Book Review: The Wine Trials

The tag line to this book says “Brown bag blind tastings reveal the surprising wine values under $15” and it is FASCINATING! The main idea behind this book is that the wines recommended to us by wine critics, magazines, and websites are not actually the wines preferred by everyday wine drinkers. This research was done using 500+ wine tasters from all walks of life (experts and non) and from 17 separate tastings all over the U.S. All I have to say to that is… WHERE… WAS… I???

Anyway, the results are amazing. For example, they compared Dom Perignon, a $150 French champagne, to a $12 sparkling wine from Washington. In a blind tasting, guess which one was preferred 2 to 1… that’s right the cheap one! (It’s Domaine St. Michelle Cuvee Brut for those of you who might go pick it up!) That’s just the beginning. In fact, overall results show that from more that 6,000 glasses of wine served from brown paper bags, people actually preferred the less expensive ones! “Tasters preferred a $9 bottle of Beringer Founders’ Estate Cabernet Sauvignon to a $120 wine from the same grape and same producer: Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.” WHAT!? 

The book goes into theories about why all this is. Mainly image, advertising, selling a lifestyle kind of thing. People buy the $150 Dom because they have heard it’s amazing. It's what cool and rich people drink, and they want to have it. In fact, it DOES taste better BECAUSE of all this. But in a blind tasting, where price, prestige, and even region are concealed, people prefer cheaper wine.

There really is so much more to this book than I have room to write, and the fact that it mixes wine and psychology is why I love it so much. Now the REALLY cool thing about this book is that about ¾ of it is a listing of the top 100 wines that are under $15 and that people actually preferred to the more expensive ones. Some of these make me a little skeptical -  included in this list are some box wines, Yellow Tails, Barefoots, and other wines you might normally pass over in the wine aisle. But you better believe I will be trying some of these in the near future and giving my opinions. GET THIS BOOK!

Specs Wine Tasting

The first Specs tasting of the new year is a cause for celebration! On the menu were definitely more obscure wines than usual which was exciting. There was a torrontes, carmenere, albarino, prosecco, and lots of French and Italian wines. There was an Uma Torrontes, which was clearly the favorite of the night - at only $7 it was the only wine sold out. The Tres Valles Carmenere was good (but not as good as the Terra Andina). There was a white burgundy, which is really just French chardonnay, and that was pretty good, as well as the Martin Codax albarino. Five bad ones (lets not focus on those), and the rest were just ok.

I didn't end up buying any wine this time, because nothing really jumped out at me. I did, however, get some manchego they were sampling, as well as 2 cheeses which were getting a little moldy and so were 50% off. Thats not a problem for me, I just cut off that tiny but of mold.  

I like bad wine

Yes, I really like bad wine. I don’t like to buy a bottle of it, or even drink a whole glass, but I DO like to taste wines I don’t like. For one thing, I think its just fascinating how many ways there are for wine to taste. There are almost countless flavors, and throw in all the smells and its just endless. Sometimes I taste wine and think “whoa yuck… but what IS that taste… is that robitussin? Lentil stew? Grass?” Secondly, the wines I don’t like make me appreciate the wines I do like even more. How will I know what “good” tastes like unless I know what it shouldn’t taste like? And finally, I feel like it helps me develop my overall tastes. Very often, I try wines I’m almost sure I wont like (sauvignon blanc for example), because I’m hoping to be surprised. I love love love to be surprised by wines, and I’m looking for that wow factor. Probably 90% of moscatos and Rieslings taste good to me, so it’s not that exciting to find one I like. However, I do NOT like about 90% of chardonnays I try, so finding one of those I like is amazing.

So that is one reason why I go to all these wine tastings around town, and especially love wine flights. I like to try everything – good, bad, expensive, or cheap. 

Wine Does a Body Good

I try to live a healthy lifestyle and along with all my wine and cheese, I like to run. This weekend I did the 3M half marathon and despite an achy knee, finished in 2 hours, 13 minutes, and 53 seconds J. And I had wine the night before!

Wine Glasses

I have been a disgrace to red wine drinkers everywhere. I drink all my wine in the same glasses, which are pretty small. Wine people always talk about what a difference the size and shape of your glass can have on the taste of the wine, but I guess until now I never really thought about it. Time for a change! Apparently some wine article published the best glasses for tasting wine in, and Crate and Barrel had one of the top glasses for only $5! Needless to say, I was there in a jiffy and am now the proud owners of 2 bulbous 22 oz wine glasses J Can I taste a difference using them? Time will tell…

Here is my old wine glass with the new ones for comparison.

Campo Viejo Tempranillo

This is a fairly inexpensive tempranillo that I bought from Grapevine as an everyday drinking wine. Having no special occasion to open wine (other than I wanted some), I thought it would be a good choice. In the past, I have really liked tempranillos, but unfortunately I thought this one was just ok. One of the things I hate for a red wine to be is thin and acidic, and this had a little bit of that going on.  I tried a little over 3 nights and it was consistently average. With so many wines to try, average is simply not good enough to buy again. :( I give it a 5.

Cru - A Wine Bar

My best friend Kris came into town from California just for a day, and wanted to take me out to a wine bar!  After chatting and catching up for a bit, we set off for the Domain, where our friend Dominique met up with us. Wine bars have the usual glasses and bottles of wine, but one main advantage they have over restaurants are wine flights. A wine flight is usually 3 small glasses of different wines that go together in some way. They are about 2 ounces each and may all be the same type of wine, from the same region, or another similarity like they are all screw top wines. We decided to get 4 flights (2 white and 2 red), which is about 1 1/2 glasses of wine for 3 people.

To go with all our wine, we had to have a cheese plate. We tried to pick one that would go with all the wines we ordered, and finally chose the American plate. Our cheese plate included a Grafton Village 4 year cheddar (which tasted exactly like Petit Pyrenees), a Hudson Valley camembert, and a Laura's Chenel goat cheese. Along with the cheeses we had grapes, apples, pears, fig paste, and a very large basket of bread and crackers. I rated the cheddar a 6.5, the camembert a 2 (it tasted like buttery feet!) and the goat cheese a 6. It had a really weird aftertaste, but especially paired with the fig paste it was pretty good.

For each flight you get a card with all the names of the wine and descriptions of them which I LOVE. I like knowing what I should be looking for in a wine, and its a great way to take notes for later. Here are all the wines we tasted!

Flight #3 WORLD WHITES:
The first flight we tried was called "World Whites" which included wine from "3 different winemaking regions". Surprisingly, 2 of the "world" whites were from California.

Terlato Family Vineyards, Pinot Grigio '05 Russian River Valley, California
The first wine we tried was not very good. It smelled pretty good, yet we all thought it tasted kinda blah and sour. We detected hints of citrus and grapefruit, but none of the vanilla and creamy pear flavors mentioned on the wine card. I rated it a 4, Kris a 5, and Dominique a 4.5 (out of 10).
Domaine Lafond "Roc-Epine" Grenache Blanc-Roussane-Viognier '06, Lirac, Rhone Valley, France
I had never heard of a grenache blanc, and the addition of viognier led me to believe this wine might be a little sweeter. No! Not only was it not sweet, I thought it was bitter and not good at all. We smelled honeysuckle but that was about it. Originally we rated it 5/7/3, but Kris changed his score because this wine got WORSE as it sat out. So final score was 5/4/3. Yuck
Krupp Brothers, "Black Bart", Marsanne '06, Napa Valley, California
After the first two bad wines, this one was a relief. It smelled very good, with honey notes, and tasted decent as well. Dom said it was buttery, almost like a chardonnay, and we rated it 6.5/7.5/5. Its worth mentioning that Dominique had just finished chewing gum before she came, so felt her sense of taste was a little screwed up.

Flight #5 SCREW IT
I much preferred this wine flight to the first one. I gave them all very high scores! These wines were grouped together because they all come in bottles with screw top caps.

Man Vintners, Chenin Blanc '08, Coastal Region, South Africa
This wine is GREAT! It tastes like kiwi, melon, and grapefruit. It smells like a fruit punch, and went very well with the grapes and cheese. I think it was pretty reasonably priced too, which means I will definitely look for this the next time I go to Specs! We rated this 8/8/7.
Kallfelz Estate, Kabinett '07, Mosel, Germany
This wine was pretty good and tasted like honey and apricots. We decided it smelled like the leather inside of a new car, and Clearly Canadian was mentioned! We rated it 7/5/6.
Conundrum '07, California
I was told at Specs that this is the #1 ordered wine by the glass by women in Austin, so I was excited to try it! It actually was really delicious! The description on the card says "honeysuckle and jasmine, with ripe melon, peach, nectarine, and honeycomb", which I think is pretty accurate. We thought it smelled and tasted a bit like a moscato and all gave it high scores. 8/6.5/7.5

Flight #11 PINOT ENVY
These were all pinot noirs from California.

MacRostie , '06 Carneros, California
This wine was a bit forgettable. It had a great cherry smell, but tasted flat and uninteresting. 5/3/5.
Belle Glos "Meiomi" '08, Sonoma/Monterey/Santa Barbara, California
I loved this pinot! It smelled and tasted so incredible with a soft vanilla flavor. Interestingly, the description mentioned allspice, which was really cool! I will look for this wine the next time I am wine shopping. 8/7/7
Emeritus '07, Russian River Valley, California
I think this was one of Kris's favorite of the night. The smell is kinda blah and is a little like pool water, but the TASTE is a shocker. We decided it was "a surprise party in your mouth" because it is so delicious, which is something you would never except from the smell! 8/8.5/5.5

Flight #7 EUROPEAN VACATION
I felt that overall these wines were a little forgettable. Thats probably just a personal preference, but none really stood out to me or made me say WOW.

Monte Antico, Sangiovese-Merlot-Cab Sauvignon '06, Toscana IGT, Italy
This wine is pretty good, very smooth with silky tannins and a dried cherry taste. It was solidly good, but nothing special. 6/7/6.5
Montecillo "Reserva", '03 Rioja, Spain
Now this wine was interesting. It had a really weird smell, which I pinned down as medicinal :/. Kris said it smelled a bit like woodchips and I noted it was a bit spicy. The card said "light chocolate", which I don't think any of us tasted. 6.5/5/7
Maison Bouachon "La Tiare du Pape", '05, Chateauneuf du Pape, France
For some reason I thought this had a distinct tomato-y flavor, like spaghetti sauce. It was neither bad nor good, just kind of there. I didnt taste any of the nutty flavor the card mentioned. 5/5.5/5

Whew! All that wine and we weren't even done yet! Everyone at Cru was very nice, and we were talking with the manager and chef there about the wine we tried. They gave us a special taste of one of their favorites from the French Connection wine flight. It was a Veraison Merlot by Krupp Bros '05 from Atlas Peak, California. This wine was fantastic and one of the top wines of the night! It was so soft and smooth and had a sage and herbal quality to it. Its a wine I wish I had a glass or two of to just sit and sip and think about. Very delicious! 8/9/8

I loved Cru and will definitely be back sometime! I would like to try some of their other wine flights, and Ive heard they have amazing food there as well, so may have to go for dinner sometime! :) There will definitely be more trips to wine bars in my future!

Two Wines and a Goat Cheese

Today I had the chance to retry some wines I haven't had in a while. I was visiting with my parents for the afternoon and had previously recommended they try the Fall Creek Muscat Canelli. My mom wasn't a fan, so I tried it again and I must say it did not taste how I remembered!

It was still good, but I had rated it in my top wines of 2009! I find it very interesting that my perception of the wine changed so much from when I first tried it. Since neither one of us liked it that much and it had been open for a few days, we decided to open a Schmitt Sohne Auslese Riesling, which was previously my mom's favorite wine.

We noticed right away that this wine STINKS! We decided it smelled like new shoes, plastic, and pool water. Don't let this fool you though, it tastes pretty good! We had to let it open up a bit though, at first it was a little sour and alcoholic tasting, which is not good for a wine thats 9%! After it sat out and warmed up a bit, it became very fruity and a lot creamier. The smell still lingered a bit :/.

To go with the wines, I brought some honey goat cheese.

The cheese was amazing as always and with the Auslese it turned out to be a really great pairing!

A good day for wine and cheese overall!

Port Sour

Yuck, yuck, yuck! Ok lets start over... I got this port when Grapevine was going out of business and thought it would be interesting because its a white port, which is pretty uncommon. It was bottom shelf, about $12 (on sale for 8). The SMELL is gross but I tasted it anyway and the TASTE is gross as well. It is "extra dry", which means it is not sweet at all, and is very strong at 20% alcohol.

It was not drinkable, so I tried to come up with a solution. I tried mixing it with lemonade to give it some sweetness, and it actually became much better. I named this new drink a "port sour".

I still have the whole bottle, and although the port sour was acceptable, it was by no means delicious. I will have to think some more about what to do with the rest of this nasty port. :/

Terra Andina Carmenere

I was so into the chilean carmenere from the wine bar I wanted to see if Specs carried it so I could try it again. Unfortunately THEY DONT! Where do I look now? :( Anyway, the Specs guy showed me this Terra Andina which he said was very good, and it was only $8. It is a 2008 and still very young, and he said it may still be a bit harsh than it will be in a few years.

So I thought this would be a perfect time to try out my new wine aerator! Yessss!

The aerator is so cool, I tried just running water through it first and the water came out all bubbly! Then I tried wine. Apparently you need to pour the wine so it hits the inside wall of the aerator (not straight down), so it doesn't come out the holes in the side. Then it makes a loud noise and comes out with bubbles.

I poured a small glass of the wine straight from the bottle, and then also a small glass of aerated wine and compared them side by side.

Experimenting was SO much fun! I did several blind taste tests where I tried to guess which wine was which. The unaerated wine was a little harsher and peppery and definitely had a sour kick on the finish. The aerated wine was smoother and tasted toned down. I liked both a lot and they were almost like 2 different wines! At first I could really tell a difference between the two of them, but the more I tasted them, the less I could differentiate. Actually I could smell a difference more than I could taste. I had this wine with a 4 cheese pizza and they paired really well and were amazingly delicious.

The aerator definitely smoothed out the wine, but in a way I felt like it almost took away some of its character. The carmenere lost a bit of the punch it originally had, which I actually loved. Overall I give this wine a very high score, 9/10 both aerated and unaerated!

Cork and Co

Amazingly, I had never been to a wine bar in Austin until yesterday. My friend Hillary suggested we go since her best friend, Shari, was in town from Spain and is a bit of a wine connoisseur. She actually has a really cool job creating an online wine community and organizing wine tours all around Europe! Originally they suggested Max’s Wine Dive, but after looking at their online wine menu, I was a bit disappointed. It looks like most of their wines by the glass are between $10 – 13 for just one glass, which is a little pricey for me, and their bottles are expensive as well. It's very popular though, so I would like to go at some point (perhaps when I have more money!).

I have always wanted to try Cork & Co on Congress, because I've heard good things and they have a pretty good happy hour. From 4 - 7pm they have $5 glasses of wine, and when I got there at 7:09 they still honored their happy hour prices. The atmosphere is really nice - there are comfortable couches, conversation cards ("what is your favorite_____", "would you prefer ____ or ______"), and a whole wall of wine to choose from. We went on a Monday and we were the only ones there for most of the time.

For my first glass of wine, I got a blend of 3 grapes from France and unfortunately I forgot what it was called and can't find it on their online menu.

It was pretty good though. After we all had our first glass, another friend came so we decided to order a bottle. The only bad thing about Cork & Co was that they were out of a lot of the wines we tried to order. We tried to order probably 3 or 4 that they were out of, perhaps because we went right after the weekend. They had a lot of very reasonable bottle prices, and we chose a Chilean Carmenere for $20 and it was REALLY good. It was my favorite thing of the night.

I thought that would be the end of the night, but we were having so much fun we decided to have another bottle. This time we chose an Crios syrah and bonardo blend from Argentina, which I don't think was any of our first choice, but again, they were out of a lot. It turned out to be ok, not great though. I love the Crios torrontes, and their malbec was a bit hit at Christmas, but this one was not as fantastic.

We all had a fantastic time and the wine overall was delicious! I will definitely be back to Cork & Co especially for those $5 happy hour prices!

Best Wines of 2009

Since everyone everywhere is making their "best of" lists, I thought it would be fun to recap the best wines I've tried in 2009. Before I started this blog in May, I kept a wine journal in which I kept notes about the wines I tried. My Top 10 Wines of '09 is therefore a combination of wines from the journal and the blog. 6 are whites and 4 are reds. Drumroll please...

Top White of 2009:

Castello del Poggio Moscato d'Asti - Ive had this wine probably 5 times in the last year and every time has been delicious. From the specs tasting, to wino divino, to Olive Garden, to the parents meeting, it is perfect for every occasion. It is light (7%), sweet, slightly sparkling, and amazing. It was an easy choice for top white of the year. $13

Rounding out the top 6 whites...

Texas Hills Orange Moscato - Sweet, fruity, but with a high alcohol content (14%!) and some depth! The hint of orange zest balances out the sweetness and makes this wine something I would recommend to everyone. $17 for a 500ml bottle.

Chisholm Trail Blanc du Bois - This wine is very crisp and refreshing with tastes of grapefruit, peach, and tangy apple. Its a little on the sour side, but with almost a buttery smooth texture. I definitely need to try this one again soon, luckily I have another one on my shelf! $17

Schloss Vollrads Riesling - Everyone likes this wine when they try it because its sweet, fruity, and doesnt taste a thing like alcohol. It is very drinkable and refreshing. $15

Crios Torrontes - The only dry white in the top 10, this torrontes is very well balanced with sweet and tangy. Hints of orange citrus and grapefruit pair well with the peachy, flowery tastes. I have tried 2 other torrontes' and they don't even compare to this one. $15

Fall Creek Muscat Canelli - This muscat canelli was one of the first ones I ever tasted and was my favorite from the Austin Wine Festival. It started an intense love of sweet whites. Upon trying it a second time it is actually very well balanced and not as intensely sweet as I previously thought. $13

Top Red of 2009 -

Becker Prairie Rotie - This wine is so complex - smells of earth, moss, and pepper with a big bold taste, yet somehow with a soft fruity finish. Its a wine I just want to sip and think about and just writing about it makes me want some right now. Overall fantastic! $15

Rounding out the top 4 reds...

Wrongo Dongo - You would never believe this wine is only $7. Its a monastrell and has intense smells and flavors of cherries, plums, and spice. Its got body, flavor, and outshines a lot of reds I have tried which seem to fall flat or seem thin. Its something I want to keep on hand at all time and goes great with strong cheeses! Its bold - 15% alcohol! $7

Oakley Five Reds - Originally I had this as a $40 bottle of wine in New York and was ecstatic to find it here for much cheaper. Its almost the exact opposite of the prarie rotie, with a light fruity beginning followed by a sharp bold finish. It might be a bit harsh by itself, but is delicious with food and cheese. $9

Hoya de Cadenas Tempranillo - I wrote that this wine smelled like red velvet cake and was "one of my new favorite wines". I had this right at the beginning of the year and I think its about time I tried it again. It has silky tannins, lots of fruit and pepper, and a delicious finish. $9

2009 has been a great year for wine! I cant even wait for the wines of 2010!

New Year's Eve Champagne

New Year's Eve is usually a time for champagne, but since I actually don't like champagne, I decided to go with an almond sparkler! I originally bought this on a trip to Fredericksburg in a Lost Creek tasting room (Lost Creek is actually much further away). I was so in love with it, I had to get it even though it was $20 a bottle. I guess I've had it for maybe a year and a half now and have been saving it for the right occasion and what's better than New Year's Eve?

I actually missed midnight because I was babysitting, but when I got home I still wanted to celebrate, so brought the sparkler out. This sparkler smells AMAZING - seriously it smells like some delicious dessert. I was pretty excited to try it, since I hadn't had it in so long... and I must say it didn't quite live up to my expectations. :( It was still very good, but I didn't quite feel the specialness I felt in the tasting room. For $20 I would not get this again, however I have another one I found for $15 on sale for $10, and there is one at Specs for like $7 that is also good. There is no reason to pay extra for this one. However, the night was still fun and the sparkler was still decent.