WINO 101

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

I thank you all for showing up to the Carpe Vinum 1-Year anniversary! That was some good cake, thanks to JaCiva’s, and some wonderful Viognier to go along with it. It’s been a good year, and I feel the next will be even better. . .Starting with this week’s tasting!

This week we’ll be enjoying a tasting with few boundries. Sometimes it’s good to just set out for one simple set of common goals: great wines at great prices, and refreshing as all get-out on these oppressively hot days. So I present to you a plethora of refreshing summery slurpers. (Slurping itself is quite optional, not being the most becoming of beverage drinking styles.)

In traditional Carpe Vinum style, I thought it would be best to do this in the world-traveler kind of way. I chose one wonderfully refreshing white wine from 7 different regions around the world. We could consider them the seven corners of the Earth, were the Earth a heptagon. Being not heptagonal, and actually spherical in shape, the “Corners of the Earth” thing doesn’t merit much, the Earth not harboring corners at all for wines to be from.

Sigh. I think the heat has melted my brain. I think it’s time to drink some of these:

So Friday, July 31st, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Seven Summery Slurpers!
Domaine de Pouy 2003 Cotes du Gasconne Vin de Pays, France
Berganorio 2003 Tenuta La Vellette Orvieto, Italy
Montes 2003 Reserve Fume Blanc, Curico Valley, Chile
Sileni Estate 2002 Semillon, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand
Santiago Ruiz 2002 Blanco, Rias Baixas, Spain

The Extra-Special Premium Pours:
Raats 2002 Chenin Blanc, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Sauvignon Republic Cellars 2003 Sauvignon Blanc, Russian River, California

A good deal at $10 for the first 5, and $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours.
Super-Special Sweet Pour is $5.
Hope to see you here!
Seize the Wine!

Next week is German and Austrian Reds and Whites!
M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

This week it’s a special celebration! It’s the Carpe Vinum One-Year Anniversary! That’s right! We’ve been here for a year serving some of the finest wines we can possibly afford! I suppose it’s more of a birthday, of sorts, and we’re one year old! So how are we going to celebrate? We’ll do it in the same way that most of us celebrated on our respective first birthdays: By discovering the squishyness and aerodynamics of birthday cake: Squashing it up, throwing it around, and mashing it into our hair!

Okay, not exactly. . .but we are serving up some great Viognier from around the world, one of the hottest (not literally) white wine varietals around! In considering the 100-degree temperatures around town, a chilly white wine sounds great about now.

Now back to cake. Ever since I was one year old, and first experienced that cake-to-hair phenomenon, cake has been my favorite dessert. It’s possibly one of the best motivations to go to birthdays and weddings. In fact, this one year anniversary/birthday might be the excuse I need to have some cake, so I’ll do my darndest to find some cake and have it available. Fortunately for me, chocolate cake is the best. Unfortunately for Viognier, chocolate cake is not the best accompaniment. Therefore, I’ll have to get something more in the ho-hum white cake category. But, hey. . it’s still cake!

And as another extra-special bonus, I found a certainly perplexing wine for the Super-Special Sweet Pour this week. It’s Trentadue Viognier Port! The following question resounds with authority. “They can make Port from Viognier?” And the following resounding noncommittal response: “Guess so. . .”

So while enjoying your Viognier and cake tomorrow, just remember. . .it’s cute when you’re a one-year-old, but expect scornful glances if you decide to wear your cake.

So Friday, July 22nd, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Carpe Vinum Turns One!
Domaine Astruc 2003 Viognier, Languedoc, France
Fond Crozes 2002 Viognier, Cotes du Rhone, France
Rosenblum 2002 Viognier Kathy’s Cuvee, Lodi, California
Valley View 2003 Anna Maria Viognier, Rogue Valley, Oregon
Terra Blanca 2003 Viognier, Yakima Valley, Washington

The Extra-Special Premium Pours:
Whitman 2003 Viognier, Walla Walla, Washington
Stag’s Leaqp 2001 Viognier, Napa Valley, California

The Super-Special Sweet Pour:
Trentadue 2000 Viognier Port, Dry Creek Valley, California

Next week is Cool Refreshing Summer Slurpers!
M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

This week I have a small correction to make. . .at the end of last week’s email I stated that this week it would also be Zin. That was my mistake, as I forgot to update that part of the emailer. It would be pretty cool to do Zinfandel tasting after Zinfandel tasting. Perhaps I’ll start up a Nothing-But-Zin wine bar and call it. . .hm. . .Zintastic, or TarZin: Lord of the Jungle, or Zin-Ippity-Doo-Dah. But not at the moment. We’re wine explorers, and this week we’re sampling the white wines from the Legendary French Bordeaux.

Bordeaux, among other French wine regions, has set the standard for many wine styles, hence the designation on wine labels worldwide: “Bordeaux-Style”. For reds, this means blends of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Malbec, and sometimes $1000 price tags (for the Premiere growths. . .And yes, that’s three Zeroes, not a sticky keyboard.) For whites it’s Sauvignon Blanc, Semillion, Muscadelle, and on and on. . . Mostly those three grapes, though, and far more affordable. They make clean, crisp Summer slurpers, and go great with brie and swiss cheese, and wonderfully cool down the heat.

The most prestigous of the white Bordeaux is the Sauternes, made with Botrytized grapes. Botrytized is a fancy term for “rotten”. The name is actually taken from the mold Botrytis (Noble Rot, the common, poetic term) that grows on those grapes that concentrates the juice into one of the most amazing-flavored sweet wines in the world. Had you ever seen a cluster of Botrized grapes, the question that pops into mind is how rotten grapes ever got made into wine at all. Historically speaking, and this is just my opinion, it was probably accident, despiration, or done on a dare. “Ha ha, Jean-Claude! Your grapes have all rotten! What are you going to do now? Make wine with that? Again, ha ha!”

So as an extra-special bonus, I’ll be pouring not a Sauternes (Which average in price between $50 to “Yikes!”), but I will be pouring a wine from Loupiac, the district just across the street. It’s pretty much the same stuff, it’s just a different name and a slightly different locale. Geographically-speaking, if Loupiac were Southeast Portland, here where the shop is, Sauternes would be Downtown Portland. . . The rent is more expensive, but we breathe the same air.

Extra-Special this week:
ART OPENING! We have new artwork gracing the walls thanks to local photographer Larry Iversen and his show entitled “In Sequential.” Come check out the new surroundings and enjoy some wonderful White Bordeaux!

So Friday, July 16th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

White Bordeaux!
Chateau Tertre de Launay 2002 Entre-Deux-Mers
Michel Lynch 2002 Bordeaux Blanc
Chateau Thieuley 2002 Bordeaux Blanc
Chateau Ducasse 2002 Bordeaux Blanc
Chateau de Juge 2002 Cadillac

The Extra-Special Premium Pours:
Chateau le Thil 2000 Pessac-Leognan
Chateau Haut Bertinerie 2001 Cotes de Blaye Blanc

The Super-Spiffy Satellite Sweet Pour:
Chateau Loupiac-Gaudiet 1997 Loupiac

Next week is The Carpe Vinum One Year Anniversary with Viognier!
M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

I hope the week following an explosive holiday finds all of you in the health and correct number of fingers you started it with. So now we find ourselves on the lee side of the year’s middle holiday at the peak of the summer barbequeue season. To justify my own existence as wine guy, I am pressing the issue of the best barbequeue wine I know of: Zinfandel! I don’t think I need to justify the existence of Zinfandel, itself. . .it’s great any time, and goes well with just about everything. . .Zinfandel even goes well with Zinfandel.

I always thought I was pretty good at barbequeuing things, but recently I’ve begun to suspect that I am definately not. Apparently it all depends on timing. The meat always seems to take longer than I believe it should, and so it tends to make several trips back and forth from the table back to the grill, until the final checking of doneness it by using a flashlight. The flip side of the coin is to always grill it longer than you think you should. Once it’s blackened and crusty on both sides, and rock-solid in the middle, then it’s a great time to order a pizza. Because if at first you don’t succeed, pizza goes with Zinfandel just as well as, or even better than barbequeued crispy critter.

So Friday, July 9th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Zinfandel!
D.J. Maragas 2001 Legal Zin, Oregon/California
Roshambo 2001 Zinfandel, Alexander Valley, California
Lolonis 2001 Zinfandel, Redwood Valley, California
Cascade Cliffs 2002 Zinfandel, Columbia Valley, Washington
Shooting Star 2001 Zinfandel, Lake County, California

The Extra-Special Premium Pours:
Rocking Horse 2000 Zinfandel, Napa Valley, California
Seghesio 2002 Cortina Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley, California

Next week is Zinfandel!
M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

We are on the eve of one of America’s most important holidays. The fourth of July, of course, and the celebration of the independance of the U.S. from England a glorious couple-of-hundred years ago, or so. We may have current dependance on other things, but it still gives us the opportunity to celebrate in the way we do best: By blowing stuff up.

Speaking of blowing stuff up, Independance day reminds me of a few great things, the movie Independance Day not being one of those great things. (Ugh, I say. Bill Pullman as the President? I still say he couldn’t act his way out of a full-scale alien invasion, but can deliver a pre-written line better than some presidents.) Sure, there was a lot of stuff blown up in that movie, in a truly American fashion, but really this holiday reminds me of my first favorite song: Starland Vocal Band’s “Afternoon Delight” . . . .What?!  I was 4!

See, the thing about it was that there were skyrockets in flight. As a kid, I liked that, although the song would be insufferable to me now. I seem to remember the sounds of rockets in the song, however in hindsight, it might have just been a slide guitar. I don’t remember much of the lyrics, but it kinda makes me chuckle now that I know what the song is REALLY about. And that’s. . um, heh. . .flights of skyrockets! No. . .flights of, uh, All-American White Wines from the Northwest, a delight in the afternoon!

It’s a great opportunity to try some wonderful white wines to take home and enjoy with whatever fireworks display you’ve got going on this weekend! They’re explosively good! Also, remember: You need a bottle for bottle-rockets!

So Friday, July 2nd, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Explosively Good White Wines from the Great All-American Northwest!
Foris 2002 Pinot Blanc, Rogue Valley, Oregon
Elk Cove NV La Sirene Viognier, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Evesham Wood 2002 Gewurztraminer, Willamette Valley, Oregon
La Bete 2002 Aligote, Willamette Valley, Oregon
Griffin Creek 2001 Pinot Gris, Rogue Valley, Oregon

The Extra-Special Premium Pours:
Tualitin Estate 2003 Semi-Sparkling Muscat, Willamette Valley, Oregon
L’Ecole No. 41 2002 Semillion, Walla Walla Valley, Washington

A good deal at $10 for the first 5, and $6 for the Extra 2 Premium Pours.
Hope to see you here!
Seize the Wine!

Next week is Zinfandel!
M