Archive for August, 2008

Tough life – Wines of Loire Valley

Friday, August 8th, 2008

You know, the life of a wine industry professional is real tough. Going out to taste wines, being given samples to taste, speaking with winemakers – some of the coolest people around – let me tell ya, I don’t know how I do it.

Last night I had the arduous task of tasting through some wines made from Chenin Blanc from the Loire Valley with some contemporaries.

Loire Valley

We started with a sparkling wine, the Vouvrey Brut, Pinon NV. I’m still figuring out exactly how to better assess sparkling wines, but this one did have a nice chalky minerality and crisp tight bubbles – or so I think. Apparently these are desirable sparkling wine characteristics and that darn power of suggestion can be really influential.

Following the “bubbly” we tried 5 still wines. (more…)

Selling Wine – Must you love what you sell??

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

I’ve recently begun to work with a wine distributor. As part of my work I visited a store that is among the distributor’s top customers. I spent a good amount of time with the general manger at the store and I noticed that he wasn’t carrying a certain wine. The GM explained that while he is a big fan of most of the wines this company distributes, this particular wine, a Viognier, is not to his liking.

Which led to my homework for tonight. I’m pretty sure that I had previously tried the wine in question, and I remember liking it, but I wanted to re-taste it. Based on this producers track record and my strong affinity for just about all of their wines I was sure that it would be a case of my disagreeing with the GM. After all, I do believe that all of our palates are unique, and just because I like something, doesn’t mean this GM has to. Then again, if I felt strongly enough about the wine I decided that I would encourage the GM to try stocking the wine again – that although it was not to his liking, it was a nice wine and his customers would surely enjoy it.

Well, sure enough the wine was not much to my liking either. OVER OAKED…

oak barrels

(more…)

Robot Wine Tasters

Monday, August 4th, 2008

The future is here.  Robot wine tasters have arrived…

robot drinking

Fear not wine critics, they are not after your jobs.  Rather, as reported in “Machines Like US – Science News“, these robots, developed in Barcelona , Spain have been  designed for quality control.  It is actually a handheld “electric tongue” that through the use of six sensors can help to determine the grape variety and vintage.

Pretty cool stuff, huh?!

Happy ROBOTIC wine tasting!

WTG

Chambers Street wines follow up

Sunday, August 3rd, 2008

Ahhh, what a day. Made my way to Yankee Stadium this afternoon during what is the final season at the original Yankee stadium for a game against the Anaheim Angels who have in recent years dominated the Yankees. The Angels won the first two games of the 4 game series and the Yankees won yesterday. So today the Yankees needed a win to salvage a split of the 4 game series. Things started off poorly as the Angels jumped out to a 5-0 lead. Seemed like the beginning of another long afternoon at the stadium. But a solo HR by the newest Yankee; “Pudge” Rodriguez followed by some timely hitting by another recent Yankee acquisition, Xavier Nady and the stadium was rocking as the Yankees managed 8 runs over three innings to take an 8-5 lead. Two outs into the top of the 8th inning and things seemed great as Yankee reliever Edwar Ramirez was cruising. But in the blink of an eye the Angels loaded the bases and New Angel Mark Texiera hit a grand slam – Angels lead 9-8. On this day however Xavier Nady was not done and a 3-run homer plus some other clutch hitting and the Yankees scored 6 in the bottom of the 8th to retake the lead, 14-9, that would prove to ultimately be the final score.

Yankee wine

Following a great baseball game I went to the gym for a quickie workout and then went shopping to pick up some stuff for dinner. Quinoa with mushrooms. A salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, avocado, mushrooms, hearts of palm & yellow corn. And for the main, a pistachio crusted tilapia. (more…)