Exploring Grenache/Garnacha

Historically, the Grenache grape variety has been, and is still, heavily grown in southern France and Spain, but in more recent decades has become prolific in Australia and the United States.  It is also cultivated in Italy and Sardinia.  In Southern France, Grenache is typically blended with Syrah and Mourvedre, and in Spain, where it is called Garnacha, it is typically blended with Tempranillo.  In fact, Grenache is the third most cultivated black wine grape variety in the whole world, just short of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. It ranked number one in Australia until 1960 when Shiraz took the lead down under. Two other synonyms for Grenache besides Garnacha include Alicante (Sardinia), and Cannonau (Italy).

The grape produces medium to full bodied wines with red fruit character( strawberry, raspberry), herbs, liquorice, and black pepper spice.  It is typically lower in acidity, and higher in alcohol.

Grenache is the key grape in two of the world’s classic wines, Chateauneuf-du-Pape of France, and Vega Sicilia of Spain. Grenache is also heavily used in both countries to produce quality rose wines.  One such French classic rose example that you may have heard of is Tavel. 

The classic food pairing for Grenache or Grenache blends is grilled lamb, but it also pairs well with any barbecued, roasted, or braised red meat.  The wine also pairs nicely with Cheddar, Fontina, and firm cheeses made from sheep milk.

Is Grenache a favorite of yours?  I hope so, but if not, the reason might be that you’ve simply never experienced a quality, world class, Grenache.  When produced in its perfect “terroir”, Grenache is magnificent.  I’m in the process of bringing together five selections from the regions of the world that excel in producing world class Grenache that is truly worthy of your attention.   

What are we having?  We will taste three Grenache varietal selections, one from Spain’s Aragon region where Garnacha is believed to have originated, another from right here in California (well sort-of here), specifically from the Chalone AVA of Monterey County, and the third one from the McLaren Vale region of South Australia.  You will recognize the grape’s signature character in all three samples, but what gets real exciting is to experience firsthand the difference that terroir makes.  The last two selections will both be Grenache blends, one from the Catalonia region of northeastern Spain, and another classic blend from the Southern Rhone region of France.   You will truly know what Grenache tastes like when you leave this tasting, and I suspect will have a renewed appreciation for this beautiful grape variety.

When you’re in the area, stop by and let’s visit.   I’m sure I can find a bottle of something interesting to open.

Cheers!

Our Merlot Theme Tasting, 2/3/2012 and Upcoming Themes

Our Merlot Theme Tasting, 2/3/2012 and Upcoming Themes:

The tasting Friday night was certainly fun for me, and I hope it was half as much fun for those of you that joined us for the Merlot theme.  As is always the case, the more the merrier.   Although the tasting was technically one of Merlot varietals and blends, I think the selections represented a pretty good cross section of the world-class Merlots.  It’s very difficult to determine if any single wine was a clear winner, but what was clear is that the blends turned out to be favored over the varietals, even though the varietals were both pretty dog-on good. Thanks for everyone that participated.

Next week of course, we’re going to venture into the dark side and provide an interesting pairing of wines with chocolates (2/10.2012).  It’s definitely challenging, and always fun.  Even if you don’t like chocolate, my bet is that your valentine does, so plan now on grabbing your valentine and joining us for this chocolate and wine event.  I’m still deciding on the wine list, so be patient, and be prepared for a surprise or two.

Following next week’s chocolate theme, is our final varietal-based theme for at least five weeks.  On February 17^th, we’re going to taste Grenache (or Garnacha for some) from around the world.  Grenache is very popular from Australia, Spain and California, but probably most popular from France, especially southern France including the southern Rhone and Languedoc regions.  Some of the most well recognized Grenache blends of all time are still being produced in the famous Chateauneuf-du-Pape, formerly “Vin du Pape” or wine of the Pope appellation near Avignon.   Our Grenache selections will include a CDP as well as four other selections from other world-class quality Grenache producing regions of the world.

Following the Grenache theme we will then attempt to squeeze in four more regional themes, before spring. These regional themes will include Italy’s Piemonte region on February 24^th, France’s Rhone region on March 2^nd, Italy’s Veneto region on March 9^th, and then France’s Burgundy region on March 16^th.  They should all be fun and will hopefully represent some of the finest quality wines being produced from these regions.  After that, the sky is the limit. 

I’m still working on the themes that will follow Burgundy in mid March.  I suspect by then that spring will be sprung and we’ll all be thinking more about white and rose wines.  I am always interested in receiving new ideas for future themes from my customers.  Please send me your suggestions.  We already have a special new offering coming-up for this spring.  You will be hearing more about that soon.  I hope that you will attend as many of my theme tastings as possible.  I’m making every effort to hold the price down to $15 for each tasting. As always, there will be cheese or something tasty to enjoy with the wine selections.

Also, don’t forget where we are when you need to pick-up a quality bottle of wine.  I try very hard to always carry an interesting selection of wines, all of which are high quality and good values.  I know, everybody throws around the “quality” word, but few understand what it really means.  If you don’t know, then maybe it’s time to register for one of my Wine-101 Fundamental classes and find out.  Ask me about it the next time you visit.

Cheers!!

Wine Fundamentals 101 Class

Lowell’s Wine List is a Wine Specialty shop that recently opened at the Faucette House behind the Post Office at 105 East Trollinger Avenue in Elon.  Our hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 10am -7pm.  Our mission is to provide an interesting selection of quality wines for all palates and pocketbooks, to ease the wine selection process, to educate and cultivate wine enthusiasts, to provide a comfortable place to enjoy a glass of wine with friends, and to hopefully remove some of the intimidation that may often take away from one’s wine experience.

We will be offering a Wine Fundamentals class on Wednesday evenings after store hours from 7-9pm for those interested in attending.  The class is informal, and is intended for anyone that is interested in developing a better appreciation of wine by learning basic wine fundamentals such as:

• what is wine?
• what is so special about wine?
• how is wine made? 
• what grapes are used for producing wine?
• where do grapes grow?
• what are the wine categories?

We will also practice a more structured approach to observing and tasting wine.   We will be tasting wines from each wine category, and encourage questions and discussion.  The classes normally last a hour or two depending on questions.  The idea behind the fundamentals class is to build a foundation that will make any future advanced topics more interesting. 

Future topics may include topics like how to determine what a quality wine is, or what are the major quality wine producing regions of the world, or government wine classifications and wine laws, or what to consider when attempting to pair wine with food,  or how to read a wine label.  The list could go on and on, so topics will mostly depend on student interests.

Classes will be held with a minimum of six(6) pre-registered students.  We can accept up to ten(10) pre-registered students per class.  Group classes of 6-10 can be arranged and scheduled by special requests.  All students must be 21 years of age.  There is a $30 registration fee for the Wine 101 Fundamentals class, and students may register by signing-up for the Wednesday evening of preference and paying the registration fee.  Registered students will be notified on the Tuesday before class if there are not enough registered students to hold the class.  If the class is cancelled, pre-registered students may receive a refund, or may reschedule for another Wednesday class.  There can be no refunds for no-shows. 

Stemware

Selecting the right stemware is important:

You probably don't need a different glass for every single wine, however your glass selection is very important.  There are so many glasses to choose from that selection can be confusing and may result in a significant investment.  In general, the tulip shaped glass with a stem helps focus the most subtle aromas and best deliver the wine over the palate.  Wide rimmed glasses sometimes fail to focus the aromas toward the nose.  Glasses with no stems tend to have lots of unsightly fingerprints which can reduce visibility and certainly not enhance the observation of the wine.  They also deliver warmth to the wine by handling bowl and that usually is not the intent.  Small wine glasses are best used for serving fortified wines and dessert wines only because many times the serving amounts tend to be smaller.  Sparkling wines are best served from tall narrow flute shaped glasses to show off their mousse.  White still wines are generally served in medium sized tulips since these wines are often served chilled and aeration is not as necessary.  Red wines are generally served on larger tulip shaped stemware to enhance both observation and aeration.  The advantage to selecting clear and higher quality stemware is primarily due to the enhancement of observation.  The thin glass also favors consistent observation and nice clean laser-cut rims also enhance observation and delivery of the wine to the palate.  The down side to using high quality, thin, laser-cut, stemware is that they are easier to chip, break, and in many cases are not dishwasher friendly.  So what do you do?  I would recommend trying lots of different stemware before investing.   Believe me, you will decide that all glassware is not created equal, and you will narrow-in on the stemware that suits you and what you drink best.  You can definitely find middle-of-the-road priced, thin-glass, laser cut, tulip shaped glassware at reasonable prices depending on how much you agree with me on cost benefit.  You will discover your favorites.  You might at least consider stocking  appropriate stemware for Sparkling wines, White wines, and Red wines.  Whatever you select, use them every day and don’t save for just special occasions as you will lose the benefit all together.  Every time you open a bottle of wine, you have created a special occasion.

Cheers!

 

"Scary" Blind Tasting for Halloween

A short tool belt for blind tastings: 

What a Wine’s Color May Reveal: 
Pay particular attention to the color of the wine, especially the colors displayed around the rim of the wine in the glass.  Young white wines usually begin with lighter colors such as a pale straw yellow with a tinge of green which is always a bit of a give-away that the wine is young.  With age however, the whites tend to become much darker yellow to perhaps even brownish tones after several years of aging.  In reds, look for purple color in very young wines with a clear watery rim.  With age, reds tend to turn more garnet, especially around the rim and can eventually appear amber to brown over time.   With practice, you may miss the

vintage a bit, but you should nail the relative difference in age just from paying attention to the color.  One more thing to remember is that you can make a white wine from a red grape but not a red wine from a white grape. 

Varietal Character and Flavor Profiles: 
If a Granny Smith apple taste like a Granny Smith apple, then that Granny Smith apple is said to possess good varietal character.  Only thing is, you have to know what a Granny Smith apple is supposed to taste like.  The same thing can be said of wines.  Each grape variety used to produce wine should produce a wine with a flavor profile that is consistent enough to identify the grape variety,thus one must know these flavor profiles in order to determine if a wine has true varietal character.  If a wine possesses good varietal character, then that counts as an important quality attribute for the wine, and can help one identify the grape variety used. 

Old World/New World 
Old world wines are those produced from the old world regions such as those in Europe.  New World wines are those generally produced everywhere else such as Australia, New Zealand, South America, South Africa, and the US.   Old World wines in general can tend to be a little less expressive in that they don’t always exactly jump out of the glass, but on the other hand may produced more subtle flavors and interests that just keep on coming taste after taste, or in other words be much bigger in complexity.  Old world wines also tend to get better with age so may tend to have more tannin, acid, or residual sugar to better preserve them over a longer laying down or cellaring period.  New world wines tend to be styled more toward drinking early and many times possess richer 

fruit up front with more relaxed tannins.  Those whose grapes are produced in warmer climates may possess more tropical characteristics in their flavor profiles and be richer in color.  If you are acutely aware of where quality grape varieties are produced, and aware of their flavor profiles, you may be able to narrow down old or new world and have a good shot at possibly identifying not only what the grape variety is, but where it was most likely produced. 

Connectedness 
A strange term, but very important when evaluating wine quality and identifying where a wine is from.  The French have a term “terroir” which embodies the entire environment of a grape’s character that includes the soil, the climate, the weather, and any other environmental factor that is important in producing the perfect varietal specimen.   That is why they only allow certain grapes to be grown in certain regions, and even refer to the wine by regional name instead of by grape varietal names.  Many believe that each different terroir will produce a unique flavor profile for any given grape variety, so that with training, one can identify where any wine’s grapes were grown.  This difference or this attribute that “connects” a grape with a unique place on earth is a high quality attribute known as “connectedness”.  An example would be the rich limestone minerality of the Chardonnay grapes produced only in Chablis, France or the fresh cut grassiness of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc or even the eucalyptus from the Cabernet Sauvignon grown in Coonawarra, Australia.  This quality attribute may be the give- away when identifying the region where a wine comes from. 

Lowell Faucette 10/23/2011

Wine Classes

Wine Classes: For those interested in attending informal training classes, i.e., "Wine School", classes will (hopefully) begin Wednesday, October 12 and repeat each Wednesday in the month. I will schedule different topics each month unless popularity changes that. All classes will begin at 7:00pm (store closing time) and run one to two hours depending on discussion. Pricing will vary, but generally run around $30. Each class will include wine tastings that follow a theme associated with the topic. At least four students must register to hold a class, and I will limit the class size at first to six students. October's topic is "Basic Wine Fundamentals" just to establish a good base knowledge that will make other topics more meaningful and interesting. Suggestions, comments and questions welcome.

Lowell

8/4 Update

Well, the countdown has begun.................there are only 32 more days left to prepare for opening on September 6th.  There's probably a 75% chance of making that target.........still lots to do.

My wine racks are in place.  I've obtained the wine lists from seven local distributors so far...........Epicure Wines, The Country Vintner, Johnson Brothers, American Premium, Freedom Beverage, Haw River Wine Man, and Fine Wine Trading Company.  There are lots of choices from these listings, and there are many more distributors out there.  Hopefully I'll begin to place my orders for my initial inventory within a couple weeks.  

Northstar is the marketing firm that is helping me develop my "brand" or logo.  They have been very patient with me and we're definitely making progress.  The credit card processor guy met with me today to initiate a contract.  The painters are busy scraping and painting our porch columns, windows, and shed pergola.  

That reminds me...........we need to name the shed...........it's turning out really cool too.  We moved out the refrigerator today to make room for the cellar whenever it arrives.  My point-of-sale system hasn't arrived, but I have received a link to my new system to begin working with my wine database.  

Captain Dick Aldridge is busy helping me develop my facebook page, and my good friend Mary Alice Hinshaw is busy helping me develop my blog.  There's so much going on right now, but it's all so much fun that I can't stand it.  If I get frustrated, I just have to remind myself that this is my dream job and it's not brain surgery, so everything will be just fine, after all, we still have 32 more days to go.  

I can't wait to begin tasting wines and making my final selections.............how fun will that be?

-Lowell