How-To: Bottle Sizing

Hi all! Here's a short video clip of me discussing wine and beer sizes. If this size is too small for you, click on the link. 

Wine Flash: 2011 Herencia Altés grenache (Spain)

Here's a quick Wine Flash snapshot. It's a 2011 Herencia Altés black grenache (or garnaxia negra) from the Terra Alta winemaking region, located near Aragón, Spain. I've had this vintage and appellation before, but I've had the wine young, so I'm curious to see how it's aged. It was excellent before, so my hopes are high!

It's delicious, smooth and "round," with some pretty expressive blue grape flavors and a slight hint of white sugar. The finish is clean, with very little alcohol tastes. Since it's aged, the flavors are more muted and softer, but also a little dryer. A wonderful wine to enjoy either on a daily basis or paired with delicate meats like roasted lamb or perhaps a cheese plate.

Chateau Ste Michelle - 2011 "Im'press'ive" cabernet sauvignon (USA)

Today's wine is a very, very special one. Not found in any stores, I bought this back in August at the Chateau Ste Michelle winery in Woodinville, Washington. It's their 2011 "Im'press'ive," an aged Cabernet Sauvignon from Washington's Columbia Valley. It's a rare bottle - only 743 cases were ever produced...that's fewer than 9000 bottles ever produced in the history of time. And it's also another milestone for me - I believe it's the most expensive bottle of red wine I've ever purchased. It costs $50 per bottle, and the only other wine I've ever bought that was more expensive was a $75 bottle of Taylor Fladgate 20-year aged Port, which is technically a fortified wine and thus I don't count it in my red wine category.

And in fact, I don't mean to brag about the cost - on the contrary. I've never before tried a wine this expensive, and very seldom spend this much, so I'm eager to see what, if anything, sets it apart from the usual $20 bottles of Cote du Rhone I have with dinner. This wine is about double what I would normally spend on a fine bottle, and part of the learning process is checking out wine (and beer and cigars) outside of one's normal price range. As we have discussed often, price is not always an indicator of quality in a wine - as evidenced by some great Trader Joe's blends under the $6 mark. However. knowing CSM's quality, and how much I like their wine, I wanted to see what a winery-only, super-premium offering might look like. So, enter the "Im'press'ive."

It's a Cabernet Sauvignon, 14.4% ABV, and the strange name is due to the idea of a "press cut" - the process of pressing the grapes after fermentation to get the juice. This wine is made from late pressings, which according to the bottle were "amazing." Also, you'll notice the name is a riff on "press" - Impressive.

Both the cork and wine have an interesting aroma. It's not berries, or jam, but sort of a slightly-sour floral aroma. That's something I don't think I've encountered before. This was just after corking, mind you, so I waited about 20 minutes to see what happened (volatizing the esters all the while.) It's warmed up wonderfully, with those sour aromas dying down and giving way to a much more pleasing leather and blackberry aroma, which is very full and projects nicely from the glass. The eye, or the color of the wine, is a colorful ruby color.

The wine has bricked just a little bit - this means the meniscus of the wine has a darker red, almost brown color. Usually a sign of aging. Still, the color is really nice in the glass. OK - the moment has arrived. Time to take a sip.

First impressions are very positive - it's super soft, almost too soft, but after a fraction of a second, the wine comes to life and delivers a deep wave of plum flavors, which develop very nicely into some soft red cherry flavors. All of this happens in a second or so, and as those flavors disappear, I'm left with an unmistakable hint of tannic flavors on the finish, and an aftertaste mostly of red cherries. That aftertaste is present for quite some time, very pleasantly so. Wow, this wine is practically perfect.

What strikes me the most about this is how the wine is able to deliver that strong and delicious taste while also being so soft. Some wines, as they age and get soft, they sometimes lose flavors that one might want to keep. For example, I had a delicious bottle of 2005 Georges DeBoeuf Beaujolais Gran-Cru Chenas back in 2010, and the flavor was almost too soft (which is shame, what a nice bottle of wine that was...) But the Im'press'ive doesn't lose those flavors - the tannins are softened away and the "strength" of the wine muted, but the flavors still there. It really lives up to its name, I can tell you that - an impressive, delicious bottle of wine of which I'd love to be able to afford more. Perhaps next time I'm in Woodinville I'll grab a case as a treat.

By the way, I am also pairing this with a fancy meal I made, recipe courtesy of dear friend Irving Hopkins at Butternut Farm. It's lamb, pan-fried in some Kerrygold butter, with an onion, rosemary, garlic cloves, and pearl barley all added to some simmering mushrooms, oregano, and Italian tomatoes cooked in chicken stock with a splash of Spanish red table wine. I wanted to choose lamb because of the tenderness, and after cooking the stew for 2 full hours, it paired so perfectly with the wine - the lamb was soft, delicious, and tender with the spices not overpowering it at all. A very successful pairing!

Beer Flash: Smuttynose Brewing Co.'s "Shoals" pale ale

Just a quick beer flash - today I'm drinking a Smuttynose "Shoals" pale ale. It's a 5.6% ABV pale ale, and is in fact the first recipe of beer that Smuttynose ever produced. I grabbed it in a you-mix-six at Harris Teeter. The beer was a straightforward pale ale, hoppy with some nice bread tastes with a crisp malty finish. Good beer, nothing terribly exciting, but tasty nonetheless.

To pair with it, I made a lemon pepper pasta with rosemary garlic butter and tangy sriracha-braised bacon. Bacon makes everything great! The pasta is bright and tangy and sharp, and the bready and hoppiness of the pale ale makes a nice contrast.

Little Creatures Brewing - "Little Creatures" pale ale (Australia)

Today's beer is a special one - brought to me by fellow beer enthusiast (and verified Australian) Bav on his recent trip to Washington. It's an authentic Australian beer - a 4.5% ABV bright ale from West Australian brewery Little Creatures Brewing Co.

First, a bit about Australian beer.

Source:independentbeers.com

Unfortunately, many bars Stateside seldom offer anything except Foster's. Foster's, marketed as a quintessential Ozzie brew, is not really the best beer from Down Under. Ask any Australian, or really anyone familiar with the beer scene in Australia. It's like saying that Budweiser or Coors Light is the best American beer. There are so many better options out there, most unfortunately are not available here. That's why I'm super lucky that Bav was able to bring me today's beer, a bright ale from Little Creatures Brewing Co. out of Fremantle, Australia, just outside of the western port of Perth. The brewery was founded in the year 2000, and according to the bottle, the name "little creatures" is an allusion to the yeast in beer - little creatures that make alcohol.

As an Aussie would say - let's give it a burl.

Pours nicely, with a foamy ivory head, which leaves some lacing on the inside of the rim. Lots of carbonation and little bubbles rising to the top.

I like the golden color - very clean-looking. In terms of taste, it's very wheaty, clean and straightforward, with a curiously pleasant strength to it. Nice and full. The finish was very malty, which was great, but with a tolerable and welcome hint of hops.

In addition to the beer, as a thank you for arranging a visit to Congress, Bav got me a guide to beer in Australia and New Zealand, edited by Australian beer maven Ian Kingham. It's a rather in-depth guide indeed, and I've been enjoying looking through it. The book does include a little bit about Little Creatures, mostly that it has "good malt layering" and has "strong hop bitterness" on the finish. Well, I don't know about that - there certainly was some hop character in there, but I experience much more wheaty, biscuity malt character than strong hops.

In the end, I think it strikes a good balance between a light, session lager and a darker ale. This is easier said than done and frankly I'm quite pleased. The alcohol content is just right - 4.5%, so super light - and the format is right - an Imperial pint, or 20 fluid ounces - so it makes for a nice refreshing brew with no funky flavors or experimental ingredients.

How-To: Choosing a Wine

For another how-to segment, I'm going to be discussing something that seems very tricky - choosing a wine...be it for dinner, or bringing over a friend's, or choosing a wine for your cellar. With the holidays in full swing, it's probably a good time to talk about how to select a bottle for your next Christmas party, New Year's Eve celebration, or whatever. Similar principles apply to beer, a segment about which I may do in the future.

Which one do you choose?

Choosing a wine may seem complicated. And it can be. There are books written about it, articles discussing it, and you can take wine classes on the topic. And like anything, you can overthink things, agonize over labels and appellations and aging and prices and other considerations. But ain't nobody got time for that. Choosing a wine can be simple once you understand a few basic questions:

1. Intention - why am I buying this? For what purpose?
2. Taste - what particular taste, if any, am I looking for?
3. Price - how much do I have to spend?

So speaking of intentions, there are generally two different "reasons" for getting wine - either you want to drink it soon (tonight over Netflix, or next week at a friend's, or five minutes from now in the parking lot of a suburban Chili's, etc) or you want to save it for the future (be it next year, or in twenty years.) Saving wines for the long-long-term future is a whole 'nother ball of wax, which I won't focus on here.

Choosing a Wine for Now

For Dinner

Let's say you are making dinner tonight and want to drink wine with your meal. Since you know that certain wines complement certain foods better than others, you know that you want to choose the best wine for the occasion.

This can be confusing and prone to overthinking; however, the great part about it is that it's hard to really screw up. The best place to start when choosing a wine is to work backwards. What food are you serving? Ideally, a wine should complement your dinner perfectly. Be thinking about tastes and textures. You want to strike a balance with your wine - you don't want the wine too strong and harsh that it overpowers the flavor of your food, but by the same token you don't want to choose something so delicate that your food masks the intricacies of a wine.

So this takes a bit of research - since you know what you're making, or what's being served if you're going out. White wines have typically paired well with fish (or some chicken dishes) because fish usually has a delicate flavor, and you'd want something equally delicate so you don't hide that fish flavor. Likewise, hearty Italian dishes like Bolognese or lasagna are flavorful and strong, and so having something powerful like a Merlot or a Chianti is a good choice.

Sweetness can also be a factor. Sweet wines like Gewurztraminer, Riesling, or Vouvray can work well with spicy dishes - again, with a balance. Personally, my favorite cuisine to cook is South Asian...Indian and Pakistani. Lots of super spicy flavors there, so generally I go with a tough red like Pinot Noir (or sometimes even a Pinot Grigio, if I'm making a more mellow dish like chicken tikka masala.) So it's all in the parity - if you're making a dish with delicate flavor, choose a more mellow wine. If your dinner is strong, hearty and spicy, you may want to kick your wine up a notch.

A grilled top sirloin with tarragon rice - and a balanced wine.

At a Friend's House

So let's say you are invited to a friend's house for dinner. As an aspiring wine connoisseur, you debate bringing a bottle of wine. When choosing a wine to bring, a lot of folks just grab something relatively cheap. Which is generally fine, but you may want to think a little broader. Who is going to be there? What is going to be served? Is it held outside? Your choice of wine when attending a formal Christmas dinner is going to be different than if you're going to a 4th of July cookout.

When I am asked to come over for dinner, I usually bring a very approachable red wine. Because unless I know the menu ahead of time, or if I am cooking, it would be hard to accurately pair the wine with dinner. And I also don't want to overthink things. Instead, by choosing something enjoyable and neutral, I'm not at risk of clashing with the dinner. Good examples of go-to reds I have are Bordeaux, Tempranillo, and Beaujolais that are light, jammy, and generally go well with most any dish, and are also great with cheese and crackers. Also great on its own! These also make great wines to bring to holiday parties, or as gifts, since they are middle-of-the-road vintages that go well with most foods. They're also reasonably priced, around $12 or $13 for a good one.

Choosing a Wine for Later

Let's say you've got to the point where you want to stash a few bottles away for a rainy day. Or maybe you are looking to pick up some good bottles and save them for later, when they will be great bottles. Determining which bottles will seriously improve over time is very advanced and best left to wine professionals and sommeliers. I'm neither, but I have a great resource in friend and wine merchant Charles Bissell. An expert in wine, Charles recommends that when you are shopping for wine to save, your first question should be how long you want to save it for. Certain wines only age a couple of years before they're ready; some can last for decades. It's hard to tell with a lot of wine, and since neither you nor I are at that level, it's best to consult an expert if you want to save something for over 5 years.

The good news is, most red wines will be fine for up to 5 years. Certain wines age better over that time, certain wines (like tempranillo, one of my favorites) is very fruity and best enjoyed in its youth.

Also - Charles recommends diversification. Don't fill up your cellar with just one type of wine. Find what you like, but also don't be afraid to try new things. Here's just some of what I have on hand:

The labels are hard to read, but I have a good spread of red wines: Cotes du Rhone, bordeaux, carignan, grenache, syrah, port, pinot noir, and various blends thereof. All of these wines are OK to store for a year or more. The one on the far left, the Taylor Fladgate 20 year aged port, is good for over 25 years!

Let's Talk Cost

Usually, people buy cheap wine because it's cheap. And for the folks who may not be experienced in wine tasting, it should be a no-brainer to buy the $6 option over the $25 option, especially when the connotations of quality are not easily discerned. There are literally tens of thousands of kinds of wine out there, and when faced with two full aisles of nearly-identical wine at Harris Teeter, you're not going to want to look each one up. You're going to want to look at the price tag first.

Although cost is not always indicative of quality, in my opinion there is an objective baseline. For me, there comes a point where cheap wine ceases to be a good deal and becomes, well, cheap wine. Swill. It's my own personal tasting belief. And it doesn't come from the cost, either. There are plenty of fun, cheap wines that are super tasty. For example, I do enjoy Broke Ass Red, which I reviewed three years ago. That's a malbec/syrah blend for well under $10. And the Chariot Gypsy, a Trader Joe's exclusive, is four dollars. Four bucks! There are some good cheap wines out there, but you have to know which ones are "diamonds in the rough" and which ones are just rough. The only way to truly figure this out is to try it first. If it's awful, don't buy it again.

There are also plenty of wine critics out there, but before you run out to read the next issue of Wine Spectator, pause for a moment. Wine critics are specialists, with specialized palates and sometimes-laser focus. What they say may sound good, but it may not be helpful to you. Sometimes their reviews are biased, or at a higher level than you or I may appreciate. But enough about objectivity - it's really up to you to figure out what you like. And so when it comes down to it, remember: you're not buying for a restaurant, you're buying for yourself. Try as many kinds of wine as you can, figure out what flavors you like and can afford, and you'll be fine.

Beer Flash: Stone's "12.12.12 Vertical Epic"

Since it's 12/12/15, I of course had to dive into a "12.12.12 Vertical Epic" from Stone, which I've reviewed here, and mentioned several other times. I am still pleased at how this aged - a deep and dark beer, only made sweeter and stronger by the passing of time. Happy December 12th.

Pierre Amadieu - 2008 Roulepierre Cotes du Rhone (France)

Another wine from the archives - I had this bottle in my cellar for many years and decided to serve it during dinner at my father's a few weeks ago. It's a 2008 Pierre Amadieu Cotes du Rhone, grown in the Rhone region of France (as luck might have it.) The Rhone winemaking region, which stretches hundreds of miles across France, is home to many AOCs and types of grape. The term Cotes du Rhone applies to chiefly red wine (black grenache) but can also apply to white and rosé made in this region. I've reviewed a couple of examples from this type of wine here on the blog in years past.

Aroma is of cherries and bright fruit with some alcohol thrown in. Smells pretty good, letting it sit for longer than usual since I have a feeling it's going to be super delicate. This is due to my knowledge of the vintage (Cotes du Rhone can be delicate) and also the aging time (7 years), which can be long for certain vintages.

Nice color to the wine - it's a little darker in person but the phone camera actually captures the color well.

I was pleased by this wine - it's got a very refined texture, with well-developed tastes and distinct flavors of cherry and blackberry. However - and here's the problem - those flavors are not bright as it could or should be, most likely due to aging. I think some of the flavors that could have been strong and bright or were too faint to be appreciated. It's delicate, which is fine, but that requires a balance I think. Glad I had it, paired with cast-iron cowboy steaks and homemade, from-scratch garlic mashed potatoes. The food didn't overpower it, a thought which crossed my mind as I saw those delicious cuts of meat sizzling on the cast-iron plates!

Beer Flash: Fremont Brewing Co. - "Cowiche Canyon" IPA

Here's a quick Beer Flash to to show what I've been drinking lately. It's Fremont's "Cowiche Canyon" fresh hop ale, a limited release sent to me by my brother Dan. I love the can's color and design.

Pours swiftly, with thick white foam. It's got a very strong fruit aroma - pineapple. Pineapple! That's great. It's a hazy orange color, brighter yellow when candled.

Interestingly, it was much lighter than expected. No stingy hops, very smooth and buttery with a full and refreshing flavor. I was expecting something similar to Lonerider's "The Hops You Rode In On," sort of a fresh-hop burst. But instead it was much more polished and full. In the end, though, it's an excellent ale. Silky smooth, bright and fresh, with flavorful hops and no bitterness to boot. I could get used to this - a smooth, delicious session ale.

Stone Brewing Co. - "08.08.08. Vertical Epic" ale

Today's beer may be deceiving - at first look, it appears to be a famed Stone Brewing Co. "08.08.08." from their Vertical Epic series. As discussed last summer, Stone Brewing Co. had released a special beer every year to commemorate their anniversary, for 12 years, starting with 01.01.01. They're all strange and interesting takes on traditional beer genres, and were a great success.

It's rare, but not unheard of, to find original Vertical Epics out in the wild. Irving Wines and Spirits had a couple of "12.12.12"s a few years back, which I eagerly grabbed up. Whole Foods recently started carrying vintage 12s for $17. So when I saw this, I did a double-take. However, look closer. It's actually an encore re-release - Stone has re-released some of their more famous offerings in celebration of the brewery's 20th anniversary. I, also, am celebrating a bit of an anniversary...this post is my 200th post on this blog!

As with all Vertical Epics, there's something of a mystery of what's inside. Let's figure out what's up with it later - let's try it now. It's way lighter that I expected. Maybe because the 12.12.12. was super dark, I was expecting this to be the same. But as you can see, it pours a light amber.

It produces a lacy white foam that settles to another amoeba-like pattern in the glass. It's got a faint aroma of sour apple and malts. Interesting.

It's sharp, kinda sour, but warms up well on the tongue, ends up being super yeasty and warm, with a bit of spices, and a bite of hops on the way down. I can definitely feel the carbonation. I don't really detect any of the apple flavors I found in the aroma, but I like that big, bold body to the beer. It's worth noting as well this drinks below its weight, too - it's 8.6% ABV, but tastes more like 6 or 7.

So let's research this bad boy and figure out what it is, exactly. According to the back of the bottle, it's an 8.6% ABV pale golden ale inspired by Belgian trippels. Kind of a West Coast take on the trippel, which is fun. Adding lots of dry hops isn't uncommon for test or experimental beers - Stone also made last year's off-season iteration of the Old Guardian with tons of extra hops. I enjoy the boldness of it, and coupled with that tinge of Belgian yeast and spice flavors, makes for a good beer.

Beer Flash - Christine's 2014-vintage "Oktoberfest" ale

Just a quick snapshot of what I have been drinking lately - it's my colleague Christine's homebrewed ale, vintage 2014. It's a 5.4% ABV ale brewed in the Oktoberfest style. Since it's been aging for over a year now, it's kind of an experiment to see how it turned out...most commercially-available beers are sealed mechanically, but as you can see, this is in repurposed bottle. Sealing by hand is an imperfect process, which can be a risk with some homebrews. But - as ever the optimist - I'll happily give it a spin.

It cracks open nicely, with a quiet hiss of carbonation. That's good sign #1. If it didn't, well, not always a bad thing, but the fact that it did shows me the bottle is sealed nicely. There's a good seal so likely no leakage. It's also in a brown bottle, which is better at blocking lower-wavelength light, which recalling your high school physics class you may remember that lower-wavelength light contains more energy. Light damages beer and wine no matter what, but higher-energy light can damage beer quicker. That's good sign #2.

Pours quickly, leaving a solid 1/4 inch of bone-white head on the pour. Aroma is faintly of spice and alcohol.  The color is murky brown, not something I'd expect from an Oktoberfest, but that's okay. It's not chunky or smelly or green, so that's good sign #3.

It's rather biscuity - a muted ale with some spice notes and a little bit of dark fruit cassis, kinda like what I'd expect in a red wine. It's not skunky or anything, just very dank, deep, and sweet. Aging can do some strange stuff to beer, but in this case I think the time it spent in the bottle certainly mellowed it, and changed some of the textures and flavors pretty significantly to almost a different kind of beer.

This reminds me a lot of the King Crimson, but the vintage one I reviewed last year. It has that same mellowness of flavor, heavy malt aspect, and dank character, all of which I enjoy. I'd say this is a pleasant divergence from the usual crisp-and-coppery Oktoberfest.

Chateau Ste Michelle - 2010 Indian Wells cabernet sauvignon

Today's wine is an old bottle elevated from the depths of my cellar to take its moment of fame. It's a 2010-vintage cabernet sauvignon from Chateau Ste Michelle, specifically from their Indian Wells vineyard in the Wahluke Slope AVA, which is part of the greater Columbia Valley AVA in south-central Washington state. It's aged for some time, and is now in the prime tasting window.

Poured nicely out of the bottle, no sediment or anything. I let it sit for shorter than usual - only 10 minutes - since dinner timing required that change. Anyways - damn, this wine is smooth and super full. It's got a strong, full body of blueberry and light cassis flavors (that's grape skin), which lingers for a long time on the palette. The finish is a soft, aromatic burst of Concord grape and a pleasant aftertaste slightly hinting at alcohol esters, but not nearly enough to cause any unpleasant tastes or heartburn.

Despite the strong body - it's not aggressive. I think it's aged well, showing that "roundness" of flavor, but also the depth of its heritage. Cabernet Sauvignon can be a very powerful wine, but after almost six years, the aging process made it softer and rounder. dry, approaching a bit tannic, but delicious nonetheless. We paired this with homemade pasta and slow-cooked meatballs and those flavors matched up nicely.