Vines & Vittles

Home, home on the range, Where the lamb and the zinfandel play

January 23, 2007 by John Brown

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It’s January. Cold, gray, dreary January! Things could get depressing were it not for my penchant to match ugly days with great food and wine. I’m actually thinking about Arizona and the Sonoran dessert. I’m getting inspired! Here it comes…I’ve got it: Grilled lamb over mesquite coals washed down with a bottle of Zinfandel so big and juicy it’ll make your teeth itch! Okay, so I’m taking a few liberties with conventional Southwest cuisine by substituting lamb for beef, but I think you’re going to like this.

Thinking of this dish reminds me of an old Johnny Cash song about cowboys and their feelings about shepherds and sheep. These lines say it all: “A sheep herder come once and put up a fence/ We seen him that time, but we ain’t seen him since/ But if you’re needin’ mutton, we got mutton to sell/ ’cause we’re cow-punchers and we’re mean as hell.”

Thatt line is from a mid-1960’s album by Cash called “Ballads of the Old West.” Goes great with grillin’. But I digress.

Continue reading…

DEFINING TERMS: (and ‘orgasmic’ is not one of them)

January 22, 2007 by John Brown

“The nose is quite developed, the tannins are still hard, but the fruit seems overripe and flabby, and the finish is a bit short.”

Huh?

While conducting a wine tasting recently, it was pointed out to me that I had begun to sound a little too ‘winesy-cutsey. ‘ It was a polite reminder I was using wine jargon instead of English to explain attributes of the wine. While I deplore wine snobs and other bores, I must admit to falling into the occasional habit of using “winespeak” to describe thewineglasstipped.jpg sensory aspects of wine. I guess it comes from reading a great deal from other wine writers or experts who liberally sprinkle around such terms as “tannin, acid, flabby, robust, ” even “orgasmic” when describing their tasting experience.

Below, I have listed several terms regularly used in describing wine qualities (but not orgasmic). There are obviously many more, but we’ll start with these:

Tannin(s) – A naturally-occurring chemical substance present in wine (particularly red wine) which can allow the wine to age. It manifests itself in the mouth as that sensation which makes you want to pucker.

Acid – Refers to the sharpness in the taste of wine. Good acid is balanced by alcohol or sweetness or both.

Rich – Wine is rich when it is mouth–filling, smooth and luscious.

Mellow – An absence of harshness or tannin or smoothness characterizes a mellow wine.

Robust – Describes a full-bodied or possibly heavy wine.

Crisp – Refers to the acidity in the wine, as in a “crisp white wine.”

Short Finish – When a wine leaves little or no aftertaste. Conversely, a “long finish” describes a wine that has a pleasant aftertaste and feel.

Nose – A general term which describes the aroma and bouquet of the wine.

Balance – A wine is balanced when the sugar or alcohol and the acid are in harmony with no one element overwhelming the other.

Fruity – Wines which exhibit fruitiness either in the nose or in the taste. Wine is sometimes even described as tasting like a specific fruit such as “this wine has green apple flavors.”

Flabby – This term not only describes a wine which has too little acidity, too much alcohol and is out of balance, it also describes your wine writer.

Today’s Wine Suggestion: Try the 2004 Graham Beck Cabernet Sauvignon. Gamekeeper’s Reserve ($15). This lovely, soft and approachable South African Cabernet is ready to drink with that grilled steak or roasted pork tenderloin flavored with garlic and rosemary.


Moving Outside Your W.C.Z. (Wine Comfort Zone)

by John Brown

You’re probably wondering about my qualifications to write this blog. So here’s all I can say about my credentials – such as they are. After a trip to the California wine country in 1981, I was asked to write a wine column for the Charleston Daily Mail. I wrote that weekly column until 1989 and also did a wine commentary gig on West Virginia Public Radio during that same time period.

The commentary, which lasted only a few months and was produced by Mountain Stage’s Andy Ridenour, was cancelled when one person wrote to say that Public Radio should not be advocating the use of alcoholic beverages. That was it – one person. Who says a single voice can’t make a difference?

Since 1989, I have written a monthly wine column for a weekly West Virginia business publication. I’ve also conducted hundreds of wine tastings, MC’d countless wine dinners and have traveled fairly extensively to some of the world’s most famous wine regions. But before you get too overly impressed with my wine-stained resume, keep in mind that I am also a home wine maker. In other words, I have a great tolerance for mediocre wine. I actually think my wine, which I’ve been making from California grapes since 1977, is pretty good. If that’s not enough to make you stop reading right now, you must really be desperate for wine information.

Okay, so here’s what we’re going to do: I’m going to write about wine and sometimes food, and hope that you will occasionally respond with your own feelings about the information I impart. Let me say up front that I don’t expect you to like every wine I recommend. Wouldn’t that be boring?

However, I do taste a pretty substantial number of wines in the course of a year. And I’ll bet (unless you’re as wine-obsessed as I am) that I might get you to try something other than what you drink regularly. I might even be able to get you to move outside your wine-comfort zone. If so, then I will have succeeded.

— By John Brown

INTRODUCING: Wine and Dine

by Douglas Imbrogno
johnbrown.jpgWelcome to ‘Wine and Dine,’ a new Charleston Gazette blog about wine selection and advice, along with tips on pairing wine with food. John Brown is a seasoned wine columnist, whose writing on wine will also be seen in the Sunday Gazette-Mail on a regular basis. Also, we will be rolling out some wine tips on video and taking some multimedia journeys in search of the best places to enjoy wine in the West Virginia region. We welcome your feedback on this new blog, either in the ‘Comment’ section below each post or by sending your comments to gazz@wvgazette.com

Douglas Imbrogno | thegazz.com editor