BITS & BOBS

Posted on August 12, 2024 by Stan The Wine Man

Did you know that modern day wine critics will bump up scores on wines to get notoriety for themselves? It’s a known fact that inflating scores on wines will move the winery to post the name of the critic on their websites as well as putting it on their bottles that go into the retail market. I’m confident that the winery doesn’t really care if the points are inflated, it helps them to sell their wines. One well-known wine critic in particular not only is known for inflating scores, but also charges the winery to send samples. That is ludicrous! Why would any winery pay to send a sample of their wines? It’s bad enough that they don’t charge the critic for the sample. I realize that a high score can move a ton of wine. So, the investment may be worth it to them. However, I would suggest to any winery, that they put some time into promoting their wines from the winery level, instead of depending on some person to rate their wines. In the long run, I feel that this approach would pay higher dividends. Wineries have a tough time with this. Not all of course, but a majority. Well known critics have gotten wealthy on the dependency of wineries for high scores. Personally, I feel privileged to be able to attain samples for review. It’s a responsibility I take very seriously. I grade wines fairly based on how they are made. I do my best to throw subjectivity out and allow objectivity to be the driving force of my decisions. Sometimes it’s painful to give a wine a low grade, especially if I know the winemaker. However, I am all about the consumer, helping them to spend their wine dollars wisely.

Speaking of high scores, most of you know that I loath the one-hundred-point scoring system for wine. Think about it. The only scores you see are between 84 and 100 points, at least in general. That’s a sixteen point spread. All other scores are thrown out the window, so to speak. Why not just make it a twenty-point system… 1-20, with 20 being the best score. It’s because, having a 100-point score on a wine sounds so awesome! Of course, Robert Parker Jr. made the 100-point system famous and it stuck. I use a grading system which works just fine for me. Joe Roberts of One Wine Dude fame is the one that introduced this approach to me. I like it. It’s simple and effective. I can still remember how excited I was to see As on my report card. It meant that I nailed that class! So, if I give a wine an A grade, it means the winery got it right. I will even go as far as giving a wine an A+ if I feel it went above and beyond what anyone might expect who tastes it. The grading system has thirteen possible outcomes. F, meaning failed. D-, D, D+, C-, C, C+, B-, B, B+, A-, A, A+. It’s one of the best systems I’ve seen for rating wines and it’s one I will continue to use both here and on my YouTube channel.

My recent episode on YouTube, pits Spanish Albarino against Albarino from Washington State. I hope you get a chance to watch it, the results blew me away! Its is done in the blind format, which is always fun to watch. Albarino is a hot ticket in the store, something that has been trending now for a couple of years. I always wonder what it is that moves people to start being interested in a particular varietal like Albarino. It’s probable due to the popularity of Paella which is a really good pairing with Albarino. It’s also been featured in a lot of food and wine periodicals. Whatever the reason, I am always stoked when people are willing to stretch their palate horizons.

Cheers!

Stan The Wine Man

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BITS & BOBS

Posted on July 29, 2024 by Stan The Wine Man

Susie and I are getting super excited for our trip to the island of Crete! The rooms are booked the plane tickets are purchased the tours are all lined up. Basically, we are two months away from flying off to Europe. Neither of us have been to Greece and we know that we can’t do everything. However, what we do have planned should satisfy our curiosity about this very interesting and old country. It’s fun to watch Susie do the research, including the restaurants we want to go to. I can’t emphasis enough my wife’s ability to plan and coordinate our trips. She’s the best!

Summertime at Kings Market is in full swing. One of the reasons I love this time of year is the diversity of customers who roam through our wine department. Some items I’ve purchased that have been sitting on the shelves for months have disappeared. We are talking higher-end wines that I know most of my local customers will avoid unless there is a special occasion. Not so with the tourists. They are blown away by the selection of wines we offer and have no qualms about buying what they want. They are on vacation, so why hold back! I purchased a vertical of Chateaunuef-Du-Pape from a specific winery a while back, thinking that some of my peeps would enjoy buying some older vintages of this awesome juice. Well, I sold a few, but now they are almost gone within a period of three weeks. Someone out there, most likely a tourist, sniffed it out and took advantage. Good for them and good for me. Sometimes I wonder why I bought something for the store as I look at it sitting on the shelf. However, by the end of the summer that problem is usually gone.

Recently I noted that Albarino sales are not nearly as brisk as they were last summer. Well, I was a bit premature on that. Now, I can’t keep them on the shelf once again. From a wine steward’s perspective this is very exciting. It means that people are stretching out there palate horizons and trying new things. Of course, Albarino is hardly new, it has been around for a long time. Evidently, people have started to show an interest in it. What started this recent movement? I have no idea. Had Oprah been around to tout its virtues, I could understand that. However, I am not aware of such publicity for this varietal, maybe one of you can enlighten me. At any rate, I’m happy to see people clamoring for Albarino. I love this varietal myself, having partaken of it for many years. I will make sure the shelves remain stocked for the month of August when the sun is still shining and people are looking for whites to go with summer fare.

There are so many interesting whites to chose from besides the safe bets, such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay or Pinot Gris/Grigio. I have an episode on my Youtube channel featuring three whites that could be an option for the summer (or year round for that matter). Check out the episode, I think you will find it interesting.

This recent Albarino craze has inspired me to do a blind episode featuring said varietal. Old World vs New World Albarino. I’ll record it tonight, so you should see it published soon. I’ll be very interested in the results. Washington State has really embraced this varietal with great success, so it will be Washington State vs Spain in the blind battle. Who will come out on top? You’ll have to watch and find out.

Cheers!

Stan The Wine Man

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BITS & BOBS

Posted on July 22, 2024 by Stan The Wine Man

I’ve been watching a few YouTubers who review and teach about wines on their channel and an interesting theme has developed that I’ve never given very much thought to. Or maybe I’ve avoided giving it much thought. How much does personal preference influence our judgement of a wine? It would be easy to say that we taste a wine objectively. That we simply look at its elements to make sure all the pieces fit in a good way and the wine is as I like to say… “Well built.” However, I’ve noticed some of these Youtubers openly saying that personal preference cannot be avoided when judging a wine. That bothers me just a bit. I understand what they are driving at, and transparency is always preferred above all else. The question is, can we train ourselves to be objective to the point where personal preference takes a backseat to objectivity?

A true test here is understanding what it is that makes a wine well-made or not. Can I taste a wine that I don’t personally enjoy and still realize that it is a well-made wine? That all the elements are in place? My first experience with this came when I was tasting a wine from a local winemaker (local meaning in the San Juan Islands). He had made red wine using fruit from Red Mountain in Washington State. Now, Red Mountain is my favorite Washington State appellation and most wines from this region strike a happy chord with my pallet. However, this particular red was nothing like any Red Mountain wine I had tasted up to that time. I simply did not like it personally. At first, I gave it a thumbs down. After thinking about it for a while, I realized that I was letting personal preference guide my thinking rather than analyzing the wine for what it was intended to be. So, I tried it again with a completely different setpoint, trying my best to be objective. I knew the winemaker had a preference for European style wines. He made this red with that mind frame. That is a hard thing to do with fruit from Red Mountain, which usually attributes big fruit and structure to wines that come from this area. This particular winemaker found a way to make a Bordeaux style red from Red Mountain, complete with rust, pencil lead and earth. Once I tasted it with that viewpoint in mind, I was able to divorce myself from personal preference and analyze the wine for what it was. That was a big turning point in my career. Was it a wine I would buy for myself? Probably not. That did not mean it wasn’t well-made, so I was able to taste it objectively and that is something I’ve tried to do since that time.

Have you ever heard someone say that a type of wine deserves more respect? This is an interesting statement. I actually don’t agree with it. Would it be more appropriate to say a wine deserves more attention? The saying that a wine deserves more respect may be a misnomer. Many people do not know what a certain varietal is, therefore, they ignore it when shopping for a wine. Respect and attention are entirely different concepts. As a critic or student of wine, all varietals get my respect, but not all get my attention. A classic example of respect over attention is Chardonnay. The casual wine drinker may be influenced by negative connotations that they’ve heard about Chardonnay from their peers. Therefore, they jump on the bandwagon of ABC (anything but Chardonnay). Is that a respect issue or peer pressure? Honestly, there are people out there who have never given Chardonnay a chance. Is that lack of respect or simple ignorance? Maybe, just maybe, they should give it more attention. If they did so, they may find that there are examples of Chardonnay that they like. It’s not that they didn’t respect it, they just never gave it any attention. I’m sure there are people out there who show a lack of respect for a certain varietal and there is a simple term for them… Wine snobs. However, the general public does not disrespect a type of wine, they just don’t give it their attention.

Cheers!

Stan The Wine Man

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THE ROSE’ ENIGMA

Posted on July 19, 2024 by Stan The Wine Man

Enigma: Something hard to understand or explain. A mystery, problem, puzzle or riddle.

Why would I use such a word in conjunction with Rose’? Here is where my brain is going with this. It’s hard to understand or explain why Rose’ is only popular when the sun shines. That is a mystery to me, it puzzles me. Riddle me this… What is pink and matches with yellow? Think about it. From earth, the sun appears to be yellow and when it comes out, the pink comes out of the fridge. It’s a bit of a stretch I know, but it is true. Rose’ for most people is considered a warm weather wine. The proof is in the sales, at least in my department. To be fair, there are a minority of people like me, that drink the pink year-round. However, we are the exception and I would like to understand why.

I think one of the main reasons is that Rose’ is lumped in with white wine. Yes, it’s refreshing when cold and certainly helps to make a hot day more tolerable. One of the best analogies I’ve heard is comparing white wine or Rose’ with beer. Most people don’t give a second thought to cracking open a beer in February when the Superbowl is on or any other time during the fall and winter months. Why is it okay to drink beer year-round but not Rose’? I know a lot of you are not beer drinkers, but the point should not be lost on that. Beer is accepted as a beverage that can be consumed any time of the year. White wine and Rose’ not so much; especially Rose’.

We’ve had a wonderful streak of warm weather this July in the area I live in. As expected, Rose’ sales have flourished. I can almost guarantee that on the first cool, wet day, sales of Rose’ will slump. What can I do to convince you to make Rose’ a part of your wine purchasing no matter what time of the year it is or what the weather is like? The most important factor in my mind is its ability to pair with so many different types of food.

Yes, Rose’ is a great porch pounder, but it is so much more. Just think of all the food pairings that Rose’ is capable of. Pork, chicken, salads, salmon, white fish, shellfish, noodle bowls, ham and so much more! It is one wine that can go with so many different dishes. Yet so many wine drinkers get stuck on the warm sunny day pairing and miss out on the food pairing ability of this amazing wine. The styles of Rose’ are also diverse, which makes it an even more interesting wine.

Rose’ can be made in four different ways. The winery can use the free -run juice that comes off the grapes at first press. Not a lot of color comes out, then they use the rest of the grapes for the varietal they are making. This is referred to as the direct pressing method. The second is called “limited skin maceration.” This method is used if the winemaker wants the grapes to be dedicated to rose’. Before pressing the grapes, they allow skin contact anywhere from two hours to 48 hours, depending on what color they are trying to achieve. The grapes are then pressed creating a rose’. The left-over skins are tossed. A third way to make rose’ is the Saignee method. Saignee in French loosely means to bleed. After a period of maceration (usually 2-6 hours), some juice is removed from the skins to make Rose’ and the rest of the grapes are used to give more concentration to the varietal that they are to be used for. For instance, a winemaker intends to make red Grenache. He or she will bleed off some of the juice for a Rose’ and the rest of the grapes are blended in with other Grenache to give it more concentration. Two wines for the price of one so to speak. The fourth method is blending red wine and white wine to create a Rose’. This is not allowed in Europe except for the making of Rose’ Champagne. It’s not the most popular way of making Rose’ in the States, but I’m sure some wineries still do it.

Dedicating the grapes to the making of Rose’ is what most consider the best method for making quality Rose’. Of course, you will rarely see on any label the method used to make the Rose’. I believe that what is in the bottle is what counts no matter how it is produced. If you like it, then by all means buy it and enjoy it. However, don’t wait until the warm weather arrives. Treat Rose’ like any other wine and pair it with the food you are eating. Also, in my opinion, Rose’ is enjoyable while you sit in your cozy house watching the snow fall outside. The sun does not need to shine for Rose’ to shine, just saying.

If you get a chance, watch one of my recent episodes on my YouTube channel where I review a few of my favorites in the pink category. I also encourage you to watch my interview with Ashley Trout the winemaker and owner at Brook & Bull Winery in Washington State. She goes into great detail about her approach to the making of Rose’ and how tricky it can be.

I would like you to consider making Rose’ a big part of your wine drinking experience year-round. You will be pleasantly surprised with its versatility when it comes to food pairing and how enjoyable it can be on a cold night in the Fall or Winter.

Cheers!

Stan The Wine Man

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