Q. Thanks for your great articles about Washington state wine growing regions. I am seeking a list of the 500 or so wineries for educational purposes and hoping you could tell me if there is a Web site or resource available? A. The Washington Wine Commission Web site (www.washingtonwine.org) is a good, quick resource for listings of wineries, itineraries for winery touring, upcoming wine tasting events and detailed information about Washington appellations. The commission also puts out an advertiser-sponsored brochure listing member wineries and providing tasting room hours, addresses, phone numbers and Web sites, along with more general background information.
The brochure is being updated and the newest edition should be out in the next few days. It may be found in many winery tasting rooms or picked up at the commission’s Seattle offices, 1000 Second Ave. Suite 1700, or obtained by calling 206-667-9463. They will also mail one to you if you send a request to info@washingtonwine.org. Best of all, the brochure is free.
One of the enduring reference points for gauging a wine’s quality and value is its estimated ageability. Estimated is the operative word here.
The leading wine-scoring newsletters and magazines frequently issue declarations such as, “Forget it for 5 to 6 years, then drink over the following 2 to 3 decades.”
Does anybody pay attention to such soothsaying? I hope not. The truth is that measuring the ageworthiness of a wine can only happen in retrospect, not future-spect. When you taste a 10- or 20- or 30-year-old cabernet, you have the evidence right in front of you. How does the wine look (cloudy or clear; brown or mahogany)? What do you smell and taste, and do those flavors seem well-integrated? Does the wine offer more complexity than it did in its youth, or less?
Uttering pronouncements such as, “It should drink nicely for 15 or so years” makes the author sound knowledgeable and important, and has no downside risk. Who is going to hold that writer accountable in, say, 15 years?
I am frequently asked by readers to offer such aging estimates, and to venture advice on when to drink a particular wine. The answer, of course, is, “How about right now?” Sooner rather than later. Better a year early than a day late.
The fetish for assigning exceptional value to aging wines harks back to the days of the British Empire, when rotund, cigar-smoking gentlemen purchased hard-as-nails Bordeaux wines by the cask, had them bottled and maintained cellars for decades, often with the intent of passing them down to their heirs.
Today’s wines are made, with rare exceptions, quite differently. Red wines especially are far riper, sweeter and generally oakier than ever. They have been put through a malolactic (secondary) fermentation (to soften the acids). A variety of other palate-softening, flavor-enhancing, fruit-forwarding tricks is often applied.
Does this mean you should never cellar a wine, or that modern wines cannot evolve? Of course not. Many of the classic European reds can still age well, and some New World wines, when properly balanced to begin with, can also improve over some years. If you are purchasing a certain wine with the intention to see how it ages, I suggest you buy at least four, preferably six, bottles.
Drink the first one immediately, and make good mental notes on its condition. Estimate, according to your own taste and knowledge, how long you want to wait to drink the last — not the next — bottle. Say you’ve bought six bottles and you want to drink them over the next decade. You’ve got five left. So drink the second bottle in two years, and keep reworking the equation until you’ve reached the last bottle. Odds are, it will still be delicious.
Can we still ascribe special value to ageworthy wines? Yes, in that a wine must have structure and balance in order to last over the years. If it actually improves, it marks itself as one of the rare wines of the world, because only the tiniest percentage of what is produced will actually improve over decades.
In recent tastings I was able to revisit 15 vintages of Hedges Red Mountain Reserve (back to 1987) and an equal number of Soos Creek Cabernets (back to 1989). My impressions were remarkably similar. Several of these wines were made primarily from Ciel du Cheval grapes, which provided an interesting basis for comparison. All (except for one or two corked bottles) were still in good drinking condition.
Among the Hedges, I especially liked the 1993, 1997 and 1999 Red Mountain Reserves. The standouts among the Soos Creek Cabernets, interestingly enough, were the 1997 Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, the 1999 Columbia Valley Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2001 Artist Series No. 1.
It’s not really surprising that the ’97 and ’99 vintage wines showed extremely well in both instances; both are great vintages now reaching their peak. Some comparative notes:
Hedges 1997 Red Mountain Reserve. Lovely nose, baking spices, currant, a little bit of leather, wonderfully complex and varied. Flavors are at the perfect balance, prune and smoke, tar and brown sugar, complex and fascinating.
Soos Creek 1997 Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Tight focus, dense and compact flavors still, mixing red fruits, dried herb and sweet baking spice. Lots of depth and detail. First-rate winemaking.
Hedges 1999 Red Mountain Reserve. Scents of plum, berry and currant. It’s still a big, tight and tannic wine with long-term aging potential.
Soos Creek 1999 Columbia Valley Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. Dark and dense, with nuances of iron filings, smoke, black currant and other black fruits. A deep and nicely structured wine with much life still ahead.
Conclusions? For Washington cabernet-based wines that have the polish and structure to age, a decade is optimal if you want to retain some of the youthful fruit. However, these wines can chug along just fine for another decade at least.
Q. What do sparging and ullage refer to? A. Sparging is part of the bottling process that helps to preserve wine freshness and prevent premature oxidation and other problems. After being rinsed and filled with wine, the bottle will have inert gas (usually CO2 or nitrogen) pumped into the neck to form a protective layer on top of the wine, rather than exposing it directly to oxygen.
When evaluating older bottles of wine for potential problems, the amount of ullage — the level to which the wine fills the neck — is an important indicator. Young bottles are filled to a standard point below the bottom of the cork. As wines age, slow evaporation takes place and the ullage — airspace — increases. Once the wine level falls to the sloping shoulder of the bottle, below the neck, it suggests that the wine may be getting a bit long in the tooth. Time to drink up!
The love of wine grabs people by the throat and wallet and leads them down many different and fascinating pathways. I’ve met thousands of winemakers, wine sellers and wine enthusiasts over the years, each with a different tale to tell. But Roy Hersh is the only person I can recall who actually named his daughter after a famous Port producer.
“My wife wanted to name her Elizabeth,” says Hersh, a friendly man with an extraordinary appetite for Port. “I wanted to name her Taylor — a specific Port producer I’ve always loved. I said, ‘No way are we having Elizabeth Taylor in our family!’ So we compromised on Taylor Elizabeth.”
Taylor Elizabeth Hersh, now five, has been helping her father decant ancient Port wines, he adds proudly, since she was three. The odds are, she will ultimately develop quite a fine palate, as Roy Hersh has become one of the world’s leading authorities on the subject.
Born in Bayside, Queens, he holds degrees in culinary arts and hotel/restaurant management. After working in restaurants in New York City and elsewhere, Hersh moved to the Northwest in 1996 to become the director of purchasing for the Cucina! Cucina! restaurant chain. He held that post until the business was sold in 2001.
His love affair with Port began, says Hersh, while he was working at The Water Club restaurant in New York back in the mid-1980s. “The Water Club had a great Port wine list,” he recalls, “and the sommelier prided himself on that. We also had one of the early wine preservation systems, and we were putting 1963 vintage Ports on it. We decanted through cheesecloth, and I’d suck the juices from the cloth to check on the wines.” It was, in fact, the cloth that launched a thousand sips.
This early listing to Port led Hersh to start a newsletter, “Much Ado About Grape,” then to a slot on AOL hosting a Port-oriented wine chat, and eventually to a full-time business named For The Love Of Port (FTLOP).
At the center of Hersh’s Port-centric world is the FTLOP newsletter, regularly posted on his Web site, www.fortheloveofport.com. It started in July 2005, and now reaches thousands of people in 64 countries. Much of the Web site — articles, archives, newsletter, chat board and community tasting notes — is offered for free.
On the FTLOP Web site, you will find no advertising, just a bonanza of information, chat and opinion, all related to Port and other fortified wines. Though much of the content is offered at no cost, a donation is required if you want access to the database of tasting notes.
A tour through Hersh’s personal wine cellar revealed, as anticipated, an amazing assortment of vintage Ports, along with excellent examples of still wines, mostly Italian, French and Spanish. Lined up along the walls of his tasting room/office are dozens of empties dating back as far as 1815. The man has consumed an astonishing number of ancient Ports and Madeiras, yet remains as enthusiastic and humble as anyone I’ve met in the wine business.
“Port is a small niche in the wine world,” he notes. “I actually prefer Madeira to Port. I find it’s the most complex wine on Earth, even more than Burgundy. It takes me to that higher place.” For those interested in starting their own explorations of that higher place, Hersh offers the following advice.
“Port is a great bargain today, and always has been relative to other great wines,” he enthuses. “I suggest you start with less expensive, easy to find examples. Look for what used to be called Vintage Character and are now Ruby Reservas and LBVs. These are at price points that everyone can afford.”
The best bargains, Hersh believes, are the single quinta vintage Ports. Roughly comparable to a single vineyard wine, these traditionally come from what used to be called “off” vintages. But with improved winemaking and vineyard practices, there are rarely any off vintages these days, and single quinta Ports are almost always made.
Apart from that general advice, Hersh offers the following recommendations.
Among the LBVs (late bottled vintage Ports made for immediate drinking), he especially likes Quinta do Noval, Quinta do Crasto, Niepoort, Warre and Smith Woodhouse. These are made in traditional styles, meaning that they will throw a sediment, and need to be decanted. Prices are $20 to $25.
Among the Ruby Reserve (Vintage Character) Ports, Hersh recommends Graham’s Six Grapes (my Pick of the Week), Fonseca Bin 27, Quinta de la Rosa Finest Reserve and Cockburn’s Special Reserve, which he believes is the best-selling Port in the world.
Last, but certainly not the least (these being my own personal favorites), here are recommended bottles of tawny Ports according to the stated age:
10-Year-Old — Niepoort; Ramos-Pinto; Taylor
20-Year-Old — Ferreira ‘Duque de Braganca’; Sandeman; Quinta do Portal
30-Year-Old — Graham; Vista Alegre
40-Year-Old — Sandeman; Taylor
A final thought, readers, as we head for Valentine’s Day. If you plan to have wine with chocolate, remember, Port is the wine to choose.
Pick of the week
Graham’s Six Grapes, $18. Six Grapes is sourced from the same vineyards (essentially Quinta dos Malvedos and Quinta das Lages) that go into Graham’s vintage Ports in declared years. It emulates their style — full-bodied, rich and fragrant. Six Grapes is consistent, young, dark and luscious, a loose-knit and fruit-powered vintage character Port, with — dare I say oodles?! — yes, oodles of boysenberry, blueberry and sweet cherry flavors, and a finishing whiff of sweet tobacco
Paul Gregutt
Wine adviser Q.Some chefs and cookbooks recommend cooking with the same wine you are planning to drink with the meal; others say to use any cheap wine because the alcohol cooks out and it doesn’t really matter. Which is correct? A. Well, actually, both — or neither. If I need just a little bit of wine to enhance a sauté, or for a quick reduction, I will use a splash of the wine I’m planning to have with the meal. It’s easy and it is pretty much guaranteed to match flavors. But if you need a lot of wine — a whole bottle or two — it’s clearly impractical to use the same wine you will be drinking, unless you drink really cheap wine. In that instance I see no problem with finding an inexpensive wine to cook with. Just try to avoid wines that are either oaky (cheap wines will use oak chips or powders, which will do not-so-good things for the food) or sugary (a common trick with cheap wines is to leave some unfermented grape sugars). For cooking, you want plain, unadorned, fruit-driven wines with no obvious off-aromas.
“Aristocratic wines at democratic prices” is the motto emblazoned across the home page of A to Z Wineworks. It immediately establishes A to Z as a thinking person’s budget wine. No critters, trucks or trash talk here.
Happily, putting good wine in a cheery package (screwcapped for convenience) at a fair price still appeals to consumers, who frequently show far more good taste than many wine marketing experts. As a result, A to Z was named the “Hottest Small Brand of 2006” by Wine Business Monthly, and has won such high-profile fans as Ellen Degeneres, who featured the wines on her show.
A to Z Wineworks is joint venture between Sam Tannahill, his wife Cheryl Francis, and Debra and Bill Hatcher. Bill Hatcher was general manager of Oregon’s high-profile Domaine Drouhin for 12 years before starting this latest venture, while Tannahill and Francis earned their winemaking stripes with lengthy stays at Archery Summit and Chehalem respectively.
Beginning with just 2,500 cases in 2002, A to Z has grown to 120,000 annually, still retaining the quality for which it was initially famous. Though it remains primarily a négociant (purchasing wines and blending them rather than using estate grapes to make their own), last year the company purchased Rex Hill Vineyards, an industry leader known for its single vineyard pinot noirs. The two brands complement each other beautifully.
It was the sourcing of wines from many different producers that first inspired the name A to Z. “We have a bargain with other wineries from whom we source wines that we will not reveal their identities” explains the company’s Web site. Since component wines used in the A to Z blends could come from almost any winery in Oregon, a name that suggested such a wide spectrum of suppliers seemed a good fit.
A to Z Wineworks wines carry a simple Oregon appellation, and most are from the 2006 vintage. They may also be ordered from the winery’s Web site ( HYPERLINK “http://www.AtoZwineworks.com” www.AtoZwineworks.com). All of their wines are recommended; the pinot gris is my Pick of the Week.
A to Z 2006 Pinot Noir, $20
Though fruit-driven, forward and accessible, this wine offers more than that. It begins with somewhat sweet flavors of raspberry candy and Bing cherries. As it opens up, along come details of moist earth, minerals, flint and wisps of chocolate.
A to Z 2004 Night & Day Red Wine, $20
The bottle says simply “a select blend of big red varietals from Southern Oregon” but the wine is actually much better than that would lead you to suspect. The primary suppliers are the Del Rio and Abacela vineyards; the blend mostly merlot, cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon. It is enhanced with small percentages of syrah, dolcetto, petit verdot, nebbiolo and tempranillo. No simple mutt wine, this has a focused mix of black fruits annotated with streaks of pepper, slate, iron, cocoa, and graphite.
A to Z 2006 Chardonnay, $16
For me the surprise of the lineup is the excellent chardonnay, with its ripe and luscious fruit flavors of pear, apple, quince and kiwi. As the wine broadens out across the palate, streaks of spice, nutmeg, honey and graham cracker appear. It retains plenty of acid through a generous, creamy finish.
A to Z 2006 Riesling, $13
The first riesling from A to Z is tart and racy, with bracing acids and scents of citrus skins. The flavors mix citrus, white flowers, strawberries and spice, with a finishing lick of minerality.
A to Z 2006 Pinot Blanc, $13
Oregon pinot blanc occupies a thin niche between chardonnay and pinot gris, without the heft or texture of either grape. But what it lacks in weight it can sometimes make up for with elegance. This is lightly scented with melon, white peach and nectarines, perfectly balanced and just slightly sweet. It would make a lovely aperitif.
A to Z 2006 Rosé, $13
Though sangiovese has not enjoyed much success as a red wine in the New World, it does seem to make some fine rosés, as this one, from the Del Rio vineyard in southern Oregon, demonstrates. It’s loaded with a fruit salad mix of watermelon, strawberries, raspberries and cherry candy, leading into a moderately sweet finish that suggests cotton candy.
NOTE: For many years I have looked forward with great anticipation to the arrival of each new vintage of single vineyard zinfandels from Ravenswood. These six wines, from old vine sites in Sonoma and Napa, cemented Ravenswood’s reputation as one of the very best zinfandel producers in the country.
It grieves me to say that a sharp decline in their quality, most recently in the 2005 lineup, seems to have knocked them off that pedestal. All six of the 2005 single vineyard zins — Barricia, Belloni, Big River, Dickerson, Teldeschi and even the fabled Old Hill — are thin, chalky wines. They are so astringent, with sharp, unintegrated acids, that after just a sip or two it is difficult to taste the fruit.
In sharp contrast are the Ancient Vine bottlings from Cline, particularly the 2005 zinfandel and 2005 carignane. Both of these outstanding releases come from genuinely old (80 to 100 years) vineyards in Contra Costa County. They are juicy, bright, packed with fruit and offer natural tasting acids to back it up. Along with the gorgeous single vineyard (Louvau and Todd Brothers Ranch) zins from Dashe Cellars, these are the wines that now, for me, define the essence and greatness of old vine zinfandel.
Pick of the week
A to Z 2006 Pinot Gris, $13. Good Oregon pinot gris is quite different from the run-of-the-mill pinot grigios, both Italian and Californian, which are commonly seen on supermarket shelves. Here you will find a much more fruit-powered, substantive wine, one that offers a rich mix of ripe citrus and tropical fruits, acacia flowers, honeysuckle and a hint of buttered toffee. It’s rich and full-bodied without being tiring or flabby, with excellent length and structure.
Q.I accidentally left some wine in the back of my car overnight, and the temperatures outside dropped below freezing. I know that overheating is bad for wine, but what about over-chilling? A. Over-chilling is not good, but not quite as bad as wine that has been “cooked” in summer heat (all too often a problem in Eastern Washington). Cooked wine is almost certainly ruined. Wine that has been subjected to temperatures around the freezing point, however, may yet survive. The reason? Wine has alcohol in it, and alcohol moves the freezing point lower. Although wine is mostly water, and the water will begin to crystallize at its own freezing point, the actual wine spends quite a lot of time in the slush stage before it freezes solidly enough to push the cork.
A variety of online sources suggest that depending upon the alcohol and sugar content of the wine, it will reach that critical freezing point around 15 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. I’ve left wines in the freezer a bit too long, found them slushy and then thawed them out. They are perfectly drinkable, but their flavors seem somewhat disjointed.
I wouldn’t attempt to cellar a wine that had been through this slushy phase — drink it up. However, if the temperatures overnight were right around 32 degrees and your corks were still sound (e.g. still intact and fully sealed) the odds are that your wines have survived as well. Open one right away to test, and if it tastes fine, you can probably trust the rest.
Paul Gregutt can be reached at wine@seattletimes.com.
It has become almost commonplace for celebrity winemakers to visit Washington state. They come from France, Australia, Italy, Germany and California — some to consult, some to make wines collaboratively. But more and more, they come to stay.
Make no mistake about it. These high profile people are not lured by the prospect of doing Washington a favor. They lend their names and talents to our grapes primarily because they know that the specific flavor profiles of these grapes cannot be duplicated elsewhere. So everyone wins.
The newest celebrity enterprise to appear in Washington is Randall Grahm’s Pacific Rim Winemakers. It was Grahm’s talent for wacky marketing ploys — rather than any special winemaking ability — that launched his Bonny Doon winery and its associated brands, and built his global reputation as a pioneering California Rhone Ranger.
Grahm started Pacific Rim in 1992, making about 1,000 cases of a dry Riesling. As production grew, it became difficult to source all the Riesling grapes needed from California. So a mix of fruit from California, Washington and Germany was used.
Recently, Grahm sold his two biggest brands — Big House and Cardinal Zin — in order to downsize and refocus his business. Also on the block, confirms former Bonny Doon General Manager Nicolas Quillé, was Pacific Rim.
The talented Nicolas Quillé, who holds winemaking degrees from universities in both Dijon (Burgundy) and Reims (Champagne), along with a master’s in business from the University of Washington, had been hired to oversee the downsizing of the company. With the successful sale of Big House and Cardinal Zin, he realized that there was no future for him at Bonny Doon, which had shrunk from 400,000 to 40,000 cases.
But Quillé liked the Pacific Rim Riesling, and he saw an opportunity that Grahm had missed. “I said to Randall,” he told me, “instead of selling Pacific Rim, why don’t you let me take it up north?”
Pacific Rim had become the top-selling American Riesling in the $9 to $11 category. It made sense, thought Quillé, to move the operation to Washington. He had spent five years making wines at Hogue, and saw that Washington was quickly becoming the Riesling capital of the New World. And besides, this is where most of the Pacific Rim fruit was being sourced.
The new winemaking facility opened in West Richland (Tri-Cities) just in time for the 2007 crush. Production is already up to 130,000 cases, and the goal, says Quillé, is to reach 300,000 — 95 percent of it Riesling — within the next five years. In the market right now you will find Pacific Rim’s 2006 releases. (Note that due to an odd wrinkle in the law, some do not carry a vintage date).
It’s clear that, despite the celebrity bankrolling the brand, the real stars of the show are growers Bill and Andy den Hoed, and Quillé himself, who is both general manager and winemaker. The den Hoed family, partners in Pacific Rim, have committed 120 acres at their spectacular Wallula vineyard in the Horse Heaven Hills to biodynamic farming. Another large vineyard in the Grandview area is moving toward more traditional organic viticulture.
The Pacific Rim Dry Riesling ($11) remains the trademark wine of the lineup, and the only one that is not yet made entirely from Washington grapes (the last of the California grapes were used in 2005). It includes a significant (20 percent) portion of German Riesling in the blend, a decision, Quillé admits, that doesn’t make sense financially.
Cost aside, his reasoning is sound. “It’s very difficult to make a balanced dry Riesling in a warmer climate like Washington,” he explains. “We’re looking for something more minerally, stony. Bringing that German fraction to the dry riesling gives me that flinty character, very focused and sharp, with naturally high acid.”
Also in the current lineup are a sweet Riesling, a gewurztraminer and a chenin blanc (the Pick of the Week). All are beautifully packaged, with screwcaps and colorful labels showing Asian-influenced iconography in a see-through bottle. Apart from the artistic value, these wines are loaded with useful information about food pairing, and they clearly state the sweetness (or dryness) of the wines.
Even more exciting are the wines from 2007 that are still waiting in the wings.
Set for a spring release are four single-vineyard Rieslings that will showcase different winemaking styles. The first, from Willamette Valley grapes, will be done in the style of a German kabinet. Another, from the Yakima Valley, will be what Quillé describes as Alsatian. A third will be the biodynamically farmed Wallula vineyard riesling — hand-picked, hand-sorted, and hand-made, with no additions of yeast or nutrients or acid. The fourth will also come from Wallula, but will be a bit sweeter and riper, more like the classic Washington Johannisberg Rieslings.
“We want Pacific Rim to be recognized as the best Riesling producer in the country,” says Quillé. “In order to do that, we’ve got to make killer wines, we need to have a certain presence in the market place (e.g. volume), and we have to keep innovating and take a position of leadership in the Riesling world.”
Doesn’t Chateau Ste. Michelle already hold that position, I asked him. After all, they make 700,000 cases of Riesling, the most in the world. When people think Riesling, that’s who comes to mind.
Quillé is undaunted. “We’re going to change that,” he insists. “They’re a great company; and they’ve been setting the pace for many years. We are different — a different price point, different styles and different grape sourcing. I agree that right now they are the volume player. But we intend to take the higher end in the country. There’s a lot of room to claim Riesling leadership in terms of quality and thoughtfulness in the winemaking.”
The gauntlet has been thrown. It should be a great match, consumers, and guess what? You all — and Washington state — will be the winners.
Pick of the week
Pacific Rim Chenin Blanc, $11. Chenin Blanc may arguably be the least-appreciated great white grape in the world; outside of the Loire valley, no one bothers to showcase it. But Washington state has some chenin vines approaching 30 years of age, and that fruit is the centerpiece of this ripe, round, floral and slightly spritzy offering from Pacific Rim. Fruit flavors of ripe pear and key lime make this a vivacious and lip-smacking crowd-pleaser, lifted with natural acids and finished at just 12.5 percent alcohol.
Paul Gregutt can be reached by at wine@seattletimes.com.
Q. I recently returned from a trip to Western Australia, visiting local wineries scattered throughout the region. Every bottle I brought home has a screw top, even the high-end bottles. For storage, do I still need to leave the bottles on their side since there is no cork to dry out or are there other benefits to laying a bottle down?
A. The research on the ageworthy capabilities of wines under screwcap is still quite controversial. The closure is extraordinarily popular in Australia, as you have discovered. There is no reason to believe, and no research that I have seen, that would indicate that there is any need to store screwcapped wines on their side.
The more relevant issues have to do with the wine’s ability to breathe under screwcap. The lack of oxygen in an airtight closure can lead to off odors as the wine ages, though newer versions of the screwcap are attempting to address this problem as well.
On a related note, I posed the question a few weeks ago as to whether it helped a wine cork to retain moisture (and keep from drying out) if it were sealed with wax over the bottle top.
A self-described “garage wine maker” was kind enough to provide some interesting feedback. The tradition of waxing the cork, this reader pointed out, was developed originally to keep bugs from eating the corks, not to retain moisture. This is largely irrelevant in today’s world, but in the distant past there were many cellars that did not place a high priority on sanitation. It’s also worth noting that almost all the “wax” used to seal bottles today is not actually wax, but a sort of plastic. It can be incredibly difficult to penetrate with a corkscrew, and my fervent hope is that the fad — for that is what it is — will soon run its course.
Paul Gregutt can be reached by e-mail at wine@seattletimes.com.
Let’s start the new year right, with a resolution to be pro-active about wine tasting in 2008.
Let’s face it, most wine encounters are random. You grab a bottle while shopping for dinner, or you pick something off a restaurant list because the sommelier recommends it. Maybe you are visiting friends and they pull something out of the cellar for you to try.
There is nothing wrong with any of that. But if you want to make 2008 the year that you really make some headway understanding wine, you should resolve right now to start a tasting group.
There’s a big difference between drinking wine and tasting wine in a (more or less) formal group setting. Drinking is for fun, for dinner parties, for nights on the town, with wine in a supporting role. Tasting is a different sort of social occasion, where wine is the star of the show, and attention is focused upon each bottle.
I am fortunate to be a member in two separate, long-running tasting groups. Both meet monthly, and taste the wines blind (meaning the bottles are concealed). Here’s how it works. A topic is chosen some time in advance — generally a specific type of wine from a specific region — and that becomes the focus for the tasting.
In one group, a volunteer gathers the wines. The total cost is then divided among the 12 members. This system works well in several ways. First, it guarantees that a diverse representation of appropriate wines will be poured. Second, it ensures that only one person in the group knows what any of the wines are. However, this system only works if everyone shows up and divides up the cost fairly.
If you want a more ad hoc approach, have the host assign the topic and let each tasting group member bring a bottle. That way, if a few last-minute cancellations occur, no one is on the hook for the money.
A tasting group of eight to 12 people is just the right number; big enough for a lively discussion, but small enough to allow for generous pours. In one of my groups each person sets out a dozen glasses and the wines are all poured at once, from numbered brown paper bags. This offers the advantage of allowing the most direct comparisons among the entire group, because there is no specific tasting sequence required, and all wines are present at all times.
In my other group each person has just one glass, and the wines are tasted one at a time. We keep the pours small (one ounce per person) so each bottle can go around twice. This also works well; the first time through the tasters can get a good conversation going with a lot of guessing about such topics as the producer, the vintage, and so on.
The second time around the wine has had time to breathe, and impressions are likely to change. You’ll see that most wines are moving targets. Flavors expand, contract, harden, soften or morph into something entirely unforeseen when the bottle is first opened. Wines that at first seemed delicious sometimes quickly fall apart; wines that may have been hard and tight open up and reveal layers of flavor that were missed the first time through.
Why taste blind? The simple answer is, you learn more. It adds to the excitement and fuels the conversation. And when tasting blind, it is the prerogative of the host to provide a ringer — one wine (hidden among the rest) that is not from the assigned topic.
If, for example, your topic is Washington syrah, then the ringer might be a syrah from Paso Robles. Part of the fun is trying to spot the ringer.
You may not be quite ready to sign on to a monthly commitment, but winter is a good time to host a preview wine tasting event, to see who among your friends might be interested in joining a regular group. The set-up is simple. Have a clean wine glass for each person, along with dump buckets, a note pad and pen, and some light snacks.
Once the wines are gathered, someone will need to pull the corks, wrap each bottle in a plain brown bag, seal it with a rubber band, and number it. Hide the corks so no one can cheat! This is a blind tasting, remember?
Now about those dump buckets. “We’re not going to spit good wine!” your friends may complain. Oh yes they will. That’s the serious part of a formal tasting. How else can you sample a dozen wines responsibly? As host, you will have to enforce that rule. For what it’s worth, in my two groups, which are mostly composed of winemakers, wine distributors and wine retailers, everyone spits everything all the time. That is how it is done in the trade.
At the end of the night, have everyone vote for their favorite — preferably before the bags are pulled and the wines’ identities revealed. In any group of a dozen wines you’ll discover a couple of gems that you’ll want to purchase. There are usually a couple of disappointments — pricey and/or prestigious wines that simply didn’t rise to the occasion. But for the price of a single bottle, you’ve tasted up to a dozen, and found the one(s) you like the best.
Pick of the week
Patianna 2006 Sauvignon Blanc, $18. Mendocino’s Fetzer winery was, for many years, a leader in the nascent organic grape growing movement in California. When family-owned, the winery also cultivated a large garden at its visitors’ center, devoted to heritage varieties of many fruits and vegetables. Fetzer now belongs to a large corporation, but several of the Fetzer children have begun projects of their own, moving farther down the organic road. Patti Fetzer’s biodynamic vineyard provides the grapes for this vivid, acid-driven sauvignon blanc. The melon, peach and citrus fruit is racy and refined; with a pleasing finish of citrus and mineral. No oak, so ready for oysters!
Paul Gregutt can be reached at wine@seattletimes.com.