At the beginning of May, I brought home my 10 liter box of Domaine Roger Perrin rosé and introduced it to its new home on the top shelf of my refrigerator. Then I had a housewarming party for it and drank two bottle's worth of it. It's kind of a rite of summer to have more than a case's worth of Rhone rosé available, crisp and cold, ready for drinking anytime. So when two weeks had passed and I was having to tilt the box to fill my wine glass, I got a little concerned. What if the ultimate summer treat never even made it to summer, much less June? I don't know if it'll still be around another three weeks, but I've tried to diversify my drinking a little more as part of my Rosé Conservation Program.

When my girlfriend and I got back from a long bike ride and needed a wine to drink on the fire escape, rather than dipping into the rosé reserve, I cracked open a bottle of Muralhas de Monção Vinho Verde. Vinho verde is another one of those wines that go so well with spring and summer because it is light and crisp and usually slightly sparkling (and cheap!). Much of the vinho verde from the Monção subregion, where this one is from, has a higher amount of alvarinho in the mix, is typically a little higher in alcohol and has more body. (I've talked about my love of alvarinho (known in Spain as albariño) before. But because prices for European wines have been jumping higher, it has been hard to find a reasonably-priced bottle to carry in the store for some time.) I had heard reports that other people had really enjoyed this wine, but my palate had been concerned exclusively with rosé for weeks and I wondered if I'd be interested in anything else.

I stuck my allergy-addled nose into the glass and instantly picked out those great alvarinho notes that I enjoy: beautiful creamy jasmine notes and a little almond nuttiness. I didn't expect those notes to be so present, so I couldn't wait to get the wine on my palate. The creamy texture of the alvarinho combined with that vinho verde bubbliness is exquisite. It is both very refreshing and very satisfying at the same time. I love my rosé, don't get me wrong. But for this moment, watching the clouds get colored by the sunset, feeling a spring breeze and sipping this wine, I realized that this vinho verde was exactly what I wanted right then. At only $11.95, it's possible that my rosé could last a while longer... maybe.

This vinho verde would go really well with shellfish and other seafood dishes and salads. For a more typical style of vinho verde, you could also try the C. Mendes Vinho Verde, which is only $7.95.

Muralhas de Monção Vinho Verde, Portugal | $11.95
C. Mendes Vinho Verde, Portugal | $7.95
Domaine Roger Perrin Rosé, France | $91.95

Labels: albarino, portugal, rose, whites

I love growing up. The older I get, the less convinced I am about certain things. I value the freedom to
change my mind. When I think back to how opinionated I was in my early twenties, when I thought I had it all
figured out, I cringe. Now I am humbled and delighted to admit when I am wrong.

But anyway, this isn't about me bragging about how I've grown up into such an open minded young lady. Its
about Chardonnay. You see I thought I hated Chardonnay for years. Like many people, it had some bad
associations for me: too oaky-buttered-popcorn-jelly bean-powdered sugar-synthetic tasting. It was
something suburban moms drink in suburban bars. It was "the white" offered at open bars at tacky weddings. It
just was not cool to order Chardonnay.

But I wasn't just a hater based on these ignorant taboos. I had a bad chardonnay experience of my very
own. For some young drinkers its often Southern Comfort or say, Jim Beam that traumatizes them enough
to avoid  up into their adulthood. But unfortunately for me it was Chardonnay. For my 21st birthday, my
sister had bought me a fancy Pottery Barn goblet (yes, "goblet" not wine glass) and a bottle of Fetzer Sun
Dial Chardonnay. Well I solely consumed the bottle in its entirety. I then proceeded to drop my fancy wine
"chalice" on the sidewalk (I was outside of course) and continued my birthday festivities by drunkenly
stepping in the broken glass (I was barefoot of course). After everyone went to bed and my sister's
boyfriend picked all the broken glass out of my bleeding feet, I finished my special night by throwing
up. The next morning I vowed to stay away from Chardonnay.

Ok, so I was young, misinformed and overly judgemental.  I didn't know enough about the grape, to form such a
harsh opinion. One bad experience with one bad wine is a stupid reason to hate all Chardonnays. Now almost 10
years later, I seriously love Chardonnay. I'll admit its a new love and its taken me a while to come
around.

I recently tried an unbelievably delicious Jean-Paul Brun, Beaujolais Blanc. This was an unoaked
Chardonnay. Here you can really get a clear example of what this versatile grape is capable of. The silky,
full bodied texture was amazing, and completely balanced by the taste of butterscotch, honey, cream
and an ample amount of minerals. Fueled by my adoration of the Beauj. Blanc, I thought I'd thought
I'd try another unoaked Chardonnnay. This time it was the Paumanok Festival Chardonnay, from North Fork Long
Island. So good! This wine was full of fresh ripe apples and pears, with tremendously bright acidity. By
this point I was ready to get into some oak. I went for the Domaine Fichet, Macon Ige. This one sort of
blew my mind. The subtle oak was not like the American Butter Bomb Chardonnays that I threw back at holiday
office parties. This was a completely different wine.  There were beautiful notes of toasted hazelnuts,
citrus and a round richness, that encouraged me to finish the entire bottle in one sitting.

My conversion to a Chardonnay drinker has provoked me to try a lot of things I once hated. It turns out I
still don't like pickles and I certainly didn't love every single Chardonnay I tried. I still have my
opinions and personal taste. But my taste has broadened and it keeps broadening, which makes
drinking wine fresh and interesting. So if you think you made up your mind about hating a particular wine,
I encourage you to try it again. Try three different bottles and compare them with friends. Maybe you'll
change your mind. Maybe you'll still hate it...but at least you can feel good about calling yourself
well-informed and open-minded wine drinker.

I went over to the New Yorker site to find an article on misogyny which as it turned out was actually a New York Times article but none the less still about misogyny. Which, if you have been following Grocery Guy you would know is a pretty heated topic for a few people in this wine industry right now. Instead I stumbled across this amazing article.

There are a number of moments in the article that made me laugh, including the fact that the Swedes "get smacked from behind" when they are hungover. But mostly the article made me realize there are far more important things to talk about when it comes to wine than whether one particular wine importer is perhaps less than delicate in his dealings with other humans (not sure what his feelings about cats are), or whether he is a bigger and better importer than anyone else. I have to say that when it comes right down to it I am glad that the post went up at Grocery Guy, and I am thrilled for the new found attention this has generated for their blog. I think the conversation being raised is of utmost importance, and in that vein if you want to continue it you should really read this article and think about how it relates to the world at large.

Or like me you can return to the really important matters at hand; whether sake leaves you less hungover than wine. I promise I will research this with devotion and dedication until the sake tasting where I will reveal the product of all of my hard drinking labor.

Labels: american, french, italian, ny times, wine culture

I've recently been suffering from wine drinker's ennui, that strange affliction that makes most wines — even your favorites — seem uninteresting & ordinary. I started a palate rehabilitation program and as I had been drinking a lot of American wines, I followed these steps.

Step one: Cut down on American & new world wines & increase intake of old world, primarily French wines.

I jumped right into this step & went for the French, hoping to get rid of this affliction quickly. I cracked open the Montvac Cotes du Rhone that's been in my wine rack for a couple months. I have enjoyed this wine before & I know I like it's style & range of flavors. My palate perked up a bit during the first glass. What I had been missing most was right up front — that great old-world earthiness, a really evident terroir. And with it's supple texture & berry notes, I felt confident that the Montvac had cured me. But by the second glass, the ennui returned. Every sip seemed to lay on my tongue like Gogurt, and everything seemed disjointed. I was truly sick & needed to up my presciption.

Step two: Drink wines from less common regions or from less common grapes, or both.

I bought a bottle of the Hai Cabernet from Israel & the Erste & Neue Schiava from Alto Adige, Italy for a party I was supposed to go to (I didn't even want to *give* ordinary wine anymore). When I ended up not going to the party, I quickly opened the Schiava, knowing, again, that this is a wine I have enjoyed & it's from a region I love. It's an interesting wine as soon as you pour it, as the color is unlike most wines. It's definitely darker than most rosés, but lighter than most reds. It is beautifully floral on the nose & that's about the last time I saw this wine. It is dangerously easy to drink & I could barely keep my glass full. It's a very fruity wine & the fruit is balanced out with an interesting slight nuttiness that I noticed as the wine raced down my gullet. I was definitely on the road to recovery, but just to make sure, I went on to step three.

Step Three: Drink a higher quality wine from a reputable region.

I had a bottle of 2004 Zind Humbrecht Gewurztraminer that I'd been holding for a few years. This is a $25-35 bottle from Alsace that I've had a few times before. I was making Indian food which is usually an ideal pairing with Gewurztraminer, so I was going all or nothing. I poured the beautiful blonde yellow wine into the glass and caught a whiff of those enchanting Alsatian scents — nutmeg, jasmine, honeysuckle. I took my first sip & I could feel the ennui slipping away for good. This wine was intricate & nuanced and demanded my attention. There was so much good in this wine, a 750ml bottle seemed like a bad tease, but it was a big enough dosage to solve my problem.

Now that I'm cured, I'm following a regimen of somewhat eccentric wines & soon I will be able to drink a wine from anywhere and enjoy it again. If you too are sick with winedrinker's ennui, the doctor's office hours are every Wednesday from 5:30-8:30pm.

Labels: american, french, israeli, italian, reds, whites

You know how sometimes you get all dressed up and go out and end up feeling like nothing is really working for you? Even if you wear that outfit that usually is a hit and makes you feel like a million bucks? Maybe it is the weather or the moon or a lunar eclipse or maybe it is just a part of life that we all have to deal with, you can't always be on your game and looking like a million bucks.

Now imagine you were a wine and you had only one chance to be opened and consumed and essentially judged. Sometimes wine just doesn't show well and it is no ones fault but it sure does suck to be that wine, or to be drinking that wine.

I gave a friend a bottle of wine and she said that she found it to be a little lacking; not bad necessarily and not undrinkable just not all that. This is one of the instances that being in the wine world kind of sucks. I wanted her to like that wine because I like it. You want people to like what you like because that somehow translates into you being an interesting person with good taste, or something of the sort.

I try to remind myself that wine is a natural product made from grapes, that grow in the ground and are handled by human beings. In my humble opinion this is what makes some wines so amazing; that they are a natural product made by people. But sometimes all of the components just don't come together and the wine is not what it wants to be. So next time you have a bottle of wine that someone raves about and that when you try you are less than thrilled about, give the wine a chance to be less than on it's game. Remember that the wine has probably traveled great distances and sat around in a myriad of different warehouses and trucks before arriving in your hot sweaty hands. Give the wine some slack. As for my friend I did what any good wine lover would do and gave her another different bottle of wine to drink because you do, in the end, always want your friends to drink delicious wine.