1WineDude :: Serious wine talk for the not-so-serious drinker!

Wine Dis-Service

2008-07-24T10:00:00.001-05:00

I recently received an e-mail response from a 1WineDude.com subscriber, in reaction to the previous post Does Wine Taste Better When You're Dining Out? This response got me thinking about restaurant wine service in general, and it struck a cord in me because it touches on one of my pet peeves about wine service in many restaurants:

"...one thing I can control at home is proper rinsing and drying of my stemware. Nothing gets my goat more than shelling out good money for a favorite wine only to find that the restaurant’s stemware still smells of soap or rinsing/sheeting agents. If you encounter this problem when out on the town, don’t feel embarrassed to ask the server to have the glasses rinsed and hand dried again when having a special wine."

Sound advice indeed, and I couldn't agree more with it. For most wines, having a tulip-shaped glass is about all you need to get the maximum enjoyment out of the wine. Picking the right kind of stemware when drinking a special wine can really enhance the aromas and flavors. But I'd rather have a clean glass of any shape vs. a perfectly-matched but smelly glass!

Generally speaking, a little bit of wine knowledge can go a long way in making customers happy. Another pet peeve of mine when it comes to wine service: "the over-pour." Filling a wine glass to the brim makes it almost impossible to enjoy all the aromas of a wine. It's like eating a steak with a napkin draped over it. And just try to swirl the wine without spilling it...

Since we're into complaining mode here, I'll offer another one: serving wine at the wrong temperature. I'm not too precious about this - I just want it close. I'd rather have it too cold, because I easily enough warm the glass up in my hands (unless it's been overpoured!). But getting a really, really cold red or a hot white is a total dining experience buzzkill for me.

Those are my wine service pet peeves. How about yours?

Cheers!
(images: stuff.co.nz, ggpht.com/vincent.vanwylick)

Sake Tasting @ Azie: The Oh-So-Tasty Wrap-Up!

2008-07-23T10:00:00.011-05:00

When it comes to me and Iron Chef Takao Iinuma, well, we've just got to stop meeting like this.

Because that guy is so skilled, he's going to ruin me for all other Japanese cuisine. With the exception of cuisine in Japan itself, presumably.

I'm not going to recap the food from my recent sake tasting at Iinuma's fabulous Azie restaurant in Media, PA. I'll let my good friends over at WCDish.com do that. You can read up on the details of the Azie tasting in my previous post shamlessly plugging the event.

But I will tell you about the sake I had the pleasure of tasting that evening. Because it's gone a long way into making me a convert in the temple of all things sake. And a yummy, tummy-warming temple it is...

What's great about events like the Azie tasting is the high probability of running into other 'foodies'. In this case, I had the pleasure of hanging with Christine Olmsted of Teikoku, Mary and Sugendran of WCDish.com, and Gino Razzi, the Penns Woods winemaker who is starting to skae things up in the world of east coast wines (see inset pic of Gino, me, and Mary). Of course, it also doesn't hurt that one of the best chefs in the eastern U.S. is whipping up the fare, either.

The sake samples on display at Azie were selected by Matt Palmer of Star Cellars. the man knows his sake, and since I am a complete sake novice, I took advantage of the opportunity to bend Matt's ear and ask him a seemingly endless serious of questions about each sake, and the process of making sake in general.

Sake is often referred to as "rice wine" since at its most fundamental it is an alcoholic beverage made from rice. However, the process used to make sake is actually somewhere between those used to make beer and those used to make wine. Specifically, sake is made with a special type of rice with a high starch content, with a mold called koji used to convert the starch into sugars that can then be fermented into alcohol. From there, many techniques are used to create sakes with different characteristics. Like wine and whiskey, sake from different areas of Japan are noted for their distinct styles. You can learn more by checking out Sake.com.

The samples that we tasted at Azie really show the depth, range and breadth possible with sake. We started with an accessible, fun & sweet sparkling (yes, as in 'with bubbles') sake, and ended with the complex, powerful, and deep "Mountain Flowers" - a drink that requires (and deserves) as much concentration as a decent Burgundy.

As for the specifics on the sake that we had for our pairings at Azie, I've reviewed them in 'mini' form on twitter, and included the wrap-up below:

Harushika Tokimeki Sparkling sake: *Very* sweet n' fruity for sake; CO2 is added but integrates well, and that acidity rocks the house.
Bishonen "Beautiful Boy" Ginjo sake: Lots of grain (duh!) and dairy, & good acidity. Maybe a bit too delicate, but beautiful nonetheless...
Ohyama "Big Mountain" Junmai sake: Pear, peach, minerals, lemon, flowers... isn't that supposed to be Riesling? Wow. I think I'm a convert!
Masumi Sanka "Mountain Flowers" Daiginjo sake: Grains, herbs & floral notes. Like a crouched panther - graceful, but ohhh the *power*!

If you're new to sake... let me tell you, you need to give this stuff a fair shot. Because it is definitely going to surprise you.

Consider this oenophile a convert.

Cheers!

(images: courtesy of Sugendran.net)

Wine on the Deck @ Teikoku - Aug 14

2008-07-22T10:00:00.000-05:00

I suppose that I'm running the serious risk of becoming a walking virtual billboard for Teikoku at this point, but I've got yet another wine tasting event of theirs to plug here on 1WineDude.com.

So sue me - if I'm going to plug something, it might as well be something good, right?

Anyway, Teikoku (located just outside of Philly) will be having another wine tasting on the deck on August 14 at 5:30 PM ET. Details are below.

I don't yet know what vino Heather is bringing, or what Iron Chef Iinuma is whipping up, but both of them are top-notch and in my book have built up a serious track record of quality, so I doubt very much that you'd be disappointed by this event.

5492 West Chester Pike
Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073
telephone 610.644.8270

Thursday August 14, 2008 - 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. An evening of wine on the deck with Heather Wright, wine educator and consultant from Cellar Door Imports. We will be featuring some new, off the beaten path pours along with small bites from Executive Chef Takao Iinuma to compliment them.

$35 per person all inclusive; Space is limited, reserve now.

Cheers!
(images: courtesy of Sugendran.net)

3 Sure-fire Rules for Passing Sobriety Checkpoints

2008-07-21T07:00:00.001-05:00

This past Friday, at about 2AM, I was driving back home after a long day, a great Mexican dinner with some foodie friends, and a very fun gig with my band in downtown West Chester.

I was stopped about halfway home, on backroads, by a police sobriety checkpoint.

Had I been drinking that night? Well... duh...!

Did I drink responsibly, ending my alcohol intake hours before I had planned to head home after the gig? Yep.

Did I 'pass' this sobriety checkpoint?

Of course, I 'passed' the sobriety checkpoint, thanks to my tried-and-true, never-fail, guaranteed-to-work or your-money-back 3 Rules for Passing Sobriety Checkpoints.

Today, free of charge, I'm going to share my 3 Rules with you...!

The 1WineDude.com 3 Rules for Passing Sobriety Checkpoints:
Don't be drunk.
Be Sober.
Don't be 'Not-sober'.

There you have it! Simple, straight-forward, and guaranteed-to-work - or your money back!

For more on responsible wine-drinking, see these previous 1WineDude.com articles:

Have a happy - and responsibly safe! - Monday.

Cheers!

(images: www.flickr.com/photos/stacylynn, timeinc.net)

BinEndsWine.com Spanish Wine Tasting Wrap-Up

2008-07-17T21:21:00.003-05:00

The BinEndsWine.com twitter live Spanish wine tasting event turned out to be quite a lot of fun. Hopefully some of you got to follow along on-line!

Never mind that my party messed up the order of the whites - it doesn't change anything that we 'tweeted' but it did probably confuse a few people in twitter-land. We were too buzzed to care, though...

I had originally hoped to include commentary directly from the twitter submissions, but there were just too many responses to be able to do this. So instead I thought I concentrate on what I (and my tasting partners-in-crime - Sugendran from WCDish.com & Heather Wright from Cellar Door Imports) thought to be the best wines of the night:

Best White: Pazo de Senorans Albarino 2007 - Take a grapefruit, stuff it with peach, soak it in alcohol, and sprinkle almond on top. Viola, you've got Pazo de Senorans Albarino 2007! This wine is absolutely killer, and the finish will kick your butt with tasty citrus for several minutes.
Best Red: Bodegas Mustiguillo "Mestizajes" 2005 - Heck of a lot of acidity for a red. It's all Southern Rhone on the nose, but without the mousy-ness. It's partially tank aged, with some of the wine seeing French oak barrels. Any way you slice it, the red fruits are balanced so well that this wine is a total steal for the $15 price tag.

So there you have it - some very tasty wines and a great deal of electronic cross-continent comradarie via twitter. I'm looking forward to doing this again!

Cheers!

Last Call: Tonight's BinEndsWine.com twitter Tasting Event!

2008-07-17T13:19:00.002-05:00

Alright folks - here's the last update from me pestering you about joining the twitter tasting event tonight (I promise)! Next time I touch on this topic will be to deliver the wrap up...

If you're not keen to join up on twitter, you can still follow along with tonight's tasting by following the action via search.twitter at http://search.twitter.com/search?q=1winedude. It will look something like this:

The sequence of vino events will be as follows:

Pazo de Monterrey Monterrei 2006 7:05pm

Pazo de Senorans Albarino 2007 7:15pm

Rafael Palacios Louro do Bolo Godello 2006 7:25pm

Burgans Bierzo "Cuatros Pasos" 2005 7:35pm

Bodegas Mustiguillo "Mestizajes" 2005 7:45pm

Castano Yecla "Solanera" 2005 7:55pm

Cheers!

Does Wine Taste Better When You're Dining Out?

2008-07-16T16:40:00.003-05:00

PressDemocrat.com posted a piece today by Bonnie Walker that explores why wine might taste better when you're out on the town. It's certainly worth a read if you've ever wondered how much of your wine tasting adventures were influenced by your surroundings.

Bonnie's article lists certain tings that finer restaurants are able to do to that aren't as easy for us to do playing along at home - among them maintaining optimal storage conditions, and paying special attention to how glassware is treated. Presumably, these things could make a wine ultimately taste better in the restaurant than the same wine that was stored above your fridge and then drunk from a plastic Burger King cup.

What I really liked about the article was how it finished:

"Finally, we get to what is a subjective reason that wine served at a restaurant might taste better than the same wine served at home. That might be simply because we're out, relaxed, not working to put a meal on the table or distracted by TV.
If the wine is being shared by friends, so much the better. Even if it's just a relative perception that the wine is better, that's always something to count as pleasure added."

Ahhh - the old "Lubricant for Life" hypothesis!

I buy into that, because I think that wine tasting fundamentally has subjective qualities to it that cannot be totally ignored when evaluating whether or not you will like a wine.

How about you?

Cheers!

(images: seagrassdublin.com)

Come Taste With Me (Sort Of)!

2008-07-16T06:20:00.003-05:00

Come taste with me tomorrow! Me, and maybe several dozen of my closest virtual friends, that is!

I'll be taking part in the next BinEndsWine.com live tasting event tomorrow at 7PM ET. The event is taking place via twitter, which you can follow by friending me up at twitter.com/1WineDude. Check out my previous post for more details.

Joining me in-person will be Mary & Sugendran from WCDish.com, along with Heather Wright from Cellar Door Imports.

I've never tasted the wines before, and to the best of my knowledge niether have my guests. Since the vino we're sampling are six picks from Spain, this will also be the unofficial start of the 1WineDude.com Spanish Caravan!

I've also never participated in a twitter live tasting event before. I think it's supposed to be wine tasting via technology, but I think it may end up being more like wine tasting VS. technology (considering that I'm doing this from my house, I don't plan on doing much spitting). My money's on the booze, but you'll need to tune into twitter.com/1WineDude to see just how silly it gets.

Hope to see you on-line.

Cheers!

Three Reasons Why You Should Be a Wine Blogger

2008-07-15T09:00:00.000-05:00

A few days ago I published a somewhat controversial post giving you three reasons why you shouldn't become a wine blogger.

Now, I'm about to give you three reasons why you should wine blog. [Editor's note: is 'wine blog' a verb now?]

My intention is not to flip-flop a position. I'm just trying to give you both sides of the bogger coin. And this is definitely the shinier, more polished, 'much-more-coolly-embossed with some awesome emblem' side of that coin. [Editor's note: is 'coolly' an adverb? My god, man, we're off to a shaky start here!!]

Anyway, let's get down to business; here's my Top Three Reasons Why YOU Should Be a Wine Blogger...:

1) You need to be original from day one.
No, you're not going crazy. Yes, this is the #3 reason I listed previously for why you shouldn't be a wine blogger. No, it's not easy to offer an original voice in the wine blogging community. Or is it...? The positive flipside of this coin is that you have a no-to-low cost opportunity to have your voice heard on a topic that you are passionate about - and in time, people will listen to that voice. The line between professional/expert opinions and the voice of the on-line masses is blurring. There's never been a better time to be a part of any topic for which you have a passion.

2) Two's company, Three's a crowd, and 600 is a Wine Blogging Community.
This one might look familar to you also [Editor's note: Sensing a theme here? ]. According to some sources, social media has overtaken porn in on-line popularity. We musicians in the rythym section often say "if you're not part of the groove, you're part of the problem." Well, if you're not part of social media, you're really not part of the Internet. Not only is it a great time to be a part of the wine blogging community, it's ridiculously easy to do so. Hop on over to OpenWineConsortium.org, join (for free), friend me up, and start blogging. Total cost: $0.00. Total time: about 6 minutes.

3) Democratize the Wine World.
It's not often that you get to be a part of history. And history is being made in the world of wine, on the web, right now as you read this. It might sound a bit overly dramatic [Editor's note: OK, a lot], but can you think of a better term to describe a movement that gathers people together (albeit virtually) from all over the globe and tries to put the power back into the hands of the people? That is what is going down in the Wine 2.0 movement; the view of what is considered quality wine is shifting from the hands of a few influential critics, and into the masses. Don't miss out - we just might be onto something special here.

There you have it. Enough positivity to rescue from the depression of my previous post. Come on in - the water's (or is it the vino's?) fine...

Cheers!

(images: gapingvoid.com, suzylamplugh.org, biziki.com, preston.gov.uk )

Teikoku Tasting Wrap-Up & Azie / BinEndsWine.com Live Tasting Event!

2008-07-14T07:00:00.002-05:00

I recently had the pleasure of attending a wine/plate pairing at the fabulous Teikoku restaurant in PA. The food, as always, was stellar (I suppose that's par for the course for anything prepared by Iron Chef Takao Iinuma).

The wines (selected and poured by wine educator, Matthew Esser from Shiffrin Selections and wine educator and consultant, Heather Wright from Cellar Door Imports, both personal friends) were fine examples of vino that matches up perfectly with summer fare. My 'mini-reviews' of the wines are below - I recommend any of these if you're looking for great summer wines that won't break the bank:

07 Mar y Tierra Carmenere (Curico Valley, Chile): Green peppercorns & black fruit. Easy on the tannins & the wallet. Killer nose for the $.
NV Dr. Konstantin Frank Salmon Run Riesling (NY): A pear-infused steel sandwich. Won't blow your mind. But at this price it doesn't have to.
07 Finca la Linda Torrontes (Argentina): Like a small and thoughtful bouquet of flowers. Given to you lovingly in a vase of grain alcohol.

Next up, I've got two more tasting events that I should probably be plugging so here goes...:

1) There's a Sake Tasting taking event tomorrow (July 15) on the deck at Azie's in Media, PA. I don't know much about sake so this is going to be one of my inaugural (a.k.a trial-by-fire) journeys into the heart of all things sake. 6:30-8:30PM, $30 per person. The menu:

Kumamoto Oysters & Harushika Tokimeki Sparkling
Gobuo Quick Fry & Bishonen "Beautiful Boy" Ginjo
Sushi "Big Eye" tuna, hamachi and bass & Ohyama "Big Mountain" Junmai

Pork belly "Kakuni" stew &Taiheizan Tenko Daiginjo

Bonus!

2) BinEndsWine.com will be holding their monthly "twitter taste live" on July 17 at 7PM ET. This month's installment will feature Spanish wines selected by European Cellars' Solomon. Eric will join Ryan & Gabriella Opaz of Catavino.net live via twitter.com to taste and discuss the wines. Also taking part via twitter.com will be yours truly. Here's the skinny on how to follow the action on twitter.com:

Get an account on twitter (as if a cool person like you didn't have one already!).
Follow BinEndsWine's twitter feed.
Follow my twitter feed.
Login at 7PM ET on the 17th and enjoy the ride!

And as for the wine lineup (which is lookin' mighty tasty!):

Hope to see you on twitter!

Cheers!

Three Reasons Why You Shouldn't Be a Wine Blogger

2008-07-11T05:41:00.008-05:00

So... you wanna be a wine blogger, eh? [ Editor's note: sorry, did not mean to sound Canadian there...].

Well, I'm here to tell ya NOT to do it.

Now, before you flame me with nasty e-mails and comments, please bear in mind that I will be following up this post next week with three reasons why you should be a wine blogger. But I can't in good conscience do that before I tell you what you're really up against if you want to wine blog.

Any type of blogging worth its salt is going to require genuine commitment from you. It will also require that your writing not totally stink. But these are not the reasons why you should think twice (or thrice, or... uhm... whatever comes after thrice) about starting up a wine blog.

Let me clue you in on the real scoop of wine blogging - the gritty reality behind the glitz, the glamor, the fortune, the fame...

1) There is no glitz, fortune or fame in wine blogging.
Sorry to have to break this to ya, but there's no glitz, glamor, fortune or fame when it comes to wine blogging. You will NOT be quitting your day job. You will NOT be raking in the bucks from ad revenue. You will NOT be interviewed on CNN to expound on your wine smarties. Blogging revenue is usually tied directly to traffic. Who gets the most traffic in the on-line world? Social networks, porn, and productivity blogs (basically in that order). Wine blogging is NOT in the top three. It's probably not even in the top 300 - and it probably never will be.

2) Two's company, Three's a crowd, and 600 is a Wine Blogging Community.
Guess what? You're not the only wine blogger out there. You are in very good company. According to Alder at Vinography.com (arguably the granddaddy of all wine blogging), there are now over 600 wine bloggers. At least 200 of those are in the U.S. alone. It's not just a crowded field - it's a REALLY crowded field. And all of those bloggers are competing in some way, shape, or form for a similar reader pool as you. Doh! Even better - most of them probably know all the tricks of the trade in blogging to maximize their search engine karma, technorati authority, google page rank, etc., etc., etc. Double Doh! Which leads me to our next reason not to wine blog...

What you get out of wine blogging will depend primarily on what you put into it. In that sense, it's a relationship between you and your blogging.

3) You need to be original from day one.
To wine blog, you need to offer something original to the community of 600+ and their potential readers. This will NOT be easy to do in a field of 600+ and their potential readers. In fact, it will be really, really, really difficult. And you won't have much time to do it, either. Potential readers will decide in a matter of seconds whether or not your blog is worth reading ever again. They can do this because if they don't like yours they can very quickly try another one of the 600+. Standing out is essential, and it's not easy to do. Have fun!

It may not seem like it from the timbre of this post, but personally I don't think that any of the above should stop you from wine blogging if you're really passionate about it. What you get out of wine blogging (or any blogging, for that matter) will depend primarily on what you put into it. In that sense, it's a relationship between you and your blogging.

More on that next week. In the meantime, have a safe and wine-filled weekend.

Cheers!

(images: interfacelift.com, workfarce.files.wordpress.com, aquariumdrunkard.com)

Wine Blogging Wednesday #47: Brought to You by the Letter 'S'

2008-07-09T14:16:00.019-05:00

Welcome to the latest edition of Tales of the Purple Monkey!

This month's Wine Blogging Wednesday blog carnival has Plumboo and I contemplating the theme: "Wines Brought to You by the letter S." Like a fine wine grape, that one is just ripe for interpretation!

Finding a wine that starts with the letter S was relatively easy. Making that find an interesting and educational read is a bit more difficult (at least for me - and a plush toy with a squeek for a head). So to significantly spice things up in the S-wines department, Plumboo & I sailed off to Sunny Southern Italy, to give you a taste of the Salice Salentino DOC.

View Larger Map

Salice Salentino is located in the decidedly Mediterranean clime of southeast Italy - the 'heel of the boot' (see above). It's part of the Apulia region, a relatively flat, fertile, and hot area that has been ruled by (in alphabetical - but not chronological - order) the Angevins, Aragonese, Bourbons, Byzantines, Hohenstaufen Germans, Moors, and Normans. Now, it's ruled by wine; Apulia produces a ridiculously large volume of wine, even by Italian standards (up to three times as much as is produced by all of Chile). And a lot of it is total plonk...

But... there has been a move towards increased quality in the region, and better wines can be found accross the price spectrum, including the value category.

With a hot climate, Salice Salentino needs a hardy grape that can take the heat. It's found it in the thick-skinned Negroamaro varietal, whose name basically means "black & bitter." The origins of Negroamaro are not conclusively known, but one thing's for sure - it thrives in Salice Salentino. Negroamaro produces dark, tannic wines with flavors of black licorice and bitter tea, but for all their bitterness the better examples still exude softness and sultry black currant flavors. A good match for the spicy tomato sauces and garlic-laden cuisine typical of the region. Mmmm.... garlic.... [editor's note: drooling permitted ].

As for our wine review for this month's WBW - we take a quick look at a widely-available and very accessible SS:

2005 San Marzano Salice Salentino (It): Sultry, sensuous & $ensible SS from sunny Southern Italy. Scents of black licorice sweeten the sale.

For more on Salice Salentino and the wines of Southern Italy check out:

Cheers!
(images: maps.google.com, italyis.com )

Run Away with Me... to Spain!

2008-07-07T18:08:00.005-05:00

Well, if not physically, then run away with me virtually, through the magic of the "Global Interweb." Or whatever you crazy young cats are calling it these days!

Regular readers of this blog might recall that I've previously lamented the general lack of quality, easy-to-find Spanish & Portuguese wines in my area of the U.S. (the Communist-wealth of PA, ruled by the PLCB with an iron fist) - and my general lack of deep knowledge about the great wines of the Iberian peninsula (or whatever you crazy cats are calling it these days).

Well, I wanted to change that scenario (at least the part about my own Iberian wine knowledge, anyway), so I decided to take a little trip! A virtual trip.

In the not-too-distant future (hopefully by September), I'll be working with a few fellow International wine bloggers (Catavino and De Long Wine among them) to take a virtual trip through the wine regions of Spain & Portugal!

I'm thinking of dubbing this the Spanish Caravan in (possibly drunken) tribute to Jim Morrison...

"Carry me caravan take me away
Take me to portugal, take me to spain
Andalusia with fields full of grain
I have to see you again and again
Take me, spanish caravan
Yes, I know you can"
- The Doors

You can read more about the idea at the OpenWine Consortium. Better yet, you can help to shape what this virtual trip will be all about by commenting here, or by joining up in the discussion at the OWC. Both options are free, good for your health (well, probably), and will give you a nice excuse (like you need it!) to taste some great wine, learn about the classic wine regions of Spain & Portugal, and - with any luck make - a few new friends in the on-line "wine 2.0 community." Or whatever you crazy young cats are calling it these days.

In the meantime... Watch this space... Hope to see you soon, on the Spanish Caravan!

Cheers!

(images: about.com, mtv.com)

Happy July 4th - Vive la France! Or Portugal...

2008-07-04T08:04:00.011-05:00

July 4th. The day that we in the U.S. celebrate American independence.

It's fitting that we laud the bravery, gumption, and raw intelligence of our founding fathers, as well as the courage of those who fought to make our country free to chart its own destiny.

I suggest doing that with burgers and grill-friendly wines.

What we don't commonly do is celebrate the French ingenuity and general affairs meddling (at great financial expense to them, I might add) that made life so annoying for the Brits that they more-or-less gave up and let us have this great country.

So maybe that should be burgers and grill-friendly French wines.

Now, before you write me off for spouting heresy about not drinking American wine on an American holiday, consider these tidbits:

Thomas Jefferson, probably the smartest person ever to hold office in the U.S., was a total wine nut. His favorites? Expensive French vino.
Ben Franklin loved wine. And he drank... Madeira (not French, but certainly not American!), the deliberately baked delicacy of Portugal's island of the same name.
Also a Madeira fiend was George Washington. He spent upwards of $6000 on booze (which in today's bucks would be... well, a lot!).
And let's not forget John Adams. He consumed a ton of Madeira.

So maybe that's actually burgers and... Madeira...? Man, I gotta think about that one...

These facts are indisputable: our Founding Fathers fondness for their vino is preserved forever in their very own handwriting. Not only were they booze hounds, but they were men of letters. When guys like Washington weren't writing eloquent prose to the budding new government (mostly complaining that they didn't have nearly enough resources being sent their way to even make a dent in the larger, better funded, and more skilled British army), they were writing home about their wine.

So there you have it - American gumption, French meddling, British mistakes, and Portuguese wine.

The makings of a truly Liberated nation!

Have a safe and happy 4th! Cheers!

(images: ririanproject.com, vacationtofrance.com, madeira-web.com)

A Savvy Way to Keep a Wine Journal?

2008-07-02T13:14:00.004-05:00

Now this is interesting.

As reported by several sources today (most of them just copy/paste jobs from a press release; check out one example here), CorkSavvy.com (yet another on-line service that allows you to track and review your wines) has launched an interesting feature today.

This feature allows you to snap a camera-phone picture of that bottle of vino you're having (say, with dinner tonight) and submit it (along with your freshest-of-fresh tasting notes) directly to your CorkSavvy account.

I'm a big, big fan of keeping a wine journal. I think it's one of the best (if not the best) ways to up your wine IQ, increase your wine vocabulary, and learn what you do (and don't!) like about wine. Using a wine journal is one of the cornerstone advice pieces that I give in my Tasting Guide.

Could CorkSavvy.com be onto the "Wine 2.0" version of the trusty ol' wine journal? Time will tell. If any of you give this service a try, be sure to give me a shout about it!

Cheers!

(images: amazon.com)

Stop Picking on Robert Parker (the Subjectivity of Wine Tasting)

2008-07-01T07:00:00.001-05:00

You can all stop picking on Robert Parker now.

The oft-followed and just as oft-maligned wine critic extraordinaire is doing you a favor.

A favor if you, like him, have a wine palate that tends towards the bombastic, that is.

A great post on the science of wine tasting over at Catavino.net (and how that science can be manipulated) got me thinking about the subjectivity of wine critiquing in general, and more specifically on the philosophical question: Can wine tasting can ever be totally objective?

So for this topic, you can view this article as the yin to Catavino.net's yang. The conclusion of all of my philosophical pondering? All y'all need to cut Robert Parker some slack!

To bolster my exclamatory claim, let's turn to the (not too difficult) task of finding someone smarter than me to explain it...

According to Tim Crane's essay in Questions of Taste: The Philospohy of Wine:

"A wine cannot be appreciated for its intrinsic value unless it is drunk; the value of the wine is intimately related to the kinds of experience to which it gives rise."

In other words: the trouble with appreciation is that you need to taste wine to appreciate it (well, I suppose for some of us it's not really too much trouble). And because tasting itself is such a subjective act, it suggests that wine tasting is also at least somewhat subjective.

Does our tasting subjectivity preclude us from coming to some general consensus of how a wine tastes, or its relative quality? Probably not. Throughout history, what was generally considered "good" wine has changed substanitally. In another essay from Questions of Taste, Barry C. Smith puts it like this:

"Saying that the experience of tasting is a personal one need not prevent us from saying that it acquaints us with how a particular wine tastes, or from supposing that other people can be acquainted with that taste too."

Man, I am really digging smart philosophers right now! What does all of this have to do with wine critics like Parker? It suggests 2 things:

Critics don't have to be thinking "universally" about wine because
Our collective palates will decide what is and isn't a "quality" wine.

There are studies that back this up. Vinography.com recently reported on two such efforts that compare wine reviews by major wine critics (including Parker, of course) - with different taste preferences. These critics have been in very close agreement on which Bordeaux wines have been the best, and they've been agreeing for decades. So there's gotta be something to the "collective" wine palate as well as to our individual, subjective ones.

Back to Questions of Taste - also from Smith's essay:

"Having the ability to asses and describe wines in one thing; having certain personal tastes is another. That we, and the wine critics, have personal tastes does not imply that all taste is subjective... Wine critics understand that they cannot overrule an individual's personal tastes... The moral is that we must find the right critic to advise us, the one whose personal tastes or preferences are more nearly aligned with ours."

So - we're all Right, and we're All right. Dig it.

Now give Parker a break. He's just trying to help out the people who like the fruit bombs. Including himself.

Cheers!

(images: palmspringslife.com, tuscany-cooking-class.com, winechocolate.org)

Wine Events: Wine on the Deck @ Teikoku Restaurant!

2008-06-29T08:48:00.006-05:00

Another (sort of) rare event plug here on 1WineDude.com - I don't do these plugs too often, so when I do, it's because I think that the event is really going to be cool. And in this case, I think the cool potential is very high: I personally know the two people selecting and pouring wine at the event, and they definitely know their wine (not to mention that they're also really splendid people).

The fabulous Teikoku restaurant (where I recently covered an event featuring the wines of Penns Woods Winery) is hosting a wine tasting event this coming Thursday, July 3 2008.

I will be there - so if you're attending, drop me a line and stop by to say hello.

Teikoku Restaurant
Thursday July 3, 2008 - 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

5492 West Chester Pike
Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073
telephone 610.644.8270

Join us for an evening of Wine On The Deck with former sommelier and wine educator, Matthew Esser from Shiffrin Selections and wine educator and consultant, Heather Wright from Cellar Door Imports.

We will be featuring some new, off the beaten path pours, along with small bites from Executive Chef Takao Iinuma to compliment them.

$30 per person all inclusive

Space is limited, reserve now

Cheers!

A Wine Introduction (and Some 1WineDude.com Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes)

2008-06-27T07:19:00.009-05:00

Changes are afoot here at 1WineDude.com.

By the way, I recently learned that the first recorded use of "afoot" was in Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" - which is way cool. I'm a nerd, I know.

Anyway, I'm making some slight changes in the footprint (ha-ha) of the blog posts. Basically, they will start to get shorter - easier for you to read, harder for me to write. And, I'm hoping that they will also start to become more frequent. I've got a newborn in the house, bear with me...

Today, I thought I'd offer you a small contribution I made a few years back to the world of wine knowledge. When I started this whole wine consulting thing, I was frequently asked to provide wine overviews - so I put together a handy presentation that gives an overview of what wine is all about - from the dawn of wine in history, all the way to why you taste those fruits in your glass:

You should be able to view the original presentation file in most versions of PowerPoint, or with the (free!) Impress tool from OpenOffice.org. Handiest of all, you can access it online in Flash (Ahhhh-ahhhh!) format here.

I think some of you fine folks out there may find it useful. Enjoy!

Cheers!

(images: handpicked.co.uk)