The Demystified Vine

Taking the mystery out of wine exploration!

A Wine Shopper’s Guide: Facts & Quick Tips

June 9, 2015

If you are headed to your local wine store to purchase some vino and you’re feeling a bit intimidated, check out these facts & quick tips.

Obviously this is not an exhaustive list, but it is a good starting point to help you feel more confident with your purchasing power.

Remember to try new things, explore, and be open to picking up that bottle that you have always deemed “must not be good”; you never know if it will surprise you. My personal suggestion: avoid buying big producers all of the time. You can often find a wine of much better quality for only a wee bit more coin.

Cheers!

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An Infographic: Noble Grapes & Their Key Wine Characteristics

June 4, 2015

There are many winelovers out there who wish they could know more about wine. Consistently, I hear the comment, “Oh, I can’t tell the difference between a white and a red wine.” Okay, let’s start with colour, right? But I get it. It’s not about the colour of the wine. It’s about all that mumbo-jumbo that surrounds picking out key characteristics in wine and how those differentiate one varietal from another.

At that point, I usually find myself wanting to demystify those key characteristics because, well, I’m an educator. As such, I’ve created a quick reference guide for (most) of the Noble grape varieties. Noble grapes are also known as “Key Grape Varieties”. Syrah is considered to be a key grape variety as well, but I couldn’t work it into my web. Shout out to Syrah…you know I love you!

For those of you not entirely well-versed in wine, use this to help you on your wine journey. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list. There are many more characteristics used to describe these individual wines. The characteristics I have included are the most common for each grape and how that grape shows itself in its final product.

Enjoy, and remember to “like” the Demystified Vine on Facebook for fun facts, memes, and other wine-related articles.

Cheers!

The Demystified Vine

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Gambero Rosso ‘Special Wine Awards’ Masterclass Displays Italy’s Best

Valerie Stride, WSET ADV Certified

1 comment

June 2, 2015

June 1st, 2015

Having been offered the opportunity to attend the Gambero Rosso ‘Special Wine Awards’ Masterclass, I realized one thing. Okay, well, I realized a few things throughout the course of the seminar, but that is also what I am here to talk about. What I realized was that I really adore wine. No joke. Oh wait. I knew that already.

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At the Gambero Rosso Masterclass

As masterclasses are wont to do, they showcase the best of the best. This particular masterclass was no exception. Marco Sabellico, the Editor in Chief of the Gambero Rosso Wines of Italy 2015 Guide, spoke to the small crowd and presented the wines that recieved the highest awards.

How the Winners Came To Be

As mentioned early on in the seminar, we were tasting 7 of the 9 top winners in Italy. Whoa.

Forty-five thousand wines (yes, you read me right) from more than 20,000 labels from more than 2,400 wineries were tasted.

This process took almost four months to complete. When the original number of submitted wines was decreased to a semi-final number of 1,200, those samples that made it through the process were sent to Rome to have another panel taste through. Essentially, they eliminated more. There were a total of 423 Tre Bicchieri winners.

The Rating System

Tre Bicchieri translates from Italian to English into “three glasses”. Gambero Rosso wants to keep things simple. The guide outlines the following:

One glass — “good wines in their respective categories”

Two glasses — “very good to excellent wines in their respective categories”

Three glasses — “excellent wines in their respective categories”

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The top 7 wines

The Tasting

Award for Sustainable Viticulture
Barone Pizzini Franciacorta Brut Nature 2010
Bouquet: hints of brioche, strong minerality, lemon wedge
Palate: excellent mousse, vibrant, yellow apple, clean mineral finish
Conclusion: Quite lovely!

White of the Year
Valle Reale Trebbiano d’Abruzzo V. di Capestrano 2012
Bouquet: white peach, lemon juice, minerality, hints of almond and white flowers
Palate: silky, citrus, light stone fruit
Conclusion: This wine surprised me with its complexity. I have always viewed Trebbiano as a light, watery-wine with not much going on. It is, after all, the working horse grape of Italy. This wine, however, opened my eyes to the fact that Trebbiano can be done well. Bravo!

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Best Value for Money
Monte Del Fra Custoza Sup. Ca’del Magro 2012
Bouquet: zesty lemon spritz, briny, dry chalk, dusty, mineral-driven
Palate: herbaceous, nutty, fresh lemon juice, hints of lime zest, med. body
Conclusion: A beautiful white wine for a hot summer eve.

Up-and-Coming Winery
Tiare-Roberto Snidarcig Collio Sauvignon 2013
Bouquet: vegetal & vivacious, fresh cut grass, asparagus
Palate: luscious, capsicum, white grapefruit pith on finish, minerality
Conclusion: Oh boy! I adored this wine. Of this wine, Sabellico stated one could detect the “herbs that you find on the dunes on the shore” in this wine. I put a little “heart” beside my notes.

Grower of the Year
Giuseppe Gabbas Cannonau di Sardegna Cl. Dule 2011
Bouquet: bright Maraschino cherry, raspberry, violets & roses
Palate: smooth body, peppery spice, red fruits, floral, hints of dry tobacco and grilled herbs on back palate
Conclusion: Very nice! It’s a romantic wine.

Winery of the Year
Tenuta Sette Ponti Oreno 2011
Bouquet: Red & black fruits, plum, mocha, dark chocolate, dark spices, complex & deep
Palate: Mysteriously grippy tannin, dark fruit, wet tobacco, good acidiy and ageing potential
Conclusion: Bring me some wine and start the BBQ!

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Sweet of the Year
Tentuta Di Capezzana Vin Santo di Carmignano Ris. 2007
Bouquet: Butterscotch, caramel, pecan pie, orange, rum & raisins, ginger
Palate: lusciously sweet with salted honey, caramel, buttery, long finish, with a very interesting mouthfeel
Conclusion: Do I have to conclude this? I won’t. I just won’t. It’s too good to have it end.

Good wines, good times, great learning experience. I’m very grateful that I was able to attend.

Cheers!

All About Bordeaux

May 31, 2015

I am headed to Bordeaux in just over a weeks time to attend one of the largest wine expos in the world. In preparation for all of the blogging and tweeting I am going to be doing, I have been brushing up on my Bordeaux knowledge. I happily created a little graphic with some interesting (and demystifying) facts about Bordeaux. Feel free to share if you learned something new! Enjoy!

 

2012 Robin Ridge Gamay Wine Review

Valerie Stride, WSET ADV Certified

1 comment

May 30, 2015

The 2012 Robin Ridge Gamay is proof that Gamay can be made in a few different styles.

The Blind Taste

I was given this wine to blind taste on Monday, May 25th, 2015.  As I was going through the process of tasting, I was feeling a bit flabberghasted. Now, blind tasting really does keep a wine lover humble, and this was no exception to the rule. My olfactory and gustatory senses were driving me toward Malbec or Syrah from South America or even Shiraz from South Africa. As one can likely conclude, I was smelling and tasting red & black fruits, plum, spices including clove and pepper, and the body of the wine was at a medium level due to oaking. The “NOT” category of my blind tasting notes included Cabernet Sauvignon, old world, Merlot, France, Italy, Australia, North America, and Gamay, amongst a few other now irrelevant notes. The reveal really kicked me in the shins. I realized I need to taste more Gamay, and more new world Gamay at that.

2012 Robin Ridge Gamay

Photo Copyright Valerie Stride 2015

A Little on Gamay

According to the book Wines and Spirits Understanding Style and Quality (the Level 3 Advanced WSET guide):

Historically, Gamay was cultivated throughout Burgundy, because it is easy to grow and gives a high yield of early-maturing wines. [pg. 88] Gamay gives fragrant wines that are full of raspberry and cherry fruit, and is very light in tannins. These characteristics are often further enhanced by the vinification technique. [p.95]

As such, my reference at the very beginning with how Gamay can show itself in so many different lights, only rings more true. With the oaking that this particular Gamay received, alongside the fact that it was grown in the Similkameen Valley with rich, lush terroir, can only mean that Gamay has a wonderful potential to be heavier-bodied and spicy as heck.

Robin Ridge Winery is out of the Similkameen Valley in British Columbia. Tim and Caroline Cottrill run the winery, and have been working the land since 1996 when they decided to turn their dream into reality. According to the home page on their website, they are in

the pursuit of a great berry transformed into the perfect wine […] and they invite you to take as much pleasure in their wine as they do in creating it.

Robin Ridge Gamay is available in your local BC PRIVATE liquor store for $24.00.

Cheers, everyone!

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