If you are going to drink THIS KIND
of wine then why not have “camp food”.
Bannock with sausage and dirty eggs.
My bannock mix has baking powder
in it and I will cook it on a
covered cast iron griddle.
This wine is good at lowering my
“cost per bottle” and is a
“reasonable facsimile” for PN wine
in general.
This was my first attempt at
bannock.
Even with the baking powder it
was “filling”.
Less fluffy than, but similar to
biscuits.
The wine reminds me of the
smell of balloons.
Maybe this was a poorly
inspired “wine pairing”.
I’m picking up a bit of the
“cherry cola” in this one.
That’s nice, but the overall
feel is that of “softness”.
Too soft for me.
Maybe a bit of cinnamon.
Who cares?
This is a “hugely generic”
wine, so the important question
is whether it is a “palatable
cost per bottle reducing
agent”.
It’s on the borderline in
terms of palatability.
Dear Cupcake,
Please excuse my meanness,
I’m just having a
“day of disorientation” and
YOUR WINE ISN’T HELPING
ONE BIT.
Sincerely,
OTWN
“RETAIL” could be rescued
out the jaws of AMAZON simply
by having this wine freely
ON TAP in the center of the
mall or store.
Wife: Oh darn, I have to go
to Walmart to get some
.
Hubby: I’ll go.
W: Huh?
H: I need to look for
string trimmer line.
W: What kind of wine
is on tap today?
H: Cupcake PN 2015.
W: You’ve got 15 minutes.
H: Hand me that last
piece of bannock.
W: Here you go dear, but
let me wipe the egg off
your face before you go.
<15 minutes elapses>
W: See anything interesting
at Wally Mart?
H: Not really. Just the
usual…
The wine bottle made
me do it…
Day Two…
I’m not letting FOOD get
in my way today.
Let’s track test this
puppy without any
competition.
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.
The problem is that there are TOO MANY wines to be on the
lookout for.
Due to the bottle construction, I can’t tell how much I’m
drinking without a 1,000,000+ candlepower spotlight, so I am
resolved to DRINK THE WHOLE BOTTLE in one sitting.
I COULD ask for MORE of EVERYTHING in a PN wine, but
this wine makes a compelling case for oenological asceticism.
(Apparently it has NEVER occurred to ANYBODY that this
is even a “concept”.)
When the mind is a gentle stream of clear and pure
flowing waters, the slightest hint of flavor or aroma
can alter the tranquility balance and initiate endless
daydreaming.
On the other hand, most of us are addlepated and require
Napa CABs (or such) to “align” with our
schizophrenic sensibilities.
I’m not prejudiced against CS. I just don’t like it unless
it’s hiding in an uncorked fine Bordeaux wine bottle.
THE PN PERFUME. Where does it come from? Why can’t I
enjoy it EVERY day.
I’ll start singing (or something) in a minute…
The wine is gone and the forecast this afternoon
is for rain.
I guess I can just RELAX…
Gee, you can take your pick as to which “moody”
song suits your fancy.
I can’t decide which is worse…
Perhaps a deep breath will help. (How EXACTLY
does that help whatever it’s supposed to help?)
Patient: Doctor, I have a tendency to breathe
in a shallow fashion.
Doctor: Take deep breaths.
Patient: Will that REALLY help?
Doctor: The receptionist will help you make
an appointment with the shrink.
And eschew the semi-automatic dispensers after lunch.
I’m going to try to avoid opaque bottles
in the future.
I’m going to guess that there was a “rough” oak treatment.
(Squirm.)
Let’s consult the WWW…
Amazing. I can’t find ANYTHING. The Ayres site doesn’t
even claim this one.
I wish I had a marketing department to sell them.
On the other hand, maybe their wine sells itself.
Manager: When will the wine be ready?
Winemaker (her makeup cracking as she smiles): We’re bottling it today.
M: Great, I’ll call the distributors so we can get some sales rolling.
W: Say what? My fashion consultant already bought the entire vintage.
M: Did we make any money on the deal?
W: Who’s WE, blondie. And tell that flyover dude to stop snooping around
MY winery.
Apparently this wine is SO GOOD that you can use it to
loosen compacted soil or as a blood substitute in the opening
scene of Blade.
Surprised?
Why are wine reviews so BORING?
Maybe I should hire out to AA.
Reporter: It looks like you’ve been sober for two weeks.
Wino: That’s right.
R: What happened.
W: I read one of HIS reviews.
Or how about a description of the “IMAGINED oaking” technique?
The old French oak barrels are disassembled and the staves are
planed down to reveal “fresher” wood.
3/8 inch holes are drilled in the wood, 2 inches apart,
to a depth of 1/4 inch and a 1 inch segment of grape vine
is inserted into the hole and secured by a drop of pine resin.
This is done in the spring to give the resin time to harden.
The barrels are re-assembled at harvest time.
After initial fermentation, the wine is poured into the modified
barrels which are spun/rotated at a rate of 120 RPM.
The time in spinning barrel can be from three to six months
depending upon which sin the wine has committed.
Careful filtration must be done in order to remove the loosened
grape vine segments and rosin. (This is prescient if I do say
so myself because I wrote this way before I got to the bottom
of the bottle.)
After use, barrels modified in this fashion are donated to
hair transplant victims as a needed tax write-off for the winery.
The result will be a wine that lulls you to sleep and
makes YOUR head spin.
I wouldn’t SWEAR that THEY used THIS technique, but they did
SOMETHING to make the wine REALLY GOOD.
This is getting too easy.
I need to branch out. Tibetan Malbec comes to mind.
And JUST MAYBE, this “rough oak treatment” is what it takes
to bring out the tannins I THOUGHT I was looking for in PN.
It tames some of that acidity. It’s all in the balance.
SMOOTH, ACIDY, NOT-TOO-OAKY TANNINS. Why is that so hard?
PN may be the only (or most popular) grape that presents
this challenge to the Elvira-and-kit-shicker-wine-making wannabes.
I DON’T KNOW.
Dreamtime is over. I get to have some of this one
for brunch tomorrow.
(The songs make more sense of you imagine that
all those little round things are fermenting grapes.)
————————————-
Day Two…
I didn’t save ENOUGH of this one.
I’m having MORE of the STALKY GREEN STUFF for
brunch.
All I can say is…
There’s SOMETHING about this wine.
It’s beauty is “singular” and edgy.
It’s rough and seductive.
I’m imagining an Oregon PN “shootout”.
Winemakers instead of quick draw artists. Bottles
instead of guns.
Hopefully, this bottle-slinger wasn’t a good winemaker…
I KNEW IT!!!
The last pour produced the most “compelling” bunch
of sludge that I can possibly imagine in a PN.
NOW I know what I’m looking for.
Wine Merchant: How can I help you?
Wine Slush: I want Pinot Noir.
WM: We have this wonderful wine from the “Central Valley”.
WS: No.
WM: Perhaps something MORE fruity?
WS: No.
WM: How about something rich and full-bodied?
WS: No.
WM: We have an oaky one from Mozambique.
WS: No.
WM: What exactly DO you want?
WS: Sludge. I want sludge.
WM: In a PN?
WS: Oh yeah.
But the bad news seems to be that only the Canadians like perfection
at a ridiculously low price… Chevalier De Dyonis Pinot Noir
And while I’m flitting around the globe incoherently, SOMEONE
from Oregon/Borgogne/Barolo should go to Georgia (the country) with the sole
purpose of teaching them how to make delicious DRY wines that the
inhabitants of the rest of the planet might enjoy with their Big Macs and
frozen pizzas.
A few years ago, I found the Chevalier De Dyonis PN at Lukas. Missouri I presume.
One of the most stunningly pale wines that I have ever “tasted”.
I loved it so much that I saved the bottle to be used as a container
for “vinegar production” from the leftovers of more “flavorful/sludgy” reds.
The fact that the Foris PN is “evoking” these thoughts is a testament
to how well aligned this wine is to my “psyche”.
It appears that this is my first attempt at Foris.
I wouldn’t want to miss another chance of enjoying this one any
more that I would would want to start another day without being able
to go to Indian Lake (the way the Indians do)…
I had to take a break because the Jehovah’s Witness
folks showed up “unexpectedly”.
They weren’t wearing go-go boots and didn’t have any Romanian wine
worth drinking either. Actually they didn’t have ANY wine.
Hmmm. No wonder they pray a lot.
The good news is that it does not seem to obliterate
the acidity that I love.
I may be getting to the point where I can detect the balance/difference
between acidity and tannins. I certainly look hard enough.
But…
Oh no, You Too?
We can start our search for the perfect PN with all those
wines on the Averaen page. Sheesh.
One of us should get a KS or MO liquor distributorship
license and import those wines. The other should
open a retail wine store named “No RiffRaff”.
Or just let Michelle Vianello handle it.
Does Lukas handle their Drouhin PNs?
That might be a good treat if the style fits.
There’s just a bit of “greenness” in THIS wine.
I can’t place it.
I cheated and read the description on the website.
No PARTICULAR help. Looks like a “kitchen sink”
description to me. EVEN I was thinking mint, but
that is too obvious. Let’s come up with something
distinctive.
Just a minute…
This is a first. I just poured some wine into
the ice bib WITHOUT the stemless glass being in there.
No harm. Little mess on the table top and I’m amused.
It smells good in here now.
So, I declare the “greenness” to be crushed spring-
fresh Lamb’s Ear leaves. I’m snorting some right now.
There’s a musky/herbiness to it and the “mint” character is
subdued.
What kind of leaves do you like to snort when you drink
fine wine?
Amazing.
And JUST MAYBE, as I lick the last few drops off my desk,
I can taste those exotic oak barrels.
Day Two…
I finished this off with the Adam/Lesley pulled pork.
This is particularly interesting to me because the
remedy for TCA goofiness is a screwcap.
I actually get giddy when the wine I pull out of
the cooler has a screwcap because I expect it
WON’T BE JACKED.
So, if we take the path of least resistance, and assume
that I’m tasting TCA, then there has to be an
“always present” continuum of the culprit in Oregon PN
such that it only “sometimes” causes most peeps
to notice while it “most of the time” causes me to
notice to one degree or another, without negatively
affecting my overall enjoyment of the wine.
I’ve only had one Oregon PN where it was unbearable.
(Seaglass)
I’ve cleared the shoulder on this big fat bottle and I
think the distraction is gone.
I’m picking up some of the oak, and that is particularly
“interesting”.
The ML softening puts the acidity at bay I guess, so
I imagine that my tastes require a really high acidity
(and low ALC) going into that process such that the
acidity is not obliterated.
This is a “high” ALC (13.8%) wine so I expect it to be too
soft.
It’s SOFT ENOUGH.
Either I’m in left field or I’m getting a handle on things.
I don’t know.
All of this intellectual tail-chasing doesn’t mean that
I’m not enjoying the wine.
The wine is GOOD. It’s just more interesting.
And getting more “intense” in the fruit department as I sip.
It just takes me forever to lock in.
Day Two…
I’m not going to eat today.
I’ll just listen to this and finish my FREAKING DELICIOUS
WINE…
Option Trader's Wine Notes 