Tag Archives: wine

Gravity Winery 1/19/2013

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– Pinot Gris • cheddar and pear on the nose. Vanilla and spice with a surprising weight in the midpalate. Paired with cheese accentuates the notes on the nose and integrates well with the waiting heaviness.
– Shiraz • chlorine on the nose with very weak lingonberries. Quite acidic with a lean neediness in the aft-palate. The Colby jack is a good pair as it buoys the neediness letting the hidden spice shine with just a touch of raspberry/boysenberry.
– Irresistible Red • bubble gum on the nose with a ghost of strawberries. The taste is quite surprising, a definite soft licorice note paired with plums, cloves, and cinnamon. Paired with milk chocolate toffee pushes the sweetness forward and mutes the complex flavors that develop in the midpalate.
– Lemberger • chalkboard, slate, tomato paste in the nose. The taste is sharp and acidic with a conservative tannic structure that yields to plums and the bite of pepperoni. The pairing of dark chocolate cranberry pecan blasts out the finer flavors of the wine, accentuating the bitterness of the dark chocolate.

All in all, the Irresistible Red was the winner, the Shiraz was second, the Pinot Gris next and the Lemberger at the end.

Round Barn Tasting 1/19/2013

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– Vineyard Red • quite warm and loose. Flabby and generous. High 80’s
– Cabernet Sauvignon • nose of pickles and pool water under strawberries and plums with a hint of pepperoni. Nice acid and tannic bite with a complex mouthfeel. High 90’s
– Merlot Reserve • warm vanilla and chocolate notes in the nose with strawberries. Softer tannins waddle through with an exceptional creaminess. High 80’s.
– Noir Nouveau • more standup, notes of grenadine in the nose. Cherries and well-rounded currant notes. High 80’s
– Weekend Red • hot pavement on the nose, taste of sugared dark chocolate and raspberries with the slightest touch of freshly cut grass.

TIL In Action

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This evening we sat down and were about to enjoy New Years Dinner and a nice bottle of Chenin Blanc. The wine-puller accidentally ruined the cork halfway and so half of the wine cork was in fragmented bits and the other half was in the neck of the bottle. I looked for ways we could enjoy the wine and without any tools handy I decided to use a skill I picked up years ago. How to uncork wine when you don’t have any cork-pulling tools.

You can eject a cork by placing the bottom of the wine bottle in your shoe and then smashing your shoe against a sturdy vertical surface. I took the bottle and one of my shoes and went to the garage. The exposed concrete footer was perfect. A good few solid whacks and the cork was ejected smoothly with only a few drops of lost wine. No cork in the bottle, no straining out cork, and no need for tools we didn’t have.

The next time you have a bottle of wine and no tools, look no further than your shoes and some sturdy vertical surface that can take some abuse. Wham! Wine!

Wine Tasting

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I took this weekend, and extended it to include Friday and Monday and we’re spending it up in Traverse City, MI exploring the wine trail in the northern region of the lower peninsula again. We’ve explored this region before and have gotten to know many of the wineries and vintners in this area.

Yesterday we dove in and visited four wineries:

  • Blackstar Farms
  • Bowers Harbor Vineyard
  • Chateau Grand Traverse
  • Chateau Chantal

My experience in the first two was exemplary, the last two were abysmal. Now as to the why behind my experiences it comes down to how the tasting rooms were organized and run. Blackstar Farms conducted a very congenial tasting room and I quite enjoyed my visit. The pace was self-led and it provided me sufficient time to write in my wine journal.  The tastings here were free because we had retained the wine glasses we purchased the last time we visited. As for Bowers Harbor, this was a new experience for me, being happily surprised because the last time I was there I was so put out that I vowed I would never return to that winery again. The last time I was at Bowers, the tasting room manager didn’t listen to anything I said and just poured whatever they felt like pouring. Uh, no good. But this time? So much better! The new tasting room employee was wonderful. She was engaging and didn’t put pressure on us and listened to the wine order that I wanted and the wines I wanted to taste.

So, what about the last two?

Chateau Grand Traverse was very beautiful. It had a lot of curb appeal and a very impressive name. Big bold lettering, the stuff that marketing directors purr over. Once we got inside I noticed several things that were troubling from the get go. The wine tasting area was spooned up against their gift shop, which was top-to-bottom stacked with everything from snacks and dip-powders to books on wine. Very elaborate however rather distracting. Then as we approached the wine tasting bar a fellow greeted us (we won’t share names to protect the guilty) and immediately set the pace. The pace was best described as ‘breakneck clockwork’ as once we were settled and given a guide and a pencil we were under pressure to select six wines. The fellow behind the bar was one of a team and it became very clear that they had a script and a schtick to work from and they were playing it back to us. They might as well have been robots. The same jokes, the same affable smalltalk, over and over and over. There wasn’t even any attempt to mix it up even once, the script was that one-dimensional. The pace at Chateau Grand Traverse was a mad dash to the end. Just as you had swallowed the taste you had, Mr. Helpful was in your face making comments and analysis which trampled over the thoughts you were trying to form of the wine you just tasted. Wine is supposed to be savored and enjoyed, not chugged like cheap college beer. Our progression along the six free tastings was so rushed and harried that I gave up writing in my wine journal. What’s worse? They saw that I was writing yet cared not a jot that I may have preferred a slower approach. It was this that set me on edge, and so I decided that four tastes in that I was done. I was going to stop writing and stop thinking about Chateau Grand Traverse and after being told several times that “Number 14 is our BEST SELLING WINE!!!” I concluded that Chateau Grand Traverse was not, and never will again, get any of my money. Yes, their sweet Riesling was sweet, but it was also flat and dull. I could have mixed a simple syrup with grape juice and made something similar. So, whatever! After that I endured even more protestations from the staff that “Number 14 is our BEST SELLING WINE!!!” — Yeah! We got it! We aren’t buying it! And then our guide for the wine tasting just disappeared. He was replaced by another person, a woman who started us off on the same script and schtick all over again. If Chateau Grand Traverse was in the Twilight Zone, that would have done a lot to explain their dysfunction! Alas, I left Chateau Grand Traverse with the express desire to escape. Also I was filled with the urge to punish that winery for its rank obnoxiousness and rude behaviors, but instead of raising a stink I just left. I don’t want to go back. Yes, I was going to buy a bottle of their Chardonnay, but their staff made damn sure that wasn’t going to happen and thinking back upon it, it will never happen. In fact, if we do TC again, they will join the few other damned wineries we have abandoned. If we go, I won’t enter that establishment again. And yes, it was that bad.

As for Chateau Chantal, the wine tasting was okay, it didn’t suffer the same problems that Chateau Grand Traverse had, however their system for tasting wines wasn’t very conducive to a good tasting and this is because they categorize their wines by small black rhombus symbols, one symbol is for wines that you can taste for free and two are wines you have to pay to taste. You get three rhombus symbols, so three free tastes. You can’t taste-for-free their more expensive wines and those are all marketed as “Reserve” or “Select”. What can you taste? Basic wines that would have been good to drink out of boredom. The scores never broke 75 out of 100. So I tried three wines, all not very good, and at the end I didn’t taste anything that made me think that the “Reserve” or “Select” bottles were worth even looking at. If you are going to set a tasting fee, fine, but it’s far better, in a marketing sense to give your customers a sense of liberty by charging them some basic fee and letting them taste a handful of wines. If you want to make your customers really happy, set the fee to be the wine glass, then brand it and sell it that way, that way your customers are getting some small bit from you that they remember at home and they are more apt to try different wines. Paying discretely to taste “special” wines isn’t the way to go.

So, here’s a guide in a nutshell for what I think, from a customer’s point of view a wine tasting room should have:

  • The Wine Bar should be a centralized island or clustered along one side of the presentation space.
  • The staff should be friendly, scriptless, and be sensitive to the various approaches some people may wish to follow. The best way to assess how much interaction is important is to start with basic questions and ask the customers what wines they like the most. If the customer doesn’t know then you can ramp up your involvement and be more of a guide. If the customer does know, then proceed slower. If you notice the customer has paper, a book, or a journal, then slow the hell down. If a customer is writing about your wine, then that customer knows their palate and input from you should be limited to statistics of winemaking such as chapthalization, brix ratios, methods, and just one or two key points that are special to notice about what they are about to taste.
  • Tastings should ideally be with a small fee, between one to five dollars and if that’s the design then some token should be sold, a coaster, a wine glass, a wine charm, something. The best fee would be charged and then waived if the customer purchases a bottle of wine. That fact should only be revealed to the customer if they actually buy a bottle. Do not lead with “If you want to taste there is a fee, if you buy, we waive the fee.” Make the waiving of the fee a surprise to your customers. That will ensure repeat business, which is what you should really be after. One purchase does not a true customer make, repeat visits and repeat customers are the key. In a way, you should want to turn a customer into a fan. That’s where your value is!
  • Let your wine speak for itself. Do not let the tasting guide be a chatterbox. If the people coming to taste want a chatterbox, let them lead the guide forward, don’t start there!

I’m sure I’ll come up with more of these rules, so I may come back to this post and add to it, but these are some of the core things that wineries really should take seriously. It’s not enough to simply push bottles out the door, you have to engage with your customers and turn them into fanatics. The best way is with good wine, convivial and conservative wine tasting guidance and cultivate an air of happy engagement. If a customer feels welcome, feels like they are getting some basic respect and the wine is worth it, then they will no longer be simply customers, they will be fanatics.

Here’s a little example for you all, there is a winery in this region called Bel Lago. We walked in as new customers the first time we visited the region and now we are Bel Lago fanatics. We walk in and we pluck bottles off the shelf even before we arrive at the tasting bar because we know what we like and Bel Lago followed the basic rules and converted us from simple customers to fanatics. If you want to see how to run your wine tastings, visit Bel Lago. Feel the atmosphere and the environment there and learn from it. That is, if you want to sell wine and be successful. If not, then go to Chateau Grand Traverse and wind up their staff before their thinking parts run down.

Throw It Back

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I used to fret and worry about my relationship with alcohol. What did it mean? Is the drinking itself bad or is it the reason behind the drinking the really bad part? Maybe it was a combination of both. Next month I’ll turn 37 years old and quickly plowing myself into my 40’s. So what preciousness is to save that I’m holding onto?

Americans have a really funny way of dealing with alcohol. We used to love it, then we hated it, then we prohibited it completely and all the while our relationship and use of the substance has not changed. I notice this a lot when I go to purchase alcohol from shops, especially here in Michigan. People are so, I suppose the emotion they must feel is embarrassment, because the shops all reflexively wrap bottles of alcohol in brown paper wrappers. Like it’s shameful or embarrassing to be seen in polite society with a bottle of Jack Daniels, Jamesons, or Captain Morgan. Wine never really got the sharp end of the stick, and neither really did beer. Both of those spirits are too weak to be of mention. You’ll go to the bathroom a lot before you’ll feel much in the way of an effect from those particular drinks. It’s the harder liquors that surprise me. First off, Michigan rigidly controls the price of spirits right down to what retailers are allowed to sell the spirits for. It doesn’t matter who sells what, they all get their prices out of this dog-eared pale-blue booklet that the state hands them. I sometimes wonder why the state of Michigan thinks it’s the sole arbiter of the price and availability of spirits in their state borders? As if they could control their citizenry with laws. Hah. But there it is, artificial price fixing for no good reason. A 750ml bottle of Jameson’s Whiskey is $25 in Michigan and $17 in Illinois. The only reason I’d buy liquor in Michigan is out of laziness.

And as it turns out, my favorite liquors are Jamesons, what a shocker, and as funny as it seems, the low-brow rums, Bacardi’s Oakheart and Newfoundland’s Screech. I don’t really care for the specialty long-aged rums and apparently I prefer just the english-speaking rums of the world, as the rest aren’t very much to my liking. But really where it’s at is my relationship to a bottle of Jamesons.

What is my relationship to alcohol? I drink liberally and I become intoxicated and I enjoy myself. I do not make a mess of myself by drinking beyond my personal limit, nor do I operate any machinery while under the influence. That last bit is a lie, of course, as machinery includes my iPhone and my computer, so a few bouts of drunk twittering won’t send me to jail. I’ve never operated a motor vehicle, and almost always I’m the designated driver because, well, lets face it, I have control and money issues. So back to drinking. It’s a joy. It brings warmth and happiness into my life. Not that my life was bereft of warmth and happiness before, but while intoxicated it makes many things feel better. Many things are easier to cope with. I wear my emotions on my sleeve and I share my feelings, some would say, too readily. There was a humorous picture of a boy stating what I often times find myself thinking, especially sober, and that is “We’re all thinking it, I just said it.” So we get down to the reasons why I drink.

I like to drink because it feels good. I like to drink because it tastes good. Wine is principally what I’m getting at, as there is a universe of delicious flavors in wine and more people should go exploring to see what they like. Beer? When I was a kid and very sensitive to bitters, beer was awful. As I age however, beer has become like water. It’s a drink with food, it makes you belch, and makes you have to see a man about a horse quite often. In many ways, beer and wine are somewhat okay ways to replace water, especially if you question the quality of water. I personally have never felt that the water where I live is good for me. Now, before people get really worked up, the gentle reader should be aware that I was raised on the worlds best water. The city supply of Syracuse, New York. That water is drawn from Skaneateles Lake and is some of the best tasting water on the planet. I am sorry that more people don’t understand just how wonderful it is to walk up to the tap in your house, turn it on and be able to drink what comes out without even a single iota of worry, and enjoying the taste, which is the way water should taste. It should not taste like a chlorinated fish bowl. So the water is a big reason for the more simpler spirits. But that doesn’t touch on the stronger ones. Here again I like the taste, or perhaps, in the case of Jamesons, I’m genetically predisposed to enjoy the taste, I do sometimes wonder about that. I also enjoy the feeling it gives me, and then, and what everyone really wants to know, is the social aspects to my alcoholism.

I drink because Hell is other people. This is very general and expansive and it’s not really meant to hurt others feelings, but lets face it, unless I’m in love with you or we are exceptionally close, Sartre’s statement about Hell being other people eventually finds it’s mark. I can endure a lot of things from people, especially when I have no other choice. I can be whatever I need to be to endure the situation. That’s the blessing that comes with a monumentally strong sense of self-monitoring. In work meetings I can be calm and reserved and measured, that sort of thing. Generally however I can’t stand humanity. In all the ways we are unique and special and loving, that’s got nothing to do with it. It’s the baser things that bother me, the odd behaviors, the many varied ways we abuse each other and in many ways, so effortlessly and lets face it, callously. It can range from being a real prat to being incidentally and nebulously a horrible human being. So what comes of all these unpleasant feelings? Being exposed to people who chew too loudly, snort, wheeze, moan, whine, or in one way or another do whatever they can to be as awful to others as they can, where is there to go? Where can anyone go if they are trapped in that situation? I am forever thankful for alcohol. “Please pass the wine” is a far more pleasant thing to say than dragging out (or dragging up) the varied unpleasantnesses that surround some social situations. I find that it’s almost always more preferable to prepend potentially unpleasant social interactions with a precautionary buffer of alcohol in my system. If I am nursing a beer or a glass of wine, of throwing back shots of Jamesons, I can eventually reach a place where the things that upset me no longer really bother me, and in a way, alcohol makes everything better. So yes, I drink, at least as a partial reason, to cope with the people in my life. I am not going to point fingers at who makes me drink, that would just be courting disaster, but in a general sense, Hell is other people.

So to get back to the beginning, is it a problem? Should I be concerned? The answer is, I don’t give a damn. I’m not going to fret over what drinking means to me, I’m just going to enjoy my life and all the things in it and if I spend my time in a beer bottle or a bottle of Jamesons, then that’s where I want to be. For pleasure, for joy, for happiness, and to escape Hell, at least for a short while. Anything can be endured as long as there is a break to it, a stop, a discontinuity to horribleness. In many ways, alcohol is a blessing to endurance.

2011 Leelanau and Old Mission Peninsula Wine Explorations

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This past season my friends and I visited Traverse City Michigan and explored the wine regions known as Old Mission Peninsula and the Leelanau Peninsula. These two land formations jut out into Lake Michigan and offer a marvelous vista and environment, especially one to winemakers.

The land itself is carved up, and since it resembles upstate New York so very much I can only assume it’s glacial carving that gave the land such compelling contours. Along with this, there are lots of hillsides and the land is good for growing grapes. There is also a very neat geographical component and that is that the 45th Parrallel runs right through these two peninsulas. There is at least one winery that uses that geographical fact as their namesake, and there even is a special place where you can learn all about the 45th Parrallel.

So what are the great wines of the region? I will list the ones that got special notes in my wine journal below. If you are reading this and your winery is on this list, I visited you and enjoyed what you had to offer. I can only hope that my recommendations help other people discover you as well.

  • Longview 2008 Riesling, noted honey, starfruit and pineapple.
  • Longview 2008 Pinot Noir, cherries and strawberries on the nose, plums, red fruit and chocolate on the palate.
  • Longview 2008 Cabernet Franc, nose has pickles, palate was of black cherries, cocoa and vanilla
  • Chateau Chantal Chardonnay, nose of pool water and meunster cheese, palate of grapefruits and pears with a fair acid kick in the teeth.
  • Left Foot Charlies Longcove Reisling, honey and sweet, very refreshing.
  • Black Star Farms 2009 Chardonnay, nose had vanilla, roses, apricots and peaches. Palate was acidic, oaky, loaded with vanilla. This wine surprised me with it’s mid-palate development.
  • Chateau Leelanau Semi-Dry Reisling, nose had pineapple and apple, palate had warm honey, apples and spice. This was one of my top picks during the tasting.
  • Bel Lago 2009 Auxerrois, nose was lightly floral, palate was buttery and creamy. I give this wine a score of 97. Every time I visit Bel Lago I buy a bottle, it’s that good. Was one of the most magnificent wines I tasted in the entire region. Bel Lago wins a Bravo for their wines.
  • 2 Lads 2009 Pinot Noir, nose of plums, cheese, meat. A very well rounded red and this one surprised me because it unfolded as I was tasting it, changing over time. Wines that do that almost always start at 90 and usually go up.
  • 2 Lads 2009 Cabernet Franc / Merlot, nose of plums, cassis, pine sol cleanser, antifreeze. Palate of pickles, rye, nicely acidic and wrenchingly tannic. This wines note indicates that this wine would be a perfect pair to a corned beef dinner with a beautifully sharp mustard.
  • Chateau Grand Traverse 2009 Gamay Noir, nose of bread crusts and peanut butter. Palate of red, plum, and tomato. This wine won high marks because it unfolds mid-palate.
  • Left Foot Charlie 2009 Uncle, nose of strawberries and raspberries and blueberries. Palate was very tannic and chewy. This wine won high marks because it continued to linger after it was consumed, the post-palate play was very shocking and welcome.
  • Chateau Leelanau Hawkins Red, nose of strawberry, red fruit, raspberries. Palate of spice, chewy, tannic.
  • Good Neighbor Organics Chardonnay, nose of road, pavement, plums. Palate of butter, apples, pears. The wine was excellent, the hosts were absolutely charming. Great salesmen.
  • Bowers Harbor Vineyards 2009 Cabernet Franc Rose, nose of strawberry and peaches. Palate of spice, caramel, dulce de leche. This wine won a note of “Delicious!!!”
  • Ciccone 2009 Pinot Grigio, nose of natural gas and sulphur. Palate of bright lemons, apple, tart blueberries.
  • Ciccone 2008 Cabernet Franc, nose of pickles, cheese, asphalt, and clay. Palate was very tannic and had quite a lot of acidity.
  • Ciccone 2009 Tre Rossi, nose of cheese, cream, vanilla and oak. Palate of cake, chocolate, smoke and tannins. I bought three bottles and this wine I reflexively buy in two bottles when tempted. It is magnificent.
  • 45 North Pear Cider, not really a wine, but if you like pears, you’ll love this.

Being Without

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This past weekend I was without my Blackberry as the number port took through Verizon and the phone was in a box en-route to Kalamazoo through FedEx. It was an odd feeling, being potentially connected through the fail-a-licious Blackberry and then suddenly not having anything. No phone, no sms, no alerts, no twitter. It was rather humbling. There were some seriously good moments of comedy that I was going to share but couldn’t, some of them were:

  • At the GR B&N, they had a sign up for Black History Month and right underneath it a load of product from the BBC.
  • The Apple Store at Woodland Mall in GR, a packed madhouse! It was if it was a fresh release day and people were starving for the sleek and shiny.
  • Scott’s test drive of the car that has caught his eye, the Nissan Juke.
  • Browsing the Pioneer Wine Trail, which runs north and south of Jackson, MI.

Of course, throughout all of this I’ve been impatient for the delivery of my new iPhone. Waiting has been uniquely annoying, especially since FedEx doesn’t really update their package status as well as UPS does, so for the past few days the shipment has been cooling it’s heels in Grand Rapids, until just a few moments ago when it turned out to magically appear in Portage.

I did enjoy myself immensely this past weekend however, got in a lot of mallwalking, bought a few bottles of very good (and cheap!) wines from the Pioneer Trail region, saw the Juke which was exceptionally cute, and had a chance to spend time with friends.