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Friday, April 27, 2012

And what exactly is a Twitter Taste-off?

Tomorrow afternoon, I will be emceeing the Nomacorc Twitter Taste-off at the Drink Local Wine conference in Denver. Two dozen Colorado wineries will each be pouring two wines to a group of wine writers and approximately 150 consumers. Every person will be tasting and tweeting their thoughts, opinions and desires about Colorado wine. Their tweets will be displayed on screens at the taste-off, and everyone involved can follow the discussion - I encourage followers and wine lovers from around the world to join in on the fun. You can follow the conversation on Twitter on April 28 from 2 to 5 p.m. MDT using the hashtags #drinklocal and #colwine. Don't forget, this tasting is a "competition;" the media's choice and the People's choice will be recognized as the best wines of the afternoon.

Some pointers for those of you participating:

1. Tweet often!

2. Be honest. Sometimes constructive criticism is necessary. (Wineries, don't be offended if someone doesn't like your wine, it is not a personal attack on you.)

2. Retweet other's comments on your favorite wines.

3. When you're not tweeting, take advantage of being able to talk directly with the people responsible fro crafting the wine. This is an excellent opportunity to learn about what makes Colorado wine special.

4. Don't be afraid to spit. With almost 50 wines being offered, we don't want to have to clean up any messes or remove overly indulgent guests...

5. Use the hashtags #drinklocal and #colwine. This is our best way of generating buzz for Colorado wine at this event.

6. Have fun!

If you're there, be sure to stop by and say hi to me!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Let DrinkLocalWine week commence...

The 2012 Drink Local Wine conference is now upon us. Wine and food media personalities from around the country are beginning to descend on Denver starting today! Activities include three media tours to wineries around the state, a media welcome dinner at the Governor's Residence at the Boettcher Mansion, three seminars featuring some of the top names in Colorado and regional wine, and the Nomacorc Twitter Taste-off with two dozen wineries pouring their best wines for media and the public alike to taste and tweet. After all of the Drink Local Wine festivities are complete, a few chosen tasters will stick around and judge at the Colorado Governor's Cup winemaking competition. The award-winning wines will be presented at a special tasting at the Governor's Residence on June 7, just days before the Colorado Urban Winefest in Sculpture Park at the Denver Performing Arts Complex on June 9. The next few weeks are going to be a busy time for the Colorado wine industry, but I think all this effort is going to pay off. People from around the country are finally going to see what Colorado wine has to offer.

In fact, one of the DLW media guests, Joe Roberts of 1WineDude.com and Playboy.com, penned a prologue to his experience at DLW. His main thesis was that he has low expectations for Colorado wine, but that he is not going to let his preconceived notion get in the way of fairly judging the local juice in the same way that he does wine from the world's major wine regions. He "firmly believe[s] that part of that encouragement is being brutally honest about the quality of each individual wine that crosses [his] lips when [he's] in critic mode." I commend him on this and hope that our local wineries are not offended if/when he pans some of their wines. Constructive criticism is something that I think some local vintners have a hard time accepting. All wineries, not just Colorado wineries, need to always seek ways to improve their wines, especially if they think that their wines are already great. As I've said before, there is no such thing as a perfect wine. If you're not always striving to improve, your beginning to fail.

That being said, I think Joe is going to be awesomely and pleasantly surprised. I think that the best of Colorado wine deserves to be in the same conversation with the best wines of the world. I've shown over and over again that when people have their preconceived notions about regional wine hidden by a brown bag they can see that Colorado's wineries can produce wine that is on the same quality level of wineries in Napa and Bordeaux. The Drink Local Wine conference is a small baby step in proving this to the rest of the world. I encourage all of my readers (my mom and my wife...) to raise a glass and celebrate local wine where ever you might be. And if you're in Colorado, I'd better see you at the Drink Local Wine conference this weekend and at the Colorado Urban Winefest June 9!

Cheers!

Monday, April 16, 2012

Ben's Bubbly: Wrap-Up

Ben - 1 year
Each of the past 52 weeks, my wife and I have opened a bottle of sparkling wine in honor of our son Ben's first year. The wines helped us celebrate moments from bringing our baby home to him running around and beginning to talk. We've taken him on plane rides and road trips. He's attended two weddings and is eagerly awaiting the arrival of a few new friends. We've had quite an adventure celebrating a year of firsts: the first time he rolled over, the first time he sat up, his first tooth, his first steps, his first signed word, his first spoken word, his first solid food, his first scratch, first day of school. I bet I could continue that list ad infinitum.

During this adventure, we drank 54 different sparkling wines (doubling up Mother's Day week and Valentine's Day) from 11 different countries. Here are a few statistics from this little endeavor:


Friday, April 13, 2012

Colorado vs. Virginia with Terroirist.com (Red Blends edition)

Last month, I found myself in Washington, D.C. for a work trip. On one of my free nights, I got together with David White, founder of Terroirist.com, and some members of his local tasting group for a Colorado vs. Virginia wine blind tasting. We opened 28 different bottles of wine from Colorado and Virginia, with a few ringers thrown in. We started the festivities with a flight of viogniers (12) followed by a slightly larger flight (16) of red blends. Today, I will post the results from the Red Blends flight. You can find the results for the viognier flight on yesterday's post.

All wines were wrapped in foil and randomly numbered. We poured two at a time, in no particular order (I've listed them here sequential for clarity). The group discussed each wine as they were tasted, but the identities were not revealed until all wines in a flight were tasted and voted on. The results revealed that while both regions have some work to do to be consider "world-class," they both produce some pretty good wine right now. The notes that follow are my own, though I do note the wines that were determined to be the best as voted on by the group. While I did take brief notes during the tasting, I somehow managed to not write down the vintages for the wines. C'est la vie!

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Colorado vs. Virginia with Terroirist.com (Viognier edition)

Last month, I found myself in Washington, D.C. for a work trip. On one of my free nights, I got together with David White, founder of Terroirist.com, and some members of his local tasting group for a Colorado vs. Virginia wine blind tasting. We opened 28 different bottles of wine from Colorado and Virginia, with a few ringers thrown in. We started the festivities with a flight of viogniers (12) followed by a slightly larger flight (16) of red blends. Today, I will post the results from the Viognier flight. Check back tomorrow for the red blend results.

All wines were wrapped in foil and randomly numbered. We poured two at a time, in no particular order (I've listed them here sequential for clarity). The group discussed each wine as they were tasted, but the identities were not revealed until all wines in a flight were tasted and voted on. The results revealed that while both regions have some work to do to be consider "world-class," they both produce some pretty good wine right now. The notes that follow are my own, though I do note the wines that were determined to be the best as voted on by the group. While I did take brief notes during the tasting, I somehow managed to not write down the vintages for the wines. C'est la vie!

Monday, April 9, 2012

Ben's Bubbly: Champagne Doyard, Collection de l'An I

Well, we finally made it. We successfully raised our first child to one year of age. And in doing so, we consumed one bottle (sometimes more) of sparkling wine for the past 52 weeks. The past year has been just the first chapter on a fantastic journey that I hope lasts for the rest of my life. Everyone always says to cherish these early times in a child's life because they grow up so fast. I just never knew how fast this year would go and how much Ben would grow. From the helpless, wrinkly little baby we took home 4 hours after his birth to the walking and talking energetic (and sometimes quite impatient) little boy who always brings a smile to my face (well, maybe not when he smacks me in the face while I am asleep), I have enjoyed every moment so far. When my wife and I decided to open a bottle of bubbly for every week of his first year, I mostly thought it would be good to have consistent material for the blog. But opening a bottle to celebrate Ben every week has meant so much more. Every week for the past year we were able to relax, reflect and recover all in the name of Ben. Who knew something that requires so much work could be so fun and rewarding (well, all of you parents knew that already)!

Two weeks ago, Ben enjoyed his first Spring Break with Mom and his grandparents all came over for his birthday party. At the end of the day, he was covered in dirt, frosting and dog hair. What a good day for a little boy. Unfortunately, Ben started to feel a little under the weather at day care on his birthday. He recovered quickly, but he had to stay home with on Thursday and Friday. We had a good time just hanging out and enjoying the beautiful spring weather. We are so excited to have a yard that Ben can call his own and play in for the years to come.

Friday, April 6, 2012

I would walk 500 miles (well, at least drive 500 miles for Krug)

Krug House
Last December I received an email from Champagne Krug, inviting me to series of tastings and fun holiday events in swanky Aspen. Krug is Champagne legend, the likes of which I had never tasted. I immediately began plotting how my wife and I could arrange childcare for our nine-month old and make our way to Aspen on only a few days notice. However, given the short notice, we couldn’t make a weekend of it so I decided to drive there and back in the same day. After all, wine with a reputation like Krug is a worth driving for eight hours (round trip).

I set out early in the morning to make my one o’clock appointment. When you have an interview set up with Krug’s winemaker on her first visit to the United States you make sure you get there early. After a long drive with all the ski traffic, I made my way up the mountain roads of Aspen and pulled to up a palatial house with only a large bottle of Krug at the end of the driveway announcing that I had found my destination.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Meet the Winemaker: Clyde Spero (Spero Winery)

Clyde Spero
North Denver is not the ideal spot for a winery, but Clyde and June Spero have been making it work since 1996. Born to Italian immigrants, Clyde is definitely an old-school winemaker. In homage to his Italian ancestors Spero imports all of its uniquely shaped wine bottles from Italy. They have sourced their grapes from a variety of locations, including their own vineyard in Denver (which has since been removed), but also Palisade, CO, Lodi, CA and even an unlikely vineyard in Pueblo, CO. Spero's wines are definitely unique and quite popular amongst their supportive customer base. If you're looking for a new wine experience in Denver, stop by Spero's recently updated winery and say hello to Clyde and June!

Monday, April 2, 2012

Ben's Bubbly: Sektkellerei Szigeti Grüner Veltliner Brut

This was a busy week for Ben, which was perfect because it was spring break for Mom, so he was only at daycare for Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday evening, Grandma and Grandpa from Wisconsin flew in for Ben's first birthday party. It is very weird to think that Ben is almost one year old already! We actually had his party almost a week early and we sure lucked out with the weather. It was in the 70s and 80s for the better part of the last week of March. Ben had a grand time hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa; he went on walks, went to the park, played with new toys, and even played in the dirt a little bit! He had so much going on that I am sure that he will sleep well for the next week! I know I will.

Sektkellerei Szigeti Grüner Veltliner Brut

It is not too often that you see a sparkling Grüner Veltliner. I was trying to find something unique for the penultimate bubbly. With my parents in town, I decided to have a little fun opening it. I really think that sabering sparkling wine is one of the coolest wine traditions and I have attempted it twice in the past, once successfully and the other not so much. I don't have a wine saber, so I grabbed a drywall saw. I found the seam on the bottle and in one fell swoop popped of the top of the bottle and the cork with an exceptionally clean decapitation. I was so eager to show of that I forgot to have someone record my feat. I poured a glass for the four adults, much to Ben's chagrin. The wine was a very light yellow with a slight green tint. The nose was subtle but with nice aromas of peaches, green apples and tart citrus. You will not confuse this Brut with a true Champagne, but it is nonetheless a nice wine. Not surprisingly, it tastes like Grüner Veltliner with bubbles added. The flavors were one-dimensional with crisp lime and grapefruit and a very short finish. It went down smoothly, but lacked any complexity. 12% abv Purchased $18. Good