Talk-A-Vino

Few days ago, I was caught by surprise with the question: “We like Pinot Noir, would like to ask for your recommendation, and we need to find a bottle…” – as you can imagine, at this point I’m ready for action – of course, Pinot Noir, I can recommend many great wines – but then I heard the end of the question: “for 6 dollars”, and I immediately went into “oops” mode. Yes, I can recommend Pinot Noir, but not for $6! Closest I tried was something generic from Burgundy for $12, and it was unpalatable enough so I had a tough fight with myself to use it even for cooking. I know some good Chilean Pinot Noir, but even that would cost $15. Yes, I know good wines which would cost $6 – but those would be mostly Portuguese.

Well, when in trouble, ask for advice, right? This is exactly what I did – I stopped by my friend Zak at Cost Less Wines and Liquors in Stamford, and thought that I would puzzle him with the same question – I need a bottle of Pinot Noir for $6. Luckily, Zak didn’t hesitate much: here it is, $5.99, and it is quite drinkable, was his advice. I was still a bit suspicious, as it is a French wine, and as I already mentioned, I did have a bad experience with inexpensive Pinot Noir. But at such a price point, you wouldn’t argue too much, right? So I grabbed the bottle and decided to give it my best try.

I’m glad I did! This 2009 Maison Nicolas Pinot Noir Reserve was actually very nice, simple and round, with good dark fruit on the palate, medium body and pleasant finish (Drinkability: 7). No, it didn’t have silky smooth seductive charm of Charles Mara Pinot Noir, or the smokiness and finesse of Russell Hamilton Pinot Noir – but it was a Pinot Noir with all the characteristic cherries and violets which can be picked up on the palate. By the way, can you guess where this wine was made? Yes, of course it is France, but where in France? Nope, it is not Burgundy – this wine comes from the region without limits – if you said Languedoc, you are correct, this wine has designation of Vin De Pays D’Oc. Also I want to mention that this wine comes from Maison Nicolas which delivers wines from many different regions in France, a lot of them quite inexpensive.

The moral of this story is very simple – don’t be deterred by the low price of the wine, and ask for the advice – there is a good chance you will be happy in the end.

As you know by now, PJ Wine is one of my favorite wine stores (you can find some of my impressions here). It is not just due to the great selection of wines, with Rioja being a superstar. It is also based on the fact that PJ Wine is a great source of education and experience (double-winner – education is free most of the time). Store runs great seminar program, where (if you are fast enough to get on the list) you can experience many great wines of the world.

Few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be able to get into the seminar about wines of Sierra Cantabria and Teso La Monja (the event was sold out in a matter of hours). Both Sierra Cantabria and Teso La Monja wines are produced by Eguren family (you can find complete information here), and of course you already figured out that both are produced in Spain.

Sierra Cantabria wines come from Rioja. In addition to producing full line up of traditional Rioja wines ( Crianza/Reserva/Gran Reserva), of course made out of Tempranillo ( for more information about Rioja wines you can click here), Sierra Cantabria also produced the series called Collection Privada, with each wine being made only in exceptional years. Currently, it includes wines made in 1996 ( first ever vintage for Sierra Cantabria), 1999 and 2000. Tasting the Collection Privada wines, the first one from 1996 was very nice, with good bouquet of spices, acidic and bright. There were only 300 cases produced in 1996, so this wine is not easy to find. While 1996 was drinking well already, both 1999 and 2000 were simply not ready and needed more time in the cellar. These wines are produced from 55-60 years old vines, and made with the focus on quality, not quantity.

Second group of wines presented at the seminar were also made by the same Eguren family, but come from another region in Spain called Toro. Teso la  Monja is the latest project for the winemaker Marcos Eguren. Toro wines are made out of the grape called Tinta de Toro. If you would look in Wikipedia, you would see that Toro is designated as another name for Tempranillo. In reality, it is actually a clone of the Tempranillo grape, which has it’s own characteristics and is different from Tempranillo itself – same as famous Brunello, made out of Sangiovese Grosso grapes, tastes totally different from regular Sangiovese-based wines, Chianti.

Three wines from Teso la Monja had being represented in the tasting. First was 2007 Teso La Monja Almirez Toro – the wine had nice balance and lots of dark fruit – blackberries, black currant and spicy oak. Next wine was 2007 Teso la Monja Victorino Toro – beautiful, round with plums and blackberries, showing nice minerality. This wine is produced from 65+ year old vines and aged for about 18 month in oak.

Last but not least in the tasting was 2007 Teso la Monja Alabaster Toro. This wine was simply outstanding. Very dense, very big , with lots of fruit and in the need of time. Just to give you an example of care which goes into the making of this wine – the grapes are de-stemmed by hand, and then pressed with the feet. This wine definitely needs time before it will show off in its true beauty. The only challenge with this wine is related to the fact that at $156, it is not a bargain, and essentially QPR is becoming more of an issue, at least for me. Of course, if we will compare Alabaster with El Nido or Vega Sicilia wines, QPR might be on par – nevertheless, I think some time is needed before Alabaster has enough recognition to demand such a price.

All in all, it was a great experience with 6 exciting wines and lots of information – and I can’t thank folks from PJ Wine enough for continuing bringing great events to the wine lovers. And while on the subject of great experience, I can’t help to note that PJ Wine is organizing Spanish Wine Festival, which will take place on Friday, June 17th at 6 PM in Metropolitan Pavilion, 123 West 18th Street in New York City (please click here for more information). This event is not free, but for $99.99 I think it constitutes a great value – you will be able to experience wines of Vega Sicilia (keep in mind that typical bottle of Vega Sicilia costs in excess of $400, plus, it is very difficult to find), El Nido, La Rioja Alta, Clos Mogador and hundreds of others. The Festival will also include food from many good places in New York. I believe Spanish Wine Festival is a great value and shouldn’t be missed.

And as this was the post about Spanish wines, I think we need to finish it appropriately: Salud!

Why coffee? First, this is the answer to the last “What is it” post – it is actually Kona coffee berries (picture taken at Greenwell Farms in Kona, Hawaii). The reason to chose that picture was simple – I was fascinated by a number of similarities in coffee production and wine making  – in both cases I’m talking about very good coffee ( Kona is one of the best coffee types in the world) and very good wines. Coffee berries are picked by hand, and also they are picked selectively – only individual ripe berries are taken from the bunch, and the rest is left to ripen. Coffee beans have their skin removed (sounds familiar?), and then they are left to dry under the sun (same as the grapes used for production of Amarone, one of my favorite wines). Once the coffee beans are dried and cleaned, they are left to rest for at least a month or two, before they will be roasted – and this is the step which is enforced by the years of experience and tradition, and nobody asks for explanations – this have to be done just because it has to be done. Again, the same element of mystery and tradition as in production of a good wine. And last, but not least – complexities of the final beverage. Good coffee, similar to the good wine, has layered complexity and brings a lot of pleasure. Anyway, I will look for more obvious picture for the next “what is it ” game.

Now, let’s talk about updates. First, the Treble certificate from the Wine Century Club has finally arrived! Not that I want to brag, but let me share the picture with you:

‘nuf said – getting to the Quattro level will not be too easy, so don’t expect to see a picture of another certificate any time soon.

Lastly, I’m continuing writing posts for The Art of Life Magazine. Last two posts were in “Forgotten Vines” series, talking about Jerez (Sherry) and Madeira, both wines are hard to find, but worth seeking – you can find posts here and here.

That’s all for now, folks. Cheers!

One of the great pleasures of travel is ability to try local food and wine – said it many times before, nothing original here. However, as I’m in Hawaii now, I gladly obey that simple principal. Talking about food, it is a lot of Asian fusion – we had being to a few places, food is consistently very good so far. But – let’s talk about wine.

Hawaiian wine – what can I find here? Yes, I know I’m in Hawaii and not in France. Of course the wine is sold in every supermarket, Walmart and so on – and of course it is wine from all over the world. But we want to go local, remember? So, what is the local grape in Hawaii? I’m sure there is one, as wine is produced in all 50 states in US. Until we will figure the grapes out, let’s think fruit.

Yep, so here it is – a bottle of Tedeschi Vineyards Maui Blanc, a Pineapple wine. Let’s read together wine description from the back label: “Maui Blanc is a wine made from the juice of fresh golden pineapples. Fermentation of the rich golden juice takes place in temperature controlled vats and is stopped at near dryness. The result is a soft, dry fruity wine with an unmistakable pineapple bouquet. Serve chilled.” Don’t know if you typically sport reading back labels on the wine bottles, but based on this description, what do you expect from this wine?

I often talk about expectations in this blog. Expectations is one of essential factors which can affect the way you perceive the wine – at least until the first or second sip. While expectations are based on many factors (you can find more in-depth analysis here), the breadth of your horizon as wine drinker is one of the factors I want to touch on here. Some of the lucky wine lovers try a great wine, like first growth Bordeaux and magnificent Grand Crus of Burgundy and they are set for life in their wine preferences. The story of the most I believe is different. People often start from White Zinfandel, then discover that red wine exists and they like it. After expanding the variety of the personally acceptable red wines, it is possible that some of the wine lovers will stop moving out of the familiar circle and will declare that no other wines would worth their attention. This is the birth-point of wine snobbery. Some people will never move on. But many will – by accident, or by influence of overly insisting friends, they will try a white or rose or desert wine – and discover that the wine world is much bigger that they originally thought. From that point on, they are on the way to becoming real wine connoisseurs.

Sometimes I wonder where am I myself in that journey and how much of the wine snobbery I still keep. Don’t know. I’m really trying not to judge the wine by its cover, err – label, and all of my blind tasting experience is helping to keep the humble view into the wine world. Now coming back to the Maui Blanc, the Pineapple wine, I had no expectations. Here is the bottle, I said I will try it, let’s see what will happen.

The wine actually was very good (in other words, better than I expected despite having no expectations). Nice bright acidity, lots of fruit on the palate (pineapple fruit, needless to say). It probably fell a bit short on the finish, as it didn’t evolve anywhere. But in any case, this is very drinkable wine for the summer day (I will put drinkability at 7).

Try to step out of the familiar circle tonight – just grab a bottle you never tried before, hold your expectations and give it your best try – and prepare to be surprised. There is a good chance that you will be surprised – and in a good way. To the wonderful discoveries – cheers!

I think we didn’t play a “what is it” game in a while, so here is the picture for you, and traditional question: what is it? As usual, the answer will come later in the comments.

Buying wine is one of the great pleasures for the wine lover. Of course it is very easy and convenient to buy wine online, as in a lot of cases it also means that you will be able to find good values. However, for the true wine lover ( and if you want to substitute the term with wine geek, be it), being able to unhurriedly browse  through the wine store (needless to say – good wine store) is a source of great pleasure. Seeing familiar labels is almost like seeing the old friends – “oh yes, I know you, it is great to see you again”. When you see the wine you don’t know, it is moment of discovery – “hmmm, I wonder how that should taste like?”, “aha, I think it was a good vintage”, “oh, I wonder if this is a good price”. Then it goes to “now, I must try this!”, or “ahh, one day I will definitely have to try this”… There is a lot of anticipation associated with that slow walk along the shelves, and a lot of pleasant expectations.

I already wrote about my favorite wine stores, both “brick and mortar” and online (you can find this post here), and I wrote a post about my most favorite local “go to” store Cost Less Wine and Liquors in Stamford, CT (the post is here). Now, I want to talk about another wine store which I really like – PJ Wine in New York. The store has both great physical location on upper Broadway, as well as very extensive web site at www.pjwine.com.

What do I like so much about PJ Wine? First of all, the store doing a lot to educate people about the wines. PJ Wine hosts great seminars (most of them are free), where people learn and get to try excellent wines, expanding their wine knowledge and taste. In addition to the seminars you can also subscribe to the mailing lists, and receive very extensive wine notes, with a lot of information about wines which is hard to find anywhere else, including winery websites. And then in addition to all the education and information – surprise – the wine store has great selection of … wines! (don’t know what you expected to see here).

First and foremost, PJ Wine is a place for Spanish wines, and Rioja in particular:

When it comes to Rioja, anything you are looking for – PJ Wine got it, and they got it right there, on the shelf where you can see and touch. Where else can you find 1964 Rioja simply waiting for you?

Don’t worry, it is not only Rioja – there are plenty of great wines on the shelves from all over world – hard to find wines from France, incredible selection of Jerez and Madeira, unique Italian wine and many many others.

Last but not least – you can always get good advice, and all the staff actually knows all their wines – not theoretically, but actually tried them and will be able to describe the wines to you in great detail. I’m sure many of you can attest to the fact that you missed such service more than once in your wine shopping adventures.

If you like wine and plan to be in New York – PJ Wine is definitely a worthy destination, you will be pleased with what you can find (of course you can get the wines from their web site – but it is a different experience). PJ Wine delivers unique experiences, from wines themselves to the great learning opportunities, and this is experience is yours to take. Happy wine shopping experience!

As you know, I’m still counting the new grapes as I come across them. Recently, I was able to add a few to the collection, which I’m happy to report on. I also want to note, that it is quite a rare case when all the new grapes are red (I think there are simply more white varietals used in the wine making), but it happened to be so. Without any particular order, first is the red grape called Hondarribi Beltza, which was one of the grapes used in 2010 Ameztoi Rubentis Rosé Getariako Txakolina wine form Basque region in Spain. The wine is difficult to find, but it worth seeking – very easy to drink, lightly fizzed (should be rather called effervescent), refreshing – perfect wine for the hot day.

Next wine comes from Switzerland (as usual, courtesy of my friend Patrick), and it is made out of the red grape called Plant Robert. 2007 Plant Robert J-F. et J. Potterat Villette AOC, Cully is very nice, somewhat similar to wines made out of Gamay grape, however, this wine is more spicy and structured than a typical simple Gamay wine. It is very balanced and pleasant to drink (definitely an 8 in Drinkability terms). It is a pity that the wine is not available in US – it is great sipping wine which will also work quite well with wide variety of foods.

Next new grape is called Trepat and it again comes from Spain (as our first grape). I don’t know what is so special about many of these “unknown grapes”, but this 2009 Trepat Josep Foraster, same as many other rare grapes, is very elegant and spicy (of course always possible that my palate is off), with lots of dark fruit and structure on the palate.

So these are the 3 new grapes – so we need to talk about the “old ones”. The old ones are clones – but they are prominent clones. One of such clones makes the wine called Brunello di Montalalcino, and this clone is called Sangiovese Grosso. It is related to the main grape of the Chianti wines, Sangiovese, however, it has a lot more structure and power than regular Chianti wine. I had Brunellos many times, and it has very distinct taste, so this is simply logical to use Sangiovese Grosso as the grape in it’s own right.

Last but not least, another “old grape” is called Tinta de Toro, and it is used in the Toro region in Spain. Technically, Tinta de Toro is a clone of mainstream Spanish grape variety called Tempranillo, which is the main grape in Rioja and Ribero del Duero regions. Toro produces very dense and powerful wines, which require time to mellow out. I had Toro wines before, but my recent experience with the wine called 2007 Teso La Monia Alabaster (there will be a separate post about it) from Toro DO (which is considered best wine produced in Toro region) convinced me that this grape also deserves its own place in the grape quest, as it has lots of differences with the regular Tempranillo.

With the addition of these 5 grapes, I’m inching forward to the next level with 317  grapes accounted for. It’s a long journey to the 400 spot, but it is real fun – let the grape quest continue.

What is in the cellar for Mother’s Day on Sunday:

What will be in yours?

As you could’ve noticed, I’m a big fun of Wine Till Sold Out (WTSO). For the majority of the cases, WTSO is offering good wines at very good prices, which for me is one of the most important things when buying the wine – I like value, a good QPR. As a quick reminder, WTSO offers one wine for sale at a deep discount at any given moment – and if you want to know more about how this service works, you can read about it here.

What prompted me to write yet another blog post was the WTSO 24-hours marathon, which took place on Tuesday, April 26th. During such Marathon (it happens periodically), , which lasts for 24 hours the new wine is offered for sale every 15 minutes, or even sooner. It is somewhat challenging to collect all the information about wines offered during the marathon, as the new wines are announced only through the SMS or on Twitter and not via e-mail. Those messages are short, and typically only provide wine name, ratings (if any) and the discount percentage. As you will see below, I was able to capture some additional information, but this was a very tasking manual process (time to write a special app ). Also it was very difficult to capture the exact timing of the new wines coming in, so again I did what I can.

In the table below you will easily see some amazing deals, like Chateau Petrus 2004 at $479 (it is not even the price at 54% off, it is just sheer availability – and it lasted online for only 4 minutes), or Chateau Lascombes 2005 at $49.99. One last note before you can devour the information – here is explanation for wine rating abbreviation: WS – Wine Spectator, WA – Wine Advocate, RP – Robert Parker (equivalent to Wine Advocate for most cases), WE – Wine Enthusiast, W&S – Wine & Spirits magazine, WRO – Wine Review Online, ST – Steven Tanzer, IWC – International Wine Cellars (associated with Steven Tanzer),  JN – Jonathan H. Newman (wine importer), BH – Bourghound (great source for Burgundy wine ratings).

Now, here it is – enjoy!