EAST COAST PALATE

Well, after a pretty long hiatus of no writing (except for my bimonthly City Living Magazine articles), I've had a realization that I cannot lose sight of the vision... the transformation of an amateur palate into a connoisseur... someday.
In the meantime I'm enjoying working as a wine professional, selling, sipping, spitting almost every day.  Always learning and always enjoying the fact that I work with a product that I love.  Why my words came to such a sudden halt, I don't know, but I hope to be back and as prolific as possible.
Okay, to what matters.  This bottle of New Zealand Pinot Noir will run you about 20 bucks.  Wild Rock is a sustainable winery affiliated with Craggy Range (one of the more prestigious establishments from New Zealand). It hails from the Central Otago region of the North Island (think Lord of the Rings), which has a cooler growing climate.  So you get a fresh Pinot with bright acid.  You get cherries, a resinous allure, and something slightly floral on the nose.  But no umami, i.e., no meaty deli meat aromas. 
The flavor is lush and fruity with a raisiny, spicy finish.  The tannins are light, and the wine is almost see-through clear.  Overall, it is a pleasant wine.  Good for stirfry, good chilled down just a bit to combat this summer humidity.  I give it a B+.
Question to anyone who might happen by:  Are you drinking more South African wine because of the World Cup?  if so, which ones?

Friday evening, the week comes to a close, seven wines from some of California's finest facilities await at Georgetown's gourmet grocer, Dean & Deluca.  This is what I call work.  It is a delicious, palate-pleasing experience, a chance to taste some of the high-end part of my portfolio.  With the help of Emmie, Graham, Dan, and of course the kitchen staff at the store, we all enjoyed a few hours of luxurious relaxation...
The wine: 
1.  Roederer Estate Brut;  This bottle of bubbly does a tremendous job emulating a veritable champagne.  It's a blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grown in the Anderson Valley.  Its nose is remeniscent of macaroons fresh out of the oven.  Its acidity is crisp, playing nicely against the toasty, yeast aromas.  A-

2.  Grgich Hills Estate 2007 Fumé Blanc;  A 100% Napa Valley Sauvignon blanc with about 6 months of sur lîes aging, which means that the yeasts that turned the juice to wine are present, settled down at the bottom of the barrel, dead but not done.  Every few weeks the winemakers will perform a batonnage, in which the wine in the barrel is stirred with a stick, allowing the yeast hulls on the bottom to swirl up into suspension, releasing subtle flavors.  All this is done in neutral barrels (usually these have been used in four or five vintages and now won't impart heavy oak flavor to the wine).  The end result is a crisp, lemony wine with a bit more body than a typical Sauvignon blanc.  A-

3.  Grgich Hills Estate 2006 Chardonnay;  Normally I avoid oaky California Chardonnay, but this has an impressive balace.  The creaminess is cut with a zesty acidity, and the fruit aromas of apricot, pear, and apple make the buttery woodsy scent less offensive.  If your a fan of toasty, oaked-out Chard, this wine will make you very happy.  The bottom line is that it is very well made.  B+

This is a wine that smells like nectar from honeysuckle blossoms poured over candied apples.  It smells like marmelaide zested with lemon peel.  It smells sweet and sticky, yet it isn't full of flabby, syrupy mediocrity like so many Rieslings that have a fair amount of residual sugar left in them.  There is a pop of acidity that balances the body of this wine, and even some effervescence that tingles your tongue and releases pear, apricot, and green apple flavors. 
If you are the type of wine drinker that avoids Riesling on account of sweetness, do not give up on this wine before you try it.  If you like Gewurtztraminer or Moscato, then go find a bottle of this harvest-select treat right away.  I give this bottle a B+ and recommend it highly as its price tag will be just over $10 in most stores.
Pairing this wine might lead your ideas toward desert, which would be delicous (I'm thinking peach cobbler, apple tart, vanilla ice cream, whatever...), but try this wine with a salad:  baby spinach or mesclun greens, slices of ripe pear or apple (or both), toasted almonds and crumbles of salty gorgonzola... finish it all with a honey vinagrette and this duo will be an experience you'll never forget.

      Yesterday I finished running around the city and was ready to unwind while I waited for a couple friends who were meeting me in Georgetown.  I happened onto a bar called Bodega, with dark black and red décor that was 2 parts sultry to 1 part soothing.  In the mood for tapas I ordered some overpriced tomato-bread with manchego cheese (you toast bread, rub it with garlic and then with a half a tomato, letting the juice and pulp of the fruit soak into the bread...top with olive oil, salt, and cheese, and voilá).  I also indulged in one of my all time favorites: bacon-wrapped dates that are breaded, seasoned, and fried. 
      I bypassed the wine menu and went right for the coctails and this concoction jumped out at me.  A caipirinha, for those who haven't yet tasted this pleasure, consists of Cachaça (a sugar cane based alcohol), sugar, and muddled limes.  This redition was a blueberry twist on the original, but honestly I prefer the original.  This is a drink that I love because of the acidity.  It is a grown-up's, 80-proof, Sourpatch Kid Slurpee.  The blueberrys are too soft and, now I sound like a cocktail snob, they clog the straw.  Whatever, it was refreshing and good. 
      If you make caipirinhas from time to time, try throwing in a wedge of grapefruit with the lime when you muddle them.  The end result is a Greyhound-esque dose of refreshment.

As a fan of both Tom Robbins' writing and the timeless tradition which is Beer, I was happy to spend a few hours over the weekend reading the latest book by señor Robbins.  Saturday afternoon I managed to sip away the time while reading the first half of the 120-page story that is a self-proclaimed children's book for adults (or vice versa).  My first drink was a North Coast Brewery "Brother Thelonious," a full-bodied, dark dubbel fashioned in the Belgian style, but hailing from the West Coast.  It was tasty, in deed, and chased down with a smooth belly-warming mouthful of Jameson Irish whisky.
This was all at the Quarry House down in Silver Spring, a place that always offers refuge from the rain, and plenty of suds and strong drink to quench your thirst. 
I finished the book on Sunday morning over coffee and a crossword puzzle.  The tale relates a young 5-year-old girl's introduction to beer, her travels with the beer fairy, and the ever-present philosophical lessons that can be extrapolated from a kid's book about booze. 
In short, I loved this book... Almost as much as I loved the 2004 Muga Gran Reserva after it had been decanted for an hour and a half.  This is a quick read, and if you have kids, maybe a fun, if not exploratory venture out of the realm of normal bedtime stories.  Go buy a sixpack of North Coast brewery's finest.  Support your local bookstore.  This is a great way to spend a few hours of your life.

A tasty inexpensive blend from Spain's Jumilla region... It's earthy with deep fruit and leather aromas.  It has a strong finish and would go perfectly with Mediterranean cuisine, and a YouTube journey through the history of flamenco.  My friend Kristen shared this with me, and I saw it later at Metro Liquor near Adam's Morgan for about $10.  The MCS stands for Monastrell, Cabernet, and Syrah - the three varietals that make up this wine's composition.  I am finding more and more value  out of the south of Spain, and it's nice to have discovered this José Pastor selection wine.  Solid B score: 86-87 points.

Well, here is a wine to avoid on this day for lovers.  I admit, the label has some appeal, the name is corny, but it is one of those wines that you see around stores and they just pique your curiosity enough to make to spend the 9 bucks to find out what's on the inside of the bottle.
The look:  The wine has lightness and a pretty red hue, but with a Cabernet I want deep color; I want to be pulled in by dark mysterious shades of crimson.
The smell:  Some dark cherry and cola aromas with a weird rubbery odor that, even though subtle, distracted me from the soft fruity smells.
The taste: "meh"... Really poorly integrated oak, jammy flavors at first that give way to oak and more mediocrity.  This is a C wine and there are so many other bottles  out there that offer better quality at the same cost.
On a good note, I have tried the Malbec by Cupcake Vineyards and found it much more palatable.
Lovers of wine... winos in love... whoever you are, whomever you are with on this sunny Sunday, uncork some good times. 

This 2007 Falanghina dei Campi Flegrei embodies freshness.  I wish they made dryer sheets that were on this level.  And it isn't a Febreeze or new car kind of smell, either.  It evokes mental imagery like swimming pools, ocean air, and lemon grass.  There is a scent of pear, as well, but not a fully ripe pear that gushes sweetness.  The taste is crisp and fresh, with a touch of almond nuttiness filling out the finish.
This wine has a clear, clean look, with a greenish hue to it.  It reminded me of all things aquatic, especially pairing ideas:  raw sashimi, grilled rockfish, shrimp n' grits...  It is a fantastic wine that I found at Pearson's for $13.  I will definitely search for more Falanghina for the warmer weather that is just around the 3-feet-deep corner made of hard packed snow.
The name Falanghina has its etymological roots in the method that was used to cultivate the grapes.  It was revolutionary.  Instead of letting the vines crawl on the earth and grow where mold and insects and rodents could get to them easily, people trained the vines up little posts - phalangae (remember the name of the bones in your fingers from A & P?).  Anyway, the wine comes from a small DOC (Campi Flegrei) just west of Napoli.  It's tasty.  I dig it.  B+ quality and a recommentation to anyone ready to try good, interesting wines.

So I was eeny-meeny-ing through the bottles at home, and decided to open a bottle of Bodegas Castaño Hécula.  This is a wine comprised 100% of Monastrell, a.k.a. Mourvèdre grapes.  The region that it comes from -Yecla - is in Murcia, in the southeast of Spain, with two stellar winemaking D.O.s as its neighbors: Jumilla and Almansa.  These vines dig deep through limestone and gravel, and their efforts produce very concentrated flavors in the grapes at harvest time.  The 2005 vintage in this area wasn't exceptional but this wine is excellent.  
Its color is a deep reddish purple.  The raisin, dark cherry, and blackberry aromas on the nose yield to deeper layers of cedar, resin, and stone.  The mere act of smelling this wine brought up memories of putting resin on a violin bow as a kid, of walking into a woodshop, of eating fruit rollups. 
Even though this wine doesn't have much of a finish, it has substance and elegance.  The tannins are soft, yet pronounced.  There is a hint of spice.  The stony soil in which the vines grow even imparts a cool mineral feel to the taste and body of this wine.
This is a great bottle of wine...90-91 points and only $12 to $14.
The more I try the wines from Murcia, the more I feel compelled to go visit.  If you could visit one winemaking region in the world, where would you go...and why?

This is the kind of Merlot that might incite some scoffing from Merlot-haters.  It has the fruit bomb characteristics, the lack of body or depth, the finish that is measured in milliseconds... but at the end of the day it tastes good, candy good.
There are cherry and blueberry notes mixed with vanilla and cedar.  It smells like a typical new-world style wine: lush and fruity.  While there isn't anything complex about the wine, it did remind me of the scent of blueberry muffins baking in the oven, which is a very good aroma.  Overall it's a low B wine, but not bad.  I have had a lot better Merlot from Washington state... Five Star, Tamarack, Pedestal, Revelry... there are so many; it is definitely a region where this varietal thrives. 
If you don't like the fruit dominating your wine, then steer clear of this one.  But if you like inexpensive yummy beverages with 13.5% alcohol content, then give this wine a shot.