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Free Wine for a Name

April 13, 2007 By Leave a Comment

name our winery contest link for Washington Wine CompanyA new winery is playing their version of “Name That Tune” … except, the game is called “Name That Winery”.

The Washington Wine Company is running a contest to name their new winery, which is scheduled to open in Woodinville Wine Village, Washington State, in 2008.

The contest runs from April 6–May 30. The winner of the contest will receive two cases of the winery-to-be-named-later’s best wine each year for a decade. The prize will also include an annual private wine tasting hosted by winemaker Jeff Schackman when the winners come in to pick up their yearly cases of wine.

Go to the Washington Wine Company website for details and to enter your suggestion for a winery name. Who knows, you may win two free cases of wine for the next ten years. Good luck!

Filed Under: Free Wine Stuff, Uncorked, Wine News, Wine Reviews

Wine Accessory: Drip Collar

April 12, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Prodyne Pewter Ornamental Grapevine Drip Collar (DC-2)Have you ever poured red wine into a glass, and right at the end of the pour, an obnoxious little bit of juice jumps out of the mouth of the bottle at the last second and stains your lily-white tablecloth? Or, it drips down the neck of the bottle and onto your hand? Of course you have. And you probably know enough to use a napkin when you’re pouring, or you might have seen a restaurant sommelier gently twist the bottle clockwise and counter-clockwise at the end of the pour, and practiced the movement yourself to avoid dripping.

Le Creuset Set of 2 Wine CollarsAdmittedly, I’m a wine geek … a cork dork … a borderline snob, and I use drip collars. Yes, I know how to do that fancy little turn of the bottle, and most of the time I can keep the wine from dripping. But you know what? Most of the time, it’s not worth the effort, not when it takes all of two seconds to slip a collar over the top of the bottle and not have to think about dripping for the rest of the night. Drip collars make my life simple, easy, and stress-free. Perhaps best of all, they only cost about five bucks, and last nearly a lifetime.

It’s such a simple piece of equipment, but it is a must-have for anyone who pours red wine on a regular basis.

Click on either of the pictures, depending on which style you prefer, to buy directly from Amazon. Or visit a site like IWA to find even fancier versions.

Filed Under: Wine Gifts & Gadgets

Wine Classes in Spanish

April 11, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Wine EducationGood news for Spanish-speaking wine connoisseurs in the New York City area — the International Wine Center (IWC) in New York City will be offering an Intermediate Certificate course “en Espanol”.

The eight-week program covering the major grape varieties and wine regions of the world as well as the fundamentals of grapegrowing and winemaking has been taught in English by the IWC since 1995. Beginning in mid-May, the same course will also be offered in Spanish — instruction, course materials and exam included.

Students who successfully complete the course will earn the WSET® Intermediate Certificate in Wines and Spirits, an internationally-recognized credential awarded by the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET), which is the world’s largest wine educational organization. International Wine Center is the U.S. headquarters of WSET.

“Considering the important role that Spanish-speaking individuals play in the wine, food and hospitality trade in New York City, it is only appropriate that a serious wine program be available to them in their native language,” said Mary Ewing-Mulligan MW, who serves as Executive Director of WSET programs in the United States, as well as President of IWC. “We are honored to be able to provide this opportunity to them.”

The Spanish WSET Intermediate Certificate Course begins on Thursday, May 17 and concludes on July 19. Classes meet weekly from 6:00 to 8:00pm at International Wine Center, 350 Seventh Avenue, Suite 1201. The fee is $668.

For detailed information on the WSET programs, call 212-239-3055, email info@internationalwinecenter.com or visit www.internationalwinecenter.com.

Filed Under: Wine News

Wine Term: Cloying

April 11, 2007 By Leave a Comment

You may often see the term “cloying” used in the highbrow wine magazine reviews — most often when describing overly ripe white wines and dessert wines. Merriam-Webster defines cloying thusly:

” disgusting or distasteful by reason of excess ; also : excessively sweet or sentimental ( a cloying romantic comedy )”

In wine terms, cloying is used to connote a wine that is excessively sweet in flavor (sentimentality might enter the picture, though it depends on your mood). Like most descriptors used in wine tasting notes, it is a subjective term — what one finds cloying, another may find “just right”.

However, seeing the term in a taster’s notes can be helpful to you. In nearly all cases, a wine that is described as “cloying” will have a high level of residual sugar, and therefore a sweet taste. Similarly, a wine that is described as ” .. ripe fruit, but not cloying .. ” suggests that it will have a flavor that might give the perception of sweetness, but not be overpoweringly sweet.

Filed Under: Wine Terms

Red Wine Review: Arcanum I

April 10, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Tenuta di Arceno Arcanum 1 labelThe latin-looking letters on the label may confuse you, or make you think this wine is Greek. But in fact it is a wine made by a Frenchman from grapes in an Italian vineyard owned by the American Jess Jackson. Got that ? OK, on to the wine …

As with the other Arcanum wines, this wine showed almost nothing after first opening, so I let it sit in the glass for almost an hour. Ripe black fruits immediately accentuate the nose: black rasberry, blackberry, maybe a hint of cassis. Silky, creamy texture carries mildly ripe raspberry fruit that seems to get riper as it sits on the palate and remains in the finish, carried out by touch of creamy vanilla. Yes I know I used creamy twice in that sentence and in my mind it was appropriate for the experience. It is creamy and thick, yet somehow ethereal, if that’s possible. A second sip adds some mild sweet earth, maybe a touch of sweet tobacco. Tannins are medium and in good balance. Acidity is mild to medium and in good proportion to the fruit. A very well balanced, elegant wine … yet somehow simultaneously a monster.

a-9 t-9 b-9 fc-7 v-7 ~ 91 Points

Find this wine at a local retailer using Wine-Searcher

Filed Under: Red Wines, Wine Reviews, Wines to Impress

Red Wine Review: Arcanum II

April 10, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Tenuta di Arceno Arcanum 2 labelI let this wine sit in the glass for more than an hour before tasting … the winemaster Pierre Seillan says to decant the Arcanum wines a good TWO hours before imbibing. Even after an hour, the aromas are still struggling to get out from under. And what appears from under the depths hints at excellence. I get whiffs of black fruits, complex earth and tar. From the nose, there seems to be a lot of layers here. On the palate, again the characteristics are subdued, but paying close attention reveals a remarkable complexity: ripe black raspberry, black currant, hints of anise and cassis, sweet earth and tobacco, black pepper, cardamom, and vanilla, all tightly wrapped by ripe tannins, mild acidity, and alcohol. The finish lingers for over a minute, and the tannins are still coating the tongue, with gentle fruit and spice in the background, a good three minutes later. This is subdued now, with a few years’ cellaring it should explode into a huge wine to contemplate with exquisite cheese or enjoy with a ribeye.

a-9 t-10 b-10 fc-7 v-7 ~ 92 Points

Find this wine at a local retailer using Wine-Searcher

Filed Under: Red Wines, Wine Reviews, Wines to Impress

Red Wine Review: Arcanum III

April 9, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Tenuta di Arceno Arcanum 3 labelAs with the other Arcanum wines, yes I did let this sit … and sit … and sit … I opened it and poured it and didn’t give it so much of a gander for an hour and a half and it still was showing very little on the nose, other than black pepper, maybe a hint of something meaty … or chocolatey … and a hint of black fruit. In the mouth it displays a little bit more than the nose, and actually gets more flavorful in the finsh.

Upfront, I get some ripe black fruit: blackberry, black raspberry. As I swirl it around, the fruit gets a little more complex, nothing I can describe exactly so let’s just call it complex. Then, everything seems to come rushing out of the gate after swallowing, almost like a desperate college football team pulling out all the stops with 2 minutes left to play.

The finish is long .. lingering … persistent … continuous …. get the drift? The fruit seems to blossom on the finish, showing ripe raspberry fruit, spice, vanilla, and cola. Very well balanced with dry, ripe tannins and medium acidity. This wine is going to be a blockbuster in 3-4 years.

a-8 t-9 b-10 fc-7 v-7 ~ 91 Points

Find this wine at a local retailer using Wine-Searcher

Filed Under: Red Wines, Wine Reviews, Wines to Impress

Power Tasting: Arcanum 1-2-3

April 9, 2007 By 1 Comment

Arcanum 1 wine labelLooking for an impressive, big-ticket bottle of wine that is cooler than the well-knowns? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Red Wines, Wine Buying, Wine Gifts

Review: Casa Lapostolle Merlot Cuvee Alexandre

April 2, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Casa Lapostolle Merlot Cuvee Alexandre Apalta VineyardRed Wine Review:
Casa Lapostolle Merlot Cuvee Alexandre
Apalta Vineyard

Dirty nose belies the rich ripe red and black berry fruits in the mouth. Don’t get me wrong, this wine is definitely earthy, but has equal amounts of sweet fruit to balance out. More complex than I expected, but then I didn’t look closely enough at the label. I have long been a big fan of Casa Lapostolle’s Merlot “Cuvee Alexandre” labeled as being simply from “Rapel Valley”, and never paid more than maybe twelve bucks for it. This bottle was right around that price but I’m sure it was mislabeled, as I’ve seen it elsewhere for twice as much. That’s fine … as a ten dollar wine, it is an outstanding value, and at around $22-25, it is appropriately priced for the quality inside the bottle.

The first day I opened this wine, the aroma was fairly closed, showing only a lot of earth – as in dirt. I drank about a glass and a half and re-corked it, leaving it at room temperature. The next evening, I poured it again and the aroma really opened up, showing deep, rich, ripe black fruits — cassis, black raspberry, black cherry — integrated with the bitter earthy notes, leather, black pepper, green bell pepper, dark chocolate, and a hint of tobacco. This wine is very complex both on the nose and the palate — the flavors are similar to the aromas: black fruits, earthy tones, hints of sweet tobacco, black licorice, vanilla spice. The tannins are rather aggressive, but not to the point of killing the fruit, and the acidity is also medium to medium-high. It is a fine wine for food matching, particularly for beefy, cheesy, and fatty dishes. On its own it is enjoyable but maybe a bit too aggressive; if you must drink it away from the dinner table I suggest you at least have a hunk of cheese to go with it. Complex, enjoyable, and worthy of cellaring for 2-4 years.

a-8 t-8 b-8 fc-8 v-7 ~ 89 points

Imported by Schieffelin-Somerset

Casa Lapostolle Winery – official website

Find this wine at a local wine shop through WineZap or Wine-Searcher

Filed Under: Red Wines, Weekend Wines, Wine Reviews, Wines to Impress

Smackdown: Ducru vs. [yellow tail]

April 1, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Ducru Beaucaillou Bordeaux wine bottleAfter pouring really inexpensive Languedoc from out of Larry’s Sommeliers Series glass and down the drain, the geek that Larry is once again brought up the unforgettable night he enjoyed a bottle of Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou St. Julien Bordeaux — after turning back a corked bottle of Chateau Margaux. He said it was the best thing that ever happened to him, because the Ducru was “mind blowing, almost life-changing”.

Whatever.

Personally, I’d never had Ducru, so didn’t understand all the fuss. I figured that some time in my life I’d get the chance to taste the legendary nectar — hopefully on someone else’s dime. Then, remarkably, I found a dusty bottle of Ducru Beaucaillou in the discount bin of Shop Rite Liquors, for a few dollars more than the Yellow Tail Cabernet Sauvignon I’d already picked up. Looking at the two bottles next to each other in my basket, I knew exactly what had to be done: a taste-off !

To make it fair, I uncorked both bottles at precisely the same time, and let them sit for exactly two hours to breathe. When it was time to start pouring, I used identical machine-blown Riedel Vinum Extreme Bordeaux glasses (I know hand-blown is better, but feared inconsistency in the shape might skew the results; machines are much more reliable than humans).

Using a graduated cylinder, I measured equal amounts of each wine into their respective glasses, and began the process of swirling and sniffing.

As expected, the Yellow Tail Cab expressed youthful exuberance, showing vibrant aromas of raspberry jam, grape juice, and imitation vanilla. It exploded in the mouth with flavors of concord grape jelly, easing into a finish of succulent, lip-smacking Jolly Rancher Wild Berry Fruit candy.

The Ducru, on the other hand, was not nearly as impressive. No matter how much I swirled and sniffed, the nose remained closed and uninteresting. The palate was similar — some hints of blackcurrants, cassis, leather, tobacco, blackberry, spice, and earth — but otherwise flat and, well, obtuse. Certainly not something I’d serve with buffalo wings, pigs in blankets, or even mac and cheese (and EVERYTHING goes with mac and cheese!). In fact, I wouldn’t even offer this plonk to people who don’t know the difference between Pinot Grigio and Pinot Noir — I just wouldn’t be able to contain the guilt.

Additionally, the Ducru remained obnoxiously long in my mouth — it just wouldn’t go away. It kind of lingered … seemingly for hours. In the end I had to douse my tongue with Ass-Kickin’ Hot Sauce to kill the taste.

I compared my notes with those of my snobby wine friends, as well as some old editions of Wine Spectator and the Wine Advocate. I have to tell you, I didn’t get what they did from the Ducru. There’s the slight possibility I got a bad bottle, or, more likely, was suffering from palate fatigue after the circus-like experience of complexity of the Yellow Tail. Maybe I’ll give the Ducru another chance, on another day (though, I’ll try the Ducru FIRST next time).

Click here for more detailed notes on the Ducru vs. Yellow Tail smackdown tasting !

Filed Under: White Wines, Wine Reviews
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