Unusual choice, or marketing tool?

Photo by hugacrv, on flickr.

In the Republic of Georgia, the Georgian president owns a vineyard. Recently, he got some high-profile people to stomp grapes for him: John McCain and Joe Lieberman:

The former Soviet republic of Georgia has found an unusual labor source at harvest time: Former candidates for President and Vice President of the USA.
John McCain and Joe Lieberman picked grapes at the vineyard of the Georgian president and then crushed them underfoot. Mmm.

Those are some prestigious feet!

h/t Dr. Vino.

How to Buy Wine: An Idiot's Guide

Blogger Keith Levenburg argues that, when you buy wine, you shouldn't buy what you like.

One of the mantras that experienced old hands like to repeat to new and learning collectors is, “Buy what you like.” This is absolutely terrible advice. In fact, I can’t think of a better way to end up with hundreds of bottles you won’t drink and can’t sell than to start out “buying what you like.”

Why? Because you are an idiot. Although, to be fair, this is mostly because your taste-buds are idiots. The more you taste wine, the more you'll learn to be able to tell the difference between good wines and bad. It's a matter of judgement, rather than a matter of taste.

When we decide we like a wine, we’ve done just that: we’ve decided it. It was an exercise in thinking—not only, and not even primarily, an exercise in tasting. We keep a mental checklist of what a good wine is supposed to offer, and we decide a wine is good when it manages to meet enough criteria on the list. And that means that the decision that we like the wine has very little to do with the way it tastes, and a lot to do with how we’ve populated that mental checklist.

It's a very good article, even if you haven't read too much Kant (thank God if you've avoided that fate). Check it out at his blog Cellar-Book.

Toast of the Town

This Friday, Wine Enthusiast is hosting Toast of the Town at the National Building Museum. This event showcases 500 different wines from around the world, as well as food from area restaurants. General admission tickets are still available for $100. I can't wait!

Aging Wines

In what is perhaps a rare gesture for me, I am the first to admit I don't know much about aging wines. But it's fun. I jumped aboard the bandwagon a few years ago, when I found that aging a wine from the Brandywine valley for just a year made a noticeable improvement. Since then, I've kept a wine fridge full of wines to age for a term between a year or two to 10 years (an anniversary present for my wife. Most of our presents are ones we enjoy together).

It's been a while since we've had one of our aged wines, so when the bottle we got from Ace Beverage was vinegar, we decided to open one up, a 2007 Cotes du Rhone. It ended up pretty fruity overall. The wine itself is dry, but there's a wonderful fruity finish that lasts fairly long. It was, perhaps, not the best wine to pair with our bison steaks, but it held up to them fairly well. You can see our sticky note in the picture; that's how we remind ourselves about how long we want to age. Since it's based just on random internet people most of the time, we generally feel free to ignore it when we want. We've always enjoyed the results we've had, and look forward to more aged wines in the future.

Nature vs. Nurture: Wine-Tasting Edition

Photo by Kevin Buehler, ksbuehler on flickr

A recent study from Penn State has re-opened the nature versus nurture debate, this time as it applies to the tasting of fine wines. The study discusses so-called supertasters, who not only respond more acutely to taste compounds in wines, but are better able to distinguish between different flavors, than the average Joe Boxedwine. This has led to a lot of breathless chatter that some people are just born to be oenophiles. But the Washington Post disagrees.

If, as a wine writer, I’m an ‘expert,’ it’s because I’ve taken the time and made the effort to taste more wines than most people have. Taste enough cabernet sauvignon, and you’ll learn to tell it from merlot — if you pay attention. And I suspect that anyone who does that might become more sensitive to bitterness.

The key words are “if you pay attention.” People often tell me, “I had a great wine the other night!” When I ask what wine, they hem and haw and say, “Umm, it had a green label.” I can’t help those people. Even if someone wants to spend only $5 to $10 on a bottle, paying attention helps distinguish the plonk from the gems — and yes, there are gems in that price range. 

By paying attention as I became increasingly obsessed with wine, I not only began to distinguish wines I liked from those I didn’t, but I could explain why. By paying attention to the flavors in wine, I began not only to appreciate their subtle nuances (which, in turn, drove my price tolerance level skyward), but also to notice flavors and aromas in nature around me. Jasmine flowers? Viognier. Wet stones after a spring rain? Chablis. A barnyard pile of manure? Well, any number of faulty wines.

I generally agree. I'm always suspicious of arguments that try to throw us entirely on one side of the nature or nurture debate. Things are usually more complicated than that. Certainly with wine tasting, I've found that as I've learned to pay more attention to the wine, my skills have improved. Even just trying to guess the flavors you're tasting, before your palate has really developed, can help you taste those flavors better. And of course, one of the keys is trying more wine, something I'm more than happy to do.

Braised Chicken with Thyme

Braising is one of the things I love to do in the kitchen because it's so flexible. Toss some chicken, some herbs, and some wine in a pot, and you can get all sorts of results. Of course, this isn't to say that I've really mastered the technique. Consider these general instructions:

Saute aromatics (garlic/shallots) in oil
brown chicken, 5 minutes each side
remove chicken, deglaze with dry white wine, add herbs (thyme, rosemary, savory), reduce
braise chicken, 20-25 minutes

Did it turn out good? Well, it was fine. It could have been crispier -- I'm not sure if I want to saute the chicken longer or put it (briefly) under the broiler after braising it. The flavor was good, and if I had had the time to reduce the sauce after braising the chicken, it would have been really good. Some of this is just the peril of starting dinner at quarter after eight. But practice makes perfect, right?