Sorry for the long overdue silence, but Well Said Wines has moved to Las Vegas, NV for a new job. At this point in time consultation projects will be put on hold until further notice and blog postings will restart once I am officially settled in.
In the meantime, keep trying new wines. Salute.
With the vast number of wine producing regions throughout the world, each with its own mix of climate and soil, it easy to understand how a very versatile grape like chardonnay has spread to so many of them. Chardonnay has the great ability to show off its wine-maker’s talents as well as the climate and soil in which it grew. Depending on the climate in which it grows, chardonnay has flavors that can range from green fruit (e.g. green apples and pears) to citrus and stone fruits (e.g. lemons and oranges, peaches and apricots) to tropical fruits (e.g. pineapples and melons) and more. A wine-maker can also make decisions which will influence and even alter the wine’s flavor and texture profiles. In order to showcase this effect, I decided to match up the two chardonnays from the Morgan Winery under the 
careful craftsmanship of Gianni Abate. The chardonnays are the 2009 Morgan Metallico from Monterey and the 2008 Morgan Highland from the Santa Lucia Highlands (a specific area within Monterey County). Mind you, these are both the current releases and while they come from different vintages, the stylistic differences are the focus of this article.
First off, let’s compare the wine making process involved to understand how the differences evolve. The most important factor in how these wines vary is found in their fermentation and aging process. The Metallico, which is made from grapes from the Santa Lucia Highlands and Arroyo Seco appellations of Monterey, was fermented and aged absent of oak and not allowed to undergo any malo-lactic fermentation. The Highland, on the other hand, was fermented in oak barrels and underwent a partial malo-lactic conversion. Malo-lactic fermentation is a secondary fermentation in the wine where the malic acid, which gives it apple and green pear flavors (“malum” being the Latin word for “apple”), converts to lactic acid, giving the wine a creamy, buttery texture (think “lactose” or dairy). Wine-makers can control this secondary event by adding a secondary fermenting agent and controlling the temperature at which the fermenting wine is kept. But enough about the technical jargon, let’s see how the wines match up.
Before opening up the two bottles we can tell that the un-oaked chardonnay will be lighter: oak not only changes the flavor profile but also makes the body of the wine fuller and heavier. That said, the Metallico is lighter than the Highland in two ways. Not only is the “body” of the wine lighter, but so is the color. Side by side we can see that the Metallico is a light almost straw-colored wine while the Highland has a deeper, more golden color. The color is affected in two ways: the first has to do with the amount (length of time) of skin contact the grape juice gets at the beginning of its transformation into wine (called “extraction”); the second comes from oak contact.
Well, since looking at a wine is fun for about ten seconds, let’s start seeing just what these two wines have to offer. My suggestion, and what I did, is to open both bottles and pour a bit of each into a couple of glasses, ideally two of the same kind of glasses. Nose them one at a time, starting with the Metallico. The un-oaked chardonnay had a moderately pronounced bouquet that opened with a combination of green apples and apricots over an underlying hint of minerality. As the wine breathed it began to develop more citrus notes to it as well. The range of flavors helps show that the grapes came from a couple of vineyards, each exposed to different climates, both cooler and warmer. Now smell the Highland. You’ll notice that it has a very pronounced nose that is full of vanilla and oak notes with hints of coconut and sweet apple. The oak truly prevails in the nose of this wine, especially while the wine is still tight and has not had much time to breathe.
Hopefully by now, your mouth is starting to water and you’re ready to start tasting. Go ahead, starting again with the Metallico before the Highland, but make sure to give proper attention and time to each one. The Metallico is surprisingly weighty for an un-oaked wine. It has a full and round mouth-feel whose acidity starts off tucked away but comes racing out once the wine opens with air. On the tongue the flavors taste of ripe peach and apricot with a hint of spice. It also has good citrus notes but, like the acidity, they are slow out of the gate but long lasting. The wine has a fairly long finish. All in all it is a great chardonnay that reminds me a bit of some of the chardonnays of the Macon region of southern Burgundy.
Now try the Highland and you’ll find a very different wine. It too is full-bodied, but not as big as many other oaked chardonnays out there. The Highland has noticeable acidity in the palate, a sign that it didn’t undergo a full malo-lactic conversion as the secondary fermentation softens the acidity, enough that it leaves a smooth and creamy mouth-feel in its place. Also, I noticed a slight heat from the alcohol at the back of my mouth, not really a burn per se, but a detectable presence. The difference in alcohol by volume (abv) between the two different wines is less than a percent, the Highland clocking in at 14.2% while the Metallico is only 13.5%. The fact that I noticed the difference in the mouth isn’t just because the Highland is higher; it also speaks to the balance of the different factors in the mouth: acidity, sugar, alcohol and body. On the palate the oak was very prevalent, giving the wine flavors of coconut and vanilla, as well as butter from the malo-lactic fermentation. The wine also had a nice touch of golden delicious apple to it and a very slight tropical fruit hint. The Highland has a long finish, longer than its counterpart. This is a very Californian style chardonnay where the oak takes the driver’s seat and runs the long course over your tongue, only leaving room for the fruit flavors of the grape in the back seat. Unlike many of the California oaked chardonnays though, this wine still had great balance, acidity and fruit to it (“back seat” though it might be). Many wineries in California produce chardonnays that are so heavily oaked, all you can get are the flavors of the barrel and the butter from secondary fermentation.
As you can see from these descriptions, these two wines, both from the same grape, (relatively) same region and the same wine-maker are vastly different. This is the great control a wine-maker has: a versatile grape like chardonnay can be guided or molded into a final product that reflects the tastes and goals of its creator. The oenologist can craft the wine to display the soil and weather in which it grew, radically change the flavors of the juice with a secondary fermentation and long exposure to oak barrels, or she can produce a wine anywhere in between.
So next time you decide to grab a bottle of chardonnay, think about how it tastes and why that might be. Do you like the citrus flavors and sharp, crisp acidity of a good Chablis or the vanilla and cream of a fat, rich butter-bomb from Napa? How does it go with what you’re eating? Think about what factors and flavors appeal to you. Once you start figuring that out, start trying different chardonnays and look for suggestions from sommeliers and wine store employees that would be in the same vein.
Salute!
While you’re showing love to your special someone, please show love to your sommelier and servers. Happy Valentine’s Day!
With Affection,
Well Said Wines
Well it’s the dead of winter and unless you live in Southern California, Arizona or Florida, it’s very likely cold wherever you are. As the night settles in and the temperature drops even further, here’s a small, and relatively easy, suggestion to help warm you up: mulled wine. Mulled wine is a simply wine heated up with a mixture of spices. There are a number of variations of the spice blends that you can use. The following is adapted from the recipe I learned in the chilly mountains of Abruzzo, where it is called, in the local dialect, “vin brulé” and was being made in a copper cauldron over an open fire in batches big enough for the neighborhood of my family’s town.
T
he first thing you’ll need is a bottle of cheap red wine, preferably something European with a higher acidity. My preference is to grab a bottle of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (for nostalgic reasons as well as for the strong fruit flavors and the higher acidity), but many other inexpensive wines will do nicely, like a cheap Burgundy or a Monastrell from Spain. You’ll also need per each 750 ml bottle of wine: about a half-cup of sugar, a couple of oranges, 3 cinnamon stick, a small bunch of whole cloves and an appropriate sized pot.
Start by peeling the oranges and throwing the rinds, in chunks, into a large saucepan or small pot and discard the fruit, or save it for something else, like the following morning’s juice. Next break up about three cinnamon sticks into pieces and add those to your rinds. Toss in your whole cloves. 
Lastly measure out about half a cup of sugar and add that to the pot (it’s best to start with a little less since it is easier to add more later than decrease the sweetness after it’s mixed). Finally pour in the entire bottle of wine, turn your stove on to a medium heat and stir a bit. Cover until the mixture is just below boiling. Taste it to gauge the flavor: if it’s too sweet let it simmer for a while and maybe a bit more clove or orange rind; if it’s not sweet enough add a bit more sugar. The longer it simmers, the more spice flavors will enter the wine. I like to let it cook for about 15 to 20 minutes to really blend. Your kitchen will fill with an enticing aroma that you will soon associate with frozen nights spent with warm friends.
Finally strain the mulled wine as you ladle it into mugs. This is a great way to end a 
cold night and an even better drink to make for a group during the winter months.
There are many variations you can try. If you like this recipe, try playing with it by changing the spices, or adding whole allspice or vanilla beans, or using a fruit wine as your base. Feel free to post about any experiments in the comment section.
Good luck staying warm. Salute!
Well hopefully you survived Christmas and have recovered enough from the parties to start looking forward to New Year’s Eve. The long-standing tradition is to have a glass of champagne in hand to help bring in the new year and how better to keep an old tradition alive than with a long-standing champagne house? For this I’d recommend the Charles Heidsieck Brut Réserve.
The Charles Heidsieck house has been making champagne since 1851 and have received a number of accolades from people like Emperor Napoleon III and Tsar Nicholas I to many modern day judges and writers. Also, their production is large enough that their wines can be found in a number of stores around the United States. But enough about the winery: let’s get to the bottle!
First, take a quick look at the bottle. 
The first thing you should notice is the the name, followed by the words “a Reims.” Reims is one of the two major production centers of the Champagne region of France. Below that you notice two key words: “Brut Réserve.” We learn two key things from that phrase. The first is that the wine is fermented dry, meaning that there is very little sugar left in the bottle. The second means that the winery held the wine after it was disgorged in 2008 (stated on the back of the bottle) for a longer period of time than normal before shipping it out. This results in the start of something called autolysis, where the lees of the wine are broken down and absorbed back into the liquid, giving the champagne another layer of flavor. Autolytic flavors are best described as yeasty (like French Brioche or thick French Toast) and nutty (toasted almonds). Autolysis doesn’t happen overnight, but is a long developing process comparable to the aging of red wines. but I’ll describe the whole champagne process in depth at another time.
Now break out your champagne flutes and pop that bottle! WAIT!!! Whatever you do, don’t shoot that cork out of the bottle, but rather keep your hand over the cork at all times and gently guide it out of the top. Shooting the cork and sending it flying creates a vacuum which draws out a large portion of the carbonation, killing the bubbles! When you pour the glass, take a minute to look at the beautiful golden color and the bubbles. The bubbles tell you a lot about the quality of the wine. Tiny bubbles, barely the size of a pinprick, that go up in straight lines let you know that the champagne was made to a very high standard and will usually have a very delicate mousse, or mouth-feel of the fizz. Large, fat bubbles that appear inconsistently in the glass denote a more basic production and the mousse will be harsher. In the case of the Charles Heidseick, the bubbles are very small, a bit larger than pinpricks.
Next stick your nose over the glass. What do you notice? The first thing that grabbed my attention was the strength of the bouquet: I could smell the champagne from a distance as I poured a glass. This is a very pronounced nose for a champagne and the smell of it was very nice. When I first stuck my nose over the flute, I picked up the scent of lemon, thick brioche and toasted almonds. This changed as the wine opened up but I’ll get to that in a bit as I’m willing to bet that you are tired of just smelling the champagne and want to take a sip!
As you take your first sip, think about the structure of the wine. It is dry (but we know that already from the label “Brut”), with a soft but full mousse and a full body for champagne. It also has a high acidity which makes it great for a variety of food pairings. I also noticed that the champagne had a smooth creaminess to it and a round, supple mouth-feel to it, leading me to wonder if the wine saw oak before going into the bottle. Now take another sip and think about what you taste. At first I tasted a few distinct flavors. The first flavor was a tart lemon, followed by the creaminess of an oaked chardonnay, followed by the nutty breadiness of the autolysis which carried through most of the long finish. Along with that French Toast-like quality, the finish developed a hint of candied lemon peel.
Now for the interesting part: over the years I have had a massive number of sparkling wines, but this was the first champagne I’ve ever had that actually changed with air. As the wine opened up, the line between the lemon and the creamy bread blurred drastically and in its place emerged a distinct taste of dried apricots. This change not only happened on the palate but also in the nose. The champagne continued to open and developed hints of tropical fruit, especially pineapple.
All in all I really enjoyed this bottle. I like the flavors and the body and acidity make it very good for pairing with foods like pork, poultry and meaty seafood like swordfish and lobster tails. However the lack of tart citrus flavors or minerality would hinder its pairing with light seafood and shellfish like oysters and crabs. As for New Year’s, this would be a great bottle for the count-down: while it isn’t the lightest or most refreshing bubbly out there, its flavor increases and deepens with air. In other words, as you are watching the ball drop, it’s breathing and will taste better in the new year. While at around $35 to $40 a bottle, this isn’t necessarily the best choice for serving if you’re hosting a large party, but for a small group, it is a great champagne that will have you and your friends remembering the evening for a long time to come.
HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!
Christmas is right around the corner and if you’re anything like me, then you’ve still got some last minute gift shopping to do. Here are a few ideas for your wine-loving friends and family that are relatively easy to find, easy to wrap and won’t break the bank.
The first is an aerator called a Vinturi. An aerator is a device that you can pour (red) wine through to help the wine open up by increasing exposure to air, having the same effect as pouring wine into a decanter. I’ve worked with a number of aerators and the Vinturi is by far the best due to its ease of use, portability and the drastic effect it has on the wine. Basically, the Vinturi works much like a jet engine: it reduces the pressure of the wine while increasing speed, sucking air into the liquid. The result is comparable to decanting the wine for about thirty minutes or more. To learn more about it you can visit the company’s website at www.vinturi.com. In addition to buying just the Vinturi, consider the additional tower stand that holds the aerator over most wine glasses. It is not a necessity but it is a fun little toy. Remember that air is the friend of young wine and the enemy of older wine so do not use it on well aged reds.
The next gift idea is best for the wine lovers who usually take two or more days to finish a bottle of wine: a can of preservative gas. While this may sound a bit ridiculous at first, this is actually a great gift for a wine aficionado. A mixture of inert gases, such as argon and carbon dioxide, that are heavier than oxygen but do not interact with the wine, it can be sprayed into the bottle, forming a protective layer over the wine, keeping oxygen from further interacting with the wine and turning it into vinegar over the next night or two. There are a few brands out there, but the most common one I’ve seen is Winelife (www.winelife.com). While these preservative gases only really make a difference over a couple of days, despite their claims of saving a wine up to ten days, they are very useful.
My last suggestion is great if your going to a party at someone’s home (especially a New Years Eve party with all those champagne flutes): wine glass markers. Wine glass markers are something that are placed at the base of a stem to help identify each person’s glass. They can range from little paper circles that you can be write name on to little rings with a variety of charms. Mind you the charms can be something as simple as small beads of varying color or they have a theme, such as golf.
These gifts, with the exception of certain themes of wine glass markers, can usually be found in a decent wine store or even liquor store chains like Beverages and More, and sometimes in specialty stores like Cost Plus or Pier 1 Imports. If you don’t have a store nearby that sells these items, check online. It may be a bit late to ship an order for in time for Christmas, but New Years parties are coming up soon.
Happy Holidays!
Continued from Part I below…
Next, let’s talk about the nose, or bouquet of a wine. From the moment you stick your nose into a glass, you are receiving massive amounts of information about the wine. Don’t be afraid to break your analysis into steps, in which you take a deep whiff at each one. The first thing you should notice about the bouquet is where you start smelling it: if you can smell the wine when it’s being poured from across the table, it’s safe to say that the wine has a very pronounced or strong nose. If you can’t smell the wine until your nose is hovering just above it in the glass, then it has a light bouquet. In the case of the Dynamite Cab, it has a moderately pronounced nose that reaches you a bit above the glass.
The next step in the bouquet is identifying what it reminds you of. There is a very large variety of smells wine can produce. There are a number of ways to categorize the aromas (and flavors) you can get and I happen to be quite fond of breaking it into five major groups, each with a number of subgroups: Floral, Vegetal, Fruit, Spice and Other, where you’ll find subgroups like minerality and animal (think old leather). I’ll address the subcategories more as we come across them in future wines. As an example, let’s look at the Dynamite Cabernet: When I stuck my nose in the glass, I was immediately hit with the smell of berries, particularly blueberries and blackberries. These obviously fall under the Fruit category and more specifically are considered black fruit. I also noticed notes of very ripe sour cherry, which is closer to a red fruit than black, and some slight floral hints, particularly flowers like violets.
Now finally: take a sip, but don’t swallow it just yet. Let the wine linger on the tongue. Think about how the wine feels in your mouth. The tongue is divided into regions, each which picks up on a different characteristic. The tip of the tongue detects sweetness, the sides detect acidity or tartness and the back detects bitterness. There is an ongoing debate about another flavor profile called “umami,” which is a savory descriptor for things like bacon (my favorite vegetable!), but I will save that for another time. Another key component that will be discussed regarding the “mouth-feel” of a wine is “tannins” or “tannic acid.” The best way I can describe tannins is to encourage you to make a strong cup of black tea. Black tea is very high in tannic acid and when you take a sip, you should feel a fuzzy feeling where the teeth meet the gums. In wine, tannic acid is really only found in reds and comes from the seeds, stems and skins of the grape, but is one of the necessary factors for the age-ability of a wine. Younger wines will have harsher, more “gripping” tannins while older wines will have a softer, more delicate feel that can sometimes be compared to cocoa powder.
In the case of the Dynamite Cabernet Sauvignon, the mouth-feel is made up of a combination of the above-mentioned factors and a few others. I would describe the wine as dry, meaning no sugar left in the juice after the fermentation, with a slightly more than medium strength acidity and a bit more than medium tannins. I also did not feel much of any kind of burn or heat from the alcohol, which coincides with the 13.9% stated alcohol. After you assess all of these factors in a wine, think about the weight or “body” of the wine. In the case of the Dynamite, it had a medium body. Lastly think about how long you continue to taste the flavor. For obvious reasons, this is the called “the finish.” If you find the flavor drops out almost as soon as you swallow the wine, then you should describe the wine as having a very short finish; a long finish is when you find that you can still taste the wine for a minute or more. The Dynamite had a decent finish that dropped off nicely at a medium pace.
Lastly, think about the experience as a whole. All in all I enjoyed the Dynamite Cabernet Sauvignon. For a bottle of wine that I bought from my local supermarket for $9.99 plus tax, it was a good wine that offered a lot of flavor and good structure. The fruit was the strongest flavor, which is what I expected, but I was surprised to find the floral notes in the wine, something I had not detected in the 2005 vintage. Also, the Dynamite was well balanced, with neither the tannins nor the acid nor the alcohol overpowering the other elements. While it didn’t have many layers of flavor or complexity that can be found in many high-end or older wines, it was an easy and good wine for everyday drinking. The tannins and acidity lead me to believe that its flavor and structure will last a while longer, two to three years, but due it lack of layers and depth this Cabernet will not likely improve much over that time.
So there you have it: the basics to tasting wine and how I will go about describing the wines I taste. While it seems relatively complex at a glance, don’t get discouraged, remember the steps: look, smell, taste, and then think about what you’ve experienced. With a bit of practice and a few more bottles you will begin to find it is very easy. Lastly, remember one very important thing: everyone’s palate is different. Just because I taste something that you don’t, or if you taste something I missed, this doesn’t mean that either one of us is wrong, or that the wines I like are ones you will too. My goal is to help you find wines you will like and give you the tools to identify why you do.
Salute!
Since this is a wine blog we’re obviously going to talk about wine, and in order to do that, we need to discuss how to approach and taste wine. As I’m going to be sharing plenty of wines, let me explain the way I will describe each bottle. As there is a lot to cover, I will post two articles which explain the basics: the first will discuss the appearance of the wine, the second will detail the smell of the wine and will go over the flavor.
First off let me explain a few things and then we’ll talk about the three different steps to breaking down a wine. You will often hear a wine described as have certain flavors like apple, blackberry etc. This does not mean that the wine makers mixed in the juices of other fruits or flavored the wine. Instead these are the flavors that we are reminded of when we smell and taste wine. The majority of taste does not take place in the mouth, but rather, in the nose. Need proof? When was the last time you could really taste anything when you had a head cold? Smell is also the sense most closely associated with memory. It is because of these factors that we are reminded of other flavors when we smell and taste a wine.
Now that I’ve established where most of the flavor happens, let’s go through the way I plan on explaining wines. For this I need an assistant and I’ve chosen a bottle of Dynamite Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. 
The first step to understanding the wine is to look at the front label. A lot can be gained from the front of the bottle, including the name, the location it comes from, the year it was made, the alcohol content and quite often (but not always) the kind of wine in the bottle. In this case we learn that I am drinking a 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon from Red Hills in the Lake County region, with a stated alcohol content of 13.9%. Lake County is the area just north of Napa Valley in California. Many bottles often have information or a story on the back label that will often tell you something about the wine or winery.
After you’ve looked over the label, the next step is to open the bottle and pour an ounce or so into your glass. Be sure to use a wine glass and not a straight sided water glass or cup. The glass you use can significantly affect the wine but that is a discussion best saved for another time. Now, tilt the glass to about 45 degrees (be careful not to spill the wine out) over the whitest object you can, be it a napkin, a table cloth or a piece of paper, and look at the rim of the wine. The appearance of the wine immediately tells you a few things about what you’re about to drink. Mainly, the color gives you a hint about the age of the wine. By looking at the rim, or edge, of the wine as you stretch it out in your glass you will be able to see the true color better. For white wines, younger wines look lighter in color whereas older wines will take on a more deep yellow-amber color. Really old whites will turn brownish. For red wines, the lighter, more bright purple colored wines are younger, while older wines start to change into a rusty red, brick-like color. If you have a young wine, i.e. a wine that’s only a few years old, that is displaying colors that typically belong to old wines, there is a good chance that the wine is oxidized and will taste vinegary.
The appearance of the wine can also give you a hint about how big the “body” of the wine will be. This hint can be found in the opacity of the wine. First stretch the wine out again, like you did when checking the color. Hold a sheet of paper with a bit of writing or markings on it under the glass. Without making the wine too thin, try to look through it at the paper below. Can you read the words below it? Can you even see the any letters? Generally the darker, more opaque the wine, the heaver it’s body should be.
At this point you may find yourself asking about the “legs” of the wine. These “legs,” also called “tears” or “curtains,” refer to the small droplets that form on the sides of the glass when you spin the wine around. There is some debate over what causes these but it is generally seen as sign of alcohol and other factors, like glycerol. It does not, as the common myth would have you believe, denote quality, but can often give you a hint as to the body of the wine.
In the case of the Dynamite Cabernet Sauvignon, the appearance told me a lot. The color of the wine was a deep ruby. It was opaque and I could not see though it. The color itself was enough to tell me that the wine was still young and the opacity only served to support that claim. Lastly, if you’re wondering, the legs were slow moving and formed inconsistently around the glass.
Wine has greatly evolved since its inception in the ancient world. Originally, fermenting grapes was a sensible way to preserve the fruit in a time without refrigeration. However, our ancestors quickly learned about the added effects of alcohol and how it relaxes the drinker and increases sociability. Because of this, wine found popularity not only with the upper classes but also with the peasant classes, resulting in the spread of the vine though much of Europe by Roman soldiers. Yet starting in the Middle Ages and Renaissance wine’s role changed into something more overtly aristocratic, largely due to nobility and popes designating the best vineyards for their own personal use. While the perception of the role of wine has changed and while wine is no longer just an alternative to raisins, it isn’t something to be treated with nervous awe either: wine is meant to be enjoyed!
I often find that people often lose sight of the purpose of wine. They overcomplicate it and make it into something daunting and overly serious when in fact it’s quite simple: wine is an atmospheric. It is something you add to an event to enhance the overall enjoyment of the occasion. The event doesn’t have to be something celebratory: it could just be a Tuesday dinner sitting in front of the TV. The fact is wine is made to be shared and to be enjoyed: price, name, varietal, rarity, none of it matter as long as you (and your guests) are enjoying what’s in your glass. Does this mean you should enjoy everything you drink? Of course not. A mentor once told me that wine is like art: I might love a painting and you could hate it, and it could be the exact opposite for the next piece we look at, but that’s art, and wine is just that. It can be mass-produced and stamped out or it can be a singular masterpiece, painstakingly hand-crafted over years.
Like art, wine is meant to be shared and to tease and excite the senses and it is with this in mind that I write this blog. My goal is to share with you my oenophilia and to help demystify the bottle. So grab your favorite glass and corkscrew, it’s time to start drinking. Salute!
Thank you for coming to Well Said Wines. I hope you enjoy what you read here and please feel free to leave comments and ask questions.
