New Year's Wine Resolutions 2008

Last year, I made a set of wine resolutions and I did pretty well. My Spanish wine adventures led me to enjoy wines made from grapes and in regions I never knew before. I drank lots and lots of sparkling wine and never got tired of it, I assure you. I beat back some of my Burgundy anxiety, although I'm more sure than ever that Burgundy is never going to be a big thing in my wine life--unless I win the lottery. I kept my wine costs down, spending on average just $14.31 per bottle of wine this year. (vintage New Year's card from ca. 1925)

What's in store for 2008? In addition to continuing to do what I'm already doing to find and evaluate great value everyday wines, I have a new set of wine resolutions that will shape the posts on this blog, and increase my wine knowledge over the coming year. Without further ado, here are my wine resolutions for 2008:

1. Read More Wine Books: There are a lot of great wine books out there, and to my embarrassment I've read relatively few of them. I own them; I just don't read them. I talked to some fellow wine bloggers and discovered they, too, had stacks of books that they wanted to read. So with a group of over a dozen bloggers we're starting a new online blogging event: a bi-monthly Wine Book Club. I'll announce the details and the first host on January 3, and your host will tell you what book is up first for discussion. This will work along similar lines to Wine Blogging Wednesdays, except that we're giving you 2 months to read the book and reviews and discussion will take place the last Tuesday of every other month (i.e. February, April, June, August, October, and December 2008). We hope that you will participate by joining us in reading some classic, new, and award-winning books. Unlike wine, you can get wine books everywhere--even your local library.

2. Get to know the wines of Italy. I love Italy. I even read and speak Italian (but don't make me write it). So why are Italian wines such infrequent guests on my dinner table? I don't know the answer to that question, but I'm going to apply myself to getting to know Italian wines this year. With 21 separate regions and scores of indigenous grapes, it's going to be a fun resolution to keep and it may even take me two years to get from one end of Italy to the other. At my virtual side will be Terry Hughes, who writes the wonderful blog Mondosapore, and a stack of Italian wine books (some of which I may even read, see #1). I predict that by the end of the year Terry will dread finding my queries in his comments, but he was the inspiration for this year's geographic resolution, so hopefully he won't mind too much.

3. Finish out my Wine Century. The Wine Century Club is an organization of wine-lovers each of whom has tasted 100+ different grape varieties. Currently, I've tasted 85. The first 50 were easy, the next 35 fun but challenging, and the last 15--they required special purchases. So I've left no stone unturned, no shop unvisited, and have even managed to stay within my $20 ceiling and purchased varieties such as Romorantin, Teroldego and Nerella Mascalese . Happily, many of these varietals are Italian (see #2). Starting next week we'll be counting down the last 15 varietals to grape #100, so that I can put in my paperwork this spring. I highly encourage you to visit the site, get a form, and see where you are in your own Wine Century. It's fun, it' s a great way to learn more about wine, and you cross-train your palate with less familiar varietals and styles of wine making.

4. Dabble in Champagne without blowing my budget sky-high. Champagne, like Burgundy, does not play a large role in my wine life. To be honest, I find it daunting, and the price of the wines does not encourage amateur experimentation. Still, I should know more about champagne than I do, if for no other reason than it would be nice to get something more creative than Veuve Clicquot when I'm looking for a sparkling wine gift or treat for myself. I'm setting myself a limit of $50 for champagne, because it's SO expensive I cannot believe it. But, with some careful sleuthing and help from my friends in terms of recommendations, I want to get over my conviction that these wines are totally out of my price league and not worth the money. Stay tuned for the results, and if you have suggestions for particular makers please let me know.

5. Drink more dessert wines. As a rule, we don't eat dessert. But sometimes around 9 pm I want something sweet, not caffeinated, and comforting. This is the perfect opportunity to pour myself a small glass of dessert wine, and I sometimes do just that. I would like to know more about them, however, and try more sherries and ports. Catavino has been posting some great reviews of wines that sound perfect for winter nights, and I'm confident there's more out there to discover.

That should keep me busy for most of the year! What are your wine resolutions for 2008?

Riesling Excitement

There are times when you drink a bottle of wine and you get excited about the whole idea of wine all over again. Everything fades away but this one glass of magical liquid, and it's better than any other wine you remember. And if you weren't expecting to be blown away by the wine, it makes it all the more sweet and exciting. This is one of those times.

The wine responsible for all this excitement is the 2006 Lazy Creek Vineyards Riesling from the Anderson Valley which is quite simply the best domestic riesling I have ever had. How good is it? It blows the Eroica riesling (from the partnership of Ernst Loosen and Chateau Ste. Michelle) out of the water, and that's a pretty darn good wine. And, should this matter to you, if you put it in a brown paper bag, no one would guess this was a US riesling.

Mary Beth and Josh Chandler are the new owners of the second oldest vineyard in the Anderson Valley, and they make this wine the organic way. The Chandlers do not have a tasting room so much as they have a vat house where tastings can happen, if you make it down the lane and over the bridge spanning the creek, past any horses that are coming along the same road, and into their front yard. My parents did just this a few weeks ago, and scored this bottle from the Chandlers' 2500 case production. Lazy Creek's web site is (still) under construction, but it does list a phone number in case you are interested in visiting or getting your hands on some of this great wine.

What made the Lazy Creek riesling so great? Oddly enough, it was about what this wine wasn't--it wasn't sweet, it wasn't overly fruity, it wasn't flabby, and it wasn't over the top. Instead, it had restrained aromas of apple, lemon blossom, and sea spray that seems to come from the nearby Pacific Ocean and gives it a mineral edge. When you sipped some it was bone dry, with flavors of dry, tart apple, citrus, and stone. It was made with grapes picked from old Anderson Valley Clone #49 riesling vines brought from Alsace, and the result was a super, elegant, and well-delineated riesling of exceptional value. It was also excellent QPR at about $24.

I couldn't find this wine online, and the Chandlers seem to sell most of their production to loyal mailing list fans. A selection of Lazy Creek wines is available at K&L Wines, however, and ranges from $17 - $40. I've had their pinot-based NV red table wine at a Slow Food dinner at Oz Farm in Point Arena a few years ago and it was terrific, as was their chardonnay and their gewurztraminer which is similarly dry and elegant.

Like their neighbors at Navarro, Lazy Creek Vineyards seems determined to stay small, make excellent wine, and sell most of their wine directly to their customers--all of which will keep me excited about their wines for years to come.

Some New Wine Blogs for the New Year

There are some fresh voices in the wine blogosphere, and I wanted to point out some new blogs--or at least blogs that are new to me--that are becoming regular reading. Some of them are written by familiar visitors to this site, who are now contributing to the unfolding wine conversation here on the 'net. It's good to have you all in the neighborhood! (nifty wine blogger logo courtesy of Ryan Opaz's wine blogger information site)

Wine Scamp: Andrea Middleton blogs from the Lone Star state, and has been blogging since August. Tom Wark highlighted her blog a little while ago, and I have to agree that she is a great addition to the wine blogging scene. A great writer, with a wide-ranging palate, the Wine Scamp's lively posts will keep you coming back for more.

Anything Wine: John Witherspoon has a little chunk of heaven outside Richmond, and has been blogging since the summer of 2006. I'm not sure how I missed him for so long, but I'm glad that I found him! Another blogger with a wide-ranging palate, John is a Cork'd regular and dedicated to finding and commenting on wine news from around the world.

Wine Connections: regular reader Orion Slayer didn't think he could start a blog since he was just getting interested in wine. So far he's watched every episode of WLTV, and had a Seyval Blanc from Missouri. When you start drinking white wines from Missouri, you are ready to blog! Posts have slowed down during the holiday season, but I'm hoping OrionSlayer gets back in the swing with regular postings in 2008.

Indiscriminate Ideas: another regular reader, Jeff Cleveland, writes about life and wine and everything in between on his blog. Since October, Jeff's posts have started including more wine coverage and though he claims he's far from a wine blogger, I'm not so sure...

OeNo! Not Another Wine Blog: Eddie from New York wins the prize for creative wine blog title, and is a self-proclaimed "wine novice." Since November he's been sharing his tips and tricks for wine newbies, and writes clear and detailed tasting notes that are models of the genre in case you are looking for style pointers. With sub-headings like "the story," "the region," "the look," "the aroma," "the swish" (my favorite), and "the verdict," Eddie's tasting notes are not only fun to read they are elegantly structured and easy to read and grasp. Just when you thought there was nothing new in tasting notes, Eddie proves there is.

West Coast Wine Adventures: Amy (aka the SB Wine Advocate) is the most regular blogger on this site, and has a few other friends and colleagues who post on it as well. They've been blogging since August, and offer a wonderful perspective on California wines with a particular emphasis on Santa Barbara and the Central Coast. You can spend hours on their site following all the links and threads, and I encourage you to take some time and do just that.

Happy reading. There's a lot of good information on wine out there on the 'net. What have you found that you recommend?

Happy Holidays

Wishing you a happy and healthy holiday.

(picture of grape vines, Niagara Peninsula)

What People Are Drinking: Christmas 2007

Thanks to the miracle that is CellarTracker! it's once again possible to see what folks are popping open and tasting over the holiday. (image from Three Choirs Vineyard)

I've generated a search string that will update automatically to keep track of what users are opening, drinking, and writing notes about between 12/24 and 12/26. It's sorted by grape variety, but you can tinker with the structure of the list by playing with the options at the top of the page.

It's another fun snapshot of what's popular and what's not this holiday season. So far Cabernet Sauvignon is leading the charge, with Pinot Noir, blends from Bordeaux, Syrah, and Chardonnay rounding out the top 5.

What will you be drinking?