Tag Archive: pinot noir


Please Release Me

Filed Under: Travel, Wine by Kathryne — Leave a comment
September 11, 2012

Wine Waiting to Happen

One of the things I love about the onset of fall is that it is often new release time for the local wineries. My phone and email have been busy with folks letting me know that they are getting ready/are ready/releasing their latest vintage. Yeah, it can be irritating sometimes, I won’t lie. But when you put it together with one of your favorite wine clubs doing a pickup, it can mean good things are afoot.  Sokol Blosser did just that this past weekend.

I haven’t been going to a lot of winery events this year. Too often they are crowded, too often you end up jostled off to a corner (especially if you aren’t there with a posse of any kind), and too often the promised good eats run out well before you get to the front of the line. I suspect it had a lot to do with a sudden increase in popularity and the old methods just not doing the trick.

Sokol Blosser has always done a decent event, but they’ve been around a while and had a chance to perfect their game. The first time I went to the winery was a Thanksgiving weekend six years ago and I remember being bowled over by the event, the way the barrel room was so beautifully lit, the room, the wine, the people, even the smell of the place is etched in my memory. So when they told me about this club event, I really wanted to go; I knew it was going to be good. I wasn’t disappointed! Along withe five new releases, they had a nice little barbecue going, music, the requisite visiting dogs, and a gorgeous afternoon. I dragged Brother Pete and TK along and we all had a great time.

We all agreed that the 2011 Pinot Gris was just beautiful. A lovely nose – the wonderful citrusy, green apple pinot gris perfume that makes me want to bury my nose in the glass; and that signature taste that is crisp and refreshing. This one has a lot of flavor, a lot of great summer fruit flavor with a hint of mineral underneath. This is one of those consistently good wines that SB does so well. The Evolution 16 was, I think, one of the highlights of the day. I love that it changes just a bit with each release, but always has that moscato nose; is always in the off-dry so that is lots of fruit, a little sweet, and incredibly flavorful. This is one of my favorites, good with the pulled pork sliders we had at the event and good to just drink on a warm afternoon.

It was also fun to taste the difference between the 2009 and 2010 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir. Vertical tastings are always fun to me because I am constantly amazed at the differences between vintages. That one fruit can make such a different wine year to year is just boggling to me, even taking into consideration how wine changes over time in the bottle. These two are a good reminder of that.

The 2009 is just lush and, well, juicy. There is a good, solid tannin structure on this wine and yet it is not overwhelming for being so young. The nose is surprising, I was immediately hit with caramel, followed by a nice spicy, earthy note And the taste – hard for me to pinpoint, really. Plummy? A bit, yes. Dark cherry? Yeah, that was there. Spice – I could say that yes, a bit of baking spice was in there. It just melded so nicely together. This one is going to be saved for a bit, I suspect. If it is this good right now? I can’t wait to see what happens when some of that tannin mellows out. 2009 is going to be a memorable vintage, I suspect.

2010?  This is an interesting wine. My first take on it was that it was good, not a lot of tannin, nice. Then we moved on to the 2009 and were blown away. A nice woman wandered past a bit later with a bottle of the 20010 and we allowed her to fill our glasses – it would have been rude not to, right? And as we discussed whether we had liked the 2009 or the 2010 better, I took my second taste of this one and was…impressed. It was richer, it was fruitier than I had thought it originally. I had started out thinking this would be one of those vintages best drunk sooner rather than later. But now I don’t know. I think it is going to be interesting to see where this one goes.

We had a good time at this event, a chance to taste some good – really good – stuff, enjoy some good food, talk to some nice people. They did it up right, I have to say. The scattered tables for the tastings meant that it never felt crowded even though there were a goodly number of people. The food line moved at a good pace, and I thought it inspired to have folks roving that line and offering second (or third) tries of the wines. This was a nice way to put a cap on the summer, a fitting farewell that includes a little anticipation of what is to come for fall.

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Evolving

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February 28, 2012

I had hoped to take a little trip out around Dundee today. I had mapped out a couple of wineries that I have been itching to go to, maybe pick up lunch at the Red Hills Market and make a day of it. But I didn’t. We are on the leading edge of a winter storm and there were dire predictions of rain, wind and even a bit of snow. Normally that wouldn’t bother me much, but the places I wanted to hit are a bit off the beaten track and the idea of bumping over wet and slippery dirt roads in my 12 year old truck just didn’t sound like much fun. Call me a wimp. In any case, Winter’s Hill is doing a Pinot Blanc release this Saturday so I will be out there soon enough.

Instead I stayed home today and did some things that needed to be done. In celebration of my industriousness, I opened a bottle of wine. I’m a big believer in positive reinforcement that way. But hunting down the right bottle for a cold and gloomy afternoon turned into a quick inventory of my wine collection just to see what I had. In doing so I noticed something interesting. I have a decent little collection of Pinot Noir.

Why is this interesting? It was about five years ago that I got really serious about wine. Serious in a way that meant that I actually used the wine rack and actually thought about what I bought (rather than going solely for the cute label). Even at that, I don’t think I ever thought about seriously cellaring wine, putting it away until it was at a peak. In fact we used to joke about it – cellaring? What is this cellaring you speak of? Wine should be drunk. Preferably now. Or at least tonight.

I certainly am not unusual in this; in this country we tend to drink wine young. So much so that many wine makers take this into account. The wine has to reach two groups – those who want to drink it today, or at the latest in a couple of months; and those that want to hold onto it until it has a chance to age a bit. Yet now I find that whether by plan or by accident, I am cellaring. At least my Pinot Noirs

In this little inventory I did I found that I have an ’07 Sokol Blosser Dundee Hills, eight ’08’s ranging from a Four Graces Yamhill-Carlton to Thistle to a Dobbes Skipper’s Cuvee (with a few others in between), and I am working on a decent selection of 09’s. The2007 is particularly intriguing to me because this had to be the most underrated vintage ever, only to become a really great wine. That one is going to wait for something special like winning the lottery, or an evening with Mitch and Sharon; whichever comes first.

So here it is, five years later and I have a real honest to goodness wine collection happening. I think about what I drink and what I drink it with. I don’t know if I am yet to the point where you could blindfold me and I could pick out the vintage, AVA and winemaker. Then again, I don’t know if I ever want to be that serious about wine. I kind of like where I am now; in a place where I can appreciate what is going on in a wine, and yet still be surprised and intrigued. Where I still get a kick out of talking to a winemaker, still come away feeling a bit awed and amazed by the magic they work.

It’s a good place and I am happy to be here; whether it was by plan or by accident.

Oh, in case you were wondering? I ended up opening a red blend from Argentina. Because it is still summer there.

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Curing Pinot Fatigue

Filed Under: Travel, Wine by Kathryne — 1 Comment
January 6, 2012

You can get any wine you want that’s produced in the Willamette Valley, as long as it is Pinot Noir. And yes, not all pinots are created equal. I get, in a very visceral way, that the Pinot Noir that Archery Summit makes is going to be different than the one that De Ponte makes, etc. etc. ad nauseum. Yet at the end of the day, they are all Pinot Noir, or so it seems. Pinot Fatigue is quite real, and sometimes frustrating.  I was in the midst of it myself the last couple of weeks. Every freaking bottle of wine in my collection (which is frighteningly large for a single woman) seems to be Pinot Noir.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my Pinot Noir. I love my Pinot Gris and my Pinot Blanc, too. But sometimes I want something else. Sometimes I just want a nice, big, in your face red. Sometimes I want a fruity, fun red. Sometimes I want a serious, well structured red. Or maybe, just maybe, I want a more acidic white that isn’t all green apple and pears. Call me crazy, but I like variety.

So if you live in or around Portland and you like visiting wineries, what do you do? Fortunately we have the antidote to Pinot Fatigue right in our midst. Which is good, because as much as I would like to believe this is serious stuff, they aren’t going to be having telethons for this anytime soon. Instead, we have several folks in the region who have at least one non-pinot red in the lineup, who are going beyond Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc.

Sokol Blosser, for instance has the two Evolutions – Red and White. Both are blends, with the red version being Syrah based and the White relying heavily on Muller Thurgau. They fill the niche quite nicely. Evolution Red is a great every day wine, one that you can drink on it’s own, serve with a really good steak or with take out pizza. Evolution White is the same thing for white wine. Sure, they still have a focus on Pinot Noir; and they do that grape well. I just like having the option for something different.

Dobbes Family Estates similarly has a couple of Syrahs from the Rogue Valley. Personally, I’m a big fan of the Grand Assemblage for a mid range price point Syrah. They also have some different and interesting whites; a nice, crisp Viognier, a lovely off-dry Gewurtztraminer, and a Grenache Blanc that I am quite enamored with. I also love their Joesecco, in the Wine by Joe line. As a big fan of Prosecco, this one has fast become a favorite.

Andrew Rich has a nice line up of non-Pinot reds that I’ve been itching to try, including some very interesting red blends, Cab Franc and Syrah.  And, of course, one of my perennial favorites, Cana’s Feast has a wide variety of Italian and Bordeaux reds. There are others, Willamette Valley Vineyards has a nice selection in their Griffin Creek line, for instance. But you do have to hunt a bit. I don’t mind the hunting. I don’t mind seeking them out. But it can get frustrating, all this Pinot Noir all the time.

There have been times when I have been out in the region, visiting wineries, where it has become a bit frustrating. Here is our line up of four pinot noirs – the low price, the moderate price, the high price and the really high price one. Next winery, same thing. It’s nice to have a couple of names, a couple of known quantities in my pocket now, to count on when that fatigue sets in. Which is why I came home from a trip out that way just yesterday with some red blends, a Syrah and a Viognier. Sometimes a girl just needs a break. Or a Merlot. Or a Sangiovese. Or a…

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Wrong Wine

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December 15, 2011

I managed to end up with an ‘experimental’ bottle of wine in my collection. It came from one of my wine clubs and was touted as a wine that had been made for a new market. It was to be an entry level pinot noir for an Asian country. To be honest, when it first arrived I was perplexed. There was nothing in the shipment to indicate what it was, the label was very different and I wasn’t even sure it was pinot noir.

I asked about it the next time I was out at the winery and was told, oh yeah, this was something new. The word experimental was thrown about and I got very interested. A pinot noir made for an entry level price point for a very different country. This was going to be interesting.

The other evening I opened it. No particular reason other than I was feeling adventurous. Okay, not in a go cave diving in New Zealand kind of adventurous, but willing to take a shot on a new wine kind of thing. Pinot Noir is a great all around wine in my book, I like it with food and I like it just to sip of an evening or afternoon. All the ingredients were there – a good varietal, something new, a favorite wine maker, what could go wrong?

The first indication that this might not have been a great idea was when the cork broke. I hate it when that happens. I managed to get it out without dropping lots of cork bits (or any – yay me!) into the bottle, so that was good; grabbed a glass and poured. It looked fine, nice dusky pinot color, nice earthy pinot nose. I took a taste… and I didn’t like it. It took a minute to decipher what had just happened, to be honest. I took a second taste just to be sure, but yeah, it was still not good. There was a weird note to it, kind of bitter. It had an odd after taste, and frankly it just sort of tasted off.

I set it down and walked away from it for a bit, hoping that maybe it just needed to open up. It didn’t help. Food! Maybe it needs some food to go with it. So I whipped up a little something I thought might pair well with a pinot noir (in this case it was a turkey and rice dish). Still, not so much. I was pretty irritated. Here was this bottle of wine with no discernible use. I didn’t want to pour it out, but I didn’t want to drink it. In the end it had a good life put to decent use as a cooking aid where it worked just fine in a nice, spicy tomato sauce I made.

It happens. Sometimes you just run into a wine that doesn’t work for you. It is probably most irritating when it is something you bought, but it is also frustrating when it comes as a gift. The latter brings up all sorts of other issues – what do you do when you are asked about it, how do you politely word a thank you for something that wasn’t your cup of tea (or glass of wine)? But I’m glad it happened, in an odd sort of way. Time was I would have just dumped it out, and that is a waste.

Having the bottle sitting on the counter made me think about it a bit. I figured out a use for it, and after some consideration I think I may have figured out what wasn’t working for me. This most likely is a food wine (the fact that it worked really well in my sauce is an indication of that), but what I hadn’t considered was the market it was intended for. In this case the Asian market. Maybe this wine needed a different cuisine. Maybe this wine was intended for a very different palate. Maybe this wine was the wrong wine for me but the right wine for someone else somewhere else. Maybe it wasn’t the wine that was wrong after all.

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Snob Appeal

Filed Under: Wine by Kathryne — Leave a comment
September 12, 2011

This is a bit of a whine, I want to be up front about that; and yet I think it is something that needs to be said. I love the Willamette Valley, I love the wines produced there and I love that the winemakers – by and large – are as open and accessible as they are.  Had it not been for such openness, I doubt I would have been as enthralled by the wine of the region as I am.  Much to my sadness, I see something starting to happen that makes me cringe, makes me uneasy and that is the rise of snob appeal.

I am whining about the growing number of events that are out of the price range of a large portion of the local population or charging tasting fees that are either non-refundable with purchase or arbitrarily high. Even more troubling is the number of places that are charging higher and higher prices for their wines. I worry that the region is pricing itself into a Napaesque situation where wine is based not so much on quality as on price point.  The underlying message is that if you have to ask what it costs to be here, you aren’t welcome.

Okay, look, I get that the goal of most businesses is to make money; that it is not unreasonable to demand a premium price for a premium product; this only makes sense. Yet many of the wineries in the region made their money and their reputations because a dedicated group of folks saw the quality of wine that was being produced and were thrilled to be able to buy a superior wine at a decent price. I sometimes feel like I am paying not for the wine, as much as I am for the picturesque tasting room and the name on the bottle.  It is the designer jean theory of wine.

This region has been seriously bitch-slapped by the economy.  Unemployment in the Portland Metro Area is still above 9% (9.1% for August 2011 according to the BLS); and Oregon comes in at 9.5% for the same period.  Seattle and Washington State in general have similar numbers.  While these numbers have shown some improvement over the last few months, they are still either even with or a bit higher than the national unemployment rate of 9.1%.

I look at this and then at the invitations that I have received over the last few weeks for events that cost upwards of $100 a person and I wonder who it is that can afford to go to more than one of these in any given quarter.  I make a decent living; I am a freelancer and while the work is not what I would call steady, it pays enough to make it not an issue. Still, I am loathe to attend an event that runs much more than $50.

Same goes for the wine I buy.  Oregon Monthly recently published an article on Oregon’s 50 Best Wines which was rather shocking for me. They separated the wines between red and white (and the wines seem pretty heavily biased for Northwestern Oregon wineries).  The first red on the list is $85. The second is $38.  Number 25 weighs in at $78 while the 34th entry (out of 35 total reds) is priced at $58.  (One of my all time favorites, Thistle, is ranked at No. 8 for a Pinot Noir that runs $28 and Andrew Rich places 5th for a $22 bottle of the varietal).  Look at those rankings – $85 for the top Pinot Noir.  $38 for second place.  A $47 difference (or three bottles of the fifth place finisher with change).

To be fair, I haven’t tasted either of the first two, but I still wonder if the first is really twice as good as the second (and to that end, I pledge to taste the first two within the next month and let you know if that is the case!).  I have tasted the 8th place finisher and I have to say that I love this wine, more than I do a lot of my other, more expensive bottles.  Thistle can be a little harder for me to get than others; whenever I find that they are going to be participating in an event, you can be sure I will do my best to get there just for their wines.  What Thistle doesn’t have is a fancy tasting room, or a large staff to shill their goods.  They don’t have a huge shop given over to all things wine from tea towels to t-shirts and all the odd bling in-between.

Maybe it is a case of sour grapes (pardon the reference in this case), maybe I am just bitter that I can’t afford to go to the big kid parties.  But there is a part of me that worries about the very soul of the region. The places where the winemaker is wearing jeans and talks enthusiastically about what he or she does.  The places where I feel at home when I pull up in my little truck and park between the BMW and the Honda hatchback.  The places that are unpretentious and as friendly to the first time wine taster as they are the seasoned hobbyist.  Perhaps the region is just hitting that awkward adolescent phase. I hope it is the latter.

I fell in love with wine because of this region.  I had been smitten before, but the Willamette Valley wooed and won me with its open, friendly, down to earth personality.  For not just affordable wine, but really good affordable wine made by really great people.

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Patience and Grace

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November 6, 2010

That is how I would describe the attitude of French wine making.  At least as it is applied to the French winemakers who grace Oregon wine country with their products.  I am not sure when I stumbled on to this idea, but it has been some time in the making.  We have several very talented wine makers who hail from the beautiful land of France.   Domaine Drouhin, De Ponte Cellars and 1789 Wines (who share the same winemaker), Winter’s Hill, and Solena, to name a few; as well as others who have very strong connections to France such as Scott Paul in Carlton.  In addition, several of these winemakers are women.

The other day I set out, purely by accident, on a French wine adventure.  It started with a visit to one of my favorite places – Sokol Blosser, and soon progressed to Domaine Drouhin.  Now I need to disclose something here, something that I am not overly proud of.  I had a bad experience at Domaine Drouhin and I have avoided going back because it was easier to be dismissive of what I thought was a snobby tasting room staff pouring expensive wine.  The experience in question happened over a very busy weekend when the place was packed with people who had been tasting wine all day.  I can only imagine what it must be like to work a tasting room on such a day, something I have a better appreciation for now than I did then.  But on this latest outing I decided that I had indeed been unfair and that I owed it to myself and to the winery in question to give it another try.

I am very glad that I did.  Domaine Drouhin is a gorgeous venue, with sweeping views, a beautiful tasting room, and lovely facility.  On this day I had the place to myself (the joys of spending a weekday in wine country!) and thus had a chance to talk with the two women who were in charge of the place, both of whom were knowledgeable and gracious.  I discovered that I have been missing out – Domaine Drouhin makes some beautiful wines.  The ‘08 Chardonnay is a classic French style wine with a crisp acidity, bright fruit, and a toasty nose.  It is whole cluster pressed and one half is fermented in stainless and the other in French oak (20% new) from the fruit from Dijon clone vines.  It was a joy to taste, as were the two Pinot Noir’s; an ’08 Willamette Valley and an ’07 Estate, I had that day.

There is something very pure and wonderful about these wines. The Pinot Noirs were delicate and complex, with a beautiful floral nose and a lot of red fruit flavor.  Tasting the two very different vintages together was a lot of fun; you can see how the ’07, a year that was a bit of a bastard child in the area, is aging into a gorgeous wine.  It is also evident that the ’08 wines are going to be, in the words of many in the area, a rock star year.  My next stop was a favorite, Winter’s Hill, where another French winemaker who is turning out really beautiful wines can be found down the gravel road at this rustic little tasting room.  Again, the Pinot Noirs are complex and interesting while the whites are crisp and inviting.

This got me to thinking about other places I have been that rightfully boast French winemakers.  There is a difference I can actually taste in these wines.  In talking with the lovely women at Drouhin I think I realized what it is that sets these wines apart.  It is the essential ingredients of patience and grace.  They don’t try to make the wines anything other than what they are. There is no over-extraction, no attempt to make a big red wine out of a delicate red grape, no man-handling – if you will – of the fruit.  They are patient with the wine, letting it age appropriately even if that means releasing a vintage a little later than everyone else.

This is not to say that everyone else is doing it wrong – it is just the expression of a different way of life.  We, in this country, I think too often are now, now, now people.  We don’t want to wait, and often we are sure that we can make anything better by messing with it – sometimes to the point of over doing it.  Patience is a virtue, it seems, at least when it comes to making wine.  I feel fortunate that these talented people have graced this area with their skills and point of view and fortunate that I have the opportunity to taste what they produce.  Because, truth be told, we could all use a little more patience and grace in our lives; I’m just happy that I have it in the form of wine.

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Dinner with Friends – Part 1

Filed Under: Food, Wine by Kathryne — Leave a comment
August 10, 2010

There is something so… so… so grown up, I suppose, about a dinner party.  Few things make me feel more adult than a dinner party – whether it is going out to a restaurant or at home.  I just love the idea of it as much as actually having dinner with friends.  Maybe it is because my parents made a big deal about having someone over for dinner.  Mom would always find some fabulous and unusual recipe (the afore mentioned Beef Wellington, curried chicken, and  infamous fritter feeds come to mind).  Dad would pull out the good china and the good crystal and I would be instructed to set the table with “the silver” – a beautiful set of sterling silver flatware my mother kept in a rosewood flatware case.  It was a big event when the good stuff was used!

So you can imagine just how tickled I was to have not one, but two dinner parties to attend last week.  This was being an adult on steroids, at least in my book.  Sure, I have been an adult for a couple of decades now, but still.  I got to drive to Seattle, stay with friends, eat with friends, talk with friends, and be all grown up.  It was heaven.

The first evening was at Casa Halverson; the gorgeous Victorian on Capitol Hill.  Craig and Carol are pretty wonderful people.  Craig used to be my boss, and now that I think about it, he is the reason I am back in the Northwest.  Thanks Craig!  Carol is a middle school teacher and she is the kind of person you know would make the list of your favorite teachers; the one we all trot out when we meet old schoolmates.  Someone says ‘hey remember Mrs. Halverson?” and everyone nods and smiles.  Though I swear that if Carol ever gets tired of teaching she should turn Casa Halverson into a B&B.  She is a great hostess.  Possibly the only draw back is that her guests would never want to leave.

Dinner that night included some other friends, Dale and Corrie, and it involved enough food to feed a small nation.  The hors d’oeuvres alone were a meal.  Lovely, perfect squares of watermelon topped with a small sprig of mint; an artichoke dip that was creamy decadence served with naan; shrimp boats fashioned out of endive leaves and filled with a mixture of shrimp, mango and onions; four types of cheese and various crackers… they seriously expected us to eat an entire other meal after that? And yet there was grilled corn and zucchini, and smashed potatoes; rib eyes, chicken, and sausages from the grill; even a peach and berry crumble for desert; it was the happiest overkill of food ever.  There was champagne before hand, three different  Willamette Valley Pinot Noir varieties to compare and contrast during the meal, and Asian Pear sake with the desert (my little addition to the meal).  Later there was 12 year old McCallan and Fran’s salt caramels under the stars on a perfect Seattle summer evening.

There is something deeply ingrained in us humans about sharing food, I believe.  We open up, we talk, we smile, we laugh; all more easily when there is a meal in front of us.  Hundreds of years of dating history can’t be wrong – yes?  I have used the making and eating of meals as a group in team building events twice now, both with great success; two of my favorite people on the planet are in my life as the direct result of those events.  But when you already know, already enjoy the people you are making and eating that meal with, it is nearly magical.  Even now, merely a week later, the memory of that evening has a wonderful rosy haze attached to it.  Sometimes I deeply love being an adult.

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Rainy Days and Mondays

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May 3, 2010

It is both here today.  A rainy day that follows a rainy week.  Rainy, windy, blustery cold days of late spring that the NW gets every few years.  It has been amazing to watch the weather blow through – dark foreboding clouds that seem to dump buckets of water followed by breathtaking sun breaks.  Followed by dark foreboding clouds.

It has not been a good week to visit wineries. Not been a good week to do much other than sit inside, drink coffee and complain about the weather.  Even the dogs are loathe to go for much of a walk lately.  The wind has a bite to it, a bone chilling kind of cold that begs for fleece.  The sky opens up suddenly and drenches you, only to let up just as you reach your front door.  Not good weather to bounce along gravel roads or drive along the Gorge (where the wind is fierce and sometimes menacing).

I admit that I have given in a bit to late spring blues.  I have a list of topics that I want to write about, things to research and mull and consider.  Ideas run rampant through my brain, but instead of doing something about them I have spent an inordinate amount of time standing at the sliding glass door, sipping coffee and grumbling about rain.  Quinn, the shepherd mix who is one of my timeshare dogs, stands next to me and seems to agree that there is nothing to be done here other than find a comfortable place to take a nap.

But what I love about the spring here is that no matter how dreary the weather, there is always hope that tomorrow will be better.  That the patch of blue sky just over there (no really, look – over there, see?) is really a sign that the storm is already beginning to pass.  We in the Northwest are the perpetual orphans from Annie – the sun will come out tomorrow.  Betcher bottom dollar.

I have big plans for that tomorrow. A trip to Wind River, on the northern, Washington side of the Gorge, has been singing a siren song to me now for nearly a month.  I hear good things about the place and I am itching to see it for myself.  My niece Michelle turns 21 on Thursday and we have big plans to take her on her first ever wine tasting trip – as soon as both the weather is better and finals are over.  There is a shipment to pick up at the Four Graces, and I am itching to venture south of Salem to check out the growing wine scene there (pun intended).

And, of course, there are thoughts of Washington wine and a sun soaked trip to the eastern part of that state – where the big reds grow – is one that begs to be done.  A chance to take a break from my beloved Pinot Noirs and take in some Cab Francs, some Merlots, some big Cabernet Sauvignons as well as some nice crisp Chardonnays sounds like a plan.

So things are coming.  Just as soon as this storm passes.  And my coffee is gone.  Quinn and I will be ready to go. Ya sure, you betcha.

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On the Subject of Rules

Filed Under: General, Wine by Kathryne — 1 Comment
March 23, 2010

In my last post I talked a little bit about all the guidelines out there for choosing wines.  We do seem to love having a nice, concise (or not so concise) set of rules when it comes to our wines.  How to rate it, how to taste it, how to drink it – heck when and where to drink it as well.  Everyone seems to have a foolproof set of rules for how to ‘do wine.’  I think most of it is silly. 

There, I said it.  A few years ago I went wine tasting with some friends.  These were serious, hard core wine fanatics and I was a neophyte.  Armed with nothing more than a short evening seminar taught by a lovely man named Eddie Osterland (www.eddieoseterland.com – seriously fun wine information!), I was more than a little intimidated by the prospect.  I actually went and dug out the notes I had taken at that seminar!  I recalled how to bring air in to your mouth over the wine, I recalled all his words on acidity and sweetness, I tried to remember what he said about tannin. 

Off we went.  It was fun, I tasted a goodly number of wines.  Some I remember, some I don’t.  I do know it was the day that I discovered Sokol Blosser and I have been glad ever since.  It was one of the pivotal moments in my wine education because there were so many lovely people working in the tasting rooms who wanted to talk about why they loved the wine they made.  No one laughed at my questions, mocked my descriptions, or snubbed me because I didn’t have a clue as to what I was doing.  Since that time, I have been working to learn about wine. 

What irritates me is that you can’t swing a cat without finding some guide that purports to tell you the ‘best’ way to taste wine, or that has the 37 step fool proof method for wine tasting, or some other ‘proper’ way to evaluate wines.  There is even a certificate course you can find online to make you a better wine taster.  I think it is crap.  I think it is a great way to part you from your money and completely ruin your wine tasting experience.

There should be one rule in wine tasting – taste the wine.  Pick up a glass and actually taste the wine. 

You want to sniff at it?  Fine, sniff.  Inhale.  I like doing that myself.  And by doing so I have discovered a couple of interesting things.  Sometimes the nose of the wine is a great indicator of what you are going to taste.  Sometimes you are going to be surprised.  For example, the ’07 Oregon Pinot Noir has what I have heard referred to as the ‘o7 Funk.’  With few exceptions the nose is a bit, well, funky.  It has an odd, wet earth kind of smell to it; but it is turning into a really beautiful vintage that has been grossly under rated.  

You want to swirl and examine the color?  Great, go for it.  I like looking at the color only because it fascinates me that I can line up a dozen different wines of the same grape variety made by a dozen different wine makers and see a difference in the color.  It is a hallmark of how the wine is made, but I’m not sure that I have yet had an experience where the depth of color of a wine has told me anything about how it is going to taste.  Swirling can give you an idea of the amount of sugar in it, and it sure does help aerate the wine, but I know people who are perfectly happy not swirling.

There is no absolute ‘right’ way to taste a wine.  Okay, maybe if you are Robert Parker, or aspire to take his job.  For most of us, though, we are just looking for a good wine.  We want to get something that is going to be perfect with that summer barbecue or the halibut that is now in season.  We are looking to have some wines on hand that we can pull out if company drops in, or we need to grab a last minute hostess gift as we run out the door.  We want to have some wines around that we know we like, that we want to drink, and we want to share.  Rules be damned. 

Wine, like good food, is meant to be shared and savored.  One of the best ways to completely drain it of the fun that should go along with that, is to start putting a lot of rules around it.

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I Like What I Like

Filed Under: General, Wine by Kathryne — Leave a comment
March 22, 2010

Talking about wine the other day (I do that a lot), I was asked why I never just flat out said “Wine X is crap” or words to that effect.  Because I don’t .  I don’t single out a winery, a wine, a varietal, and say it is awful.  Wine is subjective.  I like what I like, but I might not like what  you like. 

Case in point: we were in Dundee again this weekend, and at the nagging of friend Kent (who is a champion nagger when he wants you to do something – a force of nature, really), we stopped at Chehalem in Newberg.  We had been there once before for a Bacon and Pinot tasting over Valentine’s Day weekend.  It was at the end of a long day and to be honest I don’t remember much about what we tasted.  Kent, however, was adament that I stop again and ask for Ribbon Ridge, which is one of their labels.  He has been singing the praises of Ribbon Ridge for a while now (though he has reduced it to ‘RR’ much the way he reduces everyone’s name to initials – I am ‘KK’ in that spirit).  So we stopped and we asked if it was possible to taste the Ribbon Ridge.  Heather, our tasting room guide was more than happy to bring it out.

We did a flight, tasted a nice Chardonnay, some interesting Pinot Noirs, and then the Ribbon Ridge.  It is a big red.  Big.  Huge.  This wine is more of a cabernet sauvignon than a pinot noir.  In that light I began to understand what made it so wonderful for Kent – he cut his wine teeth on California reds.  California reds tend to be big, bold, hit you in the face with a bunch of grapes kind of wines.  Don’t believe me?  Try Stag’s Leap Cab.  That is a wine to be reckoned with, and it is pretty darn good – if you like big, bold, hit you in the face with a bunch of grapes kind of wines. 

And I do like those, on occassion.  There are times I want something that is far from subtle.  There are times when I just want something that screams RED WINE!  But those are times I am going to reach for that California Cab.  It isn’t my cup of tea, or glass of wine, when I am looking for a pinot noir.  Pinot Noir, to me, should be subtle, should be layers of complexity, should have a nose that hints at what is to come, and then open up on the palate like a little gift.  I want the wonderful red fruits, the hint of spice, a nice minerality to it.  

It is my preference.  Trashing a wine that doesn’t fit my particular set of criteria seems unfair.  Kent likes a big bold, heavily extracted red.  I like something a little more subtle.  Beth, because she lacks a sense of smell, isn’t so interested in subtlety – nor does minerality do it for her.  She likes a nice red fruit, slightly spicy red.  Now imagine having the three of us as dinner guests and trying to find the right wine to make all three of us happy.  

People rely heavily on wine ratings, point scales, what the press is saying about a vintage or a winery or a wine.  I suppose that is as good a guideline as anything, but it is just that – a guideline.  The only way to know what is going to work for you is to taste some wines, taste them with food, taste them against each other and figure out what works for you.  You have to develop the vocabulary that describes what you like and then use it liberally when you are out looking for a wine.   Like what you like, drink what you like, and allow others the grace to do the same.  Seems like a good way to live to me.

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