UWS Staff Visits Sonoma & Napa - Part 1

All of our managers and wine staff travel at least once a year to a wine-growing region somewhere throughout the world. Traveling is one of the many aspects of UWS that sets us apart from other wine shops. We know that by meeting the winemakers, walking the vineyards and tasting new wine from the barrel, we can see first-hand the passion that goes into each bottle. We can then convey this commitment to quality to our customers. Rather than having you just looking at a label and a score, we believe it is our responsibility to bring you closer to how the wine was made and the people who made it. We'll be sharing their trip reports with you here on the Blog.

In October 2011, members of our staff including Shannon Spare from our internet department, had the privilege of traveling to California wine country! Here is the 1st installment of the trip, as told by Shannon.

Day 1
Coppola

After a rough trip across the country involving flight delays, rough landings, and GPS mishaps, our band of travelers woke on Tuesday morning in Sonoma, California, ready to start the day and enjoy good food, good company, beautiful weather and of course, some fantastic wine.

We began our trip by visiting Francis Ford Coppola winery. In the past couple years, they have made vast enhancements to their grounds, and it is informally known as the “Disneyland of Wineries.” Walking through the gates, you’re greeted by a fantastic swimming pool area, complete with cabines (not to be confused with cabinas) that you can rent for your private use for the day. There is a wonderful, huge wine bar where you can sit and enjoy some wine or a cold beer. Our tour guide, Neal Coats, informed us that even though they were unsure that the family environment was the best idea for a winery, pool passes sold out every single day of the summer season, and that the pool was always full of families having a great time.



We were brought up to a stainless steel bar where we enjoyed a tasting of Coppola wines. We began with a refreshing 2010 Sofia Blanc de Blanc sparkler, which was the perfect first wine to set the tone to our trip.

Other wines we tasted included: 2006 Archimedes, a selection of reds from the Reserve collection, including the 2008 Touriga Port, which was far less sweet and syrupy than ports that I’ve become accustomed to. We also tasted Director’s Merlot, both wines from the Votre Sante collection (Chardonnay and Pinot Noir), as well as a 2010 Moscato.



With our palates dancing, we toured the facility. We watched the bottling and packing of some Chardonnay cases, and were amazed by the automation of such a huge operation. We walked outside to see their fermentation tanks.


After our tour, we enjoyed a phenomenal lunch outside on the patio. We shared a bottle of red and a bottle of white, and toasted to a great start to the trip. After our lunch, we walked through the exhibits in the winery, which included Francis Ford Coppola’s Oscar statues and movie memorabilia including the desk from the Godfather.




We gathered the troops, loaded up the car, and headed on to our next destination!

Beaujolais Nouveau is here!

Georges Dubeouf Beaujolais Nouveau 2011
Beaujolais, France

Beaujolais Nouveau is a young red wine made from handpicked Gamay grapes grown in the Beaujolais region of France. While most red wines improve with age, Beaujolais Nouveau is all about freshness. Many producers, including regional giant Georges Duboeuf, race to deliver the first of the vintage to celebrations throughout France and the world.

Under French law, the wine may be released at 12:01 a.m. on the third Thursday of November, just weeks after the wine's grapes have been harvested. Fermentation is so short that the resulting wine exhibits fruity flavors and light tannins. Beaujolais Nouveau should be consumed right away (or within a year of being made), and is best served slightly cooled. Nearly half of the wine's 70-million-bottle production is exported abroad, mainly to Japan, Germany and the United States (where it is popularly enjoyed with Thanksgiving dinner).

Tasting notes: This young red wine made from Gamay grapes offers cherry and peach aromas with floral notes and a smooth finish.

Fork and Gobble It: Looking for Truffles

Wine geeks have certain weaknesses. One of my favorite ones is the inability to pass by a wine shop that has a certain interesting look about it, and no matter how busy I am, I must enter and peruse the shelves. I'm always looking for the surprise find, the good wine that has been lost or hidden on the shelf for years, waiting for the consumer who would recognize its value and bring it on home.

I had an appointment to meet some friends for lunch one afternoon. We were going out for Thai food, or some variation of it. I needed to pick up a bottle or two to go with lunch and my time was short. I was on my way back from the doggy exercise excursion, and I knew I would pass an older liquor and wine shop I'd been in before. It clearly had been owned at one point by someone who knew wine. There were bottles there that had not sold in years, but were clearly of good quality and now had some bottle age on them. For our Thai luncheon I was on the lookout for German Rieslings. Allow me to fill you in on some knowledge about these wines that will give insight to the rest of the story.

There are two important classifications pertaining to Rieslings that anyone who drinks these wines should know. First is the QbA classification or Qualitatswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete. QbAs are wines of good, but ordinary, quality that come from any one of Germany's thirteen official winegrowing regions. They are generally off dry, with moderate acidity and fit the profile most people think of as "Riesling."

Above this are the QmP wines or Qualitatswien mit Pradikat or wine with higher attributes. I actually like to think of it as wine with a pedigree. These wines explain on their label where they are from, which vineyard they come from, and how sweet they are based on how late the grapes were harvested.

For my purposes I was looking for two wines. I wanted one to be a dry, but complex Riesling and the other a sweet Riesling with good complexity also. If I could find wines that had some bottle age on them also it would be a bonus. As my luck would turn out I found both. Looking over the shelves in (let's call it Fred's Wine Emporium) I found an Alsatian Riesling from Albert Mann that would fit my dry wine need. Tucked away on a lower shelf was a German wine from the Rheinfalz region from a producer I knew. Kurt Darting makes very good wines, and I am very fond of his sweeter QmPs. I saw a 2003 Auslese from Durkheimer Nonnengarten which seemed to be a real find. I purchased both of them crossing my fingers that they would be good when I opened them.

When I got to the restaurant I opened both bottles right away. I needed to find out if I had purchased gems or duds. My nose and my eyes were both really pleased. The two wines side by side looked like this:


The Darting Riesling was on the left in this photo. It's deep golden color comes from it age. The perfume coming from the glass suggested honey, lychee, petrol, and ripe stone fruits like apricot. The Albert Mann Riesling was also deep but the flavors were drier and had much more mineral content.


I paired these wines with a dish from Laos. A ground meat and salad dish called Larbe was wonderfully spicy and complex with vegetables, herbs and duck.


The pairing was fantastic. The fact that I'd found two older wines that really delivered was a double bonus. The experience really affirmed my belief that if you want to find goodies or truffles, you have to dig. What "truffles" will you find on the pages of Ultimate Wine Shop?