Wine Education, Tastings and Discussion - Enjoy Without Pretension

My apologies for the prolonged absence.  I underestimated how much my day job and the retail wine job would take out of me - time and energy - during the holiday season.  I am back and excited for the new year!

I took some time out from reading up on financial crises and greedy Ponzi schemers in the Wall Street Journal to enjoy a wonderful article from the fab wine writing duo of Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher.  Yesterday’s article was a suggestion of 20 “to-do’s” related to wine for 2009.  All were simple to execute and a great reminder that one of the best parts about wine is trying new things.  

1. Try a wine from a country whose wines you are unfamiliar with - I love this idea and try to do it whenever possible.  Perhaps you might add a state to that as well.  There are always diamonds in the rough out there, be it from Brazil or Iowa.  Drop me a note if you find one!
2. Go to a wine bar and have a flight of wine - and if you happen to be in Dallas, stop by Cork Wines in the West Village and visit me!  I’ll be happy to give you some suggestions of wines try.  We serve 48 different wines at any given time and rotate those wines every 3-4 weeks on a rolling basis.  Our best station is the staff picks.  You would not believe how competitive we are when it comes to choosing those wines each month!  It’s a matter of pride…

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In honor of Wine Blogging Wednesday (’WBW’) scheduled for tomorrow, November 12, 2008, I want to do a primer on Madeira – the wine and the island.  1WineDude, the host of the 51st WBW, has set the theme as fortified (and maderized) wines, and specifically Madeira .  For those who are new to WBW, it is a monthly wine tasting with a theme.  Bloggers (or anyone) are invited to review a wine within the theme and share those reviews with the world.  Tomorrow will be my first time participating in this monthly event.  I am looking forward to participating (as I sip on my Madeira wine). 

History
Like port wine, Madeira ’s wines did not start out fortified.  Prince Henry the Navigator is credited with sending over vinifera vines to be planted in Madeira so that Portugal would be able to participate in the very lucrative wine trade.  Demand for Madeira wines built at different times for various political and economic reasons.  Because the island of Madeira was a natural stopping point for ships on their way to Africa , ships would load up for sale and consumption.  Madeira wines also benefitted from various wars and embargoes between France and England .  Later, when King Charles of England restricted exports to the colonies to only English goods, Madeira wines were an exception.  Demand for Madeira in the English colonies flourished.   [click to continue…]

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This is a new weekly deal where I will pick my favorite five posts from the world of wine blogs posted in the last 7 days.  Feel free to let me know about your blog and I will check it out!

My top five, in no particular order:

1. 1WineDude visited Opus One Winery after the Wine Bloggers Conference and challenged himself to write a news journal worthy account of his visit.  I’d say he succeeded.  Nice job Dude!  
2. Dr. Debs at Good Wine Under $20 did the round-up for the latest wine book club reviewing Dr. Vino’s book, Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink.  Sounds like a perfect election day topic!
3. Speaking of Dr. Vino, he had a great discussion on how wine auctions have not turned the profits they used to.  Business geek that I am, I ate this up!  Perhaps I can find myself some good deals while I build my collection.
4. Alder from Vinography had a fabulous primer on sake.  Love the stuff but don’t know much about it.  Thanks Alder for putting it together!  I plan to do a little experimenting on my own in the sake arena.
5. Craig over at Wine Camp did a review of the book The Billionnaire’s Vinegar coupled with some reflections on the Wine Bloggers Conference.  I wish I could have gone!  Next year for sure.

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Today was humbling.  Well, most class days are humbling for me.  We taste every wine blind.  Tasting is hard.  Let me rephrase that - tasting well is hard.  And there is an incredible amount to know about wine.  It’s still fun, just a little less so halfway through an 8 hour class when you don’t get much time off from work and you are frustrated with your palate.  But I did learn today that I need to spend some extra study time on terroir and palate training.  

Source: Imapix

Terroir refers to the specific soil, climate, aspect and altitude of a vineyard - rather the entire growing environment that affects the quality of the grape.  It’s the reason a French Cabernet Sauvignon tastes different from a Napa Cabernet Sauvignon and still different from a Coonawarra (Australia) Cabernet Sauvignon.  Techniques from the winery come in to play too but the tastes imparted from the soil are hard to replicate.  Sounds pretty important doesn’t it?  It is and I have not given it the personal attention it deserves.  So I will be studying it more over the next few weeks to get it down and share some of those studies with you.  

Source: Sarajea

The other area of study, palate training, will involve significantly less book work and more smelling and tasting.  I’ve gotten so busy that I forget to stop and smell the roses - literally.  I will brave the judging world and start smelling and tasting more mindfully.  Don’t worry if you see someone outside smelling rocks or plants.  You can worry though if you see me eat the soil or rocks.  It’s like working out at the gym and focussing on the proper movements so that you build muscle memory.  I’ll be working on “smell memory.”  This is the sort of studying that like exercise, you need to constantly practice to be good at.  This study is a little more fun too!

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Wine Politics, How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink, discusses how influences outside of viniculture and viticulture, shaped the growth of the wine industry in both France and the US. A short read of about 150 pages, this book packs in an enormous amount of information on the history of the wine industry. The book, adapted from the author’s dissertation paper, is written by Tyler Colman.  Dr. Colman, who may be more well known as the blogger, Dr. Vino (see his blog), has a PhD in Political Science from Northwestern.

This topic intrigues me immensely.  My undergraduate major is in political science and, being a wine fanatic, I’m also interested in the industry.  All of the expected subjects are covered from the development of the French Appellation system and Phylloxera to the US Prohibition period and the now famous tasting in France in 1976 that established US wines as premier quality. These are topics I know something about, but definitely crave more understanding. [click to continue…]

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Part of my job at Cork Wines is to recommend wines to customers.  The difficult part is not finding good wines but finding the right wine for that person.  First, everyone’s palate is different.  Then you add the complexity of a different vocabulary.  Some people aren’t sure how to describe what they want or like.  I usually go through a bunch of different questions to try to get to a recommendation.  

Sometimes a customer comes in and is adament about wanting a specific varietal, like a Merlot.    In many ways that request is simpler to handle but I kind of enjoy a good challenge.  The most challenging part of finding a wine for someone is when they talk about “sweet” or “dry”.  Sweet and Dry means different things to different people.  My experience is that Dry and Sweet are the two most misunderstood terms in wine-tasting terminology. [click to continue…]

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Okay, so it is a hokey party game, but it also is my homework for my next class in the Sommelier Diploma Program.  With well over 10,000 varietals to choose from, choosing one grape that best represents “Christianne” is a daunting task.  But I’m up to it!  

Malvasia Bianca

I finally settled on Malvasia, which actually represents multiple grape varieties, with most being related to Malvasia Bianca.  Multiple varieties seems fitting since there are many facets or sides to my personality (just not in a “Sybil” way).  Malvasia can be found as a red or white wine, dry or sweet, and still or sparkling. 

Some of the other similarities to Christianne: [click to continue…]

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A former co-worker of mine reminded me recently how much fun “impromptu” wine tastings can be.  By “impromptu,” I mean casual, or small and/or spur of the moment.  The concept is not new or complex.  The idea came about when my former co-worker and I were discussing which wine to serve at his family gathering.  We often discussed food and wine - both being foodies.  As we covered such details as menu and guest wine preferences, we narrowed it down to two very different choices.  I blurted out: “Just serve both wines and see which everyone likes better!” (or something like that…).  My co-worker agreed and dinner included a fun discussion of wines. [click to continue…]

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October is Texas Wine Month and hailing from Dallas, I felt it important to spend some time on wine from Texas.  Cork Wines now has wines from Texas on one of their tasting stations.  I will follow up this post with a discussion of some of those wines at a later date.

Vines were cultivated in Texas as early as the 1600’s by Spanish missionaries.  By the 19th century, native vines were being brought from Europe by settlers and planted in Texas.  The oldest winery in Texas, still in operation is the Val Verde Winery, founded in 1833.  Most, importantly, Texas boasts one of the most famous wine researchers and important discoveries in wine history - Thomas Munson.  Munson saved the wine industry from the devastation of phylloxera, a small root-eating insect that destroys the vine through his discovery of a cure for this pest.  You can learn more about this famous Texan here.

Today, there are more than 120 wineries in Texas.   [click to continue…]

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