Sparkling and Roses at the Club

First, I have to apologize to everyone.  Usually, I do a big video piece and have loads of photos. Brouhaha galore. Well, not this time.

It was a brunch, and I figured that the turnout would be tiny.  Well,  it wasn’t, and what a great time we had!

I set up the camcorder and just let it run during our blind tasting. And beyond. And then somehow I did a big Oops. While I quickly realized that *participating* in a blind tasting was a lot of fun, *watching* an entire blind tasting was about as much fun as watching golf without Tiger Woods. Apologies to golf fans out there!  So I threw in a few sound bytes, but then committed the cardinal sin of video editing:  I deleted the draft files before rendering the movie. So awayyyy went most of the video clips and a few stills.

Dammit.

But it’s still entertaining, and that’s what counts!

So anyway, I decided to just call it a draw, show a little of the footage, the few pictures that I took, and let you imagine the rest. This Sunday morning Brunch tasting - Sparkling Rosé - was a nice change of pace from the usual partylike atmosphere of our evening tastings.  Bruce and Ginger Fein had their wonderful home beautifully presented for their guests (that would be us).

Sparkling wines and Rosés were the theme, and people stepped up to the plate and brought beautiful wines and yummy food.

By the way, Rosé wine and grits are a FANTASTIC pairing!

Here are the wines that we blind tasted:

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Rant Rant Rant. My Opinion. And I Share It.

For whatever reason, I’m feeling particularly cranky, peevish, and curmudgeonly (yes, that’s a word) today and feel like sharing my opinion - and I always have one - on different wine stuff. If you have a pet topic that you don’t want to see kicked in the teeth, then read no further. If you’re like me and have a morbidly sick curiosity, continue on.

Corks

Thanks to those who sent great ideas on things to do with corks. Cork, being a natural product with all kinds of potential, has the capacity of being a lot of things! It is, in my opinion, the best closure for wine, stelvin notwithstanding. Of course, you can do all kinds of things with screwcaps, such as …. uhhh….. Well, anyway, they make great closures for soda pop, Boone’s Farm, Arctic Vines, MD20/20, and wines from New Zealand. Or anything else you’re going to open, pour, and not care about the ambiance or the environment. If you don’t care about ambiance or environment, then be my guest. Go unscrew.

As for me, I prefer to use something that is not only classy, but also will actually become a part of the ground again if it’s thrown away. No recycling to keep it out of landfills needed. Stelvin screwcaps aren’t so “pop and pour” so to speak. They require that the plastic liner be removed from the metal cap in order to be reused after recycling. I’m thinking that folks are finding that it’s just easier to toss them into landfills.

Not green at all.

The families in Portugal are working like crazy to make sure that their cork is free of TCA, and the improvements have been astounding. There are companies (more on that on a later post) that guarantee that their 100% cork products will not cause TCA contamination.

So I prefer cork because it’s just, well, *better.* For the environment, for business, and for my romantic evenings.

Unoaked Chardonnay

While there are a few unoaked Chards that are actually quite good, it’s a wine that’s still pretty much in the novelty category for me. Frankly, if I want a nice unoaked white wine, I’ll grab a Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier (one that’s made correctly), Riesling, or any other of a number of truly delicious whites that were never meant to be oaked.

In my opinion, Chardonnay was made for oak. It’s pretty hard to top a well-made Chardonnay that’s been kissed with just enough oak (”just enough” being in the eye of the beholder, of course) to impart that characteristic creaminess and smoothness that’s made Chard the number one white wine in the US for decades.

Question: In Burgundy, are the winemakers even allowed to make white Burgundies without oak? I await your responses.

I will admit that some Napa Chards have exceeded the idea of balance in favor of the overdone (”What was that vintage? 2006 Louisville Slugger? Yum!”).  With that being said, I’d rather have an overoaked Chard than one that tastes like lemonade laced with pineapple juice and apple sauce. I want WINE, not a melted popsicle.

Stemless Wine Glasses

I look at stemless wine glasses as a CSI lesson. Want to see fingerprints, epithelials, body oils, and sweat? Then just take a look at a stemless! Made for forensic education and learning about DNA, it sucks as a wine glass.

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Focus On - Vines of the Marycrest

My affection for Victor Abascal and Vines on the Marycrest wines is no secret, but this is the first time I’ve really had a chance to interview Victor for Vegas Wineaux.  We were in his new winery - still under construction - which wasn’t there the last time I visited.

The actual interview was nearly 20 minutes long, and it took some creative (and hair-pulling) angst to shave it down to about eight.

Who needs sleep anyway?

I’ve already uploaded the video on YouTube (which you already know if you are my friend on FaceBook or follow me on Twitter), but here it is for your enjoyment.  I will call this Part One, because Victor and family have such an interesting life and activities,  it begs for a Part Deux.  Of course, I’ve been trying to persuade Victor to consider having his life story done into a fun wine movie.  Hmm. Will I have to add scriptwriting to my list of stuff to do?!?

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Lunch on the Strip - Taqueria Cañonita

Canonita

I had some time to kill between the “day job” and the Convention Center, so I stopped in for a quick lunch at the Taqueria Cañonita restaurant at the Venetian. My son had promised that I could get a quick lunch on the cheap there, and naturally, I was highly skeptical. But since it was located very close to the Convention Center, I thought I’d give it a try.

First bit of advice: don’t go alone. Not only was my “outdoor” table by the canal wonderfully romantic, but the food really is meant to be shared.

I was seated next to the canal where the turnaround area for the gondolas is located. If you’ve ever been there, you know that’s where the gondoliers will stop and serenade their customers and the crowd with beautiful operatic arias. It was a free show, and I enjoyed every second. It was yummy to the ears and goosebumping to the arms.

The large, yellow-orange menus revealed a variety of surprisingly reasonably priced food items. While I could have tried a whole array of different dishes, my time constraints (and budget, of course) naturally limited my choices.

At the urging of the first server ( I hate the word “busboy”), I started with the chips and salsa, which is an extra charge of $2.00 and is not automatically placed on your table. Before you get all huffy because of that, hear me out.

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Vegas Wineaux Loves a Quickie

Oh please, people! Get your mind out of the gutter!

Allow me to explain.

While technically this began at the last Marché Bacchus tasting on Saturday, it came to a head, so to speak, last evening.

I didn’t feel like cooking, had tons of work to do at home, wanted a quick dinner, and had (okay, *wanted*) to buy some wine that was on sale. At Marché of course.  So I bought the last four bottles of Londer Vineyards Pinot Noir and decided to stay for dinner.

I don’t need to rave about how great Marché Bacchus is.  Their accolades are legendary.  And for more than a decade, this little restaurant has been a haven for foodies throughout Vegas and the world. Literally.  So while I could tell you that the fresh crusty bread was perfect with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar, or that the beautifully rare duck breast on a bed of wilted Napa cabbage and flavorful reduction was luscious, or that the Russian River Pinot Noir - served perfectly in a Burgundy glass, of course - was the ideal accompaniment, or that the smooth sound of Martin Mancuso saxophones was just the right touch for an evening out on the patio, I won’t.

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Vegas Wineaux Focus On - Sculpterra Winery

Although we visited Sculpterra on the last day of our long Paso Robles Wine Festival weekend, I decided to showcase them first because of the sheer number of pictures that I took of their spectacular grounds. They also have an unusual story, and I felt that was definitely worth sharing.

In spite of their 60+ acres and the fact that they’ve owned their own vineyards since the late 70s, Sculpterra wines are actually quite new to the consumer. Their first vintage was 2005, and even now, their production is only about 3300 cases per annum. They sell most of their grapes to others but keep enough back to create wines under the Sculpterra label. For instance, they sell the greater part of their Cabernet Sauvignon production but retain all of the Viognier for their own use.

Paul Frankel, the son of the winery owner, literally grew up on these grounds, learning all aspects of vineyard care and management and winemaking. A recent graduate of California State University at San Luis Obispo with a degree in Viticulture, he arrived at the university program with a lifetime of hands-on experience and knowledge that other students could only imagine.

A tall, slender young man with arresting green eyes and a quiet, self-effacing manner, he has an easy natural charm and an obvious passion for winemaking. After all, he’s been in the vineyards since he was a wee lad! He has worked on the last few releases as he has been gradually transitioning into becoming Sculpterra’s full-time winemaker.

The interview was fun to do with him. Actually, it’s less of an interview than it is just allowing Paul to tell us in his own words a little about the winery’s history and what’s planned for the future.

And then he’s a rocker who uses his old rocker van for vineyard tours.

But I digress.

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