In this episode, Jeff pits two cool-climate Gewürztraminer samples against each other.
Wine Tasted:
Willm 2012 Gewurztraminer, Elena Walch 2013 Gewurztraminer, and Curry Soup
Stay Rad,
Jeff
What’s your favorite Gewürztraminer? Leave a comment, and let us know.
As part of the Wines of Alsace Twitter Taste and Chat, Jeff tries four different Alsatian Rieslings in this episode. Let’s see why #AlsaceRocks…
Wines Tasted:
Rad Wines of Alsace
Trimbach 2010 Riesling
Domaine Ostertag 2011 Vignoble d’E Riesling
Meyer-Fonné 2011 Riesling Reserve
Weinbach 2011 Cuvée Théo Riesling
Oh man!
See Jeff’s first tasting of Trimbach Riesling here.
Stay Rad,
Jeff
Don’t forget to join the Wines of Alsace Twitter Taste and Chat between 4 and 5pm Pacific, 6/27/13. Use the hashtag #AlsaceRocks, and throw a Q in front of your questions, to find out all you want to know about these dry Rieslings from France.
It’s Thanksgiving!
Okay…
Thanksgiving was yesterday, but I don’t have to go back to work ’til Monday.
So…
I’m pretty much okay with still calling this Thanksgiving.
Anyway…
Since I am currently visiting my folks in Reno, Nevada, I was planning on doing a video with my Dad… Or even my sister, who is visiting from Atlanta, Georgia.
But…
I’m sick right now.
I’ve been sneezing like crazy.
My nose is hella raw.
My eyes are bloodshot.
My throat is killing me.
I look about as bad as the New York Jets right now.
So…
Instead of posting a video, I’ve decided to share with you the wines that we had with our Thanksgiving dinner last night.
Here they are…
Domaine Laurent Barth 2010 Racines Metisses Alsatian White Blend
I’m a big fan of white wines from Alsace, France. This is a blend of Pinot Blanc, Sylvaner, Riesling, Pinot Gris, and Muscat. It’s got a light straw yellow color with a little frizzante action in it. The nose gives good fruit of green apples and pears with a good touch of minerality. On the palate, fruits of lime and pear skin are balanced out with a nice acidity, flinty minerality, and just a touch of residual sugar. I give it an 89.
We had the white wine with some crab cocktail, which brought out a buttery apple flavor in the wine.
Up next…
Domaine des Maisons Brulees 2009 L’Erebe
The L’Erebe is a natural wine from the Loire Valley of France.
It is a blend of Cabernet Franc and Cot.
Cot is Malbec.
I really enjoyed popping the bottle cap off of this one.
This wine is a dark ruby-red.
This wine has a funky nose of Earth and dark berries.
On the palate, this wine brings the funk hard.
Tires for days.
Ripe red fruit. Strawberries. Raspberries. Cherries.
Black pepper.
Lime zest.
90!
For the final wine of the night we broke out this bad boy…
Cascina Tavijn 2009 Barbera d’Asti
This Barbera is a nice, light, ruby-colored wine. It’s got an oaky, almost buttery, nose with a bit of cranberry and black pepper. The taste of this wine is rich and earthy, with blackberries and cherries. 89.
This is a great wine to have with turkey.
Here’s my dad and his turkey.
Here’s hoping you had a happy Thanksgiving, everybody.
Mine was sick.
Stay Rad,
Jeff
Remember The NeverEnding Story?
Remember when Bastian first starts reading?
There’s this troll-looking dude that flies around on a bat, and he’s hanging out with a guy in a top hat who rides a racing snail. So they’re chillin’ in the woods, when they hear a rumbling in the distance. It gets louder and louder and LOUDER.
Eventually, out from the trees comes a giant dude made of rocks riding a tricycle.
See? I told you!
They called him the Rock Biter, since his diet consisted of rocks. I guess you are what you eat.
Anyway…
The Rock Biter starts hanging out with the other dudes, and they get to talking about this thing called The Nothing (an entity that is threatening to destroy their world of Fantasia). The dude on the racing snail and the troll begin to tell of the things they had heard second-hand, but the Rock Biter had an actual run-in with The Nothing.
He told them about this beautiful lake that was in the center of his home town. It was loaded with plenty of delicious lime stone rocks (which would be important to a rock biter). But one day… One day The Nothing came, and then the lake was gone.
“What do you mean it was gone? Did it dry up?” the racing snail dude asked.
“No. It was just not there anymore.” the Rock Biter responded.
“What? Like there was a hole instead of a lake?” the troll dude asked.
“No. A hole would have been something. There was NOTHING there!” the Rock Biter explained.
I totally understand what the Rock Biter was saying. You can talk about The Nothing as much as you want, but there is no way you could ever understand it unless you experienced it. In the movie, the Rock Biter moves with just a little more urgency because he knows what The Nothing is all about. He wants everyone to understand what The Nothing is.
I started thinking about The NeverEnding Story last night while tasting some wine.
I started to think about The Nothing.
I’ve always been a fan of Riesling. I’ve especially been into the Rieslings of Washington state. I’ve never been afraid to bring a 6 dollar Riesling to a dinner party, because they are always crowd-pleasing. They always have a nice balance of acidity and a little residual sugar. Perfect with food.
Recently, I’ve been reading through Kevin Zraly’s wine book, and he spends quite a bit of time talking about the wines of Alsace (specifically Riesling). While reading it, I was all like, “I know about Riesling. I know that the stuff from France is gonna be a bit more dry. I know it’s gonna have nice mineral notes. I know it’s gonna have some good acid. I know it all.”
Apparently, I had no clue.
It turns out that Alsatian Riesling is my Nothing.
Here’s what went down…
Alsace (France) vs Washington State
I picked up two completely different Rieslings from two different stores for two different reasons, and decided to taste them side-by-side…
F.E. Trimbach 2008 Riesling from Alsace, France
I picked up the Trimbach 2008 Riesling at BevMo for $21.99. Easily, the most I’ve ever paid for a Riesling, but this is the first wine that Zraly suggests you taste in his book. If I am to know about the Rieslings of Alsace, I’ve got to taste them.
I figured that if I really wanted to get to know this wine, I had to compare it with something I was familiar with. So yesterday I picked up this…
Chateau Ste Michelle 2010 Riesling from Columbia Valley, Washington
The Chateau Ste Michelle 2010 Riesling will set you back $5.99 at Trader Joe’s. This is my go to Riesling. This is the one that I bring to parties. This is the one that is just delicious.
And now…
The tasting.
Sing along with me! "Feelin' so fine. Tasting some wine... Side-by-side!"
Color: The Trimbach was a straw yellow. It was considerably darker than the Chateau Ste Michelle’s pale yellow hue.
Nose: The Trimbach was hella complex on the nose. Tons of small, not quite ripe, green apples. White raisins. There’s this crushed vitamin C characteristic that is really cool. There’s also a little lime, fig, and motor oil. The Rock Biter would also appreciate the lime stone minerality of it.
The Chateau Ste Michelle smells EXTREMELY sweet, in comparison. There’s lots of fruit on the nose. Pear. Apple pie. Peaches.
Taste: This is where it gets fun. The Trimbach is RAZOR SHARP in its acidity. I never understood the whole “Razor blades on the tongue” description that Gary Vaynerchuk talks about until I tasted this Riesling. This is intense! There’s a ton of lime and grapefruit on the palate. There are also hints of green apple skin and walnut. But really… the star of this wine is the dry, sharp, mouth-watering acidity.
The Chateau Ste Michelle, in comparison, is almost dessert-like in its approach. I never felt that way about it before. This thing is SWEET. It has light peach and mango fruit on the palate. There is a nice, clean acidity to this wine, but the fruit wins out.
Score: By all accounts, the Trimbach was everything I’ve read about Alsatian Rieslings, but nothing I could have ever expected. This wine is a game changer for me. I could write about this wine until my fingers fall off, and you still wouldn’t understand it. Much like The Nothing, I need you to know how great this is. Give it a 91. Buy it. Save it as an aperitif to a fancy seafood dinner at home.
The Chateau Ste Michelle is a good Riesling. It is a respectable 87, and a real value. I have no problem with popping this open with some Tuesday night Tai food.
But that Trimbach…
That Trimbach was something.
And since we had plenty of the bottle left after the tasting, Kara and I had the rest with dinner…
Meatless Mediterranean cabbage wraps and romaine salad of cucumber and dill by KaraIsRad. Entertainment by Dish Network.
The Nothing teaching me about Riesling?
Ain’t that something!
Stay Rad,
Jeff
A while back, you read about my life-long hatred of eggs.
What’s that?
You didn’t?
How dare you!
Click here to catch up.
Now as gung-ho as I was about attacking all of the recipes in Jodi Liano’s “Egg” book…
"Eggs" by Jodi Liano. You know what time it is! Yeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh Boooooooooyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!
writing the post about it, and reliving the Hulkster’s Powerful Protein Shake experience was really tough for me. The more I wrote, the sicker I felt. After I published the entry, I avoided eggs for about a week.
Now look…
I’m not one to give up so easily. All I needed was a little BREAK from the EGGS (You like that one?).
A few days ago, I decided to jump back on the egg wagon. Here’s what I made…
Jeff and Kara in a Hole.
I really liked this one. The letters that I cut out of the bread were a little too small. As the egg was frying in the hole, a lot of it piled on top of the bread. This increased the cooking time, and made for a messy presentation… But… It was delicious.
Kara would have liked it to be a little more runny, but I’m beginning to like mine over hard.
This morning, I made this…
Egg, Bacon, and Smoked Mozzarella Panini
Now, in the book, Jodi uses brie, but I had some smoked mozzarella that I wanted to finish off… so I did. I got the ciabatta and bacon from Trader Joe’s. One problem was that the ciabatta loaf was too fat, so the panini could not get as flat as I would have liked. Another issue was the bacon. Trader Joe’s is a nice store. I love it. Their bacon selection, however, is HORRIBLE. I got this crappy turkey bacon that did not get anywhere as crisp as I would have liked. Next time, I’m going to Safeway to get me some real crispy pork action.
By the way, the sandwich was f-ing AWESOME! I can only imagine how good it would have been with better ingredients.
Okay…
So…
Here’s the deal…
Since we returned from Healdsburg, I haven’t tasted any new wines… but I have been reading a lot recently. I wanted to share some of these books with you.
I know. I know. This is a wine blog, so let’s see if we can tie in some wine…
When I was in high school, I was in a punk rock band called The Willies.
I'm the skinny kid, practicing my punk rock jumps with a mic in my hand.
A few weeks back, my old friend and drummer, Nick Thedrummer, suggested that I read “Crush It!” by Gary Vaynerchuk.
“I know Gary!” I wrote back to Nick. “I’m a huge fan of his video blogs Wine Library TV and Daily Grape. He even follows me on Twitter. I just don’t know if I want to read a book about business.”
“Just read it, dude.”
A few days later, I was kicking it with my buddy Dave Thevegetarian when I meantioned Gary’s book. Dave was all, “I’ve got Crush It right here. You want to borrow it?”
"Crush It!" by Gary Vaynerchuk... and you should too.
I was all like, “Sure.”
The book is a quick 142 page read (including two appendices). It’s all about tapping into things that you are passionate about, creating blogs, and using social media to build your personal brand. This book is very entertaining, and… dare I say it… inspiring. I was just a few weeks into this blog when I read Crush It, and have since been inspired to take on the world. If you like blogs… If you have a Facebook or Twitter account… If you are passionate about anything… You must read this book!
One of the things that Gary preaches in his book is to become an expert on your passion, by reading as much as you can on the topic. So last week, I picked up this…
"Kevin Zraly's Windows on the World Complete Wine Course" next to some spheres inside some cubes.
This well-written 338 page textbook is the number one selling book about wine in the world. Kevin takes the reader through a step-by-step guide on getting to know all the wines on the planet.
Right now, I’m in the middle of Class One: The White Wines of France. I am stoked on the way he presents information in this book. Zraly makes wine a whole lot easier to understand. If you like wine, and want to know more about it… Grab this book!
As interesting as Windows on the World is, I’m realizing how much more I have to learn about the subject of French wine (and wine in general). The good news, according to Zraly, is that the best way to understand wine is to TASTE it.
Looks like someone’s gonna have to make a run to the wine shop and make a raid on the Alsace section. Riesling, Pinot Blanc, Gewürztraminer, and Pinot Gris better watch out… None of them are getting out alive!
Stay Rad,
Jeff
Stay Rad 