Deep and dark, rich aroma of dark cherry, prune, tobacco and later some blueberry and hint of plum. Spice and sweet fruit notes in the palate. Nice balance, alcohol and tannins present, medium + but balanced, medium+ finish.
Overall: Excellent Value Merlot
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( 2.9 / 193 )As a wine student (once one - forever one) and wine educator, I am frequently asked how to prepare for wine exams. This is especially true now as I am about two weeks away from testing my current group of Sommelier students at my Sommelier Society of America/Sommelier Wine Academy venue in East Quogue, NY. This venue is soon to change to the new Riverhead Culinary School run by Suffolk County Community College.
Having taken and taught many wine courses, I have a bit of experience preparing for many individual exams from my first course in 1984 at The Culinary Institute of America to the most rigorous in the form of the Master Sommelier Exam given by those 'characters' at The Court of Master Sommeliers, yikes!
For all but the actual Master Sommelier and Master of Wine Exams, studying for wine exams is pretty straight forward. Taste and learn, and the best way is to do them at the same time every time the subject comes up or a wine is tasted, thought about or brought up in a conversation.
The two Master exams require a bit more...any wine question is game...so if you don't know all the different names of Mourvedre throughout the wine world, what clones of nebbiolo are allowed in Barbaresco or all the new wine laws are of Germany, Austria and Spain - then you better get cracking as that's just the tip of a massive vinous Iceberg! As for the rest of the wine students out there follow these simple steps.
If your passionate about wine, well that's the most important tool for learning, just don't get lazy. It's easy to go to your favorite restaurant and order your favorite wine, but much more fun to explore and order something you've never tried and don't know enough about. Then learn everything about that wine, the wines region, the grape varietal and similar wines or wine regions. For instance...more in a bit.
OK so plenty of people that have taken wine exams recommend flash cards, and I do too, but the most beneficial way to learn and get the knowledge every day is to ask yourself what you know about every wine you ever taste or discuss.
For instance last night I opened a bottle of Costello di Bossi Chianti Classico 2003 so immediately I should begin asking myself, what I do I know about this wine, how much should I know and what should I know about the wines that are similar. And this is even before it is tasted.
So what should we know about the wine?
The label first: who is the producer? Castello di Bossi.
Below that is C. Berardenga, what's that mean? Well that is short for Castelnuovo di Berardenga and represents the sub-region or district of Chianti Classico.
Where is Chianti Classico? Tuscany.
What grapes are used? Sangiovese...but others are allowed in the region of Chianti Classico, what are they? Canaiolo, Malvasia Nero, Colorino and a small amount of International Varieties, but the most important is Sangiovese, which must be a minimum of 80% of the blend.
In the case of Castello di Bossi, the wine is 100% Sangiovese.
Now as long as we're talking about Sangiovese, do we know what some of the clones used are and what the best ones are? We should.
Now, what is that Castelnuovo di Berardenga all about? Isn't this wine a Chianti Classico, which is in Tuscany? How much more do I need to know... well within Chianti Classico there are several communes of which Castelnuovo di Berardenga is the furthest south and also one of the lowest elevations. What's that mean? Riper sweeter fruit characters in the finished wine.
So if you do that with every wine you come across, your wine knowledge will just explode. Think through doing that with a wine from another region, if it's one you don't know much about, get a book or use the internet and learn everything you can about the wine...Try it with a Sancerre.
Other things you could ask yourself when tasting the Chianti Classico above include:
What was the 2003 vintage like in Tuscany and more specifically Chianti Classico;
What does the DOCG designation mean;
What are the other DOCG's of Tuscany;
What are the best Sangiovese clones for Chianti Classico;
What do the following terms mean:
IGT
DOC
Classico
Superiore
Colli
Colline
Riserva
Pergola
Tendone
Brunello
Prugno Gentile
So you can see what a great daily exercise this will be, the things that stump you from each wine should immediately become a flash card.
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( 2.9 / 302 )Though our HamptonsWineShoppe.com web-site functions well enough, we (Paul and I) are not satisfied with it and hope to have a new version rolled out in time for the Spring/Summer seasons in the Hamptons.
Some of the features we hope to have on the site will involve fun and serious wine knowledge components. Using my Sommelier background and years of wine educational program building, we plan to incorporate an on-line wine school tool that will include much of the information and tools that I use in teaching Sommeliers at classes on Long Island and in Westchester as well as at my other retail client Sherry-Lehmann.
So with some technology web-magic combined with my wine region maps and wine knowledge, we hope to have a slick wine education tool on the new www.HamptonsWineShoppe.com
site this summer. Some of the maps and educational information can be found on my current site at www.noblewines.com.
The second component of this we envision as a cool little wine and food matching tool. Put in the food you plan on matching a wine too and get a hand-full of wines and wine styles displayed that work. Again, this depends on a bit of tech-magic and my experience and education as both a Sommelier and a European trained Chef.
The third educational device on the site should be a feed-back area ore social component where wine geeks, wine novices and everyone in-between can share their thoughts on their favorite and least favorite wines of the world...not just wines carried at the HamptonsWineShoppe.com store.
So if you have any interesting comments about these and other interesting ideas for the new web-site, post them here and maybe we can integrate them into our new web-presence.
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( 2.9 / 308 )Harvest Wine Dinner (Stone Creek Inn) redux.
On Friday October 26th, HamptonsWineShoppe and The Stone Creek Inn conducted their first collaborative wine dinner. About two weeks prior, Christian, Elaine, Paul and I sat down to discuss the menu and consider the wines. Unusual to the Wine Dinner format, we were free to use any wines we wanted, not just wines from a certain region or certain winery. The meal included Lobster, Risotto with White Truffles, Venison, and Chocolate. Some dishes were easy to match others less so.
For me the Lobster was easy as I had just had a favorite ‘value’ White Burgundy with lobster and it worked perfectly. There were many positive comments about the 2003 Domaine Caillot Bourgogne Blanc, but I felt it was served a bit too cool. After talking to several tables I heard many positive comments, but the comments became more effusive as the wine warmed up.
The 2003 Domaine Caillot Bourgone Blanc is such a great deal because it tastes like a fine Meursault, even though it isn’t and because it isn’t it only cost $20 a bottle rather than $50 for a similarly styled Meursault. There was plenty of interest in this wine but much more for the reds, most likely due to the weather. The wines nutty, ripe citrus and apple characters easily matched the powerful lobster and black truffle dish, yet didn’t overwhelm.
White Truffles are one of the culinary worlds most decadent foods, very rare, very expensive and very aromatic and bursting with flavors. A wine to match such is difficult without a massive budget for either mature and renowned Barolo, Barbaresco or Chambertin…none were in the budget so I had to really scour the Pinot Noir world for something reasonably priced and powerful and elegant enough to stand-up to White Truffle Risotto. The 2003 Tiefenbrunner Pinot Nero Lintaclarus from Alto-Adige fit the bill so well that several cases were sold that evening. The wine had classic cherry cola notes that reminded us of really fine 2005 Village Nuits, a long elegant finish, pretty and very long, a stunning value at $28 a bottle.
Venison is a wine match that is generally easy and to help woo customers to the dinner we decided to showcase a serious Bordeaux from the touted 2004 vintage. Yes I know, 2005 is getting all the attention, but at what cost…3 times the prices of 2004? Anyhow, we settled on 2004 Chateau du Tertre a 5th Cru Classe from Margaux. Margaux, due to the particular soils use a bit higher percentage of Merlot. Again this was a hit with the crowd, but I cheated a bit and decanted the wines almost 5 hours before it was poured. So those of you who are lucky to get a few bottles of this – if we still have some when you receive this e-mail I’d be surprised – either wait a few years to drink it or decant it for an hour or so before hand. Actually all the wines here will benefit a bit of decanting but none really need it except the du Tertre.
For desert we used a wine from a few hours from Chef Christian’s home town of Toulouse in Southern France, a Banyuls. Banyuls is sweet red wine made from Grenache that is produced in the same manner as Porto, as in fortified with brandy. The La Tour Vieile Banyuls 2005 was less sweet than many diners expected with a lovely fruity character and a long, bright finish. This interesting wine is sold in a convenient 500 ml bottle and is a reasonable $24 a bottle.
Oh and I forgot the Sparkling wine we served as guests arrived, it was a Martha Clara Brut (North Fork), that is produced in a Method Champenois style (just like Champagne) by a Champenoise. Gil Martin, the winemaker for the wine, grew up in Champagne and worked for Roederer Estate and his experience shows in this excellent value and local wine. $17 a bottle at the store or through the web-site.
Now for the lovely, rich, exuberant and yet elegant Chateau du Tertre 2004 – we are either out-of stock or have very few bottles left so act fast or check out our other 2004 Bordeaux offerings below…just a laundry list call or e-mail our wine specialist and Sommelier to discuss the Bordeaux best suited to your vinous needs and desires.
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( 3 / 316 )Over my many years of tasting with winemakers, I have found a trend, those winemakers that study wine from other regions, and taste many diverse wines make better wines. So this little tasting group of winemakers on Eastern Long Island matches that trend and helps our local industry learn how to compete and excel at making the finest wines possible from the resources available to them. The most interesting experiences I have had recently with Long Island wines have been at Bedell Winery and Paumanok Winery. What I learned at Bedell was the background and approach of the new winemaker, John Levenberg. John was a winemaker for several serious wineries in California (Paul Hobbs, Cuvaison) Saint Emilion (Chateau Quinault), and New Zealand and was wooed here by a headhunter for Bedell Cellars. He was quite hesitant but finally found the cool climate and lower potential alcohol of the wines were more suited to his own palate – it seems that many of his wines that got major kudos and 90+ Parker points while working for Paul Hobbs Winery had alcohol contents pushing 15% and more. While wines with such high alcohols can be impressive for a sip or two, they are not well suited to sitting down and having a few glasses with and after dinner (and driving home too). John is just one more piece of a serious winemaking team that includes founder Kip Bedell and consultant Pascal Marty (formerly of Mouton Rothschild and Opus One), but his influence can be seen in both the winery and the wines. The excellent valued 2005 Bedell Merlot was produced in a larger volume ever for the winery, yet still sold out in record time.
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