At least I got the French
part right and half the
barrels were “older”.
If you watch the video,
you will see where some of
the grapes come from an
inland/warmer area and
“contribute” to the
richer/fuller/darker
nature of the wine.
That manifests as “pruney”
on my tongue.
Pruney may have a negative
connotation but that is
not the intent here.
The intent is to contrast
the flavor of a fresh plum
with a dried one.
I don’t know that saying
“dried cherry” brings the
same idea to mind.
PN can get pruney.
If they get “too pruney”
then I have a hard time
enjoying the wine.
To avoid pruney, I look
for growing areas that
have lower amounts of
sunshine and/or colder temps.
Don’t let those PN grapes
grow TOO well or get TOO ripe,
or you’ll get prune juice.
This wine is just fine.
Instead of dancing cherries,
we have mellow cherries
laying on the beach,
tanning under a late spring sun.
That’s hard for ME to resist.
Another plus for this wine is the tannins.
(The baggage of oak is tannins
and each can/should be detected
and evaluated separately.)
The producer calls the tannins
soft and velvety.
Whatever.
Tannins are like metal files.
Some are raspy and some are
fine toothed, but I would never
call a metal file soft and velvety
unless I had been an
ex-marketing director for Mel Torme.
Sooooo…
The tannins are fine enough
to allow you to enjoy the wine
SLOWLY without causing more than
short term damage to you tongue,
vocal chords, and esophagus.
OOPS. Where’s my marketing director?
He’s laid out on the beach with an empty
bottle of JG SB PN marked “1/12”.
Quick, somebody grab the key
to his wine locker.
Day Two…
This is another one that
seems a bit more jammy/syrupy
on the second day.
The second best thing about drinking
a bottle of wine over two days
is that on the second day you have
“proper expectations” and can enjoy
it EVEN MORE than you did on the first
day.
This wine stays on my FAVs list,
primarily because it increases the
range of lushness that I enjoy in
a PN to the MORE side.
I like to be caressed by a PN,
not bludgeoned to death.
Desensitization is the approach
I’m taking to “a fuller enjoyment
of wine”, but at this point it
doesn’t take much to send me
scurrying back to rosé.
I can hold my ground with this one
and gird up my loins for something
even MORE challenging.
If you are keeping score,
you will note that there are
no words beginning with “acid”
herein. Yet.
Oops.
I have this “vague idea” that
acidity is THE THING that allows
me to enjoy PN above all other
RED wines.
This wine HAS PLENTY. Not offending,
not excessive, just lots of it and
that keeps the “lushness” at bay.
I’m so cloud-enveloped at this point
that only Rammy can help.
Sound familiar?
Erst wenn die Wolken schlafen gehen
Kann man uns am Himmel sehen
I’m not done yet…
A stroll into the weeds reveals
that this wine has a bit of
“greenness” to it which COULD BE
described as “leafy”.
Not surprising if those “inland”
grapes have anything to say about it.
It took me a long time to pick this
up so it is both “not noticeable”
and “not distracting” depending upon
your “sensitivity”.
The last few sips were fun because
they held the greatest concentration
of “flavor” that the oak had to offer.
OK, the sprouts are “down sauteing”;
it won’t be long.
I’m doin’ the “Cast Iron Genuflect”
as I wait.
HE LIKES IT!!!
And the wine is still hanging in there.
Slurpy good.
Day Two…
I’m looking forward to a few more
sips of this one.
Leading off is mild cheddar with
oven fries on deck.
I think I have some shredded hard
Italian cheese to put on the fries.
The Gewürztraminer stands out or at
least I can “detect” it.
This would be a good “training wine”
for G.
And I’m always game for a Somerset
Ridge Traminette.
(OK, I’m lost. I can find find a
good description of a farm-to-market
road on the Texas DOT site, but I
can’t find a description of Traminette
on the Somerset Ridge site.)
((Texas, being quite coy, doesn’t
specify that their FtM roads are paved
with Traminette seeds and the Kansas
wine growers get a cut of the “road use
taxes”.))
D: Let’s put a descriptive article
about our Traminette on the web site.
C: We can’t.
D: Huh?
C: Our contract with TxDOT precludes it.
D: Why?
C: They already have enough roads and
it’s a perpetual contract. They are
thinking about building financial
institutions with the excess seeds.
And while we’re daydreaming about the
German wines, it occurs to me that
MAYBE I should relax my “dry only”
standard and dip into the Spätlese bin
to see if I can come up with one that
has “just the right amount” of sweetness
for me.
Now I’m imagining a “stay inebriated”
string trimmer’s vest or backpack
for the blisteringly hot days to come…
Features:
6 x 750ml bottle pockets.
Two at the rib cage, four on the back.
Triple insulated for dry ice or
liquid nitrogen use.
Secure cork screw pocket.
User selectable list of target vegetation.
Non-target vegetation destruction
alarm system that is armed after
30% fluid depletion.
There are no weeds in this wine.
Only that “tropical fruit” that
the producer blatantly alludes
to (oxymoronically?).
Wines this easy drinking and delicious
are plentifully rare.
The taters are gone and were followed
with the last tiny sip of wine.
The wine-enjoyment/
food-preparation-complexity
ratio is off the charts today.
If you are new to the program,
that is the dual objective.
Enjoy wine to the fullest and
waste as little time as possible
“conjuring” food.
(Upwardly, if necessary.)
Some food, apparently, simply GROWS.
Let’s take advantage of that
and focus our energy on the
numerator.
I get worn our after a good
uncorking ceremony.
And since the horse appears to be
still gasping for breath, let me
point out that the numerator “noun”
is enjoyment, not quality; and the
demoninator noun is complexity,
not enjoyability.
The food HAS TO BE enjoyable,
and the wine MAY OR NOT BE complex.
Got it?
Option Trader's Wine Notes 