Tasting A Little Wine... The Guidelines & What To Look For.

So tonight I will discuss a couple things wines and the vintages, and tasting. When I talk about vintages, I mean estimating the age of the wine by studying it in the glass.

So, how do we indentify the estimated age of a wine.. It's actually quite simple. But I will take it one step at a time. With a white wine during the aging process the wine will begin to go from a very light, hay color to a more golden color. This happens as the oxygen comes in contact with the wine over time. It is a reductionist reaction that is pretty natural. In fact, if a wine is made "perfect" meaning no air comes in contact with the wine at all during the production process it will actually turn brown temporarily because of the small amount of oxygen it does come in contact with during the bottling phase. But when analyzing a wine there are two things to look for. One and this holds true for whites and reds. When you tilt the wine glass and look toward the rim of the glass at the wine, you will see a slight separation between the color and a simple transparent rim around the wine. The larger this transparent rim, the older the wine is. And as the wines get older the more golden it will become.

On the red side, when the wine is young, you see the deep dark color of the wine. As that wine ages, you will see it get lighter and working it's way toward a rust color. Now by the time it gets to be full out rust or orange in color, it will be bad and oxidized, or have just turned. But as the red wine ages, it will form this color. Many wines from Bordeaux, Italy and Cabernets, Syrahs, and Zins from Cali take a LONG time to do this. These are just some things to look for if the bottle isn't handy to show vintage.

As we move on to tasting, there are some very important steps to remember. These are the guidelines that I go through and it has become routine for me with EVERY new bottle of wine I open.

1. If the wine label shows that the wine was "UNFILTERED," you want to decant the wine to get rid of all the sediment that may be floating at the bottom of the glass. That's the worst thing to get when you are drinking wines. Little floaties of sediment that wasn't decanted.

2. Before you drink the wine, always, and I mean always smell the wine, look for certain aromas. Sometimes you will find rose petals, or cow poop (as I mentioned in my first post) I will refer to this as barnyard now. But that dirty, wet dirt on the forest floor. That is common of many Italian wines. But when you smell the wine, really get your nose in there! Every wine has it's own characteristics, look for them in the aromas. And if you are having trouble getting an aroma out of the wine, put your hand over the top of the glass, swirl the glass, pull your hand away and give it a deep sniff! Look for fruits, or veggies or barnyard, or whatever it is you smell!!! You may smell eraser from a #2 pencil, and that is okay. It's your sense of smell! Take those aromas in before you taste the wine.

3. Finally taste the wine, and suck oxygen in through your mouth. Don't worry it will take some practice. You WILL have your accidents, I assure you of that! But swish it around in your mouth for a few seconds like you would mouthwash. Let the wine touch every inch of your mouth. Use your thoughts of the aromas and all the sensory parts of your mouth to make a conclusion of the wine. Many times and mostly always you will back up your original thoughts of the aromas while the wine is in your mouth because your sniffer is the most important part of wine tasting.

Pay attention to the mouthfeel, do you taste the wine from the tip or your tongue to the back of your tongue and into your throat? What does that mean? Well what it does mean, is that if there is a taste that spreads the width and length of your tongue from start to finish, that the wine is fairly well balanced. Now there are many other things that determine if a wine is perfectly balanced or not, but we will get into those details as we start talking about specific varietals. If there is an immediate sense or taste at the beginning it is usually a touch sweet in it's own way, then there will be a taste on the middle of your tongue going from the middle crease to both sides of your tongue. (FYI the sides of your tongue sense saltiness, and there isn't salt in wine so it shouldn't ever taste salty). Then to the back of your tongue. If the taste lasts for a long time, it means it has a finish. That generally indicates a well made wine.

So, okay, we talked about tasting in a quick lesson, it wasn't the most informational, but you have to admit, we did get a little "wine-nerdy" tonight. We will have more of these little lessons in the future. But not always. I am not that serious of a person. So, with that being said, I will talk with you all tomorrow! Any questions, please feel free to ask, I'd love to hear from ya!

And, as I end every blog, I say....
Enjoy your friends, enjoy your family, enjoy life and the wines your drink from day to day. But enjoy the wines responsibly!
Cheers!

New World and Napa Valley

So..... The first blog post about wine.

One of the things that I will talk about right now to get it out of the way is that we as an American consumer will almost, and I say almost always go look for the California cabernet before a left bank, Bordeaux from St. Julien. Or even a Merlot from Napa, before a Merlot from Pomerol. Why? Because the average wine drinker, just doesn't know what to look for in French wines. Years ago, when the California wine industry started to boom, the winemakers and winery owners came up with this profound idea. Put the name of the grape varietal on the label.

Well, now there are rules and regualtions to that, and every country has thier own. We will get into specifics as we work on each country in coming blog posts. For California, the minimum is 75% of the the said varietal in order for the label to contain the sole varietal name of the wine.

In Napa Valley specifically, producers were originally known in the 70's for the creation of these big, bold Zinfandels from the very old vines that were planted there. They deemed Zin as the varietal of California. And to this day you don't see it anywhere else. However, in the late 80's and into the early 90's producers started pulling up these old gnarly vines of Zin and replanting with Cabernet Sauvignon. Today, producers are making a name for themselves with big, bold, chewy Cabernets. I mean look at this Screaming Eagle, one of the most sought after "cult wines" of all time is Cabernet. So with all that being said Cabernet has been the king of Napa Valley for some time now.

Moving into other new world countries and regions, we address Argentina. Argentina is mountainous, and hot, and dry. And you would think NOTHING would grow there right? WRONG, Argentina grows and produces one of the oldest grape varietals known today.... Malbec. Originally grown France, Malbec has made quite a name for itself in Argentina. The reason for this is because Malbec's vines have the ability to withstand all that rough, ragged climate. The Malbec vine, like many others will grow in gravelly soil. It will work it's roots down as deep into the ground as it needs to, to find it's water source. But the funny thing about the malbec grape is that it can grow on a cliff, with rocky dry soil and produce some of the best wine we can find today.

Some questions I am asked quite often are, why is it that Argentina, and Chile, and South Africa can make wine so cheaply? And, how is it SO good? Well the answer to that is simple, Argentina, is NEW WORLD, and I mean new... Argentina has really only made a name for itself in the past 10-15 years. And believe me, the prices are slowly creeping upward. But the cost to plant in Argentina is a fraction of the cost that it is here in the states, and in France. See, today growers and landowners know that there is high value to the land they own in Napa and elsewhere. 40 and 50 years ago it wasn't that way. Because California and the likes where pretty much untapped potential.

Today, some of the wines that come out of Napa, Sonoma, Santa Ynez and more are some of the best wines based on varietal in the world. Oregon and Washington have crept into the picture with respective varietals that thrive. Oregon is producing some of the best Pinot Noir on the planet rivaling Burgundy believe it or not. And Washington too is producing some Cabernet Francs, Cabernet Sauvignons and so on that are so unique, that you won't find a taste like it anywhere else!

So, what I am saying to you is this... Check out Washington, Argentina, Oregon, and tell me what you think. I wanna know, really!!! You know what? In the future here, we will taste these wines together, head to head on USTREAM and I'll tell you what I think. I can't wait to hear what you think!

So to that I say....
enjoy your friends, enjoy your family, enjoy life and the wines your drink from day to day. But enjoy the wines responsibly!

Welcome To My 1st Blog Post

Hey everyone, thanks for taking the time to drop in on my blog. My name is Jeff Stesiak, and I will be talking about many many things. Many of the things I will talk about will pertain to life, family, friends, and my passion and career... WINE!!!

There will be many topics that I will talk about pertaining to wine. From the most basic informational things to recommendations of wines, and other things.

One of the many things you may want to know is that I participate in EVERY social network you can think of. And if I am not participating, hit me up and let me know, because I will join that network. I want to know what my followers are doing and I want you to know what's up with me. I post updates to Twitter and Facebook very regularly. So friend me up on Twitter (jcstaz), Cork'd (jcstesiak), or Facebook (my name is above). I will be creating a Facebook Fan Page as more and more of you start to take an interest in what's going on with my blog, and all the things I write about. I also regularly review wines on Cork'd, and it would be awesome if all of you wanted to do the same. I will do tastings along with you on U-Stream, and we can review the wines together.

But here's the thing, this blog is supposed to be about wine in some sense or another because, that's what my passion is, and I hope that if wine is some part of your life, you'll follow along with me!

So here we go, some of the things I will talk about to start with, are the basics of tasting wines, and what to look for. Some of intricacies that go along with tasting the wines. Oh, and let me be VERY clear, I'm NOT a WINE SNOB, I'm not a sommelier, and I don't intend to be any time soon. I will tell you if I do, or don't like the wine, I will tell you if the wine smells like cow poop, or if it tastes like a chocolate covered strawberry. Each of those intricacies will appeal to some of you and not others. I understand this and that is why I won't tell you to go out and buy one wine or another. The thing II want more than anything else of this blog from a day to day basis, is for you to form your own opinions, and as one of the people I look up to the most Gary Vaynerchuck says, "trust your pal"... Meaning trust your own palate. Because you know what? My favorite tastes aren't the same as your favorite tastes.

So, until next time, enjoy your friends, enjoy your family, enjoy life and the wines your drink from day to day. But enjoy the wines responsibly!

I'll talk to you all next time!