I've found out that drinking wine with friends is the best way to go. Especially when the friends you're drinking wine with are as passionate about it as you are. Spending the weekend at a lakehouse with said friends is just the icing on the cake.
We invited 4 friends of ours up to the lakehouse with us to spend the weekend relaxing and enjoying some wine. It was just the kind of weekend that many of us needed (getting away and just relaxing). Lots of laughs and lots of good wines drank. The only disappointments were 2 bottles of Broadley ('05 Bergstrom and '05 Claudia's Choice) that we picked up a couple weeks ago at their spring barrel tasting that were cooked.
The wines we drank over the course of the weekend in no particular order:
'06 Kosta Browne Keiffer Ranch Pinot Noir
NV Bugey Cerdon sparking rose
'07 Trisaetum Riesling
'04 Domain Droughin Oregon Artur Chardonney
'06 Sojourn Cellars Pinot Noir
'06 JK Carriere Antoinnette Pinot Noir
'06 Gary Farrel Pinot Noir
'06 King Estate Domaine Pinot Noir
'05 NxNW Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley
'04 Ayoub Pinot Noir
'08 Cinder Rose
'79 Pedro Jimenez
'05 Jessep Zin Port
NV Yolumba Antique Tawney
'06 Argyle LH Riesling -5
We also conducted a double blind tasting, which I will cover in another post.
It was really nice to be able to taste a bunch of good wines with friends who enjoyed them as much as we did, which doesn't happen as often as we might like. Hearing what others think about the wine you're drinking can be very insightful, and should be something that every wine drinker does from time to time.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Are Tasting Fees Acceptable?
I originally started this post in 2007, but never quite finished it. A recent post here and here made me think about the topic once again. Over the past year, my feelings have shifted a bit, but not dramatically. In 2007, I had a different frame of reference for tasting fees, wine prices, and what "good" wine really meant. Looking at the notes I had started for this post, I see that I expected more tastes for my money then, but the general principles are still the same.
Some of the shift in perspective has been because in the past 2 years, I've been exposed on numerous occasions to wines that previously would have been out of my range ($50+), and my palatte has shifted a bit to be able to appreciate these. In 2007, spending $40 on a wine was a rare occassion, and now I find myself being a club member of a couple places that only sell $40+ wine.
I'm comfortable paying a $5-$10 tasting fee, assuming that there are enough wines. I'm not willing to pay $10 for 3 tastes, unless the wines justify it (relatively expensive bottles with good reviews or word of mouth). For $5, I would expect to taste 3-5 wines. For $10, I'm expecting 6-7 wines. Getting a tasting fee refunded with purchases basically means I'm going to buy a bottle of wine (unless they are all crap), but there is no way I'm going to expect a "refunded with purchase" policy as a standard.
The two major sides to the argument about tasting fees speak to a tasting room covering costs (and keeping out the free-drinkers), and getting your wine into potential customer's hands. From the tasting room perspective, I doubt the $5-$10 is covering all the costs of wine, glassware, staff, electricity, etc. that is being consumed in the tasting room, so it can't all be about covering costs. Keeping out the free-drinkers is a valid reason, because those people don't care a bit about your wine, they just want a free buzz. Mostly, the tasting room is just looking to recoup some of their costs, while providing an opportunity to get their wine in front of the consumer.
Frankly, and this might sound harsh, if you can't afford a $5-$10 tasting fee for each of the 4-5 places you might stop in a day, then maybe you should find something else to do (or you could always share tastes with someone). Being in a tasting room is about more than just "trying before buying." You learn about the history and story of the winery and winemaker, about their philosophy towards wine, and get a better perspective of the fermented juice that you're drinking.
Sometimes, you might even get a history lesson about where the grapes were grown (I've gotten this before, while tasting at Tyrus Evan, and learned all I'd ever want to know about the Walla Walla area and the geological events that caused it to be what it is). If that itself isn't worth the admission fee, you get to try some wines you might not have access to otherwise.
Expecting to try wines for free seems to be an expectation held over from when the Oregon wine industry was in its infancy and trying to establish itself. In the '80s, Oregon didn't have the brand reputation it has now, and so it had to try and show that there was decent wine coming from here. With the quality of wine coming out of the area, paying $5-$10 to try something new seems fully within reason. I don't want the Willamette Valley to become the next Napa, with extrordinate tasting fees everywhere, but a few bucks here and there really shouldn't stop someone from experiencing what Oregon has to offer.
Some of the shift in perspective has been because in the past 2 years, I've been exposed on numerous occasions to wines that previously would have been out of my range ($50+), and my palatte has shifted a bit to be able to appreciate these. In 2007, spending $40 on a wine was a rare occassion, and now I find myself being a club member of a couple places that only sell $40+ wine.
I'm comfortable paying a $5-$10 tasting fee, assuming that there are enough wines. I'm not willing to pay $10 for 3 tastes, unless the wines justify it (relatively expensive bottles with good reviews or word of mouth). For $5, I would expect to taste 3-5 wines. For $10, I'm expecting 6-7 wines. Getting a tasting fee refunded with purchases basically means I'm going to buy a bottle of wine (unless they are all crap), but there is no way I'm going to expect a "refunded with purchase" policy as a standard.
The two major sides to the argument about tasting fees speak to a tasting room covering costs (and keeping out the free-drinkers), and getting your wine into potential customer's hands. From the tasting room perspective, I doubt the $5-$10 is covering all the costs of wine, glassware, staff, electricity, etc. that is being consumed in the tasting room, so it can't all be about covering costs. Keeping out the free-drinkers is a valid reason, because those people don't care a bit about your wine, they just want a free buzz. Mostly, the tasting room is just looking to recoup some of their costs, while providing an opportunity to get their wine in front of the consumer.
Frankly, and this might sound harsh, if you can't afford a $5-$10 tasting fee for each of the 4-5 places you might stop in a day, then maybe you should find something else to do (or you could always share tastes with someone). Being in a tasting room is about more than just "trying before buying." You learn about the history and story of the winery and winemaker, about their philosophy towards wine, and get a better perspective of the fermented juice that you're drinking.
Sometimes, you might even get a history lesson about where the grapes were grown (I've gotten this before, while tasting at Tyrus Evan, and learned all I'd ever want to know about the Walla Walla area and the geological events that caused it to be what it is). If that itself isn't worth the admission fee, you get to try some wines you might not have access to otherwise.
Expecting to try wines for free seems to be an expectation held over from when the Oregon wine industry was in its infancy and trying to establish itself. In the '80s, Oregon didn't have the brand reputation it has now, and so it had to try and show that there was decent wine coming from here. With the quality of wine coming out of the area, paying $5-$10 to try something new seems fully within reason. I don't want the Willamette Valley to become the next Napa, with extrordinate tasting fees everywhere, but a few bucks here and there really shouldn't stop someone from experiencing what Oregon has to offer.
Monday, February 16, 2009
The Return?
I can't believe its been over a year since the last post. A lot has happened, and some things have changed in our lives which has made blogging a low priority. Sirpa and I both have new jobs, which means I can't spend all day at work surfing the net and blogging. There's still the desire to put my thoughts down in this blog, so I'm going to try and post at least once a week going forward. We have definitely been through some situations that would be great story telling, and would help the message of this blog. In many of these encounters, Sirpa and I end up being the "gurus" of wine with the people we are with, which is an interesting thing when you consider that both of us are under 30.
To 2009, the year of great experiences and more blogging!
To 2009, the year of great experiences and more blogging!
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Thanksgiving Rundown
Thanksgiving weekend was a very intense experience. So intense, that I'm needing to take a few days to get settled and back to normal. I'm going to be doing a very in-depth review of our experiences, including tasting notes of the 100+ wines we tasted. Please keep tuned in for more in the next few days.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Wine and Football
I had an experience this past weekend that I just had to write about, mostly because it really fits into what this blog is really all about. Sirpa and I are the wine drinkers of our group of friends. A few others have gone tasting with us, or tried a few different wines, but nobody drinks and explores wine the way we do. It creates a very interesting dynamic when we bring out wine at a party, because most of the people there don't have a clue about what we are doing when we swirl, sniff, swirl again, sniff again, taste, and repeat.
On Saturday, I was over at a friend's place watching college football (Portland State, then Oregon, then Oregon State). Naturally, we were drinking beer throughout the day, as is usually what happens when guys and football are combined. Sirpa got off work and arrived around 7, and had brought with her the last of a bottle of 2003 Archery Summit Estate for us to taste and explore. I poured what was in the bottle into a glass, and proceeded to taste the wine. Now, I was in the kitchen during this time, with a small crowd of spectators watching me go through the tasting process. After getting a taste or three, and allowing Sirpa to taste a bit, I asked one of the guys if he wanted a taste. Now, there was still probably 5 or 6 tastes left in the glass, and I intended to let Sirpa have a few more before it was finished.
I handed the glass over, and after a quick sniff or two, the guy downed the wine like it was a shot, just opened his throat and let it go down. I really don't think it even hit his tongue. I was in shock, and I just stood there for a minute, not knowing what to say. It wasn't a huge deal, as both Sirpa and I had tasted it, and I wasn't planning on having any more, but I wasn't sure how to react to seeing somebody shoot a small glass of wine that was worth about $20. This just showed me how much the typical person does NOT know about drinking and enjoying wine.
Wine is not, and should not be, a chuggable beverage. Wine's purpose is not to get you drunk, though a good wine buzz can't be beat (probably has more to do with the good food and atmosphere than the actual physiological effects). Drinking wine is about exploring something new, and subtleties, and noticing how a Pinot Noir from one place can taste entirely different from the place next door. For a buzz, I'm going for beer, or maybe some mixed drinks. For enjoyment of atmosphere, experience, and reflection, wine is my beverage of choice. I'm just going to have to do a better job of describing the benefits of "tasting" wine, as opposed to "drinking" wine when I hand a glass to someone.
On Saturday, I was over at a friend's place watching college football (Portland State, then Oregon, then Oregon State). Naturally, we were drinking beer throughout the day, as is usually what happens when guys and football are combined. Sirpa got off work and arrived around 7, and had brought with her the last of a bottle of 2003 Archery Summit Estate for us to taste and explore. I poured what was in the bottle into a glass, and proceeded to taste the wine. Now, I was in the kitchen during this time, with a small crowd of spectators watching me go through the tasting process. After getting a taste or three, and allowing Sirpa to taste a bit, I asked one of the guys if he wanted a taste. Now, there was still probably 5 or 6 tastes left in the glass, and I intended to let Sirpa have a few more before it was finished.
I handed the glass over, and after a quick sniff or two, the guy downed the wine like it was a shot, just opened his throat and let it go down. I really don't think it even hit his tongue. I was in shock, and I just stood there for a minute, not knowing what to say. It wasn't a huge deal, as both Sirpa and I had tasted it, and I wasn't planning on having any more, but I wasn't sure how to react to seeing somebody shoot a small glass of wine that was worth about $20. This just showed me how much the typical person does NOT know about drinking and enjoying wine.
Wine is not, and should not be, a chuggable beverage. Wine's purpose is not to get you drunk, though a good wine buzz can't be beat (probably has more to do with the good food and atmosphere than the actual physiological effects). Drinking wine is about exploring something new, and subtleties, and noticing how a Pinot Noir from one place can taste entirely different from the place next door. For a buzz, I'm going for beer, or maybe some mixed drinks. For enjoyment of atmosphere, experience, and reflection, wine is my beverage of choice. I'm just going to have to do a better job of describing the benefits of "tasting" wine, as opposed to "drinking" wine when I hand a glass to someone.
Monday, November 5, 2007
2006 Kathken Vineyards Pinot Gris Barrel Fermented
Kathken Vineyards is a little place in the Eola Hills, just west of Salem. It is a 51-acre vineyard, owned by Kathy and Ken Slusser (hence the name) and Ken is the winemaker. They've got a few different wines, mostly Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. The 2006 harvest presented Ken with more juice than he had space to ferment in tanks, and so he put what did not fit in the tanks into barrels to ferment, and the result is two distinctly different wines, both from the same grapes and the same winemaker. The following review is for the barrel fermented version, and I'll do a review of the tank fermented version soon.
Color: A peach color, with more pink hues than most pinot gris
Nose: Peach, a hint of green apple, a touch of grapefruit and citrus
Palatte: Not a complex wine, good balance, no flavors really jump out at me. Some peach, with a hint of orange, along with typical Pinot Gris flavors. Really short finish, after 10-15 seconds the flavors have disappeared.
Overall Rating: 6/10 At a price point of about $12/bottle, its a good weekday wine, which is fitting as it was drunk on a Monday night while watching football. Kathken Vineyards is priced towards the lower end, but the wines are good for the price. All of their wines are easy to drink, and decently good.
Kathken Vineyards
Color: A peach color, with more pink hues than most pinot gris
Nose: Peach, a hint of green apple, a touch of grapefruit and citrus
Palatte: Not a complex wine, good balance, no flavors really jump out at me. Some peach, with a hint of orange, along with typical Pinot Gris flavors. Really short finish, after 10-15 seconds the flavors have disappeared.
Overall Rating: 6/10 At a price point of about $12/bottle, its a good weekday wine, which is fitting as it was drunk on a Monday night while watching football. Kathken Vineyards is priced towards the lower end, but the wines are good for the price. All of their wines are easy to drink, and decently good.
Kathken Vineyards
Friday, November 2, 2007
Thanksgiving Wine Trip Planning
This week I decided to plan out our Thanksgiving wine tasting. The advantage to tasting the weekend after Thanksgiving (instead of shopping) is that many places that are not usually open to the public open their doors and you get a chance to taste some wine you normally would not have access to. That is, unless you just buy a bottle and take a chance on a wine you don't know much about besides reputation. The problem I ran into is that there are entirely too many places we want to go to, and not enough time to do it. We only have Friday and Saturday to taste, as Sunday we have family obligations. The other restriction is the times that places are open. The window of opportunity for each day is about 10am - 5pm, which really does not leave much time for tasting, especially when there are about 15 places we want to go. This does not include the places we are club members at, which would mean free tasting and other events at those places.
So the process of elimination came down to figuring out where we wanted to go, and figuring out which places are either the most bang for the stop, or are only open during this weekend. All of the places we chose are only open for this weekend, and many of them have pretty steep tasting fees. I'm not sure how I feel about that, and I'm planning on a blog post about tasting fees for the near future, but I digress. The following is the list of where we are planning to go to:
Friday:
Owen Roe - $15 tasting fee, with a Riedel Bordeaux glass. Owen Roe has quite a few wines we are fans of, and being able to taste them at one location will be reallly nice. The other times we have had them, is just a bottle at a time, so exploring more of the portfolio will be nice.
Chehalem - $10 tasting fee. Chehalem Wines was founded by Harry Peterson-Nedry in 1990, but he planted is vineyard in Ribbon Ridge in 1980. He is one of the more influential people in Oregon winemaking, and so it almost seems like a necessity to taste his wines.
JK Carriere - $10 tasting fee, refundable w/purchase. This stop was requested by Sirpa, and looking at their list of wines, I can see why. I see they have a Anderson Family and a Shea Pinot Noir, so they've got to have some good stuff. Shea just doesn't sell his grapes to anybody (see below).
Lachini - $10 tasting fee. Lachini Vineyards was founded in 1997, and is getting great acclaim for their wines. They have a couple Pinot Noirs, and Pinot Gris, and their wines are very well made.
Saturday:
Elvenglade - Not sure of tasting fees. We've got some Pinot Noir futures to pick up, and that is the main reason we are stopping here. That, and they've got some pretty good wines, from a couple different winemakers.
Patricia Green - $20 tasting fee, partially refundable w/ purchase. Patty Green is another well respected winemaker, so visiting her is a must.
Shea - $10 tasting fee. Dick Shea might be the owner of the most respected vineyard in the Willamette Valley. According to Wine Press NW, Shea Vineyards is the #1 Vineyard in Oregon. Any Shea Vineyard Pinot Noir can expect 90+ points from any critic, and so trying his stuff directly will be a treat.
Anam Cara - $10 tasting fee, for all participating wineries. Anam Cara is made at 12th and Maple Wine Co., and a total of 4 labels will be represented there. Access to all of them will be through the one tasting fee, which results in the most bang for the buck. We have tasted their wine before, and was pleasantly suprised. Also there will be Battle Creek, Basket Case, and Cleo's Hill.
So I think this is our list. There's many more we'd like to get to, but that will have to wait until Memorial Day weekend. I'll put up a stop-by-stop review of the weekend, so let me know if there's anything you'd like to see discussed.
So the process of elimination came down to figuring out where we wanted to go, and figuring out which places are either the most bang for the stop, or are only open during this weekend. All of the places we chose are only open for this weekend, and many of them have pretty steep tasting fees. I'm not sure how I feel about that, and I'm planning on a blog post about tasting fees for the near future, but I digress. The following is the list of where we are planning to go to:
Friday:
Owen Roe - $15 tasting fee, with a Riedel Bordeaux glass. Owen Roe has quite a few wines we are fans of, and being able to taste them at one location will be reallly nice. The other times we have had them, is just a bottle at a time, so exploring more of the portfolio will be nice.
Chehalem - $10 tasting fee. Chehalem Wines was founded by Harry Peterson-Nedry in 1990, but he planted is vineyard in Ribbon Ridge in 1980. He is one of the more influential people in Oregon winemaking, and so it almost seems like a necessity to taste his wines.
JK Carriere - $10 tasting fee, refundable w/purchase. This stop was requested by Sirpa, and looking at their list of wines, I can see why. I see they have a Anderson Family and a Shea Pinot Noir, so they've got to have some good stuff. Shea just doesn't sell his grapes to anybody (see below).
Lachini - $10 tasting fee. Lachini Vineyards was founded in 1997, and is getting great acclaim for their wines. They have a couple Pinot Noirs, and Pinot Gris, and their wines are very well made.
Saturday:
Elvenglade - Not sure of tasting fees. We've got some Pinot Noir futures to pick up, and that is the main reason we are stopping here. That, and they've got some pretty good wines, from a couple different winemakers.
Patricia Green - $20 tasting fee, partially refundable w/ purchase. Patty Green is another well respected winemaker, so visiting her is a must.
Shea - $10 tasting fee. Dick Shea might be the owner of the most respected vineyard in the Willamette Valley. According to Wine Press NW, Shea Vineyards is the #1 Vineyard in Oregon. Any Shea Vineyard Pinot Noir can expect 90+ points from any critic, and so trying his stuff directly will be a treat.
Anam Cara - $10 tasting fee, for all participating wineries. Anam Cara is made at 12th and Maple Wine Co., and a total of 4 labels will be represented there. Access to all of them will be through the one tasting fee, which results in the most bang for the buck. We have tasted their wine before, and was pleasantly suprised. Also there will be Battle Creek, Basket Case, and Cleo's Hill.
So I think this is our list. There's many more we'd like to get to, but that will have to wait until Memorial Day weekend. I'll put up a stop-by-stop review of the weekend, so let me know if there's anything you'd like to see discussed.
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