With today being Halloween, I thought it appropriate to share a few spooky wine accessories.
Personally, I need to buy a new wine stopper, and this one featuring a ghost certainly fits the bill. Unlike other cork stoppers, this one appears to use rubber to form a seal instead of cork. Since cork can dry out overtime, this one should last longer. And if ghosts aren't your thing, then there's this other one with a pumpkin.
Personally, I love those little ceramic houses that are popular in Hallmark for Halloween and Christmas. I have a small collection I pull out every Christmas and a smaller set for Halloween. But this Haunted House Cork stopper might become a new addition to my Halloween set.
Wine charms are a cheap an easy accessory to have around for a party, and these Halloween themed wine charms would make a nice addition to such a party.
If you can splurge a bit more on your party supplies, or you just like witches like my wife does, this Wicked Witch wine glass is fantastic. The colored glass would make this a poor choice for a wine tasting, but I'm thinking if you're buying this glass, you have seperate glasses for tasting.
While coasters are necessarily a wine accessory, you do have to put your glass down somewhere. These optical illusion coasters look eerie far away, but take on a different tone when viewed up close.
And finally, what geek wouldn't stop to marvel at these Ghostbuster themed coasters?
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Friday, October 26, 2012
What I'm Drinking: Witch's Brew
Conventional wisdom says that wine should not be warmer than room temperature. But then, conventional wisdom hasn't meet Witch's Brew by Leelanau Cellars from Northern Michigan. In addition to the red wine, spices have been added that are reminiscent of traditional mulling spices including cloves and cinnamon. According to the Lealanau Cellars website, nutmeg and other spices have been added.
The best way to serve this wine is warm. With the spices, it has a smell very reminiscent of warm apple cider. The taste, however is dominated by the spices and the grapes play second fiddle to the cinnamon, cloves, and other spices. The weight of the wine was tremendously heavy, heavier than any other wine I've tasted. This is largely due to the spices in the wine, but overall, the wine has a chewy feel.
As for taste, this wine runs on the sweet side, with a medium level of alcohol and low acidity. The tannins are present, but are a bit overwhelmed by the spices.
When tasting this wine, I tried heating it up to a tad past luke warm and also to a nice simmer, and I thought it tasted better when it was steaming some. But never heat it to boiling, as the wine's structure would start to breakdown and concentrate into a syrup.
Overall, I'd rate this wine as 80 out of 100. Grapes are not the star in this wine. This wine is meant for fun to drink at a party, on a cold fall day, or on Halloween night.
The best way to serve this wine is warm. With the spices, it has a smell very reminiscent of warm apple cider. The taste, however is dominated by the spices and the grapes play second fiddle to the cinnamon, cloves, and other spices. The weight of the wine was tremendously heavy, heavier than any other wine I've tasted. This is largely due to the spices in the wine, but overall, the wine has a chewy feel.
As for taste, this wine runs on the sweet side, with a medium level of alcohol and low acidity. The tannins are present, but are a bit overwhelmed by the spices.
When tasting this wine, I tried heating it up to a tad past luke warm and also to a nice simmer, and I thought it tasted better when it was steaming some. But never heat it to boiling, as the wine's structure would start to breakdown and concentrate into a syrup.
Overall, I'd rate this wine as 80 out of 100. Grapes are not the star in this wine. This wine is meant for fun to drink at a party, on a cold fall day, or on Halloween night.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Know your Wine Terminology: Dry
Wine has its own vocabulary describing tastes, styles, methods, processes, and a myriad of other topics. This time, I cover one of the basic descriptions of a wine: Dry.
Dry wines are the opposite of sweet. Their chief characteristic is that they are made from with very little sugar. They tend to have more alcohol, as the fermentation process is allowed to continue until nearly all of the sugar has been converted to alcohol. While a wine can't be 'Dry' since it is a liquid, the dryness here refers to the way the wine feels and not so much how it tastes.
Dry wines are commonly called for in cooking. Though remember the adage: never cook with a wine you wouldn't drink. (And speaking of cooking, the old's wife's tale that all the alcohol will burn off during cooking is just that: an old's wife's tale.)
Personally, I'm not a big fan of dry wines. Part of it is that these wines feel awkward on my tongue and in a way does feel dry. They certainly leave my mouth craving sugar to balance out the taste. Perhaps its due to a poor food pairing on my part. Dry wines should be kept away from sweet foods. Salty foods are a better match, but much depends on the style of the wine and the style of the food chosen.
Sweet grapes are grown in warmer climates where the fruit has more time to ripen. So in the Midwest, with a more temperate environment, grapes tend to have less sugar in them from the start. Dry wines are common in the Midwest, though semi-sweet wines are more in style.
My guess is that Dry wines are not more popular in the United States is due to the overall sweetness of our diets. We are used to eating sweet foods and sweet drinks, so a non-sweet drink like a dry wine tastes odd. Perhaps its time to start bucking that perception and for you and I to try drier wines more often. Perhaps we'll find a bottle or two that we like.
Dry wines are the opposite of sweet. Their chief characteristic is that they are made from with very little sugar. They tend to have more alcohol, as the fermentation process is allowed to continue until nearly all of the sugar has been converted to alcohol. While a wine can't be 'Dry' since it is a liquid, the dryness here refers to the way the wine feels and not so much how it tastes.
Dry wines are commonly called for in cooking. Though remember the adage: never cook with a wine you wouldn't drink. (And speaking of cooking, the old's wife's tale that all the alcohol will burn off during cooking is just that: an old's wife's tale.)
Personally, I'm not a big fan of dry wines. Part of it is that these wines feel awkward on my tongue and in a way does feel dry. They certainly leave my mouth craving sugar to balance out the taste. Perhaps its due to a poor food pairing on my part. Dry wines should be kept away from sweet foods. Salty foods are a better match, but much depends on the style of the wine and the style of the food chosen.
Sweet grapes are grown in warmer climates where the fruit has more time to ripen. So in the Midwest, with a more temperate environment, grapes tend to have less sugar in them from the start. Dry wines are common in the Midwest, though semi-sweet wines are more in style.
My guess is that Dry wines are not more popular in the United States is due to the overall sweetness of our diets. We are used to eating sweet foods and sweet drinks, so a non-sweet drink like a dry wine tastes odd. Perhaps its time to start bucking that perception and for you and I to try drier wines more often. Perhaps we'll find a bottle or two that we like.
Friday, October 19, 2012
What I'm Drinking: Oliver Winery Soft Red Wine
This month I've 'uncorked' a bottle of Oliver Winery's Soft Red Wine. And by uncorked, I actually unscrewed, as Oliver Winery has switched to using screwcaps for their Soft wines. Screwcaps offer a few advantages over traditional corks, but the main is that it better preserves the taste of the wine. For wines which taste better with age, a traditional cork is the way to go, but for a wine like this Soft Red wine, the bottle will not taste perceptibly better a year or more from now then what it does today.
The aroma on this wine is light. It has a rather clean scent to it with a light hint of grapes. Aerating the wine, did not intensify the simple bouquet a considerable amount.
As for the taste, picture a glass of grape juice which contained alcohol in it, and you would have a good idea of the taste. Concorde grapes, which is used to make most grape juices in America is the main grape of this wine. This taste is the strongest, with a light tannic taste. It is sweet, but not as much as a dessert wine. It has a light finish and all around is a very accessible wine. In fact, these attributes make this a good starter wine for those unaccustomed to drinking wine.
Like most red wines, this wine tastes best around room temperature. Tasting it chilled mutes the flavors a bit. Overall, this is a simpler wine than last month's wine, though they both have the same level of sweetness.
For next month, a different comparison: Oliver Winery's Soft White Wine.
A nearly empty bottle of Oliver's Soft Red Wine
The aroma on this wine is light. It has a rather clean scent to it with a light hint of grapes. Aerating the wine, did not intensify the simple bouquet a considerable amount.
As for the taste, picture a glass of grape juice which contained alcohol in it, and you would have a good idea of the taste. Concorde grapes, which is used to make most grape juices in America is the main grape of this wine. This taste is the strongest, with a light tannic taste. It is sweet, but not as much as a dessert wine. It has a light finish and all around is a very accessible wine. In fact, these attributes make this a good starter wine for those unaccustomed to drinking wine.
Like most red wines, this wine tastes best around room temperature. Tasting it chilled mutes the flavors a bit. Overall, this is a simpler wine than last month's wine, though they both have the same level of sweetness.
For next month, a different comparison: Oliver Winery's Soft White Wine.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Know your Wine Terminology: Sweet Wine
Wine has its own vocabulary describing tastes, styles, methods, processes, and a myriad of other topics. This time, I cover one of the basic descriptions of a wine: Sweet.
A common way to classify a wine is according to the amount of sugars left over after yeast has converted some of the sugars in the grapes into alcohol. A wine labelled as 'Sweet' means that the wine contains a high level of these residual sugars. Sweeter wines tend to contain lower levels of alcohol as the sweetness is from sugar yeast did not get a chance to convert. The presence of other items can affect the perceived sweetness of a wine. Acids and tannins, which taste bitter, detract from the sweetness of the sugar in the wine, making an otherwise sweet wine taste less so.
Generally, to make a sweet wine requires a grape which contains a high amount of sugar. Winemakers can tweak this by adding sugar before or after fermentation or by adding must (fresh pressed grape juice) after fermentation.
Environmental conditions will affect how sweet a wine is. Depending on the variety, riper grapes will produce a sweeter grape. Noble rot, a type of fungus that attacks grapes under the right conditions, will act to make the grapes and resulting wine sweeter. (Yes, a fungus can be beneficial to grapes. So is yeast, which is also a fungus. Wine is delicious, but no one ever said that making it wasn't a bit creepy...)
Sweet wines are often labelled as 'Dessert wines'. When pairing wine with foods, Sweet wines should be paired with dessert. Which wines should be paired with which desserts will depend on the type of wine, the variety of grape, and the actual taste the individual wine imparts.
Typically, sweet wines are served chilled, just a few degrees above freezing. This plays to the strengths of the sweetness of the wine and allows your tongue to better detect the sugars in the wine.
A common way to classify a wine is according to the amount of sugars left over after yeast has converted some of the sugars in the grapes into alcohol. A wine labelled as 'Sweet' means that the wine contains a high level of these residual sugars. Sweeter wines tend to contain lower levels of alcohol as the sweetness is from sugar yeast did not get a chance to convert. The presence of other items can affect the perceived sweetness of a wine. Acids and tannins, which taste bitter, detract from the sweetness of the sugar in the wine, making an otherwise sweet wine taste less so.
Generally, to make a sweet wine requires a grape which contains a high amount of sugar. Winemakers can tweak this by adding sugar before or after fermentation or by adding must (fresh pressed grape juice) after fermentation.
Environmental conditions will affect how sweet a wine is. Depending on the variety, riper grapes will produce a sweeter grape. Noble rot, a type of fungus that attacks grapes under the right conditions, will act to make the grapes and resulting wine sweeter. (Yes, a fungus can be beneficial to grapes. So is yeast, which is also a fungus. Wine is delicious, but no one ever said that making it wasn't a bit creepy...)
Sweet wines are often labelled as 'Dessert wines'. When pairing wine with foods, Sweet wines should be paired with dessert. Which wines should be paired with which desserts will depend on the type of wine, the variety of grape, and the actual taste the individual wine imparts.
Typically, sweet wines are served chilled, just a few degrees above freezing. This plays to the strengths of the sweetness of the wine and allows your tongue to better detect the sugars in the wine.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Oliver Winery Black Cherry Wine
About each month, I uncork a new bottle of wine. It takes a month for me to drink a bottle by myself, but that gives me many opportunities to taste the wine. The first glass is the best in this setup, but the others are also delicious. And in this way, I can try 10 to 12 wines a year at home.
Of the various wine brands that I've tried, my favorite is Oliver Winery. Oliver Winery is also the first winery that my wife and I have visited. It's a great little winery with lots to see and do, but that's for another day. Started by Bill Oliver Senior, an IU Law Professor at the time the Winery was founded. He was instrumental in jump-starting the Indiana Wine industry by authoring Public Law 77, which was passed on April 8, 1971 thanks to his many connections as a Law Professor. With this law, Indiana Wineries can sell wine directly to the public instead of relying solely on distributors.
Oliver Winery makes a wide variety of wines including blends, and single grape wines, but have a variety of cheaper fruit and honey wines, including a Mango Honey Wine and a Blackberry Wine. I'm fond of their Sweet Red and Sweet White blends, but right now, I'm enjoying a bottle of their Black Cherry Wine, made with honey. With a dark red hue and a fruit odor, it's a sweet, yet not too sweet wine with a bit of a spicy bite to it. To me, it tastes best chilled to around 40 degrees, but not as sweet when tasted at room temperature. The addition of Black Cherries to the grapes make for a refreshing wine with a unique character. The alcoholic content of the wine is on the low side at 12%. This, along with a note on the back label stating that grape concentrate was added for color points to one of the differences of Oliver Winery: some of their wines contain a small amount of grapes, if any. Since the added grape was concentrated, it is likely the grapes came from lower quality grape, either those grown at Oliver Winery not fit for their wines, or other cast-offs from other vineyards.
Oliver Winery's current list of wines does not include a red wine labelled Black Cherry, but they do have a Black Cherry Honey wine that would be categorized as a white wine. I haven't tried the white version yet, but stay tuned. It might appear in my wine rack soon...
While the quality of the grapes included in the wine are questionable (if even necessary), the wine is still pleasurable, sweet, tangy and for around $8 from a few online sources, a good deal. Overall, I'd rate the Oliver Winery's Black Cherry wine a 65, out of 100 possible points.
Of the various wine brands that I've tried, my favorite is Oliver Winery. Oliver Winery is also the first winery that my wife and I have visited. It's a great little winery with lots to see and do, but that's for another day. Started by Bill Oliver Senior, an IU Law Professor at the time the Winery was founded. He was instrumental in jump-starting the Indiana Wine industry by authoring Public Law 77, which was passed on April 8, 1971 thanks to his many connections as a Law Professor. With this law, Indiana Wineries can sell wine directly to the public instead of relying solely on distributors.
Oliver Winery makes a wide variety of wines including blends, and single grape wines, but have a variety of cheaper fruit and honey wines, including a Mango Honey Wine and a Blackberry Wine. I'm fond of their Sweet Red and Sweet White blends, but right now, I'm enjoying a bottle of their Black Cherry Wine, made with honey. With a dark red hue and a fruit odor, it's a sweet, yet not too sweet wine with a bit of a spicy bite to it. To me, it tastes best chilled to around 40 degrees, but not as sweet when tasted at room temperature. The addition of Black Cherries to the grapes make for a refreshing wine with a unique character. The alcoholic content of the wine is on the low side at 12%. This, along with a note on the back label stating that grape concentrate was added for color points to one of the differences of Oliver Winery: some of their wines contain a small amount of grapes, if any. Since the added grape was concentrated, it is likely the grapes came from lower quality grape, either those grown at Oliver Winery not fit for their wines, or other cast-offs from other vineyards.
Oliver Winery's current list of wines does not include a red wine labelled Black Cherry, but they do have a Black Cherry Honey wine that would be categorized as a white wine. I haven't tried the white version yet, but stay tuned. It might appear in my wine rack soon...
While the quality of the grapes included in the wine are questionable (if even necessary), the wine is still pleasurable, sweet, tangy and for around $8 from a few online sources, a good deal. Overall, I'd rate the Oliver Winery's Black Cherry wine a 65, out of 100 possible points.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Vivino
Wine Journals are an old favorite for keeping track of wines one drinks and of their aroma, appearance, and taste. These journals allow one to record their impression of the wine, while jotting down enough of the label to identify the wine later. Some of these journals (like this one) are too big to be carried around and used while wine tasting at a party, a winery, or a tasting room.
But nowadays, nearly everyone has a smart phone and with as little as a text editor, can use this as a wine journal instead. But that still leaves the problem of recording enough of the label for the notes to be useful. That's where the app Vivino comes in. Available for Android and iOS, this apps allows users to take a picture of wine bottle, rate the wine, make comments about the wine, and share this with others. But the most compelling feature is it's ability to auto-match the wine label to a record in its database. With this, the user can take a picture of the wine bottle and add comments and ratings later. In some instances, this auto-match has brought over more information than would have been able to determine from the bottle, such as its vintage and the variety of grapes that went into it. For instance, the record for Oliver Winery's Soft Red is a 2008 vintage made from Concorde grapes.
Of the wines I've tried with this app, about 8 out of 10 are eventually matched by the application. Older versions of the app did not allow the user to enter the label information themselves, but the latest Android version does allow users to enter this information manually. This was my most anticipated feature they've added and they've done so while keeping the application simple and easy to use.
Whether you have a wine journal or not, are a serious wine drinker or just a casual one, I highly recommend the Vivino app to track the wines you taste. With so many bottles out there based on so many different grapes made in so many different ways, it takes some trial and error to find wines suited to your tastes. A wine journal or an app like Vivino can aid in finding the wine suited for you if used properly.
But nowadays, nearly everyone has a smart phone and with as little as a text editor, can use this as a wine journal instead. But that still leaves the problem of recording enough of the label for the notes to be useful. That's where the app Vivino comes in. Available for Android and iOS, this apps allows users to take a picture of wine bottle, rate the wine, make comments about the wine, and share this with others. But the most compelling feature is it's ability to auto-match the wine label to a record in its database. With this, the user can take a picture of the wine bottle and add comments and ratings later. In some instances, this auto-match has brought over more information than would have been able to determine from the bottle, such as its vintage and the variety of grapes that went into it. For instance, the record for Oliver Winery's Soft Red is a 2008 vintage made from Concorde grapes.
Of the wines I've tried with this app, about 8 out of 10 are eventually matched by the application. Older versions of the app did not allow the user to enter the label information themselves, but the latest Android version does allow users to enter this information manually. This was my most anticipated feature they've added and they've done so while keeping the application simple and easy to use.
Whether you have a wine journal or not, are a serious wine drinker or just a casual one, I highly recommend the Vivino app to track the wines you taste. With so many bottles out there based on so many different grapes made in so many different ways, it takes some trial and error to find wines suited to your tastes. A wine journal or an app like Vivino can aid in finding the wine suited for you if used properly.
Monday, October 8, 2012
About Me
Wine can be made anywhere grapes are grown. Fortunately, grapes thrive on every continent but Antarctica. Wines from Australia and New Zealand are known for their economy, but many excellent wines come from the Region. South African wines are also up-and-coming, while some South American wines are known for their spiciness. Napa valley in California is renowned for its grapes and wines, even threatening France's dominance on occasion during the Judgment of Paris. In this contest, French and Californian wines went head to head in blind taste tests and a Californian wine won in each category.
Being a Midwesterner, I'm partial to the wines from the Midwest United States. Being local, their costs are cheaper, their wineries are easily accessible, and their tastes are complex and unique. Fruit wines, honey wines, and traditional wines are popular. Midwestern wine compete and win against wines from California and New York and can hold their own in many categories.
As for myself, I'm a geek and spend the day writing software and occasionally blog about it. Since I turned 21, I've enjoyed the casual glass of wine. For my 21st birthday, my grandparents bought me a bottle of wine from Stone Hill Winery in Bronson, Missouri. For Christmas that year, my parents bought me a wine rack. A few months later, my wife and I visited Oliver Winery in Bloomington, IN to sample some of their wines, especially enjoying an apple wine they warmed with mulling spices for a delicious warm apple cider. About a year later, my wife traveled to Sandusky Ohio for a family reunion and brought back a bottle of Red wine from The Firehouse Winery. Since then, I've sampled wines from California and Australia, but I keep coming back to the Midwestern wines for their economy, variety, and for me, their ease of access.
This blog is a journey further into the world of wine, focusing on the bottles made in the Midwest United States. At my best count, this includes over 400 wineries across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin, with the majority of these wineries in Ohio and Missouri. An each year, the regions wines gain more reputation in the wine world.
Being a Midwesterner, I'm partial to the wines from the Midwest United States. Being local, their costs are cheaper, their wineries are easily accessible, and their tastes are complex and unique. Fruit wines, honey wines, and traditional wines are popular. Midwestern wine compete and win against wines from California and New York and can hold their own in many categories.
As for myself, I'm a geek and spend the day writing software and occasionally blog about it. Since I turned 21, I've enjoyed the casual glass of wine. For my 21st birthday, my grandparents bought me a bottle of wine from Stone Hill Winery in Bronson, Missouri. For Christmas that year, my parents bought me a wine rack. A few months later, my wife and I visited Oliver Winery in Bloomington, IN to sample some of their wines, especially enjoying an apple wine they warmed with mulling spices for a delicious warm apple cider. About a year later, my wife traveled to Sandusky Ohio for a family reunion and brought back a bottle of Red wine from The Firehouse Winery. Since then, I've sampled wines from California and Australia, but I keep coming back to the Midwestern wines for their economy, variety, and for me, their ease of access.
This blog is a journey further into the world of wine, focusing on the bottles made in the Midwest United States. At my best count, this includes over 400 wineries across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin, with the majority of these wineries in Ohio and Missouri. An each year, the regions wines gain more reputation in the wine world.
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