Wine Blogging Wednesday is a monthly wine tasting event, hosted by a different wine blogger each month. Participants all over the world taste a wine that fits each month’s theme and write a post, then a roundup of the notes is posted on the host’s blog. WBW was originated by Lenn Thompson of Lenndevours, a Long Island wine blog. This month’s theme is hosted by The Winehiker, who challenged us to taste a wine that reminds us of the great outdoors. In just a few short weeks I’ll be doing a hike with the Wine Hiker himself at the first annual Wine Bloggers Conference in Sonoma, making this edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday all the more special!
I selected Wild Earth Central Otago Pinot Noir 2006 for a few reasons. The obvious one is its name, and the description on the bottle. Wild earth sounds like a rugged hike through the wilderness, where you experience the earth in its essence, unrestricted and free. The description on the bottle drew me in further:
“Wild Earth expresses the essence of an untamed land far from the pressures of a crowded world… Our Pinot Noir vineyards are located in the rugged alpine landscape of Central Otago, sited on the respected Felton Road and overlooking Lake Dunstan. This Pinot Noir was made from clones 5,6 and a range of Dijon clone vines, tended by hand and crafted with devoted care in the traditional manner.”
Does it get any more perfect than that? The description is so uncommercial and natural. How many consumers have heard of a Dijon clone? And yet, they chose to mention it on the bottle. It feels like casual, down-to-earth grower jargon, rather than a selling piece. I dig that. It intrigued me. On to the wine:
It’s a classic Pinot Noir hue of deep ruby fading to a more pale purple rim. The nose has some delicate red cherry and hints of oak and musty earth, like wet leaves. The aromatics aren’t pronounced, it’s a more delicate wine. On the palate it’s balanaced and rich with more cherry and some slight tannin. The finish is shorter than I would have liked but overall this is a nice wine. Joe Czerwinski gave the 2004 vintage an 89 and I’d say the 2006 is a little better, more like a 90. It’s $30 and clocks in at 14% alcohol.
The fact that the wine is from New Zealand reminds me of one of my favorite family hikes that we took on the Mildford Track in 2005. The walk took a few days and we stopped at various camp sites along the way with our guide. It was lush and damp for most of the hike and the smell of wet leaves would permeate our days. The most special moment was when we actually encountered a Kiwi Bird, the National bird of New Zealand. They are incredibly rare and our guide couldn’t believe his eyes when we encountered it. He actually teared up.
I’d go back to the Milford Track and drink the Wild Earth 2006 Pinot Noir, any day.
This is really rad. Go to about 9 minutes in and you’ll see how Microsoft Surface can be used as a great tool for making wine selections. I can’t imagine this being applicable to fine dining, but certainly a great feature to have at wine bars. Notice how the glass can sync up with the wine you’ve selected and it shows how you feel about the wine. Could be a great way to meet new people? The possibilities are endless. How do you see this product being used? New MS Surface Apps at CES 2008
I came across this interesting site, Chateau Petrogasm, which uses images for wine reviews. “Wine is art, drinking should be too!” they say. They use anything from images in nature to modern art to photos of pop rocks to represent each wine. As I scrolled through the images I found myself getting frustrated. “What do they mean by this?” I thought to myself. “A broken TV? A picture of James Brown for a Tuscan red? What could THAT mean?” But alas, there are no explanations as that would be antithetical to the purpose of the site. Some, like Dr. Debs, say that deciphering the meaning behind the images is the whole fun of it.
Is there possibly a use for a system of this nature? In all seriousness, what could it be? Maybe language translation? Just fun? Any other ideas? In any case, they clearly state on the home page: “Our goal is to relax the standards of reviewing wine and balance pragmatism with fun so that more people can enjoy the pleasures of drinking and sharing the experience.” That’s something I’m all for. As I always say, anything that breaks down the barriers of wine intimidation is a good thing. Cheers!
First off wow, Conan is crazy tall! He made Vaynerchuk look a little shrimpy- they should have setup a platform or something
Since that’s out of the way, Vaynerchuk did a good job overall. He had pretty good chemistry with Conan and he definitely had me giggling when he was eating the dirt and sweaty socks. Conan gave him a bit of a hard time with the whole experiment though and wasn’t really buying into it. He should have gone along with it and at least pretended to get it-give the guy a break!
I do wish he had gotten more of an opportunity to talk about the state of the wine world and what he’s been trying to accomplish. There was a little too much time spent on the wine tasting and “palate training” which I thought could have been used for a greater discussion of wine. But maybe people are not ready for that and the general public just doesn’t care at this point. Perhaps that’s the direction they gave him i.e. “eating dirt will be memorable, blabbing about wine will not be.” In conclusion, I don’t think this was the performance to launch his career as a regular TV personality but it will surely help get his name out.
48.8% of people who answered my poll predicted that “He will do very well, he’s so entertaining after all!” I do think this was the winning answer. I am very curious to hear what other people have to say about it. So, how do you think he did?
Gary Vay-Ner-Chuk, owner of the wine retailer WineLibrary.com and recent owner of Corkd, is all over the wine world these days. Recently, he’s been featured in New York Magazineand just about every wine blog out there.
If you are unfamiliar with Vaynerchuk, he has become popular through his off-the-wall video tastings where he spits into a large Jets decalled spattoon and describes wine as tasting like “dirty, sweaty socks” and things of that nature. His videos receive hundreds of comments- and he posts daily. He’s a huge proponent of Web 2.0 and has paved the way for many other wino-Geeks with his extensive use of Twitter, MySpace and recently, his own Facebook application. He’s taking the wine world by storm and he’s impossible to ignore. Personally, I find his style to be obnoxious but if he makes wine more approachable and popular, I’m on his team.
He’s breaking out of the web world and hitting late night TV this Thursday at 12:35 AM on Conan O’Brien. So, how do you think he’ll do?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock lately, you’ve at least seen or heard the concept of Web 2.0. This phrase refers to the widespread internet trend of community based websites and tools which allow people to share information. Social media services such as Digg,Del.icio.us and Reddit all fall under this category as does this blog. So, what does this mean for wine?
Since wine first became popular in the U.S., there were a limited number of experts. Beginning with Robert Parker, The Wine Spectator, and the Wine Enthusiast, people have always looked to the palates of critics to determine what to drink. With so many wines to choose from, one wants to make an educated purchase of wines with higher ratings. Unfortunately, with this came the intimidation factor. With so few experts around, folk are scared to share their opinions about wine for fear of sounding uneducated. What if I hated this wine but the Wine Enthusiast gave it a 92? Does that mean I have bad taste? Certainly not. What if I am supposed to smell strawberries but I get cherries? Fine by me.
Each person’s palate is unique and one person’s 92 may be another person’s 85. Wine reviews are there as a starting point. Reviewers who taste wines for a living know the basics of balance, flavor, development etc. Their ratings are important, but it always makes me sad when people are afraid to talk about wine because of the intimidation factor. The more people are comfortable with wine, the more people will drink it- an obvious benefit for all parties involved.
Enter Web 2.0, from stage left. What a wonderful way for people to share their opinions about wine in a friendly, fun environment. Sites like Winelog,Snooth, and Corkd allow people to become members, rate wines, make friends, receive recommendations and far more. On Winelog for example, you can create excel spreadsheets of wines you’ve tasted, print tasting notes, and even have reviews sent to your phone. And of course, other Web 2.0 services such as widgets and RSS feeds of your favorite wines are built into every site. Checkout my “recent wine ratings” widget in the right sidebar
I’ve been meaning to blog about this for quite some time as I think it’s an important development for the world of wine. No longer do wine ratings sit in an untouchable tower of intimidation. Now YOU are the expert.
I am in no way minimizing the importance of wine ratings from expert sources. In fact, these ratings become all the more important as wine becomes more popular throughout the world. People will always care about the opinions of those with knowledge. Just because Joe Shmo gives a wine 90 points, it is not necessarily a 90 point wine. The reviews of credible sources will always be haloed over the average quaffer. But there is a space for both and I feel that Web 2.0 is paving the way. Do you agree?
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