Hold Your Sipping Horses

Through trial and error these last few weeks we have come up with a system for tasting our wine. We don't just crack open the bottle and gulp it down... At least we aren't supposed to. The Smeals like to prematurely sip their wine when they think no one is looking, but usually it goes something like this. After everyone is ready, the initial chit-chat is out of the way, and the wine breathes as necessary we begin. Melissa, as the designated person of the group, asks us what we see in the wine (yes we do really follow the 5ish Ss of wine tasting) and she dutiflily writes diwn our winy thoughts as we go along. Then we smell the wine and discuss which notes we notice. We swirl and resmell as needed (Sherry and Brit at this point usually prematurely sip their wine before everyone else. I can't decide if it's because they just love wine that much or they really want to be first.). Finally, when we all declare that we are ready, we sip the wine together. As we sip and savor Melissa writes down our thoughts on the wine. We note what we taste as Melissa gives us taste options from her book. We score the wine based on a five star system but Brit has his own wine scale based on four stars which will hopefully be posted sometime soon.

Brit Scale

Hello all! I would like to share Brit's Drinkability Scale with you. Please feel free to editorialize to make it better!  The scale is a simple 1-4 - no middle ground for those who can't make a firm decision!

1 = NEVER DRINK OR BUY AGAIN!
2 = Underachiever - not pleasant to sip alone but salvagable with the right food pairing
3 = Tasty! Enjoyable to sip, significantly improved with the right food pairing
4 = Superior culinary event in every way!

I fortunately have had only one '1' that I can recall, that was last week, unfortunately. The vintage was French, so there goes that stereotype... a 2005 Superior Bordeaux which shall remain nameless (I lost my notes on that one).  I suspect a defective cork, actually.

Recently I have enjoyed two "4's", though I have to admit I usually limit myself to under $20 and my tastes are not very refined.  Nonetheless, I found a nice Spanish red wine, Peter Lehmann of the Barossa "Layers", 2009.  Very complicated, noticable berry fruit, medium purple color and legs. Perhaps a borderline 4 but worth trying, great deal for under $15. The other was French, 2010 Chateau Belleview Cholet.  I won't give it away, let me simply recommend it and see what you think!

Cheers!

A Taste of Italy: Rosso Piceno

February 15th was another week of firsts for Virtual Vino. Our wine tasting spread across five states instead of our normal three.  Robin was visiting her parents in Pennsylvania and Melissa was in Virginia visiting her boyfriend.  So now our state count in one Skype session is up to five: Texas, Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.  Also, for the first time, we had someone listen into the tasting on speaker phone. Robin had got stuck in really bad traffic, so she was behind schedule and was unable to make the normal tasting time. So while her son did the driving, Robin watched the Pennsylvania countryside speed by and listened to the rest of us taste the week's wine selection; what a trooper!  The last "first" was that we were able to use premium Skype (courtesy of Robin) and video chat with everyone.  Melissa used Robin's account in order to get the tasting going (because the premium account must host the call) which led to quite the game of Skype musical chairs when Robin finally arrived at her parents house.

One more note before the actual tasting. Brit was unable to get the same wine that the rest of us had, so he tasted an Italian Perolla, which is a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Sangiovese.

Now, to the tasting. We tasted a Rosso Piceno made by Saladini Pilastri from the Piedmont region of Italy.  It is made of an organic blend of grapes including Montepulciano and Sangiovese (don't worry, we can't pronounce them either; just say it with confidence and people who don't know Italian will think you're saying it right).  The vintage was varied; Robin and Melissa had a 2010, Sherry and Erin had a 2011. 

Appearance - light legs (wine "legs" are the streaks of wine that slowly stream down the glass after you swirl), very dark purple-red color, the wine was so dark that it looked dense;

Nose - Very fruity (plum, dark cherry), oaky, a little bit of almond

Taste - dark cherry and blackberry, medium bodied, peppery-aftertaste on the back of the tongue, oak, off-dry, a little bite in the middle of the tongue. "Mouthfeel" - Egyptian cotton (identification courtesy of Brit)

Overall Rating - out of 5 stars
Erin: 2 (too dry)
Sherry: 3+ (somewhere between 3 and 4)
Melissa: 4 stars (at least as good as the Malbec from 2 weeks ago)
Brit: 3 (Remember, he had a different wine and is using the "Brit Scale" which will be posted soon)
Robin: 2 Pairings - Due to the Italianness of the wine, the Swartzwelders had spaghetti and meatballs just prior to the tasting and had dark chocolate after the initial tasting of the Rosso. We thought that the chocolate enhanced the berry taste of the wine.

Tasting Gerd Anselmann

On Friday, February 8th virtual vino history was made.  Three families gathered around their computers and Skyped while tasting the same wine for the very first time.  We discovered many interesting things.  Including that Skype three way calling is only meant for platinum users and that Brit has his own tasting scale (which we hope he will post later).

We tasted a Riesling-Spätlese (Spätlese literally means "late harvest"), from the Pfalz region of Germany. The vintage (for us) was 2009.  The bottle recommended pairing the wine with spicy, sweet, or sour food (basically anything except salty stuff lol).

The Hogans tasted it with a smoked gouda cheese which made the texture of the wine smoother. They also tried it with a dark chocolate, but didn't think the wine was sweet enough to hold up to the sweetness of the chocolate. The Swartzwelders paired their wine with Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate and we thought it enhanced the cinnamon taste of the wine.

Appearance - ginger ale or honey colored. Light

Nose - sweet and very fruity

Taste - apple, pear, apricot, cinnamon, medium body. "Mouthfeel" - woolly

Overall Ratings (out of 5 stars):
Sherry - 3 stars
Erin - 4 stars
Sean - 0 stars
Brit - 3-4 stars
Melissa - 3.5 stars
Robin - 3 stars
Gerry - 3.5 stars

Coming Together Across the Miles - Our Story

Mission – To have a wine tasting once a week; sounds easy right? But this weekly wine tasting is between siblings and their families who live in three different states; New Jersey, Florida, and Texas. 

How to complete the mission: Enter the miracle of the internet. Courtesy of skype, these three siblings (plus spouses and children) have discovered the joys of virtual wine tastings.  Each week someone picks a wine and then sends the wine information (name, type, vintage, etc.) to everyone else. We then gather around our computers with wine glasses in hand.  Though we’re thousands of miles apart, we can exchange ideas about bouquet, appearance, taste and pairing, but really it’s just an excuse to enjoy good wine and even better company. 

How did the mission start? It started simply, with Brit and me talking about our enjoyment of wine and viola, the idea was born.  It now includes my family, Brit's family and Sherry's family. Some of us are more serious, some of us are just there to heckle the group and make "the wine face." Regardless of motives, we are all there to find a way to cross the miles and bring our families closer together.  In the pursuit of careers and earning a living, we now find ourselves spread out all over the country like so many American families.   Sherry and her family live in Florida, Robin’s family lives in New Jersey, and Brit’s family is in Texas. Posts will be made by any one of us to share our experiences and maybe some pairings or recipes - Melissa and I are also fans of cooking with wine.

Disclaimer – we are not wine experts. We are amateur wine lovers who are trying to learn more about wine and our family.  You need no wine knowledge to read this blog, just a willingness to try anything once. 

Where this will go is anyone’s guess. The world is filled with great wine and we aim to discover and explore as much of it as we can. Despite the fact that we are separated by state lines, time zones, and climate, Virtual Vino is one easy and enjoyable way to keep the family together.

Sherry's 2/15 Vino Selection

Rosso Piceno the 2011 Saladini Pilastri will be my selection for our virtual tasting next Friday. 

The tasting notes are a very intense ruby colour with slight grainy tones.  Rich and persistent nose with a sophisticated berry-sented bouquet revealing hint of almond extract, mint, and earth.  Fresh and fruity palate that is well-structured with soft tannins, mellowed in French oak. 

It's made with organic grapes and is a product of Italy and can be found in the Italian section of Total Wine. 

Since it's an Italian wine the Swartzwelders will be having some Italian food with our wine, maybe even pizza.

Sherry Swartzwelder