Category: Experiences

Often as we travel in Europe, we visit towns that are central (or at least near) to the area’s winemaking.  The one thing they all have in common is that they are heavily visited by tourists.  These have included Taormina in Sicily, Beaune in France and Dubrovnik in Croatia.  Often, as we walk around the towns, we see signs that say, “Dégustation” or the equivalent in the local language.  Degustation is an English word that means “tasting”, so the shops that the signs are in front of could be bakeries or delis, but they’re always in front of wine shops.

A scene from the film, La Dégustation.

There are always bars that we could go to – and have gone to – where we could sample the local wines.  We well remember such a bar in Épernay, France with four glasses of Champagne lined up on our table.  But that’s not what a Dégustation is.  Nor is it a bistro with a good list of wines by the glass.  It’s a store, where people can go in and buy bottles.

When talking about wine, a Dégustation is, as the word implies, a wine tasting.  It’s not at a winery and in fact it usually consists of a selection of wines from the vendor’s stock.  They are meant to show off the best, or at least typical, wines of the region where the shop is located.  A good one really does highlight top wines.  Others are more likely to feature bottles that the shop is trying to get rid of.  (You can almost hear the shop owner saying, “Heck, they’re only tourists.  They won’t know the difference and I’ll never see them again.”) 

We’ve run into both types.  How can we tell the difference?  In most instances, we’ve never been to that town before and are unlikely to go there again.  And we don’t know the wines on offer.  So all we could do is try our luck, winning sometimes and not in other cases.

As said, Dégustations are not bars.  Customers pay a flat fee for four or five tastes.  In this way they differ from Italian enotecas, where we could also buy wines by the bottle, for consumption on-site or back home.  But in enotecas, we could buy wines by the glass.

One virtue of Dégustations is that the vendor often acts not only as a seller of his own wines but as an educator on the wines of the region.  For example, there are plenty of Degustaziones in Montalcino.  We know in advance that the shop will be serving Brunellos, because that’s what they make in that Tuscan village and its environs.  Ah, but which ones?  We are familiar with a few and we enjoy a good Brunello, but we’re hardly expert enough to know which are the best and which are just ordinary.  So we listen as the shopkeeper explains the climate and soil conditions around the village and how they affect the aromas and tastes of each wine.  If we show a little interest – even better, buy a bottle or two – the server is likely to open some extra wines, to tempt us further. 

Dégustations are not better than visiting wineries, but if we are on a trip where we don’t have wheels, they’re a great opportunity to become acquainted with the wines made where we happen to be.

Our very first wine tasting trip occurred in 1977, when we visited Napa Valley for the first time.  By this point in our lives, we were wine enjoyers, not yet enthusiasts.  Almost everything we drank was either French or Italian.  Sure, we had some California wine, but it came in jugs and we served it at parties.  We were too classy (meaning snobbish and uninformed) to drink American wine.

The iconic Robert Mondavi winery.

But then the newspapers became full of articles about a wine tasting in France that has come to be known as The Judgment of Paris.  In May, 1976 California wines, mostly from Napa Valley, had competed side-by-side with the top tier of French wines and (amazing!) the American wines came out on top.  So we started to buy some wines from California that came in regular wine bottles.  But we didn’t know what to buy and even if we did, the distribution networks that exist today weren’t there in those days, so better California wines weren’t in our stores.

So the next year, when as luck would have it, we attended a conference in San Francisco, we took an extra day to voyage across the Bay Bridge and see what Napa Valley was all about.  There were nowhere as many wineries in the valley as there are today.  By this time, we had learned about a few of them and made sure to try the ones we’d heard of.

Memory is a bit foggy nearly a half century later.  We know we went to Chandon.  The bubbly wine that we tasted – we were warned not to call it Champagne – was wonderful!  So much better than the plonk we were used to back home.  And we went to Robert Mondavi, which was a revelation.  It wasn’t just the wines, though they were amazing.  It was the beauty of the architecture, the grounds and the vineyards that blew us away (and made us into wine tasters to this day).

And we’re sure we had a tasting at Louis M. Martini.  Memory may be playing tricks, but we think we got to meet Mr. Martini himself on that occasion.  It was definitely a simple operation, unlike the elegant tasting facilities at Martini today.  Here were hearty, accessible wines that we could afford to buy.  Their wines became a mainstay of our cellar (that was actually the bottom of the linen closet).

Without getting into a comparison of French, Italian and Californian wines, it is fair to say that in those early years of our wine-drinking lives, the quality difference at the price point we could afford in those days – five dollars was a lot – was pretty great.  Decades of inflation and some improvement in our tastes make wine rather more expensive nowadays, and our cellar contains wine from more places.  There will always be a place for California wines.  Their power is unmistakable, both in terms of flavors and the amount of alcohol (although climate change is forcing the Europeans to bottle wines that are catching up to California in that regard).  But in the 1970’s all we knew was we had discovered something new that opened taste vistas for us.

Let’s say you’re going out with some friends for a few drinks.  Wine lover that you are, you tell your friends that you’d like to go somewhere where they have some nice wines by the glass, rather than to one of the cocktail bars that seem to be springing up everywhere.  So where should you go?

Photo courtesy of Time Out New York.

For the most part, neighborhood bars have two kinds of wine: red and white.  These wines come in large bottles or jugs and are often the cheapest of the cheap, although the bartender will still charge a premium price.  Fortunately, there are some bars – even some old-time Irish saloons like the ones we have around our home – that are adding a few interesting wines by the glass.  This may be because they have come to realize that there is customer demand for better wines or because they can get an even higher premium price for them.

If you want a broad selection of wines to try, a wine bar is the place for you.  For you, yes, but maybe some of your friends would prefer a beer or a glass of whiskey.  They would be left out at a spot that only serves wine. 

But let’s assume that they’re okay with a wine bar as the destination for the evening, or one of them.  Instead of having too few choices at your local tavern, you can find yourself with too many at a wine bar.  There are many that offer flights of several small pours of a variety of wines, usually stylistically similar.  That turns a drinking evening into a wine tasting one.  If four people, say, choose four different flights and you don’t mind sharing glasses, you will have quite the wine tasting experience.

Some restaurants have a good selection of wines by the glass.  If it’s a restaurant with an extensive wine list, there should be quite a few to choose among.  “Should be” is the operative term.  Restaurants make their money selling bottles of wine to accompany meals.  It’s rare that the wines you’d really like to have just a glass of is available.   All too often, the wines that can be bought a glass at a time are limited in number and are taken from the bottom of the restaurant’s list.

There are some exceptions to this pattern.  The bars at steak houses, for example, often feature big red wines that go well with the food they serve.  They often sell good-quality Cabernet Sauvignons or Merlots by the glass.  If you’re in the mood for some delicate Chablis, you’ll probably be out of luck.  Of course, the reverse is true at a seafood restaurant. The point is that you can experience an interesting selection of wines at a variety of locations…if you know what they serve.  This is where the internet comes into play.  Take a look at the wines they offer before you go out for the evening and you’re less likely to be dis

There are many sparkling wines made around the various corners of Wine Country.  Unquestionably the best and the best known is Champagne, which must be made in a particular section of northern France.  There are some nice bubbly wines made in Napa Valley.  The Germans and Austrians make Sekt.  Italians produce Prosecco.  And in Spain, not far from Barcelona, they grow grapes and make Cava from them.  Among the best known Cavas in the United State was – and is – Freixinet.

Back in the day, far off in the past, we didn’t know about any of that.  If it had bubbles, it was champagne.  In fact, despite the fact that the French owned the name, there were (and still are, in a few instances) American sparkling wines that were called champagne, right there on the label.  There was even something that had bubbles called Cold Duck; even then we knew that this stuff was awful.

Photo courtesy of Grupo Freixinet.

But we also knew that we couldn’t afford real Champagne.  A bottle of Moet & Chandon might have cost $10, but that was a lot of money when we were just starting out on adult life.  That was when we discovered Freixinet.  In the beginning, it came in a frosted bottle.  The bottle alone and a difficult-to-pronounce name made it seem so chic and, well, European.  Later Freixinet offered their Cordon Negro in a black bottle, which added elegance to its appeal.

The fact that it cost about two dollars made it accessible even for our pocketbooks in those days.  And so we opened it whenever there was something to celebrate:  The end of the semester.  Our team winning a championship.  Friday.  We had no idea how to open a bottle, what kind of glasses to pour it in or how to sip it.  We just knew that it had bubbles and that we liked it.

Not that long ago, we had the opportunity to try it once again.  By that point, we had been drinking real Champagne for many years and the Freixinet was a disappointment.  Did we really drink that stuff?  

Yes we did and it introduced us to sparkling wine, in itself and as a part of being grown-up.  There was mystery and romance in a bottle of Freixinet, a sense that someday we could be sophisticated if we tried, if only we knew how.  The idea of Freixinet was in many ways more important than what was in the bottle (or on the floor because we thought the right way to enjoy it was to spray some when we opened a bottle).

These days we only drink French Champagne and occasionally a top-end California sparkling wine.  We know a great deal more about wine and wine tasting than we did in our youth, which we guess makes us more sophisticated.  But do we really enjoy it any more than we did when we were drinking Freixinet back then?  We’re not sure; alas, we can’t remember. 

Once we hosted a blind tasting of Champagnes.  Just for fun we included a bottle of Freixinet.  One of our guests actually chose the Freixinet as her favorite.  De gustibus non disputandem est as the Romans used to say (there’s no arguing with taste), nor with good memories.

In our first forays into wine tasting, way back when, finding our way was simple if not easy.  We would fly to San Francisco, rent a car and drive up to the Route 29 exit from I-80.  Then it was a good 45 minutes until we reached the winemaking area of Napa Valley, which was the only part of Wine Country in the United States we’d ever heard of.  We would continue up Route 29 until we saw a sign indicating a winery.  We would go in, have a sip, take a glass and proceed to the next one.  There weren’t that many wineries then, so it was easy to just keep going north until it was time to go to our hotel.

As more wineries opened and as we spread out to other American winemaking areas, we learned that the best plan was to stop at the first winery we encountered, regardless of our interest in that one, and pick up a tourist magazine.  There would be (and still are) lots of ads for wine and wineries to visit, plus restaurants and hotels.  That was all helpful in its way, but most important was the centerfold that contained a map showing where all the wineries were.  At first, we’d pick a few wineries we wanted to visit and would drive from one to the other, without regard to the amount of time we’d be behind the wheel instead of in front of the bar.

There were a few problems with that approach.  Wineries that paid for big advertisements in the magazine were highlighted on the map and smaller ones that couldn’t afford to advertise were omitted.  If we knew of one of those and wanted to taste their wines, we’d have to call and get driving instructions, which we had to write down on whatever scrap of paper we had.  That approach might have worked, but cell phones were new and coverage was spotty in rural areas.

Then came MapQuest.  Before our trip, we would use that app to plot out the routes from one winery to another.  This process was a bit difficult, because if we didn’t know where the wineries were, we would have to figure out in which order to plan the drive, which often necessitated repeated searches.  And all these maps and instructions had to be printed out and taken with us.  We well remember thick manilla folders of maps that the navigator had to fumble through once we arrived.

When GPS applications such as Google Maps replaced MapQuest as our go-to app, it solved a lot of problems, but it created a few others.  Sometimes it simply got the instructions wrong.  We well remember driving miles too far because Google sent us way off the route.  Also, in some cases we remember from a trip to France, if there was a route that was two meters shorter than another, the GPS systems would take us along tiny paths, through farms and vineyards rather than on the main road that would have gotten us where we were going far faster.

Isn’t technology wonderful?  We still think it’s fun to just wander a bit and find whatever we happen to find.  Still, getting the tourist magazine still helps. This way we can figure out the location of all the wineries at one glance.

Not surprisingly, climate is one of the major factors in terroir, the totality of the environment in which wine grapes are grown.  A vineyard may have the best soil, the perfect exposure to the sun and excellent drainage, but if the growing season is too hot, too cold, too dry or too rainy, the resulting wines will suffer.  In our travels, we have wilted with the heat and humidity, shuddered in cold fog, frozen in ice storms and, of course, luxuriated in balmy sunshine.  Sometimes all in the same day!

One of the beauties of wine tasting trips is that Wine Country, with a little judicious planning, you can be sure to have great weather.  Some years ago, Power Tasting published a series on wine tasting in Napa/Noma, one month at a time.  And indeed, there are reasons to visit there all year long.  The same may be said of most of the better winemaking regions of the world, including Burgundy, Bordeaux and even Long Island’s North Fork. 

Napa Valley in February.  Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Many times we have travelled to California in December and found ourselves in temperate days and cool nights, basically sweater weather.  But there was one December when it was colder in Napa Valley than it was in New York.  The parking lot at our hotel was a sheet of ice.  We were used to doffing our heavy coats in Wine Country, but not that time.

Wine grapes grow especially well if they are in an area with overnight and morning fogs that burn off and are replaced by sunny, hot afternoons.  In many parts of northern California, the shift from fog to sun is not gradual; it takes about fifteen minutes to go from grey to blue, usually around 10:30 in the morning.  So if we set off earlier than that, we bundle up with long sleeves and coats, only to find ourselves overdressed by the time we reach our second winery.

It’s not just California where the weather can be so changeable.  The south of France is famed for the mistral, the chilly wind that blows across the Mediterranean from Africa during the winter and early spring.  No one told us that it can sometimes occur as early as September.  So when we went there to experience the harvest, we were totally unprepared.  The weather did hasten the vendange though.

There is the other extreme as well.  There have been many trips when we have sweltered.  There have been occasions that we retreated from the vineyards to dive into the pool at our hotel.  The managers of European wineries are more sensible than us Americans.  They close for lunch from around 1:00 until 3:00, then stay open until 6:00 or so.  They go to lunch, so we visitors have to as well.  Very civilized.

So before heading to Wine Country for a wine tasting trip, we try to remember to consult the weatherman.  And then, if we expect heat, we also pack a sweater.  And there are short-sleeve shirts in our luggage in winter. A packable light down jacket is often a great idea in any season.  There’s just no telling.

An article a few years ago in Forbes magazine, entitled “Napa Valley Wine’s Average Price Now Over $100 Per Bottle” (https://www.forbes.com/sites/karlsson/2023/08/31/napa-valley-wines-average-price-now-over-100-per-bottle/) was expanded on by a tour group.  The new one is entitled “Is Napa Valley pricing itself out of the market for wine tourism and for wine?” (https://www.bkwinetours.com/travelog/napa-valley-pricing-itself-out/).

Photo courtesy of Blue Dollar.

The latter article crystalized in our minds a serious problem. We have been making wine tasting trips for all our adult lives.  We understand that the days when wineries gave free tastings and even gave you a glass are long over.  And really, there never was a good reason why they should give away their products, but now it seems to us that the pendulum has swung way too far the other way.  Today, “the average tasting room tasting fee in Napa Valley is $128 for a “reserve tasting” and $81 for a “standard tasting”.  And if you should choose to buy a bottle, the average price is $108.

We suggested that the pendulum has swung too far, but that’s probably incorrect.  Pendulums swing both ways and we don’t see prices falling anytime soon.  If a couple visiting Napa Valley wants to try, say, three wineries in a day and choose the standard tasting that comes to a cost of $500 or more.  There are too many people for whom this is an unbearable vacation expense.

Why would the wineries in Napa Valley choose to restrict their market this way?   For one thing, the figures quoted are distorted by the many top-end producers in that region who would prefer to limit their visitors to potential buyers who can afford to buy wines that may exceed $200 per bottle.  They are not even eliminating a younger crowd, not with Silicon Valley so close by.  Software zillionaires may be young but they are well paid.  They may not appreciate “fancy” wines, but they do know how to spend their money on luxury goods.

Of course, there are many places in California to go wine tasting, so perhaps the rest of us can leave Napa Valley to the rich.  But Sonoma County wineries’ average tasting fees are $72 for a reserve tasting and a standard one at a comparatively affordable $38.  Other California areas, particularly Santa Barbara and Paso Robles are catching up.  Some European destinations, such as Bordeaux and Champagne aren’t much less expensive.

Of course, it is still possible to search for less pricy wineries to visit and to vacation in less well-known areas of Wine Country.  Wine is made in all 50 states, but not all the others can match California’s variety, quantity and especially quality.  Perhaps a recession will bring prices down, but that’s a rather steep price to pay for more affordable wine tasting trips.  Or maybe as the costs become too much for too many, the wineries may try some alternatives, such as seasonal pricing, encouraging visitors to come in the deep of winter or summer weekdays.  We won’t count on it, but we will probably visit Napa Vally much less frequently.

As we celebrate ten years of Power Tasting, we can’t help but look back at all the wineries we’ve been to all around Wine Country.  Most of our experiences have been very positive, but there have been a few clunkers along the way.  We’ve been across the United States and up into Canada.  We’ve tasted wine in half a dozen European countries and have reported on our prior experiences around the globe.  We thought it might be a good idea for this anniversary to share with our readers the way we go about reporting on wine tasting.

Photo courtesy of Mintel Store.

First of all, we are very deliberate about choosing where to go wine tasting.  We realize that most Americans who enjoy wine tasting are more likely to visit California than anywhere else, and we travel there at least once a year.  Yes, we visit Napa Valley and Sonoma County, more than a few times over ten years.  But we’ve also been everywhere in the state from Temecula in the south to Lake County in the north and many places in-between.  We have been as interested in tasting wine at some of the most famous vineyards, but have equally enjoyed discovering great wine in places we never expected to find it.  And we’ve loved sharing these places with our readers.  And we try to taste wherever we go in Europe as well.

We perform structured interviews at each winery.  If possible, we talk with the tasting room manager, but if that person is not available, we talk with the people who serve us.  It’s a plus if we get to meet the winery owner or the winemaker.  We document everything we can that might possibly be of interest to our readers, although we know that a lot will never be in print. 

Subjects range from rather important matters about the tasting experience to trivia.  Of course, we record the wines served and the ones we particularly would recommend.  We also try to capture impressions of the architecture, the view and the interiors.  We evaluate the knowledge and educational ability of the servers and their general attitude towards their customers.  We even take a look at the merchandise they sell, the artwork, the parking facilities and whether they allow picnicking.

We rarely tell the wineries in advance of our visits that we are from Power Tasting and will be reporting on our tasting experience there.  On the other hand, we always introduce ourselves to tasting room personnel as being from the e-magazine when we arrive.  As much as possible, we want to be treated like all other wine tasters, while at the same time we don’t like to spring a surprise on the servers.

As much as possible, we try to gather information that we think other wine tasters might be interested in.  For example, we always ask about wine clubs in American wineries and if they are accommodating to their members requests for changes and special orders.  If so it shows how they care about their customers.  

We have gone to the Champagne region for wine tasting in the past.  The drive from either of the Paris airports seemed a lot easier on the map than behind the wheel.  Once you’re there, the countryside is wonderful and the two major cities, Épernay and Reims are fascinating.  And, of course, there’s all that sparkling Champagne to try.  But let’s say you don’t have the time for several days of wine tasting or you have other things you want to do in Paris.  Luckily, there are ways to enjoy a day trip from Paris to Champagne.

Don’t even think of driving.  It’s a minimum of 2 and a half hours trip, much of which is spent navigating the streets of Paris as you leave town.  And don’t forget, you have to drive home after a day of imbibing. 

Pol Roger on the Avenue de Champagne in Épernay.

A better idea is to take a train.  There are several each day from Paris to Reims that get you there in only 45 minutes.  It takes longer to go to Épernay, an hour and twenty minutes on the fastest trains.  All these trains leave from the Gare de l’Est, which is about twenty minutes by taxi from Montparnasse and longer from the Right Bank.  (A friendly tip: the croissants at the coffee shop at the Gare de l’Est are delicious and are served warm.)

Yes, it takes longer to go to Épernay, but it is an easy walk to the Avenue de Champagne with one Champagne house after the other, many of which can be visited without a reservation.  If you want to tour the cellars at the bigger names, such as Moët and Chandon or Perrier-Jouet, you will need to book in advance.

The Chagall windows in the Cathedral of Reims.

On the other hand, Reims offers other attractions besides wine tasting and has many more spots for a quality lunch while you’re there.  The cathedral at Reims is an architectural wonder and the windows painted by Marc Chagall shouldn’t be missed.  There are a few Maisons in walking distance of the train station and Mumm is in the center of town.  You’ll need a taxi or an Uber to get to most of the better known Champagne houses.  Three of them are in close proximity to each other: Taittinger, Veuve Clicquot and Pommery.  You can walk easily from one to the other.  But you’d better get your reservations closely aligned, with at least an hour and half at each.  Lunch is an issue as well in that part of town.  There are places to eat, but they’re all rather elegant and pricy.

Unfortunately, the last return trips back to Paris don’t allow a lot of time for a nice dinner, with the last trains leaving at 7:30-ish.  However, you do have the chance to keep on with Champagne tasting.  La Banque in Épernay and Le Parvis in Reims offer you the chance to compare Champagnes side-by-side and still make your train.  Be careful, though.  If you’ve been tasting all day, either restrain yourself at the Maisons or take it easy at the Champagne bars.  If nothing else, you don’t want to miss your train!

There are many ways to become acquainted with the wines of any particular nation that contains a section of Wine Country.  Some countries are so large that it is meaningless to talk in any specific way about, say, American wine or French wine or Italian wine.  These nations produce so much wine and distribute it so widely that we are more likely to sip specific regions such as Napa or Bordeaux or Tuscany, with many subdivisions within them.

Then there are countries that are so small that almost all their wine production is consumed at home.  For example, Power Tasting recently featured wine tasting in Croatia, a country that clearly fits that model.  It isn’t that they make bad wines; in fact there are many excellent ones.  It’s just that their grapes and their wineries are too poorly known to justify international distribution.

There is a small group of countries in the middle, with a long history of winemaking and the quantity and quality to send their wines overseas.  Some have gained renown in recent years, including Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.  Others have just begun to garner some attention.  Austrian wines are among these. 

There are many Central European countries that make wine.  Sadly, many of these fell under Soviet domination after World War II and found their native vines torn out and their winemaking facilities converted to Russian tastes.   Austria adopted neutrality then and were spared.  Still, Austria is only 32,000 square miles, with much consisting of mountains, and its population is only 9 million.  Still, their wines are catching on in the US.

Photo courtesy of Vivino US.

In our experience, Austrian wines were essentially unknown in the United States until a craze for Grüner Veltliner began around the turn of the millennium.  And why not?  Here was a white wine that wasn’t quite like anything else most people had tasted.  Maybe just as important, it was everything California Chardonnay wasn’t.  It was light, refreshing, unoaked, not very expensive and went well with almost everything except a rare steak.  We Americans couldn’t quite pronounce it, but we liked it.  (It’s more like greener velt-leaner than grooner felt-liner, as many of us said it.)

With that initial experience, many Americans, ourselves included, sought opportunities to try other Austrian wines, particularly the reds.  We are fortunate that there is an excellent Austrian restaurant, Wallse, in our neighborhood, with an extensive wine list.  [There is more in this issue about wine tasting in restaurants.]  Our first try was Zweigelt, which some people describe as a lighter red but we’ve always found quite dense.  The wine is named for a Dr. Felix Zweigelt, who created the grape by cross-breeding two other varietals.

Those two varietals were Blaufränkisch and Sankt Laurent.  The former grape translates to French Blue, but it doesn’t seem to have any French derivation.  It makes rich, tannic wines, often vinified in a style evocative of Northern Rhônes.  It quickly became our favorite Austrian wine, perhaps because it complements wiener schnitzel so well.  We recently got around to trying Sankt Laurent and find it very much like Pinot Noir.  We’ve read that DNA studies confirm that parentage.

It’s fun to discover a whole new world of taste sensations, and having a source of so many fine examples of Austrian wine just up the street makes it even more enjoyable for us.