Whites - Served too cold?

This is a fantastic article about how white wines are often served so cold that most of the flavor is chilled right out of them.

http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/white-wine-too-darn-cold

I've found this to be true, personally. Very often, when I'm served a good white wine straight from the fridge or ice bucket, it's at it's best on the last couple of sips at the bottom of the glass because that last bit of wine has had time to warm up. I don't keep my whites in the food fridge anymore, instead I keep them in the small wine fridge with my reds, set at 55 degrees.

Appellation Visualization

I've been reading some wine books here and there, and without naming any titles, I have to say that one of the unfortunate common problems is that the maps are really, really bad. It's a pretty frustrating situation.

I've played around a bit with Google Earth, and I think it could be a tool to create better appellation maps. There are plenty of benefits - you can show various climate data, like rainfall or temperatures, and you can put them in layers that you can turn on and off, depending on how you want to see the map at that moment. You can travel around a place to get a real feel for the topography. You could even map various types of soil, or which vines are most commonly grown in an area, or just communities for collaboration - because let's face it, no one is going to be able to map the whole world of wine by themselves.

I bet the folks over at Appellation Americawould be interested in this, among plenty others.

Whoa, in the midst of writing this post, I see that someone has already thought of this idea (I should have known!)


How wonderful!

2004 Dyed-in-the-Wool Sauvignon Blanc - Tasting Notes by PointedView

This is another guest wine review by Katharine, aka PointedView. Many thanks to Katharine for her tasting notes!

Point of Origin: Marlborough, New Zealand: Estate grown

Initial impressions:
Clean and fruity.

Nose:
Light lime, with grassy notes. Perhaps a touch like lime leaves.

Color:
Pale, new straw.

Alcohol content:
12.5%

Tasting notes:
The label says to expect gooseberries, passionfruit, and lime, but I only got one of those three. I taste a hint of lime, but the prominent flavor seems to be a pleasant taste of pear with just a hint of tartness. My tasting partner agreed. The tartness dissipated somewhat as the wine warmed to room temperature, leaving fuller, rounder fruit notes with apple and, yes, okay, passionfruit accents. Still no gooseberries, however! I taste no oak whatsoever.

Mouthfeel:
Light and zippy.

Impressions after being paired with food:
We didn't pair it with anything, but I bet it would be nice with goat cheese.

Price:
The wine was a gift from my oenophile father, but from web research, I'd estimate from between $10.99 to $13.99.

Would I buy it again:
Yes. It's refreshing and easy to drink on a 94 degree day like today, and it's only June in Georgia! It's a nice Sauvignon Blanc to keep on hand. Besides, it's hard to resist the cute sheep on the label.

Big brother bartending

A British town has begun to demand fingerprints of pub patrons.

Voluntary, eh? Voluntary if you want a beer, I guess. I'm sure everyone is comfortable with the police having a database of how often, what and where they drink. How long until they inform your boss of how many pints you had last night? Or your health insurance provider? Hush, hush, go along quietly, this is for your own good.

Respect

One of the benefits of my new job is instant wine "cred" whereever I go. I know that it's undeserved since I'm still so new to the world of wine, but I'm reveling in it nonetheless. My last job, when explained, drew nothing but blank stares, mostly because it was one of those industries that most people don't ever really think about. When I got this job I was immesely proud, because I knew how good the place was - but I wasn't expecting this reaction from the rest of the community. It's been so fun to walk into any wine shop or tasting in the city, and have folks tell me what a great place it is to begin a wine career and then ask me to say hello to any number of the people working there. Everyone in this town knows my boss. When they found out where I worked at the last tasting I went to, the presenter dug up a good bottle of Fino sherry for me to try - but that's another post. Anyway, I feel that my career has really gotten started off on the right foot. Now it's nose to the grindstone to move it forward!

Speaking of Hugh Johnson...

I'm reading his bood The Story of Wine and enjoying it immensely. One thing I didn't know: women in Mesopotamia and some other ancient cultures were very involved in the wine industry. The Code of Hammurabi even refers to wine merchants as being female.

The specific passages:

108: If a [woman wine-seller] does not accept [grain] according to gross weight in payment of drink, but takes money, and the price of the drink is less than that of the corn, she shall be convicted and thrown into the water. (1)

109: If conspirators meet in the house of a [woman wine-seller], and these conspirators are not captured and delivered to the court, the [wine-seller] shall be put to death.

(Puts all this talk about modern women becoming powerful in the wine industry into some perspective, doesn't it?)

On a related note, here's an interesting site that provides a description of many types of ancient Roman wine. While I would love to taste the ancient stuff for curiosity's sake, it sounds like modern wine is far better!

Huge Johnson Found!

Hehehe, I know what you're thinking. But, once upon a time there was an excellent wine blogger who went by the handle "Huge Johnson" as a play on the name of a famous wine author "Hugh Johnson" and a fun poke at the huge egos that can sometimes be found in the wine world. Anyway, one day his blog just up and disappeared, and then I got busy, etc... Only now have I found his blog again, and I'm so excited. You can now read him as "St. Vini" of The Zinquisition.

He's one of the best wine bloggers out there, so what are you doing here? You should go there!

Crushed Violets???

Here I am, returning after another long spell away from this blog. This time the delay was caused by dealing with a new job - in my pursuit of work in wine, I now have a job as a bartender at a very nice restaurant with an excellent cellar and wine education program for its employees. Hooray!

Let's see, what else has happened... On one of my walks recently I picked some violets and crushed them and smelled them (all the while feeling guilt for destroying them!) Having smelled them, I can't say that I understand the smell descriptor of "crushed violets" that I read so often about wine. Which is funny, because so many other smell and flavor descriptors that as a neophyte I would never have expected in wine have been spot-on, like "mint" or "cola" or "bacon."