Learn How To Easily Find Wines Of $50 Quality For $10 Or Less. Impress Friends With Your Expanded Wine Knowledge. Eliminate Your Dependence On Wine Salespeople. And Take The Hassle Out Of Buying Wine.
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Instead of traversing the familiar terrain of regions or grape varieties, I forge a new path by plotting a seasonal arc for wine consumption. This ties in to the way that I enjoy wine, by emphasizing the context of how, where, when (and with what and with whom) we drink wines, as well as linking to the trend of seasonal cooking that is so prevalent today among professional chefs and home cooks. I’m glad that this theme resonated with so many of you in our previous discussion.
The book has short essays and hundreds of wine recommendations across the twelve months of the year. There should be something for wine lovers of all levels, newbie to full-on wine geek. There’s also some information for all seasons about wine style, wine service and how to actually find good wines near you. And twelve wine travel sections help you even change your context for maximum wine enjoyment.
Alex Eben Meyer contributed the great illustrations. Check out his excellent portfolio at his site!
And a total of thirteen sommeliers lent their thoughts to the volume. They include: Richard Betts (The Little Nell, Aspen, CO); Shayn Bjornholm MS (Washington Wine Commission); Thomas Carter (Blue Hill Stone Barns, Pocantico Hills, NY); Belinda Chang (The Modern, NYC); Christie Dufault (Quince, SF); Erik Liedholm (Seastar, Seattle); Rajat Parr (Michael Mina Group, SF); Shelley Lindgren (A16 restaurant, SF); Roger Morlock (Park Avenue Seasons, NY); Virginia Philip, MS (The Breakers, Palm Beach); Tysan Pierce (The Herbfarm, Woodinville, WA); Juliette Pope (Gramercy Tavern, NYC).
So check out the book’s page over at Amazon (or Barnes and Noble or Powell’s if you prefer) and see what Kermit Lynch, Eric Arnold, David Lynch, and Bobby Abreu had to say on the back cover. Or ask for the hardcover at your local bookstore and check it out in print. And if you do get it, let us know what you think of it here!
2003 Embriux Priorat de Vall Llach $35 Wine label said: Wrong language! The bottle is no help! Vineyard66 says: This another of my series of Spanish wines, as we will be there next year and I’m doing my homework. The web tells me that Embruix means “betwiching” in Spanish, but also that it is primarily Cabernet and Grenache blend [...]
New Year?s and bubbles always seem to go together perfectly, and this season was no exception. So with a lazy Saturday between Christmas and New Year Eve, it was hardly a surprise to find sparkling wines featured at every in-house tasting on our re-stocking the liquor cabinet route. How could we refuse?
We?re both fans of Spanish Cavas for their ability to combine great taste with solid pricing, and the Lavit Brut Rosado we sampled first was no exception. Light strawberry in colour, this sparkler was summer in a glass ? raspberries, strawberries, and just a hint of peach. Even though it was slightly over chilled for this tasting we instantly agreed it would be one to that would help solve the ?what actually goes with turkey dinner? dilemma. Good for pre-dinner sipping too.
The Sigura ViudasBrut Reserva that was next up is pretty much one of our standard stocker for its flexible nature and crisp taste. It?s also, according to Ian Farmiloe, the International Cellars rep pouring, BC?s largest selling Cava. Good for parties ? especially potluck where anything is likely to show up. ?So, is this one, like ? you know ? real champagne?? To his credit, Ian managed to keep a semi-serious expression on his face as he explained the intricacies of the Champagne region to the rather portly lady wearing a combination of tartan plaid, plenty of zestful holiday bling, and sturdy black walking boots. We weren?t quite so diplomatic and had to suddenly develop an interest in the Italian wine section several rows over.
However, we did pop back for the Reserva Heredad. Perfect for when we want a bit more of a treat for less than $35, this Grand Reserve Cava has plenty of lemon-lime acidity and always makes a reliable, refreshing pour.
For a complete change of pace, we also checked out two offerings from Gray Monk?s Odyssey series. Even our Scottish wanna-be would probably have hesitated to inquire about the authenticity of this ?Champagne.? Neither of us got the yeasty nose that we would have expected after being left for 16 months on the yeast, although there was plenty of big time buttery texture from the Chardonnay. We settled for this one as an aperitif. The Rosé Brut had pleasing strawberry notes but didn?t hit either one of us as a ?rush out and buy? item. At $27 each, we took a pass on both these BC wines and headed back for a few more of the Cavas? with just a short detour through Champagne for some of ?the real stuff.?
I somehow weaseled my way into a Vegan cooking class this weekend to give a talk about organic wines. Shameless self/company promotion? Why do you ask!
SO, if you have nothing to do between 1:30 and 3 on Sunday, December 2nd, feel free to register to learn how to cook all sorts of yumminess (which is, apparently, a heavily-used wine descriptor) sans animals or animal by-products. I don't claim to be vegan (as the mountain of cheese in my belly can attest) but I do agree with the principles of it all.
Anys.
Come to Shakti Yoga Studio at 220 Lexington Ave this Sunday to hear me and to get your vegan feedbag on. I think it's $20 per person. Call 716 884 YOGA to register. I'll be the one with a cork in my hand stinking of butter.
Social media is creating quite a long tail of industries - lots of software companies, consultants, new modes of public relations, etc, etc. Some of them focused on getting you into using social media, which is great, and many of them aspiring to help you “use” social media for your business. The latter point is what I find interesting.
I’ve spoken on the topic of social media before (with assistance from the self-proclaimed “Bonafide Marketing Genius” Marta Kagan - FYI, I’m glad she has the confidence in herself to tag herself that way b/c she’s one of the few I would actually agree with) and I think the biggest point from my talk and others that I’ve seen (like Marta’s deck) is that this all is an excercise in sociology. There are so many technologies that one could use, so many things that you could do, but in the end what is happening to the web is just another means of connecting, interacting, and getting to know people; not unlike joining a social club (like a sports team, a cultural center, or whatever). In fact, just as you have “different circles of friends” offline (work friends, drinking buddies, sports friends), you’ll develop the same thing online and your community will drive you to the tools.
That’s where the idea “use social media” sticks in my craw a little bit.
I’ve had this blog since 2004 and I’ve interacted with many many people thanks to it. It’s mainly an outlet for my thoughts, creativity, and passion (wine, technology, and marketing) and I’ve made a serious number of friends in the wine industry because of it. My goal was to do exactly that, get to know people in the wine industry. One of the major things its taught me though is that the only way to truly understand what this “social media” thing is all about is to get out and do it. BUT - do it with a genuine desire and understand that its a means to reach out to a community (blog in particular). Its not a sales tool and its not a PR tool for social media any more then going to a conference is a PR tool for you. What I mean is you can go to a conference, chat with people, network, find people that you can stay connected with. If you contribute to the conference (effectively contributing to the ‘community’ that the conference is bringing together) then you can get noticed and in that sense you get some good word-of-mouth publicity.
But here is how to think of “use social media” (Ugh!). Its a sociological, human based filter. Its not a broadcast engine like the “information super highway” or the “series of tubes”. Doesn’t matter what tool/site you use, first and foremost your community has to be on that site and/or using that tool. There is always a “critical mass” that needs to be achieved before the tool gets useful. Kind of like a party, its not really fun until there are a bunch of people you know there.
Once your community is there, interacting, chatting, whatever then the dynamics of what happens is facinating. Things start to get “useful” and the human filter is formed. It becomes a situation where the community is as close as a bunch of office mates even though they are all over the world. I literally consider the community I interact with on Twitter my “virtual office mates” and I genuinely like interacting with them. The reason is that you can contribute (chat, answer questions, and otherwise participate) just like you would any other office. In the case of Twitter, it becomes just like a hallway conversation in an office. You can ignore it for a while, pop your head in with a little bit of nothing to say, put out some information or useful tool to the community, or you can put out a serious question to the group and get some solid answers. Pretty much how you would for any office with cubilcles and hallways.
The best part of all this is that when the community reaches critical mass of people in a certain technology/tool who genuinely like to talk about a particular topic, forming an open community, thats when the best things come out. If you contribute something to that community that is truly useful, it will get passed on to everyone very quickly. People will decide if what you said is interesting, show their friends and, if its applicable, their friends may pass on the information to their other “open communities”. The network effect takes over and your information has just become “viral” (i.e. it will spread not only in the current ‘circle of friends’ but to other ‘circles of friends’). More importantly, the human filter took over and since that useful piece of information you generated is actually VERY useful, it will get passed on for a while (or very funny, or very interesting in some other way - the latest on Twitter was a streaming video of puppies, not useful, just very Zen).
So if you find an open community or want to know where there is critical mass already for a community you want to learn about (for instance - the wine community is embracing Twitter and Social Networks) on one of these tools the best way to “use social media” (I hate the term because it makes me feel like “use your friends”, but I guess there isn’t a better way to say it) is to contribute in significant ways. Add to the community but more importantly be YOURSELF. If people like you, they like you. If they don’t, guess what…they don’t. There isn’t alot of advice that can be given there that your parents should’ve taught you before Kindergarten. Thats the funny truth of this “social media” craze. The fundamental sociological point is that this is making friends. Because even if you contribute something that spreads from network to network like wildfire, when those people check you out and “follow you” on Twitter, or Facebook, or whatever, then they start to get to know you in a more personal way then anyone over 25 ever thought possible. If you’re obviously contributing to promote your business it will come across. If you genuinely approach this medium (regardless of technology) as “getting to know people” in the way you’ve always done then you’ll not only have that “viral hit” you won’t be an online “one hit wonder”, you’ll have friends who can help you when you’re down, connect you to others, help you build business, get emotionally invested in your brand…. i.e. you’ll be a part of a community and how you do that is something your Mom and Dad shoulda taught you.
FYI - if you’re doing it for a business/brand it doesn’t matter - if people don’t like your personality, they won’t like your brand. These things have a way of piercing the corporate PR veil. Want an example? Supposedly Cisco “gets” blogging. Read their blogs and you tell me what you think….
When people find out that I enjoy cheap wine enough to devote a website to it, they usually ask me if I have been to Trader Joe’s. My response, until last week, has always been “No, not yet”.
Well, I finally caved and took a trip to Detroit, the nearest Trader Joe’s location for me here in Lansing. Ann Arbor might actually be closer, but as an MSU Spartan, I try to stay out of there.
I’d like to preface this review of Charles Shaw Cabernet with a synopsis of Trader Joe’s. If you have one near you, go there. If not for the wine, then for the thousands of food items that pack the small market. I spent 80 dollars, which sounds like a bit much especially for me. I ended up leaving with 2 cases of wine and enough food for a week. Fresh mozzarella, fresh gnocchi, fresh salsa (notice a pattern?), Guacamole chips, Trader Joe’s Marinara, soups, veggies…. I was in heaven. They have got all kinds of cheeses, breads, meats, micro-brewed beers, and their wine selection was out of this world. What a great store!
Trader Joe’s is the exclusive retailer of Charles Shaw Wines, better known to most as “Two-buck Chuck”. In California these wines sell for $1.99, which is just amazing. Here in Michigan, though, the price was $2.99.
Did we like it? Was it worth the trip?
Hell yes it was! For 3 dollars, I don’t think it could have been any better. The Cabernet was great. At first, I found it to be a little sweet, but looking back, I was actually enjoying the salsa with the wine, which probably wasn’t a great combination. Along with the Cab, I also purchased some of the Shiraz, Merlot, and Chardonnay (reviews coming soon).
Congrats to Two-Buck-Chuck and Trader Joe’s for achieving the highest rating available here on Cheap Wine Reviews. Hats off to you!
Rating: 10/10 Price: $2.99 Place of PurchaseTrader Joe’s
At the Decanter event last weekend, it was great to see so many people enjoying fine wine. Such a joy to have so many truly outstanding wines under the same roof laid out for the consumer.
At this particular Encounter Bordeaux epecially had a strong presence and the exhibitors read like a roll-call of the great and the good - though by no means exhaustive it certainly gave a very good schooling in what the fuss is all about. It proves that the UK is not all about Blossom Hill sugar water despite all the depressing statistics.
Not only were there members of the public that you would expect - I had some lovely older gentlemen coming up to me at the Jancis Robinson stand, just to tell me with a conspiratorial wink that they were already "purple pagers" - but lots and lots of young people. The majority in fact. I hope this means that the next generation of wine drinkers/collectors/enthusiasts are trading up as they experience these wines first hand and making relationships with producers that may last a lifetime.
As well as the wines on offer there were also Masterclasses, the two most popular being the Margaux vertical and Jancis. Both of these will be available as podcasts - once the technology has been tamed- on the Decanter website and Jancis will put hers up on www.JancisRobinson.com
As well as all that, authors - Andrew Jefford and John Radford to name just two - were there for book signings and a very nice team from Riedel explaining all the subtle nuances of the various glasses and exactly why you need at least 10 different sets (I wish).
In this final part of this series, I would like to introduce readers to an extremely small winery which pays serious attention to their vines. Himmelsfeld vineyard began in 1991 when owner Elizabeth(Beth) Eggars decided to try something else besides nursing. Nestled on a gentle hill in Upper Moutere, the 10.5ha property has about 1.5ha dedicated to growing Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and SauvignonBlanc (roughly equal split). The rest of the land is still home to an apple orchard and many sheep!
Total production for all wines is roughly about 600+ cases so odds are you will not see this too often overseas. In fact, don't think we saw it in shops while in New Zealand either.
Of the many wineries visited - Beth struck me as one who puts emphasis on the Vineyard first and wine making second. She is adamant that "great wines are made in the vineyard", something which I hear echoed in the most zealous ( and coincidentally top notch) Burgundy producers. Her vineyard is the first one I have seen in New Zealand which does not "irrigate" - yes you heard it right - no irrigation. It was deemed that a deeper vine root system was preferable over "immediate results" and irrigation did not encourage this.
2002 HimmelsfeldMoutere Chardonnay Hints of citrus fruits and what is the beginning of some secondary aromas coming from the oak. Defintely French oak and probably not new oak either. Not as tight in terms of acidity which I suspect means it should be consumed within 3-5 years. 90 points.
2002 HimmelsfeldMoutere Cabernet Already achieving some secondary aromas, black and red fruits, not an inky black monster by any measures & soft smooth tannins. The core of the mid palate however shows some lightness in density indicating perhaps rain - grape bloat? Other than that a very nice wine but do not expect this to get much better and should be consumed within 3 perhaps 5 years. 90 points.
2003 HimmelsfeldMouter Noble Chardonnay Of the wines offered for tasting this is probably the got me excited the most. I am thinking this is comparable to top level Alsace SGN's but it also has that acidity which lifts the whole thing up. Defintely something I would be very curious to try again in 10-15 years - think this will be a knockout. 96+ points
SPIT: red states With more states turning blue, a reader writes in to say that it will be even harder to do a red state-blue state article again now that Virginia and Colorado are blue. Indeed! Texas, over to you?
SPIT: global wine mergers The purchase of Napa’s Chateau Montelena by the Reybier group (Cos d’Estournel), hailed in July by Robert Parker as “one of the biggest stories in my 30 years in the wine field,” has now been canceled. [PR newswire]
SPIT: global wine John Mariani has a sip of the Andeluna Grand Reserve Pasionado, a $50 red from Mendoza, and calls it “an explosion of high-alcohol, grapey, oaky flavors that seemed to epitomize all that is wrong with what has been called the globalization of wine.” [Bloomberg]
SIPPED: Making drinks instead of ordering them At least one person from the world of finance has stopped thinking about structured equity products and is now thinking about Purple Hooters at the New York Bartending School in Manhattan. [Bloomberg]
Our dinner at The Restaurant at Meadowood was lovely. The restaurant has a pleasant, relaxed décor which is still elegant. This casual elegance is reflected in the food from Chef Christopher Kostow. The meal was very enjoyable and we would happily return.
I'm on the road for work, which means that I'm reading The Wall Street Journal. This paper is everywhere business travelers are: in lounges, planes, and hotels. I don't subscribe at home, but as it's Friday and the paper was outside my door, I turned to the "Tastings" column written by Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher to read what two of my favorite wine critics had to say. (photo by filtran)
Essentially, they said that expensive wine was so five minutes ago. And then they made a surprising recommendation for this year's "holiday gift pick."
It's not expensive. It's not hard to get. But it will leave you wondering if America's expensive wine habits are on the brink of changing--for the better. What do I think? For my thoughts on their story, click over to Serious Grape, my weekly column on the excellent food site Serious Eats, and get all the details.
It's been a wetter and milder than normal November, which perhaps accounts for the large number of snails in my garden. I've ceased my campaign of chemical warfare and decided coexistence and photography is the best approach. . .
Looks like a piece of news slipped by me a couple of months ago. Every year I look forward to a report, which more than any other single piece of news, speaks the truth about the state of wine in America. Restaurant Wine magazine commissions and publishes a report every year on the top 100 wines and top 100 wine brands sold in restaurants around the country, from family diners to fine dining restaurants.
Based on the simple measure of how many cases of each wine were sold at these restaurants, we get a picture of the most important person in America when it comes to wine: the average American wine consumer.
And why is this person so important? Because they are the bread and butter of the wine industry. They are the fuel for the wine engine. They are the bottom 95%, so to speak, whose spending habits make (or break) the market and who make up the pool of wine drinkers from which true wine lovers slowly graduate to more expensive wines and esoteric habits like...reading wine blogs.
I like knowing what the rest of America drinks when it comes to wine. Here at Vinography, here in San Francisco, here in my group of friends, I live in a bubble of unreality when it comes to wine. In this bubble, $40 bottles of really good wine are a steal and most everyone I hang out with knows how to pronounce Viognier ("vee-own-yay"). But that doesn't represent wine drinking America any more than San Francisco represents the political tenor of the rest of the country.
This is what wine drinkers in America drink:
1 Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay USA 2 Beringer Vineyards White Zinfandel USA 3 Cavit Pinot Grigio Italy 4 Sutter Home White Zinfandel USA 5 Inglenook Chablis USA 6 Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio Italy 7 Yellow Tail Chardonnay Australia 8 Copperidge Chardonnay USA 9 Yellow Tail Shiraz Australia 10 Franzia Winetaps Vintner Select White Zinfandel USA
Those are the top 10 wines consumed by Americans (by volume) in 2007.
And here are the top 10 wine brands sold in American restaurants in 2007:
1 Beringer Vineyards, Foster's Wine Estates Americas 2 Kendall-Jackson, USA, Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates 3 Franzia Winetaps, USA, The Wine Group 4 Yellow Tail, Australia, W.J. Deutsch & Sons, Ltd. 5 Sutter Home, USA, Trinchero Family Estates 6 Inglenook, USA, The Wine Group 7 Copperidge, USA, E. & J. Gallo Winery 8 Cavit, Italy, Palm Bay Imports 9 Woodbridge, USA, VineOne (Constellation) 10 Foxhorn Vineyards, USA, The Wine Group
For me and for the wine lovers that I hang out with (and no doubt the folks that read this blog) these are somewhat sobering lists, if only because for most of us, these are wines we generally don't, and wouldn't, consume given the choice. The average retail price of these wines is well below $8 per bottle, and the last time I asked you readers what you spend on average per bottle it was somewhere around $20.
And some of you probably didn't think that you were all that sophisticated when it came to wine, did you? Notice how the top 10 wines only includes a single red wine? If you're a Cabernet drinker you're a member of the wine elite. And I'm only partially kidding.
Here are some additional interesting facts about this year's list:
- White Zinfandel sales are down 15% - Chardonnay was more popular than Pinot Grigio for the first time - Pinot Noir sales were up (again) by 89% - Merlot sales were down (again) by 9% - Sauvignon Blanc and Sangiovese wines appeared for the first time on the top 100 list (bravo!)
So what to make of all this? I take a number of things away from this list every year. The first is appreciation for how lucky I am to be able to drink the quality of wine that I do regularly. The second is humility -- a reminder that while I may not choose to drink them, these wines, the companies that make them, and the people that drink them are what really make the wine world go 'round. And finally, I always finish my perusal of these numbers with hope. The amount of wine America drinks continues to go up, and slowly, but surely, the diversity of that wine continues to expand.
Sad sign of the times: collectors are resorting to selling their precious wine in order to raise capital. Lisa Baertlein (reuters.com) writes:
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Wine cellars have been taking a hit from the global credit crisis and it isn't because the owners of rare bottles are drinking more -- it's because they have been selling to raise cash.
The selling started with mortgage brokers and has moved to Wall Street as owners turn their collections of coveted vintages into liquid assets.
"People need money. Even richer people need money sometimes," Vinfolio.com founder and Chief Executive Stephen Bachmann told Reuters on Monday.
In the last few weeks, private collectors submitted offers to sell $10 million worth of wine to Vinfolio, a San Francisco-based company that buys and sells wine online. Normally the company has about $6 million offered to it.
The Coca-Cola Company today reported third quarter earnings per share of $0.81, an increase of 14 percent versus the prior year quarter on a reported basis. After considering items impacting comparability, earnings per share in the quarter were $0.83, an increase of 17 percent. Earnings per share for the quarter included a net charge of $0.02 per share for restructuring charges and costs related to global productivity initiatives partially offset by a gain on the sale of a portion of the Company?s investment in the Pakistan bottler. Earnings per share for the third quarter of 2007 were $0.71 and included a charge of $0.03 per share, primarily related to restructuring charges, which was offset by a $0.03 per share gain primarily related to the sale of a portion of the Company?s investment in Coca-Cola Amatil Limited.
…OUT? You’ve got to be OUT of your goddamn mind. Every Tuesday, I write a post for the Seattle Weekly entitled, “Ask The Bartender.” Apparently, I struck a nerve with this post: Ask The Bartender….Out? (Cringe) from Voracious, the Seattle Weekly food blog Those nerves apparently belong to some really over-sensitive men and the 5 female bartenders in [...]
Amazon.com, the online purveyor of books, apparel, and just about everything else, has announced its plans to enter the wine sales business. Beginning as early as mid-October, the online retailer will offer a selection of more than 300 wines from all over the United States to customers in 26 states. The company indicates that the selection will represent a wide cross-section of US producers, not just wineries in California, Oregon, and Washington State.
Shipping and taxes, as ever with online wine sales, will likely be an issue. Amazon says that customers of the Amazon Prime service (which carries a $79 annual fee) will get free shipping. Still, it's an intriguing development.
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Wine is all about the senses. About sensory evaluation, sensuality and consensual enjoyment. And wouldn't it be awful to lose your sense of taste, of smell, of touch, of sight?
It happens. Years ago, a wine-loving colleague went through a devastating course of chemotherapy to treat cancer and was cured. Afterwards he told me he had permanently lost his taste for wine. He sold his not inconsiderable cellar soon afterwards. Another friend had an operation on his nose that left him without a sense of smell. He'll drink a glass of wine with dinner but admits to being indifferent to its finer points.
I was reminded of this aspect of wine and the senses recently while listening to a wine expert banging on about the unimportance of colour in wine. If I heard him correctly, his thesis was that if the wine smelt and tasted good you shouldn't worry too much about its colour.
I couldn't disagree more. I love the colour of wine in the morning, or the evening. The crystal clear, green-hued glisten of a young riesling; the black cherry colour of a young shiraz; the vibrant inky purple of a Coonawarra cabern? [enough already! - Ed.] The visual appeal of wine in the glass is to me an unmissable part of wine drinking.
The banging on wine person finally admitted to being colour blind! They used to call this attitude making a virtue of a necessity.
And talking of sensory evaluation Long due for reassessment is the ancient scoring system used at most Australian wine shows. The one where wines are scored out of 20 - with a possible three points (15%) awarded for appearance, seven (35%) for bouquet and ten (50%) for palate. Anyone who's ever had a cold will tell you that smell is probably the most important sensory sensation where wine is concerned. When people have colds they typically complain, ?I can't taste a thing.' What they really mean is, ?I can't smell a thing.' It's their noses that are blocked up - not their mouths.
I realise that many judges just award an intuitive score out of 20 rather than individually scoring each component and then adding up the tota
Tecnorati
