a time for wine

[rone]

ikkyu2 asked me if i could say something on the subject of wine; "your philosophy of wine, what you look for, what you try to avoid, what you particularly like about certain grapes or particular wineries or particular bottles of wine."  He also said i was "good at writing about wine," but that's too kind.  I like wine, and when i write about it, that enjoyment comes through; on a technical basis, however, i consider myself a hack at best because my wine vocabulary is still developing, and i have a very hard time finding words that can describe what i smell and taste in wine.

I should start out by saying that i didn't care for wine for a long time.  I'd had some wine (probably all from Chile) when i was in Ecuador, and i didn't dislike it, but i wasn't in a position to appreciate it, either.  When i came to the States, i mostly drank wretched mass-produced beer (and no wine that i can recall) until i turned 21.  Afterwards, i'd occasionally have wine when i was eating out with my family, but all i'd find was big, tannic cabernet sauvignons and buttery chardonnays.  So i shrugged and decided that wine wasn't for me.

Fast-forward to the time when i was dating Kim and she took me to Napa for the first time.  That was quite an eye opener.  After that, i became a pinot noir aficionado, i think because it's a lighter-bodied red wine that's low in tannins.  I also enjoyed Mondavi's Fumé Blanc, which is their fancy name for sauvignon blanc.

Later i developed an aversion to zinfandels because every zinfandel i had tasted like raisins.  Bonny Doon's Cardinal Zin broke the streak and soon i found that the most common wine in my rack was zinfandel and cabernet sauvignon.  Wait, when did i start liking cabernet sauvignon?  Well, i started finding some wineries that had CS that wasn't a punch in the mouth with every sip.

The first chardonnay i found that i liked was Thomas Fogerty's.  It's still rare for me to find a chardonnay i like, although the Santa Cruz Mountains wineries tend to make chardonnays in the style i prefer, with little-to-no oak and secondary malolactic fermentation (which yields that buttery taste).

If i were to have a philosophy on wine, it would be to seek out something different, like single-grape wines of varietals that usually end up in blends, such as Justin's petit verdot, which was excellent.  I also seek out rare grapes, such as valdiguié, charbono, blaufränkisch, and négrette.  Lastly, i'm a dessert wine slut.  Your average muscat is fun, but a great dessert wine is indescribably good; it makes all your endorphin flash bulbs pop in your head.

More later.

Comments

[drieuxster.livejournal.com]

Physck....

the upside of living with Andy and Ruth was that they tried real hard to teach me the language of wine - but at times it sounded way too much like a bad python - and I would start into 'too tinny....' But Andy knew how to talk to wine buyers - and what 'value' really was. I know that as we would shop at costco, and he would note which wines were a real buy... and which were, well, just not worth the effort....

Before I came to california I only knew the 'local wine' of where I was, and loved the bordeaux, and there wasn't a port I wouldn't try... there were also a lot of 'vino de bano' in some places.... Always found the french uppityNeff at a good german white wine sheer sillineff.... and then in california... Oye... Up here in northern california one doesn't run into the east coast 'effemete snootineff' of domestic v. imported... but this place is still too close to 'sideways' at times...

I still think there should be some sort of rosetta stone or something.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I'd say the best thing to do is to take a trip to Paso Robles. There's a good variety and history there, but none of the Napa snootiness.

[drieuxster.livejournal.com]

I may have some time for such, once I find winter quarters.

Napa really isn't the problem - no more than any of the other districts of the area - as much as the j-random wackJob who wants to put on airs... as I say, having hung with andy this long, I know good stuff when it happens - and when the follks were merely being over-priced and austenatious. That's more the 'restraunt trendOids'...

Good Lord that is half way to LA.... tell me there aren't any Nuclear Mutants down in that area....
( ok, so I have ISSUES with everything south of the grapevine... Ok, so I also get worried about the I-5 corridor in the flat parts too... )

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Napa qua Napa isn't the problem, but there's a huge percentage of whackjobs there. And anyway, you'll be paying a premium for the wine there. You can find good stuff that isn't too expensive, but you gotta work for it. At PR, it's much easier, especially on the east side of US101 (for some reason).

No nuclear mutants, unless you count the college kids in SLO, half an hour down the road.

[drieuxster.livejournal.com]

I think you have a point there, it is the whackJobs wandering around being the UglyAmericans in the Napa area who have been the sort one really has that sad feeling that we do not allow folks to simply shoot them and put them out of their misery. And it is that snobbery that does drive the prices up - and at times runs out the decent wines - there was a 'old river curveee' that Andy found that was suppose to be the way that old school Napa White Wines had been like before they became popular and everyone made them way too sweet so that they would fit into the whole screw top wine fandom.... YEECH - but the old rivercurvee was well worth drinking - but it was stabbed in the back when some kabal of wine afficianado's decided to call it by the name that is popular with the screw top set... and the winery stopped releasing it...

{ extend the list of persons who should be shot so as to put them out of their missery... }

As for College Kids in SLO - that is closer to LA-LA-Land, and the Red Hollywood Elites...