Posts belonging to Category Austria



What Is Wine? Who Wants to Know? A Primer for Getting Started.

It’s a good time to leave the cave.

 

Before heading into the next COVID trough…let’s buy and drink some wine!

tBoW has been drinking copious bottles of wine during the p-a-n-d-e-mic. Why not? Wine is an indoor sport that takes some know how and the will to carry on. Even during COVID.

Contributing writer/editor Field Maus left a mysterious message. “Hey! I’m in a wine shop in [east coast burg] and it’s tiny and it’s filled with bottles from all the places we’ve never been and there are a ton of wines I never heard of so I bought a bunch.”

Message to Maus::::::hell yeah. Send label fotos and tasting notes. Maybe include some maps with wine bottles that mark the nation-region. Wine touring off the common path is tons ‘a fun.

Goffing pal Mighty Mike Daig-Known [symbolized at top] is “getting into wine.” He understands domestic big names are mostly crap. He recognizes tBoW is a terrific source for learning more about what is in the bottle and which bottles to buy. Mike makes his purchases at Trader Joes and Costco. tBoW TRUTH #1: Costco is good; TJs not so good.

SOLUTION: Find a local fine wine shop you can trust long as they are not fullapoo and try selling you overpriced trophy wines. Many premium wine shops like Woodland Hills Wine Co have a rack with discounted wines. When you are in Costa Mesa you should stop in Hi Time [ed. ask for Patti] and buy a case of mixed wines between $10 and $20. These wines are not loss leaders or closeouts from some distributor. They are the ten to twenty dollar bottles from under-publicized regions like Chile, Languedoc, Alsace….

WHAT ABOUT COSTCO? There are some really good wines at Costco but how do you know which to buy?

RULES FOR BUYING WINE AT COSTCO: (1) Never buy “special wines” like the double mags of Napa Bombast Special Reserve or stupidly priced singles in plastic displays. (2) Find the bottle that stands out like a guy with orange hair in the White House. Last time tBoW was there it was obvious which bottle fit this mold. It was Austrian. DING. It had a screw top. DING. The label was unintelligible with words like Gruner Veltliner (native Austrian white wine grape). And it was $12. DING DING DING. That’s the winner. And it was excellent served chilled while in the spa.

Let’s get to the wine reviews.

Mike has been told Spanish sparkling wine is pretty good and can also be a good deal. Raventos Blanc (~$23) is a Spanish Cava that is good as or better than any champagne or domestic sparkler. tBoW posted on it here. The only problem it is tough to find. When I find it I buy at least six bottles. Also in pink!

What about Chardonnay? Mike is not a fan “no matter how cold it is served.” tBoW agrees. There are so many other white wines that are far more interesting. Here is one sold under the Gelsons label which they named “Mayfair.” Price is ~$14; blend is 61% Marsanne, 29% Viognier and 10% Rousanne. The wine is made by Doug Margerum who makes wines under his own Margerum label. Doug’s winery is located outside Santa Barbara. Doug is an excellent winemaker covered several times in tBoW. The white wine grapes come from the Rhone region. Made as single wines they suck. Most single grape wines suck. Wines should be blended….with regional varietals as has been practiced for centuries.

Summertime is for pink wines aka “rozays.” We have tasted many. Drink them chilled down. Here are a few bottles with busted corks.

2019 Les Gris from La Ferme Rouge 13% is from an estate in Morocco. Forgot what is tasted like. Watermelon with a little spine which means it was a bit firm and with good acid. Looks like the pinks are made from Cinsault (versatile red Mediterranean grape) and Grenache (as before). Would buy again. $14.

2019 Chateau Saint Eulalie Printemps d’Eulalie 14.5%. Minervois is a town in the un-sexy part of Southern France. This is southwest of Provence which is too sexy for tBoW. Do a search on this blog about the Languedoc. Wines that are so far under table dogs lap them up. This is a masculine wine that is not pretty. It is high acid and somewhat bracing. Look at the alcohol %. Like a round of goff with Mike D.

2019 Schlosskellerei Gobelsburg Cistercien 12%. Glad I bought two bottles. Everything I love in Austrian wines: high acid and bright fruit. $13.

2018 Juliette La Sangliere 12.5%. Pretty petty pretty. Delicate. Gentle. Seductive. Would get more of this. $12.

The only thing to figure out is how to buy wines like these. Plenty of guidance can be found on The Best of Wines dot com. Use our super slick search engine. G’head. Memo to Mike. Next time I get strokes. Click below on tBoW posts on buying and evluating wines.

Buying Wine: Our Favorite LA Shops

Forced and Unforced Wine Errors.

Wine Geeks Speak

and now…Miss Peggy Lee reflects on drinking wine and pandemics…

Weird Wine Conversation Has Legs!!

When the going gets weird the weird turn pro.
Hunter S. Thompson

Target wins top award for selling the most uninteresting wines at the most attractive prices.

Target selling wine is weird to tBoW. The “word” weird looks wierd to me. There is a new kind of weird convo taking place in wine. tBoW is serving notice: “weird wines” is a hot topic. National Wine Day – May 25 – has come and went. We guess this “holiday” celebration online piece officially kicks off the 10 month long holiday season. Dotore is eating his liver!

We have received solicitations to buy “weird wines” from vendors. Kermit Lynch features some weird wines in his current June newsletter. His staff presents articles on “The Bigfoot of Chateauneuf,” [a producer who favors the “M” in G-S-M]; the Vaucluse region of Provence [keeping it simple here] and the varietal Mourvedre from a Pic St Loup producer [tBoW KLWM hits a two bagger – region AND varietal – on the weird wines scorecard]. KLWM is also offering “20% Off “White Wines for the Curious Drinker.” KLWM is like Kaiser health. Where Kaiser goes the industry follows.

And while tBoW may not take credit for initiating this especially refreshing direction in discussing wine and wines, we reserve some credit for getting on this quickly so that our readers/viewers can get up to speed.

Talking about weird wines is good.

How many years have the tBoW writers suffered through formulaic wine writing [off blog] with these silly conventions: 100 point scores, market driven varietals, glamorous attachments to whatever kind of activity can be shopped through the pages of the Wine Speculator and other imitators.

Oh the glamour of the wine industry! I love wine! I could not live without wine!! It’s all so wholesome farm to bottle getting closer to nature working with the earth how do you like my overalls and my farm truck and my new custom crush winery labels?!

Break time. tBoW is getting dizzy.

Thank goodness tBoW contributors and wine freaks KrisB and Maus have non-conforming points of view and are willing to share them when it comes to wine. In last week’s post we featured their thoughts and comments. That was just the beginning. There is more to be shared! Great for us.

Maus – Finally read the rather fascinating article. As you know, I’ve been around the euro block, as KrisB obviously has. One place that was mentioned in that article blew me away. Gaillac. It’s in the Dordogne region. Years back we stayed there. I didn’t have memorable reds, but we were drinking white mainly, and they rocked. I remember a grape called Mauzac. However, the amazing offerings concerned dessert wines. I remember going into a damn grocery store and seeing about two dozen local choices. all for under $15! all very good. I had Negrette along the way, but wasn’t too impressed. Tannat is wonderful. quite tannic. Tannic Tannat. Grows near the Spanish border. And at this point of my life, that wine will outlive me.  Uruguay, of all places, grows it. [tBoW consumed an Uruguayan Tannat “years back”] – forgettable except for the varietal name and the state of origin – by the way Tablas Creek grows and produces Tannat. I picked up a dessert tannat (it’s red) once in Long Island on my way to a Glee concert, godhelpme. Wonderful! …cheers, having a Holloran Reisling tonight. Oregon.

KrisB – I have a weird Gaillac sweet white or two that I’ve been keeping with tBoW’s name on it (https://www.cellartracker.com/classic/wine.asp?iWine=1217606). Problem with these “weird” wines is that there doesn’t always seem to be an occasion to open them.

Maus – You’ll be in beerland before you get to Belgium…in the land of Kolschs! Although I prefer a good lager (Bitburg is also nearby for Bitburger)…man I love German beers. Are you just staying in the towns or will you make a trip to the Ahr?

[SCANDAL ALERT -NEXT COUPLE COMMENTS NSFWS]

KrisB – Love the peasant farmers, except when they make wines without sulfur and think they are all “BIO,” but really are just selling oxidized dreck. Ran into one of these a few weeks ago in Puglia who made wines that would be really beautiful, but they were undrinkable for us. And this guy is imported by Dressner!

The best story is when we visited a Beaujolais producer that we liked, Michel Guignier. He said he was all natural, no sulfur. He gave us a the first wine to try, a rose, and said this has been opened for 2-3 days, see how fresh it is!

Well, it was absolute shit, reminded me of canned dog food. Around the time we were trying not to gag on that first one, he mentioned that there is more than one Michel Guignier winemaker in the region and that’s when we knew we made a horrible mistake! We suffered through the rest of the tasting and got out as fast as we could. He did not have a nice atmospheric tasting room/cellar. I think we are going to a tasting of Slovenian wines this afternoon…

MAUS – Yeah, got a little sideways in Mosel 30 years ago. My best memory is Graach, where my wife who speaks fluent German interpreted a conversation with a typical small European winemaker, meaning he was a peasant farmer in overalls. [tBoW – I don’t care who you are that’s funny]

The Holloran reisling was delicious. Vibrant, pugnacious with a slash a pineapple! Sounds like you’ll be in a land [tBow – think he means Slovenia] where you can have the white wine that began this whole conversation [tBoW – the Himbrecht?]. It’s funny how those small time European wine operations can range from absolutely delightful to Frankenstein. I had bipolar experiences 2 years ago in Sud Tirol.  When the people are nice I always feel compelled to buy something, usually doesn’t cost more than $12  at any rate.

I was in Prague 10 years ago. I learned that Slovenia is Wine Country and Bohemia is beer land. I found a dessert Chardonnay that I accidentally froze and when it started to thaw out I had the most delicious snow cone ever. By the way my recent trip to Greece convinced me that the cradle of democracy has not enjoyed a wine Renaissance. Good lamb, though.

tBoW – Only way to top off this convo is with a video that provides a quick review of Hunter S. Thompson’s daily schedule as he ramped up for daily writing.

Tahoe Mishpocha Tasting: Teachin’ and Beachin’

later afternoon on the lake

late afternoon on the lake

Tahoe is to Alpine lakes like Barolo is to great red wines. Peerless. The whole damn fam assembled on the beach for 9 days. Nearly all the Young ‘Uns too; studying analogies for LSATs, living with parents hoping for a job in San Francisco, working their way through JUCOs on their way to a UC, finishing high school, and on and on and on. Good opportunity to pull corks. (more…)

Seasonal Spirit(s) Finally Arrive

U thought hanging lights on the house was hard

U thought hanging lights on the house was hard

Being Scrooge-like is fun a for awhile. With so many tasters [ed. he means Dotore & IGTY] taking it over the top, a backlash stance seems inevitable. We were at risk of going over the humbug cliff! With encouragement and cooperation from both sides of the cama Christmas Day can once again be the day for pals and family, eating tamales and ham and busting corks. (more…)

Humbug Holidays, Basketball Wives & a Riesling Rescue

b-wives3WEBMaybe it’s just me but the 2012 happy holidays has just about run its course and we are still a week ahead of December 25. Call me Humbug. Izit the older we get? Perhaps. Do not misunderstand the point here. Life is good. Being alive is good. The terrible tragedy of Newtown CT does not choose the day of occurrence. I just get less tolerant each year with the entire holiday zeitgeist. It seems to get harder and harder to buy in. Dotoré says Dec 21 is his favorite day because that is when he can begin counting down the mental march towards June 21, the longest day of the year, when he finds himself squarely in summer. (more…)