An Insider’s Guide to Wine Bars

Erin McGrath has a cool post up on Palate Press with some great wine bar guidelines.  Erin has her own blog called Vintwined that focuses on some California wines.  As someone who is still pretty new to the wine world, I can definitely remember struggling with some of the confusion that she mentions in trying to describe what I like to someone when ordering wine.

One big faux-pas that many customers commit is misusing descriptors when communicating the types of wine they prefer. Here’s a quick low-down on three commonly butchered terms:

Dry. As in: “I usually like red wine, but nothing too dry [grimaces while holding throat].” Of course I understand what this person means, but I almost always ask follow-up questions, not only to make sure, but also to help him/her understand the word “dry” when it comes to wine. “Dry” means a lack of sweetness—not that mouth-puckering, cotton-tongue feeling. “Tannic” is the word you’re looking for, as in ”I usually like red wine, but nothing too tannic.” Bingo, grasshopper—now I know what to suggest.

Sweet. Unless you’re talking about a dessert or late-harvest wine, a port—or, heck, Riunite—you’re likely misusing the term “sweet” as a descriptive word for fruity. A fruity wine is often mistaken for sweet due to its fruit-forwardness or, in the case of many Zinfandels or Shirazes, a “jammy” quality. When a customer requests a “sweet” red wine, I clarify and ask them what types of red wines they drink. More often than not, it’s Zinfandel, or younger California Cabernet.

Crisp/Acidic. Ah, my favorite: “How about a bright, crisp Sauvignon Blanc! But not acidic.” What? ”Crisp” denotes an evident level of acidity in a wine, so fulfilling this customer’s request is nearly impossible from the get-go. There are certainly white wines that are too acidic, mostly because they’re poorly balanced or really cheap plonk. Bearing that in mind, however,  a well-made Sauvignon Blanc will have some acidity, making it “crisp” (or tart or tangy or refreshing or another acidity-denoting term). If some wines give you acid reflux, I’d suggest switching to a softer style of white, maybe a Viognier or Chenin Blanc. Or put an ice cube in it. If you must.

Where I live there is really only one wine bar that I am aware of.  There might be more, but I have never been to any of them.  La Diosa Wine Cellars is owned by the same people who own McPherson Cellars Winery, one of the better West Texas wineries.  The atmosphere is really great there, and they have a decent selection of wines, although they are mainly regional wines.  I have mixed feelings about this, since I am all about buying local.  You generally hear the disclaimer “for a Texas wine” tacked onto the end of any evaluation of Texas wines, so it would be nice to have a little more variety.

I think that it is really important for a good wine bar to have staff who know to ask these kinds of questions to help newbie wine drinkers select wines.  I can remember being very overwhelmed and frustrated trying to pick a wine, and I seldom really felt like the staff at restaurants and wine bars were very helpful in helping me out.  I received some truly puzzling recommendations, and in hindsight I think this was due to me not communicating what I liked properly, and the staff not asking the right questions to point me in the right direction.  With a little help I probably would have gotten into wine earlier, and that would have been good for me and for my local wine bar.

2008 Becker Vineyards Riesling (with Pad Tai)

I’ve been trying to play around with food and wine pairings recently.  Most of my early attempts have been pretty obvious ones.  When my brother-in-law told me that he wanted to try some Tai food, I thought that this definitely required the purchase of a bottle of wine.  I decided that I would try a Riesling, which is probably among the more obvious choices for pairing with Tai food.  I had narrowed down my choices to a Riesling or a Viognier.  My local grocery store had somewhat limited choices in Rieslings, so I probably should have gone the Viognier route.

I didn’t really go into the store with a very solid plan, and ended up grabbing a Texas Riesling, by Becker Vineyards.  I have generally found Becker to be pretty strong for a Texas wine, but I really don’t think this was one of their stronger efforts.

I purchased a bottle of the 2008 Becker Riesling.  I am still working on developing my love of white wines in general.  I have a lot more experience with reds than whites, so I’m still trying to develop my palette for them.  I have had a handful of Rieslings, and have found most of the ones that I have had to be too sweet for my palette.  In this case, I was looking for something sweeter to go with my spicy food.

The nose on this wine was really difficult for me to feel out.  I got a little bit of peach, and some pear.  I wasn’t really getting much on the nose, to be honest.  My wife said that she got a hint of licorice or anise, which I didn’t get at all.  On the mouth I didn’t get much more of interest.  I felt like the flavor was really syrupy an had almost no acidity.  You know that syrup at the bottom of the can of pears?  Yeah, that’s what this tasted like.  Maybe a little apple and peach, but mainly pear syrup.

I was really disappointed with the complexity, or lack thereof, of this wine.  I think that even at $9 a bottle this wine is a pass.  I just really couldn’t find anything especially compelling about it.  I think that there are likely better Rieslings in this price range.  I would probably rate this a 79.  I think next time I have Tai food and feel compelled to try a Texas wine, I will go with the Viognier.

2008 Root: 1 Cabernet Sauvignon

Those of us on a limited budget are always on the lookout for an inexpensive wine that is enjoyable to drink.  After having watched an episode of Wine Library TV where Gary Vaynerchuck reviewed a 2007 Root:1, I decided that I wanted to give this wine a try.  My wife found a bottle of the Root:1 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon at a local grocery store.  This wine goes for around $10, which is a price tag that puts it well within the range of affordability.  It is always a little unpredictable just how drinkable a $10-12 bottle of wine will be, but I was pretty happy with this one.

Starting with the nose, I got a lot of Rolling Stones action, heavy brown sugar.  There was also a really strong floral component and some blackberry.  My mother-in-law, who is visiting right now, makes a wicked blackberry pie.  That’s what this nose reminded me of.  I also got a little bit of grapefruit.  The flavor of this wine was very jammy, with a lot of black fruit.  This is most definitely a very fruit forward wine, with blackberry, some cherry, and black currant flavor.  There is also just a touch of green pepper flavor on the finish of this wine.

I think that this wine is a great value in the $10-12 range.  I don’t think that I would describe it as amazing, but it is a good wine, and worth the price tag.  I would probably rate this one about an 88.  I will definitely be purchasing more of this wine in the future.

2008 Alamos Malbec

I was at La Diosa Cellars, a local wine bar, several months ago and my friend ordered a bottle of the Becker Vineyards Malbec Reserve.  Being the wine novice that I was, I had never had a Malbec.  My friend offered me a taste, which I accepted (who was I to refuse?)  I was floored.  The taste of this wine wasn’t like anything that I had tried before.  In fact, my first Malbec experience played a large role in my becoming more interested in wine.  If a red wine could be this much different than what I was used to, who knows what other kinds of flavors I was missing?

Malbec grapes are one of the 5 red varieties that appear in French Bordeaux wine, but the Mabec varietal has largely become associated with Argentina.  Since my Malbec deflowering, I have had several different labels.  One common element that stood out from the first time I had one was the leathery or meaty component.  One of the wines that I tried tasted a bit like it had run the Kentucky Derby the day before, but I mean that in a good way.

Now that we have that little history lesson out of the way, we can move on and talk about the Alamos 2008 Malbec.  A bottle of this wine from Argentina cost me a mere $9.99 at a local adult beverage supplier.  This wine had a very dark, inky purple color to it.  The nose gave me some really great dark fruit aromas, especially black berry, as well as a good hint of a floral smell.  The taste of this wine definitely had some of the earthy characteristics that I’ve found in other Malbecs that I’ve tasted, including a touch of leather.  The dark fruit continued into the flavor of the wine, and I got a little bit of a chocolate taste.  One of the things that I really loved about this wine was the finish.  It was a very long lasting finish that just seemed to go on forever, and was very pleasant.  The finish was a great mixture of the fruit flavors that I got before, and a meaty flavor, which my wife identified as bacon.  When my wife said that she tasted bacon, I thought about it and said, “Holy crap, you’re right.  That’s freaking bacon!”  I’m still new enough to seriously thinking about my wine that these kind of moments are probably far more exciting than they should be.

We drank this wine with desert, which was probably an interesting choice.  I kinda liked the way the earthy wine tasted with something sweet, but I think this would probably be a great wine for some meaty dinner, or maybe some pasta.

All in all, I think this was a really great $9-10 wine, especially if you are already a fan of Malbecs.  Not that I would entirely trust my ability to rate a wine, but I would probably rate this one about 88-89.  Definitely worth the relatively small price tag.

I’m no expert, but here goes…

This blog is somewhat like an ADD puppy, joyously sprinting around this way and that, smelling everything in sight.  The puppy doesn’t really know where he’s going, but he’s having a good time taking it all in.

I’ve been drinking wine extremely casually for quite some time now.  My knowledge about wine was limited to what you can learn from the movie Sideways.  That’s why, until recently, I just knew that I had to hate Merlot and have an undying love of Pinot Noir.  Don’t get me wrong, I do like Pinot, but I’ve found that I actually don’t mind a little Merlot now and then either.

A while back a friend of mine introduced me to Gary Vaynerchuck and his Wine Library TV podcast.  I started watching and became really interested in expanding my palette and trying out some different things.  I decided that it was about time that I try something besides Pinot and Shiraz.  Shortly after that my wife and I visited my father-in-law in Kennewick, Washington, which is right in the middle of the Washington state wine country.  I had the opportunity to visit several wineries and learn more about the process of wine-making.  Right away I was hooked.  I got my first wine tasting experience, which included some great Merlot.  All of the enthusiasm that had been building up prior to that trip exploded into a genuine passion that I have been gently nurturing ever since.  I am still very green, but I thought that this blog would be a great way to chronicle my growth in wine.  I plan to blog about every last wine that I drink.  I hope that over time my palette will become more refined, but for now you can get the perspective of someone who just loves good wine.  You will also have the added benefit of the input that I get from my beloved wife, who seems to have a much more talented natural palette than I do.

Drink up, and enjoy!