Serious Fun With Wines
We do drink wine mostly every day, thus we do have fun with wine every day. But then every so often, we are lucky to get together with the other wine crazy people aficionados, usually to celebrate some sort of occasion (Birthday, etc. ), and this is when from everyday simple fun we advance to the area of “serious fun”.
What makes the wine fun “serious”? It is age and pedigree for the most of the cases, where just a quick glance at the bottle makes your heart race. “Wow, this is so cool” the brain sings, and you literally start to salivate even though it will be a long time until dinner will be served and the wine will be opened. If you will look at the lineup in the picture, you will easily get my point.
We started our evening with the 2013 Paumanok Chenin Blanc North Fork of Long Island, New York (11% ABV) – it had a nice nose of white fruit, white stone fruit on the palate, fresh acidity and overall very uplifting character with residual sweetness on the finish. Drinkability: 7+
The next wine was quite unique and different, at least for me – it was Sauternes, but – it was a dry Sauternes. 2007 Chateau Suduiraut S de Suduiraut Blanc Sec, Bordeaux (70% Sauvignon Blanc, 30% Semillon, some oak aging) was definitely an interesting wine. I’m still trying to understand if this wine was already past prime, or was simply in its slumber. It is unfortunate that the Chateau Suduiraut’s web site lists no technical information about the wine, only implies that it underwent the oak aging. The wine was showing as full bodied and plump. At the same time, the fruit was very muted and initially the wine showed a hint of oxidation on the finish, which disappeared as the wine was breathing. I think this wine left all of us puzzled – it was not bad by all means, but it was not great either. It would be interesting to try the same wine maybe in 5 years – not sure it will be easy to do as it is quite rare. Drinkability: 7
And then there were reds. We opened both 1994 Tignanello and 2001 Quilceda Creek, and Tignanello was exhuming the pleasure, while Quilceda Creek was clearly asking for decanter – which was provided. Meanwhile, another fun and rare bottle was opened. I’m sure you know Bollinger. Yes, the Champagne producer. But – according to Champagne AOC rules, even Champagne producers are allowed to make … yes, still wines! 2002 Bollinger Ay Rouge La Cote Aux Enfant Coteaux Champenois was a bit tight first in the glass, but after about 10 minutes, it opened up into a luscious, complex goodness. Dark garnet color in the glass with some orange hue, an earthy nose of mature fruit with just a touch of characteristic Pinot Noir smokiness. Soft, supple and round on the palate, good amount of dark fruit, well integrated tannins and balancing acidity. Definitely a very interesting wine and experience. Drinkability: 8
1994 Antinori Tignanello (80% Sangiovese, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon) didn’t even show any signs of age! Dark ruby color in the glass, intense nose of dark cherries with a touch of leather and herbs. Fresh fruit and fresh acidity on the palate, cherries, leather and sage, perfectly balanced and ohh so enjoyable! I believe I tasted Tignanello before at some of the trade shows, but this was my first one on one encounter with this wonderful wine, with the ability to slowly enjoy and savor every sip. Drinkability: 9-
2001 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Washington (14.9% ABV, 97% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cabernet Franc, 22 month in New French oak) spent about two hours in the decanter – but even that was not enough. Dark, brooding, concentrated, powerful – but not yielding much of the fruit, all closed up behind that power. After a first glass, we decided that we were simply wasting this wine, and we moved on to the another bottle.
1999 Pahlmeyer Proprietary Red Oakville, a classic Bordeaux blend with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot. Dark ruby red in the glass, blackberries and blueberries on the nose. Powerful and concentrated on the palate, with black currant, eucalyptus and espresso notes on the palate, soft tannins, very balanced with the medium long finish. Drinkability: 8
And last, but not least – dessert! Yes,the liquid dessert. 1977 Grahams Port. The first challenge was to get the cork out – this is where I regretted not having the Port Tongues available. The cork was pulled out almost completely, with a few little crumbles going back into the bottle, so we used a little mesh to pour the wine. The Port was beautiful – fragrant, fresh, with good acidity, palate full of not overly sweet dried fruit – dried cherries and may be dates come to mind. Perfectly balanced and very very enjoyable. Drinkability: 8+.
And the drop of Scotch to finish the meal properly – very unique and different, Bruichladdich 14 Years The Italian Collection Sassicaia French Oak – the scotch was beautifully mellow, well integrating a touch of traditional Bruichladdich peatiness with round and polished, almost sweet finish imparted by Sassicaia French Oak casks.
That concludes my “drool report” for now – well, life is an interesting thing, so it seems that couple of upcoming weeks will lead to more of the “great wine” reports.
Whether you had or had not any of the wines I’m talking about here, your comments are most welcome! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #90: Grape Trivia – Pinotage
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 our grape trivia series, with the focus still on the red grapes, and today’s subject is Pinotage.
Have you heard of Pinotage? Have you ever tasted it? What do you think of it? What, looks like I start with the quiz before the quiz? Well, kind of. Just setting the scene.
Pinotage is a unique grape, purposefully created in South Africa by Professor Abraham Izak Perold in 1925. Pinotage was created as a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault grapes. Originally used only for blending, little by little Pinotage developed into a signature grape of South Africa, similar to what Zinfandel is for California, or Malbec for Argentina.
Pinotage might be one of the most polarizing grapes in the world – well, not the grape itself, of course, but rather Pinotage wines. From the very first smell, not even a sip, Pinotage effects a love/hate relationship on wine consumers and professionals alike. Sometimes, the off putting aromas are so strong, it really makes people to put Pinotage into the “never again” category.
Lately, with the advance of the latest winemaking methods and improved winemaking knowledge, there are more and more Pinotage wines which are easy to like. A good Pinotage typically shows dark ripe berries, accompanied with hint of smoke and earthiness, without any of the “non-wine related” flavors. While Pinotage is a South Africa’s signature grape, it is also successfully growing in many other parts of the world – New Zealand, California, Virginia, Brazil, Australia are all making interesting wines out of the Pinotage.
And now, to the quiz!
Q1: Explain the origin of the name Pinotage
Q2: While Pinotage primarily grows in South Africa, California also has some plantings of the grapes. Can you estimate the approximate size of Pinotage plantings in California?
a. 50 acres
b. 250 acres
c. 500 acres
d. more than 1000 acres
Q3: Here is the list of of nasty aromas often associated with the smell of Pinotage wines, except one. Do you know which one doesn’t belong?
a. Burnt rubber
b. Rusty nails
c. Paint solvent
d. Sauerkraut
Q4: Wine Spectator calls wines rated in 95-100 range Classic (the highest and the most prestigious category). True or False: there are no Pinotage-based wines rated in the Classic category
Q5: Pinotage was created in 1925, but for the long time it was used only as blending grape. Do you know when single-grape Pinotage bottling was first released in South Africa?
a. 1946
b. 1961
c. 1976
d. 1989
Good luck, enjoy the quiz and your weekend! Cheers!
Russian Meat Soup – Solyanka
The polar vortex is back with us again, and we need the tools to fight it, right? Well, yeah, you can’t fight mother nature – but at least you can make her blows a bit more palatable.
This is a wine and food blog, of course, so we are not going to talk about space heaters and Amish miracle fireplaces. Right food is a perfect solution for many of the life’s situations, extreme cold being one of them. When the temperature is in the teens, and every breath makes you look more like a fire-throwing dragon, there are few of the heart-, body- and soul-warming dishes which come to the rescue. The hearty stew is one of them. And rich, concentrated, hot soup is probably what comes to mind first while you are out there shoveling the snow.
So it is the soup we will be talking about today. This soup, called Solyanka (if you can read or just care to see the same in the Russian alphabet, it is Солянка Мясная Сборная) is one of the old and traditional Russian soups. Many people know or at least heard of the Russian soup called Borsch, made out of the red beets (Borsch is also a perfect soup for the cold weather, but it is not a subject of today’s post). Much lesser number of people know of Solyanka, which used to be one of the very few soups traditionally served in the restaurants back in Russia starting from the hundreds of years ago.
I believe many home cooks purposefully avoid making the soup, as it often translates into a quite a bit of hassle. Great thing about Solyanka is that this soup requires very few ingredients and very easy to make!
As you could deduce from the title of this post, the main ingredient in Solyanka is … meat! Actually, any kind of meat is going – pork, beef, veal, chicken – whatever you got. It is important to note that we are not talking about raw meat – we are talking about meat products, such as smoked or cured sausages, baked chicken/turkey breast, ham, all sorts of bacon, bologna, hot dogs, any meat leftovers – anything which goes in the category of “cold cuts”.
In addition to meat there is another important ingredient here. The word “Solyanka” is a derivative of the Russian word for salt. But the second key ingredient is not the salt per se – it is pickled cucumbers. The cucumbers can be brined in salt or vinegar, it really doesn’t matter – but they are essential taste component in this soup.
Ready to see the recipe? Let’s proceed.
Solyanka – Russian Meat Soup
Prep time: about 30 minutes. Cooking time: about 30 minutes.
2 lb meat products (cold cuts style)
3 quarts of broth (any one goes – beef, chicken, vegetable).
6 large Dill Cucumbers, peeled and sliced
3 medium onions, chopped
2 tbsp tomato paste
4 tbsp capers
3 dry bay leaves
1 tbsp olive oil
To serve:
Black pitted olives from the can, quartered
Sliced lemon
Sour Cream
First step is to cut your meat products, whatever you are using. I typically use smoked sausages and some types of ham, but really there are no limitations. You have to slice the meat into the small pieces, make sure you will remove any kind of skin or casing if it is present, as those will not be good in the soup. I generally like to roast all that chopped meat in the pan on medium heat, for about 10-15 minutes, to concentrate the flavor.
While your meat is roasting, chop the onions. Take the large pot or casserole dish where you will be making the soup, add olive oil, put it on the medium heat. Add chopped onions and sauté them for about 10 minutes, or until translucent. Next add tomato paste, 3 tablespoons of broth and continue sautéing for another 20 minutes.
While onions and meat are on their way, prepare pickles – remove the skin, slice in half lengthwise, and then cut into the small pieces. Put aside.
Once the meat is ready, and the onions were sautéed for the total of about 30 minutes, add meat and pickles to the pot, add all of the remaining broth, put bay leaves, reduce the heat and let the soup to simmer for another 10-15 minutes. This is it! You are done.
This soup can be served as is, or with the optional sliced lemon, olives and sour cream – I personally like to add all three, but again, it is a matter of personal preference.
And let me present to you the weapon against the polar vortex – a bowl of Solyanka:
Your ultimate vortex weapon – a bowl of Solyanka
To be entirely honest, you really don’t have to wait for the sub-zero temperatures to make this soup. Yes, it is filling and warming from the inside, but overall it has quite a bit of acidity which makes it very refreshing.
So, when are you making it? Looking forward to your thoughts and comments. Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, #MWWC6 Results, WTSO Marathon Next Week, Champagne in Numbers
Meritage time!
Let’s start with the answer for the wine quiz #89, grape trivia – Dolcetto. In the quiz, you were supposed to answer 5 questions about the red grape from Piedmont called Dolcetto. Here are the questions, now with the answers:
Q1: Except the “sweet little one”, what is the other possible explanation to the name of the Dolcetto grape?
A1: Dolcetto is likely named after the hilltops where the grape is growing (“duset” in Piedmont dialect).
Q2: Sort these Piedmontese grapes in the order of time of ripening, from earlier to the later: Barbera, Dolcetto, Freisa, Nebbiolo
A2: Typically, Dolcetto ripens two weeks earlier than Barbera, and Barbera ripens two weeks earlier than Nebbiolo. Freisa ripens a bit earlier or about at the same time as Nebbiolo. Thus correct answer is Dolcetto – Barbera – Freisa – Nebbiolo (the last two can be also swapped in place).
Q3: Wine Spectator calls wines rated in 95-100 range Classic (the highest and the most prestigious category). True or False: there are no Dolcetto-based wines rated in the Classic category
A3: True. The highest rated Dolcetto wine is only has a 93 rating, thus there are no Dolcetto wines in the Classic category.
Q4: One of the North American grapes for the long time was assumed to be identical to Dolcetto ( until recent DNA tests proved it wrong). Do you what grape was that?
a. Chambourcin, b. Charbono, c. Marechal Foch, d. St. Croix
A4: It was actually a Charbono grape which was erroneously assumed to be Dolcetto.
Q5: What is the suggested serving temperature for Dolcetto wines?
a. 65ºF to 75ºF, b. 60ºF to 65ºF, c. 50ºF to 60ºF, d. 45ºF to 50ºF
A5: The answer here of course is not universal, as the serving temperature should be rather linked to the style of wine – light style Burgundy will command different serving temperature comparing to the full bodied Pinot Noir from California. However, on average, Dolcetto wines are considered to be light-bodied, or lighter style reds, which are generally recommended to be served slightly chilled, at under 60ºF. Thus correct answer is c, 50ºF to 60ºF.
This time around we don’t have a winner, unfortunately. Yes, I understand that the grapes are getting a bit more obscure, but hey – they are still no too obscure for Google! I can give you a hint for what to expect in this grape trivia series – we still have quite a few interesting grapes to talk about, so you should expect to see here Pinotage, Tannat, Montepucliano, Bonarda, Viura, Gruner Veltliner and others. See, now you have a head start!
Now, to the interesting stuff around the vine and the web!
First, the Monthly Wine Writing Challenge #6 with the theme of “Mystery”, hosted by Jeff a.k.a. The Drunken Cyclist, has its winner! Alissa of SAHMMelier is the new queen of the MWWC! Here is the link to her winning post, in case you didn’t read it yet. Alissa is now working on the announcement of the new theme, which will be … spoiler alert? nope, you will have to wait for it to appear in Alissa’s blog.
I’m repeating here my note from the last week. Wine Til Sold Out, better known as WTSO, is conducting their Cheapskate Marathon next Tuesday, January 28th, starting 6 AM Eastern – be there ( in front of your computer), or risk missing out on the great wine deals. The Marathon will be conducted with the usual rules: all the wines are priced in $7.99 to $18.99 range, no e-mail announcements, all new wines are announced on twitter and only on twitter, new wines are offered every 15 minutes or sooner if the previous wine is sold out, free shipping for the quantities of 4 and up of the same wines. Happy hunting!
Last interesting item I want to bring to your attention is a few numbers about the sales of Champagne. It looks like the sales of Champagne worldwide are down for the second year in the row – there were 5 million bottles less sold in 2013 compare to 2012, and 2012 had even bigger slump comparing with 2011. Here is the link to the article in The Drinks Business which contains a lot more of the detailed numbers, including statistics by the different countries.
And we are done here. The glass is empty – but the refill is on its way! Cheers!
Turley The Label 2011 – Sometimes, Words Are Just Not Enough
Wine triggers emotions. Emotions become memory knots. Sometimes, just one quick look at the bottle is enough to unleash the memory flood – where, what, how, the images and thoughts are just start coming in. Wine triggers the memory of the moment in the past, and we remember what was happening. But how often do we remember the wine itself? How often do we remember the smell and the taste? Take the wine out of the context of the memorable event, just bring it back to the regular Monday night, just an average, uneventful night – how many Monday (or any other regular weekday or weekend) night bottles can you recall?
And then there are wines which require no memorable setting to be memorable on their own. The wines which don’t bring the memories of the moment, but rather memory of itself. Those wines are rare, few and far in between. But they exist. And from time to time, we are lucky enough to encounter one more. My latest encounter? 2011 Turley The Label.
2011 Turley The Label Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley (13.4% ABV) was released in the late fall of 2013, and came out in its traditional simple bottle. Dark garnet color liquid went into the glass. Swirl, another swirl, sniff… OMG. What is it? What is this wonderful aroma, which doesn’t let you put the glass down – nor take a sip – the first smell commands another… and another … and another. At first, you are not even looking for the right words to describe what you smell, you just keep enjoying the aroma. Then the brain starts moving impatiently – “I know this smell, I know this smell, come on, come on”. All of a sudden, the realization comes in – yes, I do know the smell. It is black currant. Bot not the berries. It is the leaves. It’s those meaty, big green leaves on a hot summer day – that’s what it is – and the smell is incredible.
Similar to the fresh meadows of Fiction, or gunflint of Frédéric Gueguen Chablis, those fresh black currant leaves of Turley The Label create an unforgettable image – really a memorable wine in its own right. The magnificent smell was followed by the dark supple fruit on the palate – blackberries and black currant, with firm tannins. It took the wine three days to open up and to actually show what it is capable of, when dark chocolate and espresso joined the profile of much brighter fruit, well structured with supple tannins, good acidity and overall perfect balance. Definitely a great wine which will need about 10 years to really come to its best. Drinkability: 8+
What are your most memorable wines? I would love to hear your stories. Happy Monday and cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #89: Grape Trivia – Dolcetto
Dolcetto grapes. Source: Wikipedia
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 your new wine quiz!
We are back to our grape trivia series, continuing with the red grapes, and today’s subject is the grape called Dolcetto.
If you look at [probably best] known Italian wine regions, you will find some very interesting differences. If we take Tuscany, which probably comes to mind among the first, its signature grape, Sangiovese, is successfully growing in many other parts of the world, and lots of international varieties is producing magnificent wines on the Tuscan soils (super-Tuscan, anyone?). If we will now look at Piedmont, the home to Barolo, the king of wines, and Barbaresco, that region produces magnificent wines almost exclusively from the local indigenous grapes – and those local grapes are very scarcely distributed around the world, producing the wines of limited value.
Dolcetto, the subject of our today’s trivia, is one of the three better known red grapes of Piedmont – Nebbiolo and Barbera are two others. It is not very clear how Dolcetto made it to Piedmont, with some of the references suggesting that it had been growing there at least from the 16th century. The name of Dolcetto technically stands for the “little sweet one”, but it is believed that this is rather a coincidence and the name has actually a different source. Dolcetto is an early ripening variety which produces wines which have nothing to do with sweetness. Dark thick skin of Dolcetto contains large amount of anthocyanins, and imparts quite a bit of tannins to the resulting wines, as well as the dark color. Generally, Dolcetto wines are dry, lighter style than Barbera or Nebbiolo, with dark red and black fruit profile, such as black cherries and plums.
Best Dolcetto wines are mostly produced in the 7 different DOCs of Piedmont. It is also growing in Liguria under the name of Ormeasco. Dolcetto has very limited success around the world, growing in Australia and in a few regions of United States – California, Texas and Oregon.
And now, to the quiz!
Q1: Except the “sweet little one”, what is the other possible explanation to the name of the Dolcetto grape?
Q2: Sort these Piedmontese grapes in the order of time of ripening, from earlier to the later: Barbera, Dolcetto, Freisa, Nebbiolo
Q3: Wine Spectator calls wines rated in 95-100 range Classic (the highest and the most prestigious category). True or False: there are no Dolcetto-based wines rated in the Classic category
Q4: One of the North American grapes for the long time was assumed to be identical to Dolcetto ( until recent DNA tests proved it wrong). Do you what grape was that?
a. Chambourcin
b. Charbono
c. Marechal Foch
d. St. Croix
Q5: What is the suggested serving temperature for Dolcetto wines?
a. 65ºF to 75ºF
b. 60ºF to 65ºF
c. 50ºF to 60ºF
d. 45ºF to 50ºF
Good luck, enjoy the quiz and the rest of your weekend! Cheers!
[Not So] Simple Recipe: Stuffed Chicken Roll
I do like simplicity in making of the food – easy to make, reasonable prep time, limited number of ingredients – definitely all my preferences when it comes to cooking. But the interesting thing is that in any craft, cooking included, once you master a skill, it becomes simple (you can argue if you feel like it). Of course it becomes your personal simplicity – for the people who don’t practice the same art, your personal simplicity looks quite complicated.
The recipe I would like to share today falls in this exact category – it is essentially very simple – once you master the first step. I call this dish Chicken Roll – and roll it is, made from the whole chicken. The difficult first step is deboning of the chicken. I will not inundate you with the whole procedure of deboning – there are plenty of videos on internet where you will see all the step by step instructions. The key to make it simple? Practice, of course. Do it a few times, and the idea of deboning of the chicken becomes much less intimidating. And you can do quite a few different dishes once you will master that skill.
I’m not sure how this technique is taught in the culinary school – and if any professional is reading this blog (that is a scary thought!), feel free to ridicule my approach. The way I learned to debone the chicken (or any bird for that matter) is by putting the bird breast side down and first making the cut along the spine, so it looks like this:
Deboning of the chicken – first step
Once you made that first cut, you start slowly cut along the bones, using boning knife, separating the meat and pulling it back, so it looks something like this:
Cut and pull back
The reason I suggest doing it slowly is that you want to avoid cutting through the skin. There will be few challenging moments, where you will need to get through the joints, the one by the leg and the one by the wing – you just need to cut around them and then you will be able to cut through. Also, I suggest simply cutting off first two parts of the wings – there is not enough meat inside to try to debone those. In the end (takes me about 15-20 minutes to complete the process), you will end up with deboned chicken, which will look like this:
Deboned Chicken
From this moment on, your cooking becomes very simple! You need to decide on your stuffing – anything goes! You can use other meat as a stuffing, whether raw or cooked. You can use mushrooms. You can use broccoli. You can use couscous. You can use rice. You can use quinoa. You can use any combination of the ingredients. The keys is to use a limited amount, as you still need to make the dish into a roll. You season the chicken inside, put your stuffing in, roll is lengthwise, tie it up with the butcher’s string and … voilà! Roast and enjoy! See, I told you it is simple : )
For this particular chicken roll I used carrots and chicken sausages. Here is the recipe:
Chicken Roll, stuffed with carrots and chicken sausages
Prep time: 30 minutes. Cooking time: about 1 hour (20 minutes per pound)
1 large whole chicken, deboned
3 large carrots
1 lb chicken sausages or chicken sausage meat
Salt, pepper
Seasoning herbs
1 tbsp olive oil
cotton Butcher’s string
Serve: cold or warm, both should taste good.
Debone the chicken using the suggestions above and internet video as a guidance. Slice carrots lengthwise:
Carrots
Season the chicken inside using salt, pepper and any seasoning herbs your heart desires. I also used truffle salt, which imparts a bit of a mushroom flavor (it smells mostly by itself, you get very little aroma in the food):
salt, pepper, herbs
Ahh, most important part – have a glass of wine – cooking is a lot more enjoyable when the wine is involved!
Hooker Chardonnay
I had some leftovers of Hooker Chardonnay form the previous day – it was delicious – just a touch of butter, vanilla, nice acidity – a perfect complement for any cooking.
You can now preheat the oven for 375F. Place carrots inside of the deboned chicken, then take chicken sausages, take them out of the casings and place on top of carrots. Yes, sausage meat would be easier to use in this case, but we have only one store in the town which sells sausage meat, and I didn’t feel like going.
The only steps left are to make a roll – lengthwise!, as you don’t want any skin inside – tie it up with butcher’s string, rub with olive oil, add salt, pepper and herbs on top and roast! Roast in the oven at 375F, uncovered, for about an hour ( estimate a 20 minutes per pound of meat without bones).
The result should look like this:
Roasted Chicken Roll
And this is how the roll looks inside:
Chicken Roll cut
That’s all I have for you for today. Let me know what do you think about this recipe. Would you make something like this? Have fun and cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, #MWWC6 Vote, WTSO Marathon, Shoe as a Corkscrew
Meritage time!
Let’s start with the answer for the wine quiz #88, What Is It? In the quiz, you were given a picture with wine (alcohol) related object, and you were supposed to explain what this object is for and how it is supposed to be used.
Below is the quiz picture with two additional pictures, which together should give you a good idea of what and how:
This tiny hammer is packaged with every bottle of Beluga Vodka Gold Line – hammer is intended to be used to break the wax seal on top of the bottle and brush should be used to clean up all the small pieces of wax.
This quiz had a number of comments with the answer, but pretty much for the first time I remember running these quizzes, many people referred to one of the previous answers as a correct one, instead of providing their own answer. This creates an interesting challenge in announcing the winner. Nevertheless, the winners of this quiz are Misha and Emil, and Patty of Bota and The Beast, Julian of VinoInLove, Trace Lee Karner and Suzanne of apuginthekitchen are all getting a “supporting winner” title. Well done!
Now, to the interesting stuff around the vine and the web!
First, the Monthly Wine Writing Challenge #6 with the theme of “Mystery”, hosted by Jeff a.k.a. The Drunken Cyclist, has concluded with the record number of participants (25). Now it is time to vote for your favorite post (actually, you can vote for up to three) – for all rules and regulations please refer to Jeff’s post here.
WTSO is doing it again! Mark your calendars – Tuesday, January 28th, starting 6 AM Eastern – you better be glued to your computer, or you are risking to miss out on hundreds of great deals! WTSO marathon (a Cheapskate Marathon) will be taking place with all the usual rules: all the wines are priced in $7.99 to $18.99, no e-mail announcements, all new wines are announced on twitter and only on twitter, new wines are offered every 15 minutes or sooner if the previous wine is sold out. Happy hunting!
Last interesting item I want to bring to your attention is a video about using the shoe as a wine opener in the crisis – okay, not really a crisis, but if you have a bottle of wine, and you want to drink it, your date is getting impatient – and there is no corkscrew in site – does that constitute a crisis in your book? Well, shoe is to the rescue! You can read about using the shoe as a bottle opener in the Dr. Vino’s blog, where he also offers a collection of cork screw errr shoe-opener videos – here is the link.
And we are done here. The glass is empty – but the refill is on its way! Cheers!
Mystery of Wine
“Mystery” is a theme of the sixth round of the Monthly Wine Writing Competition, as selected by the originator of the series and winner of the previous round, The Drunken Cyclist.
Wine is a strange thing. If you think about it rationally, wine is just a fermented grape juice. This is where the mystery starts – how come this fermented grape juice became so important that it even made it into the Bible? How was this fermented grape juice discovered for the first time? How did it happened that this fermented grape juice became an object of study, worship, love, hate, desire, crime, greed, excitement, awe, horror, passion (continue the list on your own)? How come this fermented grape juice is such a facilitator of emotion? These are the mysteries of the wine, the fermented grape juice, and these mysteries are countless.
The subject of wine is vast, it allows all of us, people who are “into the wine” – oenophiles, aficionados, snobs, buffs, casual wine drinkers – whatever designation speaks to you – to ponder at all the different sides of all “things wine”, to find our own mysteries. Starting from the growing of the grapes, harvesting them, making the wine and getting it into the bottle, the mysteries are abound every step of the way. Once the wine goes into the bottle, this is when the actual “wine’s life” begins – of course, with its own set of mysteries, one of the biggest of which is a simple question: when to drink this wine?
The wine in the bottle is a living thing. It is changing all the time. It has its ups and downs, lows and highs. We have no way of knowing if the wine is at its”peak” until we open the bottle. Once the bottle is opened, there is no way of putting the wine back if we think we didn’t hit it right. Anyone who ever experienced the wine at its peak will tell you that you get an uncounted amount of pleasure from each and every sip. The moment we take on the opening of the bottle is a decision moment to solve that mystery – is this wine ready to give us tremendous joy – or not. Open the bottle too soon, when the wine is too young – and you don’t know what did you miss, what this wine could’ve become if you would only give it another 2, 5 or 10 years. Open the bottle too late, and you have so many regrets that you will never find out how great this wine was at its peak. Either way, the mystery will remain a mystery. Yes, you can listen to the experts about “wine drinking window”. You can solicit the opinion of your family, your friends, the bloggers and wine writers of all walks. You will build your own expertize. But every time with the bottle in one hand and the corkscrew in another, the mystery will be unsettling, until that corks is pulled and the wine will be going into the glass. And your hits and misses are unavoidable. You will go from “wow!” to “I can’t believe THIS WINE tastes likes this, what happened?”.
Every time I’m opening the bottle of wine, I’m experiencing the thrill of solving the mystery. Same as everybody else, I’m influenced by the label, by what I read about the wine, by the opinion of the others, by my prior experience. But those are only expectations – and those should be managed. Better yet, the expectations should be ignored. To solve the mystery, the cork must be pulled. And then… The best one is when you simply say “wow, this is amazing!”. Even then, is that the end of the mystery, you think? Quite often, this is not. As the true mystery will remain forever, unsolved, expressed by the two words: “how come?!”.
Need an example? I have one for you. Here is my mystery case in point:
Chateau Ste. Michelle Orphelin
2004 Chateau Ste. Michelle Orphelin Red Wine, Columbia Valley (13.9% ABV). It was one of my most favorite wines ever. I don’t remember the exact price, but I’m sure it was under $15, most likely even under $12 – I used to by this wine by the case. It was my favorite go to wine to share with the guests. Beautiful dark clean fruit, medium to full body, good firm tannins, balancing acidity – this was a pleasure in the glass. I was so disappointed when I was told ( I think some time in 2009, I might be off on that) – “you are buying the last bottles”. What? Why? The wine was only made for two years, 2004 and 2005 – and that was the end of it.
Okay, but I still had a few bottles in my wine fridge. And I remember to happily taking one of the bottles of 2004 Orphelin for a great occasion – Wine Century Club dinner, I believe in May of 2010. Those Wine Century Club dinners were arranged to take place all over the world on the same day, and we (Wine Centurions) were in competition with ourselves, trying to taste more unique and different grapes than we tasted last time. Thus my reason to bring this wine was two fold – yes, it was one of my favorites, but – it also packed in one bottle a very impressive line up of grapes: Syrah, Grenache, Cinsault, Mourvedre, Sangiovese, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Souzao and Touriga – yeah, that’s what we call “the bang for the buck”.
So the cork was pulled, the wine was poured, the first sip is taken – and yes, my first thought, amplified by the facial expressions of the people around me, was “what happened”? The wine, instead of being great and energetic, was clearly past prime – a bit of the cooked fruit flavors, weak acidity, only the hint of the old greatness. How was that possible? The bottle was stored in the wine fridge all the time, and only recently it had being fresh and great. Yes, I heard that such a complex blends don’t age too well – but this was a great wine, how come?
Fast forward to December 2013. While going through the wine fridge, looking for the bottle to open (I love the fact that I have no system of storing the wines whatsoever – that allows me to extend the pleasure of touching many bottles in the search of one), I saw all of a sudden the familiar squares. Ha, what is that? I pulled the bottle of 2005 Orphelin. Ahh yes, now I recall – I also have a bottle of 2004 somewhere. Okay, fine, let’s free some space – let’s open the 2005. It probably will be “meh”, but okay. And it was … not! Had enough dark fruit both on the nose and the palate, not a sign of aging, supple tannins and robust acidity – definitely a pleasure to drink.
After the success of 2005, my thought was – so what is happening with 2004? How is that going to fare now? Will we be in for a treat or a bust?
Bottle found, cork is pulled, 2004 Orphelin pours into a glass. Dark ruby color, not a sign of age. The nose – perfectly fresh dark fruit, blackberries with a touch of plums. Palate – dense, firm, weaved together by the dark fruit and balancing acidity – clearly a perfect wine, at its peak – and I have no idea for long this peak will last.
Well, the duration of the peak is not that important anymore, as it was my last bottle. What happened with that wine back in 2010? What is a fluke, the bad bottle? Or was I super-lucky with my last bottle, which was not supposed to last that long, and it was just a pure luck, one out of a thousand? This will remain a mystery, which will never be solved. But I guess this is for the better. Every time, when pulling the cork, we are faced with the mystery – which we don’t need to solve. We only need to enjoy it. Let’s drink to the mysteries of our lives. Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #88: What Is It?
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 was planning to go back to the grape trivia series with this quiz, but then I was shown an object so peculiar that my immediate thought was – I have to make a quiz out of it! Here we are: take a look at the picture below – you don’t need to name the object (not sure if it has any specific name), but you have to explain what it is for and how it is used. Sorry – I know, this is not the best photo ever, but it shouldn’t be a problem for solving this quiz.
Good luck, enjoy the quiz and your weekend! Cheers!
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