Kevin | - Part 2

Oh, My Aching Head!

March 6, 2009 by Kevin

Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

You know what happens when you stop drinking wine for a week and then have ~~a bottle~~ um, two bottles, er a glass of wine to celebrate your husband’s new job?

You get totally looped. Really. Who would have guessed that I could get that out of practice that quickly.

To try to feel better yesterday I drank strong tea, canned soup and a tuna salad sandwich. Sometimes I enjoy a McDonald’s sausage biscuit with cheese and a Diet Coke bigger than my head (Yes, I am aware of the incongruity of this combination, but I believe Diet Coke is a far more efficient caffeine delivery system).

What do you eat to cure (or at least soothe yourself while suffering through) a hangover?

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Unexpected Gifts… Christmas in February

March 5, 2009 by Kevin

Marguerite Barrett
Contributing Writer

Well, not completely unexpected; I had threatened bodily harm to Gretchen if I wasn’t gifted with a bottle of the fruits of her first foray into home winemaking. But I was still surprised…

I came home from a really long day at work about 10 days ago to discover a large box on my front porch. I didn’t remember ordering anything, and couldn’t imagine why anyone would be sending me something in mid-February – so you can guess my delight when I saw the return label said “Gretchen Neuman.” I knew – just knew – it was a bottle of the first Neuman vintage – Rebel Girl.

But actually it was even better – it was TWO bottles of Rebel Girl and a very large bottle of Cider of Eden – along with several jars of lovely home-made sauces and jams. Yum!

A few days later, I opened my first bottle of Rebel Girl. A pale yellow, almost straw color, it has a very delicate nose. There are notes of citrus, but they are very subtle. The wine is delicate, light,and has notes of grapefruit; all in all it’s a very nice sipping wine.

No oak – not surprising given Gretchen’s preference for low-oak whites. I later learned that “to oak or not to oak” was a matter of great debate in the wine-making process. Gretchen ultimately won that argument, and I think it was a wise choice. This wine is a bit too light to handle much oak, which would very likely have overpowered the wine.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I wasn’t expecting much – I’ve tried other home-made wines – but was very pleasantly surprised. It’s a charming wine.

So, I have a second bottle in the wine rack for another day – as well as the Cider to look forward to. Christmas will extend well into the spring!

And I understand there are two new wines in the offing… Congrats, Gretchen!

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What is next?

March 4, 2009 by Kevin

I may not be able to drink the wine for the next 5 weeks but that doesn’t mean that I can’t think about it constantly, right?

That being said, I have gone ahead and purchased supplies to vint (is that even a word?) some more wine.

I have purchased two additional kits from The Home Brewery in Ozark, Missouri. The first is a Spanish Rose. Yes, I am making pink wine. You have an issue with that? You can take it up with someone else. This is a blend of Tempranillo and some sort of white. I love French Roses from Provence and had some amazing roses at the ENYE wine tasting last week, which I will be writing about in the near future. So this is a perfect choice for me. Sophie will be naming this wine. Or it will be named Sophie Bear in her honor.

The second wine I will be making will be Chilean Carmenere. I have had this type of wine before and loved the story of a wine called, Ooops! Carmenere is the lost Grape of Bordeaux. It turns out that in Chile the grapes that were traditionally viewed as Merlot were really Carmenere… or essentially.. a Bordeaux grape that all but disappeared after phylloxera ravaged France. Anywho! The point is that is wine number two that I will be making. And it will be named by Celia. She is, naturally, thrilled to tears at the honor that I am bestowing on her.

Now I just need the materials to arrive.

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DiGrazia Vineyards – The Speciality Wines

March 3, 2009 by Kevin

Marguerite Barrett

Contributing Writer

After a brief detour to celebrate Open That Bottle Night, we return to DiGrazia Vineyards and the final category of wines on their wine list: The Specialty Wines.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, DiGrazia separates their wine list into two categories: Table Wines and Specialty Wines. There are 10 wines under the Specialty category, ranging from sweet fruit wines to fortified wines such as Ports and dessert wines with brandy. Because a tasting includes only 6 wines, Christy and I shared our tastings and between us sampled 6 of the 10 wines in this category:

Yankee Frost Described in the Tasting Notes as a “sweet Vignoles,” this is a smooth, sweet wine with an interesting blend of fruit. The nose is very subtle, no one single note really pops. The wine is also nicely balanced; we certainly detected notes of fruits and berries, but everything was so well blended that you aren’t struck by any particular note.

White Magnolia (White Port) This is a very interesting wine; the tasting notes describe it as a “rare example of this Portuguese inspired classic wine.” I must admit it was the first time I’d come across a white port. It has a beautiful nose – rich and deep, with lovely soft notes of pear. The wine is also smooth with notes of pear, and the brandy adds a richness and depth that would be lacking if this were just a fruit wine. Because it’s a white, the port is lighter than what one typically finds in a Port, but no less complex for that. I really liked this and starred it as one of my favorites.

Winterberry A fortified wine, but not a Port – the Winterberry is a “blend of white grape, raspberry, honey and Citrus brandy” according to the tasting notes. I found the wine to be very sweet, with strong notes of raspberry in both the nose and in the mouth. The brandy makes it richer, but it was still a bit too sweet for my taste.

Wild Blue One of Dr. DiGrazia’s passions is the links between wine and health, and a number of the DiGrazia wines are high in anti-oxidants. Wild Blue is the shining star in this category. This wine has 6,000+ phenols per ml, by far the highest of any wine produced in the US. The wine itself is a brandy-fortified blueberry wine. A very sweet wine, the blueberry is quite strong in both the nose and in the mouth, and the color is that lovely blue-red you often get from blueberries. Fans of fruit wines will definitely like this wine.

Signature Blacksmith Port Another one of my favorites from DiGrazia. This is a smooth, rich, and fruity port with notes of cherry. According to the tasting notes, it is “aged in smaller barrels” and is a limited release “available only at the winery.” The most expensive of the DiGrazia wines at $40, if you like Port, it’s definitely worth a visit and a tasting.

Autumn Spice This was a great choice to end the tasting – a fascinating wine, I can only describe it as pumpkin pie in a glass. “White grapes fermented with sugar pumpkin, hoey and spices,” it is glorious. The first thing you notice about the wine is the color – a gorgeous deep amber. Then there’s the nose – strong, but not overpowering – rich, layered, deep and smooth. There are strong notes of nutmeg and cinnamon and subtler notes of the pumpkin and honey. In the mouth, the flavors are nicely balanced, and while you can certainly detect the notes, not one registers as a definite keynote. It really is pumpkin in a glass – a very decadent wine.

Unfortunately that concluded our DiGrazia tasting. We spent a bit more time with Dr. DiGrazia talking about the wines, and left with a promise to connect again soon to start a new series for Vino Verve on Wine and Health. Look for details on that soon!

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Open That Bottle Night 2009

March 1, 2009 by Kevin

Marguerite Barrett
Contributing Writer

Here’s hoping each of you had a great OTBN – and in the spirit of the night, enjoyed a bottle of something that you had in your cellars or wine racks, just waiting for the right time to open it.

I know some people planned big celebrations – a number of my Snooth “friends” gathered at a restaurant in New York to celebrate OTBN and share each other’s wine treasures; I look forward to reading about the evening on the Snooth forum. Others opted for more low-key, casual celebrations with just a few friends. I was one of those in the latter category.

My Connecticut-wine-partner-in-crime, Christy Sherard, and I spent the evening at my house enjoying a casual dinner and sampling a few really nice wines. We had hoped to be joined by a couple other friends, but unfortunately they had some last minute family obligations and couldn’t make it.

The first wine we sampled was Rebel Girl, a white table wine made from Chilean Chardonnay grapes. I had actually opened the bottle a few days before, but there was enough left for each of us to have a glass. Those of you who are regular readers of Vino Verve may remember that this is the first vintage produced by our editor, Gretchen Neuman. I have to say I was impressed with this; and my apologies to Gretchen when I say for a first effort, I wasn’t expecting a lot and was VERY pleasantly surprised. More thoughts on Rebel Girl in an upcoming post…

We had planned a very leisurely and relaxed evening with a couple of hours of hanging out before we turned our thoughts to making dinner. So we started the evening with chips and guacamole and a bottle of the Biltmore Estate White Table Wine, which Christy had brought me from her home state of North Carolina. A semi-sweet white, it has strong notes of fruit and citrus, and a slight acidity which is really nice. There’s also a slightly sharp, not quite sour, bite to it at the beginning which is really interesting. The bite doesn’t linger; it hits you at the front and the wine mellows in the mouth. At first we thought it might be notes of tart apples, but it’s not really an apple flavor. Christy then suggested that it might be Muscadine, a grapevine berry that is often found in North Carolina wines, and which can be quite tart. More research is obviously required, but definitely a wine I’d be interested in trying again.

By this time, we’d started dinner and were ready to toss the steaks on the grill, so we turned to a red: Duckwalk‘s Gatsby Red from the Northfork of Long Island. Duckwalk has been one of my favorite wineries for years, ever since Kevin and Gretchen introduced me to it on a long-ago summer trip to Kevin’s parents’ house in Sag Harbor. I had bought this particular bottle of wine last summer when I and a friend visiting from Dallas spent one beautiful Saturday exploring the Long Island wine trail. The label describes the Gatsby as a Semi-Sweet Red, but the “sweetness” is very mild. This is a rich, smooth, beautiful wine. Deep red color, strong nose with nicely balanced notes of fruit, particularly cherry and blackberry. The wine is rich, full-bodied, and has a lovely softness in the mouth. You can detect notes of both cherry and blackberry, but neither is overpowering, and the tannins are nicely balanced. The slight sweetness balances out any oakiness or earthiness, making the wine just melt in the mouth, and it was perfect with the steaks. I can’t speak for Christy, but this was my favorite wine of the night. Apologies to Gretchen and Rebel Girl…

We’d love to hear from you regarding how you marked Open That Bottle Night. You can post comments through the link at the bottom of this post, or send us your adventures via email to either gretchen@vinoverve.com or marguerite@vinoverve.com. We’ll combine all the comments and stories we receive and publish them in an upcoming post.

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Win(e)ding Roads: Continuing Adventures on the Connecticut Wine Trail

February 15, 2009 by Kevin

McLaughlin Vineyards

The Whites

Marguerite Barrett

Contributing Writer

We were greeted upon arrival by Dee Dee Morlock, who immediately invited us to follow her back to the tasting rooms. Dee Dee is definitely one of the highlights of a visit to McLaughlin – friendly, open and welcoming, she quickly makes you feel comfortable and at ease.

As Christy and I said hello to another couple who had just started their tasting, Dee Dee introduced the menu: 4 whites and 2 reds. McLaughlin specializes in dry wines, and all of the whites are fermented in stainless steel, which produces a cleaner, crisper flavor than oak fermentation, and allows the vintner to better control the oak through use of oak chips.

Chardonnay This is a smooth, crisp, dry Chardonnay. Pale yellow with a bright, slightly citrus nose, the wine itself is light with notes of citrus and oak. Christy mentioned that the aftertaste was reminiscent of a Muscadine.

Coyote The tasting notes describe this as a semi-dry white. A blend of aurore and vidal blanc grapes, the color is a beautiful medium-gold that catches the light. The color is a bit less intense in the glass, but you can see from the picture on the left how the light really highlights depths in the color. The nose has strong notes of green apple, and there is a tartness in the wine that off-sets the semi-sweetness beautifully. Christy described it as “getting into the roof of your mouth” – a very apt description. It is a very intriguing wine, and both Christy and I starred this as one of our favorites.

Snow Goose This is a winter white, a late harvest wine; the grapes are harvested around the time of the first frost. It’s a semi-sweet wine, though, and drier than what I normally expect from a late harvest wine. The color is a medium-yellow, and the nose is sweet and fruity. In the mouth both the sweetness and fruitiness are light and nicely balanced.

Vista Amber 100% aurore grapes, this is a fruity wine with strong notes of honey. The skins of the aurore grapes are used during fermentation, and as a result the wine has a beautiful deep amber color. There’s a jewel-tone quality to the wine – it is absolutely gorgeous in the glass. The nose has light fruit notes with strong honey overtones, and the honey notes add a depth and richness that border on decadence. The wine itself is not overly sweet, and has subtle notes of honey on the tongue. It’s not mead, but it has affinities with mead. Dee Dee mentioned that it is terrific warmed on the stove with mulling spices, or paired with meats such as pork tenderloin or turkey. Another wine that both Christy and I starred as one of our favorites.

That concluded the whites; next up, the Reds…

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Oh, My Aching Head!

Unexpected Gifts… Christmas in February

What is next?

DiGrazia Vineyards – The Speciality Wines

Open That Bottle Night 2009

Win(e)ding Roads: Continuing Adventures on the Connecticut Wine Trail

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