Snow Day!

Happy Snow Day everyone on the East Coast!!!

So far I've managed to play outside, go get my Christmas presents held for my at my rental office, read my new food and wine pairing book (it's awesome), nap like a champ, and shoot some pictures! To celebrate all my accomplishments I decided to treat myself to some Ethel M chocolates and some Taylor Fladgate 20 year old Tawny Port.
Normally I'm more of a Dow's kind of girl, but I drank all that trying to get rid of my Halloween candy ( I told you I was gourmet), and a wino's gotta do what a wino's gotta do....

It looks like the snow's stopped, which means tomorrow at the wine shop will be the busiest Sunday I've ever seen!

Fitting, no?

My Exciting Update!!!

Sorry for the lack of posts, I've been distracted with lots of things lately, most notably a trip to Philly that was totally fun! The reliance on cash and lack of wine shops was weird, but whatever, still fun! (I'm pretty sure it was the company) ;)

So, yes, onto my exciting news, *ahem* I'M GOING TO BURGUNDY!!! This January (oh god I'm going to freeze) I will be going to Burgundy with my boss, our main Burgundy Importer, and a few other wine professionals for a tour of what is possibly my most favorite wine-producing region, Beaune!

I hope to have a good camera (and loads of silk thermal underwear) so I can upload all the pictures I intend to take! I also hope I can get something to cure my fear of flying, because me quaking in fear every time I encounter turbulence isn't pretty, I promise you!

I will post more details later, right now I'm going to go attempt to set the apartment on fire cook!

A Completely Unrelated Post

Sorry for the lack of updates, work has been CRAZY busy, and these past few days I've been visiting family in Baltimore. Yesterday, we went to an apple farm, where I got some GIANT apples (I'll post pictures later), some pumpkin butter, pickled spicy garlic cloves, and some champagne cranberry jelly. I still don't understand why I feel the need to buy anything food related with the name "champagne" in it, but oh well.

We also got to visit a second-hand animal farm! And when I say second-hand, I don't mean gently used, either!! I made friends with an emaciated calf I named "Veal". We bonded, even though I had a cheeseburger for lunch. I got to see a drunken donkey, a freaky looking turkey missing it's butt feathers, an emu needing a hip replacement, a cross-eyed goat, a rabbit with an attitude, and an alpaca!!

I brought up some Villa Jolanada Prosecco for mimosas, but ended up drinking most of it by myself. It's a really yummy, really inexpensive sparkler!

I had a great time, and hope to be doing it soon! Maybe next time I'll remember to bring sneakers, as boots are less than ideal for dodging random animal poop!!

Wine hacks, or simple solutions to soaked problems

I love reading about and utilizing creative solutions to life's little problems. I'm also addicted to the LifeHacker website, for just that reason! Gummy shot glasses, anyone?

Sadly, there aren't enough wine based ones, so I've decided to post my own ghetto creative solutions!

I would first like to say that an empty two liter soda bottle is your friend! I use it for everything, from soaking bottles to get the labels off (more on that later), mixing laundry liquids, you name it!
My favorite use is to chill wine quickly. Seriously, just cut the top off an empty two liter soda bottle (save and use as a funnel), rinse it out, add ice, salt, and cold water, and in about six minutes you've got perfectly chilled wine! The salt reduces the freezing point of the water, and blah blah blah, it just works. Try it!

Sometimes I buy a bottle of wine, but have to work the next day, or only want a small glass of wine, and I can't finish it, or know that I won't be able to finish it the next day. Go to your local mega wine store, and buy yourself some super cheap little half bottles the 375 ml ones, with screw tops (or Stelvins if you're nerdy). It doesn't matter what kind, you don't care what's *in* the bottles, you just want the bottles. Take them home, rinse them out (they're top rack dishwasher safe, just remove the label first or you'll be picking bits of paper out of random food for weeks!) and use them to store your wine longer! Ever seen/heard about those little canisters of gas that people use to preserve their wine, or those big tanks of gas wineries use for winemaking? It's the same principle in both, use a neutral gas that doesn't impart flavors, but that is heavier than oxygen, to displace all oxygen in a bottle, tank, whatever. You're going to be doing the same thing, only using wine to displace the oxygen! Stick your (clean and newly sanitized thanks to the dishwasher) half bottle in the sink (for easier cleanup), and using a funnel, pour the rest of the wine all the way up to the top, you want it to overflow a little bit. Little is the key word, don't waste good wine, that's a party foul! Screw your top back on and ta-da! *Jazz Hands!* You've got wine that will keep for four or five days!!!

We sell these label remover things at my store. Well, I don't sell them, but we have them for sale. I don't see the point in charging people for what amounts to a very large piece of packing tape! I'd much rather use one of two methods, and save my money for some yummy wines!!

The first method is ridiculously easy, and works best on Old World labels, and is always my default first step in the label removing process. Since it's so simple, and I'm easily amused, I like to call this the Monsoon Method. Take your handy soda bottle, the targeted wine bottle, and find yourself a sink. Turn the water on (and if you live with me, let the water run for ten minutes until it actually gets hot) and pour a little hot water in the bottom of the soda bottle, then pop the wine bottle inside the soda bottle, and proceed to fill both of them up past the label, making sure the water is as hot as possible. The water inside the wine bottle with anchor it, and also helps to soften the glue. I'm lazy and normally let this sit overnight, but if you're impatient, you can check it in about fifteen minutes. Use your thumbnail to gently peel up the corner, if it starts to come up freely, just wait, it'll be floating in no time. It really doesn't get much easier than that!!

If your label is shouting "Viva La Resistance", it's time to show that label what happens to those who don't obey your command. I like to call this the Oven Method. (what? no one said YOU had to call it that!) Preheat your oven to 200 degrees and, once ready, pop the offending bottles into the oven, LABEL SIDE UP (otherwise you'll get scorch marks, which is desirable in a steak, or even grilled veggies, but not a label), and let those damned bottles feel the heat of your fury for about ten minutes. I like to check them around six minutes, that's usually when some of the cheaper glues start to soften. Lay a towel down on your counter, grab the bottle from the oven, and using one of those razor blades you get out of a box cutter, or one of those little paint scrapers you get from the hardware store for when you're a sloppy painter, use it to GENTLY scrape the label off the bottle. I like to start in one corner, and go slow, if the label isn't coming off easily, just pop it back into the oven for some more fury. It's best to save up a counter full of bottles for this task, although you might get accused of being "Some kind of wine connoisseur".

That's all I've got for now, I'll post more later! If you've got any other hints and tricks, feel free to leave them in the comments!

Harvesting pt. 2 (On Cloud 9....Billion...)

So now that I'm clean, fed, drinking watered, and am no longer picking out grape bits from my hair and nails, I'm actually going to post about my AMAZING day.

I apologize for not taking pictures, but I didn't think to bring my camera, and really, I didn't have clean hands long enough to take a picture!!

Once again, a big giant "THANKS" to Kris, for pimping me out, I owe you a big, fat, wet kiss when I see you! Unless I'm sick, then I'll hug you. Maybe I should just pretend to be sick and hug you instead... whatever..

Anyway, so today was just bursting with awesome!! I get to Fabbioli (my first time driving on gravel, it's weird, but the crunchy sound is cool!) and meet Birgit (sounds like beer get) who is totally the coolest tasting room associate/landscape architect ever! She set me up with some clippers and a crate (called a lug) and we got to work picking Merlot!

I cannot even BEGIN to tell you how beautiful those grapes were! (but obviously I'm going to try) The clusters were so perfect, they looked fake! Big, beautiful berries, covered in a perfect bloom (that's the powdery- white looking stuff on grapes), ripe and plump, and with surprisingly very little rot. It's Virginia, I was expecting more rot. Yeah, I ate a few.. Out in the vineyard, with the bees humming, the sun shining, and the cool breezes blowing, it was so peaceful, it was like therapy. Seriously, you feel this one-ness with everything(and then you learn to avoid the bees). It's tiring, sticky, messy work, your hands will look disgusting, but so rewarding! These were some of the best-maintained vineyards I have ever seen!

After a break for lunch and a tour of the winery and a super fun ride on a golf cart (I want one), my fellow grape slaves and I went back to fields and picked some more Merlot grapes! And then we got an impromptu Spanish and German lesson. I can now ask the time in Spanish and tell you what farfegnugen means. From ten in the morning till around 4, we were picking nothing but Merlot. I think we picked something like a ton. Carrie meet sunburn. Sunburn meet Carrie's face.

Next came the sorting table, where the grapes go into the crusher/destemmer, and get dumped out onto a table (unless your name is Doug Fabbioli, and then you use a kid's slide, the man's a genius) where you're elbow deep in crushed grapes and juice, and the goal is to get as much of the stems and detritus (like leaves and such) out of the must ( pressed grape juice is called must). If you have OCD, this is a job for you. Seriously, it feeds compulsive sides of yourself you didn't know you had! You also avoid the bees. I think Doug said it best when he was explaining to me, that basically, this is the most tedious but important step in quality control, because once you start fermenting, there is no way to get that stuff out. The stems have lots of tannins, and can give the wine an unpleasant green vegetal characteristic. However, they are good ammunition for throwing at your co-grape slaves.

Then the totally cool part began. Sit down, the awesomeness cometh!!
Doug took me inside and showed me some of the tests you do on wine. He used a refractometer to check the sugar level or "Brix" in the wine. Those things are totally cool, you basically drop the juice onto this little slide, and hold this thing up to your eye, you can see (especially if you hold it up to the light) a scale, and where the black line starts is your Brix level. I had read about them, but finally got the chance to use one, another theme of the day! Then we checked the acidity of the wine, which everyone should remember from high school chemistry, but not on the litmus paper, so I couldn't make jokes about congratulations you're pregnant. You get to make BRIGHT pink water!!! It's awesome!!! And the whole time Doug is explaining all these things to me, and why they do them, and it was just so cool! He is such a great teacher!

What I think I enjoyed the most is really getting to know Doug, his wines, and his approach to winemaking. Doug kind of looks like a mad professor, he's got glasses, a big smile and wild hair, and he's always going! The man doesn't seem to stand still, but he's always quick with a joke, and can take it as much as he can dish it! He takes his wine seriously, and will be the first to tell you, he's not a lab technician, he's a winemaker, which really sums up his whole approach to wine. The grapes are the most important part of his wine. Not the must adjustments, barrels, not some fancy new clone or designer yeast, the grapes. Doug prefers to pick based on acidity rather than a lot of other Virginia winemakers, and it shows, because his wine is actually good, even his *gasp* Cabernet Franc. That's right, I said it, Doug makes a good Cab Franc. It's missing that green "Virginia Tang" (his words) and instead has pretty bright primary red fruits, a hint of some baking spices, and perfectly balanced. There, my secret is out. I found a Cab Franc I could enjoy. Doug grew up literally with the vineyard under his nails, in his blood. All throughout high school and college, Doug's been working at a vineyard. His passion for and dedication to wine is obvious, his house is his winery, his tasting room part of his house! Inside the tasting room, you can see all the (many) awards his wines have won, these beautiful photographs of grapes taken by family members, and even a few pictures of the winemaker in his native habitat, looking even more so like the mad professor! Walking around the property, you start to notice these little details that really show this man cares, like his storage area made out of shipping containers, dug into a hillside to keep a steady cool temperature, and the compost pile, which gives you a hint of his sustainable minded methods!

My favorite of Doug's wines is his Tannat. When Doug mentioned he had a Tannat, I almost peed my pants! Tannat!! In Virginia!!! Apparently, Tannat grows pretty well in Virginia, and it doesn't have that harsh tannin that Tannat is usually known for. Doug, sensing my joy, was awesome enough to open a barrel (!!!) and give me a sample!! It's to die for, even though it was a bit young and in it's awkward oenological teen years, there's yummy red fruits, baking spice, sweet clove, and coat-your-teeth raspberry! Full of intensity and structure, Doug hit all the right notes on that one! And it goes without saying his Raspberry Merlot is just off the charts....

All in all, I had an amazing day. I learned so much, and got to meet so many great people, I can't wait to go back and (hopefully) get in the way help more!
I definitely recommend you go visit!!
I'm going to stop typing so you can stop reading and go back to your regularly scheduled lives. And I'm gonna go slather my face in aloe.

Harvesting

WOW! I just got home, and I'm tired, sore, sweaty, sticky, sunburnt, stinky, and completely blissful! I spent all day picking grapes and learning winemaking at Fabbioli Cellars, in Loudon County. Thanks Kris!!!

I can't wait to share everything so I don't explode from all this awesomeness, but first, I'm gonna go shower. ;)

My Favorite Quote Of The Day

So the maintenance man came to my apartment today to replace the air filter and check the smoke alarms in my apartment. After I let him in I had the "I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do, I don't want to stand here and make you uncomfortable" thing, so I scooped up the very curious three-legged wonder and walked away, only to hear,
"Wow,it looks like you're some kind of wine connoisseur!" In my defense (that's the joy of writing your own blog!), some of those bottles were there before "The (Not So) Great (Yet Temporary) Schism"

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year (with lyrics)

It's the most wonderful time of the year
With the phones jingle belling
And everyone telling you "Try this new beer"
It's the most wonderful time of the year

It's the hap-happiest season of all
With those sales call greetings and drunk happy meetings
When vendors come to call
It's the hap- happiest season of all

There'll be dinners for hosting
Discussions of toasting
And more tasting than you know
There'll be scary wine stories
And tales of the glories of
Winemakers long, long ago

It's the most wonderful time of the year
There'll be much wine tasting
And time will be wasting
When sales are so near
It's the most wonderful time of the year!



If you couldn't tell, it's almost schmoozing season! That wondrous time of the year, when vendors and distributors are calling on all their accounts, trying to set up trade tastings and events and meetings with winemakers, all in the name of moving product! This is one of the best times to buy wine folks, retailers and distributors are trying to make room in the store or warehouse for new stuff, vintage changes, that kind of thing. Already our calendar at work is full, with meetings and trade tastings and public dinners! It's also a good time to do a little schmoozing yourself, you never know what the retailer or sommelier might have hiding in the back, waiting for someone to share their little gem with!

And yes, if you couldn't tell, I wrote those crappy lyrics myself, to the tune of Andy Williams's "The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year"

More Banned Wine...

I went out to dinner tonight with some awesome ladies, I actually think I just had my first "Girl's Night Out" experience, and had a total blast! The food was amazing,the desserts to die for, couldn't have asked for better company, and we had an awesome Virginia wine!

I get home to find this article in my inbox, apparently Alabama has banned the sale of Cycles Gladiator wines because they are a bunch of prudes it shows "side boob". To be fair, it does have a naked woman floating alongside a bicycle, but the image is old as dirt, and it's not like she's showing something I couldn't see on TV right this second. Actresses pose like this all the time, and it's the cover image on Vanity Fair. So why can't a stylized woman with strong ankles do it?

And of course, sales of the Cycles Gladiator line have increased, because seriously, who doesn't love contraband?!?!?

I find this even funnier, because I have a series 3 of their wines on my walls, as art. Or maybe I'm just a perv. ;)

I have discovered the nectar of the DEVIL!!!

I love bubbles, all kinds of bubbles, Champagne, Cremant de whatever, Cava, you get the idea. I don't think bubbles get enough respect, you'd be surprised how well they go with seafood and even some chicken! Try it sometime, a time when you're not celebrating or romancing. Although that's fine, too, if you're celebrating and you have bubbles, invite me!!!
I also have a soft spot for dessert wines. Not just Sauternes (my wallet cringes just mentioning it) or Tokaji, but late-harvest Zins, Banyuls, and now, a fortified Tannat, you also get this idea...
I had the GREAT idea to put them together (and this was better than my ice cream and mustard idea, not as awesome as ice cream and cornichons though...) and *gasp* OMIGOD it's AWESOME!!
It's better than a Kir Royale, but definitely along the same taste profile. Depending on how much of the Tannat you use, you get anywhere from a light pink to an almost blood red!! It's freaking AWESOME!! I cannot stress the awesome-ness of this enough!!
I prefer to use cheap Cava for this, currently I'm using Pere Ventura, which at $15 isn't too much a splurge, and is good enough to drink all by itself.

I warn you, once you start, it's hard to stop, although the Tannat clocks in at 17% abv, so it won't take much. I was totally drunk at 2:30 on Tuesday afternoon!!

It's THE DEVIL!!!

My New(est) Addiction

One of the best things about working in a wine shop is bringing home a bottle of wine that you've had on the shelf for months that hasn't been selling, and going, "Holy Crap!! This rocks my socks!!!"

...And then subsequently selling the rest of the case to a customer who is as much of a cork dork as you.... and then realizing this means you won't have any for yourself...

Ever heard of a white Merlot? Me neither. It's made from 100% Merlot grapes, from (wait for it) an Italian speaking part of Switzerland, called Ticino!!

Everything about this wine is just so "out there" it's awesome!! It's made by Delea, and is called Chiar di Luna. I know everyone has heard about or read about "that study they did" where "they" served a panel of wine judges the same wine twice, once as a white wine, and the second time with red food coloring added, and got a different tasting note for the white and the "red"... If you haven't, you just did, congrats. ;)
Anyway, I think I've fallen into that trap, because my nose and mouth tell me I'm smelling/tasting white peaches, citrus, a hint of green apple, *some* strawberry, and if you pay attention to what TOLR (The Original Lab Rat) says, something "salty". But take that with a grain of salt, b/c all white wines either taste salty or like Cheerios to him. ;)

But again, I think that's one of the reasons I like this wine, my brain *knows* I'm tasting a red grape, so I'm expecting all the traditional Merlot aromas and flavors like currants, plum, etc... but my nose tells me something completely different...

Like I said, it's so weird and dorky and just plain GOOD that all I can really say is, "Hello Addiction" !!

Alain Corcia 2006 "Creme de la Creme" Chateauneuf-du-Pape

I was intending to age this a little more, but after working for almost two weeks straight (we're building a new website, hooray overtime!!!) and a certain someone getting his doctorate, I decided this was deserved!!

It's a dark, opaque, inky purple, with lots of red, ripe fruits on the nose. A little black plum, some smoke, tobacco, black pepper, and something meaty, almost leathery on the nose.

The mouth is more smoke and definitely tar, pepper, leather, raspberry, violets, and some plum. It seems the focus is more on savory meat-type things than fruit, definitely old world! It finishes nicely, with a bit more of the violet character coming through. It seems a bit tight right now, I bet it would be beautiful and dusty in about three years!!!

All in all, not bad for instant gratification!!

Celebrity Wines

My normal morning routine consists of coffee, cursing at my liver, and reading various news sites and yes, lolcats. Occasionally I get frisky in the morning and decide to check the Washington Post's wine section, (especially lately, since we've been getting press for carrying wines we sometimes don't, and I like to stay ahead of these things) and came across this article on Sting and his winemaking adventures. They're a little late, since Sting's been at this for a while, but it got me thinking about other celebrity wines.
There's the obvious, like Coppola and his brood of wines, and the not-so-obvious, like actor Gerard Depardieu. I thought I'd do some more "investigation" on this matter, but found this article and then a Slate article, and decided to call it a day. That's dedication! ;)

S&M in a Glass- Aragon Patricia Amontillado Sherry

I'm not usually a sherry drinker. And by usually, I mean never... Well, until now..
Patricia makes a few different styles of sherry, but so far my favorite is the Amontillado. The nose is just INTENSE! You can smell this sucker from a mile away! The nose is full of caramel, pecans, burned sugar, dried fruits, and cashews! One sip, and your mouth gets a spanking from the tart, dry, and almost salty sherry-ness of it all. Then you exhale (and if you're me, you shiver), and it's this beautiful cashew oil, followed with vanilla.

I like it with a bit of a chill, it kind of helps take the bite off, and it goes GREAT with chocolate covered peanuts!!! I'm blaming this specific combination/ nightly habit as the reason I've put on five pounds AFTER the holidays!!!

So like I'm saying- Patricia Amontillado--hurts so good.....

Sad News

I know I'm a little late, but I just found out today that the owner of Ridge Vineyards, Donn Reisen, has died of an apparent suicide. He will be missed.

On a morbid side note, does anyone know the actual method?

A VERY Handy Tool

If you're ever looking for a specific wine, and your local wine merchant doesn't have it, or doesn't care to get it, you can always check with winesearcher.com. I LOVE wine searcher! I use it all the time, mainly to contemplate the buying of Sogno Uno. It's also a handy way to compare prices, assuming you're not one of the poor people stuck in weird/no shipping land. Then you're kind of at the mercy of your wine retailer, or at the mercy of your friend who's supposed to be holding your wine for you in their illuminated, less restrictive state!
Happy hunting!

Domaine de Fontsainte Rouge, 2005, Corbieres France

When we were first tasting this wine, I was lazy and didn't bother taking notes, but did write the name down surrounded by little hearts; which everyone knows is an incontrovertible sign of quality and prestige. ;)

I know almost nothing about Corbieres, although I'm sure I could fake it if I spent some time with Google.
What I do know is that this wine is fun, funky, and just geeky enough to keep me interested! The nose is just full of black fruits, something like dark wet earth, smoky maybe, but with a touch of cocoa. See what I mean? How often do you get to say you get fruity and muddy, and it's a good thing?!?

The flavor is just total chocolate covered blueberries! (I now know what they taste like, thanks to my last trip to California, and some super awesome wine-traveling buddies!!! ) The tannins are soft, but firm. They play well with the rest of the components, but your mouth knows who's wearing the proverbial pants! After spending some time, there's this totally cool in-glass transformation to something less playful, the fruit kind of gives way to a more serious dusty violet and liquorice notes.
I wouldn't think this wine would benefit from much decanting, as I think part of the fun of this wine is that chocolate covered blueberry kick. I also find this interesting, because the blend is 60% Carignan; 30% Grenache Noir; 10% Syrah, all grapes that would normally like a bit of decanting.

I think what I like most about this wine, aside from the sheer nerdiness that it inspires, is that I'm getting all of this for the price of $12!!

Cesanese Update

So day three and the Cesanese is still going strong!!
The tannins relaxed and softened a bit, and the fruit is showing more red characteristics, less big juicy black plums, and sadly the baker's chocolate has died as well, making this a more subtle wine, yet still FREAKING AWESOME!!! At this point, I'm going to just give in and buy a case, I think I've just found my house red staple!!

(Can you tell I love this wine? I've sold about two cases this past week!)




Btw, have I mentioned I'm an AWFUL cook lately?!? Seriously, burnt cinnamon rolls are NASTY! If you are in the Mclean/Reston/Herndon area and find burnt cinnamon rolls incredibly tasty, let me know, I'd be glad to share them with you....

2005 Faunus Cesanese Del Piglio, Lazio, Italy

Holy crap how I love me some Cesanese!!! I was seriously thinking of writing this tasting note in verse, just to show it how much I love it, but then remembered I'm a terrible poet (and blessed enough to know it. HA!) and I'm not nearly drunk enough to play that off.. Oh well...

I love this wine, it's a semi-transparent ruby in the glass, with a nose full of sour cherry, some blackberry, dust, a bit of cocoa, and hint of herbaceousness that keeps it interesting.
It's a relatively light body, with some pretty powerful cherry and plum flavors in the glass. It hits the mid-palate with a wonderful kick of acidity, moderate tannins, and some baker's chocolate that I'm really digging! I could most definitely see this as a great pizza and pasta wine.

What really gets me excited about this wine is the price, it's only $12!!! I LOVE when I find an everyday Italian that gets me excited to talk about! This isn't drinking like a $12 bottle of wine, it's too delicious and there are just too many things happening in the glass. Which makes you wonder why can't MORE wine be this damn good, this damn cheap!?!?
If only it had a screw cap..... ;)

Sake and immaturity...

So while reading failblog this evening, I came across the most AMAZING fish de-boner!! Best quote, "My wife would love that!!"
The immature thirteen year old boy in you wants you to check it out!!
This is really important, as I don't write any other blogs I could work this into!!


So back in (pretend) Mature-land, I was reading this article from WTOP about Sake's huge surge in the US. Knowing nothing about sake, (aside from never, EVER drink it after it's expired.... trust me) I found it interesting. I guess I'm going to have to "save the economy" and taste a few. Unless one of my stealth band of Professional Awesomes commonly referred to as my readers know about sake and would care to educate!?!? Anyone?

You can thank me for the fish video later, I take Visa, Mastercard, wine donations, and checks! ;)

Happy New Year btw!!!