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Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Ingredients, F&W Winemaker of the Year and more
An extensive French wine inventory to explore.It’s Meritage Time!
Today’s Meritage issue is somewhat unusual – it doesn’t contain the main element, the answer for the wine quiz. The reason is very simple – nobody even tried to answer that quiz. Come on, my wine loving friends, at least you can give it a try! To remind you, in the Wine Quiz #32 you were supposed to match 6 red wine grapes (out of 7) with 6 wine reviews. Please try it again – hopefully there are some brave wine lovers out there.
As far as interesting wine reading is concerned, I came across a few articles I wanted to bring to your attention.
First, there was an interesting article by New York Times’ wine and food critic Eric Azimov about Bonny Doon winemaker Randall Grahm, who started putting wine ingredients on the back label of his wines. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I care to know if he added tartaric acid or oak chips to his wines – I mostly care about the taste of the wine, and I trust that winemaker did his or her best to create a good wine. But – that’s me – and I would be interested in your opinion.
Next is an article in Food and Wine magazine about best winemakers of the year 2012 – I personally never heard of them before nor tried their wines – but thanks to the article, I now will be on a lookout for them.
And now a couple of articles on one of my all times favorite subjects – ageability of wines. Not all the wines in general, but mostly the California Cabernets. Both articles are from the Palate Press, an online wine magazine.
First article is written by Evan Dawson, and it is discussing the subject of California cult Cabernet Sauvignon being fit for aging (or not) depending on the source of the fruit (valley floor or mountain) and the ABV level of the wine – with discussion referring to the opinion of Randy Dunn, a winemaker behind eponymous Howell Mountain Cabernet. I don’t think I drunk enough California cult Cabernet to have an opinion one way or the other, but I can tell you that I had 2002 Dunn Cabernet when it was about 9 years of age, and it took that wine 5 days just to start opening up.
The second article is by the W. Blake Gray and it is talking about many wines (again taking California cult Cabernet as an example) are made for instant consumption and not meant to be aged – however, many wine connoisseurs still acquire those wine specifically for aging, and will be disappointed in the long run (and will lose money).
Both articles are excellent and are very interesting to read in my opinion – but let me know what your thoughts are.
That’s all for today, folks. The glass is empty. Happy Wine Wednesday and Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, Vines and Music, and not much else…
Meritage time!
I don’t have much news for you for today – but let me at least give you the answers for the Wine Quiz #31 – A Guessing Game, Ultimate Challenge. In that quiz, you were supposed to match 5 white wine grapes with the 5 reviews. I have to admit – I was not very inventive, and most of the wines I referred to were from France. But it also seems that I got it over the top, as there was only one answer to that quiz – come on, people – this is only a game, there are absolutely no bad consequences, whether you answer it right or wrong! I sure hope to see more answers for the second part of the Ultimate Challenge, which will be about red wines. So the right answers are: A2, B3, C1, D5, E4. Here are the wines and reviews for you:
Chardonnay:
“An enticing, lemony white that is both aromatic and rich on the palate. Apple and mineral notes combine with the lemon flavors that glide to a lingering finish” – Domaine Michel & Fils Mâcon-Villages à Clessé 2011, WS90
Chenin Blanc:
“This has weight and depth but remains stylish, with ginger and glazed pear notes in reserve while persimmon, green almond and piecrust notes lead the way. Lovely cut on the finish keeps the ginger edge echoing. Should develop nicely in the cellar” – Guy Saget Vouvray Marie de Beauregard 2010, WS92
Sauvignon Blanc:
“Gently kissed with toast, giving the core of white peach, lemon and chamomile a broader frame of lightly toasted brioche and paraffin. A suave echo of flint chimes through the finish in this lovely rendering of the toasty style” – Henri Bourgeois Sancerre Étienne Henri 2009, WS93
Savagnin:
“Intensely minerally and smoky, with a blanket of acidity behind the apple, sea salt and anise flavors. The long finish is bracing and powerful” – Andre & Mireille Tissot Arbois Vin Jaune 2000, WS90
Viognier:
“Extremely rich and generous, with ripe, opulent peach, nectarine, apricot and tangerine flavors that are woven together on a full, lush body with smoke, spice, cedar and mineral details and a juicy acidity.” – DuMol Viognier Russian River Valley Lia 2007, WS93
As you can see, first four wines were from France, and the last one was from California. I will try to offer a higher geographic variety with the red wines quiz.
Going for the interesting news, I found one article from Dr. Vino which I wanted to share with you – it is about use of the music in the vineyard – what do you think, can the music affect the vines and lead to better (or worse) wines?
In a kind of “local news” update, I’m in Texas this week, where I will attend the GUSTO Tastings event, called “Texas versus the World”. GUSTO Tastings (which is effectively a meetup group) runs a lot of very interesting wine events here in Austin (lucky for you, people of Austin), and every first Wednesday of the month they conduct a special event where they compare Texas wines with the wines from other regions and countries. Today’s event will be all about Viognier, and I’m definitely looking forward attending it (and meeting fellow wine blogger @SAHMMelier, who told me about this event) – for all of you who will not be able to attend it, I promise the blog post with all of the details.
That’s all for today’s Meritage – enjoy your Wednesday, folks, and make sure there will be wine in your glass (definitely will be in mine). Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, 16+% ABV Wines, CatchWine, Sake Day and more
Meritage time!
Let’s start from the answer for the Wine Quiz #30 – A Guessing Game, In Reverse. You were supposed to pick the right review for the Chateau Latour from the list of five options. I’m happy to announce that we have a winner! Before I will tell you who won, let me tell you about the reviews I cited. All four options were legitimate reviews, of course for the different wines. This is what they were:
A: “dense ruby/purple color as well as an extraordinary nose of spring flowers intermixed with blueberries, black raspberries, wet rocks and spice box. Deep, full-bodied, rich and intense, this gorgeous effort again demonstrates what brilliant winemaking and a top-notch terroir can produce. It should drink well for 15-20 years.”
This is Wine Advocate review for 2008 Hundred Acres Cabernet Sauvignon from California (99 points).
B: “deep purple-ruby. Pungent floral and spice notes enliven complex aromas of dark plum, cocoa and minerals. Large-scaled and juicy, with lively acidity giving sharp definition to the uncommonly deep, pure flavors of black fruits, forest floor and dark spices. The impressively ripe, powerful finish features youthfully chewy tannins and outstanding persistence. This big boy will require a lot of patience: forget about it in the cellar for at least 15 years”
International Wine Cellar review for 2009 Chateau Latour (IWC96+, WA100)
C: “bright ruby. Perfumed, expressive aromas of red and dark berry preserves, smoky herbs and lavender, with a touch of licorice adding depth. Fleshy and supple in texture, offering intense black raspberry and bitter cherry flavors lifted by a spicy quality. Shows the richness of the vintage but carries no excess fat. The finish lingers with impressive tenacity and echoes the floral and smoke notes”
International Wine Cellar review for 2009 Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape (93 points)
E: “Deep, bright violet. Intensely perfumed black raspberry and blueberry on the nose, with seductive Asian spice, lavender and incense qualities emerging with air. Sappy red and dark berry liqueur flavors are lifted by juicy acidity picking up suave spice and floral pastille notes on the back end. Velvety tannins provide shape but are absorbed by the lush fruit, which carries through an extremely long, sappy, incisive finish.”
International Wine Cellar review for 2009 Saxum James Berry Vineyard (96 points).
So based on the comments we have two winners – April and The Drunken Cyclist, who also almost correctly answered the bonus question about the vintage (almost is a key word here, as he couldn’t decide between 2005 and 2009, but still, very impressive). Great job guys, you got all the bragging rights which come with winning of this [I would think somewhat difficult] quiz. I wish my prizes could be more tangible…
And now, let’s move on to interesting news and updates.
Need more wine holidays (the last one we celebrated was International Grenache Day on Friday, September 21st)? You are in luck! 35th Annual (show some respect!) Sake Day is coming on October 1st! Here is the blog post about it from The Passionate Foodie blog.
Wine Til Sold Out Full-On marathon is coming up next Tuesday, October 2nd – 6 AM – Midnight, wines are priced $15.99 – $$$.
Joe Roberts of 1WienDude fame had an interesting discussion in his blog regarding wines with ABV in excess of 16% – can those be balanced? If you have an opinion – join the discussion in Joe’s blog.
W. Blake Gray had a great post about wine collectors versus wine lovers – I highly recommend that you will read it.
I accidentally came across very interesting web site called Catch Wine – it seems to list a lot of very useful information about wineries in all the different states, including address and phone number, the hours when tasting rooms are open, wineries near by, user reviews and more. Check it out!
Last but not least – PJ Wine’s Grand Tasting in New York is coming up on Friday, November 16th – if you are in the area, you don’t want to miss Chateau Margaux, Chateau Haut-Brion, Vega Sicilia and many many other amazing wines (click the link above for more information).
That’s all for today, folks. Happy Wine Wednesday! Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, #PinotSmackdown Results and more…
It is Meritage time!
Let’s start from the answer for Weekly Wine Quiz #28, Where is the wine in this picture? This quiz was done in a different format ( no multiple-choice answers), and it had a lesser number of answers than I would want to – but, we have a clear winner. Here is the answer, also in the form of the picture:
That glass fruit bowl which was shown on the picture in the quiz was a photograph of the original artwork of Flora C. Mace and Joey Kirkpatrick, which I took at the winery, and that is what was shown on the the label of 1998 Artist Series Meritage wines. Congratulations to Mika on figuring out this (very difficult) wine quiz!
In the “interesting news” category, I only have a few things for you. First, the results for the #PinotSmackDown event, held on Twitter on September 6th (which I missed with the wine, but I cast my vote) were tallied up, and the winner was New Zealand (#NZ was actually my vote, but somehow I thought that I’m pretty unique with that opinion and New Zealand would not win) – here is the summary post for you.
Looking over recent posts at The Gray Report, I found this post with the link to the video from the series “Real Winemakers Read Wine Spectator Reviews” – the video is very entertaining, and you will also find more videos from the same series once you will finish watching the first one.
Believe it or not, this is all I have for you in today’s Meritage issue. Until next Wednesday – cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, Blind Tasting Escapades, Wine Books Review and more
Yes, it is still Wednesday somewhere! I’m actually on the west coast, so I have an excuse (okay, lame) for this post not coming out Wednesday morning, as usual. But let’s get to it.
First, the answer for the Wine Quiz #27 – This Whiskey Can’t Age Any Longer. Looks like this was an easy quiz, as most of you got it right – it is a high altitude and climate which don’t let whiskeys such as Stranahan’s to age for the long time. As Stranahan’s distillery located high in the mountains, if the cask will be left to age for 8 years, there will be nothing left in that cask (ohh, those angels…). Stranahan’s distillery is not the only one with such problem – Amrut, a very good quality whiskey from India, can’t age for longer than 3 years due to the same issue of altitude and climate. Located at 3000 ft in Himalayan Mountains in the tropical climate, Amrut whiskey rapidly disappears from the cask if kept for longer than 3 years. As a side note, even with [only] 3 years of age, it is a whiskey you don’t want to miss – if you are into the whiskey, of course.
Going into the interesting wine happenings section, W. Blake Gray had done it again – stirred the debate, I meant. Here is the post and here is related poll (poll is closed, but you can see the results), all about blind tasting by the wine publications, or may be not so blind? Read and decide for yourself – and be sure not to miss the comment section, as it has a lot of emotions brewing.
Joe Roberts of the 1WineDude fame reviewed some of the wine books which I think worth your attention – you can read his reviews here.
It is the harvest time in the Northern hemisphere, so of course there are lots of harvest news from all over. Decanter magazine gives you a good harvest run down for Europe and US (they expect the prices of California wine to go up – this is great, I think I missed the memo about economy being in the excellent state), and here is a take on California harvest from W. Blake Gray.
Last, but [may be] not least – did you have Pizza today? You should’ve, as September 5th was a National Cheese Pizza Day. Well, yes, I missed it too.
The glass is empty – Meritage is all gone for today, however full shipment is expected to arrive in a week. Until then – cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, [Super] Wine List, and Blogs, Blogs, Blogs…
Surely these Italian wines will get you talking!It’s Meritage Time!
First things first – the answer for the Wine Quiz #24 – Bottles Big, Bottles Small. The list in the quiz actually included names of the wine bottles of the different sizes, only slightly mixed up between the different regions. While some of the bottle names are the same between Champagne and Bordeaux, some of the names are unique and are used only in one region, and not in both. The question was to find “one which doesn’t belong”. While Piccolo (187 ml, or one quarter of a bottle) and Methuselah (6L, equal to 8 bottles) are uniquely used in Champagne, it is Imperial ( also 6L, or 8 bottles) which is one and uniquely Bordeaux, thus the right answer for the wine quiz is “Imperial”. Whomever marked “Imperial” as the right answer, please pat yourself on the back – you got all the bragging rights for the right answer for the wine quiz #24. In case you are curious about all the bottles sizes and their names, here is a Wikipedia link for you.
Now let’s talk about interesting “news and such” I came across during the last few days.
There was (yes, unfortunately “was”, not “is”) a restaurant in Spain, called El Bulli – literally the best restaurant in the world, by the famous chef Ferran Adrià (also one of the best in the world). The restaurant closed last summer, and now, as I learned from Dr. Vino’s blog post, about 10,000 bottles from El Bulli’s wine cellar will be auctioned at Sotheby’s in the near future. Dr. Vino’s blog post lists also a link to the El Bulli’s wine list, but for some reason it didn’t seem to work for me. However – in case you want to see the wine list – here it is, 139 pages of goodness… Drooling is acceptable.
Wine Bloggers Conference, a.k.a. WBC2012, is opening in Portland, Oregon in two days. At that conference, winners of the Wine Blog Awards will be announced. It seems that the subject of the awards is heated up considerably with various bloggers expressing their last minute opinions. You can reserch the subject on your own, but here is the opinion of Joe Roberts (1WineDude) – I recommend checking out the blogs he is referring to – they look quite interesting.
Last, but not least, a few interesting posts from The Passionate Foodie blog. First, here is a advanced notice of the upcoming great food holiday – October is a National Cheese Month! Cheese is definitely one of my favorite (if not The Favorite) foods, and knowing that in October I will have an additional reason to eat it, makes me happy. Also, as The Passionate Foodie writes from Boston, he mentioned that The Cheese Shop of Concord will be celebrating its 45th anniversary on October 6th, by offering a number of cheeses at 1967 prices – if you are into cheese, you still have time to find a good reason to be in Concord, MA on that date (I don’t think I need a reason – I plan to be there).
Also in the same The Passionate Foodie blog, you can find a series of posts about Port, one of the [wrongly] under-appreciated but amazing wines – here are the links for Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 for you – well worth your time, I think.
That’s all I have for today’s Meritage. Don’t forget – it is always [Wine] [Whisky] Wednesday – pour something good into your glass. Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, Cheapskate Wednesday, Wasps, Wine Lists And More
Indulge in fine wine at WineChateau.com and enjoy.Meritage time! I hope you are thirsty!
First and foremost, the answer for the Wine Quiz #23, There is a Vineyard in UK. While there were not that many answers, there was a nice spread between different options. And the right answer is… Riesling! The rest of the grapes are growing pretty successfully in UK, except for Riesling, which is a bit strange to me – Riesling does just fine in the colder climates – Finger Lakes, Niagara and other northern areas are making excellent wines out of Riesling, so it is surprising that it had not being picked up in UK. Well, may be it will be the next big thing, following success of the sparkling wines, but at least it is not there right now.
Next important item to bring to your attention – lovers of a great QPR, rejoice! Today is Cheapskate Wednesday at Wine Till Sold Out. All wines are priced in the range of $7.99 – $18.99 and new wines are announced only on Twitter every 15 minutes or so – follow @WTSO for the updates (I think you can also subscribe for SMS updates).
The Wine Bloggers Conference 2012 is taking place next week, August 17- 19 in Portland, Oregon. No, I’m not going, but may be next year. Are you?
Do you like wasps and hornets? Yeah, I thought so. It turns out that they play a vital role in making the wines complex. How? Read this article if you want to know.
Do you remember Dr. Vino’s blog post about NY Post restaurant critic’s problem with the wine lists (they are too esoteric to his taste)? At this point that thread has 49 (!) comments (depending on when you will read this post, number of comments might be even higher). While the thread might be too long to read in its entirety (but still worth it), make sure to at least read the comment by the critic (Steve Cuozzo) himself – read it slowly and carefully, and warn people around that you might laugh hysterically…
Want to know who are the most influential people in the wine world in the past year? Now you can. IntoWine.com published its 2012 Annual “Top 100 Most Influential People in the U.S. Wine Industry” – note that the link will point you to the top 10 – you can navigate back using the links at the bottom of the page. I think this list is interesting – what are your thoughts on that?
That’s all I have for you for today, folks. Enjoy your middle of the week. Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage
Meritage Time!
As usual, we are staring with the answer for the Wine Quiz #22: Olympics for all, where you had to figure out which “unusual” country supplied one of the “official” wines for the XXX Olympics in London. It was interesting again to see the spread of the answers – however this time we have a winner (as he left a comment in the Quiz post). And the right answer is …(drum roll, please)… Brazil – as the host of Summer Olympics 2016. And the winner is – The Drunken Cyclist – he gets a big prize in terms of unlimited bragging rights!
I have a couple of things to bring to your attention. First, I found a very interesting blog called Foodimentary. Particularly, this blog lists all the daily (!) food holidays in US. I didn’t check all 365 days, but so far it seems that every day has a designated food holiday! If before you had to eat simply because you were hungry, now you can eat with the purpose and celebrate particular foods! There is a lot more in that blog besides the list of the food holidays – check it out.
Next, there was an interesting post by W. Blake Gray, talking about New York Post food critic’s opinion regarding restaurant wine lists – I don’t want to spoil it for you, I will just tell you that it is quite controversial ( and practically 100% opposite to my own opinion), so read it for yourself.
And last but not least – an advanced wine Holiday warning for you. While Foodimentary blog lists tons of food holidays, there are many wine holidays which are not mentioned – and I think the important one is coming up. On August 30th, wine social media will be celebrating 3rd annual #CabernetDay! I’m sure this will be quite exciting for many of my readers. I have only one request – if anyone plans to open Screaming Eagle, Harlan, Colgin, Bryant or anything else of that caliber, can I please, please (with the cherry on top!) get an invitation? There, I said it – now I have to let universe to work its magical ways.
We reached the bottom of our Meritage glass. Cheers!
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