Bulgaria FTW

If you'd asked me at the outset of this little blogging adventure if I'd have multiple Bulgarian wines that would get entries to themselves, I'd have laughed.

Well, shit just got real, because this is now the second Bulgarian red wine that has knocked my socks off.

Domaine Bessa Petit Enira 2010

Where: I just told you. Same Thracian region as the Mezzek from a while ago.

Aroma: Ripe, red strawberries. Minerality and earth, but very dry - this isn't the damp earth scent that you find in, say, some Burgundies.

Flavor: The fruit comes up first - strawberry and red fruit, giving way to some savory herbs and minerality with a touch of earthiness...but again, a dry kind of earth. Medium-light body, fairly acidic.

Food: Talk about versatility. Those little savory notes plus high acidity equals going with nearly anything other than light seafood preparations, though this would still work like a champ with a nicely seared, spiced tuna steak or some salmon. It stood up very well to lasagna earlier, so this could be a good substitute for a Chianti or Barbera if you want to go the Italian route.

BTW, this was like $10...drinks like it cost way more than that. Scoop it up while you can!

Wine, or How I Survived Holy Week

It's the most wonderful time of the year again, by which I mean the one in which I question why I went into ministry multiple times every day...only to have those doubts pushed aside as the busy-ness of the week gives way to the mysteries of faith coming to life. In other words, it's Holy Week again.

Since I need a break from sermon writing and worship planning and generally fretting and fussing...why not drink some wine and write about it! In this entry, we've got a red from southern France, a red from northern Italy, 

Marius by Michel Chapoutier, Grenache-Syrah blend, Pays d'Oc (France), 2014

Where: Southern France. "Pays d'Oc" on the label tells us two things....1. It's from the Languedoc-Rousillon region, and 2. It's not from a specific named village or vineyard in the region. France has really strict rules about labeling wine; rather than get into all of it, suffice it to say that the wider the geographic net that's cast on the label, the farther away from fancy, prestigious reputation the wine gets. The lowest level, table wine, just says "Product of France." A country wine ("pays" is "country" in French) is the next step up - we get a region of France, but that's as specific as we go. This wine is from here...

It's next door to Provence and the Rhone Valley, which also are big wine producers of reputation. There's a lot in common between them when it comes to climate, other flora, etc.

Aroma: Once this breathed a bit, I got lots of dark red fruit...black cherries, black raspberry, etc. It was smoky, too - from oak aging, maybe?

Taste: I really had to let this one breathe for a while; my first sip was really one note with some fruity overtones, but otherwise flat. After half an hour, though, you could clearly taste black cherry and raspberry, black licorice, laurel (bay) leaf, and some minerality. Not particularly complex or lingering. Medium body, medium acidity, moderately tannic.

Food: This one would play well with lamb, fatty roasted poultry, and beef. I had it with some braised beef short rib and it totally worked.

Next up is a really special bottle that we busted out for Maundy Thursday communion, since style-wise it resembles wine as it may have been enjoyed in the 1st century Middle East...and thus the Last Supper.

Antiche Terre Venete, Amarone della Valpolicella 2012

Where: Say THAT name ten times fast. Let's break that down into something less intimidating, shall we? The name of the winemaker, Antiche Terre Venete, has a nice, fancy-sounding Italian name (ahn-TEE-kay TEHR-ray vehn-EH-tay) that, roughly translated, means "Ancient Venetian Lands." Anyone care to venture a guess as to where-ish this wine comes from? You get three guesses; the first two don't count.

Yep, this one's from the region around Venice in northeastern Italy. Very specifically, it's from a town called Valpolicella (vahl-pohl-ee-CHEH-lah...that stressed syllable in caps is like cello, as in the instrument). Italian wines have this great tendency to be named "Grape or Style della (from) A Place;" this one is true to form. It's an amarone (more on that to come, but say it ahm-ar-OH-nay) from Valpolicella, which produces some of the richest, heartiest, yummiest red wines in Italy.

Aroma: Richness galore - ripe chocolate covered cherry, black plums, vanilla, spice. It's like the best dessert ever.

Taste: All of those things in glorious, sophisticated harmony...and all without being sweet. It's kind of amazing, really - there's enough acidity and brightness to keep this dry, even with all of those super sweet flavors coursing through it. So...how do they do it?

Amarone is made from dried grapes...not quite raisins out of a Sunmaid box levels of dry, but the ripe grapes are sat out on mats and allowed to do some air drying. The less water in the grape, the more concentrated the sugar and the flavors. The more sugar and concentrated flavor, the richer the wine.

Food: Other than just drinking this on its own because it's heavenly, this would go well with something sturdy enough to hold up to the richness. I might pair it with a really heavy, meaty beef preparation - maybe braised short rib. The fruit notes in this might be fun with a heavy duty pork preparation, too...just make sure the meat's well seasoned and probably either roasted or braised.

Then, Easter came and the wine flowed. Like, a lot. A lot a lot.

Vignalta Fior d'Arancio, Colli Euganei 2013

Where: The Venetian region again! This time, the wine is from the Euganean Hills (Colli Euganei in Italian, pronounced COH-lee eh-oo-GAH-nay).

Aroma: Another Italian lesson..."Fior d'arancio" (fyor dah-RAHNCH-yo) means "orange blossom" or "orange flower," and that pretty much sums it up. This one is a sparkling wine, and it smells like orange blossom and honey.

Flavor: Truth in advertising wins again - this is like a fizzy, wonderful Dreamsicle in all the right ways. It's sweet-ish, but not dessert-y levels of sweet. Fresh, refreshing, beautifully orange-y.

Food: This might be a better before-or-after dinner kind of wine to open up or cleanse your palate (or, hell, just to drink because it's delicious...seriously, try this instead of a bland "champagne" that's not an actual champagne the next time you want to pop a cork and celebrate). That said, the brightness and orange flavor would probably have some fun interaction with shellfish with a lemony gremolata, or ambrosia salad (why not?).

I didn't take good notes on the Dunham Cellars Three Legged Red I had with dinner, but suffice it to say it was tasty and I'd drink it again.

Another week, another wine post

Three wines served up for you today...and our first varietal head-to-head!

I suppose I should say that in English. "Varietal" is the technical term for "the kind of grape they made the wine with." In today's case, we're looking at two sauvignon blancs. One of the best ways to get a sense of what a specific varietal is like is to try some different examples of it. Here, we've got a New Zealand sauvignon blanc and one from the Napa Valley in California. Without further ado...

WHITES

Mount Fishtail Sauvignon Blanc

Where: Marlborough, New Zealand. This is the most important wine region in New Zealand, located on the northeast end of the south island (New Zealand's land mass is almost entirely made up of two big islands - the north one and the south one). Sauvignon blanc is the most widely grown grape here, and the most well-regarded internationally, though pinot noir and chardonnay are also grown in large amounts. It's also not a hard region to look at...

(Photo taken from purelymarlborough.co.nz)

Aroma: Citrus up front...a little grapefruity, maybe? Supposedly, the difficult-to-place green fruit note I got is probably gooseberry; I've only ever had it in a pie, so it's hard for me to say with certainty. There's also some grassiness (like a freshly mown lawn...that kinda smell) kicking around, and a sharp, almost biting little note of..."pipi de chat," as they might say in France. Or, as I say in Chicago, cat piss. Apparently, this is normal in sauvignon blanc...since "sauvignon" comes from "sauvage," which means wild, I suppose you can't say you didn't get what they advertised.

Taste: Kind of a letdown after the odiferous wild ride we just had...but maybe not in bad ways, since it's mostly the cat pee that disappears. Decently acidic, medium light body, and more of that gooseberry and grapefruit than anything else.

Food: I think this would be a nice match with a medium-to-heavy fish preparation - a hearty baked cod, salmon with leeks, etc. The citrus and acidity would cut nicely through the fat, and those green, grassy notes would play well the vegetable components in the dish...especially something like leeks that are a bit grassy, too.

Now, onto our other sauvignon blanc!

Slingshot Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc

Where: I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count. California sauvignon blanc usually grows in warmer weather than the New Zealand variety sampled above, and that'll make a big difference in the aromas and flavors that emerge. Check it out.

Aroma: Couldn't be more different than the Mount Fishtail. While the Mount Fishtail was green and grassy and grapefruity and pissy (meow), this smells like a tropical fruit salad. Papaya, a little mango, ripe cantaloupe and honeydew, and a little mint. This is a great example of how weather affects a wine's taste...warmer weather equals riper grapes, which equal different smells and tastes.

Taste: Bright, sunny, tropical flavors come up first - you taste that mango and papaya. Then, some ripe apple and citrus (more lemon and lime than the grapefruit we had in the last one), and rounding it out is that super ripe cantaloupe...and it hangs out all day long. Really lingers on the palate. Mouthwatering acidity, and a medium body - it almost seems honeyed. 

Food: This went well with roasted chicken thighs that were in a lemon, mustard, and caper sauce. It'd go great with fatty fish or light-to-medium poultry. It also drinks pretty damn good just on its own - have some of this chilled on a hot day, and you'll be doing alright.

RED

Macedon Pinoit Noir, 2013

Where: Macedonia...specifically the former Yugoslav republic, not the region in Greece. Macedonia's not a big wine producer, but it's in the up-and-coming category along with much of southeastern Europe. If you need some help finding Macedonia on a map...

Also, it's apparently gorgeous there...no idea where in relation this is to the vineyards, but it's too pretty not to look at:

(Photo taken from http://no-limit.info/travel/services/macedonia-f-y-r/)

Anyway, to get on with it...

Aroma: Lots of cherry, and very ripe - almost more like cherry juice. With that are some red berries, maybe even a little plum. These aren't uncommon for pinot noir, especially when it's from a sunnier, more southern growing region like, say, Macedonia. 

Taste: Time for a lesson about a little thing called...aeration, or breathing. Sometimes, when a wine's been stuck in a bottle, all by itself, it needs a little space to breathe and stretch out. It's like how you probably get after being stuck in a car for hours...you kinda need to take a break to stretch yourself out before you're back to normal, right? Same for wine, and air helps it stretch out. You can do any number of things to help; the best is to pour the wine into a decanter. You can also use an aerating pourer that you plug into the top of the bottle...some people say these can over aerate the wine, but if you buy a good one, it still turns out OK. You can also just pour the wine into your glass, give it a few good swirls, let it sit a few minutes, and give it a few more swirls.

All of that is to say...this guy needed to breathe. My initial sip was REALLY funkified - pinot noir often has some earthy, mushroomy, "barnyard" (if you know what I mean) notes, but this was a little TOO barnyard-esque. Not quite all the way to hog confinement on a July afternoon, but closer than one would like. With some breathing, though, the fruit came out nice and strong, with just the right touch of earthy funk to give it some character. It has a fairly smooth texture, but not as silky as some pinot noirs that I've had.

Food: This would go great with roast chicken or pork. It's a little too much for fish, and while it could maybe handle lamb or beef, it's a bit too suave to really hold its own in the face of a big red meat onslaught.

Wine Round-Up for the last week of February

All right, check it out...here's what I've been drinking this week.

WHITE

Santo Vineyards, Santorini Assyrtiko (Volcanic Terroir) 2014

Where: Santorini, Greece. That same island that you always see the jaw-dropping photos of, like this one: 

                         (Photo taken from http://foundtheworld.com/santorini-greece/)

Yep, it's pretty there. Beyond scenery, there's an ancient tradition of winemaking on the island, largely focusing on white wine from one grape, Assyrtiko (ah-SEAR-tee-ko). The island is volcanic, and super windy, so the vines are grown in flinty, mineraly, volcanic soil...and are trimmed low and coiled into "baskets" that grow really close to the ground to keep them from getting swept away. They look like this:

(Photo taken from http://www.fabuloussavings.com/blog/spectacular-santorini-7-off-the-jewel-of-the-aegean/santorini-vines/)

Not your normal vines. Anyways, let's get on with it!

Appearance: Light gold. Still quite clear, but it's a deeper color than, say, riesling.

Aroma: Really zippy lemon, ripe apple, and minerality (that hard-to-describe stony smell).

Taste: Bright, acidic lemon and apple come up first. At the end, you get that stony mineral note, plus a salty sea air flavor...definitely a marker of coming from a seaside environment. The acidity is enough to make your mouth water, in a good way. The taste lingers and is decently complex (all of the things dance around on your tongue). It's quite dry and crisp.

Food: Seafood. It's from an island; pair it with fish, shellfish, shrimp, squid, oyster, etc., especially if it's done up simply - grilled with lemon juice, herbs, etc. This could do alright with lemony grilled chicken, too.



Kung Fu Girl, Riesling 2014

Where: Columbia Valley, Washington. Washington is really getting a reputation for good wine. It's the second largest wine producer in the US (after the obvious one), and the cool, consistent climate has really helped some northern climate grapes (like riesling) shine. This website has some great details on the Columbia Valley...it's a huge region with a lot going on.

Appearance: Light to medium straw.

Aroma: Lime, wet stone/minerality, perhaps some ripe apple.

Taste: Bracing, rushing stream of honeyed lime. Almost like a mountain stream splashing down a rocky slope on a sunny day thanks to the minerality. High, balanced acidity; either on the full side of light body or the light side of medium body. Not overly complex, but it lingers a little bit.

Food: Like most rieslings, this could go with a lot of different foods. Given the origin of this one in Washington, the thought of pairing it with salmon makes me happy...the acidity would cut through the fattiness of the fish really well. This would also go well with a nicely spiced, fatty piece of poultry, like duck. 

Viva Bulgaria!

Just one wine to talk about today, but man...is it a doozy.

Mezzek, Mavrud 2013

Where: Thracian Valley, Bulgaria. Yeah, I didn't know they made wine, either. Apparently, before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Bulgaria was the world's second largest wine producer by volume. It sounds like most of that was of sub-Carlo Rossi quality red table wine for consumption in Warsaw Pact nations. Somebody had to make the people's wine, I guess...so you might as well do it in one of the sunniest nation of formerly communist Europe. At any rate, the more I look into it, the more it sounds like the region of Thrace is a real up-and-coming wine producer. I'm going to Turkey in two months and will be taking a day-long wine tour of the Turkish wine country in Thrace, but damn...now I want to go to Bulgarian Thrace, too, because...well, you'll see.

Appearance: Dark ruby. In other words, it's a deep, vibrant reddish purple, but still not "inky" - I can kinda see my fingers wiggle through the glass.

Aroma: This is where things get fun. I didn't really know what to expect; I've never had any wine made from the Mavrud grape before, or anything from Bulgaria (or the rest of Thrace, for that matter), so I didn't know what to expect. Typical or not, I don't know, but this wine has a really delicious aroma of red berries (strawberry and raspberry in particular), with some vanilla and a little hint of toasty oak.

Taste: Wowza. This is going to be dorkily poetic, but...this tastes like sunlight drifting through forest leaves and landing on a patch of berries. You could write haiku about how this tastes. Bright, fruity, but not overpoweringly so - it's still dry. The vanilla and bit of spice that suggest some oak aging come in after the fruit, and are just so perfectly balanced it'll make you slap your momma for another sip. The texture is just so smooth and soft; this is like silk in your mouth, with soft, elegant tannins. Easy drinking - almost dangerously so considering its ABV is listed at 14.5%, but you wouldn't guess. It lingers, too - not super complex, but interesting.

Food: I had this with a nice, hearty, Mediterranean-influenced lentil stew and it worked well. I might not pair this with a full-on heavy red meat assault, but then again, this has got just enough oomph to maybe cut it. This would be aces with grilled chicken, pork, or even lamb. I can also totally see this working (not too surprisingly) with some typical Greek/Turkish flavors - stewed eggplant, moussaka, gyros, souvlaki, maybe even a fattier fish stewed with tomatoes and onion. Also, this is REDONKS with dark chocolate with raspberry...I had with a Ghirardelli square, but I'd kill to have this with a not-too-sweet chocolate cake with a raspberry jam ribbon.

You want to know the best part? I seriously paid *maybe* $9 for the bottle, and that's Chicago price, city booze tax and all. This drinks like it could be priced for $30. Go track this one down, fellow winos - you won't regret it.

Get Your Drink On - Our Very First Tasting Notes!

Our first three wines, for your tasting pleasure. We've got one white and two reds on deck. Let's take them from lightest to heaviest.

WHITE

Clean Slate Riesling 2014

Where: Mosel, Germany. This corner of Germany is a major wine producer and enjoys an excellent reputation for its rieslings. The slate-heavy soil here is partially responsible for the crisp and mineral tasting wines. It's also one of the northernmost wine regions of the world, so you can expect wines from here to be fairly acidic. Don't worry, that's not a bad thing - a good amount of acidity can actually be good for a wine! It helps give it some structure, and it usually results in a wine that pairs well with a wider variety of food.

Appearance: Light-to-medium straw color. Definitely still a "straw" color as opposed to a "golden" color.

Aroma: Citrus, apple, that hard-to-describe (but nonetheless present) smell of wet stone.

Taste: Bright and lemony, with less of the apple than is on the nose when you smell it..and you get some peach instead. Crisp and acidic (as we suspected), medium-light body, doesn't linger super long on the palate, but doesn't go away as soon as you've swallowed, either.

Food Ideas: This is a utility player. Definitely will work well with fish, especially with (say) a lemon butter sauce...the lemon notes in the wine will go well with the lemon in the sauce, and the wine's acidity will help cut through the richness of the butter. This one is also a rock star with salmon. I'd also pair this with lighter chicken or pork dishes.

RED

Chateau Pesquie Ventoux Terrasses 2013

Yeah, don't let the name intimidate you...you don't have to be able to say it for it to be delicious. If you *do* need to pronounce it, aim for "sha-TOE pe-ski-EH ven-TOO terr-AHS." That may or may not be right, but it's close enough.

Where: The Rhone Valley (Cotes du Rhone), France. Wines labeled Cotes du Rhone or Rhine Valley are usually from the southern Rhone Valley...so start thinking French Riviera and you're at least in the ballpark, even if this is still to the north of the coast. If you like food from southern France, Italy, or Spain, this is a red that will have some of your favorite flavors going for it - earthy, herby, savory, zesty. Southern Rhone wines are usually blends from a few types of grapes; in this case, the bottle tells us that it's a Grenache/Syrah blend (70/30, to be precise). This is pretty normal; grenache is usually the main star of the show in Cotes du Rhone reds. 

Appearance: Dark ruby. It's not quite opaque (I can still kinda see my fingers wiggle through the glass), but it's really deep in color.

Aroma: Cherry, plum, and some earthy herbs...the fancy term for these particular combo is "garrigue" (gahr-EEG), which is the French word describing the wild herbs that grow in the area...lots of rosemary, thyme, oregano, lavender, etc.

Taste: The cherry and plum are obvious, but they've got a hint of spice to them, like they're going into a pie (but without the sugar added yet). There's a bit of acidity, but not too heavy; the wine's medium body, maybe a little on the fuller side of medium. The herbs and earth are there, too, in the background. The tannins are pretty smooth and mild (your tongue notices something kinda clinging to it, but it's not too aggressive) The taste lingers for a good while.

Food Ideas: I love just about any Cotes du Rhone with hearty, herby dishes. Try with some pork spare ribs, lamb, or even a beef roast or short ribs. This would also go well with a heavier vegetarian dish, like a tomatoey lentil stew.

RED

Dry Creek Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2012

Where: Sonoma County, California. Welcome back to this side of the Atlantic, friends...California wines come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, but the big difference between a California wine and an Old World wine often comes down to weather. California's fairly warm and sunny compared to most of Europe, so wines from California tend to be fruitier and riper. This isn't good or bad; it's just different. There's more to be explored in the geography here, but we'll save that.

Aroma: Blackberry, blackcurrant, hints of pipe smoke and spice. This is all common for cabernet.

Taste: CREAMY, luscious blackberry and currant - it's almost dessert-like without being sweet. Plenty of vanilla and spice, and almost silky smooth. Full-bodied and rich. It stays in your mouth for a while. The vanilla/spice flavors tell us that this was aged in oak...as does the label, which even tells us for how long. That said, the flavors are dead giveaways in any wine - if you get vanilla plus spices, it's spent time in an oak barrel.

Food Ideas: RED MEAT. I had this with a really good steak and it was awesome. You do need something with some "umph" to it on your plate, or else the wine's going to run over it...don't drink this with chicken.

Taste like you mean it

So, now on to one of those arcane topics that might get me labeled a total snob - how to taste wine like someone who knows what they're doing.

First off, proper or not, this is still my ideal of tasting:

However, since I usually have to get out of the bed the day after I drink wine, and since staging my own wine tasting of six different wines would mean opening up six different bottles...I usually just take them one at a time if I'm at home. That said, anyone wanna come over and do a "wine tasting" and be classy together?

Boozehound humor aside, there are a few simple things you can do to get more out of a wine. First, before you even open a bottle...check out something like this, which is a nice little chart helping give some basic words to help you describe what you smell and taste. People always make fun of wine geeks for all of the purple prose (heh, perhaps appropriate) spilled out (dear God, somebody stop the puns) over what they're tasting...but I gotta tell ya, it's a lot easier to notice the details in a wine's aroma and flavor if you've got a bigger vocabulary than "it tastes like wine." For the hardcore, there's even a super snazzy wine aroma wheel that can really help you jazz up your word choice.

At any rate, even without putting some handy terms in your brain, you can really appreciate some of the details of the wine just by following these steps (freely and openly borrowed from many, but especially Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan):

-Tilt your wine glass (ideally over a white surface like a napkin) and take a look. What color is it? And no, "it's white" or "it's red" is not quite what we're going for, smartass. Is it a pale, straw-like yellow? Is it more of a gold? For a red, can you see your fingers if you put your free hand on the far side of the glass? This might seem trivial, but it can tell us something about what we're about to drink. A very light colored white wine, for example, is probably from a colder climate...which can give us some clues about how it might taste. For serious wine experts, this first stage is huge in helping narrow down what wine they're about to drink in a blind tasting...a lighter, more translucent red is never going to be from a heavy duty, big bruiser like cabernet sauvignon. So...look at your wine!

-Next, swirl it and give it a sniff. Don't be afraid to put your nose right there in the glass. Maybe don't do this if you've got a really nasty cold...snot plus wine is not a winning combo. What do you smell? If you're good at improv, you can probably start naming smells off without too much prompting, but if that's not your bag, one of those lists like the one linked to above can be a Godsend. You'll discover that certain kinds of grapes/wines from those grapes have certain smells that are more typical of them. Gewurztraminer smells like lychee, flowers, and tropical fruit; reds from southern France are often very earthy and herbal (think food from southern France or Italy), with even some olive and leather notes. Even if you don't care about matching smells up with specific wines, you'll still have a better idea of what you're about to taste.

-Then, give it another swirl and take a sip - not a big one, but enough to get a good taste. What do you notice? First off, flavors. Do you get citrus (lemon? lime? grapefruit?), apple (what kind?), berries (which ones?), chocolate? How sweet is it? Then, think about how it felt in your mouth - was it really light, was it heavy, was it kind of in between? How well did it coat your mouth? Was it smooth and soft, was it crisp and acidic, did it feel almost like something was coating or gripping your tongue? These are all a part of the picture here - flavors, structure, body/mouthfeel, acidity. They all come out on the palate.

-Lastly, how long does the flavor of the wine linger in your mouth? Does it stick around for a while, maybe even gelling and getting a little more complex as it sits? Or, does it just kinda go away quickly? Savor it and see.

I have but one hard-and-fast rule for tasting wine...you should be enjoying it! Seriously. That quote from the Psalms isn't this blog's sub-title by accident - wine is to be enjoyed. If following a process or grasping for words and flavors and whatnot makes drinking a new wine stressful, then just drink the wine how you want and follow your arrow wherever it points. Here's a related, gratuitous Kacey Musgraves video, because I can: 

If you're looking for a nice, easy test wine to try out these tasting skills with, I'll give you a white and a red recommendation. For a white, try a gewurztraminer...I'd personally suggest something from Alsace in France (I love Trimbach, personally, but it's a little spendier), but any gewurztraminer will do...there are some really budget-friendly ones grown in the US. Wherever it comes from, there is NO mistaking it for something else. Have fun with it - what do you see, what do you smell, what do you taste? For a red, go track down a bottle of Apothic Dark - snobs might knock me for being so "common" as to be pushing a cheap blend you can find at Target, but 1. screw that attitude, 2. it's tasty, and 3. it's got some scents and flavors that are SUPER easy to name.

What are you waiting for? Get to drinking!