Tasting · Travel

Josh tastes 41 New York wines

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

Tasting

#WBC15 Tinder Wine Session #2

I’m pretty sure Mykha’el and I sat at the same place for our second round and we were still relatively pretty empty for a table (which was awesome) but this time we were also with fellow wine baes Brianne and Cory.

Standing Stone 2013 Saperavi (Finger Lakes, New York) $30
Deep purple. Lots of compelling dark berry fruit and some plum. Peppery and bunch with a curvy body and soft structure. Fruity depth and very satisfying. “My Boxer” by Oh Land? Apparently the only winery in the Finger Lakes that does a Saperavi.

Fox Run 2012 Lemberger (Finger Lakes, New York) $21
Stinky, perhaps a bit reductive.… read more

Tasting

Wine Bloggers Conference 2014 – Speed Tasting i.e. Tinder for Wines

Speed tasting. It’s one of the unique events of the Wine Bloggers Conference that’s always explained to you if you’ve never heard of the WBC before, kind of like the warning nod of the hangover to the newly legal. It’s always described as “speed dating but with wine” – though in this case, it’s only a one-way road of looking at your date in disgust. So there’s a plus, and it’s sort of like a Tinder swipe-left-or-right sort of situation.

In the essence of the Live Wine Blogging event, you have 50 minutes to taste through 10 wines. In each 5-minute session, the winery representative pours you wine and gives you a bit of a quick overview before moving on to the next table.… read more