Surviving Doomsday

It’s a difficult time right now. The discomfort that stems from the pandemic gripping our lives is to a point where some are out raiding all stock of toilet paper and hand sanitizer in preparation for Doomsday. But there is something critical that you need to have on-hand during such a crisis. You need wine and plenty of it!

Yes, I realized that the wine fridge was approaching DEFCON-3 status, so it was time to load up. I picked up a nice spread of wines, white and red, Old World and New World, cheap ones and splurges. Besides, if the lady who dropped by the store could come in and clean out our stock of White Burgundy since “she doesn’t plan on going out anytime soon,” then these wines are plenty good for us.

Of course if all else fails, we’ll find some cask-strength 120 Proof whiskey to wash both our insides and outsides with. Stay safe out there, everyone.

Here’s the list:

All wines pictured are listed below, from left to right.

Estate Tiblalexis Kokarella White Blend ($13): Get exploring when the world is crumbling around you. Here is a zippy unoaked Greek white blend of the lemony, minerally Assyrtiko and the aromatic Malagouzia.

Essay White Blend ($11): Amazing blend of Chenin Blanc, Viognier, and Roussanne from South Africa; I tried some before buying, and the combination of fruity flavors and long finish make this a wine with incredible value.

La Craie Vouvray ($14): It has been a while since I tried a Vouvray…no time like the present! Chenin Blanc has rapidly become my favorite springtime grape.

Broadley Pinot Noir Willamette Valley ($23): The Greatest Wife In The World and I both really enjoy Pinot Noir from Oregon.

Frescobaldi Remole ($10): If we go through our inventory of wines in the picture quickly, I’ll just keep buying cases of this easy-drinking Sangiovese-based blend while giving some love to the folks in Italy.

Rocca delle Macie Chianti Classico ($16): If we somehow end up sequestered from the rest of society, chances are we are making a lot of pizza and pasta knowing that the kids will eat it. A Chianti Classico will pair nicely with each one of those meals.

Domaine les Semelles de Vent Vacqueyras ($24): I love the Rhone Valley’s expressions of Grenache and Syrah, and when I saw this was a new arrival I did not hesitate to blindly grab it. If you don’t see this specific producer, a Vacqueyras in this price range is where it’s at.

Piazzo Barolo ($39): Live like royalty and drink some Barolo, the Wine of Kings and the King of Wines (and for Medieval authenticity, complete with infectious disease running rampant around your castle!). Piazzo makes an outstanding range of wines, all of which can be found at outstanding value. Treat yourself…you deserve it.

Upcoming Wine & Spirits Seminars

For those of you who don’t know, not only do I spend time working on my personal beverage blog, but I also have the glitzy position of Director of Marketing & Education at the Divine Wine Emporium here in the shoreline village of Niantic, CT. With fall coming up, it means we start rounding up guest speakers from different wine and spirits companies to tell good stories and of course, pour samples for us to try.

So let me be a shill and give some press to Divine Wine today. Our calendar is filling up fast, and we are getting the festivities started tomorrow night. The guest speaker programs are typically free, while our in-house educational sessions require a fee of some kind. Here’s a rundown of what we have coming up, and if you are in town give a call to Divine Wine at (860) 691-1053 to RSVP for any of the programs below.

Thursday, September 20th, 7:00pm (Cost: $0): Single Cask Nation & More. Josh Hatton, founder of Single Cask Nation and Northeast Regional Manager for ImpEx Beverage, will be talking whisk(e)y with us. He has seven whiskies in total to share, two of which come from Single Cask Nation. Other products include Kilchoman and Isle of Skye from Scotland and Ohishi from Japan. Josh is a great guy, who I got to know back in March at a trade tasting with Skurnik Wines & Spirits.

Wednesday, September 26th, 7:00pm (Cost: $0): Piazzo Winery. We welcome this outstanding producer of Piedmont wines to the classroom. We already carry the Piazzo Barolo, and we will be tasting a range of other wines from the region (expect this to be a red wine-leaning seminar). Marco, the grandson of Armando Piazzo who is heavily involved at the winery, will be our presenter for the evening.

Wednesday October 10th/17th/24th, 7:00pm (Cost: $100 for the three sessions): Wine 101. The Boss himself, Ken Turcotte, Certified Specialist of Wine and WSET Advanced Level III is running his tremendous foundation wine course that he has taught to nearly 1,000 students over the last 16 years. He covers everything from field to bottle in a fun, casual setting over three Wednesdays in October. The tuition covers all study materials and wines that will be tasted.

Thursday, October 25th, 7:00pm (Cost TBD): Gin Lane 1751. Geoff Curley, founder of Gin Lane 1751, is extremely passionate about gin and works to not only build his brand, but to promote the gin category. He will be offering a full seminar on gin, complete with sampling four products, and providing practical know-how in the form of cocktails, classic and modern.

Does Vintage Matter? Make It Matter To You

One of my goals when I write posts is to get you more connected to wine and spirits. Obviously, if you are reading my articles, you like to drink a good beverage and want to know more about what you just gave your liver to process. However, it's good to establish a real connection with your wines and spirits to gain an appreciation for them.

If you are one to pick up a publication like Wine Spectator, Decanter, or something along those lines, you will recognize a bunch of topics that are frequently discussed. The concept of terroir generates a lot of debate. "Rosé All Day" is a mantra meant to get you to enjoy dry pink wines all year round. However, the number one topic enthusiasts, experts, and retailers obsess over is vintage.

By the way, all the term "vintage" means is the year the grapes were harvested to make the wine in the bottle you purchased. That's it. Yet, vintage is a drum that gets beaten consistently, because every vintage experiences different weather conditions from its predecessor. Things like number of sunny days, rainfall, wind, and timing of these conditions in the growing season can all impact the health of wine grapes and the grapevines themselves. Each vintage will show different characteristics in the finished wines. For (very general) example, dry, sunny years give lots of potential alcohol and ripe fruit flavors. Rainy years might lead to lean, acidic wines. Cloudy years lead to green/unripe flavors. Hot years may show very little acid and full-bodied wines.

The majority of wines that hit the market are going to be drinkable, no matter what the vintage is. 95-98% of what you see is meant to be consumed within the first couple of years of the vintage. The remainder is built for long-haul aging in a cellar, and vintage matters a lot in this case. In order for a wine to go on and develop more interesting flavors over time, you need alcohol, acid, fruit concentration, tannin (in the case of red wines), and residual sugars (frequently needed in sweet white wines, but also important for Port). All of these elements help preserve a wine.

Wines made from Nebbiolo are great for cellaring; they are loaded with acid, tannin, alcohol, and fruit concentration. Talking to people helped me land these for my own cellar.

Now, I have a question for you: does any of what I wrote matter to you? If it does, cool. Find some wines ready to throw into your cellar. Barolo, Bordeaux, and Brunello are all suitable examples for you. If the answer is "no," that's good, too. You don't have the time to wait, or those styles of wine aren't your thing. You like dry unoaked white wines, such as Sauvignon Blanc or Arneis? Make sure you aren't buying a wine whose vintage is more than two years old. Same thing applies to rosé wines as both will lose the vibrant fruit with time.

Another approach: use the vintage to make the wine buying experience more personal. For our 10th wedding anniversary, The Greatest Wife In The World and I enjoyed a 2006 Brunello together a couple of years ago. This year, I picked up a 2008 Rioja Reserva for good friends celebrating their 10th anniversary. Here's something else for you: I recently found out the 2016 Port vintage is about to be a "declared vintage" (for more on what that means, see my Port guide! ). This means all three of my sons were born in Vintage Port years. I am buying a bottle from each vintage to enjoy when they turn 21; whether or not I include them in the drinking portion remains to be seen. Additionally, I already have a 2007 Barolo and 2011 Barbaresco on hand, since The Greatest Wife In The World is not a sweet wine fan, and we both adore Italian wine. In the coming months and years, get ready for the 2016 wines with aging potential to become available.

Certainly, doing some web research can help with your quest to find the right wine, but visiting your local wine shop and talking to the fine folks there, they can help you find a bottle in store or track it down through their distributors. Make vintages work for you, whether you are looking for a youthful/fresh/lively wine or one that can mature and go down velvety smooth. Need a handy-dandy vintage chart? Use this guide to help you. Note that all of what I discussed is simply a guide and not a hard-and-fast rulebook.

Of course, if you really get stuck, then please...reach out to me! I'm happy to get you turned on to a great wine from any vintage and price bracket. Make the vintage special to you.