4th and 20: PUNT?

No, I'm not talking about Football; I'm actually talking about WINE (yum!) (though CONGRATS to the Sprayberry Yellowjackets as they pulled off a sub-regional championship Friday night; seeking the 1st regional championship in 26 years).

What is a punt? Pick up a nice bottle of wine and you will most likely find an indentation on the bottom of the bottle (a nice place to stick your thumb to show off a cool new way to pour!). What does it do? It's mainly there to allow sediment to fall and collect on the bottom. Many wine companies are choosing to eliminate the punt to make their bottle LIGHTER. What does that do? A lighter bottle means a lighter case; lighter cases = cheaper/economical shipping! Way to go green! To give you an example, the bottles in use at Fetzer vineyards (yep, big white zin producer) are on average 14% lighter, weighing in at 15.3 ounces when empty. With 23 million bottles shipped per year, that is about 2,200 TONS of glass saved. So less glass, less gas, more vino for you and me!

I've talked about Beaujolais Nouveau before (which is released annually the 3rd Thursday in November) but this year you may find different packaging; PET bottles! No, that's not something for Spike and Lillie (our dogs)--PET stands a type of plastic. Why BeauJo in plastic? It's actually a perfect use for the wine as the wine should be consumed 'immediately' (ideally before January--again avoid dusty bottles found after the new year). If the wine is expected to age, the vineyards will most likely continue to use punts, but in the case of young/fresh wines, expect to see flat bottomed bottles! We'll chat about BeauJo in a few weeks, stay tuned! We'll see how consumers adapt to plastic wine bottles--even though it's not truly green, I am 'old school' I guess--Cokes still taste better in the 8 ounce bottle to me ; ) Cheers!

You get what you pay for...

One wine comment-sometimes you DO get what you pay for! I love a great bargain! Likewise, there are a lot of costly wines that are 'good' but not great/worth the price (Silver Oak for example). One converse was a gift of Roederer's Cristal Champagne. Jeff & Will brought some over; it was SO yummy and SO smooth. WORTH IT!

New Toy!

Wondering what to drink tonight? Go to the bottom of this Blog page and check out what's new from RedPinkWhite. Their "widget" is an application that you can load onto your website or Blog (like I did!) OR merely go and search for wine from their website. It's a pretty cool tool, though I am not sure that we will be able to find some of the wines listed in their database here in Georgia. Regardless, scroll down and give it a shot!

For example, I chose "Varietal", clicked on Z to find Zinfandel. From there I clicked "Click to view" and could scroll through the 144+ offerings they listed today. What a cool search function! They listed small descriptions but their goal is for you to buy wine. Unfortunately we live in a 'police state' that barely allows us to have wine shipped to us so that is not an option for us here in Georgia. However, if it looks really cool, ask your local retailer to get it for you! Cheers!

Vertically Challenged!

Actually not last night! We had some friends over for dinner last night and I dug out 2 bottles of a lesser-known Ravenswood wine called "Icon". Icon (the far right bottle) is a GSM, a blend of Grenache, Syrah & Mourvedre and I had a 2002 and 2003. It is interesting to do a Vertical tasting, which is when you taste/compare (or just DRINK) wines from the same producer but from different vintages. Contrast that with a Horizontal tasting where you would taste several wines (from different producers) from the same vintage. I thought the 2002 was a more fruit-forward and balanced wine while the 2003 was a bit more tannic. One guest is more or less beginning to learn about reds and I was pleased that he caught some differences as well. We weren't really doing a formal tasting but we did transition from one wine to the other and found some cool differences. Final shot-while each Icon was a GSM, the percentages of each varietal in each vintage differed. It's intriguing to taste the winemaker's (or wine blender's?) skill in producing a very similar wine (i.e. each year was a solid GSM, with true varietal characteristics) but also to be able to taste the differences. Likewise, it was fun to choose a favorite. Either way, it is always great to dine with friends and enjoy a glass or two together! Cheers!

Yo Ho and a bottle of Merlot!

Ahoy mateys! It's that time of year again--it's TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY again and I hope you raise a glass with a loud ARRRRRR! Cheers!

Wine dinners and/or wine pairings: Just do it!

Just a reminder--don't be afraid to try something different. Recently we took a road trip (see my posting on my other blog) At Highlands Grill in Birmingham, we didn't look at a menu, we never saw a wine list. We did, however, have an enthusiastic server guiding us every step of the way and our meal was wonderful! Likewise, we had a similar experience at Carolina's in Charleston, SC (off the beaten path-more of a local kind of place rather than touristy). The wine guy was absolutely geeked to share some off the wall (and off the wine list!) pairings with our food. Enthusiasm again and a 'what the heck' attitude made for a great meal. Contrast that with our multi-course meal in Memphis... Sadly our 'marquee meal' of the weekend was lackluster to say the least. It was supposedly Memphis' best restaurant but it was not as great as in B-ham. Part of it was the food (good, but not great) but it was definitely the service. Their adaptation of fine French 'style' was to have servers scurrying about with little to no personality. With that situation, how could the food shine? For that matter, we've been to some 'big name' places in New York, Chicago and other large cities and have returned unimpressed. Atlanta has some great restaurants; you've just got to be willing to be open to something new (and unfortunately burn some expensive fossil fuels in some cases). I know, the economy stinks. No one is eating out as much these days, but save up (Just say NO to Starbucks) and splurge at least once a month-you'll be glad you did!

THINK PINK/THINK CHEAP!

I recently made my way into that lovely yuppie 'grocery' known as Trader Joe's after hearing from a friend that a favorite sparkling wine was on sale. Lo and behold I was pleased to purchase 6 bottles of Segura Viudas Brut Rosé CAVA for only $3.99 a bottle! This wine is actually well rated by the wine gurus and is a STEAL for that price. I was told it's a one-shot buy so you better get there quickly! I might go back for 6 more : ) Cheers, Bo

For more info click HERE (Note: the rosé is not currently listed; that's probably the reason for the 'deal' at Trader Joes) There was also an inexpensive Paso Robles red for $4.99 (Tres Pinos) that was a bit of a fruit bomb but was a good buy. It was okay with meatloaf, but wonderful with chocolate chip cookies : )