What is “Old Vine?”

“Old Vine,” “Ancient Vine,” I have even seen “Gnarled Vines” grace the label of many wine bottles. Like many things in the consumer world we must peel back the marketing to find any true meaning.So what is an “Old Vine,” how old does it have to be? There are no true legal age limits to the term “Old Vine.” In most of Spain, it’s older than 30 years. In California, the vines must be 40 plus. The rest of the world mostly falls into this age range.Why does the age of a grape vine matter? When does it matter? There are two main factors I look at when I specifically reach for true “Old Vine” wine.The first factor I consider is where the grapes are grown. If they are being grown in very rocky, mountainous terrain, then age matters. Like all plants, grape vines get everything they need from the sun and the soil. Grapes grown in rocky terrain really have to fight to get their roots down to the water table, which can be more than 20 feet down. It can take the roots up to 30 years to get that deep. Once there, magic happens. The grapes can have amazing potential at this point!The next factor I consider is grape variety. The two easiest to find are Grenache and Zinfandel. Again, if the vintner did everything correctly, something magical happens as those grape varieties pass 40. The same can be said for the Portuguese varieties of the Douro.Most of my vines are growing in soils of granite, mica, and schist, on steep slopes, in a harsh environment. The majority of my vines are passing 97 years! The roots go very deep, up to 30 feet or more! My vineyard is located in a DOC where, legally, you cannot irrigate the vines after the grapes form, ensuring the highest quality of juice…no dilution.So for my vines to thrive for 97 years, and still going strong, mean that these “Old Vines” can give you grapes with an essence of complexity that younger vines could never achieve. But don’t just trust the label on the bottle, do a little research before buying. And to really get the full experience of my grapes you will just have to share a bottle with me!

Why Portuguese Wine?

“Let’s just go to Porto now.” After one night in Madrid we decided to visit more of Spain at the end of our trip instead of in the middle and head to Portugal.

Everyone that knows me, and most of our readers know, that I am partial to Portugal and Portuguese wine, and for good reason. Family ties aside; few places in the World of Wine can do what a good Portuguese wine can do.

What can it do and why?…should be everyone’s question.

There are two special things happening here; the land and the indigenous grapes.

There are books written about, what the French call, “Terroir.” People have gone to blows about what it actually means. Once you, if you can, scrape away the emotions and marketing you do get to a truer sense of the word. It should not surprise anyone that if you grow two identical things the same way in two different locations (say an apple) they can, and often do, taste different.

The Terroir of Portugal, especially of the Douro, is unique on this planet. Between the steep slopes of Schist and Granite flows the River Douro (translated from low-Latin to mean “Of Gold”). Growing on those slopes are varietals of grapes, many indigenous to the Douro, that have still not been fully explored by the palate of the Wine World at large. The future of Douro wine is bright.

When most people hear Porto (only bad tourists call the city Oporto) only one wine comes to mind, Port Wine. I do love a Vintage Port! If you have had Port and perhaps didn’t care for it go back and read the multiple previous posts titled “So you think you’ve had Port.” Yet it is the red blends that I am after this trip. With the capacity to bring the drinker both the complexity of deep ripe fruit, elegant tannins, balanced acid, and a formidable, long finish. What many call the holy grail of wine.

Not every Portuguese wine on the shelf will give you that experience. Most bottles that do can fetch a very high price once the word gets out, so I do my research and go to the source. One of my favorite shops (of which I mentioned last year in a post of how important a few key translation words are) always has some of the hardest to find bottles at very good prices.

Next week we will travel into the high Douro, the Alto Douro Superior, nearly untouched by tourists, and continue to explore why the wines here have abilities unique in the World of Wine. Until then; A té logo.

Aragon’s 13 July Tasting

"The atmosphere at the event was lively at this week's tasting at the Aragon Wine Market. The crowd appeared a little younger than the previous week. There were several young professionals all enjoying themselves and the wine. It warms me to see so many young people enjoying the local wine scene and mingling with the more seasoned wine enthusiast of the community. There is so much we can learn from each other in these types of social events.Darian Morris presented us with some delicious wine this evening. The following were the featured wines: 2021 St. Christopher Piesporter Goldtropfchen Riesling, Cafe de Paris Blanc de Blancs Brut NV, Tapiz Malbec Rosé Extra Brut NV, 2019 Forte Do Cego Vinho Lisboa Tinto, 2020 Belasco de Baquedano Llama Old Vine Malbec, and the 2020 Kate Arnold Single Vineyard Cabernet Franc.My favorite of the bunch was the riesling which is no surprise to those that know me intimately. It tasted nostalgic to me as it is something I would have tasted often when home in the Pfalz. This wine was sweet but had that distinct riesling grape taste that balances subtle and bold simultaneously. This wine was especially refreshing with notes of crisp apple and peach that harmonized together well. I also want to give an honorable mention to the 2020 Belasco de Baquedano Llama Old Wine Malbec. It was medium-bodied and the acidity was well balanced and had a touch of oak at the end that I enjoyed.I cannot discuss this event without talking about the wonderfully baked bread that was served alongside the wines. The bread was provided by Local Thyme Bakery (@ltbpensacola on Instagram) and they featured their House Sourdough which had a perfectly crisp outer layer and the most moist and soft inside. The taste was similar to what I grew up on in Germany, the German staple "Bauernbrot." I will be sure to make orders for bread and other treats soon! To order from them, simply direct message them on Instagram to order during their weekly drops of baked goods.Good wine and good bread, plus wonderful company- what more could you want?"Anna

Treasure Hunting

Do you hunt? A very open ended question to be sure. This is a wine article so you would assume that I am asking if you hunt for wine. If you read this week's first article on Wine Hunters then you might already have an answer.Well, now I am asking in a much bigger sense. All of the great explorers of the world were hunters; both in the traditional sense of chasing wild game, and the metaphorical sense, hunting for what lay over the horizon.I consider myself a hunter in all senses of the word. It is a mindset, an ethos. I am as equally excited for the pursuit as for the end achievement. The hike up the mountain is as enjoyable as the unparalleled view from the top.I am also intrigued by the rare and often overlooked in life. I also very much enjoy history. Wine has A LOT of both. As I traveled this week I had the chance to do some wine hunting, and with history as my guide I was not disappointed.The results were two very obscure, rather rare wines, both from Portugal. The first was a 1997 Carcavelos. A fortified wine from the smallest DOC in the world and a favorite of Thomas Jefferson.There is a book written by John Hailman titled “Thomas Jefferson on Wine” and includes a letter from Jefferson to Richmond Va. merchant James Brown requesting a quarter cask of wine. Jefferson writes “I would prefer good Lisbon, next to that Carcavallo.”Why was Jefferson hunting for Carcavelos so long ago? Carcavelos is NOT Port! It’s profile lies somewhere between Madeira and a aged Tawny Port. It is fortified but with a very unique character. Its profile is very complex; with raisin and citrus, earth and salty air, it dances across the tongue while wearing boots. My Carcavelos is made solely from the Ramisco grape and comes from the tiny region just west of Lisbon near the jet-setting coastal town of Cascais. The entire DOC only totals some 25 acres!!!The next is a 2009 Colares, also made from Ramisco. What makes Colares so unique is that it is some of the only wine in the WORLD that comes from ungrafted vines. The soils here (northwest of Lisbon) contain a lot of sand and were resistant to phylloxera, and therefore were never killed off.Colares doesn’t have anything similar to it in taste. It is like drinking a wine that came from the core of the earth, deeply complex with the hints of red cherry and acid. It is profound, a wine for the consummate wine hunter that will satisfy the deepest of wine geek in any of us.A good week of hunting for me, two true treasures! As I look forward to enjoying the fruits of my labor here are some words of wisdom from Thomas Jefferson: “I have lived temperately. ... I double the doctor’s recommendation of a glass and a half of wine each day and even treble it with a friend.”Cheers to the next hunt!

Aragon’s 11 May Tasting

It is very easy to get overwhelmed with all of the different wines of the world. The complexity of the wine world is a motivation for me, yet the opposite is true for many others. There are thousands of each kind of wine. How do you sort through them and find one you like? Can you even keep them all straight?If this overwhelming feeling explains your experience in the world of wine then I can help. The easiest way to sort through all of the wines that stare you down in the store is to NOT do it.Don’t guess your way down the wine isle, unless you like drinking experiments and wasting money. Picking the prettiest bottle has been proven to get you a sub-standard wine. Ask a vetted and qualified wine expert, we have a bunch of good ones around town. Want an even better way to sort through the world of wine and buy one you like? Taste it first!WOW, what a concept. Go to a wine tasting. If you like it then buy it. Guaranteed that you will like it again back home for dinner or at the next party with friends.If anyone reading this can prove that they bought tonight’s Wine of Note by just randomly bouncing down the wine isle on their own then I will buy them another bottle! Seriously.Taboadella Villae Branco 2021 is a white blend from the Dao DOC region of Portugal. Made from three indigenous grapes; Bical, Encruzado, and Cerceal, it has the citrus notes of a Sauvignon Blanc, the minerality of a Soave, and the body of a Chardonnay. It can go with any crustaceans, white fish, chicken, soup, or alfredo sauce dish.One question from a taster was “So what is it similar to?” Nothing, it is unique with aspects of several that are familiar. Thats the reason it is a Wine of Note. So don’t get overwhelmed by all of the wine out there, leaving your wine purchase to chance. Buy wine that you have tasted and liked, or recommend by a vetted wine expert. You will have a lot more fun that way.

Please do me a favor and pick the wine with the ugliest label.

Me: “How did you pick that wine?”

My friend: “I like the look of the label.”

I'm not sure if there is an actual study or any numbers out there that can tell us the percentage of wine sold based on how “pretty” the label looks, but my guess is a “pretty” high percentage. Drum roll please.

Corniness aside, there are sooooo many people that go in and buy wine solely based on the look of the label. The question is: If you choose a bottle of wine based on the way the label looks, will that get you a bottle of wine that you like more often than not?

From both experience and observation, I say NO.

My estimate is that 33.3% of the time, you will get a wine that you like by choosing solely on the look of the label. If you were blindfolded outside of a good wine shop and led to a random shelf to pick a random bottle, there is also a 33.3% chance that you would pick one that you liked.

There are amazing wines with beautiful labels out there. Tonight’s crowd favorite, by a very slim majority, was Broadbent’s Vinho Verde, which is an outlier; good, cheap, with an attractive label. Yet, more often than not, money spent on making the wine, not the label, will lead to a better product.

So, if you go to a place where they sell wine and there is no one there who can guide you to a wine that you like, leave! Go to a good wine shop curated by qualified, CERTIFIED, wine people and ask them for help picking out a wine. If you don’t have access to a good local wine shop, go in and pick the prettiest and the ugliest (or plainest) looking bottle that you can find. Do a taste test and see what result you get. Sometimes you might find that beauty is only skin, or label, deep.

So you think you have had Port. Part 3

I love Vintage and Crusted Port. I also really enjoy a quality red blend of “table” wine from the Douro. It can be super easy to get lost in the world of Port Wines. And how do you know if you have a quality red Douro blend? I spoke for just under two hours as the presenter at this February’s tasting of our local chapter of the American Wine Society, tasting and explaining how to navigate Portugal’s premiere wine growing region, the Douro.

Can you explain the difference between the four bottles in the photo? If you were presented these wines at dinner which would you choose? With a little knowledge on Port wine you can pick a quality Douro red. The key to begin to unlock quality wines from the Douro, the world’s first Wine Demarcated Region by the way, is Vintage Port. In the Douro, in the world of Port, not every year is a Vintage year. Vintage years must be declared by the vineyard and then approved by the Port Wine Institute located in Porto Portugal. To be a vintage year the growing conditions must be excellent all the way through harvest, ensuring an exceptional wine. If you know the Vintage years, and find a non-Port wine from a particular Vintage year, you are almost (nothing is every “certain”) guaranteed to have a quality Douro “table” (non-fortified) wine. Then you will need some time. I recommend almost any Douro red to have at least six, preferably eight years of age to make for a fantastic drinking experience.

So, Vintage year, 6 years of age, and you have a quality Douro Red. Simple enough. We sampled three Douro reds before moving to Port during our tasting. The next part in our series, Tawny Port.

Cru of Aragon December tasting, 15 Dec 2022

What a great evening at Aragon’s Cru (their monthly premium) tasting, and it goes to show how diverse our individual palates are. Out of eight wines, two being “premium,” there were a lot of individual favorites. Almost everyone liked the two premium wine selections of the evening, a Champagne and a Cabernet Sauvignon. Yet they didn’t end up being our evening’s Crowd Favorites. By a narrow win we finally had a white and a red, both under $20!Sometimes you win because you didn’t do anything wrong, and everyone else missed something. That describes our two crowd favorites. Taboadella “Villae” Branco, 2020 Portuguese White Wine. A blend of three semi obscure native Portuguese grapes that are not cultivated or used elsewhere. The result is a white wine that can’t go wrong, just right in the middle, some hints of both stone fruit and citrus, some minerality, and some acidity. A white wine to have when you don’t know what white wine you should have.Next, Domanie de Fontsainte 2020 from the Languedoc region in the south of France. Same story here; a winner because everyone else running stepped out of bounds. Bright red fruit with Mediterranean herbs and spices. A good pairing to a lot of dinners, or a good burger. Simplicity can be a good thing sometimes.

A Vinho Verde for the soul, and the sinuses.

So, you go out of town on a big trip, take all the precautions, have a great trip, get home, and immediately get really sick. Fun stuff. Luckily you never lost your sense of smell or taste. But now you are ready to finally drink some wine again. What do you choose as a first wine to hit your mouth? For me I like to look for a highly aromatic, slightly acidic, lower alcohol white. Definitely go for a lower alcohol content. Now an official disclaimer: Make sure you are not on any medication that will react with the wine/alcohol. Duh.A little natural effervescence helps. There are very few white wines that hit all of those marks. The one that does is a good Portuguese Vinho Verde. Vinho Verdes are meant to be drank within the first year or so of being bottled, no aging here. So look for the newest vintage possible. And a bonus, it pairs well with my favorite cough drops! And please do not go to the tastings if you are sick, we will save the wine for you when you feel better. Cheers!