Wine Club Newsletter - July 2022
A Wine Pro Explains Why You Should Never Rinse Your Wine Glass with Water at a Tasting
I liked this article very much, as it makes good sense. Personally, if I am to use the same wine glass for two different wines, I will generally empty the first wine from the glass best I can. I then use the second wine to rinse the remainder of first wine clear of the bowl. Drop in less than an ounce of the second wine, I do swirl (it doesn’t matter clockwise or counterclockwise as determined below) and generally consume the mix completely. Then the glass is ready for the second pour. We call this “The Parker Wash”. GP
When it comes to wine tasting, there are a lot of unspoken rules: Don’t wear strongly scented perfumes or colognes; do be open-minded. It’s all complicated enough that navigating one, whether it’s a casual affair with friends or slightly more serious, can feel like a complicated balancing act of etiquette and enjoyment.
Regardless of the setting, there is one rule you should be following in order to get the most from the wines you’re tasting: the wine rinse in between pours. If you’re enjoying a casual tasting, you may be silently wondering why you’re wasting precious wine rinsing the glass. For expert guidance on this wine washout, we spoke to sommelier and wine educator, Brianne Cohen.
Why You Need to Rinse Your Wine Glass Between Pours
Cleaning the glass when moving from white to red probably seems like the most logical reason behind rinsing. But aside from preventing a color change of the new pour, there are a few other benefits to washing out the glass.
For example, corked wines and wines with strong aromas and flavors (like natural wines) can stay in the glass and affect the taste of the next wine, Cohen notes. Sediment from unfiltered and aged wines is also another reason to rinse, as these will transfer to the next wine if left in the glass.
How to Rinse
There is an art to rinsing, and it begins and ends with wine. After you’ve finished your initial glass and are ready to move on, you’ll want to rinse the glass with the upcoming wine in the lineup. Cohen suggests first pouring a small teaspoon amount of the wine into your glass before swirling it clockwise and upward to coat the glass, before dumping it out.
“Swirling is key, as it will remove residue from the sides of the glass and most importantly charges, or primes, the glass for the next wine,” she says. Essentially you’re seasoning the glass pre-pour to ensure you’re getting only the notes from the current wine, and none from the previous pour.
Why You Shouldn’t Use Water
Given the bowl shape of wine glasses and the impact of gravity, any liquid left in your glass will pool at the bottom. So, it goes without saying that when rinsing with water there will inevitably be residual traces left behind.
Even the smallest amount of water can dilute the wine, which can alter the way it tastes, looks, or even smells. But Cohen explains that the major issue with using water to rinse comes from its quality. “Variations of water, such as hard, mineral, and chemical can impart additional flavors into the wine,” she says.
Ultimately, you want the glass to be as ready as possible for each wine you’re tasting. Rinsing with wine, not water, is the best way to make sure you’re getting all that each wine has to offer.
Jessica Fields, VINEPOUR
BBQ Wine Primer for Summer Days
Keep your red wines cool. Depending on the wine, in fact, you might consider throwing the bottle in the cooler with the beer. 50-55 degrees is ideal but you can go lower (refrigerator temp is typically around 40 degrees, which is a little cold, but it’ll rise quickly once the bottle is out).
Fancy glassware and other formalities associated with wine tend to go out the window with barbecue—especially considering a lot of the food is meant to be eaten with your hands.
Large formats are your friend: A barbecue is a great time to serve wine in magnum or jeroboam—it looks cool and accommodates larger groups of people.
Consider the setting: If it’s a hot daytime barbecue at the beach, you’ll likely want to choose different (i.e. lighter, more refreshing) wines that if it’s a backyard dinner that’s a lot cooler.
...
Cheers!
Gary Parker, Owner
The WineSellar & Brasserie
2021 Nottingham Cellars Rose’, Micro-Lot Reserve
Growing Region Napa Valley, California
Varietal Composition Cabernet Sauvignon & Grenache
Fermentation Stainless Steel
Alcohol Content 13.2%
Suggested Retail $35.00
WineSellar Club Price $34.99
Broad Strokes:
From the Winery: In 2009 The Cranor family started its journey in the wine industry in the Livermore Valley. Since day one, our goal has been to produce world class Cabernet Sauvignon and find sustainable winegrowers to partner with. We have been long-time advocates of the unrecognized potential of this region. In 2019, after a decade of focusing purely on the world class vineyards in our home AVA, we decided to branch out and explore some of the most amazing Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards in the Napa Valley, from the famed regions of Atlas Peak, St Helena, and Rutherford. Making these wines side by side was an eye-opening experience, and we are still in the process of seeing how these wines progress. We couldn’t be more excited for the future as we dive deeper into these renowned growing regions.
Appearance:
Clear bottle with a screw cap closure, right on! Label could use larger font and improved color contrast with them. Back label is easier to read then front label. Very pretty wine with a red/peach hue.
Nose:
The aromatics are somewhat reserved at first, yet still reveal strawberry and redberry fruit, with a nice touch of herbs and fresh garden scents. Notes of vanilla and nutmeg.
Texture:
EASY drinking! It enters smooth and even, whetting the palate and feeling quite juicy. The strawberry fruit lingers with a soft sweetness, ending with a nice little bite of crisp acid to finish it off aptly.
Flavors:
Strawberry, cherry cola, peach, and Mandarin Orange. A GREAT combination of fruit flavors, giving us a touch of citric acids to balance it out. It seems like one sip of this wine is just not enough!
Serving Suggestions:
Fabulous summer sipper for the picnic, BBQ, pool, patio, and perhaps the Summer Salad for this month’s recipe!
2020 Pinot Noir, Argyle
Growing Region Willamette Valley, Oregon
Varietal Composition 100% Pinot Noir
Fermentation Stainless Steel & Neutral Barrels
Alcohol Content 13.5%
Suggested Retail $30.00
WineSellar Club Price $25.99
Broad Strokes: 91 Points Recent Vintages
From the Winery: Twenty-five years ago, Argyle began making wine in Oregon's Willamette Valley. Since 1987, winemaker Rollin Soles and viticulturist Allen Holstein have teamed up to produce world-class method champenoise sparkling wines, barrel-fermented Chardonnay, and silky-textured Pinot Noir from low-yielding vines that are winery farmed on some of the best hillside slopes and elevations.
Argyle wines have received a total of 11 Wine Spectator Top 100 designations - more than any other winery in Oregon. The Argyle wines represented on this list include sparkling wine, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, truly making Argyle one of the finest practitioners of the craft of elegant, long-lived winegrowing.
Appearance:
Nice-looking smoke tinted bottle with well delineated yet monochromatic label. Screw Cap Closure. Visually, the wine has a cherry skin coloring from the core all the way to the edge of the glass.
Nose:
Solid and pure essence of Pinot Noir, that being fruity, elegant, and complex. Cherry, maple syrup, roasted nuts white pepper, red licorice, and spices. Touch of earth and mineral, spicy tea.
Texture:
Medium to medium light in body and weight. The entry has a youthful zest with a little edge over the subtle, gentle fruit. Middle palate uses the vibrant acidity to assert the cranberry/cherry fruit to the clean and lasting finish.
Flavors:
The delicate and textural sensation of this wine allows a lovely cherry and tart cherry fruit to stand tall. Hibiscus, spiced tea, strawberry, cranberry and pomegranate, with hints of cola and wood smoke.
Serving Suggestions:
This, along with our other WineSellar Club selection this month, the Nottingham Rose’, are perfect for summer sipping. Sometimes it is nice to back off the petal and enjoy something a little lighter and smooth. Great VALUES, the both of them!
2016 Ektimo Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley
Growing Region Russian River Valley, California
Varietal Composition 100% Pinot Noir
Fermentation Barrel Fermentation
Alcohol Content 14.9%
Suggested Retail $34.00
WineSellar Club Price $30.59
Broad Strokes:
From the Winery: Wine making satisfies both intellectual and artistic elements. There are two primary elements that create wine grapes and a winemaker. They are the foundations upon which every wine is based.
The goal at Ektimo Vineyards is for each wine to showcase the character of the vineyard, the fruit of the vine and the craft of the winemaker. We prefer wines that have pure aromatics, concentrated flavors, and an elegant structure. Our wines are balanced in fruit, alcohol, tannins, acidity, and oak. A great wine should make you think, but most of all it should tempt you to come back for more.
Appearance:
Nothing like a big heavy bottle! The front label is really cool with its distinctive images and straight-forward fonts. The wine is lovely looking, just starting to show some signs of bottle age with a distant hint of amber along the very edge of the wine.
Nose:
A very rich, densely fruited, and full nose, especially for a Pinot Noir. This has a mix of power and elegance, exerting red cherry, vanilla, black pepper, roast beef, dates, cranberry, and a bit of menthol/mint/basil.
Texture:
Rich and lush, it is medium in body and weight, yet possesses a full feel in the mouth. Even through this, it has that silky Pinot Noir feel that I love. Added bonus: the softening of the acids due to bottle age and allowing the more aged complex, tertiary flavors of the wine come forward.
Flavors:
A super complex mix of fruits, spices, herbs, and everything (I never said that before!). Dark red meat of ripe cherry, hints of chocolate and vanilla. Bits of cardamom, thyme, and basil. The wine keeps offering m=more and more as it opens up. Roast beef. The meaty mode just keeps coming up.
Serving Suggestions:
Well, the wine has aged well for six years now, and I could give it another six years in the cellar. Sock some away!
2019 Gigondas, Maison Brotte, “La Marasque”
Growing Region Gigondas, Rhone Valley, France
Varietal Composition 55% Syrah, 45% Grenache
Fermentation 100 Year Old Oak Vats for 12 Months
Alcohol Content 15%
Suggested Retail $28.00
WineSellar Club Price $25.19
Broad Strokes: 92 Points Wine Enthusiast
Located in Châteauneuf-du-Pape since 1931, the Brotte family own 3 exceptional estates in the Southern Rhone Valley. Focused on protecting the environment, all Brotte Family estates are certified Sustainable by the Terra Vitis organization. As well as estate-grown wines, Maison Brotte collaborates with other growers to produce top quality wines from other appellations, including Condrieu, Côte Rôtie, Gigondas and Côtes de Provence. Their entire portfolio is consistently highly rated by the industries top publications and always reliable.
“La Marasque”: The name of a quality cherry, with acidity, renown for the making of Marasquin liqueur. A tribute to the unique cherry liqueur flavor of the “cuvée”.
Appearance:
Classic label and packaging you typically see from France and the Rhone Valley. Everything is there; the appellation, the producer, vintage, special designation, and etching of the grounds. The wine is a dark ruby red, black at the core.
Nose:
Lovely aromatics with a solid scent of cherry liqueur, with violets, granite, hot pebbles, mushroom, cedar, raspberry, strawberry, and a bit of charcoal. The wine has EXCELLENT depth and intensity on the nose.
Texture:
Medium in body and weight. The mouth feel is exciting as the fruits burst out in your mouth, yet they are gently governed in by the well-structured acids. Mouth-watering. New World style with extracted fruit, higher alcohol, and not rustic in nature as many Gigondas are.
Flavors:
Dark Cherry and red raspberry are front and center in the fruit department. Ripe and dark plum, wild berry and strawberry also dig in, with bramble, alder wood, notes of earth, mushroom, hot stones. Cedar, smoke, and charcoal with a hint of cappuccino, vanilla and cocoa.
Serving Suggestions:
This wine is glorious! Having just returned from 12 days in the Rhone Valley, this would have been of the best Gigondas wines we would have had. Drink now to 2029.
2018 Levendi Cabernet Sauvignon, Sweetwater
Growing Region Napa Valley, California
Varietal Composition 100% Cabernet sauvignon
Fermentation 18 Months 100% New French Oak
Alcohol Content 14.5%
Suggested Retail $68.00
WineSellar Club Price $61.19
Broad Strokes: 93 Points Beverage Tasting Institute
From the Winery: Levendi is a family owned, boutique winery located in Napa Valley, California. The Gianulias family has a strong Greek tradition of private winemaking dating back for centuries. Since 1926, on American—and Napa Valley—soil, they have propagated, refined and developed handcrafted vintages to share with family and friends.
The Greek Toast “Levendi” acknowledges a hard day’s labor and achievement. It celebrates the fields, the rain and the sun that nurture our special grapes. Essentially, it’s a toast “to celebrate life”. And it is the philosophy on which we craft our wine.
Appearance:
This is beautiful bottle month for the Gary Parker Collection, what with Outerbound Cabernet package and now this one. Aren’t the graphics to die for? The etching of the “Levendi” (described above) is so majestic and timely. The wine itself is a dark violet, black at the center, and leaves dark curtains down the glass.
Nose:
Handsome essence of mature dark wood (mahogany), laced with dark berry, chocolate, Indian spices, coffee, fresh herbs and honey and kirsch. I noticed touches of nutmeg and cinnamon, vanilla ice cream.
Texture:
Medium full in body and weight. Creamy mouth feel, with good, firm acids holding the dairy feel in check, keeping it wine-like. Well delineated, even, smooth, balanced, finishing with a nice little crisp acid.
Flavors:
The rich fruit flavors come through immediately and solid on the palate, letting you know this 2018 Cabernet hailed from a fantastic vintage. Spices of cinnamon, Cinnabun if we must, with the grilled bread and bread dough coming through. Chocolate wafer. Blackberry fruit, wood, vanilla oak, meaty, complex, black pepper, LOVELY!
Serving Suggestions:
Another winner Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley for under $100, and sight we don’t see too often for this quality. Cellar worthy, putting this down for about 10-15 years would bring great rewards in the years 2030 and beyond.
2018 Outerbound Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Wessel Smith Ranch
Growing Region Alexander Valley, California
Varietal Composition 100% Cabernet sauvignon
Fermentation 100% French Oak, 45% New
Alcohol Content 14.5%
Suggested Retail $60.00
WineSellar Club Price $53.99
Broad Strokes: 93 Points Wine Enthusiast
From the Winery: As a family of winemakers who prefer life with no boundaries, we craft wines from the nooks and crannies of Sonoma County for those who find themselves constantly seeking the outer edges. For those who push limits and dare to explore. Our philosophy is to share the very best of vineyards both unsung and renowned, no matter how remote or how long we search for the perfect block. Because whether we’re making wine or living life, it’s in the journey of discovery that we find ourselves most inspired. With a focus of power and precision, our Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon encourages further exploration from first taste.
Appearance:
Absolutely beautiful packaging, with formidable label paper, embossing, creativity, solid imaging, it says I am something to look at. So distinct, so identifying, encouraging, mysterious, tempting. Big heavy bottle as well. The wine is red/purple in color, and darker at the core.
Nose:
A stunning nose of black and blue fruits over laid by scents of caramel, toffee, and coffee. Totally exquisite! Bits of mint/basil, rainwater, vanilla oak, grilled bread, and toasted hazelnuts. Exotic, perfume, cologne.
Texture:
Neither heavy nor light, it seems magically weightless to me somehow. Possessing depth and richness, without being a heavy, fruit-laden bomb. Well integrated lines of acid frame this gentle beast.
Flavors:
Blackberry fruit from the Alexander Valley, one of my favorite characteristics from Cabernets made there. (Fun fact, these grapes are sourced from an old Silver Oak vineyard.) In addition, black raspberry, dark licorice, fresh ripe fig and date fruit. Fantastic wood note, oak, cedar, vanilla. White pepper, grilled bread, toffee and coffee, caramel.
Serving Suggestions:
This wine is a total winner in my book. Can be consumed now because of its fruit generosity but will cellar well for a dozen years. Get some!
Summer Salad 2022
Sunny times are here.
I have revised this simple salad that is refreshing, satisfying, and great for those of us who count calories or watch carefully what we eat.
This goes great with a firm, juicy Rose’ or an edgy Sauvignon Blanc.
Serves Four
FOR THE SALAD:
(Use organic product where possible)
- 1 Small head Boston Lettuce, finely chopped
- 4 Persian Cucumbers, Sliced
- 1 Large Avocado, Diced
- 20 Grape Tomatoes, Cut into ½ or ¼ each
- 16 Ripe Strawberries, Sliced
FOR THE DRESSING:
- 1 Tablespoon of Fruit Infused Balsamic Vinegar (We use Fig or Tangerine Balsamic)
- ¾ Cup Extra Virgin Tea Seed or EV Olive Oil
- Small Squeeze of Meyer Lemon
- Black Pepper and Salt to Taste
Method:
-
In a large bowl, mix above ingredients, add the dressing, and toss thoroughly.
-
Divide among four plates and serve.
(Option is to place salad items on individual plates in decorative fashion and drizzle the dressing over each individual salad).