Archive for February 2008

Vox Wine Lounge blind tasting

29. February 2008 by Sebastien Gavillet.

Two blind tasting in one day is almost too good to be true. 

Willy S. of Aureole, Las Vegas organizes every other Tuesday night a blind wine tasting session for industry people. The tasting is composed mostly of sommeliers or MS, wine buyers and aficionados. The formula is pretty simple, a new venue for each tasting, and one type of grape varietal or wine style.  Each participant must bring a bottle of the selected varietal or style. This particular event was hosted at the Vox Wine Lounge in Henderson, NV. Patrick Pretz, Vox’s sommelier was the host of this event and we owe him a great thank you for his wonderful hospitality.

This is the first time I participated in this style of tasting.  I have participated in numerous blind tastings before; where we would share notes once we had finished examining the wines.  Unlike regular blind tastings, here, each participant plays a distinct role examining, describing, and analyzing only one aspect of the wine.  From there the next taster moves on to the next aspect of the wine.  The participants each take turns critiquing a specific aspect of the wine, from color, nose (aromas & bouquet), taste (aromas), structure, assessing where the wine comes from, the vintage and finally its producer. 

This might all sound complicated, but is actually very entertaining and you learn abundantly when working in a group, sharing a wealth of knowledge.  To show my point, out of the 14 wines sampled, the group was able to pinpoint 95% of the wine geographically.  Of those 95%, 50% to a region or area, 20% to an AOC or AVA and 15% to the actual producer.  60% of the time, the vintage was correct.  The only 2 wines we failed to place were a Pinot Noir Cava (sparkling wine) from Argentina and a Pinot Noir from the Loire Valley in France.  This further validates my opinion that one always learn more about a wine’s characteristics when discussing it openly with other tasters.  The next tasting will be hosted on Tuesday March 11th, 2008 at Marche Bacchus in Summerlin.  The grape varietal for the tasting will be Chardonnay, and the wine can come from anywhere in the world.  Be creative and bring something everyone can enjoy. Cheers!

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Dieberg & Star Lane blind tasting

29. February 2008 by Sebastien Gavillet.

Nevada Wine Agents presented a California blind tasting at Company American Bistro, located inside the Luxor Hotel, Las Vegas.  What a beautiful location and my compliments to the chef on preparing us such mouth watering hors d’oeuvres.  Dieberg & Star Lane Vineyards organized the event, featuring 5 well known Californian Cabernets. The purpose of this tasting was of course to promote their wines and show that their wines can stand up against some of California’s most “reputed” wineries.With about 20 sommeliers and wine industry tasters participating, the Star Lane Cabernet Sauvignon 2005, ranked 2nd. Hourglass Cabernet 2004 ranked 1st, Caymus 2003 ranked 3rd, 100 Acres 2004 ranked 4th and Opus One 2003 ranked 5th.  On a price/quality ranking, Star Lane ranked 1st.  At a third of the price of the other wines tasted, the Star Lane Cabernet Sauvignon makes for a great buy.  Now on a more personal level, when blind tastings are performed to compare wine of the same varietal and region, I like to see a more horizontal tasting.  All of the wine featured should have been of the same year as Star Lane’s or 2005 in my opinion.

Cheers!

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How to decant a wine.

26. February 2008 by Sebastien Gavillet.

I suggest that you first read “when should one decant a wine” before reading this article.

Now I know that you have seen wine decanted in many different ways, from carefully pouring the wine into the decanter or carafe to the wine host that turns the bottle up side down and dumps the wine without restraint into the decanter (I call it the Slam Dunk method).

Well you can do both, not just with any wines and the reason are the following:

Traditional method:

Your older finer wine, which has been patiently waiting judgment day, has probably formed plenty of sediments through out the years. For these older wines, it is recommended to stand the bottle upright a day or two before to let the sediments settle to the bottom.  Open the bottle carefully so as not to stir the sediments and make sure your decanter is clean and does not smell of stale air. Should you have a decanting cradle, place the bottle in the cradle, light the candle and remember that once you start pouring, do not stop until you see the sediments getting too close to the neck. We do not want to stir the sediments in this process as you will get less wine out of the bottle. Should you not have a decanting cradle, use a funnel (glass preferable) and light up a candle or have a backlight ready so that you can see through the bottle. Make sure that the candle is not directly under the bottle as it will darken the bottle and produce unwanted smoke. With a steady hand, pour the wine into the funnel or decanter,  should you feel that you do not need a funnel as mentioned above.  Once you see the sediment getting close to the bottle neck, stop. Let the wine rest for a bit (30-60 mins.) and serve.

My personal method for old vintage wines:

I start like the traditional process but a week in advance. I get my bottle from my cellar, let it set in an upright position for 2 days (away from light in general), open the bottle, place it on the cradle, light the candle and pour it in the decanter. I then wash the bottle, find a new cork if the one I just removed is too damaged, funnel all the wine but one small glass back into the now clean bottle, and spray inert aerosol gas (Private Preserve) in the bottle and put the cork back on. I now let the bottle settle in an upright position until I am ready to serve it in a few days. You might ask why would one do such a thing? I do this for two reasons: The first is to allow the wine to clear up even more, settling the smaller sediments which may have been stirred up during handling. The second and most important to me is to taste the wine for any faults. I would hate to find out on the big day that the wine was actually faulty and ruin the entire experience. And I can assure you that when you invite wine lovers to sample a special wine or wines and that they have been looking forward to it all week, you can down right ruin the event. Just shows you how much I really love fine wines.

Slam Dunk method:

This method is used on younger wines with no visible sediments to aerate the wine by almost breaking it up. This is a technique that I would use if I had to serve young wines with big tannins, which are still immature and closed up. I would then let the wine set in the decanter for at least an hour or two.  Note:You can now buy aerating gadgets which open up the wine even faster without having to dump the wine into the decanter. These gadgets do the trick.

Finally one last word of advice, when buying a decanter, make sure that it is functional and easy to clean. I was offered a beautiful decanter, which I never use as it takes me forever to clean and when pouring, the last ½ of a glass is wasted due to its design.

Cheers!

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When should one decant a wine?

26. February 2008 by Sebastien Gavillet.

This is a question my customers often ask and the answer is fairly simple.

Rule of thumb; one decants older reds, ports, madeira and fine older white dessert wines where sedimentation is obvious. Your everyday drinking wines need not to decanted. Consider it a ritual reserved for the finer and vintage wines.

I would say that there are three principle reasons to decant a wine:

The first and most important is decanting old wine or any wines where you can see sedimentation. You do not wish to serve a wine to your guest that is hazy, with bits of sediment “suspended” in the wine. This not only undermines the wine you just served but can actually kill a great wine.

The second reason is to aerate the wine. In this situation, we are talking about younger “closed” wines which need plenty of time to breathe. Be not afraid to open one of these wines up to 2 hours ahead. A word of caution, make sure the room temperature is not above 65-67 degrees in order not to accelerate the oxidation process. Older wines need less time (please read “how to decant a wine” for more information on this.)

The third reason people decant is purely psychological or for show. I am hosting a dinner party tonight, my budget is tight and I want to make great a impression, so I serve the wine in decanters hence my guest will think that I am serving them a great wine. Should you guest be wine challenged, you can get away with this approach.  I personally do not recommend it as most of these cheaper wines tend to loose the little bouquet they might have. A true bouquet can be smelled in a glass hours after it has been consumed (for more information about this, please read “aromas vs. bouquet; what is the difference”).

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How to pair Cheese & Wine

10. February 2008 by Sebastien Gavillet.

Wine is, with bread, cheese’s best companion. Most people think that one should drink red wine with cheese. That is not quite true. This age old theory comes from the routine that one should drink light wines before heavier ones. And as cheese is usually served before desert, people have been serving heavy reds with cheeses. The truth is that most cheeses are better accompanied with white wines.

In fact you can destroy the entire cheese experience if you pair the wrong wine with a cheese. So here are general rules for you to consider; choose white wines over red ones. Should you prefer a red stay in the light ones, Beaujolais and especially Burgundy wines balance well with the lactic acids found in cheese. In general lower tannin wines do much better with most cheeses too. Port is cheese friendly too.

Here are some pairing tips you should consider:

Soft Goat cheeses with Sauvignon Blanc (Fume Blanc) or cotes du Rhone
Hard Goat cheeses with Vin Jaune
Munster Family cheese with Gewürztraminer or Rieslings
Epoise with Marc de Bourgogne (liquor) or Chardonnay (from Burgundy)
Parmigianino reggiano family with champagne/sparkling wines
Beaufort with Ports (Twany)
Roquefort or blue cheeses in general with Sauternes or sweet desert wines
Gruyere with a Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio
A Mild Cheddar with a Chardonnay and a Sharp Cheddar with older Rojas.

I compiled for WineAromas.com a list of over 80 cheeses from the world over for you to query at www.winearomas.com/info/cheese.html.

Again we all have our own tastes and I recommend you to experience and discover yourself what your personal preferences are! And I can tell you that you will have a lot of fun doing it and will give you an excuse to drink many wines.

Cheers!

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Faults in Wine

7. February 2008 by Sebastien Gavillet.

Today I was asked an interesting question. How does one learn how to recognize the faults in wine? That’s the million dollar question with a $109 answer.  $109 is the cost of a 12 aromas Faults Kit available at WineAromas.com that will ultimately help you recognize these faulty aromas. It is said that approximately 8% of all wines are faulty, yet less than 1% is returned to their point of purchase, why? Two simple answers. The first one is that you drank your wine without noticing the fault or you were not able to pinpoint that particular fault. The second is that you did not bother returning the bottle for one reason or another. The faults kit includes the 12 most commonly found faulty scents. It also comes with a booklet explaining how these aromas occur and whether you can avoid/rectify them. Now I must warn you that the faults kit does not smell good. With scents of vegetal, rotten apple, vinegar, glue, soap, sulfur, rotten egg, onion, cauliflower, horse, moldy-earth and cork, you will not be able to compare it to an aromatherapy session. 

The Faults kit is used the world over by winemakers, sommeliers, wine aficionados and some of the best schools offering a wine education program such as UC Davis. This is a worthy investment which I highly recommend.  Next time you are in a restaurant and believe you taste a faulty wine, you can call up the waiter or sommelier, should they have one, and explain your concern. A new bottle will be on its way. One very important tip, should it be the vegetal fault you uncovered, change wine all together as that particular fault occurs at harvest and most likely the entire batch of that vintage from that particular winemaker will be faulty.

Cheers!

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Vin Sauvage’s - What’s New in Bin 2008

5. February 2008 by Sebastien Gavillet.

Steve Morey of Vin Sauvage presented the “What’s New in Vin’s Bin for 2008”.  The event was hosted at Louis’s Osteen’s new restaurant, Fish Camp, located at Town Square.

Approximately 30 different vineyards where presented, representing wines from Germany, Italy, France, Chile, Argentina and the US.

This tasting had a great atmosphere, and was attended by most of the city’s sommeliers.

 I was asked by one of Vin Sauvage’s sales representative if there was anything new or interesting that intrigued me. I immediately replied Alligator. I don’t think I have ever had gator before and that was the first thing I was served arriving at the tasting. First I thought it might be a joke; however I quickly realized that this was no chicken I was eating. Although not so different from chicken, the meat was fattier and almost a hybrid of chicken and fish. Now back to the important stuff: wines…..

Today I decided to go by country, and as usual name the wine I preferred from select winemaker.

Italy was represented by no less than 16 different properties.

Carlo Lavuri came all the way from Tuscany to present Fortediga wines, made by no other than Carlo Antonini’s son, Alberto.  Sodamagri, a 2005 Syrah from Maremma, Tuscany was the highlight of Carlo’s selection. Even though this wine is still young, it shows great structure, hence great potential.
Selvapiana’s Vin Santo (dessert wine), was a true delight. This 1999 blend of Trebbiano/Malvisia, of Chianti Rufina, Tuscany, has golden amber tones, with aromas of dried apricot, roasted almonds, honey and caramel. Incredibly rich and complex and very well balanced with a lingering finish. Well priced considering the work that goes into making such a wine.

France was represented by an American, yes that’s right! His name is Bob and his wine is called Vin de Bob which means Bob’s wine! Bob is a banker -turned-winemaker. Anything is possible these days. Bob makes a solid wine from Bergerac (Cabernet Franc) and only time will tell how Bob’s conversion to winemaker works out.

Finally, from the USA, we will talk about the Morgan’s 2006 Cote de Crows. This Syrah has a beautiful nose and well balanced. In the quality-for-price category, it’s a great deal for all.

In addition to these, there were so many other fine wines at this tasting.  Unfortunately I will not be able to comment on all of them.

Cheers!

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