Face-off! 2007 Mike Weir vs. 2007 Wayne Gretzky Pinot Noir

2007 Wayne Gretzky Estate/ Mike Weir Wine Pinot Noir

2007 Wayne Gretzky Estate/ Mike Weir Wine Pinot Noir

Last night, I had a little tasting with my friends Judy and Terri and I wanted it to be as unbiased as possible. Since I’m an ex-pat from the Niagara region, I’m partial to many wines from that area, not just the Icewine that it’s noted for. Maybe I’m feeling a little homesick especially since it’s Grape and Wine Festival time. Sigh. I know it’s called ‘The Niagara Wine Festival‘ now, but it’ll always be ‘Grape and Wine’ to me.

For years, I’ve enjoyed the whites and particularly liked what had been coming off the vine from Mike Weir Wine. Having never sampled anything from Wayne Gretzky Estates, I wanted to try something different and compare the two. To keep things on equal footing, I chose the same type and vintage, otherwise it could be like comparing apples to oranges, and not really a fair fight. We poured both through an aerator since we didn’t have time to decant.

Armed with both the Wine Aroma Wheel and Mouth-feel Wheel, we started with the 2007 Mike Weir Wine Pinot Noir. The color ranged from a burgundy (Terri) to light claret (me) to garnet (Judy). We all agreed that, sadly, there didn’t seem to be much on the nose. As for mouth-feel, it seemed to be a bit thin and watery; as if it could’ve been cellared longer. We found the taste to be more tart berry; Judy thought it had a grippy, alcohol feel. Terri thought it had more of a chemical, bitter feel. She described it as ‘gird-y’: for her, it produced more of a burn-like sensation going down. Overall, it wasn’t bad, it just tasted quite young. I wondered if pairing it with something like Brie and fruit might have brought out more of its depth.

On to the 2007 Wayne Gretzky Estates (Estate Series) Pinot Noir. By comparison, the Gretzky was richer in color; a deep garnet with nice floral notes on the nose.  The mouth-feel was warm, satin-y and supple with a viscous, mouth coat texture (yes, ‘mouth coat’ is listed in the wheel). Terri found it had a smoother, softer, fuller texture compared to the Weir. It tasted of rich cherry, sulfur with a light smoky, butter finish, and would probably pair well with a nice filet or roasted chicken. We thought it was a nice wine to drink all on its own, from start to finish.

Looks like, for now, No.99 is still the Great One.

Cheers!

Wine Tasting 101~ The Mouth~feel Wheel

The Mouth~feel Wheel

The Mouth~feel Wheel

It’s been a busy time for the Wine Student; none of it wine related, I’m sad to say. So, yes, I’ve been blowing off my studies a bit. I’m back to the study hall and picking up where I left off: the Mouth~feel Wheel. Like the Wine Aroma Wheel, the Mouth~feel Wheel, is made up of various terms that describe how red wine feels when it’s on your tongue. This part of wine tasting is really new to me: I’ve never thought of wine as ‘chewy’ or ‘grippy’; according to the Mouth-feel Wheel, it can be.

Developed by Richard Gawel in collaboration with Dr. Leigh Francis and Anita Oberholster of the Australian Wine Research Institute, the Mouth~feel Wheel lists 53 terms to describe red wine’s various sensations and texture. When I was looking through the wheel, I noticed some of the terms weren’t anything I’d ever use to describe wine. Like ‘chamois’. Chamois, according to the wheel, describes the surface smoothness and astringency of the wine. A harsh wine could be described as hard and aggressive while a complex wine might be fleshy, rich or supple.

My friend Katrin (who was visiting for the weekend) and I decided to take a spin with two offerings: a 2008 Angel’s Gate Cabernet Shiraz from Niagara and a 2009 Sean Minor Pinot Noir, Carneros.

We found the Angel’s Gate Cab Shiraz to be ‘astringent’ or “pucker-y,’ with a thin weight. It seemed a little young but pairing it with dark chocolate covered pomegranates seemed to cut it nicely.

The Sean Minor Pinot Noir, Carneros offered us more mouth~feel. I found it had a fuzzy sensation with a slight tingle; Katrin found it to be ‘fleshy’ and ‘active.’ We agreed that it provided a good measure of heat: warm and peppery and the finish was like ‘microsuede.’ I’ve never tasted microsuede, but it’s probably like a chamois.

It took us a few glances around the wheel to really put terms to how the wines felt, and the more we sampled, the better the descriptions became. We likened it to CSI for wines, except I don’t think our findings would ever hold up in a court of law.

Cheers!

 

2008 Angel's Gate Cabernet Shiraz

2008 Angel's Gate Cabernet Shiraz

 

 

 

 

Wine Tasting 101 ~ The Wine Aroma Wheel

Okay, so we’ve learned a little about how to taste wine. Now, we want to actually be able to describe what the wine tastes like. The Wine Aroma Wheel is a great tool to help categorize what you’ve just tasted and define it as more than just ‘good’ or ‘bad’ or ‘grape-y’. It’ll help if you keep it near where you drink wine, so you can refer to it as often as you quaff. The more familiar you become with the Wine Aroma Wheel, the better you’ll be at identifying the flavors that draw you to a wine, or keep you from pouring another glass.

Developed in 1977 by Ann C. Noble, the Wine Aroma Wheel breaks the various tastes of wine into 12 categories:

A Wine Aroma Wheel (DREW LAMBERT)

A Wine Aroma Wheel (DREW LAMBERT)

 

Depending on the wine you choose to sip, you’ll notice certain flavors at the beginning ~ when the wine first hits your tongue, middle ~ when you’ve sloshed it around a bit, and the end ~ after you’ve swallowed. The remaining flavor is the ‘finish’. For example: a Cabernet Franc I had the other night, I would describe as having a light, raisin-y start, an almost soy-sauce component as I sloshed and it ended with a buttery finish. Does that correspond to how the experts might describe it? Probably not, but that’s what I tasted, and it was good.

You may not get all the nuances right away, that’s alright ~ you’re just learning. You may find that the taste at the beginning of the glass isn’t the same as what you taste at the end; it can change as you go along. To further complicate things; what you taste might be very different from what your friend does. And that’s okay. Everyone picks out something different. The good news is: nobody’s wrong. And the more discussion you have, the more you can learn about the wine you’re drinking.

Next study hall: the Mouth-feel Wheel. Yep, there’s a wheel for almost everything.

Cheers!

[ Drew Lambert]

 

 

 

Wine Tasting 101

Much of what I’ve learned about wine tasting (real wine tasting; not quickly sucking back a wine skin before a high school dance) I’ve garnered from trips over the years to wineries. The American Wine School here in Cleveland has some great classes to demonstrate how to quaff like a pro.  And once you have the basics, you can impress your friends at dinner with your learned snuffing and swishing. I don’t recommend spitting at dinner ~ it generally horrifies the others.

You’ll want to use a glass that gives you the ability to: swirl it without spilling, and get your nose into fully so you can inhale the aroma. In the coming weeks, I’ll write more about glassware and how it can enhance the wine drinking experience.

Unless you’re going to decant your wine for a few hours, or pour it through a wine aerator, you can: swirl it (on a table or countertop) to move a little oxygen through. This works to breathe new life, if you will, into a wine that’s been stopped up in a bottle for a while and improve the flavor you experience.

Love at First Sight

Once you’ve got your wine in the glass, and you’ve swirled it a few times, you’ll want to look for a few things:

  • Clarity: how clear is the wine?  Is there any sediment floating around or settling to the bottom
    • can be described as: muddy, cloudy, bright.
  • Intensity: is the color pale or dark?
  • Color: this indicates the tone or tint of the wine. you could use words like: ruby, purple, crimson, green, yellow, straw, amber

A good way to really see how it looks is to hold your glass at a slight angle over a white surface. You can use a white table cloth or a light countertop.The white surface helps to illuminate the wine and you can see more detail.

After swirling, tilt your glass and take a look. You’ll be surprised at what you can see.

White surface...for better clarity

White surface... for better clarity

On the Nose

Smelling, or nosing, determines several things about a wine:

  • condition (good or bad)
  • intensity (weak or robust and pronounced)
  • character (how you’d actually describe the fruit itself)
  • How to ‘Nose’ a Wine: I know, it sounds all kinds of wrong but it isn’t. Take one short sniff (to determine condition) and ask yourself: is it good or bad? Short sniffs are actually important because air that moves quickly into the nasal passages intensifies the sense of smell.
Hello Wine!

Hello Wine!

After this, you can take several more deep, gentle sniffs to determine the aroma’s intensity and character. When you swirl and sniff, see how many ways you can describe the aromas. And don’t worry if you’re just starting out, you will be able to tell if a wine just doesn’t smell good to you. Really.

Over the Teeth and Past the Gums: Taste the Wine

Many experts have said that the best way to taste wine is to take a bit in your mouth, swish it back and forth while opening your mouth just slightly as you do it. This is to bring air into the wine to further oxygenate and bring out the flavors. That may be true, but I just end up with it dribbling down my chin. You can try it but  make sure you have a napkin nearby, just in case.

According to the American Wine School, tasting involves seven components:

  • Sweetness ~ how dry or sweet is it? Whether a wine is ‘dry’ means that there is very little left over sugar
  • Acidity ~ this is the sour yin to the sweet yang; described as fresh, crisp, tart, flat.
  • Tannins ~ provide the robust texture and structure (like espresso); hard, soft, bitter, chewy, round.
  • Alcohol ~ is what carries the aroma and heat (and all this time I thought it was a hot flash); low, medium, high.
  • Body ~ how much weight the wine has on your tongue. It’s like a milky consistency of varying degrees, depending on the type of wine; light, medium, full
  • Fruit ~ the grapey, fruity (and non-fruit) flavors (like smoke, cherry, citrus, butter, stone and vinyl).
    • ** The wine aroma wheel is an excellent tool to help you to describe the fruit tastes you’ll experience. I’ll be looking at that in one of my next posts.
  • Finish ~ is the aftertaste and how long it stays in your mouth; usually described as short, medium, long.

So there you have it; some basics on tasting to get you started.

Cheers!

To read more about  wine tasting:  www.jancisrobinson.com

Hell’s Bells ~ AC/DC launches collection of… fine wines?

 AC/DC, my favorite metal band, is set to launch a new collection of wines with Warburn Estate, an Australian winemaker. I have to admit when I think of fine wines, AC/DC doesn’t immediately jump into my head but their varietal names are pretty cool: ‘Highway to Hell’ Cabernet Sauvignon, ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’ Moscato, ‘Hell’s Bells’ Sauvignon Blanc and ‘Back in Black’ Shiraz.

Brian and Angus in Toronto. (QMI AGENCY).

Brian and Angus in Toronto. (QMI AGENCY).

That said, the names might be catchy, and the artwork totally righteous (although I haven’t seen it yet), the real proof will be what’s in the bottle. I’ve tried some celebrity wines in the past only to be a little disappointed with what ended up in my glass.

Warburn Estate is an independent, family-owned winery that started in the 1950’s, so it’s a good bet that they know a few things about producing a quality product. They also seem to be  very clear about their approach: that wine is for drinking. Sounds good to me. I can throw on my ‘Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap’ vinyl, pop open a ‘Highway to Hell’ Cab Sauv and see whether it shakes me all night long.

The AC/DC collection of wines launch in Australia at the end of this month and should hit our fair shores in the US by the end of the year.

Cheers!  http://nyp.st/oFTexJ 

I just found a picture of the bottles:

AC/DC Fine Wines (Warburn Estate)

AC/DC Fine Wines (Warburn Estate)

2008 Santa Rita Carmenere ~ the calm after the storm

The past few days, I’ve been down for the count with a migraine. Anyone who suffers from them knows that you can barely open your eyes, much less write. As for drinking wine, well, let’s just say, my studying was stymied. But all is well now and for my first glass back I chose something dark, red and full-bodied.

2008 Santa Rita Carmenere Reserva

2008 Santa Rita Carmenere Reserva (Chile)

The  2008 Santa Rita Carmenere (Chile) was a nice, easy going wine to start back with. At first sip, it tasted young and bouncy and then settled in to a soft yet robust finish. The main essence was a rich grape with a nice hint of spice and mineral. A slight mineral taste in wine doesn’t mean it’s bad! It proved to be a good wine to sip, even better when paired with my steak dinner. The spicy undertones of the wine were brought to full effect by the juicy flavor and texture of the meat.

Out of 5, the 2008 Santa Rita Carmenere Reserva got 3 grapes.

I considered it a nice fist-shake to the headache gods.

What a Bitch!

2010 Royal Bitch Reserve Pinot Noir

2010 Royal Bitch Reserve Pinto Noir

Tonight I went out to dinner with friends to our local but favorite Japanese restaurant. Not really sure what to have, since I’m just starting my journey into the world of wine, I thought I’d try one that might complement my dinner choice of Teriyaki Chicken, so I had a glass of the 2008 Voga Pinot Grigio. I thought the light fruit of the white pinot might counterbalance the flavorful yet buttery consistency of the meal. While it was a nice wine to sip before the main course arrived, it did very little to enhance it. It was a little too light; more of a watered down grape with little acid to offset the richness of the meal.  It wasn’t a bad wine on it’s own, and might work with a lightly seasoned white fish, but with this particular meal, it wasn’t great. And it left me wanting something else a quarter of the way through my dinner. I’m not the type to send anything back, so I quietly slid my glass over to my friend who was going to order another glass anyway.

I asked my server for another suggestion and he brought me a glass of the 2010 Royal Bitch Reserve Pinot Noir. I don’t think he was making a comment about me with the suggestion but who knows?! The difference was amazing. The first taste provided a bouncy yet deep blend of cherry and rich raspberry jam. It had a light finish without being too sweet. And it seemed to get better and richer with each sip. It complemented the savory nature of the dinner beautifully, bringing out the seasonings of the chicken and vegetables and making the dinner a much more enjoyable experience.

It was so good, in fact, I didn’t need dessert.

My rating of Royal Bitch: 4 out of 5 grapes

Voga Pinot Grigio: 2 out of 5 grapes

NB* the graphics I had for the grapes wouldn’t load properly so I’m hoping to have that worked out by the next post!

The Wine Student ~

Over the years I’ve enjoyed a lot of wine. I’ve tasted some, had a bit too much of others but it’s only in the past few years that I’ve seriously wanted to learn more about them. The first step was taking a wine retailing course. In it, I learned about what it took not only to grow and produce wines but how to make tasting and buying of wines a wonderful and unique experience. For me, something clicked and I knew it was a process I’d always want to learn more about.

I’ve spoken to many vintners and grape growers over the years and I’m always impressed by the passion they have about the work they do; the sweat and sometimes tears that go into producing a vintage every season. Each year is a little like Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get.

In a few weeks I’ll be taking a first level wine course and I’m really excited about it. I’ll be learning about many aspects of wines, how to serve it, and how to pair it. I’ll take you along with me.

One of the goals I have for this blog is to de-mystify wine. There have been so many times in restaurants where I’ve been  overwhelmed by the choice of vintages, labels and types of wines that I sometimes shut down. While it’s great to rely on the sommelier’s wealth of information, I want to have a better working knowledge of wine. To do that, I have to experience it; from picking a bottle because of the artwork (which, yes, I’ve done from time to time) to the learned suggestion from an expert.

Every few posts I’ll include a wine that I’ve sampled and rate it in so many grapes: 5 grapes = this made my eyes roll back in my head and 1 grape = ‘not so much’. Hmmm…maybe I should raise the bar a little higher for the eye-rolling category – that’s a pretty tall order for anything to do, much less a glass of wine. I’ll work on that one a bit more.

My blog is about pursuing the passion I’ve developed for wine and I hope you’ll enjoy learning right along with me.

Cheers!

Cheers!

Cheers!