marianne’s wine blog

Boston Wine Expo, South Beach Food & Wine Festival, Apsen Food & Wine - all perfect opportunities to sip, sample and learn about wine. Trouble is - many wine lovers have a difficult time trying out more than a handful of wines before they suffer from palate fatigue or (worse yet) a major wine buzz. So how do professionals taste 50-100 wines in a day? Real professionals spit when sampling wine. The same holds true for professional training. I always require WSET students to spit during class. That said, the way to get the most out of a tasting is to have a strategy in place before you arrive. Take this weekend’s Cleveland International Wine Show for example. Smart tasters will start with a sip of bubbly or a Sauvignon Blanc to prime the palate while they walk the floor or give the show program a look to see what wines are being poured. First stop, go to the pavilion that has the most number of high acid whites such as the Bubbles, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling. Give these light bodied wine a try first before diving into fuller whites and reds. And remember to really purse your lips when you spit - doing so will prevent any dribbles that might otherwise occur. After 10-15 tastes - head for the food table and grab some bread or crackers to moderate the acid on your palate. Then move on to fuller whites such as Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Viognier. Don’t worry about tasting all 6 wines at each table. Just ask for a sample of the specific variety you are looking for and walk away. With four hours to taste and more than 500 wines uncorked, we gotta keep moving. Light bodied reds should offer a welcomed dose of tannin and are easily sampled right after the whites if you keep spitting. Give a select 10-15 a try and then head back to the food area to pick up nibbles and give your palate a break. Take in a free wine seminar in one of the theatres or just kick back and listen to some great music. When you are feeling refreshed - head back to the tasting pavilions and tacklethe big reds. Keep your favorites for last and when you try them give up on spitting. Savory reds are ripe for drinking and - after all that tasting & spitting - you’ve earned the right to drink a few sips! Cheers.

You may have heard - and how could you not given all the press the wine has received - that the Bordeaux 2005 vintage is stellar. In fact, non-stop chatter among those “in-the-know” has caused most top chateau to sell out before the container-laden boats even hit our shores.  As top collectors gobble them up fast to build impressive cellars that most of us can only dream about where, you may wonder, does this leave the rest of us? No worries. I have a plan. Typically, excellent vintages result in excellent wine at every level. So skip the top tier and look for Fourth and Fifth Cru Classe wines or non-classified wines. While they may not have the aging potential of top growth wines, they offer great wine at affordable prices. In Cellar Door this past week, we sampled two well-made wines from the Right Bank of Bordeaux; 2005 Chateau Bel-Air and 2005 Chateau Fonplegade. Here are my notes on the wines:

2005 Château de Bel-Air, Lalande de Pomerol, France ($26):
Located on Bordeaux’s right bank, Château Bel-Air is from the region right next to Pomerol where clay soils prevail. This wine was crafted by the renowned wine consultant Michel Rolland and contains Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec. Dark berry aromas are joined by spice and a dose of new oak. 

2005 Château Fonplegade, St. Emilion, France ($60):
Located on Bordeaux’s right bank, Château Fonplegade is situated on a limestone plateau making it perfect for growing Merlot, Cabernet Franc and a bit of Cabernet Sauvignon. Full bodied, the wine combines red fruit aromas with an Old World mineral note.

In honor of the 2005 Vintage of the century, we will continue to taste Bordeaux wines in search of the perfect deal. Stay tuned, I’ll let ya know what we find.

I am in Napa Valley right now attending the Master of Wine seminars and want to share a few new found finds. First, if you are considering a trip to Napa Valley, consider staying in Yountville. The town is cute as a button and the Villagio Inn rocks. Rooms are moderately priced, the pianist in the lobby (Frederick Nighthawk) is awesome and multiple restaurants are located right across the street including Ad Hock, Redd, Bistro Jeanty, Bouchon and more. Best part. You park your car at the hotel and all restaurants are just a hop, skip and jump away. Secondly, today I am sipping a Pinot Blanc poured from a half bottle produced by Robert Sinskey Winery. It is fantastic. Even cooler than the crisp white in my glass is the cool glass topper that seals the bottle. Plus, I toured the winery, saw the bottling and tasted a newly package rose or vin gris that was - without a question - yummy. Oh, did I tell you the part about Rob & Maria Sinskey being so cool that they took me down into their cellar and showed me the disco ball in the middle of the cellar? I gotta get one for Cellar Door. Maybe next week. More to follow.

In response to the day’s snowfall, we ordered in lunch from Moxie located just four doors away; partly because it is too cold to venture out and partly because Jonathan Bennett has revamped a school lunch favorite that reeks of those precious snow days - grilled cheese & tomato soup. While this version is all grown up, (think fresh mozzarella with sundried tomato and pesto) the fact that we sated our palates in a school (wine not whine) brings back fond food memories. It also creates an interesting wine pairing. Simple comfort food is often too light for wintery reds with any body. So, I decided to pull the cork on a Chablis, an unoaked Chardonnay from France. A good choice as it turns out. While the body of the wine offered a great match for the weight of the food, the pesto and sundrenched tomato paired nicely with the high acidity and herbal steeliness of the wine. The same could be said for a Pinot Gris from Oregon and a Pinot Blanc from Alsace. So while most wine lovers turn to the comfort of reds during the chilly months, try warming up to weightier whites this winter.

When I lived in New York City, I passed a friendly man working the same corner every morning on my way to the subway. Each morning he would smile, shake a paper cup full of change, and ask “What’s the best city?” To which he would respond, “generosity.” If that did not drum up enough change, he would quickly follow up with “And what’s the best nation?” You guessed it, “donation.” I often think of this only-in-NYC-scene when I give a donation of gift certificates or host a wine tasting for charity.  Wine related items seems to drum up alot of attention at charity auctions and raffles these days. In fact, last week a Wine Consultant at Cellar Door won a wine prize during a blogger’s raffle for a national hunger organization. She bought three $10 virtual tickets on-line and dropped them in the bucket to win a chance to sip wine with Gary Vaynerchuk from the now famous Wine Library in New Jersey. Guess what? She won. Not only will she be sipping wines with Gary and friends, it will all take place in the comfort of her own home and Gary is supplying the wine! How cool is that? Very. Just ask her! It pays to be generous and nothing brings more enjoyment than a unique food & wine experience. Toss in the virtual component - she did not have to attend a black-tie, rubber chicken dinner - and it is good for everyone. We gotta get a food & wine on-line raffle going in Cleveland. Generosity is a cool city.

Whenever I sip Champagne from a fluted glass  I think of Karen MacNeil, wine educator and author of The Wine Bible. Years ago, Karen joined me as a guide in producing a tour of Bordeaux for American Express Platinum cardholders. During the opening night celebration she addressed the group, raised a glass of Champagne and said, “Offer someone a flute of Champagne and watch their body language change. Regardless of the occasion, everyone sits a little straighter with a Champagne flute in hand.” I love that comment mainly because it is so true. Whether you are happy, sad, angry or frustrated - a glass of bubbly makes eveything OK - if even for a few minutes. And with so many bubbles to choose from - Cava from Spain, Sekt from Germany, Prosecco from Italy and sparkling wine from Oregon, California, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa - finding a bottle at a specific price point is not difficult. In fact, has never been easier to find the right bottle for an event or simply because its Tuesday night!

My favorite Prosecco de Conegliano to sip straight or mixed as a belini with peach puree is Canella, my favorite aperitif Champagne is Taittinger  Brut, and recently I have been sipping bright red Paringa Sparkling Shiraz at the end of the meal just because its fun for the holiday season.

While sparkling wine visually inspires a reason for celebration, the sound bite of popping Champagne corks reminds us of winning the big game or closing the big deal. This is all well and good if we plan to spray the contents over the heads of our colleagues. Otherwise it is best to open a bottle of sparkling wine with a slight sigh instead of a loud pop. Doing so keeps those lovely little bubbles in solution for our drinking enjoyment. When opening a bottle, keep your thumb on the top of the cork and cage so you are in control of the cork at all times. Then, grasp the cork and cage in one hand and turn the bottle (not the cork) until you feel the pressure push the cork out. Resist letting the cork pop out quickly by applying pressure on the cork so you are in control of the release.

Ranging from $12 to $50, there’s a bottle of bubbly within everyone’s budget. So grab a flute and pop the cork on a bottle and enjoy…just because!

Deciding what wines to bring to your family Thanksgiving Day dinner is an interesting task. From a culinary perspective, you have spices, flavors and textures that vary more than anyother meal of the year. Take Aunt Betty’s sweet yam casserole with marshmellows plopped on top. Makes me think of a German Spatlese Riesling. Serve the yams along side a slice of Tom Turkey smothered in spiced cranberry sauce and I reach for a bottle of fruity Dolcetto or a Pinot Noir from Willamette Valley. Toss in Brussels Sprouts sauteed with pancetta and I pine for a well-made Pinot Gris from Alsace. While the varied flavors on the table create an interesting wine challenge, the people seated around the table make it near impossible to hit it right with one lone wine. In my family alone we have non-drinkers, red-wine-gives -me-a-headache sippers, I-love-anything-sweet lovers and I-only-drink-big-beefy-red guzzlers. So what is an at-home sommelier to do? My advice. Select a quality Riesling such as Monchhof Kabinet or Zilliken Butterfly and a quality Rhone Valley red such as Guigal’s Chateauneuf-du-Pape and plop them both on the table for all to enjoy. Each can bring a wide range of flavor profiles to the table and many smiles on the faces of those around it. Cheers to the start of the holidays.

It’s October and the pumpkins are starting to roll out in mass. I must admit that this is my favorite month of the year. The leaves are turning, the weather is crisp and the food moves from lightly grilled to savory and slow cooked. In terms of wine, that mean beefier examples such a Zins, Syrah, Bordeaux, Rhone, Shiraz for reds and blended whites or concentrated varieties such as Pinot Gris from Alsace and Spatlese Riesling from Germany that have the extra body required to stand up to the season’s spice. But before we get to the daddy of all dinners (Thanksgiving) let’s not overlook the festive and goulish night that brings out the kid in all of us, Halloween. Today, I decided to make it my mission to find the ultimate wines to pair with Holloween cuisine. Think candy corn, popcorn balls, carmel apples and Snickers bars. If you are hosting an adult Halloween party, what wines would you pair with this traditional cuisine? Only one way to find out - uncork the bottles on some “scary” wines, break open a bag of candy corn and give it a go. And that is just what we are going to do this month at Cellar Door. If you are interested, let me know and we will send you a personal invite with all of the details. No costume required.

I tasted a white wine today that realigned my analytical approach to whites. Medium in body with crisp acidity and just enough oak influence to give it curves on the palate, the wine was far from being varietally correct - and with good reason. It was a blend. Having tasted tons of high acid Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, refreshing Roses from around the world and quaffing-worthy Pinot Grigio this summer, I was pleasantly at ease with the balance of the blend and quickly realized just how charming well-made examples can taste. Commonly presented as an aperitif wine in Europe, blended whites are not fashionable in America. Instead we like to call our wine by its first name - Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling etc. Doing so allows us to anticipate the flavors behind the labels - blend a few of these together and we lose our ability to size it up without tasting first. To make matters worse, blended wines often carry clever names such as Conundrum leaving us in total aroma profile hell. Yet today I tossed out the expectation theory and tasted the”white table wine” without giving it a second thought. Who cares what the grapes are afterall - the real question is “Do I like what I tasted?” And I did. Stainless steel fermented Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc fermented on the skins (rare for whites), Chardonnay maturated in a bit of oak, and an unual Italian grape called Ribolla Gialla fermented in small barriques worked in perfect harmony to round out the blend. How cool is that? By treating each variety separately, the winemaker was able to layer flavors making the sum better than its parts. The wine, rightfully coined Freakout, is produced by Luna Vineyards . At $14.99 a bottle, the wine offers more than a great deal - so mix it up and give the blend a try. Cheers.

One of the best ways to learn about a region is to focus all your vinous energy on a small region or set of regions. Take Italy for example. With so many different native grapes, Italy is a bear of a country to get your arms around. As such, every so often I break it down and focus my efforts. Right now, it is the north east regions of Veneto, Trentino and Friuli. I start by printing a map off the internet - the importer Kobrand has a great map library - then I grab a good text such as Mary Ewing - Mulligan’s Italian Wines for Dummies and I spend a few minutes each day soaking up regional information such as grape varieties,  geography, soil types, climate etc.  Then I start tasting and tasting and tasting.

Stumbling upon regional favorites is the best part and in my book Prosecco is one of those little gems. Crafted from the Prosecco grape in the Veneto region, Prosecco is bubbly, festive and easy to drink. Best part - quality bottles are priced between $15-$25 making it a great value wine. If you have not tried a glass - do so the weekend and discover your new holiday sparkler.

Earlier, I blogged about a Prosecco Sangria that I enjoy. FYI, we are sampling it this weekend at Cellar Door - but if you want to make it at home; mix one bottle of quality red Rioja  with one bottle of Prosecco, add a cup of white Lillet or Cognac along with cut up apples and oranges. Serve it straight up or on the rocks.