Weekly Wine Quiz #50 – Hiding In The Plain Sight
And yet another week is becoming a history – but – the weekend is still mostly ahead of us, and – the new wine quiz is here!
As you probably noticed, my wine quiz themes are usually pretty random. Very often, I have no idea what the quiz will be all about before I sit down to write it. Or in many cases, I think I know what the quiz will be all about, only to change the idea completely right before I will start writing it.
This was the case today – I actually had the idea, which I thought was somewhat decent – but then different idea came to mind, and now the first one will have to wait for its time.
In today’s quiz, you will need to look for some wines – the wine names, to be more precise. Below is a little fragment from he unwritten fiction, which I’m sure will help you to appreciate that I’m only writing the wine blog and not the novels. In this fragment, there are many wine names, hiding in the plain sight. Can you find them?
– Hey, Justin, see that skinny girl standing there?
-Which one, the one in the “to the rescue” t-shirt, almost naked?
– No, the other one, with the cupcake in her left hand.
– Ahh, that is Patrina, she is one of the three girls in the Bryant family, the middle sister. Let me introduce you.
– Hey, Patrina, please meet my friend Kris – he is the worshiper of Orpheus, the poet.
I’m sure SAHMmelier would execute this better, considering her writing talents (take a look at her poem), but I honestly tried.
I will give you a hint – there are at least ten wines ( actually more, but okay) hiding in that little dialog – so get your magnifying glass and start looking. But please, don’t feel bad if you will find only one or even none – it is your comment that matters, even if you only want to say “hi”.
Good luck and enjoy both the quiz and your weekend! Answers are coming on Wednesday. Cheers!
Re-Post: Best Hidden Secrets Of The Wine World: Underappreciated Regions
During 2011 I wrote a number of posts for the project called The Art Of Life Magazine – of course talking about my favorite subject, wine. The project closed and even web site is down, but as I still like the posts I wrote, so I decided to re-post them in this blog. Also, in that project, posts were grouped into mini-series, such as “Best Hidden Secrets” you see here – I will continue re-posting them from time to time.
Also note that the series was written for a slightly different audience – I hope none of my readers will take offense in the fact that sometimes I’m stating the obvious…
After spending some time looking at hard-to-find-but-worth-seeking wines (Jerez and Madeira posts can be found here and here), let’s go back to the “hidden secrets” series. We agreed at the beginning that in this “secrets” series, we are looking for great wines which will bring a lot of pleasure – but will not require one to dip into pension savings to enjoy them pretty much every day. We talked about Rioja, second labels, French Sparkling wines and wines of Languedoc. Where should we go now?
If anything, we are living through a wine renaissance period right now. Wine is very popular as a beverage among people of all ages and all walks of life, everywhere in the world. Wine is also made nowadays almost everywhere in the world – from China and India to downtown Chicago (I’m serious – you can read about it here). Does it mean that you can universally enjoy wines made anywhere in the world? Of course not (not yet? May be, but I can’t predict the future). Taking out of equation exotic wines made in exotic regions, what are we left with? There are a number of well know wine making regions – Alsace, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne and Rhone in France, Piedmont and Tuscany in Italy, Germany (as one big Riesling-making region), Rioja, Ribera Del Duero and Priorat in Spain, Porto in Portugal, Australia and New Zealand (often taken as a whole), United States with Napa and then Sonoma being most prominent, and hopefully Washington and Oregon being also well known outside of the US, and Chile and Argentina, as still relative newcomers in the wine world. How did I come up with this list? Before someone gets upset for his or her favorite regions not being mentioned, or all 70+ regions of Australia not being accounted for, let me explain the logic here – it is simple. Each of the regions listed above (even with the whole country lumped as one) makes tens or may be hundreds of the wines which are in a high demand. How can we estimate the demand? When wine is in demand, it typically starts going up in price. Each one of the above mentioned regions has many wines priced in the hundreds or thousands of dollars per bottle (anyone who wants to check is welcome to look for Screaming Eagle, Chateau Petrus, Krug Champagne or Vega Sicilia on wine-searcher).
Yes, you are absolutely right – not all the wines produced in Bordeaux or any other famed region cost hundreds of dollars, there are many which cost between $10 and $20. True, but in many cases consistency of those wines might be in question – meaning, you never know what you are getting for your ten or twenty dollars. Of course probability of finding very good and reasonably priced wine is getting better and better in today’s world – but you can even further improve it by stepping out of familiar circle and looking for wines from under-appreciated regions.
So what are those under-appreciated regions? As you can imagine, there are lots of them. Again, all the exotic places aside, for each famous wine region, the same countries have tens of “under-appreciated” regions, consistently making good wines for hundreds of years, with majority of those wines being also reasonably priced. In France, great wines are made in Loire, Provence, Jura, Languedoc-Roussillon (we already talked about them) and many other places. In Italy, excellent wines are made in Umbria, Sicily, Lombardy, Marche and again in many other regions. Rias Baixas, Bierzo, Jumilla and La Mancha in Spain; Long Island, Virginia and Texas in United States, South Africa, Israel, Lebanon, Greece, Georgia and Hungary… There is no limit to the places where now we can look for consistently good wines.
As usual, time to open a bottle, right? Let me give you a few examples from the regions which I believe are under-appreciated.
Let’s start in Italy, in the region called Marche, which is located on Adriatic coast of Italy, near Ancona. There are a number of great wines produced in that region, which is still staying off the radar for the most of the wine lovers. Particularly, white wines made out of the grape called Verdicchio, Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi and Verdicchio di Matelica are excellent white wines, with balanced acidity and fruit, perfect for summer day. The red wines are made mostly out of Sangiovese and Montepulciano grapes. This particular 2006 Casal Farneto Rosso Conero IGT is made of the blend of Montepulciano and Sangiovese, and it is an excellent red wine with lots of layers and luscious red and black fruit on the palate (think of blackberries and sour cherries), perfectly balanced.
Let’s move from region Marche in Italy to France. Here is our first wine, coming from Vouvray region in Loire valley. Loire is home for many different wine regions, all producing interesting but lesser known wines, may be with an exception of Sancerre (I might be really stretching this “may be”). Vouvray wines are made out of the grape called Chenin Blanc, which produces wide range of wines from very dry to very sweet. This particular 2009 Domaine de Vaufuget Vouvray AOC is very nice and pleasant, showing some sweetness (probably equivalent to Spatlese Riesling). It is easy to drink and should be great accompaniment to many summer meals.
Last but not least for today is red wine coming again from Loire Valley, from the region called Chinon. As many other red wines in Loire region, Chinon wines are made out of the Cabernet Franc grape, with an addition of some other grapes. Cabernet Franc is typically used as a blending grape in Bordeaux and California, but it also produces great wines on its own, in all the different regions throughout the world. This 2007 Epaule Jete Chinon required extensive time to open up, but after three days, finally became drinkable, showing earthiness, fruit and acidity, all in harmonious balance.
Not sure if I was convincing enough, but next time you are in a wine store, look for unfamiliar wines from unfamiliar places – it is possible that you will make a great discovery. As subject of under-appreciated wines is almost endless, I will give you many more examples of great wines from no-so-well-known places. Until then – let’s drink to fearless wine tasting and great discoveries.
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, Lighter Wines from California?, WBC2013 and more
Meritage time!
Let’s start with the answer for the wine quiz #49, Once upon a time. In the quiz, you were presented with three well known expressions ( okay, of course “honeymoon” is just a word), and you were supposed to explain the origins of the expressions as it connects to the world of wine (or any other type of alcohol). So the expressions were:
- Honeymoon
- Wet your whistle
- Rule of thumb
To tell you honestly, I wanted to play this quiz for a while. What was stopping me is the fact that all of the “right answers” are just some forms of legend – the exact source of the expressions will stay the subject of prolonged debates. But – I’m glad that I finally decided to ignore my doubts – judging by the number of answers, this was definitely a fun quiz.
Let me give you my version of the answers, which I will call the “correct answers” for the lack of the better term.
Honeymoon: both armchairsommelier and thefoodandwinehedonist provided the correct answer – in the ancient times, when the couple was married, the father of the bride was supposed to provide the month-long supply of the honey-based alcoholic beverage called mead. As months were measured by the lunar calendar in those times, hence the reference to the “moon” – honeymoon.
Wet your whistle: according to the version I like, in the old but not such a distant times, England pubs were serving beer in the mugs with the whistle baked in as part of the mug, like in this modern version shown here – when you want a refill, you just use a whistle. I like this version despite a lot of dismissal over this version on the internet – the other version has to do with one simply being thirsty and “whistle” being used as a reference for one’s throat – this is again what both armchairsommelier and thefoodandwinehedonist offered as an explanation. I still like my version more, so there.
Rule of thumb: I appreciate all the versions offered, however, even if they are true, I can’t connect beating one’s wife with the wine (unless someone way too much of it, but this is definitely way off). Many of you correctly assumed that the thumb is a measuring device, however, not for the size of pour – instead the thumb was used in the beer brewing to measure the right temperature.
To round it up – I was glad to see many people playing, and the honorable mention definitely goes to the armchairsommelier and thefoodandwinehedonist.
Now, to the interesting stuff around the web. Have you heard that there is a new movement in California to make lighter, more food friendly and easier to love wines? Whether you did or not, the phenomena is there, as requested by many consumers. Here is an interesting blog post by W. Blake Gray, talking about an article in Hemispheres magazine, which in turn is discussing the subject of the lighter California wines. As it is the case with many blog posts, be sure to read the comments – that is the most entertaining part.
Next subject – Wine Bloggers Conference 2013, or WBC2013 for short. WBC2013 will be taking place in Penticton, British Columbia, on June 6-8. What I really want to know – who is going? Despite blogging for almost 3 years, I never attended any of the WBCs. But – if there is a good company, I’m ready : ) Let me know if you are planning to attend – that will give me a good reason to do the same : )
Somewhat related subject – Wine Blog Awards. While I respect and appreciate all the Versatile, Creative and all other blogging awards, Wine Blog Awards are something else. They are awarded in the number of different categories, based on both popular vote and decision of panel of experts. Why am I talking about it here? Two reasons. One: Nomination period for Wine Blog Awards 2013 will open on March 25th (very soon!) and will last for one week. Two: Yes, I would love to get a Wine Blog Award, and therefore, would greatly appreciate a nomination!
Last “news” for today – totally not related to wine. Spring is here!
That’s all I have for you for today, folks. The glass is empty. Until the next time – cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #49 – Once Upon A Time…
Saturday is here again, therefore it is time for the wine quiz!
This week’s quiz will be very different from the last one – and I really really hope to see more people participating.
Today’s quiz doesn’t really have much of the right answers – but I hope this will even make it more fun.
Below you will find some words and expressions, which are well known – and connected to the world of wine at least as the legend has it. So this is the legend I’m looking for – please tell me how the following words are connected to the world of wine (and here I’m including all things alcohol into the word “wine” – whiskey, sake, beer – all is “wine” in this context):
- Honeymoon
- Wet your whistle
- Rule of thumb
Remember – there are no wrong answers, so unleash your imagination…
Have fun and good luck! Have a great weekend and cheers!
Daily Glass: Study of La Rioja Alta Viña Alberdi
On a given day, outside of any big holidays or special dinners, I have no idea what bottle I’m going to open in the evening. Sometimes it can be a painful procedure of looking at 20-30 bottles not been able to decide. Today, it was easy – @wineking3 mentioned on twitter that he had not the best experience with 2003 La Rioja Alta Vina Alberdi Reserva, which sparked my interest. You see, La Rioja Alta is one of the very best (and of my favorite) producers in Rioja, so I wanted to see if I can taste the same or similar wine – and I quite convinced that I should have some 2003 La Rioja Alta wine. Also it appears that Decanter magazine suggests that 2003 Rioja should be drunk now, however suggesting that better producers created powerful wines – which again only increased my interest.
La Rioja Alta was founded in 1890 by the group of five winegrowers in the Haro Station District. In 1941, the winery introduced its Viña Ardanza brand, which became one of the most famous in Rioja. In 1970, Viña Arana and Viña Alberdi were introduced, and since then La Rioja Alta wine had being produced under all three labels – but not in all the years. Each “brand” has it’s own unique source of grapes and grape composition, which is rather expected.
So as I pulled the 2003 La Rioja Alta Viña Alberdi Reserva from the wine fridge, somehow the thought came to my head – let’s use wine thermometer. You see, I have this nifty device called VinTemp, which is an infrared wine thermometer – it can perfectly measure temperature of the wine in the bottle without actually touching the wine. While I know that temperature has a great effect on the taste of wine, I practically never use this thermometer – but today I did, so the simple wine tasting became more of a study of the temperature effect on the wine.
According to the producer’s notes, 2003 was a very difficult year, due to the extreme heat and lack of the rainfall in July and August. As the result, only the grapes form the highest areas were used to produce the wine, which is made out of 100% Tempranillo coming from 3 different areas. The wine was fermented for 12 days, following by 26 days of malolactic fermentation and then aged for 2 years in American oak casks. The resulting wine has 13% ABV. That’s it – I’m done with all the technical and general stuff – let’s go to the tasting notes. Ahh, sorry, last detail – the winery notes recommend drinking the wine at 17°C (63°F).
The bottle is opened and the wine is poured. Initial temperature – 16.2°C (62°F). Color is dark ruby red, a color of mature red wine, but without brown hues. Rim variation – practically absent. The rim is clear and noticeable, which talks about some age, but it is clear. Nose: Mushrooms, earth, cherries, touch of barnyard – clearly an old world wine. Palate: Perfect acidity on the sides of the tongue, tart cherries, tannins. Tannins completely covering the mouth, very similar to Barolo, only with the wine been a bit lighter. And then there are more tannins. And they are going. And going. And going. For about one minute forty seconds ( yes, I looked at the clock). First verdict – perfectly dry wine. Need time to warm up and to open.
Second taste – about 20 minutes later, temperature measures 17.6°C (64°F). Nose – unchanged. Palate – more fruit, less tannins. Green notes, the wine almost tastes bitter. Worrying – is this the case of bad Rioja? Tannins are back, killing and overpowering.
Third taste – about an hour later, 19.3°C (67°F). Nose – coffee and chocolate showed up. Palate – beautiful. Fresh acidity. Bright fruit, cherries, blackberries. Still lots of tannins, but the fruit now comes first. Very round, smooth and expressive. Lots of pleasure.
Final verdict – Beautiful wine. Needs time!! Drinkability: 8
Let’s sum it up, shall we? In my opinion, this wine needs at least another 10 years to open up. And as you can see, the temperature plays key role here – considering level of tannins, the recommendation of 17°C is very surprising – you do need to drink this wine at a room temperature to let it show up in all its beauty.
Our study is complete. Now, can I have another glass? Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, Too Hot and Too Cold, Grading Wine Ratings and more
Meritage time!
I think I have a lot of interesting stuff for you , but – let’s start from the answer to the wine quiz #48, Let’s get a little technical. Considering that I got only one response to the quiz, I can only guess that I went too far – even though I really didn’t see it that way – my hope was that everybody will try to answer at least something – it is definitely fine to say “I have no idea” – makes it as good of an answer as anything else.
Anyway, in that quiz you were supposed to match wines in the list with some of the technical terms, and as a bonus part to explain what the terms mean. These were the terms presented: Appassimento, Estufagem, Flor, Malolactic fermentation, Noble Rot, Solera, Vintage. Here is the list of wines with the relevant terms and explanations:
A. Cabernet Sauvignon – this was a curve ball, as I warned you. None of the given terms are really associated with this wine.
B. Champagne – Vintage is only declared in the exceptional years
C. Chardonnay – Malolactic fermentation is often used to produce softer-tasting Chardonnay
D. Jerez – flor, solera
E. Madeira – Estufagem
F. Port – Vintage is declared only in exceptional years.
G. Riesling – Noble rot
H. Valtellina Sfursat – Appassimento – in production of Valtelina Sfursat, Nebbiolo grapes are dried before pressing, sometimes for 100+ days.
I. Vin Jaune – flor
All in all, VinoInLove gets an honorable mention, both for the courage and for providing a number of right answers. Also, this quiz forced me to add a feature to this blog which I wanted to do for the long time – a Wine Glossary! Now, instead of providing explanation for all the terms one by one, I can simply refer you to my new Wine Glossary page. And as it is new feature, I would love to hear from you – comments, yay, nay, suggestions – anything and everything goes!
And now, to the news!
Boy, so much stuff happens when you get away from the Reader for a while. Some of my “news” might not be new for you at all, but – I still would like to share it here.
First, I found this very interesting article by Dr. Vino, who writes for the Wine-Searcher site – the article hits close to home for all of us who gets wine shipped to them ( and who doesn’t nowadays). Do you know how your wine was stored during the shipping? Was it exposed to extreme heat or extreme cold? Both can equally destroy your wine, but for more details go read the article.
The next interesting article again comes from Dr. Vino and it is dedicated to all the number addicts and Champagne aficionados ( I know I have a few among my readers, but I will not name names). Want to know how many bottles were made, consumed and broken (okay, I’m pulling your leg here) – take a look at this post.
Can you name the wines which are produced by the iconic Spanish winery, Vega Sicilia? Unico? Yes, of course. Valbuena 5? Very good. How about some Rioja? No, no Rioja from Vega Sicilia? Well, there is now – two Rioja wines called Macan and Macam Classico from Vega Sicilia, and it looks like they might be even affordable (well, for now, anyway) – but of course, not available in US for now.
Do you know who Antonio Galloni is? If you do, great. If you don’t – you soon will. Antonio Galloni left Wine Advocate (surprise, surprise, after Wine Advocate was essentially sold to the group of Asian investors) to start his own web site. Get ready to look for the new abbreviation next to the wine ratings – AG, I guess. For more details you can click here.
And now, this mention of the wine ratings is a great segway to our last news subject for today – a very interesting Wall Street Journal article by Lettie Teague about the value of wine ratings and overall perception of good and bad wines. Would you actively seek 88 point rated wines, or would you go out of your way to drink only 95+ pointers? Robert Parker alone awarded last year 78 100-point ( perfect! ) scores, where Wine Spectator awarded … zero. Is 100 points losing its value as it becoming a lot more readily available, or famous Robert Parker’s palate is faltering? The article raises a lot of interesting questions and definitely is worth reading.
That’s all I have for you for today, folks. The glass is empty. Until the next time – cheers!
Bread and Amarone
Puzzled by the title? Don’t be. This is simply the post about our last Valentine’s Day experience – yes, somewhat belated, but still worth sharing.
Let’s start with the picture. No pink hearts here, only roses, but take a look – what is that lurking in the fuzzy background?
Yep, a Champagne glass, the Tulip! Before we get to the bread and Amarone, let’s talk about Champagne Sparkling wine. By the way, this political correctness is very tiring. Champagne is much faster to say and to write, but no-ooo, Champagne only comes from Champagne, and everything else should be called a Sparkling Wine. It is two words versus one, and takes twice as much time to say and read! And the worst part is that the Sparkling wine in very many cases tastes much better than Champagne, and don’t even get me going on the pricing… Okay, sorry, unintentional rant, let’s cut it out and go back to what I actually wanted to talk about.
My definite preference is to start a holiday, especially the one like Valentine’s Day, with the glass of Cham, errr, Sparkling Wine. It creates mood. It says (loudly) “Celebrate!”. Lightness and effervesce of the bubbles simply picks you up. So this past Valentine’s day our choice of bubbly (yes, jargon – but – it is one word! and it means any sparkling wine, Champagne or not) was 2003 Roederer Estate L’Ermitage Brut Anderson Valley California. Perfectly structured, perfectly balanced, with full harmony both on the nose and the palate. Fresh bread, yeast, toasted apple, perfect acidity, long-living bubbles – all in all, one of the best sparkling wines I ever tasted. Drinkability: 8+
Now, to the bread! Let me not be original – I’m simple going to repeat the note (a huge Thank You, rather) of appreciation which is being expressed all over the blogosphere – the useful content, the advice, information, ideas which are shared by the bloggers are simply staggering. About a month ago I read the blog post by one of the fellow bloggers, Kim from She Wines Sometimes (if you are not following her blog – fix this mistake right now). The post was talking about making the bread! At home! In a simple way!
I have to admit – I love bread. When in France, I can survive on just baguette alone (okay, throw in a little cheese, will you?). But baking the bread at home was not anything I would fathom in my wildest dreams. Until I read Kim’s blog post. It sounded so easy – I had no choice, but to say – this is it, I’m making the bread!
When it comes to baking, I dread the precision of the recipes. I consider myself to be an okay cook – I can substitute ingredients, I can come up with my own recipes, where I can measure all the ingredients with very precise “I think this is enough” accuracy. It doesn’t work like that in baking. Replace baking powder with baking soda and you might end up with a complete flap instead of a good tasting product – and the same goes for many other ingredients. This is why I usually think about baking as something better left to the professionals – but then again, all the professionals start somewhere, don’t they?
I’m not going to repeat the recipe here – here is the link to the original. Of course I ended up making some mistakes. The recipe calls specifically for King Arthur bread flour. I didn’t print the recipe before going to the store, and of course I ended up with the regular King Arthur flour. At first I even forgot to buy the yeast – and the second trip to the store was in order. But, you know what? All this doesn’t matter. Because the bread tasted AMAZING!
And the smell of the freshly baked bread when you just walk into the house – it is simply something heavenly (and pretty much priceless). The only thing I need to add here – Thank You Kim!
And now, to the wine. Not just any wine – Amarone! If you followed this blog for some duration of time, you know that I’m always on the lookout for the perfect Amarone, trying to replicate my moment of bliss smelling succulent raisins and tasting perfectly dry and powerful wine (here you can find a collection of my Amarone posts ). That “perfect wine” was 1997 Le Ragose Amarone, which I tasted in 2004, so the wine was 7 years old. And now it was Le Ragose Amarone again.
Looking at the cork, can you try to guess how the wine was? Did you write down your answer? Okay, good.
We opened the bottle of 1990 Le Ragose Amarone Della Valpolicella (so, did you guess correctly?). I have some experience opening old wines, and when you open a bottle of wine which is 23 years old, you expect trouble. I had my double-prong bottle opener ready, but when I removed the foil and looked at the cork, it appeared to be as fresh as it would be on the new bottle. And it actually was – the standard waiter corkscrew worked just fine!
And the wine was outstanding. No, it didn’t replicate my experience with 1997 – this was a lot more mature wine. But it had a perfect nose of dried fruit – not only raisins, but probably some dried cherries, fig, prunes. The palate showed mature beauty, with the fruit which is tamed, but still has perfect acidity to make it all work together – there was more dried fruit on the palate, more cherries, more prunes, leather and earthiness. Definitely was a great wine, and as an added bonus – it was only 14% ABV! All the modern Amarone are trying to exceed 16% by now, and one of the geniuses of the winemaking recently even told me that you need high alcohol to preserve the wine… ok, stop. Sorry. One rant per post. This one will have to wait for another time. All in all this 1990 Le Ragose was a great experience, so let’s live it at that. Drinkability: 9-.
That’s all I have for you for today folks. It is too late to ask about your Valentine’s day experiences by now, but did you drink any amazing wines lately? Or made bread : ) ? Cheers!
Following Wine Till Sold Out – Cheapskate Wednesday, February 20th
About two weeks ago, on February 20th, WTSO (Wine Til Sold Out), one of my very favorite purveyors of great QPR wines, had another one of their Cheapskate events – all the wines are priced from $7.99 to $18.99, offered in the quantities of four, new wines are offered every 15 minutes or sooner, and all the notifications about new wines are only coming out on the Twitter. While I was on vacation and couldn’t take advantage of any offers, my faithful computer did its best to collect the information (which in the end of the day made me upset as I saw how many great deals I missed).
As I have done it before, I would like to share with you all the data, so you too can get upset – or not, as you can instead be happy about all the money you saved. Let me add few observations here. There were about 130 wines offered. Very few wines lasted 15 minutes, many wines disappeared in a matter of couple of minutes. I counted four very strange glitches, where the wine was seemingly offered at WTSO web site, but not showing up in the twitter stream – if you followed the event and saw that too, I would like to know what you think about it. This is definitely a first time for me observing such a discrepancy (not that this is all that essential though).
Before I will leave you with the data, here is the usual guide to rating abbreviations: WS – Wine Spectator, WA – Wine Advocate, ST – Steven Tanzer, WE – Wine Enthusiast, WRO – Wine Review Online, W&S – Wine and Spirits, JS – James Suckling, RP – Robert Parker, JHN – Jonathan H. Newman, D – Decanter Magazine, rating goes in stars ( 5 stars is max), JH – James Halliday, TRR – The Rhone Report, BH – Burghound.
Enjoy and cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #48: Let’s Get A Little Technical
The Wine Quizzes are back at Talk-a-Vino! Be honest – I know you missed them, right? Okay, never mind. But – let’s proceed, shall we?
For today’s quiz I decided to play a game of pairing of the wine terms with the wines. What you will find below is the list of the wines (very random), and the list of wine terms associated with production of the wines. You will need to match the terms with the wines, considering typical and generic use (note the bold font here – it is an important disclaimer) – there are always exceptions to the rules. Note that one and the same term can be associated with different wines, and it is possible that few terms can be associated with one wine. As the bonus question, briefly explain what the term mean and how it relates to the wine. Note – you might encounter some strange surprises along the way.
Wines:
A. Cabernet Sauvignon
B. Champagne
C. Chardonnay
D. Jerez
E. Madeira
F. Port
G. Riesling
H. Valtellina Sfursat
I. Vin Jaune
Wine Terms:
1. Appassimento
2. Estufagem
3. Flor
4. Malolactic fermentation
5. Noble Rot
6. Solera
7. Vintage
As a side note, a lot of these wine terms had being discussed in this very blog.
Have fun and good luck! The answers are coming on Wednesday.
Have a great weekend and open something good tonight! Cheers!
Re-post: Forgotten Vines: Madeira
During 2011 I wrote a number of posts for the project called The Art Of Life Magazine – of course talking about my favorite subject, wine. The project closed and even web site is down, but as I still like the posts I wrote, so I decided to re-post them in this blog. Also, in that project, posts were grouped into mini-series, such as “Forgotten Vines” you see here – I will continue re-posting them from time to time.
Also note that the series was written for a slightly different audience – I hope none of my readers will take offense in the fact that sometimes I’m stating the obvious…
Our first post in the Forgotten Vines series was dedicated to Jerez, a not-so-easy-to-find-but-worth-looking-for fortified wine from Spain. Continuing the series, let’s move a little bit to Spain’s west side neighbor, Portugal.
Talking about Portugal’s place on the wine map, what wine comes to mind first? Yes, of course it is Port. And while Port is single most famous Portugal wine, it is not the Port we want to talk about here (don’t worry, Port is squarely positioned in the line of “must-have” experiences, and we will talk about it later). We need to move a bit more down the map in the south-west direction, about 1000 km (600 mi) to the island of Madeira.
Madeira wine takes its name from the name of Madeira Island. History of Madeira, which started at around 15th century, is full of accidental discoveries, glory, overcoming of the hardship, raise and fall, and even love – if you are interested in the full story, you should take a look at Madeira Wine web site. In the 15th / 16th centuries, Madeira wine was created and transported in the barrels through the ocean to the far places such as India and China. It was found ( by accident, of course), that long ocean voyage improves the taste of wine compare to the original one which went into the barrel. After many trial and error experiments, it became apparent that prolonged exposure to the warm weather is the culprit, and then the method of heating the wine up to the 60C (140F) was invented. The process of heating up the wine is called Estufagem, and it is done after the wine is fermented in the oak barrels, same as any other wine – again, you can find more details online – you can find less colorful but more technical details on Wikipedia (click here). Just to give you a few more details from Madeira’s history, trade embargoes led to further improving Madeira by adding brandy spirits in order to preserve the wine. Barrels of Madeira left for prolonged time under the rain lead to development of the new style of Madeira wine, called Rainwater.
In the 18th century, Madeira was one of the most popular wines in the world, especially in England and United States. Madeira was used to toast United States Declaration of Independence, and was highly regarded as a drink of distinction. Unfortunately, first mildew and then phylloxera epidemic delivered way too powerful one-two punch, which Madeira wine industry was unable to overcome. Madeira subsided to nearly a cooking wine level, and was staying like that for the long time. Luckily, overall uptake on the wine industry throughout the world helps to revive Madeira industry, and now it is becoming possible to find a great drinking Madeira even in US – and you will see why. And I have to note that one of the great qualities of Madeira is in the fact that unlike practically any other wine, once you open a bottle of Madeira, it will stay the same more or less indefinitely, due to both Estufagem method and fortification with the spirit.
As we say here, time to open a bottle. Madeira comes in many different versions, from completely dry to the sweet. The Rainwater Madeira is somewhat of a simpler style, but still very enjoyable. This Sandeman Rainwater Madeira is deep and heavy on the nose, with hint of aged cheese and sweetness (overripe apple sweetness). On the palate, it shows the same concentration of the sweet notes, which is not really supported by acidity, so the wine comes somewhat unbalanced – however, as a desert wine to have with sharp cheese (like blue cheese, for instance), it will create a heavenly combination.
The next wine, Charleston Special Reserve Sercial is few levels up the previous wine. It comes as incredibly complex on the nose – nutty, with hint of sweetness and herbs, lots of herbs. Beautifully balanced on the palate with acidity and sweet delicate flavors of apple blending together perfectly. This Madeira has very long finish and can be used equally well before, during and after dinner – just take your pick. Definitely worth seeking.
Well, it is a great time to be a wine lover – abundance of experiences just grows daily. Now that you are empowered with the knowledge of Jerez and Madeira, it is time for personal encounter – find the bottle and enjoy it tonight!
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