30. January 2008 by Sebastien Gavillet.

The event was hosted at Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab, located inside the Forum Shoppes at Caesar‘s Palace.

24 Californian Vineyards where represented at this year’s first WineStock.

Unfortunately, I can’t comment on the 80 plus labels that were featured, as there is no way I could do so objectively. So instead I am only going to talk about 5 wines which left me with a lasting impression.

In alphabetical orders:

Chateau Boswell:

I asked Joshua Peeples if there was only one wine we had to feature which one would it be? He eagerly replied Jacquelynn! I immediately responded by asking him if that was the name of his wife. He responded YES. After a few seconds of silence and then a knowing understanding, we concluded that love is beautiful…Made from 50% Semillon and 50% Sauvignon Blanc, this Bordeaux style white wine is Josh’s first personal label (half Jackie’s if you know what I mean) and I could understand his pride as he successfully blended the love he had for his wife with the other love of his life, wine.

Derbès Wines:

Cecile Lemerle-Derbès, the winemaker of Derbès wines, makes an very interesting Pinot called Les Pinots (50% pinot noir, 50% pinot meunier).  This wine has a beautiful bouquet both delicate and solid at the same time. Inoculated with Burgundy yeasts, the wine is aged in Barrels for 17 months. Like burgundy’s best, the wine displays finesse and has aromas of strawberries, raspberries, fresh tobacco, and roasted coffee. This wine has a defined oak touch to it.
A great and unique wine, priced reasonably.

Detert Family Vineyards:

2005 Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Franc with a 5% blend of Cabernet Sauvignon has great potential. While still young, this is a rich and intense wine with aromas of black cherry, green pepper, sage and black currant. You are left with a baked chocolate taste to your palate.

Stanton Vineyards:

Doug Stanton’s 2005 Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, with a touch (7%) of Petite Syrah is delightful and well rounded. The Petite Syrah gives this wine a nice, rather smooth finish. One of my favorite cabernets of this tasting.

Tin Barn Vineyards:

In the Price Quality Ratio category, Tin Barn’s Zinfandel is this tasting’s champion.  I am not a Zinfandel fanatic as you might already know, however I never turn down a good wine. Tin Barn’s 2004 Russian River Valley Zinfandel sourced from Gilsson Vineyard, shows aromas of raspberry, cherry with American oak derived aromas of vanilla pod, new leather and toast. Well balanced and very well priced! The only thing I did not like on this Zinfandel was the label. But that can be remedied very easily.

That’s all for this tasting. Cheers!

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29. January 2008 by Sebastien Gavillet.

YES! I will be happy to challenge any wine critic on this issue. Robert Hall once told me, “If the wine matters, so does the glass!”  And I can not agree more to that statement which also happens to be Bottega Del Vino’s Trademarked slogan.

When I first became interested in wine, my father played his part and bought me my first wine book.  I will not mention the author, as I am not in the business of offending people, however after I read the part where the author mentioned that a glass type (glass, pewter, plastic, crystal, tin cup, etc.) should not prevent you from drinking a wine, as it did not make much of a difference, I instinctively knew that that was a false statement.

In the mid nineties, I was invited to a tasting featuring Chateau Yquem’s wines, four vintages to be exact (at least that was what we were told). Four glasses were used; one for each vintage.  After sampling them, we started to talk about the different aromas we could smell, the differences in texture (very slight but noticeable) and the characteristic of the wines. When the host revealed that all four glasses were of the same vintage, I could hear the guests gasping and arguing that it could not be possible.  Not one person was thinking that we were drinking the same wine from the same vintage.  As a group, we were no amateurs which made it all the more embarrassing.   “How can this be?” asked one person.  “It is all about the glass and how the wine evolves in each differently!” replied the host.

Now let me explain to you in more detail why the glass does matters and what makes the difference. Each wine is different and reacts differently when exposed to air. The bouquet, the body and the structure of the wine react differently depending upon the type of glass it is poured into and also upon the shape of the glass.

So why does glass shape make such a difference? It is due to not only the opening of the glass, but also to its rim and its body. With a larger opening the wine is more exposed to air. This allows the wine to breathe, changing not only the wine’s bouquet but its structure. The rim acts like a vent, releasing or trapping the bouquet within the glass. When you sip the wine, a wider opening is going to aerate the wine further, revealing aromas previously not noticeable. Finally, after being more exposed to the air, the structural aspects of the wine will also change.  These changes will become detectable both in the mouth (or on the tongue more precisely) and also in the nose again. (This is the retro-olfactory process, meaning aromas develop or break open when the wine comes in contact with the saliva. Some aromas need liquid to become volatile.)

The entire process is actually more complex and would take a few pages to explain it in detail; however I will reserve the details for my first podcast (video) presentation coming soon so you will have something to look forward to.

I don’t expect you to go out and buy a set of new wine glasses for each type of wine that exists. I do, however, highly recommend that you buy one of each wine glass specifically designed for the types of wines you enjoy the most.  Because it is worth it and, most importantly, because you and your wine deserve it!

In conclusion:  if you are going to drink wine, drink it in a stem glass, crystal preferably, and if you have the option, use one that is best fitted.  This is my recommendation.  Unless you are the type to drink 2buckchuck.  If this is the case, then I don’t think the glass will make much of a difference and I don’t really know why you are reading my blog.

Cheers!

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25. January 2008 by Sebastien Gavillet.

It all depends of the type of wine you are drinking. In general, you don’t drink red and white wines in the same glass. You can stick with the same glass if you are drinking the same wine (different bottle) or same varietal of wine. I do however recommend that one drink light bodied wine first and the more heavy-bodied thereon after.  If not, the heavier bodied wines will have more of an influence on the lighter bodied.

As a professional wine taster, when evaluating a wine, I will always use a clean glass. I do this even when I drink red wine followed by another red wine.  The same applies to all other types of wines.  After all, when you are done drinking a wine, you can still smell the aromas left in the glass. At tastings, I will try to change my glass as often as possible. In most tastings, you get one glass and have to make do with it. If that is the case, I will rinse my glass with bottled water whenever I feel it is necessary. The fuller the body, the more often I will rinse my glass.

At one tasting last month in Europe, I encountered a first. As I was poured a new wine into a glass I had already been using, the wine smelled faulty (onion). Not a scent you get too often and one you don’t miss out on. The interesting thing was that I was the only one to smell it. As I passed my glass to others, they validated my judgment and we started to investigate. It happened to be a phenomenon resulting from the combination of the new wine mixed with the wine I had been drinking previously.  The second wine never would have developed those particular aromas in a fresh glass.  I had never experienced such a dramatic example of the tainting of a wine due to the residues left in a glass. None of us ever had.  However being able to replicate that phenomenon validated my position that one should change glasses whenever drinking a different wine if possible. This is a recommendation I make to wine aficionados when drinking premium wines more so than to the main stream population.

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21. January 2008 by Sebastien Gavillet.

As every 3rd Thursday of each month, Southern Wines & Spirit hosted Grape Nutz, and as expected it was a great success.

Being the first event since Nov. 2007, the attendance reached record levels. Most of the Wines featured were from the Willamette Valley, OR. represented by the following vineyards:  Adelsheim Vineyards (Elizabeth’s Reserve Pinot Noir), Bethel Heights (Casteel Reserve Pinot Noir), Chehalem (Pinot Gris), Cristom (Jessie Vineyard Pinot Noir) and Domaine Drouhin (Drouhin Pinot Noir). The wine in the brackets are the ones I preferred of those wineries

Luis de Santos, MS (Asian Portofolio Manager SWS) presented in collaboration with Tsushima Kitahara (The 13th generation of Shichiken’s Sakes founder), Rice Nutz.
~Bigin Bigin~, Junmai Daiginjo (aged 3 years in bottle) caught not only my nose but soothed my palette. With a production of only 1500 bottles a year, do not expect to find it at your local wine store. For more info, please contact info@sakeatpil.com as this sake is not featured on their website.

Spirits of Serendipity presented Slovenia’s “It’s not Champagne, It’s Bubbly.” sparkling wines. With 4 different cuvees, you are sure to find one to fit your personal preference. For more information, please visit: www.enjoyserendipity.com

Finally, Brain Harlan of Loosen Bros. USA presented a delightful selection of Dr. Loosen wines. I don’t know why but I am always caught by surprise at how the wines from Mosel-Saar-Ruwer sometimes manages to maintain such delicate balance. I very much enjoyed Dr. Loosen’s Wehlener Sonneruhr Auslese 2006, the nose is light and simple (due to the low alcohol content) with aromas of white peach and a light touch of lemon (fruit). Refreshing with a very clean finish, too bad it wasn’t 90 degrees on the patio last night.

Should I have forgotten to include anyone, please let me know so that I can update the blog. Until then, Cheers!

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15. January 2008 by Sebastien Gavillet.

After much deliberation and then some, I finally caved in to starting my own blog. Working in the wine education business for the last 7 years, and having been submerged into the wine world at a very young age, my friends, family and clients think that it’s only normal for me to share some of my knowledge, opinions, experiences and passion for wine and food with all of those interested in reading what I have to write. So here I embark on a new journey… Wine Blogging. Have questions? Shoot me an email and I will see if I can satisfy your curiosity. Let the journey begin…

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