Archive for the ‘Wine Tasting’ Category

Finally had a chance to read through this current (June-July 2006) issue of WineMaker Magazine. Some really interesting articles and some country wine recipes provided by Jack Keller.

One article though in particular, the “Winemaker Profile” column on Chuck Blethen really caught my attention. In fact, there are two things he is quoted as saying that I wonder about.

First, on the use of sulphite:

“… once the initial Campden tablets run out following the rogue yeast kill, I don’t add sulfites to our wines. I have found that many people who are allergic to sulfites can drink our wines and not get headaches or get sick from allergic reactions.”

There is some controversy about “sulfite allergies.” The fact of the matter is that sulfites are used in food preservation in a vast array of prepared foods that you might purchase at the grocery store. Those who say they get headaches after drinking red wine will sometimes put this down to “sulfites” in the wine. Many think this is doubtful – it is more likely the alcohol in the wine – or some other component in red wine that is not in white wine. Sulfite allergies, as I understand it, with the amount used in food or wine preservation are very rare. So when Blethen says, “many people who are allergic to sulfites,” one wonders how he knows for sure that these people were indeed allergic to sulfite in the first place – simply their claims of such? Have they been tested for this allergy?

And at the same time, I then wonder about how long he dares age his wines without sulfite. Unless he is using absolutely sanitary conditions where there are no fruit flies or any other organisms even off of his clothing – I really can’t see him being able to guarantee that a good number of bottles from any batch will survive even one year’s ageing.

Another thing Blethen says is this:

“I have found that filtering my wines causes them to lose about 50% of the flavour.”

Wow! How in the world did he come up with that figure of “50%?” That just seems absurd to me. Now, I have heard that filtering wine can reduce flavour – and truth be told, I don’t filter a lot of my wines either. However, I have conducted my own “taste tests” on some wines I’ve made, and my tongue couldn’t tell the difference between wine I had filtered with #2 pads vs. wine from the very same batch that had not been filtered.

Perhaps some can tell a difference. I’d certainly be agreeable to considering that some folks will have a much more sensitive palatte than I do – but to come up with an objective number – 50% or, in other words, “lost HALF” with something so subjective as flavour seems to be pretty much nonsense to me. How does one measure “flavour” anyhow?

And what is the “fineness” of the filters that Blethen was using that apparently took away so much flavour? Is he suggesting that #3 filters will remove the same “amount” of taste as say, a #2 or #1?

Getting back to the sulfite – if you make your own wine at home, use it or don’t age your wine for very long. Unless you are extremely confident that your wine making area is 100% bacteria and germ free.

In October of 2005, I made a wine from a Wine Kitz kit: Coupage de Soleil, which I reviewed here.

Yesterday, I decided to open a bottle and here’s my tasting notes:

Bouquet: dark cherry and blossoms.

On The Tongue: black cherry, black currant and pepper. Excellent mouth feel. I personally enjoyed this wine very much.

Back in July, I began a blueberry wine according to this recipe. I made one gallon, specifically for drinking with whatever we were going to eat for dinner on Christmas Day.

I was remiss in not sampling the wine in the past two months so I was not sure what it was going to be like. I had also never bothered to bottle it, instead allowing it to bulk age in the one gallon carboy which I poured from into our wine glasses at dinner time.

Being the host, I asked Wendy to take the first sip . She tried it but wasn’t too sure as she had just been munching on some food and asked me to try.

I was disappointed. The wine seemed far too thin to enjoy with dinner and I was thinking I’d have to open a bottle of Vieux-Chateau Du Roi. However, knowing that it was all friends and family sitting around the table, and there were no wine snobs present, I decided to serve it regardless.

The color of the wine was a brilliant cranberry red – perfect as a Christmas color. It was also very clear even though this wine had not been filtered. So as far as appearance goes, this wine was excellent.

On the nose, well… with the dining area filled with the odour of thyme, sage, rosemary, and steaming turkey, it was difficult to detect much of anything. At first.

Something interesting happened though. After about ten minutes in the glass, the wine had improved dramatically. As the blueberry wine had been exposed to oxygen, the the “thinness” disapeared, there was a much nicer mouth feel, and more complexity found on the tongue. This wine definitely is one that would benefit from decanting like a good red grape wine would.

And as the evening wore on, and we had started out with a gallon which meant plenty for all that were interested (except my mom, who was driving), each glass improved upon the previous.

I did quickly pour some into a 750 ml bottle which I gave to my mom before she left so she could continue to enjoy the wine that the rest of us would be sipping on throughout the rest of the evening when she arrived home – which of course cut down on the amount the rest of us were able to consume.

Although I had pies and icecream ready for dessert after dinner, none of us were able to even think about finding any spare square inches in our belly; none of us had hollow legs either so dessert was declined by all.

I did however open an “ice style” blackcurrant wine for dessert – a heavenly delight called “Black Iced Passion” from the Scotch Block winery. A wine that you want to hold on your tongue for as long as possible, and yet at the same time look forward to it drizzling down your throat.

Ah, wonderful!

But returning to my homemade blueberry wine – almost the entire gallon was consumed, and alas, I’ll have to wait another six months or so before I the next batch I made will be ready. But this time, I decided to make five gallons – 30 bottles, which I’m sure will be appreciated gifts, as well as a special occassion wine and I’ll also be able to lay some bottles down for further ageing.

There is also some evidence that blueberry wine has even more of the health benefits than red grape wine. It’s been reported that blueberries contain one of the highest amounts of antioxidant compounds which possibly ward off heart disease, cancers and other diseases. When made into wine, these antioxidant compounds remain to be beneficial to the human body. More information here.

Back in August, I had about half a gallon of Granache and 1/2 a gallon of “Festa White” that didn’t fit in the carboys I had racked each into. I also didn’t have any spare bottles or 1/2 gallon carboys but I did have a spare 1 gallon carboy.

I thought, what the heck.. why waste this when I can try something. So, I mixed both the Granache and the Festa White into the one gallon carboy, and have let it age since August.

Last night, I was curious and decided to give it a try. Poured a small glass – it had a very bright appearance. I took a sip, and just about spat the stuff out.

It may have been that my taste buds just would not adjust to this as I had earlier been sipping some Granache which I was enjoying very much. However, I was tempted just to toss the lot of this blend. But I thought I’d get a second opinion, and called Wendy down. Poured her a glass and just asked her to taste it and get her opinion. She asked me what it was, but I didn’t tell her. Boy, that’s trust isn’t it?

She sipped it, and went “Mmmmmm! I like that!” I looked at her funny.

“Really? Seriously?”

“Yeah, what is it? It has a nice feel in the mouth, and I like the taste,” she replied.

I told her what it was, and what I had thought of doing with it. But she assured me she enjoyed it, so I won’t be tossing it down the drain.

So either there is simply no accounting for some people’s taste, or it really is a very personal thing, even when it comes to wine. What is one person’s swill is another’s delight. And this brings up an interesting discussion on the annual Beaujolais Nouveau arrival, over at Vinography. I’ve never bought or tried a bottle of Beaujolais; perhaps I should just so that I can offer up something to the debate. And I’ll have to admit that I do enjoy young wines as well as older ones.

Fatemeh has begun the wrap up for Wine Blogging Wednesday #15, and some really interesting and yummy sounding wines have been reviewed. If you’ve been following along, this month the instructions were to find a wine of which only 250 cases or less were produced.

Fatemeh hasn’t been able to complete the wrap-up and has chosen to do it in two parts – I’m sure trying to read and list 29 different reviews is a task in itself, best done over a glass or three of wine!

I’m looking forward to reading the whole list and hopefully there will be some interest in Jens idea on trading some of these micro winery offerings.

This month’s edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday is being hosted by Gastronomie and what a challenge this was for me!

Find a wine of which only 250 cases are made, and better yet, from a winery that produces less than 1,000 cases in total.

Well, I found all that and more!

First, let me tell you about the wine:

It’s called Divine Gooseberry, which may seem like a bit of a corny name for a wine, but we’ll discuss how “divine” it is shortly. It is made by Scotch Block Country Winery in Halton Hills, Ontario, about a 4o minute drive from my home.

When the theme for this month’s WBW came up, I had thought it might be time for my first visit to Scotch Block. I headed down there last week, and when speaking with winemaker Fred Bulbeck, he laughed when I asked him whether any of his wines were made in quantities of less than 250 cases. He pointed to the small number of shelves in the shop, and exclaimed, “They’re ALL under 250 cases!”

In the end, I purchased three different wines. Fred advised me that the gooseberry wine went very well with spicy food. I have not made curry in a while, so I thought it would be the perfect wine to feature on WBW, along with spicy East Indian ginger and curry chicken dinner (yes, I can cook as well).

I poured the wine into our glasses, and was impressed with the colour – a sort of translucent golden or peachish colour with a watery rim (after writing this, I visited the Scotch Block website where they describe the colour as “deep almond with just a hint of copper.” I’m not sure about the “deep almond” part).

On the nose, there was really not much there – almost like the smell of a spritzer – tonic or mineral water and white wine. We really weren’t expecting very much as far as taste goes after that.

However! It was quite delightful. It has a bit of an effervescence on the tongue (although the wine is most definitely a still wine) which passes with enough “bite” on the tongue to create a lot of interest. What is this exactly? I’ve never tasted anything quite like it, but there was a nice hint of apple aftertaste.

But we weren’t done yet. Wine and curry… I’ve never really had a wine that seemed to compliment curry before so, let’s dig into our spicy curry chicken and rice. Another sip of “Divine Gooseberry,” and we both exclaimed, “Wow, is that ever good!” Indeed, the curry almost seemed to make the wine taste better.

There is also a hint of Chamblaise in this as well, but you know you are not drinking a grape wine. It’s quite a remarkable as well as unique taste, and I’m grateful to Gasteronomie for such a challenging theme this month that introduced me to this fruit wine. Now I plan on trying to make my own homemade gooseberry wine – it’s sure to be a favourite around here.

Details
Divine Gooseberry
Alcohol: 11.5%
Cost: $12.95 Canadian (a steal really).

If you enjoy curry, I’d highly recommend you try to find a gooseberry wine to go with it.

Jens at Cincinnati Wine Garage has the Wine Blogging Wednesday recap up, and there’s a lot of interesting reviews of Pinots. Go check it out.

“Three guys and a pinot and a PairoWoodies.”

Yeah, say that real fast! It’s probably not what first comes to mind at all though.

I’m no professional wine taster – and in fact, I’ve never really done any “wine tasting” in the “uppity” sense of the expression. Oh, I certainly do taste wine, and enjoy many varieties. Sometimes, I even swill my wine (“Egads!” say some).

Having said that, I’ve always wanted to learn more about wine tasting as I thought it would give me a better appreciation for wines. I’m not really aware of what I could be sensing and I plan on taking a wine tasting class soon. But to get me started, I thought we could have a little fun with this month’s Wine Blogging Wednesday’s, this month to be hosted by Jens of Cincinatti Wine Garage on October 5th. Jens’ choice the theme, “New World Pinot Noir” and I believe I’ve got just the thing(s) for this.

Down on the Niagara Peninsula, there are “Three Guys” that craft Pinot Noir from the grapes at Butler’s Grant Vineyard. These three guys include John Marynissen of Marynissen Estates, Jim Warren, winemaker for Kacaba Vineyards, and Ed Gurniskas, winemaker for Lakeview Cellars.

Up here on the Niagara Escarpment, far enough away from the peninsula where the winters up here are harsh and the growing season shorter, there’s a guy (me) who own’s a business called PairoWoodies. I’ll explain that business name another time – but again, probably not what you think . It’s not a vineyard – good grapes probably don’t grow where I am, but there are wine making stores that sell kits close by. Yes, winemaking kits. Even Pinot Noir kits! How is that for “New New World?”

The three guys down on the peninsula have been making wine for years. When I was at Lakeview Cellars, I spied an attractive wooden case which was marked “3 Guys 2000 Pinot Noir” containing a Pinot from each winery. As well, there was a fourth bottle – a blend of each Pinot; 1/3 each. I thought it would be a terrific addition to this month’s Wine Blogging Wednesday. However, bare in mind we’re not pros at this!

As well, I have a Pinot that I’ve made from a six week kit – a bottle of PairoWoodies! Definitely “New New World,” wouldn’t you agree? So this evening, we have two reviews – Three Guys, and of course a Pinot from PairoWoodies .

Let’s start with the much much better 2000 vintage Three Guys. For this tasting, I invited Wendy, my business partner to help me out. Unfortunately for both the Three Guys and myself, Wendy had just finished a bottle of lager beer. I made her go rinse her mouth out and told her this was serious business.

My notes on the Three Guys blend:

Appearance: Brilliant clear red.
On The Nose: Immediate strawberry.

The wine has a pleasant strawberry jam note, and with a long but delicate and balanced finish. Tastes like “more, please.”

Wendy’s thoughts:
“Hmmm… what is that I smell?” (No Wendy, it’s “on the nose!” I say).
“Maybe I’ve had too much beer.”
“O.K, well don’t drink very much of it then, as I can enjoy it more.” says I.
“There’s something I taste, but I’m not sure what it is.”
“I thought it had a taste like my mom’s home made strawberry jam.”
“Is that what it is?” asks Wendy. “Yeah, ok.. but I’m not sure I really enjoy it. Almost too fruity.”
(I roll my eyes.)

So, on to PairoWoodies Pinot:

My notes:
Appearance: Unfiltered, won’t win any competitions in this regard! A deep burgandy colour.
New wine taste with not enough depth, although it is bold. No complex flavours that linger.

Wendy says:
“There’s a word for it, but I’m not sure what. It’s ok, but it is missing subtle flavour. It’s just there, a burst of taste, and then gone. Now that I’ve had this, I really do enjoy ‘Three Guys’”

“Yeah, ok Wendy. Three guys, two guys – whatever. Three guys and strawberries and you’re in.”

I get a dirty look.

What did I learn from this? I have a LONG way to go before I make really good wine! Of course, my Pinot will likely improve with age, and let’s face it – there is simply no competition between a 6 week old wine and a 5 year old. And I should take some tasting lessons.

At the same time, this is a good start to really tasting and appreciating wine even more. Isn’t it?

Thanks for dropping by, and hope you won’t hold it against me too much that as far as wine tasting, I’m an amateur – as far as wine enjoyment, I’m an old pro.