Featured Cincinnati Wine Events: Feb 14 – Feb 20

We start off the weekend with a slew of Valentine's Dinners, many of which are probably booked by now. I know I tried to get into Bella Luna and failed miserably. So as of right now, we have no Valentine's Day plans. Oops.  You'll notice, though, that a couple of restaurants are continuing Valentine's Day through Sunday. Hmm … maybe we can get reservations then.

After Valentine's Day though, everything comes to a screeching halt – maybe everyone is tired after holding Valentine's Day dinners for almost a week straight. The one event I want to call out is Wine After Work with Jean-Robert de Cavel, on Thursday. Sponsored by the Alliance Francaise of Cincinnati, it's part of a lecture series. Held at the soon-to-close Jean-Robert at Pigall's, it's your chance to hear Chef talk about the things he loves most – food and wine.

 

Remember, these are just one-time events of which I'm aware. Regular (recurring) events are always listed on the calendar. 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!

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

Photo Credit: I took it yesterday.

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Think Pink / Recession Wine: 2007 La Vieille Ferme Rosé

All this week, we'll be reviewing rosés in honor of Valentine's
Day. I consider rosé a misunderstood wine that can be excellent. Sadly,
too many rosés are still sugary sweet. Rosé is more than white zinfandel or cheap blush, but a full-fledged wine style in itself. This week, we'll explore dry rosé, one of my favorite types of wine. All the wines in this series are under $15, most are under $10.

I love a great rosé. I love one more when it's just an everyday, affordable table wine. La Vieille Ferme (translates to "the old farm") 2007 Rosé is just that. I paid $7.59 at Liqour Direct for this one. I always call it the "chicken wine" because of the chicken and rooster on the label. This isn't the first time I've tried this rosé, and liked it, but it is the first time for this vintage. 

This rosé is has a nice color that reminds me of a watermelon. It's a combination of 40% grenache, 10% syrah, and 50% cinsault. Cinsault? It's a hardy, and popular red grape in France. It's often used in blends, as it is here. This particular wine is from the Côtes du Ventoux region of the Rhône Valley.

The nose is full of fun berries and flowers. In particular, I smelled roses. I hate when I smell roses in rosé, as it seems like a cliche. But they're in there, I swear.

I really liked this wine. It's well balanced and well structured. It actually takes up space in your mouth and announces it's arrival with an explosion of berries. Which ones? Well, it's like someone took a bunch of fun red berries – strawberries, definitely cranberries, cherries, and maybe a few raspberries – and then blended them all together in a food processor. But there's also a nice tartness and good acidity to cut through all that berry goodness. In fact, it's a rather crisp wine. I even got a bit of spice on the midpalate – I think it might have been black licorice. Finally, this wine has a nice, relaxing finish of melon.

If you're tentative about rosé, or you're convinced it's all sickeningly sweet or, heaven forbid, white zinfandel, then try this one. You'll be out less than $10 and you might just enjoy it. It's dry without the tannins and fruity without the sugar. You might be surprised that you, too, can think pink.

At less than $8, this is our recession wine of the week.

Rating:

–

Think Pink Rosé Series

• 2007 Wölffer Estate
• 2005 Chateau Bonnet Bordeaux
• 2006 Tin Roof Cellars
• 2007 La Vieille Ferme
• 2007 Montes Cherub

Think Pink: 2006 Tin Roof Cellars Rosé

All this week, we'll be reviewing rosés in honor of Valentine's
Day. I consider rosé a misunderstood wine that can be excellent. Sadly,
too many rosés are still sugary sweet. Rosé is more than white zinfandel or cheap blush, but a full-fledged wine style in itself. This week, we'll explore dry rosé, one of my favorite types of wine. All the wines in this series are under $15, most are under $10.

Next up in our series is the 2006 Tin Roof Cellars Rosé,
which I picked up at Liquor Direct for $7.98. Tin Roof and I have an troubled relationship. I often try their wines, wanting to like them, and I'm always left disappointed. In this case, the Tin Roof Rosé was recommended by a friend with great taste in wine. I was excited to try it, but it proved to an exercise in how wine is subjective. What I like may not be the right thing for you, and vice versa.

This rosé is bright corally pink in color. On the nose I noticed some citrus and then, oddly, some petrol. Kevin thought there was just a touch of sulfur on the nose as well. This one is a blend of 39% Zinfandel, 19% Pinot Noir, 17% Merlot, 12% Syrah, 9% Chardonnay, and bringing up the rear, 4% Petite Sirah.

In the mouth, it was tart and well-structured in that it wasn't weak or flabby. But it seemed to be off on the finish, and it had a really short finish – sort of all tartness, no flavor. And that's all I really got out of it. This is a wine I really wanted to like, but it seemed to me more like a puzzle that was missing a piece. It just wasn't all there.

Rating:

–

Think Pink Rosé Series

• 2007 Wölffer Estate
• 2005 Chateau Bonnet Bordeaux
• 2006 Tin Roof Cellars
• 2007 La Vieille Ferme
• 2007 Montes Cherub

Think Pink: 2005 Chateau Bonnet Bordeaux

All this week, we'll be reviewing rosés in honor of Valentine's
Day. I consider rosé a misunderstood wine that can be excellent. Sadly,
too many rosés are still sugary sweet. Rosé is more than white zinfandel or cheap blush, but a full-fledged wine style in itself. This week, we'll explore dry rosé, one of my favorite types of wine. All the wines in this series are under $15, sometimes under $10.

Next up in our series is the 2005 Chateau Bonnet Bordeaux by André Lurton, which I picked up at Liquor Direct for $9.96. The front of the bottle calls this "a fresh and fragrant rose displaying the ripe summer-pudding flavours of the Merlot grape." I'm not even sure what "ripe summer-pudding flavours" are.

This wine is a light coral in color. On the nose I found citrus and what seemed like a little oak. It was almost woodsy – very odd considering this wine was created in stainless steel tanks. It's a blend of 50% Cabernet Franc, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 25% Merlot.

The taste was filled with wild strawberries and oranges, but a strange aftertaste. It had more heft than the yesterday's wine, and tasted both darker and fuller.  I never do well with Cabernet Franc and I wonder if my dislike of this wine has anything to do with that. I also drank it on it's own and, well, I think it needed food. I would say
this is definitely a food wine, and not meant for standalone drinking.

Rating:

–

Think Pink Rosé Series

• 2007 Wölffer Estate
• 2005 Chateau Bonnet Bordeaux
• 2006 Tin Roof Cellars
• 2007 La Vieille Ferme
• 2007 Montes Cherub

Taxing the Sinners: HB 166

I try to keep most politics out of the blog, but occasionally there are things that directly affect not just our friends in the wine industry, but those of us buying the wine.

We all enjoy buying wine in Kentucky, as the prices certainly can't be beat. Well, HB 166 proposes raising the liquor tax by 6%, to an overall total of 17%.  A distributor told me today that right now, before this tax increase, we are already paying 53% in taxes – whether on a bottle of wine or a bottle of beer. 53% !  That's crazy!  In fact, it's one of the highest in the nation. So imagine adding another 6% on to that. In order to make money, our favorite retailers are going to have to raise prices.

Take that one step further – a tax increase like this is going to greatly hurt all of our favorite retailers here in Northern Kentucky. Border stores, like those here and in Louisville, will feel the pain of having to raise prices. It's bad enough that everyone is being forced to raise prices here and there because the dollar is bad and imports are now more expensive. Now we're going force them to raise prices from within the state?

I've long known Kentucky's wine and liquor laws were a bit backwards and, in many cases, appear to be left over from Prohibition. Heaven knows, it's next to impossible to ship anything in or out of this state. This is just one more example of hurting ourselves and employing the 1930s-era mentality of taxing the sinners.

(Image Credit)

Let's look at coal for a minute. We don't mine coal here in Northern Ky, but we don't see the money from the coal taxes either. About half of the money from coal taxes stay in the counties that mine the coal. Do the work, reap the benefits. Representative Steve Riggs believes it should work this way with alcohol taxes as well. Last year, alcohol taxes provided $115 million in state revenue. Riggs has proposed an amendment to HB 166 that keeps the money from the tax increase in the wet counties. After all, if HB 166 passes – without the amendment – then those dry counties reap the benefits from the money we're all spending.

Of course, ideally, the bill won't pass at all. Maybe the dry counties will be so upset by the amendment that they'll vote against the bill. My fear is that they'll get rid of the amendment, pass the bill, and the dry counties will reap the benefits of my – and your – dollars. We don't want the bill to pass in any form.

There are so many other ways to raise money other than taxing something that is a) already overtaxed,  b) brings in business from neighboring states, and c) singles out certain people within the state.

Hey, I know! Why don't we build a casino in one of the buildings Columbia Sussex has bought, waiting for a casino. We're constantly losing that money to Indiana. Instead of continuing to tax the rest of us, how about finally passing a casino bill and making money that way.

I'm not really cheering on 59% in taxes on a bottle of $14 wine.

Feel free to write our local congressmen. Happily you can just send them an email – I did. You can also view the letter from Liquor Direct's Kevin Keith. Finally, you can just call our legislature at 1-800-372-7181. My own letter is after the jump.

Sal.Santoro@lrc.ky.gov

Thomas.Kerr@lrc.ky.gov

Arnold.Simpson@lrc.ky.gov

Joe.Fischer@lrc.ky.gov

alecia.webb-edgington@lrc.ky.gov

Adam.Koenig@lrc.ky.gov

Jack.Westwood@lrc.ky.gov

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