East Hill Bottle shop 4 Oct 23

Well, it’s finally Fall! Our first beautiful sunny day that comes with a high in the mid-70s is worth its own holiday! How should a wine lover celebrate such an occasion? With a glass of “big, bold” red wine of course. Oh, you don’t have any because you have been drinking whites and light reds all summer. Well here’s a quick and easy cure.But before we discuss that solution a quick disclaimer: GulfCoastWine does not get endorsed or receive anything from the wine venues and/or wines review or recommend. We haven’t addressed that in quite a while, so for all of our newer readers and as a reminder to our original followers; everything here is unbiased, and written without the use of AI. Seriously, we still research and write things, unlike some of the other local publications!So, back to the cure. This week’s Crowd Favorite at East Hill was Elberle’s 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon from Paso Robles California. Paso Robles (Passing Oaks translated from Spanish) is not as overlooked as it used to be but still often plays the third seat to its cousins to the north, Sonoma and Napa. A benefit of this is Napa quality wine and a lower price, and this is a great example!This wine welcomes the nose with an aroma of fruit curing in the western dry air and hints of violet. Then the palate is greeted with the “big and bold” deep and dark jamey plum, black cherry, circling cassis, medium tannins, juicy acidity, finishing with a little chocolate and cedar. It’s the red wine experience that you have been waiting for, since you have been depriving yourself of “big and bold” reds during our hot summer months like a monk fasting for a higher calling! Well, at least that’s what I have been told it feels like. I drink these type of red wines all year.A California red that is as good as any mainstream Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa at an affordable price. Hard to beat! So for all of you coming out of your hot season red wine hiatus, welcome back. And for the rest of us; enjoy our Wine America!

East Hill Bottle Shop 20 Sept 2023

The last day of official Summer. You wouldn’t really know it if you weren’t paying attention to the calendar with our days still touching 90F. But there are little glimpses of change if you know where to look. For many wine drinkers the start of Autumn and cooler temperatures mean it’s time to start drinking “big” red wines again.I understand the concept: mainly drink white wines or lighter bodied reds during the hot months, claiming “big” reds aren’t refreshing. Yet understanding the concept and agreeing with it are two different things. I grew up drinking very “big” reds while having lunch during the peak of the hot Portuguese and French summers. For more conventional wine drinkers I just stated two unfathomable actions! Drinking full bodied reds, at lunch, in the heat!! Woah!First of all, more people should have a glass of wine at lunch! Many “professionals” see this as a total faux pas. I am not saying get drunk, or even having a second glass, but one glass of wine at lunch, served at the CORRECT temperature, that compliments the food is a wonderful experience. I argue that, for some, it should be mandatory! I guarantee that you know at least one person who fits that bill.Well this week’s Crowd Favorite at the East Hill Bottle Shop is a perfect example of a good “big” red wine to either restart your autumnal enjoyment or pair with that forbidden lunch. Saint Cosme Côtes du Rhône, a 100% Syrah from southern France, was bold with a nose of violets, greeting the palate with blackberries, black plum, a dash of baking spice, some juniper, and finishing with relatively smooth earthy tones. And it was inexpensive.As we finally crawl out of Summer I find it refreshing that more of my fellow wine drinkers are thinking about their first sips of those “big” reds in months. I liken it to a bear just out of its dean, sniffing the air, trying to determine which direction its first meal will be found. It's palpitations audible to those near by. And maybe, just maybe, try a single glass of wine with lunch. It is as enjoyable as it sounds!

What is “Wine Country?”

I have not had a week go by in the last few months where someone hasn’t said; “I cannot believe all of this is going on here!” The “this” are all of the wine tastings. The “here” is the Pensacola area.

According to any map of wine we are not “in Wine Country.” But are we?

What comes to mind when you hear “Wine Country?” Tuscany, Napa, the terraced slopes of the Douro. Places that grow grapes probably, because that’s where you can also drink that fermented grape juice. Sounds like a fun place!

What would it be like to live “in Wine Country?” It would be really fun! Well, look around at any one of our local wine tastings and you will see people having fun. So, I say; We do live in Wine Country! Wine Country is so much more than a place where grapes are grown. Wine Country, just like any Country, is a place that has an identifiable, unique, and ubiquitous cultural.

To me Wine Country = Wine Culture. Pensacola has a unique and super fun culture, especially with wine, and it surprises people constantly. There are many reasons why this culture exists here and not in our closest large neighbors to the East and West. A few of those reasons are our long and diverse history, the constant influx and mixing of people (a lot due to our military bases and not just Navy, but Air Force, Army, and honorable mention to the Coast Guard), and the fact that we live in a part of the world where many people travel to to have fun.

The result from mixing all of that for a long time is a culture that likes to enjoy enjoyment, and wine is a natural fit.

There were SEVEN wine tastings around town last week from Wednesday through Saturday! I can’t even add all of the pictures from them to this article. That should not surprise any of you, but it does surprise many people, both new to our area and those who have been here for quite a while.

That is why we started Gulf Coast Wine; to give a home to our amazing local wine community, and to share our uniquely fun wine culture, to enjoy the experience together!  This week you could have had a great summer sparkling wine at The East Hill Bottle shop tasting, jumped around Tuscany at the So Gourmet tasting, sampled some great food and wine at Anna’s monthly tasting, played in the mystery wine game and Bottle Share night at Aragon’s tasting, and partaken in a few amazing wines from Argentina at a special AJ’s Market tasting. Each one was a great time, with fun people enjoying the company of other wine lovers, not wine snobs!

So, we do in fact live in Wine Country, one that, in my opinion, is actually more fun than several of those listed on the map! Cheers to that!

Swirling Wine

Can you remember the first time you swirled the wine in your glass? If so can you remember where you learned that quintessential and often cliched action? Unless you grew up as a wine savant in a isolated wine cave in the Douro Valley you didn’t start swirling wine on your own. So why is it done? Should you do it with every wine? Can you over swirl? Let’s take a look.You can type “why do you swirl wine” into any search engine and get a number pretty decent answers. Yet I have not found just one spot that combines and condenses all of them into a single recommendation.So. Should you swirl every wine, every time? No.I am going to address the “How” to swirl your wine first. Do it gently with out spilling it. It’s not a washing machine, slow and gentle, for 6-8 seconds at a time. You CAN over swirl it! There is also an element here on the proper way to hold your glass:  NOT by the cup (the curved bowl section)! If you would like a tutorial please ask me at the next tasting.Whether it’s a wine you just opened at home or at a wine tasting, restaurant, wherever; Smell your wine first without doing anything. Yes, that’s not a typo, smell your wine first. Then taste it.Now, at this point, you can swirl your wine, unless it is a very old wine. Very old wines tend to be very delicate and swirling them can break them down. You don’t have to swirl, it’s up to you, but if you do swirl continue.So you poured wine in your glass. You smelled it, tasted it, swirled it, gently. Now smell and taste it again. Was it better or worse? If it was worse then don’t swirl anymore. If it continues to not taste good POUR IT OUT, it’s probably a bad wine! If it continues to taste better, then give it a gentle swirl each time before you take a drink, smelling often.So why can it get better when we swirl, what’s happening? Oxidation. Just like an aerator, swirling mixes oxygen into the wine, making it easer to smell, which science has proven to be about 75% of what you taste. Smelling wine helps you taste wine.The mixing of oxygen can also begin to break down tannins, making some big wines a little softer and thus more pleasant.Hopefully this gives you a little more guidance on why and when we swirl. Just don’t spill it on yourself or others. Cheers!

East Hill Bottle Shop tasting & BBQ

It should be no surprise to most of you; but we go to a wine tasting for the people as much as, sometimes more than, the actual wine. Good wine is always a motivator, so is the yet-to-be-met fellow taster.

This week I had both motivations; going for the wine on Wednesday, then going for the people on Saturday.

Wednesday’s tasting ended up with a Crowd Favorite that surprised most of the tasters with how smooth and easy it was. La Crema Pinot Noir 2019 from the Monterey area of California seemed to hit most tasters just right: light red fruit, no rough tannins, not overly acidic, a great buy for an easy light bodied red wine.

Several friends ended up not being able to join me for the rescheduled Wine & BBQ event as planned. The food was great, yet a chance meeting with an elder retired Marine really made it an experience for me. How often do we have the chance to meet so many amazing and diverse people? Well, wine tastings have proven to increase those chances!

“This wine has extended maceration. That’s good, right?”

Wow, what a great evening to be outside and have a wine tasting, and our wine tasting crowd agreed, showing up in force! We are currently in the best time of year for outdoor wine drinking. All too soon the heat will be here and the full-pitched battle of drinking wines at the correct temperature will be upon us. Soak it in now!As we get to tonight’s Crowd Favorite we tread into the swamp that is all of the wine jargon written on the back of a wine bottle. This disease does not inflict every wine bottle. For the wine geeks out there; I shared a bottle of 2009 Colares Reserva Velho (old reserve) from Portugal last night with some of my great neighbors. Talk about a niche wine! But one of the best parts was the writing, or rather the lack there of, on the back of the bottle. Printed on the back was the name, where it was from, and that it came from grapes grown near the sea, all written in Portuguese. Absent was an explanation of the “passion” that went into this bottle, pleasantly missing the description of flavors; cherry, black currant, and soft tannins from the extended maceration. Sometimes the stuff printed on the back can be helpful, but most of the time it includes a description that can be slightly off to totally inaccurate. Did you get the black currants, or smell the lilac blossoms?Most back of the bottle descriptions include some level of wine jargon that can be helpful if you know what it means. In this case; maceration. There is extended maceration, carbonic maceration, and cold soaking. All can be printed as maceration. Throw it in google, or actually pull out your copy of “Wine Folly” and you will find that it is part of the wine making process that involves keeping all of the parts of the grape (skins, seeds, etc.) in the wine during and after fermentation. As the sugars in the grape juice turn into alcohol (ferment) the alcohol starts to act as a solvent, extracting even more color, tannins, and a bunch of other flavor compounds. Extended maceration. That’s got to make it better, right? Sometimes. It depends what you are starting with.In the case of tonight’s Crowd Favorite, 2021 Gran Passione Rosso, it probably helped. A 60/40 blend of Merlot and Corvina grapes from the Vento region of Italy, with “some days of maceration,” this wine would make a great, cheap, dinner wine. Want to drive deeper into what that all means, catch me at the next tasting and ask. Cheers until then.

East Hill Bottle Shop, 11 January

It is rare to even kind of like all the wines at a tasting. I often finish wine tastings not liking anything that I tasted, but I still try everything. You never know if the wine that you know you will not like actual tastes good. I see that A LOT! “Oh, I don’t drink Chardonnay.” “Why” I ask. “They are too buttery and oaky.” Or “I don’t drink reds.” Those two are very common. Well, there are 1000+ Chardonnays and like a million red wines. And many are not oaky or buttery, and red wine probably does not give you that headache. So I always recommend trying all of the wines.That was an easy recommendation at tonight’s tasting. Almost everyone liked almost everything. Our two Crowd Favorites were Garganega Frizzante (fizzy/sparkling) from Soave Italy, and Route Stock Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 from Napa Valley California. Garganega is the top white grape varietal in this area of Northern Italy. It is a sparkling wine that is “just” under sparkling. The bubbles are more of a strong fizz. The result is a playful wine with hints of pear and apple that has almost a creamy mouth feel while simultaneously being very light. Pretty cool. RouteStock is what I call a Cab Cab. It’s a Cabernet Sauvignon for Cabernet Sauvignon lovers. It has the quintessential deep aroma of black plum and umami with a taste of red cherry and dark chocolate. Yeah, it was good. Hope to see you at the next tasting.

East Hill Bottle Shop 7 Dec 2022

With only a few more wine tastings before the Holidays, our local wine shops are pulling out some good ones to try. We had another tie for our highest classification here at GCW, a Wine of Note, and both were white!A Pinot Blanc by Pierre Sparr from Alsace France, and Fontaleoni Vernaccia di San Gimignano, from Tuscany Italy. Both unique, both liked by the tasters, and both good for different palettes. The Pinot Blanc had lots of peach and nectarine (stone fruit in wine talk), not sweet, balanced minerality and mild acidity made it very easy to drink. Pair with any chicken or white fish, or just drink. The Fontaleoni is made from Vernaccia, a native Italian hill country grape that doesn’t make it out on our tasting scene that often. It is higher in acid, making it more crisp and lively with notes of dry apple. Definitely a food wine. A good match for any Italian meal with Alfredo sauce.

12 October wine tasting at The East Hill Bottle shop

A true neighborhood vibe is a good way to draw the wine tasting experience at the East Hill Bottle shop. Have wine, talk about wine, hang out, a fun time. We had a tie in our evening wines, so two Featured Wines. In the order that we tasted them; Muralia Manolibera 2019 Tuscans Rosso and The Soldier 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon. The Rosso was dry, it even says that in big letters on the back of the bottle. Made from a blend of Sangiovese, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon, it gave you light red berry flavors with some earthiness. Pasta with red sauce wine. The Soldier, from the Columbia Valley of Washington, gave you that deeper fruit with a sense of mixed dry garden herbs. This would pair better with red meat. Come out and be part of the wine conversation.

The East Hill Bottle Shop Tasting 21 Sept

I really enjoy drinking, and especially trying, wine with people. And even more fun is trying wine with folks who have never done a wine tasting. You get to watch as a new part of their world opens up. Super fun. This evening the Wine of Note came down to two very good French wines. A Village Beaujolais (much higher quality than the ubiquitous Beaujolais Nouveau) just edged out a classic blend from the Rhône region. Moulin a Vent 2015 Beaujolais is made from 100% Gamma grapes. France names its wine based on the region that it comes from, not the grapes. Beaujolais is actually within Burgundy, but it is a “special” island of Gamma grapes surrounded by the Pinot Noirs and Chardonnay found in the rest of Burgundy. This wine had a meaty quality with it, along with the pleasant rounded deep red fruit that you got in each taste. An outstanding dinner wine that would pair well with a lot. Our first time wine tasters agreed.

6 July Tasting at the East Hill Bottle Shop

There are a LOT of grape varieties out there, thousands, and every now and then you run into one that you have never heard of. Glera is one grape variety that I do not remember encountering, and it was the main grape in the blend of tonight's Wine of Note. Avissi is a very delightful extra dry (not as dry as a Brut) Sparkling Rose wine. The unique blend of Glera, Pinto Noir, and Merlot was fun to drink and definitely makes its way on the Summer Wine list.

East Hill Bottle Shop 29 June

Our Wines of Notes for this evening ended up both being blends. I had two big dinners coming up leading into the 4th of July so I came into this week's tastings with food that I wanted to pair wine with. Most of the time I find wine that I love to drink and then find food to match that wine. One approach is not better than the other, but I was excited to see how these two would do.The first was an impressive white blend from the Rhone region in France. The aroma came with pleasant herbs, and as soon as I tried it I knew that this blend of Grenache, Clairette, Bourboulenc, Viognier, and Roussanne would be outstanding with some Red Snapper that I just caught. This 2020 White Cotes du Rhone from Domaine de la Janasse was dry, clean, and fruity. This was one of the best wine to fish pairings yet!Our red wine of note came from northern Napa Valley and had some age. Wisdom and depth of flavor came with this 2013 Syrah Blend from School House Vineyards. Mescolanza, because of its age, had good deep fruit that flowed smoothly over the tongue, no sharp edges and a pleasing finish. I enjoyed this one at my neighbor's 50th birthday party over an amazing charcuterie spread. Several different wines were brought to that party. This one was finished first.

East Hill Bottle Shop 15 June

So many people love sparkling wine, whether it be actual Champagne (sparkling wine only from the Champagne region of France), Italian Prosecco, or a Spanish Cava. One of the other tasters said that this bottle of Marques de Caceres Brut Cava "did way more than any equal bottle of Champagne." Very refreshing with pleasantly mild fruit flavors, often absent from most other bubbly wine. So good that all the bottles were gone before I could take a picture.The red Wine of Note is a great one that would boost any dinner. Melipal's 2018 Malbec from the higher altitudes outside of Mendoza Argentia had good deep fruit with that earthly balance and smooth finish. It could be drank by itself or pair with a roasted pork loin and grilled vegetables.