My Wine Education

Guest Post: When You Wish Upon a Grape: Disney-Related Wines

While Kevin & I are in Alaska, we've asked some friends and colleagues to post on their wine loves, wine experiences and more. For this post we welcome Tom Streeter and Carla Gesell-Streeter, who are dear friends and like me, they are fellow Disney addicts. Tom & Carla run the popular blog Hoperatives.com, a Cincinnati based beer blog aimed at Believers in Better Beer (In Cincinnati and Beyond), but they love wine too. Thanks Tom & Carla - and happy anniversary!
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We love Disney and we love wine (almost as much as beer).  For the longest time, we’ve been wanting to have friends over for a themed wine tasting.  There are three great Disney-related wines out there. All are from California, appropriately enough, though each is produced in a different part of the state.  These wines are frequently featured at restaurants at Walt Disney World, Disneyland and on the Disney Cruise ships and most are also available in the Cincinnati area.

Silverado Vineyards: Stags Leap District of Napa Valley, California

Image Credit: Joe Shiabotnick

Owned by Diane Disney Miller (Walt’s daughter) and her husband Ron Miller (former president and CEO of Walt Disney Productions), Silverado was established in 1981. The Millers purchased existing vineyards and originally intended only to grow grapes, but decided to build their own winery a few years after purchasing the land. The winery was designed by architect Dick Keith and is reminiscent of the old California mission-style structures found in the area. The name comes from a nearby abandoned silver mine.

Current winemaker Jonathan Emmerich produces Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Merlot, Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, and some special limited reserve wines.  Prices begin at about $20.00 a bottle.

Fess Parker Winery: Los Olivos, California

Image Credit: Spencer Cross

Fess Parker was an actor who is famous for playing the original Disney Davy Crockett. (He also starred in Old Yeller.) Fess Parker is no longer westerns and coonskin caps, however. His name is increasingly associated more with his wines. Much like the Millers of Silverado, Fess Parker and his family originally intended only to have a small vineyard and source grapes to local producers. They quickly added not only a winery, but also an inn. Son Eli Parker started as an assistant winemaker, moved into the position of winemaker in 1995, and now serves as President. Daughter Ashley Parker Snider started running the tastings and now handles the public relations, marketing and sales.  Blair Fox is the current head winemaker.

Fess Parker produces produces Reisling, Chardonnay, Viognier, Pinot Noir, Syrah as well as several red table wines. Prices start at about $12.00 a bottle.

MacMurray Ranch: Russian River Valley of Sonoma County, California

Photo from winery web site

Besides playing everyone’s favorite dad on My Three Sons, actor Fred MacMurray starred in several Disney live action films including The Shaggy Dog, The Absent-Minded Professor, and The Happiest Millionaire.  In 1941, the actor purchased land near Healdsburg, which became MacMurray Ranch, from descendants of the tract’s original 1846 homesteader.

Australian Susan Doyle has been the MacMurray Ranch winemaker for more than fifteen harvests.  The MacMurray vineyards specialize in Pinot grapes so the wines produced are Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris.  Prices start at about $18.00 a bottle.

Guest Post: An Italian Wine Primer, Part 2

While Kevin & I are in Alaska, we've asked some friends and colleagues to post on their wine loves, wine experiences and more. For this post we welcome back Kevin Keith, continuing his post from last week.
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Welcome back, it’s Kevin Keith, your friendly neighborhood wino from Liquor Direct, back with more Italian primer – this time we take a brisk walk through the Italian wine landscape, starting at the top of the boot, with the tiny region of the Valle d’Aosta.

Image Credit

Valle d’Aosta is the smallest of the Italian wine regions, bordering Switzerland to the north, France to the west, and Piedmont to the south and east.  An ancient growing region, grapes have been cultivated since the Roman days, with around 22 varieties authorized for growing, including Picotener (the local name for Nebbiolo), Neyret, Vien de Nus, Fumin, Mayolet, Prie Route, Petit Rouge, Pinot Nero (Pinot Noir), Gamay, Dolcetto and Syrah for the reds, and Moscato Bianco (also called Moscat de Chambave), Pinot Grigio (also known as Malvoisie), Blanc de Morgex, Prie Blanc, Muller-Thurgau, Chardonnay and Petit Arvine.  There are no DOCG wines from this area.

Piedmont means “at the foot of the mountains.”  This region is by far one of the most recognized regions in Italy.  It is the second largest region and has the most DOC wines (over 40) and DOCG wines (7).  Most of the production of wine originates in the heart of Piedmont, the Po River Valley.  Here you will find Barolo, Barbaresco, Gattinara and Moscato d’Asti.  The first three I mentioned are all made with the Nebbiolo grape, and the last mentioned is from the ancient Muscat grape.  Dolcetto and Barbera are also widely planted red varieties, as well as Freisa, Grignolino and Brachetto.  The most popular white grape is the Cortese, used for the DOCG wine, Gavi.  Arneis (nicknamed the “white Barolo”) and Erbaluce di Caluso are also grown.  Another important wine product produced here is Vermouth, made with at least 70% wine, and fortified and flavored with various roots, spices, herbs and wood – this is what is known as an “Aromatic” wine.

Lombardy sits in the semi-circle created by the Alps that enclose Italy to the north.  The mountainous north and the flat Po River Valley in the south define the topography of the growing regions, which are divided into three:  the Valtellina in the North, the Oltrepo Pavese in the southwest, and the Franciacorta in the east.  Nebbiolo, known locally as Chiavennasca, is the primary red grape grown in the Valtellina.  The Oltrepo Pavese is known primarily for Pinot Nero.  And the greatest sparkling wines from Italy come from the Franciacorta, and is derived from Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco and/or Pinot Nero.

Guest Post: A Culinary Tour of St. Louis (or, where the locals eat)

While Kevin & I are in Alaska, we've asked some friends and colleagues to post on their wine loves, wine experiences and more. For this post we welcome Kara Christopher, who has been a close friend for countless years.  Like me, Kara started blogging around the turn of the century. It's been a while! Kara lives in St. Louis and is, without a doubt, a foodie. She's also a foodie on a mission to get healthy, although you wouldn't know it from the culinary tour on which she's about to take you. St. Louis is a fun weekend trip - I've done it - and I highly recommend eating where the locals eat. Thanks Kara!
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While Shel is away in the wilds of Alaska, allow me to take you on a brief culinary tour of St. Louis. These are some of my favorite places, not necessarily the ones you'd be told to visit if you were in town for a weekend. Until now, at least.

I should probably tell you who I am, though. I'm Kara & I've been blogging about life, knitting, and everything else for a little over 5 years at StarMonkeybrass.com. The name is a play on the Beastie Boys Brass Monkey & came about because I like monkeys. I am a knitter, music geek, graduate student in biostatistics, and I like to eat. When I travel, I don't want to eat at chains, at least not ones that I can also eat at in St. Louis.

So let's say you find yourself in St. Louis for a weekend and you'd like a little guidance on where to eat. If you happen to be driving up from the south, I'd recommend a stop at Dexter BBQ for lunch. There are several locations, but the one in Cape Girardeau is about a mile off the highway and probably the easiest to find. I heartily recommend the sammich with slaw on it. *Drool*

Once you get into town and settle in on Friday night, you're gonna be hungry. I'm sending you to the Highway 61 Roadhouse & Kitchen in Webster Groves. Let's be completely honest: you're here for the fries. The Roadhouse Fries. They are a masterpiece in the world of potato products: waffle fries covered in pulled pork, a creamy cheese sauce, applewood smoked bacon, and scallions. And this is just the appetizer. I can recommend the burgers & pulled pork as entrees if you're feeling traditional. I love a good burger & the folks in the kitchen definitely know how to make one. I'd also recommend going with a side other than the fries since you just gorged on the ones in the appetizer. For a side, I'm a fan of the sweet potato pie. As tempting as it is to order the banana pudding for dessert, don't do it. You'll get dessert in about 20 minutes.

Once you've recovered from the pork-tastic goodness at Roadhouse, head back to Southwest City and stop off at Ted Drewes. There are two locations, but the original is on Chippewa. It's legendary around here and a Friday night is going to be busy. But it's so worth it - I swear they have the best banana split in St. Louis, although the concretes are what most people go for. My favorites are the Hawaiian & the All Shook Up (peanut butter cups & bananas).

Guest Post: Wine & Your Health

While Kevin & I are in Alaska, we've asked some friends and colleagues to post on their wine loves, wine experiences and more. Last week, David Lazarus offered a post and today, we get healthy with his wife, Jan Lazarus. Jan is a registered dietitian with a specialization in diabetes. This is timely, considering all the comments we get on our Slender wine posts. Thanks Jan!
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Image Credit

Being a dietitian and diabetes educator I receive many questions on the use of alcohol.  Since this is a wine blog I will focus on my attention to the consumption of wine and its benefits and detriments.

The one myth that I really would like to debunk is the number of carbohydrates in a glass of wine.  On average a 5-ounce glass of dry wine contains 110 calories, 5 grams of carbohydrates and 13 grams of alcohol which accounts for 91 of the 110 calories.  It is extremely frustrating to attend a function and overhear someone talking about falling off the low-carb diet wagon while having a glass of wine.  This is a perception created by a good marketing firm. 

Wine or any alcohol is metabolized in the body as a fat not a sugar; that is why excess drinking can add extra pounds of fat even when you are consuming a low-fat diet.  Wine is fermented and does contain some residual sugar, but a very small amount. 

There are positive attributes to wine especially red wine. This wine contains components that can increase your good cholesterol “HDL” and it also acts as an anti-coagulant preventing platelets to stick together and decreasing the chance of blood clots. On the flip side, over-consumption can lead to high blood pressure and increased triglycerides, not a good fat. 

For those with diabetes, alcohol actually lowers the blood sugar for up to 10 hours. This can result in a hypoglycemic state especially if they haven't eaten or are on certain medications. But this is not the recommended method for controlling blood sugar, I have had clients who have tried with unfortunate outcomes. 

Now how much is a drink?  Women should only have 5 ounces of wine per day and men no more than 10 ounce per day. (No, you cannot save them up and have them all in one day.  I get that question a lot.)  Moderate drinking can be very beneficial to your health, but when you go over the daily recommendations then the detrimental effects may occur.  The key to remember is, too much of a good thing is never good.

Guest Post: Visiting the Suisun Valley Wine Country

While Kevin & I are in Alaska, we've asked some friends and colleagues to post on their wine loves, wine experiences and more. For this post we welcome Jen Rizzo. Jen is a freelance motion graphics designer, part-time writer and Cincinnati transplant based out of San Francisco. She is a self-professed beer nerd living in the heart of wine country and spends her free time getting to know the area around her from the saddle of a thirty year old bicycle - she's also a good friend and I miss her. Thanks Jen!
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I moved to San Francisco from Cincinnati on Labor Day of 2008 and have made it a point to stay in the area for all the major holidays so I can learn how the city responds to them. I got to see the city empty out for Thanksgiving and Christmas, making it easier than ever to get a dinner reservation or sit at my favorite bar and not have to elbow people out of the way to get a drink. Of course, it didn't occur to me until two days before Memorial Day weekend that I lived in a major tourist destination. It was time to get out of the city.

This poses quite the challenge for me, you see, because I live in the Bay Area without a car. We're surrounded by all of this incredible terrain, and I see it all from behind the handlebars of a bicycle. This is great for being in the city, and it's very easy to ride over the Golden Gate Bridge to get into Sausalito and toward the mountains, but anything beyond about fifty miles is certainly a breaking point for me. So, I consulted the power of the internet, specifically twitter, to decide my destination for me.

I'm not hugely connected in social media, and my twittering is sporadic at best, but I do have a number of wine connections as well as cyclists and San Francisco residents. My needs were simple: I had never been to wine country in the nine months I lived here, I needed to be able to do it without a car, and I wanted somewhere that was going to give me a good day of bike riding. Oh, and I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars to do it.

Napa was out. The tastings were too high and the hotels were either booked on the night I wanted to be there or astronomically expensive. Plus, my point was to avoid all the Memorial Day nonsense, and a tourist destination was not the place to do that. Our very own favorite wine blogger Michelle suggested Sonoma, but the bus from the city is really the only way to get there with bicycles, and it was going to take upwards of three hours one way.

Then a friend suggested a winery in Suisun Valley, a place I had never heard of. The hotels would be cheaper, he said, and the winery was only an eight mile ride from the Amtrak station. Upon digging around, I learned that there were in fact four wineries in Suisun Valley, and to visit all of them would be a perfect 25 mile loop from the train station, ending up at a hotel that was less than half the cost of a stay in Napa. Oh, and I could take two trains there in an hour and a half, and it would cost me less than $20 to get there, and bicycles were allowed the whole way. Sold!

We loaded up two messenger bags, two bicycles, and headed out for our trip. Two trains and an hour and a half later, we arrived at the Suisun/Fairfield Amtrak station.

 

For a brief moment, it was easy to forget we were in Northern California. It was cold and foggy when we got on our first train in the city, but by the time we arrived in Fairfield it was sunny and about twenty degrees warmer. The longest part of our journey was the first: an eight mile ride to Wooden Valley Winery.

Wooden Valley is a great place to start your journey. Their wines weren't my favorite (though quite enjoyable), and the experience was much less personal than some of the others we would enjoy that day, but their tasting room and visitor's center is huge. The walls list the story of the Suisun Valley: the brothers that founded the first winery post-prohibition, the families that moved in and made it what it is today. We were invited to taste five of their wines for free - something you'll be much harder pressed to find in the more well-known wine regions of Northern California. I had a full bag on my shoulders and no ability to carry more, so I wasn't able to walk away with any bottles to take home. Lucky for me, it turns out you can order direct from their website, and at a price point of $10-16, they make great value wines. I particularly enjoyed the 2006 Cabernet and their 2007 Riesling.

Guest Post: Kentucky's Jean Farris Winery

While Kevin & I are in Alaska, we've asked some friends and colleagues to post on their wine loves, wine experiences and more. For this post we welcome Shannan Boyer, a local parenting blogger and one of the driving forces behind Cincinnati Women Bloggers - also one of my close friends! Thanks Shannan!
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Every summer our family packs up the car and heads down to Somerset, KY for a little boating on Lake Cumberland.  The drive down is about 2.5 hours long, giving us plenty of time to play car games and check out the scenery.  On our drive one of the things I’ve often noticed and have always been curious about were the road signs posted along I-75 for local vineyards.

Well this past weekend we headed down for our first trip of the summer and this time, rather than driving straight through to Somerset, we decided to be a little adventurous. We decided to pull off outside of Lexington and visit Jean Farris, a cute vineyard located off the very scenic Richmond Road.

Not having heard of Jean Farris, we had no idea what to expect as we drove down Richmond Road. When we finally arrived, we couldn’t believe how beautiful it was.  The drive up to the main building was lined with rows and rows of grapes.  It was like nothing we’d ever seen before.

While normally my husband and I would have sampled a few of the wines before buying,  the bistro was not open at the time we arrived, so we went with our guts and purchased a bottle of their Riesling ($16).

From the label:

Cold fermented to preserve the bright tropical fruits and citrus notes. This lightly sweet Germanic white has a delicate balance, and soft floral notes.

Keep in mind I am no Michelle Lentz (ed. note: I think Shannan is doing just fine!), but I have to say that this was one amazing Riesling. I found it to have a sweet taste and could definitely identify the citrus notes.  The wine was smooth and I really enjoyed the fact that it didn’t have a dry aftertaste.  If you like dry wines, this would not be the wine for you. This wine was extremely easy to drink, and in fact, my husband and I finished the entire bottle in less than an hour – a feat for me – as usually I am a VERY slow wine drinker.

We are heading back down to Lake Cumberland soon and I will definitely be picking up a few bottles of their Riesling to have at home. Overall if I was using Michelle’s rating system, I would give Jean Farris’ Riesling a giant smiley face.

A local parenting blogger, Shannan Boyer resides in northern Kentucky with her husband and two young boys. When she’s not blogging about her family’s many adventures on her blog Mommy Bits, she and her family are likely to be found out exploring and enjoying all that greater Cincinnati has to offer.

Guest Post: An Italian Wine Primer, Part 1

While Kevin & I are in Alaska, we've asked some friends and colleagues to post on their wine loves, wine experiences and more. For this post we welcome Kevin Keith, who does an excellent job of introducing himself. Thanks Kevin!
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Hi y’all!  My name is Kevin Keith, and I am currently the wine buyer for Liquor Direct Wine & Spirits, with two locations in Northern Kentucky, as well as local wine blogger for Under The Grape Tree.  Michelle asked me to help keep her blog going with a little post, so I tried to come up with something that would fit with her readers, as well as not repeat anything she or Kevin (her husband) has touched on in the past.

What I came up with is a little something that I am very passionate about, and have had many questions on in my stores over the years, and that is Italian wine.  I tell people who ask about Italian wine, that this subject is the hardest to teach people on due to the overwhelming amount of information there is about the subject.  You see, while other countries in the world dedicated specific areas of their lands to viticulture (growing grapes), in Italy, there are vineyards everywhere, in each of the 20 regions (provinces actually), with each region as diverse as the others.

Vineyards Near Barola, Image Credit

Italy has long been in the top three in wine production, becoming #1 in 2005 with a total of over 8.5 million metric tons that year (over 2 million metric tons more than France!).  Italy can be divided up into 4 main sections:

1.     1. Northwestern Italy

2.     2. Northeastern Italy

3.     3. Central Italy

4.     4. Southern Italy

The Northwestern portion of Italy consists of 6 regions spanning from the greater portion of the arc of the Alps and Apennines, which slope toward the Po River:  Valle d’Aosta, Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany.  Topography, soil, climate and grape varieties vary from one region to the next, and much of this area is considered very prosperous, with the cities of Florence, Milan, Turin and Genoa all inhabiting this area.  A total of 27% of Italy’s wines are produced here.

The Northeastern portion of Italy is also called the Tre Venezie, or “Three Venices”.  The three regions are Veneto – the largest producer of DOC wines, Trentino-Alto Adige – which has the highest percentage of DOC wines comparatively to total output, and Friuli-Venezia Giulia.  Together, these 3 regions producer a total of 17% of Italy’s wines.

Guest Post: A “Meritage” for Zinfandel lovers: Coro Mendocino

While Kevin & I are in Alaska, we've asked some friends and colleagues to post on their wine loves, wine experiences and more. For this post we welcome David Lazarus, another local wine blogger and soon-to-be wine shop owner. Thanks David!
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The mission of the Consortium Mendocino is to increase the awareness and value of Mendocino wine and winegrape products through the production of “Coro Mendocino”, a controlled, ultra premium blended wine that reflects the quality and commitment of the Mendocino County wine industry.

Coro Mendocino in it’s simplest is a Zinfandel blend made exclusively from fruit from Mendocino and their first vintage was 2001. However there is much more to it than that. This is a dynamic style of wine which is awarded Coro status by a jury of Mendocino growers/ producers. The current vintage (06) features wines from ten wineries, while last years had eleven.

Photo from Michelle's Parducci Wine Brunch

I have tried four of the wines that have been in the Cincinnati market for the last several years and they are very good, while each unique. The Coro Consortium allows for up to nine other varietal (commonly found in Mendocino) to be blended into the finished product. The percentage of any one varietal, however cannot exceed that of Zinfandel, which must fall between 40% and 70%. These restriction are just the begining of the protocol, which is quiet specific and can be found on the web site for Coro Mendocino.

All of these wines are priced the same (the 2005’s were $37 each) and feature labels that show the winery name and information, as well as the specifics on the blend. The blends vary greatly from winery to winery and even from year to year in some cases. This is a wonderful showcase of Mendocino fruit and I consider it to have better quality control, as all wines that eventually feature the Coro badge have been peer review twice in the barrel and twice after bottling. A wine maker cannot just pay for the privilege of using the title as is the case with meritage wines.

It is rare in this part of the country to see more than a couple of these wines in stores because of twisted distribution laws. I have been able to find complete sets of Coros from SIP Mendocino in California at www.sipmendocino.com  or 707-744-4375. I am a fan of anything different when it comes to wine and that puts Coros right up my alley. They are fun for the adventurous, but will surely please even the novice wine drinker with their varied complexity.

Guest Post: Giacomo Fascio's Rosso Cervo Cocktail

While Kevin & I are in Alaska, we've asked some friends and colleagues to post on their wine loves, wine experiences and more. For this post we welcome Jay Erisman, our favorite instructor from The Party Source EQ Center and quite the wine and spirits expert. He tries to put a positive spin on our dislike of the new Jim Beam Red Stag. Thanks Jay!
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Bourbon drinkers have offered mixed reviews of the latest from Jim Beam: Red Stag Black Cherry Infused Bourbon. I tend to lean to the thumb-down end of that spectrum. (Although Red Stag is rather subtler than I expected, and not quite the Robitussin swill some have described. And it is clearly aimed at the Beam-and-Coke crowd, who may like it just fine.) But the appearance of the drink led me to wonder: how good could cherry and Bourbon be?

Image courtesy of Avenue Food, Creative Commons License

For help, I asked my first-call cherry masters, the Luxardo family of Torreglia, Italy. The Luxardos are responsible for the great maraschino cherry liqueur--a requisite ingredient in any bar--as well as a host of other cherry products, including whole amarena cherries and a syrup made of real maraschino cherry juice (that's "mara-skeeno," and marks the true and original cherry of that name, not the little artificial radioactive-red fruits endemic to American liquor cabinets). A cocktail of good, strong Beam Bourbon, layered with amarena syrup and the extra bitter Punt y Mes vermouth leads to a cherryish but quite complex cocktail, with a nice thickness that could even work as an after-dinner sip. Serving it on the rocks with a splash of soda cuts the richness if you like.

Giacomo Fascio's Rosso Cervo Cocktail

45 ml (1.5 oz) Jim Beam Baker's Bourbon
15 ml (.5 oz) Luxardo Amarena syrup
15 ml (.5 oz) Punt y Mes

Combine in a shaker with ice and stir for 20 seconds. Serve in a cocktail glass. Garnish with three Luxardo Amarena cherries, and pour a floater of Sazerac Rye on top.

Posts and Polls: Enter the Guests

Kevin and I get on a plane tomorrow morning, headed to the wilds of Alaska. Okay, not really the wilds. We're visiting one of my girlfriends in Anchorage then meeting up with Kevin's extended family for a 7-day Alaskan cruise. There will be much walking, hiking, and eating. We're finishing up the trip with a couple of days in Vancouver then heading home.

We're back for about a week and a half. After that, I head to BlogHer, where I'm speaking on a panel about food and wine blogging. That same few days, Kevin will be heading to Sonoma for the 2nd Annual Wine Bloggers Conference, and luckily he'll be live blogging from some of it. 

So first up, a poll. While in Alaska, I'll be in a place where the Internet can't always find me. However, I'll try to post occasionally. Verizon Wireless has kindly provided me with a complimentary MiFi for the trip - where ever there is Verizon, there will be Internet. But I'm not sure that even Verizon can reach the Icy Straits or the glaciers. I will be recording events as I can for our oft-neglected family blog. If you want me to post all about Alaska here as well, let me know in the poll below.

July? What July? We're gone for most of it. But I've got it under control! So that you still get information on a regular basis (when my MiFi isn't accessing a network that is), I've lined up a group of guest bloggers. They've already given me their posts (so that I don't have any surprises) and they are scheduled and ready to go. For the times Kevin and I are gone, you'll be hearing from our friends and colleagues, both locally and in other exciting cities.

I hope you enjoy their insight! They'll be bringing you different perspectives based on their locations, jobs, and interests.

You'll be hearing from

• Jay Erisman from The Party Source in Newport
• David Lazarus, oenophile extraordinaire and local blogger
• Kevin Keith, Wine Buyer at Liquor Direct, local blogger, and quite the wine academic
• Shannan Boyer, local parenting blogger and a wine drinker just like you
• Jen Rizzo, foodie, graphic designer, and recent San Francisco transplant
• David's wife Jan Lazarus, an oenophile in her own right and a dietitian with a unique outlook on wine
• Kara Christopher, fun foodie from St Louis
• Tom Streeter & Carla Gesell-Streeter, local beer bloggers who enjoy a good glass of wine

Thanks, and "see" you in about two weeks!

Cheers!
Michelle