Even Snobbery (or lack of) Must Raise It's Bar!

Journals, like good wines, become more balanced and wise with time ... in theory. So, with the encouragement from someone who holds my greatest respect and deepest trust, I have decided to test that hypothesis by resurrecting this one. 

Call it a journal, call it a blog, call it ramblings from the depths of a glass (or bottle) ... let's have some balanced, wise, and aged fun!

Three years ago, $10 was my litmus test for a great wine discovery at a cheap price. Much discord has happened in the realm of world economics since then; consequently, I have just discovered that I am forced to raise the bar to $14, if only to avoid crawling on hands and knees to reach the bottom rows of the retail shelves, where they showcase the gasoline ... err, bathtub ...I mean, the wines we all used to sneak in high school.

On my first trip to the Class 6 after returning from deployment (that's 'liquor store' to the civilian world) - although it's really more like 'ABC store', but that is a subject for another post - anyway, my wondering eyes beheld an entire new row of shelves filled with brand new Italian wines! I had to rub my eyes and re-focus, thinking I was hallucinating after six months living dry. Nope ... new wines, and good ones!

Looking at the labels, I wondered how I would ever sample them all. But wait ... $54, $38, $26 (ouch) ... and $14, $12, $11 ... Bardolinos and Super Tuscans for $14?? Chiantis for $11? I happen to know for a fact that the Chianti in my hand sells for $30+ in the states. I am confused.

 But, my wine rack is empty, and I need to fill it. So, after setting aside a few of these lovely Italians ... I meander over to the domestic section so I can pick up a handful of an old $10 favorite that has been my standby porch-pounder for the last couple of years: Gnarly Old Vine Zinfandel. I glanced at the shelf tag, and good thing I did, because that wine is now $14!

Fourteen dollars for a newer vintage, which, by the way, is not even close to the same quality heavenly balance of the previous year's bottlings. Now, I am really confused.

Looking around, I see, once again, that the $10 wines are on the bottom shelves! Okay ... I see what's going on. Wine inflation, or grape inflation, or import inflation ... or perhaps even inflation of the buyer's ego ... it doesn't matter because, unless I want to give up wine - and I do not - then I need to walk away from this battle and raise the standard of my litmus test to $14 (read: 'cheap')!!

Okay! Let's sample some more great wines at cheap prices!!

Riesling Renaissance

You may have noted my earlier short posting on Pacific Rim wines. I was curious about their little booklet entitled Riesling Rules, chuckling at the double meaning of it's title, so I ordered a free copy to see what was inside. Imagine my surprise when I opened its cover and discovered answers to everything I had always wondered about Riesling - in simple to follow and entertainingly cute English! The booklet discusses topics such its history, its natural history, its geo-political survival skills, it's famous advocates, its food versatility, and many other little known facts about his little green grape. Voltaire reminds us that "The true triumph of Reason Riesling is that it enables us to get along with others who do not possess it"

I am more impressed with this little big wine than ever before ..... no more the red wine snob!

The Brown Paper Bag

(Brief flashback) Those who know me well, also know that my greatest fear in life is to become a bag lady. This originated during my years in San Francisco, where more than a good fourth of the homeless population were women, pushing shopping carts piled high with paper bags filled with their belongings - many of them protectively cradling their Thunderbird, wrapped in a brown paper bag. That fear has, over the last 20 years, morphed into a phobia.

(Fast forward to yesterday) So imagine my brief horror as we sat down at our weekly wine-tasting event, to a counter full of bottles, each one wrapped in a brown paper bag! I could feel the blood draining from my face, pooling in my abdomen. Nick, our facilitator, quizzically glanced my way; Kim, my partner-in-wine, asked, "What's wrong with you?!?" "Nothing. Bit of vertigo," I mumbled. (After all, we had just returned from a raucously surreal two days in Denver ... I sooo used that as an excuse)

Silly me. The folks at Powers Liquor Mart had secretly arranged a fun afternoon, which featured a blind tasting of little known inexpensive wines with big, complex personalities! The intent was to create very little expectation (through the use of brown paper bag wrappers), then develop an appreciation through our three senses of enological distinction: vision, smell and taste.  Like boot camp - break us down and build us up, but with confident surprise.  It was fun, it was an adventure, and it was effective!

Nick very generously half-filled our glasses, to which I thought, "great. nice way to get rid of a couple bottles of 'gasoline'!" Hmmm, pretty straw color ... an explosion of pears and sweet flowers in my nose ... followed by a smooth, airy and balanced sensation of lightly sweet fruit over my tongue. No doubt, this must be a late-harvest Riesling, very German in its character. Pairing this wine with small bites of the myriad types of food we all brought: hummus, cheeses, chocolate almonds ... yes, even roasted chile peppers ... introduced its versatility. Superb!

The awaited unveiling brought gasps of astonishment mixed with exclamations of pleasure (and for me a small sense of relief), as we discovered one of the gems from Pacific Rim Winemakers: not a late-harvest, but a Dry Riesling! Bottled in Santa Cruz, CA, this is a beautiful wine, 20% Mosel Riesling blended with 80% Riesling from Washington's Columbia Valley - two regions best known for this varietal.

My own surprise came from the fact that several months ago, I had picked up another bottle of Riesling from this winemaker, and had recently opened it to make a lovely sauté base for some prawns and scallops. The bouquet emanating from that bottle, as well as the beautiful art on the rear of the bottle's label, prompted me already then to do a little online research on Pacific Rim Winemakers.

This is a lovely wine; a happy discovery; makes a comfortable 'porch-pounder' as well as a complement to any meal; and, at $7.50, it will become my next case lot - but maybe without the brown paper bags!

Oh no! It's a Screw-Top!

"Take it back ... this wine is corked!" Eh? What?

We've all seen the movie lines - as well as "Corked", the 2009 comedic documentary of the wine industry. But have you ever sampled a wine that you've carefully chosen to impress either yourself or dinner date? The (perfect) wine arrives with a flourish; a sample is poured by a waiter in black and white, with a towel wrapped around his arm; you hold it up to a white light (cuz that's what 'they' do in the movies); you swirl it around a bit (not sure why, but it looks good); you take a sip as you glance at your date, hoping s/he is appropriately impressed; and you suddenly feel as though you've just licked the floor of a musty cellar or, worse, taken a sip from the vinegar bottle!

Did you keep it because you think trashing a $75 bottle of wine is a crime? Did you make appropriate appreciative noises and say, "This will be lovely with a good strong meal; let's have the bear steaks soaked in armadillo sauce with it"? Or, did you do the right thing and send it back ... because it was corked!?

'Cork' happens! In fact it happens to at least 5% of bottled wines. Why? Two reasons: one, because cork, my friend, is porous. It leaks oxygen into the wine, which changes its chemistry, and therefore its balance and flavor; and, two, cork contains a mold that leaks into the wine, changing or flattening its taste. Politely send it back and ask for another bottle. If the restaurant quibbles with you, remember this, and tell all your friends.

Because we are members of a society that demands instant gratification, and therefore want to drink our wines now, vintners are offering more and more wine, sealed with alternative methods. The traditional rule that screw-tops are for jug wines is just no longer correct. Be not afraid to buy these wines - I wasn't, and subsequently discovered a beautiful 2008 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand.

Now, granted, I'm not typically a drinker of white wines - and I DID buy this one to pour into the sauce for a yummy Lasagna Bolognese (found at Epicurious.com). Still, cooking with bad wine makes bad food, so I chose this bottle carefully. I was not disappointed! The wine is fresh, fruit forward, layered with flavors of citrus and pineapples, but reserves just a hint of butter and pepper spice on the back of the tongue. It was perfect for the sauce.

It was even more perfect somewhat chilled in a glass, while the sauce was simmering! And it was a screw-top!!

As Time Goes By

.....or, why wine has to age to be good.

After wine has finished fermenting, and most of the solid matter has been removed from the vats, it has to rest for a time. In the days of Bacchus this aging was done in clay pots or open wooden containers, thereby adding unique complexities to he wine. Iron Age economics introduced the iron-banded sealed cask, a serendipitous invention that remains one of the principle aging vessels today - the other being a vat of stainless steel.


Oak, of which exist many species, is an amazingly versatile wood. It makes beautiful furniture, which patinas nicely and withstands the test of time; it constructs strong fences; it burns slowly and evenly in your fireplace; and has borne many people across the seas in fine ships. Oak is resistant to insects and fungus due to its high tannin content. Wait ... tannin content?

Yes, tannins .... which, when combined with the natural tannins of the particular blend of grapes used in fermentation, produce some complex and fascinating characteristics in the wines. Click here for a great blog post on tannins, by Jamie Goode, UK wine journalist.Add to the mix (metaphorically speaking), oak's biochemical gift of compounds whose flavors remind us of vanilla, tea, tobacco, woods, earth, or farm land, and suddenly the wine's foundation has been set. From there, it's all about Time, and allowing all of the ingredients and influences to blend together into a (hopefully) balanced, harmonious wine - later to be bottled and left to rest for another period of time before gracing the table. This process was beautifully shown to us by the masters at Castello di Brolio in Tuscany.

Click here for a short, simple to follow article on the aging process, and a wonderful set on instructions on barrel-making, by Beekman Wines and Liquors in NJ.
Click here for a more extensive explanation on winemakng, by Wikipedia.

All photos are (c) 2007-2008, courtesy of S. Harlandt

Hey, Mambo

As a rule, I typically don't buy something just because someone thrusts an item into my hand and says, "Here, try this, it's really good!"

First of all, I don't know who the heck you are, and subsequently have no clue about what you might think is "good". Secondly, you're shoving a bottle of GENERIC wine into my arms - which, I might add, are already full with "real" wines, thank you very much. But your eyes are gorgeous, and you have such the winning smile - and, well, I couldn't resist. Besides, who could pass up a California Sultry Red? (Don Sebastiani & Sons (The Other Guys), and less than $10, I might add ...)

Oh my ...this yummy treasure, a blend of Syrah, Barbera, Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Malbec, and Alicante Bouchet (gesundheit!) grapes, will most definitely hold a spot in the cabinet! So. to describe this big, big wine, let me just transcribe the story on the label - I couldn't have said it any better:

Down some alley off Columbus, I bang on an unsuspecting door. And of course, there's some big brute just waiting to hassle me. Once inside the hollow building, he points me down a dim set of stairs. A bar and tables emerge out of the SMOKY blackness. I sit in the back corner and order the house ravioli and a bottle of wine. On the postage stamp of a stage, the lights reveal a LUSCIOUS gem - with COCOA brown hair and CRANBERRY lips. She belts out a lonesome note to awaken her band. Like striking a match, the room comes ablaze with music. Her voice like velvet beckoning strays to the dance floor. A few couples and then a few more. The crowd is insatiable. The music, the food, the wine, all together hypnotizing. I savor every drop.

Was perfect with my elk roast!

Welcome

A year later, Susanne discovers Powers Liquor Mart. Mind you, that fact alone is not significant in itself; however, the fact that this establishment hosts weekly wine tasting events, is not only significant, but guarantees that my lovely Italian wine cabinet remains relatively full.

Over the last few months, my Saturday afternoons have been shared with my BFF (that's Best Friends Forever, for those over 40), who also shares my belief that a good wine does not have to be expensive. After extensively traveling through France, Germany and Italy - where good table wine is expected and costs Euro 3.00 to fill one's own bottle - I have completely thrown my dollars=quality misguided beliefs out with the sludge. Bottom line ... remaining a wine snob would preclude me from experiencing little known wineries that produce some big, big wines.

Each week brings with it a discovery - I even sampled a Rosé (horrors!); but, while not particularly possessing a fondness for Rosés (memories of Larry Blake's in Davis, California), I did find it to be a pleasant little wine ... although it does not lie in my cabinet.

Yes, I am partial to reds, and will pair them with fish and chicken ... but my goal is to share all colors and styles as I come across an exceptional value vs flavor. Subjective? Well, of course. So feel free to send me snippets of your discoveries .....