“Drink Yourself Blind” and Discover New Wine

One of my favorite ways to discover new wines is with unique tasting experiences.  It’s a fun way to share wine with friends and try something you may not otherwise.  This week, co-workers were in town and our friends at Bacchus Wine Market & Tasting Room set up a very fun tasting experience for us, “Drink Yourself Blind”. 

For the tasting, we were served 8 mystery wines ~ 4 white, 4 red.  We were provided a list of possible wines.  Of course, they didn’t make it easy, as each list had an extra wine that was not part of the tasting.  We were also provided grape descriptions to help us along.  Here’s the list of our potential wines with actual selections marked with (x):

WHITE:

(x) Le Capitaine Vouvray Chenin Blanc, France

(x) Cavallotto Chardonnay, Italy

(x) J. Rickards Sauvignon Blanc, California

(x) Trefethen Riesling, California

Lagar de Cervera Albarino, Spain

RED:

(x) Medlock Ames Merlot, California

(x) White Hawk Syrah, California

(x) In Situ Cabernet Sauvignon, Chile

J. Rickards Zinfandel, California

(x) Aster Ribera del Duero Tempranillo, Spain

The wines were served one at a time, starting with the whites.  After every taste, we each made a guess and then took the most common answer as our ‘team pick’.  After tasting all the whites, I learned, well… I really suck at this ~ it was hard!  I only got 2 correct.  Our collective team pick scored the same, and we gave mad props to our co-worker who successfully picked three.  I was confident I’d do better with the reds.  Not so much.  I didn’t get any correct (ouch!), and I once again matched our team score.  The best among our group was a total of 4 correct picks. 

I have convinced myself I would do better if the wines were tasted all together and I could compare side by side.  Then again, maybe I just need the practice, and should take it as a sign to share more wine!

Bacchus is holding the "Drink Yourself Blind" event on Friday, Oct 12, 4-8:30pm and Saturday, Oct 13, 2-8:30pm.  Tickets are only $20. If you are in San Diego during this time, I highly recommend it ~ tons of fun!

Sharing a fun wine tasting experience with co-workers at Bacchus Wine Market, downtown San Diego

Selecting wine in a restaurant when you know nothing

The other night we encountered a restaurant wine list that had absolutely nothing familiar. This rarely happens to us but we know what to do when it does. We immediately skip to number two on our list of three ways to select a wine from a restaurant wine list. (See the full list here.)

Number two is "try before you buy." The trick here is to look for wines that are sold by both the glass and the bottle. The restaurant will have bottles of these wines already open, so you can taste a few possibilities before making your final selection.

In our case, we narrowed our selection to two contenders. One was an Australian Shiraz and the other was an Italian Sangiovese. Both were reasonably priced and the varietals in theory would pair well with both our meals. Our server brought us a glass with a splash of each one and we picked the one we both liked best - the Italian.

The wine turned out to be a Terra Alta Red Wine. We took a picture of label thinking we could easily research the winery online at a later time, but our search has been fruitless. Does anyone recognize this wine?

Wild Horse – 2008 Unbridled Arroyo Grande Pinot Noir

On our trip to Paso Robles last year, we had a great tasting experience at Wild Horse.  While they produce a wide range of wines, they are best known for their Pinot Noir.  The day of our visit they had five on the tasting list ~ their widely distributed pinot, along with selections from their unbridled and cheval collections.  Zach, our host, provided us with a very cool tasting experience.  He lined up five glasses, and we tasted them all side by side.  They were all quite good, but our two favorites were from the Unbridled series ~ the 2008 Bien Nacido Vineyard and the 2008 Arroyo Grande.  Of course, we brought some home.

This weekend, we shared our 2008 Unbridled Arroyo Grande Pinot Noir with Jeff’s parents.  The wine has stayed very true to our original tasting notes.  It is a traditional California Pinot Noir with a wonderful balance of fruit and earthiness, both on the nose and in taste.  It is more fruit forward with hints of blackberry and a little dark cherry.  The finish is exceptionally smooth. 

The one problem with this wine… they produced only 400 cases, and we purchased only 2 bottles. 

Three Serving Mysteries (sort of) Cleared Up

There are three persistent questions we hear when it comes to serving wine:

1. What's the proper serving temperature?
2. Should I use an aerator?
3. When should I decant wine?

Before providing an answer to each question, please keep in mind there is only one hard and fast rule when it comes to enjoying wine:

If you like it, it's good.

That's it. Everything else is a suggestion or comes down to personal preference. So, please keep in mind that our answers reflect our palate, but it's always a good idea to experiment on your own to discover what you like best.

1. What's the proper serving temperature?
Most people know the basics -- white wine chilled, red wine room temperature. Right? Well, maybe. First, it's good to know what temperature does to wine. The colder the wine, the less acidity and alcohol you'll taste, but you'll also taste less of everything else. That means a cheap Chardonnay with poor balance will undoubtedly taste better chilled on a hot summer day than if you serve it warm. However, a well-made Chardonnay that's nicely balanced will reveal more of it's character if you serve it a bit warmer.

OK, so you want a relatively foolproof way to serve?  

• White wine: Chill for at least 60 minutes and pull it out 10 minutes before serving. 
• Red wine: Room temperature. Some people like their reds slightly chilled, but we don't.

2. Should I use an aerator?
No.

You've probably seen these devices that attach to a wine bottle and froth up the wine as you pour it. Adding in oxygen opens up the wine's flavors while subduing some of the alcohol, but aerators tend to take it to the extreme. Look carefully, and you'll generally see aerators only used in wineries with cute names like "Hot Mama Vineyards" that feature racks of bedazzled "Got Wine?" t-shirts for sale in their tasting room. Those wineries can be a lot of fun, but they typically need an aerator to cover up the poor quality of what they're serving. Almost any decent wine will taste better without it.

3. When should I decant wine?
Decanting wine serves two main purposes. Older wines tend to have a lot of sediment build up in the bottle, so pouring the wine into a decanter is an easy way to separate the wine from most of the sediment. Very young wines tend to need a little help expressing their full flavors, so if a wine tastes too tart or there seems to be too much alcohol, you can soften it up by pouring it into a decanter and letting it sit for 15 minutes or more.

That's it! Feel free to agree or disagree, but always keep in mind these suggestions come down to personal taste. After all, there's only one rule when it comes to drinking wine!

Why we always bring our own wine to restaurants

We always bring our own wine to restaurants. OK, almost always. The exceptions being times when we aren't drinking wine, are making an unplanned stop, or are traveling to a state whose draconian liquor laws forbid it. (Here's a great article from Wine Spectator that gives a state-by-state overview.)

Why bring our own wine? I'll give you three great reasons:

1. It's cheaper

Restaurants typically mark-up their wine 2 - 3 times the retail price. This means it's almost always cheaper to bring in your own bottle, even after the typical $15 - $20 corkage fee. For example, one of our go to Chardonnays is Sonoma Cutrer Sonoma Coast. It typically goes for $45 at a restaurant, but as a BevMo club member, I can pick up a bottle for $21.54 including sales tax. Add in a $15 corkage fee and my total at the restaurant is $36.54. 

2. You know it

Staring at a restaurant wine list can feel a lot like trying to complete the New York Times crossword puzzle. Sure, you might recognize a few things, but most of the clues don't make any sense. Why take chances on an expensive wine you've never heard of when you can bring a bottle that you know you'll love?

3. You can't get it there

Sally and I buy a lot of wines that aren't widely distributed and some are sold exclusively through the winery. That means many of the wines we enjoy can't be found on a restaurant wine list, so the only way to open a bottle when dining out is to bring a bottle with us.

If you aren't sure if bringing your own wine is legal in your state, or if your favorite restaurant will allow it, the best way to find out is to call. Ask the person for their corkage policy and they'll gladly tell you the rules and the cost. Or, you can always do what we do and just show up with a nice bottle, offer to share a little, and hope for the best!

Enjoying a bottle of 2007 Wattle Creek Shiraz at Terra American Bistro