I attended the La Rioja Wine Tasting at the Astor Center yesterday. I had some nice wines, 1 standout wine (which I will get to) some nondescript wines and one or two corked wines. But what is more important to me is HOW this tasting was conducted. Held at the very professional “study” in the Astor Center this FORMAL tasting was led by a Rioja winemaker who was familiar with all the wineries whose wines he was discussing (but maybe not intimately familiar with all the wines as it turned out).
Woke up at the hotel bright and early..OK, maybe not THAT early, and went to the hotel courtyard for a “continental breakfast” of cereal, fresh pastries & coffee. I tried to get down a “bug juice” of sorts that was simply awful. Another cup of coffee (and I normally don’t drink coffee) and I was on my way.
I stayed in a northern part of Napa known as Calistoga and made my way North West to Sonoma county. I ended up in Healdsburg in the Russian River and started at a winery called Sausal winery. (more…)
My day began in LA with an early flight from LAX to SFO. I rented a car at SFO and made my way to wine country. My day started with one of the places I neglected to take notes. Might have had something to do with the 6AM flight or the 3 hours of sleep I got the night before. But either way, it was an amazing visit to the Havens winery where my good friend Connie runs the tasting room. Connie & I worked together at Napa Wine Company where she was easily one of my favorite people. Havens had some really nice wine. We started the visit with a white as I tried what I was told the only Albarino from Napa (or maybe it was the first?). Albarino is a Spanish varietal, generally made in a fresh/crisp manner. This one fit that bill and is certain to be a good food wine. I then had a Rose’ made from Cab Franc before moving on to the reds. We had some Merlot & Cab from both a regular series and a reserve one. While (to my palate) it is not always the case I remember enjoying the reserves more than the regular wines (but the power of suggestion is strong & if I was told the opposite I may have had the opposite impression). The wines that stood out though were their Syrahs. I enjoyed the 2003 Havens Syrah but mentioned to Connie that I thought the nose was a little closed. She proceeded to open a 2000 Syrah that they recently re-released and it was great. All of us in the tasting room found both pepper & some real interesting smoked meat aromas. I struggled to find the bacon the others were talking about but that did not detract from the enjoyment of the wine.
While I had intended to make more than 1 stop before my 1PM appointment time flies when you are having fun…and it was too late to squeeze in another visit. (more…)
A very important project has come up and it appears I will have to get to this post over the weekend, but I thought I would show you a quick picture of the Napa vines and their “bud out” – or beginning of formation of the grape bunches.
Details of the first day of the trip to follow….WTG.
Got back from the West Coast this morning and I hope to write up about day 1 of my wine country trip tomorrow. But now, my long overdue summary of the wines I was able to try at the Polaner tasting. As I previously mentioned, the annual event has an amazing array of top notch wines from all over the world, but in my opinion, there are simply too many wines. Maybe given my “neophyte” status, I try to taste as many wines as possible and miss the point. Maybe I should lower my expectations and simply focus on one variety or one region. This could help to make events of this size more manageable. I don’t know. Either way, while it was overwhelming, I tasted some very fine wines and met some very personable and charming winemakers (or winery proprietors).
Of the 75 tables and several hundred wines I managed to taste 117 wines. (more…)
Had an amazing (yet extremely brief) 2 day trip in Napa & Sonoma. Saw friends, old & new, and I am now back in San Fran and preparing to catch my red eye flight back to NYC tonight. I took notes at just about all the wineries I visited. I expect to have a full report posted shortly after I return.
Happy Winery hopping!
WTG
I want to apologize to you all for the infrequent posts of late. I have been “vacationing” in L.A. with family for the Passover holiday. I fly to NORCAL (AKA Bay Area, AKA Northern California) tomorrow and will be spending a quick 48 hours in wine country.
I return to NYC on May 1 and will have extensive reports on my trip…
Until then, Happy Wine Country wine tasting (to me)…
WTG
With Passover having arrived and large family (and extended family) meals (and seders) taking place I seem to have become somewhat of a clergy. As the wine is poured it is inevitable that someone around the table will announce the presence of The Wine Tasting Guy. At which point open confession begins. The two most common confessions being either “I know nothing about wine” or “I’m embarrassed but I only like sweet wine”. I both love and hate hearing these common confessions. I love them as they provide an indication that the confessor has an appreciation for wine, albeit one that has yet to be flushed out. But I hate such confessions as they indicate an insecurity on the part of the confessor, something that likely resulted from an encounter with a dreaded “wine snob”.
I have preached many times before in this space that people need to trust their palates. YES, trying new wines MAY lead to a palate that can/will evolve beyond the sweet stuff. And YES, speaking (and drinking) with people who are more knowledgeable may lead to a better understanding of wine. BUT…
Wine is food, or at least a lot like it in many ways. We get used to foods that are introduced to us as kids. We either maintain an open mind and introduce ourselves to new foods and flavors or we don’t. And we don’t seek out approval from others to decide for us whether or not we LIKE a food. We try it and we either like it or not.
Wine is (or at least should be) the same way. Try a wine & decide whether or not you like it. That is all there is to it. Forget the label, the price tag, the critic’s rating, or any nonsense some Wine Tasting Guy told you. Nobody can tell you what will suit your palate.
I must confess that I do enjoy speaking about wine with those to whom it is of interest. And I do not mind the aforementioned wine confessions. I suppose this whole post has been about removing the pretension from wine so that more people would feel comfortable trying wine (or new wines) without having to worry about someone looking down their noses at them.
Happy open minded wine tasting!!
WTG
For the second year in a row I was fortunate to be able to attend the Polaner Selections Spring portfolio tasting. This event has hundreds of wineries from countries all over the world, each one with at least one and at times as many as ten or more wines. There were some great wines at this event as well as some amazing winemakers who come to the event to meet the people serving/selling their wines.
BUT, the event is simply too big & hectic. I met a winemaker there whom I had met at a previous tasting. The tasting he attends is a very small & varietally specific tasting. The smaller tastings afford guests the opportunity to really taste through ALL the wines and speak with the respective winemakers. The larger tastings, such as this one, while full of fabulous wines, are simply overwhelming.
I apologize to those of you looking forward to this post. I’ll be leaving town within the hour and do not want to take my tasting notes with me. I’ll post my standouts from the tasting in greater detail when I return in two weeks. In the meantime I will post throughout my trip on other wine related STUFF.
Happy Passover, Easter or whatever you may be celebrating ( I hope you are celebrating something)!!
WTG
I attended this event for the second year in a row at The Altman Building in NY city. The event features 100+ (they say 100, but I’m told it is closer to 110) wines from Bordeaux at reasonable (sub $30) prices. So no Margaux and no Petrus, but some very nice wines for wine professionals to consider for their bar, restaurant … or blog post as the case may be.
I really like this event for a few reasons. (more…)
