Quickie Post - Parducci Merlot at Brio Tuscan Grille

Having a Parducci Merlot with dinner. It is nice and fruity, a bit of a dry finish, but good and drinkable.

Don't even know the year.

Dinner with Aunt Dee and Uncle Jim at Brio Tuscan Grille--food: two thumbs up, jazz combo stylishly pummeling Lady Gaga and Sneaker Pimps: two thumbs down--in Murray (Salt Lake City). The company is more important than the year.

Impromptu Mini-Tasting

While traveling, I have an opportunity to have lunch in the Salt Lake airport so I am eating at Vino Volo Alehouse.

They have a wine menu that allows you to try three wines and have a little mini tasting. Pretty ingenious.

I'm having the following:
Bearboat Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast, 2008

Castillo de Monjardin Garnacha La Cantera 2009

Vina Leyda Carmenere Rapel Valley 2010

I have had Bearboat before, so got that for contrast, although I think I had 2010 Pinot. If only I had started this blog sooner!

The 2008 is nice and light. I hesitate to say it is dry because I haven't had much food other than a clif bar for breakfast on the plane about two hours ago.

Josh suggested the tasting. Rachel here is taking care of me.

The Bearboat is much lighter and gentler than these two others. Perfect for drinking. The Garnacha has a richer, drier quality, but there is an unusual sweetness to it that is really appealing. It is hard to describe, but this wine feels nice and proper without being snotty. I think we can all agree there is nothing worse than snot-wine.

I have had only one Grenache prior to this, so I'm not as familiar with this varietal as I'd like to be. More about Grenache in the future.

The biggest surprise for me is the Carmenere. It a big bold flavor, but being a European varietal, it has a subtle quality to it. It's not like an American Cab where it beats you over the head, like the Garnacha, it feels proper (though it does have a little attitude). Very savory, a little jam, but this wine wants a steak. Unfortunately my roast beef sandwich will have to do for now.

So now that I have been eating sandwich and drinking the wines, the Bearboat tastes downright sweet by comparison. Especially against the Carmenere.

Wrapping up this experience, I would recommend that you drink wine with lunch.

How long does wine keep after it is opened?

It keeps forever, if you are crazy, or if you enjoy drinking salad dressing right from the bottle. I shouldn't judge. Have you had Ken's Steakhouse-brand?

After a certain point, it turns to vinegar.

In terms of unopened wines, from what I have learned, different varietals have a different shelf life. A cab will keep for a loooong time, years, decades even; a white, not so much. Syrah, Merlot, and Petite Syrah can sit longer than a Pinot. I think. I could be completely full of shit. Screw cap wine--some of it is quite yummy--is meant be be opened and enjoyed in fairly short order. The best thing is to contact the winery and see what they recommend.

Despite a recommendation to hold onto such and such for 10 years (whatever, I need this shit today!), many wines can still be enjoyed right away, as long as you allow them to open properly.

To open, simply open the wine two to five hours prior to drinking. Just pop the cork and let it sit there. You can also get a decanter, which can speed along the "opening" process. Santa brought us a fancy-shmancy one because they were on clearance at Williams-Sonoma. Opening is basically where oxygen interacts with the wine and allows the flavors to develop and come alive.

We typically pour a little pre-decanted wine in a glass and then compare. It's fun, and a good way to start educating one's palette.

The time when I feel my wine knowledge leaps ahead the most is at wine tastings where you try several wines back to back. It's tough to judge a wine on its own, because the flavor can change depending on what you are eating. We had an opportunity to attend a wine tasting where the chef had a plate of different things: steak, salmon, fruit, and chocolate. And gave us some specific wines (they were all European varietals - that's a topic for a different day), and specific combinations. But the valuable thing was not just selling us wine, but educating us. He gave us combinations that worked and many that didn't. We took a bit of apple and tried a pinot gris that was horrible. The apple eliminated the sweetness in the wine and all you could taste was the acidity, but take a bite of the salmon instead, and the wine just came to life and was wonderful.

I'm sorry I got off topic. How long does a wine keep? Two to three days. Three is really pushing it for some wines. Some get downright hairy by day 3. I'd recommend a wine-saver, the kind that pumps the air out of the bottle. They are $10, I think. Worth it if you are the only one in your household that is interested in wine and don't want to feel that pressure to drink a whole bottle on a Tuesday night.

Rosenblum Vintner's Cuvée Syrah 2009

Rosenblum is a master of Zin, but this Syrah is deep and gentle and bold. I can't fully explain why this is the shit, but we love it and bought a case. Though, that was a while ago and the case is half drunk...drunkened...be-drinkled.

Crooked Path, Zinfandel, 2010

I have been promised a trip to Paso for some full-contact tasting, but the travel agents have yet to come through for me.

We had a Crooked Path Zin a few months before, but damned if I made a note of the year. I remember it was good. This wine, being a 2010, could probably benefit sitting on a shelf for a while. But it did open nicely. It is a big, rich and spicy wine. Hard to say if it is a hungry wine, but it's hard to imagine this ruining your steak.

I let the wine open a day longer than I normally would, meaning it took me an extra day to drink it. It was wild on that last day. Like frizzy hair at the equator, it was like drinking a bramble.

Vampire, North Coast Merlot, 2010

Gregory ordered a case from Woot of a variety of Vampire's offerings. Thus far we have only opened up the Merlot. It wasn't blood at all! Here I was looking forward to describing the bouquet as "wilted," the legs as "broken," or the body as "hastily buried," rather, it was good, very general wine-flavored wine. I look forward to opening more varietals and having a little tasting, followed by a sipping, and then guzzling. So more to come on the Vampire experience. Do they make wine bongs?

Welcome

Welcome to our wine blog.

A caution, there may sometimes be swearing in these posts. I always try to be funny about it. If you're easily offended, well you may be fucked.

So, why "Notes of Wine" for a title? Have you ever heard someone saying, while swirling and sniffing, I'm getting notes of blackberries and cherries, or tobacco and leather, or citrus, or werewolf?

I get notes of ... wine. It tastes like wine to me. This one tastes more purple than the other one. My palette has a ways to go on the road to sophistication.

I don't know much about wine other than I like it. But I want to learn more about it, the subtleties between different varietals, and at the same time, I want to keep a record of the good and bad bottles I encounter. I've had enough now where I can't remember if I've had something when I see it in the store, and it would be great if I could just look it up to know if I have had it before, and is it fancy enough for a birthday, or terrible swill so bad you'll never be invited back.

Sometimes it feels like hit and miss. I'm prone to picking a label if it has a dragon on it (who wouldn't. Dragon wine? Are you kidding me? I'mma drink that shit at the checkout!). It seems that some wineries have a specialty, and even though, their syrahs may be awful, their pinots are amazing. Things like that.

"Notes" can easily refer to my jotting down of little things here and there, ala notes "on" wine. And I am also a musician, so the "notes" part relates to all the wrong ones I sing after drinking too much.