Posts tagged with 'wine'

Hello, It’s Me

  • Posted on August 31, 2011 at 10:13 pm

by Phil Anderson
Remember the song, “Hello, It’s Me.  Haven’t been around for a long, long time…”?  How relevant is THAT?  Once again I find myself having to apologize to those that find refuge in my little wine blog but yet don’t see anything new for awhile.  My bad.  My TOTAL bad!  What I’ve grown to understand is that summer time is exceptionally busy.  I’m not trying to make excuses.  It’s just reality.

The UP side is that I’ve still been drinking wine and taking notes…well, except for an eight day hiatus just before I traveled down to California, but I’ll tell you all about that in my next post.  Other than that, I have a lot of content and I look forward giving you my general wine thoughts.  I also have a guest blogger lined up to tell of her trip to Opus One!

So, even though the last blog post was written eXACTLy five months ago to the date, I’m ready, willing and able to produce for you.  It’s football season, afterall, and things have started to slow down just a tad.

We spent a week in California recently, so look forward to a mini series about that trip, as we were in Temecula for a wedding, and visited five different wineries.  I also had the chance to taste a varietal I was not familiar with, Nero d’Avola which I look forward to writing about.  I have also had the opportunity to taste some wine from a winery that is doing GREAT things to help some great causes.

So get ready as they will start coming at you, rapid fire.  Until then, as always, you can reach me at drinkwine@generalwinethoughts.com or find me on Twitter as well as Facebook.  I hope you will and thanks for reading!  Until next time, bottoms UP!

 

 

Young Servers at Restaurants Serving Wine

  • Posted on October 20, 2010 at 6:09 pm

by Phil Anderson
This will be my shortest post ever but I REALLY have to write something about this.  My daughter, who is going to college in Southern California, is working at an upper end restaurant.  She loves it and is both happy and excited to have this job.  The people are great, the food is great and the tips are great.  AND she is learning about wine!

One little problem….

She’s not yet 21!  “Why is that a problem”, you ask?  Thank you for asking.  This is why:

The restaurant expects her to know the intimate details of the wine she is serving so that she can answer the questions from her guests.  That is all well and good but, honestly, the same wine can taste completely differently to two different people.  Now she’s supposed to answer as an expert when she hasn’t even TASTED these wines?

I love it that young people are learning about the nuances of wine rather than just drinking to get hammered.  In Europe, it’s common for young people to learn about and enjoy wine at home.  I also find it rather interesting that the alcoholic rate is less in Europe than it is in the United States. 

BUT, I digress…

This particular restaurant is grading my daughter on her knowledge of these wines based on her memorizing the tasting notes given to her and the research she does.  Again, it’s great that there is time and effort put in but most, or even ALL, of her opinions on the wines could change when she turns 21 in three weeks.

She keeps calling me asking me specific questions about wines that they carry but wines that I haven’t yet tried.  Even if I DID try them my common response would be, “I don’t know, what do YOU get from this wine?”

SO, I have questions for you.  Is this common practice in upper end restaurants?  As a guest of a restaurant, is it acceptable to have a server recite, verbatim, what they’ve read about a particular wine?  What do you think is the right way for a server, that is not of the legal drinking age, to learn about wine?  Maybe we could have an industry drinking standard that is different than the general law regarding drinking age for people to learn about wine by TASTING it.  Am I all wrong about this?

To be fair, my daughter has told me she gets to attend a tasting at this restaurant but will have to spit.  PERFECT!  Most people who taste a lot of wine spit anyways!  Why can’t THAT be the norm?

As always, thank you for reading and for letting me vent about this.  And don’t forget to join my fan page on Facebook if you “like” drinking wine or Tweet me up on Twitter!

Until next time, bottoms up!

Alexandria Nicole Cellars Is A Rock Star

  • Posted on September 24, 2010 at 11:05 am

By Phil Anderson
To open up I want to welcome all of the new subscribers to this little wine blog!  It’s been at an average of 1-2 a day for the past 2-3 months that people are signing up!  I’m blown away how many people have signed up and I am very grateful that you want to read more of my scribes enough to sign up.  (I guess I should start writing more!)  So, a BIG thank you to ALL of you! 

Also we have so many more people that seem to like “Drinking Wine” on Facebook.  I’m very much enjoying the interaction with those folks as well.  And, as always, if you want to write to me about anything, including wine, drop me a line at drinkingwine@generalwinethoughts.com. 

Recently I was in Seattle for my cousin’s wedding (sounds like a title of a movie, huh?).  The wedding was held at Salty’s on Alki in West Seattle (beautiful view of Elliott Bay and the city of Seattle) on Friday and there was a barbeque near (the hot new wine town of) Woodinville on Saturday.

I had an hour or two to kill before the barbeque on Saturday so I ventured out to find a bottle of Madeleine Angevine which I cannot, for the life of me, find in North Idaho.  On this particular trip it wasn’t any easier to find in Seattle (I ended up just ordering a couple of bottles directly from the winery!) but I DID happen to find a new little wine shop in the heart of the West Seattle Junction called Bin 41.

I was impressed right as I walked in as one of the owners, Jon, greeted me with a friendly smile.  I walked away with a few bottles (of course) and two of them were from Alexandrea Nicole Cellars which was the last stop on the way back from the Wine Bloggers Conference in Walla Walla a few months ago (can you believe it’s already been three months since the conference?!?)

Jarrod Boyle (R), CEO and winemaker at Alexandria Nicole Cellars and I during a recent visit to their tasting room. I'm holding a bottle of their 2007 Jet Black Syrah.

What I’ve noticed in the wine industry is that most everyone is so very friendly.  Jarrod Boyle, the founder, CEO and winemaker at Alexandria Nicole, is no exception.  He welcomed in our group with open arms.  We tasted almost everything that was available in their tasting room and then he slid back a bookshelf, which was really a secret door, to reveal a special room for their wine club members.  After a few more tastes we were ushered into yet another room for an exquisite lunch with even more wine.

Alexandria Nicole Cellars is named after Jarrods wife, Ali, who also joined us for lunch that day.  A true family affair wrapped in grace and quality!  Before we left, Jarrod offered each of us a bottle of our choice to bring back home.  I chose the 2007 Rock Star Red which is a very exclusive wine comprised of 50% Grenache, 44% Syrah and 6% Counoise.

The name comes from three people who contribute in putting this blend together, who happen to all be rock stars in their industry:
Jeffrey Dorgan has been the Sommelier at the Space Needle in Seattle for 19 years;
Dan McCarthy has been a partner at Seattle’s McCarthy and Schiering Wine Merchants for 25 years;
Eric Degerman is the managing editor, wine judge and restaurant writer for Wine Press Northwest.

Although young and tight, this wine already packs a punch with pepper on the nose along with some raspberries.  It has a long finish with just a little bite on the end.  The tannins suggest you could lay this wine down and not be heartbroken when it is finally opened, which is exactly what we’re doing!

So back to the two wines I bought from Bin 41 in West Seattle.  We didn’t waste any time in tasting these two wines from Alexandria Nicole.  We started out with their 2008 Sauvignon Blanc.  If you’re expecting a grapefruit and grassy Sauvignon Blanc like you’d find from New Zealand or Australia you’d be disappointed.  This is a Washington Sauvignon Blanc all the way around.  Very minerally and terrior driven with no oak to be found and tastes of melon.  Outstanding mouth feel.

We finished that bottle just in time to open their 2007 Jet Black Syrah to go with our steaks.  WOW!  Unbelievably wonderful nose with tar and pepper and a huge dark fruit presence.  The color is so dark, almost inky.  The finish fell off prematurely but, other than that, it paired perfectly with our steaks.  I would recommend both of these wines!

If you ever have a chance, stop by Alexandria Nicole Cellars and taste their juice.  You won’t be disappointed and maybe they’ll even let you in behind the hidden door!  Or not….it never hurts to ask!

Thank you again for reading and, as always, bottoms up!

1 For 2 in predicting winners, 2 For 2 in wine choices

  • Posted on January 18, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Ok, ok, so I went for a grand slam and only got a stand up triple. My prediction for both underdogs to win went South but Arizona kept my credibility from crumbling like a house of cards. As for the Super Bowl, well I have just under a couple of weeks to come up with my last football (and only second this year) prediction. But I can pretty much say that it won’t be the Steelers. Bleh!

So I got half my game predictions right but we went two for two with our wines. My lovely daughter is still on holiday break from college and she and her boyfriend stopped over before heading back to college tomorrow. We opened a 2007 Latah Creek Semillon from Washington States Spokane Valley. Shelley noted vanilla notes in the nose and we enjoyed this “off the beaten path” white wine.

When the lasagna came out of the oven the last bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau came out of the pantry. We opened the first bottle of this wine at Thanksgiving this past year, right after it was released. Drinking a 2008 vintage in 2008 is interesting. Of course, this is very young, but it’s always special and went with the lasagna perfectly.

So this wine blog thing seems to be off and running with four posts in the books. I appreciate you popping by and reading what’s going on in our little world of enjoying wine and giving my “General Wine Thoughts”.

‘Til next time…

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