Ideas for Thanksgiving

Here are some thoughts to help you select a wine (or wines) for Thanksgiving.

Whites:

I've never seen a recommendation to serve Vouvray, but I think it would be excellent with Thanksgiving dinner.  Vouvrays come from the Loire Valley in France and are made from the Chenin Blanc grape.  They vary in sweetness, but all combine strong fruit character with earthy/mineral qualities and plenty of acid, which makes them a good match for a variety of foods.  I can recommend 2 that are available at our local Bay Area Spec's:  Sauvion, which is on the drier side ($11), and Chateau Moncontour, which is a "demi-sec" or medium-sweet ($14).

Reds and Rosés:

Pinot Noirs are the classic recommendation for reds, but last year I wrote about some good options from the southern Rhone Valley in France, here.  I mention rosés in that post as well, but I'll add that any rosé from Provence is a good choice.

Bubbles:

The Two-Minute Guide to Bubbles should help you get a fast idea of what you're looking for.  If you decide on Champagne, you may want to read Champagne 101, which includes a guide to the French terms that indicate levels of sweetness.

What am I serving this year?  Much as I hate to admit it, for the first year ever, I may compromise among the various family preferences and end up serving . . . Belgian ale.  I take comfort in the fact that it is the wine of beers.

The IRF Sweetness Scale & Cheap Dry Riesling

Riesling can be a problematic wine, because it can range from fully dry to fully sweet, and it's not always obvious from the label where on the spectrum a particular wine will fall.  Almost a year ago I wrote about a simple way to use the German labeling system and the alcohol content to make a good guess at the sweetness level (more on that here).  And shortly afterward I posted about a sweetness scale that the International Riesling Foundation is encouraging Riesling producers to use on their labels, so that we know for sure what we're buying (more on that here).  The sweetness scale is great for people like me who are more interested in dry Rieslings, which are in the minority.

I've seen the sweetness scale on a few bottles so far.  One is the Pewsey Vale Dry Riesling from Australia's Eden Valley.  It says "dry" on the front, but also includes the sweetness scale on the back.  It has a medium body, high acid, and the lemony apricot flavors you'd expect from this grape.  It also has that nice minerality that many of us want from our Riesling.  At $12 it's a good value.  I found it at Costco.

  

It's a common belief among consumers that all Rieslings are sweet, and Riesling producers are aware of that, so those that make a dry Riesling are often the first to label their bottles that way.  Chateau Ste. Michelle puts "Dry Riesling" on its front label, although I don't believe it uses the IRF sweetness scale on the back.  Incidentally, that wine is also a great value if you're looking for an inexpensive dry Riesling, at less than $8 at Spec's.

I'm looking forward to seeing the scale used more often.  I think it's a great thing - a big help to consumers that I'm sure will ultimately increase sales for the producers.

Wine Infographic: Chianti Cheat Sheet

This is an older version of the Chianti Cheat Sheet.  The new and improved version is here.

============================

I've been reading up on Chianti this week, and for me, part of studying anything is always making a 1-page cheat sheet of all the most important information.  It helps me learn and remember things better, and also makes a good reference for the future.  Here's the Chianti Cheat Sheet:
(clicking on it should give you a larger view)

See the full collection of wine cheat sheets 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.”   

Great Video on Wine "Legs" or "Tears"

This YouTube video does a great job of explaining the phenomenon of wine "legs" or "tears" - the drops of wine that run down the side of the glass after you swirl.  Hint:  surface tension can get a bit complicated!

While this video explains the effect, remember that the quality of the "legs" has very little to do with wine quality.  More pronounced legs usually just indicate higher levels of alcohol or sugar, which may be good or bad, depending on the wine!

Mead 101 and the Dancing Bee Winery

Mead:  more than just what you drink at the Renaissance Festival!

You’ve probably heard of mead (honey wine) before, or maybe tried it at the Ren Fest, but did you know there are different kinds?  I didn’t until I visited the Walker Honey Farm and Dancing Bee Winery, roughly 80 miles north-east of Austin.  The honey farm produces the honey, and Dancing Bee produces a selection of meads and wines.  (It is officially called a “meadery,” and if you say this word out loud everyone will think you’re saying “meatery” and imagine a butcher shop.)

Mead is an ancient alcoholic beverage, dating to around 7000 BC, made with honey, water, and yeast.  In the same way that the type of grape impacts the flavor of wine, the variety of honey impacts the flavor of mead.  Bees produce different flavors of honey based on the types of flowers where they gather pollen.  So mead made from clover honey will taste different from wildflower honey, or buckwheat honey, etc.  If you’ve tried mead before, you probably remember it being very sweet.  Just like wine, mead can range from sweet to dry, though it is usually at least a little sweet. 

If the honey is fermented along with any other fruits, herbs, or spices, it becomes a different type of mead.

Here’s a summary of the types:

I made some tasting notes on the meads we sampled at Dancing Bee.  We didn’t taste any wines, other than the one mixed with mead.  We were totally mead-focused!

I took home a bottle of the Texas Two Step and The Beerded One.  Both were completely unlike anything I had ever tasted – in a good way!  Spec’s carries a few of the Dancing Bee meads, which range from $14 to $18 dollars.  If you’re hosting (or attending) a holiday party in the next few months, mead is a festive thing to serve.  It’s something a little out of the ordinary, and it will satisfy the sweet wine drinkers.  Better yet, pour the bottle of mead into a sauce pan on the stove, throw in a package of mulling spices, and let it warm for a while.  It will taste delicious, and your house will smell like Christmas.

Visiting Los Pinos in the Piney Woods

Los Pinos Ranch Vineyards is part of the Texas Piney Woods Wine Trail, which covers a large area east of Dallas, roughly centered around Tyler.  Los Pinos is out in the middle of nowhere (as are many of the Piney Woods wineries), but is worth searching out.  The wines are good, the food is good, and the view is great.

I wish I had taken a picture of the main building.  I’m going to borrow one from their website, and hopefully they won’t mind.

There is a restaurant with a large patio, where you can order food and any wines you’d like to taste.  The food was great (we had a pizza), and the flights were brought to the table with a tasting sheet for making notes.  I have grown to appreciate a good tasting sheet – one with a complete list of the wines, a description of each, and sufficient space to write notes.  

They bring out the flights in a nifty, test-tube-like contraption.  (Picture from their website.)

Los Pinos grows Cynthiana (also called Norton), Blanc du Bois, and Black Spanish (also called Lenoir) grapes.  They also use grapes that are purchased from other parts of Texas, and other states.

Here are the tasting notes I made when we visited:

Wine Infographic: United States Cheat Sheet

Update:  I've revised and updated this cheat sheet. Check out the new and improved U.S. Wine Cheat Sheet.

=============
I'm working on making cheat sheets for all the major wine regions in the world.  (See the full collection here.)  Here's one covering the United States, without California.  California produces 90% of the wine that comes from the U.S., so it will get its own page.

This overview includes information on climate, grapes, wine laws, and major American Viticultural Areas (AVAs).  AVAs are the American version of AOCs in France or DOCs in Italy, except with far fewer regulations.  I included some technical details that might not be of interest to the casual consumer, but are necessary for any serious wine students to know - such as labeling requirements and latitude.

I chose 4 states to focus on - New York, Washington, Oregon, and Texas.  The first 3 were the top producers of wine in the U.S. in 2012 (after California).  And I included Texas because I live here and I'm interested!

I hope you'll find this cheat sheet useful and educational, and that it will inspire you to try a wine from a place you've never had before!  My personal favorites from these regions are Pinot Gris from Oregon, Cabernet Sauvignon and dry Riesling from Washington, and Cabernet Franc and dry Riesling from New York.

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.”   

Is wine gluten free?

Many people have begun avoiding gluten in recent years, some because of Celiac disease, others for other health and dietary reasons.  If you are avoiding gluten, should you worry about wine?  Generally, the answer is no, but here are some points to keep in mind:

1)  The basic ingredients of wine do not contain gluten.

2)  If you drink sweet, artificially-flavored wine products, anything might be in those flavorings, including gluten.  Also, yuck!  Let me encourage you to try a good-quality Riesling or Moscato d'Asti!

3)  A tiny amount of gluten can make its way into a wine if it is used as a fining or clarifying agent (this is not very common), or if a wheat paste is used to seal the wine barrels (wax is more commonly used today).  In these cases, testing has revealed that the resulting amount of gluten in the wine is less than 10 parts per million.  (The FDA's standard for products labelled "gluten free" is that they contain less than 20 parts per million of gluten.)  If you are concerned about the barrel issue, you could avoid wines that have spent time in barrels, and stick to wines that will usually not be oaked, such as Pinot Grigio/Gris, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, and unoaked Chardonnays.

If you are gluten intolerant and want to drink wine, you should generally be okay, unless you are extremely sensitive to it.  To learn more, check out this informative article from Wine Spectator or this interesting perspective from WineMaker.

Wine and Cheese Pairing

I've had a crazy-busy couple of months, so I'm taking the week off!  Instead of reading a post here this week, click over to theKitchn, where Mary Gorman-McAdams, MW, has some thoughts on which wines you ought to be drinking with that cheese...

Why You Should (Almost) Always Pair Cheese with White Wine, Not Red

Would you drink wine with a moldy cork?

I bet your answer is no, and mine was too until recently.  A few weeks ago I pulled this great bottle of Rioja out of my wine fridge and was disappointed to see mold growing out of the holes in the foil.  I had bought the bottle a couple of years ago and had stored it properly that whole time.  My first thought was to throw it out or return it to the store and ask to exchange it, but I decided to do a little research first.  

It turns out that mold on the outside of the cork is not a problem, and may even be a good thing.  The presence of mold between the cork and the foil suggests there was a good deal of humidity present when the foil was put on the bottle at the winery.  Humidity is good because dry air can contribute to a cork drying out.  Dry corks shrink, then leak, letting wine out and/or too much oxygen in.  My bottle was a Rioja Reserva, and in Spain the term “reserva” has a specific meaning:  this wine was aged at the winery for at least 3 years.  Mold on the cork just means that it was aged in humid conditions, then over time a little mold grew where some moisture was trapped between the cork and the foil.  

If you come across a moldy cork, just wipe off the mold with a damp towel and open the bottle as you normally would.  Examine the end of the cork next to the wine – mold on THAT end is cause for concern.  If the mold was all on the top, drink away!  I wiped the top of the opened bottle again before pouring, just to be sure the mold was gone.  My Rioja Riserva tasted just as good as I remembered.  I’m so glad I didn’t throw it out!

P.S.  The moldy cork issue is different from the wine being “corked.”  Stay tuned for more on corked wine at a future date…