From time to time, I have the opportunity to attend or conduct a tasting where the wines are evaluated before anyone is shown what they’re tasting. These events are known as “blind” tastings.

Don’t get the wrong idea. We’re not talking about drunken parties where the tasters are blind from overindulgence. Rather, since the identities of the wines are kept hidden from the participants, the wines are being tasted “blind.”

Why? Well, tasting wines blind takes away the bias you may have toward a particular label because of past experience with the wine, or because of the reputation or price of a specific product. Without any idea of the wine’s identity, you’ll find you’re also better able to concentrate on the qualitative aspects of the wine such as color, aroma and taste.

I encourage you to attend one of these events or, better yet, conduct your own blind tasting with a few friends at home. It’s pretty simple. Just ask everyone to bring a bottle of wine which has been covered with a paper bag (be sure to tape the bag around the neck of the bottle).

I suggest using a specific type of wine such as zinfandel or sauvignon blanc so that you’re comparing different wineries’ versions of the same varietal. Most grape varieties, regardless of where they are grown around the world, produce wines that have defining aroma or taste characteristics that are universally recognizable.

Take cabernet sauvignon for example. Cabernet produced in such geographically diverse regions as the Napa Valley in California, Bordeaux in France or the Barossa Valley in Australia share varietal characteristics with which most wine drinkers can identify.

Some of the aroma and taste characteristics I find in cabernet are cola, leather, eucalyptus, tobacco, mocha, currants, green pepper and green olives. I don’t mean to suggest that every cabernet sauvignon has all of these components, but I can usually detect one or more of them in this world famous wine.

I had the pleasure of conducting just such a tasting recently where cabernets and cabernet blends were tasted blind. The blends are wines with cabernet and/or other traditional Bordeaux blending grapes (merlot, cabernet franc, petit verdot and malbec).

This tasting consisted of six wines hailing from California, Bordeaux, Chile, Argentina and Australia. To make sure I was unaware of the order of the wines, I asked a person not in the tasting to bag and number the ones we were going to sip.

The wines ranged in price from around $11 to $35 a bottle and I asked the assembled group of wine lovers to taste each wine against all of the others and then to rate them. You may be surprised to know that the number one rated wine was far from the most expensive. In addition, I can honestly say that I would buy any of the wines we tasted and be happy with them.

So what were the wines and the results? Well, I’ll list the wines, but you’ll have to conduct your own tasting to determine which you prefer. After all, that’s what wine appreciation is all about – your preference after careful consideration. Incidentally, all the wines are readily available in wine shops around the state.

The wines tasted blind (in alphabetical order): 2007 El Portillo Cabernet – Argentina ($14); 2003 Falcor Le Bijou – Napa Valley ($32); 2007 Guenoc Victorian Claret – California ($15); 2006 Larose De Gruaud – St. Julien, Bordeaux ($35); 2006 Marques De Casa Concha Cabernet – Chile ($19); 2007 McWiliams Hanwood Estate Cabernet – Australia ($11).

Let me know what you think of the wine (s).

Over the millennia, wine has proved to be an able and essential substitute for water. The Romans would regularly send troopers to plant vines and make wine years in advance of their invading armies to insure that they would have a safe and plentiful supply of wine (which is comprised mainly of water).

Remember the Biblical parable about the wedding feast where the attendees very quickly drank up all the hooch and one very special guest saved the day by changing large vats of water into wine?

Well, several years ago , I was a judge– now get this – at a water contest. Seven hours of drinking and judging municipal tap water, bottled water and sparkling water left my indelicate stomach even more distended than normal. Between frequent trips to the restroom, I longed for a miracle similar to the one performed 2000 years ago.

But really folks…. the town of Berkley Springs in the Eastern Panhandle puts on a first-class event that not only showcases waters from around the world, but also provides visitors with a hospitable experience second to none.

In a former life where I had the privilege of promoting West Virginia tourism, the good folks of Berkley Springs were a passionate group, always touting the virtues of the town, the springs and water that have made the place a magnet for weary travelers for hundreds of years.

I am happy to say they continue that passionate commitment and have transformed the town into a Mecca for spa enthusiasts who descend upon the community seeking the healing waters and a good massage. The Winter Festival of the Waters is the last full weekend in February and is truly a fun event in a lovely little eastern panhandle town.

Anyway, I enjoyed tasting many fine waters from around the world that long ago weekend, but I must declare, that for all its benefits, water is still an incomplete liquid! Fermented grape juice (or wine) is the perfect beverage, providing not only life-sustaining hydration, but also qualities that can transform an ordinary meal into something special or a dullard into a poet.

One liquid that is not incomplete is cabernet sauvignon – particularly this time of year when we’re looking for a wine with warmth, depth and body to accompany the hearty dishes of winter.

I recently had the pleasure of tasting the new release of the 2005 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley. Silver Oak Cellars produces only cabernet sauvignon and its two wines are produced from grapes grown in the Alexander Valley of Sonoma County and from those grown in Napa Valley. The 2005 vintage for cabernet in California is highly touted and the Alexander Valley clearly demonstrates the quality of this wonderful year.

Silver Oak wines are aged in American oak barrels for about 30 months and then bottled and aged for another 15 to 27 months before being released for sale. The 2005 Alexander Valley cabernet was released last summer to rave reviews and you can count me among those touting the wine.

The Napa, however, is a different wine. It will be released next month and is usually a more backward wine in its youth than the Alexander Valley. The Napa, if it follows tradition, will be fuller-bodied, deeper wine and should continue to improve in the bottle over the next decade.

The Alexander Valley retails for about $65 a bottle and while that’s a hefty price to pay for any wine, this one is worth it for that special occasion. Wines of this quality from the 2005 vintage are (believe it or not) fetching two and three times this price.

If you’re looking for wines that have some of the same type flavors for a more reasonable price, try these cabernet sauvignon-based wines: 2006 Franciscan Vineyard Napa Cabernet ($25); 2006 Sebastiani Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon ($18); 2007 Marques De Casa Concha Cabernet Sauvignon ($19); and 2007 El Portillo Cabernet Sauvignon ($14).

It’s almost 2010 wine lovers! As you get ready to toast the New Year, I have some last minute sparkling suggestions to help you celebrate the end of the first decade of the new millennium in style.

Sparkling wine and Champagne are delicious and appropriate wines to sip as you bring in the New Year and today I’ll share with you some of my favorite bubbly picks. While many sparkling wines are made in the Champagne method, none can be called by that famous moniker unless they are produced from grapes grown in region of Champagne in northern France.

If you recall, the Champagne method (or methode champenoise) is a process where still wines (traditionally pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot meunier) are blended and then put in a bottle to which yeast and a small amount of sugar are added. This causes the wine to go through a secondary fermentation and the result  is a bubbly wine like Champagne.While Champagne is regarded as the gold standard, many other countries produce excellent sparkling wine using this method.

So here are a few of my favorites you might consider sipping New Year’s Eve and any time you get a hankering for a little bubbly:

Champagne under $40:  Perrier Jouet Grand Brut; Moet & Chandon Imperial; Veuve Clicquot Brut; and Michel Arnould Grand Cru Brut.

Sparkling wines under $25: 2005 Domaine Carneros Brut; Vigna Dogarina Prosecco; Roderer Anderson Valley Brut; 2005 Vilarnau Brut Nature (Spain); Parxet Cuvee 21; Domaine Chandon Brut Rose; and Gloria Ferrer Brut.

Happy New Year!!

Well, here we are again faced with that most enjoyable of all dilemmas: what wine to get for that loved one, friend or you this holiday season.

 

Normally, the pressures of holiday shopping are both frustrating and exceedingly difficult for me, but not when it comes to wine gifting!  Why?  Well, for me, securing a quality selection of top wines for the holidays is a labor of love and today I’ll share my top picks that should meet just about every budget.  

 

Let’s start, though, with some non-vinous gift recommendations for those in need of wine accoutrements (that’s French for “stuff”), or other goodies that are not liquid.   

 

I just finished reading and really enjoyed ”The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine” by Benjamin Wallace.  This real life mystery story  (which is still raging) recounts the alleged fraudulent sale of several bottles of 200- year old Chateau Lafite Rothschild to a billionaire who is bent on exacting pain from those he feels are responsible for the sham.  

 

The other book I suggest for your reading pleasure is “Wine and War:  The French, the Nazi’s and the Battle for France’s Greatest Treasure” by Donald and Petie Kladstrump.  This book recounts numerous stories of how individual French wine makers and their families fought to save their vineyards and wines from the invading Nazi’s. 

Both books are available in paperback and hard cover and can be found at local bookstores or ordered online.

 

There is nothing more pleasurable than sipping good wine from crystal stemware. You can spend a lot of money on wine glasses from renowned companies such as Riedel, or you can get similar quality by purchasing your wine glasses and crystal decanters right here in West Virginia. 

 

Masterpiece Crystal in Jane Lew  (96 Trolley St.) produces magnificent handmade lead-free crystal wine glasses and carafes.  Buy right from the showroom or go to masterpiececrystal.com and get them online. You may also place your order by phone (800-624-3114).   

 

Now to the good stuff.  The following wines are among my favorites and should be available in wine shops around the state.

 

White Wine  (under $20 a bottle):  07 d’Arenberg The Hermit Crab; 07 Pertinace Roreo Arneis; 06 Domaine Patient Cotat Sauvignon Blanc; 2008 Alexander Valley Chardonnay; Montinore Estate Almost Dry Riesling; 07 L’Ecole 41 Semillon; 07 Cakebread Chardonnay ($50); 07 Beringer Private Reserve Chardonnay ($35); and 07 Talley Arroyo Grande Vineyard Chardonnay ($30);

 

Red Wine (under $20 a bottle) 07 Martin Codax Rioja; 06 Las Rocas Vinas Viejas Garnacha; 07 Ancient Peaks Zinfandel; 07 d”Arenberg The Stump Jump; 08 Castle Rock Pinot Noir (Mendocino); 07 Guenoc Petite Sirah; 07 Falesco Vitiano Rosso; 06 Monte Antico Rosso; Delas St. Esprit Cotes Du Rhone; 05 Geyser Peak Cabernet Sauvignon; 06 Domaine Serene Yamhill Cuvee ($45); 05 Falcor Sangiovese ($35); 05 Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($65) and 01 Banfi Brunello Di Montalcino ($67).

 

Here’s wishing you the happiest of holiday seasons, Cheers!

After rummaging around my very disorganized cellar for a suitably mature wine to pair with a celebratory meal, I came upon a bottle  which had obviously been lying in repose for quite some time. After blowing the dust off the label, I was incredulous to discover that the wine was a 1947 Borgono Barolo!

 

Say what?  That’s older than … Howdy Doody! (By the way, there is no truth to the rumor that Howdy Doody was the illegitimate result of a union between Little Orphan Annie and Pinocchio).

 

Anyway, it turns out my brother, who had prompted me to look in that particular area of the cellar and with whom I share a passion for the fruit of the vine, had years before slipped the Barolo into a nook instead of a cranny, and I was unaware I possessed this museum piece.   

 

I had actually consumed one other wine from that ancient vintage and, according to the  wine cognoscenti, it is perhaps the greatest Bordeaux ever produced. The 1947 Chateau Cheval Blanc was undoubtedly the best wine I had ever consumed, but I wasn’t expecting this wine (from the Piedmont region of Italy) to be anywhere near the quality of that legendary Bordeaux.

 

However, my recollection of Borgono Barolo is that I had uncorked a 1978 version of the wine a couple of years ago and had been surprised by its youthful flavors and amazing aging potential. But this wine was more than 30 years older than that wine. 

 

Since the wine actually belonged to my brother, I magnanimously sought his advice about when we should open it, knowing full well that we would need to stand the wine in an upright position for several days to assure that decades of sediment would settle to the bottom of the bottle. 

 

In its youth, Barolo is a purple monster with huge dollops of mouth-puckering tannin and searing acidity which can completely mask the earthy, rich flavors hidden underneath. There are some Barolo producers who are now making wines which are more approachable in their youth, but wines produced in the old-world style like the Borgono can improve for decades.  And so I had some hope that there would be something more than vinegar left in the bottle.

 

On the appointed day, I began to gingerly open the bottle with a traditional waiter’s corkscrew.  Mistake! Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, the cork began to disintegrate as I attempted to pull it from the bottle. In fact, I was forced to push a hole through the cork so I could get to the wine. 

 

I should have used an “Ah-So” which is also known as a  “Butler’s Friend” to remove the cork.   The Ah-So is a twin-pronged device that is placed on either side of the cork and then rocked back and forth until the prongs grip the cork along the sides of the bottle. Once inserted, you pull and twist the Ah-So until the cork is removed.

 

 

Pouring the 1947 Barolo through a coffee filter!

 My unsatisfactory solution to the cork debris problem was to insert a coffee filter into the decanter and then pour the wine through it.  The problem here is the filter just might also strip out any flavors left in the wine. Also, as I poured the wine ever so slowly through the filter into the decanter, I was immediately concerned by the brownish-orange liquid that came out of the bottle.

 

I quickly poured myself a few ounces of the wine and put it to my nose.  At first, the Barolo had a pungent, almost unpleasant raisin/beet nose that slowly- over 15 minutes – morphed into an aroma redolent of earth, mint and prunes.  In the mouth, this amazing wine still had life with layered flavors of cola, caramel and spice with a solid acid backbone.  It was also silky smooth and continued to develop over the next hour that it took us to savor and consume the wine.

 

What a remarkable experience and one that I’ll always remember. It also reminded me of the reason we age wines from great regions in exceptionally good vintages.  In the meantime, you can enjoy that glass of ready-to-drink wine while both you and your special bottles mature.    

When I was growing up, one of our faithful family traditions involved enthusiastic discourse around the holiday dinner table. To the rare outsiders who were infrequently invited to our large family repasts, the decibel level of this “enthusiasm” must have been a bit disconcerting.

 

No subject was too grand, obscure or off limits. We would debate everything from presidential elections to the color of Aunt Agnes’ moustache, and those who prevailed usually did so through din rather than  eloquence.

 

So in keeping with family tradition, my brother and I have debated for decades the best wines to pair with Thanksgiving dinner. After exhaustive and sometimes heated discussions, we have come to the conclusion that almost every wine can marry nicely with some part of the Turkey Day meal.   Why? Listen up.

 

For years, I have written about the culinary versatility of turkey to be successfully paired with white or red, as well as light or full-bodied wines. The reason is this bird is blessed with meat that has different flavors, colors and textures. Add to this the way it is cooked – from traditional oven-baking, to deep frying, to grilling, to smoking (with hardwood such as apple)  -and you have even more wine choices from which to select.    

 

When you add stuffing to the turkey, you add a whole other flavor dimension which, depending upon the nature of the dressing, opens up even more wine possibilities. One year, for example, I stuffed a charcoal grilled turkey with cornbread, ancho chili peppers and chorizo sausage. What wine, you might ask, did I serve with this non-traditional turkey and stuffing?

 

Well, I started with Domaine Carneros sparkling wine as an aperitif, proceeded to open a bottle of Pierre Sparr Pinot Gris for those who preferred white wine, and a Ridge   Zinfandel for those who wanted a big red. And guess what, it worked. For dessert, I chose a bottle of Joseph Phelps Late Harvest riesling to accompany the  pumpkin pie, and then plopped on the couch to watch some team beat up on the Detroit Lions.

 

Here are a few wine-pairing suggestions, based upon cooking methods, for your Thanksgiving Day:

 

The traditional oven-roasted turkey with a mild dressing is very nicely accompanied by whites such as pinot grigo, sauvignon blanc or chardonnay, or reds such as pinot noir, Chianti Classico, or sangiovese. Older wines such as Bordeaux or California cabernet sauvignon go nicely as well. On the other hand, if you smoke or grill your bird, try full-bodied zinfandel, shiraz, cabernet sauvignon or even Brunello Di Montalcino.   

 

So what about my approach this year? Well, I plan to oven bake the critter and then stuff it with bread dressing flavored with Italian sausage, chestnuts, onion and celery.  I’ll start with a bottle of  Domaine Chandon Rose Sparkling Wine $20) for the aperitif, followed by a  2006 Montinore Estate Gewurztraminer from Oregon ($17) as well as 2005 Domaine Serene Evanstadt Reserve  ($60) (both of which will be poured with the main course). We’ll accompany the pumpkin pie with a sip or two of  Scrapona  Moscato ($22) and then let the tryptophan kick in.

           

Since Aunt Agnes shaved her moustache, the only thing left for me to decide is  the Thanksgiving dinner debate topic.    

 

Bon Appétit!