Temecula Tasting Trip

A few weeks ago, I made a wine tasting trip out to Temecula with several friends. A friend of mine lives out in Temecula and has wanted us to come down for a while. After missing the first group outing down there, I decided it was time to try it out for myself. I’m not gonna lie that I was had a snobby attitude when it came to Temecula and the wine they produce down there. Of course, I’d never had a wine from Temecula prior to my trip there so my prejudice was unfounded, but now I’ve had a few wines from there so I can say a bit about what they’re doing down there.   We went to a few wineries that our host had scouted out for us. To say the least, I was not impressed. The wineries themselves were beautiful and they were crowded with people so there was a good feeling there among the people doing the tasting, but the people conducting the tastings did not leave me with such a good impression.
At the first winery, the woman pouring our wine only gave us the time of day when we yelled at her telling her what we wanted and only gave us her attention long enough to pour our wine, tell us it was good (without any further explanation) and mark our tasting card saying we’d had the wine in question. Now a great first stop for someone looking to learn about the area. I didn’t need her opinion or insight though- the wines weren’t great. I don’t know if I’ve ever been to a tasting where I haven’t been the least bit tempted to buy a wine that I tried. This was the first. On the way out, we saw a woman passed out on a sofa in the tasting room. It was 1pm. The tasting room was beautiful as was the scenery, but the wine and the employees got a “F” in my book.
Tasting room number two was also beautiful. It was set on a gorgeous plot of land overlooking some of the vineyard, the tasting room was a little shack like building that was charming, and there was even a bocce court there! Also, the staff was friendly and helpful. Great start to the visit, but the wine couldn’t complete the picture of perfection. I tried the Sangiovese (I always try Sangiovese when I can). The Sangiovese was terrible. One of my friends accurately said that the wine smelled like urinal cakes. Picture it. Smell it. I tasted it. Luckily, the rest of my tasting was (slightly) better, but one of my friends tried a wine that was, without a doubt, the worst wine (or thing) I’d ever tasted. It tasted like grape juice mixed with gasoline. Not for me. On to the next stop.
Tasting room number three actually had decent wine. They made Italian style wine (that didn’t smell like urinal cakes). They had a beautiful set up (complete with big screens showing us college football). But, again, the staff disappointed me here. I tried the wines made in the Italian style, but was put off when the guy pouring my wine corrected me, not once, but twice on my pronunciation of Italian wine varietals. I speak Italian. I was saying the names of these wines correctly, and it may be snobby of me to say this, but that pissed me off and made me want to move on to the next one.
The last stop of the day was the one I was dreading. This last stop was one of those wineries that seem like they prey on suckers. They have wine tasting, but they are more a resort than anything. Complete with a spa and boutique hotel. Complete tourist trap wine establishment at its finest. I tried 8 or 9 wines here and was pleasantly surprised given what I’d tried up to this point. Still nothing that stood out to me as worthy of a purchase until I tried their desertish wines. The port was great. Maybe the best I’ve had from California. Their late harvest Riesling was also brilliant. I bought both, much to my own
surprise given the tastings I’d had that day. Still, I’m eager to try them and glad I found something other than the scenery and company to justify the trip down there.
With my day of tasting done, and after a few weeks of reflection, I’ve come to a few conclusions about Temecula. First, there is a reason that you don’t see wines from Temecula on the grocery store shelves. They just aren’t that good. Second, the wine world is small (but growing daily), but there is a reason that all the wine makers down there work in Temecula. They just aren’t that good at what they do. In an era where you can import grapes from hundreds of miles away to make wine with. In an era where you can make wine without growing grapes yourself. In an era that you can choose your ingredients from some of the best grape growing regions in the world, you still have to make wine from those ingredients. Making that wine isn’t easy even with quality ingredients, and they just don’t do it well in Temecula. Sure, this is a generalization, and a snobby one at that, but now that I’ve actually had a few wines from there, I can safely say that I will now avoid Temecula wine whenever possible.
I don’t want my negative post and view of Temecula’s wine to take away from my trip down there. It was phenomenal. My hosts were great. I had a wonderful dinner (orange chicken from a little outdoor restaurant while listening to live music). I got to experience the day with great friends, and I got to visit another wine region. All in all, it was a great day, I just wish the wines and the people serving me the wine were half as good as the company I had.

Baseball's Champagne Celebration

Tonight, 3 major league baseball teams clinched playoff spots.  One of those 3 teams was the Texas Rangers- my favorite team.  They clinched their second consecutive division title.  Needless to say I was excited.  And, after six months of hard work, these three teams were understandably excited.  And, how did they celebrate?  By spraying each other with champagne in their locker rooms.  Yep.  Sure, a few beers came into the picture after a bit, but the French bubbly was the star of the show in multiple clubhouses tonight.  America’s national pastime has a French flair when it comes to celebration.  Why?

Because Champagne means celebration.  It meant celebration for 3 teams tonight and has meant celebration for many teams for countless years.  It has also meant celebration for millions (if not billions) of people every new year, at every wedding, and at almost every other occasion for celebration imaginable.  Something about those bubbles means celebration.

Champagne has been the drink of kings since its inception.  Kings of the 14^th century used to drink it.  Perhaps even the Romans drank early forms of Champagne.  In the old days, Champagne was a signal of wealth.  How then did it make its way into celebration with sports?

Well, in 1967 Moet et Chandon gave the winner of the 24 hours of Le Mans race a bottle of Champagne and the driver sprayed the crowd in his jubilation.  Since then, Champagne has meant celebration in the sports world as more and more sports pop the bubbly to celebrate their achievements after months of hard work.  And, because of Champagne’s links to royalty, wealth, and celebration, fans in Milwaukee are trading in their beer for bubbly as the “Brew Crew” celebrates tonight.  Fans in Phoenix are toasting with bubbly as they celebrate their team’s achievement.  And, most certainly, fans in Texas (and California…) are popping the bubbly to celebrate the Rangers’ division title.

Champagne means celebration.  Especially so tonight for Diamondback, Brewer, and Rangers fans.

Back from the dead...

It’s been a long time since I’ve written about wine.  A bunch of factors have contributed to my lack of posts in the last six weeks or so, but for the most part, the reason I haven’t written about wine is that I just haven’t been drinking wine recently.  I think I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve had wine in the last six weeks. 

The reason I haven’t been drinking wine is two-fold.  First of all, it’s been so freaking hot recently that red wine hasn’t sounded refreshing at all and I’m not enough of a white wine enthusiast to frequently choose to drink it over beer or soft drinks.  Secondly, I’ve been a little upset with wine since the heat ruined some of my nice bottles of wine before I could drink them.  That bitter taste in my mouth has taken a long time to wear off, but as cooler weather approaches (hopefully), my interest in wine is returning.

So, in the coming days, I’m going to write about my two interesting experiences with wine in the past six weeks.  The first of which was in Idaho where I tried local Idaho wine and got to enjoy several wonderful meals with great friends.  My second adventure was a tasting day in Temecula.  I know I’ll come off sounding like a snob in this post, but it was a good day and there were some good stories from the trip.

So, now that I’m officially back, look for me to post with regularity for the next few months.   

The Poor Wine Collector

One week ago, I traded in my shared bedroom in an apartment less than a mile from the beach for an empty house in Suburbia, USA.  Suburbia, USA is still just 10 miles or so from the beach, but the difference between my new home and my old ones couldn’t be more drastic.  Most notably, the average temperature during July at my old house would be less than 80 degrees on a hot day.  New home: over 100.  Sadly, my new home doesn’t have an air conditioner so I’ve been sweating my way through the late afternoons, praying that the sun will set faster so the cooling night will come to my rescue.  I’ve managed to survive thus far but today I realized that my wine collection might not be so lucky.

I was trying to select a bottle to open with dinner tonight when I realized that several bottles in my collection showed the unmistakable signs of heat fatigue.  Extreme heat can cause corks to dry up and wine to seep through them, leaving the top of the bottles a bit sticky.  Luckily, I only have 8 bottles from the collection here with me.  Unluckily, they are 8 of the best I own.  These bottles will now likely have to be opened in the very near future so I’ll get to actually enjoy them before they prematurely age and turn to vinegar. 

This unfortunate event made me realize one thing: it sucks to be a poor wine collector.  I have no temperature controlled cellar to house my wine, even though I’ve got several bottles that deserve that degree of attention.  All I can manage is the bottom of a closet and all the cooling that the shade can provide.    So, instead of the temperature and humidity controlled environment that cellars provide, all I can offer wine for a home is a rugged environment that is unstable, frequently hot, dry, and overall unfriendly.  The environment I can offer is one that would be nice if I were growing wine but one that is horrible for aging it. 

So, what’s a poor person to do?  And, by poor, I mean the 99% of us that cannot afford a temperature controlled wine cellar.  Well, there are mini fridges built especially for wine that control the temperature and humidity for 8-20 bottles of your favorite wine.  Bad news here is the limited space that they offer and the cost of the power it takes to operate them.  Still, I may have to invest in one of these little units to protect the prizes of my collection.  Ideally, a poor wine collector would live in an air conditioned house in a moderate climate that will provide a stable condition for wine storage.  I used to live in such an environment and have crashed back to reality since moving away from it.  It just isn’t fun to see your prizes, prizes that you might have been saving for special occasions in the future, take a turn for the worse just because of the climate.  Such is the nature of wine.  Old wine can be an incredible asset (both in terms of taste and monetary value), but it is a fickle one.  Wine is only as valuable as the life it’s lived.  Most of us cannot provide wine the life of luxury that it requires to age gracefully so we are ill suited to be collectors.  Those poor wine collectors among us must evolve into consumers.  99% of wine is meant to be consumed within a year of bottling.  What I now realize is that the 99% of us are too poor to have a wine cellar of our own, so we should buy the 99% of the wine not meant to be aged 99% of the time.  Did I lose you?  If so, ready that over again. 

Faced with my current situation, I’ve decided to buy a little refrigerator that will house 10 bottles of my age-worthy wine, I will fill said refrigerator with my 10 bottles and will only buy bottles meant for immediate consumption from thenceforth.  If I stick to my 99-99-99 theory, my little 10 bottle cellar will be able to last me 1,000 bottles, or more than 5 years (that’s a conservative estimate).  While I don’t like my situation, I’m glad that I now accept it and have a plan that I can move forward with.  I think that most of us hold onto wine longer than we should so I would encourage all of my readers that store wine to really think about what they are saving and why.  Without a doubt, we all buy wine to drink and enjoy, not to see it turn into undrinkable vinegar, so we might as well err on the side of caution when it comes to aging wine and drink it when it is too young rather than risk it turning into an undrinkable bottle of expensive vinegar.

I hope that no one else has the same experience that I have just had.  Remember, it is easy to want to hold onto wine and amass an impressive collection, but that collection is worthless unless you can enjoy it.  Wine is meant to be enjoyed.  Luckily, 99% of us are poor enough to be buying wine that we can immediately enjoy.

Contest Winner!

There was some stiff competition among the 3 entrants in my guest post contest, but FAUribe and his car-blog buddies emerged victorious.  I kinda thought that ERA or REW and their well-read blogs might pull it out but I was dead wrong.

FAUribe, I’ll get you your prize next time I see you.  You might want to thank your car buddies for all their help.  Also, as promised, you are welcome to write another post anytime you want. 

I think that I’m going to have to do something like this again, I had a good time reading what others had to say, and I hope that you guys did too.  That being said, I’m glad to be done with this contest so I can get back to writing posts that no one reads.

One last congratulation to FAUribe!  You wrote a great post arguing that Merlot isn’t a loser (something I don’t think I’d have ever done).  I hope you enjoy your prize.

Entry # 3- REW

Due to a weekend trip to the Bay Area, it’s been a few days since I posted an entry, but now that I’m back home, here is REW’s entry into my contest.  Because of a few last minute back outs, this is the last entry I’ve got, so next Monday will be the end of this contest.  REW has a successful blog of his own, has written a book, and recently appeared in the New York Times, so he’s a good writer, but will he be able to get the support needed to win this contest?  Let’s find out.

“You want some cheese with that whine?” By: REW

I’ve heard a lot of great lines uttered—or, more than occasionally, screamed—by baseball players, coaches, umpires and fans.  Very few of them had anything at all to do with the subject of this blog.  Some of them wouldn’t be fit to print here, knowing the delicate sensibilities of the readership.  But one line (although not a great line) did bring baseball and wine together—sort of.

The coach of the Malibu Red Sox, a local Little League team, had a favorite expression to use with his eight-year-old players.  (Older and less cultured readers may be interested to know that this particular coach had non-starring roles in Dude, Where’s My Car? and Baseketball.)  Whenever a player would complain—about anything—the coach would say, “You want some cheese with that whine?”  No doubt the predominant message was supposed to be “stop complaining,” but the secondary message, delivered thirteen years before the players on the team would be able to appreciate it legally in most jurisdictions of the United States, was “wine and cheese are commonly paired together to admirable effect.”

Thus we come, at last, to the subject of this post:  wine and cheese (not, as you may have been thinking, the promotion of under-age drinking).  The two do go together very well.

For reasons that probably have a lot to do with long histories of agricultural experimentation, cultures that produce a wide variety of wines also generally produce a wide variety of cheeses.  Think of France.  Charles de Gaulle, the first president of France’s Fifth Republic, famously said, “How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?”  He almost certainly underestimated—the number of varieties of cheese, that is, not the difficulty of governing France.  Everyone knows Brie.  Some know Boursin and Chevres.  But what about—just for starters—Fougerus, Livarot, Mimolette, Pas de l’Escalette, Raclette, Saint-Nectaire, Saint-Paulin, Taupiniere, and Vignotte?  Then there’s Italy, which has not only Mozzarella, Gorgonzola, Parmigiano, and Ricotta, but Ragusano, Taleggio, Caciotta, Ubriaco, and hundreds more.  (Yes, “ubriaco” means “drunk” in Italian.  Formaggio ubriaco is soaked in wine and then covered in the crushed grape skins left from making wine.)

In a culture with many wines and just as many cheeses, the possibilities for pairings are almost endless.  (As I heard as least one member of the Malibu Red Sox say in response to his coach’s memorable line, “Why, yes, I would like some cheese with my wine.”)  My own favorite pairings involve full-bodied red wines with full-flavored cheeses, like the ones I’m enjoying at the moment:  pecorino cheese with Cabernet Sauvignon.  (I’d prefer an Italian wine—maybe a Rosso de Montepulciano—with this distinctively Italian cheese, but my very domestic Cabernet works just fine.)

At the risk of putting the cheese before the wine in a wine blog, I need to say more about pecorino.  As the name implies—at least to Italians—pecorino cheese is made with sheep’s milk.  It takes on different characteristics—including flavors—depending in part on the length of time it is aged.  Fresh pecorino is softer and milder.  Aged pecorino (stagionato) is harder and more pungent; sometimes it is grated as a topping for pasta dishes, much like Parmigiano is.  Either way, fresco or stagionato, pecorino is great with a bold red wine.  One of my favorite antipasti is pecorino cheese cut into small rectangles (think two bites) and topped with a few drops of honey, a few pine nuts, and a few short stalks of fresh chives.  (The honey complements the pecorino perfectly—and keeps the pine nuts and chives from falling off.)  Open a bottle of Sangiovese or Nero d’Avola (or, if possible, Brunello) and it may be hard to think about moving beyond the antipasti.  (I must thank the incomparable Elizabeth Whatley for this wonderful, and very simple, pecorino recipe.)

One of the best things about food and wine is the way our senses of taste and smell stimulate memory.  Particular foods and wines often make us think of special times.  A bottle of Brunello, for example, makes me think of a wonderful meal in a restaurant called Il Grappolo Blu in Montalcino.  Putting wine and cheese together is good—and maybe even necessary—in part because it reminds us of times when dinner was a loaf of bread, a bottle of wine, and a hunk of cheese.  And that dinner, for most of us who’ve had the experience, was always a special one because it was enjoyed with special people in special places:  on a hillside in Tuscany, beside a canal in Provence, at an open-air concert at Wolftrap or Tanglewood, or on a trail in Yosemite.

A bottle of wine, a wedge of cheese, and maybe a baguette or a piece of foccaccia:  the combination leaves no reason to whine.

Entry # 2- e.r.a.

Here is the second entry in my guest post contest.  The author, e.r.a. has a blog of her own: twenty-something.  You can visit it at http://www.elizabethabend.blogspot.com/

Without further ado, here is her post...

twenty-something on wine by e.r.a.

I grew up in a sad, wine-less town. Thank goodness my dad is a wine hoarder. He has more wine in his wine cellar* than all of the stores** in Blackfoot, Idaho combined.

*After my older brother moved out, my dad took the furniture out of his room and started stacking cases of wine in there.

**Wal-Mart and Albertsons.

Last time we were all at home (probably drinking wine) my dad gathered my brothers, my mom, and me in the kitchen. I thought he was going to make a toast.

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about your piles of shit,” he said.

“Oh, Chris!” my mom scolded. The offspring laughed.

My dad was referring to the coats and purses and phone chargers and shoes and books and computers and mugs*** that we left haphazardly around the house. After my dad’s speech, we all went out of our way to keep our piles of shit contained to our rooms and out of my dad’s kingdom.

***I admit they were all mine.

One day, I went to the wine cellar (see first asterisk) to find myself a nicely aged beverage. What I found was a giant pile of shit. “Busted!” I thought as I gazed over the wreckage of half-opened case after case of wine, empty boxes, golf clubs, Mother’s Day wrapping paper, and a hunting rifle.**** Packing material densely populated the room and the whole place reeked of Tommy Bahama.

****No one hunts.

I walked into the kitchen with some mad swagger. “Dad, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about your pile of shit,” I boasted triumphantly.

“That’s not shit, that’s good wine,” my dad said, which, to his credit, was entirely true. I know I must have broken him, though, because the next time I visited home there were homemade shelves in the wine cellar. The rifle was gone.

I’m not sure how my dad found the time to organize the pile of shit in the wine cellar because Blackfoot opened a new bar called The Wine Garden where he now apparently spends most of his evenings with his friends.

My friends like wine, too. Many of us drank our sophomore year of college through Italy where wine is cheaper***** than water. We weren’t technically of age according to our American university even though we were in Europe, so we learned how to hide bottles of wine in a free deposit box at an Italian bank and to drink wine from soda cans and to-go coffee cups when it needed to be concealed. Americans are classy that way.

*****And more delicious.

We continued the tradition when we got back home the next year and even spent Spring Break in a rented RV touring Napa Valley. Even though one friend****** wrecked the RV in a parking lot and another******* fell asleep on the counter at a tasting, I would venture to say that our outlook on wine is more sophisticated and complex because of that trip.

******Brenden. 

*******West.

Wine continues to be a part of everyday life for my friends and family. Last night my fiancé and I were home drinking a bottle of Cabernet. Every so often, I get kind of a sulfite reaction that makes my neck all red and blotchy. The wine made my teeth purple and gave me a dark stain across my lips. I also spilled on my white shirt.

“You look just terrible,” Alex said to me. “You probably shouldn’t drink red wine at our wedding.”

“Yum. Wine!” I said to him before passing out and snoring loudly.

And that, my friends, is the moral of the story:

Yum. Wine!

4th of July: An Intro to Wine vs. Beer vs. Hard Alcohol

I know that in my last post I was pushing the theme “drink American” for the 4^th weekend.  I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t really keep to this.  It’s not that I had loads of French wine to intentionally rub it in America’s face on her birthday.  I didn’t have wine at all this weekend.  It was too damn hot.  Readers of this blog know that I’m mostly a red wine kinda guy and red wine isn’t generally something that you think of as being thirst quenching on a hot day.  So, did I drink white wine chilled?  No.  I was eating BBQ and was sitting on the beach so I turned to a simpler beverage, beer.  Ice cold beer.  I’ve got to say, when Coors Light is “super cold” on a hot day at the beach, it just sounds a lot better than a spicy glass of heavy Syrah.  I feel comfortable admitting that even though I pretend to be a wine writer.  And, with it being the 4^th of July, I had Sam Adams Summer Ale (he was a brewer and a patriot, it says so on the bottle), and even had one of those Budweisers in the American flag can just to be patriotic.  So, while I didn’t follow my advice by celebrating American wine this weekend, I think I did a good job in sticking to my general theme of drinking American.

My choices in beverages this weekend made me think about the beer vs. wine vs. hard alcohol debate and why some people prefer one poison over the other.  Beer is refreshing, it’s simple, and it’s cheap.  It’s a college favorite for those reasons (and drinking game reasons, but that’s another story).  Hard alcohol is just poison.  I like it in drinks every now and then but don’t understand shots and don’t like the fact that most people drink it to get drunk instead of actually enjoying what they are drinking.  Then there is wine.  It is complex, varied, mostly more expensive, and a good bridge between the two.  Wine is 2-3 times the strength of beer and about 1/3 the alcohol content of the hard stuff.  It’s a good middle ground and perfect for enjoying with a meal- it compliments food (unlike hard alcohol) and doesn’t fill you up (like beer).

Sometimes one drink just sounds better than another.  Some people have favorite drinks.  Some people like to dabble and try out all they can.  I fall into this last group and it is for this reason that I prefer wine when given the choice of these 3 types of drink.  As I’ve mentioned many times, there are more different varieties of wine than anyone could ever possibly try.  Wine is more of an adventure drink.  It’s a more complex drink.  It’s a more balanced drink and is just more pleasant in general.  When I have a minute to breathe, I’m going to do a bit of research to further explore beer vs. wine vs. hard alcohol, but my choices this weekend started to make me think about the differences in these 3 families of drinks that are all (somewhat) similar.  If anyone has thoughts or angles of this discussion they would like me to look into, let me know and I’ll be sure to add it to the list for a future post.

Tomorrow, we are back to my little competition.  One of my friends, E.R.A., a successful blogger in her own right will be taking center stage when I post her entry.  Be sure to come check it out, it’s a good one!

Entry # 1- FAUribe

Well, it’s July 5^th and that means it’s time to start putting up our entries in my little contest.  I’m thinking that I’ll space out the entries a bit rather than just doing them all on back to back days.  I wrote some stuff this weekend and I still want to be a writer on this blog so I think I’ll post some of my stuff in between each entry.  This first entry is from my roommate, FAUribe.  He has a nice little story for us about his intro into the world of wine.  Hope you guys enjoy.  Remember, if you like his entry, be sure to write comments, telling us that, join the site, and tell your friends to check his post out.  Hope you like it!

Merlot – My Father’s Stepping Stone by FAUribe

Quick: name a varietal!  It’s probably your favorite that you immediately think of, and I can almost guarantee you it’s one of the first wine varietals you ever tried.  It might be Chardonnay,  Syrah, Zinfandel, or Cab Sauv, but I generally not surprised when the answer to the question is not Merlot.  It’s a simple, relatively inexpensive, and, most importantly, a polarizing wine.  It can be bitter, dry, and unsophisticated – traits which hopefully do not also describe Merlot aficionados.

But for me, the answer has always been Merlot.  And when I say always, I mean ALWAYS.  I come from a Latin family – a culture famous for its love of alcohol and drunkenness.  When people think of Mexican drinking, they think of tequila (and sombreros thanks to “brilliant” advertizing in the 80s) or Corona, but rarely do they think of them as a wine-drinking peoples.  My great-grandfather had his own vineyard in Spain that produced Rioja good enough to be served at all my aunts’ and my parents’ weddings, but at the end of the day, all my immediate family members would say that Merlot is their favorite.  This has 100% to do with my father.

My parents came to the US in 1984 (legally), with nothing but the American Dream in their pocket.  Sure, they came from well-to-do families in Mexico, but thankfully, no one in America cares what your father’s last name is.  For my parents, it’s been an upstream swim for the last 27 years, but I know that they would not have it any other way. 

My father, always the classy man, is a wine snob, but of a different kind.  He bets everyone he knows that he can pick out a bottle for $25 or less that would taste better than any $100+ bottle you can throw his way – a bold claim to be sure.  So what kind of wine does a man of such bravado drink?  Merlot.  And not just any Merlot, Chilean Merlot.

Who would have the nerve to drink Merlot on a NIGHTLY basis, and let alone from a non-established wine country like Chile?  That guy.  Whenever I ask him why he likes Merlot, he always starts with some story about how in the 80s Chilean Merlot got a bad rap because of pesticides or something (probably similar to the reputation of Gewürztraminer in the US after that whole anti-freeze (yes, that anti-freeze) fiasco) and that special restrictions are placed on Chilean Merlot that keep prices deflated.  I don’t have the time or the interest to find out if that’s true, but I’ll take him at his word.  But, since as far back as I can remember (and I have a great memory), he has drank Chilean Merlot almost exclusively.  And, as I mentioned before, Mexican families are more “liberal” with drinking ages for their children.  I won’t tell you that I got drunk at 11 years old, but I definitely recall having one of those mini (maybe 2 oz.) cups with just enough wine in it to get some good sips when I was still a young teenager.  That is where my viticulture started.  With a glass of simple, unsophisticated, underrated, cheap Merlot.  For me, that will always be the perfect foundation, one that I hope to repeat with my own children someday.

From there, it was easy.  Chianti was the next step (for some reason), then going down to lighter wines, up to more full bodied wines, over to whites, up to champagnes – all possible thanks to the strong foundation as a kid with Merlot.  I don’t want to get all cheesy, but almost all of my childhood memories involve Merlot in some way, shape, or form.  Whether it was watching my dad drink a glass of wine while playing songs that he wrote for movies and cartoons on the piano, watching soccer or baseball games together, going to the Hollywood Bowl to see John Williams, or the Looney Tunes, or Amy Grant (still not a Country fan), or family events, Merlot was there.  And so was my father.  And in 3 weeks, when we go to the Hollywood Bowl once more to see Lang Lang and Dudamel, my father, my mother, my older sister, my younger sister, my younger brother who just turned 21 last week, and I will pass around the bottle of Merlot to each other, pouring from the same proverbial bottle.

4th of July BBQs

With the 4th of July coming up, I have to write a "drink American" post.  For a patriotic post on wine, there is no better place to begin than with the movie, "Bottle Shock."  "Bottle Shock" tells the story of American wineries beating the French in a blind taste test held in France, judged by French wine experts.  The movie really only details the competition that has Cheateau Montelena's Chardonnay beat the French whites, what it doesn't tell is that the American red wines also beat their French counterparts.  Another aspect of the competition that the movie doesn't really touch on is that the competition, the "Judgement of Paris" as it has since been called, was that the competition was held on America's bicentennial, July 4th, 1976.

So, Chateau Montelena made its name in 1976 with its Chardonnay, but since then, it has become better known for its red wines, especially its Cabernet Sauvignon.  I was luck enough to be able to have a bottle of the Cabernet Sauvignon last week, and I have to say that it is worth all the hype.  It was on par with the Heitz Cellar Cabernet that I had just a few weeks ago, if not even a bit better.  I had this wine with a Tri Tip roast and the meat wasn't the best pair for the wine despite it seems like they would make a perfect pair.  The BBQed beef was great on its own as was the wine, and that's the way I kinda wish we had kept them.  But, all that being said, both were still good, just not complimentary as I wish they had been.  The Cabernet is amazingly concentrated and complex and could be described as overpowering at first, but after having a glass, you start to notice all of the subtle flavors that are not apparent at first.

I know that not everyone will be able to pick up a bottle of Montelena this weekend, but as you prepare your 4th of July BBQs, drink American.  We make some of the best wines to pair with foods made on the grill.  Think Zinfandels and Syrahs, Cabernets and Merlots.  Most will go well with your grill fare this weekend.  As we await the start of the guest post competition, I'll try to update the blog with my BBQ wine pairings for the holiday weekend.  If you come across a good pair this weekend, let me know so I can try it out later this summer.

Contest Guidelines

Alright, so it seems like enough people are interested in this little contest that we will actually be able to make it happen.  After actually thinking it through a bit, here is how I see everything playing out.

Each person writing a post will have to submit them to me by July5.  Beginning July 6, I will begin posting the entries, one per day until I have posted them all.  Once posted, each post will have 1 week to prove its popularity with readers before I take the tallies on page hits, comments, followers, etc.  Example: I’ll tally the week July 6-13 for the post put online on July 6, for the post put online on July 7, that period will be July 7-14, etc.  Once your entry has been posted, you turn from writer into marketer.  Most of you have blogs, twitters, facebook, etc. so you mission will then be getting your friends to check out your post to make it the most viewed.  After each post has had their week, I’ll add up the “scores” and have a coronation for the winner.  The winner will then be able to write another victory post should they choose.  And, of course will be the recipient of a bottle of wine.

The topic is wine.  You guys have seen this site.  I write about wine in many different ways, so I really don’t have any parameters for y’all.

I think I finally covered everything.  If I missed anything, let me know and I’ll amend the post to include it.

Happy writing!

*Note, you can include pitctures.

Contest Time!

After the guest post yesterday, I had an idea.  I should get more of my friends and readers to write some guest posts because I thought it would be fun to hear their different opinions on wine.  I also thought this might be a way to get more people reading my blog!  If I can get five of my friends (my loyal followers for example) to each write a post, and they each get 5 of their friends to read their post, then maybe, just maybe my blog will become noteworthy and wineries will start sending me samples to review (which I will then share with my followers).  I see this actually happening in my mind, so might as well try it out.

So, here is what I’m thinking.  I am going to try to get 5-10 different people to write guest posts for me, and then I’ll post them, one per day for as long as it takes to get them all posted.  Then, using blogger’s handy stats tools, I can see which post gets the most page views over the next week and pick a winner.  I’m thinking that writers will get extra points for comments and for people that start following the blog because of their post.  And, the best part of this little contest?  I’m going to give the winning writer a bottle of wine as a prize!  I’m not sure what it’ll be at the moment, but I can promise that it’ll be something good.  Go ahead and begin thinking about what you want to write and how you are going to market your post so that you can take home the prize.  I don’t really have a timeline for this little contest, but I’d like to start posting the entries in two weeks or so, so you guys have some time to think about it.  Post a comment if you're interested in entering and I'll get you details about how to send me the post, etc.

Happy writing!

PS… you have to be over 21 to be eligible to win the prize.  Figured I should add this in to keep things legal.

PSS… I already got my first entry- my roommate wrote his last night in anticipation of this contest.

Guest Post!

Beach City Girl’s comment is getting quite a bit of attention this week.  As a follow-up to my last post, she was kind enough to write the following post as the first “guest post” on my site!  Continuing the apparent theme for the week, this post is also about movies and wine, and while she doesn’t continue on the Traveling Pants track, she does provide a just in time for summer wine and movie pairing.  Hope you enjoy this.  And, please take note, I actually respond to my reader’s comments and am even willing to publish their posts (that was a subtle call for more guest posts…).  So without further ado, here is Beach City Girl’s guest post:

So I have to admit: Daniel called my bluff. I do NOT actually recommend that anyone over the age of 12 watch Sisterhood of Traveling Pants, because you will most likely be bored out of your mind, and just plain confused about why these girls are mailing a pair of unwashed jeans around the world. Similarly, I do not have a wine pairing that I would suggest for that film, because if you’re watching it, you are probably at the age where you are drinking a Dr. Pepper and contemplating dropping a Mentos in it.

Now, having said that, I do have a movie and wine pairing suggestion that might surprise you, but in a different way: 2009 Sea Ridge Chardonnay and the movie (500) Days of Summer. Now you’re probably thinking “blah, chardonnay” and “blah, indie chick-flick”, but recall my previous admonition: Don’t knock it ‘til you try it.

The Sea Ridge Chardonnay is a creamy California wine with that smells like citrus, and tastes and feels like butterscotch. It’s got a crisp notes of pear and lemon wrapped in a smooth, contrasting finish. Like many California wines that I’ve tried, it has a heavy fruity emphasis, but it’s more of a bright citrus-y taste than a sweet overpowering apple.

In the same way, (500) Days of Summer was not what initially expected. Its sweet and clever, but not a love story or a romantic comedy, and that’s expressed very clearly. With it’s wit, killer soundtrack, and quirky cast, this movie leaves you wanting just one more sip.

An interesting note about the stars in the movie: Joseph Gordon Levitt went from Angels in the Outfield child-star to being in Inception. That kind of transformation and versatility in an actor is amazing. Ditto with Zoe Deschanel. She's a singer songwriter (from the band She and Him) and has been in movies with Jim Carrey and Sarah Jessica Parker. She keeps you guessing. By the end of the movie you love to hate her character, but you still love her.

Last note about the wine; it’s got its own secret surprises, chiefly the fact that you can get it at Vons for less than $3.00 a bottle. Literally, a steal. I’ve served this at dinner parties, and used it in sauces (and I don’t cook with wine I wouldn’t drink), and always gotten rave reviews.

So next time you want to try something that might be a little out of the realm of what you might normally drink (or watch), whip a little pear and brie crostini, open a bottle of Sea Ridge Chardonnay, and turn on (500) Days of Summer. I can almost promise it will leave you wanting more.

Wine and Movies

Movies and wine are becoming something of a recurring theme here, but I like that.  They have a lot in common as I’ll explain in this post, inspired by Beach City Girl’s comment on my last post.

For those of you who don’t remember (or more likely didn’t read) the last post, Beach City Girl called me out on when I said I wouldn’t pair a wine with Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants because I had no interest in seeing it.  She stated: “I think you would actually really enjoy Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants... As with wines, don't knock it til you try it.”

I am going to use her comment as a jumping off point to explain why movies and wine are similar, and to tell why my anti-Traveling Pants attitude isn’t actually narrow minded, but just me showing a bit about my preferences in movies and wine.

For starters, how many different wines are there in the world?  Different varietals, makers, vintages, etc… there are a ton, right?  More than you could ever possibly try.  Even Parker who supposedly tries 10,000 wines a year doesn’t come anywhere near trying every wine made.  Now movies, how many different movies have been made?  Different genres, actors, countries of origin, etc… there are a ton, right?  More than you could ever possibly watch.  Even Roger Ebert doesn’t come anywhere near seeing everything that comes out.  Since these professionals don’t even come close to keeping up with their industry, how could I, as a casual fan of both ever dream to?  Well, with movies it’s relatively simple- advertising, pedigree (from actors and directors, etc.), reviews, and recommendations from friends and family help me determine which movies interest me, and based on these “previews,” I choose to see or not see a particular movie, knowing that I cannot see them all, but figuring that I might as well select the ones that I am most likely to enjoy.  Back to wine where it’s a bit more complicated.  Wineries rarely advertise, so I don’t have commercials and posters to pique my interest.  Pedigree and recommendations are what we have to go off of when we choose a wine.  The reputation of a particular region, winemaker, or vintage are usually enough to gain my interest and make me want to try a wine.  For instance, it was the reputations of both Biondi Santi and Heitz Cellar that drove me to try their wines recently.  It was the tradition of Bordeaux that made me try their wine for the first time years ago, and the tradition of Chianti is part of what makes it a favorite of mine.  Recommendations are huge too.  Friends tell me about good wines all the time, and from these recommendations, I have discovered some amazing wines.  Again, realizing that I cannot try (or afford) them all, the goal is to try and make selections that I am most likely to enjoy.

So, based on this logic, I do not see my anti-Traveling Pants stance as narrow minded, but as playing the percentages after having seen previews and after not having it recommended to me until Beach City Girl said I would enjoy it, just a few days ago.  It wasn’t on my radar as something that I would enjoy, so I wouldn’t gravitate towards it.  Wine is similar- I’m not drawn to Pinotage from South Africa or big, buttery Chardonnays from California for the same reasons.  They are rarely recommended to me, and based on their “previews” I make the decision to spend my time enjoying other wines.

Now, the argument that I just laid out is a solid foundation for me, but as you might be thinking, it sounds like it could get boring and monotonous- always choosing similar things because that’s what you like and never being all that adventurous.  That leads me to another similarity between wine and movies- random discovery that is made because of other’s decisions.  How many times have you seen a movie because you went on a date and saw something your companion wanted to see?  Or how many times have you been over at a friend’s house and seen something that you had never heard of or never really considered watching yourself?  How many times have you been bored one afternoon and watched a movie just because it was on TV when nothing else was?  And, of all of these movies that you just happened to happen upon, how many of them did you enjoy?  My bet would be that there are a bunch of them.  When it comes to wine, how many times have you been to dinner at a friend’s house and been exposed to a new wine you enjoyed?  How many times have you visited a friend and been to a local winery, thus discovering a new region?  How many times have you been tasting and tried something that pleasantly surprised you?  Again, my bet would be that this happens pretty often.  All the questions I posed above involved situations that were (mostly) out of your control, so they pushed you into a new situation, and at least sometimes, that new situation left a positive impression on you, allowing you to grow, and possibly changing your mindset somewhat, thus revising what movies and wine previews are likely to influence you in the future.  These random situations help us keep our love of wine and movies from growing stagnant, they help us learn more about the vast genres that we will never fully master, and, more to my original point, they keep us adventurous while helping us avoid being narrow minded.

This being said, Traveling Pants might now deserve a second look now that it has been recommended by a credible source.  Maybe Beach City Girl can recommend a wine to pair with it to truly make me watching the movie a new and random event?

Wine Pairings and Football Movies- An Addition!

Well, I’d like to write more on my Italy trip, and will do so at some point, but I realized something last night that I don’t want to risk forgetting…

When making my list to pair wines with football movies, I forgot about Jerry Maguire!  Come on guys, I know some of you at least read that post, how could everyone forget about Jerry Maguire?  I need to get my readers more involved (hint, hint…)

Anyway, I was watching Jerry Maguire last night, and I had a glass of wine during the movie, only to discover that it paired pretty darn well.

Vons grocery stores is doing their 30% off wines sale at the moment, so I decided to take the opportunity to stock up on some everyday wine and buy a few nicer bottles that I wouldn’t normally buy.  One of those bottles was a 2005 Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon.  I’d always heard good things about Heitz, so I decided this was as good an opportunity to try it as any.  The wine itself was phenomenal.  It was amazingly bold yet still soft and easy to drink.  I tasted raspberry, strawberry, and blueberry on the fruity side, but also anise, pepper, and smoky flavors all at the same time.  It was a bit overwhelming at first, but when paired with a steak, it was great.  Too bad it’s too darn expensive for me to drink often.

After dinner, my roommates and I watched Jerry Maguire, and as I was sipping my wine, I tried to think about which wine I had paired this movie with.  I couldn’t remember so I looked it up.  I was shocked when I realized that I forgot about Jerry Maguire.  I’m ashamed that I forgot it!  Anyway, now, my list is fixed- my movie-wine pairing for Jerry Maguire is Heitz Cellar Cabernet.  The strong and powerful wine goes well with the great movie that’s depth matches that of the wine.

Now readers, once again, if any of y’all can think of any movies that I’ve forgotten, or if you’d like me to try to pair a wine with one of your favorites, let me know.

PS… I reserve the right to decline requests- for example, I will not pair a wine with a movie that I’d never be able to sit through- think “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”

Italy Trip- My Shopping List

Well, I’m back from my whirlwind tour of Italy, still trying to comprehend the fact that I was actually in Italy for the last week, and that the trip just wasn’t a blur in my imagination.  On the last day of our trip, our tour guide remarked that he had never been on a tour that packed so much into a 6 day trip.  That being said, I didn’t have much free time to dig up stories for the blog while I was there.  I did, however, come away with several interesting stories that I’ll share in the coming days…

Whenever I go back to Italy, wine is always one of the main things that I bring back with me.  Over the years, I have become a savvier shopper over there- only buying what was significantly cheaper there, or buying what was impossible to find over here.  Here is what I came back with this time…

2003 Biondi Santi Rosso di Montalcino.  I tried a glass of this at a wine bar a few days before buying it and decided that I had to have it.  Biondi Santi makes an expensive wine, but in my experience, it has been worth the price each time.  This wine is the only one that I brought home that I’ll be opening anytime soon.

2004 Le Due Sorelle Brunello di Montalcino Riserva.  I’ve never bought a Riserva Brunello before, so I figured that 2004 was a good vintage to try my first.  It was pretty expensive, but after reading a bit about the producer and knowing that the vintage was excellent, and knowing that it would be impossible to find here, I had to get it.

2004 Biondi Santi Brunello di Montalcino.  I got this Biondi Santi Brunello to keep my bottle of 2001 Biondi Santi company while it ages for a few more years.  Biondi Santi is the maker that is said to have created the first Brunello wine, and now, a hundred plus years later, they still do a great job.  Anytime Brunello has a great vintage, I’ll be looking to pick up a bottle of Biondi Santi.

2006 Colpetrone Sagrantino di Montefalco.  This wine from Umbria is among the boldest I’ve ever tried.  I don’t know if I’ll open it soon and have it with a steak or if I’ll hold onto it for a few years to see what it is like when it softens up a bit.  Either way, I highly recommend that you try a Montefalco wine should you ever come across one.

This post was didn’t really require much thought on my part- like I said, the trip is still mostly a blur in my mind.  I’ll have some more insightful Italian posts in the coming days- I’m still digesting the trip.

Off to Italy!

A quick heads up to my readers: I’ll be taking next week off because I’ll be in Italy!  While I’m technically going because of work, there will be quite a bit of fun mixed into the trip as well.  I’m sure that I’ll come back with several stories involving food and wine that I will be able to turn into posts, so instead of me saying that I’m taking the week off from blogging, let’s just say that I’m out “researching” future topics for this blog.

To leave you guys with a quick tidbit about wine to hold you over while I’m gone.  Try a wine made by either Larry or Helen Turley.  This brother-sister wine maker combo produces some of the best wines in California.  Their wineries are definite must visits if you are ever in the Sonoma or Paso Robles areas.  I recently had one of their young vine Zinfandels and it was delicious.  It made my mouth water with its tartness and explosive fruitiness.  I wish I had several more bottles of it, but sadly I only bought one on my last trip up there.

I hope everyone has a great week!  I’ll post from Italy if I can, but if not, stay tuned for a trip recap to be posted in a few weeks!

My First Wine Dinner

Last Sunday I finally went to a wine dinner that paired specific wines to a specific meal.  True to my nontraditional way with wine, this dinner featured wines paired with In N Out burger, Southern California’s best fast food burger.  All of the wines paired with the burger were made by a single winemaker, Doug Margerum.  Doug apparently came up with this idea a few years back and it has been a success each year he’s done it, and for good reason.  Doug makes wine for several wineries up in Santa Barbara county and good wines at that.  Surprisingly, I have never visited one of his wineries in my trips up to that area, but thanks to the dinner, I had the opportunity to sample them all without leaving Los Angeles.

When I arrived at the dinner, I received my ticket for a burger and a wine glass.  I was one of the first to arrive, so I decided to take advantage of the down time to go talk with Doug Margerum to get his opinion on which wine I should pair with my burger.  He said hands down that his “M5” wine, a Rhone blend was the drink of choice with the burger, so after talking with him a bit and hearing all about his different wines and the wineries that he works for, I got a glass of the M5 and went off to get my burger.  As always, In N Out made a great burger, and the wine itself was good, but I didn’t think much of the pairing to be perfectly honest.  I didn’t think that the spicy, tannic wine did much to go with the cheese burger.  I just feel like the burger overpowered the wine and that it kind of ruined the wine’s flavors.  I think that the pairing would have been much better if I had gotten a burger without cheese.  I told Doug this and he disagreed with me of course, but it led to a good conversation about how he thought the wine balanced out the heaviness of the rich, cheesy burger and how I thought that the richness overpowered his wine.  After talking with him for a little bit, I decided to try some of his other wines.

For the most part, Doug makes wines that are typical of Santa Barbara county- French style wines that are either blends heavy on Syrah or Bordeaux blends that are heavy on Merlot and Cabernet Franc.  I enjoyed most of his blends, but wasn’t really a fan of any of his single varietal red wines.  The one that I did like was a Sangiovese made from a single vineyard up there and made in extremely small quantities.  Overall, the highlight of the day wasn’t the meal or the wines, but talking with Doug and learning more about what he was thinking as he made all of the wines that I was trying.  As the wine maker and someone that knows the wines he makes inside and out, it was nice to hear his commentary on what I was drinking while bouncing my own opinions off of him.  He was quickly able to peg me as an avid fan of Sangiovese because that was the wine that sparked the most conversation between us, and that was the wine that I felt most comfortable talking about.

To second my opinion from my post a few weeks ago about wine dinners, I think that every fan on wine should try an organized dinner at some point in their lives.  While some are extravagantly expensive, many others are reasonable and are as simple as a small winemaker pouring his wines to match with a fast food cheeseburger in the parking lot of a wine store.  Keep your eyes open and if you ever see a wine dinner that sounds like it’s right up your alley, try it out, you won’t be disappointed. 

Your Palate

The thing that is truly amazing about wine is the fact that not only is each wine unique, but that the same exact wine will taste different to different people.  Your palate is what allows you to taste a wine for all that its worth, and your palate will give you an idea of the distinct flavors and most importantly, will tell whether or not you like what you’re trying.  The best thing about your palate is that it’s yours.  Another cool thing about your palate is that it’s different from everyone else’s.  So, continuing on one of the central themes for this blog, no one can tell you what you should taste in a wine and no one can tell you that you should like a wine.  Anytime a wine professional writes a review of a wine, they are writing it based on their own tastes.  Robert Parker’s palate is quite different from mine- does that mean that I don’t listen to his recommendations?  Nope, I still read them, but instead of allowing them to tell me how to taste a wine and what I should get out of it, I use them as a jumping off point.

Let me explain.  Say a Cabernet Sauvignon is described as being very fruity, especially heavy on blackberries, and heavy on tannin.  Knowing this, I’ll taste the wine and see what I think about the wine.  Chances are that I’ll pick up on the tannin quickly as my mouth will dry up if it is heavy on tannin, but the flavors might not hit me as easily.  If I’m looking for a particular flavor, like blackberries in this case, I’ll probably be able to pick it up somewhere along the line, but it may not be the first or dominant flavor in my opinion.  I could taste pepper, anise, or any of hundreds of other possibilities instead of blackberries.  So, instead of letting the description that I probably don’t agree with bring me down, and instead of me letting it call me wrong, I just brush it aside and use chalk it up to an example of what someone else thought about this wine.

Now, while each palate is different, they all have some similarities.  The most important similarity that all palates have is that they retain information and they learn with practice.  You might not agree with me here, but it’s a fact.  Want an example?  Have you ever tasted leather?  How about cumin by itself?  Cardboard?  Probably now. Well, I’ve heard all of these used as examples to describe how a wine tastes.  How did we come to associate some of these off the wall flavors with wine?  By tasting.  Once you taste a wine and have someone describe it as leathery or as tasting like cardboard that association sticks in your head (assuming you agree with it) and that experience will be there should you ever have something like it again.  A palate might not improve all that much, but it will get better at discerning flavors with practice.

Next time you try wine, try it with the attitude that you are tasting it with your palate.  Don’t let anyone else’s opinion sway you.  They were tasting with their palate, and chances are that their tasting experience will be different than yours.  That’s the beauty of having your very own palate, and that’s the beauty of wine.  It tastes different to every person that tries it.