Wine-savvy

[hairy_one]

The good thing about living in California is proximity to some of the world's best wine regions - Napa, Sonoma, Livermore, Lodi, Santa Barbara/Santa Lucia Valley and Paso Robles. Nothing more than a 3 hour drive away! So aside from that trip to France, my daughter has experienced the wine country many many times. Here, however, they won't pour for anyone under 18. :grr: But since she became legal, she's gone to enjoy the local wineries many a time with me.

 

California is hideously expensive, but it's got its compensations....

 

margaret river wines, western austrailia. number one in my opinion

[masi]

Just an innocent question po::::

 

Ang Japanese Saki/Sake po ba eh wine?

 

Details pls.

 

 

Sake is commonly known as Japanese Rice Wine. It is made from a special variety of rice, cooked, pressed then fermented. Like any alcoholic beverage, the range of its quality could be affordable to very expensive. A Japanese friend gave me a bottle of special sake which he said cost as much as JYE10,000 (lapad) which is roughly P5,200 at today's exchange.

 

In common knowledge, wine is an alcoholic beverage fermented from the juice of fruits, like grapes, apple (I've seen a show on lifestyles which featured apple ice wine where the apples are allowed to ripe and picked at the height of snowy winter). But grapes grown in the Cognac region in France may not qualify as wine.

 

I guess to call an alcoholic beverage a wine or whiskey or brandy, cognac, champagne, cava, spumante, port really depend on how such beverage is recognized in the locality or region where it is made.

[agxo3]

Sake is commonly known as Japanese Rice Wine. It is made from a special variety of rice, cooked, pressed then fermented. Like any alcoholic beverage, the range of its quality could be affordable to very expensive. A Japanese friend gave me a bottle of special sake which he said cost as much as JYE10,000 (lapad) which is roughly P5,200 at today's exchange.

 

In common knowledge, wine is an alcoholic beverage fermented from the juice of fruits, like grapes, apple (I've seen a show on lifestyles which featured apple ice wine where the apples are allowed to ripe and picked at the height of snowy winter). But grapes grown in the Cognac region in France may not qualify as wine.

 

I guess to call an alcoholic beverage a wine or whiskey or brandy, cognac, champagne, cava, spumante, port really depend on how such beverage is recognized in the locality or region where it is made.

Wine is a fermeted beverage made from a fruit of a plant of some sort. Rice grains are the "fruits" of the rice plant. so rice wine is, well, wine.

 

Typically, Cognacs are distilled spirits made from wines fermeted from grapes grown in the Cognac region of France. That said, Cognac is NOT a wine, it's a distilled spirit. But the wine that is the base of Cognac is, in fact, wine! A Champagne Cognac is NOT made from grapes from the Champagne region of France, which is all the way on the other side of the country. Cognac is off the Atlantic coast, Champagne is way east, just west and north of Alsace which is on the French-German border. Cognac is more properly a brandy, which is a term generally applied to distilled wine .

 

Once it's not just fermented, as wine is, but distilled to concentrate the flavors and raise the alcohol content, it's no longer a wine, but a liquor. So fermeted apple juice can be called wine, but Calvados, which is apple brandy is not. Champagne is only champagne if it's made in the Champagne region of France. Otherwise, it's sparkling wine. Spumante and prosecco are are Italian sparkling wines, and cava is what they call the Spanish sparklers. Port is a strange one - it's wine, but incompletely fermeted (not "dry") and the fermentation is stopped by adding a distilled spirit (typically a neutral spirit so it contibutres no flavor) to the wine. This is not true of ALL dessert wines (which port is considered to be). Some dessert wines are made from super-concentrated grape juice (late harvest, botrytised, or ice wines are good examples). Some are distilled in a solera, as is sherry.

 

As in ALL definitions, one can always find an exception if one looks hard enough. Getting nitpicky and technical about it would be, quite simply, counterproductive and lead to irrelevant discussions since nothing we say or do here will change what is generally accepted in the wine world.

 

Hey Masi! Nice to see you posting again! Hope life is treating you better these days. Do I sound a bit testy? Yup - I've been in a real bad mood lately!

Edited August 3, 2006 by agxo3

[Spurt]

just like to add, japanese naman mostly call their alcohol drinks "sake", even beer, or 'beeru" - bods, correct me if i'm wrong.

[agxo3]

just like to add, japanese naman mostly call their alcohol drinks "sake", even beer, or 'beeru" - bods, correct me if i'm wrong.

 

I dunno - every Japanese I've even gone drinking with (and there were a bunch!) called the liquor or beer by its name - biru for beer (dai nama biru, onnegaishimasu!), whisky for Scotch and bourbon (which is correct - bourbon IS a whisky!), Cognac, vodka, gin, Jagermeister (now THAT's an episode I'm sure at least one of them would like to forget!), and so on. Sake always was, well, sake! And nothing else. Perhaps it's different now - it's been over 10 years since I went drinking in Ropponggi.

[bods1000]

I think the urge to try stuff is still there - but having sert the standard with wine, only the best would do for her, so that kinda set the limit on consumption to whatever she could afford, which wasn't much. So a drink or two of the good stuff instead a lot of the cheap stuff (which isn't good for you in ANY sense of the word!).

 

 

I agree bods. That's why while I could still could dictate to my daughter what she should be doing and where she should be going, I take every opportunity I can. My daughter could take wine with her food. At this point, she could consume about a third of a wine glass --- I limit her to that. I try to observe how the alcohol affected her. I think she gets to be more behaved. I often tell my wife that I would like my daughter to grow up able to discern good art, good food, good wine and good company, more than I could. Well, I hope I'm off to a good start.

 

Good points! I hope we do impart a more lasting impression on them to counteract any peer pressure later on..Mas mura pa naman ang mga gin, brandy and other hard stuff - I sure hope they'll turn snobbish with regards to these drinks later on.

[bods1000]

margaret river wines, western austrailia. number one in my opinion

 

you're right on the button, ms. hairy one!

Margaret River rocks! I've been fortunate enough to have been exposed to Margaret River wines when I had the wine business before and I would say they continue to be the hidden gem in Australian wines, much too coy to do battle side by side with these bruising and more famous South Australian wines but very elegant nevertheless..

Margaret River is exposed to the not-so-brutal climate of Western Australia, being beside the Indian Ocean and this gives their wines that Mediterrenean character - smooth and with a lot of finesse...

[masi]

Hey Masi! Nice to see you posting again! Hope life is treating you better these days. Do I sound a bit testy? Yup - I've been in a real bad mood lately!

 

 

It's been pretty tough and on light situations, I read and try to post on the Board. No wines for me lately but more of draft beer and whiskey. Keep it safe. Hope to see you all soon.

[Headroom]

Drank a couple of bottles of a wine (with a friend) made from grape varieties that I have never heard of before.

 

The brand was a Sandalford from Western Australia - by the looks of a map on the label close to Margaret River.

 

It was a 2002 Verdelho Chenin Blanc - I had never heard of Chenin Blanc before.

 

Very nice crisp white wine with a slight taste of Apples.

 

P550 per bottle at Santi's.

 

Anyone ever heard of the vineyard or the grape combination?

[agxo3]

Drank a couple of bottles of a wine (with a friend) made from grape varieties that I have never heard of before.

 

The brand was a Sandalford from Western Australia - by the looks of a map on the label close to Margaret River.

 

It was a 2002 Verdelho Chenin Blanc - I had never heard of Chenin Blanc before.

 

Very nice crisp white wine with a slight taste of Apples.

 

P550 per bottle at Santi's.

 

Anyone ever heard of the vineyard or the grape combination?

 

Chenin blanc is the grape that is used for most Loire Valley white wines, at least those form the eastern end of the valley. Sancerre, for example. It was also one of the first varietals grown in California, and for many years, generic California white was called "Chenin blanc" even when it had other varietals either mixed in or as the dominant varietal. No longer - and chenin blanc has long since been eclipsed by chardonnay as California's preeminent white wine grape.

 

Chenin blanc is a cool, crisp, somewhat steely or mineraly grape with notes of tart green apple to go with the bright floral tones. Sometimes you'll get some light stone fruit - white peach, nectarine. Nice grape, makes good white wines to be enjoyed slightly cool (maybe about 15-16 deg C), with a summer picnic menu of cold salads (potato, macaroni, ham salad, maybe even a tuna nicoise) and meats (hot dogs, ham).

[masi]

Went to the wine bar across Santis at Yakal which is operated by the same chain.They have 3 labels for red and 2 labels for white as their "pouring wine". I had 2 glasses of a 2002 Argentinean Malbec. The label skips me as my Jap boss and I were simulating scenarios related to the restructuring.

 

All I remember about the malbec was its moderate reddish purple tones and rich fruity flavors of ripe cherries, hints of peppery oak and a well balanced mouth and smooth finish with moderate tannins.

 

I haven't had a glass of wine for quite sometime, mostly whiskey and beer.

[floppydrive]

Good moring guys!

 

We went Greek recently and opened two bottles - a Xinomavro 2002, and a Grand Reserve Nauossa 1996. Both were made from the Xinomavro grape locally grown in (where else) Greece. Both were served slightly warmer than the usual red wine, as they say Greece's ambient temp is around 25C.

 

The younger bottle had notes of berries and burnt oak. It was kind of green, though, compared to the second bottle. The winery says that the best xinomavro grapes are what they use to make the Nauossa. There is a big difference! The older wine had more body, a more mature flavor of berries, dark chocolate, and cognac. Both went well with cheese and lamb (mediterranean cuisine).

[bods1000]

Drank a couple of bottles of a wine (with a friend) made from grape varieties that I have never heard of before.

 

The brand was a Sandalford from Western Australia - by the looks of a map on the label close to Margaret River.

 

It was a 2002 Verdelho Chenin Blanc - I had never heard of Chenin Blanc before.

 

Very nice crisp white wine with a slight taste of Apples.

 

P550 per bottle at Santi's.

 

Anyone ever heard of the vineyard or the grape combination?

 

the combination of chenin blanc with verdelho is a bit unusual - not a lot of winemakers do that mix, and it's good to still have that crisp taste, being already a 4-year old white...

[Spurt]

hi guys, my friend is planning to put up a private wine club in manila, i mean in makati. more like forth&tays type or depende sa market.

[bods1000]

hi guys, my friend is planning to put up a private wine club in manila, i mean in makati. more like forth&tays type or depende sa market.

 

sounds interesting, pare...are there more details?