Wine & Words

You can "get your buds done" on the Budometer web page, by taking a test about flavor preferences to find out which category you’re most comfortable with. The four categories are:

Sweet - "Fresh & Fruity"
Very sensitive to bitter tastes and alcohol. Like their wines fresh & fruity.

Hyper-Sensitive Tasters – "Delicacy & Finesse"
Favor wines with delicacy, balance and finesse over power. May like a touch of oak flavor, but not much if any. Wines with high alcohol tend to burn and taste unpleasant.

Sensitive Tasters – "Rich, Smooth & Balanced"
Like wines with lots of intensity, richness and balance. Can go many directions for flavor and style but want wines that are smooth. Moderate tolerance for oak and alcohol levels.

Tolerant Tasters – "Big & Intense"
Demand intensity, plenty of oak and power. BIG is better! High alcohol wines often taste rich and delicious.

Of course, this is a grand over-simplification. What kinds of wines you enjoy also has to do with how much wine experience you have and how willing you are to experiment. It shouldn’t surprise you, for example, that my buds "tested" in the "Tolerant" range. But I’ve had a lot of experience with people who start out thinking they only like sweet wines. Then they discover they appreciate "Delicacy & Finesse," then graduate to "Rich, Smooth & Balanced."

This month I’ve chosen a selection of wines that represent the qualities in these four categories. You can try them all. If you find you’re definitely in one camp or another, we can recommend other wines you’ll probably like. Hey, wine is fun!

Prices marked are the regular retail, followed by the Feature Price with a 20% discount.

Sant'Evasio Moscato D'Asti (Piedmont, Italy) Regular $15.25/ Feature Price $12.20

With only 5.5% alcohol and a sparkling flavor that is practically the definition of "fresh & fruity," this is the first wine I’d recommend for this type of Taster. The Muscat grape ("Moscato" in Italian) has been cultivated in the Piedmont region since 1200, almost always in this sparkling style. If you like this one, you should also try its red sibling, Brachetto D’Aqui, from the same producer. It has the same level of sweetness and the same low level of alcohol, but its deep, ruby red color makes it very festive.

Quady Electra Red (Madera, California) Regular $16.50/ Feature Price $13.26

Andrew and Laurel Quady specialize in making fine dessert wines from the Muscat grape. Their Orange Electra had been a hit for years when, in 2000 they made a few cases from the Red Muscat grape. The reception was so overwhelming, it flew out the doors. The wine even received a double gold medal at the San Francisco Fair. This is technically a "picnic wine" because its low alcohol (5%) allows you to drink it at a picnic and still get home.

Chrismont La Zona Rosato Mezzanotte (Victoria, Australia) Regular $18.25/ Feature Price $14.60

This rosé is a blend of the red Italian grapes Sangiovese, Barbera, & Marzemino, all of which can make lovely red wines of delicacy and finesse. Here, they’re made even more delicate by spending very little time with the grape skins. Why mezzanotte, Italian for "midnight"? Traditionally, Old World winemakers would wake at dawn to begin picking at 8 AM. By noon, the grapes had been crushed and the juice allowed to macerate, or to sit on the skins. Usually the juice for rosato would be drained off after 12 hours, or at midnight. Thus, rosato came to be referred to as vino della notte (wine of the night or midnight wine). But you can drink it any time.

Ferraton Samorëns Blanc 2007 (Cotes du Rhone, France) Regular $13.25/ Feature Price $10.60

This is a new one for us. It’s a blend of Grenache Blanc (60%) and Clairette (40%). Leave it to the French to make a white wine of such delicacy and finesse. The grapes are hand harvested at perfect ripeness to bring out the characteristics of the fruit. Aromas of white flowers and white fruits give way to a nicely balanced wine, where the Clairette brings the freshness and the white Grenache brings the body and softness.

Our Daily Red (American Canyon, California) Regular $9.95/ Feature Price $7.96

This specialty wine from the Nevada County Wine Guild is certified USDA Organic and "No Sulfites Detectable" and on the back label they stipulate that it is "Vegan friendly." That seems to be a fitting red wine for "Hyper-sensitive Tasters." And it’s actually quite good. It’s a blend of Fresno Syrah and Carignan and Mendocino Cabernet Sauvignon…a classy red for every day.

Fattoria Casabianca Poggio Gonfiente Rosato 2007 (Murlo-Siena, Italy) Regular $13.25/ Feature Price $10.60

This dry rosé can be very much the ticket for Sensitive Tasters. Made from the Sangiovese grape that is predominant in the red wines of Chianti, this wine gives some of that flavor, with much less body. It’s easier to drink. The alcohol is 13.5%, which is getting up there for this level of Taster, but the fact that you serve the wine chilled, cools the "burn" that some Sensitive Tasters get from higher alcohol wines. You can even do that trick with red wines that seem to "burn" with alcohol – just chill them.

Ehrhardt Chenin Blanc 2006 (Clarksburg, California) Regular $18.25/ Feature Price $14.60

We tasted this one last spring, but the flavor profile fits so well with this type of Taster that I decided to do it again. And while we’re on the subject…did you know that the Featured Wine descriptions on our website are now fully searchable? If you’d like to find out what I said about a wine you remember from a previous tasting, just go to the website and enter a search term at the top of the page. That’s what I did. And I found that I had written:

The grapes for this lovely summer wine were grown in the cool and fertile Sacramento Valley by the fourth generation of the Herzog family, who bought the vineyard land from the Ehrhardts in 1902. This is the same grape that makes the wines of Vouvray, France. Here its subtle sweetness and soft mouth feel combine with a clean backbone of acidity to make a wine that's equally at home on the front porch swing as it is with a light summer evening supper. Don't serve it too cold, in order to let the soft aromas and gentle flavors wake up your mouth.

It’s still true. Come in and give this wine another try.

Sierra Cantabria Rioja Crianza 2004 (Rioja, Spain) Regular $19.95/ Feature Price $15.96

Even though I test out as a Tolerant Taster, that is, one who appreciates big powerful wines, I still like something a little more smooth and balanced with my meals. That’s why this Rioja Crianza is Yvonne’s and my favorite all-around red food wine. It’s from the Rioja region of Spain, so it’s mainly made from the Tempranillo grape, with the addition of Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano permitted. "Crianza" means "breeding" or "upbringing," and in Rioja, it means the wine has been aged at least 2 years, with 1 year in oak. This wine is made to go with food, so it’s not finicky about just what dish it goes with. If you’re a Sensitive Taster, you’ll like the Spanish cuisine tradition of taking the best, freshest ingredients, then preparing them simply, in order to bring out their goodness. That kind of food is a fine companion to this kind of wine.

Fontanavecchia Aglianico del Taburno Rosé 2007 (Campania, Italy) Regular $21.75/ Feature Price $17.40

Most "Big & Intense" Tasters don’t like white wines at all. So I thought I’d try to turn them on to this complex, tannic, full-flavored rosé made from the Aglianico grape of southern Italy. The producer, Fontanavecchia, also makes a full-bodied red Aglianico wine that we carry. But I think "serious" red wine drinkers will be pleased and surprised by the power and heft of this "pink" wine. I love it!

Catena Malbec 2006 (Mendoza, Argentina) Regular $26.50/ Feature Price $21.20

Talk about "Big & Intense"! This beauty has won restaurant awards for "Best Wine with Meat." Malbec is a grape whose original home is the southwest of France, where it’s the main grape in Cahors and a bit-part player in many Bordeaux blends. Malbec doesn’t have the black-curranty fruitiness of Cabernet; rather it is a bit darker and more earthy, just the thing for Tolerant Tasters who like their foods meaty and rich and their wines big and complex. Since we introduced this wine a few months ago, it has become a favourite with customers who want a "big red."

Tasting Opportunities…