Wine Infographic: Chardonnay Cheat Sheet

Here is the fourth in the series of grape profiles - Chardonnay.  (See them all here.)  It covers the typical Chardonnay characteristics and the main growing regions.  Use this to learn more about a grape you love or to explore a new one!  (Click on the graphic for a larger view.)

To see the full collection of wine cheat sheets, click here.

To see the Cheat Sheet in full size…
…in Internet Explorer, right click on it and select “open in new tab.”
…in Chrome, right click on it and select “open link in new tab.”
…in Firefox, right click on it and select “view image.”   

Oxidation, Friend or Foe?

The process of oxidation contributes to some of the world’s great wines, yet most of the time it is considered a fault.  Here’s a primer on what it is, how to recognize it, and when you might want some!

As the name suggests, oxidation happens when wine is exposed to oxygen.  Oxidation can happen slowly or quickly, depending on how much oxygen is in contact with the wine.  Oxidation causes wine to turn a brownish color and creates nutty, sometimes caramelized aromas.

If you open a relatively young wine (less than 5 years old), and it looks like this picture, it is oxidized.  See how brown it is?  When I opened this 2-year-old wine, I noticed that the cork was protruding slightly from the bottle.  This is generally not a good sign, but you never know until you open the bottle.  Sure enough, the wine was oxidized due to a bad cork seal, which allowed far too much oxygen to circulate into the bottle.  If this happens to you, I have good news and bad news.  First the bad news:  this wine is officially “faulted” and will not taste the way it should.  The good news:  if you like the way it tastes, you can still drink it.  It won’t hurt you or make you sick.  (I drank some from my oxidized bottle, just to notice the changes in flavor.  It wasn’t terrible.)

Many wines are partially oxidized on purpose.  This happens in a slow, gradual, controlled way when wines are aged in oak at a winery.  It also happens very slowly as wines are aged in the bottle, since the cork allows a small amount of air into the bottle.  (More about aging wine here.)  If the picture above had been a 10+ year old wine, there would have been no problem.  Part of the allure of older wines is that they take on different characteristics through slow, gradual, oxidation.  If you use a wine aerator, you’re increasing the wine’s exposure to oxygen just before drinking it, to mimic a bit of that aging effect.  (More on aeration here.)  But wines that have oxidized at a young age due to improper bottling or storage are not better for it.  Storing bottles on their sides helps to keep the cork moist, maintain a good seal, and prevent unwanted oxidation.  

A few wines are heavily oxidized on purpose.  The most famous of these are Oloroso Sherry, Tawny Port, and Madeira.  These are sweet, fortified wines that are aged in oak until they take on a brownish hue and nutty, caramel-like aromas.  They are delicious, and you should try one!

Have you ever opened a young wine that had turned brown from oxidation?  Did you taste it anyway?  Did you like it?

Local Tour: St. Arnold Brewery

I finally made it to the new St. Arnold brewery.  I had visited the old one (on 290, where Karbach is now) several years ago under somewhat disastrous circumstances.  My husband and I decided we would take a group of friends on the Saturday brewery tour for his birthday.  However, the St. Arnold website neglected to warn us that the brewery was not air conditioned.  Did I mention my husband’s birthday is in July?  It was so hot and crowded that most of us didn’t even use all our beer tasting tokens – we just left.  Not the best visit.

But now St. Arnold has a great new facility just north of downtown.  It’s large enough to accommodate big groups, with lots of seating, a large tasting bar, huge windows overlooking the tanks, and best of all – air conditioning!! 

Tours are offered 6 days a week.  They cost $8 and include a souvenir glass and 4 beer tasting tokens.  Each token gets you an 8-ounce sample of any of St. Arnold’s standard brews (the year-round selections plus the current seasonal offering).  Special, limited edition beers may require an additional token or only be available for purchase. 

For instance, we tasted the newly released Icon Gold (Bière de Saison) for 2 tokens.  Icon Gold has a beautiful amber color and a rich, smooth, complex taste, and a serious alcohol content – around 9%.  If you’re a fan of Belgian ales (like I am!), this is for you.  Delicious.  We also paid $8 to try the brand new Bishop’s Barrel 2 (with Brettanomyces yeast).  If you like sours, you will like this.  It has a strong cherry flavor and the tartness of a sour (from the Brett).

These 2 beers were well worth the trip on their own.  If you’ve ever tried to track down one of these limited edition beers around town, you know they can be hard to come by.  My plan for the future:  just go taste it at the brewery!  The tour page tells you what special beers are currently available.

The taps open 30 minutes before the tour starts.  Get there early so you can start tasting.  You’re welcome to take your beer on the tour.  It only lasts about 20 minutes, but it’s informative and fun.  The second half requires closed-toed shoes.

P.S.  We approached the brewery from 59, exiting Lyons, and got stopped by a very long, very slow train on the way in and out.  I recommend you follow the directions from I-45 or I-10 instead!

Update:  I've now tasted Bishop's Barrel #4!  If you think bourbon + chocolate sounds like a good idea, you in a for a treat!  

Clear Lake Event: An afternoon of wine and belly dance!

A local belly dance troupe, Sparkling Shadows Belly Dance, is hosting a fundraiser this Saturday.  They are raising money to go to a dance workshop and performance in Los Angeles.

Enjoy food, wine, dancing, a silent auction, and door prizes!  Details on the flyer below...
Advance tickets can be purchased here.  

Wine and Beer and Ice Cream, Oh My

We all know to drink dessert wines with dessert, but Fred Tasker of the Miami Herald takes it a step further and recommends specific wines to drink with a variety of ice cream flavors in this article:

Ice cream with wine? You bet — and scotch, too

He suggests peach ice cream with a Sauternes-like blend from Napa, rum raisin with Pedro Ximinez sherry, double chocolate ice cream with port, and more.  These are great ideas for summer, when we all crave ice cream the most.

Another great summer dessert is a beer float.  Really!!  Take a scoop or two of ice cream, pour over it a well-matched beer, and it is delicious.  A few years ago we had a self-serve beer-float bar for my husband's birthday party.  We matched Shiner Bock with vanilla ice cream, Young's Double Chocolate Stout with chocolate (pretty obvious), Guinness with coffee ice cream, and for those who like a lighter beer, Blue Moon with lemon sorbet.  In Fred Tasker's article above, he recommends Reese’s Pieces peanut butter ice cream with Rogue Ales’ Chocolate Stout.

The key to this kind of matching is to think of what flavor comes through the most in the wine or beer, then pick that flavor of ice cream (or a complementary one).  Suggest your own pairing ideas in the comments!

Summer Reds

Recently I recommended a great white wine for summer (Vinho Verde).  Here is some good advice about summer reds, courtesy of TheKitchn:  Tips for Choosing and Drinking Red Wine in the Summer

The most important thing is to keep it light (easy on the oak, tannin, alcohol, and body) and chill it!

French Wine Law Changes

In the French appellation system, new regions are added or removed from time to time.  

Here is a list of recently added AOCs, courtesy of the French Wine Society.  If you've purchased my book, The Pocket Index of French Wine, you'll want to note these new additions!

• Alsace: Two communal AOCs have been added to the eleven previously approved for a total of thirteen. These two communes are Alsace Bergheim and Alsace Coteaux du Haut Koenigsbourg, and use of the communal name is limited to still white wines.
• Languedoc: Formerly a communal extension of AOC Languedoc, Picpoul de Pinet has been elevated to an independent appellation. The denomination continues to apply to six communes including Pinet, but the authorized cultivation area has been reduced in size by 18% to 2,400 hectares. In addition, base yield has been lowered to 55 hl/ha.
• Provence: A fourth sub-region within AOC Côtes de Provence, Pierrefeu, has been approved and applies to red and rosé wines. The zone encompasses multiple communes on schist slopes and a calcareous clay plain. The other three sub-regions are Sainte-Victoire, Fréjus and La Londe.
• Rhône Valley: There is an additional “named village” in the Côtes du Rhône Villages, Gadagne, bringing the total of this tier to eighteen. CDRV Gadagne may be sourced from five communes including Châteauneuf-de-Gadagne. The approved area is a few kilometers due east of Avignon in the Vaucluse department on the left bank of the Rhône River. The vineyards are situated on a long plateau of galets roulés.

Local Event: Chilean wine tasting at the MFAH

James King of the Texas Wine School will be leading a Chilean wine tasting at the Museum of Fine Arts, to complement their current exhibition of Latin American art.

http://www.mfah.org/calendar/mendoza-maule-wines-chile/7839/

Vinho Verde: Your New Favorite Summer Wine

There’s a certain type of wine I love to drink in the summer.  I look for something that can be drunk cold, is crisp, light, refreshing, and is cheap enough to be served at summer barbeques.  If you’re spending any time outside in the heat, it’s also good if the wine’s lower in alcohol.

Vinho Verde (pronounced “Veenyo Vaird”) is one of the greatest summer wines that few people know about.  It comes from Portugal and is usually white, light, crisp, and very slightly sweet.  It’s slightly fizzy – what the Italians call frizzante and the French call petillant.  Its flavors are usually clean and simple, citrusy, with an occasional hint of tropical fruits or minerality.  Vinho Verdes are made from a variety of local Portuguese grapes, such as Arinto, Trajadura, and Loureiro.  I think of them as the barely-sweet, slightly fizzy lemonades of wine.  They have all the qualities I like in a summer wine, and because they are high in acid, they go well with many foods – fish, chicken, veggies, and all your favorite light, fresh summer foods!  Better yet, they're almost always under $10.

I’ve tasted several Vinho Verdes that are available in our area and made some tasting notes.  The first 2 are simple and fruity, while the second 2 have a few more earthy characteristics.  In general, the lower the alcohol, the more sweetness they’re likely to have.  They’re all tasty - give one a try!

Simple and Fruity

Producer:  Opala
Grapes:  not listed
Price:  $9
Where Purchased:  Whole Foods
Tasting Note:  crisp, refreshing, fairly simple, off-dry (slightly sweet), slight carbonation, flavors of apples and lemons.

Producer:  Esteio
Grapes:  not listed
Price:  $6 - $9
Where Purchased:  HEB
Tasting Note:  aromas of citrus and peach with a hint of melon, off-dry, slight carbonation, high acid.  9% abv.

A Bit More Earthy

Producer:  Anjos
Grapes:  40% Arinto, 30% Trajadura, 30% Loureiro
Price:  ~$9
Where Purchased:  Houston Wine Merchant
Tasting Note:  slightly fizzy, primarily dry with just a hint of sweetness, high acid, citrus flavors of lemon and grapefruit.  9.5% abv

Producer:  Casal Garcia
Grapes:  not listed
Price:  $7 - $10
Where Purchased:  Spec's, Kroger
Tasting Note:  aromas of citrus and minerality, a hint of sweetness, slightly carbonated, high acid.  10% abv.

(Some of these were from the 2011 vintage, and some bottles didn’t name a vintage.)

 

Building a Better Wine Tasting

Recently I was invited to the best educational wine tasting I’ve ever experienced, and I wanted to pass on some great lessons we can all use when planning wine tastings at home.

This seminar and tasting event was hosted by Banfi wines and their winemaker Rudy Buratti.  He explained Banfi’s research into the various clones of the Sangiovese grape which are blended into their Brunello di Montalcino wine.  Sangiovese has many different clones, and each one has different characteristics.  Mr. Buratti explained that in order to produce the best quality Brunello, Banfi has spent 30 years researching these clones to isolate which characteristics each clone would bring to the final blend, and how each clone would perform in each of their vineyards’ different soil types. (By the way, many Banfi wines are available at Spec’s, including their excellent Brunellos.  Try some!)

To illustrate the research and testing, we tasted 3 wines made from 3 different clones, grown in the same vineyard in the same year.  This way the only difference in taste was due to the particular clone.  Then we tasted a blend of all 3 clones from 3 different vineyards from the same year.  Finally, we tasted 3 vintages of the final Brunello blend, combining the characteristics of all the clones and all the vineyards.  (Another attendee wrote a nice summary of the experience here, including some tasting notes and a picture.)

Here’s a diagram to help this make sense:

When I attend a wine tasting, I want to learn something beyond whether or not I like that particular wine.  I also love organizing wine tastings at my house for friends.  The key to creating an educational wine tasting is comparison and contrast.  Notice how each round of the Banfi tasting kept 2 elements the same and isolated 1 factor impacting the wine.  That way when you taste, you know which differences in the wine are due to which factor – whether grapes, vineyard/soil, or vintage.

Most of us can’t organize a tasting like Banfi's because we don’t have access to those building blocks of wine that winemakers use to craft their final products.  However, we can use this same technique to organize better wine tastings ourselves.

To use this concept to create your own unique, educational tastings, focus on the main factors that make 1 wine different from another:  climate, soil, grape, vintage, and winemaker style.  (I’ve written about these factors before, here.)  Try to find several wines that have most of those factors in common, isolating just 1 or 2 differences, for example:

• Wines from one producer in one region which are made from different grapes – This helps to isolate different grape characteristics.
• Wines from one producer, made from the same grape, from different years – This is called a vertical tasting and allows you to see the influence of weather variations from year to year.
• Wines from the same grapes in same region, but from different vineyards and producers, such as Pinot Noirs from Sonoma or Sauvignon Blancs from New Zealand – This shows you soil variation and winemaker influence.
• Wines from one grape produced in regions all around the world, such as Cabernet Sauvignon from California, Washington State, France, South Africa, Australia, and Argentina – This demonstrates the effect of regional climate and soil differences.

It’s amazing what you can learn from these types of tastings.  When I attended a French Wine Scholar prep class, we tasted several different Beaujolais Crus (the Crus are the top 10 winemaking areas in the French region of Beaujolais), and noticed significant differences between them, despite the fact that the area encompassing all Beaujolais Crus is only about 6,500 hectares, or roughly 16,000 acres, or 25 square miles.

If you taste this way, I guarantee you will learn something interesting.  Please let me know if you try this at home – I’d love to hear what you did and how it turned out!