My Wine Cellar

Here is a picture of “My New Cellar.” I like to call it new but in reality, I’ve been keeping my wine in the basement of our home since we moved in about two years ago. However, it’s been boxed up in cardboard and wood with no real easy access.

In addition to accessibility, I also had the issues of a gradual heat increase in the summertime and lower than ideal humidity in the winter.

The cornerstone of the cellar is a Vintage Keeper 500 which I purchased to hold the bulk of my wine collection and to store all the wines I plan on holding onto for long term aging. By comparison to other units like Eurocave and the like, this is on the budget side which fit… well, my budget.

The Vintage Keeper 500 will help with the temperature during the spring, summer and early fall where basement temperatures can get beyond 65 degrees and sometimes 70 degrees in the height of summer when its 90 and 100 outside.

There are two smaller “wine fridges” off to the left. One holds Pinot Noir and the other holds whites and rose wines. These “wine fridges” I’ve had for a few years and brought over from my previous apartment where they lived in the closet.

I also have a section of reclaimed wood wine boxes that I’ve stacked for decorative purposes but also use to put my everyday drinkers in. These are wines that I buy and try to consume shortly thereafter.

So now I have much easier access to all the wine in my collection and I have more control over the temperature. However, in the cooler weather, the ambient temperature is between 50 and 55 degrees so I don’t have to plug any of the units in until the temperature starts to approach 60.

The only unanswered issue I have to deal with is humidity. It gets dry in the wintertime and hovers around the 35% range when the ideal is 70%. It gets a little better in the summertime, approaching 50%. However, that is also short of the ideal.

Feel free to leave suggestions on how to improve the humidity if you have any tricks I might use. Other than that, I’m pretty pleased with my new set-up if I may say so myself!

Chateau d’Arcins 2005 – Haut Médoc – Bordeaux

I should mention first that the 2005 Chateau d’Arcins was used by myself and my friend Lisa as part of a podcast we’re putting together, taking lessons from Jancis Robinson’s How to Taste. This particular lesson was on decanting and we thought a 2005 Bordeaux would be perfect. One that could be drunk now but could use a few years of age. Hence this wine.

Pre-decanting: Ruby red in color with cherry, tar and dark fruit. Possibly even a slight floral note, but a muted one. Blackberry and oak are also noteable but again, soft notes. Texture is chewy but not overly tannic. But they are there. Tannins hold back the fruit some. Medium-long finish and just slightly off balance.

Post-decanting: WOW! This wine really changed in the decanter! It really opened us and had become very fruit forward and really lovely. Black cherry. The oak had turned into cedar. Some chocolate notes also emerged. It became slightly more complex in the decanter and had also developed a softer texture. The finish remained medium long but was much less tannic. Really nice.

This is a solid B wine after decanting and a good value at $15 on sale from Astor Wine in the East Village.

Look for the podcast soon!

2005 Louro Do Bolo – Valdeorras – Spain – Godello

This was bought at Astor in an effort to break out of my French wine rut and try something different. This is a Spanish white which I decided to try after my interest in these were peked after reading a New York Times article by Eric Asimov where he talked about white wines from the Rueda region of Spain. This is not from there. It’s from Valdeorras.

To be honest, I struck out here.

It’s golden hued with notes of caramel and banana and a certain “sweet” smell. Fuller bodied but it comes across as somewhat flat and flabby. Not complex. Medium finish that coats the mouth. This wine is not really all that great. The banana is unfortunately one of the predominate features here and the flabby texture doesn’t help.

$15 from Astor Wine.

2006 La Rouge de la Garreliere – Cabernet Franc – Loire

Ruby red. Very peppery aroma with strong raspberry fruit and a minerally and slate character. Soft texture and a long finish. Nice balance. Medium to full bodied and very nice.

$16 from Slope Cellars.

Domaine de Jaugaret '02, '03 and '04 - A Classic Styled Bordeaux

Today I figured out what a truly “classic styled” Bordeaux taste like. On the advice of Eric Asimov’s “Pour” blog, I headed to Rosenthal Wine Merchants on East 84th St. for a tasting of Domaine de Jaugaret from the St. Julien region of Bordeaux.

According to Rosenthal Wine Merchants…

“The petite estate of Domaine de Jaugaret has been in the Fillastre family since 1654. Jean-Fancois Fillastre is dedicated to preserving the traditions not only of Jaugaret but of the St. Julien appellation. Stepping into the cellars of Jaugaret brings one back to an era when the Bordelais were modest and the wines were grand. Here is an estate where one finds neither pretense nor hubris, just the essence of the appellation.”

“Domaine Jaugaret comprises a mere 1.3 hectares of vineyards, made almost exclusively of Cabernet Sauvignon (80%) with some Petit Verdot and Malbac to supplement this classic Medoc structure. The average age of the vines is over 50 years and some of the Malbec vineyards are in excess of 100 years old. This combination of grape varieties permits Jaugaret to find the ultimate expression of the terroir of St. Julien taking advantage of the deep gravel beds and the long growing season that mark St. Julien. The old vines of Jaugaret combined the unfertile, gravelly soils leads to naturally low yields again providing M. Fillasstre with a concentration virtually unequalled in the appellation. Here is a truly unique wine from a gentleman who follows the most classical traditions.”

“Vinification: After being hand-harvested and hand-pressed, the cuvaison is long, frequently lasting for three weeks or more. The wines are then racked into small barrels to complete the malolactic fermentation and are left to age in a small, damp underground cellar with minimal racking. In substantial vintages (e.g. 1996 or 2000) the wines are bottled (always unfiltered) after 30 months of aging. The wines of Jaugaret, relying so extensively on Cabernet, are built to last”

At Rosenthal, where I had to ring the front doorbell and then be lead downstairs to the tasting room. Slightly odd but also kinda cool too… In the tasting room with about 10 others, I was able to taste the 2002, 2003 and 2004 vintages. As they state, they are certainly built to last, being some of the most tannic wines I’ve ever tasted and very classic in structure… What does “classic” mean? While, now I think I know. Tannins are more upfront. Fruit more in the back. Slightly less ripe. Slightly less alcohol. Certainly not approachable when young and you have to use your imagination to figure what they might taste like ten to a dozen years from now at least. I can safly say that I had tasted nothing like these wines ever before.

2004 Domaine de Jaugaret: The 2004 was ruby red in color with red fruit. Cherry. Red currant. Possibly cranberry. And definitely smoke. Tannic and dry but it was also the brightest and most approachable of the three wines tasted. Long finish.

2003 Domaine de Jaugaret: The 2003 was also ruby red in color with light cedar, some cherry and other brighter red fruit. It was almost like a pinot noir in its aroma profile. Heavy on the smoke and tar. Very tannic and dry to the point that it sucks all moisture out of the mouth. Slightly acidic and just a touch out of balance.

2002 Domaine de Jaugaret: The 2002 is another ruby red wine with smoky aroma and stronger fruit than the 2003. Here its blackberry and cassis. Bright and smoother in texture than either the ’02 or ‘03. It has a very lush long finish. Not incredibly complex but well balanced and approachable now. Even so, it still needs aging.

As I said, it was an experience to taste these wine. Although I found all three to be a bit tough to drink now, even with food, it was still a great education to what Bourdeaux was probably like back in the day. And I mean the day… 100 years ago?

All three are approximately $75 a bottle from Rosenthal Wine Merchants.

2004 Monsanto – Chianti Classico Riserva. – Tuscany

This is the best Chianti I’ve had in a long long time. A very classically styled wine.

When first opened, the 2004 Monsanto exhibits a very earthy and woodsy character that takes over for the first few moments. Then it begins to reveal the fruit and its red fruit more than anything else. Cherry. Raspberry to a lesser extent. A little later on the “woodsy-ness” recedes to reveal a more cigar box character. Medium bodied with a long finish. The wine is also minerally with bright acidity and nice balance.

This is an excellent wine and an A- for me. It can be had for $18 at Astor Wines.

Chateau Lanessan 2005 – Haut Medoc – Bordeaux

Garnet colored with blackberry and red currant notes. Also some scents of light oak, tar and maybe some floral essence. Medium bodied with a medium length finish.

A pleasant wine but I feel there are some better examples of (relatively) inexpensive Bordeaux from the much heralded 2005 vintage to sample. Including the ’05 Gigault Cuvee Viva which I tasted recently.

Overall this is a C+ wine for me. Bought for $22 at Garnet Wine on the Upper East Side.

2005 Selbach-Oster Riesling Kabinett - Bernkasteler Badstube - Mosel-Saar –Ruwer (Guest Blogger: Lisa Bocchini)

Guest Blogger Lisa Bocchini joins us again for her take on the 2005 Selbach-Oster Riesling Kabinett - Bernkasteler Badstube from Germany’s Mosel-Saar –Ruwer region.

The wine comes in at 9.5% alchohol and can be found at Sherry Lehmann for $20.

Nice light straw color, medium body. Floral,slightly citrus and a hint of lychee aromas. Richer than many Kabinetts, slightly effervescent. Has some sweetness without being cloying, but enough acidity to balance out the sugar. Really nice finish, with a flavor that lingers in the mouth.

Editors Note: Wanting to know more about Bernkasteler Badstube and what the phrase actually meant, I did an internet search and came up with the following from the importer Billington Wines which is located in Virginia.

“The vineyard of the Bernkasteler Doctor represents the finest tradition of grape growing. For centuries great Rieslings have been produced from this vineyard. According to legend, the Doctor vineyard was given its name in 1360 by Archbishop Boemond II of Trier when, after his doctor had given up hope on his health, he regained his strength by drinking wine from this vineyard. Bernkasteler Badstube is Germany’s smallest Grosslage (a collection of individual vineyards with similar environmental attributes that produce wines of comparable character and quality.) The Badstube (about 59 ha) covers the best-known vineyards of the Bernkastel site of Bernkastel-Kues: Lay, Graben, Matheisbildchen, Bratenhoefchen and Doctor.”

2006 4 Vines “Naked” Chardonnay – Santa Barbara County – Calif.

An unoaked chardonnay that comes from the Central Coast of California.

It’s straw yellowed colored with nice floral and lemon citrus scents with a possible touch of apricot. A medium weight wine with a relatively high 13.0% alcohol. It just shows that alcohol on the tongue and that’s the only real negative with this wine. Also on the taste, the apricot really expresses itself in a nice, bright way.

4 Vines is a new venture in Paso Robles, California which produces a line of Zinfandels, a Syrah, a Barbera, and a Tempranillo along with a couple Rhone blends in addition to its Chardonnay. I had been curious about as their Syrah and Zinfandels have been written up but are a little harder to fine on the East Coast.

The Chardonnay I found for $14 from Chelsea Wine Vault. It’s a good solid wine which I really envision as a great white alternative for a summer bar-b-que. At least that’s how I plan to use this. Overall, I give it a B.

2005 Gigault Cuvee Viva - Cotes de Blaye - The first of the 2005 Bordeaux

Deep ruby red color with an aroma of cedar and dark fruit, namely blackberry. There are also slight hints of chocolate and licorice. The licorice really opens up later on woth some aeration. Medium weight with soft tannins and a nice long finish.

The unique thing about this wine is that the finish really does taste something like licorice.

Excellent and a solid B+ wine. An excellent value at $22 from Astor Wines.

I haven’t had many of the 2005 Bordeaux but this is certainly the best one I’ve had to date.

TN - 2004 d'Arenberg "The Footbolt" Shiraz - McLaren Vale - Australia

This is a BIG wine. Almost black in color. Heavy, ripe and dark fruit with wood that’s reminiscent of a cedar closet. Very earthy. Fruit is blackberry and cassis. Tannic and chewy. Slightly out of balance as it seems like there is just a little too much acidity. Long finish but one that is very dry.

This is a C+ wine that is 17% from Astor Wine and is also available at Chelsea Wine Vault for $18.

Tasting Note: 2005 Sea Smoke Southing – Pinot Noir – Santa Barbara County

The 2005 Sea Smoke Southing is inky dark or deep purple in color with complex aromas of dark earthy fruit. Black cherry and/or boysenberry? Whatever it is, it reminds me of those dark berries you’d pick in the brush on one of those hot summer days in upstate New York. Intermingles are also some nice leather notes. Again, a really complex aroma and a rich one. Full bodied and very lush, almost velvety mouthfeel. Creamy with an extra long finish and slight hint of cola on the aftertaste. Excellent balance and an amazing wine. A+

Bought through the winery but can currently be found on Winebid.com.

Wine Book Club: Vino Italiano by Joe Bastianich and David Lynch

At the beginning of January, fellow wine bloggers Dr. Debs and David McDuff proposed and are hosting a Wine Book Club with the inaugural tome being Vino Italiano by Joe Bastianich and David Lynch.

The book is a detailed to say the least and clocks in at over 500 pages. It starts off with a discourse on the culture of wine in Italy, gets into Italian wine laws, grapes and importing. Then we get to the meat of the book which details each of Italy’s 21 wine producing regions in 19 chapters and nearly 350 pages of text. The last section is a “data section” which defines the grapes, regions, and producers.

For each region there are basically three pieces. The first is a short anecdote about the wine region being covered and includes such scenes as boar hunting in Tuscany, horse butchers in the Veneto, soccer in Lazio or seeking out gelato in Sicily. The authors then break down the wines made in the region into sparkling, whites, reds and finally desserts wines, hitting on all even if the region produces only scant amounts of one. Finally, there is a “Fast Facts” section which basically reviews the pertinent data – reviewing the grapes most prominently used, acres under vine, styles, examples of wines and estimated costs.

Joe Bastianich and David Lynch are experts in the field of wine and it shows as the attention to detail is strong, leaving no region untouched and describing all wine styles, even the obscure ones, in such great detail that you can’t help but want to go out and try them.

It’s in the anecdotes though that really made me fall for this book though. For example, they describe the hillside fires of Festa di Sacro Cuore (Day of the Sacred Heart) which cast a “glow over the vineyards that cling to the steep mountain slopes” as “people sit in the cafés with places of bresaola (air-cured beef) and pitchers of wine, starring up at the blazes as if there were a movie playing.”

How can you not fall for imagery like that! Well, it did its trick and got me reading further to the details of the Trentino-Alto Adige region where they spent just as much time discussing the reds of the region as they did the whites they are more known for. They paint such a complete picture of the region that you almost feel like you have to sample the wines themselves to complete the scene.

From the entry, I felt like I had to familiarize myself with the schiava grape, the main red grape of the Alto Adige region and wine I wrote about for the last Wine Blogging Wednesday.

Bastianich and Lynch add another element to the book by including recipes from the region created by famous restaurateurs Lydia Bastianich (Joe’s Mom) and Mario Batali (Joe’s restaurant partner). Again, it’s easy to fall under the spell of these recipes which lead to me, or I should say my wife, trying our hands at the Braised Wild Boar and pairing it with a Brunello di Montalcino. Both were excellent.

All in all, I feel like this is THE book on Italian wine, at least that I’ve seen in my somewhat limited experience. The biggest takeaway for me is that I felt like I learned about Italy and its food, not just the wine. It does a great job of mashing it all together. My one complaint… 500+ pages is a lot to digest but then again, this isn’t just a wine book, it’s also a “have to have” reference.

Enjoy!

Jancis Robinson's How to Taste - Lesson 1

I’ve taken my first steps from Jancis Robinson’s How to Taste book and it had nothing to do with wine.

On page 15 of her book, she suggests that the next time you taste something, try tasting a mouthful first with your nose pinched and then again with it open.

The point she’s looking to prove is that the nose has just as much if not more to do with how we experience wine than when the wine actually interacts with the tongue and taste.

To test this out, I had my wife put various pieces of vegetables behind her back while I tasted them with my eye’s shut. The exercise was meant to illustrate that it’s really hard to pick out what you’re tasting if you don’t have the aromatic information to help out.

She proved her point. While I found it relatively easy to pick out the vegetables based off texture, broccoli for example has a very distinct texture but when plugging up the nose, you really don’t get its essence. The same held true with the peppers, carrots, and cucumbers. This exercise was also particularly interesting with cheeses who get much of their character from aroma but that gets muted with a plugged up nose.

The practice makes sense when we think about how little we taste when we have a cold. She just wants to make sure we understand that wine gets most of its character from its aroma.
Tune in next time when we tackle acidity and bitterness in a relatively unpleasant way!

Tasting Note: 2005 Greppicante – Bolgheri – Tuscany – Italy

Greppicante is a new wine venture in the Bolgheri region of Tuscany, Italy which is part owned by the Landini family of Fattoria Viticcio, makers of one of my favorite Chianti Classico wines.

Bolgheri is from the northern portion of Tuscany and the wine is a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. This classic Bordeaux-type blend is more common in Bolgheri than it is in other regions of Tuscany.

The wine is rich ruby red in color with aromas of dark earthy fruits mixed in with leather and hints of oak. The fruits might be boysenberry or black currants but to be honest, I can’t really remember the last time I had boysenberries! There might also be a hint of tar. The bottom line is that there is a lot going on with this wine’s aromatics and others might be able to pick out different scents than me. The texture is tannic and slightly sharp but with a nice long finish. It could use a couple years bottle age but its enjoyable now and decanting definitely helps smooth it out. Excellent – A.

This wine was recently part of a weekend blowout sale at Zachys for $14 at which point I picked up a couple bottles. They are currently selling it for $22 which I still think is a decent value for a wine like this.

Guest Blooger - Lisa Bocchini and Chablis and Cotes du Rhone

The following tasting notes come from my good friend and fellow wine lover Lisa Bocchini. Lisa nd her husband Brian are "co-conspirators" in our project to tackle Jancis Robinson's book "How to Taste".

Enjoy the notes!

2006 Gilbert Picq & ses Fils Chablis 12.5%
$15.99 at Slope Cellars, Brooklyn

I mentioned to someone who knows nothing about wine that I had a Chablis the other night and I could see her grimace. What she was thinking of was the crap that our parents drank in the 70s and 80s: California “Chablis” -- which was, of course, not real Chablis. The real stuff comes from the region so named in France. That plonk was probably just crappy overly oaked Chardonnay. Real Chablis is quite nice. Honestly.

I wanted to see if I could really taste what makes a Chablis a Chablis. I’ve always liked Chablis because it is generally unoaked and crisp. What I honestly didn’t realize until more recently is that yes, it’s gasp! made from Chardonnay, my least favorite grape. This just goes to show that it’s not just the grape that makes the wine, it’s what the winemaker does with it. This is especially true of Chardonnay, which is kind of a bland grape that is easily manipulated and hence comes in a variety of styles.

Jancis Robinson says the following about Chablis:

Chablis is a uniquely lean, green form of Chardonnay that, because in most years the grapes have to struggle to ripen, needs and repays years of maturing in the bottle…When it is young, it tastes almost Sauvignon-like in its appetizing, piercingly high acid form, although it is much more likely to smell of cool, damp stones than green fruits or grass.

That summed up almost exactly this Chablis I had. I would add, however, that its mouthfeel is slightly creamier than a Sauvignon. It also has a bit more body. I wasn’t blown away by the aroma, but it definitely had a stone/almost slate thing going on. It was very acidic, but fairly food friendly. I like Robinson’s descriptive of “piercingly”. I enjoyed drinking this food-friendly wine.

Robinson suggests tasting a young Chablis and an older one (she says middle age Chablis of 5-6 years old can be rather funky and off-putting), but that older ones are hard to find and you may have to do the aging yourself. I don’t know if this was of a quality that would allow one to age it, but I’d sure like to try.

2005 Val Bruyere Cotes du Rhones Villages 13.5%
$10.99 Slope Cellars, Brooklyn

Dark purple in color, with a violet tinge, it took a while for me to figure out what I was tasting, although the aroma was fairly fruity. This wine is mainly Grenache, with some Syrah, Cargnian, and Cinsault. High in alcohol, it tasted rather “tight”. It did open up after about an hour of breathing, and became easier to drink. The finish is very tannic and somewhat spicy. It has a light to medium body. I’m not sure exactly what food would go with this, as it was a pretty overpowering, tannic wine. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it, but I wasn’t eating the right food for it, which didn’t help.

I didn’t get the herbiness that Robinson says Grenache has, but maybe that was the blend. She does say that Grenache is “sweet, ripe, spicy , and alcoholic”. I got a lot of that from this wine, although I wouldn’t really call it ripe. It also doesn’t have the light color that characterizes Grenache.

Tasting this makes me want to do a comparison tasting of Northern Rhone vs. Southern Rhone wines, as she suggests in her book, How to Taste.

Wine Blogging Wednesday Tasting Note – 2006 Cantina Nalles - Schiava – Italy - Alto Adige

Light.
Earthy but bright.
Shift Finish.
Essence…

My tasting note for the 2006 Cantina Nalles - Schiava, the main red grape of the Alto Adige region of Northern Italy. If the tasting note above is compelling, you can find a bottle at Astor Wine & Spirits for $12.

Tasting Note: 2003 Chateau Piada - Sauternes-Bordeaux

Below is a quick tasting note from a Sauternes I recently had with my friends Brian and Lisa while we were attempting to podcast (more on that soon).

I don’t know much about Chateau Piada except that they are in Sauternes and that Sherry Lehmann has the 2003 vintage on sale for $15 a half bottle.

It’s a light gold color with a honeyed nose. It’s really the essence of honey more than anything else with some floral notes intermingled in. It’s really honeysuckle when I think about it which makes is somewhat distinctive from the more deliberate honeyed Sauternes and other dessert wines I’ve had in the past.

It’s definitely mouth coating, not unlike syrup but not necessarily in a bad way. It also has just a touch of acidity to cut through that.

This is not a great wine by any stretch but as far as $15 Sauternes go (when it seems the median price is more like $40 a half bottle), I would feel comfortable bringing this to a dinner or dessert party. B-

Tasting Note: 2006 Domaine de Pouy – Côtes de Gascogne

This is one of my go to value white wines from any region in the world. Domaine de Pouy is from the Côtes de Gascogne region of France in the Southwest. It’s actually the same region where Cognac comes from. The main grape is Ugni Blanc which is also the main grape of Cognac. In this case it’s used for an affordable, dry white that packs a lot of distinct character for a great price.

The 2005 Domaine de Pouy is hay colored with floral, melon and very light citrus aroma and maybe even a hay-like smell as well. Medium bodied with mild acidity and a medium short finish. Very crisp and refreshing.

This is a C+/B- wine for me with the “extra credit” coming from a great quality-per-price ratio (QPR). It’s $8 at Sherry-Lehmann although I’ve also seen it for that price or a couple dollars more at Garnet Wine and Union Square Wines in Manhattan as well as Grand Liquors in Astoria.

PS – I’ve also written about the 2005 vintage here.

Mold in the Cellar…

… or at least on the boxes that contain some of my wine. I’m count myself incredible fortunate and blessed not only to have a wonderful wife who is very understanding and willing to put up with my wine habit but we also to have an actual cellar to keep it in. We have an unfinished basement in our house in Brooklyn which would seem ideal for wine storage and it almost is. But there are a couple of flaws.

* It can get a bit dry, especially in the winter with humidity hovering between 20% and 30% when the ideal for wine is 60% to 70%. This is partly due to the mechanics of the house which include the forced air unit to heat the house and the hot water heater. They are not near the wine but they do suck some moisture out of the air. Humidity during the summer is much better.

* The second flaw is the temperature range, moving from the 50s in the wintertime to the 80s in the summer time. However, it is a slow climb and it only hits the 80s when it’s 100+ outside.

There is also what might be considered a third “flaw” but it really is only a function of my stupidity. With an unfinished basement, there is little moisture protection on the floor. Hence, when flat objects are placed down directly on the porous cement, moisture gets trapped underneath and depending on the material (think cardboard or wood wine boxes here), mold can form.

You see where I’m going with this. (I must have missed that bio class in 7th grade when we talked about how mold forms.)

Once I figured this was happening, I pulled the three boxes that were on the bottom and checked out the damage. Two of the three boxes had mold on the bottom but none had made it to the bottles themselves. I threw out the boxes, placed the wine in new boxes and lifted them about 4 inches off the ground with bricks. I also did this with the third box but the mold had found its way onto some of the bottles.

I panicked because the wines affected were some of my favorites, namely Italian Brunello di Montalcinos. I wiped off the bottles and placed them in a new box, getting most of the visible mold off. But the bottles smelled and I was worried that the mold might have somehow made its way to the wine through the cork.

I opened one to find out. It was a 2001 Caparzo Brunello di Montalcino. I opened it and immediately poured the wine into a decanter to get it away from the affected bottle. I took the wine into the dinning room, set it down, and asked my wife to smell it. She detected nothing. All I could smell was the mold. Perplexing until I realized that I hadn’t washed my hands!!! After taking care of that, I went back to the wine and found no mold smell but the wine did seem somewhat closed. I started wondering if the mold had somehow muted the flavors of wine. I was at this point getting just a little worried. We had dinner, talked about other things, and then we went back to the wine. It had really opened up and smelled wonderful and ended up being a great bottle of Brunello! The mold had not won! The wine held up!!!

I’m still left with the unanswered question of whether the wines would have been affected if they had been left longer. Anyone?

I later checked tasting notes for the 2001 Caparzo Brunello online and read that it does indeed take some time to open up. As far as I could tell, the wine was unaffected and I don’t think I need to worry unduly about the other bottles.

So I sat back and enjoyed the bottle.

TN – One thing that stood out was that it went from being somewhat steely and minerally at first to soft and lush a couple hours later. Dark red in color. Somewhat leathery with dark fruit but also a touch of cherry to give it a little bit of brightness. Not too much but just enough. Bone dry texture with abundant tannins with a super long finish. Very well put together but it could stand at least a couple more years of age to soften up a bit more. Excellent overall. A-

How to Taste - A Great Learning Opportunity or an Exercise in Futility?

One of the crazier and completely impractical ideas I’ve had of late has been to take the book “How to Taste” by Jancis Robinson and follow it though from beginning to end and in the process… learn how to taste wine.

It’s a great book with very detailed instruction on how identify acidity, sweetness, bitterness, saltiness, tannins, etc and then apply that to wine and assess quality, imperfection and balance among other things.

If I can follow the book through to the end, I believe that my ability to assess wine will be much improved. As of right now, I think I do an ok job at it which is all fine and well but I would love to try and take the skill of tasting wine to the next level so to speak.

The book is also laid out in a really thoughtful way, splitting theory with an applied “practice session.” For example, in the section on balance, the theory section talks about the relationship between sweetness and acidity, detailing what you should notice when a wine is too sweet and out of balance, too acidic and out of balance, or when it’s just right and the two are in harmony with one another. Then it moves on to the practice section where she suggests buying a good sauternes, a less inexpensive sweet white wine, a Loire “sec”, and an inexpensive French country white and then comparing the balance of each.

I think it’s a great approach and one that I would get a lot out of. However… there are 102 of these practice sessions within the 200+ pages of the book or essentially half of the book! In short, it’s going to be somewhat expensive and certainly time consuming if I want to take this on. But… I’m going to give it a try for a couple of reasons.

* First, I really would like to take my ability to taste and assess wine up a notch or so.

* Second, I want to expand this blog a little bit and break out from the tried and true “Tasting Note” format. Writing about the practice sessions as I go along will hopefully help with that.

* Third, I want to experiment a little bit with the idea of podcasting. It’s my hope that some of these practice sessions will show up as a podcast and add a little bit of color to the experience. I’m not promising anything, I’m just saying that I’m going to give it a try.

* Fourth and perhaps the most important is that I want to include my wine drinking friends in the process and add more voices to this blog. Podcasting fits right into this. Since I believe that listening to a one-person podcast is akin to listening to one hand clapping, I’m hoping that by bringing my friends into the process will add another whole new dimension and the element of interaction.

As far as the practice sessions go, my idea is they will take the form of both standard blog entries as well as podcasts.

I also want to mention the inspirations for this whole project. First is the book itself. How to Taste – A Guide to Enjoying Wine by Jancis Robinson. I’ve had it for a while and have just recently recognized its brilliance. Second is the idea of following a guide from beginning to end. The idea is blatantly ripped off from the Julie/Julia Project masterminded by Julie Powell in blog form which was then turned into a book. Third are all the podcasts I’ve been listening to which include the wine focuses Grape Radio and 3 Wine Guys as well as a some food focused casts with the best being Eat-Feed.

By the way, the complication to all this is that I'll be a dad in March. No better time to take on a project like this!

There it is. Lets see how it turns out.

Tasting Note: 2005 Sheldrake Point Cabernet Franc

Dr. Vino’s blog recently detailed the dividing line where the carbon footprint of a bottle wine is equal whether you buy a bottle from California or a bottle from Europe.

It was surprising to me that the line ran straight through Ohio. Even being from New York and somewhat close to Europe, there’s still an ocean to cross but it makes sense when considering that much of the European wine is shipped in bulk containers.

That said, the smallest carbon footprint is going to be found with the wine that made closest to home.

Hence the 2005 Sheldrake Point Cabernet Franc from the Finger Lakes region of New York.

The wine is ruby red in color with a somewhat oaks nose. The fruit is dark cherry and blackberry. Overall, it has a very earthy essence to it. Medium to full bodied with a soft texture and a medium long finish.

Regarding carbon footprints, the smallest print would be buying at the winery itself with can be done with a trip upstate. I can close by purchasing my bottle at Northside Wine in Ithaca, New York for $13.

Overall, this is a decent red but not an exciting one and I think it’s a C+ effort. I’m still looking for a solid red from the Finger Lakes so as of now, my opinion stand that the regions whites and especially Rieslings are standout but the red still lack.

Tasting Note: 2004 Viticcio Chianti Classico Riserva

I’m a fan of the Italian winery Viticcio, a fantastic producer situated in Greve, the region of Tuscany which produces mainly Chianti. I first found them with the 2001 vintage of their Riserva.

This is the 2004 Chianti Classico Riserva. It’s nearly black in color and filled with dark berry, tobacco, possibly leather, and is somewhat herbaceous. Overall, it has a lovely earthy aroma in my opinion. The texture is still a bit tannic right now. But it really coats the mouth and with a little bit of time in the bottle, it should turn lush and velvety. Long finish. This wine is only going to get better.

I got this on sale from Zachys for $23 and Garnet has the 2003 vintage for $22.

Like I mentioned, I’m a big fan of this wine. I think the Riserva is a fantastic wine for a fair price but their entry level Chianti Classico for anywhere from $10 to $15 is also one to check out.

Tasting Note: 2003 Marqués de Riscal Reserva

The 1999 vintage of Marqués de Riscal Reserva was one of my early introductions to Spanish wines and I’ve liked it enough to follow the vintages.

The 2003 version is high in alcohol at 14%, a result of the scorching summer that year in Europe. This is mainly Tempranillo based with a ruby red color. It has strong cherry, licorice and cedar aromas mixed in with cinnamon and other spices. Very interesting nose. Smooth texture and nicely balanced with a long finish. Very nice and another solid B.

This was also the first bottle of wine I’ve purchased at the Trader Joe’s Wine Shop on East 14th St. They have it for $13 which is a nice price for a wine I’ve seen sell for as much as $20.

New Year's Resolution - Accomplished!

One of my new year's resolutions was to rework the Wine Index on the NYC Wine Notes blog to make it more user friendly.

It is now organized by type of wine - red, white, rose, sparkling, port, and dessert wines. From there, the wines are broken down by country and region.

Please let me know what you think. I'm always looking to improve the site.

Happy New Year!