The tasting list consisted of three sparkling wines from the Champagne region of France, three domestic wines produced in the Champagne style, a pair of sparkling roses and if that weren’t enough, we concluded with two sparkling desert wines.  Holy crap that was a lot of bubbles!  Boy was it fun though.

Champagnes
Egly-Ouriet NV Brut, Grand Cru 
Bollinger’s NV Brut Special Cuvee
Pierre Peters 2002 Brut Millesime

Champagne Style Wines
Domaine Meriwether Wines 1999 Captain Clark Vintage Cuvee’
Domaine Meriwether Wines 1998 Thomas Jefferson Prestige Cuvee
Tru Cellars 2007 Blanc de Blanc

Sparkling Rose´s
Argyle 2007 Brut Rose
Domain de Nizas Rose 2008

Sparkling Desert Wines
Cascina Castlet 2008 Moscato d’Asti
Tualatin Estate 2008 Semi-Sparkling Muscat Frizzante´

SCORE 14.75:94

Value  94 Based upon an average purchase price of $69/bottle.

Tasting Notes: Golden hues.  Plenty of lemon on the nose and palate, with hints of toasted nuts and butter.  Fresh and lively tasting.

SCORE 14:90

Value  90 Based upon an average purchase price of $69/bottle.

Tasting Notes: Light yellow. Apple and honey flavors with plenty of vanilla and toffee flavors on the finish.  Well balanced.

SCORE 15.5:95

Value  95 Based upon an average purchase price of $45/bottle.

Tasting Notes: Nice, straw yellow color. Floral nose.  Full bodied sparkler with peach and citrus flavors.

SCORE 16.75:150

Value  150 Based upon an average purchase price of $25/bottle.

Tasting Notes: Light yellow color. Spicy nose.  Well balanced, with tropical fruit flavors.  Nice long, clean finish.

SCORE 17.25:127

Value  127 Based upon an average purchase price of $30/bottle.

Tasting Notes: Pinkish-yellow color. Abundant foam.  Toffee and vanilla aromas.  Very well balanced.  The Pinot Noir fruit comes through on this wine.  Elegant finish.

SCORE 15.25:90

Value  90 Based upon an average purchase price of $36/bottle.

Tasting Notes: Light yellow. Lots of apple on the nose and palate.  Medium body.  Acidic, clean finish.

SCORE 16:100

Value  100 Based upon an average purchase price of $45/bottle.

Tasting Notes: Pale pink. Mixed berry aromas.  Berry and tropical fruit flavors are well balanced with acidity and tannins.  Creamy, cherry finish.

SCORE 16.5:130

Value  130 Based upon an average purchase price of $15/bottle.

Tasting Notes: Soft rose color.  Floral aromas.  Berry, spice and cherry flavors.  Lush finish Well balanced.

SCORE 14.75:100

Value  100 Based upon an average purchase price of $15/bottle.

Tasting Notes: Light straw-yellow in color.  Floral aromas.  Floral and stone fruit flavors.  Slightly sweet, while still having a clean finish.

SCORE 16.5:120

Value  120 Based upon an average purchase price of $15/bottle.

Tasting Notes: Clone of an Italian Moscato d’Asti. Light yellow. Berry and citrus aromas, follow with more berry and floral flavors.  Medium body with a velvety, sweet finish.

]]> http://thewinecenturyclub.com/2010/01/12/new-years-sparkling-tasting/feed/ 3 http://thewinecenturyclub.com/2009/08/27/international-cold-climate-wine-competition/ http://thewinecenturyclub.com/2009/08/27/international-cold-climate-wine-competition/#comments Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:14:14 +0000 admin http://thewinecenturyclub.com/?p=422 On Tuesday, a fifteen person panel gathered at the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus for a unique wine tasting.  They voted on their favorite wines made from fruits grown in cold climates.  Hosted by the Minnesota Grape Growers Association, the Minnesota State Fair and the University of Minnesota, this is the only competition of its type for these cold-weathered wines.  The University of Minnesota helped develop several of the cold-hardy grapes that are used to make the wines in the competition.   The results of the competition were released today (8/27) at the Minnesota State Fair.

Awards

In addition to Gold, Silver and Bronze medals, the ICCWC awards three Best of Category wines (red, white, specialty/fortified) as well as the Minnesota Governor’s Cup Award. Below are the results of this year’s inaugural event.

A complete listing of all the winners can be found by visiting the website for the 2009 Minnesota State Fair.

Categories

There were 34 different competition categories, including Native Grape, French & American Hybrids, Sparkling, Specialty & Fortified, Non-Grape, and 100% Cold Hardy Grape wines.

Native Grapes
Labrusca white grape
Labrusca red grape
Riparia

Red Grape¹
Frontenac
Marechal Foch
Marquette
Sabrevois
St. Croix
Other Red Hybrids (hybrid must be identified; Superintendent reserves the right to disqualify any variety deemed not “Cold Hardy” for the purposes of this competition)
Red Blends (75% cold hardy varieties listed below)
Blush/Rose (75% cold hardy varieties listed below)

White Grape¹
Frontenac Gris
Edelweiss
Kay Gray
LaCrescent
LaCrosse
Louise Swenson
Prairie Star
St. Pepin
Other White Hybrids (hybrid must be identified; Superintendent reserves the right to disqualify any variety deemed not “Cold Hardy” for the purposes of this competition)
White Blends (75% cold hardy varieties listed below)

Specialty & Fortified²
Port Style
Late Harvest
Other Dessert

Sparkling²
Grape, dry/semi-dry (less than 1% residual sugar)
Grape, sweet (greater than 1% residual)
Fruit, dry/semi-dry and sweet (made from cold-hardy fruit varieties listed under non-grape wine)

Non-Grape Wines³
Apple and pear wines
Stone fruit wines
Berry wines
Mead and mead/fruit blends
Rhubarb wine

100% Cold Hardy Grape Wines
100% Cold Hardy Red – a minimum 75% varietal or blend containing 100% cold hardy grape varieties as listed below; Red wine
100% Cold Hardy White – a minimum 75% varietal or blend containing 100% cold hardy grape varieties as listed below; White wine.

1. Only French & American Hybrids as listed
2. Only wines made from cold-hardy grape varieties listed under Native & Hybrid may enter
3. cold-hardy fruit wines and mead as listed may enter

This past Saturday, we picked a nice batch of Blackberries from Knapp’s Farm on Greenbluff, WA.  While most of the berries are destined to be eaten fresh, end up in a batch of jam, and become a glorious pie, I had planned to make a savory blackberry glaze for grilled chicken.  The grilled chicken was the main course for a dinner party that included hors’ devours of  grilled, bacon wrapped goat’s milk gouda cheese bites, a cherry tomato orzo salad and a peach-rhubarb cobbler for dessert.

To complement the smoky bacon-cheese bites and the sweet, spicy goodness of the blackberry glazed chicken, while also not overwhelming the tomato-orzo salad, I selected a Washington wine that has become one of our family’s summer-time favorites – Hogue Cellar’s Terroir selection of Sangiovese Rosato.

Sangiovese is a red Italian wine grape variety whose name derives from the Latin sanguis Jovis, “the blood of Jove”.   Jove or Jupiter is the Roman equivalent of Zeus in the Greek pantheon.   Sangiovese is most famous as the main component of the robust Chianti blend in Tuscany.  In this case, Hogue Cellars expertly reveals Sangiovese’s softer side.

2005 Hogue Terroir Sangiovese Rosato

Technical Information
Fruit	100% Sangiovesse
Vineyards	52% Zephyr Ridge, 48% Pheasant Vineyard
Appelation	52% Horse heaven Hills, 48% Wahluke Slope
Aging	The lot of rosé from Pheasant Vineyard was chilled near the end of fermentation to stop the yeast prematurely.
Alcohol	13.1%
pH	3.24
TA	0.65
R.S.	0.99 g/100 ml
Production	412 cases
Wine Maker	Jordan Ferrier
Price	Retail: $15.99 Wine Club: $11.70
Winemaker’s Notes	The Sangiovese grapes used in this rosé-style wine, were also the base for a hearty super-Tuscan style Sangiovese.  The rosé wine is ‘bled’ from the primary fermentation when there is a strong pink color and a touch of flavor that would otherwise be lacking in a blanc de noir wine. The lot of rosé from Pheasant Vineyard was chilled near the end of fermentation to stop the yeast prematurely. This contrib- uted the sweetness and a more floral, fruity character to the final blend.

Winery website: www.hoguecellars.com

The next time you reach for a rosé or just want to try something new, consider trying Hogue’s Terroir Sangiovese Rosato.  This is a refreshing wine with a character and depth of flavors not often found in a rosé.  To obtain a bottle (or three) plan on visiting Hogue’s website or their tasting room in Prosser, WA.  The Terroir line of wines is available only at the tasting room or for those who decide to become a member of the Hogue Cellars Wine Club.

Hogue Cellars Wine Club

wineclub@hoguecellars.com

(509) 786-6108

I consider myself to be a reasonably well informed wine enthusiast. However, when I performed my first Googleâ„¢ search on the subject I was completely amazed at the number and variety of rating or scoring systems being used. My search also revealed an emotional response that I did not expect or appreciate. Let me put it this way, there are wine enthusiasts among us that, in your author’s humble opinion, need to step back from their wine glass once in a while and join the rest of us in the real world. We’re not trying to solve all the world’s problems (well, maybe a few), we are tasting wine! You should enjoy yourself.

There are essentially two basic systems – descriptive (non-numerical) and numerical. Numerical systems include those such as Wine Spectators and Robert Parker’s 100-point scales. Non-numerical systems rate wine in descriptive terms in ranges from “I Would Kill My Neighbor for a Bottle” to “Toxic Waste.” While I do tend to enjoy some of the descriptor systems for the reactions they evoke from wine makers (I’m a little twisted that way), the numerical systems are generally best for providing enough granularity between various wines.

Our Scoring System: Quality + Value

The basic purpose of any wine scoring system is to provide a reference point for future purchasing decisions (again, my humble opinion). The rating system we use is a blend of several existing systems and allows us to assign both a quality and value rating to the wines our group tastes. It has been designed to be simple to use while also providing a reference for the future.

Our approach has been borrowed from a number of existing systems to provide a total numerical “quality” score of the wine’s individual attributes (How did it taste?) and a secondary “value” score (Is it worth buying?). The end result is a final score of a pair of numbers providing both quality and value indicators.

Quality

The quality score uses a 20-point scale to rate wines based upon our senses as we experience the wine. The table below highlights the four basic categories and their respective maximum scores.

Value

The value score provides a basic indicator of how good a value the wine is based upon its suggested retail price. For example, if a bottle of wine is priced at $15 and we give it a value of 100, then we are saying that we would gladly pay 100% of the retail price. If however we give a score of 80, then we are saying that we would prefer to pay only 80% of the $15 retail price or $12. But if we find a wine that we think is a great value and hand out a score of 150 then we would pay up to 150% the retail price or $22.50.

Final Score

So what does the final score look like? Well, using a score that was given to a Syrah that was recently tasted (future post) it looks something like this – 17:110.

At a glance you know it was rated quite high from a quality standpoint and was generally thought to be a decent value. The first number is the quality score, 17 out of 20, and the second is the value score, indicating we would pay 110% of the retail price.

There you have it. I welcome your comments and feedback on this subject.

To each of these groups, Thank you.

www.torbwine.com – Wine Tasting Training Notes – Lots of good information here.
www.winepeeps.com – Excellent site with plenty of information on tasting and comparing quality to value. They use a QPR (Quality-Price-Ratio) wine rating system.
www.winefoot.com – Their W.E.P. scale (worth every penny) is essentially the basis for our value score.