Review of Saturday Tasting at The Wine Cellar and WBC #2

Saturday’s tasting and food event featured some good wines and some fabulous foods. Unfortunately since all of the food was meat or seafood related I can’t comment on it, but it did smell quite good.

 We had 5 wines for tasting, 1 white and 4 reds. The white was a Dry Creek Vineyard Fume Blanc that was very aromatic and crisp, great citrus notes and a mineral finish. The first red up for tasting was the Black and White 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon from Topanga Vineyards. Sourced from Napa Valley this wine contains 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot and 2% Petite Verdot. It was very dark in color, lots of dark fruit flavors with a full and soft mouthfeel. Next up was 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon from X Winery which I have had the 2003 vintage of.  This 2004 was full of cherry and plum, with a medium body and a dry finish.  Third on the red list was the 2003 Arbios Cabernet Sauvignon which I have also had before. Arbios did not disappoint and was quite good once again.  This bottle showed a lot of cassis, leather and toasted pine nuts with a very long fruit laden finish.  Last but not least was the Dry Creek Vineyard 2003 Meritage which was a mix of primarily Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon with Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Petite Verdot rounding out the blend. This was my favorite of the day and the one that I took home with me.  Great black cherry, chocolate powder and black currant lead to a great full bodied wine that finished long and smooth.

WBC #2 has been announced by Tim at Winecast and is the book Noble Rot: A Bordeaux Wine Revolution by William Echikson.  This is the second in the line of Wine Book Club meetings that is the brain child of Dr Debs at Good Wine Under 20 Dollars.  The meeting date for WBC #2 is April 29^th.

Cheers!

Wine Book Club #1 – Vino Italiano

Today is the due date for the first book report for the Wine Book Club. The wine book club was the idea of Dr Debs from the blog Good Wine Under $20, as great way to share our thoughts and views on literature with other wine bloggers and to help reduce the stack of wine books next to most of our beds.

The task of deciding on the first choice of reading material for the book club was giving to David of McDuff’s Food and Wine Trail.  He chose a book that I did not actually have on the shelf titled Vino Italiano, but luckily it was in stock at the local Barnes and Noble.

Well I have to admit that if we were back in 2^nd grade, I would probably get a C- on this report.  Unfortunately I did not read the whole book but I feel that I read enough to give a good run down and answer a few of the questions that David gave as “helpers” for our book report.

Each chapter of the book gives you great detail into the different wine making regions of Italy. The chapters start with a wonderful narrative of the authors visit to that specific region. I think this is the part of the book that separates it from other wine books. To give a metaphor from our beloved industry, if each chapter were a glass of wine, the beginning page or two would symbolize, for me, the terroir. 

The amount of information in this book is staggering, but I guess most books on the subject of wine are this way.  For that reason, I think that the best utilization of this book would be as a reference tool, a great one at that.  I wish I had had this book last year before we went to Italy, it would have been quite helpful.  It has opened my eyes to new varietals that I now have in the wine cellar, that in future blog posts I will point out as purchases due to the book. 

I am totally pleased with this book and am glad I have it on my shelf.  I wish I had read more chapters, as I only read about ½ of the book prior to this review, but what I did read either clarified facts or taught me a BUNCH of new ones.

Great suggestion David and a successful first book club meeting Dr. Debs.

Cheers!

The Wine Book Club

In the spirit of Wine Blogging Wednesday (WBW), Dr. Debs of Good Wine Under $20 (along with several other well known wine bloggers) has started a new adventure with The Wine Book Club and asked both bloggers and non bloggers to join in.  Every other month, a blogger from wine blogosphere will be asked to host the Book Club, by suggesting a book for everyone to read and report back on.  You can post your review, comments, reactions, etc… on your blog just like WBW or post to a choice of 3 different webpages.  For all the details check out Dr Debs post on her site. This seems like it will be a lot of fun, and force me to read books I have sitting around the house and acquire some new ones.

The first book club is being hosted by David McDuff of McDuff’s Food and Wine Trail. The book he chose for our first adventure is the book entitled Vino Italiano: The Regional Wines of Italy.

Cheers everyone, see you at the first “meeting” on Tuesday February 26th.

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