Novice Wine Blog

Toasted Head Merlot 2005

2009-01-12T13:18:00.000-08:00

Name:	Toasted Head Merlot
Rating:	3 Stars
Winery:	R. H. Phillips
Vintage:	2005
Varietal:	Merlot
Country:	United States
Region:	California: North coast
Retail Price:	13.99 USD
Alcohol:	13.5%

This is one of Lucinda's favorite wines, and mine too. Maybe because we have a limited selection around here. The Toasted Head Merlot is a good utility wine that goes well with various dishes. We had filet mignon, sweet potato, asparagus, and mushrooms. One of the best filets I have ever cooked.

The wine has a clear medium ruby color with a moderate aroma of earthy fruit. It is a young wine as it is only a 2005. This toasted Head Merlot is slightly off dry with medium body. It's rather lively with nice round medium tannins. Some of the flavors we picked up on were cherry, spices, pepper, and an earthy flavor I can't describe. The flavor sits in your mouth for what seems to be a long time after you swallow it. If you haven't tried it yet, get some. You wont be disappointed.

Plum Island - Nelson Demille - Book Review

2008-12-28T13:45:00.000-08:00

Plum Island - Nelson DeMille

Nelson DeMille introduces one of his best Alpha Male characters named John Corey in this book. John Corey is a convalescing NYPD homicide detective on leave after being shot in the line of duty.

The book opens with John resting up at his uncle's place on Long Island and gets pulled into a double murder investigation by the local police Chief Maxwell. Tom and Judy Gordon are found dead on their back deck from close range shots to the head. John knows the Gordons because they had befriended him during his R&R.

Tom and Judy Gordon are top level scientists conducting experiments with biological pathogens at a secretive Government research facility on Plum Island. It is initially feared that Tom and Judy were killed because they were part of an operation to sell biological warefare germs (Anthrax) to a terroist organization. As a result, the FBI and CIA are called in to mask the information and keep the public from panicking.

During his quest for the truth, he discovers a little about wine making and vineyards, historical societies, nasty little viruses, and top secret government research facilities.

This book has all the things I liked in a book. It was a fast read with very clever wit. It was a real treasure of a read. John Corey is a great character that you will want to hang out with again if you can keep up with him and put up with his wise ass cracks.

Novice Wine Blog's Extremely Amateurish Book Reviews

2008-12-28T13:36:00.000-08:00

Now that I am committed to spending more time on the blog here, I have decided to share reviews on some of my favorite and not so favorite books. I'll warn you now that it won't get real deep here. I read mostly fiction. Some of my favorite authors are;

Dan Brown
Dean Koontz
Nelson DeMille
James Patterson
Stephen King

The reviews will be brief to keep from giving away too much of the book and I will rate them based on if I would recommend it to a friend or not. I hope you find one you like from my Extremely Amateurish Reviews.

Fetzer Riesling 2006

2008-12-28T12:55:00.000-08:00

Name:	Fetzer Riesling
Rating:	3.5 Stars
Winery:	Fetzer Vineyards
Vintage:	2006
Varietal:	Riesling
Country:	USA
Region:	California
Retail Price:	12.99 USD
Alcohol:	9.88%

I have had this wine several times mostly with pork or chicken dishes. It is a very light fruity wine with aromas of peach and green apple The wine is well balanced, crisp and refreshing, with a touch of sweetness that lingers in the most pleasant way. I decided to review the wine after having it with Turkey Breast Roast glazed with Apricot Preserve and Dijon Mustard Sauce and Sweet Potatoes. This is what we had for dinner Christmas day and thought we should give a nod to Fetzer and their Rissling. I will review their Gewürztraminer in another post as it is one of my favorites too.

Kentucky Pushes for Wine Sales in Groceries

2008-12-22T12:48:00.000-08:00

Kentucky is one of 18 states that does not allow wine sales in grocery stores, and it also doesn't alow shipping wine to residential locations. A coalition is looking to make changes that will allow for sales of wine in Kentucky grocery stores soon.

The Kentucky Food with Wine Coalition announced December 16th that more than 100 Kentucky supermarkets will hold a petition drive to gauge support for allowing them to sell wine.

The goal is to demonstrate that consumers across that state want to see this law change. But traditional liquor stores don't want grocery stores jumping on their bandwagon.

As Kentucky farmers make the switch from traditional crops (tobacco) to grape and wine production, allowing wine sales in groceries will be e benefit to Kentucky's agriculture industry.

If you are from Kentucky, contact them and let them know you support changing the law to allow for sales of wine in groceries. They can be contacted at:

Luke B. Schmidt
Food with Wine Coalition
P.O. Box 1311 Prospect, Ky 40059
foodwithwine.org
Email:mailto:join@foodwithwine.org
502-292-2898

Guglielmos Italian Grill and Pizza at Pier Park

2008-10-09T17:12:00.000-07:00

We purchased a condo at 1502 Calypso Resort and Towers in Panama City Beach and ate at Guglielmo's Italian Grill and Pizza. I have posted a short review of it over at my other blog.

Cigarzin California Zinfandel 2005

2008-09-18T14:11:00.001-07:00

Name:	Cigarzin Zinfandel
Rating:	4 Stars
Winery:	Consentino
Vintage:	2005
Varietal:	Zinfandel
Country:	USA
Region:	California - Napa Valley
Retail Price:	30.00 USD
Alcohol:	14%

Lucinda and I had a date. Not an appointment, but an actual no kids, Lucinda shaved her legs, I made reservations and we got dressed up and went out to eat kind of date. When we get an opportunity to do this, our restaurant choices are limited here in Madisonville, KY. That is why we decided to go to our favorite local Italian restaurant Difabios. Difabios is owned by Pete and Laura Difabio and they make some of the best Italian dishes I have ever eaten that we did not cook ourselves at home. Remember, this is a date, someone else had to cook :)

We sat at our table and the waitress was quick to present the wine list. Typically, every wine I have seen on any kind of list at a restaurant is priced at close to twice what you can buy it for retail. Keeping that in mind, I perused the list and we decided on a red zinfadel. It came highly reccommended by the waitress (as is her job) but it also got a thumbs up from Pete Difabio himself.

The Cigarzin was a reddish/brownish color with a nice subtle boquet. The flavor, though, was a real slap in the face, and a good slap at that. I didn't expect that much flavor from such a subtle smell. I cant begin to list pommegranites or red cherries like the manufacturer states, I just know it tasted great.

As we were finishing off dinner and still sipping our wine, Laura difabio approached our table with a few slivers of semi sweet dark chocolate. She told us that she and Pete had tried this wine at a tasting in Chicago and letting some chocolate slowly melt in our mouths while sipping the wine would take it to another level.

We tried it and just let me say Lucinda didn't need to shave her legs because that was orgasmic alone, We both had a winegasm.

This is a very respectable every day wine. If you have not tried this one, I would suggest going out and getting a bottle and some semi sweet dark chocolate, and a babysitter.

Messing with Florida Condos and the like.

2008-09-18T14:11:00.000-07:00

During the Holidays of 2007, I promised that I would post more and keep the blog updated. Boy did I fall on my ass. I have been in a mess up over my head since last August and I believe I can now see light at the end of the tunnel.

Lucinda and I bought 5 duplexes in Owensboro Kentucky and we have been working with contractors to do a complete restoration to the ten units. We have also purchased 2 Florida beach vacation condos one located at 302 Aqua Beachside Resort and the other located at 1502 Calypso Resort and Tower.

We are also working on another special project that will take up a lot of my time. But, in the meantime, let me post about our latest find in my next posting....

Happy Holidays from Novice Wine Blog

2007-12-25T09:13:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays from Novice Wine Blog (Jeff and Lucinda Phillips). We look forward to adding recepie reviews, book reviews, and a lot of other potentially interesting/useful postings on our blog. In 2008, it wont be just about wine as I have a whole lot more I would like to blog about. I hope you come back often.

Enjoy the Holidays and drink responsibly.

Greg Norman Shiraz 2005

2007-12-10T16:23:00.000-08:00

Name:	Greg Norman Shiraz
Rating:	2 Stars
Winery:	Greg Norman Estates
Vintage:	2005
Varietal:	Shiraz
Country:	Australia
Region:	Limestone Coast
Retail Price:	14.99 USD
Alcohol:	13.5%

Well, it's a good thing that Greg Norman can golf. I have searched the Internet for a similiar view of this wine, and everyone seems to love it. I had a hard time finishing this bottle. It is a reasonably priced wine (around $15.00) and it can be found easily enough.

The bottle and just about every other wine site talks about subtle tannins, and I found the wine to be bitter. The aroma was nice, the alcohol content was respectable, and the color was very nice. I just wasn't won over by the taste. I found it to lack the spicy/peppery tones of other shiraz wines that I have come to enjoy.

I give this wine a 2 out of 5 and recommend that for the price, you try it if you want. You may be dissapointed, but you won't be out a lot of money.

Blue River Riesling 2006

2007-11-29T16:47:00.000-08:00

Rating:	3 Stars
Winery:	Blue River Imports
Vintage:	2004
Varietal:	Riesling
Country:	Germany
Region:	Mosel-Saar-Ruwer
Retail Price:	8.99 USD
Alcohol:	9.5%

We prepared apricot poppy seed chicken with dill potatoes and opened a bottle of Blue River Riesling.

The Blue River Riesling has an alcohol content of 9.5% which in my opinion makes it a very light wine.

Inspecting the bottle, it reminds me of a Grey Goose Vodka bottle with frosted glass and a clear center with a colorful graphic in the background.

The wine is a clear blond color and fades on the edge of the wine glass. I asked Lucinda to take a sip and tell me what she tasted. She took a drink, paused, and described pear, peach, citrus, and a slight carbonation/effervescence. Wow, it was almost like she was reading the back of the bottle. I took a sip and was surprised to find hints of green apple mixed in with the peach and pear flavors of this mild wine. The wine had a pear/apple/peach aroma to match the taste.

The low alcohol content I believe contributed to the light short finish on the pallet. We found it to be a fun wine when paired with the right meal, or a fun wine just by itself. It was very light and refreshing and would make a great summer wine.

We purchased the wine at Sams Club for around 15 bucks.

Overall, we gave the wine a 3 out of 5.

Fat Bastard Merlot 2005

2007-10-30T16:45:00.000-07:00

Name:	Fat Bastard Merlot
Rating:	3 Stars
Winery:	The Fat Bastard Wine Company
Vintage:	2005
Varietal:	Merlot
Country:	France
Region:	Languedoc
Retail Price:	10.00 USD
Alcohol:	13%

Last night Lucinda and I prepared sliced steak and mushrooms with warm potato salad. It was a good dinner, and we washed it down with a bottle of 2005 Fat Bastard Merlot.

The wine is extremely full bodied. It is also how it obtained its name Fat Bastard.

The next day after sleeping in past noon due to the late night before, Thierry thought he would have Guy try an experimental wine he had in a few barrels in the back of the cellar. “Dis is a experiment wine we left it on de lees. We try it no?” “Sure Thierry, you know how hard it is to get me to try a new wine.” Both friends had no idea that leaving the wine in barrel on the lees (yeast cells) would result is such a dramatic difference from the wine they tried the day before. It had a wonderful color and rich, round palate. Both men stood and stared at each other for what seemed like five minutes until Thierry exclaimed “now zat iz what you call eh phet bast-ard” Guy laughed with a belly laugh you could clearly hear in the neighboring town. He had used the expression Fat bastard often to describe things that were great but hearing it in a French accent made it so much funnier.

The wine had a great bouquet and taste, but I found it to be a bit tannic for my taste. I believe the 2005 will be much better in about a year or two.

We paid around $15 for the wine (not a lot of options for competitive shopping here in Madisonville KY). Lucinda really liked the wine and I just found it to be ok. It is inexpensive, has a good flavor, great color, good bouquet, but should probably age just a little bit more.

Lucinda gives it a 3.5 and I would have to hover closer to 3 and since I am the one writing this review, we will go with 3.

Wine Without Borders

2007-10-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

I live in Kentucky, and I can't get wine shipped to me. I would love to join a wine of the month club, but alas, the world is unjust. But wait, there might be hope on the horizon. Tom Wark at Fermentation acts as Executive Director for the Specialty Wine Retailers Association. They have started a blog called Wine Without Borders

Wine Without Borders will try to do some heavy lifting by being the ongoing communication vehicle for issues surrounding direct shipping. That means keeping you up to date on legal, legislative, political and philosophical issues concerning this issue. It turns out that the the interests of retailers are the interests of consumers. It's this conversion of interests that allows retailers to be always on the side of consumers on this issue.

Currently wine may be shipped only to the following states; AK, CA, DC, FL, HI, IA, ID, IL, LA, MN, MO, ND, NE, NH, NM, NV, OH, OR, TX, VA, WA, WV, WY.

Give the site a look, visit Toms blog, and put a link to Wine Without Borders on your blog and help spread the word.

Novice Wine Snob is now Novice Wine Blog

2007-10-30T13:05:00.000-07:00

After several years of running my own business, I have been approached and have decided to sell the business and retire. Now that I have a lot of free time on my hands, I have decided to start a wine blog for the wine challenged (like me). I wanted to do this as a way to chronicle my learning experience from total wine novice to someone who might be able to talk intelligently about wine.

I initially set up a blog over at wordpress called novicewinesnob.wordpress.com. This was a free hosted account and it was easy to use because it was wordpress. What I didn't like about it is the lack of customization, the inability to monetize the blog with adwords, the inability to install 3rd party scripts, and the fact that wordpress was randomly displaying adwords of their own on my blog. That really pissed me off.

I already had the google account that featured a link to set up a blogger.com blog, but I wasn't that familiar with the process.

After about 2 hours of tinkering around, I have launched Novice Wine Blog. I think I am going to like it here. I can monetize, install third party scripts, have full control of the templates, and I can install google analytics.

I dont know about the anti spam capabilities of this blog software just yet, but so far, I like it. Now all I need is a little love from Google.

Clos du Bois Merlot 2004

2007-10-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

Name:	Clos du Bois Merlot
Rating:	4 Stars
Winery:	Clos du Bois
Vintage:	2004
Varietal:	90% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% other
Country:	United States
Region:	California: Sonoma County
Retail Price:	15.99 USD
Alcohol:	13.5%

I was sitting on the front porch of my houseboat this past Friday evening and Lucinda and I opened a bottle of Clos du Bois Merlot. It had been a particularly frustrating day and we were ready to see it come to an end. We opened this bottle and poured our first glass. The first thing we noticed was the color of the wine. It was a deep ruby red and it even "looked" silky as we poured it into our glasses. The bouquet of the wine was rather inviting and seemed to beckon to us to drink it. I cant say that I detected any currants or vanilla or black cherries, but it just smelled good.The look of the wine was not deceiving. It tasted as silky as it poured.The wine had a strong finish, or should I say a long finish as the flavor sat on the back of my throat and tongue. With each sip I could feel the stress of the day washing away. We did not drink this wine with any meal, yet I would recommend it as a great pairing with just about anything, even a great big juicy grilled burger. Now, for the rating part. I would have to definitely give this a 4 Star rating.

Developing A Wine Rating Scale

2007-10-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

I know there are some solid (been used a long time) wine rating scales out there. I just find most of them to be rather subjective, and quite frankly, they confuse or concern me. On the Robert Parker model wines are rated from 50 to 100 points with wines that score 50 - 60 deemed as being unacceptable and wines that score 95 - 100 as being an extraordinary wine. The UC Davis model rates wines on a 20 point scale and anything that scores less than a 9 are below commercial acceptability while wines scoring 17 or better are of outstanding characteristics.

Unfortunately, none of this tells me if I am going to like the wine or not. And, consequently, doesn't provide a good way for me to rate the wine if I am going to recommend it to anyone else.

This is why, for the purpose of this wine blog, I am going to attempt to put together my own rating system. Now, you have to be asking yourself, how does this confessed wine novice think he is going to pull off inventing his own wine rating scale? Why would anyone take it seriously? Good question. My answer is this, The Wall Street Journal uses a Yech - Delicious! rating scale. The New York Times uses a no stars - 4 Stars rating scale. Surely the one I come up with for the sake of this blog couldn't be any more mathematically vague than those used by respected publications. Even if I decide to develop a 25 point system where I rate the wine based on color, aroma, taste, alcohol level, and price, at least it would be something I could defend if someone were to ask me how I derived my rating of the wine. Or, I could just make up a number ranging from 80 to 90.

Ok, lets expand on that for a bit. How about if we do a 25 point rating system? Like Festivus for the Rest of Us, this scale will be used to rate wines for the every day schmoe who just likes to drink wine and appreciates a bargain. That's why I am going to include pricing into my rating system. I know, I know. Value for money is an eternal issue in the wine world. But, there is the argument made by RestaurantWine.com that says;

Other rating systems, which group inexpensive with expensive wines are not especially useful, since higher price wines are almost always given higher scores than lower priced wines. Because the crucial factor in wine purchasing is--and always will be--selling price, and how that selling price relates to the quality of the wine in the bottle, our system uncovers the best values in multiple price niches better than any other.

And...

the use of points projects a halo of objectivity around wine evaluations, inferring that wine quality can be measured absolutely, which it absolutely cannot;

I couldn't agree more. I also like their decision to use pricing in their rating system, but I also see where their ratings could be taken out of context. This is why we will be rating wines that we group into pricing categories. Our pricing categories will be;

$10 and Under

$11 to $25

$26 to $50

$51 to $75

$76 to $100

$101 and over

Or something close to that. Whatever. So, using the pricing classification, you can distinguish between a well rated $30 bottle of wine, and a well rated $80 bottle of wine. I have had a bottle of Opus One and have enjoyed a Stags Head wine just as much. Value is subjective and and can only truly be weighted based on the consumer flipping the bill.

We are also going to use a 5 star rating system, or 5 fish, or 5 beach umbrellas, or whatever graphic we decide to use to brand or mark our rating scale. 5 groups of grapes, 5 wine glasses, 5 x's, you get the idea.

Our rating criteria will be color, aroma, taste, finish, and price. 5 stars potentially for each category. The final rating will be the average of the five rating criteria scores. The worst, or course, would be 1 something (frog, pencil, globe, etc..) and the highest would be 5 something. Thanks for reading this far and I am looking forward to posting my first extremely criticized (expect to get hammered by the wine community at large) wine rating.

Learning How To Rate A Wine

2007-10-30T08:18:00.000-07:00

I sit and wonder just how to start this blog and decide that I just need to jump in feet first. Please bear with me as I pour out unorganized thoughts on the screen.

My first goal is to learn how to rate wines. I figured that I couldn't have a wine blog that anyone would take seriously if I couldn't even properly rate a wine. I know if I like a wine I'm drinking, and I know when I don't like one. It's a pretty simple concept that works for me, but it really won't fly with anyone who might read this blog. Keeping that in mind, I'm going to try to learn from some of the best wine blogs online.

One of the funniest and probably most honest entries I read came from Brentwood Wine Company titled Confessions of a Wine Novice. This one pretty much summed up where I am in my journey. Complete novice. I can handle the color depth part of judging a wine because I used to own a highly ranked web development firm and learned a thing or two about color. I can probably make that transition. The color hue bit is something I think I can handle too. Clarity? Sure, either its clear or not. The aroma area is where I get into trouble. I have a big enough nose to take on the most formidable glass of wine, I just don't think it is developed enough to determine the bouquet. I don't know whether I detected hints of blackberry jam with light pepper spices finishing with tones of violets. I've never eaten a violet. I don't know weak from astringent, tart from flabby, light from full bodied or dry from off dry. I only know if I like it or not and whether I would recommend it to a friend or not.

That brings me to my task of learning how to rate a wine. There are several scales being used around the world from the Robert Parker / Wine Spectator 100 point scale to the Jancis Robinson 20 Point Scale. There are 5 Star Scales, 4 Star Scales, 3 Star Scales and even a Bond Rating Scale. 1 fish, 2 fish, red fish, blue fish. There is a great PDF provided by Steve de Long that shows all of the popular wine rating scales used around the world. Steve de Long also provides a fantastic Guided Tasting Note form. All you other novice wine snobs should take a look at these.

Now that I am armed with the collective infinite wisdom that is the Internet, I am ready to take on the challenge of learning how to properly rate a wine. Keep reading. This is about to get real fun, or real tragic. Either way, you won't be able to look away.