My Wine Education

Featured Cincinnati Wine Events 11/28 - 12/4

Ah, Black Friday. After all that shopping, it's time for a little wine.

Two big events I want to mention again:

* Liquor Direct's Holiday Showcase on Friday and Saturday (free!)

* Barrel Tasting from Kinkead Ridge, Harmony Hill, Henke, Burnet Ridge, and Woodstone Creek

The calendar is up to date. Any wine-related events I'm currently aware of are on the calendar. If I missed something - something local to Cincinnati that is - let me know!

A special note about "regular" tastings: For a lot of places, these are the last couple weeks for weekend tastings until 2009. The retailers have such a crazy season with the holidays that they can't handle tastings as well. So check in with your retailers and find out what they're thinking for their holiday schedule.

For information on what's going on in Dayton, you can refer to Mark's blog at Uncorked.

Local Wine Tasting Event Calendar

Friday Interactive Wine Tasting Map

Saturday Interactive Wine Tasting Map

Remember, the events we list in this post are one-time events. You can always refer to the calendar for regular tastings throughout the region. On to the weekly featured events ...

Photo Credit: LIFE Magazine

Liquor Direct Holiday Spectacular

Actually, it's their "Holiday Show", but it is rather impressive. Liquor Direct's final wine tasting of the year is worth a few minutes of your time this Friday or Saturday. Maybe you've had a little too much turkey, in-laws, or parents. Maybe you have been driven crazy by Black Friday. Or maybe, just maybe, you know a good deal when you hear it.

This last tasting is pretty much a thank you to all the loyal customers. Liquor Direct breaks out the high end and extremely tasty wine. And it's still free.

Tastings occur at both the Covington and Ft Thomas locations from 4-8 pm on Friday and 2-6 pm on Saturday.

Oh, and I've got the list of wines!

Wine-Girl.net's Virtual Thanksgiving Dinner: Host and Hostess Edition

This week, Kevin and I are having a virtual (er, imaginary) Thanksgiving dinner with some of our wine friends. Monday, our retailer buddies arrived, with some amazing wine favorites in tow. Tuesday, the local wine bloggers dropped by. Today you get our own choices - just a couple of wines that we think might complement a Thanksgiving meal. We'll be bringing these along with us tomorrow as we head over the river and through the woods to my grandmother's house. (No kidding actually.) 

As you may have noticed this week, there is no right or wrong for a Thanksgiving wine. Drink what you like, just like your local wine bloggers and retailers.

After the jump, find our own Thanksgiving pairings.

Wine-Girl.net's Virtual Thanksgiving Dinner: Local Blogger Edition

Kevin and I are having a virtual (er, imaginary) Thanksgiving dinner with some of our wine friends. Yesterday, our retailer buddies arrived first, with some amazing wine favorites in tow. In this edition, our local wine blogger friends make a big entrance, and they've brought some big wine with them. 

I asked each of them to "bring" their favorites for Thanksgiving dinner. You'll see that their tastes vary a lot, proving that there is no right or wrong. Drink what you like, just like your local wine bloggers.

We've invited Tim Lemke from CheapWineRatings.com, Mike Rosenberg from The Naked Vine, and Jonathan Seeds from BestDrinkEver.net.

Tomorrow, you'll get favorites from your host and hostess here at Wine-Girl.net, just in case you're curious as to what we'd offer our guests.

After the jump, find the outstanding blogger choices.

Wine-Girl.net's Virtual Thanksgiving Dinner: Retailer Edition

Kevin and I are having a virtual (er, imaginary) Thanksgiving dinner with some of our wine friends. In this edition, our retailer friends have arrived first, and they've brought an amazing amount of wine.

I asked each of them to "bring" their favorites for Thanksgiving dinner. You'll see that their tastes vary a lot, proving that there is no right or wrong. Drink what you like, just like our retailer friends.

From Liquor Direct, we invited wine buyer Kevin Keith and his assistants Jesse and Shannon. The Party Source is represented by Danny Gold and Jay Erisman. I also invited JP from Party Town, but I suspect he doesn't check his email that often. If I hear from him, I'll make sure to update the post.

Tomorrow, you'll get favorites from our other virtual attendees: the local wine bloggers. On Wednesday, we'll give you our own recommendations in the host and hostess edition.

Some fantastic retailer favorites are after the jump.

Beaujolais Nouveau Went Green

It's a start.

Every year, Beaujolais Nouveau is rushed across the pond by air to make it to the US by Nov 20. It's not my favorite wine, and some of it (not all) is swill. So it's a lot of trouble, and apparently a huge carbon footprint, to get some not-very-awesome wine out by a certain date.

This year, the two largest Beaujolais producers acknowledged their anti-green ways and decided to make some changes. I know it doesn't fix past transgressions, but I appreciate the changes they are making. It's a positive sign for the future.

Featured Cincinnati Wine Events 11/21 - 11/27

We're back!  Just in time for the holidays, I'm going to manage to pull out the Featured Wine Events for the next week. You know, Thanksgiving Week.

Photo Credit (Lovin' the Life magazine Photo Archives!)

So, I've updated the calendar. Yay!  Any wine-related events I'm currently aware of are on the calendar. If I missed something - something local to Cincinnati that is - let me know!

A special note about "regular" tastings: For a lot of places, these are the last couple weeks for weekend tastings until 2009. The retailers have such a crazy season with the holidays that they can't handle tastings as well. So check in with your retailers and find out what they're thinking for their holiday schedule.

For information on what's going on in Dayton, you can refer to Mark's blog at Uncorked.

Local Wine Tasting Event Calendar

Friday Interactive Wine Tasting Map

Saturday Interactive Wine Tasting Map

Remember, the events we list in this post are one-time events. You can always refer to the calendar for regular tastings throughout the region. On to the weekly featured events ...

Selbach 2006 Riesling Kabinett - Fish label

Evey so often, Destination Riesling in New York, sends me samples of German Rieslings. Most of the time, they aren't wines I can easily find around here, but this one is an exception.

Selbach 2006 Riesling Kabinett - Fish label

Color: I usually consider color a given for wines, but Kevin made such an awesome comment about this one. He said that the lovely color will complement the autumn colors on the Thanksgiving table. Isn't that great?

Aroma: This had a lot of tropical fruits and peaches (are those tropical?) on the nose, as well as some fun floral aromas. Big bright flowers, not shy ones.

Taste: Well, it was tart and not overly sweet. This is an entry-level Riesling for Selbach, and those can often be a little too sweet and cloying. This one, however, hit some nice notes. It was definitely acidic, full of all sorts of lemons and citrus, peaches, and tropical fruits. The wine filled your mouth, which is a nice change from some watery Rieslings, and was fruit-forward.

The tasting sheet recommended this wine for a Thanksgiving dinner, and we have to agree. This is a food-friendly wine and all that acid will go nicely with gamey bird and all those Thanksgiving spices.

I believe this retails between $12.99 and $17 around here, depending on your shop and state.

Our score:

Do Good, Be Good: Freestore/Foodbank and Greater Cincinnati Independents

So here's the thing. It's just about holiday season, so if you need an excuse for doing a good thing, this is it. And Julie, over at WinemeDineme, has worked out a way to get something for yourself and do something for someone else as well.

Greater Cincinnati Independents restaurants are offering gift certificates for the holidays that work at every GCI restaurant!  That’s a pretty long list, as you can see!

Buy a gift certificates for your family, your friends, yourself, whoever.  Use the code WINEMEDINEME at checkout.

Any money Julie makes as an affiliate through December 31 (you need to use her code though!) will be donated to the FreestoreFoodbank in the name of our readers. She'll also donate, and I'll donate as well. Together we can support local business and the hungry.

So head to gcindependents.com and click on the link to buy gift certificates.  Put WINEMEDINEME in the referral code box, and the money they give Julie will be donated to the FreestoreFoodbank.  You win, the Greater Cincinnati Independents win, and so does the Freestore/Foodbank.

Now, if you can't buy the gift certificates, I understand. Money is tight. So when you go to the grocery store, pick up some extra canned goods (they're cheap) to drop by the Foodbank. Traveling? The Freestore/Foodbank actually loves those hotel-sized toiletries. I always collect them to drop by the FS/FB when I can. So keep that in mind as well. There are a lot of things you can do to help.

(Parts of this post were used, with permission, from WinemeDinemeCincinnati.)

Ohio v Michigan Wine Clash: Results

On Monday night, Kevin & I drove up to Columbus to judge the Ohio v Michigan wine clash. Of course, the point of all this is to Drink Local and perhaps make a smaller carbon footprint, and the winners will be sipped at a dinner in Columbus tomorrow night. (Have I mentioned that driving 4 hours round-trip to judge a local wine competition did not help our carbon footprint? Ironic, yes?)

The judging was pretty much by the AWS rules, which is good. I loved that it was straight numbers and we didn't have to discuss, in detail, who would be awarded medals. Since I have an occasional issue with medals and how they are sometimes awarded, this was fantastic.

Over 60 wines were tasted overall - I can guarantee we had around that many in Columbus. Of those, 30 wines were tasted by groups in both Ann Arbor, MI and Columbus. Scores were compiled and the winners were announced today.

The Slow Food chapters of Columbus and Huron Valley are pleased to congratulate the winners:

• Sparkling Wine: Shady Lane Cellars Blanc de Blancs 2000 (MI)
• Aromatic White: Ferrante “Golden Bunches”Riesling 2007 (OH)
• White Wine: Black Star Farms “Arcturos” Chardonnay sur lie 2006 (MI)
• Pinot Noir: Black Star Farms “Arcturos” Pinot Noir 2006 (MI)
• Red Wine: Kinkead Ridge Revelation 2006 (OH)

Let's do a little jump up and down that the Kinkead Ridge won the Reds category! They're one of our own Cincinnati-area wineries! Before you get upset that folks like Henke and Burnet Ridge aren't on the list, the grapes had to be exclusively from Ohio and Michigan, respectively.

“I would consider any of these winning wines to be on a par in quality to their peers from California and elsewhere,” said organizer Andrew Hall, “and at very consumer-friendly prices.”  All of the winners are below $30/bottle, and 3 of the 5 are below $20.

Both Ohio and Michigan share a centuries-old tradition of viticulture which was wrecked by Prohibition but has re-emerged in recent times. From the Ohio River Valley to the upper shores of Lake Michigan, growers and winemakers are working hard to create unique and quality wines. In light of the growing concerns about the carbon footprint of transported products, this event was created to showcase these local efforts and in the context of one of our storied local rivalry.

Slow Food Columbus sponsored this event as part of a ‘Drink Local’ campaign. On November 20th, the first annual celebration of this event, the top-rated Ohio wines will be available by the glass at Alana’s Restaurant in Columbus.

Interested in learning more about our local wineries? Don't forget about the barrel tasting on Nov 29th! It's a great way to dip your toes in the local wine riches.