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Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, #CabernetDay – Tomorrow, WTSO Everything Goes Marathon, Crowdsourced Cabernet, World Wine Challenge
Meritage time!
Let’s start with the answer to the wine quiz #111, Grape Trivia – Grüner Veltliner.
This wine quiz is a continuation of the trivia series, where we are talking about individual grapes and then you get to answer 5 questions as it relates to that grape. The subject of the last quiz was white grape called Grüner Veltliner.
Here are the questions, now with the answers:
Q1: These flavors are usually associated with red wines, but it is not uncommon to find them in the description of the Grüner Veltliner wines. Do you know what flavors are those (multiple answers are possible)?
a. Chocolate, b. Pencil shavings, c. Pepper, d. Tar, e. Tobacco
A1: While Grüner Veltliner is a white grape, some of its aromas are typically associated with the red grapes, not with the whites – namely, pepper and tobacco can be often perceived in in the Grüner Veltliner wines.
Q2: These vegetables are notorious for been a “wine killer” – in terms of successful pairing, it is. And yet Grüner Veltliner is one of the unique wines (if not the only one) which is known to be able to pair successfully with those offenders. Do you know what vegetables we are talking about?
A2: Asparagus and artichoke are notoriously difficult to pair with the wines, and Grüner Veltliner often works very well with both vegetables.
Q3: Wine Spectator calls wines rated in 95-100 range Classic (the highest and the most prestigious category). True or False: there are no Grüner Veltliner – based wines rated in the Classic category
A3: Correct answer is “false” – there are some Grüner Veltliner rates as “classic” – but literally, there are only very few, mostly late harvest Grüner Veltliner wines rated at 95 as the highest.
Q4: According to one of the well known wine critics, the Grüner Veltliner might be “the next big thing” in which wine making country:
a. Australia, b.Argentina, c. Chile, d. South Africa, e. United States
A4: Wine expert James Halliday considers Grüner Veltliner to be potentially the next big thing in Australia, so the correct answer is a, Australia.
Q5: Which one doesn’t belong and why:
a. Austria, b. Croatia, c. Czech Republic, d. Hungary, e. Slovakia
A5: All the countries in this list are known to produce Grüner Veltliner wines, except Croatia, thus correct answer is b, Croatia.
When it comes to the results, I’m glad to say that we have a winner! apuginthekitchen correctly answered all 5 questions, so she becomes our new champion and gets the coveted prize of unlimited bragging rights! I also want to acknowledge Mario Plazio (no web site), who correctly answered 4 questions out of 5. Well done!
Now, to the interesting stuff around the vine and the web!
First and foremost, tomorrow, August 28th, we are celebrating 5th annual #CabernetDay – two noble grapes, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, countless wines from all over the world. Open a bottle, enjoy and share with the world – that’s all there is to it. You can also start celebration in style by joining the #WineChat tonight with Jean Edwards Cellars on twitter at 9 pm Eastern/ 6 pm Pacific and talking about your favorite Cabernet wines.
Wine Til Sold Out (@WTSO) is doing it again! The new Marathon will be taking place on Monday, September 8th. Only this time, it will be a very unusual for WTSO “Everything Goes” marathon. Styled after the famous Last Bottle Madness Marathons, there will be all sorts of wines offered at different prices and free shipping on any quantities (no minimums). All orders will be combined and shipped after September 22nd. The Marathon will start at 10 AM Eastern, and as usual, you will get the new wine notification only on twitter. Happy hunting!
Famous Washington State winery, Columbia Crest, recently started a new project – Crowdsourced Cabernet. You can join the group of like-minded people and become an internet winemaker for the 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon. 5 acres of vines, video cameras showing every angle of the grapes, the temperature, vine condition and all other information right in front of you – and now you have to make the decision which will affect your wine – no pressure. I think this is a very cool project – if anything, an interesting learning experience. For more details and to become a winemaker, here is your link. Don’t delay, the harvest is about to start…
And the last one for today – a game. A wine education and trivia game it is, recently released by the Trinchero Family Estates. The game is called World Wine Challenge ( available in iTunes for $2.99), it will help you to learn variety of wine subjects in the interactive fashion, as well as compare your knowledge to the others in the competition format. I didn’t get a chance to download the game yet (plan to do it shortly), but in case you are interested, here is the link with all the information about the game and its features.
And we are done here. The glass is empty – but the refill is on its way! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #110: How Well Do You Know Your Wines, Part 5
The Wine Quiz series is not meant to intimidate. The whole idea here is to have fun and learn something new. When answering the questions, it is fully encouraged to use all available sources of information, including Google or any other search engine. There are no embarrassing answers – the most embarrassing thing is not giving it a try…
Welcome to the weekend and your new wine quiz!
I hope to get back to the regular posting schedule for the wine quizzes, and before I will get to the grape trivia or any other long series, I thought one more round of capsules would be quite appropriate. So below are the pictures of the tops of the wine bottle – can you name the winery which produced that wine?
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In this group, we got California, Chile and Portugal. There are no superstars, but there are some well known wineries.
Good luck, enjoy the quiz and your weekend! Cheers!
Wines of the World – A Sequel Challenge
Yesterday I posted about the challenge of trying the wines from all 50 states in US and visiting wineries in those 50 states. One of the comments had a suggestion – how about the wines of the world? Really, how about it?
It is not that simple even to create the list of wine-producing countries of the world. Considering that the wine is at its peak of popularity, many countries are entering the winemaking arena. Yes, of course, there is a core of the wine-producing countries – about ten or so – but based on the data in Wikipedia (which also differs between different articles), about 60 countries produce the wines in the world today, give or take a few.
I wanted to find a good map to illustrate the wineries concentration around the world, but that didn’t happen, so here is the map of the winemaking areas according to the Wikipedia article:
Source: Wikipedia
Now, how many of you tried the wine from Algeria or Thailand (well, I know that Oliver did)? I’m sure those are not easy to find in your local wine boutique. I would argue that the typical [good] wine store in US would have the wines from about 15 countries; some of the best stores will probably account for about 20 at a time. Thus if you really want to try the wines from many different countries, you will have to make an effort.
Is that a worthwhile effort? That is strictly a personal question. I’m genuinely curious how the different wines taste like, so I’m excited to try the wines pretty much from anywhere. Should you expect to find great wines? You definitely will – I had many mind-blowing wines from Serbia, Croatia, Lebanon, Israel, Georgia and other lesser known wine-making countries. Of course you will encounter a lot of plonk along the way, that is also given. So, should you take upon this challenge? I can’t answer that question – as I said, this is strictly driven by the personal interest, so you be the judge.
If you are curious where do you stand now, use this word document to track your progress. As a reference, I can tell you that at this point, I tasted wines from 36 different countries out of 58 listed in the document, and visited wineries in 6 (yeah, need to travel more…). What would be your score?
Below is the table showing my exact list of wines and wineries per country.Challenge yourself! Cheers!
Wines of 50 United States – A Challenge
Let’s start with the simple fact – today (and for more than past 10 years), the wine is produced in all 50 United States. Yes, that includes Alaska, North Dakota and all other states you would never associate with winemaking. There are more than 8,000 wineries in the United States. I found interesting web site, called the Wine Web, which lists 8,229 wineries across the US (as of today, August 14 2014). Here is the winery map across US which was created using this web site:
Recently, I tried wines from Vermont and Colorado, and I finally visited for the first time (!), despite the fact that I live here for more than 20 years, the wineries in Connecticut (of course this will be a subject of a separate post). That prompted me to look up my old post about wines of the United States, which had a table with all the states and check marks for the wines tasted and wineries visited, and to update that table.
I know that all of you like wines (if you don’t, you are most likely not reading this). And people generally like challenges, especially those which are fun, can be done at the personal pace and don’t fight back – contrast that with the challenge of losing 10 pounds by the end of the month and I’m sure you will see my point. So the challenge, which will be only your personal, as there are no judges and no competition, is: wines of how many states did you try, and wineries in how many states did you visit? To simplify tracking, here is the word document with the table I created for this challenge – download and fill it up (note – you will need to calculate your totals manually, as this is word document and not an excel spreadsheet). I also added a new page where you can see my current progress.
So, do you accept the challenge? Currently, I tried the wines from 17 states, and visited wineries in 8 – where do you stand? Cheers!
Are You Ready For The Reality TV Wine Drama? It Is Coming, And May The Best Bottle Win!
Do you like wine? (Argh, with an opening question like that in the wine blog, I probably lost half of my readers on the spot) When you look at the shiny wine bottle in the store with an artfully (or not) designed label, do you know about – better yet, can you vividly imagine – all the hard work which went into making sure that bottle will get to you and [hopefully] will also taste good? Soon, you will get a chance to get to know it first hand and almost experience it – with the help of the big TV. No, I’m not talking about the new Sideways or SOMM – I’m talking about the real winemaking drama taking place in the format of the Reality TV.
10 aspiring winemakers, two teams, two great wine regions. Lots of vineyard and winery chores. Clash of characters. And pain of elimination. Until only two contestants are left to make their best bottle of wine. Then celebrity judges will put an end to it and decide who gets the $100K and opportunity to bottle one vintage under the Best Bottle label. That’s all there is to it. Intrigued? Want to learn more? Great, as I was intrigued too and wanted to learn more when I heard about Best Bottle Reality TV competition series and its kickstarter campaign.
In an effort to learn more, I got an opportunity to interview Scott Krauger, the executive producer of the Best Bottle series – and I would like to share with you our conversation. Oh yes, before we get to the interview, here is the Best Bottle trailer, for you to get an idea of what to expect from the series:
And here is our Q&A:
How did you start your love affair with wine?
In 1993 I was brought on board to help develop the estate vineyard at Archery Summit Winery in Oregon. My mentors Bernard Lacroute and Gary Andrus taught me about the love of wine, showed me how wine is crafted and the terroir. I was exposed to people who had a deep love for wine-making, and through their art and style, learned to craft exceptional wine.
How the idea for Best Bottle was born?
Three years ago I was producing a documentary called Heart of the Vine which highlighted the terroir, Mother Nature, and the vineyard people who craft the wines. I wanted to show how wineries and winemakers express a wine’s location and vintage.
Why California versus Oregon?
First, this show is all about Community (yes, with a capital ‘C’)! Thus the region vs. region. My mentor, Gary Andrus, gave me a huge shot early in my career when he hired me. Gary taught me so much and Community was at the top of the list. So, Best bottle is a celebration of wine regions and those individuals who delicately craft amazing wines for the world to enjoy. Future seasons are planned to expand into a global competition by shooting future seasons in New Zealand, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, and so on.
What was the selection process to select 10 “aspiring winemaker” contestants?
It really goes to the most entertaining characters with great back drop stories. They have an appreciation and love for making wine. They are artisans, aspiring or established wine makers. This show is used to showcase their skill and art on a world stage.
What makes you think that looking at the winery chores will be attractive enough for the viewers to make it a successful TV program?
With more than 20+ years of experience in the wine industry, it really comes down to the characters we cast for the show. We have exciting episodes planned for 14 seasons. The show takes the contestant and viewers through the wine-making process…”behind the scenes”. We are also demonstrating what happens out in the vineyard and the sale side as well. This all done in an exciting competition/challenge and elimination format.
Will the show be available on YouTube, or would it be a live TV-only program? Where on TV?
We have partnered with Mance Media, our World Wide Distribution agent. They will show case and take this show to VOD and foreign markets. They are already working on establishing the domestic broadcaster and global distribution into other television markets. We’ll also have YouTube clips and other video content highlighting not only the show but supporting aspects…i.e. Interviews and additional content from tasting events at food and wine shows all over the United States.
When the first episode will be coming out?
As you know, the wine industry is dependent on the seasons. Right now we are looking at Harvest of 2014 in the northern hemisphere or Harvest 2015 in the southern.
Do you think this show will be as successful as the movie Sideways? Do you expect your show to change the dynamics of the wine consumer market, as Sideways did for Pinot Noir versus Merlot?
That’s the million dollar question and I’d love to say, “Hell yes!” I do think the show will really showcase the thousands of vineyard and winery workers, who are often the unsung heroes. Everyone remembers the winery owner, but do they even think about the men and women who harvest and process the grapes? Or the many who spend hours blending and tasting to get just the right blend? Best Bottle will open people’s eyes, minds and hearts to the entire Community (there’s that word again).
Can you tell us what wineries will be involved in California and Oregon?
Not yet. That’s still super secret Hollywood stuff. We can say we have commitments for locations, support, and participants.
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Here are some additional links and information for you:
Site: WineBestBotte.com
Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/595310313/best-bottle-show-for-wine-enthusiasts-and-reality
Producers: Scott Krauger, Rob Richards, Matthew Wilson, Annie Tonsiengsom, Matthew Mancinelli
Media contact: Kari Fredheim Karig@geminidigitalfilms.com
Please understand that Best Bottle series needs your support – visit the Kickstarter project page to learn about sponsorship options and use the opportunity to help to create first ever reality TV wine drama. Cheers!
Wine Bloggers Conference 2014: Live Wine Blogging
I’m continuing my stories from the Wine Bloggers Conference 2014 (here are the links to the Day 1 and Day 2 posts). The subject of this post is tasting of the wines in the time-constrained scenario, or the Live Wine Blogging sessions (also some attendees called it “speedtasting”).
When it comes to the wine tastings of the large scale, I pride myself with being a professional. I’m attending trade wine tasting events for many years, and I don’t have any issues being faced with 300-400 wines in only 3 -4 hours of time. No problems. You use spitton, and you are very decisive about what you want and don’t want to try. I also take pictures and very minimal notes (typically the “+” signs with few descriptors) to designate the wines I like.
The Live Wine Blogging Session was yet a very new and different experience. All attendees sit at the round tables. Each table has a number in the middle. Winemakers are ready with their wines and information in hand. As soon as the host says “go”, winemakers approach the tables they are next to, start pouring their wines and talk about them. 4 minutes 30 seconds into this, the host shouts a “30 seconds warning”, and on the 5 minutes mark the next instruction is “winemakers, go to the next table” (next table with the higher number it is). The session lasts for 50 minutes – 10 wines, 5 minutes per wine.
This is the “Live Blogging Session” – so the bloggers are expected to share their impressions live in real time as they taste the wines. What do you think about the 5 minutes time allotment for this task? I found it quite challenging. Yes, 5 minutes is more then plenty to figure out if you like the wine or not. But to come up with some reasonable impressions and taste descriptors (don’t think “nice wine” is a good qualifier) and to share them with the world with the 140 characters limit is not a simple task in my opinion. I don’t know how the winemakers felt, but for sure I was exhausted by the end of each 50 minute session.
Another feature of this live wine blogging exercise is complete unpredictability – the only known factor is the color of the wine which will be served in the session (White and Rose or Red). The wines come from all over the world, and there are lots of participating wineries, so at every table attendees only get to taste a fraction of the total selection available for the session. The wines also represented a broad range of price points – from $10 simple Washington Riesling to the $125 rare California Cabernet Sauvignon.
I did my best to adhere to the principal of the “live blogging” and posted all notes on twitter as we tasted the wines, in real time (if interested, look for twits with #wbc14 hashtag). For what is worth, below are the notes as they appeared on Twitter, with the small processing I did to make them more concise. To give you a “live” example, here is how the twits looked like in the real time:
Here are my notes for the white wines (each line represents a separate twit, so mostly I had 2 twits per wine, with some exceptions):
2013 Main & Geary Chardonnay Sonoma – beautiful nose, tropical fruit, apple, touch of vanilla and green apple on the palate
2012 Cornerstone Cellars Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley – a lot of white fruit on the nose, palate: touch of grass, steely acidity
Cornerstone Cellars Sauvignon Blanc is made to age. long finish, very acidic. Food wine
2013 Aridus Viognier Arizona (!) – beautiful nose, classic floral Viognier – wow palate! Very elegant (despite a touch of heat)
also nice saltiness on the palate, great complexity. Most favorite so far
2012 Alta Maria Vineyards Chardonnay Santa Maria Valley – great nose, nuttiness, vanilla, touch of butter
closed on the palate, Chablis like acidity. needs time!
2012 Fess Parker Viognier Santa Barbara County – nice nose, minerality and gunflint. Sweet fruit on the palate, very balanced, short-med finish
finish is longer than I thought, nice acidity. Very good overall
2011 Scratchpad Chardonnay Central Coast – label and the bottle – creativity through the roof!!!
Chablis-like nose, minerality, touch of vanilla, but the palate is somewhat single dimensional. Malo noticbl
2012 Pacific Rim Riesling Columbia Valley, WA – Sweet nose, nice acidity, good fruit – but overall doesn’t resemble Riesling
it is a nice wine for $10, but it wouldn’t pass for Riesling if I crave one. Okay summer wine
2013 Urban Legend Grenache Blanc Capay Valley – beautiful nose, white ripe fruit, fresh, clean
fresh palate, good acidity, white stone fruit, minerality – very pleasant. Medium finish
2012 Uproot Grenache Blanc Santa Ynez Valley – restrained nose, nice minerality, melon, earthiness
palate: acidity, spices, nutmeg, minerality, clean, refreshing. very Good overall
2013 Charles Krug Sauvignon Blanc St. Helena – Napa: beautiful fresh cut grass on the nose, SB at its best! Clean, fresh
Cat Pee on the nose, yes!!!
palate: perfect, fresh, lemongrass, acidity, touch of gooseberries – wow, just a classic!!! fav!!
Charles Krug Sauvignon Blanc was definitely my most favorite wine of that session. Aridus Viognier from Arizona was most unique (I don’t get to taste too many wines from Arizona). The “prize” for most creative design goes to the Scratchpad Chardonnay, taking into account both the cool label and a little pencil which hangs of the bottle top – unfortunately, the taste didn’t fully support the creativity of the bottle.
And here are the reds:
2012 Garnet Vineyards Estate Farmed Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast – beautiful ruby color, touch of smoke, earthy, herbaceous
beautiful sweet fruit on the palate, young gripping tannins, pomegranate, slight heat in the back
long sweet finish. Needs a bit of time (2012)
Vineyard 511 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon Diamond Mountain – dark garnet color, sweet plums and cassis on the nose, touch of eucalyptus
beautiful! Great density, soft, approachable, with firm tannins, perfect acidity. will evolve greatly
Rodney Strong Vineyards 2011 Symmetry Meritage – open herbaceous nose, touch of red fruit, raspberries
nice Bordeaux blend, cherries, firm structure, firm tannins
2011 Rios de Chile Reserve Carmenere – barnyard, smoke, complexity on the nose, bacon and roasted meat
beautiful, round,concentrated, dark fruit, herbs, spices
2006 Jordan Winery Cabernet Sauvignon – beautiful nose, open fruit, touch of earthiness, cassis, the same on the palate. Perfect Cab!
2010 Jordan Winery Cabernet Sauvignon – wow, open, explicit nose, eucalyptus, soft fruit, wow again. young tannins
2010 Adelaida Cellars Touriga Nacional – mind blowing nose, beautiful fresh fruit, wild berries – strawberries and blueberries
spectacular palate of fresh berries, firm, concentrated, excellent balance. Great wine
2011 Danza Del Sol Cabernet Franc Temecula Valley – varietally correct nose, touch of cassis and eucalyptus, green bell pepper
great palate, fresh fruit, balancing tannins and acidity. An excellent effort
2012 Ferrari Carano Siena fresh berries nose with hint of smoke and tobacco
sweet fruit on the palate, some cherries, round and delicious. Excellent balance
2011 Carr Winery Cabernet Franc Santa Ynez Valley interesting nose – mineral, with some cherries, eucalyptus, cassis
soft, delicious palate, with more eucalyptus, cassis and greens bell pepper. Perfectly balanced and soft
2010 Grassini Wines Estate Cabernet Sauvignon on the nose, young fruit with some smokiness, minerality
lots of sweet fruit on the palate (too much for me), mocha, good structure
2011 Taken Red Wine Napa Valley – blueberries and blackberries on the nose, nicely restrained
palate – delicious, perfect acidity, firm tannins, good structure, right amount of fruit and excellent balance
The red wines line up was very impressive, it is hard to pick the favorite. The Adealida Touriga Nacional from Paso Robles was probably the most unusual (my first 100% Touriga Nacional wine from US), and very tasty. Jordan is always a stand out for me, and both 2006 and 2010 were delicious. My wine of the day was still the Vineyard 511 – a rare treat from the Diamond Mountain district (tiny area of 500 acres in size) in Napa Valley, perfectly structured and impeccably balanced wine; the conversation with Ed and Irene Ojdana who makes the Vineyard 511 Cabernet Sauvignon was a pleasure in itself. I also have to mention Taken Red wine from Napa Valley, which was simply put on our table after the session concluded – this was an excellent wine, created by Carlo Trinchero and Josh Phelps, both coming from the very well respected winemakinig families in California.
Here we are – two speedtasting, live wine blogging sessions. I know that this exercise is very polarizing for many attendees – some hate it, and some love it. I’m in the latter category, and I definitely enjoyed the sessions and already looking forward to the repeat at the next year’s conference. What do you think – would you love it or hate it? Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, WTSO Marathon, Dangers of Twits, Natural Wines Commotion
Meritage Time!
Of course we are staring with the answer to the weekly wine quiz #109, where you were supposed to identify 8 wines by the image on top of the bottle cap or a capsule. Below are the pictures, now with the answers:
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- 1. Casa Bianchi (Argentina)
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- 2. Emilio Moro (Spain)
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- 3. PEJU (California)
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- 4. Dominio de Pingus PSI (Spain)
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- 5. Andrew Murray (California)
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- 6. Chamonix (South Africa)
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- 7. Cairdean Vineyards (California)
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- 8. Zaca Mesa (California)
While nobody was able to identify all 8 wines, Zak (no web site) did an excellent job identifying 6 out of 8 wine tops, so he is definitely the winner of this round and gets the unlimited bragging rights! I also want to acknowledge wineandhistory, who correctly identified PEJU wine. I’m also glad to say that a number of people said that they will start paying more attention to the bottle tops, which makes it all more fun.
Now, to the interesting news around the web and the vine!
First, the WTSO is on it again – Summer Cheapskate Marathon is coming to the browser next to you on Tuesday, July 29th. Starting at 6 am Eastern time, the new wines will be offered in the $7.99 to $18.99 range every 15 minutes or sooner if the offered wine will sell out. All wines are offered in the quantity of 4 bottles or more to get the free shipping. The marathon will finish at 11:59 pm Eastern time.
Next up is an interesting post by W. Blake Gray. I made a number of attempts to come up with a clever abstract for his blog post; instead, I just have to explain why I think it worth a few minutes of your time. In the article, W. Blake Gray explains how two of his short posts on twitter led to the angry rebuttal from the Cellar Tracker founder, Eric Levine, with the declaration of “wine snob” being literally slapped on W. Blake Gray’s face (yes, as a figure of speech – no bodily harm took place). Twitter is a dangerous medium – the condensed format requires lots of careful attention to what one is saying – and viral potential of any twit making huge waves should always be taken into account… Anyway, read it for yourself, including the comments, and if you will, let me know what you think.
What do you think of natural wine? Yes, I know that the term itself is somewhat controversial. But, considering that the wine is a form of art, I only see it as one of the styles, which is perfectly valid alongside of many others. However, it seems that a lot of wine professionals don’t see it like that. First was an article by Bruce Palling, called “Is there anything natural about raw wine“. Jamie Goode, a winner of the Best Overall Wine Blog Award at WBC14, responded to this article on his blog, in the post called “Comments on Bruce Palling’s anti-natural wine article“. Then Steve Heimoff jumped in with “I weigh in on Jamie Goode’s post on “natural wine””, and even Matt Kramer couldn’t stand aside and wrote the post called “When Did Wine Become So Partisan?“. If anything, I’m definitely siding with Matt Kramer and his question – I don’t understand why the opinions about wine, which is an extremely, extremely subjective in terms of “good and bad”, should be so fiercely antagonistic. If someone doesn’t like the taste of Australian Shiraz, does it mean that Australia should stop making Shiraz? And if the answer is “of course not”, then I don’t understand why natural wine should be any different. Anyway, I suggest you will spend a few minutes of your time reading those articles – and don’t forget to read the comments.
And we are done for today. The glass is empty – but the refill is on the way. Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #109: How Well Do You Know Your Wines, Part 4
The Wine Quiz series is not meant to intimidate. The whole idea here is to have fun and learn something new. When answering the questions, it is fully encouraged to use all available sources of information, including Google or any other search engine. There are no embarrassing answers – the most embarrassing thing is not giving it a try…
Welcome to the weekend and your new wine quiz!
We are continuing the “bottle top” series, where you need to recognize the wine/producer based on the picture of the top of the bottle. Below you will find the pictures of the 8 different bottle tops – let me know what do you think those wines are (suggestion – click on the pictures to zoom for more details):
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Hint – the wines above represent Argentina, California, Spain and South Africa. Few of the producers are well known, and some are not so much. Even if you recognize only one wine – don’t be shy, comment away!
Good luck, enjoy the quiz and your weekend! Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, Science of Taste, #WBC15 coming to Finger Lakes, World’s Best Restaurant Wine Lists
Meritage Time!
I’m still trying to get into my regular posting rhythm, but the Wine Bloggers Conference, which I just attended this past weekend, while was a great experience, became also an issue. Too many experiences worth sharing, and the posts are not easy to put together quickly, yet in the meaningful manner. While I’m working on that, I decided to at least go back to some of the “programming staples”, such as Wednesday’s Meritage and weekly quizzes. Thus I’m starting with the answer to the last weekly wine quiz #108, where you were supposed to identify 7 wines by the image on top of the bottle cap or a capsule. Below are the pictures, now with the answers:
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- 1. Château de Beaucastel
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- 2. Krupp Brothers
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- 3. Silver Oak
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- 4. Waterwall by Field Recordings
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- 5. Tournon By Michel Chapoutier
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- 6. Château Paul Mas
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- 7. If You See Kay
Yes, this was a hard quiz, but I was told by a number of people that they enjoyed it, so we will have another round this coming Saturday. We don’t have a winner in this round, but I would like to acknowledge next stop: tbd and SAHMmelier who both properly identified Silver Oak. Well done!
Now, to the interesting news around the web and the vine!
First, an article on the subject of … taste of wine. What factors affect the taste of wine, can we distinguish expensive wine from inexpensive in the format of a blind tasting, how do we taste – this well-researched article in The New Yorker discusses all of these questions. This is interesting how many scientists are researching and analyzing the ways we taste wine (I’m sure the food too) – what I don’t fully understand is an actual goal of such a research. Is it to facilitate creation of the wine which will taste universally good for everybody? Or is it to find out how to maximize the profits by changing of the look and feel of the bottle? Or how to decorate a wine bar so we will gladly pay $50 for a glass of wine? Or may be it is all just in the name of science? Read the article for yourself, and then I will be really interested in your opinion.
Now, fresh after the Wine Bloggers Conference 2014, I’m glad to tell you that Wine Bloggers Conference 2015 will be taking place on the East Coast! Yay! And not just anywhere on the East Coast, but namely in the Finger Lakes region, in the town of Corning! Based on my #WBC14 experience, I would highly recommend that if you are into the wine blogging, then put August 13-16, 2015 on your calendar, and start making arrangements to attend the conference – this is your best opportunity for learning and networking in the group of like-minded people. Here is the announcement which provides all of the details.
Last interesting article for today is this post by Dr. Vino, where he talks about the results of the ranking of the wine lists at the different restaurants world-wide, conducted by The World of Fine Wine magazine. The ranking is done similar to the Michelin 3 star rating of the restaurants, assigning 3 star ratings to the best restaurant wine lists. Overall, 750 restaurants received at least one star rating, and out of this amount, 224 restaurant got the highest honors – 3 stars. It appears that city of New York is in the unquestionable lead with 36 highest ranked restaurants in the world – the next comes London, will less than a half of the amount of the 3-star rated restaurants at 17. Still, the best wine list in the world belongs to the hotel restaurant in Vienna, Austria, called Palais Coburg Residenz. The Hearst restaurant in New York has the best wine list in the United States. For more interesting information please visit Dr. Vino’s post.
And we are done for today. The glass is empty – but the refill is on the way. Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #108: How Well Do You Know Your Wines, Part 3
The Wine Quiz series is not meant to intimidate. The whole idea here is to have fun and learn something new. When answering the questions, it is fully encouraged to use all available sources of information, including Google or any other search engine. There are no embarrassing answers – the most embarrassing thing is not giving it a try…
Welcome to the weekend (for all of us in US – welcome to the second day of your Independence Day long weekend) and your new wine quiz!
I’m still undecided about the grape trivia series, but I didn’t want to leave you without a quiz this weekend, so I decided to do a sequel to the quizzes #86 and #87, where you were required to recognize the wines by the pictures of the foil capsule tops. Below you will see the pictures of 7 different foil tops – you will need to identify the wine producer behind each one of those tops (note – click on the pictures to zoom):
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I can give you a little hint – the wines above represent Australia, California, France and Italy. Few of the producers are quite famous, and few are less so. Even if you recognize only one – don’t be shy, comment away!
Good luck, enjoy the quiz and your weekend! Cheers!
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