“Is that from Burgundy?” “Yes, but it’s not a Burgundy.”

The world of wine is large and can, at times, be overly complex. That’s okay, don’t let that discourage you. In fact that is the reason we will always keep getting great new wines. France is responsible for setting most the foundation of the modern wine culture. A Sommelier; French for a wine steward. It means much more now, but most of that movement came from France.French wine can also be quite complicated, especially in deciphering what it actually is. The French name their wines based on where the grapes were grown. Yet those places can be tiny, places within other places. Beaujolais is a place within Burgundy that only grows the Gamay grape. Those wines are called Beaujolais. Beaujolais are not Burgundies. And then within Beaujolais there is (just) Beaujolais, Beaujolais Nouveau (new) and Beaujolais Village. What? Yeah, it gets complicated.While a full class on Beaujolais might interest some, it’s not appropriate here. I will suffice in saying that Beaujolais Village has higher standards and is usually (not always) enjoyed more than the others. Tonight’s Crowd Favorite was a Village Beaujolais, Chateau de Pizay Morgon 2020. A great medium red that can pair with a wide range of foods, not just red meat. Not nearly as potent as a California Cab, but much more full bodied than its Burgundian neighbor, Pinot Noir. I definitely recommend it with food, but experiment, see what you can come up with.

Don’t be afraid to Re-Visit a wine during a tasting.

I enjoy the once-a-month tastings around town because you can usually encounter something different. Yet your palate will need to be ready for such an encounter. Your palate can be a finicky thing. It can be tuned during a wine tasting, but it can also get burned out. Most tastings start with something bubbly, or something that isn’t too high in average alcohol. The two “A’s” are what can start to “burn” out, or dull your palate, Acid and Alcohol. Start with highly acidic or really boozy wine and your palate won’t get very far. So it’s a relatively accepted practice to start with a Sparkling Wine that has a 12.5-13.5 alcohol by volume content. The bubbles, which contain CO2, help with waking up the palate and the mild alcohol can be helpful in tuning it in.That’s not to say that your palate might not wake up on that first bubbly wine, or whatever the first wine is. Everything that you put in your mouth that day, prior to the tasting, can affect your palate. Did you burn your tongue on your morning coffee, or yesterday’s pizza? That’s going to affect your palate. Pollen season, getting over a cold, sinuses slightly stopped up? That is going to really affect your palate. But, all things being normal, it might take two or three wines to get your palate going, to tune it in.Any good tasting will allow you to revisit a wine at least once. It is also a good way to judge the overall quality of that particular tasting. Tasting any wine, even lower quality wines, is just like reading. And just like reading something, like a chapter for a test, you often pick up something on the second read that you may have missed on your first read. Depending on everyone’s individual palate, including the wines you have tasted up to that point, you might taste something completely different on your revisit. 98 out of 100 times the wine that you are revising will be a different temperature (almost always warmer) than your first taste. It can be amazing what you taste, or didn’t taste, on a revisit.Tonight’s Crowd Favorite was 2022 The Occasion Pinot Noir from Chile. Kind of unique, very cheap, nothing amazing, but okay. Chile is not known for its Pinot Noirs, but it was amazing how different this wine was on the revisit. All of the fellow tasters agreed, and they agreed they liked it more on the revisit. So Do Not be afraid to ask for a revisit on a wine during a tasting, you will be happy that you did.

“I’m not a Sommelier.”

What makes wine seem so fancy to so many people? When I meet people new to wine, or new to wine tastings, and they find out that I “know wine” they almost always feel like they have to start will a disclaimer. I get it a lot when someone who I know introduces me to one of their guests or friends. It mostly sounds like; “This is Alex, he knows wine!” I have even been call a “wine expert.” I put the brakes on that comment real fast! There are very, VERY few, true wine experts out there, even though you can pay some money take a relatively simple test and get a “Certified Wine Expert” certificate. It’s true that I really enjoy wine, and that I know a lot about the wines I like, and the wines that I don’t like, and have some wine credentials. But the only people who should be fearful of me or my wine knowledge are wine snobs. I love taking them apart!But the other night I met a new fellow wine taster and during the introduction she felt the need to say the disclaimer of “I’m not a Sommelier.” I responded, “Me either!” I am not going to get into all of the differences here, but you don’t need to “know wine” to know what you like and to learn new wines. I love french fries, but I am not a potato farmer, and I definitely know what a good french fry is. I’ve been to several beer tastings, go to breweries, and I have never heard someone introduce themselves and include “But I am not a brew master.” So why is wine so different? Well, drink an IPA. It’s an IPA. Drink an amazing wine and it can be hard to even describe, infinitely more complex. That’s definitely part of it, but that doesn’t mean you have to know wine to enjoy wine, or to be able to find a wine that you will like. And you definitely don’t need to be a sommelier to talk about wine! Talking about wine is a good way to learn more about it. So stop being so worried about being judged, you’re not going to be. Come and have confidence that you will have a good time at a wine tasting. If you had come to this tasting we would have talked about tonight’s Crowd Favorite; where it was from, what an AVA is, the flavors we got while tasting. It was good. Hope to see you at the next one.

“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.

Don’t be afraid to like what you like, and how you like it.

I have been getting a lot of, what I am going to call apprehension, when I ask folks why don’t they come to the wine tastings. Sadly not everyone reads our posts, at least not yet, so they think wine tastings are full of wine snobs. Or they are just going to somehow embarrass themselves because they “don’t know wine.” It’s actually really sad. Not only are our local wine tastings full of really fun and friendly people, but we at Gulf Coast Wine are actively hunting down wine snobs. We find them to be quite tasty after a brief “roasting.” But seriously, there is no reason to be afraid of going to a wine tasting. If you like to drink, not just wine, and like fun people, then you should go. I am probably preaching to the choir here, but if you are trying to convince a reluctant friend maybe this will help.It is also okay to like what you like. This does not mean that it is okay to not try every wine, because one of the best parts of wine tastings is tasting something that surprises you. More on that in a bit. I spoke to a group of folks that were relatively new to our local wine tastings. One mentioned how they use a milk frother to aerate their red wine, and that is the only way they drink red wine. I was impressed in two ways: first, good ingenuity; second, confidence in sharing what they liked and how they liked it. On a wine science level, not every red wine needs to be aerated, and you can very easily over aerate some reds. I like to share wine knowledge, but I was adamant in saying “don’t change what you are doing if you like it!”So, as long as you try every wine, I don’t care what you do, and I love to hear about clever tricks. If you don’t try every wine then you might be missing a chance to be surprised, in a good way. Tonight’s crowd favorite was described by many tasters as “I was so surprised that I liked it.” Tapiz Sparkling Malbec Rose Extra Brut was refreshing with slight under tones of red cherry and strawberry. Those flavors appear a lot in Rose wines, but what did you feel? The bubbles, the acid, the way in which it made your mouth feel. Taste and feel, that’s what you get with wine. Knowing that will help with liking what you like. So don’t be afraid to come out and drink some wine, you might be surprised by the entire experience!

The fun of sharing wine with others. Seville 27 Jan.

What a fun week of wine tastings! Lots of different wine with lots of fun people. Do the people at wine tastings have to be “fun” people to have a good time? Not necessarily. The only hard requisite to have fun at a wine tasting is to be open to all the wines and not be a wine snob. Check out my previous post on how to identify one. If you avoid the wine snob (very easy here, we have very few of them) and show up to a tasting with an open mind then you will probably have a fun time. That is what wine can do, bring people together and get them talking, usually about wine. You might say that talking about wine doesn’t sound fun. Well the wine is the common denominator, that leads to other great conversation. I would also say that talking about wine can be fun in and of itself, but I am a wine geek.There were many of my fellow wine geeks at Seville’s January tasting, along with a good Italian Primitivo and Cabernet Sauvignon. Yet the Crowd Favorite was a Lambrusco, Cleto Chiarli Lambrusco Grasparossa Centenario Amabile from the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. There was the option to have wild boar stew at this tasting and the Lambrusco did exceptional when paired with it. It is also the favorite wine, of one of our local wine shop owners, to have with a meat lovers pizza. I am not sure that I would have thought about that, but great conversation, starting with wine, often leads to great ideas. That’s the fun of wine tastings!

How to get to the end of a Wine Tasting and still taste the wine. Anna’s 26 Jan

Are you at a wine tasting to taste wines or to drink wines? There is a big difference. Some people come to taste and end up just drinking. Well if you came to taste how do you keep your palate going past wine 13? Every 3-4 wines get some water, to help reset the palate. Should you eat during a tasting? Depends on a lot of factors. I try to always eat before, and come well hydrated. That way my body and palate are ready for wine 14, or even wine 32.Anna’s monthly wine tastings almost always features 16 wines. They also have a full assortment of all kinds of good food, definitely a local tasting you should get out to. Several people come just to drink wine. Nothing wrong with that, but if you are there to really taste the wines you are going to need have a plan. Otherwise even if you come to be a taster, you will finish as a drinker.Casal di Serra, Verdicchio dei Castelli del Jesi 2020 from Italy was featured early in the tasting line up. Enough people remembered it well enough to be the evening’s Crowd favorite, with a tongue of pear and green melon, medium acidity, and a pleasant finish. What was wine 14? You will never remember without a tasting plan.

What do you bring to a tasting? Aragon 26 Jan

What do you bring to a wine tasting? I am not talking about the physical here, so this is a rhetorical question for sure, but something that you should be aware of. Everyone comes with ideas of wine they like and don’t like. That can and will lead to your perspective and perceptions on wine. If you do not allow yourself to remain open about wine, understanding that you have come no where close to tasting all the wines in the world, then your perspective will remain fixed, never allowing yourself the chance to be surprised, to see another view. This path is how you get to “bold” wine statements, and often to flat out wrong information. So, again, what do you bring to a wine tasting? Better phrased would be; what perception/knowledge/bias do you bring?For me the ultimate goal is to learn what wines I enjoy, to know myself. Also to stay open to all wines, especially ones that I thought I would not like. That allows my perspective to be evolving, allowing me to “see” more of the wine world. You do not need some great level of wine knowledge or a wine certification to jump in to the world of wine and enjoy it, but try to leave those dead-end perceptions, like “oh, I hate Merlot,” at the door. You will have way more fun once you do.This evening’s Crowd Favorite was D.V. Catena Tinto Historico 2019 from Mendoza Argentina. A blend of Malbec, Bonarda, and Petite Verdot. This wine provided yet another perspective to that part of my wine world, and I very much enjoy my view.

Food, wine, and acid. Aragon’s Cru tasting, 19 Jan

There are three types of wines. That is a huge statement but an accurate one. In the massive and complex world of wine there are food wines, drinking wines, and wines that can be both. A big reason for the three broad categories is the amount of acid in the wine, and how that acid hits your palate. From here it gets complicated as you get into tannin and alcohol levels, then dive deeper into the science of how humans taste wine.Let’s go to the part of how the acid hits your palate. Food. Specifically the proteins and fats in that food will drastically alter how that acid hits your palate. A “food” wine generally has a lot of acid and that acid is up front on the palate. If you are eating food, such as a typical charcuterie board, that acid will be mellowed by the fats and washed down by the proteins, marrying just right to give your palate a pleasant experience.There was a good charcuterie board at tonight’s tasting. The two Crowd Favorites came down to the fact of this: did you start eating on that board before tasting Frescolbaldi Terre More 2020, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Franc, Merlot and Syrah from Tuscany Italy? If you ate before, you had a good experience with that wine. Intense but with mellowed red berry and cedar. If you didn’t eat before then it was very acidic and unpleasant, and therefore you probably really enjoyed the next wine in the line up, which was the other Crowd Favorite, Serial Cabernet 2020 from Paso Robles California. This was a “drinking” wine but with the right choice, could be had with food. The strong meat flavors of the standard charcuterie board would knock out some of the deeper notes of red cherry and blackberry. Should you eat/partake in the standard wine snacks that are usually offered during a wine tasting? A great question for a future discussion.

“If you want to impress someone serve a Barolo.” East Hill Bottle Shop 18 Jan.

One of my favorite parts of wine tasting is listening to bold wine statements, said with such passion that it MUST be true. They don’t happen often, but when they do my entertainment factor goes to the next level. There were two “bold” wine statements this evening. The first was from a taster that was innocent yet passionate. The second by one of the employees in an attempt to answer a question. Both were wrong, and can absolutely mislead other tasters.“If you want to impress someone serve a Barolo.” This came from a fellow taster. “Wow,” I said, “Is there one that you go to?” The response was “No, they are all good.” I taste a fair amount of wine, and I have had some very good Barolos, but I have also had others that were so earthy and acidic that I poured them out. Barolo is a Demarcated Wine region in the north of Italy, a DOCG to be exact. Very intrigued I asked a few more questions to my fellow taster and quickly realized that my fellow taster thought Barolo was a grape. Soooo, I brought up some wines that I like to serve to “impress” someone. “Those sound great!” was my fellow taster's response, after realizing that the “bold” statement was not a good one. It was a great conversation, cordial and fun, that ended with a little more knowledge about “bold” wine statements.The second was from an employee. I will preface this with: The rest of the staff is above and beyond in wine knowledge and recommendations. So a bad apple can really be an issue. Also, people do make mistakes and misspeak. Sadly that was not the case with this individual, not the first, or third misspeak that I have witnessed. I asked about the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in our Crowd Favorite from tonight. The accepted rule (law in some areas) is that if it has 75% or more of a grape varietal, then the wine maker does not have to put the other varietals on the bottle. A fellow taster on the same wine asked why I asked that. I explained the above information when the employee who poured the wine jumped in very “correctively” and said “No no, it’s 70%.” Well I took several steps back to enjoy the wine and pulled up the California Wine rules and after a few minutes went to the side and showed him. He was a little dismissive but more importantly I showed my fellow taster. Misinformation can really throw off folks sorting through the huge world of wine.So, two Crowd Favorites tonight. Twin Vines Vinho Verde 2020 from Portugal, and Caparzo Sangiovese Toscana 2019 from Italy. Tasting notes? They were good.

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.

Why we like different wines. Aragon tasting 5 Jan 2023

I suppose that I will never say it enough; everyone has their own palate. So many things go into how you taste wine (alcohol) and what you taste. Not only that, but your palate can change, even slightly, during the course of a day. Did you eat before the wine tasting (something that I recommend), what did you eat, did you have coffee that afternoon, or burn your tongue on hot pizza? All of which I have done before a wine tasting. Is your nose partially stopped up? That will definitely alter what you will taste! I have developed a few rules to help decide what wine(s) I pick to talk about from a tasting. This helps keep me as unbiased as possible. You and I might like the same wines, have similar palates, but odds that half of you have completely different tastes. That’s just the science behind the human tongue.Something that you learn going through your Wine Certifications (the Wine & Spirit Education Trust out of London in my case, slightly different than Sommelier training) is how to recognize and differentiate a “good” wine, even if it is not a wine that you like. That way you are able to speak about that Australian Shiraz that you personally didn’t care for, but your audience loved it, and that Shiraz was “correct” in all ways.I also get asked constantly “What was your favorite?” Enjoying and talking about the wines is the best part of wine tastings. Often my answer to that question is not the wine I write about. So when tonight’s Crowd Favorite emerged from the line up, several other tasters could not believe that “that wine” was the one I had chosen to discuss here. “Well,” I answered, “that’s why I developed the rules that govern our Wine of Note or Crowd Favorite," etc., of which I have defined in several previous posts. Tonight’s Crowd Favorite, by a single vote, was Naturalist Sauvignon Blanc 2020 from South Australia. It is only a matter of time before you see this bottle on the Featured Shelf at Fresh Market and Publix, because it will SELL! Vegan Friendly, Gluten Free, made from sustainably grown certified organic grapes. The winery even promotes bees, thus the label, not kidding, and that’s awesome! This Sauvignon Blanc was approachable, easy to drink, not citrusy, not too mineral-ly, with hints of just enough white flowers, stone fruit and faint apple to give you something of an “okay, not bad.” A beginners wine, which we need sometimes. Coming in at around $14, there are very, very few wines like it on the market that do all of that.Wasn’t for you. Yeah, I get it, but many others ended up enjoying it enough to buy it more than any of the other wines at the tasting, and we should be thankful for that! Our differences ensure that we will continue to have the full spectrum of different and ever evolving wines. Some will be bad, yet others will be fantastic! Cheers to disagreeing on “good” wines!

Pepper’s Birthday Bash at Aragon

Happy New Year! 2023. Hopefully you got to end 2022 on a high note. We sure did at Aragon last week which was also Pepper’s birthday. It was a good time! I, and many others, brought some very special wine to share. Click here to see it on Instagram. I was asked to talk about those “special” wines, so will cover those wines in a future post. Out of the Aragon tasting line up we had a tie for Crowd Favorite. Two polar opposites in almost every way. A Dry Riesling from New York and a red blend from the North Coast of California.Forge Cellars Dry Riesling 2019, Seneca Lake, New York was, well dry. Very low alcohol from a cold growing climate gave a blend of stone fruit and flower oil (almost petrol). That equals a tangy flavor in the mouth, and half of the tasters really liked that flavor profile. The other half hated it.The red was by Sean Minor, Nicole Marie Red Blend 2021. 50% Merlot, 25% Zinfandel, 25% Petite Sirah equals inky darkness, deep red fruit with a mellow earth spice on the finish. Definitely a drinking wine! You could pair it with food, but I would just open and enjoy. Hope to see everyone out at our local tastings in 2023!

The Bottle Shop, Downtown on Baylen, 16 Dec 2022

What a great week of wine! I hope that you had the chance to get out to one of the local wine tastings. Tonight’s Crowd Favorite was an upscale Spanish red from the Aragon region. Alto Moncayo Veraton Garnacha 2018 greeted the taster with red cherries followed by hints of prune and a mild spiced bite. Strong tannins gave a light dryness and structure. Not liked by everyone, yet enjoyed by many. In the land of premium wines sometimes you need to treat yourself!

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.

The East Hill Bottle Shop 14 December 2022

One of the best parts of the holiday season are the premium wine selections that have began to make their appearances at our local tastings. A great example was tonight’s Crowd Favorite: Max’s 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon by Penfolds, from Southern Australia. Sometimes reading the back of the bottle gives you some idea of what you might be getting into. Max’s is a good example: “fruit intensity, ripe tannins, and generosity of flavor,” So did you get those things when you tasted? What do ripe tannins taste like? Reading the back of wine bottles is an eventful pastime akin to reading the show notes of the old mid-90s daytime soap operas that my mom used to watch. Max’s is a strong Cab, with tannins that are not quite balanced, but not over done (I guess that means ripe), with a mouth full of ripe red fruit that finishes with a hint of throat bite. Overall very good! All of this comes from the unique soil in Southern Australia. The tasters all enjoyed it. Sadly, sometimes you do have to pay more to get more.

V Paul’s December Vino Magnifico

“It was a full house for the Christmas edition of Vino Magnifico. Chef Alex presented us a delicious penne with an asparagus and mushroom cream sauce. Fun Christmas trivia and a holiday sing along accompanied the evenings wine selection.La Tordera Rose Prosecco: Italy NV. Very Crisp with notes of red berries and kiwi. Aromatic and bubbly with a great mouth feel. Very nice Prosecco.Cambria Chardonnay, California 2021. Nice acidity with a fair amount of oak on the nose and palate. Flavors of vanilla and melon are apparent but dissipate too soon.Gabbiano Chianti Classico, Italy, 2018. Dark plum color with cherry and herbaceous notes. There are even some interesting basalmic flavors that come through. Easy to handle tannins and a lingering finish are welcomed. This is a nice example of a Classico and will pair well with everything. Especially pizza.Lyric Pinot Noir, Santa Barbara, CA 2020. Ruby color with bright highlights that catch your eye. The nose is distinctly Pinot Noir, minerals with a touch of petrol. Sour cherry on the tongue and a quick finish. A very light Pinot that should be enjoyed sooner rather than later.Silver Palm Cabernet Sauvignon, California 2020. Inky dark, as you look into your glass, a red hue shimmers up from the bottom, as if from the depths of the ocean. Blackberry and cherry dominate the nose with a touch of sweetness and currant on the lips. There are notes of chocolate and tobacco on the back of your tongue and a finish that lasts a long time.There wasn’t a clear winner this evening, but both the Silver Palm and La Tordera were getting rave reviews.”~ Bob Sidoti

East Hill Bottle Shop Tasting 23 Nov

The best way to buy wine that you will like is to taste it first. Sounds ridiculously obvious, but most people, maybe you, buy wine based on something else without ever tasting it. A catchy label and a biased wine score (do you have the same pallet as James Suckling, or the tasters at Wine Enthusiast? Maybe. But probably not!) round out the top two reasons, outside of price, that people pick an unfamiliar wine off of the shelf.We are very fortunate to have so many great and frequent wine tastings in the Pensacola area that there should be almost no reason to buy a wine that you haven’t tried first, just to find out later that 92 points by James Suckling doesn’t mean that you will like it.We had a tie for Crowd Favorite this evening at the East Hill Bottle Shop, and both are great picks for Thanksgiving, or that upcoming holiday party. The two were Dehesa Gago 2016, a Spanish Tempranillo; and Austin Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon. Both were easy drinking and would pair well with a holiday meal. Dehesa Gago, at $12 a bottle is a little more earthy. Austin (wine maker Austin Hope), at $23 a bottle, is a little more deeper in fruit, but not fruity. Which one should you get? Well, go to the tastings and find out for yourself.

Alice’s 12 October Tasting

Still our areas newest tasting, the Wednesday tasting at Alice’s Restaurant continues to bring out some of the big stuff. We had a Crowd Favorite this evening, Long Meadow Ranch Farmstead 2016 Pinot Noir from Mendocino California. Good, even decent, Pinot Noir wines are not cheap because the grape is very hard to grow well. Usually you have to jump up above $40 a bottle to get a decent one, as was the case here, coming in at $48 a bottle. That was still not the most expensive bottle tonight, which came in for $65! The tasting is only $10 a person. I am very interested to see how long they can afford to bring these “big” wines out. Anyway, Long Meadow Ranch’s Pinot Noir was light on the front, flowing over the middle tongue with red cherry and smooth earth, finishing with hints of white pepper.Didn’t get that when you drank it? Or, “he is just making up words.” I heard both at this tasting. I even got; “So you must be a wine snob.” Everyone has a different tongue and taste profile. Or maybe you burned your tongue on your coffee this morning. I actually DO taste those things. And as you go to more and more wine tastings, learn to pay attention to what you can actually taste, you too will start to pick out different flavors. For the one who said that I must be a wine snob I replied; “Not at all, I am a lover of wine, and a bit of a wine geek.” A wine snob tells you what is a good wine, what you SHOULD like. A true wine lover helps you find wine what YOU like, and a wine geek tells you how to best enjoy that wine. I don’t drink with Snobs.