This Is No Time to Fälter. Jim Moore exclusive!!

CURIOUS TIMES CALL FOR CURIOUS PRACTICES.

IF YOU ARE CURIOUS ABOUT BLENDING WINES THEN READ ON.

The more we hear from The House of Morons on Pennsylvania Avenue the more valid we find the phrase in vino veritas. We offer our own contempo observations on Wine as Remedy. How are members of the tBoW family faring?

Let’s clear the text bag. KrisB ignited a textstorm upon opening and slugging down a 2007 Schloss Lieser Niederberg Helden Riesling Spatlese from the Mösel aka “Moselle vine.” He bought at Woodland Hills Wine Co in 2011. He sat on it for nine years. It took him two nights to consume. Then he wrote this. “It was glorious. Guava flavors predominated, on the nose like the purest fresh squeezed guava and the most sophisticated POG juice on the palate.”

tBoW reviewed this wine in 2014 under the guise of tBoW interviewing Bill Belichick on wine. In Jan 2011 tBoW [ed. hit the link! hit the link!] we wrote our own review of this very same bottle… Belichick is the legendary NE Pats prick coach known for being exceptionally taciturn.

tBoW: Coach, the 2007 Schloss Lieser Niederberg Helden Riesling Spätlese surprised alot of holiday partygoers with its bracing acidity, typical Mösel low alcohol and U20 price. Were you ready for this wine? Belichick: Mösel is known for Riesling. They always do a good job. We have to focus on our next wine.” [ed. I don’t care who you are that’s funny; helps to be an NFL fan.]

KrisB loves him some Riesling and Farmers Fizz. We got so excited I opened a spa bottle immediately. There is a nest of these in the cellar!

1994 Theo Schmitz-Schwaab Riesling Spätlese Urziger Wurzgarten. Naturally tBoW had to pull an ancient Riesling – 26 years young – from the cellar for the spa. Spätlese means it is NOT super sweet. The color was medium gold with good viscosity. Flavors were Lychee backed with marzipan. How Germanic! Alcohol 11%.

2018 Vin de Savoie Gamay Rose. $10. This is the top rose for the summer to date and it ain’t even summer yet. The PQR [ed. price quality ratio] is outasite. The flavors are a bit exotic with Lebanese spice [ed. cardamon? is he talking cardamon?] and some tropical flavor like fresh lychee close to ripe. Suchadeal. Try Desert Wine Shop.

Heard from Jim Moore from Napa this week. He is staying in place which somewhat conflicts with selling wine. Here is an inside peek at how one goes about selling and ends up buying wine in a pandemic. Jim’s label is Uvaggio. Lodi Winegrape Commission - Blog - Uvaggio's Vermentino and ...

JM: I was out selling in late Feb (a time when such was still feasible) and bought a few interesting modestly priced bottles. One of the wines was so-so, another well above average. The latter wine happened to be a Cinsault Rose from the south of France which is a particular weakness for me. It checked all the right boxes, although it was very commercial starting with the packaging and far from artisanal. I contemplated routine consumption so I called the boutique distributor to ask about local availability, plus whether I could buy direct. Lucky for me not only would they offer me wholesale they would deliver to my door gratis. So far I have drunk or given away 3 cases, plan on buying another 3 cases. BTW – it is a 2018 Rose. I think most Rose is consumed a little too young. Last spring I really enjoyed a similar (yet different) 2017 Rose but when I purchased another case they only had the 2018! Not as ready for immediate enjoyment. My goal (as always) is finding the best VALUE which for me is a combo of PQR, utility and personal satisfaction. The past Friday evening meal was a spicy bowl of “Jim’s homemade faux pho.” I enjoyed a bottle of Pfalz Riesling (kabinett halbtrocken) which was $11 from Last Bottle. It was exactly the type of value and food affinity I always seek, maybe even more so in these uncertain times.”

Thank you Mr Moore. My online list for purchases leans towards Desert Wine Shop and Kermit Lynch. tBoW hits Last Bottle on occasion. If you love Riesling and similar wines from Italy, i.e., Vermentino [ed. Jim’s Uvaggio Vermentino is special] and Spain, e.g., Basque, then you must go to Kermit Lynch who by the way has his own dirt cheap sampler. You can be certain Kermit has no…bad…wines.

Lettie Teague is often worth reading. She is the wine columnist for WSJ. She posted on California Chardonnays this past week. She commented on the disappointing New World styles [ed. we coulda warned her..but everybody needs copy]. She made positive comments on two labels then shared a common tBoW POV on the others.

“The rest of the Chardonnays I tasted were a mixed bag of wines from large corporations and tiny family-owned properties whose names I’ll refrain from citing. While the former were largely formulaic—dosed heavily with oak chips and redolent of tropical fruit—the latter group disappointed me even more.” Summing it up in one sentence she wrote “the cocktail of wood and tropical fruit that a heavier hand can make of Chardonnay.”

tBoW long ago lost his palate for Chardonnay generally finding it “foxy” and “feral.” I can live with the latter but not the former. When Mr. and Mrs. tBoW were “discovering” Calif wines living in SF [ed. a Cow Town then if ever there was one] in the mid 70s Chardonnay and Cabernet were the press favorites. Consensus was Chardonnay was world class (as seen in the move Bottle Shock about the 1976 Blind Tasting in Paris; a Napa Chard took some dopey prize…and this is why we have Rombauer).

HOW TO BLEND WINE. I learned this from pal Milt Olin. He routinely mixed red and red wines and even white and red wines. Of course tBoW was horrified. However our motto is “I’ll try anything twice. I might not like it the fist time.” Case in point…why it is important to look past the conventional and mix bottles when one or more is just not right!

This happens to everybody who drinks wine. You open a bottle of red and decide it is too fruity. So you figure let it sit a bissel and you open another red. Too rugged as in harsh, spicy. Now what? AHA! Blend the two wines in one glass. The fruity Sangiovese should match pretty well with the muscular Aglianico. All you need to do is get the proportions right which depends on who is drinking. Some prefer fruit to spice and muscle. Others go the opposite. Consider the meal. The fare on that evening was veggie burgers grilled with ketchup and onions and cheese. Bada bing! Perfect match. Stranger things have happened.

 

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