Pleasant Suprise

Recently I was introduced to some wonderful wines from Bulgaria and Lebanon. I was very excited because I have been getting bored with the run of the mill wines recently.

One of the reason I love wine so much is because I find it exciting to know how the grapes are grown and which type of soil is used. I love learning how to pronounce varieties and finding out about indigenous grapes.

One of my favorites from the New York Wine Expo are the Ixrsir Wines.

Ixsir is located between Jezzine and Batroun in Lebanon and has been nominated as one of the Worlds greenest wineries in 2011. To the right is the 2012 Grand Reserve White. It is a really beautiful wine with lots of stone  and citrus fruits on the nose, well balanced with just a touch of oak.



Then, while sauntering over to the Italian Pavilion, I has the most delicious dessert wine that I have ever had. It was Moscato Di Scanzo. Seriously, this is sex in a bottle.

The runner up was the 2012 Barisel Moscato Di Asti. It was ice cold and full of peach fuzz goodness. I know that some Moscatos can be too over the top but this one goes in the book.

 Hailing from Turkey, The Vinkara Winery totally rocked my world with the eloquent and Narince,named after an indigenous grape in the Tokat province of Turkey. When I think of all of the tropical fruit aromas in this wine, it takes my palate far away from Turkey but I enjoyed the ride. I love the fullness in the body of the wine, filled to the ends with a balance of acidity that can only resemble the ancient art form a wine making.

Low and behold, just when I thought that I was done, I pass the Bulgaria station pouring the 2011 Villa Yambol Rose. I am normally not one for drinking herbaceous Rose however, I could honestly live on this wine all Summer long. It was floral on the nose, but full of strawberry juice that skated through the muted acidity of this incredible wine.

The travesty of it all is that it is not widely available in New York yet. Of course, that is always the way.

Until next time, Mo Wine!

Hold the Cheese, Please

I decided to give up cheese for the Lent season and I am OK with that. This is a time of sacrifice. However, I did not give up wine for Lent and with that being said, Oh how I miss my wine and cheese pairings.

I miss my Port Wine with my Apothic Red, my Cheddar and Cabernet Sauvignon pairings. 
How can I stomach my Malbec without Machengo?

To add insult to injury, the NY Wine Expo is next week with the focus primarily on Italy the day that I am going? WTF? All Italian wines is made to go with cheese or vice versa.

I know, I could always focus on my other love, chocolate but that is not me. Chocolate and wine pairings are not my steelo.

You never know how much something means to you until you give it up. I could go chapter and verse on what wine to have with pizza, cheeseburger, Parmesan everything, etc but people, I tell you, It's a sad situation.

Until the next time, Mo Wine, No Queso!

What Does This Wine Make you remember?

Mo Wine - New Wine Challenge

With every new year, comes new challenges. This past year held many challenges for me both personally and in the world of wine.

Fortunately for all of us we can bring in the year with new challenges, aka Mo Wine challenges. This year, I want to challenge you to break out of your Pinot Noir paralysis, expand your beyond your Shiraz sleepover and for the love of God, put down the Moscato meetups.

This year, I want to challenge you to try wines from A-Z so we are going to start off the new year with Arneis. Arnies  is a white grape variety that comes from Piedmont, Italy. Not really a heavy hitter in Italy, it fell by the waste side until around the 1980's when there began to be a higher demand for more white wines.

 

It is said that Arneis means "rascal" in the Piedmont region. So get associated with the little rascal in you by trying one of my favorites, 2006 Deltetto Lange Arneis. This wine boast a golden hue that is full of pear aromas. It is a perfect dry white wine that is full of fruit instead of wood. Balance out your latest recipe of fish tacos with a bottle of this.

Let me know what you think?

Happy New Year - Mo Wine!

Little Wine Bus from the Big City

I recently was invited to go on a day trip to Hudson Valley given by the Little Wine Bus tour. The tour was started by Tania Dougherty in 2007.

This was the Holiday Wine Tour Party and there was many things to celebrate including a small reunion and a birthday party. Happy Birthday again Ozzie! What I really want to celebrate are the all of the fun picture that I had the opportunity to take will visiting Palaia Vineyard. 

We had tasted some very nice wines but the winning wine as their very own "Irene", a white blend of Cayuga White and Seyval Blanc. Cayuga White is a hybrid grape that hails from the Finger Lakes in New York. This wine was very aromatic and crisp, with balanced acidity and oaky undetones.

The surrounding property had some very quirky signs and characteristics, so I decided to share a shot with you.

After my delicious wine slushy at Palaia, we went to visit Benmarl Vineyards to have lunch on the Mountain top.

Saving the best for last, our last stop was  the Brotherhood Winery which is the oldest winery in America, founded in 1910. The winery is routed in such a robust history that they wines here are a tell all product at the heart of it. Although, I am not a fan of New York in general, the Hudson Valley has a very impressive catalog of wining white wines. My favorite was the Riesling.

Check out some of the pictures from the tour on the grounds of Brotherhood.

Wine Taster/ Wine Teacher

While buckling down for the arrival of Hurricane Sandy in New York this past weekend, I had ample amount of time to catch up on my reading. Somewhere between Wine Enthusiast and Wine Spectator, I lost track and moved on to the October issue of Food and Wine Magazine.

While browsing the issue, I came across an article that completely rattled my wine rack. It is called "The Tasting Workout" a three part article by Food and Wine's own Megan Krigbaum.

Basically. what happened within a three page article is a blow by blow layman's term article on how to understand the physiology of tasting wine. It goes into the depth of sight, smell, taste and touch and wine composition.

It was a brilliantly executed article that left me a tad bit pissed off that Food and Wine was giving away my base wine education for free. It also pissed me off that the very institutions that I have to obtain my certifications from, make it so scientifically stimulating ( enter sarcasm now) to learn these very principles that Megan made fun and memorable without studying the total acidity, phenolic compounds, committing to memory the level of  sugar molecules.

I don't want to chalk it up to hateration. I just want to know how much information is too much information to the winos of the world and when does it become a professional wine education turned hobby?

Until next time,

Great Garnacha

I have been stuck in a wine rut for some time now. However, last night I had a major breakthrough with my newest obsession, 2011 Filon from  Bodegas Terr Siglata. Filon is 100% Garnacha from the Denominaciones de Origen of Calatayud.

Map of Calatayud

For a while I have been drinking my beloved Evodia which is made from Old Vine Garnacha in the same region.

Filon is incredibly smooth and beguiling with velvety plum and blackberry goodness. The Garnacha grape is one of the darkest wine producing grapes so there is a deep garnet color to this wine. Filon has and alcohol percentage of 14.5%, which is not bad, but anymore alcohol in this would ruin the balance of of the tannins and flavor profile of the wine.

Sometimes you get stuck on a specific wine or wine region but for $10 you can take your taste buds to Spain.

Mas Vino!