lgsjr – Page 45 – Power Tasting – The Wine Tasting Experience

Grgich Hills Estate

We didn’t get the chance to visit any wineries in Croatia, so we can’t include a winery review in this issue of Power Tasting. Instead, we’re reprising a review of Grgich Hills from the April 2016 issue. Why Grgich Hills and why now? This is an edition of Power Tasting dedicated to Croatia and its wines. Mike Grgich is one of California’s best known and beloved winemakers and is undoubtedly the best known winemaker of Croatian descent anywhere.

As noted below, Mr. Grgich has in recent years grown grapes and made wine in his native country. While there may be some exceptions we’re not aware of, the only place you can buy his Plavac Mali or Posip in the United States is at the Grgich Hills winery in Rutherford. Interestingly, the winery is now growing Crjenak Castelanski in California. They claim that this grape is either a predecessor, distant cousin or twin sister of Zinfandel. We offer no opinion, but love the idea that someone is trying to make an unheard of wine in Napa Valley.

The Croatians are very proud of Mike Grgich and feature his local wines prominently. Look closely at the wines displayed at the Dubrovnik Enoteca and you’ll see his Plavac Mali on the barrel head.

Shortly after this issue went to press, Power Tasting learned of the death of Miljenko (Mike) Grgich at age 100. We wish to remember the life and career of a great winemaker.

There really isn’t anyplace left in Napa Valley where you can visit a winery the way it was in the beginning of the region’s rise to worldwide prominence. There are more than a few wineries you can visit that were originated by the old-timers: Joseph Phelps, Caymus, Robert Mondavi, Heitz Cellars, Beaulieu Vineyards and Chateau Montelena come quickly to mind. But these are all rather palatial and bear little resemblance to what were once essentially factory buildings surrounded by farms. If there is one place that has preserved at least a bit of the atmosphere of the 1970’s, it’s Grgich Hills Estate.

Its story is almost as important as its physical presence. Miljenko Grgich, universally known as Mike, was the winemaker at Chateau Montelena who made the winning white wine at the famous Judgement of Paris in 1976. He needed capital to open his own winery and so teamed with coffee magnate Austin Hills to found Grgich Hills. Quite elderly now, he can still be seen on occasion at the winery, keeping an eye on his heritage.

The winery itself is a simple, vine-covered industrial building. It sits right along Route 29 in Rutherford and at some times the Wine Train runs right in front of it. What the Grgich Hills lacks in architectural splendor it makes up in authenticity and a welcoming atmosphere. The building is surrounded by vineyards and gardens. The tasting room is a wood-paneled bar, much like the sort you might build yourself if you were setting up a party room in your basement. The servers are usually friendly and efficient and try to make your visit enjoyable and memorable.

The Grgich Hills winery

The tasting room

Like many Napa Valley wineries, Grgich Hills produces wines from a wide number of varietals. It is best known for its Chardonnay which is what has come to typify Napa Chardonnays: buttery, oaky, deeply flavored, full of fruit. Depending on your tastes it is either the apogee of what California has to offer or an avatar of the excess that California has allowed itself. In trying the Grgich Hills chard, you can calibrate your mouth on the scale of California white wines.

Grgich Hills also has well-regarded Zinfandels and Cabernet Sauvignons, again highly fruit forward and intense. Over the years, we have bought their Merlot more often than any other of their wines. They also offer a few oddities, especially the Croatian wines from Mike’s own vineyards in his native land. You can taste grapes utterly unknown in America, like the white Pošip and the red Plavac Mali. They’re something like…well, nothing that we’ve ever tasted before. If you have a chance, you should taste Grgich Hills’ renowned dessert wine, Violeta, named for his daughter who now runs the estate.

Stepping up to the bar is rewarding, but if you’d like to go deeper, the winery offers a number of tours and seated tastings. The latter may be a good choice on weekends, when every winery on Route 29 is jam-packed. Grgich Hills also has one attraction that we consider to be just plain silly. For $30 ($15 for kids) you can take off your shoes and stomp grapes. You’ll get a tasting, a stomping, a t-shirt and sticky feet. It’s not our thing, but it’s quite popular.

A great thing about Grgich Hills is its combined sense of history and modernity. It’s one of the places where it all started, under the guidance of a winemaker who helped define Napa Valley. But it is still contemporary, with wines that have evolved…a bit. It’s one of the last independently owned, quality wineries in the valley, which by itself makes Grgich Hills worth a visit.

Montalcino

Everybody knows the wine from Montalcino. It’s Brunello, pure Sangiovese, always grown in the authorized confines of this small village in Tuscany. Its earliest appearance was at the Tenuta Greppo, home of the Biondi Santi family. The house still stands in the outskirts of Montalcino and so do their wines.

You approach the village up a winding road, just off a two-lane “highway” and somewhat further from a real autostrada. As you approach Montalcino, you’ll see plenty of inviting villas where you can stop for a degustazione of that winery’s production. No one would blame you if you only travelled to Montalcino for wine tasting, but you’d be missing out on a very charming corner of Italy if you didn’t carry on into the town.

We have to admit that parking is a bit of a problem. If it’s a cold, rainy day in December you might find a place to park right by the town walls, but on a beautiful day at harvest time, you must park quite far down the hill and walk. It’s a pleasant stroll, albeit with a lot of climbing up and down the narrow streets of the village.

Among the major attractions of Montalcino, much as you might imagine, are the wine shops and restaurants. We had been advised to dine at Il Grapplo Blu and warned that it would be very difficult to find. Naturally enough, it was the first taverna we came upon and so were way too early for lunch. Il Grapplo Blu has no view over the valley, so we went looking for another place that did. Even in mid-September, the indoor temperatures were so hot that we passed these up and went back to where we had been recommended and had a memorable meal.

On another occasion, we chose to sit outside in one of the two main piazzas, this one right in front of the village’s major church. It was called Bacchus, understandably. A selection of local dried hams and sausages there is well worth a try. Of course, in both restaurants, we had to order a bottle of Brunello. This can be a mighty expensive wine, but most wine lists have relatively affordable bottles to choose from. Now, knowing the names of all those Brunellos is quite another matter, but we were quite satisfied with our choices.

All around Montalcino you’ll find wine stores offering tastings, usually for a fee and always from the producers that shop represents. We chose to save our tasting time for the wineries themselves but others we know have whiled away their afternoons on the piazza in front of the stores.

Like all destinations favored by tourists, Montalcino has its souvenir stores and gimcracks aplenty. But it also has many little boutiques with fashionable clothes and more exquisite (and expensive) handicrafts. They provide something to do other than eat, drink and mellow out under an umbrella in a piazza.

Perhaps Montalcino’s greatest treat (other than the Brunello) is the views you can have from around the exterior of the town. You’ll find your heart in your throat and your camera in your hand, for sure.

Chalk Hill Road

The reason to go wine tasting is to taste wine. Well, yeah, but it’s not the only reason. For one thing, there’s the scenery. We have found that virtually any place where grapes are grown for wine is beautiful, with rows of vines arrayed across a field or a hillside. For us city-dwellers, the only way we’re going to see these sights is to drive there. And not all roads are created equal.

Some are just ways to get from one grape-growing region to another. Highway 101, which runs through Sonoma County, is one of these. So is the Long island Expressway, which takes you to the North Fork vineyards. Others are the main roads that have numerous wineries on either side. The sight of one famous establishment after the other can be quite thrilling, like a wine shop with buildings instead of shelves. Napa Valley’s Route 29 is such a road as is the Route du Vin in Burgundy’s Cote d’Or. If you are a fan of going wine tasting, as we are, you will definitely take these roads one day.

And then there are the roads that are, in themselves, destinations. They’re just gorgeous, aesthetic experiences when you’re there. It’s good to know that there are wineries and vineyards nearby but these roads are worth driving on just for the experience of seeing them. One that we particularly like is Chalk Hill Road in Sonoma. Assuming you are coming from the aforementioned Route 101, take the Old Redwood Highway exit on the east side and go a short distance to Pleasant Avenue. Shortly thereafter, turn left on Chalk Hill Road.

The road goes from Route 101 to Route 128, which will take you either to Knights Valley to the south or Alexander Valley to the north. There are wineries along the way to visit, but not many. They include some of Sonoma’s finest, including the eponymous Chalk Hill, Verité, and Lancaster. The drive will take you through forests, fields and hills, with virtually no houses or even wineries that you can see from the road. There are horses in some of those fields who like to take a run every now and again. It being California, the hills are usually a light tan, with clumps of trees and greenery to color the view.

Pictures don’t do Chalk Hill Road any justice. You need to see the dappling of shadow and sunlight as you drive along, feel the peacefulness of a country road with hardly any other drivers on it, hear the sound of nothing more than your car…which almost but not quite spoils it.

We recommend that you make your way there on a visit to Sonoma. You won’t be disappointed by the wines you try (although you may be horrified by the tasting fees) and you will feel that you’ve gotten more than wine from Wine Country.

Wine, with Interest

Wine tasting is an interactive endeavor. Unless you’re opening a lot of bottles at home, by yourself, the very least you need is someone to pour the wine for you. (And sitting home alone opening bottles isn’t healthy for mind or body.) For most of us, it’s a social activity. We go wine tasting together and it’s rare that we have a tasting room to ourselves.

A significant amount of time is spent talking about what we’re tasting: “What did you think of the nose/mouthfeel/acidity/finish? Wasn’t that yummy? I don’t like this one. You like big, heavy wines more than I do”. The conversation is always amongst ourselves and often with strangers who happen to be at the bar or the table at the same time as we are.

The common element is always the server, who generally selects the order in which you taste wines and the amount that you receive. They are trained to act like hosts at a party, to be convivial, provide information and while not actively hawking the winery’s wares, to encourage you to buy some or join the wine club. It therefore follows that to maximize the pleasure of your visit, you should interact in a friendly manner with your server.

Now, much of that is just the manners your mother taught you. If somebody gives you something, you smile and say thank you. But the objective here is something more. If you engage your server in conversation and ask fairly meaningful questions, you will get a lot more in return. What are some reasonable questions? You can ask how the wine you just sipped differs from previous vintages. If the wine is estate-grown, where are the winery’s vineyards? And if they are sourced, who do they buy grapes from? Does their winemaker control the farming practices or is it strictly up to the vineyard owner? You could ask the server’s opinion on how long to cellar a wine that seems to need it. We almost always ask what the blend of grapes and the level of alcohol are. If we think we might be interested in buying some of a wine, we ask to see the bottle; there’s often a lot of information to be gleaned from the labels.

There are two types of servers: plain pourers and wine educators. You’re not going to get much from the former. We’ve found that better wineries make a point of training their people so that you don’t get someone who is simply capable of filling a glass and no more. Ah, but when you meet an educator, showing interest brings rewards. If you wanted a comparison with previous vintages, he or she might have some and will open them so that you can compare. We have had some rather in-depth verticals (multiple years of the same wine) on occasion. And if you ask about cellaring, the educator might just remember that there’s a bottle of a ten-year old (or older) that they served to visiting dignitaries just this morning. “Would you like some?” Oh, yes, indeed.

Even if you don’t get little extras, you will almost always benefit from the information you receive. Since one of the objectives of wine tasting is to increase your knowledge of wine in general and specific producers in particular, you get the pleasure of just adding to your understanding of fine wine.

When a tasting room is really crowded, on a weekend or when a tour bus arrives, you may not be able to show your interest to your server. He or she is overworked and underappreciated on those days. But when you hit the right person on the right day, the effect is wonderful. It is another reason to have a quiet, seated tasting on the busiest days. The staff know you’re serious and treat you accordingly.

Share, Sip and Pour

We often receive the question from our friends, “How many wineries can a person safely visit in a day?” And the answer always is, “It depends”. It depends on your level of interest, how you like to taste wine and most important, what your tolerance for alcohol may be. Everyone is different in these regards so self-knowledge both in the planning before you go and during the day that you’re there is critical to both enjoyment and safety.

Here at Power Tasting, we’re all about wine tasting. It’s not about the quality or even really about the quantity of the wine – or the cake – it’s about your overall level of appreciation.

Of course, wine is an intoxicating beverage. If you have too much of it, you can’t appreciate what you’re tasting. And if you’re driving, you can be downright dangerous to yourself and others on the road.

So to answer the opening question, we often visit six wineries in a day. “Six!!!!” you may be saying. But we have our method and maybe it can help you.

We share a tasting. We get one glass for the two of us, just as you might get two forks for one slice of cake. That way, we get to taste as several wines at any winery without imbibing as much alcohol. Our objective is to taste, not to drink. (Now, there are exceptions. If we are visiting a place that makes wines we know in advance we will particularly like, we sometimes each have our own glasses. Those are the days we spend more time in those particular wineries and visit fewer of them overall.) In addition, it’s less expensive if you share.
We get a lot of appreciation out of aromas, as well as tastes. For one thing, smelling wine is an equal part of the experience. Our noses often tell us a different story than our mouths do. The aromas may be intoxicating, but you can’t get drunk just smelling wine.
We sip just as one might have a nibble of cake. It only takes a little bit to get the flavors, the mouthfeel, the finesse and the finish of a wine. There are some who spit before swallowing, but we are not among them. Yes, we take in a bit of alcohol, but we get the complete sensation of a wine. And then…
We pour. That’s what the bucket on the bar is there for. Let’s face it, not every wine is great or at least not to everyone’s taste. So if we sip something that either or both of us don’t like it, we get rid of it. Honest, the servers don’t care. They fill glasses; how the visitor empties them is not the server’s concern.
We always monitor how much we’re drinking and how we feel. If there’s any question at all, it’s time to stop. By the time you know you’ve had too much, you’ve had way too much.

Because we are careful, we know that our usual consumption is on average about a half a glass per winery. So if we visit six wineries, it comes to three glasses over a six to seven hour period. For some people, that may indeed be too much, so don’t do it if you’re one of those people.

Living Large in Oregon

For us, wine tasting is fairly rudimentary: rent a car, drive to the wineries, go from place to place sampling as much as we feel like with ample prudence, then drive back to wherever we started the day. We watch tourists pour off of buses with snobbish scorn: “What do they know about wine?” Even worse are the stretch limos that shuttle bachelorette parties from winery to winery, fifteen previously over-served twenty-somethings who scream and giggle and generally drive both winery employees and serious tasters to run, not walk, in the other direction. And it’s not just giggly girls. We see long black Cadillacs pull up with a gang of conventioneers playing hooky in Wine Country. They can disrupt a tasting room from the moment they enter. Maybe some of these people really do appreciate what they’re tasting, but whether because of noisiness or haughtiness they do spoil the experience for us and maybe everyone else.

And then once – just once – we were the ones filling the limo with people who had little or no familiarity with wine tasting. At one point in his career, Steve led a national consulting practice and held a leadership meeting on a Friday in Portland, Oregon. Since there was budget for “team-building”, he invited the consultants and their significant others to take a day trip that Saturday to the Willamette Valley. The event was held in mid-January, and the day dawned brisk and sunny.

In a rented, chauffeured stretch, nine of us headed for the hills of northern Oregon. The Willamette Valley is only forty minutes from downtown Portland, if there is no traffic and at that time of year visitors and thus cars are few. None of Steve’s colleagues had been wine tasting before so there was both expectancy and a little trepidation in the car as we drove south.

If you arrive in the little town of Dundee, you’ll find Argyle winery on the main road. Argyle is best known for its sparkling wines and Chardonnays and the Pinot Noirs aren’t bad either. They have a tasting room, with the vines elsewhere in the valley. Our friends seemed a little ill at ease at first but a few sips loosened them up. “Hey, this is fun” was the general sentiment.

We continued down the Pacific Highway, had lunch and turned up Archery Summit Road, leading to the Archery Summit, Domaine Drouhin and Domaine Serene wineries. Each one was higher up the hill and therefore had a better view. This was really the heart of Pinot Noir country, with several award winning wines for all of us to try.

We all learned a few things that day. For one, Steve’s colleagues learned about wine tasting. The day truly did build some team spirit, experiencing new things together. (It was our first trip to the Willamette Valley, so we were learning as well.) It was fun to see our friends open up to the wine tasting experience. Of course, they had all drunk wine before but few if any paid much attention to it. They had rarely if ever compared wines side by side and tried to detect the differences. It was our pleasure to share that appreciation with them.

We quickly realized that it’s nice to have someone else do the driving. Of course, that makes a visit more expensive but it is also less stressful. We still didn’t want to get drunk, but we could take a few more second sips without worries. The stretch limo added some glamor, but other than for the size of the group, it wasn’t necessary; just being chauffeured around was more than sufficient.

And we re-learned that wine tasting in the off-season offers its own rewards: no buses, no crowds, and time to savor the wines because the server wasn’t stressed either. If ever life presents you with the chance to visit Wine Country that way, take it.

Caliza

The word caliza means limestone in Spanish. In winemaking, it means soil that is rich in this mineral so it adds depth and minerality to the grapes grown in it and to the wines made from those grapes. It is also the name of a winery in Paso Robles where we guess the dirt is full of caliza, or limestone. It is not exactly an easy winery to find. You drive down Route 101 from downtown Paso Robles, turn off on Route 46 and then search for Anderson Road. Up at the end of it is Caliza.

We happen to like their wines and have joined the Caliza wine club. They specialize in Rhône grapes and make an excellent Syrah and a wine called Azimuth, a typical Rhône blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre. It’s our favorite of their wines. They also throw in some oddball grapes including Tempranillo and Primitivo. One thing can be said about their wines in general: they’re not for the faint of heart. They are all power hitters and approach or surpass 15% alcohol. Eat a hearty breakfast before visiting.

The tasting room is in a hacienda-like building nestled at the bottom of vine-covered hills. The room itself is open and airy, very bright and sunny, with a long bar. Like many wineries in the Paso Robles region they are open only Friday through Sunday and by appointment on the other days. You will be served a white or two, maybe a rosé and then you can get into the reds. If you’re lucky, your server will be Carl Bowker or his wife, Pam, who own the winery and make the wine.

Theirs is the kind of story that those of us who enjoy visiting Wine Country always dream about. Carl was a businessman who grew tired of the nine-to-five grind. They visited Europe and became dedicated wine tasters themselves. Carl attended some winemaking courses and, lo and behold, bought some land, planted some grapes and they became wine people. If you don’t get to meet Carl or Pam, don’t worry; their story is printed on the walls. But if you do meet them, especially on a quiet day, they’ll be glad to tell you their story.

In some ways, the best part of a visit to Caliza (other than the wine, of course) is the absence of Napa-style excess. The tasting room is pleasant but is not likely to be featured in architecture magazines. Your experience there is about the wine, not the building and the grounds. The people are friendly and have the time and interest to talk with you and explain their philosophy of winemaking and the nature of their wines. In other words, Caliza offers a wine tasting experience that focuses more on the taster than on their own magnificence.

If you’re going to Paso Robles, we definitely recommend that you make Caliza one of your stops. And say hello to Carl and Pam for us.

Tasting Port in Lisbon

While Portugal has some excellent table wines, its glory is in the dessert wines, from grapes grown along the Douro River in the north of the country. The grapes have names that are strange to American ears: Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca, Touriga Nacional, Tinto Cão and Tinta Amarela. The name of the wine they are made into comes from the city at the mouth of the Douro, called Porto. Hence the wine famous around the world for its richness, depth and high alcoholic content is called Port.

But if you are in Lisbon you are three hours south of Porto. So if you want to taste Port, where do you go? The answer to that question is very simple: the Instituto Dos Vinhos Do Douro e Do Porto (the Institute for the Wines of the Douro and of Porto). It’s located at 45 Rua São Pedro de Alcântara, in the district called the Barrio Alto or the “high neighborhood”. The building is an elegant old palace on a street that winds its way down the hill towards the River Tagus. The Instituto is the august body that determines if a winery’s top production in any given year is good enough to be merited as a vintage Port, so they know their way around this delicious beverage.

The Instituto operates an elegant tasting room called the Solar, where admission is free. The first thing you notice upon entering is that it is very dark. Once your eyes adjust, you see that it looks very much like a club room, very hushed with large easy chairs for you to sink into as you sip your Port. And oh, the Port you have to choose from! There are more than 300 of them from more than 60 producers, ranging from simple ruby Ports to mature vintage Ports. Prices range from a few euros to twenty-plus per glass. The low end is a real bargain; the top end is also a bargain for what you get.

Solar Lisboa renovado (6)(1)

Photograph courtesy of the Instituto Dos Vinhos Do Douro e Do Porto

For the most part, the best Ports are sold only by the bottle, so you need to be with a group to savor these extra special wines. It’s quite a show if you do. Your server arrives with the bottle cradled in his arm, wiping away the accumulation of dust. He lays it gently into a cradle that has a small crank. In order to avoid pouring sediment into your glass, he uses the crank to gently tilt the bottle so that only unsullied liquid gets there. He’ll serve you a plate of almonds to accompany your selection. You are now officially in wine-lovers’ heaven.

If you want to taste by the glass, you are hardly left out of the fun. You can try all sorts of combinations, such as the range from bottom to top of one producer. This is best if you already have some knowledge of Port and have a favorite Port house. Or to gain some knowledge of which houses you like, try tasting similar wines from multiple makers. So for example, you can sample late bottled vintage (LBV) wines from Grahams, Taylor Fladgate, Dow and Fonseca side by side or one after the other.

Another good tasting is to try a vertical of tawny ports that contain a variety of well-aged wine from various vineyards (or quintas). You can compare one winery’s 10-year, 20-year and 30-year tawnies. Needless to say, the older the wine, the more it costs. There are even some 40-year old tawnies that are quite pricy but are an exquisite experience. Steve once tasted a 40-year old Burmester there and has never forgotten it.

Once you leave the Solar, turn left and walk a hundred or so feet. There’s a little park with the best view overlooking downtown Lisbon and the Alfama hill across the way. Don’t miss it.

The Solar is open until midnight, opening at 11:00 am on weekdays and 3:00 pm on Saturdays. It’s closed on Sundays and holidays, of which there are quite a few in Portugal. We recommend that, since the days are so lovely, you shouldn’t spend them indoors. Go see the sunset over Lisbon and then taste in the evening hours.

Jazz and Wine, New Orleans Style

There are many restaurants that offer a jazz brunch. Usually, they are neither good jazz not good food. Two for the price of one often means not much at all, even for the price. A wonderful exception is Bacchanal Wine in New Orleans. As the name implies, it is really a wine bar first with jazz as an additional benefit. It is also a wine store with a pretty wide-ranging selection and a café with a menu that isn’t very wide-ranging at all. The food is more in the way of nibbles, with a soup and a sandwich available as well.

There’s jazz most of the day, starting with lunch. Jazz, wine and food are served in a courtyard in the back, or upstairs if the weather doesn’t cooperate.

Now, about the wine. While Bacchanal does have formal wine tastings (Wednesdays and Saturdays), the wines they have on offer at the bar are easy to treat as a wine-tasting. They are all reasonably priced at around $8.00 a glass. But if you go on a Monday, such as we did, they are all sold at $5.00. At that price a couple can sample quite a lot. We had the opportunity to taste two Rosés (Spanish and South African), two sparkling wines (American and French) and three reds: a Malbec from Argentina, a Nebbiolo from Langhe and a Rioja Tempranillo. Some of those weren’t glassfuls but rather sips to see if we liked them. A few we didn’t but most of them we did. A nice feature is that the wine store supplies the bar, so if you like something in particular, you can buy it and take it home.

We had particular fun with the jazz. The musician was Raphael Bas from Southwest France. He plays Gypsy jazz (also called manouche) on guitar and harmonica. He is a special favorite of ours, whom we’ve heard play and sing for about a decade when we visit New Orleans – which we do a lot. That day he was accompanied by Matt Schreiber on the accordion. You can listen to Raphael at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grHKKhnBqCM

Raphael and Matt play indoors on a rainy day

A word about the location. It’s a long way from the French Quarter in a sector called Bywater, probably because it’s by the waters of the Mississippi River. The road there, the extension of the same Chartres Street that’s so pretty in the French Quarter, is desolate and industrial, with a shipyard just across the street. When you do arrive at Bacchanal, you may well think you’re going into a dump, more of a tumbledown saloon that a place for wine and jazz. Take heart; it’s better inside and in the courtyard. It’s not a place to walk to, so you’d better take a cab and then get a number to call a cab to go back, because there are none trawling this neighborhood. The bar staff will help you with a number if you don’t have one.

Wine Tasting and Education in Your Own Town

We are lucky to live in one of the most exciting and amazing cities in the world, New York City, which has everything and so much to offer. For wine lovers, there are wine tastings all around the city, usually sponsored by wine stores and often free of charge. Some wine stores advertise their events in the newspapers, some on their website or in their stores. It is a great opportunity to discover a new wine or to meet the winemaker.

Once Sherry-Lehmann (one of the finer wine stores in New York) had a tasting of Napa Valley Stag’s Leap Artemis Cabernet Sauvignon (which happened to be one of Lucie’s top favorites) and had invited the founder and very famous winemaker of Stag’s Leap, Mr. Warren Winiarski. We knew about Mr. Winiarski from the book Judgment of Paris, which told how its 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon won first place against ten top French and California red wines in a blind taste test by leading French wine experts. Without hesitation, Lucie took the subway with the intention, of course, of buying a couple of bottles of Artemis, but particularly to have the chance to meet with Mr. Winiarski. She had a nice chat with him, had him sign our bottles and even had a little extra, a kiss on the cheek from the famous Mr. Winiarski. “What an interesting and charming man!” she still says. This is an opportunity to meet with the guy that made the wine you love so much, or the one you’re about to discover, and you’ll never forget that encounter with the winemaker whenever you open one of his bottles.

There are so many classes that one can take, from the classes for the beginners, to a Pinot Noir lecture and tasting, to Wine and Food Pairing, to Italian Wines, etc. Those classes usually include a lecture and a wine tasting, often served with bread and cheese. It is a great chance to learn about wine without leaving your own town. Should you have never heard about those classes in your town, we would suggest you walk to your favorite wine store and ask them; if they do not have any wine tasting or classes, maybe you could suggest them to do so.

As we said, living in New York City offers a lot of opportunities where so many wine stores have wine classes and wine tastings. We have been attending some of those classes and always go away with more knowledge, be it a class to discover different wine making regions of Italy, a tasting of American versus French Pinot Noir, food and wine pairing or Rhône wines.

We love to travel to Wine Country, but we also love to stop at a wine store and have a tasting … without leaving town!