Wine Reviews: Weekly Mini Round-Up For August 7, 2017

So, like, what is this stuff, anyway?
I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine reviews (mostly from samples) and tasting notes with you via twitter (limited to 140 characters). They are meant to be quirky, fun, and easily-digestible reviews of currently available wines. Below is a wrap-up of those twitter wine reviews from the past week (click here for the skinny on how to read them), along with links to help you find these wines, so that you can try them for yourself. Cheers!

• 09 Giovanni Negro Roero Arneis Brut (Roero): Fresco, fresco, fresco! More textural than complex, but in this bubbly case it's enough. $NA B+ >>find this wine<<
• 13 Careglio Roero (Roero): Chewy dark cherries, aromatic well-worn leather, freshly sprouted violets, and heaping helpings of spices. $27 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 13 Matteo Correggia La Val dei Preti (Roero): Roero Nebbiolo that's floral, minty, lovely, and dark, but also wholly accessible. $NA B+ >>find this wine<<
• 15 Consorzio San Michele Invidia (Vermentino di Gallura): If you like 'em tight and stony, then get ready to pucker up to this one. $NA B+ >>find this wine<<
• NV Marcato 36 Mesi Monti Lessini Durello Brut (Veneto): Raging acids, but it'd be tough to find a better Summer sipping bargain. $10 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 12 Weingut Florian Weingart Bopparder Hamm Engelstein Riesling Kabinett Feinherb (Mittelrhein): That time when apples were gorgeous. $26 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 14 Guy Breton Regnie (Beaujolais): You can cover delightful in earth, pepper, and funk all you like, but delightful it will remain. $30 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 14 Stewart Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley): You wanna get bold? You wanna get bold? Cuz this is ready to get bold, brah! $68 A- >>find this wine<<
• 15 Stewart Sonoma Mountain Chardonnay (Sonoma Mountain): Lip-smacking tastiness, wrapped up in just a bit too much silk. $40 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 16 I Stefanini Monte de Toni Soave Classico (Soave): Like Summer fun in bottle form, with a side of lemons on a slate plate. $22 B+ >>find this wine<<

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Copyright © 2016. Originally at Wine Reviews: Weekly Mini Round-Up For August 7, 2017 from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

source http://www.1winedude.com/wine-reviews-weekly-mini-round-up-for-august-7-2017/

37th Heaven (Highlights From The 2017 San Francisco International Wine Competition)

All smocked up and ready to go

By the time that you read these, the results of the 37th (!!) annual San Francisco International Wine Competition should be publicly available, so I thought that I would share some of the highlights among the event’s big winners.

The SFIWC is one of my favorite weekends of the year. Under the watchful eyes of Executive Director Anthony Dias Blue and Director of Judging Tim McDonald, SFIWC assembles a top-notch volunteer crew and some of the best and most experienced tasters in the U.S. wine biz (and yes, I’m still trying to figure out why they keep inviting me to judge).

That large, talented team happens to be chock full of some of the funniest, liveliest, and kindest people in wine, and so it’s a real pleasure to interact, work, and generally just break bread with all of those folks.

Sweepstakes and super tasting require smocks, not capes…

We also happen to taste some killer juice over that weekend, all done blind within categories, in panels of 3-4 people,  with “super tastings” and an eventual sweepstakes round to help determine the best-of-the-best. It’s from that latter category – the wines fully deserving of having Tenacious D’s To Be The Best as their theme song – that I draw my personal competition highlights…

Best in Show Sparkling & Best Brut:
2008 Gloria Ferrer Royal Cuvee Brut Sparkling (Carneros, $37)

This is GF’s late-disgorged, first-pressed marvel of a bubbly, and in my experience one that out-performs some sparkling wines that run $15-$20 higher per bottle. All that aging means more yeasty, briche-toasty-goodness for you, but with ample apple and stone fruit action courtesy of the warm California sun.

Best in Show White & Best Other White Varietal Wine:
2016 Pearmund Cellars Petit Manseng (Virginia, $25)

Some would (justifiably) balk a bit in skepticism over a Petit Manseng from Virginia taking a Best in Show trophy nod, but before you join their ranks (and believe me, I understand, because I briefly went there myself), please consider this: a) it’s possible, but not easy, to make excellent Petit Manseng, b) it’s possible, but not easy to make excellent wine in Virginia, and c) it’s very much not easy to make excellent Petit Manseng in VA. To achieve all three, delightfully, and with ample citrus and aromatic joie de vivre that can stand toe-to-toe with much pricier and more recognizable competition is quite an accomplishment, and one deserving of recognition.

Another day at the office…

Best Furmint:
2015 Barta Oreg Kiraly Furmint (Tokaji, $39)

Included in this list only because it’s a sentimental favorite, and one that I am personally happy to see get serious props from the SFIWC judging squad. Long-time 1WD readers will recognize Barta from my Furmint USA promo days, and it’s good to see some prize-winning by these champions of dry Furmint, who are quite literally salvaging part of the grape variety’s history in Tokaj. As for the wine: think deep, focused, linear, mineral, and lovely.

 

Best in Show Red, Best Rhone Varietal Wine, & Best Mourvèdre
2015 Jeff Runquist Wines “R” Three Way Vineyard Mataró (Paso Robles, $32)

This one won’t be easy to find, but those who dig Mourvèdre will want to try anyway, because this red kicks a lot of wine booty and is well deserving of its triple SFIWC winnings. Equal parts dense, spicy, and lively, the dark berry fruit flavors here are buoyed by good acid structure and the kind of black pepper and floral notes over which Mataró lovers go all cuckoo-for-cocoa-puffs.

 

Best Late Harvest White:
2014 Szent Tamás ‘Mád’ Late Harvest (Tokaj-Hegyalja, $35)

Hungary strikes again, beeeeatches! A traditional blend of Furmint and Hárslevelű, my understanding is that this sipper is made in partnership with Szepsy Winery, meaning that it has some of the resources of one of the world’s truly great winemakers behind it. If anything, this honeyed, floral, spicy, grapey, and delicious nectar is accessible, but for all of its unctuousness it lacks neither complexity or vibrancy.

 

Best in Show Dessert Wine, Best Fortified Wine, & Best Port:
1967 Kopke Colheita Port (Portugal $225)

I believe the word we’re looking for here is “ringer.” Hazelnuts, toast, smoke, spice, dried fruits, caramel… this is intense, traditional, and Old School all the way. Monocle, cigar, well-weatherd leather chair, and dark, wood-appointed smoking room not included.

Cheers!

Grab The 1WineDude.com Tasting Guide and start getting more out of every glass of wine today!

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Copyright © 2016. Originally at 37th Heaven (Highlights From The 2017 San Francisco International Wine Competition) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

source http://www.1winedude.com/37th-heaven-highlights-from-the-2017-san-francisco-international-wine-competition/

Wine Reviews: Weekly Mini Round-Up For July 31, 2017

So, like, what is this stuff, anyway?
I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine reviews (mostly from samples) and tasting notes with you via twitter (limited to 140 characters). They are meant to be quirky, fun, and easily-digestible reviews of currently available wines. Below is a wrap-up of those twitter wine reviews from the past week (click here for the skinny on how to read them), along with links to help you find these wines, so that you can try them for yourself. Cheers!

• 16 Bastianich Vini Orsone Friulano (Friuli-Venezia Giulia): Get yer thinking cap on, you'll need it for this textural, intellectual 1 $25 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 13 Bastianich Plus Colli Orientali del Friuli (Friuli-Venezia Giulia): Old in spirit, but powerful & fresh in nearly all other ways. $40 A- >>find this wine<<
• 14 Chateau Montelena Winery Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley): Juicy, minty, smokey, & proving that CM haven't missed a beat. $58 A- >>find this wine<<
• 13 Steven Kent Winery Lineage (Livermore Valley): Checking in a year later &… yep, it's still a complete, total, & utter stunner. $155 A >>find this wine<<
• 16 Steven Kent Winery Lola White Whine (Livermore Valley): Fresh, zesty, & proud of the fresh ginger it just picked up at the market. $24 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 14 Chappellet Signature Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley): Three cheers for Petit Verdot & supporting cast, who almost steal the show. $60 A- >>find this wine<<
• 12 Maculan Dindarello Moscato (Veneto): A bargain cornucopia of honey, flowers, fresh & dried fruits, with fun & elegance on the side $25 A- >>find this wine<<
• 15 Tenuta di Corte Giacobbe Vigneto Runcata (Soave Superiore): Rarely does Soave get this serious, or this, well, uhm… suave. $35 B+ >>find this wine<<
• NV Nicolas Feuillatte Brut Rose (Champagne): Red berry fruit muscles are being flexed by someone who's been training in the offseason $53 A- >>find this wine<<
• 15 Weingut Kofererhof Gewurztraminer Alto Adige Valle Isarco (Trentino-Alto Adige): Flowers, flowers, flowers, loveliness, & flowers. $30 B+ >>find this wine<<

Grab The 1WineDude.com Tasting Guide and start getting more out of every glass of wine today!

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Copyright © 2016. Originally at Wine Reviews: Weekly Mini Round-Up For July 31, 2017 from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

source http://www.1winedude.com/wine-reviews-weekly-mini-round-up-for-july-31-2017/

Wine Reviews: Weekly Mini Round-Up For July 31, 2017

So, like, what is this stuff, anyway?
I taste a bunch-o-wine (technical term for more than most people). So each week, I share some of my wine reviews (mostly from samples) and tasting notes with you via twitter (limited to 140 characters). They are meant to be quirky, fun, and easily-digestible reviews of currently available wines. Below is a wrap-up of those twitter wine reviews from the past week (click here for the skinny on how to read them), along with links to help you find these wines, so that you can try them for yourself. Cheers!

• 16 Bastianich Vini Orsone Friulano (Friuli-Venezia Giulia): Get yer thinking cap on, you'll need it for this textural, intellectual 1 $25 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 13 Bastianich Plus Colli Orientali del Friuli (Friuli-Venezia Giulia): Old in spirit, but powerful & fresh in nearly all other ways. $40 A- >>find this wine<<
• 14 Chateau Montelena Winery Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley): Juicy, minty, smokey, & proving that CM haven't missed a beat. $58 A- >>find this wine<<
• 13 Steven Kent Winery Lineage (Livermore Valley): Checking in a year later &… yep, it's still a complete, total, & utter stunner. $155 A >>find this wine<<
• 16 Steven Kent Winery Lola White Whine (Livermore Valley): Fresh, zesty, & proud of the fresh ginger it just picked up at the market. $24 B+ >>find this wine<<
• 14 Chappellet Signature Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley): Three cheers for Petit Verdot & supporting cast, who almost steal the show. $60 A- >>find this wine<<
• 12 Maculan Dindarello Moscato (Veneto): A bargain cornucopia of honey, flowers, fresh & dried fruits, with fun & elegance on the side $25 A- >>find this wine<<
• 15 Tenuta di Corte Giacobbe Vigneto Runcata (Soave Superiore): Rarely does Soave get this serious, or this, well, uhm… suave. $35 B+ >>find this wine<<
• NV Nicolas Feuillatte Brut Rose (Champagne): Red berry fruit muscles are being flexed by someone who's been training in the offseason $53 A- >>find this wine<<
• 15 Weingut Kofererhof Gewurztraminer Alto Adige Valle Isarco (Trentino-Alto Adige): Flowers, flowers, flowers, loveliness, & flowers. $30 B+ >>find this wine<<

Grab The 1WineDude.com Tasting Guide and start getting more out of every glass of wine today!

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Copyright © 2016. Originally at Wine Reviews: Weekly Mini Round-Up For July 31, 2017 from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

source http://www.1winedude.com/wine-reviews-weekly-mini-round-up-for-july-31-2017/

Glenelly 2011 “The Glass Collection” Syrah, Stellenbosch

Rack ‘Em, Stack ‘Em, Defraud ‘Em (July 2017 Wine Product Roundup)

In this too-steamy month’s round up of non-drinkable wine product samples, I’ve got two items to highlight that I can recommend without nary a reservation; and for me, when it comes to putting wine products to the test, that’s the wine scribe’s equivalent of a tall, cold glass of Soave on a hot Summer’s day.

First up is one of the Wall Mounted Wine Racks by Ultra Wine Racks (about $75); they sent me the 3ft x 1 (wine bottle) deep version, but there are several configurations from which you can choose (though the options that are multiple bottles “deep” are probably best employed in retail, restaurant, or wine cellar/storage spaces).

The bottom line is that these mostly-metal wall-mounted puppies are well-made, sturdy, and look great once installed (note that the larger you go on these racks, the more important it will be to find a stud on which to mount them… holy crap, that whole sentence fragment sounds mildly, obnoxiously sexual, doesn’t it?). Installation is relatively straightforward, but will definitely require a level, and will go much faster if you have a second person (ask me how I know) to help stabilize the racks when positioning them for the mounts, etc.

What I liked most about the Ultra Wine Rack kit was that, with the exceptions of a drill and a screwdriver, it comes with everything that you need to install and maintain it, including anchors, spare parts, and even a screwdriver drill bit, just in case. If you’re in the market for combining wine storage with some crowing/showing-off of special bottles as a side benefit, then you should take a serious look at these…

Second, and finally, even though I’ve yet to finish it, I can highly recommend veteran author Peter Hellman’s latest, In Vino Duplicitas: The Rise and Fall of a Wine Forger Extraordinaire (about $26), a detailed account of the Rudy Kurniawan wine fraud scandal.

Kurniawan’s tale is a fascinating one in the otherwise a-bit-too-stuffily-boring world of fine wine; not only because Kurniawan’s fraud shook the fine wine and auction biz to their very cores, but also because the bildungsroman of Kurniawan himself is like a glimpse into both the personal sociopathy of a criminal, and the societal sociopathy that often allows such criminals to initially flourish.

Aside from a sort of forced, affected props call out to Wine Spectator in the forward, In Vino Duplicitas is written with an easy but well-crafted prose, that occasionally seems to get a bit tangential but ultimately does a masterful job in explaining relatively arcane wine concepts and history in non-insider terms.

Hellman succeeds here in getting across not just the facts about the strangest fraud case in the modern history of fine wine, but also in getting inside the dysfunctional heads of most of the major players involved, and in helping the reader get beyond the “what” and “how” and making him/her feel the “why” behind the ripple-effect impacts that Kurniawan left in his wake.

Cheers!

Grab The 1WineDude.com Tasting Guide and start getting more out of every glass of wine today!

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Copyright © 2016. Originally at Rack ‘Em, Stack ‘Em, Defraud ‘Em (July 2017 Wine Product Roundup) from 1WineDude.com - for personal, non-commercial use only. Cheers!

source http://www.1winedude.com/rack-em-stack-em-defraud-em-july-2017-wine-product-roundup/

Recipes from the July Cooking Class

Keith and Alana prepping for a cooking class.

Cooking Class!

Corn And Zucchini Salad With Feta*

• 4 ears of corn, husked
• Kosher salt
• 4 small zucchini (about 1 1/2 pounds), thinly sliced lengthwise on a mandoline
• 8-10 zucchini blossoms, torn into large pieces (optional)
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 4 ounces feta, crumbled (about 1 cup)

Cook corn in a large pot of boiling salted water until bright yellow and tender, about 3 minutes; transfer to a plate and let cool.
Cut kernels from cobs and place in a large bowl. Add zucchini, zucchini blossoms (if using), basil, parsley, oil, vinegar, and red pepper flakes and toss to combine; season with salt and pepper. Serve topped with feta.

Do ahead: Corn can be cooked 1 day ahead. Cut kernels from cobs; cover and chill. Bring to room temperature before using.

Strata molti formaggi (Strata of many cheeses)

• 6 eggs
• 1 1/4 c milk
• 1 loaf french bread, cubed
• 8 oz cheese
• fresh cracked pepper

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and milk.  Stir in bread and cheese. Until completely coated. Scoop into greased muffin tins with an ice cream scoop topping off with remaining egg mixture. Rest overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake 15 minutes.

Smoked Chicken Thighs with Harissa

• 1 pound roasted red peppers
• 4 fresh Jalapeño chile peppers, seeded
• 2 fresh (or dried) Poblano peppers, seeded
• 2  tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 bunch parsley, rough chopped

Transfer all  ingredients except olive oil to a blender. Puree until smooth. Drizzle in extra-virgin olive oil at the end, blending for only a few seconds.

*this was replaced with a classic Caprese Salad.

More cooking classes

The post Recipes from the July Cooking Class appeared first on Wine School of Philadelphia.

source https://www.vinology.com/cooking-class-for-july-2017/