Kronick Wino

Engaging The Senses, Wine Style

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 | Wine Stories, wine educator | 2 Comments

Smell, Taste, Touch, See - of the 5 senses, these are the most important when it comes to tasting wine.

I’m kind of on a roll these past weeks when it comes to tasting wine in general - tasting meaning engaging your senses to ‘experience’ wine and what it’s all about. I’ve mentioned before that one of the most common question I hear is ‘how does one know what they are experiencing?’ or ‘how do you know what flavors are in the wine’ or ‘where does that flavor come from?’.

I would like to present a challenge to anyone reading this post right now. And this is something I’ve thought long and hard about these few days and weeks. I realized it’s something that I already do, but didn’t quite think to apply it until recently as I’ve been helping a good friend understand what I do about wine.

For the next week, and possibly even two weeks, I challenge you to eat the cleanest foods possible. What I mean is - only whole foods. Buy fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, beans, rice, dark chocolate. Buy fresh and dried herbs and spices.

Don’t add butter, salt, creamy sauces, sugar. Don’t put anything into your mouth that is processed like cookies, pastries, sweets, salad dressings.

If you need to season something, use only olive oil, the herbs and spices or lemon/lime juice on your salads. When you drink tea or coffee, don’t add sugar. Use honey instead in your tea. Drink Lots and Lots of H2O (water for those of you who hated chem class).

Ok, I know this all sounds like some new fad ‘diet’. Well honestly, think of it this way: you’re going to give your tastebuds (and other senses) a vacation. Why? Because they need one. Too many of us are shoving only God-knows-what into our mouths not taking the time to realize what we’re eating and tasting and experiencing. By allowing yourself to reconnect with these things we call ‘food’, I promise you’re going to be more aware of flavors, aromas, the feel of food, and maybe even find that the flavors of some things are much different than you previously thought. When you bite into that peice of chocolate you’re probably going to taste something even richer than imagined. When you make your morning joe, I bet your sense of smell will be awakened.

How many folks do you know that just down a glass of wine? Nobody. You savor it (at least I do), smell it, sometimes close your eyes and think of warming thoughts, or good memories (unless it’s a bad wine and you revert back to college times of bad life choices).

In esence what I’m trying to help you do is pinpoint those things in the wine that are around us everyday in what we eat. You want to know what that smoky flavor is? It’s toasted vanilla oak. Remind you of toasted fresh BREAD perhaps? What about those cocoa flavors? Did you notice how much more pronounced it was on that Syrah after you’ve tasted the pure ingredient?

I’d love to hear back from anyone who tries this. At the end of the week, grab yourself that bottle of wine you’ve been saving for the end, and tell me what you taste. What did you pick out that you never understood before? Can you taste the lemon? the citrus notes? the spice of cinnamon? clove? the green beans on some of those wacky sauvignon blancs? I want to know.

Until then, I’ll be doing what I’m doing and helping you identify those flavors. Cheeers!

Tags: clean eating, food flavors, ingredients, physical senses, whole food diets, wine and food, wine flavors

The Tongues’ Double Edge Sword

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 | Wine Stories, Wine Tasting Notes | No Comments

What do all of the images above have in common? My Palette.

Or otherwise known as the flavors found in wine that I really don’t enjoy.

I know, I always write about things that I LOVE: Wines, food, places, flavors. But this is one time where I thought some of you might want to know what I don’t like. Mostly because I am human. Generally, I love all things when it comes to wine and food, but these are the smells and flavors that creep up once in a while when you’ll see me wiggle my nose and say, “…… um, it’s ok…….”.

Let’s break it down:

BANANAS: While i love to eat the fruit after a crazy kickboxing workout, I don’t generally enjoy it in my wine. I tend to find this flavor in some of the Chardonnays out of California. The fruit aromas there tend to get really tropical and luscious. While I can enjoy the aromas/tastes of mango, pineapple, passion fruit and melon, banana is one that turns me off. I think it’s the mustiness associated with this starchy-potassium-rich food.

PLUMS: Only one thing come to my mind whenever I smell plums in the wine: CHEAP. I don’t know why, but all those Yellowtail cabs, $6 Spanish reds, Magnum-sized LIttle Penguin Merlot bring up that fruit smell and I have to pass. Sorry folks, it’s not for me. I think it has something to do with the sugar in the wine…. tooo much. I also tend to have a similar issue with cherries, but it really depends on how badly ‘cherry’ the wine is tasting.

LICORICE: I’m pretty sure some of you are saying, ‘well, yeah, licorice? Who would like that??’. The truth is, I do like licorice, but there are times when I’ll be having a bottle of Amarone from Italy and it’s just too much. It is a very overwhelming scent to the nose; clears you right up! But I’m not always looking for a sinus douche. But alas, it is in the soil of most Italian wines. So if you’re like me, just proceed with caution.

MINT: I get lots of giggles when I mention that there is mint in my wine. It’s not something most will pinpoint, but it’s there. I find it mostly when drinking cabernet sauvignon. Just talking about it makes me laugh as well, as I recall a time when I went wine-tasting in Long Island, NY.  Sitting down at Pellegrini Vineyards one sunny afternoon, I began sipping my various wines. I got to the Cabernet Sauvignon on the tasting list for the day. Well, all I could taste was some sort of cleaning solution. Was this wine bad? Sip after sip after sip, trying to figure out why it tasted that way. Then it came - it’s MINT! Turns out, that’s a flavor that comes out of the soil quite a bit in that region, including strawberries and rhubarb, but that’s another story….

CUT GRASS: It may not need a lot of explanation. In the real world, this can be a nice smell to some. I’m pretty sure that Yankee Candle Company even made a votive to match that aroma. Typically, I find these ‘grassy’ nose tickles in my lighter whites, especially some sauvignon blancs. Not so much out of California, but mostly out of some of my Rueda wines from Spain or some New Zealand varieties.

NEW AMERICAN OAK: No, I don’t hate oak, but what I don’t love is when the wine is aged in only new American oak. The flavor that comes out of the wine is kind of like me smelling the beginning of my impending headache from hangover. Plus, some wines just completely overdue it with the oak in general. It’s a reason why I don’t generally have some Chardonnays at the top of my wine list. I am very particular when it comes to wine that’s only aged in new oak. I always expect an overwhelming waft of WOOD. Not toasty vanilla flavors or light spice or hazelnut, just the thought of someone shoving a piece of plywood under my nose while I sip my wine. Not good. Can anyone relate to this with me? I’m just looking for a little balance, hence I truly favor a nice mix of American / Hungarian or French oak. Much more subtle and delicate.

So, maybe you’ve learned a little something extra about me today. Me and my wine-peeves. What about you? What do you tend to find unpleasant when you’re sipping with friends? It’s okay to share. Maybe I pin-pointed something for you today that you always questioned.

Anyhow, keep those taste-buds alive and kickin’! Cheers!

Tags: bananas, descriptors, flavors, food, grassiness, licorice, mint, new american oak, plums, taste, wine flavors, wine palette, wine tasting

Getting Green For Being Green - Recycling Your Wine Bottles

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 | Wine Stories | No Comments

You know who you are. You let them pile up in the corner of your kitchen counter, the floor of the garage, the recycling bin overflowing with none other than….. dun dun dunnnnnn….. Wine bottles. empty. no longer full of juicy liquid and completely void of life. But now what? Do you let them rest in the purgatory of a plastic bin? You can’t take them to the local grocery store to put in the glass bottle machines. You have to call the guy to come ‘assist’ you and sometimes they don’t even take them! Oh, the humanity!

I’m sick of it too. But what is the answer to this conundrum?

You have a few options here:

1.) Peel the label off and stick some candles in them to made a nice bottle centerpiece. Does anyone else hear the song ‘O Sole Mio’ playing?

2.) Apparently there are some pretty cool ‘bottle planter nannies’ out there from Napa Style that will help you water your plants consistently. Just fill the bottle full of water, stick one of these biodegradable covers over the bottle neck and insert into planter.

3.) Drill a hole into the bottom of a white wine bottle, fill full of pretty Christmas lights and plug into the wall. Instant Holiday Decor!!

4.) They make great storage devices of small objects: beads, beans, small pastas, rice, sequins, small round objects in general. Just pop a cork on the top to keep the

5.) Make a terrarium for the kids to take to school. (or not, maybe keep that at home. Don’t want the teacher to think mommy’s an alcoholic…. )

6.) I wouldn’t mind learning how to cut glass and make some cool framed piece with the 3-dimensional sections. Or better yet, make some drinking glasses. Just make sure you file down those edges first. Safety, people!

Ok, I hear you asking “What about Cash Money??”. Here in the good state of Connecticut, there aren’t a whole lot of options when it comes to returning bottles for monetary compensation. I mean, we don’t really pay a bottle deposit when purchasing wine at the store, so why get money back. But I do know that a lot of WINERIES will take back their original bottles (sounds like more of a hassle than it’s worth).

What I found on the Connecticut State Website:

“Bottles and Cans

State law requires all towns in Connecticut to provide for the recycling of glass and metal food and beverage containers. Plastic containers are not mandatory, but most towns do collect plastics #1 and #2. Each Connecticut town has a recycling ordinance in place to address proper handling of these and other recyclables. Check with your town or city hall for the proper handling of bottles and cans. At a minimum, containers should be rinsed before being placed in the appropriate recycling receptacle. 5-cent deposit cans and bottles covered under the CT Bottle Bill may be returned to the store for redemption, or consider donating nickel-deposit containers to local civic organization fund-raisers.”

Anyways, until I decide what kind of crazy art project I want to make out of my bottles, I wish you good tidings with yours!

Cheers!

Tags: Connecticut recycling laws, craft ideas, craft projects, CT recycle, empty, glass art, recycling, wine bottles