And Barnyard. And even, sometimes, Horse Sweat.

Some of the words used to describe wine’s varied characteristics are crazy, to say the least. But as I sit here this evening in my Muse sipping a wonderful Paso Robles Sauvignon Blanc, I understand why that is so.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not a “cat person.” I am most definitely a dog person. My two roomies love me without reservation and without the hidden snoot that’s in every feline. And the fact that I like – even *expect* – the aroma of cat pee in my Sauvignon Blanc in no way indicates that I have a fetish for sniffing cat boxes. Absolutely not. I avoid them whenever possible. Otherwise, I’d probably actually own a cat.

… Continue Reading

This is a repeat of one of my favorite posts from last year.  I was having a bad day and decided to share my opinion about stuff.  Surprise, right?  Enjoy this blast from the (not too distant) past!

For whatever reason, I’m feeling particularly cranky and curmudgeonly (yes, that’s a word) today and feel like sharing my opinion – and I always have one – on different wine stuff. If you have a pet topic that you don’t want to see kicked in the teeth, then read no further. If you’re like me and have a morbidly sick curiosity, continue on.

Corks

Thanks to those who sent great ideas on things to do with corks. Cork, being a natural product with all kinds of potential, has the capacity of being a lot of things! It is the best closure for wine, stelvin notwithstanding. Of course, you can do all kinds of stuff with screwcaps, such as …. uhhh….. Well, anyway, they make great closures for soda pop, Boone’s Farm, Arctic Vines, MD20/20, and wines from New Zealand. Or anything else you’re going to open, pour, and not care about the ambiance. If you don’t care about ambiance, then be my guest. Go unscrew.

As for me, I prefer to use something that is not only classy, but also will actually become a part of the ground again if it’s thrown away. No recycling to keep it out of landfills needed. Stelvin screwcaps aren’t so “pop and pour” so to speak. They require that the plastic liner be removed from the metal cap in order to be reused after recycling. I’m thinking that folks are finding that it’s just easier to toss them into landfills.

Not green at all.

The families in Portugal are working like crazy to make sure that their cork is free of TCA, and the improvements have been astounding. There are companies (more on that on a later post) that guarantee that their 100% cork products will not cause TCA contamination.

So I prefer cork because it’s just, well, *better.* For the environment, for business, and for my romantic evenings.

Unoaked Chardonnay

While there are a few unoaked Chards that are actually quite good, it’s a wine that’s still pretty much in the novelty category for me. Frankly, if I want a nice unoaked white wine, I’ll grab a Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier (one that’s made correctly), Riesling, or any other of a number of truly delicious whites that were never meant to be oaked.

In my opinion, Chardonnay was made for oak. It’s pretty hard to top a well-made Chardonnay that’s been kissed with just enough oak (“just enough” being in the eye of the beholder, of course) to impart that characteristic creaminess and smoothness that’s made Chard the number one white wine in the US for decades.

Question: In Burgundy, are the winemakers even allowed to make white Burgundies without oak? I await your responses.

I will admit that some Napa Chards have exceeded the idea of balance in favor of the overdone (“What was that vintage? 2006 Louisville Slugger? Yum!”) With that being said, I’d rather have an overoaked Chard than one that tastes like lemonade laced with pineapple juice. I want WINE, not a melted popsicle.

Stemless Wine Glasses

I look at stemless wine glasses as a CSI lesson. Want to see fingerprints, epithelials, body oils, and sweat? Then just take a look at a stemless! Made for forensic education, it sucks as a serious wine glass.

A couple of years ago, I met with a group and brought a beautiful Sauvignon Blanc to share. Unfortunately, the only glasses available were stemless. So during the course of the hour (or so), I witnessed the evolution of the lovely, crisp, slightly chilled Sauvignon Blanc to a warmed-up, flabby shadow of itself. The heat of my hand had turned it from a wine that should be drunk chilled to one that was, in a word, uninteresting. I was quite annoyed. Okay. *More* than annoyed. I was pissed.

While these glasses are great for spirits such as Scotch or brandy, they do a great disservice to wine. Of course, if you’re chugging your wine down without tasting it, then I guess it doesn’t matter. Otherwise, why bother risking damaging a good wine? If someone can give me a good reason for using these (a *good* reason, not a *convenient* reason), I’ll post it here. Promise.

Where the Hell’re the 375s?

Okay, this is less of a rant than a request. And maybe somebody can tell me why this is not practical.

I live with my roomie, Cooper (Wineaux Guy lives in California ) which means that when I want wine with my dinner, I’m stuck with either opening up a full-size 750 or having a beer. And, after all, this *is* Vegas Wineaux, not Vegas Beer Garden (oh…wait…) I would love nothing better than to be able to pop the cork on a 375 to have with my meals, especially on those wines that are reasonably priced (cheap) and just don’t last past a day or two, no matter what preservation methods I use. Or how about when he wants a red wine and I want a rosé? Then there’re those evenings when there’s company who will ONLY drink white wine and I’m serving steak. Gimme a Cab.

So is this feasible? Or am I dreamin’?

I feel so much better now! I still have more stuff to rant about, but they will have to wait until I have the rant page back up on the new (improved!) website.

Thanks for listening.

Stay tuned!

For those of you who may be wondering, Cooper’s my Bernese Mountain Dog. He doesn’t care if a wine has a cork or stelvin closure. With no opposable thumbs, he can’t open any of them.  And he doesn’t drink.

All of us enjoy drinking wines that are “highly rated” by the various wine gods and goddesses out there. For most wineries, a Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, Robert Parker, Jancis Robinson, Wine & Food, or other well-known wine rating source is practically a guarantee of a sold-out vintage.

Something you may not know is that wineries submit their wines for ratings. So what? That means that there are many wineries out there that do not submit, and therefore go “unrated” and unrecognized. I’ve learned this over the years from speaking with smaller wineries. They have very limited production that produces just enough for their club members and for limited online sales. Their logic is simple. Why have a wine rated that won’t be easily available for sale? Makes sense to me. When I look at the numbers of cases produced by the wineries – ranging from as little as 25 to as many as 250 – the need for the nod of approval from the big guys is impractical.

Every now and then you may come across a wine that’s really delicious, a good value, or one that you’d like to know more about. No ratings anywhere!! Now what?

How about ratings for the real world? If you haven’t done so yet, you have to go to CellarTracker. It is a website developed by one of the members of the Mark Squires wine forum and has been a great success. It allows members/users to track the contents of their cellars. In addition, it has an area for “community tasting notes”; that is, regular folks like us who have enjoyed the wines that you like and have left their own ratings. People have widely different tastes which accounts for some of the wide ranges of scores, however, many of the wines have incredible consistency from taster to taster and the scores reflect that, as well.

For instance, I looked up the ratings on a Sauvignon Blanc that I’d opened, tasted, and realized that it was pure dreck. It was from a very well-known maker of super high-end reds, but this was more than a shock. I’d paid a bit of a hefty price for the name and was stunned at the poor quality. A quick look on CellarTracker told me that I wasn’t alone. One of the members recommended that this winery stick with its reds. What was interesting is the feeling that people couldn’t believe that *this winemaker* could make something so incredibly mediocre, and the tasters doubted their own palates.

However, it’s not always bad news. I looked up Four Vines Heretic, and saw that the community scores were consistently in the 90’s for this big, beautiful Petit Sirah. So glad that I have several bottles!

The reviews are interesting, and the people are quite frank about their likes and dislikes. They will tell you what foods paired well, other wines at the occasion (if any), and will sometimes even give you the price if they remember. The abilities of the tasters range from relatively novice to winery owners. People’s collections range from less than a dozen to numbering in the thousands. A good mix of wine folks.

Check out CellarTracker and let me know what you think!

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