Tuesday, April 24, 2007
More on Wine Shippments in Illinois
Illinois HB 429 is likely coming to a vote later this week. You can write or call your state representative by looking up their contact information here. If you buy wine out of state, or even if you buy from in state retailers, this bill should concern you. Distributors are trying to limit competition by preventing free interstate trade of alcohol. This will certainly lead to higher prices and diminished selection. If you have a favorite lesser known wine (even if it is available at a big box liquor store in Illinois) you may lose your ability to easily and cheaply obtain a bottle. Don't wait, call or write today.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Wine Blogging Wednesday Showdown Roundup
The Wine Cask Blog has a roundup of all the participants reviews. There are summaries of all the participants' reviews, and they are continuing to collect them as they come in. Check it out for some great reviews on some great wines.
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Wine Blogging Wednesday #32: Showdown
Wine Blogging Wednesday was conceived by Lenn Thompson at Lenndevours. Basically once a month, wine bloggers across the web review wines in a theme. Every month a new blogger is picked to come up with a theme and host all the reviews. This month, The Wine Cask Blog is hosting and the theme is Showdown: Regular vs. Reserve.
This will be the first time I'm participating and I'm really excited about it. Billy at the Wine Cask Blog came up with a tall order. The two wines had to be from the same vienyard, the same year, and the same producer. That left me in a bit of a quandary at the store as most reserve wines are held in barrel for an extra year before bottling, and are subsequently released later.
I did manage to find a Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay and Grand Reserve Chardonnay both from 2005 and both "Estate Grown". Both bottles said the grapes were from K-J's estate vineyards in Sonoma, Monterey and Sana Barbara counties. The K-J chard was $11.99 on sale (normally $15.99), and the K-J Grand Reserve was $13.99 on sale (normally $22.99).
I tried both wines at the same time to allow for careful comparison. They both appeared a pale straw color that was nearly indistinguishable. Both of them exhibited similar citrus and apple aromas. My initial reaction was that the reserve was more subtle in its flavors than the regular, along with a slight effervescence in the reserve that was very pleasing. I had expected to find more oak on the reserve, but was pleased to find that the reserve was restrained in its oak influence. I found both of these wines pleasing, but given the price I paid or the reserve I think it was a clear winner. I'm not sure I would have felt the same if it had been $22.99, but for a $14 bottle of wine, this was quite good. In the end I think it was the style of the reserve, not necessarily complexity or flavor profile, that drew me to the wine.
The challenge was to determine if the reserve was worth the extra price. I think that in this case it was a better wine. I'm curious to see how all the other reviewers experiences turned out.
This will be the first time I'm participating and I'm really excited about it. Billy at the Wine Cask Blog came up with a tall order. The two wines had to be from the same vienyard, the same year, and the same producer. That left me in a bit of a quandary at the store as most reserve wines are held in barrel for an extra year before bottling, and are subsequently released later.
I did manage to find a Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay and Grand Reserve Chardonnay both from 2005 and both "Estate Grown". Both bottles said the grapes were from K-J's estate vineyards in Sonoma, Monterey and Sana Barbara counties. The K-J chard was $11.99 on sale (normally $15.99), and the K-J Grand Reserve was $13.99 on sale (normally $22.99).
I tried both wines at the same time to allow for careful comparison. They both appeared a pale straw color that was nearly indistinguishable. Both of them exhibited similar citrus and apple aromas. My initial reaction was that the reserve was more subtle in its flavors than the regular, along with a slight effervescence in the reserve that was very pleasing. I had expected to find more oak on the reserve, but was pleased to find that the reserve was restrained in its oak influence. I found both of these wines pleasing, but given the price I paid or the reserve I think it was a clear winner. I'm not sure I would have felt the same if it had been $22.99, but for a $14 bottle of wine, this was quite good. In the end I think it was the style of the reserve, not necessarily complexity or flavor profile, that drew me to the wine.
The challenge was to determine if the reserve was worth the extra price. I think that in this case it was a better wine. I'm curious to see how all the other reviewers experiences turned out.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Missing a Tasting
I apologize for anyone who may have stumbled onto this blog and waited with baited breath for my review of the Midwest Wine Expo. A sudden family loss kept me away from the event this past weekend. If there is anyone out there who attended the tasting and wants to share their experience, please feel free to comment.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Preparing For A Tasting
I mentioned in my first post that I would be presenting notes from the Midwest Wine Expo next week. I thought as a preview to that I would discuss what I'm expecting, and how I'm preparing for a tasting that includes 700 wines.
First of all I think it is important to note that I haven't been to this tasting before, so I don't really know what to expect from this particular event. Normally I approach a large tasting as an opportunity to taste and evaluate wines that I can't afford to buy. My goal at a tasting is to educate my palate. I have a pretty good idea of what I like in the $10-$15 range, so I don't plan to spend much time tasting those wines. Unfortunately my wallet does not afford me much experience with the $50+ wines, so that's where I'll be concentrating most of my efforts.
The first thing I'm looking for at this particular tasting is the seminars. There are 2 seminars in particular, the one on French wines and the one on Napa Valley sub-appelations, that interest me. The French wine seminar is going to be given by a master of wine, so I expect it to be an interesting exploration of the country with some great wines to sample. The Napa seminar is a focus on sub appellations, and as a rule the more specific the appelation, the more the wine will cost. I think the Napa seminar should be a great opportunity to try some reserve wines from some of the more famous Napa producers that routinely sell for $125 a bottle.
Next comes the dilemma of figuring out what to do with the rest of my time. The seminars should eat up 1 1/2 - 2 hrs, so that leaves another 3 hours for tasting wines. 3 hours of wine tasting seems like plenty of time to get through the over 700 wines being poured. 180 minutes for 700 wines is about 4 wines a minute. Hmm, maybe I need to scale that back a bit. My experience has shown me that I can taste a wine about every 4-5 minutes, so I should plan to taste about 30 - 40 wines throughout the day. I looked through the list Binny's has published on their website and picked out the producers that interest me. I'll have to whittle this list down to about 25 producers. I figure each producer will be pouring more than one wine, so I should expect that I might want to try more than one at a table. Also I want to leave some time (and sobriety) for any wines that peak my interest in the heat of the moment.
Now is a good time to mention the sobriety aspect of a wine tasting. I'm all about responsible drinking, especially when the drinking requires driving to and from the venue. So remember that at a tasting like this, it is perfectly acceptable, and pretty much mandatory at 40+ wines, to spit. 40 1 oz samples would be the equivalent of 1.5 bottles of wine. That doesn't even include the samples I'm going to get at the seminars. If I were to swallow all the wine I tasted throughout the day, I would end up consuming over 2 bottles of wine, and would be WAY over the legal limit when I drove home in the afternoon. It just isn't worth it. Besides, this way I can get home and relax with a bottle of my favorite wine from the day.
Now that I have a plan, and have resolved to spit, all that is left to do is head out the door. I'm counting the days until Binny's Midwest Wine Expo. Hopefully I'll see you there.
First of all I think it is important to note that I haven't been to this tasting before, so I don't really know what to expect from this particular event. Normally I approach a large tasting as an opportunity to taste and evaluate wines that I can't afford to buy. My goal at a tasting is to educate my palate. I have a pretty good idea of what I like in the $10-$15 range, so I don't plan to spend much time tasting those wines. Unfortunately my wallet does not afford me much experience with the $50+ wines, so that's where I'll be concentrating most of my efforts.
The first thing I'm looking for at this particular tasting is the seminars. There are 2 seminars in particular, the one on French wines and the one on Napa Valley sub-appelations, that interest me. The French wine seminar is going to be given by a master of wine, so I expect it to be an interesting exploration of the country with some great wines to sample. The Napa seminar is a focus on sub appellations, and as a rule the more specific the appelation, the more the wine will cost. I think the Napa seminar should be a great opportunity to try some reserve wines from some of the more famous Napa producers that routinely sell for $125 a bottle.
Next comes the dilemma of figuring out what to do with the rest of my time. The seminars should eat up 1 1/2 - 2 hrs, so that leaves another 3 hours for tasting wines. 3 hours of wine tasting seems like plenty of time to get through the over 700 wines being poured. 180 minutes for 700 wines is about 4 wines a minute. Hmm, maybe I need to scale that back a bit. My experience has shown me that I can taste a wine about every 4-5 minutes, so I should plan to taste about 30 - 40 wines throughout the day. I looked through the list Binny's has published on their website and picked out the producers that interest me. I'll have to whittle this list down to about 25 producers. I figure each producer will be pouring more than one wine, so I should expect that I might want to try more than one at a table. Also I want to leave some time (and sobriety) for any wines that peak my interest in the heat of the moment.
Now is a good time to mention the sobriety aspect of a wine tasting. I'm all about responsible drinking, especially when the drinking requires driving to and from the venue. So remember that at a tasting like this, it is perfectly acceptable, and pretty much mandatory at 40+ wines, to spit. 40 1 oz samples would be the equivalent of 1.5 bottles of wine. That doesn't even include the samples I'm going to get at the seminars. If I were to swallow all the wine I tasted throughout the day, I would end up consuming over 2 bottles of wine, and would be WAY over the legal limit when I drove home in the afternoon. It just isn't worth it. Besides, this way I can get home and relax with a bottle of my favorite wine from the day.
Now that I have a plan, and have resolved to spit, all that is left to do is head out the door. I'm counting the days until Binny's Midwest Wine Expo. Hopefully I'll see you there.
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