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.