Throughout the course of the last two days, I've decided that my life is not complete until I see every region of Italy. I'm currently in the process of assembling what will eventually be an essay on one Italian wine in particular, and as I type I have two glasses of Montepulciano d'Abruzzo sitting on my desk.
That is the wine I'm writing about, after all, and I couldn't write a report on a wine without trying it myself. One of the wines is $20 and the other is $6. Would I buy three of the cheaper wines rather than one of the more expensive? Probably. That's one weird thing about the beverage in general. That almost always holds true.
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is made from the Montepulciano grape in the Abruzzi region. It has nothing in common with the more expensive Vino Nobile di Montepulciano from Tuscany. The cheaper one came from Trader Joe's and I swear it's a sugar free version of pure black cherry juice. Enough about that. By the way, most red wines have no sugar at all, as they should be. Sugar blows.
It just so happens that we tasted a Barolo in class yesterday. The massiveness of the tannins was enough to suck my saliva out for days to come. It was a 2003, and I now believe all the hype about how super-tannic Barolos can be. Picture this: you're at a bar and a ping pong game erupts into an all out brawl after you knock a the drink out of the bouncer's sister's hand - completely by accident. Before you know it you're knocked unconscious by a scrawny, short white dude. That is this wine and The Green Lantern on November 21 combined.
December 3, 2008
December 1, 2008
$747 Worth of Wine
The title is misleading - it's closer to $900 worth of wine that I tasted in a one week class. Fortunately I didn't have to buy it all; unfortunately I only got a couple ounces of each wine. This class involved 3 blind tastings of 6 wines, and it proved that the most expensive wines aren't necessarily better. The top honor in my book goes to the 1998 Pepper Bridge Cabernet Sauvignon, which at $70 isn't cheap, but is half the price of the wine that followed it - the 2001 Leonetti Reserve. Good class.
My recent adventures have taken me to Port Townsend, Seattle, and Esquin. All this has led to my 60 bottle rack + refrigerator capacity overflowing slightly onto the coffee table until I can polish off three bottles. At least two should go this week as I'm writing a paper on good ole' Montepulciano d'Abruzzo and I'll be drinking the two I picked up in Seattle as I write.
I just realized how long it's been since my last post, and therefore I've realized I need to catch up on this thing. The Brunello di Montalcino I picked up for $22 at Trader Joe's is now an empty bottle thanks to movie night featuring Monte Python's "The Meaning of Life". It was a good wine, but not stunning, and probably not worth $22 except for the fact that it's a Brunello. It was good enough to convince me to fork over $15 for a Trader Joe's Barolo* - which is also absurdly cheap.
The Carmenere is dry and 13.8% alcohol and tasting yummy and I'm going home to Florida in 16 days. The world is simply moving too fast for me to keep up any longer. Because of this I'm going to be forced to cut my sleeping time from 10.5 hours nightly to 9. This might help slow down the illusion I'm currently under as to how the world seems to be spinning 200 mph faster than it's usual 1000 mph pace.
**Wine Nerd Notes: Barolo's are from a small area in Piedmont, Italy, and they are made with the late-ripening and hugely tannic Nebbiolo grape. They're commonly thought to require at least 10 years of age to be able to drink without decapitating oneself due to extreme astringency. From what I've read this is changing, but I haven't had the misfortune of extreme vertical Barolo tastings to back it up. A similar wine is Barberesco, also made from Nebbiolo but simply from a region a hop, skip, and a crap away from Barolo.
My recent adventures have taken me to Port Townsend, Seattle, and Esquin. All this has led to my 60 bottle rack + refrigerator capacity overflowing slightly onto the coffee table until I can polish off three bottles. At least two should go this week as I'm writing a paper on good ole' Montepulciano d'Abruzzo and I'll be drinking the two I picked up in Seattle as I write.
I just realized how long it's been since my last post, and therefore I've realized I need to catch up on this thing. The Brunello di Montalcino I picked up for $22 at Trader Joe's is now an empty bottle thanks to movie night featuring Monte Python's "The Meaning of Life". It was a good wine, but not stunning, and probably not worth $22 except for the fact that it's a Brunello. It was good enough to convince me to fork over $15 for a Trader Joe's Barolo* - which is also absurdly cheap.
The Carmenere is dry and 13.8% alcohol and tasting yummy and I'm going home to Florida in 16 days. The world is simply moving too fast for me to keep up any longer. Because of this I'm going to be forced to cut my sleeping time from 10.5 hours nightly to 9. This might help slow down the illusion I'm currently under as to how the world seems to be spinning 200 mph faster than it's usual 1000 mph pace.
View of Mt Rainier from my friend's house in Grapeview, WA
**Wine Nerd Notes: Barolo's are from a small area in Piedmont, Italy, and they are made with the late-ripening and hugely tannic Nebbiolo grape. They're commonly thought to require at least 10 years of age to be able to drink without decapitating oneself due to extreme astringency. From what I've read this is changing, but I haven't had the misfortune of extreme vertical Barolo tastings to back it up. A similar wine is Barberesco, also made from Nebbiolo but simply from a region a hop, skip, and a crap away from Barolo.
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