Off the Beaten Path

This week has been all about venturing away from the tried and true and discovering the new: new classes, new people, new subway routes, new investigations into the wine world in cyberspace, new wine shops and most recently a new grape varietal.
Let me back up and explain where some of this newness came from. As a new blogger I decided it would be worth my while to look at other wine blogs. Typing "wine blog" into Google, I came across a website called Dr.Vino. It looked like a reputable site (Winner of the 2007 Wine Blogging Award) and I was particularly attracted to it because it gave maps of NYC wine shops and wine bars.

On the day that I happened upon this site, the blog entry was giving a reminder about "Wine Blogging Wednesday" I read on and discovered that Dr. Vino had given fellow wine bloggers an assignment: "pick a wine made from a grape variety that comes from a place it might call home. Taste it and write up a tasting note." Well, with my student hat securely in place I decided that I was going to do this assignment and it would be my first attempt at putting this blog into the wine blogging community (eek!).

Yesterday, with four hours of time in between classes and no "real" assignments on the horizon I decided to find a new wine shop to buy my indigenous bottle. I went to Dr. Vino's site and looked at his map of NYC Wine Shops. You have to scroll up on the map toward the top to what some Lower-Manhattan dwellers may consider outer-space to find the Columbia Campus area. There, a few blocks away from campus, I discovered Harlem Vintage. A few minutes later, after walking through a park and across several blvds I found myself in a lovely, warm and well organized shop. I was the only customer there and took my time looking through their selection. One unique feature of this shop is that they identified wines made by women and people of color with multi-colored stars.

After several passes through each section (organized by grape varietal) I found a potential candidate. It was an unassuming bottle with a sketch of a mustached, apron wearing man in mid-swing, closing a barrel of wine. The wines name? Craftsman. The grape? Kiralyleanyka (Kee-rye-lay-ohn-kha). The price? 9.99 New wine, new grape, very familiar price - things were looking good. I brought the bottle to the counter and asked the women if they had tried this wine. One told me that she had and thought it was a nice aromatic wine and a good value. I was sold. I bought the bottle and put it in my bag next to my new textbook (which was not nearly as good a value). It came to my evening class with me and then went straight into the fridge when I got home.

Tasting Notes:
2006 Craftsman Kiralyleanyka (Hungary). A very pale yellow color. It had a wonderful perfumed fragrance and gave the slightest prickly sensation on the tip of the tongue (from spice or effervescence, I couldn't tell). It was light and finished quickly, though it started to leave a sour lemon aftertaste a few sips in. I tasted green apples, lemons and another sweeter fruit like peaches. This wine reminded me of the fresh crispness of a Vinho Verde crossed with a dry and aromatic Riesling (others say it is like Viognier and Chenin Blanc - but I wanted to provide a new interpretation).
Fletcher commented that it was a good food wine; strong enough to cut through the garlic vinegarette and boiled (read:stinky) egg that I had put on my salad tonight. He recommends having it with fish (I think it's a bit too sweet for fish) and cheese. I would put it with cheese or spicy Asian noodles.

My Glass is Half Empty

Today I registered for classes. It was an all together dreadful experience. Openly acknowledged to be a flawed system by the registrar herself, it was far worse than I could have ever have imagined.
This morning 1200 students gathered in a large auditorium to listen to yet another welcome speech. The air in the auditorium was thick with anticipation and nervous sweat. If there was a machine that was able to mute to speaker's voice and tune into everyone's internal monologue it would have picked up the 1200 voices chanting the same message - "Are we EVER going to get to register?"
When the time finally came for the faculty to give out the pin numbers that would enable us to register online, by phone or in person, the entire school erupted into chaos. The scene was a frenzy of laptops, cell phones and hallway runners. This was soon followed with error messages, busy signals and long, long lines. Three hours later I left with only three out of the four of my courses and lots of questions and concerns. I am about to study "Organization and Leadership" and I just experienced one of the most DISorganized experiences of my life! What could I really expect out of this program?

So, I came home and opened a bottle of 2005 Milziade Grechetto Colli Martani (Italy).
As excited as I was to try this new grape varietal, I couldn't shake this feeling of skepticism and doubt. I looked at the printout given to me from the store (Astor Wine and Spirits - they give you a list of the wines you buy upon request). It said, "An Umbrian white wine full of character made from the Grechetto grape. Dry, full of lemon citrus fruit character and white flowers. Beautiful minerals on the finish with firm fresh acidity." It sounded delicious, but would the wine really exhibit such delectable characteristics? I poured a shallow glass and plopped down on the couch.

Tasting Notes:
Before taking a sip I smelled ripe apples and pears. I smelled something sweet, like a sweet liqueur. I took a small taste - it wasn't sweet at all! It didn't taste anything like apples or pears. In fact it was quite dry, citric and had a distinct mineral taste. When I say "mineral taste" I think of two things - a mix of what you smell when you spray hot gravel with a hose and what you taste on a fork that gives off a metallic zing on your tongue. I took several more sips and didn't taste anything different.
Overall, I appreciate that this wine could be a conversation piece. It is an rare grape variety. Its smell fools the senses. It is "complex" and enjoyable. Let's see what others have to say about it...

I turned to the internet and found the following review from the Wine Library website:
"Classic golden yellow color. Nose of white asian spices, fino sherry, herbs, almonds, and cheese. In the mouth the wine shows flavors of kiwi fruit, pear skin, stones, and wild, white mushrooms. Well structured and long. Charmingly rustic and idiosyncratic. 100% Grechetto." 7.99 (reg. 9.99)
And here was my internal monologue:
"Really? Reeeeally? WHITE!?! asian spices? What are white asian spices? I'm afraid to google, it sounds like a search query that would result in many things not food related. Next.
Okay, sherry - I get that. It's the sweet liqueur I thought I tasted. Herbs? No wait, herbs is not as far out there as cheese. CHEESE? I don't taste anything even close to cheese? What kind of cheese have you been eating? Next!
Well at least Kiwi fruit is harmless - it's not a particularly overpowering flavor. You can get away with adding Kiwi fruit in the description of many wines. Next.
Pear... got that, but pear skins? I am going to go buy a pear and dissect it in my kitchen, because I definitely don't know the difference between pear skin and pear flesh. Next
Finally, wild white mushrooms. Are we trying to make a Haiku here? I applaud the person that can pinpoint the mushroom taste in a wine that is both wild and white.

So there you have it. I do love a good wine description. But sometimes, more often than not, when I read a wine review I get that scrunched up brow look and I just have a hard time believing that anyone's palate can really pick out all those scents and flavors.
I'm reading a book right now called The Accidental Connoisseur, by Lawrence Osborne. I think his words are influencing me because he is also a pessimistic wine taster. But who knows, maybe one day I will reach wine enlightenment and I too will be able to taste the sweet earthiness of white wild mushrooms.

What does sexy taste like?

When I recently asked a wine salesman for an "interesting and different sparkling wine" he gave me a bottle with colorful and whimsical polka dots on its label. As attractive as the label was, I actually had some difficulty in locating the name of this wine - but here is my best shot: Merieu Touraine Brut, Jon-David Headrick. In describing this wine to me he said, "this wine is sexy." Now perhaps he was just doing his job as a saleman and in assessing that I was a young woman, thought that the word "sexy" would appeal to me. Well, he was right, I did buy the wine. But here's the thing, what does sexy taste like? I tried thinking about other "sexy" food - strawberries... chocolate dipped strawberries, or better yet... a fondue fountain where you can dip your own strawberry thereby engaging all the senses at once. Champagne I suppose also falls into the "sexy" category, or at least it conjures up images of romance, love and celebration. Yet, all this brainstorming still did not help me understand what I was going to taste in this wine. So, what better way to find out than to open the bottle.

Tasting Notes
Whenever I drink sparkling wine the first sensations are always the bubbles and the cold (duh). These two elements are delighful, but they make it hard for me to taste the flavors. On the first few sips I thought this wine was well balanced - neither too sweet nor too dry. But I also got a bitter note. Perhaps something like roasted coffee beans. Maybe a little green tea. There is a yeasty flavor, but no fruit flavors jump out. I went to google in search of some help - maybe I could some other reviews of this obscure wine. I couldn't find anything but I did find the above photo.
This is a not-so-sexy photo of the winemaker, Jon-David Headrick.
This wine is probably not readily available, but you're not really missing out for 12.99

Zweigelt, "I'm not ordinary; give me a job" wine

Yesterday I mentioned that I went to a wine shop in an attempt to get a job. I came away from the experience $50 dollars poorer and without a job. However, I'm not a quitter and I consider the $50 an investment in my future. I bought three wines (I set a $20 dollar cap instead of my usual $10 because there were no under $10 bottles for sale). I asked one of the sales people to give me an unusual wine - something that I've never had before. He handed me a bottle of 2006 Berger, Blauer Zweigelt wine from Austria. The important thing about this wine for me is not its uniqueness -which i will talk about in a minute. The important thing about this wine was that it gave me an opportunity to send a follow up email to the owner to say thank you and to also show him that I'm not just some ordinary girl looking for some ordinary old job. We'll see if it works.
Tasting notes:
Zweigelt (Zv-eye-gelt) is a cross between Blaufrankisch and St. Laurent. It is common in Austria and is a lighter red variety.
This particular wine comes in a stout 1 liter bottle. So for 14.99 you get 250 ml more. When I showed Fletcher he said it reminded him of a 40 (malt liquor) bottle. And sure enough underneath the outer foil was a beer bottle cap. The first taste was sharp, salty and vinegary. Not a good start. However, there were some cherry notes and other dried fruit flavors that came through. We each had a small glass and then put a rubber cork in it to save for the next night. Apparently the wine gets better after its been opened for a while.