Wine

Using tea to train the wine-palate

stuart updegrave — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 07:03:00 GMT

Today's 30 Second Wine Advisor presents a short plan for "using tea to learn basic wine tasting", as inspired by the article A beginner's guide to wine tasting in the Paradise (Ca) Post.

The basics of the tasting regimen are:

Brew a pot of strong black tea and pour each taster four hot cups (or four iced glasses)
Leave one plain, and dose one each with lemon, sugar and milk.
Sniff, taste and think, very much as you would with wine.
In the plain cup, try to discern the delicate aromas and flavors. Depending on the tea, you may find citrus, other fruit, floral aromas or even tar and smoke.
Compare the plain cup with the lemon-dosed sample and see how a dash of lemon confers acidity ... a tangy, mouth-watering quality that provides an almost physical sense of structure in the drink.
Try the sweetened cup, and think of "off-dry" wine. How does the version with sugar differ from the unsweetened cup? Does sugar simply make the drink sweet, or does it change the tea's flavor profile in unexpected other ways?
Finally, taste the tea with milk. Note how the "lactic" dairy element softens the tannic astringency of the straight tea, and think of malolactic fermentation that softens the sharper acidic character of wines.

Pretty neat idea -- I will probably give this a shot sometime.

food (or should that be wine?) for thought

stuart updegrave — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 10:11:00 GMT

just got done having a nice conversation with Rory, the owner of Portland Wine Merchants (an established wine shop off Hawthorne) about what it takes to get in, and how to survive in the business. his main advice (which is pretty obvious, but still) is to differentiate. don't do the same northwest / california / basic imports that are available anywhere else. make the place interesting, provide value, and keep people coming back.

there was some more stuff on business strategy, but i'm keeping that to myself for now ... :)

and after, i picked up a nice moscato and tempranillo, both spanish, to go with dinner tonight.

probably headed out of PDX tomorrow, for the coast. i'm feeling restless. :)

changes update

stuart updegrave — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 20:19:00 GMT

Following up on my big announcement from the other day:

And now, I have an official end date: August 1st. However, I'm planning to use up my accrued vacation, which will cover most of July.

I'm planning on taking off on a motorcycle trip through WA and OR shortly after my birthday -- heading out from Seattle, down around Mt. Rainier and then out Hwy 12 to Yakima. A day or so in the Yakima Valley wine country, then down to Bend to hopefully visit a couple of old friends. From there, down to Crater Lake before dropping into the Willamette Valley, where I will likely do more wine tasting (I hope to visit Domaine Drouhin, among others) and then up to Portland for more of the visiting. From there, out 26 or 30 to the coast, up 101 along the Olympic Peninsula, and up Hurricane Ridge before ferrying back into Seattle.

This will be by far the longest moto trip I've done to date; I think it's quite the fitting way to celebrate my new freedom.

SCotUS rules in favor of wine shipments

stuart updegrave — Mon, 16 May 2005 05:22:00 GMT

This morning, the Supreme Court found that state laws limiting out-of-state wineries from shipping directly to state residents are “discriminatory and anti-competitive“:

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"States have broad power to regulate liquor," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority. "This power, however, does not allow states to ban, or severely limit, the direct shipment of out-of-state wine while simultaneously authorizing direct shipment by in-state producers."

"If a state chooses to allow direct shipments of wine, it must do so on evenhanded terms," he wrote.

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http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8A4B05O1.htm

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Wine Tumblers? wtf?

stuart updegrave — Wed, 11 May 2005 09:58:00 GMT

I just noticed a new product line from Riedel on amazon.com -- wine tumblers. Yes, that's right, stemless wine glasses.

My instinctive response was “oooh, those look nice!” Unfortunately, that was followed shortly thereafter by “what the hell are they thinking?”

Wine glasses have stems for a reason -- to keep hot, sweaty paws from warming the wine too rapidly. Tumblers seem to toss that reason out for the sake of 'cool'.

Form over function wins again. *sigh*

Commanderie de la Bargemone Coteaux d'Aix en Provence

stuart updegrave — Mon, 23 Aug 2004 07:03:00 GMT

Bev and I went to McCarthy and Schiering last weekend to taste Cadence's new second-label Bordeaux Blend, 2002 Cadence 'Coda'. Cadence is a great Seattle winery focusing on Bordeaux blends, and the Coda is a nice new release. The winemaker, Ben Smith, was on hand pouring wines and signing bottles. Always nice to be able to talk to the winemakers, find out where they source the grapes, etc. I like to have a personal connection to good local wine.

But wait, what does this have to do with the Bargemone? Well, it was a hot day, and we were picnic-bound, so we decided to get a couple bottles of Rosé, and asked the guys for advice. They recommended the Bargemone (2003), and a Bandol we haven't tried yet.

The Bargemone is made from Grenache, a wine I really enjoy -- there are some lovely Provencal Grenache Rosés out there, it's nice to find new and delectable varieties. It's been a week since we tried it (I just realized “Hey, I could blog this stuff so other people know about it too!”), so I'm a little hazy on details now. But I definitely liked it!