T1 Report Card

The first trimester is coming to a close, which means I have some grading to do.
A quick scroll through the 25 posts (Wow, I've been drinking. Lots) since my "Summer School Awards" has me thinking this may not be a report card for the fridge.

1st Period: Cabernet Sauvignon    
Grade: A
Citizenship: O (outstanding)

Comments              
Works well independently
Communicates ideas clearly with expression

Cab is still king. I've only had a few the past few months, and the ones I had were pricey, but hot-damn, with food, without food, on picnics or ass kickin' WTSO purchases, this is a good grape.

2nd Period: Pinot Noir
Grade: C+
Citizenship: N (needs improvement)

Comments             
Inconsistent class work
Difficulty staying on task

Perhaps I've vented enough about Pinot lately. 






Tremendous upside, but can leave you feeling like this girl's walk of shame.




3rd Period: Anything From Italy
Grade: F
Citizenship: U (unacceptable)

Comments              
Minimal effort / participation
Needs to apply editing / revision skills
Poor performance on assignments / tests
Parent conference requested

I give up. Italy gets the FU report card. How can the food be so good and wine such a huge part of the culture only to underwhelm and disappoint me time and time again? I'm afraid to go back to New Jersey after typing this, but Italy is being recommended for Saturday School.

4th Period: Zinfandel
Grade: A+
Citizenship: O

Comments              
Excellent effort / participation
Shows cooperative / positive attitude
Completes quality homework

Zin has reached the "Boom Shocka Locka" stage. I can't remember the last bad bottle of Zin I've had and a lot of what I've been buying has been under $12.


He's on fire!


5th Period: Sauvignon Blanc
Grade: C
Citizenship: S-


Comments               
Needs to use self-control
Frequently sleepy / tired
Missing/incomplete / inconsistent homework

Wow, what a difference a few months make. Back when the weather was hot and girls was dressin' less, this was the summertime go-to. Now? It's more like counting on Josh Freeman to quarterback your fantasy team to victory on a Monday night. He could. The Bucs are 4-3. Or he could throw 4 picks and put up 5 points like he did in week 5.

I'm recommending testing of Sauvignon Blanc for Bipolar Disorder.

Yes, that's Man E Faces

6th Period: Riesling
Grade: A
Citizenship: O


Comments              
Effort has led to progress
A pleasure to have in class

Riesling has become the Melissa Sue of the Fall. It can do no wrong except perhaps be too sweet. There's a plethora of tasty German Rieslings starting at $8 that satisfy predinner, with apps, spicy foods, fish, chicken, or in place of water on a hot day.

That gives a Trimester 1 GPA of 2.72. That F will get you kicked off the football team, the C average will get you grounded for 2 weeks.

What does it all mean? Probably nothing, other than if you come over soon (and we'd like you to) we'll be serving Riesling, Zin, or Cab!

White Out

Perhaps this would have been a better choice?

Saturday night Beth made her Uncle Pete's famous pesto sauce with shrimp and cavatellis, so I followed the book and paired it with a Sauvignon Blanc from, you guessed it, Marlborough, New Zealand. 

Cottesbrook 2010 Sauvignon Blanc ($10.99)

I opened it while Beth was cooking and knew I wasn't going to dig it. I then broke out some cheese and crackers and still no dice. I thought it was really tinny, metallicish. Beth thought it was very grassy. Either way, I didn't like it. I didn't dump it (yet) because I wanted to try it with the Pesto, but I decided if wine was going to play a role in an enjoyable Saturday evening, I'd need to execute Plan B. 

Plan B:

Colome 2010 Torrontes ($12.95)


I grabbed this at Hi Times a while back for two reasons. One, Colome makes one of the better Malbecs around, and B, I'd only had Torrontes (that's a grape) one other time, which happened to be the Summer School, "Kermit" award winner from Crios.

It was very different. I thought it had a light, yet sort of floral taste, with pineapple. Beth tasted a lot of peach. We both wished it were crisper and thought it was bland, but an improvement over the Blanc.

The Verdict:
Neither bottle was very impressive, but I didn't want to open a third bottle with dinner out of principal. Should I have? I say no, and here's why I'm glad I didn't. Having been cheated of a good wine buzz after an awesome Saturday night meal, I decided to crack open another bottle after the kids were in bed.  I went with Clancy's, winner of the Summer School "The Seals" award.  I thought it tasted really tart. Not at all what I remember it tasting like.

I corked everything and over the past 2 nights revisited each bottle, cashing 2 and dumping 1. Turns out, I think, the garlic of pesto was too overpowering for anything I had to throw at it.

Numbered grading scale lives here

Grades: 
Sauvignon Blanc: D- / 1 (The dumper)
         Beth's Grade: D


Torrontes: C / 2 (Much better tonight with shrimp tacos)
Beth's Grade: C


FWIW, Clancy's went back to usual delicious self the next night.

Wine Class Review

About a month ago, Beth and I went to a wine class at Total Wine. I mentioned this a while back, and apologize for saying I'd have a write-up soon. I can only imagine how hard it is to hold your breathe that long. Won't happen again. 

Pictures? Pictures:

They send me emails all the time, and finally the "Sauvignon Blanc & Cabernet Sauvignon" class caught my eye. I signed us up to see what was up. 

The Good

We got to spend a Thursday night sampling 12 (6 each) Sav Blancs and Cabs from around the world. I really liked learning about where each of the grapes are grown, why they're grown there, then getting to see, smell, and taste the difference distance makes on the same varietal. And there was a huge difference.

For the record, I confirmed, at least from these 6 Sauvignon Blancs that I prefer Marlborough, New Zealand by a wide margin. As for the Cabs, I liked them all but the French Bordeaux. Way too dry and chalky for my palate. My favorite hailed from Washington state and I think sold for $60 or so. 

We got some tasting note sheets that could have helped me take notes if I ever took notes, which I don't. But they looked cool. They did help me pay more attention to the details of each wine. So that was nice. 

I was also able to rule out becoming a sommelier in the near future. I thought it sounded intriguing, now I don't think it's for me. More on that later, but it's good to know you don't want a career change before you invest in changing careers. 

The Bad

From the table set up and power point presentation, I could have been back at National University except I was getting a buzz and we didn't break for Quizno's. There was no confusing this "class," with a winery's tasting room, and as Beth pointed out, the ambiance is what makes tasting great for her over exploring wines. For me, it's a combination of the two. I don't really enjoy wineries that pour wines I find undrinkable. I wish they'd held this at their wine bar instead of their back classroom. 

The Ugly

What is it about adults and classes that brings out such unique individuals? Aside from the guy in Hansen's barrel room that burped and blew it on the back of my head, I can't really recall anyone else in any tasting room that annoyed me. Yet in one classroom, there were, again, several unique people that I'd rather not drink wine with again. 

There were a few people, that after a few tastes, were cracking dorky jokes with Mike, the host. Mike's jokes got worse and his "Crazy good!" tagline with the white guy shoulder shrug dance came more frequently. 

Then there was this girl:

"One time, in Som class..."

She had an answer for everything. Mike would ask, "What do you taste?" 

Som class's answer, "cassis!" or, "limestone!" 

Mike would respond with, "yeah, yeah, goodstuff."

Finally I asked how I'd know if I were tasting limestone or cassis and of course Som class told me that in Som class they had to know, so she'd bought every herb and spice available at Whole Foods. Ugh.

Combine her with the red faced guy, also taking Som classes, making the obnoxious noises and loud sniffing sounds while tasting and I think I'm 1 and done with wine classes at Total Wine. 

Pinots and Pumpkins

The Jansen's came by, and while the they were doing this:

Tom and I got into this:

On the left, Bedrock 2009 Pinot Noir (Russian River Valley) $39.99

And on the right, Nicolas Potel Maison Roche De Bellene Volnay Taille Pieds Premier Cru 2009 Pinot Noir $39.00



"I don't always drink California Pinots. But when I do, I've noticed a lot of them taste like Bedrock."

Ironically, we saw that commercial while carving pumpkins. 

Bedrock was a little light in color, and had a good solid nose. There was a lot of strawberry jamminess going on. Beth, Tom and I thought it was good not great. Meg thought she answered wrong by liking it a lot. 

This wine is a great reminder of why I ventured away from Pinot for a while. When I wasn't enjoying "the good ones" at $25-$40, I figured the grape just wasn't for me. Then Johnny dropped the Williams Selyem bomb on us, Jared threw LWC my way, Wine Spectator said the 2009 California Pinot vintage was the best thing invented since the Rubix Cube, and I'm back on the Hot Tamale Pinot Train.

Perhaps I need a bigger bodied Pinot? Maybe my palate's screwed up? Either way, I was left feeling like I don't get it and Pinot is the worst valued varietal on the market. I'm not trying to pile on Bedrock. "It's not your fault." But I'm close to putting Pinot with Tri-Tip as things other people like and I never need to order (I go pulled pork EVERY time). 

Bedrock Grade: C

Beth's Grade: C-

The French wine was sort of Johnny's doing. About 6 weeks ago on a Friday night, right before kick-off of CDM's first game, I got a WTSO email for a $113 Pinot being sold for $39.99. I forwarded it to John, who I'm sure had already received the email, with a message of "Wtf?"Around halftime John replied, saying he'd "already made an executive decision and bought (me) a bottle." That's a good friend.

As for the wine, what a difference 6,000 miles makes. The WTSO write up says, "Layers upon layers of complex flavors." I was going to describe it as "different," but I'll go with what they said. The finish was  the most interesting thing to me. There was almost no finish, super smooth. I'm not sure if that's really awesome and that's what I paid for or if it was overpriced and for $40 I should have had a more flavorful, longer finish. Either way, I liked it, but didn't love it. 

Grade: B-
Beth's Grade: "Probably the same."

The winner of the evening? Pure pumpkin carving awesomeness. 

Not All d'Arenberg's Are Created Equal

d'Arenberg's d'Arry's Original 2007 50% Shiraz/50% Granache ($14.99)

This is not this:

I knew the blend I picked up from Total Wine was not The Dead Arm, the $50ish bottle of Shiraz seen above. I went with the, "Well, The Dead Arm is one of the better wines I've had, this bottle's gotta be pretty good too, right?" buying philosophy. Remind me not to assume all of a winery's wines are the same. They're not. I knew that too. I'm a little mad at my purchase. But I've had The Stump Jump, also from d'Arenberg, and I remember it being better than this.

I'm also a little mad that I paired this with the ravioli and butternut squash recipe from Real Simple. That dish gets an A. Wow, nice work Marie and Beth. This wine was too big, too chewy and too tart for that dish. The next time we have that dish, I think I'll go either Pinot or Riesling.

Grade: D+ / 1.5


In other consumption news:

Montebuena 2009 Rioja (100% Tempranillo) ($9.99) 
Robert Parker Rating: 90 Points


Total Wine's been pumping this wine up for a while. A few of their advertisement/coupon emails have mentioned this, and when I walked into the store last week, I almost tripped on the way too big floor display.

It was okay. Nothing to write me emails about. We had (some of it) last night with baked chicken and veggies. Again, not too shabby. I felt neither ripped off nor impressed. I finished it this evening and felt the same way. Just all right for me.

Grade: C / 2

The Riesling Throw Down

Monchhof 2010 Riesling $13.99


We cracked German Rieslings on consecutive evenings. This one, Monchhof, I picked up from Hi-Times. We had it with pork chops and it wowed the dinner table. Phenomenal balance, not too sweet, yet no tartness, great flavor, and super smooth. There was nothing about this wine that I didn't like. I'm thinking this may be my Thanksgiving Day turkey match.


Grade: A / 4

Bree 2010 Riesling $9.99

No, that's not a top-shelf Vodka bottle. 

I grabbed this at Total Wine. It was priced right and I was really intrigued by the sleek, clubby bottle shape. Note to self: Assume sleek, clubby bottle shapes are as big of a red flag as cheesy labels from poorly named wineries.

Ok, maybe it wasn't that bad. But following the Monchhof and it's trendy bottle, I was hoping for something better. If I didn't pour my glass myself, I would have sworn it was a Sauvignon Blanc. It had a tropical fruity nose and that pineapple juice flavor that I found a few times this past summer. Not my thing.

Grade: C- / 2

1st Ever Purpletooth Movie Review!

Saturday was a big night. Not only were we excited about the Wiens Zin, but Beth and I had the kids in bed before 8 and watched a movie. Repeat, WE WATCHED A MOVIE! Not all of it, but most of it and then finished in the morning, but still, a big night. 

The Flick: 

A few months ago, my sister went wine tasting in Arizona. She said she had a good time and mentioned that the lead singer of Tool had his wine there and that she'd tried it. Cool enough. 

Sometime later, high school friend, fellow ASU Alum, and Purpletooth member, Pablo Rodriguez mentioned that he and his wife had gotten into wine and gave this movie, "Blood Into Wine," a strong recommendation. I added it to my Netflix que that night, and finally got around to watching it. 

This is a documentary about Maynard James Keenan, lead singer of Tool and A Perfect Circle, and his start-from-scratch winery in Jerome, Arizona. Tool's sound and crowd didn't really seem to translate to wine, I still, for some reason, assumed Maynard was just a millionaire putting his name on a label. Turns out, he's pretty darn dedicated and passionate about his endeavor. 

I thought they did a really good job of telling Maynard's story (though I didn't think I cared), showing the challenges of establishing a winery, in Arizona no less, explaining the importance and influence of terroir, and then providing a unique insight into the wine industry. Add in a pretty cool soundtrack and you've got yourself a worthy rental. 

Thank you Pablo, good call! 

I'm A Wiener!

Wiens 2009 Zinfandel ($19.99)

This was the only bottle of wine I brought back from Temecula. As I mentioned in the Pitt Wedding Recap, this was the 2nd stop of the day for me and Beth. We both really liked the atmosphere and vibe at Wiens, which I thought may have influenced my decision to buy a bottle. The 09 Zin was the first of the 8 or so wines we tried there. I liked it, thought it was a little light for a Zin, but figured it would be enjoyable. I also liked that at $20, it was the cheapest bottle of red on the tasting menu. Bonus. 

We cracked this Saturday night with some pizza while babysitting Mr. James Jansen. We didn't need wine to get through the night, the kids were great, but this sure didn't make the evening worse. 

We were both surprised at how much flavor the wine had. There was nothing light or delicate about it. It had a really nice, flavorful, raspberryish pop and a long spicy, yet smooth finish. I thought it was very similar to the Old Vine Sobon Zin that I've had a few times lately. I must say, it exceeded my expectations.  

Grade: B+ / 3

Beth's Grade: B+