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Today is a very special Friday! In fact I'm so excited about what's transpiring I was tempted to provide information about a little something we wine nerds like to call a "Victory Varietal"... But it's not Wine Wednesday, so I'll save that bit of goodness for another day and instead get on with what I'm feeling so victorious about! First and foremost, Pour Favor is celebrating a milestone.... This is our 100th post! Readers have already begun to help us celebrate by voting for the Pour Favor blog. On our homepage you can see a little icon in the upper right hand corner and a link tovote at Local Wine Events. LWE is a great place to learn more about what wine and food events are happening near you or wherever your travels take you. Check it out, vote and then come back here for more!  I'm looking forward to our on-going wine banter and hope you will continue to tune in and comment regularly.

Cheers!

Second, next Thursday night Somerville Local First is hosting a Local for Love event at Poor Little Rich Girl in Davis Square. Come support other small businesses like Pour Favor, enjoy some great vino (yes, I'll be there pouring the wines for local fine wine shop Ball Square Fine Wines!), some fabulous chocolate and even cocktails brought to you by the ladies at LUPEC (Ladies United for the Preservation of Cocktails). Too much goodness and easy fun to miss this free event. Just be sure to RSVP - and say hello when you drop by! I'll be the woman with the wine and the big smile.

Have a great weekend - and be sure to open a bottle of something fabulous to celebrate your own victories this week, no matter how large or small!

What wine do you have on hand to celebrate a special occassion?

winter warmers go west!

California wines were largely where my wine journeys started. But living on the east coast, and in New England more specifically, the influence of Old World cultures means there is also a large supply of Old World wines. California became less and less a part of my at-home wine drinking as my tastes took me in different directions and the rich history of winemaking abroad sucked me in. But that doesn't mean California doesn't have quite a bit to offer. It's not exactly a small state and it certainly has myriad climates, micro-climates, soil types, winemaking styles/influences and even its own unique history. So today my quest for winter warmer wines takes me - er, us - west! One winery that continues to impress me is Spencer Roloson in Napa Valley. It's not often I find one single winery where I have more than one "favorite" wine in their repertoire. With these guys I do. Perhaps it is because founder/winemaker Sam Spencer has a crush on the Rhone Valley & Spain, too. (In his vineyards you will  find Rhone & Spanish varietals planted like Syrah, Carignane, Valdigue, Viognier, and even Grenache Blanc.) But what's particularly cool is that Spencer believes, as I do, that wines need to be "true to their varietal character with enough finesse, elegance and focus to reveal the origin".

What does this really mean? It means the true flavors of each grape varietal are evident, demonstrating the characteristics they are known for; they simply taste like they are supposed to, not 'manufactured' through winery tomfoolery, if you will. And the best part is (drum roll please) they have a sense of place. In tasting Spencer Roloson wines, you know they come from Napa Valley, California. Ok, so maybe you don't taste volcanic deposits necessarily... Suffice to say, the Spencer & Roloson wines have a distinctly New World, California flavor: uber-round edges, deep layers of rich flavors, often sweeter notes of vanilla or chocolate... I know you know what I'm talking about. These wines coat your tongue and go down smooooth. But this smoothness does not hide the lovely fruit or earthy, floral/herbaceous flavors each wine delivers.

"Forced" to choose just one winter warmer wine for today's post, I'm going with the 2004 Spencer Roloson Palaterra, their red blend. This wine is modeled on the wines of the Rhone with this vintage a blend of Syrah, Carignane, Valdigue grapes. If this wine was a musical instrument, I'd say it is a cello. With every movement of the bow across its strings, deeper blackberry and chocolate covered strawberry flavors are accented with higher notes of fresh cut rosemary and thyme. The finish is just as graceful and intoxicating as its flavors on the midpalate. A solid food wine, I imagine the heartier wine-lover would enjoy this alone, too.

Which California wine is your winter warmer of choice?

Flag on the play! Judging wines is no easy task

On the heels of the Super Bowl, it's hard not to think about the role of referees in sports. I love instant replay technology. Some of those calls are ridiculously hard to make.  Such technology helps us to keep everything on the up and up. Meanwhile, because football coaches are only allotted a certain number of  Challenge Calls each half and they are penalized if they get it wrong helps keep everyone honest - and the game clipping along at a reasonable pace. We're dealing with a different kind of sport when it comes to wine.  As a former springboard diver, I argue wine is more like a diving competition where 5 judges have a say in a person's performance. Is this fair?

On the one hand, whenever you are dealing with a subjective entity you have to go with a panel of judges to render a conclusion. In the case of diving, whenever my mom was judging me, my scores were lower. Naturally she feared giving me too high a score so as to show favoritism.  Fortunately, they drop the high and the low scores on each panel and average the middle 3.  It's not a perfect system but it's the closest thing to fair you can get.

It doesn't always work that way for wine. It seems that each competition has its own judging process, typically on either a 100 point or 20 point scale. Rules are established as to what attributes a wine must have to score a certain rating, but I don't think they ever drop a score. Goodness knows they should! There are a lot of external factors that make this particular 'sport' a challenge to referee.

A recent study conducted by Robert T. Johnson over three years showed "of approximately 65 judging panels... just 30 panels achieved anything close to similar results, with the data pointing to "judge inconsistency, lack of concordance--or both" as reasons for the variation. The phenomenon was so pronounced, in fact, that one panel of judges rejected two samples of identical wine, only to award the same wine a double gold in a third tasting." (Source: Wines & Vines) The abstract of the official report made an interesting point, too: wines that are bad, are consistently rated poorly; it's the good to great wines that prove more of a challenge to judge fairly.

So what do scores really mean? Who are these so-called "experts"?  How can we know they don't suffer from palate fatigue after tasting 100 some odd wines in a given time period? I know from personal tasting experience my judgment is definitely questionable by 6pm on Tuesday Tasting Day at the shop, as compared to when my energy, mind and palate is "fresh" at 10am. Am I drunk? Not at all. We spit so you don't have to. The truth is, no matter how professional you are, circumstances dictate your experience with a wine. Subjectivity is the only writing on the wall.

What are we to do? Well, the average consumer can rest assured there are numerous folks out there in the trade assessing the quality of a wine. Consumers are automatically tasting the better stuff on the market - even if it isn't your preference. But for me this kind of study simply underscores what I'm always saying: context is everything; scores are relative. Find your congenial wine guru after giving a few "judges" a try based on knowledge and compatibility and then taste from their cup of suggestions.

Do you think wine judging is a worthwhile undertaking or too subjective to have much merit?

wine column hop'n!

Even with the Super Bowl due this weekend and beer lovers all over the US (and beyond?) gearing up for the big day of consumption, wine columnists at some of the country's top rags stayed the course, touching on topics I personally have been following. And so this Friday I bring to you a look at wine from three of my favorite writers: New York's City Winery is open. Looking for the Disney World of Wine? It seems City Winery is trying to be just that. As enthusiastic and passionate as I am about the art of fermented grape juice, I'm not sure if I'm about it.  Must we be everything to everyone? Or is it just this approach that will allow CW to find success even in a down market? Eric Asimov, author of the New York Times' "The Pour", checks out the scene and brings up some very interesting points.  I'll be in town once the ice melts to check it out for myself, but in the meantime, I'm dying to hear what my Big Apple readers think of it! Are you "a fan" of the concept? Comment below!

Malbec, mmm Malbec! Argentine Malbec is certainly a section in the store with a ridiculous number of facings given our small space. But there is enough demand to warrant so many choices! This scenario (plus my personal affection for it?) encourages our reps to continue to bring by new Malbecs for us to try. What's interesting is how many simply 'eh', down right bad, or "fakey-fake" offerings we've tasted in the last 4-5 months. Of course, this just makes us feel even happier with the wines we do carry, but it also demoralizes me a bit. I'd hate to see Malbec winemaking go down the tubes just to meet the increasing demand. While we've been experiencing this challenge here in Greater Boston, you never know for sure if your experience is being felt elsewhere.... This week Gaiter & Bretcher at the Wall Street Journal took 100 Malbecs to the mattresses and reported their findings. Check out their 411! And then tell us, what are your own recent experiences?

Fireplace magic. Since I've been on my winter warmers bender and definitely used the term "fireplace wine" at least once in recent history, I was happy to see Stephen Meuse take up the torch in January's Boston Globe "Plonk of the Month" column. Meuse usually rounds up a solid number of somewhat lesser known, reasonably priced wines, from around the world (yea!). You'll never see mass-marketed items, so it is a pleasure to check out his line-up every 4th Wednesday. And I appreciate that with "plonk" wines as his focus, he describes the wines in relation to their accessible price; it's true, we are "prepared to overlook the occasional quirk [to] be amply compensated by a level of character and interest heavily marketed brands just can't deliver". See what he recommends this month here. Are you familiar with any of these already?

Winter warmers: Exploring Espana!

While I may talk a lot about my love of rustic, French wines, Spain is also near and dear to my heart. In particular, I frolic in the Priorat whenever I have the excuse to take home one of their higher ticket sensations. What is it I love about these wines? Let's see... how about: Layered with flavor.

Concentrated with ripe dark and red fruit flavors.

Medium-plus bodied so as not to overwhelm and distract, and instead packing just enough of a mouthfilling punch.

Food friendly with  solid acidity, but dry enough to warrant a bite or two of cured meat, manchego cheese or lamb. And to my taste, perhaps their best attribute:

Rustic, though in a distinct, clean, minerally sort of way (rather than having the damp-trodden forest floor or barn-tastic qualities of many Cote du Rhone wines).

The combination of seriously old vines (less fruit produced), super challenging growing conditions and the fact that the Priorat is the new 'hotness', means these wines fetch worthy, but not necessarily recession-sensitive prices.

Enter the Montsant region. Montsant is the lesser known horseshoe region that encompasses the Priorat. Here the climate is similarly arid, but the soil has its own unique mixture of slate, granite, sand, limestone and clay; each vineyard has a unique terroir. Like its better-known counterpart, Montsant also boasts a tremendous number of 100+ year old vines. (Yes, you can let out a cheer!) In fact, 55% of the vines in Montsant are >20 years old; Priorat can "only" boast 40%. And there you have it - tremendous concentration and distinct, let-your-heart-sing flavors! All that hard work by the vines to produce just a few clusters means happiness in your glass.

When its cold outside and dinner "in" with friends is on the menu Montsant wines are a brilliant option. I proved this little theory of mine last weekend when I  hosted a bit of a dinner party. I was serving a spinach and beet salad with cashews and feta; garlic, lemon and thyme roast chicken; and roast potatoes. I wanted a wine with solid acidity, a bit of rusticity and great concentration. It also had to be light enough on its toes (that is, have enough bright fruit) to be universally appealing to my guests. I was tempted to go for a basic Cote du Rhone, but wanted riper, redder fruit flavors and something with a touch more minerality and less barnyard "funk". The steep-sloped Priorat region came to mind, but I knew I'd open several bottles and didn't want to spend $20 on each. A Montsant was a natural solution.

The Etim Seleccion 2006 is a new Montsant wine brought to us by the folks at Ole Imports. It has entered the market at a great time, too, just when we're looking for fabulous wines at accessible prices. The Etim is 60% Grenache, 30% Carigane, and 10% Syrah. This varietal combo means sweet, juicy, ripe, red fruits are delivered in a mouthfilling package; and the terroir in Montsant means you'll find a touch of clean, wet-slate minerality to boot.

Too much wine speak mid week? Let me put it this way: if you were going on a first date with the Etim, you'd be waiting for the moment when you could escort her out of the restaurant into the mind-clearing chill, gently push her up against the brick and discover for yourself  just how succulent, sweet and edgy she is.

Can you beat that? What wine did you enjoy last weekend?

The glorious grape: a book review

Reading is one of my favorite, totally self-contained escapes. Since wine became my "job" though, I've falled off the wagon in some ways.... I constantly seek more information and so I'm reading to learn, rather than for the sheer pleasure of it. But I realized the wine books I've been picking up of late are finding some middle ground; they are lighter on their feet, if you will, offering great information in a delightfully palatable package. It seems unfair to keep some of these finds to myself, so in the coming year, I hope to explore more of these texts and share the fruits of my efforts with you. Natalie MacLean offers just one such diversion in her Red, White and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass.  If I knew MacLean in real life, I can only imagine she (like me) thinks she is the funniest person she knows - and is all the better for it. (I mean, come on. If you were stuck on a desert island and you only had yourself to entertain, you BETTER be the funniest person you know!) The best news is, MacLean is open about what she does and doesn't know about her subject. She is unabashed but refreshingly professional (read: respectful) as she explores wine. Her book takes you through the new vineyards of California, the history-entrenched vineyards of France, the bowels of a wine shop, the floor of a high-end restaurant and... beyond. She is nothing if not funny and thorough.

MacLean delivers something for everyone, at every stage in their wine knowledge/enthusiasm. I, for one, loved her chapters on French regions in particular - her tales of meeting some of Champagne's most important women, tromping through Burgundy.... I also enjoyed reading about her experiences trying retail for a day (and the price she paid for wearing fashionable shoes, rather than comfortable ones) and attempting life as a Sommelier for an evening.

I also appreciate how much perspective MacLean brings to the various places wine breathes (no pun intended on that one, but I'll keep it!). Case in point: while she's working in one San Francisco shop she learns how hard some shops work to meet their customers needs such that "[wine] comes alive for them". (p. 146) It's not just about business, but sharing something special with customers - both a new wine and just as important, the genuine interaction with the customer him/herself. Both MacLean's  historic ruminations and her real life revelry with her subject underscore the reason so many people I know are drawn to wine: it is a lovely, warm quilt, representing and connecting myriad facets of life.

Naturally, there are a few segments where I was less enthralled and I'm still deciding whether her on-line wine/food matcher is a tool I can use with confidence. But MacLean is witty and honest. For a subject where neither are a given, I applaud her efforts and hope she continues to capture her musings.

What wine books have struck your fancy? Have you found others that expand your horizons - while entertaining you, too?

Tips for Attending the Boston Wine Expo

[Editor's Note, 2/1/16: Even as the Expo has evolved over the years, our tips for a successful experience remain virtually un-editted. We merely felt it was time to cut to the chase. We hope these tips for navigating the Boston Wine Expo are a terrific starting point as you ultimately choose your own adventure and explore the wines on offer. - Rebecca A. R. Schimmoeller ]

Boston Wine Expo logo

The first year I attended the Expo I was an unassuming, enthusiastic, still-amateur wine consumer. I was there as many are: to taste a range of wines from around the world. While I certainly saw (and tasted) numerous wines from around the world, I was largely unprepared for the chaos, debauchery and crowds.

In the years since, I've worked out a strategy not only to survive the madness but also to taste the wines I'm really there to taste, and meet the winemakers I'm really there to meet. That's exactly the point, after all. 

Here's what I suggest:

1) Prepare. Do a quick Google search to find the list of Exhibitors attending the event. Identify the wineries you want to "visit".

2) Maximize your time. Take a look at the booth number of those exhibitors you've identified and note which are in close proximity to each other. This way you're not running around the large convention center floor like a chicken with your head cut off. If a particular table is at capacity when you get there, move on. #pathofleastresistance

3) Maximize your palate. Visit the booths on your Hit List first. This way your palate is still fresh (and your patience with the crowds in tact).

4) Eat a large breakfast before you even head over to the Convention Center. You should definitely be spitting/dumping whenever possible to maintain your stamina, but ultimately the crowds will make this challenging. And I've found the snack stations are harder to come by. Best not to take your chances.

5) Bring and drink water. Hydration is the key to any event where a lot of people abound. It gets hot in there! And you'll feel it. Water also keeps your palate fresh, so your impressions of the wine are more accurate.

6) Don't treat the event as a Booze Fest. It's important to remember the exhibitors have traveled far and wide to show you their wares. Respect them, their offerings (even if they aren't your personal preference) and those around you. There's nothing worse than a loud, debaucherous, disrespectful crowd. It can't hurt to set a different tone - and encourage them to come back next year!

Bottom Line.    The BWE is an opportunity to taste really special, or simply unique wines you may not normally have the chance to explore. It is also an opportunity to answer some of your own curiosity. Perhaps you've not really tried any of those Portuguese varietals people are buzzing about. Will they really satisfy your palate at just $8 a bottle? Well, the BWE gives you a chance to find out!

winter whites: (Tocai) Friulano

"Wanna get away?" If you, like me, reside in a place where falling snow is a telltale sign winter is fully underway, you are often thinking of an escape to other places. Sometimes we are so lucky to just up and go. And sometimes we have to find other ways to scratch the itch and explore something new, that makes us feel like we're getting away. I've learned winter is not a time to abandon whites. In fact, they are often the perfect thing! Last weekend, with snow in the forecast (again), I decided to live vicariously through my culinary escapades.... And haddock with a mango salsa, lemon roasted potatoes and (interestingly) roasted spears of sweet summer squash were just my ticket! Truth be told, I had been eying a brand new white we had just brought into the store and knew such a fresh take on a winter warming menu would be a perfect match for my wine of the weekend. I popped the cork on the 2007 DiLeonardo Toh! Friulano and dug in.

Friul-what? Free-u-lano. This is a mouthwatering, fleshy, medium-bodied white from Italy's northeastern-most region: Friuli. This area of the world offers views of both the Alps in the distance or, perhaps better yet, the Adriatic Sea. There they experience a humid Mediterranean climate, with colder winters and warm summers (of course, these days I'm more focused on the idea of warm summers...). Like all great wine-producing regions, a place does it's best work when they cultivate varietals that work best with their unique conditions. The wines coming from Friuli, most noteably (Tocai) Friulano are said to rival the greatest wines of Tuscany and Piedmont. The fact that the majority of these wines are white makes them, in my opinion, that much more desirable. (Afterall, if I want a great Italian red, it's true I usually pop on 'over' to both Tuscany and Piedmont accordingly; this way Friuli has a special place in my heart.)

So why do I keep putting parenthesis around "Tocai"? Well, here's a fun fact: the EU recently mandated wines from this region drop the "Tocai" so they are not "confused" with Tokay from Hungary. Yes, Tokay is a dessert wine. And no, Tocai Friulano tastes nothing like it. But, it's true, both are absolutely scrumptious in their own right. And I guess it could be confusing... Whatever your opinion, moving forward you'll only see "Friulano" on labels, after the indigenous grape varietal itself.

Back to my weekend escape, the Toh! truly is a beautiful wine with an exceptionally good QPR, retailing for ~$12. Gotta love that. The nose on this wine simply bursts with aromas of flower blossoms and recently-picked pears. Medium bodied, it coats your tongue with pear and tropical fruit flavors (think honeydew melon and mango). Rich and long in the finish, its tremendous acidity and touch of minerality will leave you utterly fulfilled - and perhaps even running for your bathing suit! The Toh! is lovely on its own, but it was even better with my fish and roasted veggies. Truly, this is the white you just have to try.

What winter whites have you been escaping with these days?

new era, fresh thinking: inauguration celebration wines

Whether you are in the majority for or in the minority against our next President, chances are you are getting a bit wrapped up in the fervor that surrounds us. Almost everyone I know - correction: everyone I know - is ready for change in 2009. And we're bound to see some soon enough! Where wine and the Inauguration is concerned, a few things have been on my mind lately...  First, when we were looking at our post-New Year's bubbly stock at the store last week, we had to decide if we had enough depth and range to satisfy our customers' demand on Inauguration day; bubbly is a natural, but truth be told, the festivities really start over breakfast. Will people be drinking that early on a weekday? Second, is bubbly too 'just-done' (with the holidays just behind us) such that folks will be looking for something else special to open later that night?

And then, last Wednesday, my fellow wine bloggers took on a challenging topic for Wine Blogging Wednesday: Wines for Breakfast Foods (no bubbly and no rose!).  Things were too nutty after the New Year for me to participate in the fun, but I was intrigued by the challenge. Eggs are considered one of The Hardest food/wine pairings, and bubbly is the given answer - but that wasn't allowed.

Since I'm always a proponent of trying something unknown and since we're about to take on the world from a different perspective (Obama's), today it seemed natural, with just a few hours left under the old world order, to get us thinking outside the box about our Inauguration Celebration wine.  And since Inauguration festivities will begin tomorrow morning, it's only appropriate to start with breakfast.... Below I'm going to link up a few of the posts from last week's Wine Blogging Wednesday and another article or two I've come across lately. Hopefully this will give you enough time to think about where your plans will take you tomorrow  - and to get to your local shop to pick out something special to accompany them!

For those of you starting early, here are a few WBW Breakfast Wines...

Three fun reds? Who knew. It's a Twisted Breakfast(s) extravaganza!

Having a party? Pairing wines for each (breakfast) course. Too much fun.

Anyone who thinks to describe a wine's texture "like wearing some kind of tasty satin underroos for your tongue" deserves a closer look-see, I'd say. Definitely outside of the box thinking on that one!

Or...

If you want to stay domestic in your celebratory sipping, while taking it outside the box (aka NOT California) and giving yourself a real treat, check out the musings of Gaiter and Brecher.... Those two know where it's at.

Are you toasting over breakfast? Which wine do you have in mind?

This week's headline wine-rs (er... winners)!

A big thanks to the folks over at www.winelabelsproject.com for this image.

I love waking up to NPR. I get all my highlights for the day in a neat little package and often am entertained by their little side stories to boot. The only challenge is I'm literally coming to when many of their finest news bites are coming over the air waves.  With that said, I think it was just this week I woke up to the 'idea' that if it was legal for a President (read: Obama) to sign marketing deals with the Nike's of the world,  we might actually see some light at the end of the National Debt tunnel; any "proceeds" generated from endorsements could be pumped back into the US economy. (Don't you just love such capitalist creativity?!) So what does this have to do with wine? Well, if you saw the latest cover of Wine Enthusiast magazine, you know there is a full page picture of Obama.... Apparently he has quite a remarkable 1,000 bottle wine cellar, the details of which will only be revealed by his staff after the Inauguration,  Decanter reported this week also.  The wine industry is thrilled. Not only are people going to need a nice glass of wine to distract and relax them even more given the economic woes that abound, but Obama serves as the unofficial endorser of fermented grape juice - and perhaps reaching a younger audience, thereby giving additional 'legs' to the success of the trade over/in time.

But for those of you who don't just seek out a glass of wine at the end of a long day and prefer a real escape, check this out: you can go to the Netherlands and recuperate at De Vrouwe van Stavoren Hotel. And when I say "recuperate" I really mean re-cooper-ate.... This fine establishment offers guests the chance to room in an old, French wine cask! Seeing is believing, or is that sleeping?

What do you think is so special about Obama's collection we have to wait until after the Inauguration to find out what lies within?