Ten Years On

Psst…stick with me and I’ll tell you a big wine secret. But before I do, I’m going to take a little me-time.

The Sweet Partner in Crime and I bonded early in our relationship over the “Windows on the World Complete Wine Course” – a book by Kevin Zraly which included information about wines of all countries and, most importantly, appropriate foods to pair with those wines. We cooked and drank up a storm.

The Naked Vine Team then...

Then we took a trip together to Sonoma County and wine truly became part of our lifestyle. The die was cast on our oenological obsession for the next decade. Zins and Pinots, Cabs and Chardonnays, Shiraz and Sauvignon Blanc – we worked our way through regions and grapes willy-nilly, loving the learning of it all.

Then came the infamous happy hour at a local place called the Beer Sellar. An old friend dropped the line that became my mantra. I quote my buddy Scott: “It’s easy to find a good fifty-dollar bottle of wine. The trick is to find a good ten-dollar bottle of wine.”

The Naked Vine sprouted from the Stone IPA-drenched corners of my mind. I built the blog and posted my first column not long after, back in the days when the Internet wasn’t accessible from most phones, much less your refrigerator or thermostat. The idea of being a “blogger” still had a certain geek stigma. In tasting rooms, wineries didn’t really know what to make of someone who wrote “where only a few people could read it.”

Times changed. I pumped out my content, did a little self-promotion, and was lucky enough to have my then-online-only column picked up by several print outlets, which I felt finally gave me some legitimacy.

Everything didn’t go smoothly at first. I was still learning about wine (and I still am, honestly!) as I was cranking out columns, so I made some early mistakes. I wrote a column once where I mixed up Burgundy and Bordeaux, stating the latter was made from pinot noir. (It’s not.) I name checked Rioja multiple times as a Spanish grape. (It’s not.) And I can’t tell you how many times I misspelled Riesling. (Still do.)

The SPinC and I ate picked up steam and our palates improved enough to be dangerous. I got asked to sample some wines before they went into wide release from time to time, which is cool.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet some truly intriguing people. From pourers at tasting rooms to winemakers and grape growers, there aren’t many industries where you’ll meet as broad a spectrum of humanity. They’ve all got fascinating stories. Almost none of them intended to go into the wine industry. In previous lives, they were engineers, chefs, bankers, artists – all of whom got seduced along the way by The Grape.

We’ve watched wine trends come and go – watching chardonnay go from big and buttery to thin and unoaked and back again. High alcohol Zinfandel gave way to lighter-styled, earthy pinots. Merlot has finally started to come back out from under its Sideways-placed rock. And the breadth of “Old World” wine has expanded beyond Italy, France, and Germany to any number of other countries in the EU and Eurasia. If you like options, there’s never been a better time to be a wine drinker.

That brings us to today. So, you ready for the secret? You wanna know the One Big Thing I’ve learned over the last decade?

Finding a decent $10 bottle of wine isn’t tricky anymore.

When I’ve written in this space about countries expanding and modernizing their respective wine industries, the regular refrain is, “Improvements in technology have increased the quality and output of [insert country]’s wine.” This technological improvement allowed South America, Australia, and other countries to export very decent juice at low cost.

As decent, low cost wine from the global marketplace began filling store US shelves, large domestic winemakers realized that they couldn’t continue mass producing cheap-ass, low quality plonk when a discerning drinker could slap seven or eight bucks down on the counter for a decent bottle of Malbec from Argentina or Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. Overall quality kept rising.

These days, stores are filled with decent, inexpensive wines. Mind you, these aren’t the greatest wines on the planet. Fifteen to twenty dollars is the general price point where there’s a real jump in a wine’s caliber, and these less expensive wines aren’t usually all that distinguishable from one another except in label design. For ten smackers, though, you’re not likely to crack a bottle and say, “That’s completely awful.”

The Naked Vine Team now.

Take heart, wine cheapskates. Until climate change pushes wine production north to England and Scandinavia, you’re going to find plenty of flat-out drinkable, non-wallet-busting juice. Buy with confidence.

With all that in mind, I’m proud to say that this little corner of the wine world is still going strong. There’s always something new – new production techniques, new grapes, new blends – coming down the pike. The Naked Vine will be here to help you navigate as long as my liver holds out.

I’d like to offer my hearty thanks to the hundreds (thousands, some days) of people who make their way to the Vine each day for some oenological nugget or other. It’s still my pleasure to be drinkin’ with you. 

Naked Vine Triple Play – Malbec! Malbec! Malbec!

If you want to peek all the way back to the Naked Vine’s germination, you’ll find a Malbec among the first set of wines I ever wrote about. Since then, Malbec has remained a go-to grape for many occasions, most of them involving grilled or roasted meat of some sort.

Over the years, I’ve tried to turn a lot of folks on to Malbec. It yields a big, flexible, food-friendly wine that’s consistently one of the best values out there. It’s a perfect wine to pair with almost anything in line to be dragged across fire. While I can’t take all the credit for the increased availability of this happy, dark grape, I’m glad to see dozens more Malbec varieties in the South American section of wine stores. (The fact that there *are* South American sections is a nice bonus, too…)

Here’s a quick refresher on Malbec. Malbec was initially most widely cultivated in France, where it was one of the six grapes allowed in the blend of red Bordeaux. (The others being Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Carmenere.) Malbec yields inky, tannic wines on its own – so it was usually blended into the Cabernet and Merlot to add depth and structure. The amount of Malbec grown in France has steadily declined over the years, due to vine health issues and an improvement in winemaking  technology. (One province in France, Cahors, still makes the bulk of its wine primarily from Malbec – although the grape is known there as Côt.)  

In the mid-19^th century, not long before the phylloxera outbreak that nearly wiped out all European wine, a French agronomist named Miguel Pouget brought Malbec cuttings from France to Argentina for propagation. In the Argentinean soil, something magical happened. The wine made from this Malbec took on an entirely different characteristic. The wine was still inky and dark, but it lacked much of the powerful (some would say overwhelming) tannins. Instead, it yielded a plummy, smoky wine with a much smoother texture.

The bulk of Argentinean Malbec is grown in the Mendoza province – with the most renowned wines grown in the high-altitude regions in the foothills of the Andes like the Uco Valley. Altitude agrees with the Malbec grape, and the higher-altitude vineyards are the most prized.

Tara at Balzac recently sent me three bottles from Bodegas Salentein, a modern Uco Valley winery. I’ve written a number of reviews of Malbec as pieces and parts of other columns, but I haven’t had the opportunity to do a true Malbec comparison. These three bottles from three different Salentein labels lent themselves to this little project:

Salentein 2012 Uco Valley Reserve Malbec ($20)

Killka 2013 Uco Valley Malbec ($15)

Portillo 2013 Uco Valley Malbec ($10)

The first thing I hope you notice is that the relative price of these wines. Malbec’s increase in popularity hasn’t popped the prices out of reasonable range. This is a good thing – especially with grilling season getting into high gear. You’ll never have to hunt too hard to find a reasonably priced Malbec.

We started with the Killka and the Portillo. I thought they’d make an interesting contrast – since they’re made, obviously, from the same grape, same vintage, and the same set of vineyards. The two also have the same alcohol content, acidity, and residual sugar content The real difference was in the winemaking process. The Portillo begins its process from grape to wine at low temperatures and is not fermented in wood. The Killka underwent a much more traditional process, and was aged with the addition of oak staves for eight months. Thus, the Portillo gets more of its tannin from the grape skins alone, while the Killka adds tannin and oak flavors from the wood.

The Portillo was a big, plummy, straightforward wine. The mouthfeel is full and round, yielding a very easy-to-drink quaff. Basically, it reminds me of a solid, table wine. Nothing too complex. The Killka, on the other hand, was softened by the touch of wood. It’s still a big wine, but it’s softer and smokier with some vanilla on the finish from the oak. I thought it was the more pleasant of the two wines to drink on its own. With some grilled pork chops and red potatoes, the Portillo was the better of the two – probably because the complexity wasn’t lost. We killed off the Portillo and saved the Killka to go alongside the Reserve.

The Salentein Reserve had a bit of a flavor of both winemaking techniques. It started off with the similar cold maceration process before full fermentation, and the wine was aged for a year in oak barrels. It also included grapes from an additional vineyard at even higher altitudes. The results were easy to see. The wine ends up big, but it’s a very well-integrated wine, especially for twenty bucks. The flavor balance was excellent. My note reads, “About as delicate a Malbec as I can remember.” There’s a floral/herbal characteristic to the nose which is quite pretty and a nice amount of smoke to go along with the firm tannic finish.

Side-by-side, the Reserve and the Killka taste somewhat similar, but I thought the Reserve was just “better.” Even when we forgot which wine was in which glass momentarily, it was clear which was the Reserve. With food – a grilled flank steak this time – there wasn’t a great deal of difference between the two. Either worked just fine. The steak, with its richer flavor, was better than the pork with Malbec in general, as well.

In general, Malbec will serve any needs for reasonably big red wine. Once you find a flavor profile you like, ask your friendly neighborhood wine store person for recommendations of similar styled ones. You’ll be happily busy for awhile. Fire up the grill and get to it!

The Naked Vine Live!

Looking for something to do on Wednesday evening? Want to enjoy some tasty, affordable wine, chat with your favorite local wine writer, and hang in some good company? If so, clear your calendar (or at least carve out a few minutes) between 6-8 pm on Wednesday, April 30th when I team up with Kevin Keith (better known as "K2" from Under the Grape Tree) to host a free tasting for y'all at The Party Source!

We're going to be pouring several versions of Grenache, one of the more interesting and most unappreciated grape varietals out there. We'll have examples to compare and contrast from all over the globe, so come on down. Try some of our selections and maybe try a few more from their new tasting bar. For a local angle, Stonebrook Winery will also be offering samples of their wares. And if you've got a thirst for hops, you can pop back to Ei8ht Ball Brewery in the back of the Party Source and try some samples from here.

Come on down!

Wine and Wheels! (or, keeping your tasting calendar full with Vine-y goodness…)

For the third consecutive year, Jeni Henz of the Madisonville Education and Assistance Center has asked me to emcee MEAC’s Spring fundraising event. “Wine and Wheels” is Friday, April 8th from 7-10 pm at Volvo of Cincinnati on Plainville Road. From the MEAC events page (where you can order yourself a ticket):

Support MEAC by attending the Wine and Wheels blind wine tasting. A tasting will be led by Mike Rosenberg, Sommelier for the Common Man and author of “The Naked Vine,” and will be followed by a blind wine tasting contest where the teams who brought the top two wines will win a prize. In addition to the wine, enjoy light hors d’oeuvres from local restaurants.

Registration: $15 per person + bring two bottles of ABC (Anything but California) wine – your choice – for each group of one to three guests.

Guests will vote on their favorite wines and the winners will win prizes!

Aside from the philanthropic nature of the event, there’s PLENTY of wine, a silent auction, and (at least in years past) a good deal of levity. Last year, I did my tasting spiel from the cockpit of a jet. Who knows where I’ll end up this year. So, come on out, test your palate, and say hello!

The Naked Vine in Anderson Township

Looking for something to do this Friday evening? I’m going to be running a little comparison tasting of various Pinot Gris/Grigios and Grenaches at Water Tower Fine Wines from 5:30-8:30. There’s a $15 charge for 6 wines, plus a premium pour available.

If you’ve not been to Water Tower yet, it’s run by longtime friends of the Vine David and Jan Lazarus (who celebrate their 15th anniversary on Friday!). It’s located at 6136 Campus Lane in Mt. Washington – straight across from, you guessed it, the Mt. Washington water tower. They’ve got one of the best collections of sparkling wines in the city.

There’ll be good wine and a nice spread of finger food to go alongside my random blatherings, so come on out!

On Twitter Tastings, Multitasking, and Bordeaux

As a teenager, I was the Space-Age Whiz Kid. No video game could stand in my way. Me against the machine. Sparks flew from my fingers. Always played it clean. We’re talking the good old school stuff – Pac-Man, Defender, Donkey Kong, Star Castle, Gorf, et-fricking-wonderful-cetera. Vintage Tempest machines still tremble at the sound of my initials.

Then along came Street Fighter, NBA Jam (the original boomshakalaka), Contra and others – where learning the game and good reflexes weren’t enough. A player had to learn cheat codes, combos to unlock special powers, and so on. The playing field was no longer level. Just being quick and crafty wasn’t enough I lost interest quickly. (This disinterest also roughly coincided with getting my driver’s license and discovering how utterly awesome girls were, but that’s another story…)

There’s a time I realize something may have passed me by.

Fast forward a couple of decades. Mike Wangbickler of Balzac Communications offered me the opportunity to participate in the “Twitter Taste Live” event to commemorate the launching of the new Planet Bordeaux website. Planet Bordeaux, as I wrote about last fall, is the attempt to demythologize the wines of the Bordeaux region, which are intimidating to everyday wine drinkers. Their labels are usually a salad of chateaux, communes, and the occasional picture of a castle or farmhouse.

The Planet Bordeaux website (http://www.planet-bordeaux.com) provides information about most non-classified growth Bordeaux producers who export to the U.S., information about the wines, and such. I was sent five red “Bordeaux Superieur” bottles to try, all of which retail in the U.S. in the $14-20 range:

• Chateau La Gatte La Butte 2006
• Chateau de Lugagnac 2008
• Chateau de Terrefort-Quancard 2008
• Chateau de Parenchere Cuvee Raphael 2007
• Chateau Penin Tradition 2009

So, what’s a Twitter Tasting? Well, if you can imagine a bunch of wine geeks sitting in front of computers, tasting wine and sending out their thoughts in 140 character bursts, you’ve got yourself a pretty good idea. I’d done one other Twitter tasting before, but it was a fairly small affair. This was a much bigger deal, encompassing wine writers & bloggers from across the country along with the winemakers in Bordeaux (who must have been awfully sleepy – this started at 1am their time…)

Once “social media” made its way onto the Internets, I initially kept up pretty well. I had a MySpace page (maybe I still do…I haven’t looked at it in ages). I was a relatively early adopter on Facebook and was luckily able to avoid the allure of Farmville. Facebook largely replaced email for me for awhile. And, of course, there was my blog – which all of you obviously know about. But I didn’t get Twitter. Seriously – who’s going to put in the time and effort to catalog everything they’re seeing and doing…constantly? I have a Twitter feed (@thenakedvine, if you’re interested), but I don’t tweet often. I never got the urge to speak hashtag and I’ve never made anything a “trending topic.”

This apparently puts me in the distinct minority of the online wine writing community.

As the time of the tasting neared, the Sweet Partner in Crime opened the bottles and laid them out. I was looking forward to this. The sheer amount of information about Bordeaux and the ever-changing qualities of those wines confounded me. I was never able to get a basic flavor profile. I mean, I have a pretty good idea of what pinot noir from Burgundy tastes like compared to Oregon or Carneros, but Bordeaux was more challenging. Wines from a half mile apart taste radically different. The opportunity to do a side-by-side-by-side-by-side-by-side, I thought, would clear a lot of things up.

At the appointed hour, I logged into “Taste Live!” – the most popular hosting site for these events. I immediately felt like I’d stumbled into an old AOL chatroom. Comments were flying fast and furious from people snapping micro-reviews back and forth.

When I taste a wine for the column or just out and about, I like to be a little more methodical. I like to sit and contemplate for a bit if I’m really trying to get something from the wine. So, amidst the noise, I put forth what I thought was a pretty pithy comment…only to watch it quickly get shoved out of sight down the page.

I made a comment about one of the wines being overly smoky and was lambasted by a couple of people, one of which said I had a “n00b palate.” Comments like “You’re never a serious evaluator unless you spit” were common. Several of these folks clearly knew each other, so inside jokes flew like dandelion fluff (which was used by one person as a descriptor, along with “diced green pepper stems”). One person was likening wines to obscure songs. Perhaps a mid-level Bordeaux is just like Tool’s “Intension,” but I don’t get it. (What wine goes with “Friday,” since we’re on the subject?)

I was also trying to have a conversation with the SPinC, write down my thoughts on the wines, and watch a little March Madness at the same time. After a few minutes of this, I had a really hard time keeping up. I decided, eventually, just to do my best with occasional snippets from my tasting notes. Rapid-fire and swirling just don’t work as well for me. Even my ADHD has its limits, I discovered.

That’s not to say that I didn’t pick up quite a bit. These wines were all distinctly different. The Chateau La Gatte was chalky and tart, almost like a Chianti. It was hugely acidic, full of mineral, and tasted of “dirt-covered cherries” (which is not a negative in this household.) The Chateau de Lugagnac had a bigger nose and a heavier fruit flavor. The finish on this wine was very smoky (see my reference above), which wiped out the fruit. The Chateau de Terrefort-Quancard was my favorite overall. It was very approachable, nicely balanced, and easy to drink. There was plenty of fruit, earth, and smoke, all wrapped together in a lighter package. The Chateau de Parenchere Cuvee Raphael was #2 on my rankings. Again, well-balanced but big flavors of coffee, earth, and blackberry. It was also as good with chocolate as any Bordeaux. The Chateau Penin was our least favorite. It was too much of everything – too much alcohol, too much tar and smoke flavor, and an herbal (green pepper stems!) flavor that I didn’t find pleasant. Given it was a 2009, revisiting this in a year might not be a bad idea.

All in all, what did I learn?

1. Bordeaux is still confounding. If you’re going to experiment with Bordeaux, get to know the French wine expert at your wine store and ask a bunch of questions.
2. People who can taste wine and tweet at the same time impress me.
3. I officially now feel six seconds from “Get off my lawn!”
4. Frustrating as it was, I’d probably try this again – although I’d probably cheat a bit and taste the wines ahead of time. Maybe that’s the cheat I need to keep up with the kids…

Technorati Tags: wine review,Bordeaux,wine,video games

The Naked Vine...in your living room?

Looking for an idea to spice up a party? Want your friends to love you forever? I've got a deal for you...

Thanks to the good folks at A Taste Of Monterey, I'm now available for in-home wine tastings. The setup goes something like this:

The host/hostess purchases a six pack of wines at a discount. You provide some appetizers and the like, and I come to your place and lead a tasting. The wines span the spectrum, and they're all affordable -- most are between $15-20. If people like the wines, I'll take orders and these wines will be delivered to your front door. Yes, I get a commission -- but it's a whole lot more fun doing wine than Tupperware, Amway, or those "fun parties" that I hear women in my office whispering about.

In any case, if you're interested in hosting one of these things, or if you'd just like some information, drop me a line. The calendar fills up, so let me know!

Salon Selections

I'm happy to report that the Sunday Salon benefit for the Rape Crisis and Abuse Center of Hamilton County went extremely well, in my estimation. We had a good crowd, delicious appetizers whipped up by hosts Jan and David Lazarus, and some lively lighthearted conversation. It was my first such event as a speaker, and I'm happy with the way that it unfolded.

I've had a couple of requests to post a list of the wines we featured at the tasting. So, without further ado:

• Mumm Napa Brut Prestige ($13-16)
• Kenwood 2006 Sauvignon Blanc ($11-14)
• Excelsior 2006 Chardonnay ($7-10)
• Chateau St. Michelle 2006 Columbia Valley Riesling ($7-11)
• Belle Vallée 2006 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir ($20-24)
• Francis Coppola 2006 Rosso Shiraz ($9-12)
• Kinkead Ridge 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon ($17-20)
• Beni di Batasiolo 2005 Moscato d'Asti ($11-14)
  

Thanks again to everyone who made the event possible. I'm honored to have been able to help out. All the best!

The Naked Vine Goes Public

I’m honored and humbled to be asked to lead one of the Sunday Salons in Cincinnati. The Salons are fundraisers for the Rape Crisis and Abuse Center of Hamilton County. Tickets for the event are $65, and you’ll get to hear me ramble on in person about affordable wine. (As a friend pointed out, the ticket will be about the same price as the six wines I’ll be showing…)

If you’re in the area, come on out and say hello. It’s going to be a really nice event. The Salon will be hosted by David and Jan Lazarus. David, whose oenological knowledge knows few bounds, gave great assistance in selecting the wines for the event, while his wife Jan is a top-notch professional cook. She will be doing specific food pairings for each course. Delicious.

Also, you may have noticed that we’ve picked up another print home for the Vine. The Valley Planet in Huntsville, Alabama, is the latest to join the Benefactor Vineyard. Welcome to Jill and her crew in “Rocket City.”

The Vine turns One

Happy birthday to me!

One year ago today, the Naked Vine was born.

One hundred twenty-some odd tasting notes, a couple of vacations, and only moderate liver damage later -- and the Vine is still going strong.

A few well-deserved kudos:

• To the Sweet Partner in Crime -- the best partner and editor I could ever dream of.
• To Scott -- for the quote that led to this madness.
• To Dave -- for the pints that led to "Sommelier for the Common Man."
• To Renee and Brian from Vintner Select -- my mentors in this little project.
• To The Wizard of Covington -- for all sorts of moral support.
• To folks like Mark Morford, Bill Simmons, Digby, and Al Featherston -- for helping me find a voice.
• To the Benefactors -- The Dayton City Paper, Planet Weekly, Whatzup, and YES! Weekly -- for giving me the chance to expand beyond the blog.

And most of all, to all of you who read regularly or just stop by occasionally -- wherever you are, I hope you've found something here to your liking.

Cheers, L'Chaim, Slainte, Prost, and on and on...to another year and another harvest. Thanks to all.

Time for a party!