Chardonnay Cures our Midterm Woes

Hello aspiring winos!

This week we decided to take a cue from the warm weather (sorry to all of you not in California) and switch it up a little bit. We wandered down to Sandy's Liquor in downtown SLO and perused their generous collection of wine (and beer!) in the wall coolers until a bottle of white caught our eye. We decided to go with a bottle of 2013 Edna Valley Chardonnay, for its attractive label and similarly attractive price tag at $13. This might seem like pushing the boundary for a cheap white, but I'm willing to shell out a little extra dough for a good white for reasons that will be covered in this week's Wine 101 post discussing a little overview of production techniques for red and white wines. Additionally, we've both had good experiences with Edna Valley in the past, and we're proud locavores, so drinking a wine made 7 miles away from the store we bought it from gives us the warm-tinglies. All-in-all we were happy with the wine: it looks good in the glass, smells good, and tastes alright, even if it's not too complex. It's a little expensive, but it's a good example of a balanced chardonnay (not super buttery, but not straight fruit expression) so if you find yourself with a little extra pocket money give it a shot and see if you like it. We rate it a 7.5/10- better than average but not good enough at the price to keep the fridge stocked. Find the full tasting notes below.


2013 Edna Valley Chardonnay
13.9% Alcohol by Volume
$13 at Sandy's Liquor in Downtown SLO

Sight 

Looks nice in the glass. Pale gold/straw colored, with a tint of green

Low concentration, very transparent, especially around margins

Crystal clear and bright, no sediment

Nose

Very clean, sharp/crisp aromas, but not overwhelming. I would call it a light bouquet, it's a little subdued but not muted, just not very concentrated.

Smells organic, with fresh grass, floral, and fresh red (fuji?) apple aromas . After a bit more examination there's a slight buttery aroma coming in behind them.

Taste

The moment the wine hits your lips there is a very pronounced acid structure up front. Not unpleasant, but in the body fails to stand up to it and as a result seems a bit flabby and flat after experiencing the initial pointed acidity.

The wine is velvety smooth as you swallow with an oaky aftertaste, complemented by a subtle butter flavor.

No flavors stood out except for the oak influence on the draw, so as far as taste goes this one gets a "meh".

Words that came to mind when we were deciding our rating were "good, fine, acceptable, boring" in that order. I would suggest trying this Chardonnay with food, maybe something spicy, that will allow the acidity and textures to shine and make up for the lack of flavors on the mid-palate. That said, we decided to give it a 7.5/10, because we felt it didn't deserve a 7, but didn't really earn an 8. 

I'll probably be buying another bottle of this to try with dinner some time. 

We hope you're all feeling better than we are about this quarter (if you're going to drown you might as well drown in wine, right?) but in case you aren't, here's some pictures from today's tasting featuring Chloe to brighten your day.

Cheers,

A&P

Salt and Pepper

Hey y'all!

Paul and I will be trying wines from different stores, this week we went to the generally reliable Costco. We had been told that we were able to buy alcohol without the need of a membership card. Turns out it was more complicated than that. We picked out the wine of the week, went to the register, turns out we needed a "pass" from the membership counter so I left the wine at the register (Paul was filling up his truck with cheap, cheap Costco gas, with the only membership card we have between us...). I had to stand in line behind a family with many kids, once I got the pass it turned out I needed cash which I didn't have (Paul also had all of the wine cash with him). Finally when I got back to the register the wine was gone....so I had to go back to the wine section in the back corner of the store. Finally paid and had to wait for Paul in the cold.

(What a sob story- Paul)

Unfortunately, the wine didn't pay off. This week's wine is the 2011 Napa Valley Meritage by Kirkland Signature. Meritage (pronounced like heritage) is simply a word for a Bordeaux-style blend, which is generally a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot (sometimes Malbec is thrown into the mix as well). This name was created to give California wineries a label they could use to denote the wine they made to be specifically in the Bordeaux fashion and set it aside from the rest.

It felt like we were cracking fresh pepper directly onto our tongues. Probably pass this one up the next time you're out buying pallets of instant ramen at Costco.

Sight

Not cloudy, very dark, but not dull
The color is deep and concentrated, almost opaque
Deep ruby red color, colorfast, doesn't lose any color on the margins

Nose

Moderate-strong aroma
Spicy black pepper dominates any other aromas that may be present
Smells like Dr. Pepper (23 flavors, bitches!)
A little bit of red fruit flavor shines through, hard to put a finger on exactly what it is

Palate

The first thing we noticed when we tasted the wine was a kind of dirty feeling and aftertaste. Already off to a bad start.
The tannins are a bit subdued and flat, yet still somehow manage to be unpleasant and command a presence in the mouth. Acid comes in strong at the end and is not to be underestimated.
I wish you could have seen Alejandra's face when she took the first sip:
Bottle of Kirkland wine?
10.99.
Her grimace?
Priceless.

The body is weak and lean, the the draw is mediocre at best, and the only thing we could glean from the flavors other than overbearing black pepper spice was a hint of cherry.
Simple and straightforward, but not a particularly strong tasting wine. It's difficult to focus on the flavor when the mouthfeel is so pronounced.

Scenes from our glamorous tasting

Rating 5/10

I'm going to drink the rest of the bottle, because I'm a cheapskate, (in fact, drinking this as I'm writing and it's been open a few hours it tasted a little better) but I'm not going to be buying it again. Maybe turn it into a sauce for chicken and pasta. Kirkland, you betrayed our trust.


Cheers,
(Just for you, Christian)
A&P

Wine 101: Basics of Tasting

This is Wine 101, a segment where we will try and drop some knowledge on ya every once in a while.


Hey y'all!

We wanted to throw together a little info sheet to help explain some of the terms and ideas we use and look at when we're tasting a wine. We also thought it would be cool to show you the tasting and evaluating process so you can go through it yourself if you want-- No pressure though, we're doing this so you can drink good wine without having to do the legwork!

Key Definitions

Acidity: The sensation of acid the wine creates, judged by how much the wine makes you salivate.

Body: Describes the weight or fullness of the wine in your mouth.

Nose/Bouquet: All of the aromas coming off of the wine.

Finish/Draw: The lingering taste or sensations left by the wine in your mouth after you swallow.

Measures of Sweetness (Dry, off-dry, sweet): How much sugar is left after fermentation (% Residual Sugar or RS). Technically speaking a wine is considered dry if it has less than .02% RS, but for our purposes a wine is dry if it has no detectable sweetness, off-dry if it has just a little bit, and sweet if the sweetness is really prevalent.

Rim Variation: How the concentration of color changes from the center to the edges of the glass (hold the wine sideways to view), and how large of a margin of clear liquid there is.

Tannins: Compounds found in wines and bitter foods (kale, some types of carrots) that create sensations of bitterness in your mouth and dry it out by precipitating proteins in saliva. A wine with a prominent tannin structure is described as being tannic.

Tasting

When we're tasting a wine for evaluation, we (loosely) follow this chart, starting with sight, then progressing onto nose, palate and taste. (Link to a larger version)

Basically, we start out by looking at the color of the wine- how bright it is, how clear it is, the hue (which color it most closely resembles), and the concentration of color. To look at the concentration you tip the glass to the side, generally against a white background, until it's thinned across the glass. From this view you can see how the concentration of color changes as the wine thins out and roughly estimate how intense the flavors of the wine will be when you taste it.

After looking at the color we start to smell the wine, first looking for any overpowering bad smells, then trying to pick out different aromas, many times fruity aromas. This is one of the most intimidating things about starting to evaluate wines. In fact, we really aren't all that great at it ourselves, so we aren't looking for minutia, just the big few aromas that are really going to influence a person's enjoyment of the wine. After all, most of what we taste comes from what we're smelling!

We use this flavor wheel to help us figure out what we're smelling and tasting. It's a great thing to have on hand if you're trying to figure out what the heck that taste/smell is but you can't quite put your finger on it.

(Full version here)


After we've made made some judgments on how the wine smells we get to the exciting part: drinking! Make no mistake, there is no sipping and/or spitting here.

With the first swig, we try to feel out the texture of the wine: primarily bitterness, astringency, acid, and alcohol. once we have a good grasp of that we start digging into the flavors of the wine using the same wheel that we used for aromas (seriously, it's a great thing to have on hand). We loosely go through fruit first then move onto any non-fruit flavors that may be present, focusing on the prominent flavors that jump out at us. On the tasting grid shown above, it also has sections for conclusions, but those are for blind tasting, so we ignore that.

After we've gone through that, we compare notes with each other and decide what we want to rate the wine on a 10 point scale.

10 Point Scale

1- Why did they even put it in a bottle?

2- Run away

3- Sub-2 Buck Chuck

4- Bottle useful mainly as a weapon in case of emergency

5- Maybe give it to your ex for their birthday.. if you're feeling mean

6- Open this one after you're almost done with the first bottle

7- Average. If it was given to me as a gift, I wouldn't complain

8- Good value. Buy it in a pinch.

9- Take it to a pot-luck with your friends and impress them

10- Hunt it down. It's serious y'all

Following our full evaluation, we properly dispose of the rest of the bottle.

I hope this was helpful! In the future we might delve a little more into what's happening behind the scenes to get the wine to your table so you can get a feel for everything that goes into it. If there's anything that we didn't explain or anything you'd like to hear more about from us please drop a line in the comment section! And if this seems intimidating to you don't worry about it! Just drink wine! Strive to drink new wines every time you do pop a cork. If you're into it you'll start to notice some of these things without even thinking. And that, my friends, is when you know you're hooked.

Cheers,
A&P

Introducing College Uncorked!

Hey y'all!

We're Alejandra and Paul, two Wine and Viticulture students at Cal Poly here to help you wade through the sea of inexpensive wine.

Wine can be delicious, but delicious wine can get reeeaal expensive. And if you're anything like us, you can't afford to be dropping a bunch of cash on wine every week. So you aim for the $5-15 price point (we won't talk about boxed wines... yet), and it's pretty hit or miss. You go to the store, and the only thing you really have to go off of are the backs of bottles. Not very helpful (just look at the "Winemaker's Notes" on our first bottle down there. What you need are honest reviews. Not snobby or esoteric tasting notes. So we'll be here every week, drinking cheap wine and avoiding our homework to help you class up your Netflix "date" night without breaking the bank.

For our first ever Monday post, and with Valentines Day just around the corner, we picked a perfect wine for you to enjoy with your significant... self.  Ringing in at just $9.99, today we tasted 2012 Caretaker Cabernet from Paso Robles, CA. Pleasant aromas of dark fruit with a little bit of spice; pair this slightly over-tannic wine with caramel milk chocolate squares and loneliness to cut the bitterness. Full tasting notes continued on the next page.

Cheers,
A&P