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the #1 thing I look for is having it be so very, very varietally/terroir expressive that it makes me feel the same way I felt the first time I really “got” the taste/aroma of a type of wine. Much like Summer Roberts, I started my wine career with a very high academic aptitude, but no intrinsically gifted palate, so a wine needs to evoke a very specific taste and memory to get three stars from me… a few examples:

- Dry Alsatian whites need to smell like petroleum… I learned this while watching the first five minutes of the 3rd episode of The Wire… I hated the first two sips of the wine (SO OILY!) and the first two episodes of the show (NOTHING HAPPENS… it’s like trying to start Anna Karenina in media res at the mushroom picking scene and without the whole “Happy Families are all alike” thing. argh!) When the show came together though, my palate followed suit … the third sip is the charm! Tropical fruit and petroleum is a beautiful flavor marriage!

- Cabernet… no matter where it’s grown… needs to smell like cassis… red or black, ripe or unripe… Cabernet needs to smell like cassis for me. Why? Because, I really “got” Cabernet the first time when I was tasting with Jane (who worked for the James Beard foundation for years and started the most perfect little wine shops in the world) and a rep poured us a Paso Robles Cab that had 0% terroir but was 100% varietally expressive, and she said, “wow, that’s a lot of cassis… at least, it’s obviously Cab.” From then on, I was able to spot a good cab in a blind tasting from a mile away.

- Gevrey-Chambertin must have a distinct aroma of Robitussin… which is probably why I don’t like Gevrey-Chambertin… yes, it’s Pinot Noir, and I love Pinot Noir (not true, I love funky Pinot Noir), but no matter what euphamisms people use for Robitussin (e.g., Juniper Berries, Licorice, Wormswood, etc.) it still smells like Robitussin when it’s done correctly.

Alsace, Cabernet Sauvignon, Old World, Pinot Noir, Red Burgundy, Wine Questions Answered | No Comments

The way I think about Cabernet Sauvignon is that you should choose a Cabernet Sauvignon wine when you don’t have time to enjoy it. To explain that cryptic statement, I’ll give a few examples of times when I’ve poured Cabernet Sauvignon, and how much I spent on the bottle/the region I chose:

• A bunch of friends are coming over to cheer my friend, Matt, up… all I want the wine to do is to be BIG, CREAMY, and OBVIOUSLY YUMMY. No need for discussions of terroir or subtlety- I want them to taste midnight-dark fruit and roasted vanilla bean oak. We’re going to sniff once, sip once, say our thanks for the wine, and then gulp all night. I went for a $19 Russian River Valley California Cabernet called Hook and Ladder.
  
• The weekly game of Scrabble at a friend’s house*…. Bor-f*cking-deaux. Left bank. Pauillac AOC. 1.5L bottle from when most of us were still in college. Brie on the table and two Qs and no U in my hands. Black currant, cedar, pencil shaving, celery seeds, and the dust on the box of that old 007 game I found in my grandparents’ attic. $40 down the drain for the best bottle of wine I tasted that week as opposed to $100 for dinner, appetizers, and one wine by the glass at a nice, but not fantastic, restaurant in Manhattan. A bargain if you ask me.
  
• I have a date on their way, and a steak in the oven… all they care about with the wine is that it is obviously good, and I, myself, am even not all that worried about if the wine is memorable. What I really want is a well-aged Amarone, but that would be a waste since I’ll be more worried about catching all of her references to season 3 of Arrested Development, than whether or not the wine should have been cellared another year or decanted an hour longer. I went with a $15 bottle of Heartland Cabernet Sauvignon made by Ben Glaetzer that just screams, “I’m twice as good as the bottle of wine your last b/f kept in the safe of his million dollar Williamsburg loft.”
  

Cabernet Sauvignon, California | No Comments

Click here to get some “employee training” and watch while Cole helps Whitney get up to speed with some entry-level Bordeaux. Wine tasted: Barons de Rothschild-Lafite Reserve Speciale

Bordeaux, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cheap Drinks, Merlot, New World, Old World, T.B. Ackerson Wines, Wine Reviews, Wine Videos | No Comments

Click here to watch a review of Chalk Hill Winery’s four best bottles: Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Both fruit and earth drive these wines. Each bottle is a product of both the California sunshine and the winery’s 60 different terroirs. Every bottle is shipped ready-to-drink; the winemaker’s goal is to make sure that the wine leaves her winery ready for you to enjoy. Pop these bottles over the next two years and impress your family, your friends, and your palate.

Cabernet Sauvignon, California, Chardonnay, Merlot, New World, Wine Reviews, Wine Videos | No Comments

Bordeaux Blend

Ugh… another new vintage of a wine I fell in love with three vintages ago. Imagine falling in love with a man and then, only six months into your relationship, being forced to date the youngest of his three brothers… Falling in love with a wine and then realizing you got the last of your favorite vintage is not often pretty. 

With the Mulderbosch, I fell in love with the 2003. It was thick, earthy, chocolate-driven wine stew. Now, suddenly the distributor is shipping the 2005, and I’m supposed to drink up its juicy red currants and roasted green bell pepper flavors AND pay more?!

Well, if I’m having food with it, I will. The lighter consistency of the wine went perfectly with white meat (seared pork chops stuffed with red onions and minced garlic… and a side of butternut squash and peas in a fennel and clove butter). The Petit Verdot and Malbec in this classic full Bordeaux blend added a bit of shoe polish and rotten cherry. I kind of like it. 

It’s not the same wine it was in the 2003 vintage though. Wine grows and ages, and every year it’s different… so WHEN YOU FIND SOMETHING YOU LIKE… you should BUY A BUNCH OF IT! I wish I had done that with the 2003 of this great South African wine even though the 2005 is pretty freaking fantastic, itself.

Bordeaux, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, T.B. Ackerson Wines, Wine Reviews | No Comments