Amazing Bordeaux

Last week's Bordeaux class at SFWC was amazing - tasting 5 decades of Bordeaux was really a special sensory experience. It was unfortunate that the oldest samples were oxidized - 1964 Chateau Leoville Poyferre from Saint-Julien and 1970 Chateau Haut Brion from Pessac Leognan - but that is the risk with older wines, especially when you don't know how they were stored or traveled before you acquired them. Still, my sensory education of Bordeaux over the last few weeks has been fascinating, and in particular I've really enjoyed these wines:

1. Chateau Brane-Cantenac 2008 - Margaux 
2. Chateau Langoa-Barton 2000 - Saint Julien
3. Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou 1996 – Saint-Julien
4. Chateau Beychevelle 1981 – Saint-Julien
5. Chateau Longueville Baron de Pichon 1978 – Pauillac
6. Chateau Margaux Pavillon Blanc 2005 – Margaux (white)
7. Chateau Nairac 1976 – Sauternes (dessert)

I think of my friend Ghislain, Bordeaux native and winemaking student who interned with us at Wiemer for the 2010 harvest, and I wonder what he thinks of these?

Slainte!
(That's 'Cheers' in French!)

Common Scents

 This week's Aromatics class at SFWC was a lot of fun to prepare for and to experience. We gathered a wide variety of "natural" scents - fruits, flowers, spices, vegetables, etc.- to compliment the vials in a Le Nez Du Vin aroma kit, a common tool used by people in the wine industry to train their noses and palates. Since taste is very heavily linked to smell, aromas and flavors are often somewhat consistent. Students went around to different stations and smelled the scents, helping to creating a palate memory before tasting the wines. It is always good to exercise your nose like this, and for beginners especially it is a really useful exercise. I was excited to smell things like juniper berries and currants, scents that I know are way back in my palate memory but have been forgotten.

 After everyone had smelled everything, they sat down and went through the tasting blind, identifying aromas in the wines and then checking those identifications against the actual scents that we had gathered. It was very interactive, and everyone agreed that smelling the scents first was really helpful in identifying the scents in the glass. The wines we chose were aromatic expressions of the grape and origin: Australian Riesling, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, Alsatian Gewurz, Oregon Pinot Noir, Rhone Syrah, and  red Bordeaux blend.

Next week: Old World vs. New World wines!

My new gig

I've started working part-time at the San Francisco Wine Center as their Marketing Manager. SFWC is really cool - the concept is based on private wine storage for people who need a place to store their wine (or age it, as the case may be), so we cater to collectors and offer collector services, like sourcing rare wines and handling their wine club shipments. SFWC also offers Wine School, where every week wine lovers can attend classes led by sommeliers, wine writers and other experts in the wine trade. Surprisingly, there are not many places in San Francisco that offer regular wine tastings or classes. When I lived in NYC there were always events like this going on, and finding a tasting class any night of the week was easy. But in San Francisco it is a rarity, so we are really the only game in town. The last two classes have been fantastic, and I've gotten to try some great wines.

Tasting and Describing Wine - April 12

Grand Wines of Bordeaux - April 19

Check out the San Francisco Wine Center blog, where I'll be blogging about the classes every week, and follow us on Facebook!

Over the Hill

Last weekend I went to a crazy party at a community center in San Bruno, featuring a Zydeco band and honoring the birthday of a friend's mother. I didn't know it was BYOB until I got there, so all I had was a bouquet of flowers for the birthday lady. Someone brought a bottle of 1975 Chateau Ste. Michelle Cabernet Sauvignon, and I was invited to try it. Chateau Ste. Michelle is Washington state's oldest vineyard, dating back to the 1950s after prohibition, and this was the oldest wine I've ever tasted! It was super interesting on the nose, with very developed, almost vegetal aromas plus some stewed fruit. On the palate it had good structure and flavor, very complex but with almost no fruit flavor left. Still, I was impressed, until I got to the finish, which is where it fell off. It was oxidized, unfortunately, so the finish was a bit sour. Maybe 5 years ago the wine would have been at its best. Still, it was really interesting to experience. Thanks to Michael and Stephanie for a great party and for grabbing me to try this!

Buds and Palms and an Iron Horse

We've reached bud break here in northern California, and I still can't believe that there are palm trees in the Bay area. Palm trees, to me, belong in tropical areas, not temperate, always-60-degrees-unless-it-goes-down-to-40 San Francisco. But still, there are palm trees in the city and in the surrounding wine areas. I went up to Sonoma this week with some visiting friends to check out more Pinot Noir and sparkling wines. The most exciting stop on the trip was Iron Horse, famous for the fact that its sparkling wines are served at the White House. Iron Horse is located in the Green Valley, a sub-appellation of the Russian River Valley. I loved their 2006 Russian Cuvee, aptly named both because the fruit comes from the Russian River Valley and because it was first served at the Reagan-Gorbachev summit meetings.

 I loved the richness and toastiness from the heavy Pinot and extended lees aging (4 years). The White House still orders it, but they prefer it say "Russian River" on the label, so Iron Horse makes a special label for them. (0.8% residual sugar; $38)