Wine Enthusiast Buying Guide

Every year Wine Enthusiast Magazine publishes a buying guide for the holidays under $15. I thought I would share with you some of my pick from this buying guide.

Cabernet Sauvignon - 2005 Henry Lagarde Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon (Mendoza) $11
Merlot - 2005 Tin Roof Merlot (California) $13
Syrah -2005 Concanon Selected Vineyard Syrah (Central Coast) $10
Malbec - 2006 Pascual Toso Maipu Vineyards Malbec (Mendoza) $12
Chardonnay - 2006 Gordon Brothers Chardonnay (Columbia Valley) $15

Hosting a wine tasting party

Now that the weather has turned and we are looking to pass the winter doing some fun activities. How about hosting a wine tasting party with a wine expert.

To get started you will want to hire a Sommelier. Interview them to see what their experience is and what they charge. Some Sommeliers charge by the event, some charge by the hour. Get the contract in writing.

Next sit down with the Sommelier and tell him/her of your expectations. A good wine evening will take you to some unexplored territory, but should be fun and not to technical. If the bottles aren't coming from your own cellar, make sure you set a budget. One 750ml bottle of wine contains about 12 two ounce tasting pours. If you are looking for glass of wine with dinner, one bottle will give you about 4 glasses. Talk about the menu you will be planning should you be serving a meal or tapas. This is so you will have the proper wine pairings.

Glassware....if you are going to use your own glassware, plan on at least two glasses per guests. Many sommeliers can also bring glassware at an additional charge.

Provide dump buckets. Don't be insulted if your guest spit, they might not want to drink every single selection.

Most of all, have fun.

South Africa vs New Zealand

Friday evening I had the opportunity to taste to different Sauvignon Blanc's in a side by side tasting.

Stellenbosch 2006 South Africian Sauvignon Blanc and Mud House 2007 Marlborough, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

Once again, in my opinion the Mud House, New Zealand was slightly better than the Stellenbosch from South Africa.

At first while tasting the Stellenbosh, I noticed the crisp citrus flavors. However, the Mud House flavors were more defined. There were intense passion fruit with underlying lemon and lime flavors with a crisp finish.

Both wines were very good, but my favorite for the evening was the Mud House

The Mud House isn't an expensive bottle...$12 at our local retailer.

Da Vinci Cabernet Sauvignon

Last night we opened a Da Vinci 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine was wonderful. Soft tannins lead to a nice cherry flavor with a soft finish. We had this with a pasta and veal dish. It was perfect.

This wine was estate bottled and produced. That means these are grapes from their vineyards. If you can find this wine, I highly recommed it.

Cab Franc Harvest

This weekend as the harvest season starts to wind down we were picking Cab Franc at Whitecliff Vineyards. The Cab Franc grapes at Whitecliff are the best in New Yorks State according to Cornell Cooperative Extension. They sample grapes from various vineyards across New York and compare the ph level, acid & sugar levels to collect data on the different growing regions. Within the next two years there should be some fantastic Cab Franc being released at their tasting room.

Interesting fact, while we were collecting the bins of grapes, Michael pointed out to us the beautiful leaf color on one of the Cab Franc vines. He informed us that the beautiful red color the leaves had turned meant the vine had a disease and would mostly die in a few years. This vine was the only vine in the row that had turned color.


After we collected all the bins I tossed the grapes into the destemmer/crusher as seen here. I'll tell you, it's not an easy job. Those bins are heavy! We picked about 1 1/2 tons of Cab Franc yesterday.

I do have some movies of the harvest I would like to post. They are huge files, so once I figure out how to compress them I will post them.

Napa Cab Harvest

There is a great video on Wine Spectator about the California harvest on Howell Mountain.

Click here to view it. Notice how the climate effects the growing season and the grapes. What is interesting is that in Napa there are many different micro climates.

Wine Night

On October 5th I attended "Wine Night" which is a monthly gathering of my neighbors. We all get together and bring a bottle. This is a great way to taste many varieties of wine. You can get detailed and have everyone bring a bottle of South African White, or a Riesling from Germany. You can really have fun with it.

This wine night was the beginning of October. We were having quite a warm spell, so it was a White Wine evening.

Here were some of the evenings selections. I brought over the Campus Oaks Viognier. I usually like Viognier, but wasn't to thrilled with this selection.

The Giesen Sauvignon Blanc which isn't shown here in the picture is a wonderful Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. Nice, crisp and citrusy.

We did have one lonely Red, but being a white night, we never drank it. Will have to wait until a red night comes along.

Picking Grapes

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go to "wine camp." Picking grapes at Whitecliff Vineyards.

I picked grapes for 2 hours. We only got through 1 1/2 rows. I guess we pick slow. We were picking grapes called Noirette. The are an experimental grape that grows very well at Whitecliff and in the Hudson Valley.

When to pick grapes

There is a great video on Wine Spectator on when to pick grapes. It's focus in on the Pacific Northwest, but is applied everywhere.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid315932961/bclid323814019/bctid246080095

Harvesting Gewürztraminer

These are Gewürztraminer grapes that were harvested in the valley this weekend.

Gewürztraminer is one of the most pungent wine varietals, easy for even the beginning taster to recognize by its heady, aromatic scent.

The berries, with their thick and tough skins, can attain high sugar levels of amazing concentration. Alcohol levels, therefore, can get quite high in dry versions. Conversely, low acidity and high pH in Gewürztraminer are problematic. Close monitoring and precise harvest timing are critical. Early picking retains acid, but without long "hang time" distinctive varietal character fails to develop. Pleasant results are nearly impossible in warm climates.

The dark pink color of gewürztraminer grapes results in wines colored from light to dark golden yellow with a copper tone, depending upon the fruit ripeness. Gewürztraminer is quite full-bodied, more so than most any other white wine type. In fact, the combination of its strong, heady, perfumey scent, exotic lychee-nut flavor and heavy-oily texture can be overwhelming and tiring to many palates. There is a slight tendency to bitterness that seems exacerbated by ripeness, so a light touch is needed at the wine press. Many makers finish their Gewürztraminer with a mask of residual sugar thus the wine will be slightly sweet.

The most frequently encountered (but not exclusive) smell and/or flavor elements found in Gewürztraminer wines include:

Floral: rose petal, gardenia, honeysuckle

Fruity: lychee, linalool, peach, mango

Aggressive: spice, perfume

Gewürztraminer wines are an excellent match for fresh fruit and cheeses and a good complement to many simple fish and chicken dishes, especially recipes that include capsaicin (hot pepper) spices, oriental five spice, or even curry.

Hudson Valley Harvest

Last weekend I had the opportunity to see Whitecliff Vineyards harvest Gamay Noir. The grapes come in from the field in bins. They are then put in the destemmer. Then it is pumped over into the tank. The Gamay Noir you see in these pictures will be used to make Beaujolais style wine. In fact, Gamey is the only grape which makes Beaujolais. I believe Whitecliff will have a Beaujolais Nouveau which will be ready in time for Thanksgiving.

Handley Sauvignon Blanc

The other day after I got the DHL shipment I put the 2005 Handley Sauvignon Blanc in the fridge. I knew it was going to get hot towards the end of the week and thought this would be a great wine to beat the heat.

As I sit here and drink it, something doesn't jive. Besides the fact that I like my SB crisp and citrusy..I can't seem to pinpoint what I don't like about this. It's minerally, which CA Sauvignon Blancs tend to be. I looked over on the tasting notes they sent and ah..ha...only 33% was fermented in stainless steel tanks and 67% was aged in French Oak and 8% of the barrels were new oak (that means a stronger oak influence) . I like my SB's stainless steal fermented.

If you don't like crisp and citrus SB's try this one.

Tomorrow I have "Wine Night" I will hopefully remember my camera, and share with all of you. We should be tasting some good wines!

PS...My new UPS driver delivered me 5 bottles of Chappelett Wine...I can't wait to taste them. I hope I don't kill this UPS driver with the heavy lifting:)

Beaujolais

There is a great video on the New York Times website on this years harvest of Beaujolias in France.

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/dining/20071003_BEAUJOLAIS_FEATURE/blocker.html

Hadley Zin

As I sit here and wait for my husband to get home from work the DHL man arrived with a delivery. Two bottles of Handley wine from the California Wine Club. I was worried about the wine all weekend since I missed Mr DHL on Friday. All weekend my wine sat in some warehouse that I hope was temperature controlled.

I decided to open the Zin to make sure it weathered it's warehouse stay. As I swirl the wine in the glass I get the aromas of cherry, pomegranate, blackberries. As I take my first sip...I taste cherry and plum on the finish. This 2003 Handley Zin weathered it's warehous stay just fine.

This Zin comes from both the Redwood Valley, in an inland part of Mendocino County and the Anderson Valley. (all north of Sonoma) This Zin was aged in French and American oak barrels for 8 1/2 months.

The final blend was 68% Zin from the Redwood Valley, 30% Zin from the Anderson Valley and 2% Zin from the Mendocino Ridge. Each Zin will bring it's own characteristics to the wine. The Redwood Valley fruit offers dark berry qualities and the AndersonValley fruit delivers bright cherry flavors.

This will pair well with roast lamb and many pasta dishes with tomato sauce...or pizza if you don't have time to cook and need a quick take out.

How many grapes....

Do you know how many grapes produces a case. Here is a little formula to give you an idea.

1 ton of grapes will yield 160 gallons of wine

160 gallons of wine will yield about 2 1/2 barrels

2 1/2 barrels of wine will yield approximately 75 - 100 cases of wine.

Yes..that's a lot of grapes!