Author: lgsjr

Winery Glassware

As we wrote quite a few years ago, there was once a time that wineries gave away souvenir glasses if you stopped by and had a taste of their wines.  In fact, their tastings were free, too!  (And still are in a few places, believe it or not.)  We’re reminded of this because we recently got rid of nearly all of the glasses we had collected on wine tasting trips over the years.  Most of them were tiny and thick and we had too many; we don’t know why we kept them, except for the memories.  A few were of high quality and we kept those, because…well, just because.

But it caused us to give some thought to the role glassware plays in the wine tasting experience.

Photo courtesy of Kendall-Jackson.

In some ways, the quality of the glasses is indicative of the winery owners’ perception of their wine and their customers.  There are still some who serve tastings in small, clunky glasses.  Maybe they just don’t care, or think their customers don’t care or that they couldn’t tell the difference anyway.  Our experience is that many – certainly not all – people we meet in tasting rooms are reasonably familiar with wine and would appreciate a better glass.

At the other extreme, we’ve been finding some really fine glasses in some tasting rooms.  They have copious bowls, no lip (that little bulge you sometime find) at all on the edge of the glass, thin stems and a great feel in your hand.  If you turn the base of the glass slowly in the right light, you may find the mark of an Austrian or German glassmaker, such as Reidel, Spiegelau or Schott Zweizel.  These wineries make, or at least think they make, great wine that deserve great glasses.

But does it really make a difference?  Actually, yes it does.  A glass with the room to swirl the wine will open up the aromas in a way that a poorer glass cannot do.  And your ability to stick your nose in the glass as you sip will enhance your wine tasting enjoyment as well.  There is a sensual pleasure to holding a well-balanced wine glass that you can only understand if you can compare it with the other kind.  That’s why you don’t serve fine wine in jelly jars.

What if you don’t have exceptional wine glasses at home?  Will it make a difference to the wine if you buy some and take it home?  Not exactly.  But wine glasses are part of the allure of wine tasting.  So enjoy those fine glasses while you’re there!

Many of the gift shops at wineries will sell you their engraved glasses.  If your intent is to have a souvenir of your trip, by all means go ahead.  But if you are looking for quality glasses for your home, there are much better values to be had in the stores and on the internet.

And at the end of the day, if someone offers us Château Petrus in a plastic cup, we’ll be happy to take it.

Read the Label

Often when we are in a winery’s tasting room, we ask the servers to show us the bottle.  Of course, it’s not the bottle we want to see; they’re all pretty much the same.  (Actually, that’s not true.  There are Bordeaux bottles with round shoulders and Burgundy bottles with sloping ones.)  What we really want to see is the label, or actually two labels: one on the front of the bottle and one on the back.

The servers usually look at us quizzically.  “Why?” they seem to be asking, but they do anyway?

So here’s the answer to their question and some advice on how you can take advantage of the labels as well.

  • The look of the label tells you something about the wine. Great wines don’t need silly labels.  A classic label gives us an idea of the winery’s owners’ approach to making wine.  A picture of the château or some great art are fine, but a lot of bright colors or unusual type scripts generally indicate that they’re more interested in catching your eye in a shop than letting the wine’s reputation speak for itself.

  • You can ignore a lot that’s on the label. It contains some warnings that you’re not interested in, such as the fact that the wine contains nitrates (they all do) and that you shouldn’t drink and drive (you already know that).  You’ll learn the winery’s address, amount of wine in the bottle and the URL of their web site.  None of this is very important to you but the government insists on it.

  • Look for the interesting information. The label should tell you the name of the winery.  On top of telling you the kind of wine (Pinot, Cabernet, etc.), it might tell you the name of the wine, such as the “Private Reserve” or “My Zin”.  If they care enough to name their wines, it might indicate that this wine is intended to be rather special.  Even more so, some better wines come from single vineyards and they name that location.  By itself, all this data may not mean much, but put together these are all indicators that the contents of the bottle may be something special.  And it it’s not there, that tells you something, too.  (Maybe that’s not the winery’s best wine).
  • Check one number in particular. Perhaps most important information on the label is the amount of alcohol in the wine.  If you’re driving from winery to winery to taste their products, this will help you calibrate your consumption.  For a long time, 12.5% or 13% was the norm.  Now anything less than 14% is considered light.  Moreover, the alcohol level tells you a lot about wine itself.  While there are some exceptions, any wine that contains more than 14.5% is likely to be “hot”, tasting of alcohol rather than grapes.
  • Some labels tell a story. It may or may not be an interesting story.  Some tell the history of that particular wine.  Those on the wines from Ridge winery, for example, give a detailed explanation of the growing condition, the soil, and everything but the name and address of the person who picked the grapes.  And some just tell you whatever the Marketing department felt like saying.

So why do we ask to see the label when we’re wine tasting?  Because it makes us more informed about what we’re sipping and what we might be buying.

Drinking with the Locals

One of the basic tenets we follow at Power Tasting is that we go to taste wine, not drink it and certainly not drink it to excess.  In our travels, we have met some people in tasting rooms who have failed to follow that rule and they were the worse for it.  But if you pace yourself, have breakfast and a hearty lunch, you may from time to time allow yourself what the French call an aperitif and the Italians an apertivo. (In the United States, we just call it a drink after work.)

One of the pleasures of an aperitif in Wine Country is that if you choose the right place to have one, you get to share the space and the experience with the people of the area.  You can just go to the first bar you come across.  If it has a bright neon sign in the window advertising Budweiser, you probably won’t be sipping a delicate Chardonnay.  But you very well might get a pint of one of the brews made in the area and that can be a pleasure too.  And you might be drinking next to the fellows who till the vineyards and pick the grapes that you’ve been trying that day.  If you don’t recognize the names of the ales on draft, ask the person next to you at the bar.  The worst that can happen is he’ll ignore you; the best is that you get to meet someone who’s in the know.

Willi’s in Healdsburg, a great place to meet local folks. Photo courtesy of USA Restaurants.

Many times we’ve taken a glass of wine before dinner at a restaurant other than the one we plan to dine in.  It’s a way to get to see more gathering spots and in some cases to familiarize yourself with the ambience of a restaurant before trying it for a meal.  You may be seated next to other tourists or you may get to meet the people who make the local wines.  If the latter, keep a polite eye on what they’re drinking.  It’s probably not their own because they are surrounded by it all day.  You can learn a lot from what the knowledgeable people of the area are having.

Strolling around the Piazza del Campo in Sienna.

The best way, by far, to enjoy an aperitif is to take it at a café in France or on a piazza in Italy.  We remember with much warmth sitting under the plane trees in front of the Bar Central in a tiny village surrounded by vines, while the piped music played French (and Quebecois) songs while the businesspeople and shopkeepers stopped by for a pastis or a glass of whatever was just growing a mile away.

Or watching the sun decline over the rooftops and steeples surrounding the big piazza that’s in every Italian town.  Half the town would take a glass with us, in order to watch the other half of the population indulge in what they call the passeggiata.  That’s just a walk around the square but it’s so much more.  It’s a chance to see the locals enjoying who’s out and about and to be seen being out and about.

Ah, yes, it must be 5 o’clock somewhere.

Toulouse

Toulouse is not a winemaking city.  It’s the center of France’s aerospace industry, with the headquarters of Airbus there.  But it is surrounded by regions that do make wine, albeit not the most famous in France.  There’s Gaillac to the north, Madiran to the south and Minervoix, the best known, to the east.  It also has history and architecture and food, which makes it well worth visiting when you’re travelling for wine tasting.

The Romans called it Tolosa, and when the city of Rome was overrun by the Visigoths in 410 A.D., the Romans gave the invaders the southwest of France to get them to leave their city.  Toulouse was their capital as it was 800 years later for a large population of pre-Reformation heretics known as the Cathars.  These people were wiped out but the echoes of Catharism are still felt throughout the region.

Toulouse’s Capitole at night.

The current-day toulousains are justly proud of their history, but are more involved in 21st century living than in the past.  For the visitor, it is preferable to sit in their main square, the Place du Capitole, dominated on one side by a building that is part city hall and part opera house.  The other side of the square is lined with cafes, under broad umbrellas.  There you can sit and eat the local sausages, which are the envy of the rest of France, along with a bottle of local wine.

Grand buildings along the Garonne river.

Then take a stroll along the banks of the River Garonne, which starts in the Pyrenees and ends up in Bordeaux (you may have heard of their wines) before debouching into the Atlantic.  There are numerous grand buildings once erected by the elites, mostly in the 19th century.  Not far is what little is left of old Toulouse, since much of the city was destroyed in the many wars that beset the region.

The Canal du Midi begins in Toulouse and connects it with the Mediterranean.  Once a commercial waterway, the canal today is mostly navigated by tourists who get aboard the boats called péniches and visit the many picturesque villages along its banks.  If you don’t want an extended trip, you can take a tour that just goes around Toulouse’s part of the canal for a few hours or, as we did, take a day trip about 20 km. away and back.

You cannot visit Toulouse without indulging in its greatest contribution to French gastronomy: cassoulet.  Now the city’s claim to this dish is disputed by the people of the town of Castelnaudry along the canal to the east and the Gascons further north.  This hearty combination of white beans, confit de canard (duck) and the aforementioned Toulouse sausages has become available in many North American restaurants, but we can assure you that the real thing in the real place can’t be beat.

Power Tasting doesn’t usually get into restaurant reviews, but we have to tell you that we found that Restaurant Emil serves the best cassoulet in town.  Even more, you can buy a large can of it there, enough for dinner for two, put it in your suitcase and have it when the cold winds blow back at home.

 

 

J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines, San Jose

There actually is a fellow named J. (for Jerry) Lohr.  He began making wines in California’s Central Coast back in the 1970’s, first in Arroyo Seco and then in Paso Robles.  He also owns a vineyard in Napa Valley but the main production comes from the center of the state.  J. Lohr has two tasting rooms, the original one in San Jose and a newer one in Paso itself, on the less artisanal east side of Route 101.

The J. Lohr tasting room in San Jose.  Photo courtesy of Travel Expert Wiki.

The San Jose site is on a city street, just off a major boulevard.  We’re fond of in-town tasting in places like Healdsburg or Calistoga, where there are several tasting rooms you can walk to.  But finding one in a city of a million people is neither bad nor good, but it is definitely unusual.  For one thing, there’s no place to park; you just find a spot in the street.  For another, there’s no indication that you’re in Wine Country.  The tasting room just stands alone.

It’s a pleasant, brick building covered in vines.  Once you enter, it’s like any tasting room anywhere: a long bar, some tables, wines on display.  And there are quite a few red and white wines available for tasting, that do show off what J. Lohr wines are all about.

And what they are about is, for the most part, easy accessibility.  You may already be familiar with these wines from a local wine shop or on a restaurant menu.  Many are inexpensive and are appropriate for casual drinking.  So why go out of your way to taste them?

The reason is that like many wineries that make their living in the mass market, they also have some wines that defy your expectations.  This applies to J. Lohr.  Yes, there are Chardonnays and Cabernet Sauvignons available for under $15.00.  But there are also single vineyard varietals including Pinot Noir from Santa Lucia Highlands and Cabernet Sauvignon from their vineyard in Napa Valley.  Even these, by today’s standards for such wines, are relatively affordable.

And then there are a few of J. Lohr’s wines that are clearly intended to show what this winery is capable of.  As with other makers of widely sold wines, it’s a pleasure to find out that their winemakers have the talent – and the grapes – to make fine wine.  Power Tasting is about wine tasting, so we’ll leave it to wine critics to say just how good J. Lohr’s top wines are.  We found some of their Signature series wines to be quite enjoyable and certainly didn’t consider them to be casual.

We were in Silicon Valley on business and took a little side trip to San Jose to visit this tasting room.  We wouldn’t recommend a special journey there, but if you are in the area it’s worth a stop.  One of the pleasures of wine tasting is surprises, finding something you enjoy that you didn’t even know existed.  We can’t promise that all their best wines will be available for tasting when you go, but there will probably be something you’ve never tasted before.  Finding the top-end products of wineries you only thought of as making picnic wine is a very pleasant surprise indeed.

How to Say “I Don’t Like It”

One of Power Tasting’s founding principles is to help readers avoid being intimidated when they go wine tasting.  Most servers in most wineries try to be friendly and conversational, so they shouldn’t intimidate anyone.  Still many tasters, especially inexperienced ones, find it very difficult to express their opinions when they find a wine they are tasting to be not to their tastes.

Simply put, they don’t feel comfortable telling a server that they don’t care for a particular wine they have just been served.  We’ve been raised to say, “please” and “thank you” and to avoid saying anything negative when someone is being kind to you.  So in an effort to be kind, some people wind up unnecessarily swallowing beverages they don’t like.

Photo courtesy of Food and Wine.

Here are some tips for expressing yourselves firmly but politely.

  • Say nothing. Another of the maxims we’ve been brought up with is, “If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing”.  This is the easiest and least confrontational way of indicating you don’t like a wine.  That’s what the pour bucket is there for, after all.  That leaves you with an empty glass in front of you and lets the server know that you’re ready to move on.
  • There are a lot of terms that aren’t “no” but are recognized as, at best, faint praise.  “Oh, that’s an interesting wine” is one way to say it.  “Unusual”, “different” and even “trendy” can serve the purpose.  For the most part, servers won’t ask you why you feel that way, but if they do, you can always say, “Well, based on my experience…”.  Nobody can argue with that, even if you have next to no experience.
  • Be comparative, not absolute. You don’t need to be negative.  You can simply say, “I liked the other one better”.  And that may actually be the case.  If a particular winery has several Pinot Noirs, for example, you can ask the server to line several of the tastes up side-by-side.  That way you can talk about your favorite and avoid mentioning the one you couldn’t stand.  (Of course, this doesn’t work if you didn’t like any of them.)
  • Devise a code. Assuming you’re traveling with a companion, you can figure out some code words that express displeasure.  For example, “That wine has a hint of cinnamon”, which isn’t a frequently encountered taste.  You’ll both know that that word really means “Ugh”.  Of course, if you do taste cinnamon, you’re stuck in discussing it.
  • Think about why you don’t like it. Saying that a wine is more acid than you like, or too tannic, or too green isn’t saying the wine is bad.  It can also help the server point you towards a wine that is more to your taste.  Maybe there was a different blend of grapes in the 2018 than the 2019 and you’ll have the chance to compare and find you actually like one more than the other.

Or you can just ‘fess up and say, “Sorry, it’s not for me.”

 

Tasting Sauvignon Blanc

A few issues back we discussed  Pinot Noir Tasting.  That was supposed to be a one-off, because that grape is so ubiquitous and yet so different as you traverse Wine Country.  Then we thought about Syrah.  So we at Power Tasting decided to make a new series, investigating wine tasting from the perspective of different varietals.

We have often experienced tastes of Sauvignon Blanc as the first offering on any given California winery’s tasting list for the day.  To be honest, it’s not our favorite, but what are we supposed to do when a nice server just puts a glass of it in our hands as we walk into the tasting room?  For the most part, California winemakers tend to favor very fruity Sauvignon Blancs. Maybe too much so, in our opinion, so we tend to dismiss wines made from those grapes.

Sauvignon Blanc grapes.  Photo courtesy of the Wine Institute.

Now, it’s not that we never buy or enjoy California Sauvignon Blancs.  We enjoy Dry Creek Vineyard’s version on hot summer days and Robert Mondavi’s all year long (except they call it Fumé Blanc).  If that were all there were to it, we’d consider these wines pleasant pastimes, but nothing to take seriously.

Our mistake.

Sauvignon Blanc has such a different character in France (or really, multiple characters) that it’s hard to recognize French wines made from that grape as being related to their California cousins.  Let’s start in the Loire valley, where Sancerre is as austere (almost to the point of sourness) as California Sauvignon is fruit-forward (almost to the point of sweetness).  For many people, Sancerre is the wine of choice to match the brininess of raw oysters, totally unlike any California Sauvignon Blancs.

The French do make things confusing, though.  Another widely popular Loire wine is Vouvray, but it’s made from Chenin Blanc.  And then there’s Pouilly Fumé from the Loire, which is Sauvignon Blanc and Pouilly Fuissé from Burgundy, which isn’t.   (It’s Chardonnay.)

In Bordeaux, Sauvignon Blanc is one of the two primary grapes in Sauternes.  (The other is Semillon.)  In this case, the wines aren’t almost sweet; they’re very decidedly honeyed.

Shriveled grapes to be made into Sauternes wine.  Photo courtesy of Winetraveler.

There’s nothing quite like wine tasting in the Sauternes region, which also includes the village of Barsac.  It’s a day spent drinking dessert.  The grapes aren’t as pretty; they’re all shriveled by the botrytis fungus that concentrates the sugars and adds an indescribable sensation to the taste of the wine.  But the castles and the grand châteaux are wonderful and the food is delicious.

In Italy, they make wine from Sauvignon Blanc all over the country, especially in the northeastern part, but they just call the grape Sauvignon.  Frankly, they’re not the white wines that Italy is famous for.

They are famous for Sauvignon Blanc in New Zealand, where we’ve visited but not had the chance to go wine tasting.  The Kiwi white wines are also very (maybe two very’s) fruit forward, the fruits in question often being citrus and pineapple.  These wines are not to everyone’s taste, but they certainly put New Zealand on the map of Wine Country, so that’s something to be proud of.

A little fruity, a lot fruity, maybe sour, definitely sweet.  That’s some grape, Sauvignon Blanc!

 

Château Fonplégade

As we have written previously, wine tasting in Bordeaux seems more than a little formal and stuffy for those of us used to visiting wineries in the U.S.  In that region of Wine Country, Saint-Émilion offers visitors the most relaxed experience.  The town itself is lively and welcoming and there are many wineries to visit without an appointment.  Nonetheless, if you want to try the wines of the top châteaux, you’ll need an appointment.

Photo courtesy of Wine.com.

One we have enjoyed is Château Fonplégade (www.fonplegade.com).  Its wines are grand cru classé.  That classé is important.  Any Saint-Émilion vineyard can call itself grand cru, but the classé must be awarded by the local wine authorities.  [The top top wines of Saint-Émilion are called premier grand cru classé.]  Of course, for a visitor, the only important thing is to taste good wine, and we have had that experience at Château Fonplégade.

Interestingly, it is owned and operated by American wine makers, Denise and Stephen Adams.  They also make ADAMVS, on Napa Valley’s Howell Mountain.  It seems that Denise is the one most actively involved at Château Fonplégade.  The couple haven’t Napafied Château Fonplégade but they have raised the quality of the wine enough to obtain the cherished classé.

Unlike what we generally find in California, the French vineyard makes only two wines: the namesake Château Fonplégade and a lesser second label, Fleur de Fonplégade.  (The couple also own the Château l’Enclos in Pomerol.)  And of course being from Saint-Émilion, the wines are a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc.  Another aspect that distinguishes Château Fonplégade is that their wines are made biodynamically, a trend becoming quite common in France (and in California too, for that matter.)

The cellars at Château Fonplégade.  Photo courtesy of The Wine Cellar Insider.

Bordeaux rules require that all the grapes of any vineyard must come from the contiguous estate surrounding the château. Therefore, the château itself is surrounded by vines, which seem to extend forever.  Some châteaux may be no more that humble farmhouses, but in Fonplégade’s case the building is an elegant 19th century structure, intended to project the wealth and taste of its owners.  That has always been the case, but the previous owners had let it run down a bit.  The Adams’ invested in upgrading not only the château wine making facilities and the cellars.

Also under the previous regime, Fonplégade welcomed tour groups.  That is no longer the case.  You must have an appointment and the visits are, in the winery’s term, intimate.  That shouldn’t scare away American visitors.  We have met Denise Adams and she is a very easy-to-talk-to person.  The team at Fonplégade takes on that personality.

As to the word: Fonplégade means “fountain of plenty”.  There is a 13th century fountain on the property that inspired the name.  It is still in use to moisten the vineyard in dry years.

 

Château de Chenonceau

There are many wonderful reasons to visit the Loire valley.  It’s close enough to Paris that you can make a day trip of a visit there.  For us wine enthusiasts, there’s Vouvray, Chinon, Sancerre and Muscadet to occupy our tasting hours.  Those wines go well with the Touraine cuisine (named after the central town of Tours).  And there’s the history, so much of it, best exemplified by the castles that line the river Loire and other streams nearby.

Photo courtesy of YouTube.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, French monarchs and nobles preferred to avoid the hoi polloi of Paris and so built magnificent châteaux from which they could both rule and enjoy themselves.  There are many to visit, including Chambord, Blois and Amboise.  If you only have the time to visit one, we recommend that it be the Château de Chenonceau.

You enter the grounds down a long allée of plane trees until, seeming suddenly, a fairy castle appears before you.  That’s the entrance to the château, where you can and should sign up for a tour, available in many languages including English.  A guide will show you around the rooms, point out some interesting information about the gardens and explain the history of Chenonceau.

The château that’s there today wasn’t the original.  That one was burned down and replaced by a nobleman in generally the form we see the front of it today in the early 16th century.  King Francois I seized it a few decades later.  His son, Henri II, set it aside as a love nest for his mistress, Diane de Poitiers.  This didn’t much please his wife, Catherine de Medici, so she kicked out Diane and expanded the château to cross the river Cher.  [As you tour Chenonceau, you can see two gardens out the windows.  One was Diane’s, the other one Catherine’s.  The mistress got the better of the gardening competition.]

Because the château spans the river, it was used by Jews and other refugees from German-occupied France during the Second World War.  The Cher was the dividing line between the Nazis and Vichy France to the south.  Escapees would enter the front of the château and sneak out the back.

Photo courtesy of The Local France.

Perhaps the most unique and certainly the most romantic aspect of a visit to Chenonceau is to rent a little boat and row along the Cher, under the château.  There’s no other castle in all of Europe where you can do that!

The architecture of Chenonceau combines Gothic and Renaissance elements, so viewing it is another way you can experience history there.  Most of the rooms in the château are decorated so you can give yourself a sense of how royalty treated itself in the early Renaissance.  As Mel Brooks put it, it was good to be the king.  Now, of course, Chenonceau is a historic monument.  Wars and revolutions have not dimmed the elegance and attraction of this great castle.  Other than Versailles, it’s the most visited château in France.  When you are in the Loire valley for wine tasting, leave yourself some time for castling, too, especially at Chenonceau.

 

 

Dining and Finding

As a rule, wherever you find great wine being made, you’ll find great restaurants.  This just makes sense – the people who spend all year making a beverage to serve with food want to eat it in restaurants.  And we wine tasting visitors get the benefit.  Naturally, you’ll find great wine lists in these Wine Country restaurants; it is often made just around the corner.

We recommend that you take advantage of these wine lists to broaden your knowledge of wineries to visit while you’re in the region.  But how do you choose?

As it says at Yountville’s Mustards restaurant, there’s way too many wines to choose from.  Photo courtesy of napavalley.com

  • Order the names you’re familiar with, but… Sure, you’ve heard of their Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, but did you know that they make a Pinot Noir?  Very often, restauranteurs feature lesser-known wines from top producers, specifically because they know that people aren’t familiar with them.  It builds a nice relationship with the wineries and gives the wine lists a bit of distinction.  If you try one and like it, you can drive over the next day and buy some.  Often these wines aren’t widely shipped, so this may be your only chance.
  • Order the names you’re unfamiliar with. Sometimes this means placing your trust in the restauranteur or sommelier, if there is one.  In big, well-known restaurants this may make the choice easy.  In a region you’re familiar with, you may know a lot of the names on the list.  But if you’re traveling to an area where you haven’t tasted very much, everything on the list may be unknown to you.

Photo courtesy of Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates.

  • So ask. Invariably, the server or sommelier will in return ask you two questions: What are you ordering to eat?  What kind of wine do you like?  The wines on the list should be compatible with the menu, so just finding out which wines on the list match up with your tastes will help you plan for where you might want to visit the next day.
  • Order by price. There are occasions in which you don’t want to ask your server to help you choose.  Or if you’re overseas, you may not want to try your luck with the local language.  We’ve found it useful to determine how much we want to pay for a bottle that evening and then choose from the list accordingly.  Sure, there’s an element of luck involved, but if the restaurant has a well-chosen list, your chances are pretty good.
  • Order by the glass. If nothing else, this will minimize your financial risk.  If you don’t like a wine you’ve chosen, you won’t have spent a lot on it.  The choice of these wines is generally limited and the quality less than wines by the bottle.  But it’s also a way to take a quick wine-tasting trip around the region, without getting out of your chair.
  • Be prepared for success…and disappointment. Over the years, we have had some great finds in Wine Country restaurants.  There are instances in which we subsequently visited the wineries, bought the wines and continue to do so.  But there have been some occasional duds. But at least we learned what to avoid in our wine tasting adventures.