Been a while since I posted

Sorry for being absent. Between a all too brief vacation, a load of work, and making sure I have something resembling a social life, I have not had too much time to blog. I have tasted oodles of wines, so hopefully this weekend I will write up a short review of each to post each day in the following weeks. I think I will reserve longer posts for topics, while giving a wine review post its due without going into too much detail about the production of the winery.

I do have some exciting news (or at least exciting for me): I purchased an iPhone. I told you exciting for me, so I do not want to hear how utterly boring this news is for the rest of you.

Why did I buy the iPhone? Customer service. I talked to most of the major brands that supply a wireless phone service and AT&T was by far the best. I walked into several retail outlets in New York and I WAS IGNORED by half of them. Unbelievable.

So, I am entering the world of toy phones, with apps for all. I noticed at the Wine Bloggers' Conference that the majority of bloggers owned an iPhone. It gave me i-jealousy. And I will now stop adding the letter "i" to the front of words.

When TV and Wine Collide

There are plenty of people who make a lot of money and then decide they would like to own a winery or make wine. Lil John is now making wine in California, Antonio Banderas owns a winery in Spain, Jay-Z launched a Blanc de Blanc champaign, etc. Sometimes it is even a business decision; a brand can become so large that all you have to do is stick the name on a label and slap that label on a bottle of wine and it will fly out the door.

Or at least that is the hope of the makers of the Sopranos' wines. The brand was launched back in September of 2008 (ah the good old days). About a month or so ago, I was sent a few bottles and I am embarrassed at how long it took me to open them up. I got around to popping the corks this past weekend and I was not disappointed.

Nope, not disappointed at all. The wines were as lacking in flavor and typicity as I could have wished. My expectations were that the wine was being sold on its namesake instead of the juice inside, and I feel as if I were right on the money. The Pinot Grigio smelled nice, lots of citrus and grapefruit with a little minerality. However the taste was so off I had to look back at the label to make sure I was not drinking a California Chardonnay. It said made in Friuli. Then I tasted the Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Sangiovese blend. Not bad, but certainly not exciting. There was nothing in the taste that I could point to and say "yup, that's a fruit."

Does that make this wine something to be avoided? Not if you are doing a Sopranos marathon party...

All about Zin – Wine Blogging Wednesday #60

Five years ago, Lenn of LENNDEVOURS founded Wine Blogging Wednesday, where each month wine bloggers from all over would participate by holding a wine tasting with a similar theme. This gave wine bloggers searching for direction a purpose and a sense of unity and community. Five years later it is still going on and looks to have no end in sight.

The theme for today’s WBW is Zinfandel, brought to us by the brilliant Sonadora (who also happens to have a great smile while she talks and amazing teeth… a story for another time). Sonadora is the editor for Wannabe Wino Wine Blog.

So, for today’s Zin review, of which I am sure there are 40 bad jokes about Zin being written, I have chosen the Titus Zinfandel 2006 from Napa Valley. I was able to hang out with Christophe Smith, the Sales Manager of Titus Vineyards at the most recent Wine Bloggers’ Conference and he let me taste some of Titus’ wines. I thought they were all pretty good. I happened to be in the wine shop and saw a bottle of Titus on the shelf, so I decided to buy it and give it a try.

I opened up the bottle with a few friends that are not really wine people. In fact, one got excited that she knew what legs were. I then started going through the motions of tasting the wine. It was cooked. My friends did not pick it up; to them it was just a wine. There was an oxidized thinness to the wine where I knew it should have been fuller and fruitier. It was really sad, but something that every wino needs to be aware of during the summer. Wines that have been sitting too long on a hot truck, on the tarmac of an airport, in the backseat of your car for too long can become damaged within hours.

Lesson learned, be kind to your wine, keep it comfortable and at a reasonable temperature and always go to a wine shop you trust.

A hammock and a campsite

I am off on vacation at the Philadelphia Folk Festival! It is one of my favorite places on earth, with good friends, music, and the best vinegar fries I have ever had.

See you on the flipside!

Embarrassing how long it’s taken

Finally I tasted through the Clos LaChance, and I am kicking myself of letting these wines sit in my sample grab-bag for so long. It has taken me nearly three months to taste through these wines. It seemed that there were always other events, other stories, and other wines in my way of these beauties.

Clos LaChance had a Twitter Taste Live event back in June, but I received the wines after inquiring about wineries growing vines using sustainable practices. I got somewhat the best of both worlds. More and more wineries are turning to sustainable agricultural practices, a great way to plan for the future. There are of course companies that say they are doing involved in sustainable practices, just to be part of the group and use it as a marketing tool. To see some of the different ways that Clos LaChance is sustainable, see their PDF here.


And more importantly, their wines are good. I tasted the Clos LaChance Hummingbird Series “White-Tufted Sunbeam” Sauvignon Blanc 2008 and the Clos LaChance Hummingbird Series “Glittering-Throated Emerald” Unoaked Chardonnay 2008. The names on the labels made my acid reflux act up slightly, but getting past that, the wines were very good. The Sauvignon Blanc was fruity, with an upfront hit of cream as well as apricot and grapefruit. The unoaked Chardonnay was zippy, with lots of green apple.

I also really enjoy it when a winery goes beyond text on their website. When I started researching this wine I went to the winery’s website and found videos from the winemaker and the vineyard manager and the owner of the winery. They are not riveting by any means, but each is a short personal view of what is going on at the winery.





Not sure how herbicide helps their sustainability… but I’m just a blogger.

Others who have written recently about Clos LaChance:

• http://www.brixchicks.com/2009/07/nectar-and-hummingbirds-review-of-clos.html


• http://1winedude.com/index.php/2009/06/06/weekly-twitter-wine-mini-reviews-round-up-for-2009-06-06/


• http://goodgrape.com/index.php/articles/comments/a_pre-zap_zinfandel_face-off/