Weekly Wine Quiz #19: Wine, An Ultimate Facilitator of Art and Craft
Last week, I learned something fascinating about the wine world. And why my first inclination was to share it with you in my Wednesday’s Meritage, I decided to make the wine quiz out of it first.
Take a look at the picture – what do you think it is? No, this is not a quiz yet. This is actually a very unique bottle of wine (there are only 12 produced, and we are talking bottles, not cases). This bottle is a result of collaboration of some of the best craftsmen and artists in Australia, and it holds the wine made by Penfolds and called 2004 Penfolds Block 42 Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine was produced only twice, in 1996 and 2004, and it comes from world’s oldest continuously-producing Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard. This Kalimna Vineyard was planted in 1885, 30 years after famous 1855 Bordeaux classification. I recommend that you will read the full story of this unique wine project, Penfolds Ampoule at this link – you will find all information about the wine, videos of making those 12 handmade bottles and more.
If you are lucky enough, you can buy the bottle of 2004 Penfolds Block 42 Cabernet Sauvignon (not the Ampoule, just the regular bottle) for about $600+. Penfolds Ampoule is available for sale now, directly from the winery – would you care to guess how much this Penfolds Ampoule would cost you should you choose to buy one?
Have fun! Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage: Happy Independence Day!
First and foremost: Happy July 4th! It feels a bit strange when the holiday falls in a middle of the week, but still it is a nice break.
Now, here is the answer for the Wine Quiz #18 – Wine and Independence Day. It was great to see a variety of opinions, but the right answer is…Madeira! Now almost forgotten (but seemingly coming back, little by little) Madeira was the wine used to toast Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776. The great thing about Madeira is that it was made to easily withstand a sea voyage in the barrel, were the other wines would arrive in totally insipid condition. If you want to read a bit more about Madeira, here is the link for you. And I would actually recommend to take it further – if you haven’t had Madeira recently, find a good bottle (forget the cooking stuff, please, get the real thing) – you might discover something you will really like.
For the news updates, I have a few things for you. First, for the “local” news, I finally updated my blogroll to add all the blogs I mentioned in my recent post.
I also want to bring to your attention a special “wine day” holiday. It is not even a day – it is a month-long holiday! In one of his recent posts, NJVinoman mentioned that we need more wine holidays – so his wish is granted – July is The 31 Days Of German Riesling! Now you have 31 days to celebrate the light, refreshing and versatile wine, perfectly complementing any hot summer day.
Last but not least – in addition to The Generous Pour program I mentioned in the last news update, The Capital Grille announced the return of their $18 “Plates” lunch menu for the summer. Well, there is a fine print there – you should check if you local Capital Grille is actually participating in the program – you will find the list of location at the bottom of the link I just shared. But if your Capital Grille is listed – don’t miss it!
That’s all I have for you for today, folks. Let me know what you are going to open to celebrate July 4th (Madeira, may be?). Happy Independence Day! Cheers!
Wine Retail: Bottle King – Values All Around
It’s been a while since I talked about wine stores in this blog, so may be it is time to tell you about another one of my favorite wine stores (here you can read about other stores from that same “wine stores to love” list – Cost Less Wine and PJ Wine). Today I want to bring to your attention a store in New Jersey called Bottle King – well, actually it is a group of 14 wine stores, all located in New Jersey, plus the online store called The Wine Buyer, so even if New Jersey is far away for you, you can enjoy great values.
The store I usually shop at is located in the town of Glen Rock in northern New Jersey, so this is the store I’m writing about. Bottle King sells everything from beer to wine and to all kinds of liquors, plus stores have a section called The Vineyard Market, where cheeses and such are sold. Interestingly [sadly] enough, wine stores in Connecticut are prohibited from selling of any of the food items – one day I will write a big rant blog post about stupidity of the laws and regulations we have around alcohol… one day. Anyway, let’s go back to the Bottle King wine stores. For me the major feature of the store is wine – but liquors section shouldn’t be ignored, as while it is on the smaller side, the selection, variety and prices are quite good (not that you can really see it in the photo below, but I tried).
The whole store can be essentially described in one word – value. In any department, there are always lots of great values to be found. Also the concept of “value” is delivered on multiple levels.
First, Bottle King runs loyalty program called “BK Club”. The program is free and easy to sign up for. Once you have a BK Club membership, all you need to do is to look for the special prices advertised for BK Club customers:
In addition to BK Club deals, there are always many wines on sale, and certain items might be even on “super-sale” which in a lot of cases represents really great buying opportunity. Last but not least, every time you buy a case of wine, there is 20% discount applied to all non-sale and non-club items (but those count towards the case).
Wine is mostly organized by the country, and then by the grape (depending on the size of the country’s section). If you are looking for the value, the section you want to be heading to is Portugal – it is one of the closest to the entrance and it is the section where I usually start my walk around.
Here is a look at the shelf in that Portugal section:
Just to explain in more practical terms what I mean by value, here is an example of the wines you can find in that Portuguese section.
These two wines, made by Fado, cost $4.99 each. 2011 Fado White (13% ABV) has very nice nose with the hint of fresh-cut grass and fresh lemon – just a hint, it is not “in your face” wine. This continues on the palate, with light herbs and citrus notes, perfect acidity, round and balanced (Drinkability: 7+).
2010 Fado Red (13.5% ABV) has medium body, nice red fruit on the nose, more red fruit and again some herbaceous notes with some plums on the palate, soft tannins and good balancing acidity (Drinkability: 7+). Would either of these wines carry a label of France or California, you would gladly pay $20+ for them and still consider it to be a good value.
In addition to Portugal, the same shelf is shared by sparkling wines (not a bad selection, but mostly focused on mainstream France and Italy, lacking growers’ champagne, some of the artisan US sparklers, and also limited in Cava options). You can also find a few wines from South Africa and Greece, but literally only a few different bottles.
There is a decent choice of New Zealand and Australian wines. Spanish wines are underrepresented to my taste, but still have some good values from Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Priorat and so on.
California takes a very significant part of the store, sorted by variety, and of course having a lot of great values in every category.
France is really comes second after California in the amount of the shelf space it is occupying:
And there are plenty of values to be found in the French section:
France is focused on Bordeaux, Burgundy and Rhone, with addition of Languedoc and Loire – if you are looking for obscure Jura wine, this most likely will not be the place for you. Italy is closely trailing France in the amount of shelf space it is occupying, and has good representation of all main regions.
You will also have no problems finding wines from Chile and Argentina, as well as Port (lots of great selections, including super-discounted vintage port from time to time).
I can’t really comment on effectiveness of the service, as I had been offered help a few times, but always declined, as my strong preference is to browse the selection on my own terms, and I don’t really know sometimes what exactly I’m looking for (well, okay, I’m looking for the signs of super-sale and overall the amazingly priced wines, but please keep it a secret). I would love to see people at the cash register a bit more smiling and welcoming (send them for training to the Trader Joe’s, may be?), but hey, value can’t come without some expense, can it?
All in all, Bottle King stores are definitely worth a visit, even if you have to take a special trip – by the way, they are open tomorrow, July 4th, in case you got some time…
That’s all, folks. Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #18: Wine and Independence Day
While last week’s quiz was definitely influenced by the hot weather, I want to still have one more quiz related to the history of wines, just to finish my imagined series. It also will be very appropriate, as in a few days we will be celebrating Independence Day here in US.
Imagine it is July 4th, 1776. Declaration of Independence is presented and voted for at the meeting of Continental Congress representing 13 colonies, signifying independence from the Great Britain. The room is cheering, and the glasses are poured for celebratory drink. Do you know what exactly was poured in those glasses?
Have fun! Cheers!
Wine Video: My Personal Sabering Experiment
If you remember my Father’s day post, I mentioned successful experiment in Sabering of the Champagne bottle. Okay, not really a Champagne – it was Cava Rose ( a very tasty one, Marques de Gelida Cava Brut Reserva). As I promised, here is the video for you:
To tell you the truth, once you open a sparkler this way, it is hard to go back to the traditional bottle twisting…
So…yes, you can try it at home! Have fun! Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage
I can’t believe how fast these Wednesdays are coming – it was only one Wednesday, and now next one is already here…
Anyway, let’s start with the answer for the Wine Quiz #17, which was all about Penguins. I’m glad to see the diversity of opinions regarding that strange critter, known as Tactical Nuclear Penguin. Well, those of you who thought that this name implies a lot of strength were correct! And while the correct answer is … Beer (!), this beer packs a lot of punch, clocking in at 32% ABV. This beer is made by the company called BrewDog, and here is the description directly from the web site:
“This is the worlds strongest ever beer, ever (yes ever).
No Penguins were harmed in the making of this beer; some humans did get very, very cold though. It was worth it.
The Antarctic name, inducing schizophrenia, of this Ÿber-imperial stout originates from the amount of time it spent exposed to extreme cold. This beer was initially double barrel aged for 14 months; maturing in the deep, rich oak of Scottish whisky casks. After this epic maturation the beer was then frozen, then frozen again, then frozen again.”
Now, for the cool news portion: The Capital Grille once again announced The Generous Pour summer wine event. From June 9th until September 2nd, you can try a specially selected group of wines (9 wines total) for $25. The wines are specially selected by Master Sommelier George Miliotes and include Rose, White, Red and Dessert. The Capital Grille is my favorite steakhouse overall, and we had being enjoying this Generous Pour program for two years in a row (here is the link to the post from 2010). Whether you like steak or not, The Generous Pour program is a great value – take a look at the list of wines and judge for yourself. Don’t know about you, but I’m definitely going.
And for the interesting crazy news, I recently came across of a new product, underwear for wine bottles (I’m not kidding, and today is not April 1st) – this product is called Vinderpants – you can read more at this web site, where it is also sold for $9 a piece! That site also contains a video advertizement for Vinderpants (warning: watching that video might be hazardous to your mental health and it might convert you from the wine lover to the wine hater – there, consider yourself warned). I’m really wondering if any of my readers would be willing to spend $9 on this wonder of wine marketing (this is equal to three or four bottles of two buck chuck, depending on which coast you are going to buy it, people), so I’m looking forward to your comments.
That’s all I have for you for today, folks. Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #17: Let’s Talk About Penguins (And Some Weapons)
I was definitely planning to have two more wine quizzes dedicated to the history of wines, but – considering scorching heat wave visiting East Coast, I gave up on that thought and this wine quiz will be about something cold… As cold as Penguin, may be? No, I didn’t watch Madagascar 3 ten times in the row (even though I loved the movie) – but combination of heat and something I recently learned prompted this quiz.
Ahh, yes – and you are asking what penguins have to do with wine? Well, you figure it out – but just for the fun of it, please try answering this quiz without using Google – you will be amused once you will learn the answer, I guarantee it.
I recently learned about pretty strong beverage, called Tactical Nuclear Penguin. Do you care to guess what kind of drink is it? The answer is forthcoming in next Wednesday’s Meritage.
Stay cool and have fun! Cheers!
One Viognier, Two Viognier
Viognier. A white grape, with more than 2000 years of history, and nearly extinct by 1965 with only 8 acres of plantings left in Northern Rhone – for the full history of the grape you can refer to this article in Wikipedia.
By the way, can you pronounce that “Viognier”? I’m not trying to insult the intelligence of my readers, but this french word is anything but easy. If you need a little help, here is a very short video for you:
If you wonder why are we all of a sudden talking specifically about Viognier (after all, there are other 9,999 grapes supposedly growing in the world), the reason is simple. Yesterday was Wine Blogging Wednesday event number 78, hosted by Frank Morgan from Drink What You Like blog, and the event was dedicated to Viognier, which sprung back to life and now successfully grows pretty much all over the world.
Viognier is no stranger on this blog. Two years ago, I was able to taste Virginia Viognier at Chrysalis Vineyards – it was very good. Then I had probably my best Viognier experience ever at the Lavinia wine store in Geneva – there I tried 2009 Domaine Georges Vernay Condrieu, a classic Viognier from Norther Rhone (it was outstanding with Drinkability rating of 9).
For this WBW78 tasting I had a few prerequisites. For one, I would love to taste Virginia Viognier – but it is not available in Stamford, CT. For the second one, I knew that I don’t want to taste California Viognier. Why? First, about two month ago, I had bad experience at a number of wineries in Temecula Valley in California. Second, there some some advantages in writing this blog post somewhat late – you can refer to the work of others. Please read the description of Rosenblum 2008 Kathy’s Cuvee in the blog post by the fellow blogger Gwendolyn Alley, especially the last part: “…finishes tart and savory yet cloying”. No further comments.
I definitely wanted to have classic Condrieu Viognier – but that is typically not a cheap option. Thanks to the advice of Zak from Cost Less Wines, I ended up with two bottles of Viognier – one from France, and another one from Australia.
My Viognier #1 was 2011 Les Vines de Vienne Viognier ($19.99, 13% ABV). Interestingly enough, this wine was made in the region surrounding the town of Vienne in Northern Rhone region of France – one of the legends has it that this town (Vienne) gave the name to the grape itself (Viognier). Another interesting fact is that Les Vines de Vienne wines are product of obsession of the three wine makers – read more about it here.
I didn’t plan any dinner or an event around this Viognier tasting, so I decided to pair it with a few random things I could grab from the fridge. But before we will talk about pairing, let’s talk about the wine itself. Here are the tasting notes “in progress”. Nice golden color, beautiful nose of green apple and orange zest. There is clean residual sweetness on the nose. One the palate – touch of sweetness, lemon tartness, golden delicious apple, perfect acidity. As wine opens up, sweetness disappears and acidity kicks in. Perfectly refreshing and balanced, very clean. Drinkability: 8+. Taking into account the results of tasting on the second day, I want to note that it is important not to over-chill this wine. Taken directly from the fridge on the second day, the wine had slightly unpleasant sharpness, a bite, which disappeared as soon as the wine warmed up a bit.
As I said, the food pairings were rather a game than anything thought through and planned. I tried this wine with slow roasted Jalapeno ( our local Fairway had selection of large size Jalapenos, which were a killer after being slow roasted on a grill) – the wine was not enough to remove the heat of Jalapeno (fire hose was more appropriate for that). Wine worked very well with French goat cheese called Crottin de Champcol. It perfectly complemented grilled yellow squash and worked nicely with grilled asparagus.
Viognier #2 was 2011 Yalumba Viognier South Australia ($11.99, 13.5% ABV). A touch darker in color than the #1, less bright. Nose of pear, herbs, white peaches and mango, more exuberant than the wine #1, but not to the point of being overwhelming. On the palate, there was more fruit than in the wine #1, but it was predominantly white grapefruit. While the wine was showing round enough, there was not enough acidity. Drinkability: 7.
None of the previous food pairings worked well. With Jalapeno, the wine was showing very acidic. It was too fruity against goat cheese, and didn’t do anything to asparagus, and grilled squash was the only okay pairing for this wine. Still, I think this is quite reasonable wine for the money.
This concludes my report about Viognier experience. I would highly recommend the Les Vins de Vienne Viognier – the wine is definitely worth seeking, especially considering that anything comparable and coming directly from Condrieu will cost you three times more.
So, how about you? Did you have Viognier yesterday? I hope you did, and if you did not… what are you waiting for? You should be on the way to the store now. Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage (and the Answer for the Wine Quiz #16)
Not sure if it will become a permanent feature on this blog, but I want to continue my short “wine news flash” posts on Wednesdays, and even came up with a fancy name for these posts, as you can judge from the title.
First, an answer for the Wine Quiz #16, Father of California Wine: those of you who chose Junípero Serra were … absolutely correct! Under direction of Father Junipero Serra, Franciscan missionaries planted first sustained vineyard at Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1779, and subsequently, vineyards had been planted at another 8 missions. Those plantings had being known as Mission grapes, which dominated California wine industry for about 100 years.
Today is a special Wednesday, which happens once a month in wine bloggosphere – it is so called Wine Blogging Wednesday. To be more precise, today is Wine Blogging Wednesday 78, or as it is abbreviated on Twitter, #WBW78. For 78 month in a row (if I’m not mistaken), special wine theme is selected for a third Wednesday of the month, and everybody are invited to participate and share the experiences. The theme for #WBW78 is called “Get yo Viggy On” (not that I personally like the way it is phrased), and it is dedicated to Viognier, a very interesting white grape originated in Northern Rhone in France. Viognier wines should be widely available – hope it is not too late for you to get a bottle and join the festivities. I plan to report on my experience later on tonight or tomorrow.
For the rest of the interesting wine news, I decided to share only one note, which I came across yesterday, reading Tom Wark’s Fermentation wine blog (if you are not reading his blog – you are missing a lot). I know that some of my readers come from Canada, and I learned from this post that Canada is about to allow direct shipments of wine across provinces. As I believe US wine laws are arcane, I had no idea that Canada wine laws were even worse! I’m glad that this problem is about to be solved for Canadian wine lovers.
That’s all I have for you for now, folks. Cheers!
Father’s Day Escapades
This Father’s Day was one of the best ever, so I decided to share with you some of the experiences – as you can imagine, mostly in the form of the pictures.
The day started with the cards from the kids – this is always a great beginning. Then the weather gradually changed from overcast to a beautiful clear sunny day with just the right temperature (don’t know what is your idea of a great summer temperature, but for me 75F and a light breeze is almost ideal). From there on, there was great food, great wine and … some interesting new experiences.
Here are few pictures to give you an idea about cooking (well, yes, not so much cooking, mostly grilling).
Grilled chicken tights:
Kebab, on the grill:
And the same kebab, off the grill:
I don’t know why, but potatoes fry the best on the side burner of the grill (we have electric stove in the kitchen):
And then mushrooms… I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to eat mushrooms any time and any day:
Enough about the food. Let’s talk about the drinks now.
First, we had some [very lazy] cocktails. Just take it out from the freezer, squish in the glass and voila! 8 different flavors are available in the store – and Mango Daiquiri was the best out of the four we tried:
Then we switched to Champagne – errr, Sparkling wine. We had Marques de Gelida Cava Brut Reserva, which is Rose (Pinot Noir based) – very nice, round, medium bodied and refreshing (Drinkability: 7+) :
The best part about this sparkling wine was… opening of the bottle. Despite the fact that I told you not to saber a bottle of Champagne at home, I decided to ignore my own recommendation and try to saber the bottle (you should know that deep inside I’m a 10-years old, masquerading as an adult). Sabering was an absolute success, as I managed to do it from the first attempt. I have even a short video of that process, but it will require time to process, so for now, I can only show you some pictures which will illustrate what happened. Here is the top of the bottle:
And here is the very top of the neck – the glass top was completely separated during the opening, cork and glass together:
The only problem is – Sabering was so much fun, now I want to do it again!
Then we had a very nice red – 2009 Cave de Tain l’Hermitage Crozes-Hermitage Les Hauts de Fief (13% ABV, $17.99)- earthy nose with some roasted notes, same on the palate – deep concentrated ( but not jammy) fruit, great acidity, touch of spices, round tannins, very balanced (Drinkability: 8).
Then we had scotch – 41 years old Lonach Glendarroch (from Highlands, distilled in 1967) – absolutely amazing. I can’t even try to describe complexity of that scotch here – it will take a few tasting sessions to figure that out (my wife said that it was by far her favorite scotch ever):
Now last, but not least – my Father’s day present – 2005 Giribaldi Cento Uve, Langhe, Italy:
In case you are wondering what’s so special about this wine: it is made out of 152 grape varieties (you can read more here), so it will mean a serious progress of my grape count.
That’s all folks. I’m very happy with my Father’s day. How was yours? Cheers!
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