Here’s how it went: one hour, 12 wines, and 5 minutes per wine maker. They came to our tables randomly and poured us all tastes, while we sipped, swirled and spat we also had to pay attention to what the wine makers were saying. It was quite the whirlwind and tons of fun. I tasted 12 whites, too, but since I’m a red girl I’ll start with them.

Unfortunately, there were a couple I didn’t get to post for one reason or another, but here is my red wine Twitter round up:

1. @Worthwhilewine company Dark Lady pinotage mocha and smoke on the nose bacon and chocolate palate, I like this

2. Monthaven octavin container cab sauv central coast boxed wine this is a cab? that’s all I can say

3. 07 Banfi Belnero sangiovese /cab/merlot very young, but good potential

4. RT @vino_g: Dark Lady of the Labyrinth Pinotage – smokey bacon and coffee….Breakfast! I like it!

5. Nicholas Cole Cellars Camille red wine blend. Very interesting. Medium body, meaty

6. @dustedvalley Boomtown cab bright red fruit, some cocoa great wine for $15

7. Buty Columbia Red Aviva cab/syrah blend. Nose of espresso and cocoa, beautifully balanced. I might just swallow this one

8. Hogue Cellars Genesis Meritage fruit forward, grips the palate, coffee finish

9. @kenpayton how one tastes after smoking http://twitpic.com/209tg0 (this photo was too funny not to add)

10. @DCVGuy dry creek zin! beautiful nose, can def taste the petit sirah it mellows the zin, raisiny

11. Maryhill ’07 Zin spicy, easy on the palate, tannic finish good food wine

12. @JordanWinery 2006 cab sauv dark fruit , hints of cocoa and smoke

**My overall favorite red is the Red Aviva from Buty, hugely surprising, beautiful blend. I loved it.**

…that it is impossible to blog and write research papers on wine at the same time.  I mean, I’m sure it’s possible, but I didn’t want to, takes up too much time.

I also discovered today that I am a very traditional writer, and I need to work on my blogging style. I tend to write books for you all, my dear readers, and I’ve come to find out via my Media and Web Delivery class that you want pictures and videos instead of lots of info. So I’ll try to do that more often.

Not today though   I’m sitting in the Denver airport waiting to fly to the Wine Blogger’s Conference, lovingly known as #WBC10 in the Twitterverse, and I’m awfully excited. Hopefully I can get back on this blogging kick again now that classes are winding down and my degree is almost in the mail.

I’ve also discovered once again, to be open to change. Though my heart has been in CA wine country for two years, I think I’m going to NYC for awhile. Lots of reasons and soul searching behind this, but life has somewhat come full circle with this particular planned move. Until I decided to switch to the wine industry, I wanted to be a reporter in New York. Funny how things happen this way, isn’t it?

Finally, another change. I’ve decided to change my blog’s name. As you can see on the header my lovely little blog will now be called Wine and Stilettos, I plan on changing the URL soon, but as with everything, it needs to go one step at a time.

Look for me at WBC, Salute!

A long overdue post from St. Patrick’s Day!

As I was immersed smack in the middle of finals week and a total of 50+ pages of various papers to write, I wasn’t able to put aside the time to review this awesome little rose on time. (Grad school must be put on alert to stay out of the way of my wine time.)

I digress, as a matter of principle I really wanted to enjoy wine from an Irish wine maker on St. Patrick’s day. While I couldn’t force myself to dye this green, thoughts of Irish country side were firmly planted in my mind.

St. Patrick’s Day in Athens, Ohio was very mild this year, and we decided to grill turkey burgers stuffed with feta on a wheat bun with spinach and barbecue sauce to compliment the rose. As Kathleen Kelley told me, the idea for this rose was formulated around a dinner table, so I thought it only fitting to enjoy the fruits of her labor if you will, around my dinner table.

I always love surprises, actually, I hate surprises I’m too much of a control freak, but I love surprises in my wine. On the nose the Kathleen rose was yeasty, almost a pastry scent with a hint of strawberry, very interesting.  The flavor profile of wine developed throughout the glass, upon first taste the wine was strong in strawberry and cream flavors with some acidity mid palate with pear and oak on the finish. About 30 minutes later we discovered a nose of apple and red raspberry along with strawberry and a hint of raspberry on the palate.

The rose is lower in alcohol content than most, 13.2% because it is picked earlier in the season that most crafted in the saignee style. 210 case production.

Artiste normally only makes blended wines, but this one is 100% mourvedre. According to winemaker Bion Rice “it was too good to blend!”It is a great medium bodied red. A nose of light rose petal and red fruit with a surprising butterscotch finish. The finish of the wine is what intrigued me most, it isn’t sweet by any means, and the flavor of butterscotch is undetectable on the nose but bursts on the palate at the finish. I immediately fell in love with this wine after trying it and took home a bottle to Ohio from California. This Mourvedre was a limited release wine club wine, but I loved it so that they let me purchase a couple of bottles. The wine is 14.4% alcohol and was a 74 case production.

Mourvedre is on the right.

What makes Artiste stand out from the rest is their labeling process. Artists from around California submit artwork and Rice chooses his favorites to reproduce on the bottles. Reprints are then sent to wine club members and some are available for purchase at one of their two tasting rooms in Healdsburg and Santa Ynez, California

As a newly minted wine blogger the 2010 conference in Walla Walla, Washington is the first that I will be able to attend. I’m really looking forward to getting together with fellow bloggers, drinking some great wine, and learning the tools of the trade. Unfortunately, it will be my fourth trip to CA in a year, and being the poor college student that I am, I’m not sure if I can fund the 4 day trip on my own. Coincidentally, it falls on the first weekend of the first week of summer classes, and I can’t teach in the summer so I won’t be receiving my stipend to help fund the trip.

Luckilly, my friend Thea Dwelle heads up the WBC scholarship initiative.

http://wbcscholarship.wordpress.com/

This is a way to help people like me fund their trips out so that they too can experience this opportunity. The scholarship can only help fun as many people as funds are donated. If you are interested at all in donating-or know someone who would be- please pass along this link, and I’m more than willing to speak to anyone or direct them to Thea.

Thanks so much,

Emma

This blogger blend off is by far the coolest thing I have done in the wine world thus far. As you may, or may not know I am a wine blogger (SHOCKING!) and my good friend, Thea Dwelle assembled a crew of us fellow bloggers to get together at Conn Creek for a blend-off on December 13th.

I was aware there would be lunch, and some talk about blending. What I didn’t realize was that I would get to blend and take home my very own bottle of wine!! us 12 lucky bloggers assembled in the AVA room of the winery where it was basically a whirl wind tour of what Napa has to offer. Lining the walls of the room were 15 different cabernet sauvignons, a merlot, malbec, cab franc, and a petit verdot.  Following a bit of direction from guest services manager, Paul Asikainen, I was off and tasting.

How attractive are those barrels?

From the 15 I was able to pick out 6 wines that I enjoyed the most along with a decision that I must add malbec ( I am in a malbec phase right now) . Then came the not so fun part: figuring out how much to blend! I have never given much thought to how many different vineyards went into one bottle, let alone how much to blend in them, needless to say I assumed the task would be a little dauting.

I began to go to each barrel filling up my chemistry equipment bit by bit and then tasting the glasses. My attempt #1 was nice,but a little too tannic and fell flat at the end. 2 had a great nose but was also too tannic. On my third try I added a splash of a softer cab sauv from Oakville-Stanton Vineyard. This blend was great, it tasted a bit like a berry pie, very round, smooth and with the right hint of creaminess I was looking for. I knew this was it, but wanted to try once more. The final attempt still fell short of what I was dreaming of and I bottled up #3.

We then were able to create our very own wine labels. In the end we had everything from my “E” blend to a gingerbread man, to a label-less bottle.  I now have the perfect bottle of wine to drink when I get my Masters, and a treasure trove of memories from the day.

You too can have your own wine blending experience at Conn Creek for $95(includes bottle)

Thanks to Conn Creek and Thea!

Cheers!

I have always loved to cook, but could never try anything new out at home because my Mom is very picky about trying new things. After I moved into my new apartment here in Athens it was my mission to begin cooking for my friends. So began the tradition of the Monday night dinner party. Don’t get me wrong I love the food and my friends enjoying it with me, but these dinner parties are also a covert operation. It is my mission to expose my friends to wine and help them all to realize why I love it so much. I’m still referred to as an “alcoholic” by a few friends who just don’t get it, the rest lovingly call me “queen wino.”

you can see why I have this title

Here is how it normally goes: First, I’ll normally post in my Facebook status what I’m making weekly, and send out text messages to friends. Dinner is always at 9, so my other roommate can enjoy a hot meal when he gets home from work.  When they ask if they should bring wine I always encourage them, I know they will bring the white zinfandel or a similar sweet white. I’ll let them have that first and then taste the wine I am drinking just to “see if they like it.” If they do I will enthusiastically pour them a glass, then ask them how it tastes, what they recognize on their palate. I’m impressed with the progress I’ve seen, my roommate, Kyleigh has gone from telling me she smells alcohol in the wine to telling me she picks up some melon. Even if they don’t get much else, they at least learn to appreciate why I find wine so interesting. My dance has been evolving for a while, theirs has only just begun.

I even find new pairings that I enjoy on occasion. My last dinner party of the summer consisted of wheat penne with chicken and vodka cream sauce, a Mediterranean salad, and a strawberry chardonnay cake, and some wonderful company. A friend brought over a bottle of white zin for the rest of the guests to drink; I had some Argentinean Malbec I needed to finish up, so I brought it out with dinner as well.  I was really surprised how well the malbec went with the pasta. I, of course poured the girls all a sip and none of them liked it. (That’s okay; it took me awhile to enjoy the dryer reds, too. I’m patient.)

The real beauty of wine to me is the company it brings. It’s easy for me to see how much people care about me when they are willing to listen to me ramble on about something they know nothing about and are willing to taste something they don’t like just because I’ve described it so enthusiastically to them. Emma will always oblige me and take a sip when I say “You have GOT to try this, it tastes amazing with the pasta!” she will then make a sour face and tell me that it’s just not her style. It means so much to me that they do this, and by the end of the year I hope to see all their eyes light up when they try RED zinfandel with pepperoni pizza and tell me how good it goes with the spicy food.

I received an email about this asking if I would promote it on my blog. I was tempted to respond how I would love to blog about this all expense paid dream vacation they had awarded me simply for being me, but alas, it was not to be. Sadly, I am ineligible for this contest, but I am more than happy to promote it as well. Everyone should be able to enjoy wine country the way I did, it’s a phenominal place to see.I plan to go back in December

That being said, Livingston Cellars, a subsidiary of the E & J Gallo company is offering an all expenses paid trip to wine country by way of an essay contest. Winos across the 50 states (save for CA, UT, and PR) are encouraged to write an essay of 250 words or less about how each entrant “embodies the core values of the Livingston Life” These values are: 1) being an individual, 2) staying connected to friends/family/community, 3) discovering your new world, 4) making a difference to others. All applicants must be 21 when they submit entry, for more info visit http://www.TheLivingstonLife.com/Getaway

Livingston states that no other generation has embraced these values as much as we do that’s why they want to reward us with this trip. Good luck to all, and if one of my readers wins please contact me and we can put together a post chronicling the highlights of the trip. Take lots of pictures!!

I’ve finished my bottle of malbec, had a wonderful “see you soon” dinner which I prepared; complete with Chardonnay Strawberry Cake, and I’m off to Florida tomorrow. I don’t know anything about Florida wines, or even if they make them there, but I plan to find out. Wherever I go, wine seems to find me.

So I’ll be off, staying at my aunt’s home there for two weeks. I’m going with my best friend and I’m really excited, I’ve never had a ‘girls’ vacation. We’ll cook, and explore, and hopefully drink some good wine. My aunt also has no internet at her summer home, so I’ll be cut off from the world (haha) but that will be a nice little vacation in and of itself.

We’re driving down tomorrow and taking it easy for a few days. We’ll go to the coast and Orlando; to St. Augustine and Fort Myers. It’ll be a great time, hopefully I’ll enjoy some great wine or even find a winery or two along the way.

See you all when I come back to real life, to orientations and to grad school!

-Emma