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Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, Better Blog Writing, Useful Blogging Links amd more
Meritage Time!
Let’s start from the answer for the Wine quiz #52, The Oak Trivia. In the quiz, you were supposed to answer 5 questions related to the oak usage in the wine making.
Q1: True or false: American oak typically imparts stronger flavor than the french oak?
Correct answer: True.
Q2: There are 5 major forests in France from which the oak is used in the wine making. Oak from which forest is considered least suitable for use with the wines and more used in production of the Cognac?
A. Allier
B. Never
C. Limousin – correct answer. Limousin oak is often used for production of Cognac
D. Troncais
E. Vosges
Q3: Troncais forest was planted by the order of Napoleon. Do you know what was the intended use of the oak trees from that forest?
Correct answer – shipbuilding. Yes, this is what oak originally was intended for.
Q4: True or False: The use of Oak chips is illegal in France?
Correct answer: False. in 2006, European Union approved usage of the oak chips in winemaking process, and it also became legal in France. Here is the link to one of the articles on the subject.
Q5. True or False: When barrels are made from the trees in the same forest by the same cooperage, all the barrels will be identical and will impart flavor of the wine in the same way?
Correct answer: False. It is possible that every plank used in the barrel will be coming from different side of the forest. When charred, all the planks can be charred unevenly. Thus there can be significant difference in the impact on the wine between the different barrels.
There were quite a few answers provided, and it seems that everybody did a very good job. Question #4 proved to be the culprit – nobody expects that oak chips can be used instead of oak barrels in France, right? But they actually are – since 2006 adding oak chips is legal in France. The armchairsommelier got closest to the winning with 4 correct answers. Both armchairsommelier and foodandwinehedonist also correctly answered bonus question – the logo in the picture belongs to the Williamsburg Winery, which makes very good wines (if you ever in the Williamsburg area in Virginia, make sure to visit it). Eatwithnamie gets an honorable mention as she participated in the quiz for the first time.
And now, to the interesting stuff! Today, it is not so much about the actual news, as much as it is really an interesting information around the net which deserves attention.
First, this past Monday was April Fools day, so [rather as expected] there were a number of interesting posts of all kinds. I liked (sorry!) my own post with various wine news, including new Target and Walmart wines, CocaTour cocktails and DudeChuk joint venture. Then there was an excellent piece from OmNomCT blog about Munchies Brewery ( I think those guys are onto something). And then there was a story from Wining Daily about Billionaire’s Vinaigrette, which I pretty much believed…
Next I want to bring to your attention a couple of very useful resources for all of us bloggers. I follow the blog called Eat and Sip in the City which is written by Michelle Levine and it is all about food and wine happenings in the city of Boston. Michelle also has a regular post called “Worthwhile reads from the web this week”. In her last post, I found two interesting references. One of them is called “33 Unusual Tips To Being A Better Writer“. You might jump at the tip number two, but overall, I think those tips make a lot of sense, and I’m definitely aware of some which I clearly need to enforce for my own good.
Another link in Michelle’s post was for “Food Bloggers: 150+ Links to Everything You Need to Know” – I didn’t have a chance to go over it in detail, but it seems to be a great collection of useful information.
Here is an interesting piece of infographics for you – Corkage fees facts and figures – you can compare corkage fees in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, as well as by the type of cuisine – I think this is very interesting info.
And the last note for today – profile of Amarone producers in Decanter magazine. I understand that this is an article from 2007 – but if you are an Amarone junkie like myself, it is very interesting to see all the different producers being presented in this article.
That’s all I have for you for today, folks. The glass is empty. Until the next time – cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, Round and Around WBC and more
Meritage Time!
Let’s start fromt he answer for the Wine Quiz #51 – Hiding in the plain sight, part 2.
In that quiz, you were supposed to identify as many wines/wineries as possible in my fictional writing. Here is the same fragment, with the actual wines shown in bold and underlined:
– Hey, Gloria, Mr. Giribaldi is here. You really have to tell me if you are going to Sicilia with him. The ticket will cost only $890. Your aunt Elena and cousin Ben will be excited to see you. Your great-grand aunt Olga is turning hundred! Everybody will be there. Remember Livio, the blue eyed boy? He was such a little angel… Anyway, he is coming with Virginia, and I’m sure you will have lots of catching up to do.
– okay, mom, I will go. By the way, if you see Kay, tell him that I’m through with him.
Now, in the order of appearance:
Chateau Gloria – Famous French winery from Saint-Julien
Mario Giribaldi – winery and winemaker in Piedmont
Vega Sicilia – legendary winery from Ribero del Duero, Spain
La Rioja Alta “890” Gran Reserva – one of the top wines from La Rioja Alta
Elena Walch – great winery and winemaker in Alto Adige region
Olivier Cousin – rebel natural wines wine maker in Anjou area of Loire
Ben Ryè – spectacular sweet wine produced by Donnafugata in Sicily
Olga Raffault – great winery in Chinon
Turning Leaf – Vineyard in California
Hundred Acre – a cult wine from California
Livio Felluga – great Italian producer from Friuli
blue eyed boy – name of the Shiraz wine from the great Australian producer Mollydooker Wines
Ballet of Angels – white wine produced by Connecticut winery Sharpe Hills
Virginie de Valandraud – second label of legendary Château Valandraud (had a mistake in the spelling – should be Virginie and not Virginia, sorry about that)
if you see Kay – red wine from Lazio region in Italy, produced by Jason Woodbridge
Whew, this was a very long answer. I guess it was a tough quiz, as there were not that many players, but – I can tell you for sure I had lots of fun putting it together. VinoInLove came up with 10 good answers, even though many of the names he came up with didn’t match my intended answers, but as I mentioned in the description of the quiz, this will be still qualified. Thus VinoInLove is our winner, and Frank from WineTalks get honorable mention for coming up with 5 right answers. Great job!
Now, to the interesting stuff around the vine web. I got an e-mail from Wine Bloggers Conference, and it lead me to the collection of noteworthy information on Wine Bloggers Conference (WBC) web site. First, a few weeks ago I got an invitation from WBC to complete the wine blogging survey, which I did. Preliminary results are already available here, and you can learn there a few interesting things. For instance, it appears that average wine blogger has 3,418 follower on twitter – I guess I’m well below of an average wine blogger, as I have less than one third of that number. Another interesting fact is that less than 19% of the wine bloggers had being blogging for 6+ years. Anyway, check it out for yourself, and if you didn’t take the survey, you still have time to do it ( you can found the link on that same page with preliminary results). WBC site holds other interesting links – for instance, here is the link for so called Citizen Wine Blogs in America ( which includes both US and Canada) – the WBC web site is definitely worth exploring.
Another important news is that the call for nominations for 7th Annual Wine Blog Awards is now open! It will be open until Sunday, March 31st, so if anyone thinks this very blog worth a nomination, you can do so using this link (needless to say that I will be forever grateful).
Moving on, I still have a few interesting things for you. There are new wines on the market from the state of Washington, produced by Paul Gregutt, who you might know by his blog called Unfined and Unfiltered. The wines are produced under the label of Waitsburg Cellars. While I’m sure it will be difficult to find those wines, at least you can enjoy the descriptions coming under the theme called The Aromatics.
While this might be an old news for many of you, but it is interesting to see that now Parker is suing Antonio Galloni for the breach of contract. The world of wine, as everything else under the sun, becomes anything but boring once the big money start talking. Not sure if wine lovers will benefit, but the lawyers will be able to afford a few extra bottles of Petrus.
Last for today is a local update. I added a few links to the blogroll for the blogs I follow, and I also created a new link category called Wine Travel. American Winery Guide, To-Tuscany, Winerist and Napa Now are the four web sites listed there. If you have a blog or site dedicated to the wine travel, please let me know and I will be glad to add it to the blogroll.
It was a long post – but the glass is finally empty. Enjoy your Wine Wednesday and until the next time – cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, Following Steve Heimoff, and more
Meritage Time!
Let’s start from the answer to the wine quiz #50, Hiding in the plain sight.
In the quiz, you were presented with the little fragment of fiction where you were supposed to find as many wine names as possible:
– 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.
As you can see above, now all the wine names are bold and actually linked to the available wine info, so you can check them out. There are 14 wine names plus a little curve ball – Left Hand is the name of the beer brewing company. And I have to honestly admit that I learned that Ahh is the wine name only from thedrunkensyclist‘ s answer, so I guess that should make him a double-winner here. I’m glad to mention that this was a very successful quiz, with many answers.
And the winners are (drum roll, please)… thedrunkensyclist, who identified 15 wines and gets double-award for exceeding expectations. Both armchairsommelier and Zak get honorable mentions – they both did very well. Now, I can’t decide if I want to repeat this quiz trying to focus on European wines, or the wine names with the numbers in them – but you will be the first to know. Decision, decisions…
And now, to the interesting stuff around the web. This time around I came across a number of interesting posts by Steve Heimoff, an editor for Wine Enthusiast magazine. The first one is about the coveted subject of the wine world – terroir. In this post, called The End of Terroir, he is talking exactly about the whole concept of “terroir” and whether it is real or not. The debate is endless, but for me, terroir, or “sense of place” is something I always look for in the wine (I rarely find it for real, in most cases I only think I do) – and looking for that “sense of place” is a part of enjoying the wine, so I will continue doing that no matter what the general consensus is.
His next post is about the California wines and whether they can taste too sweet, which I’m sure they do for many of us, at least from time to time. No need for me to comment here, but it is an interesting read.
And the last one from Steve Heimoff posts relates to the restaurant experience, and the power of Sommelier’s suggestion (or not). How many times have you being in the restaurant, asking for the wine recommendation? How many times did you actually end up taking that suggestion? Did you enjoy the pairing after all or did you dislike it? Hmmm, I think this might make it for a nice poll (note to self). Anyway, read the post, I think it is interesting.
And that now leads us to the last post I want to share with you for today – this one is written by W. Blake Gray and it talks about unwanted but related part of the restaurant experience – corked wines. What do you do when you come across corked wine in the restaurant? Do you actually drink it? Enjoy it? Send it back? Again, I think this is an interesting subject for the whole blog post.
Okay, we are done here. The glass is empty. But another pour is on the way. Until the next time – cheers!
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!
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!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, Wine Events and Wine Reviews Gone Overboard
Meritage Time!
Let start with the answer for the Wine Quiz #46, Where in the World. In the quiz, you were given the picture of the vines and information about some of the grapes growing in the area, and you had to identify what wine region it can be. The grapes where Riesling, Chardonnay, Cortese, Viognier for the whites, and Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Sangiovese, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah for the reds.
This was definitely a hard quiz, and the picture of the vines was not very suggestive. Considering that today winemakers in all regions experiment with all possible grapes, it was quite difficult to put things together.
Three people got pretty close to the right answer – Barbie Jean H. Messa (by the way – check out her blog – she is onto a very interesting project), The Drunken Cyclist and PSSquared took us to California, and both DC and PSSquared got very close to the exact region in question, but the right answer is Temecula Valley – thus we have runner ups, but don’t have a clear winner…
Actually, I have to thank The Winegetter for the idea for this quiz. He asked me where the background picture for my blog was taken at:
This picture was taken at Mount Palomar winery in Temecula Valley – and the reason I didn’t use this exact picture was the fact that I actually already used it once in the Wine Quiz #7 – so I thought to play on the same region, but with a different picture.
Now, to the interesting happenings on the vines and in the glasses. First, it seems that wine events of all sorts are popping out everywhere at a mind-boggling pace. If you are a Riesling lover and you live in a close proximity to New York, there will be whole big event celebrating Riesling wines – Rieslingfeier will include a variety of different tastings taking place all over New York on February 15 and 16.
If you interested in attending the New York Wine Expo, taking place in New York on March 1-3, 1WineDude has a special ticket discount code for you.
How many times have you come across wine reviews where after you read, your only reaction can be expressed through the short but powerful abbreviation WTF? W. Blake Gray started tracking those reviews in the new feature in his blog called Bad tasting note of the week – take a look for yourself and see if you would want to drink that wine (based on the review, I’ll pass).
That’s all I have for you for today, folks. Happy Wine Wednesday and don’t forget to open something good. Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, Plonk in the Headlines, Gambero Rosso and more
Meritage Time!
Let’s start with the answer for the wine quiz #43, Which One Doesn’t Belong. In the quiz, you were given a list of 6 well know Burgundy wines and you were supposed to identify the one which shouldn’t be on the list and explain why. Same as last time, we have exactly the same two winners – both vinoinlove and thedrunkencyclist were able to correctly identify that Clos de Lambrays shouldn’t be on the list of Grand Cru Monopoles. Monopole essentially is a single appellation in Burgundy which is owned by single family/winery. Clos du Tart, La Grand Rue, La Romanée, La Romanée Conti and La Tache are all Grand Cru Monopoles ( they all have their respective single owners), but tiny portion of Clos de Lambrays has its own separate owner, which makes it unqualified for the “Monopole” denomination. Congratulations to our winners, they are doing great winning the second quiz in the row – will see how long their winning streak will last, but for now they definitely got the unlimited bragging rights.
And now, let’s move on to the interesting stuff around the grapevines. First, the upcoming presidential inauguration created a lot of waves (rather a small tsunami) in the wine world, by selecting Korbel undrinkable plonk as a sparkling wine of choice, and also calling it a “Champagne”. Considering absolutely astonishing availability of great sparkling wines (authentic!!!) made in this country, from New Mexico to California to Virginia to New York, I can only raise both eyebrows (I would raise more if I would have it) at this selection. For a better coverage, you should read what Dr. Vino and Chris Kassel have to say about it. I truly hope that this selection is not indicative of what we should be expecting here in US of the next four years…
What do you think of a blind wine tasting? Do you think it is humbling? You bet. Do you think it is educational? I’m sure it is. But don’t take my word for it – here is an interesting article published by the Wine Spectator and talking about blind tasting experience – I think it will be well worth of your time.
Last but not least – Italian wine lovers, rejoice! Thanks to Stefano from Flora’s table, we now know that Gambero Rosso, one of the most respected and prestigious Italian wine guides, will run the wine tasting events around the US over the next few weeks. For more information about Gambero Rosso events, please visit Stefano’s blog.
That’s all I have for you for today, folks. The glass is empty – but refill is on its way. Until the next time – cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, Self-directed Rant, Ouch and more
Meritage time!
As usual, let’s start from the answer to the weekly wine quiz #41, Which one doesn’t belong. I would estimate the complexity of the quiz as medium, as you had to figure out what the question was all about, and then think about what item doesn’t belong to the list (and even explain why). I’m glad to report that we have a winner, who is being quite persistent at winning lately – thedrunkencyclist. He properly identified that Corton, which is a Grand Cru Appellation from Côte de Beaune, doesn’t belong to the list of Grand Cru appellations from Côte de Nuits. Well done, Jeff – and a double amount of unlimited bragging rights is all yours, as you were able to answer the question without the use of Google.
Before we get to the interesting stuff, I need to let some cringe out of the system – so we are getting to my self-directed rant. Let me just scream it out loud – I HAVE SO MANY BLOG POSTS IN MY HEAD AND I CAN’T GET THEM OUT! There, I said it. I don’t think this is a writer’s block, and if it is, it is some very sophisticated masochistic form. I have posts which should’ve been written during summer when I visited wineries in New York Hudson region. Then there were great wine tastings I had all the intentions to write about. We had an amazing time in October at Paumanok winery – and this blog post still sits in the drafts section. The list can go on and on. I still can’t figure it out how this stuff works, and it is upsetting. But – now, that I let it out of the system, I will make sure truly hope all those belated posts will follow. Okay, this is the end of my rant.
Now, there are few interesting things I want to share with you. First is what I called an “ouch” – it appears that Natalie MacLean, a well known wine writer, who has eponymous web site and iPad/Android App, had being borrowing stealing wine reviews from the other wine writers, including the reviews located on “subscription-only” web sites, such as Jancis Robinson, without any acknowledgement to the actual authors. Palate Press put out a big article on the subject, which is worth reading, including the comments section. The story of course reverberated on multiple blogs. Hopefully her readership will adjust accordingly (but I guess we will never know).
Folks behind Wine Folly published a very interesting infographic chart for the different types of wine. As a mind mapping junkie, I can only applaud any efforts to classify an extremely diverse subject, such as wine world, in a compact and comprehensible fashion. Take a look at the link above and let me know what you think (hint: this chart might be a good present for the wine geek in your life).
That’s all I have for you, folks. The glass is empty, but it will be definitely refilled soon. Happy Wine (and Whisky) Wednesday. Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, and Some Local Updates
Meritage Time!
Let’s start with the answer for the Wine Quiz #40, Wine Basics 101 – Tannins. In this quiz you were supposed to explain what tannins are, how do they get into the wine and also provide an example of some other foods which also cause an effect similar to tannins. I’m glad to say that we have two winners – both thedrunkencyclist and stefano provided very detailed answers, so they both get that coveted prize consisting of unlimited bragging rights. Yes, tannins are the polyphenolic compounds which naturally occur mostly in red wines due to the prolonged contact of the juice with seeds, stems and oak barrels. Tannins cause the tactile sensation of drying up of your mouth – this is why big tannic wines often work very well with fatty foods, such as steak, as grease of the steak help to alleviate that astringent feeling. And outside of wine, tannins can be found in many other foods – black tea, walnuts, persimmons are just some of the examples of such foods.
Now, let’s talk about interesting stuff, which might not be of such a wide importance, as today it will all relate just to this blog which you are reading right now. First, I have to say “THANK YOU!” to all of you, my readers. About a month ago, there was a wine blogging contest about wines of Tuscany at the To-Tuscany travel site – and with your help, I was actually able to win it! Here is the link to the contest page – and thank you again to all who voted for my blog.
I made some updates in my blogroll section, mainly adding a few new blogs and web sites which I now follow – the additions are Flora’s Table, Vino in Love and American Winery Guide – if you are not following them, check them out. I also added two links for the wine buying service which I recently used and was happy with – Last Bottle Wines and Bin End’s Wines – again, might well worth your attention.
I finally updated the Wine Ratings page in this blog – this table lists wines which I rated as 8- or above, which means that they are all recommended, and now it is current as of November 2012.
And the last update for today – I plan to start reviewing wine gadgets here – I think it should be fun exercise (suggestions and questions will be gladly accepted).
That’s all I have for today, folks – the glass is empty. Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Just The Wine Quiz Answer
Meritage time!
Today’s Meritage will be only about the wine quiz. I had very limited time to find sharing-worthy news – and I failed.
In the last wine quiz #38, you were supposed to play a game of “find the differences” between two labels of the wine. I’m happy to report that we have a winner, vinoinlove – he correctly identified 3 differences between labels – the name of the wine (Tiare Imperiale versus Le Fiarre), ABV listed on the labels ( 14% and 14.5%) and even size of the labels ( there is a small difference in the size). Congratulations!
Quite honestly, I have to admit that I wanted someone to take the comparison a little further. When I saw the two bottles, the similarity between the front labels was almost shocking and it took me a few moments to realize that there are some differences there (okay, call me slow). When I tried to compare the wines, my expectations were that they will taste indistinguishably the same – and they were not! Tiare Imperiale was a lot more round and polished, were Le Fiarre was not bad, but rather rough on edges. Turning the bottles over and looking at the back labels clearly pointed to the fact that these are two different wines – Tiare Imperiale is made out of all 13 grapes allowed in Chateauneuf-du-Pape appellation, and Le Fiarre is made out of 4:
So in my cryptic comments, I was hoping that someone will say that most likely the wines tasted differently and were made from the different grapes – but apparently I didn’t succeed. Just an additional interesting fact – Le Fiarre wine came from from Trader Joe’s ( at $19.99), and Tiare Imperiale was acquired through Wine Till Sold Out, and purchase price was something like $25 with $55 listed as a retail. I would not recommend Le Fiarre (while $19.99 is a bargain, there are other much better wines in that price category) – but Tieare Imperiale is a good wine in the $25 range – I wouldn’t take it for $55 though. Another interesting fact is that both wines seems to be private labeled for Skalli and have virtually no additional information available on Internet.
That’s all I have for you today, folks. Cheers!
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