Welcome to Wine Country

Unplanned hiatus—I hope to be back soon…

2007-07-08T11:32:00.000-07:00

Hello my friends! I have some bad news/good news to share. First, the bad news: A couple of days ago, an SUV backed into the front of my ‘vertible. I wasn’t *in* the car, but I *was* standing behind it and leaning against it while arranging my farmers-market goodies in the trunk. It gave me a major jolt, it shook me up like a James Bond martini (or was that “stirred, not shaken”?) and unfortunately it reactivated some old injuries from a long-ago accident. Soooo, I’ve decided it’s best if I take a break for a bit, and just focus on getting well.

What’s the *good* news” Well, I’m optimistic that I’ll heal fast enough so that I’ll be back very soon. I’ll check back with you in a week or so and give you a progress report.

In the meanwhile, I hope you enjoy some tasty food and vino. Let me know about any great combos you put together, and I’ll add them to the lineup for an upcoming “FoodPairing Friday.” Until then,

Cheers,
Rosina
gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson

Winemeisters Weekend: Nicoletta Canella of Casa Vinicola Canella

2007-07-08T11:04:00.000-07:00

Ever since the wonderful “Vino in Villa” Prosecco tasting I attended in San Francisco last week (see recent posts), I’ve been introducing you to this fine Italian sparkling wine and its producers. www.prosecco.it Today we’ll meet the gracious, *simpatichissima* Nicoletta Canella, whose family (like the Bortolotti/D’Anna family, whom we met last weekend) is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year as pioneers in Prosecco. www.canellaspa.it

At the Vino in Villa tasting, Nicoletta welcomed me to her table, pouring herself a taste of her lovely Prosecco, the “synonym of conviviality,” after filling my glass. (BTW, this is quite rare at “trade” tastings: winery principals hardly ever kick back and sip along with their guests. I felt tremendously flattered!)

We took in the knockout view of the Golden Gate and the splendid city below us, raised a toast to all good things and sipped the delicious Canella Prosecco together as she modestly described her family’s history and wine production.

Nicoletta’s father Luciano established the family winery in 1947, in the Conegliano hills. (Luciano had started very young: as a ten-year-old, when his father died, he helped his mother keep her restaurant in business, and in his teens, began to seek out wine to serve alongside her specialties.) Today he remains at the reins of the company, joined by Nicoletta and her three siblings.

Since the beginning, the Canella family has been instrumental in establishing and elevating the quality and reputation of Prosecco throughout the world. Luciano is renowned as an innovator in wine technology, and even the highly distinctive graphics of the Canella brand have won acclaim. The Canella Prosecco is the first sparkling wine, in fact, to win the “Gran Medaglia d’Oro” (Grand Gold Medal), in 1994, at Vinitaly’s international competition. And at the 1997 Vinitaly, it took the “Best Packaging” award.

A visit to the Canella website reveals a “who’s who” of Italian notables (including Oscar-winning composer Ennio Morricone) enjoying Canella’s Prosecco, and an array of glowing articles about the wine, in Greek, Japanese and Spanish as well as English and Italian.

Nicoletta Canella may travel the globe, but her heart remains in the Italian countryside. While we were talking about Prosecco, she kept returning to descriptions of the hills, the vineyards, and her home. She mentioned a favorite peach orchard, then asked me if I had ever tasted a Bellini. “Yes,” I answered. (I have very fond memories of enjoying a Bellini or two—it’s the quintessential local afternoon sipper—in a canalside café in Venice.)

As it turns out, the peach orchard has more than sentimental value for Nicoletta. She and her family grow a special variety of white peach to blend with their Prosecco, and they bottle it in a single-serving size. (The label reads: BELLINI—Il Cocktail di Venezia.) It’s immensely popular; Canella even hosted a “Bellini Bar” in Piazza San Marco during Carnevale this year.

Canella also produces a Bellini peach eau-de-vie, a strawberry-flavored “Rossini” sparkler (continuing the motif of Italian bel canto composers), and a rosé sparkler in addition to their top-flight Prosecco.

Mille grazie, Nicoletta Canella—I enjoyed our conversation tremendously, and I continue to enjoy your lovely wine. Splendido!

Arrivederci, e salute—
Cheers,
Rosina
gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson

FoodPairing Friday: Winemakers and their Pinots (Noir and otherwise…)

2007-07-06T08:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we visited with several Pinot producers at Pinot Days in San Francisco, www.pinotdays.com and tasted a few of their wines. (Podcast(s) soon!) Today I’ll fill you in on their food-pairing suggestions—and we’ll also tie up a few loose ends from earlier posts.

Let’s start with the pink stuff! Quite a few of the winemakers at Pinot Days also produce a rosé of Pinot Noir, and we all agree that it’s one of the most food-friendly wines on the planet. Milla Handley (founder/proprietor of Handley Cellars in Mendocino County and a frequent guest on CPN, www.handleycellars.com) enjoys hers with everything from roast chicken to Asian food (“not too spicy!”) to pork to “just plain sipping with cheeses.” In the South of France, she noted about a recent trip, they drink their rosé with everything, including lamb. Her astute summary of Pinot rosé: “It’s the essence of Pinot without all the oak… you’re getting the fresh-fruit flavors of Pinot Noir, and it’s really versatile with a lot of things.”

Ramona Nicholson of Nicholson Ranch www.nicholsonranch.com also makes a wonderful Pinot rosé—“delicious, refreshing, and dry,” and she too finds it tremendously versatile. With her husband Deepak, Ramona recently hosted a winemaker dinner featuring Indian food, and she singled out their pairing of tandoori chicken with the Pinot rosé. Although the wine isn’t actually sweet, it’s fruity enough to balance off the spice—“almost like chutney in a glass!”

While I was in between Pinot-tasting tables, I ran into Ty Mahler, the executive chef at Roy’s in San Francisco. www.roysrestaurant.com We agreed that Pinot Noir is an excellent red-wine candidate for the Asian, East-West and “Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine” specialties that are the hallmark of the Roy’s “restaurant family.” Chef Ty made my mouth water as he described an innovative seafood entrée on his current “specials” menu, with a Bing cherry, goat cheese and Pinot sauce. Pinot is one of his favorite wines too; like me, he loves it with fish as well as meat, and we shared stories while we waited to taste at the next table.

There, Craig Haserot of Sojourn Cellars www.sojourncellars.com described an “Asian spice” component in his Sonoma Coast Pinot. (Craig, like Milla Handley, is a CPN regular: see Chef Mark’s videocasts from Pinot Days New York, as well as several of my upcoming Welcome to Wine Country podcasts.) When I mentioned that I love to pair Pinot with Chinese take-out roast duck, he grinned. “Duck, as most of my friends know, is one of my favorite foods,” he said, agreeing that the Asian spice on the Chinese-style duck and the Asian spice “that’s (also) aromatically present in the Sonoma Coast (Pinot)” make a truly great match.

Now for the “loose ends.” First, about the food-pairing ideas from the SF International Wine Competition: www.sfwinecomp.com In random conversations, several fellow judges and I kicked around some thoughts about what would taste good with the wines we were tasting. (At this point, you may recall, all we knew about any given wine was its varietal/vintage.) Rosemary lamb for the slightly herbaceous Cabernet. Meaty braised shanks in spiced tomato sauce for the brawny Petite Sirah. Duck with berry sauce for that jammy Zin. Steak with mushrooms for the black-peppery Pinot. (Guess we were hungry…)

The second loose end is Prosecco. www.prosecco.it But instead of looking at food pairings for it now, why don’t we save ‘em for next Friday, the eve of Bastille Day—an ideal time to talk about bubbles. I’ll fill you in on some great matches for Champagne and other sparklers, including the tasty Prosecco that we’ve been enjoying together this past week. Meanwhile, as always,

Cheers,
Rosina
gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson

Thirsty Thursday: Tasting Pinot Days San Francisco

2007-07-05T13:42:00.000-07:00

Earlier in the week, we had a quick look at some of the highlights from Pinot Days San Francisco, www.pinotdays.com which took place last weekend at Fort Mason. The 170-odd producers poured Pinots (that's Grigio/Gris, Blanc and rosé as well as Noir!) from several countries and many states beyond California, including New Zealand, Australia and Canada; Oregon, Pennsylvania, New York and more.

Let me go grab my tasting notes, and I’ll fill you in on a few of my favorites. (Full audio to come in my “Welcome to Wine Country” Pinot Days San Francisco podcast(s)).

First stop: Bink. www.binkwines.com Don’t let the quirky name and the cute Manx kitty on the label fool you: this is some serious vino! Co-owner/winemaker Deborah Schatzlein poured me her 2004 Weir Vineyard from Yorkville Highlands (an AVA in the Mendocino hills which adjoins the perfect-for-Pinot Anderson Valley). It’s a blend of three clones, including a “suitcase clone”(!) snagged from Burgundy’s famed Domaine Romanee Conti. Rich, complex, elegant, with splashes of bright red fruit flavors. I also tried the ’03, 100% from the “suitclase clone”: great structure, heaps of dark cherry and exotic spice.

Next I cherry-picked (Ha! Guess that's an apt term!) through the alphabet to Canihan Family Cellars. www.canihanwines.com I hadn’t even heard of Canihan until last week, when their Syrah took home our “Best Red” Sweepstakes Award at the San Francisco International Wine Competition (see previous posts). www.sfwinecomp.com As I congratulated him for the huge win, Bill Canihan poured me his 2004 Canihan Family Reserve from the cool southern edge of the Sonoma Valley (rare wine—just one barrel produced!), as well as his ’04 Estate Pinot. His third wine, an ’05 estate wine called “Exuberance” (aka "Irrational Exuberance"), shows lots of spice and yummy plummy flavors that Bill “can always recognize in a blind tasting.” Bill farms biodynamically, and soon his wines will be certified organic.

I spotted Ken Volk of Kenneth Volk Vineyards in San Luis Obispo, www.volkwines.com and joined him for a few tastes. (I had met Ken earlier in the year at the Pinot Summit, when his wine qualified for the big "Top 40" tasting. Podcast soon!). His Santa Maria Cuvee, which combines fruit from several top vineyards, showed Asian spice, earthiness, and ripe red fruits. The single-vineyard Sierra Madre, which Ken describes as “kind of old-school,” is all Pommard clone, with floral and “animal” elements added to the dark fruit and showing “the terroir of the Santa Maria benchlands.”

When I introduced myself to Ramona Nicholson of Nicholson Ranch, www.nicholsonranch.com I mentioned that Chef Mark, Jennifer and I had explored her very inviting winery grounds in my ‘vertible during their recent visit to California. (Podcast soon!) Ramona and her husband built the five-level, gravity-flow winery on its Sonoma hillside, with vines surrounding it. We tasted her 2005 Estate, a blend of five Dijon clones, and the “Cactus Hill” Reserve (named for a stand of old-growth cactus on the site). It’s a “barrel select” wine, made from their 10 favorite barrels (out of a total 60), and the wine gets new French oak and more time in the cellar. It’s deep, rich, dark, concentrated and full of perfume. We finished up with the delicious, refreshing “Ramona Rosé,” made 100% from Pinot Noir. Ramona’s middle name is Rose. Just add the accent!

Throughout my Pinot Days adventure, I talked food-pairing with the producers. Tomorrow we’ll explore some of their favorite food partners, as well as some ideas I've collected from earlier tastings. I’ll come back soon for the full story on both Appellation America Magazine www.appellationamerica.com and Crushpad (the cool San Francisco custom-winemaking facility), www.crushpadwine.com with an entire blog post devoted to each one. Until then,

Cheers,
Rosina
gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson

Wine 101 Wednesday: Prosecco and the “Metodo Italiano”

2007-07-05T10:01:00.000-07:00

We’ve been bouncing back and forth between Pinot and Prosecco for the last few days, thanks to a couple of quite wonderful tastings I attended in San Francisco last week. When we left off yesterday, I promised you more about the specialized methods of Prosecco production in the Veneto region of northeastern Italy.

First, I’d like to say thanks for all *your* inquiries about Prosecco, and since this is our first “First Wednesday,” when I answer *your* questions, I’ll field them here, as part of my wrapup. (Thanks, Jim in OR; Ben in SoCal; M.A. in NY! And “mille grazie” to the many members of the Consorzio Tutela Prosecco Conegliano Valdobbiadene, the Prosecco governing body, who personally provided me with detailed descriptions at the Vino in Villa tasting. Their excellent website,
www.prosecco.it filled in lots of extra details, as well as the quotes.)

Back to the Prosecco how-to. At harvest time, the members of the Consorzio carefully monitor grape maturity in the vineyards throughout the zone. When the time is right, the Consorzio holds a public meeting to give the many growers the go-ahead to start picking.

The grapes then move to the various wineries, where special crushers gently press them to extract only the “free-run juice from the heart of the berry.” (The remainder eventually gets distilled into Prosecco grappa.) Generally, a winery keeps different “lots” of grapes from different vineyards or areas separate, to preserve the unique character of each one.

This free-run juice rests for 12-14 hours in stainless-steel tanks to let the sediment settle out, and then is allowed to ferment, becoming Prosecco “base wine.” The winemaker tastes the various lots, then blends them “in precise proportions, so as to achieve a perfect balance of all the components.”

Now comes the “Metodo Italiano”: Italy’s version of the Charmat process, in which a sparkling wine’s secondary fermentation takes place in large, pressure-sealed vats. Also used in the Piemonte region to make the famed Asti Spumante, this method works better for Prosecco than the more time-consuming (and more expensive) Methode Champenoise, in which a wine ferments in individual bottles with lengthy yeast contact.

Why? Because Prosecco, and the Muscat-based Asti Spumante, are fruit-driven. Their charm is all about freshness and bright flavors, and the yeast-based characteristics of Champenoise sparklers just aren’t necessary. (Some producers, in fact, actually argue that these flavors would detract from their Prosecco.)

What’s more, since the Metodo Italiano is faster and less costly, the Prosecco can come to market sooner, with a price tag that suits it to celebrating every single day. And that’s a win-win in my book!

BTW: I also promised you more info about the term “DOC” (Denominazione di Origine Controllata). This refers to a set of quality-assurance rules for Italian wine production, in force throughout the country. Established by presidential decree in 1963, DOC is comparable to the French AOC, which was instituted in the 1950s for the same purpose.

The DOC concept is so important that I’ll bring it back soon for a Wine 101 Wednesday of its own. Meanwhile, we’ll taste some Pinots tomorrow. Until then,

Cheers,
Rosina

PS—Apologies for this late posting. As you can see, it’s now Thursday the 5th. I took a looong walk on the beach yesterday morning, and between that and the 100-degree afternoon, I was so wiped in the evening that I actually fell asleep at my laptop…
gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson

Tuesday Travels: Passport to Wine (PtA) #1—Veneto Region, Italy

2007-07-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

Benvenuti in Italia! (Welcome to Italy!) And welcome to our very first “Welcome to Wine Country” Passport to Wine. As their name implies, these virtual visits whisk us across borders and oceans to wine-growing areas in other parts of the globe.

Today we’re visiting the Wine Country of the Veneto region, right outside Venice in the northeast between the Dolomites and the Adriatic Sea. Hilly and somewhat chilly, the Veneto is the home of Prosecco, www.prosecco.it Italy’s delightfully fruity-fresh sparkling wine.

The vintners who produce this bubbly treasure have very wisely banded together to form a consortium to establish quality-control guidelines for Prosecco. The wine, in fact, has earned DOC status (more tomorrow) for its terroir-focused standards of excellence.

Although I love to travel, this time I didn’t have to deal with jet lag, airport hassles or an actual passport to taste Prosecco: Italy came to San Francisco last week with a wonderful “Vino in Villa” tasting, featuring members of the consortium and their wines. (Here's a pic of Daniele D'Anna in the Crown Room of the Fairmont Hotel with his Bortolotti Prosecco. www.bortolotti.com)

As they poured me their lovely libations, the visiting vintners described the unique growing conditions of their region. Stretching across a series of hill chains in the province of Treviso, between the town of Conegliano in the east and Valdobbiadene at the western edge, the Prosecco production zone comprises about 45,000 acres in 15 separate communities. Farming the steep hills is labor-intensive and difficult to mechanize, and much of the acreage is in the hands of small growers, with several co-ops and only a few large producers.

Much of Prosecco’s character comes directly from the vineyards. The grape does best (BTW, “Prosecco” is the name of the grape varietal as well as the sparkling wine made from it) on hillsides, at altitudes of up to ~1650 feet. This makes for dramatic cooling at night, which helps preserve and build the necessary acidity in the grapes. On the other side of the coin, Prosecco vineyards are planted on south-facing slopes (often with woods on the northern side) to achieve optimal ripeness.

Several other local varietals—Bianchetta, Verdiso and the “pear-shaped” Perera—are sometimes blended with Prosecco, usually in small amounts. Distinctive and especially beautiful at harvest time, the large, yellow Prosecco grape clusters make for an eye-catching golden accent on the sunny hillsides.

Grapegrowing in this region dates back to ancient times: Prosecco may possibly trace its ancestry to the “Pucino” of the Roman era. In its modern form, Prosecco production began about 200 years ago. Nowadays, thanks to successful programs of clonal selection, vintners plant different “biotypes” of Prosecco in the various microclimates of the zone. A top-flight research facility, in fact—the Experimental Center for Viticulture, along with the excellent School of Viticulture and Enology, both in Conegliano—provide research and education within the Prosecco community.

Tomorrow, on Wine 101 Wednesday, we’ll look at the how-to of Prosecco production. Until then,

Cheers (Salute)—
Rosina
gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson

Monday Mix: Pinot Daze at Pinot Days San Francisco

2007-07-02T16:50:00.000-07:00

Welcome back—hope you’re enjoying this long summer weekend! In the last few posts, we’ve been tasting and talking about Prosecco, Italy’s sparkling superstar, and we’ll come back tomorrow in Tuesday Travels for some more bubbles.

Today, I’d like to bring you to Pinot Days, www.pinotdays.com which took place yesterday at Fort Mason in San Francisco. This full-day tasting featured wines from 170 producers, representing several countries and many states beyond California. I tasted and enjoyed Pinots from New Zealand, Australia and Canada; from Oregon, Pennsylvania, New York and more. The differences among all of these highly individual growing regions added an extra layer to the already unparalleled diversity and complexity that this finicky wine varietal can express.

In simpler terms: Pinot=Yum! It's my favorite red. And after today, I love it even more.

If you’ve been following Chef Mark’s ReMARKable Palate audio and video podcasts from Pinot Days New York, you’ve already met some of the major Pinot players: notably Milla Handley of Handley Cellars www.handleycellars.com in Mendocino’s Anderson Valley, and Craig Haserot of Sojourn Cellars in Sonoma. www.sojourncellars.com (You’ll hear even more from Milla and Craig in my upcoming “Welcome to Wine Country” podcasts from the Pinot Summit in San Francisco and the Pinot Festival in Mendocino.)

At Fort Mason, the winery tables were arranged alphabetically in several rows that stretched the length of the former Army warehouse building. (This same venue also hosts the monster ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates and Producers) festival each January, as well as the annual San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition public tasting and the Rhone Rangers and Family Winemakers events, among others.) Several local food purveyors were offering Pinot-friendly samples from their product lines. Aidells Sausage Company www.aidells.com offered “gourmet meatballs” as well as wursts from the “Sausagemaker to the Stars,” and Big Paw Grub served up olive oils, balsamic vinegars and other tasty condiments. www.bigpawgrub.com (More on both these producers in our upcoming visits to the Marin County Farmers Market.)

As I made my way through the winery alphabet, I met up with quite a few long-time winemaker friends who were pouring their new releases, and I also met many other Pinot producers for the first time. At one table, I had to specify “the *red* Pinot, please,” as they were also pouring a rosé as well as a Pinot Grigio, a *white* varietal that is genetically a mutated “pigment phenotype” of Pinot Noir. (Lay *that* on the waitperson, next time you order a glass of the stuff at your fave Italian joint!) And FYI, Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris are one and the same: the “G” word translates as “gray” in Italian and French, respectively, referring to the color of the grape clusters.

I’ll bring you back to Pinot Days on “Thirsty Thursday.” Meanwhile, to whet your appetite for our virtual tasting (we’ll wet our whistle then), here are some of my favorites-of-the-day: Addamo Estate Vineyards of Santa Maria, Girasole Vineyards in Mendocino, Bink Wines (named after the owner/winemaker’s black Manx cat!), Canihan Family Cellars (their Syrah won “Best Red” in the SF International Wine Competition; see previous posts), Elke Vineyards and Esterlina of Anderson Valley, Joseph Swan Vineyards, Kenneth Volk Vineyards of San Luis Obispo, Nicholson Ranch in Sonoma, Papapietro Perry of Healdsburg, Philo Ridge Vineyards in Mendocino, Row Eleven Wine Company, Saintsbury of Napa (Carneros), TR Elliott of Sebastopol, Truchard Vineyards in Napa, Willamette Valley Vineyards in Oregon, and Yering Station from Australia’s Yarra Valley. Whew!

We’ll also have a visit with Appellation America, www.appellationamerica.com the online wine magazine that focuses on distinct winegrowing regions throughout the country. We’ll also catch a glimpse of Crushpad, www.crushpadwine.com a wildly popular custom-winemaking facility in San Francisco that also co-sponsored the Pinot Days event.

Until then,

Cheers,
Rosina
gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson

Winemeisters Weekend: Daniele D’Anna of Cantine Umberto Bortolotti

2007-06-30T01:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I brought you to an amazing tasting of Prosecco, the food-friendly sparkling wine of the Veneto in northeastern Italy. The event featured members of the Consorzio Tutela del Vino Prosecco DOC di Conegliano e Valdobbiadene. Since the 1960s, this consortium of producers has established, and now maintains and enhances, the high standards of quality for their wine. www.prosecco.it

I had the great pleasure of meeting quite a few vintners, to taste at least two or three different Prosecco bottlings at each table, and to trot out my rusty Italian. In the back of the room, framed against a backdrop of San Francisco Bay and the distant Carneros wine-growing district that spans the southern edge of both Napa and Sonoma, stood the tall, charismatic Daniele D’Anna. Earlier, during my first tasting at the Adami winery table, www.adamispumanti.it the well-connected Enrico Valleferro had singled out “mi amico Daniele” and his wines as an absolute “must.”

Daniele is the grandson (on his mother’s side, hence the different surnames), of Umberto Bortolotti, who founded his eponymous winery www.bortolotti.com in Valdobbiadene in 1947. Daniele is as warm, charming, smart and fun as he is movie-star handsome. (See pic, and yesterday’s too.) And the guy makes some fine, fine vino to boot.

When I arrived at his table, Daniele was pouring his Brut—the first of several Prosecco bottlings from the winery’s “UB” line—for a small group of tasters. I quickly joined in. I loved the wine’s crisp tang and clean dry finish, with nice full fruit. We kicked around some recipe ideas, most of which involved some sort of seafood. (I immediately pictured a mound of oysters, a shucking knife, a lemon and a slew of napkins.)

His second wine, the Extra Dry, has a bit more sweetness in the dosage (pronounced doh-SAAZH, this is a French term for the sugar added to sparkling wine just before bottling; Brut generally has less than Extra Dry). This gives it a softer, rounder overall impression, and suits it to foods with sweetness, salt and/or spice. Our conversation twisted and turned from prosciutto with melon to Thai food and sushi (see yesterday’s post), with lots of tasty stops along the way.

Last, and anything but least, Daniele poured us a taste of the ultra-luxe Cartizze (named for a tiny town in the nearby hills, with an even cooler microclimate than the rest of the region). Cartizze has earned the VSQPRD (Vini Spumanti di Qualita’ Prodotti in Regioni Determinate) designation. Refined, subtle, elegant: bring on the salmon and caviar. (And instead of springing for the sturgeon stuff, I’ll pick up some tobiko (flying-fish roe) at the Asian market for this beauty.

Mille grazie, Daniele D’Anna, for the delicious pours, the lively conversation, and all your great ideas on pairing Prosecco with a world of food. Thanks also for the great “to go” boxful of bubbles—my friends, family and I will be enjoying your wines, and toasting you and your Consorzio colleagues, for quite a while. (And happy 60th anniversary to the Bortolotti winery!)

Ciao for now, e salute—
Cheers,
Rosina
gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson

FoodPairing Friday: Prosecco ROCKS! (in both senses..)

2007-06-29T16:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I know I promised you some tasting notes, and some food-pairing ideas, for the “Best Red” wines from last week’s San Francisco International Wine Competition.

Sometimes the best-laid plans… well, you know. OK with you if we put that on the back burner for a (very short) while? ‘Cause I went to a stop-the-presses Prosecco tasting yesterday, and the Italian winemakers/winery owners and I talked food-and-wine-pairing the whole time. Then they filled the ‘vertible with lotsa bottles, and…

In case you’re worrying, I aced the sobriety test. The winemakers/winery owners (let’s just call them “vintners”) and I decided that if you can say “Il Prosecco di Conegliano e Valdobbiadene” without a hitch, you’re OK to drive home. (BTW, it’s “eel proh-SEHC-coh dee coh-neh-LYAh-noh eh vahl-doh-BYAH-deh-neh.”) www.prosecco.it

If I hadn’t already been in love with Prosecco, I would have fallen head over heels at this tasting. First of all, it was held in the Crown Room, high atop the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill, with postcards-on-steroids views out the many windows. (Here’s one of Coit Tower.) You could do a water tasting here and feel intoxicated.

At any rate, the vintners and I agreed that neither the view nor the Prosecco *needed* any improvement, but each of them really did (at least seem to) enhance the other, the way a wine can enhance an already-delicious food, and vice-versa.

Which leads me to… today’s FoodPairing Friday musings. As I spoke with the vintners about their favorite food pairings with their own bottlings, I reminisced about the first time I ever tasted Prosecco, in the early ‘90s, on a very romantic evening in Venice. The wine was barely a blip on the American-export-market radar at that point, and it took several years for me to be able to find any decent examples of Prosecco here at home.

Today there are dozens of them, in beautiful, classy packages, and at amazingly reasonable prices. Between Italian Prosecco and Spanish cava, which I also love, I have my value-priced-bubbly needs covered. Virtually all of them cost less than $20.00 a bottle, and I often find excellent ones for $10 or less.

On that night in Venice, at a friend’s “piccolo palazzo” (tiny palace), we were welcomed with some nuggets of local cheese and some tangy cured olives to go with the never-empty flutes of Prosecco. Great start. Prosecco is fruity enough to handle salt (the “peanut butter and jelly effect”!), and its crisp acids plus lively bubbles cut right through fat. We stayed with Prosecco through a lovely main dish of pasta with asparagus and turkey breast, lightly seasoned with olive oil and fresh local herbs. Both the wine and the pasta dish were at the same level of intensity: neither overpowered the other, and each one let the other’s flavors show through.

Yesterday in San Francisco, the Italian vintners regaled me with the culinary specialties of the Veneto region where Prosecco is produced, including seafood from the Adriatic coast, light pastas, creamy risotto, salumi (cured meats), vegetables such as zucchini and eggplant, and local fruits and cheeses. My palate memory, meanwhile, had hopped a flight right back to Italy.

Then one of the vintners, Daniele D'Anna of Cantine Umberto Bortolotti, www.bortolotti.com mentioned Thai food. And sushi. And we started to riff on things like dim sum, Vietnamese spring rolls, and East/West fusion food. At home, I generally drink bubbles (or beer) with that category of salty/sweet/tangy/spicy ethnic specialties, so we were definitely on the same page. What my new friend didn’t realize was that I had already planned to stop for take-out Thai on my way home. And when he generously gave me a six-pack of his Prosecco, that sealed the deal for me. (That's tall Daniele in the pic, squatting down to bottle level, with a quaffable quartet of Bortolotti Prosecco. More on Daniele tomorrow!)

So as not to develop chronic blogorrhea, I’m going to sign off in a moment, and then pick up next Friday with my Prosecco-with-Thai-food dinner. (BTW, since there was a sushi place around the corner from the Thai restaurant, and they had some great stuff on their “specials” list…) For now, I’ll finish up by telling you how I chilled down my Prosecco when I got home, starved and thirsty.

Putting a bottle in the freezer helps, but it still takes about 15 minutes. And I didn’t have any of those little plastic ice-ball-thingies at the ready. (They got moved out to make room for food. Priorities, you know.)

What I *did* have in the freezer was some grapes. Table grapes, frozen solid. So I improvised, filled my glass with the impromptu little edible “rocks,” and poured in the Prosecco. The icy grapes chilled down the vino before you could say “Prosecco Rocks!” (And later, after they thawed, the wine-soaked grapes made a dandy dessert.)

May your weekend rock too. Lots more about Prosecco In my next few posts. Meanwhile, you can learn more in yesterday's Culinary Roundtable #15 podcast on Prosecco.

Cheers (Salute)—
Rosina
gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson

Thirsty Thursday: Taste the Sweepstakes Winners!

2007-06-28T12:50:00.000-07:00

In the last couple of posts, I’ve smuggled you into the ultimate inner sanctum of wine judging: the Sweepstakes Round at the recent San Francisco International Wine Competition. www.sfwinecomp.com Yesterday, I listed the winners. Today we’ll taste a few. (Let me go grab my notes…)

BEST SAUVIGNON BLANC Cairnbrae Vineyards 2006 The Stones Marlborough New Zealand

Panel “D” sent a Double Gold Sauv Blanc to the Sweeps, where we had a total of three to choose among. I loved this one, and I gave it not only my highest score for Sauv Blancs (93 of 100), but also my vote for “Best White.” Lime, honeydew melon, a touch of those “green” or “here, kitty” pyrazines (see last week), and crisp, puckery acidity to make it a great partner to food. Textbook New Zealand Sauv Blanc.

BEST RIESLING Snoqualmie Vineyard 2006 Winemaker’s Select Columbia Valley 5.05% rs $7

Wow, a Sweeps-winning Riesling for seven!!! bucks!?! From where? Germany? Cool-climate California? New York? No. Washington state! Downright yummy, somewhat sweet (~5% residual sugar, and that’s perfectly OK if you list it as such), rich and ripe with juicy summer stone fruit (think peaches, apricots, nectarines) and a characteristic touch of “petrol.” (That’s an OK descriptor in Riesling.) I raised my hand on this one, and also on our other Riesling choice, which was made in a drier style. (Riesling can correctly range all over the map, from bone dry to ultra-decadent, honey-sweet dessert versions.)

BEST OF SHOW - WHITE Chouinard Vineyards 2006 Chenin Blanc Monterey 1.85% rs $11

Chenin Blanc. Who’da thunk it! (See Gerald Weisl's www.weimax.com pic: I'm surrounded by guys who voted "yes." I didn't. C'est la vie.) When this varietal won “Best White,” the judges bandied about such phrases as “raised from the dead” and “saved from extinction” (a reference to its—uh, “low profile” is a diplomatic way to put it). Andy Blue’s www.bluelifestyle.com comment (referring to a French region where they make and love Chenin) is “They’re gonna be dancing in the Loire tonight.)

BEST OF SHOW - SPARKLING Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin 1988 Brut Rare Vintage Champagne France $90

One of the biggest treats about judging a Sweepstakes Round: If you find a wine you love (or a few), you can hold onto them and actually drink some when you’re done making your decisions. (For the rest of the weekend, alas, we spit.) I didn’t let a drop of this beautifully aged Veuve go to waste. Deep, full-flavored, elegant, with toasty pastry and butterscotch/caramel and great weight in the mouth thanks to yeast contact and a nice long time in bottle. Glorious!

Next time, we’ll check out some winning reds. (Thanks once again, Carol Seibert, for the master list of Sweepstakes winners.) www.sfwinecomp.com/pdf_07/07_results_medal.pdf

Until then,
Cheers,
Rosina
gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson

Wine 101 Wednesday—Sweepstakes Round: And the Winner(s) Is (Are) Part Deux... (uh, “Part Doux” again for the dessert vino…)

2007-06-27T12:56:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I gave you a general rundown of the Sweepstakes winners at the recent San Francisco International Wine Competition. www.sfwinecomp.com Today I’m going to name names (and tomorrow I’ll fill in with some of my tasting notes.)

First, though, since this is our “Wine 101” day, I thought I’d explain another phase of the Sweepstakes judging. Earlier this week (see previous posts), I compared the nuts and bolts of two very different wine competitions that I’ve judged this month. One (um, this one) is the largest in North America, with wines from around the globe. The other is an amateur winemaking contest for my local county fair. (I tasted some fantastic wines at both, by the way. Also some real dogs—no offense to actual canines!)

At the Marin County Fair judging, our Sweepstakes round took place on a separate day, and we turned in our scoresheets and waited while the votes were counted to determine the winners. This is a simple and effective approach, especially with a fairly small pool of both wines and judges.

At the SF International, we retained our scoresheets and voted by a show of hands. Different, but just as valid. So far so good.

Now comes the twist that I haven’t described yet. As you’ll hear on the upcoming Sweepstakes podcast, Andy Blue www.bluelifestyle.com uses a modified version of the standard scoring system in the Sweepstakes round, one that works especially well with a large number of judges. (Andy credits this method to the highly precise and analytical wine guru Dan Berger, and the majority of us, including myself, prefer it.)

Instead of only raising our hands for our favorite wine (or top two or three favorites, or whatever), we each get to raise our hands for any wine that we “like” enough to vote for. Each judge decides how he or she will make the cut. Statistically, this gives a somewhat different, and arguably somewhat better picture of the overall quality of a wine (as perceived by a higher, therefore statistically more significant number of judges) than a simple “vote for your one-and-only favorite.”

How do I, personally, decide how to cast my vote(s)? (As you can see in yesterday’s pic, we have a daunting array of 50+ wineglasses in front of us.) My approach is simple and efficient, and it minimizes both palate fatigue and any unwelcome buzz. (Even though we don’t swallow, some alcohol always absorbs through the membranes of the mouth. And I do have to drive home afterwards!)

Answer: I just use the ol’ 100-point system. Although I find it rather dry and limiting for general use, it works great at a Sweepstakes. For any wine I smell/taste, I write down an objective numerical score (usually in the 85-97 range; these are, after all, Double Golds) along with my subjective descriptions. Then, when we have to compare, say, a Pinot vs. a Cab vs. a Syrah, etc., etc., for “Best Red,” I don’t have to retaste all of them. I just zero in on my top scores, and recheck any that seem close to my (arbitrary) 90-point cutoff. Done! And as a bonus, I can run around with my recorder and mic, scores in hand, while everybody else is still tasting, and catch up with Andy Blue just as he’s about to announce the winners. (See pic. Thanks, Gerald Weisl!)

Speaking of which, as promised, let’s open “the envelope, please...” (Thank you, Carol Seibert, for the master list www.sfwinecomp.com/pdf_07/07_results_medal.pdf )

And The Winners of the 2007 San Francisco International Wine Competition Are…

BEST ZINFANDEL Rosenblum Cellars 2005 Harris Kratka Vineyard Alexander Valley $35

BEST WHITE HYBRID Penguin Bay Winery NV Percussion Finger Lakes 2.25% rs $11

BEST TEMPRANILLO Cosentino Winery 2005 The Temp Crystal Valley Cellars Kirschenmann Vineyards Lodi $22

BEST SEYVAL BLANC Prairie Berry Winery 2006 American 0.18% rs $12

BEST SAUVIGNON BLANC Cairnbrae Vineyards 2006 The Stones Marlborough New Zealand

BEST ROSÉ Montes Wines 2006 Syrah Rosé Colchagua Valley Chile $16

BEST RIESLING Snoqualmie Vineyard 2006 Winemaker’s Select Columbia Valley 5.05% rs $7

BEST RED RHÔNE BLEND Kilikanoon Wines 2005 Shiraz Grenache Killerman’s Run South Australia $22

BEST PREMIUM RED Madroña Vineyards 2004 Quintet Estate, Reserve El Dorado $28

BEST PINOT NOIR La Crema Winery 2005 Los Carneros $34

BEST PINOT GRIS Kathy Lynskey Wines 2006 Single Vineyard Marlborough Pinot Gris New Zealand $25

BEST PETITE SIRAH Michael David Vineyards 2004 Earthquake Lodi $28

BEST OF SHOW - WHITE Chouinard Vineyards 2006 Chenin Blanc Monterey 1.85% rs $11

BEST OF SHOW - SPARKLING Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin 1988 Brut Rare Vintage Champagne France $90

BEST OF SHOW - RED Canihan Family Cellars 2004 Syrah Estate Sonoma Valley $30

BEST OF SHOW - DESSERT Stone Paddock 2006 Late Harvest Semillon Hawkes Bay New Zealand 10% rs

BEST NATIVE AMERICAN WHITE Goose Watch Winery NV Diamond Finger Lakes 5.5% rs $9

BEST MERLOT Columbia Crest Winery 2004 Grand Estates Columbia Valley $11

BEST GEWÜRZTRAMINER Spy Valley Wines 2006 Marlborough New Zealand 1% rs $20

BEST FORTIFIED WINE Mazuran's Vineyards 1948 Vintage Port New Zealand $1200

BEST CHARDONNAY Beringer Founders' Estate 2005 California $11

BEST CABERNET SAUVIGNON Stone Pine Estate 2004 Sagebrush Annies Santa Barbara $25

BEST BARBERA Vino Noceto 2004 Linsteadt Shenandoah Valley $28

Tomorrow we taste ‘em.

Until then,
Cheers,
Rosina
gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson

Tuesday Travels—Sweepstakes Round: And the Winner(s) Is (Are)…

2007-06-26T12:19:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I ran the concept of “Sweepstakes Round” by you. (This is the “comparing apples and oranges” approach to choosing the “Best in Show” winner(s) at a wine judging.) Today, as we return to San Francisco, I’ll fill in more details about how Sweepstakes works, and we’ll peek into “the envelope, please,” for a glimpse at some of the big winners in last week’s San Francisco International Wine Competition. www.sfwinecomp.com

“International” is indeed the key word here. Scanning the list of “Double Gold” medal winners (wines that were unanimously rated “Gold” by every member of their panel), and “Best of Class” awards, I notice a “Best Rosé” from Chile, a “Best Red Blend” from Australia, and not just a “Best Sauvignon Blanc” from New Zealand (no surprise there—see last Thursday’s post) but also a “Best Gewurztraminer” and “Best Fortified Wine”—an amazing 1948(!!!) Port.

If you’ve ever watched a dog show (I’m addicted to ‘em, even though I’m more of a “cat person”), you’ll recognize the format. Just as the “Best Terrier,” “Best Hound,” Best Working Dog” and the rest of the seven “group winners” square off in the “Best in Show” finals, to be judged by a top-ranking expert, the top examples of each wine category come to the table in the Sweepstakes.

This neat pic shows the array of 50 or so wine glasses that awaited each of us 40-odd judges in this final round. (Thanks, Gerald Weisl, www.weimax.com for filling in after my camera opted for a permanent nap!) In addition to all the stemware, each of us had a scoresheet indicating the type and code number for each wine.

Anthony Dias (“Andy”) Blue www.bluelifestyle.com moderated the proceedings (full audio on an upcoming Welcome to Wine Country podcast), while Carol Siebert (see last weekend’s post) and two veteran volunteers tabulated the results.

In some categories (such as Barbera and Tempranillo) there was just one Double Gold-winning finalist. In others (Chardonnay, Cabernet and other more popular and therefore better-represented wines), we first had to select our favorites among a small number of Double Golds in that category. At this point, we were comparing “apples and apples”: namely Chardonnay vs. Chardonnay (vs. Chardonnay, etc., if there were more than two.)

That narrowed the field, so that we now had only one of each type of wine in front of us. (I say “type,” rather than “varietal” here because some categories were broader, as in “Best Dessert Wine” or “Best Premium Red.”)

Now came the “apples and oranges” stage, comparable to the dog show finals. First up: Best Sparkling Wine, with only two to compare. By a show of hands, the favorite won by a decent margin. Next, the “Best Of Show—White,” with everything from a Seyval Blanc to a Pinot Gris (another New Zealander) to a Chardonnay, Riesling and several others. The winner was a huge surprise: an elegant Chenin Blanc made from Monterey County grapes.

In the Best of Show—Red round, we had even more wines to choose among. A Syrah from Sonoma Valley took that one, with very strong competition. On to dessert, where a luscious late-harvest Semillon, also from New Zealand, scored top honors.

Tomorrow, I’ll name names. Meanwhile, you can check out the complete list of winning wines at your leisure—this link sorts them by medal. www.sfwinecomp.com/pdf_07/07_results_medal.pdf

Until then,
Cheers,
Rosina
gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson

Monday Mix—Wine Judging—The Lighter Side—Amateur Winemaking Competition

2007-06-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

Last Monday I led you through the judging procedures at the giant, world-renowned San Francisco International Wine Competition. www.sfwinecomp.com Four thousand wines. Eleven judging panels. Three days of tasting. Medals galore. Major prestige. Winery reputations made; bottom lines boosted. Pretty darn intense.

Today we’re going to kick back a bit. I judged another wine competition this month, and I’d like to bring you along with me to this one too. As with the SF International, medals here mean a lot. But they won’t affect a winery’s sales—by definition.

That’s because this is an amateur winemaking competition. It’s part of the Marin County Fair, which takes place each year during Fourth of July weekend. (I'll share some fun audio with you on an upcoming podcast.) I signed up on a lark, and showed up at the fairgrounds (right behind the landmark Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Marin Civic Center) for the preliminary round, with no idea what to expect.

After a warm welcome from Bernie Rooney, the event director, I made my way to the small grouping of tables in the back corner. I introduced myself to the judges who were seated there already, and they filled me in on the setup.

Each of the four tables had a piece of paper on it with the names of three or so types of wines. I spotted the magic “P” word, and quickly sat down at the “Chardonnay, Pinot, Syrah” table. My best friend Christina joined me (she’s done amateur winemaking for years, and has an excellent palate), then two fine fellows who had greeted me earlier filled in the last two seats.

Although the actual results (e.g. “Gold Medal,” “Best Red,” “Best in Show”) would eventually be similar, the actual judging procedure differed quite a bit from the SF International. (And any differences I point out have nothing to do with “a better way”; both sets of protocols are perfectly valid and work quite well all around.)

Rather than presenting us with full flights of wines (the 10 to 15 glasses or so at a time that’s SOP at the SF International), our panel coordinator brought out just one wine at a time—a bottle in a paper bag, marked only with wine type and code number (see pic). Then we would pass the bottle around the table and pour our own.

Our task was to evaluate the wine in great detail (the winemakers would later receive our actual comments about their entries), also rating them numerically in categories such as “appearance,” “aroma” and “finish.” Then, after each wine, we would turn in its scoresheet. (At SF International, we keep our paperwork, and later we receive a long list of the wines, with their codes, so that we can write about—or better yet purchase—the ones we like.)

Another difference is that our ratings didn’t directly address the question of medals. Bernie and his tabulators (wasn’t that a ‘70s band?) would do that afterwards, in preparation for the final Sweepstakes round, held two weeks later. That’s when we judge the “best of the best,” comparing apples and oranges (in some cases, almost literally!) to decide, for instance, “Best White” in a group that might contain the Best Chardonnay, Best Riesling, Best Sauvignon Blanc, and more. (BTW, the SF International handles the sweepstakes round in the same way, just with lots more wineglasses.)

Next time I’ll fill in more details, bring you to the Sweepstakes, and reveal the results. (And yes, I did get to discover a “perfect” 20-point wine—a gorgeous Pinot Noir that could easily have snagged a Gold or even Double Gold in a professional judging.)

Cheers for now,
Rosina
gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson

Winemeisters Weekend—Carol Seibert

2007-06-24T10:03:00.000-07:00

For the previous week-plus, we’ve been enjoying the San Francisco International Wine Competition, www.sfwinecomp.com which took place last weekend. It’s the largest in North America, and among the most prestigious (if not *the* most), with over 4,000 wines from various corners of the world and an international array of judges to evaluate them.

Anthony Dias (“Andy”) Blue is the executive director of this annual tasting marathon. For the day-to-day operations, though (which actually fill the entire year), managing director Carol Seibert (see pic, with Master Sommelier Kevin Vogt of the “Purple Tongue Gang”) has been basically running the show since 1990. Warm, congenial, and unflappable, Carol oversees both the big-picture planning and the myriad details that enable this wine competition to flow seamlessly, despite unforeseen hitches and glitches, every year.

Carol acts as information hub for the SF International, coordinating up-to-the-second goings-on among the various facets of the organization. At any given moment, she might be working with wineries, volunteers, application forms, hotel details, medal notifications, judges—even to the minutiae of out-of-towners’ airport-transportation needs—or all of the above.

Carol also modifies the competition to reflect changes in the wine world. She’ll add new categories of wine, for example, as they hit the marketplace, and she’ll seek out new judges (with more and more wine entries each year, we always need more judges!) who share her “finger-on-the-pulse” view of wine. Under Carol’s guidance, by the way, the percentage of female judges has steadily increased year by year. (We gals do, after all, make up at least half the population, and an even greater percentage of the wine-buying public.)

Carol Seibert has a lot of clout. But she wields it gently, with compassion and kindness. (Her most recent email was addressed “To my wonderful judges.”) Thanks in great measure to Carol’s methodical, hands-on approach and constant fine-tuning, the SF International gets better and better every year.

Whether behind the scenes or in the thick of things; whether solving a logistics problem or introducing new judges to the seasoned regulars on their panels, Carol is not only instrumental in making the San Francisco International Wine Competition happen, she helps make it just plain fun!

Thanks, Carol, for all you do. And thanks for helping to make the SF International one of the major highlights of my summer!

Cheers,
Rosina
gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson

Foodpairing Friday—Pairing Shrimp with Wine-Award Giant

2007-06-22T13:01:00.000-07:00

Last Friday we had lobster. Mmm. Today, we’ll have a look at the king-size crustacean’s compact cousin. Call ‘em shrimp, prawns, scampi (yes, there are lots of different species/sizes/flavor-texture profiles, but basically they’re similar enough). They’re hugely popular all over the world; they take to lots of different prep methods (from raw ceviche all the way to toasty char-broiling or grilling); and they slurp up whatever flavors you team ‘em with.

What that means when it comes to beverage pairing is that there’s no one wine that “is perfect with shrimp/prawns/name of choice.” It all depends on what you do with the little fellers.

Stack ‘em with avocado slices, minced cilantro and fresh chile pepper, and a lime-juice dressing (to “cook” the protein), and an off-dry Riesling or Gewurztraminer hits the spot. (So does a beer! I did say “beverage” pairing, after all…) Ditto with spicy Asian or East/West “fusion” dishes.

Saute ‘em in olive oil, add a squeeze of lemon and Mediterranean-type herbs such as parsley and marjoram, and you can happily pour a “green”-tasting Sauvignon Blanc (see yesterday’s post).

Use butter instead, add ginger and/or saffron and/or vanilla, and a rich Chardonnay can step in. And if you step up the intensity level of the add-ins and/or the cooking method, the critters can actually handle a full-flavored rosé or light red.

What I’m leading to here is a lovely shrimp appetizer that we enjoyed at the Friday judges’ dinner at last week’s San Francisco International Wine Competition (see pic). www.sfwinecomp.com Notice that we were served both a pink and a white wine alongside. (And notice also the empty flute. That was from the reception; it had contained some crisp, fruity Prosecco. We tried that with the shrimp too. Thumbs up!)

The wines, a Grenache Blanc and a Grenache Rosé from the “Epiphany” collection of Rhone-style wines, came courtesy of the Fess Parker Winery, www.fessparker.com in Los Olivos (Santa Barbara County). The very charming Ashley Parker Snider (whose dad won my heart as the coonskin-capped Davy Crockett and who made his mark once again as a hotelier and vintner) was the evening’s guest of honor, and she presented the wines for our multi-course dinner. (We’ll meet Ashley in a future podcast, when I visit the winery later in the summer.)

Last year, the Fess Parker wines did so well in this competition that their winemaker, Ashley’s brother Eli (that’s Fess Elisha Parker III) earned our “Winemaker of the Year” honors. In line with SF International’s annual tradition, Fess Parker wines were featured at the judges’ dinner, with a family member presiding.

More on shrimp with wine, along with the lobster lore I promised you last week, coming next week. Join me then, or any Friday, for my latest in food-and-wine pairing.

Cheers for now,
Rosina
gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson

Thirsty Thursday—“Rock the Catbox": Panel "D" Tasting Notes

2007-06-21T17:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I promised you a special tasting. Well, in my book, this one is about as special as they get! I’m about to smuggle you into the inner sanctum of our judges’ chambers at the San Francisco International Wine Competition, www.sfwinecomp.com where I swirled, sniffed, sniffed and spat my way through my share of the 4,000 wines (divided among eleven judging panels) on Andy Blue's www.bluelifestyle.com master list.

Soon, when my “Welcome to Wine Country” podcast launches, you’ll have in-depth audio coverage of the event. For now, I’d like to introduce you to the world (and the sometimes off-the-wall language!) of a professional wine judge.

This year, for the first time, I signed up to start early, on Friday afternoon. (In previous years I would arrive, like most of the judges, for the Friday judges’ dinner, then start the main event early Saturday.) All I needed to hear was “Friday we taste Pinot,” and I was not just hooked, but reeled in.

And I was soooo glad I did. Unlike the “assigned panel” of Saturday and Sunday (that's Panel "D," aka the "Purple Tongue Gang"), Friday’s open-seating format allowed us to join (or start!) a judging panel with anyone we wanted. I linked up with Pinotphile Greg Walter – www.pinotreport.com – plus two really simpatico judges I’d never met (see pic). Across from me sat Meridith May, a delightful Los Angelena who co-owns the excellent Patterson’s The Tasting Report magazine – www.tastingpanelmag.com – with Anthony Dias Blue (see last Saturday’s post.) And on my right sat Jim “Death to Pencils” Harré of New Zealand’s South Island. www.thegateslodge.co.nz (Jim gave himself the nickname after snapping off his second or third pencil point. We have to scribble our notes pretty fast.)

Along with the wine-tasting notes that I myself took, I jotted down some of the more memorable comments we made, over the course of the three-day weekend, and what they (might have) meant. So kick back with Panel “D” and pour yourself a glass of something not too serious, and get ready to loosen up and enjoy the lighter side of wine judging. (Geek alert, BTW—if I get kinda techy here, please remember that I warned you about the wine-science thing back in my first blog post…)

Day 1, Sauvignon Blanc: “NICE kitty!”
(One common Sauv Blanc descriptor, not necessarily negative, is “cat pee.” Truth! Typical of New Zealand SB’s, it comes from “green”-flavored pyrazine compounds, in particular methoxypyrazine.)

Day 1, SB: “Another ‘Here, kitty, kitty.’ But this one’s better-balanced. Rock the catbox. No ‘Clash’ here.” (Think ‘80s punk.)

Day 1, SB: “Armpit. But from an athlete. A *buff* athlete.” (It got a Silver medal. And we gave a Gold to one with “sweat, herbs, melon, lemon-lime, plus a touch of “Here, kitty.”)

Day 1, SB: “Short, thin, tart. Remember that whiny gal on “Survivor”? Kinda built like her.”

Day 1, Pinot Noir (after a “No Medal” vote): “Reminded me of horse sweat. So I say ‘Naa-aaa-aaay!’”

Day 1, Pinot Noir (moi, noticing my and Meridith’s high scores, with low ratings from the two gents): “Gotta be a chick wine. Can you guys take another look?”

Day 1, PN: “Do bugs make good wine judges? There was a fly in my glass, and that wine turned out to be our only Double Gold of the day. Yeah, Wine J. So let’s make him our mascot. “Jay the Fly.”

Day 2, Chardonnay: “Smells like rubber, but it’s a *clean* rubber.” (This occasional “reduced” aroma can come from oak barrels or bottle aging. It’s a mercaptan, in the same family as the roast-coffee and skunk aromas, and if it’s subtle enough, can add rather than detract from a wine’s complexity.)

Day 2, Chard: “Mmmmm—brunch at Marie Callender’s. Baked apple, cinnamon, touch of lemon, toasty, buttery pie crust.” (All these are typical Chardonnay descriptors; you just don’t always see all of them together.)

Day 2, Chard: “Looking for top-of-the line Chards here (there were so many entered that every panel was assigned some) is like going to a carnival and looking for a Disneyland-caliber ride.”

Day 2, Chard: “Ahh. Finally. An E-ticket Chardonnay! (That’s, uh, a Disneyland reference; not an online airline booking.)

Day 2, Chard: “Jeez, this one’s minerally. Holy schist!” (Old geology joke.)

Day 2, Bordeaux-style Red Blends: “Mmmm Minty fresh. Bring on the lamb!” (It’s “varietally correct” to have mint aromas in this family of wines. In Pinot, it’s a bit of a no-no.)

Day 2, Cabernet: “Aaaargh. Welcome to the Tannin Salon. Can I have more bread?”

Day 3, Zinfandel: “Fingernail polish. This one’s made by Curel, isn’t it?” “Yeah, except I wrote down “Chateau Revlon.” (That’s the aroma of ethyl acetate, an ester formed when ethyl alcohol reacts with acetic acid, the key constituent of vinegar. Not a big plus in vino!)

Day 3, Syrah/Shiraz: “Bacon-wrapped chocolate with cherry sauce.” “Right. Exactly!” (That one got a Silver.)

Day 3, S/S: “Geriatric breakfast: coffee, tobacco and prune juice.” “That’s a *moving* statement…” (I’ll leave it at that.)

So, how do we get away with all this goofing around? Before you ask me how anyone can take our judging results seriously, I have some well-thought-out answers for you from Panel “D.” And our comments are anything but self-defense.

Yesterday, I showed you a few of the many aromas in wine, with some basic info on where they come from. (If you scroll on down to yesterday’s post, what I’m about to say will make more sense.) I hinted at the next step, which is recognizing and naming the aromas.

I’ll save the nose-mouth-and-throat physiology of this for another time. For now, let’s focus on the brain, and the “sensory memory” that catalogs everything we’ve ever experienced via any of our senses. (Taste and smell are the major ones here, but touch and sight can also play a part.) When we taste any given wine for the first time, we have to connect what we’re experiencing in the glass with what we’ve experienced in the past.

To simplify some really complex neurophysiology and -psychology, the “rational” cerebral cortex of our brain is divided into two hemispheres that process information in two very different ways. Our left brain is the logician. It likes facts and other infobits, and organizes them in a linear way. Our right brain is the artist, the movie director, the symphony conductor, the multi-tasker. It sees the whole before filling in the details. It is intuitive and associative, and it thinks in a big-picture, simultaneous, what-connects-with-what way.

Looking back at some of the seemingly bizarre descriptions that Panel “D” came up with, the “coffee, tobacco, prune juice” is an analytical, left-brain, “what specific aromas can I choose from this catalog” approach. Synthesize that, put yourself into a situation where all three aromas might come together, and you have the right-brain “geriatric breakfast.” In truth, when we taste and judge, we have to operate in both hemispheres; then we integrate the two sets of information. It gets to be automatic after a while, and with experience, we become able to flip from one to the other as needed.

So when we wine judges start riffing on music, pop culture, and bad puns, we’re letting our “right brains” come out and play. This helps build a bigger context for our left-brained data stream of descriptors. It not only keeps our brains frisky and lets us have more fun, it makes us better tasters. And better judges!

Tomorrow, we’ll bring some wine to the table and explore a few taste combinations. Until then, as always,

Cheers,
Rosina
gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson

Wine 101 Wednesday—Crossing the Threshold

2007-06-20T00:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we were talking about the nuts and bolts of wine judging—the actual procedures that enable us to taste so many wines in a day with minimal stress, and that also help us judges evaluate all the wines fairly and equally. Today, as we pick up where we left off, we'll look at exactly why professional wine judges (or anyone!) can have such varied opinions of what we smell and taste.

When it comes to aromatics in a wineglass, different tasters sometimes perceive the same things quite differently. It’s not that one person’s “grapefruit” is another person’s “pineapple”; it’s more that we all have our own unique set of “thresholds of perception.” So, if you have a very low threshold for (meaning a high sensitivity to) the grapefruit aroma, and I don’t—but I have a low threshold for pineapple (and you don’t)—then you’ll zero in on one, and I’ll pick up the other. (We can imagine that Panel D leader Wilfred Wong—see pic and recent posts) is deciding whether he's tasting cherries or raspberries in this flight of reds. Or maybe both!)

As a sidebar to that, there’s another level here that’s quite essential. Perceiving an aroma is one thing. Recognizing and naming it is another. Novice wine drinkers often feel baffled by the “lemongrass, gooseberry, eucalyptus” wine “descriptors” they read, hear and see in the media. That’s understandable.

But these descriptors are real: Mom Nature puts lots of different aromatic compounds into the grapes (and generates even more in the winemaking/bottle aging end of things). The key is that some of these aroma/flavor compounds are identical to (or similar enough to) aroma compounds found elsewhere in nature.

In simpler terms, a wine smells and tastes like—well, you name it (roses, vanilla, butter, whatever)—because the wine contains the same stuff that makes these other natural products smell and taste the way they do. A Gewurztraminer, for example, reminds us of roses because it contains geraniol, the key ingredient of the characteristic rose aroma. A Chardonnay can smell like vanilla because the oak barrels it was aged in contain vanillin, which the wine extracts. The butter aroma comes from diacetyl, a byproduct of malolactic fermentation. (More info to come. For now, just think movie-theater popcorn.)

As we wine judges work to evaluate a wine, we’re constantly coaxing out “descriptors” such as these, and trying to ID them. That helps us determine the “varietal correctness” of a wine, as well as its complexity, both of which play a vital role in our medal decision.

More on this very soon—and keep your questions and comments coming. Join me again tomorrow for a very special tasting. Until then,

Cheers,
Rosina
gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson

Tuesday Travels—PTG, Part Deux (or "Doux," for the sweet wines...)

2007-06-19T10:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I smuggled you into the inner sanctum of my four-person “Purple Tongue Gang” judging panel at the San Francisco International Wine Competition. www.sfwinecomp.com

Today, in “Tuesday Travels,” we’re going to pick up where we left off. (Here's a pic of all the judges. That's moi, back row left. Major thanks to volunteer extraordinaire Susan Reed, for juggling everybody's cameras and catching us while our smocks were still white!)

Join me now, along with Wilfred, Kevin and Jerry (see yesterday’s Purple Tongue pic) as we return to the black-curtained judging room of “Panel D.” We’ll enjoy two long days of “blind” tasting together (usually, all we’re told is the wine varietal or blend, and the vintage) and I'll show you how the judging process unfolds.

Here’s how it works. After our fearless panel leader (Wilfred Wong—he’s a master at it!) writes down the scores from each judge for each wine of that particular “flight” (see yesterday’s post), the horsetrading begins.

Sometimes we all agree. More often, our scores vary a bit. After all, we’re not just programmed differently (from a genetic standpoint); we also have come to this point in our lives with a widely varied gestalt of sensory input. And potentially, we just plain like different things. (More on how this works tomorrow, in our “Wine 101 Wednesday” post.)

So, if we report scores for a wine that range all over the map—(“Bronze plus. Silver. Silver plus. Gold minus” is pretty typical; “Gold. Silver. Bronze. No medal!” occasionally happens)—we don’t panic. And we often go back to any wine that “asks us for” another look.

One scoring method is based on the highest rating that three judges agree on (“Silver” in the first example). Another equally (or perhaps even more) valid approach takes an impressionistic view—Wilfred, for example, might say “It’s a very strong bronze right now; let’s retaste it to see if it has silver potential.” Sometimes we decide that it does, and one or more judges will “go up” to a higher score. (And sometimes the opposite happens; we’ll lower a score if we pick up any problems.) And we always call for a repour from a new bottle (quite literally—Wilfred actually rings up Paul, who's in the back room pouring, via cell phone!), for any wine that we determine to be “corked.” (More on that coming soon.)

But how do we arrive at our scores in the first place?

It’s a delicate balance of objectivity (we need to be able to recognize the pros and cons of a wine that can raise or lower our ratings, including “varietal correctness” as well as questionable characteristics or flaws such as Brettanomyces, or “Brett,” which one of my panel members describes as “a horsey blanket,” and “oxidized” flavors that can come from overripe grapes or careless winemaking) and subjectivity (after I’ve tasted it and figured it out, how much do I like it? And where do I draw the line on Brett—I, for one, really enjoy the added complexity in certain reds of a little “saddle leather”). Whew. Long sentence!

When we’ve scored the whole flight, Wilfred reads out our final decisions to Paul, our panel coordinator (“Wine A is Silver. “B” is No Medal. Then Bronze, Silver, No Medal, Gold…” right down the alphabet to “M” or whatever). Two judges sign Paul’s master form (we take turns), then the paperwork goes to the magic computer in the secret office.

On the rare occasions that all the judges on a panel agree on a “Gold” award, that wine receives a “Double Gold” and is eligible for the Sweepstakes round on the final day. (More sweeps info, plus audio with my voiceover explanations, coming soon.)

Then we dump the wines from that flight into our spit bucket. Our highly efficient volunteers clear the dirty glasses (& dump the buckets—very important!), and then the cart with our next flight of wines comes wheeling in. Then the next one. And the next one.

Counting a full day Saturday, plus Sunday morning (the afternoon is devoted to Sweepstakes), the PTG of Panel D plowed through 20 flights of wine, with anywhere from 10 to 18 wines in a flight. After we dispensed with our whites on Saturday morning (first Chardonnay, then Sauvignon Blanc, which thankfully included some Golds and fantastic Double Golds), we started earning our “Purple Tongue Gang” moniker with Cabernet, Zinfandel (the PTG’s “signature” varietal), Syrah/Shiraz and several other reds.

At one point, I showed one of the volunteers my aforementioned stained tongue. She laughed, then said “At least it matches your lipstick.”

I wasn’t wearing any. (It's not only tongues that turn purple!)

See you tomorrow, for Wine 101 Wednesday.

Cheers,
Rosina
gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson

Monday Mix—Wine Judging—The Purple Tongue Gang

2007-06-18T11:02:00.000-07:00

Welcome back—hope you’ve had a great weekend. I’ve just made my way home after three mouth-staining days at the downtown Nikko Hotel. The occasion? North America’s largest wine judging: the San Francisco International Wine Competition. www.sfwinecomp.com This year, over 4,000 wines, from all over the world, were entered into the judging. Whew!

The fifty or so judges included representatives from a number of states outside California, as well as several from other countries. On Friday, I had the pleasure of sitting on a Pinot Noir panel with the highly affable Jim Harré of New Zealand (he operates a lodge on the South Island, www.thegateslodge.co.nz and also selects wine for Air New Zealand. You’ll hear his deep, rich basso voice on my upcoming podcast). I also enjoyed a lively and engaging conversation (you’ll hear that too) with Jim McMahon of Sydney, Australia, about his judging adventures in England, Japan, China and Singapore.

As I mentioned on Friday, I’ve been judging this particular competition for almost 20 years. It’s directed, with great panache, by “winemeister” Anthony Dias Blue (see previous post). The competition now has such a long history that all the glitches are (or at least, from a judge’s perspective, seem to be) thoroughly ironed out.

Since I do so many wine judgings each year, and since all of them vary somewhat in their focus, philosophy, and/or scope, I thought I’d give you a rundown of how this one works. In future posts, I’ll describe some of the other competitions and point out the differences.

We judges are divided into “panels” of from three to five members. My panel of four comprised retailer Jerry Cooper, who co-owns Swirl, a gorgeous new bottle shop/tasting bar in SF (That's Jerry and his purple tongue in the pic), www.swirloncastro.com Master Sommelier Kevin Vogt of Delmonico’s Steakhouse in Las Vegas (an Emeril Lagasse restaurant, where Kevin’s regular patrons routinely order $1,000-plus bottles of wine), www.emerils.com Wilfred Wong, Cellarmaster of Beverages and More www.bevmo.com and the most meticulous wine judge I’ve ever encountered, and moi. We work really well together (as you’ll hear), and we’ve become a rather notorious fixture at the SF International. I think of us as “The Purple Tongue Gang.”

Here’s how it all works. After schmoozing over breakfast (gotta line the tummy!) on Saturday, we headed toward the judging rooms. This year "The Gang" shared a room with Panels A, B and C (we were Panel D), with black curtains in between.

Our panel coordinator (Paul Bourbon, a twenty-five-year veteran of the competition) joined us, gave us our tasting list and a stack of scoresheets, and checked in with Wilfred, our panel leader, about what wines we’d taste when. (Wilfred: “OK, Paul—after these Chardonnays, let’s do the 40-odd Sauv Blancs, then move to the Cabernets and maybe we can get the Bordeaux-style blends done before lunch. Then we’ll pick up with the Zins. Sound good?”) Then Paul’s team wheeled in a specially designed cart with our first “flight” of wines, identified to us only by code letters (“A” through whatever, usually “M” or so).

For each flight, the volunteers arrange the wines in an arc in front of each judge. We ask whatever questions we need to (about, for example, the varietal blend, the vintage, the residual sugar). Then we go silent.

Each of us swirls, sniffs, tastes, and takes notes on each wine. (And we spit. That’s vital, as we’re evaluating 150+ wines per day.) Our notes need to be pretty comprehensive as to aroma, flavor descriptors, weight, balance, finish and general yumminess (or lack of it!) so that when we discuss the wines, each of us can defend our own opinion. Then, when everyone’s ready, Wilfred asks us each to read out our scores.

Let’s pick up from here tomorrow, when I’ll lead you through the next part of the process. That’s when we decide what kind of medal—bronze, silver, gold or none at all—to award each wine.

Until then,
Cheers,
Rosina
gilded fork, wine, wine writing, Welcome to Wine Country, Rosina Tinari Wilson