WINO 101

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome to the First Annual Carpe Vinum April Fool’s Day Blind Tasting! How can it be an annual event if it’s the first one, you may ask? I guess you have a good point there, but this seems like so much fun, I’ll undoubtedly do this again next year!

“So what’s the deal with the April Fool’s Day thing?” you may ask.

Well, April Fool’s Day has a long and colorful History. However, I didn’t find any of the explanations of how the day came about interesting enough to put here, and no one can seem to agree on which one is the correct one. So I guess I’ll make one up. . .

In Ancient times, somewhere between the Dawn of Civilization and Breakfast, the Ancient Villagers would come to a consensus about which one was the most foolish, and that person was dubbed “King Fool For a Day.” This person was carried atop a chariot to the Ancient Town Square where the Ancient Festivities took place. And there they drank wine. Oh, the wine they drank! Wine which they drank until they all were acting as foolish as the King Fool. The following day, the Ancient Villagers would awake and ask, “Ugh. . what day is it?” to which other Ancient Villagers might answer, “Why, it’s April 2nd, you silly, foolish person!”

Hm. . .okay. . .so that’s a pretty awful story. But this April Fool’s Day I’ll be serving you all a Blind Tasting! The concept behind it is to taste the wine without the preconceived notions of knowing what it is you’re drinking, what the label looks like, reputation of the winemaker or region it’s from, and so on, all to get an unbiased idea about the wine. Blind tastings are usually are quite surprising in the finding of wines you might not have normally considered. To level the ground, I’ve chosen 7 wines all at the same price: $14.95.

To make things a bit of extra fun, I’ll be having a bit of a contest, as well, to see how much all of you have learned in our wine studies, here. For each wine, I’ll have a multiple choice quiz to see if you can guess the varietal, blend, region and so on. The wine-guessing difficulties will be ranging from “Pretty Easy to Guess” to “I’ll Be Really Impressed If You Get This One.” Also, I’ll award prizes to the highest scores, announcing the following day after I’ve had a chance to go through them. I’ll have extra credit questions, as well to level the playing field too.

**First Prize is:
A Vacu-Vin Wine Vacuum Pump and a 1-Year Subscription to the Wine Spectator (Last Year’s)!

**Second Prize:
A Waiter’s Corkscrew (The nice shiny metal one) and a 6-Month Subscription to the Wine Spectator (From the Last 6 Months)!

**Third Prize:
A Capitano Corkscrew and a 6-Month Subscription to the Wine Spectator (From 6 Months ago)!

At any rate, it’s going to be a lot of fun! I’ll have the wines available for purchase, sealed in the paper bags, to protect the identities, so we don’t spoil the fun for the rest of the crowd! I’ll reveal the identities of all of the wines on the following day via an email, just like this one!

Hope to see you tomorrow! (Get it? “See?” Heh. . blind tasting? I know. . .foolish joke. . .)

So Friday, April 1st, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

An April Foolish Blind Tasting!
Wine #1 What Could it Be?
Wine #2 What Could it Be?
Wine #3 What Could it Be?
Wine #4 What Could it Be?
Wine #5 What Could it Be?
Wine #6 What Could it Be?
Wine #7 What Could it Be?

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

Next Friday tasting is Petite Syrah!

M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Welcome, once again, to another edition of the Carpe-Vinum-Day-Before-The-Tasting newsletter! And it’s an exciting week! Why? Because it’s Spanish Wines again!

You might say, “You sure do seem to seem to serve up the Spanish wines pretty often. .”

And I might say, “Yep!”

The reasoning behind it is because there is so much good stuff going on in Spain that I have to do a tasting every third month just to keep up. And that isn’t a bad thing. Spanish wines are like the Spanish Soap Operas I come across on the International channels while surfing the cable. You may not understand everything that’s going on, but it’s something passionate that involves some full-bodied characters.

This is not to be confused with that other show I always seem to come across. . .what is it? Sabbado Gigante? Big Sunday? It’s that weird variety show that lasts 4 or more hours. Spanish wines are most certainly not like that. Unless you’re speaking of Wrongo Dongo, which sounds like a variety show kind of wine. In actuality, if you haven’t tried it, it’s a wonderful Sub-$10 red, with a cool label, from Spanish producer Juan Gil.

And speaking of Juan Gil, since I liked his Wrongo Dongo so much, I decided to try out his higher-profile wine appropriately named “Juan Gil.” It’s a wine made from 100% Monastrell, which is the Spanish name for the grape the French call Mourvedre, and some random people (mostly Australians and Californians) call Mataro. The wine preceding that in the tasting is from the Descendientes de J. Palacios, which is the Spanish name for, well. . .basically “Palacious’ Kids” which sounds more like a Spanish sitcom. Yes, it’s the descendents of reputable Spanish producer J. Palacios and their tasty offering from Bierzo.

Skipping over any further TV references, the rest of the wines are all wonderful in their own splendor. I’ve included a sampling from all around Spain, with a special stop in Rioja to try an old (1996) Gran Reserva from Bodegas Montecillo. As an extra special bonus, it’s the triumphant return of what is now called The Extra-Special Super-Groovy Dessert Pour! This time it’s a sweet red from Jumilla made from Monastrell. It’s been described to me as “boysenberry pie in a bottle”!

So Friday, March 25th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Spain!
Dominio de Eguren 2002 Codice, Vino de la Tierra de Castilla
Vinas del Montsant 2001 Fra Guerau, Montsant
Bodegas Borsao 2003 Tres Picos Grenache, Campo de Borja
Descendientes de J. Palacios 2003 Petales del Bierzo, Bierzo
Juan Gil 2002 Monastrell, Jumilla

Bonus Premium 2!
Rejadorada 2002 Tinto Roble, Toro
Bodegas Montecillo 1996 Gran Reserva, Rioja

The Extra-Special Super-Groovy Dessert Pour!
Olivares 2000 Monastrell Dolce, Jumilla

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

Next Friday tasting is Extra Special April Fool’s Day Blind Tasting!

M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

The time is upon us once again! Springtime, and with it, the lovely allergy season. At least for me. I swore last year, while feeling so awful from all the tree pollens, that I would spend the month of March in Australia or New Zealand. . .anything in another hemisphere. For obvious reasons, that didn’t happen, however I figured I could pour the wines from those places, and get some kind of relief by pretending I’m actually there. So this week it’s the wonderful wines of both Australia and New Zealand! (And this week’s email is a bit short due to spaciness of allergy medicine and lack of sleep.)

Also, today is St. Patrick’s Day, the celebration of Irish heritage, and something about snakes, saints, and Guinness Stout, or something like that. In a celebratory manner, I have in the lineup, a white wine that could be most easily dyed green, to celebrate the occasion. The rest are a wonderful selection of reds from around the 3 islands down there. And the folks known affectionately as Aussies and Kiwis.

So Friday, March 18th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Aussie and Kiwi!
Omaka Springs 2004 Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand
Kiwi Red 2003 Pinot Noir, New Zealand
Mitchell 2000 The Growers Grenache, Claire Valley, Australia
Oxford Landing 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon/Shiraz, South Australia
Angus the Bull 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon, Victoria/South Australia

Bonus Premium 2!
Okahu 2000 Ninety Mile, North Island, New Zealand
Vavasour 2001 Pinot Noir, Marlborough, New Zealand

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

Next Friday tasting is Spain!

M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

This week for Carpe Vinum’s Friday Flights, we’re visiting Portugal, a country that was a maritime great in previous centuries, now better known as “That country next to Spain.” It’s also known for its wine! The most obvious of the Portuguese wines, the one with the biggest profile is, of course, Port. Also known as Porto, named for the city of Porto . . .not just the word “Port” with an “O” at the end. It is also sometimes seen with an “O” at the beginning, making it Oporto. But most of us agree that a silent “O” at the beginnings of words is just silly. (Just ask the Opossum.) So we’ll just call it Porto.

I’m not here to talk about Porto today, though. I’m here to talk about the regular wines coming out of Portugal, and I’ve lined up 5 tasty selections from “That country next to Spain.” These wines, although not as highly publicized as Porto, are wonderful in their own right. And considering that these wines are constantly living in the shadow of the Porto empire, the prices remain reasonable, as well.

Now for the even-more-interesting part. For the 2 Premium pours, I’ve selected 2 tasty Madeiras from Cossart Gordon.

“What is Madeira?” You may ask.

“I’m glad you asked,” I may respond.

Madeira is a Portuguese Island 680 Miles Southwest of Portugal. It is actually closer to Casablanca in Morocco. (300 Miles West.) The wines of Madeira are what I would call the most abused wines in the world. To explain, we go back in History to Madeira being a great seaport, and shipping their wines to faraway places in the United States, Australia and the Far East. Without realizing it, they were actually cooking the wines in the cargo holds of the ships as they passed through the tropics. The resulting style was very popular overseas. (George Washington drank a pint of it nightly, and it was the celebratory drink at the signing of the Declaration of Independence). They only discovered the happy accident of cooking the wine after they had an unsold shipment come back to the island.

Considering that wines are no longer shipped by frigate anymore, the Portuguese have developed a style that replicates that long voyage in the heat. The wine is slightly fermented and then fortified, in the same manner as Port. The wine is then transferred to the Estufa, a wine oven (that’s right – oven), where it is heated to 120 degrees for up to several months. The wines are then transferred to casks and aged for 3 to 15 years (And with a small amount of air in the casks, the wines are oxidized at the same time). The better of the wines are transferred to the roof of the winery where it is exposed to the heat of the sun, rather than be subjected to the oven, for 20 to 100 or so years. That’s quite a bit of abuse for a wine to handle, but the flavors are quite unique and captivating.

So Friday, March 11th, between 4:30 and 9:00 PM it’s:

Portugal: Not Just That Country Next To Spain!
Casa Santos Lima 2003 Quinta de Bons Ventos, Estremadura
Cortello 2003 Vinho Tinto, Estremadura
Sa da Baixo 2001 Vinho Tinto, Douro
Cortes de Cima 2001 Chamine, Alentejo
Quinta do Carvalhosa 2001 Ardosino Tinto, Alta Douro

Madeira: The Island Off the Coast of That Country Next To Spain!
Cossart Gordon 5 Year Bual Madeira
Cossart Gordon 5 Year Malmsey Madeira

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

Next Friday tasting is Australia and New Zealand!

M

Hello Friends and Wine Lovers!

Languedoc! Provence! Rousillon! These are the words that evoke strong feelings of any wine drinker! And rightly so. . .Because there are tons of tasty values down there, besides being a great place to vacation. Not that I would know, but considering the whole country of France goes there during the summer must make it a great place to spend the summer. In fact, the only thing that keeps the South of France from dipping into the ocean from the weight of all the French tourists heading South, is the counterbalance of other tourists from around the world landing in Paris. At least that’s what I’ve assumed. Don’t take my word for it, I’m not a scientist. But it seems to make sense, right?

Yes, this week we’ll be tasting these wonderful reds from the South of France. What makes these wines so tasty? My first guess would be: The Grapes. Of course, that kinda goes without saying, since the grapes are the primary ingredient of wine. I guess then it’s the variety of grape, and how and where it’s grown. The French call it “Terroir” regarding all aspects of the grape growing: Land, soil, aspect, elevation, and so on. In English we call it. . .well. . “Terroir.” We haven’t thought of a better word for it yet. In short, though, these are burly reds grown in the warmer climate, in regions just south of the Rhone. And there are certainly some similarities with their cousins from the North, but with more variety, which always makes it fun.

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

Southern French Reds!
Domaine de Sainte-Eugenie 2002 Corbieres, Languedoc
Chateau de Mattes-Sabran 2003 Corbieres, Languedoc
Chateau Routas 2001 Vin de Pays du Var “Cyrano” Syrah, Provence
Domaine de la Janasse 2001 Vin de Pays de la Principaute d’Orange, Provence
Chateau de Lascaux 2001 Coteaux du Languedoc “Les Nobles Pierres”, Languedoc

Even More Southern French Reds!
Mas Champart 2002 Saint Chinian “Cuvee des Bousquet”, Languedoc
Domaines Bunan 2000 Bandol Mas le la Rouviere, Provence

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

Next Friday tasting is Portugal!

M