OneWebDay

Today is OneWebDay, a day for people to celebrate online life, reflect on the positive things the internet has brought into your life, and to work to protect this amazing resource and provide internet access to more people in the world.

As a blogger, I know first-hand how much the internet can change your life, and as an educator I know how much younger generations of readers and thinkers are coming to rely upon it for news and information of all kinds.

Do something today to make the internet a better place. Go to a site that enlightens or entertains you. Leave a comment, even if you are normally a lurker, and become a more active part of the internet revolution. Don't know where to go first? Pick any of the links on my sidebar, and begin the journey one step at a time.

What will I do for OneWebDay? Blog, of course. Open a bottle of wine, of course. And visit some of my favorite internet sites, which range from the sublime to the ridiculous, such as:

The Oxford English Dictionary
The New York Times
I Can Has Cheezburger?
Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog

You already know what some of my favorite 6 dozen wine sites are, so no need to list those! But they make for good OneWebDay surfing, too.

This Week's Wine Shopping Finds

After months on the Sonoma Coast, and then the start of classes, and then a trip to England, it's been a while since I hit the road and checked in with my local wine shops. The challenges of locating Portuguese wine in LA for WBW#38 gave me the perfect excuse to run around the Pasadena area. Unfortunately, I found absolutely no Portuguese wine to buy. Fortunately, I found lots of other good stuff!

My first stop was Colorado Wine Company, where they had some nice Spanish bottles of wine, and some great looking French wine, but no Portuguese wine other than a verdejo and I want to try to get bonus points this month! I could have bought one of every bottle of their French regional wines, but instead heard the voice of Joe from Joe's Wine Blog nudging me towards the gamay, which I haven't had for a while! I left the store with a nice bottle of gamay from the Loire, the 2005 Domaine de la Charmoise Gamay Touraine ($13.99). I've never had a gamay from these region, and am looking forward tot he experience.

Next, I stopped at Mission Wines in South Pasadena. No Portuguese wine there, either, except for a white that wasn't inspiring. I did, however, notice that they have a nice selection of Four Vines wines available, along with offerings from Sean Thackrey and Core so if you are in the mood for some more expensive treats, I highly recommend checking out Mission Wine. Added bonus: this Saturday from 12-4 they are having a wine tasting (just $5 with any wine purchase) that includes some nice Spanish and Spanish influenced offerings, like the 2006 Core C3 Tempranillo and the 2006 Onix Priorat Classico. Both of these wines retail for under $20, and you get to taste them first! I had the Core C3 at the Family Winemakers, and it was dynamite.

Last, but not least, I had a little buying binge at Chronicle Wine Cellar behind the Pie and Burger. With lots of exotic grapes dancing through my head after WBW #37, I found a 2005 Durigutti Bonarda ($7.95) from Argentina and a 2005 Domaine des Cassagnoles Vin de Pays Cotes de Gascogne ($6.95) that has ugni blanc in it which I've never had. I also couldn't resist a 2005 Domaine de la Frutiere Muscadet Cuvee M ($8.95), a 2002 Maxwell Four Roads shiraz-grenache-viognier blend ($14.95), and a cute 500ml bottle of the 2003 Enkidu Petite Sirah from the Napa Valley ($11.95).

Hopefully this will inspire all the LA area readers out there to go and visit a wine shop or two this weekend and get your own bottles of these interesting, affordable wines.

NV/MV: Nothing Wrong With That!

When you see NV (non vintage) on a wine bottle, what does it say to you? Does is say, "run away, this is a not very good wine?" Do you find yourself going past NV bottlings in wine stores in search of something with a vintage on it, even if you know nothing about vintages and aren't even sure that vintages matter in under $10 California syrah or chardonnay? Have you ever bought an NV wine that wasn't a sparkler?

It is my opinion, wine lovers, that there is absolutely nothing wrong with NV wines. I've had NV sparklers, reds, and whites. I don't recall that I've ever had a bottle that wasn't good to drink and awfully good value for the money. But NV wines still carry something of a stigma about them. To combat this prejudice, some vineyards are now labeling their formerly NV wines as "MV" wines--multiple vintage--to make the case that what you are drinking is actually a blend of juice made from grapes picked during different harvests. If you are already drinking blended varietals, why not blended vintages?

Now it is true that many NV or MV wines do not have the distinctive character that sets apart their vintage-designated siblings. Climate and growing conditions alter the quality and quantity of every harvest, and one of the things I love about drinking wine is that each vintage can differ from those that have preceded it. That's one of the reasons wine buffs love vertical tastings. But if you're looking for a good, everyday wine don't neglect the NV or MV bottles you might stumble across in the wine shops.

During the past year I've had more than 30 NV or MV wines, many of them sparkling wines from the US, France, and Italy. But I've also had some good still wines like the NV Sharpe Hill Vineyard Ballet of Angels, and the NV Saint-Cosme Little James's Basket Press. My most recent foray into NV still wines came about with the help of domaine547, who gave me a bottle of the NV Ojai Vineyards Ojai Red to try. ($19.99, domaine547) Ojai Vineyards make some superb syrah and pinot noir, which is outside of my normal, everyday wine price range so I was excited to be able to taste their much more affordable NV bottling. It was a very good mystery blend that clearly is based on syrah grapes. I thought it might contain some pinot noir, given its blueberry aromas, but domaine547 is sticking to the syrah theory! It's color was dark ruby, almost purple, and in addition to blueberries I smelled plums and rose petals. Tasting the wine, I detected blackberries and blueberries, freshly cracked pepper, and just a touch of cedar. The wine wrapped things up with a brambly finish of berries, herbs, and more cedar. This was a complex wine, and it took a while for it to open up and really shine, but when it did it was so enjoyable, and represented very good QPR.

So next time you see a NV or MV wine, don't just pass it by. Give it a try.

Portuguese Wine Tops NYT List of Reds Under $10

Fall is the time when many wine drinkers' fancies turn to red wines, and Eric Asimov and his tasting panel at the New York Times have come up with a list of ten under $10 red wines for you to consider.

Topping the list (and of potential interest to those who will be participating in next month's Wine Blogging Wednesday on Portuguese table wines), is a 2002 Casa Cadaval Ribatejano Padre Pedro. I only found merchants on the east coast who stocked this wine, but it sounded like a beauty. Also on the list were wines from France (including the easy-to-find 2006 Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais-Villages), Spain (the 2005 Vina Gormaz Ribera del Duero Tempranillo), Argentina (the 2005 Altas Cumbres Cabernet Sauvignon), Uruguay (the 2006 Domaine Monte de Luz Tannat), Australia (the 2005 Paringa David Hickinbotham Individual Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon), and California (the 2004 Ravenswood Vintner's Blend Merlot).

This is an article worth reading not just for the specific recommendations, but because Asimov highlights regions (some less than familiar to most wine drinkers, such as the Vaucluse) that have good value wines. Check out the list, see what you think, and feel free to add your under $10 red wine finds in the comments below. As always, I'd love to hear from folks who have had one of these bottlings and has an opinion they'd like to share!

Airline Wine in the Friendly Skies

Recently, over on Winecast, Tim Elliott began a very interesting discussion of airplane wine. In it, he wondered why it is so awful, and why someone like Cameron Hughes doesn't jump on the opportunity to get some of his wine into more airplane galleys. (wine stopper with plane by Herogear)

I just flew a transatlantic United Airlines flight, and this topic was much on my mind--especially as I'd been upgraded to business class in exchange for a zillion miles. As always, I sit in international business and wonder how I will ever survive my next coach journey because it really is SO much better. And yes, the wine is better too. Is if $4000 better, however? I don't think so.

When I got handed the menu, the first thing I looked at was the extensive wine selection picked for United by Doug Frost. Who is Doug Frost? One of the few to hold both a Master of Wine and a Master Sommelier distinction, it turns out. And his picks were really not bad, and they went well with the food. What was terrible was the temperature at which the wines were served (whites way too warm, and reds even warmer) and the itty bitty shot glasses on stems that passed as wine glasses. I had First Class in my sights, and can report that they got better glasses--but not much better.

And the wines in First Class didn't actually look better, either. They were getting Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc--we were getting a choice between the 2005 St. Supery Sauvignon Blanc and the 2005 Karst Kallstadter Kobnert Riesling Kabinett Trocken (I picked the second and had it been a tad cooler it would have been a very refreshing choice to accompany the curried chicken and rice that I had for dinner). I honestly couldn't read the red wine labels in First Class, but one looked like a Bordeaux and the other like a California red. Back in Biz, we had a choice between the 2005 Delas Freres Cotes du Rhone Saint-Esprit (which was really very good) and the 2004 Trapiche Oak Cask Cabernet Sauvignon. And they served NV Drappier Carte d'Or Brut Champagne and Sandeman Founders Reserve Port, too.

I returned in steerage--um, coach--rather than business class, and the wine was absolutely positively undrinkable. It was also unrecognizable. I'd never heard of any of them before, and as you know I do drink wine fairly regularly! My advice is stick to water if you're flying economy. It's better for you anyway. And if you're in business, remember that the wine they're serving you costs around $10 a bottle--nice, but not $4000 nice. Save your money and spend the $4000 on a nice wine refrigerator and $1000 worth of wine to put in it.