Wine

The wine videos that sum up WINE LIBRARY TV. Instant classic-Episode #125

Wine Blogger Makes Choosing a Bottle Palatable


Gary Vaynerchuk, director of operations for Wine Library TV, assembles an affordable case of wine for Weekend Edition.

Taste-Testing Your Palate

Gary Vaynerchuk assembled a case of wine for Weekend Edition. Here's what he chose, starting with six whites, followed by six reds:

* Fantinel Tesis Pinot Grigio 2005, $9.99
* Sunday Mountain Sauvignon Blanc 2005, $7.99
* Neudorf Sauvignon Blanc Nelson 2005, $14.99
* La-chablisienne Chablis Vieilles Vignes 2004, $18.98
* Sharpshooter Chardonnay Edna 2005, $16.99
* Langwerth Von Simmern Erbacher Marcobrunn Riesling Spatlese 2003, $24.99
* Vigna Vecchia Chianti Classico 2004, $16.99
* Hartig Family Estate Napa Cabernet Sauvignon 2004, $17.99
* Waca Cabernet Sauvignon 2004, $11.99
* Chateau Valrose Cuvee Alienor 2002, $19.99
* Ehlers Estate Napa Merlot 2003, $21.99
* Step Road Shiraz Langhorne Creek 2005, $13.99




April 28, 2007 · Gary Vaynerchuk wants to change the way people think about wine.

He wants to demystify it.

When going out to dinner, he says, people avoid the wine list.

"Everybody's passing it off because they're afraid to make the right choice. I've never seen anybody do that with a menu," he says. "You're not concerned what kind of cheeseburger you order. If you say extra pickles, nobody's critiquing what you did."

So Vaynerchuk, 31, has taken over the liquor store his father started and built a 40,000-square-foot store in Springfield, N.J., devoted mostly to wine. He also started Wine Library TV, an almost-daily video blog featuring his wine tastings that he posts on his Web site.

A good way to learn about wine, he says, is to have a knowledgeable salesman at your local wine store select a moderately priced mixed case of wines – six whites and six reds.

Vaynerchuk recommends that customers open them one at a time with dinner over a couple of weeks, learning the different flavors, learning what they like and dislike, and using their own words to describe what they've tasted.

"People have told me, 'Gary, I was at a wine tasting and I said, "This wine tasted like chicken soup."" And everybody looked at me and I wasn't scared, because I knew you would say the same thing, and I felt comfortable in saying it."

Don't expect to like everything in your starter case, Vaynerchuk warns.

"When I give somebody a perfect case of wine, when they first want to learn about wine, I expect them to come back with four wines they hated, because I want to give them 12 different distinct ranges of flavors to figure out what they like."

Vaynerchuk assembled a case for NPR's Scott Simon, who paid him a visit and got a lesson in wine tasting and the wine business.

Wine is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermentation of unmodified grape juice.[1] The natural chemical balance of grapes is such that they ferment completely without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes or other nutrients.[2] Although other fruits like apples and berries can also be fermented, the resultant "wines" are normally named after the fruit (for example, apple wine or elderberry wine) and are generically known as fruit or country wine. Others, such as barley wine and rice wine (e.g. sake) are made from starch-based materials and resemble beer more than wine, while ginger wine is fortified with brandy. In these cases, the use of the term "wine" is a reference to the higher alcohol content, rather than production process.[3] The commercial use of the English word "wine" (and its equivalent in other languages) is protected by law in many jurisdictions.

The word "wine" derives from the Proto-Germanic *winam, an early borrowing from the Latin vinum, "wine" or "(grape) vine", itself derived from the Proto-Indo-European stem *win-o- (cf. Ancient Greek οῖνος oînos).[4] Similar words for wine or grapes are found in the Semitic languages (cf. Arabic ﻭﻳﻦ wayn) and in Georgian (gvino), and the term is considered an ancient wanderwort.

Exploring Burgundy - Where's Monthelie?

If you follow Burgundy at all, you've almost certainly heard of Volnay, the village that many consider the Côte de Beaune's most reliable source of red wines. Chances are the name of Meursault isn't unfamiliar to you, either, thanks to its glowing reputation for outstanding Burgundy whites.

But who in the heck ever heard of Monthelie?

This tiny village lies midway between its two more famous neighbors and doesn't get a fraction of their respectful notoriety, perhaps because it's dismissed as being a little too far south for Pinot Noir and a little too far north for Chardonnay.

But it's a name worth getting to know, as its red wines - which make up this lion's share of its production - are widely regarded as offering fine value, relatively affordable if perhaps just a bit less elegant than Volnay.

This kind of reputation-building based on geography is typical of Burgundy, where a matter of a few meters can spell the difference between sought-after wines than command breathtaking prices, and also-rans that end up in the bargain bins. Still, as Robert M. Parker Jr. notes in the first edition of his hefty "Burgundy," the Monthelie vineyards that lie closest to Volnay are not only situated on desirable high ground but purportedly enjoy more sunshine than any other location in the entire Côte d'Or.

Today's featured wine from the fine 2005 vintage comes from the respected Monthelie producer Jean Garaudet; and, like the other "value" Burgundies we've been featuring in this short Friday series, it sells in the middle to upper $20s, a neighborhood that's hard to beat in today's market for this fine albeit pricey vintage.

Learn to taste wine like an expert!

More Wine Basics:


• Wine Questionary. Much like a traditional encyclopedia but hyperlinked and interactive.
• Wine Lovers' Lexicon. A combination wine-tasting dictionary and wine-pronouncing glossary featuring more than 500 wine-related words and phrases, with pronunciations and sound files.
• Wine Label Decoder. Straightforward explanations of label language, keyed to pictures of labels from five countries.
• Wine Tasting Toolbox. A variety of articles, reference materials and tasting forms.
• WineLovers Discussion Group. An interactive, international online forum where you can learn wine-tasting in a friendly, non-threatening environment.

Want to learn how to taste wine as the experts do?

Eyeballing wine, swirling and sniffing and swishing ... it may look complicated or even snobbish, but the traditional wine-tasting technique is actually based on common sense. It's simply a way to pause for a moment, to stop and think, and to pay attention to the ways that wine impacts on all your senses, from sight and scent to taste, aftertaste, and the overall impression that the wine leaves behind after you've finished.

This quick online wine tasting course, one of the most popular wine-related articles on the Web since we first published it here in 1993, is a much evolved and updated version of a series of articles that I wrote in the late 1980s in The Louisville Courier-Journal, assembled and updated to provide a general overview of wine tasting and wine appreciation.

Divided into 13 easily digested chapters, the course features an introduction to tasting wine, including an appreciation of its sight, smell and taste; a look at the oddities of wine vocabulary; a discussion of "blind" tasting as the most effective way to develop your palate; quick overviews of the wines of various countries and sparkling wines; and a presentation of the University of California/Davis "Aroma Wheel," an easy way to sort out the variety of aromas and flavors found in wine.

Now grab a corkscrew and a bottle, get something good in your glass, and jump right in.

It may not have the same cachet as Napa Valley, but in Walla Walla, Wash., many winemakers produce world-class wine. But making ends meet can be tough.

Take Dave Stephenson, for example. His 2003 Syrah received a score of 94 from The Wine Enthusiast. But the owner of Stephenson Cellars, housed in a building at an abandoned Air Force base, says for now at least, his goal is simply to not lose money.

"There's a misperception in the wine industry. You think there's lot of money being made; theres' a lot of money changing hands," he says. But "there's not necessarily a lot being made."

Walla Walla winemakers pride themselves on high-quality fruit — which is also expensive. A single bottle may have as much as $4's worth. Add in the cost of aging in barrels that cost as much as $900 each, plus the costs of corks, labels and glass bottles, and a single bottle of premium wine costs as much as $14 to make.

Stephenson sells about half of his bottles to distributors for $16, yielding him $2 in profit. He typically sells the rest at the full retail price — typically $32 — to winery visitors and those on his mailing list.

The trick to making money is to sell as much wine at the full retail price as possible. But developing the reputation to do that takes time, and Stevenson isn't quite there yet. His profit from the winery last year was about $10,000.

"That was a great year," Stephenson says. In the previous two years, he says, he lost about $30,000 and $150,000. "It just goes in the hole and nothing comes out. It will take about 10 years before I recover what I've put in at that point."

To make ends meet, he has turned to consulting, helping new Walla Walla wineries produce their own world-class wines.

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