All I want for Christmas is a great wine tasting!

 
I love to read and write about wine, but not as much as just tasting it. Over many years of wine tasting and wine appreciation with friends and families I have learned a lot. It’s a great learning process. But there are “so many wines, and so little time” as they say. With thousands of wines from all over the world, more availability now than ever, you can keep quite busy this season. Tasting wines from all over the world with friends and family? Santa, bring that for me this holiday season!

The basic elements of wine appreciation seem pretty easy on one level – pour, tilt glass and taste. Repeat as needed. And that is certainly fine if that’s all you require to enjoy wine. It doesn’t have to be rocket science, and you don’t need the sometimes perplexing language of many wine tasters. But if you want to look at wine more discriminately, to explore the nuances and underlying qualities of wine…well, then there are several tools of the trade to look at.

The “tools of the trade” are actually pretty easy to acquire; we come equipped with them if at different levels and abilities. Can’t tell Coke from Pepsi? Well, just remember that improving your taste is just like preparing for that big presentation at work, or working-out hard get ready for that 10-K. You need to do the work. Again: there’s no requirement to “dig deeper” when you enjoy a good glass of wine but if you want to take a step closer, some groundwork first, give yourself a good start. Get a wine that is different, maybe a varietal you haven’t tasted. Then provide the proper environment for your tasting, invite friends over, have some snacks and make it casual. With a comfortable setting, your crew of tasters will feel relaxed and the sharing of wine and friendship flows.

A good hint: if you have friends at different experience levels and abilities in wine: do a blind taste testing. It can show that wine tasting is not a competition, and that you don’t need to challenge other people’s levels of ability and experience. There is no better way to create a level field and bring people together than a blind wine tasting. You will be surprised at the range of taster’s impressions of wines when they can’t see the label or bottle shape. So you end up concentrating on challenging your taste, not your knowledge of the wine.

The great thing about tasting wine is: the more you taste, the more experience you gain; and the more experience that you gain, the more you bring to your next tasting. Then you may want to move on to a horizontal tasting comparing certain varietals from the same vintage, or a vertical tasting, with different years of a wine from the same producer. It’s just like learning to read and write. You start with the alphabet and then you advance as you learn more. Maybe you had a favorite book, one you found full of drama and nuanced relationships. You shared it is with a friend, who reads it and returns it, “Sure, that was a great story”. They liked it, but didn’t see, or were not impressed, with those elements of style that you appreciated. It’s OK - wine also has levels of appreciation and understanding. Sometimes you dig a little deeper, sometimes you don’t.

You have some work to do this Holiday season. Check out some new wines; enjoy time with friends and family, and TASTE. ‘Tiss the season, and hopefully Santa will be good to you this year! I’ve already sent in my letter.

Borzo

From Beaujolais to Brigitta!

Okay, so I am not the wine expert here. That title would go to either Jim Doutre, or David Borzo.

I do have some recommendations to make however for this week's tastings and they're more on the pedestrian side of wine enjoyment, i.e. the daily sippers that don't require much thought, and don't trigger tryer's remorse* on opening.

Number one is a delightful Italian red wine from Zaccagnini called Cantina Zaccagnini (2004 Reserva, from Sam's Club $13.00)
made from Montepulciano d’Abruzzo grapes. It's a truly great dry red table wine, not overly robust, but with touches of licorice, vanilla and berries mixed together to make your mouth happy alone and with foods.

I thought of lamb as a good complement, but I think it would be equally at home with all manner of country foods. I've never woasted a wabbit for stew, but I can imagine such a dish on a heavy wooden table next to my full glass and Gina Lola Brigitta's heaving bosom.

The distributor's web site goes into far more detail (like those experts will) and suggests more food pairings and taste comparisons (leather, plums, blackberry, black pepper, oregano, assorted herbs and a violet robe, which I assume is for Gina after dinner.) and the winery's tasting info is more complete in it's description. They make a lot of the stuff (+/- 95,000 bottles) so it's in ready supply near you.

I'm just saying that for $13 it's a no brainer that gets better as it breathes. After finishing a deep and mystical Syrah last week, I opened this one for guests and was pleased w/ the vanilla opening tastes and subsequent berries and dusty finishes. It was

Wine #2
Tis the season for Beajolais Nouveau and as any SERIOUS wine person will tell you, it's young, it's grape juice w/ a kick and it is not a SERIOUS wine. Some would say it shouldn't be mentioned in the same sentence as the word wine while others revel each year at its release. In fact , the region as a whole is seen as a bargain for buyers looking to purchase land, vineyards etc.

So, like who cares?

Beaujolais Nouveau is FUN for all those reasons. It is young and fruity and way too easy to quaff, gulp, spill and giggle over.
Qualities that make it um, FUN.

If you want the history of the stuff, suffice it to say there are billions and billions (Carl Sagan couldn't be reached for comment) of articles on the proud history, how the young, fruity beacon of 1st harvest is not available prior to the 3rd Thursday of each November, how the Brits used to send their envoys across the channel to grab their stash from the French and even how the Japanese tried to use international time zones to cheat on the opening dates. This made SERIOUS FUN people mad.

All that aside, it is great w/ Brie and a warm baguette, and people you like to be around while the warm fuzzy buzz of a silky smooth red makes its way across your sensory landscape.

In the past, we have enjoyed many varieties, and used to buy the Georges Duboeuf by the case. Pretty label, but honestly rarely the best of the bunch. Many alternatives are springing up to the true version, including early releases of Gamay grape juices from California.

BUYING ADVICE -- We say, rush to your wine shop on Thursday this week and buy no more than enough for a bottle or two between you and your friends (imaginary and otherwise) so you can get some fast and celebrate the nou nou nouveoh like a true Francophile. Then go back later in the weekend, or early next week and sample the other choices that showed up on your merchant's shelves. The big boys get their's in the stores first because they have the distribution muscle. The other, lesser knowns are often worth the wait.

For 10 fun facts about Beaujolais Nouveau see our friends at Into WIne.

We always love this wine as a fun addition to Thanksgiving holiday parties, and it's still good through Xmas. After that, you're drinking wine that was fresh and nouveauity but isn't so much anymore, and you should be moving on to the more SERIOUS winter wines, or champagne for the New Year.

So, get busy and get to your local Sam's Club for some of the Zaccagnini and/or to your wine shop for ze Beaujolais Nouveau and relax with your wines. Gosh.

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*Tryer's Remorse, not unlike it's younger sibling, Buyer's Remorse, this is the guilty feeling you get when you open a bottle that was:
1. Expensive
2. A gift
3. An expensive gift
4. The last of a vintage or varietal in your collection
5. Your last bottle, period

So you wart over whether it or the occasion (or your guests) will be good enough to merit setting the cork free.
BAH. If it is too precious, sell it to someone for a large sum and buy cases of guilt-free offerings.

No one goes to their grave wishing they'd enjoyed less great wine -- they go the their grave thinking things like "oh shit!"

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