June 11, 2019

Wine Diary: Writer’s Block and the Paradox of Inspiration

I’ve been staring at a blank screen for nearly three weeks, trying to figure out how I want to talk about this wine. Writer’s block may be a tired cliché in television or movies, but that doesn’t make it any less real. I know from past experience there’s not an epiphany around the corner that’s going to make all my jumbled ideas fall in place. No, I have to work through this the hard way. It isn’t about some lack of inspiration, but crippling self-doubt, the unshakable belief that whatever I say is irrelevant and it’s only a matter of time before everyone sees me as the useless hack I really am. That’s not the kind of thing that gets fixed by some casual acquaintance unwittingly offering sage advice in the form of a new perspective, but rather self-reflection and the confrontation of uncomfortable truths. Sometimes you just have to step away, clear your head, sit back down at the keyboard, and try again. The grand irony here is we’re not talking about some would-be best seller, I’m just reviewing a wine.

One of the things I’ve learned in my short time blogging is that the act of generating content can be inconvenient. For example, if I buy a bottle of wine to bring home, I can’t just open it and start drinking. Oh, no! It must be documented for further musings on my website in the future. Sometimes the thought of setting up the lights and crawling around on the floor for half an hour to take photos is unappealing at best. Maybe you really aren’t into it that night, so you phone in the photos and take quick, vague, notes. Hell, maybe it was 11:30pm, and you just wanted to enjoy a glass of wine after work. Fast forward to four months later, when you’re trying to articulate your thoughts, and you suddenly discover that perpetually lazy past version of yourself has screwed you over yet again.

C’est la vie.

In the end, I suppose I could just skip this bottle. Take a pass and move on, hoping for better results in the future, but the truth is, I really enjoyed this one. I want to talk about it. I’ve been looking forward to it. So, let’s cut the shit; all the pissing and moaning, anxiety, self-doubt, the time I got embarrassed because someone saw me do something stupid, the time I said something that hurt someone’s feelings, the daily dissatisfaction I have with whatever aspect of my life, basically, all the mental clutter that is for some reason in the way, and brush it aside so we can focus on what’s important: the wine.

Back in February we were hosting multiple tastings, bored with our existing wine, list we wanted to bring it to life with an infusion of new ideas. This is one of the wines we were considering around that time. In the end, it didn’t make the cut, but it did provide me with the opportunity to sample my first Vermentino, a grape I was completely unfamiliar with. If you’ve anything I’ve ever written, you know I love Alsatian wines, and this new wine shares a lot of those same characteristics, crisp and mineral, with a high, palate-cleansing, acidity. It was like falling in love with someone who looks a lot like an ex, without all the messy emotional trauma that follows.

Sardegna is the second largest island in the Mediterranean, sitting just across the Tyrrhenian Sea from Italy. In reading about grapes it’s not uncommon to find references to Sardegna, or the neighboring French island of Corse, as both names frequently come up, especially around disputed claims of origin for particular grape varieties. This, however, is the first time I’ve had a wine from either place.

Olianas is a young winery, tracing their origins back to the beginning of the century. Their Vermintino di Sardegna 2017 had a lovely array of flavors, like lychee, bell pepper, wet stone, and honeysuckle. It was crisp and refreshing, the kind of bottle that mysteriously disappears before you’re ready to be finished with it. More than any of the other wines we sampled, this stuck in my memory. After one encounter, I swore I was going to explore this grape, and region, further. There will be a second bottle, and probably a third. In other words, if you’re planning to pick up one, you might as well buy two.

If there were any truth to the portrayal of writer’s block on film and television, this wine would be the cure, not the cause. We’re half way through the year, I’ve tried a lot of wine, and very few of those have managed to lodge themselves so firmly in my poor hack brain as this one. It is without a doubt, an inspiring wine, but inspiration doesn’t finish projects, it begins them.

Wine Diary
April 15, 2019

WSET Level 3 – Conclusions

I skipped writing a blog about day 5 to focus on studying and getting a full night a sleep before the test, if you’re following me on Facebook I made a couple of posts there. Day 6 was about food pairing and sparkling wine production, followed by an extended lunch, and then the test.

The test consisted of a blind tasting in which we made notes for two wines, 50 multiple choice questions, and “4 short answer questions,” which was really more like 16-20 short answer questions under 4 categories.

When I walked in that morning I didn’t think I had a chance of passing. By the time it was over, I thought I might have passed. If I did, it won’t be with high marks. It’ll be 4 months before I know for sure. The tests have to be graded in England, to get them there they have to put them in a brief case and handcuff it to a secret agent’s hand, the only way for him to get a key is to deliver the case to a secluded English monastery, where it will be graded by holy virgins, and then mailed back to me. I’m assured all of these steps are necessary.

The tasting portion of the test has always been the part that gives me the most anxiety. I’m not confident in any system that pretends it can objectively measure subjective experiences. I was overthinking each tasting in class that morning and had concerns I would carry trend into the test.

The first wine was sweet, at first I thought it might be a Sauternes, but based on comments made by the instructor, I didn’t think that was possible they would select a dessert wine for the test. Under those circumstances, it had to be a late harvest Riesling, but I didn’t get some of the notes I always think I find in Riesling. The second was clearly a Cabernet Sauvignon with oak influence. I made my notes and was confident with what I had, it wasn’t necessary for me to identify each wine, but simply to make tasting notes about them and determine quality. I called both “very good,” noting they could benefit from aging.

The written test was straight-forward, I didn’t know everything, but I knew what I didn’t know. I had to guess on about 20/50 questions on the multiple choice, so I should pass that. The short answer section had one section on the Rhone, a region I am not terribly familiar with (their wines are often out of my budget). I answered to the best of my ability. If 55% is a passing grade, I think there’s a decent chance I passed. If I didn’t, there’s another test at the beginning of next year and I can reseat the test if I would like.

After class went to the bar and ordered a PBR. I was the second person to finish. As my classmates came out, some left immediately and some joined me at the bar. I learned the two wines were in fact a Sauternes and a Barefoot Cabernet Sauvignon. My determinations will miss points on both glasses, not a guarantee of failure, but whether I pass or not will depend strongly on how I rated structure and flavor compared to the instructor. It seems everyone had been fooled by the Cab, and the Sauternes was a 50/50 split. One girl was so stressed she was dry heaving in the lobby. Some students were distraught that they had awarded a Barefoot Cabernet Sauvignon high marks. I assured them all there’s no shame in enjoying Barefoot from time to time, as I sipped my from my can of PBR.

Regardless of whether I passed or failed the class, I think I’m done with WSET. I’m glad I took the class, it confronted me with a lot of things I had been curious about, but had not made the time to learn. If I were to take another class, that would be the reason, to take me out of my comfort zone. Moving forward, I’m very curious now about what research has been done on the neuroscience of tasting, what do we know objectively? I want to do some reading there, along with my regular reading on regions, grapes, etc.

As far as wines go, I have a greater familiarity with some of the regions that have been outside my budget for a while. I think I’m going to try to tackle some of those for the blog in the upcoming months. Also, from this post forward I’m going to change format a bit. I’ve been using the header “wine diary” for nearly every post, but moving forward I’m going to reserve that for bottles and experiences that have greater personal impact. I’ll continue making weekly wine posts, hopefully more than once a week, under a new heading. That’ll probably start this Wednesday… I’m sitting on a backlog of about 20 bottles I have photos and tastings notes on that need to be posted.

Also, I’m hoping to get into a vineyard for photos at some point this summer, maybe around Traverse City, Southern Illinois, or in Missouri.

I had a long debate about what wine I wanted to drink after the test, I thought about having Champagne and Popeye’s, or maybe just a bottle of retsina, but by the time I got home I really just wanted to get back to what I had been doing before the class started, so tonight I had a this Nomad Merlot from Aurelia Visinescu in Romania. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you may remember this producer from my last blog on their Fetească Neagră.

I think this wine was maybe just past it’s prime, curiously this is older than the bottle I bought at the same store a year ago. The cork had stains running about half way up, based on that and the color, I’m thinking this has seen some oxidation, probably a bit more than it really needed. Even so, still quite drinkable.

This is their 2014, with flavors of red plum, raspberry, game, leather, and forest floor. It had mild tannin, with medium marks across the board for acid, body, intensity, and finish. I imagine this was a wine intended to be consumed young, so if you find a bottle, look for something more recent than I found or, better yet, just pick up that Fetească Neagră instead.

Wine Diary
April 7, 2019

Wine Diary: WSET Level 3 – Day 3

After Day 1 I didn’t think I had a snowball’s chance in hell of passing this course. Day 2 gave me some glimmer of hope. Today, after Day 3, I don’t know even know if I give a damn any more. I think a little backstory is in order.

I didn’t know shit about wine when I moved to Chicago. Back home I frequently hosted friends and small dinner parties, so I always kept a couple bottles of wine stocked in my bar. My wine of choice was River Boat Red, a local, semi-sweet, compost pile of a wine primarily blended from Concord, the jelly grape. I understood nothing of oxidation and assumed that, like spirits, wine could survive indefinitely once opened… my poor house guests.

Missouri, though home to the country’s oldest AVA, doesn’t have a dominant wine culture, things are different in Chicago. I wouldn’t go so far as to say this is a wine town, but there is certainly a thriving culture. People here took the time to help me understand wine and they approached it in a way I was able to wrap my mind around. Three years later I’m in the middle of a fairly serious certification class and writing this blog.

While I would never claim to know everything, I still very much consider myself a novice in the wine world, I have learned a lot in the past couple of years, and in the process I’ve developed some strong opinions. Sometimes these opinions are challenged and I have to reassess my position, but other times I feel as though the conclusions I’ve drawn are justified. I guess, the trick is to embrace that Socratic ideal that the only thing I can be certain I know is that I don’t know anything.

In the short time I have been pursuing an active interest in wine the one idea I have never been able to get behind is that taste, or how we experience taste, is objective or quantifiable. One of the reasons I was drawn to WSET over other certifying bodies, is because I felt their curriculum was based more in fact, ergo science, and less in the nebulous art of bullshit. My faith is shaken after today.

I think I may try to expand on this in a future blog, but, in brief, the WSET 3 approach to tasting wine has the student look at five categories of factors: appearance, aroma, palate, quality, and aging potential. Within each of these factors there are multiple points of further examination. For example, in appearance we are to gauge both color and intensity of color, which seems fine on the surface, however there was significant debate today on whether one wine we were looking at was “Lemon” or “Lemon-Green.”

While myself, and several of my classmates, were unconvinced of there being any green in the color of this particular glass, the instructor insisted it was so. She attempted to mitigate criticism by acknowledging that such points are subjective, that the light based on where we were sitting was a factor that would create discrepancy, and that this topic is frequently debated, although she did nothing to clarify how we were to make such distinctions on the test, which, essentially, attempts to quantify the color of wine. In other words, if I happen to gauge my glass in beam of sunlight coming through the window and she determines her in the glow of a GE bulb, we have different answers and mine will be wrong.

That’s the first category. We had the same issue, and debate in class, with each subsequent category. The tasting notes, in particular, terrify me on the test. To try to make this easier, WSET provides a key with terms to be used for tasting. However, the instructor is working outside of the key. So, if I taste a wine and use only terms found in the key and she makes tasting notes including things off the key, I lose points where our notes don’t overlap. I can’t help but feel I’m playing Blackjack against someone using an Uno deck. “Oh, you think you got 21, well guess what? Draw four, bitch!”At one point today we tasted a Malbec that several people in the class rated as “Very Good,” which is quite a high marking. The instructor only marked it as “Good” and this opened up a lot of debate on how we are supposed to determine quality. She said we have to grade it in the context of all other wines and, to elaborate, said “We can’t call a $17 Malbec ‘very good,’ because that’s like saying it’s on the same level as Premier Cru Burgundy.”

That’s the point where I wanted to flip the table over and just yell, “fuck yooooouuuuu!” We’re told price doesn’t equal quality, we’re told that quality is determined by structure, intensity, flavor complexity, etc. but even when a wine achieves those points, it’s not quality because it’s not fucking Premier Cru Burgundy? Why does Argentina even bother making wine?

Look, if these wines can’t be objectively measured with consistency, I have to question the integrity of any system that would try to profit off the idea that opposite is true. The Emperor’s not wearing any fucking clothes.

You know what else isn’t Premier Cru Burgundy? This Riesling I bought. Nearly every German Riesling I’ve had has been from Mosel, but this bottle of Georg Albrecht Schneider Niersteiner Riesling comes to us from Rheinhessen. I bought it because I wanted something that wasn’t from Mosel and the guy on the label looked crazy with that scythe in one hand and those souls in other, although, upon reflection, that might be wheat or something that isn’t souls… they’re probably souls.

This was super dry, with flavors of lime, flint, wet stone, and honeysuckle. For all those people who don’t like Riesling because it’s “too sweet,” this is the wine for you. HIGH acid, super refreshing, decent complexity. It may not be Premier Cru Burgundy, but it’s what I wanted to drink tonight and I’m happy. At the end of the day, isn’t that what should matter?

Wine Diary
March 31, 2019

Wine Diary: WSET Level 3 – Day 1

I’m home from the first day of class for my next level of WSET certification. The course is 6 classes, running on Saturday and Sunday, 8 hours a day, for 3 weeks. The test, scheduled at the end of the final Sunday, comes in 2 parts 1) blind tasting and 2) theory, in the form of multiple choice and short answer. I’ve met more than one person who passed the tasting and failed the theory portions of the test. I’m honestly nervous about both parts.

From what everyone tells me, the tasting portion isn’t so bad, but when I’m comparing my notes to the rest of the class I always feel like I’m off the mark. The way it works is you first check the wine’s color, looking for age or defect. Next you smell the wine, noting intensity and characteristics of the aroma to determine wine’s stage of development. From there you taste, looking for sweetness, acidity, body, tannin, alcohol, flavor intensity and characteristics, noting primary, secondary, and tertiary flavors, and measure how long the finish is. From all of that you determine the quality of the wine and if it’s better to drink it now or let it age.

All of that is pretty similar to the WSET 2, but now there’s another layer of complexity where I’m supposed to determine winemaking processes, like whether oak or inert vessels were used, which doesn’t seem so hard, or whether the grapes were hand or machine harvested, which feels like I might as well be consulting the bones or movement of stars across the night sky; I can’t help but feel that part of this is just speculation and I’ve having a hell of a time wrapping my mind around it.

I’m not handling it well. Even when my tasting notes are somewhat accurate (compared to the instructor), I know I’m stabbing in the dark with some of my descriptions, so it’s a hollow win. By mid-afternoon I was going through some pretty serious palate fatigue, and started getting really frustrated, angry even. At one point they set two tastings in front of us and asked for notes, I had barely started on the second glass when they called time. Even when I am getting somewhat complete notes, I’m struggling to connect the processes.

Maybe things will be better tomorrow, but I left feeling pretty defeated today and I’m already wondering how much it will cost to reseat the test later.

I stopped off for a bottle of wine on the way home, to get some practice making notes and, honestly, because I felt like I wanted a drink. It was easier to go through the tasting guide here in apartment, so I know part of the issue I’m having is anxiety.

Usually I go into a wine shop looking for something I’ve never tried, but today I wanted to get something familiar. For the next three weeks I really need to be focusing on dominant grapes from well-known regions. It’s unlikely I’ll going to be tested on Fetească Neagră or wines from the He Lan Mountain region of China, so for tonight I went with a classic, California Cabernet Sauvignon. This particular wine comes from Francicsan and was suggested by the friendly staff at Binny’s.

This comes to us from Napa County, not to be mistaken for Napa Valley, and is actually a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, and Petit Verdot. Not quite what I was looking for, but a nice wine nonetheless. So, since I’ve been sitting in a classroom all day, I’ll try to write this as a WSET 3 tasting note for the sake of practice and to try to give a frame of reference.

Color: Clear, deep ruby.

Aroma: Clean, medium (-) intensity, black currant, black cherry, and clove. Still developing character.

Palate: Dry, high acid, high tannin, high alcohol, full-bodied, medium(+) intensity, black cherry, black currant, toast, clove, oak, vegetal, ginger. Long finish. Very good quality. Can enjoy now, but has aging potential.

Winemaking notes: oak vessel, machine harvest, warm region, I also speculated that there may be some whole clusters used in the fermentation process based on how fruit forward the wine is. This is a section I definitely need to improve on. As the class continues I will probably be making more frequent updates in order to practice this new method for tasting notes, and to document my thoughts as I go.

I’ll try to write another update tomorrow after class. By Monday I’m going to be ready to go back to work, just to get away from all this test anxiety and stress. Who knew drinking wine could be this hard?

Featured Wine Diary
January 9, 2019

Wine Diary: Painted Wolf the Den Pinotage 2017


If you look at my life, it’s only natural that I would develop an affinity for Pinotage. Just tell me something is popular and I’ll give you a list of reasons why it sucks. A musician clawed their way to the top and got a Pepsi endorsement deal? They’re a sellout. The #1 movie in the country right now? It’s full of plot holes and soundtrack is bullshit. Of course, the opposite is also true. You found an indie comic book by a barely competent writer/ artist duo? It’s a masterpiece. There’s a grape so reviled that you can’t even discuss it’s wine without saying something unflattering? I must try it. I am, if nothing else, counterculture to a flaw.

There’s a piece of conventional wisdom around wine labeling that says, “if you put an animal on the label, people will buy it.” I’ve heard this trend bemoaned by wine enthusiasts, but I’ve also watched it in action. Working for a wine retailer, I really can’t complain. Most of this is just an attempt to create a recognizable brand to promote sales of a product. Maybe the owner really does love their dog a lot, but that’s not why they’re putting Fido on the label. With Painted Wolf it seems different, it’s not just a dog on the label, it’s an endangered species.

It’s fashionable for every organization to have a pet charity, something they can point at to show the world they’re not complete scumbags, but rarely have I seen that charity be the central focus of a brand. In the case of Painted Wolf, part of the proceeds from each bottle of wine sold are donated to conservation groups like Tusk and the Endangered Wildlife Trust, but beyond that the entire brand is created with the intention of raising awareness for the endangered African wild dog.

So, yeah, they put a dog on the label to get your attention, because if something isn’t done, it won’t exist in the future. Even if you hate the idea of animals on labels, this seems pretty justifiable. I mean, it’s not like Querceto was trying to save the unicorns.

As for the wine itself, the grapes are harvested from Swartland and Paarl, NE of Cape Town, South Africa. French and American oak staves were used during fermentation, and the wine was pressed off into old French and American oak barrels. 15% of the 2018 vintage was blended into the 2017 before the wine was bottled, a process I am completely unfamiliar with. It has nice cherry and allspice aromas, with flavors of blackberry, raspberry, smoke, and wet leaves. Really nice complexity, but still easy to drink.

I’ve always felt Pinotage was the underdog of the wine world, it’s probably one of the things that has drawn me to it. So, maybe it’s appropriate for them to have dogs on the label, whatever the reason.

Wine Diary
December 27, 2018

Wine Diary: Aurelia Visinescu Nomad Fetească Neagră 2014

In December of 2017 I fell in love with Romanian wine. I was on a budget and looking for something a decent, but not mass produced; Champagne taste on a beer budget, as they say. In a small store just North of where I work in Lincoln Square, I found a corner store that has a large specialty selection of Eastern European wines at prices comparable to anything on the bottom shelf of the grocery store. It seemed too good to be true, but I bought a bottle, because the worst thing that could happen was that it would be a learning experience. As it turns out, I had just stumbled down a rabbit hole that would led me into a series of incredible wine experiences over the next year.

Aurelia Visinescu Nomad Fetească Neagră red wine

Up until this time I bought my wines based on either 1) a region I was vaguely familiar with, but wanted to learn more about or 2) Bordeaux. Trying my first Romanian wine wasn’t necessarily an epiphany, but it was a positive experience. It showed me that good wine could come from places outside of France, Italy, California, Spain, and sometimes Germany, despite conventional wisdom. So, I went back and bought another, and then another. I started reading up on the regions and regional grapes and then I did have an epiphany, a wine so mindblowingly good I would have put it up against anything I had tried before. It changed how I looked at wine, how I shopped for wine, and has rewarded me over and over during the course of the last year. This wine, Nomad Fetească Neagră, was one of those experiences.

Produced in the region of Dealu Mare, Southeast of the Carpatian Mountains, specifically near the village of Săhăteni, this is Nomad Fetească Neagră. According to Aurelia Visinescu’s website, the Nomad line is intended to represent a modern style of wine. My previous experiences with Fetească Neagră have been fairly lackluster. I’ve often told people, if you plan to try Romanian wine, buy white not red, because that is where I found my superior experiences, until I bought this bottle. This is, hands down, the best Fetească Neagră wine I have ever had. It’s also the only one I’ve had that has seen oak aging, which it responded to very well. Flavors of plum and cranberry mingled with clove for a complex wine, with solid tannin, and a long finish.

My introduction to Romanian wines has emboldened me to explore several new areas and to never be dissuaded by regional criticisms. While that attitude has led me to discover great wines from many places, I keep coming back to Romania. There’s something about their wines that just excites me and no matter how many times I tell people, they still seem surprised that I’m endorsing wine from that region.

Let’s be perfectly frank, I’ve had more bad wine from California than anywhere else in the world, where’s the risk in trying something new?

Wine Diary
Querceto Chianti Classico red wine sangiovese
December 5, 2018

Wine Diary: Querceto Chianti Classico 2016

There’s something Americans find romantic about Tuscany. Seriously, just say the word and watch their eyes roll back in their skulls as waves of micro-orgasms penetrate the hidden corners of their mind. It doesn’t matter if you’re describing the place itself or can of chunky soup, there’s just something about the idea of Tuscany that satisfies the imagination like no other place can. We just find it romantic and I think the Italians know that, otherwise how could you explain something like this, a bottle of Chianti Classico with a unicorn on the label? I mean, c’mon, there’s already a castle overlooking the vineyard, at a certain point it’s not even fair; just take our money, please, we’d be honored for you to have it.

Querceto Chianti Classico red wine sangiovese

Querceto Chianti Classico is a blend of 92% Sangiovese with the remaining 8% consisting of Canaiolo, Colorino, and Mammolo e Ciliegiolo, if you’ve never heard of those last three, don’t worry, they’re not grapes you’re likely to find outside of Chianti. The wine spends six months in wood (I assume oak, but that was not specified on their website) and then aged in the bottle for a further two months before being released to consumers. They offer several different Chianti Classico labels, as well as other wines, and even olive oil.

Querceto Chianti Classico red wine sangiovese

Like I said before, there’s a castle overlooking the vineyard, they offer tours of the vineyard, cellar, and castle. There’s also rooms available to rent, should you want to spend your vacation there. Personally, I’ve never been to Tuscany, but if I was going this looks exactly like the kind of place I would want to go to get away from everything. Just look at the photos and you understand why people get that dreamy look in their eye at the mere mention of the region.

Querceto Chianti Classico red wine sangiovese

As for the wine, it was good. I’m not always a fan of Chianti, Classico or otherwise, but I enjoyed this. It was surprisingly tannic for such a light wine, so it paired well with my steak, but may not have performed so well with a lighter pasta dish. It was well-balanced, with good acidity, red fruit and spice flavors. All in all, I would recommend it.

Italian wine is kind of intimidating for me, it’s not something I’ve explored much and it’s a deep rabbit hole to fall into. We sell a few Iabels at work and I’ve delved in a little for the Chopping Block’s blog, I actually wrote a post exploring the differences between Chianti and Chianti Classico at the beginning of last year, but there’s so much more for me to learn about that county. I know that when I finally decide to take it on it’s going to require a lot more focus and energy than other areas, simply because there are so many new grapes and every region has its own unique personality; it’s just overwhelming. That’s really it, I know its going to demand so much of my attention that I’m afraid I’m going to miss out on something else. I’m not usually a fan of New Year’s resolutions, but this might be mine for 2019, to drink and learn more about Italian wine.

Querceto Chianti Classico red wine sangiovese

However, that’s all in the future. For the moment, I think the real takeaway, the moral lesson that needs to be understood here is, that if you find a bottle of wine with a unicorn on it, you should buy it.

Wine Diary
Hand Work Garnacha Tinto Spanish Wine
November 22, 2018

Wine Diary: Hand Work Garnacha 2017

Lincoln Square in Chicago has a surprisingly dense population of wine shops. There’s the Chopping Block, where I work, Gene’s Sausage Shop, Leland Liquors, Cardinal Wine and Spirits, and, my favorite wine shop in the area, Augusta Food and Wine. As much as I may enjoy the wine selection at work, Augusta does a far better job of curating their list and I find new things every time I go in. I would go so far as to say it’s one of the best wine shops in Chicago.

Hand Work Garnacha Tinto Spanish Wine

I was looking for something to review and I’d already hit the other shops in the neighborhood, so I decided to check out Augusta. Despite how much I like the shop, they don’t stock a lot of the counter-culture wines that I’ve come to love. No, Augusta is the place you go to find well made wines from mainstream locations. If you want sustainably produced wines that avoid the use of things like Mega Purple, Augusta is the kind of place you should be shopping.

As I’m building content for the site with these early posts, I wanted something from Spain to fill out the map and I needed a Garnacha Tinta for the Wine Guide. So, this bottle enabled me to cross two things off my to-do list, it didn’t hurt that it was a full 1L of wine at a very reasonable price. In fact, I probably would have been skeptical of this bottle at a different store, what with the flashy front label and all, it seemed too good to be true.

Hand Work Garnacha Tinto Spanish Wine

Hand Work Garnacha comes from Castilla La Mancha, Spain. Despite La Mancha being a Spanish appellation, I find no reference to a Denominación de Origen, anywhere on the label. However, there are three certifications on the back label: Demeter Biodynamic Certified, Vegano by the European Vegetarian Union, and USDA Organic. As well as an icon indicating this wine is a T. Edward (the importer) exclusive. According to the T. Edward, Hand Work is produced by three brothers who seek to, “celebrate their home of La Mancha by raising organically and biodynamically grown grapes.” The Parra Jimenez (the grower) website goes into a lot more detail on their sustainability practices, but, interestingly, I find no reference to this line of wines, I suspect this is due to it being exclusive to T. Edward.

This was one of those wines whose aroma was so fascinating I hesitated to drink it, I just walked around the apartment smelling my glass. I’ve heard people describe wines as meaty in the past, but I usually write that off as one of those terms that people use when they don’t know what else to say. People have used that term to describe such a broad selection of wines that the description has become almost meaningless for me. My understanding is that it’s supposed to serve as both a description of viscosity and flavor/aroma combinations, but I’ve never had a wine that actually tasted like meat… this wine tasted like meat. Specifically, it tasted like fruit with hints of steak marinated in Worscestershire sauce. Great complexity, great flavor. I couldn’t stop drinking it.

Hand Work Garnacha Tinto Spanish Wine

I’ve had great experiences with Garnacha (Grenache) blends from the Southern France, but I haven’t had as much luck in the grape’s native country of Spain. I knew there had to be great Spanish Garnacha wines out there, but I’ve been hesitant to really explore them after some lackluster purchases. This confirms my suspicions and makes me look forward to future purchases.

Wine Diary
Monte Xanic Sauvignon Blanc Mexican wine
November 17, 2018

Wine Diary: Monte Xanic Sauvignon Blanc Viña Kristel 2017

Last week I made a post about my first experience with Mexican wine, a Cabernet Sauvignon/ Merlot blend from Monte Xanic in the Guadalupe Valley. If you haven’t read the post I’ll summarize: it was awesome.

Well, I actually bought another bottle from the same producer that day, a Sauvignon Blanc. As I mentioned, some of the chefs I know were skeptical about the quality of a wine coming out of Mexico and my enthusiasm wasn’t enough to dissuade their concerns. To be fair, I have something of a predilection for counter-culture wines, the bottles you assume must only be on the shelves to soothe the heartache of homesick ex-pats. However, when I mention that they’re also pouring this wine at the French Laundry, those harsh opinions suddenly seem a bit softer.

Monte Xanic Sauvignon Blanc Mexican wine

It’s funny what makes a wine good or bad in our minds. For me, there’s a big difference between disliking a wine and thinking a wine is bad. It’s not unheard of for me to dislike a perfectly well-made wine, but I wouldn’t make the leap in logic to call that a bad wine. For example, I generally don’t like Sauvignon Blanc, it doesn’t mean that grape is incapable of making good wine, it’s just not my thing, which is going seem ironic based on what I’m about to say.

This is one of the best Sauvignon Blanc wines I’ve had in recent memory, maybe ever. Despite what I said earlier I… I think I liked it. I mean, not only was it well made, but I enjoyed it. I would buy another bottle. I would buy another bottle and share with friends. I would buy another bottle and elope with it. The wine was well-balanced, with a symphony of herbal, citrus, and tropical flavors that lingered on the palate like a pleasant memory. More importantly, it wasn’t so overwhelmingly acidic that it left chemical burns down my esophagus, which I appreciate.

Monte Xanic Sauvignon Blanc Mexican wine

I bought this bottle because I wanted to try a wine from Mexico; I wanted to know if the disdain I heard in reference to fine wine coming out of that country was well founded or not. I had my reservations, not about the nation of origin, but about it being a Sauvignon Blanc (that’s why I drank the red wine first). Not only did they produce good wine, they produced wine I enjoyed. I guess my point is, don’t be afraid to try new things and, more importantly, don’t be afraid to try things other people scoff at. If they haven’t tried it, they don’t know what they’re talking about. To quote Hitchens, “That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”

Wine Diary
November 14, 2018

Wine Diary: First Drop Mother’s Milk Barossa Shiraz 2016

One of the first somms I worked with gave me a bit of advice that has proven fundamental to my outlook on wine. She said, “When you’re taking a bottle of wine somewhere, a dinner party or whatever, what wine you bring is far less important than the story of why you’re bringing it.” The more time has passed, the more I agree with that statement and that’s why I start of all these Wine Diary blogs with a story. I mean, the circumstances of why I chose one particular bottle aren’t really that important, it’s not like you as the reader are going to experience those same events, but there’s something about being told the story that seems to make the wine more familiar.

Australian red wine Barossa Valley First Drop Mother's Milk Shiraz Syrah

So, why did I choose First Drop Mother’s Milk Barossa Shiraz? Because I needed a Syrah for the wine guide and I hadn’t reviewed anything from Australia yet. It was a very conscious choice. I went to Binny’s, looked at their wall of Australian Syrah, and picked one. Why did I choose this one? Well, I was between two and when faced with that kind of dilemma I do what everyone else does, I pick the label I like best (don’t act like you don’t do the same thing), but, interestingly, the label I chose is the one that told me a story.

The label utilizes comic book storytelling to tell, in brief, the story of how wine is made. There’s really nothing interesting happening on the label, the story they’re telling is somewhat universal to the wine world, but that also makes it very approachable. Presenting rustic agricultural imagery in an unconventional way, they attempt to convey both an appeal to traditional and modern sensibilities.

Australian red wine Barossa Valley First Drop Mother's Milk Shiraz Syrah

First Drop was founded by two friends who say they want to make, “wines with flavour, texture and a splash of funk.” They’re not growers, but they source their grapes from vineyards around South Australia. The grapes for this particular wine come from the Barossa Valley and are aged in French Oak for 15 months.

The wine was full-bodied with lots of dark fruit, and hints of anise, and tobacco. There was a ton of complexity, yet it remained approachable and easy to drink. A rare find, I was very pleased. It was the kind of wine you finish and wonder why the bottle is suddenly empty and where you can find more.

Australian red wine Barossa Valley First Drop Mother's Milk Shiraz Syrah

There’s a part of me that cringes at being sold on the label. What can I say? I like comics, and that puts me squarely within the demographic they were shooting for. As much as I hate to admit it, it worked. And the same way it worked on me, I know I could take this wine to my comic geek friends and they’d likely be sold on it for the same reasons. The fact I liked the wine is really just an added bonus, it was the story that sold the bottle.

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