1-23 To Taste or To Drink

This weekend is the annual ZAP festival in San Francisco. ZAP stands for Zinfandel Advocats and Producers, and this event is a tasting of zinfandels put on by them. To my knowledge Zinfandel refers only to the red wine version of this grape being served at the festival. I don't recall any white zinfandel being poured in years past, and as a general rule, if you want to refer to the pink version, make sure to say "white zin".

The arrival of the festival made me think about the word tasting. Usually when people say they are going wine tasting, it means they are going wine drinking, and just about everyone at ZAP is there for wine drinking. When a member of the wine trade is tasting, they are usually spitting the wine out each time they taste, so that they can actually taste the wine all day and make decisions on which they liked the best. When most people are tasting, they can't remember much about any of the wines they tasted after the first two wineries, and they often end up with a couple bottles in the trunk that they don't remember much about the next day (not to mention a strong desire to down a bottle of aspirin). When I was working at a winery a few years back, we actually had a guy call and say he "accidently" bought a few cases of wine the day before and was wondering if he could return a couple of them.

I'm not advocating that you stop going wine drinking. Its fun, and as long as you remember to have a sober driver, go wine drinking as often as you can find friends who want to go with you! However, in case you do want to go wine tasting so that you can pick out some new wines to drink, or if you're going to ZAP and you want to be coherent and impressive enough in your wine know-how to grab a date afterwards, (its known to be quite a meat market) here are some quick wine tasting tips for you:

1. Don't argue with the pourer about the small pour she gave you. The 1 oz. pour is pretty standard for how much wineries suggest you need for tasting.
2. Once you have some wine in your glass, put your nose in there and take a big whiff. You don't have to say anything about smelling rose petals or blackberries, but the smell is part of your sensation of taste, so if you like how it smells, you are probably going to like how it tastes.
3. Now you are ready to take a sip. Breathe in through your mouth, and put a little of the wine inside. Close your mouth just for a half second and let the wine sit in there. Now open your mouth and breathe in a little more air over your tongue so that the wine hits all the sensory spots (sweet, salty, and bitter). This will help you really taste it in all its glory (or demise). If you like it now, you'll probably like it when you drink it.
4. At this point you can spit the wine into a spittoon or cup, or you can let the wine go down. Spitting takes a little practice to look elegant (female), or cool(male), but you can always practice spitting at home with one full glass of water and one empty (spitting into the empty of course), before you head out on your tasting journey. I recommend doing a little spitting and and a little less letting the wine go down, but that's entirely up to your desire to remember the occasion.
4. This process will not only help you taste each wine, but it will also slow you down, in effect making you more likely to remember what you tasted enough to decide whether its worth the $30 they're asking. And if you are at ZAP this weekend, it will help you ask that attractive man or woman you've been watching all day, where they are going after the show. If you don't have the guts to ask, its safe to assume they'll be somewhere along Chestnut Street.

PS. My apologies to those who live outside of the Bay Area and can't benefit from this last piece of advice. The scene on Chestnut is probably not worth moving here for, however.

1-15 Morning Wash

Washing wine glasses usually includes breaking a couple, at least over time. I've got a beautiful collection of glassware pieces on top of my refrigerator waiting to find their home in the trash or recycling. Half of them are stems(the bottoms) and half of them are bowls (the tops). When my uncle came to visit, he asked me if they were a piece of art. I laughed and then started thinking of ways that I could make them art. I settled for using the bottoms as ring holders. Jewelers say that you are not supposed to wear your wedding ring (or any precious gem) when doing dishes, putting on lotion, taking a shower, at the gym, and pretty much any time where you use your hands in any capacity. This is pretty difficult to remember, and , for me, its even more difficult to actually get the darned thing off. I've managed to make it a little easier by placing broken wine glass stems in just about every room in the house where I might need to take off my ring. So tip #1 for today is: use your broken wine glass stems as ring holders. Just make sure there are no sharp edges on the top that you could cut yourself on (and don't attempt to sand it down without doing some reading first, my husband said I could easily have hurt myself).

Tip #2: Never wash glasses when you've had more than a couple glasses of wine (a couple meaning about two, not about four). This will almost eliminate the need for tip #1, but there are plenty of places to buy a nice inexpensive ring holder. I tried to make this rule very clear to my New Year's Eve guests as they very graciously offered to help clean up after our dinner party. One very sweet and well meaning guest would not accept my plea to leave the wine glasses for me to wash in the morning, and what do you know, I have another ring holder...

Tip #3: Make sure that your complete attention is on washing the glasses. Obeying tip #2 will help with this, but there are always a million other things you could be thinking about, besides washing glasses, and I recommend that whenever you are thinking about something else, wait and wash the glasses when you can focus. Sounds pretty silly, but every time I've broken a glass when I haven't had more than two glasses of wine, my mind has been on other things. FOCUS!

Tip #4: Buy special brushes for washing glasses. I know this also may sound silly, but if you have nice glassware, you really should. They cost about $7 and they will save you much more. You should only wash wine glasses with it, and keep it out of the sink. This will also help your glasses from smelling like a wet dog, but I might be the only person who notices that happens with a normal dish sponge. They also keep you from putting extra pressure on one side of the glass (which often causes the bowl to snap into a couple pieces) as you would with a normal sponge. You can find them on wineenthusiast.com, and probably in your local wine shop. Everyone I know thinks I'm a little obssesive for having them. They are probably right, but I definitely break fewer glasses because of them (and then there's the wet dog thing).

You can dry your glasses with a soft towel and leave them out if they don't get entirely dry right away. They also sell special towels for drying, but now I'm showing that I'm definitely obsessive about my glasses. However, having some would sure make someone think you know your wine stuff. (P.S. You can also buy the towels on wineenthusiast.com. They are "suede microfiber wine glass towels").

1-10 Salty with Sweet Confidence

A couple nights ago I had a group of girlfriends over for our 3rd wine education/drinking dinner. Our concept is simple, I provide the wine and a little history or lesson along with it, and each of them brings a part of the meal to pair with the wine. I always ask them to give their thoughts on the wine, which I've noticed have gotten significantly more sophisticated each time. Hopefully this means I'm a good teacher, or at least that I've inspired them to speak up. One woman in particular has definitely taken the glass by the stem (or the bull by the horns, whatever cliche you prefer). I had never thought her to be very interested in drinking. She doesn't like champagne, for one, and what girl doesn't like champagne? However, a few days after our first dinner, she mentioned that she was very excited because she was able to use her new wine tasting knowledge to impress people at a work dinner. We had discussed the different types of bottles used for different wines and how that might help you in a blind tasting. She passed along the information and impressed the more wine knowledgeable folks at the table. Then, two nights ago I was surprised to hear her say that her first impression of the 1997 BV Tapestry, a Bordeaux-style wine, (which means it typically would use cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, malbec, and/or petit verdot grapes, of which this bottle contained the first four) we were tasting was "salty". Very confidently she confirmed her opinion, and as I took another sip, I tasted exactly what she did. It was a little like sticking your tongue in the ocean and then quickly pulling it out. I was so elated by her forthcoming statements on her opinion of the wine, as it was such an uncommon one, that I failed to notice that the entire experience of the wine was utterly amazing. The initial saltiness makes a bit of sense. If you look at a diagram of the tongue's sensory spots (see below), which I'm sure many of you didn't know existed, the tip of the tongue is where you taste saltiness. There were bountiful lessons in that first sip for all of us.

The saltiness also made the wine go very well with the aged cheeses that had arrived on our table via the assigned lady friend. She had done a little reading in the cheese shop (because the cheese person, formally called the fromager, was out) and discovered that aged Jack would be a good match, and so it was. As harder cheeses age, they generally get these little crunchy salt pockets that build up. There was nothing better than a sip of that delicious wine and that salty cheese...unless you count the yummy salad with mixed lettuces and salty-sweet nuts, the earthy mushroom risotto, and the feijoada (brazilian meat stew), that the other ladies brought. All were great matches for the wine, which after that initial salty taste, gave way to a peppery and earthy wine with deep, dark berry flavors (fruits like blackberry and cassis). We didn't have much wine left by dessert, but that went very well too; Sticky gooey bars covered in walnut pieces. Yum!

1-2 New Year, New wine

Regardless of how knowledgeable a person is about wine, its always fun to find something new that you like. Most people find this really challenging. My mom for instance drinks California Chardonnay. She knows that she likes it and she has a lot of trouble being convinced to try other grape varieties, for fear that she won't like what she gets. If you are like my mom, I have a new year's resolution for you: Next time you are heading to a wine shop or a restaurant make sure you are armed with at least one (preferrably a few more) wines that you like or better yet a description of a wine that you really like, along with the amount that you'd like to spend and ask the experts there to help you. If you are at a wine shop, most (if not all) of the staff should be very knowledgable about the product. The people that work there generally do it for the love of the grape, and definitely not for the small pay stub. They are usually excited to help you find something new you like, as this will likely keep you coming back. My sister-in-law just put this new wine challenge into action on New Year's Eve. She and her husband were joining us for dinner and they stopped into our neighborhood shop on their way over. She knows that she likes Rombauer Chardonnay, so she strolled right in and told the unfortunate employee working New Year's Eve, exactly that. Rombauer is a medium bodied, slightly sweet chardonnay that tastes of crisp pears, white peaches and vanilla, without a strong oaky flavor. He recommended that she try a Pouilly-Fuisse and handed her a specific bottle that he thought she would like. Pouilly-Fuisse is part of the Burgundy region of France that makes wine from Chardonnay. In general, Chardonnays made in France have much less oak taste than those in California, but many still have a medium body and hints of vanilla, so his choice made perfect sense. When she and I tasted it together, we confirmed that it was a very good recommendation for a big fan of Rombauer.
When I'm in a restaurant and I'm not immediately sure what I'd like to order from the wine list, I always ask to talk with the sommelier, or resident wine expert. Wine drinkers of all types should feel comfortable doing this, since aside from choosing the wine list, it is the wine guy or gal's purpose for working every evening. I usually have narrowed it down to a few new wines I'm interested in trying and ask for their opinion, but some times I just give them the style and flavor I want (ie full-bodied white that is not very oaky) and tell them I'd like to try something they find interesting. You can also just tell them the name of a wine you like and a price range (just like in the shop) and they should be able to work some magic for you. If you are somewhere that doesn't have a wine expert, ask your waiter the same questions, or just ask them what they like to drink that is on the list. This can have a less desirable outcome, but if you hate it, they usually will feel somewhat responsible for recommending it, and if its by the glass, they probably get you something new. Most restaurants, at least in the SF Bay area, have their staff do regular wine tastings to keep up on their wine knowledge, since they can sell a bottle of wine for much more than a plate of ravioli.

PS. Don't ever feel uptight about mentioning how much you want to spend. It is important to your enjoyment, and completely appropriate. Just make sure you have checked the list to make sure you given them a range that is possible!

Happy New Year!

12-17 Think about Pink

It used to be tough for me to decide what to serve at a dinner party when I knew the group would be headed out afterwards, but I think I've come up with a great solution after a couple trial events. The best wine to serve at a pre-party or pre-evening out dinner is Pink. It is usually lighter in alcohol then red wine and doesn't leave you feeling sleepy, so you'll have plenty of tolerance and energy to continue your fabulous evening. It will also stand up to bigger foods than white wine, so you can still serve that rack of ribs, instead of being forced to work with chicken or fish (which it also pairs rather nicely with). This New Year's Eve, my husband and I are planning on having a small group over to dine with us, prior to opening our doors to a much larger audience for the turn of the year. I'm planning to serve my famous lemon confit ribs, and a little pink wine to go with it!

Pink wine has been dealt a bad rap. Some of it is deserved, and most of its not. Pink wines are very popular among the French, known there as Rose (pronounced Rose-ay). They were very popular in America too, in the 70s and 80s, and have since developed a reputation for being cheap and sweet. Back then they were deserving of that reputation, however today, you can find very delicious pink wines made in the U.S. as long as you keep one key thing in mind: don't buy anything called "white (insert grape name)". This means, no white merlot, white cabernet, or the ever popular white zinfandel. These wines are going to be the sappy, inexpensive wines you're probably not looking for.

White Zinfandel was first introduced by Sutter Home Winery in the early 1970s. The story I've been told is that the winemaker was trying to make a more concentrated zinfandel wine and removed some of the juice so that there was more skin in contact with the juice that remained (giving it more flavor, tannin, etc). He decided to ferment the juice he had removed and see how it turned out. During fermentation, the wine stopped converting sugar to alcohol early (winemakers say this got "stuck" in fermentation). The result was a lower alcohol sweet wine that consumers loved. White Zinfandel continues to maintain popularity, but it is not considered the sophisticated beverage that most wines are today. However, it should be highly regarded by wine snobs and wine slobs alike, as it most likely saved the zinfandel plants from being torn up back in the 80s, when Cabernet began to reign supreme, as white zinfandel was still a big seller.

Happy Holidays!

12-5 Cheating words

The most important thing to remember about tasting is that whatever you think you taste is what you should say you taste. I recall one time in my degree program at the Culinary Institute that a well respected wine student confidently stated that the riesling we were tasting reminded her of a woman in an orange tu-tu. While I, and many of my classmates giggled, our teacher just asked her to explain. Since I was giggling, I missed the explanation, but the teacher seemed satisfied. The moral is, that if a Certified Wine professional can taste a woman in an orange tu-tu in a glass of riesling, then you can easily taste just about any fruit or spice in your glass of wine. I do recommend, however, sticking to fruits and spices (and maybe some vegetables), until you've got some real street cred behind you.

Even with that vote of confidence, most people still want some guidelines that our easy to remember. Tonight I'll give you some safe, bare bones tasting notes and someday soon I'll elaborate a little based on varietal. You should be able to remember these without writing them on a secret piece of paper stashed in your pocket, or worse, the palm of your nervous little hand!
Pink to Pale Red Wine- Strawberries, raspberries, cherries, white pepper
Medium Red- Raspberries, black cherries, violet, white pepper
Dark Red- Plums, blackberries, cassis, black pepper (maybe even leather or tobacco)

Pale Yellow (like albarino, tocai fruilano, sauvignon blanc)- lemon, minerals (think wet stones), zippy
Medium Yellow (like sauvignon blanc, chenin blanc, pinot gris)- grapefruit, pineapple, peaches)
Darker Yellow (like chardonnay, viogner)- apples, pears, peaches, butter, cream, toast

Hopefully this will give you some confidence at your next tasting, and help you pretend you know a little something.

12-2 Holiday Cocktailian

In addition to being a wine and food fanatic, I also enjoy a side gig as a cocktailian. The definition of cocktailian, one who designs cocktails, cannot be found in the Miriam Webster dictionary, so I'm pretty sure it was created by my favorite cocktailian and writer for the San Francisco chronicle, Gary Reagan. He has a great bar book called The Joy of Mixology that can help you on your way to becoming a cocktailian too.

Here are my latest creations for the holidays. The recipes are all designed to make by the pitcher. Pitcher drinks are great for parties because they can be self-served rather than making each drink individually, which means a lot less hosting and a lot more socializing!

Mistletoe Kiss

3 1/2 cups cranberry juice
1 1/2 cups vodka
3/4 cup creme de cacao
4 1/2 tablespoons orange juice

Mix all ingredients in a pitcher and chill in the refrigerator. When you are ready to serve, fill four short drink glasses with ice and pour drink into glasses (or, as may be the case...let your guests pour themselves!)

Reindeer Cheer
2 bottles of red wine (sweeter is better, but remember that it must taste pleasant!)
1 cup sugar
6 Limes, halved

Wash your limes. With a lime juicer (available at Crate and Barrel, etc), squeeze the lime juice from all 12 lime halves into a pitcher, reserving the skins. Cut each of the halves into four pieces and add to the pitcher (this is just for aesthetics, you can also just dump the halves in if you don't care if any end up in the glass when it is poured). Add the sugar and mash the limes with the sugar (a muddler is the best tool for this, but you can use any large spoon or spatula). Pour in both bottles of red wine and stir mixture until the sugar is dissolved. Serve over ice in wine glasses. This is a lot like sangria but the red and green makes it very festive!

Feliz Caramel

3 cups Apple Pucker
1 cup Butterscotch Schnapps
1 cup tequila
1 cup water

Mix all ingredients in a pitcher and chill. Serve over ice in small cocktail glasses. You can vary the amount of water to determine the potency of this one. If you add no water, serve as a shot.

My husband and I just threw our second annual Best Holiday Cocktail Party last night. The party is themed around an hourly cocktail, usually of my own mixology. On the hour, each hour, the drink is announced and the cocktail team (me and two highly evolved tasters), don cowboy hats and circle the room to serve it. One of us holds the pitcher, another the ice, and the third holds the cups. We dish out the cocktail to anyone who is empty (and some who just have an empty hand), giving us the opportunity to touch base with all the guests. The recipes above were from this years cocktail list.

A special thank you to all of my wonderful tasters who attended the party last night for helping me determine that this list of recipes was worth sharing!