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  Wednesday, May 29, 2002
Faux oak. Chardonnays aren't really my thing, but I thought this article about cheap ones was pretty informative. I'd always assumed that the wine press dissed heavily oaky chards because it considered them naive and gauche. But there's a little more to the argument: "In general, the good wines were lean and crisp, and the disappointing ones were fat, rounded and oaky, and bore little resemblance to the real thing. The tip-off was often a suspiciously strong oak component, both in the taste and the aromas. Because of the costs involved, chances of a $10 chardonnay having spent much time aging in oak barrels are slim. The oakiness may come from wood chips or staves, which are immersed in the wine, or less frequently, from oak extract added after fermentation."
Tuesday, May 28, 2002
Search engines. PurpleSunshine.com now comes up in searches conducted on Google (and maybe other search engines). What's interesting is the search strings that turn it up. According to the site statistics supplied by our ISP, ICDSoft, such strings include "shiraz taste test results," "bodegas cachazo rueda las brisas" and "lindemans 2000 wines rated." Not very surprising. More surprising: "the tasting room and new york." Very surprising is this: "monica lewinsky hbo march 3 2002."
Monday, May 27, 2002
It's that time of year. Here are some of the NYT's suggestions for summer wines (warning: the list is heavy on the dreaded rosés)
Monday, May 20, 2002
Correction. It was a 1996 Ferrari-Carano Syrah, not the Paraiso Springs, that was "like a mouthful of purple sunshine."
Sunday, May 19, 2002
May 16, 2002 tasting. Here are the results of the wine club playoff smackdown:
1) "Tiger" (as in Tiger Woods). 1997 Paraiso Springs Syrah, Monterey Co., $16 at Dorignac's. Average 18.27 (a new record); range 16-20. Jeff, who gave this one a 20, wanted to marry and/or adopt this one. Described variously as spicy and rich, dark and inky, "demanding of attention." "A hint of spice cuts through to make it interesting." Begins with a hint of cardamom, opens up into wood smoke and heavy berry, ends with a note of eucalyptus. Unless the Webmaster's notes are mistaken, this bottle is a year older than the one that tore up the 1/31/2001 Syrah/Shiraz tasting. Not sure how that happened, but we should be happy that it did. The 1997 was even better than the '98. (Incidentally, this may well have been the one that Soon described as "a mouthful of purple sunshine.") 2) "American Beauty." 2000 Seghesio Zinfandel Sonoma (aka Bluetop). $15. Average 16.15; range 12-19. This wine reminded people of port, dried cherries, leather and perfume. More of a "head experience," some thought, than the id-like Paraiso Springs, but still a nice relaxer for the end of a long day. If nothing else, this wine inspires colorful commentary. One person described it as "most likely to be enjoyed with a big, fat joint." When we tried it at the first wine club (9/2000), Joan observed that the 1998 version was "like sex. And Thanksgiving. It's like sex on Thanksgiving." 3) "Thriller." 1999 Cairnbrae Vineyards "The Stones" Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand. $13 at Martin Wine Cellar. Average 15.33; range 13-19. A light, refreshing, efficient white that "achieves its aims." Butterscotch, hay, wet grass, Granny Smith apples in the nose; honey and apple flavor. Somewhat more body than you might expect. Two mutually exclusive knocks against it: one person complained of an unpleasant candied-fruit finish; two others found it a bit ephemeral, with little finish at all. like that it's a bit ephemeral We liked this one a month ago at the Southern Hemisphere tasting (4/2002), and both the scores and the range were nearly identical this time around -- even though the composition of the panel changed a bit. Similar comments, too. 4) "Caesar." 1998 Allegrini Verona Palazzo della Torre, Allegrini, Veneto; 70% Corvina Veronese, 25% Rondinella, 5% Sangiovese. $16. Average 15.11; range 13-20. Some thought it would stand up to meat but might be overwhelming on its own. Eliot was more descriptive: dark chocolate and raspberry alone; plummy, jammy and stone-fruity with food. Mark gave this one a 20, calling it the perfect "middle way" wine -- not too timid, not too strong. Though the 1998 finished fourth at this tasting, its score was a bit higher than the 1997 that won the critics' choice tasting (3/2001). 5) "Patriots." 2000 EOS Paso Robles Chardonnay. Average 13.44; range 12-15. $15 or so. Fruity and fuller-bodied than many whites. The nose reminded people of bananas, banana cream pie, bananas Foster, vanilla, honeysuckle and airplane glue (which the inhalant-lovers in the group kind of liked). The taste was reminiscent of honey-stewed fruit. Alcohol wasn't far back in the mix. Some people thought the finish was hard to find, but eventually thought it tasted like slightly burned caramel. This wine, which someone said "pushes the limits of what you could get away with," might go well with a meaty fish like salmon or grouper. This was the ringer of the playoff tasting; we'd never tried it before. 6) "Secretariat." 2000 Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz-Cabernet, South Australia. $9 at Martin Wine Cellar. Average 11.44; range 9-14. Young, fairly smooth, vaguely mushroomy and uncomplicated. The 1999 version of this wine was the hit of the low-rent wines tasting (10/2001), but it was badly outclassed tonight. The fact that it came immediately after "Tiger" in the tasting made it seem even more callow and undeveloped. The 1997 Paraiso Springs Shiraz was starting to come into its prime; by contrast, this 2000 wine tasted kind of bland and uptight, and it might not unwind much as it ages. Not rated: Deutz Brut Classic, $30 at Martin Wine Cellar, received ecstatic reviews when it appeared as "Ecstasy" at our first champagne tasting (12/2000). This time, billed as "Venus" (as in Venus Williams), it was the only champagne on the menu. We didn't think scoring it in a vacuum would be fair. Friday, May 17, 2002
Anticipation. I won't be around much this weekend, so it might take me a little while to get the results from Thursday night's wine club playoffs online. It's interesting to note, though, that our big winner, the Paraiso Springs Vineyard Syrah, is finally getting the recognition it deserves. And the price is going up. I paid $16 or so for the 1997 at Dorignac's. The suggested retail for the 1999 is $24.
Extracted. I noticed that Bill used the term "extracted" in his post. Which reminded me of our discussion of it at the last wine club, and how none of us quite knew what it meant. Maybe he can explain?
Thursday, May 16, 2002
Virgin posting. After a long delay, I am finally joining the Blogger universe. Unfortunately, I don't have anything meaningful to say about wine at the moment. I have bought my NOWFE ticket for the Saturday tasting, though. See you there!
Monday, May 13, 2002
Big Zinfandels. Ridge 2000 Lytton Springs. For those of you who are Zinfandel fans that like to chew through thier zins, go get some of the Ridge 2000's. They are massively extracted and not for the faint of heart pinot fans. This is usually what Biale also does but they are very disappointing. Skip them. For those planning calendars; NOWFE is coming May 23rd - May 25th and Martin's big event is in June. Take care.
Friday, May 10, 2002
Editorial Clorox? Somebody must have told Dottie and John to tone it down. For the last eight or nine Fridays I've been reading their column, looking for the flashes of self-indulgence I've grown to love. Nothing.
Tuesday, May 07, 2002
Jazzfest tip for next year. Grab a crawfish bread to go, and enjoy with a frosty glass of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Or, you could smuggle some Sauvignon Blanc into Jazzfest. But no, that would be wrong.
Monday, May 06, 2002
Health food. According to HealthScout News, red wine wards off the common cold. And the more you drink, the healthier you are! The story says: "All it takes, it seems, is one to seven glasses of wine per week. However, the protective effects are stronger with even more: eight to 14 glasses a week."
Wednesday, May 01, 2002
Times reviewers. Ugh, I noticed one of the wine reviewers is that awful Amanda Hesser (she's the one who writes the Sunday food columns about her fiance, "Mr. Latte.") She makes John and Dottie look like geniuses.
Star system. The Times uses a star system rather than a numerical scoring system in its tasting report on Priorats. The report also contains this interesting sidenote: "Until recently most European wine judges have relied on the 20-point scale common in Europe. The fact that there are so few really bad wines anymore has narrowed the useful range of that scale to around 12 to 18 and caused a number of French and British critics to use the more flexible star system. The 100-point system used by American critics like Robert M. Parker Jr. is particularly useful for differentiating among the hundreds of wines they regularly sample."
Times does wine club. The New York Times has decided that four palates are better than one when reviewing wines. In this review, they decide they don't like Priorat very much. The bottom line is that the high prices on many Priorats reflect scarcity rather than high quality. They also cast aspersions on people who like big, fruity muscular wines -- people like us, in other words.
For what it's worth, we didn't try any Priorats in our Spain tasting, mainly because I couldn't find any that were cheap and didn't know it was considered such a hot region when I bought the wines. |
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