Category: Tasting

Tasting

Mendocino’s medicine-o

Posted on by Josh

What terrible timing it was for the recent fires in California to start wreaking havoc around the same time as I started the California Wine Appellation Specialist course. It’s so unfortunate that a recent masterclass helped surge personal interest in a wine region that went relatively ignored during my WSET diploma studies, only for the terrible news to ensue. I hope that by learning more about the region I’m doing a part to support them – and thusly I may also retract my decision to not attend this year’s Wine Bloggers Conference in Santa Rosa? Sigh. We’ll see.

Testing my just-in-time schedule, I rushed out of the door from work to make it to class, being the last of the group that was on time, but that seems to be my Thing, anyways. … read more

Tasting

“Backroads of California”

Posted on by Josh

I can’t believe I even made it to this masterclass, because tickets to these GuildSomm events usually sell out quicker than it takes today’s somm to name their favourite natural wine producer. Then again, I guess it’s a California-themed one held in, well, California, so perhaps everyone else in this city is just more familiar with these tipples. I’ve lived here for around a year, so a masterclass titled “Backroads of California” implies that the theme is the vinous road less travelled – but considering this state was a quasi-neglected region during my WSET diploma studies, you could imagine how badly this information stuck.

That being said, our presenter, Kelli White – author of Napa Valley Then & Now – was a fantastic guide who eventually tipped the scale in my mind in favour of taking the California Wine Appellation Specialist course.… read more

Tasting

Sake it to me

Posted on by Josh

…and other overused puns.

Look, you guys: after a brief (“brief”) dip, I’ve worked out that I actually fucking love school. Along with these queer history books a friend has inspired me to read, I haven’t been this excited to learn about a subject in such a long time. Thusly, the spirit of Hermione Granger consumed most of my soul as I made more flash cards than necessary in preparation for this one-day class that had an exam tacked on the end. I’m talking about the WSET Sake level 1 course; for reference, I’ve passed the years-long WSET Wine & Spirits level 4 diploma, so the thought of diving into a fun beginner course was thrilling. Plus, I don’t get to drink a lot of sake: it’s always seemed vastly more subtle than wine to me (which is true), to the point where the differences between its designations were beyond me.… read more

Tasting

Aesop’s wines aren’t fables

Posted on by Josh

I just asked an artist whether or not deadlines interfered with his creative process. His response was that it did a little, but the only thing I can confirm is that I suck at giving myself writing deadlines, and that the thought of deadlines often smothers any inkling of inspiration. Also: I’m not an artist.

A stroke of lucky meetings led me to samples of Aesop, whose wines are so limited that the locales in which it’s offered can be counted on one jittery hand. One half of Aesop is a designer, and the other half is a winemaker. It’s odd how cleanly this translates to the wines, whose impressions of creativity can be both experienced by both the eye and the tongue.… read more

Quaffing · Tasting

Sissy That Wine: Trixie Mattel and Katya

Posted on by Josh

My current journey has led me to San Francisco’s tech world, where the constant and profuse flow of genius rarely wanes. This city has drilled its tech life into me so viciously that I regretfully find myself trying to turn every non-work situation into a slightly more productive one. Did I buy a bottle of Dolcetto to enjoy before going to see Trixie Mattel’s drag show, only to force myself to write a detailed draft blog post on the grape? Possibly. Did I hand out two sets of business cards to four people I met in line for Katya’s drag show? Maybe. Did I use the 60 seconds I had, meeting Trixie and Katya, to ask what their favourite wines were?… read more

Tasting

On Vinebox and vials

Posted on by Josh

What entices me about wine startup Vinebox is their potential solution to my half-concerns on purchasing full bottles of wine.

(I get that you might be scoffing – not at the their idea, but at the notion that I have genuine concerns about sipping every last drop out of a bottle like a greedy sink drain.)

The concept is simple: Vinebox sends you a flight of three wines they’ve sourced from different producers, catered to the wine colour of your preference and the kind of wine drinker you are – “adventurous”, “classic”, or “newcomer” – that way, you can have your own alcoholic Dating Game experience and possibly re-order the ones that tickled your fancy in all of their tubular glory, since the leading facet appears in the form of a patented bottling system that re-packages the wines in 100mL glass cylinders.… read more

Tasting

Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri 2017: Franciacorta, the other other other sparkling wine

Posted on by Josh

I’ve always been a bubbly enthusiast – bar the brief phase as a neophyte, vehemently denouncing the region of Champagne out of myopic unfamiliarity (“why would you pay hundreds of dollars for sparkling bread water?!”) – but for some reason the ember has recently been amplified for at least a modicum of time. It struck me as a bit odd, since the grandes marques of the wine world are the opposite of the dark horses I like to champion, but I’ve popped open a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck’s non-vintaged brut (it was on sale, obviously), as I pound away at a daunting spreadsheet covering what I’ve deemed are the 70-or-so most important Champagne houses, everything down to oak regimes, house styles, or whether or not they were fucked over during an acquisition.… read more

Tasting

God damn it, Riesling.

Posted on by Josh

If Tyra banks were a Riesling (spoiler alert: she probably is, but like a Californian one or something), she – and I, for that matter – would be yelling at wine consumers à la Top Model cycle 4’s Tiffany. Alas. We coerced the masses to join the Church of Riesling and tried to convince the world that it was everyone’s undiscovered main bae: I did my best to promote the versatile berry, including the times I poured the gamut down the throats of university students during multiple hilarious post-secondary stints, or the time I shared some with a friend out of a thermos in the library while studying mathematical proofs. I’ve often dubbed Riesling a Millennial gateway grape (I’m talking about you, Sean) since it’s famed for occasionally having a sweeter personality, but maybe I should stop this persuasion before Riesling becomes the next to blame for our spending habits after avocados and rompers.… read more

Tasting

Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri 2017: On Prosecco, Italy’s power bottom

Posted on by Josh

I have no real desire to flesh out this (very real) analogy to fruition, but should it end up inadvertently educating you, my job here is done!

I have even less desire to write another several paragraphs about how much I think people should ditch the tank method Italian sparkling for something yeastier and Maillard-esque. Sorry, guys: sometimes Prosecco is exactly what you need when you’re recording a drag podcast at 11AM on a Monday with your friend who’s in Barcelona (his clock: 8PM). Stop telling me to ditch pears for dough, and soft padding for the sting of overinflated volleyballs. Which were never passed to me in high school gym class, anyways.

It’s obvious that the suited sommeliers don’t flock to bottles of Prosecco at events like San Francisco’s Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri tasting, and instead, place all focus on Italy’s rightly famed reds.… read more

Tasting

If Austrian wines could soothe sunburns

Posted on by Josh

When you plan a brunch date that unexpectedly turns into a day at the beach and a breathtakingly kaleidoscopic art show. If there were a handful of wines that could pair with the sun and simultaneously be soothing enough to cure slow-forming sunburns on one’s bald head, Austria’s take on Sauvignon Blanc would be one of them. C’mon, sunscreen!

I forgot Austria did Sauvignon Blanc. Master Sommelier Matt Stamp describes the style of having a mint-like character throughout; the Wine Grapes tome states that the best producers “typically combine the refreshment of Sancerre with the creaminess of a rich white burgundy”; Oz Clarke’s Grapes & Wines describe the style as having “classic nettly, blackcurrant-leaves fruit, while from the Sudsteiermark region come Sauvignon Blanc wines that are “restrained, understated, often excellent”.… read more