How to Read a Wine Label

Say you're in the wine store and you want to buy something new. You have nothing to go by outside of the label. Will the label tell you anything you should know?

We were asked this question by Terry Gross on NPR's "Fresh Air" recently and we realized that, surprisingly, we'd never been asked that before. We are often asked how to read labels -- whole books have been written about that. Ms. Gross's question was simpler yet far broader. In a sea of wine labels, are there certain things to look for -- across the board, country to country? We've thought a lot about it, and here's what to look for and what to ignore. There are a million caveats and exceptions, but here's some general advice:

Vintage. This is actually the first thing we look for ourselves. You don't need to have a vintage chart in your pocket or care whether 2001 or 2002 was a better year in the Sierra Foothills. The vast majority of wines at the store are meant to be drunk right away, so you want to make sure the wine isn't too old, particularly if you're buying it expecting lively, fresh fruitiness. We routinely see five-year-old Pinot Grigio and two-year-old Beaujolais Nouveau at stores, for example, so as soon as we see that kind of age on wines like those, we know we can skip them and move on (and possibly not shop there again).

Alcohol content. Too many wines today have too much alcohol, which leaves them unbalanced. Sure, there are some classic wines with fairly high alcohol levels, but many of today's regular table wines -- Merlot, Chardonnay, Shiraz, Zinfandel -- have levels at 15% or above. Some of those might be terrific, but if we had nothing else to go on, we'd look for alcohol content at about 14% and below...

Read the entire article here.

April Wine Tasting -- A Taste of Italy

We met for wine club at Bridget and JR's place on April 21st, a Saturday night after trivia and the Mixed Nuts trivia team joined us, as well. What was a tame wine tasting night turned into an all out party with all the food, wine to be sampled, and great company. We even got a taste of Nancy's dancing.

Our theme was Italy and these were our wines.

The Whites:
Bridget and JR:
Caposaldo 2005
Pinot Grigio

Chuck and Nancy:
Devine Wine 2006
Pinot Grigio

Dave and Marci:
Vesevo
Fiano Di Avellino

Paul and Yvonne:
Voga Italia 2005
Delle Veneze, Italia
Pinot Grigio

The Reds:
Pam:
Amabile Zonin
Lambrusco dell Emilia
(sparkling red)

Dave and Marci:
Da Vinci 2003
Chianti Classico
Toscano

Carmyn:
Caposaldo 2005
Chianti

Paul and Yvonne:
Da Vinci
Chianti

Matt and Anna:
Liquere al Limone
Costa del Solo
Limoncello Liquer

Our Wine Tour Continues.... Next Stop: Italy

Our next wine gathering will be at Bridget and J.R.'s

The focus will be Italian wines in honor of the Ides of March.... ala Julius Caesar.
Though we will be meeting on Saturday April 21 at 8:00 pm

Learn more about Italian wines & their regions here.

An Effervescent Evening... a Sparkling Soiree

We met on Thursday Feb. 22 at Pam's for Champagne, or should I say "sparkling wines." The buffet, laden with tasty treats, was a focal point as the men lingered near sampling the chocolate-covered strawberries (compliments of Bridget and J.R.) and indulging in Anna's colorful bean dip. We got to hear about Dave and Marci's recent trip, celebrate Matt's tenure, and joke around, as usual. We missed Margaret and Jon, who were unable to attend due to a work obligation.

Throughout the evening, Pam played DJ and we started out listening to Sade Lovers Live and but later as the requests poured in Matt and Anna even got up to dance. A moment to remember... "Paradise by the Dashboard Lights" sung at the top of our lungs. God bless Meatloaf!

Dave, our wine-master, is getting very good at the tasting pour. We each had our sample drinks of the various sparkling wines and I learned that some are much drier than others. I guess I prefer mine sweet.

For those of us eager to learn more, Pam provided an article called "Champagne's Best Buy: Non-Vintage Bruts" by Ed McCarthy and Mary Ewing-Mulligan. I didn't find the exact article online but I did find a link to another similar one by Ed McCarthy on the subject. Check it out here. There are a number of interesting topics available on Wine Review Online.

Here's what we drank:

Pam brought:
Asti Castello del Poggio
Italian Sparkling Wine

She also provided the cassis
for those of us who wanted
to try a Kir Royale--champagne cocktail.

Matt and Anna brought:
Korbel Chardonnay Champagne
California Champagne

Carmyn brought:
Ballatore Gran Spumante
California Sparkling Wine

Dave and Marci brought:
Chandon Blanc de' Noir
California Sparkling Wine

Bridget and J.R. brought:
Tosti Brachetto d' Acqui
Italian Sparkling Wine

a little bubbly humor

Coming Soon.....

... a Sweet Treat for February

To celebrate the month of romance and love and chocolate.... our gathering will be at Pam's house at 7:30 on Thursday February 22nd and if you didn't get enough V-Day goodness on the 14th you'll get to enjoy some decadent desserts... chocolate dipped strawberries... and champagne.. champagne... champagne.

That's our theme for this month: Champagne. Bring a bottle for us to sample and we shall all indulge.

Bringing Down Under Up North

We met on Thursday January 11th at Dave and Marci's for our 2nd wine gathering. Our theme for this month was Australian wines and I was truly impressed with what variety was available, having never before searched for wines in this manner. Dave and Marci used their new wine plates and I was officially impressed by the "presentation" of their food and wine buffet. Delicious and lovely, all at once. Sadly, Matt and Anna had to miss this gathering but we were happy to add Jon and Margaret who wine tasted as a tag team since there was no child care to be found. Margaret was there for the wines and sampling... Jon had to play catch up with a bunch of slightly tipsy folk. Before we officially began Dave poured some glasses of Tim Adams 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon to warm us up on that chilly night.


The Wines:

Bridget and JR's
Angove's Red Belly Black
Chardonnay 2005

Jon and Margaret's
Penfold's Rawson's Retreat
Shiraz Cabernet 2005

Carmyn's
Rosemount Estate
Diamond Label Shiraz 2004

Dave and Marci's
Climbing Wines
Cabernet Sauvignon 2004

Pam's
Mattie's Perch
Chardonnay

My favorites ended up being the Red Belly Black Chardonnay and the Rawson's Retreat Shiraz Cabernet. I didn't dislike any of them. I thought the wine I brought was good the first glass but liked it less on the second. I'm not sure why. My least favorite was the Climbing Wines Cabernet, the the bottle art was quite nice.

To add to the educational aspect of this wine group I found wine notes for each of these bottles ahead of time so we could have something to take if we discovered we liked a particular one. I also found some "wine tasting tips" on the Rosemount Estate site and if you are curious check it out here. One other curious thing I ran across in searching for a good Aussie wine was how many of them feature animals. Apparently this is a new genre of wine to some extent. They call them "critter labels." Read more here.

The evening moved between the dining room and the living room complete with roaring fire. On the stereo were Jack Johnson and later The Magic Numbers but those cds were simply the background to our conversation as Jon and Pam debated and discussed music and the rest of us joined in. One highlight for me was when, out of nowhere, Pam asked if we could guess what was in her pocket. Hmmmmm.... any guesses? Wow, you're right! It was a baby Jesus. It was a grand time and I'm looking forward to our champagne/chocolate celebration in February.

Drinking in the New.....

Our next wine tasting gathering will be in January.
We'll meet at Dave and Marci's
Thursday, January 11th at 7:30 p.m.

Please bring a bottle of wine.
We are focusing on the Australian wine regions, so use that to guide your selection. I'll mail out a reminder card as the date nears.



Click here for more information on Australian wines. Or here.
Or here. Heck, there are tons of sites online... Have fun!

Daze of Wine and Noses

In the days before our wine tasting party, I was worried that I'd not be well enough to host a gathering since I had such a doozy of a cold. Even the day before my sense of smell and taste was not 100%, but on Thursday I was better and things were looking up. I just had a remnant of a cough that liked to strike late in the evening. (That is still lingering.) At 7:30 p.m. my guests arrived and I stepped into the role of hostess to seven friends: Bridget, J.R., Pam, Dave, Marci, Anna and Matt.

For our first meeting our wine selections were "anything goes" and we ended up with two red wines and three bottles of whites. We weren't sure how to drink them.... sweet to dry or dry to sweet. We decided to go from dry to sweet but I am still not certain if that is "correct." It did seem to affect my palate and my "appreciation" though it's hard to tell since I really am not even sure WHAT it is that I like. This time I leaned toward the reds... is that because we started with those? I served meat, cheese, crackers, a warm artichoke dip and grapes. And I finally had an opportunity to use my "lucky charms."

Here are the wines:

Dave and Marci's:
Cabernet Sauvignon
Greg Norman 2003
North Coast California Estate

Pam's:

Shiraz and Cabernet blend

Yellowtail 2005

Australia

Carmyn's:

Pinot Grigio delle Venezie

Ecco Domani 2005

Italy

Bridget and J.R.'s:

Honey Apple wine

Maple River Winery

Casselton, ND

Matt and Anna's:

Moscato di Pantelleria

Tanit

Italy

Our music:
The Weepies

I decided to feature that musical group because they are one of MY newest acquisitions. The album I played is Say I Am You released in 2006. The Weepies are a duo: Steve Tannen and Deb Talan. Each of these singer/songwriters has recorded solo albums, but they began writing together the night they met. That was four years ago. If you'd like to listen to them, check out their website and you can hear the full songs played there.

We reviewed the possible names for our group (all provided by Pam) and we narrowed it to Kindred Spirits and Corks and Cleavage. Kindred Spirits was already taken for a web address so I called the site Corks and Cleavage! That name seems in line with the playful spirit of the group. For our next meeting we decided to limit our choices of wine to a specific wine region: Australia.

And so we shall meet.....

Our first wine-tasting, conversation-laden, snacking, musical event will be at my apartment.... I'll provide a musical selection and some appetizers... you bring a bottle of wine and some ideas for how we should proceed. Suggestions for a clever name for our group are also welcome. Look for an invite or e-mail with my address and directions.

Wondering about Wine

The genesis of this idea hatched nearly fully-formed as I stumbled around the aisles of Happy Harry’s bottleshop trying, in vain, to select a bottle of wine to bring to the holiday party scheduled later that evening. What is the difference between a shiraz and a chardonnay, or a merlot and a cabernet or a pinot noir? White or red? Sweet or dry? I’m told these distinctions again and again and it’s like the concepts don’t stick. I am sure I prefer sweet to dry, but I recently drank a glass of chardonnay and it wasn’t “awful” so, really, what do I like? I have friends who drink wine, who buy wine, who buy wine I like… so why is it so difficult for me. Do they know more, or are they good guessers? Do they have a single kind of wine they buy again and again?

All these thoughts and more ran through my mind and finally it hit me that the only way to find out these answers is to DRINK some wine. And my idea for creating a wine tasting group took off. What if a group of friends gathered once a month or even every other month at someone’s home and we each brought a different kind of wine? The host/hostess could provide the snack (cheese/crackers or other simple appetizer) and everyone could bring a bottle of something to share. The rest of the night could be spent sampling, snacking, visiting and more. I could create notecards or some kind of handy way to record the types of wines we tasted and what we thought… we could go home with great ideas for new wines or at least a better idea of what we like. We could educate ourselves in a lighthearted way that was informative but not intense or time consuming.

We could take it a step further or just leave it at that. One way of expanding on this idea would be to include music. I remember the fun times we had a few years ago at a reception at Marci’s when we found ourselves sitting around the stereo drinking our wine and listening to new music… Jack Johnson, Martin Sexton, Joni Mitchell… Ahhhh….. Perhaps we could incorporate some musical exploration into this as well.