VINO-CLUES! 11/28/11 “Bubbles, bubbles, everywhere but not a drop understood”
I know, I know…we’re barely done digesting our turkey and stuffing, and I’m on the case for December holidays and New Year’s. But it’s really appropriate any time of the year to talk about Bubbly!
At Vino-Versity, I teach a class called “Bubbles, Bubbles, Everywhere!” and it is my favorite subject to teach (I get to taste a great selection of sparklers as I lecture to my very happy students, who are also sipping while they learn.) I do think their happiness is also because of the “a-ha!”s of newfound understanding, and not just the alcohol!
The big revelation (there are many, many small revelations but you’ll need to take the class to experience them) is that there are so many styles of sparkling wines to enjoy in addition to the archetype Champagne. And that’s the main gist of the class…that most people are limited in buying their sparklers to either price or a recognizable name, and may often dismiss anything else that doesn’t have the word “Champagne” on it for fear that it won’t be good. But does a typical person buy Dom Perignon because they truly think it tastes amazing, because they truly understand all the steps and artistry it takes to produce a Champagne (sparkling wines produced in the Champagne region of France are done so under the meticulous steps of the Methode Champenoise, which is creating carbonation within each bottle and then delicately clarifying all the dead yeast out of the liquid), or because they know it’s a famous name and if they buy it as a gift, their friend (or client, or loved one) will just “know” that it’s prestigious and expensive and it’s “supposed to be” one of the best Champagnes?
It’s funny, because we understand the finer quality of fabrics, stitching, and cut in haut couture clothing, horsepower & torque in fine sports cars, Color-Cut-& Clarity in gems, but we know NOTHING about our bubbly. How many of you even know who makes Dom Perignon??? Many will answer, “I thought Dom Perignon makes Dom Perignon?”, and will scratch their heads as they wonder (only upon being asked) “who makes Cristal?”
(answer: Moet & Chandon, and Louis Roederer…ahem)
Why do we forsake our own inquiry and investigation into fine sparkling liquids but we scrutinize and shop around for everything else? Further, are we paying for the best and getting the best? The reality is that there really is something very special about Champagnes…actual sparklers from Champagne, France…and the quality of grapes (particularly the very specific cultivation of the finest Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier grapes), the complex process of double fermentation Methode Champenoise, the teeny tiny strings of pearlized bubbles, and the ultimate finesse and elegance resulting from this combination is to be revered and enjoyed.
But, as the price of Champagnes have sky-rocketed, other options are emerging in the marketplace. And let’s be clear…these options are wonderful, but they are NOT the same as Champagne. That’s the whole idea: each version and style of sparkling wines throughout the world present a potion that has its own showcase of flavors resulting from grapes (sparkling Riesling? sparkling Shiraz? sparkling Prosecco?), fermentation method (Champenoise, Charmat Tank Method), final dose of flavor/sugar/color (known as the DOSAGE, which can be a splash of red wine to make a pink Rosé sparkler, or a super-dry wine to make a Brut, etc.), and geography to determine minerality and organic soil & weather influences.
Carbonation can be nuggets or pearls, foamy or moussey, or airy & soapy. Flavors can go from banana, to cherry blossom, to hay. Styles can go from tart, to fruity, to sweet.
It seems like a travesty to buy something and not know why you’re buying it, or to not know why it even is commanding a certain price. Yes, Champagnes are an amazing option, but so are Cavas, Proseccos, Cremants, Franciacortas, Spumantis, Frizzantis, and other Sparklers of the world. Start tasting, exploring, learning, and giving them the same proportion of consideration and time you would give to jewelry, clothing, and cars. You too will get a case of the happy “a-ha!”s!
VINO-CLUES 11/21/11: “Beau-tiful Beau-jolais!”
This past week was the release of "Beaujolais Nouveau", a wine, in my opinion, that used to be so exciting to release to the drinking public, but has now lost its way.
Beaujolais Nouveau is a wine from the Gamay grape, in the Beaujolais Sub-Region of the Maconnais Region of Burgundy, France, from the most current harvest of grapes. The grapes, most typically harvested in either September or October, are then crushed and made into wine and then immediately shipped out and released for drinking on the third Thursday of November in that same year!!! yes, 1-2 months later!
In wine terms, it's about 12 minutes old. You're drinking a newborn baby wine, with a fresh "bubble gum and nail-polish" newborn baby smell, as fresh-fresh-fresh as a wine could get! The style of the juice is bright, vivacious, vivid, aromatic, and juicy! The flavor profile of the grape is purple, red, & blue: raspberry, strawberry, cherry, blueberry, blackberry, rose petal, lavender, purple wisteria, lilac, iris, and violet.
Gamays are one of the most universal, food-friendly wines; they go well with almost everything because they have a distinct balance of fruit sugar, savory herbal essence, and tart-bitter floral acid. They are not too light & lean, nor are they too big, powerful, and muddy. They are elegant and simultaneously concentrated with full flavor. They are fruity, and savory. They are beautiful, and also masculine. When you find Gamay grown in certain "CRU" regions (regions of quality and distinction that can grow Gamay in its most concentrated, deepest, darkest form), you will start to see how this easy-drinking wine is also taken very seriously in the wine world, and how dynamic it is. CRU Beaujolais (from Fleurie, Moulin-a-Vent, Chenas, & Morgon, to name a few sub-regions) is also pretty affordable, and is just a bit more floral, herbal, and fragrant than a Pinot Noir if you're looking for something just one step bigger than a Pinot.
The Nouveaus are simply the "youthful" version, and are made (and drunk) to celebrate the grape harvest. It's supposed to be fun and celebratory. But somewhere along the line, this juicy version became a "fruit bomb". It seemed that each year they became cheaper, and more sugary, losing all reflection of that red-purple-blue berry & flower & herbal profile they are so famous for. In this case, you DID get what you paid for. If you bought a BN for $5.99, you got something that tasted as poorly as could possibly be produced for that amount. How good can you really expect it to be at that price?
Truth be told? Nouveaus are so cool. But you need to take them more seriously by NOT getting the $5.99 versions. Splurge a little more…just a few dollars… and get a GREAT wine. Don't let the mass-produced "fruit bombs" represent this Burgundian gem. YAY, HARVEST!
VINO-CLUES! 11/14/11 “Bordeaux Banter!”
So many people are confused about Bordeaux, but it's soooooooo easy! NOT! Well, it sorta kinda is. Here's how it works: there are two rivers running through this fabulous french region (this right away explains how the region "Entre-deux-mers" got its name 'between two oceans' as it sits between the two rivers Garonne and Dordogne!) If you consolidate the rivers for the rest of this conversation, you get to the heart of the matter: there's a LEFT side and a RIGHT side.
Here it is…drum-roll please: on the left side of the river, the agriculture and environment (i.e. the "terroir") is best suited for Cabernet Sauvignon grape. If you're on the right side of the river, the terroir is more suitable for the Merlot grape.
From here, it is a quick hop, skip, & jump to realize that your bottle of Bordeaux is more than likely a blend of Merlot or Cabernet (dictated by its location) with a little bit of the other Bordelaise grapes (did I mention there are others???) In Bordeaux, there are 5 red grapes:
1. Cabernet Sauvignon: known for tannic structure, firmness, & grip
2. Merlot: known to blend with and soften the tannic structure & grip of a Cab
3. Cabernet Franc: known for lending a tangy, tart, wild cranberry or raspberry essence to a blend, and often a tangy tart green grass essence
4. Malbec: known to contribute an inky, darker fruit, minty essence to a blend
5. Petit Verdot: known for contributing a pepper-spiced structure to the blend
Some Bordeaux reds are mono-varietal (not blends, just one grape) but most of them are a blend of at least two of these grapes.
Now, here's the hard part (it could've been easy all the way, but then it wouldn't be worth the exploration, I suppose;) when you pick up a bottle of Bordeaux, you would need to look for the location (origin, i.e. appellation, or AOC) to determine if it's on "the left or the right" so you can tell if it's a Merlot or Cabernet based blend. If you see, for example, a bottle that indicates it comes from Margaux, you would know that it is from "the left" and therefore, ergo, is Cabernet blend! But of course, you would have to know this. If you know it, then you know. But if you don't know this, then you won't know. You have to know where Margaux is!
Ya see? You have to know, to know.
But….if you are devoted to Bordeaux, you will start to memorize the AOC's so that YOU KNOW! And that's how you do it!
If you want to TASTE these blends and learn the regions, come to our Bordeaux (and Burgundy) tasting on Tuesday 11/22!!! $33 to taste and learn about 24 reds & whites from these two amazing regions (http://www.vinoversity.com/social-tasting-events/tuesdays/). Oh yeah…we didn't even talk about Bordeaux whites! YUM!!!!! But let's run after we walk…and sip!
VINO-CLUES! 11/7/11 “Once you go BROWN, you never go back!”
Since we're featuring tons of wines on our "FREE DAILY TASTING" tables that go perfectly with Thanksgiving dinner, it occurred to me that many of them are what I call "brown" wines.
When tasting wines (particularly reds), many people have trouble describing them, or even identifying the actual flavors that appeal to them in one wine that another may not have. They know they like the wine, but have no clue why! Reds have a complexity of sugars, acids, and proteins that, when married to the flavors of the soil and the barrel, seem to cover a greater array of flavors than can be described in most whites. It often overwhelms the drinker's vocabulary.
What I find helpful is to swallow the wine, and ask your brain "what does this remind me of?" More specifically, "what RED foods does this remind me of?", "what PURPLE/BLUE/BLACK foods does this remind me of?, and then "what BROWN foods does this remind me of?"
This is the coolest drinking exercise! Often, you find that you can truly now detect, for example, flavors of "Twizzlers, blueberry, and fig" whereas before you could only taste "berries and cherries". Speaking of, this practice will now allow you to distinguish between fresh cherries, sundried cherries, and roasted, stewed, or flambéed cherries!
So…when you encounter a wine that has "brown" flavors, you begin to realize that this color and its corresponding flavors are associated with the following:
Barrel Toast:
When oak is charred over fire to bend into staves, the sappy sugars can be 'burned' to a point where they taste like (and are the color of) chocolate, coffee, or espresso.
Earth:
Certain parts of the world have organics that can taste like Truffles; both the mushroom kind, and the chocolate kind! There's simply "stuff" in the soil (minerals, organics, vegetation) that tastes BROWN.
Oxygen:
Through exposure to oxygen (either through the microscopic holes found in corks, or in wood barrels), a wine will begin to decompose and "rust" just like a piece of metal exposed to air (or a banana or apple that's been cut open and exposed to air.) This "rusting" gives the wine a BROWNED fruit essence: we now taste raisin, fig, prune, date, and currant.
Whatever the "recipe", brown wines are for certain palates, or for certain foods. There are people whose palates would be disappointed without a splash or hit of fresh red jammy fruit, and there are those where this "red profile" is a complete turn-off. There are the "brown wine drinkers", who favor an "older" (i.e. earthen, "rusted fruit", & herbal) wine. Certainly, many of these wines are called "Old World", but the reality is you can also get a "
Now that you know what to look for, try some wines and see if you can figure out if you like brown vs. red. vs. purple wines (Malbec, anyone??) Or maybe you're an equal opportunity drinker and like all three styles…no worries, you can have a wine from each category with each helping of
VINO-CLUES! 10/31/11 ““Taking Wine from pumpkins, to pumpkin pie: Wines for Thanksgiving Dinner!”
Every year, people scramble to buy the right wine to go with Thanksgiving dinner. So what is the right choice to go with Turkey, sweet potato, cranberry, gravy, string beans, stuffing, and the like? There are so many flavors…is there ONE wine that would go with all of them?
To answer this, we need to look at the principles of food & wine pairing. They are:
- Rule 1: Wine will change the flavor of food, and food will change the flavor of wine (more so with the latter.) This happens in a process that I consider to be similar to a game of “Go Fish meets Boxing” If the wines ‘cards’ (its flavors) are apples & pears, caramel, almond, & lemon-acid, it walks into the boxing ring with three powerful weapons: sugar, savory nut flavor, and tart acid. In the other corner, weighing in at 20 Lbs and wearing a dress (that’s my “dressed turkey” joke!), is a really angry Turkey (and wouldn’t you be angry given the situation?), coming at you with two fists full of savory protein flavor (otherwise known as “Umami”.)
The bell goes “Ding, Ding”, but the game of Go Fish takes over. The Turkey jabs with SAVORY FLAVOR, and the wine jabs back with its nuts (insert joke here.) Just like in the card game, each threw out a matching weapon, leaving others remaining in the hand. And in this case, what is left in each hand? The wine is now left with its fruit & acid, having had its nutty quality essentially washed out or cancelled out by the savory turkey protein. As a result, the wine will taste fruitier, and zippier. The remaining flavors now show up stronger, as its third was ‘discarded’. (The turkey is still left with its principal “protein” flavor…it only threw out one jab out of its abundant protein arsenal. If anything, perhaps the turkey will have lost a modicum of its flavor to the wine.)
In this game, the main idea is to pick a wine which, when meeting each “opponent” (the turkey, cranberry, sweet potato, etc.), will be left with remaining flavors that will still be delicious, albeit slightly or sometimes even dramatically different from the wine’s original flavor profile coming out of the bottle. Each food will have a different result and impact on the wine.
- RULE 2: when wine meets a “flavor opponent”, it is the strongest, most dominant flavor or ingredient in the food recipe that will alter the wine the most. So, if that turkey were covered in a mushroom gravy, our game of “Go-Fish-Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Boxing” would be between the wine and earthen, savory mushroom flavors. If the turkey were smothered in a salty brine, this would be the dominant flavor to match to the wine.
- RULE 3: in meeting with the food opponent, as the Promoter (please, please, please get a better haircut than Don King) you can either pick a wine which can “jab” with SIMILAR flavors (sweet wine with sweet food), or OPPOSITE flavors (sweet wine with salty food.) Just be aware that whichever “flavor card” gets thrown out, that flavor gets sacrificed in the wine, and the remaining flavors will now show up more.
A great example of this for Thanksgiving would be a Gamay. This is a red Burgundian grape that is known for cherry, cranberry, huckleberry, red & purple floral notes, and savory earthen essences of tobacco, herbs, mulch, & redwood. And it’s known to be light to medium bodied….you only want a heavy bodied wine to throw jabs with a heavily flavored food, or you will have a miss-matched result where one contender gets completely clobbered by the other (not good for boxing, or for eating.)
Drink Gamay with the turkey, and the meat’s proteins “knock out” some of the earthiness, but the wine continues to shine brightly with berry & floral flavors. Now take a bite of cranberry sauce, and the next sip of Gamay loses its tart cranberry core, but now shows up a little more earthen, mellow, and savory. Each sip is still exciting, and yet, ever-changing. This wine will have something to “match up” with all the different flavors of this meal!
Starting November 1st, we’re proud to have a ‘holiday table’ at the store full of wines that go great with Thanksgiving, and they are all 10% off for the month! Examples of grapes we will be showcasing that are EXCELLENT for this meal (or any time, really!) are cozy, earthen Bordeaux Cab or Merlot blends, Gewurztraminer, Viogner, Gamay, Zinfandel, Sauvignon Blanc, Petit Sirah, Sparkling Malvasia, and more!
The answer to the question is: there are MANY, MANY, MANY amazing wines that pair beautifully with any food! Let the games begin!
VINO-CLUES! 10/16/11 “Grapes, & Rice, & Apples, OH MY!”
VINO-CLUES! 10/16/11: “Grapes, & Rice, & Apples, OH MY!”
Sunday 10/16 marks the beginning of CIDER WEEK in
Aside from a few draft ciders at the local pubs, the reality is that there is a whole apple world out there, with hundreds of farmers growing nuanced and complex varieties of apples as unique and charismatic as the hundreds of grapes we wine drinkers study all year (and by study, I mean drink.) It seems among the always fascinating & intimidating look at wine making and grape viticulture (and a somewhat sturdy and steady support for Sake rice wine,) apples have been left out in the cold. Literally!
Until now….over 80 stores and restaurants listed on Glynwood's site (www.ciderweek.com) are featuring at least two local ciders, and many venues are offering classes & events as well. And these are NOT the pub ciders that are….ahem….made in mass quantities by the good ol' corporate entities such as Anheuser Busch or Coors. These are hand-crafted, hand-grown, hand-pruned, hand-made masterpieces. Farmers in overalls made them!
Apples make a-may-zing sparkling wines, dessert wines (it can take up to 50 frozen apples to squeeze out the exquisite juice for a small 375ml bottle of Apple Ice Wine), and aperitif apple Vermouths! Vino-Versity is proud to say that we are offering, among other apple wines, Eden Farms "
The result: an OMG experience!
At Vino-Versity during Cider Week, we're featuring 10% off our featured bottles of sparkling, Ice, and apple-vermouth wines. This is the time to try apple wine. Grapes, step aside for 1 week! Really, this is more of a championship moment for WINE, as we can see and taste the spectrum from vine, to paddy, to bush, to tree! What's next? Can't wait to see!
VINO-CLUES! 10/10/11 “Carmenere Elektra!”
VINO-CLUES! 10/10/11 “Carmenere Elektra!”
There’s a red grape out there that many people are not familiar with; it’s called Carménère, and it is grown and produced abundantly in
What’s unique about this grape is that while it’s red, it has a distinct aroma of grapefruit, an adjective typically used and associated with, of course, white wines. By itself, this little factoid may be only mildly interesting to someone who enjoys grapefruit, and probably completely disengaging to anyone who dislikes grapefruit.
I assume if you’re reading this next sentence, you either like grapefruit or are intrigued by a red wine that smells like tart citrus! Looking (or smelling further), I could easily say that it smells more of strawberry-rhubarb pie with shavings of candied ruby-red grapefruit peel and droplets of blood orange sauce, but then again it’s my job (at the Vino-Versity store) to wordsmith wine descriptions as alluringly and enticingly as possible. To this I would concede that the actual flavors of the wine cause the allure, and hopefully the person translating it into English simply does it justice.
Let’s all be reminded that 80% of what you taste is what you smell…the tongue is only capable of identifying certain flavors (salt, sweet, sour, bitter, & savory.) It IS the aromatics of wine that trigger your brain to identify similar smells & flavors in familiar food/earth/veggie/herb/chemical/minerals already experienced, thus resulting in those adjectives flying out of your head; there is no one, I assure you, adding a can of Del Monte grapefruit juice into the fermentation tank.
So Carmenere has this supremely interesting and unique “nose”, and then is kind enough to deliver it in a supple, fruit driven body that is notably soft & dusty like a 1976 velour track suit.
Carmenere is said to be the “lost” 6th grape of
Unrecognized or not as a noble French grape, this twangy, soft, sweet & smoky grape & wine is pretty wicked and delicious; it is also outstanding and beautiful (no surprise given its familial origins) in blends with Cab, Merlot, or Malbec. Try some! Carmenere is truly an Elektra-fying grape! (sorry, couldn’t resist word-smithing that name in here!)
VINO-CLUES! 10/3/11 “Screw it!”
A common question we get at Vino-Versity is about screw caps on wine bottles…are they "bad"? Does it indicate that the bottle is "cheap" and low quality??
The answer is a resounding NO and NO! Screw caps were brought into the marketplace because natural corks sometimes have a bacteria in them that can "awaken", eat away at, and detriorate the fruit of the wine….the resulting "wet cardboard" smell and flavor is a bastardized version of the intended flavors. We call this a "corked" wine, which is different from an "oxidized" wine where too much oxygen exposure turns the wine to vinegar.
To eliminate the problem, the industry developed those rubbery-plastic synthetic corks. Great! No bacteria! Buuuuuttttt…..they kinda stick to the glass and are really hard to get out of the bottle!
So…the SCREW CAP! It's perfect….it has NO bacteria; it does NOT stick to the glass. It does NOT require a corkscrew (which many people have difficulty with.)
That's really it. That's why there are screwcaps. Nothing more, nothing less. There is nothing "bad" or "wrong" with them.
Except….hmmmm…..well….here are a few counter-points:
1. Cracking open a screw cap (and it literally makes a "crackle" sound) does not have the same elegance & ceremony of a beautiful burping "pop" of a cork. There is no elegance or sophistication to cranking open a screw cap.
2. In the world of wine, there is great value and purpose to letting a wine sit and "age" (i.e. undergo a metamorphosis) in the bottle. This change in flavor over time is a direct result of slow contact with oxygen, which seeps in through micro-holes in CORK! With a screwcap, oxygen does not get in at all. There is no "butterfly" effect…no change, no "aging", no transformation that is celebrated in aging wines.***
***COUNTER-POINT/COUNTER-COUNTER POINT: Who cares? Many wines are designed by the winemakers to drink right now! So we don't need to age them…in fact, they wouldn't fare well over time. The wines are meant to drink while "young" and fruit-driven. So no need for a cork! Also, if we do want just a wee bit of aging transformation, there is a bit of oxygen trapped between the liquid and the screw-cap; just enough for a little bit of slow-oxidation magic!
So there you have it….good, bad, ugly, 'crackly', clean, easy, modern: screw caps serve a great purpose and place for many wines in the marketplace. And for certain wines, they are not ideal. But those wines will stick with cork. In sum: Don't hate the playa!
