Grape of the Day

You are eating at a French restaurant in the US. The wine list is good enough to have earned a "Best Of" Award from Wine Spectator -- that's the level below the Grand Award, but it earns the two wine glass logo not surprisingly better than the one wine glass logo. The wine list is dominated by French wines, although there are others. So, in approaching this challenge, imagine that you have in front of you a list of French wines of different styles from different regions. But, no, we are not going to get into specific Chateaux and vintages (young, some age, old is the most we will do). And, of course, the challenge has two diners in it as one would be too easy after nine months of being educated (or bored) with my meandering rants. With that, here we go. For first courses, your table has chosen two not particularly similar, but classic French hors d'oeuvres -- Escargots de Bourgogne and Terrine de Foie Gras. When it comes to wine, these are not necessary complementary

You open a bottle of wine. Is it just a bunch of homogeneous grape juice thrown together and fermented or is it a blend? Chances are, if you like it, it's a blend, but maybe not in the way you are thinking. To understand this, let's go to the blending factory. Unlike many of the places we have gone to, it's not a real place. It's just a made-up description of a made-up place to talk about blending. But, that said, let's take a trip to get there. After all, it's 2020, and most of us who travel have missed out on most of that travel. So let's go somewhere. To get to our blending factory, let's go to a private airport -- our own private airport. We don't want to deal with TSA today or boarding lines or exhibits that we don't care about that were paid for by our tax dollars. And, we want the plane the way we want it. We're taking Wine Force One. The flight is amazing -- turbulence freeand not a cloud in the sky. And, since we left from a private

This was all a novelty to me. When I moved south, or perhaps earlier than that, when I was first indoctrrinated into what people eat in the south on New Year's Day, I was quite amused. This food is somehow supposed to bring good health and good luck for the upcoming year (obviously, it never met 2020). What is this dinner? Well, it's a combination of some sort of pork as a main dish, along with cornbread, greens (collard, turnip, or mustard), and this dish that I thought was certainly a joke called Hoppin' John. If you've never experienced Hoppin' John, it's a combination of black-eyed peas (of field peas, I am told), onions, and more pork (depending on who you ask, that could be fat back, bacon, ham chunks, or I suppose even the pork part of spam (I think there is some pork hidden in spam). This is not exactly among the top 10 healthiest dinners the world has ever know, so health and fortune, both in terms of luck and money must follow. Otherwise, it's not

For the last none months plus a little bit, I've used my imagination and a little bit of knowledge to help those of you who have been reading to explore the world of wine. We've been to all seven continents and tried nearly 100 different grapes (perhaps more than 100, but I haven't counted). For some grapes, we've tried them in multiple parts of the world and seen marked differences. We've branched out beyond our wildest dreams. In 2021, I want you to do that in real life. No, I'm not suggesting that you go to McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica to drink wine oe even that you attempt to find a bottle of that particular Vidal Blanc. But, I am suggesting that you experience wine that you have not previously. So, here are 10 challenges for you (if they get tacky toward the end, it's because I picked the number 10 and ran out of steam): Have a wine from each of the six continents not called Antarctica. If you drink predominantly red wines, try a white grape that y

Let's go to Greece today, but not just anywhere in Greece. Let's go to Naousa all the way in the northeastern corner of the Greek isle of Paros. Once a Russian naval base from which the 18th century Russians battles the Turks, it's now a tiny beachfront town nearly as close to Turkey as it is to Athens on the Greek mainland. With relatively few people in Naousa, it's populated more by grapes grown just off the beach than it is by the small number of locals. We're here to drink wine made from Xinomavro. Normally a blending grape only and one of the only wine terms you will ever come up with that begins with the letter X, And, while much of the Xinomavro grown in the area is sent out of Naousa to make Greek red blends, all red wines made in the Protected Designation of Orgin (PDO) of Naousa must be 100% Xinomavro. If you are a fan of really big, really tannic, really earthy wines, then Xinomavro might be for you. In fact, Naousa red wines are often compared to the fam

It's getting close to New Year's Eve, the time of the year (at least if you add in the first few minutes of New Year's Day) when people likely drink more Champagne or other sparkling wines than any other time of the year. Of course, the turn from 2020 to 2021 might be different. Likely, more people than not will not go out and spend their time with friends and that is sad, but this is not a sadness blog. Hopefully, very few will spend the turn of the year alone. But, while we're on the topic of sparkling wine, what should you drink on New Year's Eve to usher in 2021? My answer is that it depends. It depends on a lot of things: how much money do you have, how much are you willing to spend on your midnight beverage, do you get to choose, and will you have a fresh and cleansed palate or not?  If the answer to the last question is that you will not, then don't bother with anything fancy, just go with something that is not absolute swill. And, while I didn't pose

On Christmas Day, wine is the appropriate adult beverage. Some might choose to disagree, but of course they are wrong. How do I know that? Because once I click publish, it will say as much on the internet. That makes it official, doesn't it? Once upon a time, I recall googling to see which was or were the proper wine or wines to drink on Christmas. That I recall, there were some amusing answers. But, the simply correct answer is that for those who celebrate, the proper Christmas wine is whatever you like. This is the day when you get to violate all the tules and just enjoy yourself.  For us, all I am certain of is that it will be something very different from what we had yesterday. It's really cold here today, so we need something that will warm our cockles. Note that I've never understood why you can have cockles either as a strange mollusk or as a symbol of your feelings. That just makes no sense at all. In any event, I'm keeping it brief today. Drink something you li

For us, it's become a tradition -- on Christmas Eve, we count our blessings and we eat beef. That might not be your choice, but it is what we have come to do. As it will be for everybody else, Christmas will be a bit different this year for us. It's been a strange year and the memories of houses overloaded with people will just not be a common occurrence this year. All that said, with our beef, we will still have wine. And, we must choose our wine wisely and well. So, what do we know about beef? We know that it is red (sort of) and fatty, and usually somewhat salty. And, the ways that most people prepare it, it usually has even more salt and pepper, and sometimes some char (earthy notes) and sometimes some smoke. We need a wine that can handle all that. For us, there are several choices. We could go to the Piemonte and have an aged Barolo . We could be in the southern Rhone and drink Chateauneuf du Pape  loaded with white pepper and quite tannic to cut through the marbling in t

Every year, lots of publications produce lists of the best of the year. In the wine world, probably the most celebrated of the bunch is the Wine Spectator Top 100. Maybe, it's mor obvious to you, but it confuses me. And, I think that perhaps in its confusion, it gives away its secrets. During the course of the year, that publication rates thousands of wines. They rate them by sending their experienced tasters around the world to do ratings and reviews on all these wines and then publish them.Wines that score 95 points or more are considered exceptional, 90 points or more excellent, and while they don't tell you this, once they get below 85 points, they just don't taste very good. And, unlike other publications that use a similar ratings scale, Wine Spectator just doesn't rate wines as a 99 or 100 (yes, once in a very long while they do, but it's not an unusual year when they don't do that with any wines). So, their rating scale essentially goes from about 85 to

Yesterday, I wrote about branding a wine , but I was really focused on what are known in the wine world as premium wines -- those that retail for more than $10 US or 10 British Pounds. But, I found a web page  that tells me what the 10 most powerful wine brands are and while most of them have at least one or two premium SKUs, they are producing predominantly poorly flavored alcohol that happens to be made from grapes. Who is #1 on the list? Yellow Tail. Yes, that bottle with the wallaby on the label. You haven't had it? Consider yourself lucky. It's rough and inconsistent, but it's a cheap buzz. You can get a regular (750 ml) bottle for less than $5 at many wine shops and you can get a magnum (1.5 L) for about $9. At 10 glasses per magnum, that's 90 cents per pour. Most beer costs more than that although if I went to buy a similar quality beer in large quantity, the beer costs less.  But, wine is supposed to be more refined and polished. And, drinkers of wine have the r

The wine industry truly shows the power of branding. Medicore wines with great branding behind them sell for big bucks. Far better wines with no focus on branding have much more trouble selling.  What is going on? So many wineries have their family names attached to them. And, some family names are just catchier than others. They just sound like something special. Similarly, wineries with either two-family or hyphenated, or two-word names that sound like they could be family seem to market much better.  Let's consider a few examples. There is a fairly high end winery specializing in Pinot Noir in Sonoma County called Kosta Browne. Not surprisingly, the winery was founded by two people with the names Kosta and Browne. Over time, they built themselves quite a cult following despite using only pruchased grapes. Their wines were highly extracted from very sugar-rich grapes until with a new winemaker with a different winemaking style changed everything up in 2015. But, their business mo

I was talking to a friend recently about some wine he bought. He was quite impressed with his purchase. It was a case of a well-known and pretty darn pricey Napa Valley Cabernet.  Let's consider what gives this wine its reputation. It's big and bold and quite tannic. That means that it is agewworthy. And, you know what. When you buy that bottle or in this instance, that case, you are paying a lot fo money for that ageworthiness. So, we got to talking. He said he has no discipline. They would probably all be gone within a month. One month! This is a 2018 vintage wine. It was just released. It's known for having really dense tannins. Most people would not find it overly approachable today. Yet, he and whomever he shares it with are going to polish off 12 bottles of this gem in the next month. I attempted to counsel him. It was all to no avail. He says he buys wines to drinkt them right away. Frankly, if that is the case, he should save some money. Much of what you are paying

Last night, we were blessed to have new friends bring with them a wide vertical of wine for a steak dinner. We ahared bottles of wine from the same winery and in fact with grapes from the same vineyard from the 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015 vintages. Freemark Abbey is one of the legendary wineries in Napa Valley. Located in the northern part of St Helena, their 1969 Cabernet Sauvignon was one of the wines tasted in the 1976 Judgment of Paris . And, since the late 1980s, they have grown some of their finest grapes at Sycamore Vineyard, Sycamore Vineyard is located in Rutherford, not too far to the south of the winery, on a gravelly plot with the grapes planted to get eastern sun exposure. Because this gets the grapes morning sun exposure rather than that of the often brutally hot Napa afternoons, the wines produced here tend to be more balanced than some other wines of the area, but not as big. We started out by tasting the wines side-by-side without the benefit of food. The winner was the

You've been invited to someone's home (yes, even in 2020, albeit with a smaller group and lots of masked people) and you know not to come empty-handed. What's better to bring than a bottle of wine? Chances are, however, that you don't really know what your hosts might appreciate. Perhaps you know that she likes buttery Chardonnay and he likes tannic Cabernet. Been there. Had to make a decision. Or, maybe you don't know what sort of wine they drink. Here is a process you can follow. Pick your budget. I don't care what it is. $5 is okay, as is $10, $15, $25, or $100 (you'll get an invitation to my house for sure). Now go to a store that sells wine. Ignore everything you have ever heard of. Ignore everything with an overly colorful, overly gaudy label. Ignore everything that, particularly if you are in a supermarket environment, appears in every section (this would be something like the swill marketed as Barefoot) that produces a bad wine in every varietal. Ign

You're in a wine shop. You ordinarily spend about $20 for a bottle of wine that you think you will really enjoy (less than $10 for one that you will just drink, but not feel anything special) and you encounter one of the store experts. She sees the sort of wines that you are looking at and recommends a bottle to you. But, it's $29.99. Should you buy it? It's not really a question I can answer for you, but I can help you to answer it for yourself. How much does that extra $10 mean to you? If you're Kevin O'Leary of Shark Tank fame and you are both a serious wine drinker and a wealthy man, go fot it. And, I would tell you the same thing if the price was $2,999 or $29,999. For a person like that, he would say that he would appreciate it and the difference in cost just doesn't matter to him. If you're reading this, however, it's much more likely that the cost difference does mean something to you. Perhaps I've chosen the wrong dollar amounts for you. Per

We've been drinking cold-weather grapes this week and we have been pretty far north. Well, we have been pretty far north by American standards up at nearly 46 degrees north latitude. Europe is different, however. Some of the warmest weather grapes are grown in Bordeaux and it is nearly as far north as that. Today, however, we are going to go to the northernmost wine region in the world (loyal readers will recall that when we visited Antarctica that we went to the southernmost ). At about 55 degrees north, Sylt is a German island in the North Sea, far closer to the mainland of Denmark than to the mainland of Germany. To get to Sylt, we have to fly to the German mainland, From Hamburg, we drive to the northwest and then go over the long causeway to get to the island. Shockingly, upon arriving, we learn that this island that is north of any city we would ever visit even for winter sports in Canada is known as a tourist attraction popular for its long sandy beaches. And, it is this san

The drive from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan across Wisconsin and into Minnesota to the north of the Twin Cities was long, cold, and grueling for a group of people from the south. Even having a great vehicl to traverse the snow-covered landscape, we just don't have the clothes for us. But, where better to experience Frontenac Noir, the father of yesterday's Frontenac Gris  than the state where it was developed. Frontenac Noir was bred from a vitis raparia grape and something known as Landot Noir, not surprisingly bred in France by Pierre Landot (many grape breeders like the thought of indelibly etching their name in viticulture lore). It's a fairly light-bodied grape with intense natural sugars and good cold resistance. The otherwise unnamed vitis riparia grape with which it was bred was found growing wild in the winter in central Minnesota. And, naturally, the thoughts were that crossing two grapes that are cold-weather resistant, one already acclimated to the area, woul

Imagine going to a place where it's cold and humid and going there to drink wine. That's what we're doing today. By request from last night, we're headed to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. That's right/ We're not just going to one of the colder states in the country, we're going to the peninsula of Michaigan separated from the rest of the state by Lake Michigan. Sitting off the northern part of Lake Michigan, we can find Little Bay de Noc and on its shores, we find the city of Escanaba, apparently known as Esky by the locals. Esky is one of the largest cities on the UP, but that doesn't exactly make it a monster checking in with about 13,000 brave souls. Our trip to get there is not bad at all. Leaving from our home base in Atlanta, trips to Detroit are plentiful thanks to the hometown airline. Then, it's just a 1 hour flight to get from Detroit up to little Delta County Airport just outside the city limits. It's cold this time of year and we ha

What's the oldest wine you have ever tasted? We're not talking fortified wine here or even late harvest because they both sometimes last ... well, about forever. We're talking about a traditional, non-fortified, dry wine. And, if that wine was particularly old, was it a pedestrian wine or a legendary wine? Yesterday, we had a new experience. But, there is a story behind it. Imagine that nearly 15 years ago, a friend appeared at your house carrying a magnum of wine. She said that it had been given to her, but there were a few problems. She did not have a way to properly store it and, being a magnum, she couldn't drink it alone. We all agreed that we would drink it together someday. Well, yesterday was that day. Because that friend turns 70 today, there was a party to celebrate het yesterday.  In 1855, at the request of Napoleon III, the wines of Bordeaux were classified so that visitors from around the world would know the great wines of Bordeaux. The red wines that were

Wineries treat their wine club members well. At least most of them do. And, they should.  Think about it. A wine club member is an automatically repeating customer. And, in being automatically repeating, these are not just any wines, these are the sought after, usually higher priced, limited production wines.  Wineries have three kinds of direct-to-consumer customers: those who come by the winery or buy through the winery website and buy once, those who are fairly frequent customers, but on their own schedules, and those wine club members who get multiple bottles of wine at scheduled times during the year and frequently buy more.  Frankly, it's a symbiotic relationship. The winery gets a group of loyal customers. It gets predictable purchases from a dedicated group. The wine club member gets access to wines that other might want and some other special perks. Some give occasional gifts, some give free shipping, almost all give discounts, and if you visit the winery, you likely get t

We were invited to a Zoom tasting last night. In 2020, sometimes that is the best we can do. People from various parts of the country were invited to taste wines with the proprietor and hospitality people from a California winery I was not previously familiar with. I'm going to leave out the details of howwe came to be invited or got the wine so as not to offend anyone or break any confidences. The winery of the night was Eleven Eleven. And, the wines we tasted were a Dutton Ranch Chardonnay and a Bacigalupi Vineyard Pinot Noir both 2018 vintages.  Dutton Ranch is located in the southern part of Sonoma County. Grapes from the 1300 acres of Dutton Ranch are used by some of the finest wineries in California. The Chardonnay in question was aged for just more than a year in mostly neutral French oak and went through full malolactic fermentation. While buttery on the nose with definite oak notes, on the palate it was soft and creamy. It tasted a lot like an apple pie with generous amoun

Should a winemaker use an oak barrel that was previously used to make bourbon to age their wine? That's a tricky question. Perhaps the short answer is ... well, I am going to leave the short answer for later. I am somewhat of a purist. You knew that; I didn't have to tell you.  But, despite that, let's consider what is happening with Bourbon-barrel aged wine. And to do that, let's consider the differences. Bourbon barrels go through a heavy char. They produce a brown whiskey. And, that brown whiskey tends to have a smoky, often nutty flavor. Alcohol content is much higher with a very high alcohol, but non-fortified wine having alcohol content approaching 16% ABV, but many whiskeys having ABV in excess of 50%. In 2020, most of the wine that you buy, while it might come from what was once a family-owned winery and it might still have ties to that family is likely produced by a huge wine and spirits company. Every one of those behemoths produces at least one line of Bourbo

You've never heard of Pierce's Disease, have you? I hadn't either, at least not until last year. No, I haven't been inflicted with it and you haven't either. And, it's not related in any way to COVID. Pierce's Disease infects grapes, not people. And, it infects primarily grapes in California. In particular, it seems to like hot summers and mild winters and loves to be around inland waterways like rivers and even smaller creeks. It's caused by a bacterium that is spread by an insect known as a sharpshooter (no, I don't know what a sharpshooter is, but I have learned over time that sharpshooters transmit this particular bacterium).  The obvious answer would seem to be to use an insecticide. There are two problems with this. One is that so many wineries are now striving to be certified as organic meaning that, among many other things, they don't use insecticides. The second is that of known insecticides, in order to kill these sharpshooters, they mu

You're hosting your friends who think they know their wine. You're serving food and wine together and all these people think they know what they are doing. They've gotten addicted to wines from one region and that is what they drink. In my experience, the most common is the Americans who drink California Cabernet when they want red and California Chardonnay when they want white. That's fine, but it's entirely possible that the wines they are drinking do nothing for the food they are eating and conversely. This is your chance to show them you care. This is your chance to give them an otherworldly experience. And, because you know they are all gluttons, you are going to serve them one of those multi-course prix fixe dinners except in this case, because you are the greatest, most gracious host of all, the price is gratis . For your first course, to welcome your guests, you're going to start with a celebratory combination. Many people don't get caviar. To a larg

What is fake wine? Well, it's not so much fake as it adulterated. It's not so much fake as it is that there a point at which it ceases to be wine.  In order to know what is fake wine, we have to define when wine is not fake wine. Then, when wine ceases to be fake, it must be wine. But, if wine goes the way of beer, and I am not commenting on whether this is good for beer, by having things like pumpkin spice wine, then we are no longer celebrating a craft that has for thousands of years been producing a particular beverage. It's a beverage that, generally speaking, is food friendly and it's one that has been shows to have health benefits. On the other hand, when we have a mass-manufactured, mass-produced alcoholic beverage, perhaps it is something else. Maybe it's a grape-based alcoholic beverage. But, it's not wine, at least as I know wine. It doesn't have the complexity. It doesn't have the ageability and without that ageability, it doesn't evolve o

The doorbell rang. Our poor dog Shelby got excited and in her excitement, she tumbled down a few stairs. And, she kept running seeming none the worse for wear.  The package at the door was for me. It required a signature from someone 21 or older, but in these days of COVID, they seem to not worry about those things. I don't know if the delivery person saw someone who looked older than 21 or just dropped it off. I looked at the box. It was from a winery in Napa that I am not familiar with. I opened it the box carefully. The contents were in a gift bag and in the bag were several items: A box large enough to hold two bottles of wine A pen from the winery A corkscrew from the winery (one can never have two many corkscrews) Two pieces of chocolate from the winery A business card from the Manager, Hospitality and Wine Club I racked my brain. I don't know anyone by that name. Even if it's a married name or a divorced name, I don't think I know anyone with that first name. I l

On your birthday, your wine selection should be special. Take it from me. We've had some really good wines on birthdays and I'm not distinguishing that they were on mine or on another family member's. But, this is not the day to drink pedestrian. We've enjoyed the likes of Schrader CCS, Quilceda Creek, Araujo Eisele Vineyard, Lynch-Bages, Moss Wood, Sassicaia, and Chave, among others. There are worse wines in the world. Now, especially in times of COVID, I do not believe in doing corkage. Restaurants are hurting. If you're going out for a special dinner, then drink what the restaurant has. You can drink your own wines any time. Drink theirs when you patronize them. But, what that means it that we can afford a much better wine at home than we can going out. And, tonight, we are going out for some special Aussie food. No, not vegemite. But, authentic Aussie food in the heart of Atlanta. The wine might be tricky; at least it will be tricky to plan in advance. This rest

COVID-19. While 2020 has been a completely strange and for most people unpleasant year in so many ways, COVID-19 (or the coronavirus or as it will be used here, Rona) has captured the headlines beyond all else. And, in this blog, it has also had an effect on wine. How? First, many who have been afflicted by Rona have had their sensations of taste and smell changed. They have complained, and rightfully so, that while having Rona, their senses of taste and smell have completely or nearly completely disappeard. If you have neither taste nor smell, wine is just another colored liquid, in this case with some alcohol in it. But, if you can't taste or smell, and you are drinking it for the alcohol, you might as well drink liquor. The alcohol content is higher and it will hit you quicker. Sadly, Rona has apparently not just affected people while they have it. There is data that show that a small percentage of people who have had Rona have had their senses of taste and smell altered perhaps

You've likely heard about blind tasting. You are poured a wine without knowing what it is. No clue at all. And, you are supposed to work out what it is. Grape(s), region, vineyard, vintage. And, believe it or not, some people are remarkably good at it. I'm not, although I know how to do it. The key is to use as many of your senses as possible. And, no, I doubt that you can hear a difference in the wine. If you can, you are of a far different species than I am. But, you can use the other senses: taste (of course), smell, sight, and touch (if you want to consider the way a wine feels in your mouth to be touch as I would). Let's consider, but not in the order I wrote them. Let's consider them in the order you might observe them. A wine is presented to you in a generic tasting glass (such a glass should direct the wine fairly broadly starting at the front of your palate). The first thing you should do is look at the wine. There is a lot you can learn. What is the color? Red

I've heard it from too many people. They can't drink wine, particularly red wine, because it gives them headaches. And, the reason is that they are allergic to sulfites. And, they know this because red wine gives them headaches. With apologies to those who truly have sulfite allergies, most of the people claiming that they can't drink wine because it gives them headaches and headaches are caused by sulfites are just wrong. That's it; they are wrong. Yes, wines, particularly red wines have sulfites. They occur naturally in grapes, and further during fermentation, and are also often added as preservatives. But, people with sulfite allergies have very specific reactions to those sulfites. As Yogi Berra would have told you, you could look it up. Reactions to sulftte allergies are ashmatic and histamine-based in nature. Those poor souls who are afflicted get rashes and hives. They wheeze. They might have heart palpatations. But, according to every reputable website, and some

Let's close out our current fun discussing everything that is flawed about your bottle of wine with a few more common defects. Some are very well known and some may be new to you. Reduction   Essentially, reduction is the opposite of oxidation that we discussed yesterday . Where oxidation occurs when too much oxygen comes in contact with your wine, reduction occurs when not enough oxygen comes in contact with your wine. That's right; it needs some oxygen.  Now, let's consider which bottles are most likely to not have enough oxygen. Generally speaking, they are the ones where the seal on the bottle does not breathe enough. Regular cork is perfect from that standpoint. While it creates an excellent seal, it does breathe sufficiently to allow just enough oxygen into the bottle. Screw caps and synthetic corks are different. While they are simple, their seals, particularly those of screw caps are succeptible to locking out oxygen entirely and this gives the wine reduction. How