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Esoteric Wine Tasting Metaphors
This fun topic was first posted in June 2022. Everything is still relevant. Enjoy! Even though many have seen the acclaimed musical version, I suspect that only a few have read Miguel de Cervantes’ lengthy, two-part epic Don Quixote de La Mancha . But if you are one of them, and you are also an enthusiast of the highest wine-knight-errant order, you likely know that Sancho Panza, Quixote’s devoted squire and sidekick was also a discerning, appellation-wise oenophile. Well into the glorious quest for the unreachable star, is an offhanded description of an exchange between Sancho and another knight-errant’s squire. While Quixote and the Knight of the Grove were discussing their chivalric deeds and desires, their two squires settled in beneath a tree to discuss items of a more corporeal nature—food and wine. And much to Sancho’s delight, the Grove’s squire offered to share some of his that he had attached to his horse’s saddle. After
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Structure: The Anatomy of Wine
This was originally posted in 2012. However, this concept will never change. Read and Enjoy! I often take wine to restaurants, and if its quality warrants it, I like to share it with one or more of the employees. Recently my wife and I went to our favorite Italian restaurant, and being in the mood for something special, I took a 1997 Flaccianello , an exceptional Italian wine that ranks high in that unofficial classification of “Super Tuscans.” Our food server gave the wine an ecstatic two thumbs up, but I was curious how the Chef—born and trained in Italy—might react to it. Smiling broadly and carefully examining the bottle between swirls and sips, he was also quite taken by it. Among his several positive assessments, and the one on which we both agreed, was the wine’s excellent structure —a special quality that made it vibrant and delicious even after all these years. For people not into wine, the notion of structure may smack of pretense. For them, wine is si
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The Hidden Persuaders in Wine Labels.
Originally published in 2015, this post is still relevant. Book covers and wine labels have much in common. They need to be creatively designed to successfully differentiate themselves from their competition. They battle at similar price points, they vie for the same buyers, and they are involved in shelf space warfare for the optimum location. At this point, all else is secondary, for if they do not seize one’s attention and trigger a buying impulse, then a customer is lost—potentially forever. Wine labels and their “hidden persuaders” have always fascinated me, particularly those with attention getting colors and graphics that go beyond the basic presentation of the producer’s name, logo and varietal grape (or appellation). I'm intrigued by their subtle, and often not so subtle, efforts to seize the gaze of roaming and inattentive eyes. Label designers have a number of variables at their disposal when they set out to stir an emotion and c
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Understanding a Wine's Texture
This article was originally published in November of 2014. It is still read worthy. Enjoy! \ My wife recently asked my opinion on a colorful, acrylic painting that she was working on. I am always available to critically evaluate someone else’s creative efforts—irrespective of the medium—particularly when I have zero training or expertise in it. And so, I delivered my pontification. “The orange pumpkin looks a little flat and one dimensional. It needs more depth and texture .” She resisted slightly, invoking technical issues which I did not understand, but eventually she relented and accepted my assessment and modified it to its current excellent state. Even though they routinely slide past our consciousness unobserved, textures are a vital, recurring part of our lives. We are all aware of the multi-dimensional textures in music, art and architecture whereby multiple components are interwoven to achieve a cohesive and very pleasing result
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A Wine Quiz Like No Other.
I posted this test back in 2011, with one eye on light humor, and the other on educating a few of my blog followers. Please enjoy it any way you choose. ******************************************************************* (1) You can tell if a wine is “dry”, (a) If nothing comes out when you pour, (b) If no “legs“ appear after swirling the glass, (c) If it doesn’t taste sweet, or (d) If you’re still thirsty after you drink it. COMMENT : If you don’t know it’s (c) , the rest of the quiz may be somewhat of a challenge for you. (2) Wine drinkers love California Chardonnay because (a) It tastes like butter, (b) It tastes like vanilla, (c) It tastes like tropical fruit, or (d) It tastes like . . . well . . . all of the above. COMMENT : Crazy as it seems, it’s “all of the above.” It’s a wildly popular style, but there are indications that many wineries are starting to lighten up on these aspects. (3) "The French Paradox" (a) Is an HBO sequel to
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Finding Complexity in Wine
(This article was originally published in 2012. Much of it is still relevant.) Wine is produced in various levels of quality, from simple, one-dimensional quaffs to world-class collectibles. Wines of very good to excellent quality typically distinguish themselves—whether they are red or white, dessert or bubbly—by a unique characteristic that wine enthusiasts know as complexity . Any item which is complex in nature, whether it be Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto , Monet’s Femmes au Jardin or an aged Grand Cru Red Bordeaux, has central to its nature a variety of unique and interacting attributes. These synergistic components provide the potential for greater enjoyment, assuming one is versed in the principles of music, art or wine appreciation and are open to pursuing the increased possibilities. I particularly enjoy Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto , but I would likely appreciate it more if I understood “. . . its daunting technical diff
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Wine Wisdom in. Few Short Paragraphs
The following first appeared in 2021. The principles are still valid One +of my first wine buddies characterized the pleasures of wine appreciation as a pursuit. There are different levels in that quest, and for many it ceases at “It tastes good!” Today’s article encourages you to go a few steps further to find out why. Learn the grape. The most important determinant of the way a wine looks, smells, tastes and feels is the underlying grape from which it is made. Each has its own level and style of aroma, acidity, tannins, dryness, and body. Check out Winefolly.com for those details. Acidity . This is the “nervous system” of wine. Think citrus. Wines with too little acidity are flat, dull, or flabby; those with too much are lean, angular or tart; those that are balanced are “crisp,” giving the wine vitality and a succulent mouthfeel, plus a palate cleansing finish while dining. A
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It's that time of year again!
As a longtime Rosé aficionado, I never expected the pink stuff would be as widely accepted as it currently is. Two recent experiences made this quite clear. The first, was at Napa’s Whole Food Market, where I noted there were more than fifty different producers on the shelves, from both foreign and domestic. Secondly, after that attention-getter, I browsed Wine.com, one of the more thorough Internet sources for wines of all types and provenance, to see what was currently available. You may not be surprised, but I was; there were 450 Rosés listed. As you might expect, most of the offerings (170), came from France, with California in second place at 150, with Italy and Spain next with 21 each. The tabulation continued down to Hungary and a couple other countries with one each. Moreover, in addition to country, the web site also offered the following sort options for those looking for something quite specific: country subregion, specific vintage, latest price, recent
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Pursuing Wine Appreciation, Part2
In my previous post I described various roadmap markers encountered while travelling the circuitous and open-ended road of Wine Appreciation. The starting point was understanding a wine’s primary structural aspects, its building blocks, (acidity, sweetness, alcohol and tannins), and how those, in turn, are determined by the underlying grapes from which it is made. This was crucial inasmuch as American and most New World wines are primarily labelled and distinguished by the underlying grape. But that information was of limited assistance when I tried to understand how European wines identified and differentiated themselves between countries, as well as between regions of the same country. My next offramp took me to the notion of Appellation: where a wine is produced, its birthplace, its unique origins. Appellation is a promise of authenticity. You’re getting The Real Thing , not a knockoff. (Involved enthusiasts are also familiar with the underlying grapes, b
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The Pursuit of Wine Appreciation
When I first decided to pursue the pleasures of Wine Appreciation, it became apparent that it was far more complex than one friend’s advice, which was as simple as ABC: “Always Buy Cabernet, Always Buy Chardonnay.” (He was serious.) And while a number of wine drinkers I’m chummy with are still in that paradigm, I found it too confining, too generic, and not the least bit fulfilling. But I needed a roadmap, something to guide me on how to better understand wine. The first route was sorting out and comprehending each of wine’s underlying components—acidity, sweetness, body (alcohol) and tannins. I soon realized that each of those is determined by (drum roll please!) the underlying grape from which the wine is made . And once I “learned the grape(s),” I came to understand why, say, a Merlot is unlike a Pinot Noir, which is unlike a Cabernet, which is unlike a Grenache. And the same holds for Chardonnay versus, say, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling or Semillon. That was crucial, inasmuch a
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Do you know the What and Why of your favorite wines?
One of the vinous offramps I took a few years ago was to expand the depth and breadth of my wine appreciation; more specifically, to explore, and discover, more wines than were in my usual buying/drinking/cellaring routine. I also nagged those of you who were readers at the time, to enlarge the scope of your wine enjoyment by introducing (and even challenging) your palate with new types and styles. Coincidental with that, was my decision 1) to be far more deliberate in my tasting assessments, and 2) to keep a record of them via Instagram posts. Once registered, I began following (and learning from) wine enthusiasts who posted their assessments, and many of those returned the favor by following me. In deciding to be more thorough and attentive to the details underlying the components in the basic tasting protocol ( See, Swirl, Sniff, Sip, Savor ), I came to an expanded appreciation of a wine in its entirety, its overall style and structure, as well as its ultimate quality
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Milk Shakes and Red Wine as Tender Loving Care.
I first posted this article in 2010, and those of you who were on the mailing list may recall it. It triggered many comments and memories. For you, and new readers as well, here's to fond recollections: As a youngster, my siblings and I lived in a small town in the coal mining region of southeastern Utah. Our nightly entertainment was radio programs like The Shadow, The Lone Ranger and The Cisco Kid . We also read books, solved 500 piece jigsaw puzzles, and played Gin Rummy. On Saturday afternoon, we wolfed down freshly, buttered popcorn while transfixed by movie westerns with Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and, for the real old time trivia buff, Gabby Hayes and Wallace Beery. Outside, in good weather, we explored the surrounding semi-desert countryside, or played “Cowboys and Indians,” “Marbles,” or "Mumbly Peg." At nightfall, nothing created more shrieking and mock trauma than “Hide and Seek.” When it snowed, we built bulbous snowmen, pummel
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Verities from wine tasting classes.
Depending on how long you’ve been swirling and spilling, there are times when you have to deal with advice offered in a wine tasting class. You can accept it as truth, reject it as myth, or wait until you have confirmation of either. Of course, I jest in the first sentence above about spilling. But I did, in fact, reject a class moderator’s claim that if you weren’t spilling it on yourself or elsewhere, then you weren’t aggressive enough, and would never unleash those otherworldly, underlying aromas and flavors. And I also must acknowledge that I have stained fine wooden table tops, baptized exquisite handmade tablecloths and napkins, soiled irreplaceable Persian carpets, as well as adding new, semi-floral designs to my silkenTommy Bahama shirts. Swirl vigorously folks! In large-group, multi-wine tasting classes of old, to quickly learn the basics of color, aroma and flavor, we were advised to bring our own, but correctly styled stemware. Not costly fine crystal, mind you
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Thoughts while sniffing and sipping.
While swirling, sniffing, and sipping, I'm typically on the lookout for a few positive qualities. But I wonder if you possibly share my priorities? For example, what quality or characteristic is most important when you’re enjoying or otherwise attentively tasting a wine? If you’re thinking “smooth” or “tastes good,” you are likely a newbie or a wine drinker who is not particularly "into wine"; that is, one who feels that wine is simply a beverage, nothing special, and definitely not an aesthetic object; and one who typically stays in his/her comfort zone by purchasing the same few wines (producers and/or varietals) most of the time. A smooth wine is one with low acidity (mainly in whites, but also in reds), or low or nonexistent tannins (primarily in reds). It is soft, fruit forward, often one dimensional, and usually displays a perceptible and engaging touch of sweetness, and a good helping of mouth-coating, spicy oak. This type and style of wine seldom offends, and it occ
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Things are changing in Bordeaux.
The red wines of Bordeaux were my first love. Initially, because of Hugh Johnson, one of the best (if not the best) wine writers of the past forty plus years, and secondly because of Robert M. Parker, who created the 100 point rating system. Johnson stirred my interest (in his first book titled Wine ) when he described Bordeaux wines, quite simply, as being “beautiful,” much like great art or mood-moving music. And Parker completed the attention grab with his effusively written, bi-monthly wine reviews, particularly the 1982 Bordeaux critique. But my heart sank when I saw this headline in a recent Decanter magazine article: “Bordeaux gives the go ahead for new grapes.” Because of the inexorable march of global warming, France’s national appellation body is looking to six new grapes, (four red, two white) “to mitigate the impact of climate change without diluting the identity of Bordeaux wines.” Bordeaux aficionados know that the five main red grapes that underlie th
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Minerality, an outdated update.
I first wrote about the nebulous wine descriptor Minerality in May of 2011. And so, I felt it was time for an update, thinking that much has been discovered, and new insights have clarified the subject for wine enthusiasts. But, alas, not so. Its definition and characteristics are still being variously described and utilized. The only thing that is quite clear, is that wine critics, critic-wannabes and wine journalists are routinely using Minerality as a key characteristic to describe virtually any type of wine, and how it transcends or otherwise differentiates it from the typical, uninspiring components of acidity, tannins, sugar, and alcohol. With that in mind, here is an outdated update, as current as it gets: When I first attended wine tasting classes, it was not unusual to hear the phrase gout de terroir (goo de tare-wahr — taste of the soil ) ascribed to the wines that we were evalu,ating. The concept seemed esoteric and elusi
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Rosé. Review and update.
I was a Rosé enthusiast long before I first promoted them it in a 2001 article. In the mid/late 1990s, when White Zinfandel was cashing in big, and Portuguese imports, Lancers and Mateus, were delivering a similar sugary profile, my wife Helga and I made trips to Germany, France and Italy. We were taken aback by Germany’s Weissherbs t, France’s Vin Gris , and Italy’s Rosato . The surprise? They were Dry. Bone dry. And not sweet, like the aforementioned. The recognition of what authentic Rosé was really like , motivated me, initially, to start nagging my friends, and secondarily, to pontificate to those who stumbled upon my articles. In dinner gatherings, so as not to see what I was pouring, I pleaded with them to close their eyes, taste and evaluate, and then take a look at what they enjoyed. One friend offered, “Yea, it tastes fine, but I just can’t see myself holding a glass of pink wine.” In the 2001 article, (the first of many), I pr
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Make Yourself Special, Not the Bottle!
In my most recent posting I proposed, given the Covid19 lockdown effect on our lives, that we be a bit more self-indulgent when enjoying the little things in life. Little things like wine . . . and food. In addition to uncorking that “special bottle” that’s been patiently waiting to be appreciated, I suggested that you upgrade your wine philosophy (and self-worth) to include higher quality wines. That is, make yourself special, not the bottle. And so, I’m offering below a few time-worn ideas and advisories that hopefully will enhance your level of wine appreciation. You may be aware of these, or occasionally even employ them, but either way, just consider them friendly reminders, or at worst, an encouragement to make your wine experience a bit more fulfilling. First, is the “thirty-minute rule.” For optimum enjoyment, pull whites from the fridge thirty minutes before serving. Also, for countertop or otherwise, poorly stored reds (and whites), pop them into fridge for
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A Modest Proposal.
The on again, off again Covid-19 virus lockdowns in 2020 caused enormous damage—financial, emotional, and spiritual—to families and businesses alike. And for those of us residing in Napa Valley, we also had to spontaneously adjust our life and lifestyle to the unpredictable power outages and deadly wildfires that delivered the same trifecta of effects, but to an even greater effect. No doubt, anyone who reads this can add their own experience to how nasty 2020 was for them. And for those poor souls who had to bear the unspeakable indignities and inconveniences of being socially distant at backyard cocktail parties and dinners, or picking up curbside dinners at their favorite, near-failing restaurants, or watching their ever-growing hair take on a stylish, new color and look, I would like to make a modest proposal for the New Year that I hope will help leave those unpleasant experiences behind, and get you moving forward positively. My proposal has its roots in an article from the
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The real story is beyond the numbers.
Robert M. Parker had only one thing in mind when he created the 100-point wine rating system: the ultimate, wine buying consumer—you and me. He designed a “school report card” rating system for us that was easy to understand and easier, yet, to utilize. It eliminated the angst and uncertainty of what to buy, and replaced it with confidence and certitude. I mean, really, what’s wrong about buying wines rated in the 90+ categories, even if you know absolutely nothing about the wine’s underlying grapes, the appellation or the producer? Read on. Parker’s tunnel vision (as he called it) focused on smell, taste and texture. That’s it! Details like the history of the area and the producer, or relevant social and cultural aspects were irrelevant. It was democratic and hedonistic. “Just the facts, Ma’am, just the facts” as Sergeant Joe Friday used to utter on the popular Dragnet TV series. Unfortunately, in Parker’s ratings, there were no
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Evolution of a Palate. Part 2
At the end my previous article, I mentioned which red wines were delivering more overall pleasure than my previous favorites: wines with less intensity in color, aroma and flavor; those with less reliance on new oak; and others with a tad more palate-cleansing acidity. In a word, wines that are “lip smacking” good, aka delicious . But first, let’s revisit Cola, my very first and favorite, food-accompanying beverage, and why it never failed to satisfy. Beyond the seductive sweetness, the reason I (and likely you) loved Cola with cheeseburgers and French fries was because of the fizzy stuff. Acidity. Besides washing down the food, it did something else I didn’t fully appreciate: it cleansed my palate between bites (of all that artery clogging sludge), and prepped it for the next mouthful. Next, in my “ABC” Chardonnay phase, it didn't take long before I got jaded with the buttery, oak laden style. It was then, as I moved on to oak free whites like
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Evolution of a palate. Part One
As a wine newbie, my original preferences were likely determined by a Cola-trained palate. Mateus and Lancers, popular Pinks of the day, were soft, very palate-friendly, and inexpensive, plus they had the added cachet of being imported. But it didn’t take long, noting in the “savor” tasting step, that they weren't savory, they were sweet! My pursuit shifted to California whites, and I started sniffing and sipping Chenin Blanc. Somewhat off-dry, but not as overtly sweet as the Portuguese Pinks, it was a bit more “serious” because the varietal seemed to lay claim to French provenance, which is where the day’s action was in upscale food and wine. Also, it was soft and easy to drink. Sensing that I was a budding wine Geek, a friend with far more wine experience than I, offered me this sage advice: “For reds, drink Cabernet Sauvignon, and for whites, drink Chardonnay. The Cabernet goes with meats, and the Chardonnay goes with fish. You don’t need anythi
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America's first great wine connoisseur.
Thomas Jefferson has been called America’s First Wine Geek. And although other Founding Fathers were known to have enjoyed wine (John Hancock, John Adams, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin), none approached Jefferson’s level of interest, study or commitment. He was quite frank with this famous quotation: “Good wine is a necessity of life for me.” I got reacquainted with this topic as a byproduct of my “social distance” Internet reading of The Billionaire’s Vinegar , an interesting and informative book about easily duped wine critics and naïve, deep pocket wine collectors. The story revolves around sales of fake bottles of wine from 1787 which were represented as having been owned by Thomas Jefferson. That book led me to John Hailman’s Thomas Jefferson on Wine , a nifty $2.00 Amazon softcover purchase! It’s overly detailed and documented, even for this wine-obsessed enthusiast, but it does reveal how Jefferson, through his relentless pursuit of wine’s vario
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An overdue book review and recommendation.
As a byproduct of complying with “social distancing” and “shelter-in-place” directives, I started browsing a few of my wine books. One that seems to have survived the challenge of having relevant and timely information is Wine Style by Mary Ewing-Mulligan and Ed McCarthy. Though published in 2005, its information and advice are still current and useful, especially for those open to exploring new approaches to wine appreciation. You may be unfamiliar with their names, but they have authored three editions of the highly successful Wines for Dummies book, and six other editions in the For Dummies series. Wine Style is their effort to provide a new perspective to understanding wine, a sensory one. That is, why it tastes good. The authors define wine style as “a set of characteristics through which wine manifests itself—the composite personality of the wine.” Those principal characteristics are appearance, acidity, tannin, sweetness and alcohol (body), plus other