sadly, when asked whether it was baked on premises, one of the servers said, “I dunno.”

Another server brought out some salt, butter and olive tapenade:

Butter, Salt & Olive Tapenade

The tapenade was awesome.  Kudos to the chef.  John lapped it up with a spoon.  However, the butter was not up to the level of a top tier dining establishment.  The Two Guys think that the management should consider purchasing butter from a farm that specializes in churning out (no pun intended) real butter, such as Vermont Creamery.  Let’s face it – they aren’t discounting their prices because it’s a school, so they should be dishing out top tier product.

The chef send out an amuse bouche of lardons, some sort of root vegetable, and creme fraiche, all in a small Radicchio leaf.

Amuse Bouche

Nice touch.  “Good but not great,” said Nick.

John ordered the Bistro Frisee, which consisted of frisee lettuce, lardons, a poached egg, apple cider vinaigrette, and two medallions of crusted, warm goat cheese.

Bistro Frisee Salad

Nick ordered the “Triple Onion Soup,” which was French onion soup with a few slices of baguette and gruyere tossed in.

French Onion Soup

The salad was nice, except for the egg, which The Two Guys thought unnecessary.  The soup was a bit on the spicy side.  Don’t get us wrong, we love spice, but think that French onion soup is not the place for overly spiciness.  John also thought it was a bit too sweet, as if the chef had doused it in balsamic vinegar while cooking.

We had already asked the maitre d’ to choose two wines for The Two Guys – one white to go with the salad, and one red to go with the entrees.  The white that was chosen was the 2008 Brander Sauvignon Blanc (Santa Ynez Valley).  John loved the grapefruit and tart flavors, mixed with minerals, though he thinks the finish was flat.  Nick didn’t like it at all, finding the minerality didn’t work with the rich egg in the salad (and certainly didn’t work with the soup).

For the entrees, Nick picked the “Steak Frites,” which was a petite filet, shallot butter and parsley fries.

Petit Filet with Shallot Butter and Fries

John chose the braised beef short ribs with truffled mac ‘n’ cheese.

Short Ribs with Truffled Mac 'n' Cheese

The steak arrived medium rare, just as we had ordered.  It was good, but not memorable, such as the steaks one might receive at Smitty’s, just down the street (or even the ones that The Two Guys make at home).  The short ribs were disappointing on two levels.  One, they were quite fatty.  The Two Guys think that great short ribs require many, many hours of slow cooking, to render out most of the fat.  When short ribs are served with gobs of gummy fat, it’s a hint that they weren’t cooked correctly and certainly were cooked too quickly.  Two, they were too “meaty,” meaning that the flavor was nothing but meat.  The Two Guys also think that one hallmark of great short ribs is that they have incredible depth of flavor, a sublime earthiness that comes only from many hours of braising.  These ribs were neither.  On The Two Guys’ food scale, they got a D-.

In hindsight, we should have ordered the salmon.

For these entrees, the chosen wine was the 2006 Consilience Petite Sirah (Santa Barbara County).  After both taking one sip, we grimaced and thought, “There’s something odd about this wine.”  Ok, actually, the exact thought was “Arghhh.”

We took second sips and thought, “This tastes like a wet and moldy brick.”  Seriously, that’s what we thought.  (OK, so we’ve never tasted wet or moldy bricks, but we imagine that they would taste like this wine.)

So we called over the maitre ‘d and said, “Can we see the bottle?”

And then we found out why the wine tasted like it did.  The hand-scrawled “open date” on the bottle was exactly eight days ago.  Clearly, the wine program at Bistro 561 needs some help.  To her credit, the maitre d’ immediately opened a new bottle, as soon as we pointed out the obvious flaw.

Faced with a new, freshly-poured glass (but a steak that had already disappeared), The Two Guys knew that their noses were calibrated just fine.  The new wine exhibited fresh berries and plums on the nose, with a palate of juicy raspberries and boysenberries.  Much better than wet, moldy bricks.

The maitre d’ brought out a second glass “free of charge.”

The truffled mac ‘n’ cheese was kind of gummy and certainly not memorable.

The dessert menu included creme brulee (Nick’s favorite) with berries.  We decided against the creme brulee and asked one of the waiters, “Can we just have a bowl of berries?”  Of course, this is not an unreasonable request, right?  Surely if they offer creme brulee with berries, it should not be a stretch of the imagination to plate up a bowl of just berries.

Not at Bistro 561.  “We don’t have a bowl of berries,” said the waiter.  Wow.  Not in the mood to challenge the kid, we figured we’d end this meal.

The damage:  $98.

The Two Guys are glad they expanded their horizons but are not likely to return to Bistro 561.

Until next time . . .

When I write wine blogs, it’s hard to imagine getting an opportunity to stand with my subject’s maker face to face. Last night I got that chance, and it was a proud moment for me. Not only did it feel great knowing that my reviews were appreciated (or even noticed), but seeing Joseph’s passion first-hand validated why I love what I do.

Carey and I were wait-listed in the beginning of the week for the wine dinner, and when hope was all but lost, I got a call saying room had become available for us if we were still interested—yes.

We arrived almost on-time with minimal stress, even though Carey came straight from the gym and had to get dressed in the backseat of the car—and walk down an icy hill in high-heel booties on the coldest night of the year to date, at which point she said to me, “I’m a little bit mad at you right now.” I rebounded by quickly handing her a glass of Josh Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, our first wine of the evening, from the fantastic Amber Knolls Vineyard, Red Hills Appellation, Lake County California.

Joe is a winemaker who cares deeply about his wines, “they are my babies.”  That is something I can really appreciate having a blog baby and all. His family of wines, 6 strong, showed great cohesiveness in a tasting format. Pairing beautifully with foods, and transitioning easily without an ugly duckling upsetting the flock. The Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir is hands down my favorite of the bunch, and a wine I wrote about long before I got another chance with it on this night. I bet Joe could work magic with red Zinfandel…

The evening’s menu was fantastic—every course better than the last.

We were just talking about how much we’ve loved eggs incorporated into entrees lately. This course did not disappoint. A hot, runny egg with delicate greens and sizable lardons chunks that felt like traditional French bistro fare consumed on a side street in Toulouse somewhere.

By this course—nirvana.

Impossibly delicious; and while tempted to refuse for my belt buckle’s sake—voraciously consumed.

Flowering is underway in our Sauvignon Blanc which is just over a week behind last vintage due the very cool spring conditions. However the warm weather over the last week has ensured that our early varieties of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris after a slow start have raced through flowering and the Sauvignon Blanc is progressing very quickly.
If the warm weather continues we should get close to an average yield but we will have to wait and see.
Below is a photo of a Sauvignon Blanc bunch which has just begun flowering.

The lower left part of the bunch you can see a few caps have come off.
Cheers for now

Stuart

http://www.toreawines.co.nz/

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$17 from San Diego Wine Co.

#56 on Wine Spectator’s Top 100 of 2009, 91 points

Doug: Interesting, but far too acidic for me. Thumbs down.

The down-turn in the economy has provided me with some amazing opportunities to try high-end wines.  The metro-Phoenix area has been hit very hard by the recession.  A lot of grocery stores and warehouse stores have reduced their high-end wine inventories, slashed prices, and replaced the floor space with things that people might buy more of in a recession.  Things like bread and vegetables, instead of second-growth Bordeaux.

As a result I have been able to pick up some of these $50-$100 wines for about half price, and I have been reviewing and enjoying them.  It occurred to me last week that not everyone can get their hands on these mark-downs. I decided to balance out my reviewing with some great under $20 bargains.

So, just in time for the Christmas season, here are some awesome wines under $20

#1:

Cameron Hughes, Lot 140, 2007, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chalk Hill, Sonoma County.  $13.99 at select Costco’s.

On the nose: Raspberry,  Bing cherry and Anise.

On the Palate: Cocoa and a hint of mint

See my review of it full review of it here .

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#2:

Next up is d’Arenberg’s “Laughing Magpie”

one the nose: floral notes with cranberry and cherries

on the palate:  Ripe and juicy, velvety mouth-feel

full review here

$18.99 at Costco

#3:

And thirdly, just to switch things up a little bit (I have been reviewing mostly reds)  it’s a Sauvignon Blanc from Titus Vineyards:

Deliciously smooth with ripe fruit and well balanced acidity, more on this wine here.

It’s $20 on their website and most wineries websites are a little higher than the average retail, so you could probably find it cheaper than $20 at a retail outlet.  But you’ll have to be quick about it, there were only 380 cases made!

#4:

And last but not least:  Chalone Vineyard Monterey Cabernet, 2007

$16.99 retail, although with coupons and discounts I ended up paying about $7.56 a bottle

13.5% alcohol, vanilla oak, well balanced oak and fruit, see full review here

Grand Gaillard Sauvignon Blanc 2008 12.5% Dry white. A little bland, drunk fast from v cold. OK with a Sunday roast. 4G rating!

@Lollypopbooks

I thought drinking a wine called “The Beach” might make me forget that it is currently 6 degrees outside and there is a foot and a half of snow on the ground.  I was wrong.  Mostly.  I won’t let my cabin fever sully my enjoyment of a damn fine wine, however.  This is one of our best sellers both in the bottle and by-the-glass at Barriques, and for good reason – its crisp fruitiness transports you to the beaches of Chile.  Not really.  Not even close, actually.  What I’m trying to say is this is good stuff.  And less than 10 bucks.

Wine: La Playa Sauvignon Blanc 2009

Vitals: Composition: 100% Sauvignon Blanc; Colchagua Valley, Chile; 13% abv; Age of Vines: 17 yrs; Total acidity: 6.83 g/l; Residual sugar: 4.2 g/l, (love the thorough stats on their website – there’s lots more that I have no idea how to interpret)

Company line: “A consistent favorite with the critics, this pale yellowgreen wine has a bright and floral nose, with aromas of blossoms, lime and honeydew. On the palate, it is fresh, well-structured and shows a lively acidity, with crisp lemon-lime zest, citrus candies and a note of fresh grass. -laplayawine.com“

My take: pale yellow(green, I guess) in the glass, a vibrant lemongrass, crisp green bell pepper and tropical citrus nose belies bright acidity, lime zest and aromatic flowers on the palate.  Fruitiness masks its dry mouthfeel which is amplified by a hearty alcoholic presence.  This wine was made for summer and barbeques, but is a refreshing treat any time of the year.  Even when you want to trick yourself into thinking it’s July when it’s really December.

Earlier this week I was back at the Whole Foods Venice wine tasting bar for the second time in 3 days, this time to take advantage of their Monday night special: 1/2 off all Enomatic pours. It’s a great deal, especially since you can eat whatever you purchase from the store while you sip on your wine and most pours are $3.99 or under to begin with.

And now I’m going to level with you: I tried A LOT of them. Rather than painstakingly go through each one, I’m going to talk about the wines that I was a huge fan of and leave out the “meh” wines… I’m also going to leave out a wine I tried that- no joke- tasted like a rubber tire.

First wine worth mentioning was a much better Carmenere than the one I tried a couple of weeks ago, though still not drink-the-whole-bottle-in-one-sitting good. It was the 2007 Terra Noble Carmenere, available for $1.99/pour and $15/bottle. It had notes of black cherry, tobacco, leather, and a nice peppery spice. It’s pretty straight forward and pretty good.

Next wine worth mentioning was the Les Chiens-Chiens Chinon 2006 Cab Franc, which was available for $2.99/pour and you can find this for $15.99/bottle. It had a wonderfully herbaceous nose, with notes of fig, black cherry, and cassis on the palate. It was also surprisingly light. Definitely a fan of this one.

Next up is the 2007 Beckman Cuvee Le Bec (Rhone Style Blend) which is 44% Grenache, 28% Syrah, 20% Mourvedre, and 8% Counoise. It was $2.99/pour and can be found for around $15-16/bottle. The nose was a lovely combination of black fruit, pepper, and spice, which carried over to the palate along with a velvety mouth fill with a chocolate-y pepper finish. Loved it.

This next wine my favorite white from the evening… it’s the Orin Swift Veladora Sauvignon Blanc. It’s $3.99/pour and $24.99/bottle. I know that’s pretty steep white for most of us but DAYUMN this was amazing, and I’m usually not even a huge fan of California Sauvignon Blanc. It smells almost like a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc with notes of grass, citrus, and peach with a bit more roundness on the palate that a NZ Sauvignon Blanc, with notes of green apple, tropical fruit on the palate with a lovely crisp acidity. Oh yeah, I’m into it.The final wine I’d like to mention is the 2007 Clairbone & Churchill Edna Valley Pinot Noir, which was $1.99/pour and can be found for around $20, which is actually not too bad considering what a delightful and elegant wine you’re dealing with. I should mention that I think Pinot Noir are often overrated and overpriced since “Sideways” came out, but this one I actually found to be delish and worth the money. It has a very floral nose, with cherry, earth, vanilla and some spice on the palate. It’s nicely balanced with soft tannins. Definitely a great Pinot Noir for $20.

And with that, dear winos, enjoy the rest of your Thursday!

From the limestone region of the Loire Valley, this Sauvignon Blanc from Jean Thomas shows wonderful layers of lush fruit with a nose that permeates the room when opened. Perfect with fish, chicken, cheese or just by itself! Great for the upcoming holidays! $24.99 – Chuck Richards at Reid’s Fine Foods

I just got back from a wonderful $12 tasting at Elvino, which has become a weekend tradition for me. Today was “A Taste of Healdsburg,” featuring 3 wines from Sonoma.

The first wine was the 2008 Longboard Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc:

It’s bright and crisp, with notes of melon, peach, and citrus with a nice minerality and acidity. Claire, who led my tasting today, described the wine as a cross between a Sancerre and a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. It doesn’t have quite the punch as my beloved New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs, but I liked it a lot more than most California Sauvignon Blancs I’ve tried, which tend to be too “fruity” for my taste. The coolest part about this vineyard is the attitude of the wine-maker, Oded, who says, “Relax, it’s only frickin’ wine…enjoy it with food you like and trust nothing but your own palate.” Words to live by, folks. $18.99 at Elvino… can be found for $17. It’s a solid wine.

Next up was the 2006 Quivira Vineyards Zinfandel:

First of all, it might be of interest to you to know that Quivira is a biodynamic, organic, and 100% solar-powered farm & vineyard- pretty cool. I am not too familiar with Zinfandel (see, I’m learning too!) but Claire assured me this is not typical of a California Zin. It’s more European in style- much leaner than a typical California Zinfadel with a lot of structure, very fruit forward on the black cherry, with a long finish and some spice. It’s definitely a food wine (not meant to be an easy-drinking-on-its-own wine) that is just BEGGING to be paired with a pork tenderloin. It was named a “best value” wine from Wine Spectator with 89 points. At Elvino it’s $22.99, though you can find this for $20.

The third and final wine was my FAVORITE. Winos, meet the 2007 Rockpile Wines Zinfandel, aka Heaven in a bottle:

It was so lush, so smooth, so velvety, so delicious, with notes of blackberry, vanilla, and pepper. You should have seen my face when I tasted this- pleasant disbelief. “Stop it!” and “I think I’m going to need a cigarette after this” both came out of my mouth. Yeah, it was THAT good. It’s also $30-36, but I had to splurge and buy it for my Dad for Christmas… and yes, I’ll make sure he opens it in front of me and pours me a glass If you have someone special in your life (including yourself) this would make a PHENOMENAL Christmas present. Just sayin’…