:: The Zen Gourmand ::

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The premiere Wine Tasting Event of the Zen Gourmand’s Wine Club is rapidly approaching and I’m releasing this update along with the additional details and wine selections today.

The event will take place on Saturday, May 10th, 2008, starting at 7 PM and will be held at a private residence in Courtice (RSVP for details).

This premiere event will be free of charge!
We will be tasting 6 wines in total, 2 whites and 4 reds.
These wines will be supplied by our good friends at the Profile Wine Group and both Ruben Elmer (Key Account Manager, Sommelier) and Allan Leal (Private Client Sales) will be present to talk about these marvelous wines.
These wines have been selected to expose you to a broad range of tastes, styles and terroirs. They have also been chosen with warmer weather, backyard BBQ’s, pools and patio entertaining in mind. You will be thrilled!
You will also be offered an opportunity to order the wines we are tasting for you private enjoyment.

Whites:
Cantina Produttori Cormons, 2006 Pinot Grigio Isonzo, Friuli Isonzo Doc, Italy
“Clean and accessible, aromas include, lemon, apple and floral notes which come in at good itensity. A mix of citrus and mineral flavours with slightly oily and chalky texture.”

Rowi, 2006 Sauvignon Blanc, Wairau River. Marlborough, New Zealand
“Lifted aromas of passionfruit and gooseberry abound in this vibrant, lively wine, which balances the freshness of melon and lime with rich, ripe tropical fruit on the palate and a lingering finish.”

Reds:
Casa Vinicola G. Cesari, 2005 Ripasso Valpolicella, Classico, Bosan, Italy
“The predominant cherry bouquet overlaps with pleasant hints of cocoa, tobacco and vanilla. It has an intense purple red colour with strong, soft and velvety body.”

Farnese, 2005 Edizione Cinque Autoctoni, Estate Blend, Italy
“Strong garnet red colour, intense and persistent with aroma of cherries, prunes, ripe black currant, tobacco and a toasted final note. Full-bodied, soft, rich in tannin, very persistent, long at the end with spicy notes of vanilla and chocolate.”

Coriole Vineyards, 2005 Shiraz, McLaren Vale, Australia
“Subtle aromas of dark fruits and spice. The cooler vintage of 2005 is reflected on the palate, with tight acid and fine grained savoury tannins that combine with dark berries and subtle notes of earthy, peppery characters.”

Chateau Teyssier, 2004 St. Emilion Grand Cru, Bordeaux, Frnace
“Bright ruby-red. Black cherry, violet, licorice, menthol and smoke on the nose. Sweet and primary, with blackberry, licorice and mint flavors.”

Please note:
You do not need to be a registerd member of the Wine Club in order to attend, however

This Event is RSVP

so please confirm your attendance ASAP via email to bruno@zengourmand.com or to zengourmand@juliemoorespa.com or pick up the phone and call (leave a message if necessary).

 For general information on the wine club, check the Wine Club link http://www.zengourmand.com/wine-club/
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email me or call.

Budoshu is Japanese for “wine” or more specifically “grape liqueur”.
Enso is the Japanese word for “circle” but in the context of Zen, symbolizing enlightenment.

All that said, I’m inviting you to become a member of the “Enlightened Wine Circle”, an informal wine tasting/buying club of the most unique kind and by far the best wine club in all of Durham region.
Be part of a group of like-minded individuals who will get together once a month to taste a fine selection of wines in an environment of shared interest, professional guidance, advice and tutoring.
Get exposed to fine wines from around the world that are not available from the LCBO’s general list or even from VINTAGES!Experience wines in vertical and horizontal flight formats.
Taste wines you might never try on your own for any number of reasons.
Some of the themes I am working on are:

• Organic and Biodynamically grown wines
• New Generation Wines of Switzerland
• Superb Rieslings of Germany
• The top vintages of Tuscany
• Châteaux shootout
• Super Premium Cabs from around the Globe
• Rare Viogniers
• Wine Gems of Eastern Europe
• and many more….

To join our group, please register ASAP.
There is no membership fee providing you join before September 30, 2008.
Membership after that will be a nominal $50 per annum.
Each tasting event will be by RSVP or event registration only.
Our premier event will be free of charge!
Subsequent events may be subject to an event fee that will be determined by the cost of the wines selected plus any incidental or auxiliary costs (facilities and stemware rentals etc.), prorated by the number of participants.
Any such fees are expected to range from $25 – $60.

At each event you will be able to order any of the wines tasted in case quantities (cases are typically 12 bottles, sometimes 6).
Splitting cases among members allowed.
Members may bring bottles from their own collections for tastings, however they will not be compensated for the wine :)

To sign up or for more information please contact me via email at wine@zengourmand.com or simply fill in the REGISTRATION FORM FOUND HERE.

The other day I came across a revolutionary new gizmo that no wine lover should be without. I ordered one for myself right away and installed it on my laptop immediately.
Tasting new wines has never been so much fun.
Have a look for yourself and let me know what you think.

:)

The world of wine is full of words that, when used correctly and within the appropriate context, can make you look like a proper wine expert or even a sublime wine snob.

Words like “Aroma”, “Bouquet”, “Palate”, “Nose”, “Finish” would seem self explanatory, but in the world of wine, these terms all have a rather specific meaning. Not having the precise knowledge of these meanings and therefore utilizing them at the wrong time or the incorrect context can make you look like a fool faster than a fine bottle of exuberantly opened Prosecco can expel it’s lovely contents and certainly, you will not get any brownie points from any wine snobs within earshot of your diatribe.

I’m going to introduce you to all of these terms over the next few weeks, so pay attention.

Let us begin with the three simple words “Smell”, “Aroma” and “Bouquet”.

“Smell” is a word that is not often used by wine experts to describe any aspect of a wine. Still, you simply cannot discern the “Aroma” or “Bouquet” of a wine without smelling it; it’s a fundamental fact. Therefore, we learn immediately that “smell”, “aroma” and “bouquet” are intertwined, i.e. these words are related.

“Smell” (*), if used at all in describing a wine and not used as a verb [to smell], is usually associated with the primary (***) smells or aromas of a wine and can often also have a negative connotation [it smells bad] related to a wine fault (**) of some sort. However, when used as a descriptor of a grape variety (varietal), we tend to refer to the “smell” as an “aroma”.

This wine smells of strawberries = This wine has aromas of fresh strawberries (black berries, cassis, fresh cut grass, cat’s pee).

The smell of this wine is that of vinegar (rotten eggs, wet cardboard, mould etc.)

“Aroma” can be applied to any of the three kinds of smells, however, a true wine expert will only apply this term to the first two, possibly even restrict the use of “aroma” to the second kind of “smell”, namely that resulting from the wine making (vinification, production) process but especially that of the fermentation. These smells, also referred to as “secondary” (***) aromas include such descriptors as toast, honey, cream, yeast, nut, biscuit, smoke, cedar, vanilla, oak

“Bouquet” is what a wine develops with ageing, both in barrels as well as in bottles. Young wines usually don’t have a ‘bouquet’, they display “aromas”. To develop a true bouquet, a wine needs to be aged for a few years, a number of which should be spent in barrels. This allows the wine to mature and develop a variety of “tertiary” (***) aromas resulting from such chemical processes as oxidation and polymerization of aromatic compounds. These aromas typically include descriptors such as leather, fur and game etc.

So there you have it!

Next time we’ll talk about complexity, balance and finish.

- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - -
* The sense of “smell” is ancient and primal, one of the earliest senses evolved, for locating food, warning of danger, and regulating sexual behavior. Unique among the senses, the scent message passes directly through the limbic system, the emotional center of the brain, on its way to conscious identification in the cortex. Reaction to certain smells may be instinctive; identification of those smells requires a certain amount of experience and training.

** Wine fault(s) – any one of a number of thing that can go wrong with a wine, during production or ageing, resulting in a spoiled bottle and some very nasty smells. More on this in a separate article.

*** Wines are known to have 3 different kinds of “smells”:

• primary smells, those specific to a varietal (grape variety), e.g. strawberry, peach, citrus, grapefruit, herbaceous, fig
• secondary smells, these related to the wine making process, e.g. toast, honey, cream, yeast, nut, biscuit, smoke, cedar, vanilla, oak
• tertiary smells, those related to the wine ageing process, e.g. leather, fur, game, chocolate, vanilla, toasted coffee, tar, resin, moss, undergrowth, sandalwood or truffles

A few days ago we were sitting around with some friends and I decided to open an Austrian Trockenbeerenauslese. As this was a fairly old and expensive wine, I made a few remarks about it and one friend, studying the bottle, remarked “No wonder it’s expensive, it’s got diamonds in it!”.

Well, these “diamonds” are of course not real “diamonds” and are also not that unusual in older, well crafted quality whites. These “diamonds”, or “crystals”, also known as “Wein Stein” (wine stones) in German, are in fact crystalized tartrates, specifically potassium-bitartrates.

So what does it mean when we see these wine diamonds in a bottle?

• - It tells you, among other things, that this wine was made from ripe grapes and the grapes had sufficient acidity and minerality for these crystals to form.
• - They are neither harmful nor a sign of poor quality (in the contrary)

We do not see these wine diamonds in North American or other New World wines very often as many whites are “cold stabilized”, a process whereby the wine is rapidly cooled to about -4C for up to 2 weeks in order for these types of crystals to “fall out” of the wine before it is bottled. Of course there is much debate about a process of brutalizing a wine in such a manner and the resulting change in taste and flavour.

Be that as it may, consider yourself lucky if you find some!
Keep the bottle upright for a while (possibly as long as a few days) in order for the crystals to settle to the bottom of the bottle; then pour carefully or decant.