Tag: Red

Life · Quaffing · Tasting · Travel

Barcelona: Cava to end the Saga

Posted on by Josh

Spoiler alert: my few days in Spain were better than my two and a half weeks in France. Sorry, France. I was rooting for you, we were all rooting for you. #BeQuietTiffany

Our hostel was superior to the one in Paris: Erin and I helped cook dinner one night, we met a Canadian from Edmonton, and we made a cab driver go through McDonalds after a hostel-hosted bar-hopping session that eventually ended on a club next to a beach. And then drinking on said beach, which was a reaaaaal big blur. Have you ever drunkenly told someone they look like Ygritte from Game of Thrones way too many times?

There’s a story later that night involving myself ejecting the Devil’s Liquids from my soul, but let’s just summarize here and say that I fucking covered that up better than all of the Desperate Housewives would have, combined.… read more

Life · Tasting · Travel

“Looking to bone in Beaune”

Posted on by Josh

…was the working draft for a Tinder profile in Burgundy.

“Que cherches-tu?”

I hopped off my bike near one of the villages – Pommard, I think – and ran down the road before jumping up onto a short brick wall surrounding some vineyard so that I could see better. I told the vigneron that I lost my friend and he said that the diverging roads would both eventually lead to Pommard. Though actually, I’m totally filling in the blanks with bullshit and I mostly don’t know what he said (except for “tu comprends?” to which I responded with “oui”), but his hand signals sure helped.

Theran and I decided to bike to the other edge of the town and wait, despite the itch to haphazardly bike down the next hill so speedily that my mom would have the sudden urge to slap me all the way from Canada.… read more

Life · Quaffing · Tasting · Travel

Chenin Flair in Savennières

Posted on by Josh

I’m scared and embarrassed to accept what Erin and Theran say is true, which is that I inadvertently speak with a bit of a French accent when I talk in English with other French people. Gross. If I were a travel bingo card, would that be one of the squares?

Right as we arrived in Angers, our Airbnb host Julien (who created this, by the way) drove us to our designated living quarters, in the centre of the city, where seemingly ancient buildings, castles, and churches were spiffily fused with fresh energy and bright streets you could get lost in. Not unlike the vitality of a non-vintage Champagne that has a dollop of older reserve wine added to its house blend, you know?… read more

Life · Quaffing · Travel

Josh Likes Paris

Posted on by Josh

I’ve unapologetically become my parents when it comes to travelling, which primarily means that I like to arrive at airports hours and hours before I realistically need to. Combine that with what Erin and I decided to drink the night prior, which was all of Cava, fresh hop beer, and bourbon. Why?! But the morning turned out fine, and we had shitty mimosas and beer at the airport to satisfy the unending ghosts of the night prior. The short layover in Montreal slowly eased us into our French-speaking modes, followed by a decent 7-hour flight to Paris. I sheepishly told the flight attendant that I would like the chicken option for dinner, which really just means I muttered “poulet”.

I don’t remember what in-flight movie I saw, but after watching the trailer, I realized this might not be the time to finally watch Taken.… read more

Tasting

Canadian Wines with Rhodanien and Tuscan Influence

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In August, I was invited to a tasting on two wineries with very specific philosophies and inspirations. Le Vieux Pin and La Stella are wineries linked by winemaker and ownership but emit different energies when it comes to their wines, the former evoking elegance and finesse, the latter evoking power and density. Both take inspiration from the Old World: it’s clear that that Le Vieux Pin channels the Rhône, but La Stella channels Tuscany, and more specifically, from the beefy wines of the Maremma coast.

They manage to coax the personality of the grapes into a proper expression of the climate in a particular vintage – and without stretching the malleability of the grapes into anything that isn’t intrinsic or primal.… read more

Tasting

New York with Age; Brazil on the Page; Tuscany Backstage

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There was another set of seminars: I had to choose between a study on South American wines, the range of Riesling grown in Alsace, or the aging potential of New York wines. When Brandon Seager – the Chair of the Winemaking Department at Tompkins College, Winemaker, and Finger Lakes Wine Country LGBT Ambassador (cool, I didn’t even know that was a thing!) – used Brad Pitt analogies and pictures to explain the nuances of wine aging, I knew that I had chosen the right seminar. Huzzah.

The wines were what I was mostly looking forward to, especially the aged ice wine, which can be quite a divisive topic when it comes to cellaring wine. Opponents of the idea believe that ice wine is best drunk as fresh as possible, as fresh as newly-fallen snow to emphasize the bright and concentrated sweet flavours that bounce in the mouth with flashes of glitter and brightness.… read more

Tasting

“The Fizzyology of Lambrusco”

Posted on by Josh

There’s something about Lambrusco I’m not totally drawn to, despite its joyful distinctive sparkling red incarnation (or more infrequently, rosé, and even more infrequently, white). It might be because, at face value, its red form seems like a combination of competing textures, like bubble wrap made out of velvet, or carbonated lube. I once wrote an in-class essay on how Lambrusco – and other sparkling reds, really – are going to be the next ~big thing~ after Prosecco, because something something Millennials something 80s revival something something. Like Christina Aguilera sampling a-ha. Indeed, the Lambrusco cycle is apparently rotating back to the side of popularity.

“Trust me. Just try it with food,” is the everlasting Lambrusco (Lambruscan?) promise that I never trusted until this seminar, because there’s something about the enigmatic wine that adds some weird dimension to the meats and cheeses we had, something that’s hard to put into words.… read more

Tasting · Travel

Fox Run and fun rocks

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We went to Fox Run right after Anthony Road, for the WBC15 pre-conference: the sun was sure punishing me for being bald, and slathering scented sunscreen on my head would be a death sentence to the people trying to sniff the shit out of their glasses of Lemberger. At least my head would be shiny enough to be used as a security mirror at a grocery store. Yes? Yes? Halloween costume idea?

A display of the vineyards, winery gadgetry, and discussions with the winemaker were followed by a lunch involving six wines, and then a geological tasting on different vineyards and the subsequent expressions of Riesling. Here, we compared the Hanging Delta vineyard to the Lake Dana vineyard, the former having soils composed of silts and clays with glacial till, and the latter having alternating layers of sand and clay.… read more

Tasting

Josh tastes 118 wines at Top Drop

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If there was one unforgettable takeaway uttered by a wine god during this year’s Wine Bloggers Conference, it was the keynote speaker Karen MacNeil (author of the Wine Bible) who opined – and I’m paraphrasing, here – that people should pay more attention to tasting the wines during such events. Of course, I was thrilled, because that gave me even more validation to ignore people. Ha! Key advice when the militant goal is to taste every wine during a well-curated tasting, but it’s harder than it sounds because I guess I like to wave and flail at people.

A regretful ode to the few tables I did not get to visit: Anthonij Rupert, Badia a Coltibuono, Elio Altare, Giusti, Latta, Montenidoli, Orofino, Scribe, Spottswoode Estate, and that miscellaneous Australia Table.… read more

Tasting · Travel

Josh tastes 41 New York wines

Posted on by Josh

I can be a combination of thrifty and stubborn. If I’m spending money to fly to New York for the Wine Bloggers Conference, there’s no way I’m going to waste a single sober second not writing down a tasting note. I’m getting my money’s worth, y’all. Militantly shoving my head in between suits and dresses has trained me for these moments (I wonder if I was born easily?), and I planned to taste every wine in the damn room during the opening reception. Which I did, I think. Followed by cocktails, because why not gloss over my dying mouth with vodka?

I obviously tasted fewer wines than that time I tasted 173 BC wines in a row, but the BC torture session was in a brightly-lit room with chairs and quiet.… read more