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.

Wine Party!

In previous posts, I’ve written about the perks of being a member at a winery, so just consider this another endorsement of wine club membership.  Last Sunday was Malibu Family Wine’s annual “Member Pick-up Party.”  This event is special because it is only open to members and their guests.  Another thing that makes is special is the fact that the party is actually hosted by the owners, in the vineyard, and in their backyard.  When most people think about Malibu, their minds jump directly to the beaches, and for good reason- we have some awesome beaches.  But, lost in all of the beachy glory of Malibu are the mountains that surround Malibu.  These mountains make wine growing possible, and a little valley was the site of this party.  Malibu, while mostly a beach town, has a large number of ranches up in the hills.  Up any of the numerous canyons, you can find ranch estates that have horses, stables, and that are just all-around beautiful country estates.  Malibu Family Wines owns one of these estates.

After turning into the driveway of the estate, we still had about a five minute drive to the parking lot.  The driveway twisted through the vineyards, around fields around horses, camels, and even zebras, and passed next to ponds, hiking trails, and gorgeous views.  The parking lot was just an open field that would usually be a place to ride horses, but today it was the dusty, bumpy parking lot that all of the Porches, BMWs, and Mercedes struggled to traverse.  The Jeep did just fine in case you were wondering.

From the parking lot, it was a short walk to the grassy field that was the setting for the party.  We all had to check in and receive our glasses for the day.  Each person at the party was given one glass.  This glass was ours for the day and could be filled and refilled with free wine as often as we wanted all day long.  After getting our glasses, the next mission was to have them filled.  Malibu Family Wines were on the menu (obviously), and featured today were a Cabernet Sauvignon, a Rose, and a Sauvignon Blanc.  Being our driver, I wanted to go straight for what I liked best rather than trying out all of them so I went with the Cabernet and then began to make my way through the food tables.  The food situation was a bit overwhelming (probably 12 different tables all offering different options), but I found the cheese table and, after preparing a nice cheese plate, went to go find a seat in the field.  We got comfortable, ate, drank, and listened to the live music for a while before walking around the party a bit, refilling our glasses as needed. 

We were entertained by the miniature ponies for a while, but really found entertainment in people watching at the party.  It was fascinating to see all the different people that were wine club members.  Most of them were middle aged (in fact, the four of us in our early 20s were definitely in the youngest 2% there), and most of them at least appeared to be pretty wealthy.  We didn’t really fit in with the crowd except for the fact that everyone there loved wine.  It was interesting to hear all of the conversations around us, especially those about wine.  The conversations were made all the more interesting because we were all drinking pretty much the same wines.  I heard some nice commentary on some of the wines, and I also heard several things about the wine that I know to be false.

The hours drifted by lazily, but quickly at the same time.  As the party started to thin, we made our way back out to the parking lot to be greeted by our going away present- our wine!  Often lost in the fun of parties like these is the fact that we do pay for this membership, but that this membership entitles us to wine!  I received a bottle of the Sauvignon Blanc that was being poured at the party and a red blend that is new for Malibu Family Wines.  I’m excited to drink both and, after a great party like this, I’m re-energized with wine and am eager to continue learning about it.  I’m already looking forward to next year’s party and all of the other, smaller parties that will come in the months between now and then.

Gewurztraminer and Albarino

I’m confident that if you don’t like either one of these white varietals then you just haven’t tried enough of them.  Both Albarino and Gewurztraminer are lesser known white varietals from Spain and Germany, so you aren’t likely to see many bottles pop up on grocery store shelves (although several large American producers now make a good Gewurztraminer).  Their brilliance lies not in their rarity or complexity, but in the fact that both wines pair with a wide range of foods, and mostly with foods that are hard to pair wine with.  Did I mention that they are also really cheap?

Albarino first came into my life as a result of an online food-wine pairing tool courtesy of Gallo.  My buddy, who happens to be a Gallo employee, and I were messing around with this tool on Gallo’s website, trying to figure out what food-drink combo we would have for dinner.  We decided on fish tacos, and Albarino came up as one of the possibilities for a good match.  We tried it out and found that it worked perfectly.  I tried it again a few weeks later with more traditional Mexican food and was highly impressed that the light white wine paired extremely well with the spicy Mexican food.  Being a Mexican food lover, I was excited to have a reliable pairing to occasionally replace the margaritas and beer that traditionally accompany Mexican food.  A short time ago, I bought six bottles of Albarino and have since been trying it out with a wide variety of foods, and each time, I’ve been impressed by its ability to work with food.  Kraft mac and cheese is just the latest example of a good pairing that I’ve found.  The cheesy pasta is heavy, and while I thought it might overpower the light wine, the acidity in the Albarino nicely offset the meal and was a refreshing drink to have with the pasta.  Try out Albarino with almost any meal and I have the feeling that it’ll pair at least decently.  Albarnio is by no means a complex wine, just a wine that loves food, so it definitely merits some playing time for anyone that likes to have wine with meals.

Gewurztraminer is a bit like Riesling’s little brother.  It hasn’t gotten the recent press that Riesling has received (from Wine Spectator, Parker, me, etc.), but it is every bit as good a wine as its Germany brother.  Gewurztraminer is another wine that loves food, especially food that is hard to pair with wine.  Thai, Chinese, and even burgers come to mind as foods that pair well with Gewurztraminer.  Mexican food even falls into this category as well.  Like Albarino, Gewurztraminer works best with spicy foods, but it also has a bit more of a sugary-sweet taste, allowing it to give the sweet and sour combo to some dinner pairings.  While I know that they exist, I have never seen a bottle of Gewurztraminer cost more than $20.  This might cause some people to hesitate and to think that Gewurztraminer has a ceiling and can only be so good (if there aren’t high end options that are “better,” then the cheapest options are all trash, right?), this is absolutely not true.  Like I said, some large American wine producers have been making quality Gewurztraminer that costs less than $10 per bottle.  Its cheapness comes from the fact that it just isn’t a popular wine and that it just isn’t that widely grown.  I blame its lack of success on the fact that its name is just so damn hard to pronounce.  It’s hard for anyone to sound like a wine pro while saying “Gewurztraminer.”  We have all learned how to say Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, etc. like we are fluent in French, but this German wine just doesn’t roll off the tongue like Chardonnay or even its German brother, Riesling.

If you can get over the fact that both of these wines are somewhat hard to find, are mostly unheard of and unpopular, you will be pleasantly surprised and may be able to give your Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Girgio, and Riesling some company in your cellars.  I promise that you’ll like them and that they will be the perfect wines for those dinner parties where you want to serve any food that doesn’t traditionally go with wine.