its gone euro

All the wine I have been really really loving lately, has been international. It just reminds me of the 'old country'. Its dirty, dusty, rustic, and funky. Its wine that doesn't have a heartbeat anymore, but the memory of its life is so defined and beautiful. I just love euro-juice.

more exploration than ever before; drinking in wine country

Since moving to the wine mecca, the land o' grapes, the heart of harvest...Napa Valley has allowed me to embark on so many bottles of wine. More accurately, I have made friends that are insanely generous people that have shared their prized bottles with me.

Recently, my lips have been in contact with unique wines from around the world all showing a different swag; exploding oaky California reds like Del Dotto cabernet, spicy Napa blends like my very own Keever Inspirado, seductive and smooth coastal pinot noir like Sequana from Santa Lucia, crisp yet creamy Don Pascual viogner from Uraguay, fizzing & delicate bubbles of vintage Cristal from France, and of course delicious soil-driven & rustic Italian reds.

But, the most delicious, mind-blowing juice that my mouth can not get enough of...Ben Rye dessert wine. This is the first Italian dessert wine I have tried of this style and it seriously blew my mind.

Wine Enthusiast Review
Rated 94
Ben Rye is a glowing example of Sicilian pride, and you can understand why. Beautifully integrated with deep aromas of orange zest, honey, chestnut, molasses and dried apricot, the wine is a true incarnation of lavish decadence. The mouthfeel delivers impressive intensity and concentration of flavors.

Wine Tasting Notes
100% Zibibbo (Moscato d Alessandria) The wine displays its extraordinary personality and depth initially with its bright amber yellow color. After the first, intense notes of apricot and peaches, the bouquet offers sweet sensation of dried figs, honey, herbs and mineral notes. The wine is impressive on the palate with its outstanding complexity due to a fusing of sweetness, sapidity and softness. A prolonged finish.

Find this, drink this, become obsessed and love life even more. This wine will put your mind in a sensual, loving, blissful state. You may start hugging random strangers.

Living, Breathing, Transforming

One of the most beautiful things about wine is that has a mysterious persona. You can never completely rely on your preconceptions of how a wine will taste or smell, why? Because every single day, wine is evolving...

Over time, tannins soften (or give up!), bright fruit turns ready and ripe, and the mouthfeel goes from fleshy to satiny silk because...wine is alive! Well, maybe not considered a 'living organism', but wine certainly changes with time, and we always hope for the better in those wines made for this patient intention.

The most recent notable wine I have enjoyed is the 2007 Jules Melange. This wine is a unique menage-et-trois marriage of Cab Franc, Merlot, and Syrah; a beautiful combination of structure, finesse, and power.

My wine-drinking crew and I loved chewing on this spicy yet chocolatey wine, that showed us a ripe raspberry core, sprinkled with flinty vanilla powder. The finish suggested, "Hey, I'm in my mid-twenties, looking pretty damn good, feeling alive and powerful, but give me a few years to settle in to myself, and I'll show you what I got..."

And so, I suggest grabbing a few of these bottles, lay them down to rest and mature, and a beautiful butterfly made of fleshy leather and lace could emerge...

As we age gracefully, so does fine wine. Let yourself, and your bottles, live, breathe and transform as they were meant to.

Bring "The Table" to your dinner table.

Last night at Ella, my friends and I had a major dilemma: to pay or not to pay a corkage fee?

Totally standard and expected, a corkage fee is more like an 'apology' fee for bringing in your own wine to a respectable establishment. There are ways to get out of this apology. The tactic: buy one of their bottles and they will forgive you! So naturally, the next question: "what is the least expensive, good wine on their list?"

At Ella, they make it easy for you; a page in the back of the wine list with bottles under $50. PERFECT! Our intuitive server pointed out this sneaky page and recommended we go with "The Table" Cabernet, produced by Once Wines, and then proceeded to give us a little background on this winemaking endeavor.

Some sommeliers got together, had a blending contest, and created a magnificent red wine from Napa Valley fruit, but aimed at a style that melds with the flavors and delicate nuances of food.

This wine is only available in restaurants, and the exclusivity is impressive (Daniel, Thomas Keller), with Ella making the cut.

This Cabernet based wine was exactly what we were looking for. Earth-driven, a little dusty, firm tannins and amazing structure. The fruit factor was a little lacking, but with our NY steak, it couldn't have paired better.

If you find yourself perplexed with bottle choices, your spoiled palate craving something regal, and your wallet a little light, definitely try "The Table" Cabernet. These sommeliers know whats up.

A delicious surprise-Carignan

Every once and awhile, you come across a wine you know NOTHING about. You look at the label in a total dumbfounded stupor. What in the world is Carignan? Its hardly ever found in restaurants, and similarly buried in wine shops. So why is this winemaker taking the time to produce such an under-the-radar wine? I think its a combination of

1. A Challenge 2. An urge for Creativity 3. Faith in the unknown. If you can find these traits in a winemaker, you're bound to find a hidden gem.

Today I met Alex MacGregor, the winemaker of Saracina & Atrea wines. He poured a lineup of 3 of his current releases: A sauvignon blanc, zinfandel, and petit sirah. All three were outstanding but nothing too edgy, with the zin being the most balanced and best of show on this particular day. But THEN, he brought out a bottle of his secret stash; a side project not affiliated with the winery called "TRINAFOUR" (with a sweet plaid label). This wine is comprised of 100% organically grown Carignan [CARE-IN-YAWN] a native Spanish grape.

This wine was such a great surprise. Having little knowledge about it, I didn't know what to expect. This wine is considered a 'blending grape', used in conjunction with more noble grapes to support a blend. What you get in a well made 100% carignan like this one is a medium bodied wine with ripe red fruit, lavender and thyme notes integrated with a juicy raspberry and Bing cherry core. Kaitlin and I looked at each other with an "OH! This is fabulous!"..."We could totally drink this with dinner!" It was surprisingly unique and quite delicious all alone without cabernet or syrah to sweep in and steal its thunder.

I love this project and the experimentation by the winemaker. It is so refreshing to try something totally new for a change...

Cheers to delicious surprises and our new friend, Carignan.

Beautiful Blends: Screenplay

I used to work at a wine shop out in Roseville called Capitol Cellars. Hands down, the coolest wine shop I have ever been to, for many reasons.

Upon entering, wine shops can have the faint smell of an old cellar. That woody, earthy, almost-moldy smell that makes you want to be a bat and live in a dark cave forever. When I walked into Capitol Cellars yesterday, that smell was there, and it was intoxicating.

This particular shop is very aesthetically pleasing, with hand made wooden wine racks lining the walls of the rectangular space, and movable racks configured in the center. The inventory of wine overwhelms me; not necessarily because of the diversity, but merely because of how many elite, special wines are all in one place. Its like the best of Napa Valley had a party and all of the top winemakers left there prized possessions all in one room. The intricate artistic labels, the thick glass bottles, and large numbers on the price tags indicate rarity and pride. It also makes my blood run hot because I want to try them ALL.

I was given a taste of a newer label called Screenplay, by the renown winemaking Moffett family. After one whiff, I put it into 'my style of wine' category. A full, lush nose that seeps up into your nostrils and lingers there that carries ground cinnamon, dark chocolate, eucalyptus, violets, and cherry-vanilla ice cream notes. WOWWEE! I was in heaven. I was so overwhelmed with the nose, the gorgeous mouth-feel and taste was secondary, but I was already sold. "I'll take one please!!!!" This wine was bottled only a couple months ago and is drinking beautifully, so a little patience would pay off to lay it down (but who has patience with good wine!!???)

As it turns out, this multi-faceted wine is a blend of 'the usual suspects' (as Moffett puts it); cab, cab franc, merlot, malbec...but then throws in some syrah and viogner for added complexity and softness. I am extremely impressed with the way the family of grapes are integrated to create a piece of art for the palate to ponder and analyze.

At $33 a bottle, this wine is definitely worth a try. Enjoy and cheers to beautiful blends!

Knowing your Nose

Smelling a glass of wine is the first exciting sensory evaluation for me.



Why yes, analyzing the label, feeling the chilled, thick glass of the bottle, carving the foil, and slowly tugging the cork can be enthralling...



...but it is not until the juice is free poured from the bottle into the
stemware and swirled and SMELLED that I really begin to awaken.



Much controversy is caused around the topic of 'to submerge, or to not submerge your sniffer deep into the glass. Some say it picks up too much of the alcohols, which can happen with a younger wine; BUT if you have strong wrists, give your glass a good hearty swirl and some of that alcohol burn will dissipate into the air for a few seconds, giving you the perfect moment to inhale. I have found that you may miss a lot of unique and complex characteristics if you do not fully engage your nostrils into the glass.



I inhale deeply, slowly, and with my eyes closed (super dramatic, yes, but it lets me really focus on what the grapes are communicating and avoids distractions of the bottle or amazing company around).



Sometimes right before I smell, I will open up my mental bank of descriptors and prepare myself to pick up nuances. For example, if I am trying a Cabernet, I will recall some primary descriptors, merely as a starting point, but not limiting myself to those:



"OK....

this could potentially carry dark chocolate, crushed blackberry, anise seed, toasted sweet oak, vanilla bean, cigar smoke, wet stone, blueberry compote... "



(Read a wine book or look at an aroma wheel to start the process of identifying these notes! It will be super helpful every time you drink wine and makes it so much more fun!)



According to one article I found on smelling wine properly:



"...smells are not registered in the nose, but at olfactory receptors located behind the nose and between the eyes and brain. This is one reason why it’s important to “aggressively” sniff wines—you need to make sure the odor gets back to the receptors."

So---my main point of this post is to tell you to not be afraid to smell the hell out of your wine. Don't overlook the amazing aromas you can pick up from an over-dramatic, full inhale. Take a couple minutes to smell your wine and you will gradually find that more and more beautiful aromas will come out of hiding.

Only after you use that nose of yours, will you begin to know your grape...