Although I was tempted to comment on the recent, heavily politically oriented thread, I have restrained myself for once. (well, except for that last)
I'm sipping a nicely aged bottle of 1988 Inglenook "Reserve Cask" Cabernet ($6US), and ignoring the Democratic National Convention that's straining to burst forth from my de-energized TV. :^)
I plan to ignore the Republican Convention too - albeit over a different bottle of wine. Please wake me up in time for the Crush (which appears to be early this year), and then let me sleep until it's time to vote...
There's a lot to be said for non-partisanship, particularly in this forum. But will you be drinking a more expensive wine when the Republicans meet? ;-)
Vino To reply, add "x" between letters and numbers of e-mail address.
Back to wine.... Oh yes, good idea!! I realized early on that I couldn't
*plonk* everyone who discusses politics here, otherwise, half my resources would be gone. So I learned how to set up a message rule by subject, and now the newsgroup is back to the way I discovered it 2-3 weeks ago (or whenever).
*** A few newbie WINE questions, if I may ***
1) Now that I'm learning as much as I can about wine (reading some books, going to wine-related sites, and of course, drinking wine), I run into a little confusion almost immediately. Winecommune.com lists "Bordeaux blend" under the category "varietals," whereas a book that I am reading lists Medoc, Graves, Pomerol, etc. as the actual varietals. Which is correct?
Winecommune.com further divides Bordeaux blends into sub-categories, however, these sub-categories (such as Pauillac, St. Julien, St. Estephe, Margaux) do seem to be one level above the actual wineries* themselves (however, there does seem to be a winery* named Margaux as well), yet not exactly worthy of being labeled "varietal." Please explain!
2) Received my first two bottles of wine that I won on Winecommune.com. One was perfect, but the other one had some (very slight) leakage (in transit for 3 days, California to Chicago). Although the seller promises a full refund if the wine is bad, he claims to have seen that happen before without any problems. Suggests I let it settle for at least 3 days. I was planning to keep it longer (WS: "Best after 2006"). Now my dilemma is if I try it after 3 days, just to see if it's good or not (albeit, I will enjoy it, if it is), I still have to buy another bottle if I want it for 2006, as planned. So, if I do go with my original plan to cellar if for 2 years, are my chances favorable that it still will be drinkable? It's a 1996 Pichon-Longueville Baron.
Thanks in advance
One other question: Is my use of the word "winery" correct? I have also seen "producer" used in, what I believe to be, a synonymous fashion. Am I correct?
The simple answer, Vincent, is that some wines are "named" for the main grape (s) that went into the wine, i.e. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, etc ., while others (Bordeaux - region, France is a perfect example) have place names, i.e. St Estephe, Pauillac, Medoc, etc. In some cases the place goes much farther in the name, Ch. ______, Medoc, Bordeaux. These wines are define the place that the grapes came from (and very often the location where the wine was actually produced), rather than the "blend" of grapes going into it, usually Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petite Verdot, Malbec. the wine might be 100% CS, or M, or CF, or might be a combination of all five. The producer (and to some extent the location) will dictate. Sometimes, the exact percentage of the constituant varietals will be difficult to track down. In other cases history will usually give you a strong clue.
A really rough "rule-of-thumb" is that much new world wine lists the varietal (grape type), while much old world wine lists the place. Neither is "correct," it is just how each does it. Many US, CA producers are now doing blended wines, that usually have proprietary names (rather than place names), that work with the Bordeaux varietals, i.e. Cain 5, which usually uses all five Bordeaux red varietals.
Others will be happy to give you very useful and excellent detail on just who does what, with which.
Interesting problem. If the merchant will replace the bottle, I think you might be more pleased with that result. Wine that has had some leakage can still be wonderful. If, however, you are going to lay it down for another 2 years, you could possibly have problems - not saying that you WILL, only that you could. Drinking a still youthful Bordeaux early might not be the most enlightening thing for you to do right now in your wine journey. OTOH, there can be a great learning experience in doing so. I'd pop it, and pour a little into a really large glass, doing all the normal tasting steps, before taking a little sip, or three, and doing an evaluation. Letting it sit during a slow dinner, and coming back to it from time-to-time and giving it a good swirl, for a re-evaluation (don't top up the glass during this experiment), will began to reveal the wine to you. If there are still "harsh elements" that you are finding, you might want to decant the remainder, letting it sit in an unsealed decanter for a few hours. Start the process all over with a glass from the decanter, and gauge the "progress" of the wine. At the very least, you should have a fun evening charting the evolution of the wine and THAT experience, alone, should be worth the price of the bottle. After you've had a few glasses (shared with a fun person(s), you can then decide whether to acquire an additional bottle. By following the merchant's recommendation, and being patient, they might well be willing to extend a financial courtesy to you with respect to the second bottle - I surely would. If you are going to cellar for another few years, maybe pick up two bottles, in case WS was off in their "time-to-drink" speculation, and it still needs more time, OR, in case they were right and you LOVE the wine! Wouldn't it be nice to have an additional bottle in your cellar, if it's GREAT?
Usually they are synonymous. There are many possible levels of involvemnt in the production of wine around the world. One may grow the grapes, extract the juice, ferment it, bottle it, store it for some time, then sell the wine to an exporter, or merchandiser, or handle even that, themselves. Other times, someone grows, someone else crushes, someone else buys the juice and may make the wine, or even re-sell the juice to one, who does. After the fermentation, all sorts of roads can be taken with respect to getting the wine to the consumer. The answer then, is "it depends," but for most purposes, they are synoymous.
Varietals are species of grapes. Cabernet sauvignon is a type of grape. Chardonnay is a type of grape. Merlot is a type of grape.
Medoc, Graves, Pomeral, etc. are regions--geographic areas that produce a specific style of wine. Depending upon the country there will usually be some sort of controlling legislation with regard to the use of one of these regional names. You'll see acronyms like DOC to indicate an authorized use of a regional name.
Bordeaux tends to favor cabernet sauvignon and merlot as the basic varietal, but they blend other grapes to develop their characteristic style. (One bank of the river favors CS and the other leans to merlot, but I never know whether that is looking upstream or downstream and am too lazy to look it up this AM.) Regardless "Bordeaux blend" means a mix of varietals similar to what is found in the Bordeaux region.
Again, you're mixing regions with grape species.
If you're wine shipped in three days recently, it probably survived quite nicely--it's been cool. Shipping by UPS ground is pretty reliable, but try to stay away from mid-summer when wines can get backed in the truck or mid-winter when they can freeze. Spring/fall are ideal shipping times.
"Very slight" leakage would be undetectable and concealed by the capsule. If you've got leakage dripped out beyond the capsule, that seems more than very slight.
Settling after shipping is always a good idea. Don't expect full quality of a good wine if you rip it out of the box and pull the cork on the day it arrives.
If you plan to buy some quantity of the Pichon-Longqueville Baron for cellaring, by all means taste in a week or so. If you only intend to buy this one or two bottle shipment, then cross your fingers and put it away for 2006.
Ed Rasimus Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret) "When Thunder Rolled" "Phantom Flights, Bangkok Nights" Both from Smithsonian Books
"Vincent" in news:ulsOc.2287$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr19.news.prodigy.com...
Yes, very good idea.
If I might suggest from a little experience with this situation, although there may be good replies eager with specific answers (sort of like samples of fish), I've found that the situation is served more effectively by patient reading in good tutorial books (sort of like learning how to fish). In this spirit Yoxall titled chapters of his old popular Burgundy book "some optional history" and "some compulsory geography." Blake Ozias in his old popular book _All About Wine_ sketched out the major and minor divisions of wine-making Europe in an overview. The picture that they are all trying to explain is complex and inconsistent (divisions and entities important in Bordeaux are different from those in Burgundy, for example, and yet again from those in Italy, etc etc.). Complexity and inconsistency are exactly what eager students don't want, so they hunger for formulas or answers to explain it all. (Sorry, I'm reflecting a little here, I used to teach, and to run into this often, in different contexts than wine, but the underlying issue was the same.)
There is always a need for good background-reading books for this, they are indispensable for someone serious (as Vincent here seems to be). I don't know any perfect one, I do continue to recommend Stevenson's "encyclopedia" (ISBN 0789480395) which certainly has the required information, though not laid out in tutorial form. The overview pages at the beginning of each region's section are useful.
I would like to learn of other effective books for this purpose for Anglophone readers. There's one in the last couple of years by a US graduate of both the MW and MS programs (extremely unusual, and testimony to his wine knowledge), thinner than Stevenson's, in a "coffee-table" format, but I don't know it well or have the details handy. Maybe other people experienced with this situation can recommend other sources?
It's very easy to ignore US politics when you are in the UK with a nice bottle of Cote Rotie 1996... Am I alone? Can't think of anything UK specific to exclude anyone either.
Hugh Johnson's Atlas of Wine is one of my best companions for my expansion of knowledge. The fully contoured maps allow the reader to understand just how wine making fits in with the world. Some of the Burgundy maps are astounding in detail and you can really get to grips with why your wine is tasting so good, where it was made, and the history of the region. All vineyards are colour coded according to appelation and cru. It's always nice just pointing at a map at some region on the other side of the world and saying "I drank that!"
A proper "wine-geek" book I have just started is by Michael Broadbent (not even going to attempt a mini biography) and it gives a amazingly comprehensive account of vintages across the globe some starting with the 1800s. Plenty of tasting notes of some of the best wines.
We world-travelers have to be flexible. Ed Rasimus Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret) "When Thunder Rolled" "Phantom Flights, Bangkok Nights" Both from Smithsonian Books
Which reminds me of an amusing (non-wine) incident a few years back.
I am a very keen sailor - and at the time was "dating" a landlubbing, sweet young thing, who didn't know her port from her stern (in fact, she had a very nice stern!!!)
At my local "things nautical" store, I found and purchased for her a sweat shirt, with "Starboard" written in large green lettering down the right sleeve, and "Port" (in red letters) down the left sleeve.
A couple of weekends later when we were leaving the marina for a weekends racing, there she was, to bid us a good luck and good racing; and, yes, she was wearing my gift - back to front.
Getting this back even obscurely on-topic - remember this question "Any Red Port Left?"
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