Maybe next year ...

Two completely different wine tastings in the same week. What a study in contrasts! A brief report and intepretation.

A Student Tasting

The tasting for my “Idea of Wine” class at the University of Puget Sound was designed to introduce my students to serious wine tasting on a student budget. I wanted them to be able to taste and analyze some good wines while spending no more than about $20 each. Twenty bucks isn’t an every day budget for a student (or most of the rest of us), but it’s within reach and opens up many possibilities.

The wine of choice was Riesling for a number of reasons. First, Riesling often sells at a discount to its intrinsic value (that’s just my opinion) because people are confused, afraid and uninformed about it. Second, it is a real terroir wine that can capture a sense of place. And finally Riesling allows many different expressions, so it’s just plain interesting. Not everyone loves Riesling as much as I do, but you can’t criticize it for being boring!

We tasted through six wines, moving from dry to sweet to very sweet and from Old World to New World and back again. The comparative tasting format was new to the students and they embraced it enthusiastically. Every student found a favorite wine and many were surprised at their choices. Several students admitted that they thought of themselves as dry wine drinkers and yet were smitten by one of the off-dry wines like the St Urbans-Hof with 37 g/l of residual sugar (see complete list of wines below).

The Eiswein (Icewine) was the popular choice, as it often is at these tastings, in part because it came as such a complete surprise to most students and in part, I suppose, because we had studied how its is made, which is a fascinating process.

The wines were interesting, the students fearless in their tasting note comments and the discussion was lively. A great evening!

Student  Tasting: First Flight

 Lucien Albrecht Riesling Reserve Alsace France 2009

 Long Shadows Poet’s Leap Riesling Columbia Valley, Washington 2010

 Chateau Ste Michelle Eroica Riesling Columbia Valley, Washington 2010

 Student Tasting: Second Flight

 St Urbans-Hof Riesling Mosel Valley Germany 2010

 Chateau Ste Michelle Harvest Select Riesling Columbia Valley 2010

 Schloss Koblenz Eiswein Rheinhessen Germany 2009

Open That Bottle Night Tasting

The second tasting was at a wine dinner and it could not have been more different in terms of the setting, the participants and the wines themselves. It was the Open That Bottle Night dinner that Rosemary and Ken graciously (and that’s exactly the right word) host. Open That Bottle Night (OBTN) was created  13 years ago by wine writers Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher as a wine-lover’s holiday that is celebrated on the last Saturday in February.

OTBN is an opportunity or maybe just an excuse to bring out those bottles that you’ve been saving for a special occasion and enjoy them. But, as I have written before, it’s not just about the wine.  It is also an occasion to release the memories those special bottles hold, which is really the part that I like the best

Most of my students aren’t yet ready for OTBN, but they’ll get there — and probably much sooner than I did. They are new to wine and haven’t had time to acquire many liquid memories. The group that gathered at Rosemary and Ken’s was more seasoned and the bottles somewhat beyond a typical student budget. Lots of memories to share!  And then there was the extraordinary food that Rosemary created for us. Quite a memorable evening.

Remains of the OTBN tasting

Champagne Perrier -Jouet Brut NV

Jean-Marc Pillot Montagny Premier Cru “Les Gouresses” 2008

Tantalus Old Vines Riesling Okanagan Valley 2008

William Hill Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Napa Valley 1997 (magnum)

Shafer Relentless Napa Valley 2002

Cedar Creek Estate Cabernet Sauvignon  Okanagan Valley 2007

Conterno Barbera D’Alba Cerretta 2009

Vina Almirante Pionero Maccerato Albarino Rias Biaxas 2009

Porto Rocha Porto Colheita  1982

Chateau Tirecul La Graviere Monbazillac Cuvee Madame 1996

Compare and Contrast: Jaded Palates?

Comparing the two tastings is difficult because they were so different. One obvious difference between the two tastings was price, although it wasn’t as important a factor as you might guess. Some of the wines were much more expensive than others, but it wasn’t the price that made them interesting or not. Wine, especially when shared with friends, produces a certain magic that does not have much to do with market price, although the opportunity to taste rare wines and vintages is certainly enticing.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the two tastings was that the students seemed to talk much more about the wine than did the OTBN group. Ron and I puzzled over this a bit. There were more wines at the OTBN dinner and more wines that might be thought to provoke discussion. Why wasn’t wine a more dominant conversational theme?

Is it possible that the OTBN tasters are jaded — experiencing diminishing returns to new wine experiences? I certainly hope not! That would be counter to my theory of increasing returns to wine knowledge — the more you taste or know the more you want to have and benefit from new experiences.

The answer, I think, might lie in the food — and not just the fact that Rosemary’s braised lamb shanks were far better (and more distracting) than the fish-shaped snack crackers I supplied to the students.

Wine and food are meant to go together (except in certain U.S. states including New York where it is illegal to sell wine and food in the same retail space!). The wine and food in turn embrace a certain civilized sociability, so maybe it is no wonder that art, music and literature filled the air even more than wine talk. Or at least that’s my theory.

If I am right, then Open That Bottle Night is less about how wine tastes than it is about what wine (and food and friends) make us think and feel. And that perhaps is wine’s real magic.

Civilized sociability

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Extra special thanks to Rosemary and Ken for hosting the OTBN dinner. Thanks to new friends Jody, Kathleen, Paul and Tom and old friends Bonnie, Mary, Richard and Ron. And thanks as always to my students for all that they teach me each year.  Here is Rosemary’s menu for OTBN 2012.

Kale salad with pine-nuts, sultanas and prosciutto with white balsamic vinaigrette and amaretti crumble

Lamb shanks braised in Dunham Three-Legged Dog red wine with pureed white beans and gremalata

Palate cleanser of raspberries in Prosecco gelee

Selection of extraordinary cheeses

Cookies and biscotti