Saturday, June 20, 2009

Artisan Cabernet Sauvignon


2005
California


Do you truly taste your wine?

So, I have a co-worker who is very impressed by the amount of money spent on a bottle of wine. The more expensive it is, he is sure the better it tastes. I have tried to tell him that the price tag doesn't mean diddly. He tastes with his eyes, not his mouth. And I think he's a fool for it.

He has access to interesting people and parties and fabulous wines. His neighbor has a wine cellar to die for, a brother who is somewhat of a connoisseur, and a bank roll to buy the latest and greatest (or in most cases, the oldest and greatest). So, he tells me about the wines he experienced over the weekend and/or holiday. But when I ask for label info, or vintage, etc., he can never remember. All he can ever tell me is what color it was and it cost $90 a bottle and they went through ten of them (etc.). It's disappointing. So, I tend to have my more meaningful wine conversations with the guys who work in our machine shop that spend less than $15 on a bottle. I actually get good suggestions from them.

This is a perplexity that remains on my mind frequently. When I was bartender a few weeks back at an auction, the auctioneer's assistant came up and talked wine with me. He actually asked for a glass of Little Penguin Merlot. He passed up a 1995 Folonari and a few other older, more expensive labels that I wasn't familiar with myself. When I poured it for him, I told him it actually isn't a bad wine and it's great for the price. His eyes lit up, he winked at me, and he said: "I know!" Then he proceeded to impress me with tales of his extensive collection at home and the square footage of his cellar, etc. He told me how he and his wife held their son's wedding at their home and he was chief wine supplier to a very discriminating group of guests, especially on his new daughter-in-law's side (specifically, her mother). He served a few thousand dollars worth of wine before deciding later in the evening that everyone had totally ruined their palate and it wasn't worth bringing up the expensive stuff anymore. So, he took out the other wine. One of those he served was Little Penguin merlot. He said his daughter-in-law's mother came up to him with an empty glass and asked for more. He poured her a glass of Little Penguin and stood back and watched. She began to walk away, took her first sip, and then turned right around again and emphatically asked him what delicious wine he'd pulled from the cellar now. He told her, and she'd never heard of it( not surprisingly). But she told him it was "fantastic" and she could only guess how much it must have cost. Well, he and I had a huge laugh over that story. He told me that he was glad to see that I could recognize good wine doesn't always have to have a big price tag. And thus ends my story, but think about it. How do you really taste your wine? What factors must be present before you even bring the rim of the glass to your lips? Are you cheating yourself out of a better experience?

Well I finally had a taste of Toffee on the palate from a wine. This wine is pretty good. Though the Guy spent $12, I've seen it for $9, thereby making this a really good deal. I had it well after my dinner, but it is recommended with hearty stews and barbecue flavors. Mostly blackberry-forward, there is a melancholy headiness to it (I don't know what the hell that means - it just came to me in trying to describe my experience). But the Toffee kind of wraps it up nicely in the finish. I recommend it, especially if you can get it for the lesser price. And try it with a barbecued meal and then COME BACK HERE and comment on the experience. PLEASE.

She lives with a broken man
A cracked polystyrene man
Who just crumbles and burns.

--Radiohead, "Fake Plastic Trees"

8.0 out of 10
13.8% alc. by vol.

$9-12 / 750 ml. bottle

Friday, June 12, 2009

Smoking Loon Chardonnay

2006
California


This is not a great wine. However, it's enjoyable and rather versatile and . . . cheap. Obviously, if you have guests you are trying to impress that also happen to be connosieurs, it won't be the night's best pick. But, if you're hanging with your best buds, laughing and relaxing and eating non-pretentious, good old soul food, "Smoking Loon" will advance the night just fine.

I have reviewed "Smoking Loon" Cab I believe in the past (or perhaps it was the Merlot). Anyway, whether the red or the white, this is a good basic wine for a casual gathering.

If you make my little pasta salad above (your favorite pasta type, fresh basil to taste, roasted pignolia nuts, grape tomatoes, black olives, cubed fresh mozzarella and drizzled olive oil and fresh lemon to taste with crushed black and red pepper) and partake in this Charonnay well-chilled, you will not be disappointed. The flavors marry each other in your mouth and the honeymoon
goes off without a hitch.

Reviewed accompanying my pasta salad:

8.0 out of 10
13.5% alc. by vol.
$9.99 / 750 ml. bottle
www.smokingloon.com


NOTE TO the Guy: My Cuervo Gold strawberry margheritas are not fruit smoothies. It is unwise to come in from a hot muggy day, grasp the brilliantly presented margherita and drink it down in 3 chugs (tops) as if it was a gallon of iced tea and then go to the computer and type your reports. It is to be sipped and savored over a course of at least twenty minutes.



Saturday, June 6, 2009

Night Harvest Chardonnay




2007
RH Phillips Vineyard
California

Not bad. Typical toasty oak. Might drink again. Tasted great with Annie's organic mac and cheese (white cheddar) smothered in crushed red pepper and freshly ground black pepper. Excellent pairing. Other than that, it was fairly good.

(I still have to write about my wonderful Mother's Day weekend luncheon I had with my grandmother and my "new" grandfather, and my wonderful Aunt B. and Uncle B., and newly betrothed cousin M. - I am very excited about her wedding which will be later this year at sundown at the Chelsea Point lighthouse. I will get another chance to take NYC pics. Anyway, we had great food and wine and I have a few wines to cover from that fun day. But I am awaiting the results of having borrowed a friend's camera to take label shots after the fact. She is in the process of sending them to me but I'm not sure they're good.)

I'm in a funk. Except for the above-mentioned luncheon, I've had no recent great wines. (But I make a mean fresh strawberry Cuervo Gold margherita.) The wines have all been run-of-the-mill. And I'm not into posting so much lately - probably as a result. And now my numbers are way down and I'm running out of inspiration. And so I have found an escape by throwing myself into the lives of Edward and Bella and am on the fourth and last book to the Twilight series and am thoroughly depressed that Midnight Sun is not yet available thanks to the numbskulls that decided to pirate it from Stephanie Meyer and try to distribute parts of it without her knowledge, thus causing her to pull back and not release it. :( On a positive note, I have been turned on to some very cool music (and much unlike my usual tastes) thanks to Ms. Meyer's series. It is awesome to read these books and then see who her musical influences were while writing - I can totally see the characters come to life in a new way when listening to her preferred writer's block fixes. Her favorite band is Muse and I tried adding them to my Pandora, but couldn't. So, I have added many of her other inspirations (I love Blue October) and, interestingly enough, Muse pops up every now and then. Pretty darn cool.

Sometimes you just have to walk away
Walk away
And head for the door

"Walk Away", Ben Harper

7.75 out of 10
13.5% alc. by vol.
$15 / 1.5L