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!

Wine & Dinner of the Month Club -- March

Fresh off our trip to Thailand in February, I was having a hankering for meat on a stick, so some skewered chicken and some kind of stir fry seemed to fit the bill. As an added bonus, I whipped up a quick peach crisp for dessert. All the recipes for this month came from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook Third Edition (© 2010 by The Editors at America’s Test Kitchen).

Wine

Adler Fels 2008 Russian River Valley Gewurztraminer

Dinner

Chicken Sate with Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce

Stir-Fried Curried Tofu with Coconut Sauce

Peach Crisp with Whipped Cream Topping

I started out making the chicken marinade and the peanut dipping sauce. These can be made ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator, but I had plenty of time to make them on the day of the dinner. It’s really just a matter of mixing ingredients, but make sure you store the chicken and marinade separately until you are ready to make the meal. After prepping for the sate, I made the peach crisp and put that in the oven. While the crisp was baking I prepped the ingredients for the stir-fry and then skewered the chicken and placed them on a broiling rack.

Once the crisp came out of the oven, I finished my prep on the stir fry and then popped the chicken under the broiler. There isn’t a set time for cooking the chicken, as you just want to make sure that you cook it all the way through. The recipe said four minutes for each side, but a couple of mine were a little thick so it was actually more like six minutes for each side. They came out plenty juicy and tasty and the peanut sauce was a delicious complement, though not as spicy as I had anticipated.

The stir fry was quick to prepare once I had all the ingredients ready, so I didn’t start cooking it until after we had the appetizer. I will admit to one peeve I have about cookbooks and their prep time estimates: cookbooks generally don’t take into consideration all the prep work when coming up with the time estimates. For example, the stir fry recipe called for snow peas, with strings removed, but you have to remove the strings first, which isn’t taken into account in estimating the prep time. So keep that in mind when trying to time the meal.

The stir fry was tasty with a good sauce that did not overwhelm the vegetables. This was mostly a vegetable stir fry, but I think it also would have been good over rice, particularly with the sauce soaking into the rice.

After dinner I whipped up some whipped cream, which we had on top of the peach crisp. The peaches were lovingly peeled, sliced and frozen from last summer’s peach crop from McGlasson Farms.

As for the wine, it was wonderful, with some nice citrus and melon notes and maybe a hint of baby’s breath in the nose. There was a little sweetness to it, but not much and it went very well with both the chicken sate and the stir fry. We tried it with the peach crisp, but both Christine and I thought it didn’t have enough sweetness to pair well. We tried a Riesling that we had open in the refrigerator and that seemed like a better match.

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

Earthquake Relief Tasting -- UPDATE

K2 at DEP’s Fine Wine and Spirits has organized a Japanese beer & sake tasting this Friday, March 18th. DEP’s is donating a matching amount from their tasting fees to the Red Cross. I assume there will be additional donation opportunities, as well.

From K2 himself:

I am putting together a special, just announced sake and Japanese beer tasting Friday, March 18th from 4-8 pm at our Fort Thomas location.  We will be featuring beers from Sapporo and Orion, as well as 6 incredible craft sakes.  This tasting has been evolving over the course of the day so more info is to come.

The normal $2 tasting fee will be an automatic donation to the Red Cross Japanese Earthquake/Tsunami Relief fund.  We will also be accepting additional donations on their behalf (though we hope to have Red Cross representatives present for the tasting).

I’ll be there! Hope to see you there!

UPDATE from K2:

Our 6 sakes are: Ozeka Hana Akawa Sparkling Sake, Hakushika Fresh and Lite Nama Sake, Tozai Snow Maiden Nigoru, Tentaka Kuni "Hawk in the Heavens", Kikumasamune Taru Cedar Sake, and Kurokame Shochu.

Catering by Jeff Thomas, featuring Szechwan Julienne Veggie Wraps, Thai BBQ Chicken Satay, Teriyaki Flank Steak sliders and Tuna Tartare in Phyllo.

Matt is also working on Food demos from some of our vendors, and we have beers from Orion and Sapporo. $2 tasting fee will go to Red Cross + will take additional donations. It's coming together.

Cincinnati International Wine Festival 2011

The Cincinnati International Wine Festival is a huge event here in Porkopolis. As their promos state, the festival “turns 21” this year. Most people end up at the zoolike atmosphere of the “grand tastings.”

I’ve mentioned that I’m lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend the “trade tasting” last Friday afternoon – which is reserved for folks…well…in the trade: restaurateurs, wine store owners, and the occasional writer or media member. Each year, I’ve walked away with a different sense of the event.

The event is always much less crowded than the “grand tastings.” This is the opportunity for the various wineries and wine distributors to show their wares to the folks who hopefully would snap up their offerings over the long term. It’s an impressive site – there are several hundred wines available for sampling.

I went for the first time two years ago. I was all bouncy and full of enthusiasm. I felt like I did my best to get through the entire set of offerings. I didn’t make it, of course – my stamina and palate aren’t that powerful. Last year, I left the place feeling pretty pissed off. I thought (and rightly so, I think), that I was given pretty poor treatment by some of the exhibitors as soon as they realized that I wasn’t a buyer – and since my last name wasn’t “Parker,” my little corner of the Internet wouldn’t give them enough exposure to be worthwhile. So, I wallowed in righteous indignation.

This year, my approach was a little different. I didn’t feel the need to slam my way around, not wasting a second – and when a pourer got snooty, I just walked away. I figured that there was better wine to be had out there.

I also have been around this stuff enough to know that I don’t need to repeat too many wines. I’ve written up or tried so many of these wines that I don’t need to burn my palate on them in a speed-dating-type setting like this one. I tried to focus on finding new or interesting wines. And I did. In no particular order, here were some of my favorite finds:

Gruet Blanc de Blanc Sauvage ($10) – Gruet, produced in New Mexico, is one of my go-to sparkling wines. This year, they’re rolling out a new wine – the Sauvage. “Sauvage” is the term for a sparkling wine without “dosage” – the sweet syrup added just before bottling to boost the residual sugar. The result is a bone-dry wine, drier even than brut sparkling wine. These are fairly rare, or have been. I thought this wine was outstanding. Super crisp, light fruit, a little yeast. An elegant, value-priced rockstar.

Revelry 2008 “The Reveler” Red Wine ($20) – a blend of Bordeaux varietals from Walla Walla, Washington. However, instead of being mostly cabernet or merlot, this blend is over half petit verdot. Rich, dark, layered, and sexy.

Lioco 2009 Sonoma Chardonnay ($18) – One of my favorite things about the festival is knowing that I’d run into some old friends. Brian Scott, who’s taught me as much about wine as anyone, introduced me to one of his Vintner Select clients, Kevin O’Connor, the founder of Lioco Wines. Kevin was droll as hell, and he cranks out some great wines. This was a fascinating chardonnay. I thought for certain that this was done in oak, but it was one of the richer wines done in all-stainless that I’ve tasted in quite some time. Layered, rich, and elegant, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better value in a quality California chardonnay.

Airlie Winery 2008 Müller Thürgau ($10) – The best smile at the wine festival, far and away, was that of Elizabeth Clark, the Airlie winemaker. She was unbelievably pleasant and friendly to chat with and, during our conversation, she opened my eyes to this interesting little varietal. The Müller (pronounced “Mueller”) was a varietal she felt simply brought joy. Her creation would be an absolutely fantastic brunch wine. Slightly sweet, packed with peaches and pairs and a vinho verde-esque little fizz, the wine just sings for the patio. The Arlie “7” white blend also scored with me as a flavorful, dry springtime sipper at $12.

Longboard Vineyards 2007 Russian River Syrah ($25) – Looking for a great grilling wine? Look no further. This wine was tailor-made for grilled meat. Rich, earthy, coffee tinged goodness. A nice one to stash away, as well. There’s enough structure here that you could hang onto a bottle or two for several years. I have a feeling this will evolve into something really special.

Babich 2009 “Black Label” Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc ($12) – Not to be confused with the horrid beer of the same name. The “Black Label” is Babich’s lower priced New Zealand SB, but I thought it was a superior wine. I also tried the “standard” Babich, and it was so grapefruity that you wanted to eat it for breakfast. (Hey, Mike B…are you listening?) The Black Label, I guess, was less “New Zealandish,” but I thought there was more balance, more tropical fruit, and an overall superior drinking experience.

Peter Franus 2009 Carneros Sauvignon Blanc ($22) & 2007 Brandlin Vineyard Zinfandel ($30) – I spent a nice long while chatting with Mr. Franus. He’s a quiet, pleasant man who produces quiet, pleasant wines. The Sauvignon Blanc was, bar none, the best white wine that I tried at the entire festival. Superior balance, nice acidity without being puckery, rich citrus fruit flavors, and a crisp, easy finish. The Zinfandel, also up there around the top of my list of reds has a powerful nose, but the flavor is deep, smooth, and richly balanced. Absolutely an excellent bottle of wine. Check his stuff out, for sure.

Marchesi di Barolo – I had four wines of theirs marked as keepers. Their Villa Crespia Franciacorta Brut is Chardonnay-based bubbly that I simply wrote “Killer” next to. Their Moscato d’Asti may have been the best Moscato I’ve tasted – reminded me of my grandmother’s canned peaches, and that’s a really good thing. Their Barbera d’Alba and Dolcetto d’Alba were outstanding Italian reds. All of them retailed in the ballpark of $20, give or take, and I’d recommend them all.

Domaine Serene 2008 Yamhill Cuvee Pinot Noir ($30) – Domaine Serene is in Oregon, and their spread of wines were my favorite reds at the festival. Their Yamhill Cuvee was my favorite red at the event. They had two other more expensive pinots, but I thought that both in flavor and in value, this was my choice. I’m a sucker for red Burgundy, and this is one of the most “Burgundian” American pinots that I’ve tried. Plenty of blueberry and cherry and a nice deep earthy character. I would imagine this would be an amazing food wine, but I’d rather pair it with high thread counts, low lighting, and the SPinC.

A few other notable bottles to look out for:

Simonsig 2009 Chenin Blanc ($13) – just a pretty wine from Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Hogue Cellars 2007 Genesis Red Meritage ($14) – very flexible, solid red from the Pacific Northwest.

Gustave Lorentz 2009 Gewurztraminer Reserve ($18) – Alsatian gewurz. Smells like flowers and drinks wonderfully.

Cachette 2009 Cotes du Rhone ($13) – Very tasty Grenache-heavy blend. Super value.

Pivka 2008 Prestige Traminec & Vranec ($6) – Macedonian table wine. The white reminds me a little of retsina while the red is a light-bodied, basic wine. But for six bucks, certainly worth trying something new…

I’m still deciding on how to proceed with the wine festival for next year. I’m considering taking a year off from the trade tasting, but I’d hate to miss out on being exposed to some new things. I’ve got a year to think about it, at least…

 

Technorati Tags: Cincinnati,wine,festival,wine review

Wine & Dinner of the Month Club, Round 2!

Much to the pleasure of Christine the Pie Queen, her hubby Jeff is back by popular demand for another round of the Wine & Dinner of the Month Club. So, with a big note of thanks to Jeff and without further ado:

As you may recall, I had planned to stop submitting entries to the Vine after Christine’s January 2011 dinner, even though the wine/dinner of the month club continues and is now a permanent part of Christine’s birthday gift each year. However, for various reasons I have decided to continue as a contributor. First, I could not bear the thought of leaving my loyal readers (i.e. Christine’s family) in the lurch and second, Mike agreed to increase my royalties by 10%. Now, technically 10% of zero is still zero, but how many people can say they got a raise last year?

I will be doing things a little differently this year as I won’t be providing links to recipes because as much as possible I am going to get my recipes from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook Third Edition (© 2010 by The Editors at America’s Test Kitchen) which Christine gave me for Christmas this past year. With that introduction, here is the entry for February 2011.

Wine

2007 Dei Rosso di Montepulciano

Dinner

• Dates Stuffed with Parmesan and Toasted Walnuts
• Long Cooked Meat Ragu
• Green Salad
• Triple-Chocolate Mousse Cake

(I didn’t make the last two menu items--more on that later.)

The dates were simple enough. Toast the walnuts in a dry pan on the stove. Take pitted dates from the package and stuff them with a walnut half and a small piece of parmesan cheese. You get the smokiness from the toasted walnuts blending with the sharpness of the cheese and sweetness of the dates for a simple and tasty treat.

The ragu was simple to make but does take some time because it has to simmer for an hour or two. You basically make a tomato sauce with some onions and red wine and then place beef short ribs, which have been browned, into the pan and let it simmer until the meat on the ribs is tender. Since the ribs are mostly bone, there really isn’t that much meat in the sauce, but since it all simmers together the flavor of the beef permeates the sauce all the way through. When the sauce is done, the bones are removed from the sauce, leaving the tender meat. The sauce was served over ziti pasta with parmesan cheese grated over top. It had great, rich flavor that went well with the wine. The problem is that it was so good I almost finished eating before I drank any wine. Christine said next time I need to try more savoring and less shoveling. Good advice for life in general, I would say.

The salad and cake were brought over the night before by our friends Dave (our go to guy for salad and goat cheese) and Barb (dessert queen). You read that right. Christine may be the pie queen, but for other desserts, particularly chocolate, we defer to Barb. We had them both over for dinner the night before and the salad and cake were left over from that evening. The salad was a nice mix of greens, Craisens, carrots and blue cheese. The cake was three layers of decadence including, from bottom to top, a flourless chocolate cake, dark chocolate mousse, and white chocolate mousse. (The recipe is from Cook’s Illustrated.) It was a great way to top off a great meal!

The Alphabet Soup Project – G is for “Grenache”

A quick programming note before we get rolling. I’m going to be co-leading a wine tasting with Danny Gold on Wednesday evening (March 9, 2011) from 6:30-8:00 at the Party Source in Bellevue, KY. The cost is $20, but you get a $5 gift card. The theme is “California Wines under $15,” so come on down, grab a glass, and hang with us. Want to reserve a spot? Click here.

*************************************

I owe my earliest memories of Grenache to my folks. Back in the day, they usually kept a jug of Gallo white Grenache around for entertaining visitors. (In case you’re wondering, Mom – I never sneaked any…) Almaden, Rossi, Franzia – all of the major jug wine producers cranked out inexpensive, sweet blushes made from Grenache. White Grenache was what White Zinfandel eventually became in the wine market – a “refreshing” wine. (Gallo actually tried to market White Grenache as an upscale alternative to White Zin in the late 80’s. That campaign didn’t last long.)

Since pink, sweet wines were never really my thing, I put Grenache out of my head for a long time. Along came the Sweet Partner in Crime. In our wine-appreciation infancy, we powered through many a bottle of Rosemount Estates’ Shiraz blends from Australia. When the weather got warm, we’d replace our bottle of Rosemount Shiraz/Cab with their Grenache/Shiraz blend, since it was lighter. Once our wine preferences began to broaden a bit, our everpresent bottle of Rosemount got replaced with other stuff and Grenache again retreated to an afterthought.

Fast forward a bit. I started seeing Grenache as a varietal more and more, especially as French and Spanish wines became more common in my rack. But what is it? One way to find out…

Grenache is a high-yielding grape that’s extremely common in the world’s hottest, driest wine regions. It’s best known as the backbone of the wines of the Southern Rhone region – especially Chateauneuf-de-Pape and many Cotes-du-Rhone. It’s the primary grape in Tavel, one of the best regions for rosé in the world. In Spain, it’s known as “Garnacha” and the wines of Rioja, Priorat, and Navarra simply wouldn’t exist without it.

Post-Prohibition winemakers in California grew a lot of Grenache. The sturdiness and drought-resistant properties of the vines (not to mention the high yields) made it a natural match for many of the growing areas. The wines, however, were often of the aforementioned jug variety. This began to change with the advent of the “Rhone Ranger” movement, where many winemakers started putting together high quality French-style blends in the late 1990’s.

Rarely used as a single varietal, Grenache yields a fruity, low-tannin, medium-bodied wine. The French Grenache-based wines tend to be quite earthy, since the bitterness of the tannin doesn’t get in the way of the “funk.” Spanish Grenache tends to be on the smoky side. American Grenache blends usually are more

fruit forward. Most good Grenache is be easy to drink and extremely food friendly. As a pairing, Grenache works in almost any instance where you’d normally choose a pinot noir. I’ve seen Grenache described as “pinot with a punch,” and that’s accurate – similar flavors, slightly heavier body, and a more fruit-forward flavor.

The SPinC and I did a side-by-side with a pair of Grenache-dominant wines. The first was the Writer’s Block 2008 Grenache from Lake County, California. The other was Penelope Sanchez 2009 Grenache/Syrah from Campo de Borja, Spain. The Penelope is 80/20 Grenache/Syrah and the Writer’s Block is over 80% Grenache with some Syrah and Conoise blended along. Both retail for $12-15.

Both wines improve greatly with a little decanting. The Penelope, especially, was very “tight” initially. (Javier Bardem commentary withheld…) It took a few minutes, even after some heavy swirling, for the smokiness and tannin to start balancing with the fruit. Once it had a few minutes in the air, it opened into a nose laced with herbs and vanilla. The body is light-to-medium and is well-balanced cherries, smoke, and vanilla. Those flavors all twined through a long finish.

The Writer’s Block (one of my favorite names for a wine) was heavier. Like most American wines compared to Euro-counterparts, the Lake County Grenache wasn’t as subtle and had a much “stronger” profile. Everything tasted “bigger,” even though the color of the wine itself was lighter. The nose was cherries and bubblegum with much less smoke. Very straightforward. There’s more of a “leather and cigar box” flavor on the finish. The SPinC thought it tasted like black licorice.

For dinner, we grilled some salmon and roasted some cauliflower with garlic and balsamic vinegar. When we tasted the two initially, our first reaction was that we liked the Spanish version better. The flavors in the food made the wine taste bigger and smokier. After a few bites, though, we came to the realization that we weren’t observing closely enough.

The Writer’s Block was better with the fish. There was more tannin (as would be expected from a Lake County wine *add link*), so the wine’s flavors cut much more easily through the oiliness of the fish and stood up better to the grilled flavors. The Penelope was better with the cauliflower. The roasting and the balsamic brought out the sweetness in the cauliflower, which was a much more harmonious pairing with the complexity of the Spanish entry.

Both wines were quite good. They’re excellent values and either would be fine with almost any food, short of something really heavy like a cassoulet or a meal dripping with cheese.

One last point about Grenache. I’ve mentioned grapes like Alicante and Cannonau a few times in this space as varietals with which I wasn’t very familiar. Turns out that I was more familiar than I thought – both of them are actually Grenache. Whatever name’s on the bottle, it’s well worth your time geting familiarized or re-familiarized. I’m certainly glad that I did.

(Also, for remembrances’ sake, I tried a bottle of the old Rosemount Estates Grenache/Syrah. Interesting how time changes one's view of things. Sweetish nose of blackberry jam. Lots of fruit on the palate and a little noticeable residual sugar. The finish is fruity and you sort of have to hunt for the tannins in the blend. I wouldn’t pick it for a normal tipple these days. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, I guess…)

 

Technorati Tags: wine,Grenache,California,Spain,France

Naked (Vine) In Public

Hey, everyone! I’ve got something for your upcoming social calendars!

I’m going to be co-leading a wine tasting with my fellow wine-loving bald guy Danny Gold for the Party Source’s EQ tasting series on Wednesday, March 9 from 6:30-8:00. The theme is “Great Wines Under $15 from California.”

There’s a $20 charge for the tasting, but you get a $5 Party Source gift card for your trouble.

You can make reservations by following this link. Danny tells me that these tastings fill up, so come on down, introduce yourself, and have some wine with us.

Hope to see you there!

The Alphabet Soup Project: F is for “First” – Aperitifs

Aperitif --a common word in wine descriptions. I’m 100% guilty of throwing it out there myself, usually when I’m describing light, dry white wines that are easy sippers. I started using it because I’d seen any number of other writers do the same. (Yes, yes – we wine writers can get lost in “monkey see, monkey do,” or “Mikey see, Mikey do” in my case.)

I’ve described any number of wines as Aperitifs – everything from rosé to sherry to bubbly. So, when I’m writing about these things – just what am I supposed to be talking about and why is it something we should be interested in?

The word “Apèritif” (uh-pair-uh-TEEF) is a French word stemming from the Latin aperire, meaning “to open.” An Aperitif is a drink (or drinks, depending on who’s serving the chow) taken before a meal to stimulate the appetite. Aperitifs are usually served on their own or with some kind of light snack. Aperitifs should not be confused with appetizers, which are considered part of the actual meal. There’s not one single “traditional” Aperitif – they vary widely by country and custom. You’ll see liqueurs, cocktails, wines, and shots of alcohol used as Aperitifs.

Broadly, they tend to employ a bit of bitterness to get the salivary glands working and some sweetness to make the bitterness more palatable. With liqueurs, there’s often a notable herbal component. The most notable Aperitif in the U.S. is probably the martini. In France, anise-flavored liqueurs like Pastis or Pernod (or absinthe, if your tastes swing towards the hallucinogenic) are common. Greece’s most famous is ouzo. Italy brings us Cinzano and Campari if you’re looking at bitter liqueurs; limoncello if you want something a little sweeter.

I’ll be honest, though – I’ve tried many of the above bitter liqueurs, and I really don’t much care for them (martinis being the exception). I’ve had some very, very painful experiences with a couple of them as well. (Word to the wise…avoid ouzo. Just stay away.) For our purposes, we’ll largely stick to wine-based Aperitifs.

Wines served as Aperitifs are usually light whites. While I’ve written about any number of things as Aperitifs, traditionally, an Aperitif wine is a sparkler. Brut Champagne is a classic Aperitif, as is cava in Spain, but any dry bubbly will generally do.

The Sweet Partner in crime and I were a bit peckish one Saturday afternoon. Since I was working on this article and I never need an excuse to crack a bottle of bubbly, I decided to open one to go along with the grocery store sushi I’d picked up while I was out. I went with a relatively inexpensive dry Prosecco.

Lunetta Prosecco, imported by Cavit, was my choice for the day. It’s a relatively low-alcohol bubbly, so it doesn’t completely fog one’s brain. It’s a very pleasant sparkly sip, crisp and light with a bit of a citrus backbone. With the sushi, a very pleasant sideboard. Didn’t detract from the fish flavor at all and didn’t back down from the wasabi.

While sparkling wines are the most fun wines of all, and they’re certainly a great way to kick off a dinner party, you can use just about any light wine here. Think pinot grigio or whites from the Loire like a Muscadet or Sancerre if you want to go the still wine route here. Dry vermouth is also a very traditional Aperitif. I like martinis, and I think a person who eschews vermouth in a ‘tini is truly missing out. But on its own as an Aperitif, I’ve tried it and I wouldn’t put it high on my list of favorites.

Along the lines of vermouth, there’s a very unique wine-based beverage used as an Aperitif that I’d seen on the shelf at various stores for a long time and always wondered about – Lillet. Lillet is around an 85/15% blend of wine from Bordeaux and various citrus liqueurs. There are red and white versions of Lillet, although I’ve only seen the latter. The white is largely a Semillon-based wine while merlot provides the structure for the red.

Lillet is served chilled, either refrigerated or on the rocks. I decided to try it in one of the traditional manners: on ice with a slice of orange. (Some use lime or lemon slices.) I braced myself for the bitterness of Campari or Pernod – ready for either an herbal blast or a biting dryness. What did I find?
It’s a curious drink. It smells like fresh orange rind and flowers. As I took a sip, It’s a slightly sweet, light sipper, full of citrus. The herbal taste is similar to Chartreuse, although the flavor itself bears no resemblance. While there’s sweetness on the palate, the finish is quite dry thanks to quinine – the same stuff that gives a bite to tonic water. I found it to be extremely pleasant, and I can see how one could certainly enjoy some of this before a meal.

Additionally, Lillet became famous in American thanks to Bond. James Bond. In Casino Royale (the book, mind you – not the George Lazenby version), Bond orders a martini made of three parts gin, one part vodka, ½ part Lillet, and a twist of lemon. I couldn’t resist. I whipped one up. That Ian Fleming knew what he was writing about. It’s an extremely tasty version of a martini. Dangerously drinkable. If having as an Aperitif, limit yourself to one of these. I put one away, for scientific purposes, of course…then promptly took a nap.

As I think about the everyday implications here – I usually have some kind of pre-dinner glass of wine, and it’s almost always something white and light. I’m often cooking while I’m drinking it, so I’m normally not thinking too hard about the flavors in my glass – and I don’t want whatever it is to interfere with the inevitable spice adjustments that go on while I’m putting dinner together. I’d suggest you keep this in mind as you’re thinking about Aperitifs. This is usually a drink for conversation. People’s minds will be elsewhere, and they’ll often be mindlessly noshing. Whatever you choose, let it be something that pairs easily with almost any food. You won’t go wrong.

The Valentine’s Pack

As I get started here, let me once again thank Jeff, the Naked Vine’s foreign correspondent, for his great work with his monthly dinner club writeups. I’m sure Christine the Pie Queen was pleased with her birthday present. If you enjoyed his writeups, please drop him a line in the comment section here.

This set of releases, sent for sampling by the California Table Wine folks, was scheduled to coincide with the king of the Hallmark Holidays. So, would you want to put these in a gift basket? I was sent three samples:

• Apothic Red 2008 California Winemaker’s Red Blend
• Barefoot (NV) Sweet Red
• Bear Flag (NV) Dark Red Wine Blend

Before we get to the wines themselves, I realize I haven’t mentioned what “NV” means – it’s “non-vintage,” meaning the wine is made of a blend of wines not produced in the same year. For instance, when producing a blend, a winemaker might blend a barrel of 2008 Zinfandel with a half-barrel of 2010 pinot noir and a half-barrel of 2009 Tempranillo to get the flavor he or she was looking for.

You see non-vintage most often with sparkling wines, but more and more table wine blends are going to this model. In a relatively consistent climate like California, such a process is usually less expensive and gives a winemaker more flexibility in producing an “even” product from year to year.

As for this bunch of blends, we started by trying the wines individually.

The Bear Flag was our first sip. This wine had, by far, the most interesting label – a potentially chemically-fueled cacaphony of images by an artist named Benton Eduardo. A description won’t really do it justice, so see for yourself:

With a label that screams, “pick me and don’t worry about what’s inside,” I wondered if there would be due diligence done with the product itself – a Petit Sirah based blend with Alicante, Zinfandel, Petit Verdot, and Tempranillo. With that combination, I didn’t expect a blast of acidity, but that’s what I got on the first drink. However, the wine balanced with about half an hour of air. There’s a medium bodied blueberry flavor to it with some smoke on the end. Nothing complicated – a somewhat dry-and-fruity red wine with enough character to make it interesting. Not bad for $9.

Next, we moved over to the Apothic Red Blend. This is a Zinfandel based wine backed up with Merlot and Syrah. I’ve had any number of fruit bombs over the years, but this was, perhaps, the first vanilla bomb I’ve tasted. “It tastes like vanilla candy,” said the Sweet Partner in Crime. I concurred. It calmed down a bit after some air, but the vanilla dominated everything. The promised notes of “mocha, chocolate, and brown spice” from the description were swamped. We set it aside for later to see if it would be worth the $14 pricetag.

We cracked open the Barefoot Sweet Red with some trepidation. We’re clearly not the target audience for this blend of Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, Barbera, Grenache, and Petit Sirah. I was a little nervous when I saw that the alcohol content was only 10.5%. Zinfandels can get up to 14-15% alcohol without trying, so I wondered just how much residual sugar there must be in there. The answer? A bunch. This tasted very tart and rather sweet – like Sangria or a Seabreeze. Set me back a step. I’d imagine that this is built for drinkers of white zinfandel who don’t want to be seen drinking pink wine. The flavor profile is very similar. $6.

California red blends tend to be less tannic and more food friendly than the single varietal wines. With red wines, we thought we’d try a classic red table wine pairing. I picked up a couple of filets at the store, boiled some gold potatoes and topped them with butter and parsley, sautéed up some portabella mushrooms with some garlic and red wine. Even in in the middle of winter, I like finding a good excuse to grill, so I knocked the snow off the cover, fired that puppy up, and threw the filets on there for a good searing. (Rare. Yes, please.)

With the wines, the Bear Flag continued to be the top performer. Since it was a little more restrained to begin with, it evolved into a nice companion for the meal. It didn’t really stand out in any way, but it was a nice accompaniment.

The Apothic needed food. Even after a couple of hours of air, the vanilla was still overpowering. With a steak, however, those vanilla notes got blunted quite a bit, allowing some of the other flavors in the wine to come out. The potential was there for a very interesting wine, but it wasn’t evident by itself. It may benefit from a little more time in bottle.

As for the Barefoot? I ate a bit of the filet, had a sip of the wine, and declared, “That was the most unpleasant bite of steak I’ve ever had.” I can’t recommend it, unless you want to either make sangria or pour it over ice with a splash of club soda. As a spritzer, it’s quite decent. (Hey, it was for the sake of science…)

Finally, how about alongside that box of chocolates in your potential gift basket? We actually tried the wines with two-bite brownies. The Apothic was quite good, actually. The vanilla worked with the brownies nicely. The Bear Flag was decent. Nothing outstanding, but a solid choice. The Barefoot? No. Just no.

So, to sum up: I’m not the best judge of the Barefoot. It’s not a wine for me. The Bear Flag is a solid, value-minded choice for drinking or food. With chocolate, the Apothic is good now. It may evolve into a better food wine in a year or so.

Wine & Dinner of the Month Club - January

So here we are with the last of the Wine/Dinner of the Month Club entries (that is, unless Mike gives me a bump up in my royalties). This month, for only the second time, we go on the road. Christine and I headed out to West Virginia for some cross country skiing at White Grass Ski Touring Center. We try to get out there at least once a winter, hoping for good snow. This year there was plenty and the trails were as good as I have ever seen them. So good, in fact, that I hardly fell at all which is a pretty good measure of conditions. We were joined by our friend Patty in a cute little rental cottage with a hot tub. The kitchen conditions were a little less ideal than the skiing conditions, but we made the best of it and had a great meal. No recipe links this month, but the recipes should be easy enough to find from the sources below. One other note, the pictures are not their usual high quality. We forgot to bring our camera and wound up taking the pictures with Patty’s cell phone, but I think they give a good sense of how everything turned out. Bon appétit.

Menu

• Mushrooms Stuffed with Walnuts & Cheese. (The Silver Palate Cookbook, by Julee Rosso & Sheila Lukins with Michael McLaughlin © 2007 Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins)
• Spanish Style Braised Lentils with Sausage and Chard. (The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, Third Edition © 2010 by The Editors at America’s Test Kitchen. A well received Christmas gift from the lovely Christine.)
• Cherry Pie. (Delivered by Patty.)

Wine
2005 Alain Paret Valvigneyre Cotes-du-Rhone

While Christine and Patty were taking a well deserved après ski soak in the hot tub--I had been in earlier and got out to start dinner--I worked on the stuffed mushrooms. These are super easy to make. You simply prepare the filling, stuff the mushroom caps with stems removed, and pop in the oven. The filling is mostly walnuts and spinach, with a little of two kinds of cheeses in the filling (gruyere and feta) to give great flavor and texture without being overly rich. Patty, who is not huge fan of mushrooms, said, “I could eat these every night for the rest of my life!” I’m not convinced that wasn’t the Maker’s Mark 46 talking that she and Christine were enjoying in the hot tub earlier, but the mushrooms were very good.

Christine and Patty both helped in making the main dish because there was quite a bit of chopping to do. It wouldn’t have been a problem at home, but with the limitations of the rental kitchen, it was nice to have some extra hands helping out. We substituted regular brown lentils for the lentils du Puy called for in the recipe. They worked fine and actually required a little less cooking time. We also used some chi-chi, non-antibiotic packaged andouille chicken sausages instead of the kielbasa called for in the recipe (Christine did the grocery shopping). This worked out as well, but after browning the sausage, there was very little fat in the pan, which is what you are supposed to use to cook the rest of the dish. I just added a little olive oil to the pan to make up the difference. One nice thing is that this is pretty much a one dish meal, which makes for easy clean up. I baked a quick loaf of crusty bread and plated up the meal. Both the mushrooms and the lentil dish had a lot of very earthy flavors. We all felt the wine did as well and so it was a great accompaniment to both dishes.

Patty had been kind enough to bring a cherry pie (my personal favorite) for dessert. Here the evening took a peculiar turn. We took the pie and a bottle of prosecco (and Christine in her pajamas) and drove into the little town of Davis to visit with a couple of Patty’s friends who were also out for a ski weekend. To protect the innocent, we’ll just call them The Russian and The Russian’s Boyfriend. Once there we all enjoyed some pie and prosecco. Some of us also had some of the Russian’s Russian vodka and a little more Maker’s Mark. I think the skiing the next morning was a little rough for at least one of us, but we all had a good time and I have to say it was probably one of the more eventful and entertaining of the past year’s wine dinners.

Alentejo, Portugal

Portuguese Wine.

I’ll be honest, I’d never given it a second thought. I knew that Port originally came from northern Portugal, and I’ve had my share of vinho verde, that summertime slightly sparkling slice of refreshment, but I’d never considered other wines from there, largely because I don’t remember seeing them in one of my regular wine store haunts.

Along came an opportunity to sample a few bottles of table wine from Portugal. As a public service, of course, I gave them a spin. We’ll get to them in a moment. A little background, first.

Portugal is actually fifth in the world in total wine export. The biggest importer of Portuguese wine is Angola with Brazil not far down the list (not surprisingly, since Portuguese is the national language in both places…) Much of that volume is comprised of Port, followed by headache-inducing pink wines like Lancers and Mateus. Vinho Verde is also gaining more of that market share. While Portugal grows some of the world’s more “common” grape varietals such as Syrah and Moscatel, most wines from Portugal are made from their abundant varieties of indigenous grapes – over 500 of them.

Like most European countries, Portuguese wine nomenclature generally follows the region of the country where the wine is produced.Vinho Verde, I learned, is not only the term for “green wine,” but is, in and of itself, a wine region. Other regions/wines include Douro (the most famous region – the birthplace of port), Dao, Bairrada, Colares, and Alentejo.

It’s the last region I mentioned, Alentejo, which produced the wines that I had the chance to try. Alentejo, as a region, covers a great portion of the southern third of Portugal. It’s not heavily populated and was best known around the world for the production of cork. However, it produces a great deal of the country’s red and white table wine, which was largely forgettable on the world stage. Over time, winemaking techniques improved along with the quality.

Since Portugal’s entry into the European Union in 1986, they adopted a similar quality classification system as several of the other countries. The “top” classifications are labeled DOC. The next step down is “Vinho Regional.” DOC is to Vinho Regional the same way you might consider Chablis to regular (white) Burgundy.

From the marketing materials I received with the samples, The broadening of the Portuguese wine market doesn’t seem to be focusing, at least initially, on “fine wine” – instead focusing on the “good table wine” range. [Note: many thanks to Jo Diaz from Diaz Communications for giving me the opportunity to try these wines.] So, how were they? I had the chance to sample a red and a white from two different producers: Finisterra and Alente. Finisterra sold around $7, Alente sold around $9.

The first one opened was the Alente 2007 Alentejo Red Wine (or “Vinho Tinto” if you prefer). This is a DOC wine. This is a blend of Trincadeira and Aragonez grapes. It’s a fairly light red. There’s not much of a nose on this wine – faint raspberry scents. The flavor is somewhat acidic with some soft tannins at the end. On its own, it wasn’t great, but the pairing suggestion was for Spanish-spiced food. We tried it with some leftover (and damned good, I must say!) ropa vieja that we’d made for a party. The wine was an OK accompaniment, but it didn’t do anything to set itself apart. Not my favorite.

We moved on to the Alente 2009 Alentejo White Wine (or “Vinho Branco”), another DOC entry made from Antão Vaz and Arinto grapes. There wasn’t much of a nose on this wine at all: some apples and light wood with a slightly astringent smell like a bandaid in the background. Once past that, the body was pleasantly fruity. It’s moderately acidic with apple flavors and a little bit of mineral kicking around. The finish is fruity and soft with a little pepper that kicks in at the very end. I had high hopes with this with a paella that I’d cobbled together, since it was about as close to regional cuisine as I could manage. It turned out to be a very nice complement, but, like its red brother, it wasn’t memorable.

Then came the Finisterra 2009 Alentejo Red Wine – This is a “Vinho Regional” made from Aragonez, Castelão, and Tincadeira. The nose was quiet with faint raspberry and strawberry, but the body was a very different experience. The flavor isn’t especially fruity – some dark fruit there, but it’s generally lean and tannic. The palate isn’t complex, but it’s pleasant and there’s a solid finish of coffee and dark chocolate. The tannins are pronounced without being too strong, so it’s very easy to drink. We found it to be a really nice food wine. We had this with a winter vegetable soup – plenty of butternut squash and leek and other earthy flavors. It worked really well in a context where my first thought would have been something in the neighborhood of Cotes du Rhone. A Cotes du Rhone wouldn’t have been nearly as good with end-of-meal chocolate, either.

Finally, the Finisterra 2009 Alentejo White Wine was an interesting quaff. This Vinho Regional blend of Antão Vaz, Siria, Rabo de Ovelha, and Perrum gave me a snootful of apples and lemons with an odd little “cheese” undertone. The flavor is initially pretty tart, but it calms down pretty rapidly. Light body with fairly high acidity with some oak. The finish turns quite oaky at the end. An oaky pinot grigio, if you need to draw some kind of parallel. This one didn’t make it to food. We opened this one afternoon and it made a nice companion to conversation. A pretty decent value for a “drinking wine.”

All in all, the Finisterra wines earned higher marks from us. I thought they were very solid values for table wine. I’d recommend them for sure.

I’m certainly going to keep my eye on Portugal moving forward. If you like Spanish table wines, but you’re looking for a slightly lighter-styled wine, Portuguese wines could be your alternative.

Technorati Tags: Portugal,wine,Alentejo

Wine & Dinner of the Month Club - December

[Some of you had been asking about Jeff’s last entry. Sorry to keep you waiting. Computer issues in the Plepysbury household put a momentary hold on the last installment. Enjoy!]

This month’s entry includes classic comfort food for the holidays and for the first time we had guests for the monthly wine dinner. We also got a chance to do a vertical tasting with the selected wine. Unfortunately I was not able to find links to all the recipes, but I have given the sources. Enjoy.

Menu

• Turkish Red Pepper Spread
• Pot Roast with Vegetables (From Better Homes and Gardens Magazine – December, 2010)
• Coconut Custard Pie (From Williams-Sonoma, Pie & Tart, © 2003 by Weldon Owen Inc. and Williams-Sonoma)

Wine

• 2005 Dynamite Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon
• 2006 Dynamite Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon

This wine dinner was extra special because it was on Christmas Eve and Christine’s parents were in town visiting, so they got to see the magic happen. Since we had extra guests I wanted to get another bottle of the selected wine for the meal. Of course, I bought these wines for Christine’s birthday last January, so there was no more of the 2005 vintage available. So instead I picked up a bottle of the 2006 vintage. I figured it would go well with the pot roast too and we would get a chance to compare the two vintages.

The pot roast actually takes about 3 hours in the oven so once I got that in I had plenty of time to prepare the red pepper spread and clean up the kitchen. I find it makes the dinner that much more relaxing when that little chore is already done. The red pepper spread was easy to make in the food processor and then served in a bowl with crackers for a tasty, and actually healthy, appetizer. The red peppers gave it a nice smoky flavor and the spices added a little heat without being over the top.

After the appetizers I plated up the pot roast and we sat down to dinner. The meat was tender with nice flavor from the caramelized onions and the vegetables. I did make one change in the recipe. One of the vegetables called for was a turnip. We couldn’t find turnips so I substituted a parsnip. For some reason the parsnip did not cook as thoroughly as the other vegetables and it was a little hard. I think turnips may be a softer root and would have cooked better with the roast. It was still tasty and I between the four of us, we cleaned up the platter.

The wine had a deep ruby color and a nice flavor that paired well with the pot roast and roasted vegetables.

As you might expect, we couldn’t really tell that much of a difference between the two vintages of the same wine, but we thought the 2005 did have some more complexity in the flavors. This was probably because it had been sitting in our cellar for the last year maturing. If we kept a bottle of the 2006 for the same length of time, I’m sure we’d get the same result.

I had made the dessert earlier in the day because it was meant to be served at room temperature. We had finished off the two bottle of Dynamite Vineyards wine so we opened up a bottle of Beringer dessert wine which had been given to us by our friends and next door neighbors Marlane and Steve. Unfortunately, we recycled the bottle before I had a chance to write this post, and I don’t remember exactly what the wine was. I know it was a botrytis wine, which means the grapes had been infected with a mold spore that causes them to dehydrate and has the effect of concentrating the sugar in the juice. The resulting wine is sweet and we detected aromas and flavors of dried fruit and honey. It went great with the coconut custard pie.

It was a great meal made even better by being able to share it with family. Make sure you check back next month for the last [ed.note – nooooo!!!!] of the Wine/Dinner of the Month Club entries.

The Alphabet Soup Project -- “E” is for “Extract”

Happy New Year, everyone! I’ve neglected the Alphabet Soup Project for far too long. Thought I’d start the new year off right…

At your next wine tasting, you could hear a wine referred to as “highly extracted” and wonder what the heck the pourer is talking about. “Extracted from what?” you might think to yourself before trying your sample. When you do get a sip, what will probably come to your mind is “Whoo…that’s a big wine!” Extract is what makes a big wine “big.”A “highly extracted” wine will likely taste somewhat “chewy.”

Where does this chewiness come from? Think a moment about what wine is – grape juice to which yeast is added. The yeast fermentation creates alcohol. Once the sugar in the wine is converted into alcohol, it’s stored and eventually bottled. The basis of wine is alcohol, any remaining sugar, and what remains of the juice.

Alcohol itself isn’t heavy. (Do a shot of Everclear if you doubt this.) Residual sugar can add weight to the feel of a wine on the palate, but that much residual sugar usually only exists in dessert wines. The heavy feeling of these extracted wines comes from all of the other stuff floating around in the mix.

Along the wending path of fermentation, the wine gathers various elements. “Extract” in a wine means anything that the wine collects or extracts from its surroundings during its creation. Or, in short, anything that doesn’t result directly from the act of fermentation itself.

What do I mean? Red and rosé wine picks up color and tannin from coming into contact with the grape skins during the fermenting process. White wine may gain character from “resting sur lie” (meaning that it sits on the dead yeast for awhile before bottling). Barrels can impart various flavors and additional tannin. Grapes may reflect the composition of their terroir’s particular soil, like the funk of French wines. Winemakers may add additional sugar, juice, or even (gads) flavorings to wines.

Any or all of these things make up “extract,” which gives a wine its particular flavor and character. The level of extract one prefers may be second only to preference for acid in determining the style of wine one will order at a given point in time.

Although it may be absolutely applicable, “extract” isn’t a term that pops up too often with white wines or reds that are traditionally light like Beaujolais. It’s used most often with bigger reds and then, usually, to describe the fullness of the body of the wine and the strength of its primary flavors.

Generally, you’ll hear bigger wines like shiraz/syrah, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, and zinfandel get described in terms of being “extracted.” The level of extract is a major consideration for a winemaker. Wine with less extract will be of a leaner, lighter style – while more extract leads to a chewier, fruitier wine. There is such a thing as too much extract. If a wine is made in an overly extracted style, then any nuance or subtlety of the wine gets blasted out of the flavor by the heavy fruit or tannin.

Through the “oughts,” highly extracted, chewy red wines were in high favor, mirroring what happened with California chardonnay in the nineties. Thankfully (at least in my opinion), winemakers across the board have decided to start moving back to a somewhat less in-your-face style to allow the various components of the extract to make appearances.

The easiest wine for me to use as a demonstration of extract is California zinfandel. Zinfandels as a rule are big, powerful wines. They have full fruit flavors, are high in alcohol, and are usually quite tannic. That particular profile of wine requires a winemaker to create a “highly extracted” wine. It’s very easy for a winemaker to get overly cautious and produce a wine that doesn’t have a lot of body or flavor. It’s also easy to go over the top with extraction and create something mouth puckeringly strong. (Relatively inexpensive zinfandel is notorious for being overextracted.)

I tried a few zins recently that showed off different extraction levels quite nicely. If you’d like to get a sense of the “rules of extraction,” here are a few examples, all $12-18:

Kenwood 2007 Yalupa Old Vine Zinfandel – I would consider this an “underextracted” Zin. The nose is straightforward with plums and menthol. The body is very thin for a Zinfandel. In fact, the wine almost comes across as light-bodied, which is a bit odd. There are some coffee flavors from the tannins, but they’re weak. I tried this wine with dark chocolate, and the chocolate completely overwhelmed the flavor of the wine, which almost never happens with a zin.

Murphy Goode 2007 “Liar’s Dice” Zinfandel – This is the flipside of the Kenwood. I find the Liar’s Dice to be overextracted. Now, some people really like this fruit-bomby style of zinfandel. If you’re into big cherry and blackberry flavors on top of some heavy tannin, then this is your wine. For me, that’s really all there was to it. Big fruit and alcohol. Subtle as a cinder block. There’s a time and place for this kind of wine, but they usually involve loud music and lots of people.

Van Ruiten Vineyards 2007 Old Vine Zinfandel – This is still a really big wine, but they did a nice job with the balance here. The nose is amply filled with vanilla and plums. It’s full bodied and spicy. There’s a lot of fruit here, balanced with a pleasant smokiness, the latter of which intensifies on the long finish. With some chocolate, bacon flavors emerge. This is not a bad thing, by any stretch. For me, the most appropriate level of extract of this sample.