Aragon’s Blind Tasting 1 June

Watching some of the world renowned wine experts take a sip of wine and correctly regurgitate the grape varietals, the location, and the year can be akin to watching the stage magician cut the volunteer from the audience in half! Wow, what a good trick, almost seems like magic.Everyone at a blind tasting, or confronted with a mystery bottle wants to “play the game,” to correctly guess everything coming out of that unknown bottle of wine. Yet the vast majority of us have a better chance of picking winning lotto numbers. So if the odds are so against you why bother?Because it’s important! Here’s why, part 1.There are two separate things happening when you take part in a blind tasting or attempt a guess on some mystery wine, an exercise and a game. You MUST do the exercise first, otherwise you will probably fail at the game.The exercise is to actually think about what you are tasting. DO NOT try and start guessing! Just think about if you liked it, didn’t like it, and why. That’s the exercise, the Why. Could you taste fruit, if so what? Was it acidic, did it leave you with a dry mouth, was it amazingly smooth? Think about what you are actually tasting, flavors and feel! Once you have done that, the exercise, then you can begin to play the game.It’s amazing how much, and almost instant, pressure that one feels when trying to guess a mystery wine. That pressure can really throw you off!  But if I were to come up to you and just say “Hey, try this and let me know what you think,” then the pressure is zero.By doing the exercise first, the “try this and let me know what you think,” then the analytical part of your brain is working without pressure, allowing you to formulate what you are tasting.Now when you start playing the game of trying to guess what that wine is you will have a much better foundation to play from. The more you exercise the better you will be at playing the game. Duh!Tuning in your awareness of what you are actually tasting. That’s the key! After a while you will probably find yourself no longer guessing; at that point you will answer because you know what that wine is, and won’t that be magical!

East Hill Bottle Shop 31 May Tasting

Even though Summer hasn’t “officially” begun it’s summer here on the Gulf Coast. Yet we are barely into our Summer and I have already heard, twice, the phrase: “I can’t drink red wine during the Summer!”Really?What a bold wine statement! I still have yet to get an actual logical answer when I ask why. The answers usually revolve around “not refreshing enough” or “it makes me hot.”I am the biggest advocate for drink what you like, but to artificially cut red wine out of your repertoire seems holistically silly! There isn’t much that I can do if you say that red wine makes you hot. Either come prepared for what the Brits call a “Randy Evening,” or take a cold shower before leaving the house!  I mean really!I take it as a challenge to refute the “not refreshing enough” reason. 97% of red wine, especially down here on the Gulf Coast, is served too hot. Red wine should make your glass feel cool to the touch. If it doesn’t then it’s too hot. Just doing that will probably make 9 out of 10 red wines “refreshing.”Tonight’s Crowd Favorite, Atteca Old Vine Garnacha 2019 from the Calatayud region of Spain, was served at the right temperature and sold down to the last bottle. The region of Calatayud is very dry, the grapes get a lot of ripening sun. That along with the age of the vines gives the wine its full complement of complex flavors; black plum with red cherry, deep earth yet with soft tannins. To me a great bold summer red wine.So if you are one who doesn’t drink red wine during the summer do me a favor; try some reds at the correct temperature and see if your opinion changes.

Wine Hunters

I know several people who intentionally do not keep wine in their house. Not because of any health or religious reason, but because they like going out and hunting for a bottle of wine.They go out, search, and buy only what they are going to drink that evening, or in the very near future. This style of wine hunting fascinates me. I also consider myself a Wine Hunter, but one who mostly plans ahead, one who hunts for that unique or rare bottle for a future special occasion.To be clear, I am not a wine collector, I drink everything that I buy. I am also blessed with a basement (yes, I live in Florida and I have a basement), so I have an amazing spot to store wine after my hunting trips.I have written about the proper way to store wine before, but a quick recap:  no need to get overly worried about not having a wine fridge or cellar, only a stable temperature (around 70ish is fine), and absolutely no sun light is all that is required. So if you don’t have those conditions then you should drink that bottle as soon as possible.Yet the Wine Hunters I am speaking about are not doing it due to their lack of a proper storage area, they do it for the love of the hunt, for the search. It gives them the reason to get out and go on a journey. An escape from our hectic world.The word “Safari” is Swahili for “journey,” and because they are going to have that wine post-haste, the satisfaction of the hunt is immediate and nearly audible. This experience is all part of their wine journey.That journey, the Safari, is made up of an untold number of wine experiences. That is it what we are all after! So are you a Wine Hunter? There are many different types, but if that means going on a life long Wine Safari, then YES, count me in!

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!

A Nebuchadnezzar!!!!!

This was quite a week of wine! There were six wine tastings in four days! Our local chapter (the Emerald Coast Chapter) of the American Wine Society had a great monthly tasting featuring California Cabs. Yet the highlight of my week was a friend’s birthday party who is a huge wine lover.

I have seen, and drank, a lot of wine. I have seen those big bottles of wine and have even had some. None of it was memorable. But I have never had wine out of the biggest of all wine bottles, until now.

Pictures do a better job of conveying the shear size of a Nebuchadnezzar bottle of wine, the biggest commercially made bottle on Earth! It holds 15 liters, or 20 bottles (normal 750ml bottles) of liquid, and when that liquid is an amazing wine, hold on. Literally, you could drown in this thing.

The wine; Anderson’s Conn Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, 2012, from Napa. It was fabulous! A Wine of Note! No further tasting notes needed. A perfect wine for a special occasion. Fill a Nebuchadnezzar with that wine and you have a wine party to remember, and we all will!!

Too much wine, and liquor!

I literally got lost in the store trying to follow the order of tasting tables this week at ABC on Bayou. This Florida family owned chain was getting ready for their biannual big wine and liquor tasting. 14 tables with an average of four alcoholic drinks to taste on each one, wine and liquor!!!! That’s 56 for those who do not like public math. Ooooffff!

As I perused the labels across the 14 tables all I could think about was “circus!” The tables where not in any particular order, and the wine and liquor were set up per distributor, not in any logical tasting order.

Yet perhaps the most interesting part was that most of the pourers did not know anything about what they were pouring. You would think that is bad, and it is, but it can also be good. The taster was left to their own devices, to determine if they liked what they were tasting. I think that part is great. The bad part was that if you liked what you were tasting good luck on getting any information on that liquid.

The other bad part was the total lack of any tasting guidance. You don’t always have to drink white before red. What really matters is the balance of acid and alcohol, preferably starting with wines that aren’t overly acidic and having higher alcohol wines towards the end.

One definite: don’t drink liquor before wine! That goes for tasting and good “body” practices.

So be careful the next time you walk into a “tasting circus.” If you just roll right down the line at a big tasting without a plan you will probably end up as the main attraction. Not something that you want!

Summer Wines, Part 1

Well, summer has started on the Gulf Coast. I am going to weather geek-out here: Summer officially starts for me when the wind shifts to be predominantly southern. That means the wind, most of the time, blows from the Gulf of Mexico. Every day is mostly humid and night time temps no longer get below 70F.

It’s okay! That just means it’s time to really pop open those light and refreshing wines. Beach, pool, warm evenings out with friends. Here are two picks to get your wine summer off to a good start.

The first is from New Zealand. Mohua Sauvignon Blanc. If you were lucky enough to go to Seville Quarter’s wine tasting this past Tuesday then you would have been able to speak to the wine maker himself, which is always a rewarding occasion. This wine was bright with a refreshing essence of grapefruit and acid and is right at home poolside.

The next was a Sparking Wine from the Loire Valley of France; Gratien & Meyer Cremant de Loire Brut. This wine was featured during Aragon’s Cru wine tasting on Thursday. Tight and intense bubbles that gave a very nice long finish with hints of orange and honey. Not sweet (it’s a Brut!), this Sparkling would be fantastic as the wine to greet your friends with as you start dinner.

Ready or not summer on the Gulf Coast is here. Serve cold and enjoy!

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.

East Hill Bottle Shop 10 May

“We’re sold out.” That was the response I got when I went to get a picture for this post of Klinker Brick Vineyards’ Old Vine Zinfandel from 2019.

The human nature of stereotyping is very strong. So when people hear Zinfandel from Lodi they often think of a wine akin to a jar of jam. Those Zinfandels do exist, but so do Lodi Zins that are balanced, deep, and smooth.

It is too easy to say; “All of those wines from xxx taste like xxxx.” Don’t lump wines together, even when one winery is across from the other. The wines can be, and often are, very different.

I had the great opportunity to visit Klinker Brick Vineyards back in February. Check out that post here… Amazing folks, and the only reason that I didn’t buy their Old Vine Zin while I was there was because I could find it here, back home.

So it was no surprise that they sold out! The wine is just plain good, a great drinking wine, and an even better wine to take to a party! It goes great with the random variety of foods that seem to collect at the neighbors’ weekend party.

And never forget the two most important rules in Wine: Never serve hot wine and always bring a wine that you like! Can’t go wrong with this one.

“Sunsets on Main”

Downtown Pensacola has some amazing spots to eat and drink! One of the original downtown wine tastings recently returned to our calendar. “Sunsets on Main” by So Gourmet (the upstairs of Bodacious Brew & Olive) offers 4-5 wines, Free, on Wednesday evenings.This week’s tasting featured a wine easy to overlook yet so unique; Mettler Vineyards Estate grown Albariño, from Lodi California.Lodi still does not have the name recognition that the likes of Napa, Sonoma, or even Paso Robles have, especially for a WHITE WINE! Yet to the wine enthusiast Lodi is never over looked!The Albariño grape is native to northern Portugal and Spain, where some magical expressions of the wine can be found. That area is extremely rocky, mountainous, and has large temperature variations. Lodi could not be more different; flat, segmentary soil, and lacking big temperature swings but with very hot summers. This is why Lodi is known for world class BIG Zinfandels.So what happens when you bring this northern Iberian grape down to the Central Valley of California? A basket of crisp apple, ripe pear, and melon, with hints of citrus and a touch of mineral acid.What a surprise! A great wine for our quickly approaching summer and pairs great with my Red Snapper tacos. Unique, all of the tasters liked it, can be had alone or with dinner; that equals a Wine of Note!

Grocery Store Wine

Last week was a long one for me; six days, five major cities, 22 media events, and just over 2,000 people in person. Kind of a lot for me! By Thursday all I was looking forward to was getting home and relaxing.I arrive home and realize that there is nothing to eat in my house. What to do for dinner? We've all been there. I love to cook, so this conundrum wasn’t the issue. The challenge:  Two last minute neighbors get added to the mix while you’re at the grocery store with a request of “grab a bottle of wine while you’re there.”Grab a bottle of wine. A daunting task in and of itself. Multiple questions may course through your head, like; “What wine goes with xxx?” “Should I change what I’m planning on cooking?” “Why aren’t my neighbors bringing the wine, I just got home?!?”Fear not!Here are some words of advice and tips to avoid stressing about a last minute wine purchase and food pairing.First. Stick to your original menu plan! Do not add unnecessary stress by changing another dinner variable.Second. If there is a local and trusted wine shop between you and home, stop in and have them help. If you do not have this as an option, continue to the next step.Third. There are only a few true rules when it comes to wine. Don’t serve hot wine is first! If you are in a time crunch, scan for something you recognize and that you have enjoyed before. Don’t worry about if it will pair perfectly with your dinner choice.Don’t see anything you recognize and still in a time crunch? No worries.  Go for whatever is on sale. Treat it as an experiment - it will probably be okay and fun to try.But, if you have some more time, then you can look for pairings. Decide if you want a complementary or contrasting pairing. An example of complementary pairing: Burgers with a Spanish Tempranillo or a Riesling from Alsace with shrimp tacos. An example of contrasting; an Australian Shiraz with Asian food. Or that same Riesling with Asian food (the hint here is high acid).As I was staring at the grocery store selection, a couple next to me turned to each other and asked “Does this wine go with Asian food?” “I don’t know,” was the other’s answer. I politely offered some advice after asking if they were after sweet and salty (contrasting) or something more smooth (complimentary).They chose sweet and salty. I hope they had a good dinner! Wondering what I grabbed?  Ask me at the next tasting.Hope to see everyone out at the next wine tasting and let me know your if have ever made a last minute wine pick.  Cheers!

Some Amazing Wine!

Scenario: You are at a “fancy” wine event and you have just been told that they have put out some "amazing" wine. Everyone starts to taste this "amazing" wine and begin to proclaim that the wine is “Amazing!”But you didn’t like any of them. Everyone turns to you and beings to ask; “What do you think?”Two weeks ago we hit on the need for you to use your own words to describe what you are tasting. Being genuine and authentic, and true to what YOU are tasting, is the best way to stand your ground in a scenario like the one described here.Everyone has a different tongue, a different palate, so don’t be afraid to like what you like, and be confident in voicing that you didn’t like a certain wine. The key is to be honest with yourself and you will have nothing to fear when everyone else disagrees.The wines in the photo are a primer to a dinner at the Destin Charity Wine Auction, the 4th biggest in the U.S., and everyone agreed that they were, truly, some amazing wines!

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!

Aragon’s April Cru Tasting

I will keep saying it: Make it a point to go to the local monthly and special wine tastings!Everyone has a lot going on in their personal lives, and I understand not getting out regularly to our local wine tastings, I get it. But if you can get to one every now and then go to a venue’s once-a-month or special tasting. They are so worth it!Aragon Wine Market has a tasting every Thursday. 3 out of 4 are free. The 3rd Thursday is their “special” Cru tasting.  You are going to get higher quality wines, food, and live music.Why I go? Higher quality wines! This evening didn’t disappoint with a Wine of Note, our highest category of wine! A white blend from the oldest winery in South Africa. Constantia Uitsig Natura Vista, 2019, is a blend of 72% Semillion and 28% Sauvignon Blanc. What made this wine so unique?This was the best “seafood” white wine that I have had in a LONG time! With its vineyards right on the coast of the Western Cape, it had a wonderfully flora nose with a layered palate consisting of a complex mix of pear, citrus, and salinity.This white can be paired with any shellfish, any white flaky fish, cooked in almost any way. Unique, everyone liked it, and a great overall wine equals a Wine of Note. Look for the once-a-month and special tastings on our calendar.  Hope to see you at the next one!

Iron’s Wine Curious Club

Wine with Food, or Food with Wine; which goes first? I guess it depends on how hungry you are. It also depends on how you view wine. Most people plan a dinner (food) and then attempt to pair wine with it. The wine geeks out there tend to do the opposite; pick out a treasured bottle and then attempt to pair the food to the wine.I actually find that picking the wine first is easier.One of our local Sommeliers is adept at both approaches. Hilary Towns, the Certified Somm and founder of Restaurant Iron’s Wine Curious Club, has been pushing the envelope of Pensacola’s Wine Culture for several years.Her approach, backed by the great cuisine of Iron, has its foundation in Curiosity. Her Wine Curious Club meets once a month at Iron with a class that highlights a different region.  She covers what makes that region’s wine unique and why a particular wine goes with a particular food.You don’t have to be a club member to go, but you do have to rsvp by either calling Iron or checking out their website. For the Wine Curious it is definitely something worth exploring.

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.

Up-ing your wine game, Part 2. Use your words.

So you have finally started to regularly come out to the wine tastings but you haven’t gotten much past the wine description of “Oh I like this one.” One of the most common statements I get from fellow tasters is; “I just don’t have the vocabulary to describe what I’m tasting.”Anyone who has watched any of the “Somm” docu-movies on Netflix has heard the very precise-to-outlandish words used to describe both the taste and aroma of wine. Yet “garden hose” and “fresh can of tennis balls” should never come out of someone’s mouth when talking wine! Therefore, especially after hearing stuff like that, you are often left with the notion that describing wine is a task best suited for the fanciful snob.Fight against that! The practical use of descriptive vocabulary can be extremely helpful in Up-ing your wine game. The first step is to actual pay attention to what you are tasting, smelling, and feeling. The taste of wine has both a flavor component and feel component. Even if your first descriptive wine words are super basic, like “dry,” or “tart,” you have taken the first big leap in your wine journey, away from just “I liked (or didn’t like) that wine.”Here are two examples of the words I used at V.Paul’s this week to describe a white and a red wine during the tasting: “A little bit of green apple with a tart finish, too acidic; “Lots of fruit-plum, blue berry, light tannins, medium acid.” Simple, efficient, effective, nothing outlandish.So, use your words! I didn’t have all of those “wine words” when I started. Part of the fun and allure of wine is broadening your taste horizon. As you go to more wine tastings and begin to pay better attention to the wine in your mouth, your vocabulary will improve. That’s step one in Up-ing your wine game. In part two we will discuss a few very effective “wine words” to use.

Gosh, I do love the mystery wines!

What is one of the best ways to entertain a wine enthusiast? Have them watch other wine enthusiasts try and guess mystery wines. Some folks claim it is an art, others a type of super power. There is definitely science involved, which can get expensive to learn. Learning to pay attention to what you are actually tasting, and feeling, while you drink wine is the first step. Then remembering all of it is the next.Other than the actual art of frustration that comes with most mystery wine tastings, mystery wines are fun in two ways. The first is the obvious; testing your palate and wine knowledge on the fields of glory. The second is less so; it is in the sharing, which might be the best part. Often the Friday tasting at The Bottle shop involves a mystery wine or two brought by fellow tasters. Want to join in and be invited? Buy a bottle that you like, put it in some kind of covering and share.Tonight featured three mysteries: Two Brunello’s di Montalcino and a Pinot Noir from Niagara New York. The two Brunellos came from vineyards roughly five miles away from each other, both were from 2017, but tasted world’s apart! Crazy. The third wine was from the Niagara Escarpment in upstate New York. The Pinot was soft, pleasantly smooth but different from any Pinot Noir that I have ever had!No one doing a mystery at your wine tasting? Then start the tradition yourself, you will have more fun than you think.

“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.

Could the Crowd Favorite not really be the Crowd Favorite?

Our first hot tasting, and it still wasn’t that hot, around 80F. This might sound like a safety announcement, but temperature, mainly heat, can be the leading cause in liking or not liking your wine.Red wine first: Many fellow tasters have heard me saying, repeatedly, that red wine should be served between 66-69F. That’s room temperature in the world of wine. And you can still really enjoy reds into the low 70s. Most wine cellars hover around the upper 50s to low 60s. Bring out your bottle of 58F red wine, open it and set it on the counter or table (not in the Sun!) and let the wine come up to “room” temperature. Doing that will ensure you get the wine experience that the wine maker intended you to get. Don’t have a wine cellar? My favorite technique is to open a bottle of red wine, then put it in my fridge, top open, for somewhere around 30 minutes. Take it out when the bottle feels cool to the touch, NOT COLD! Very big difference there.White wine needs to be colder, mostly around 50F. If I know that I am going to drink a white wine soon I will put it in my 40F fridge for a while before using it, even several days out. Then I take the bottle out, open it and put it on the counter. Just don’t let it sit long, it will be ready to drink very quickly. A white wine bottle SHOULD feel cold to the touch. And with both red and whites; Don’t forget that your wine glass will heat up your wine.My favorite wine tastings are mostly outside, where temperature control becomes very difficult because of our mostly hot year. The temperature will also affect you. It’s hot outside, you drink a cool refreshing sparkling wine that has been a crowd pleaser and you are probably going to enjoy it. The experience of that first cool crisp wine will be elevated even more when the rest of the line up gets too warm. You get to the end of the tasting and what did you like? The first cool refreshing one of course. But, because of the heat, and resulting warm wine, you probably missed one that you would have liked if it were served at the correct temperature.So this was the case at this tasting. Garganega Frizzante has been a previous Crowd Favorite. Most people said that it was their favorite. It is good and a great value. But it was hot outside, and many of the wines very quickly passed into the “too warm” category. So should it have been the Crowd Favorite, again? Maybe, but maybe not.