Wine Stars

With the hot weather we’ve been having this summer in Sonoma County and other parts of California, I had a craving to taste some summer wines such as dry roses and off-dry muscats. I’m sure that some of this had to do with the fact that I’m currently reading the book, Extremely Pale Rose, which is a fun romp through the wine regions of France looking for the lightest pink colored rose wine. Anyway, I headed to some of my favorite wine stores and also had some wines donated by friends and we had a relaxed tasting by a swimming [...]

You’ve heard of food and wine pairing, but have you heard of music and wine matching?  According to an informal focus group of 42 Women for Wine Sense members and guests at Nicholson Ranch Winery, the right type of music really can impact what you taste in the wine.  We experimented with two wines – a chardonnay and pinot noir, and matched them to different music genres.  Focus group members were asked to vote on their favorite.  The results were amazing!  The 2007 Estate Chardonnay on its own has a lovely nose of orange blossom with peach and butter on [...]

(By guest author, Matt Lapides) The last wine club of the 2008-2009 school year celebrated by tasting a flight of reserve wine from Chateau St. Jean and enjoying the dynamic of a food and wine pairing hosted by the wonderful Tammy K. Wight.  Tammy opened the meeting with a taste of the 2005 Sonoma County Reserve Chardonnay.  It took four different private vineyards of chardonnay grapes from the best parts of Sonoma County to create the multi layered complexity of this glass.  It had a finish that tasted like crème brulee.  The 2005 Sonoma County Reserve Malbec was next. This [...]

The 40 Millennial students in WineBiz Class 305W at SSU were asked to analyze wine clubs in the Napa/Sonoma area and to select their top three favorites.  Criteria were based on best practices in wine clubs and included the following:   1)     Number of different club levels - at least 2 choices is preferable 2)     Price ranges for each level – a variety of ranges is preferable from low to high 3)     Shipping frequency – every 2 to 3 months is better, because lowers cost or discounted shipping 4)     Club level by varietal preference e,g. red wine, white, sparkling, etc. [...]

(By Guest Author: Matt Lapides, SSU Wine Club President) This week the SSU Wine Club was hosted by JAQK Cellars. JAQK is a brand new wine line launched last October and they are hoping to open a tasting room and lounge within the next five years.  They spell it J-A-Q-K because it stands for Jack, Ace, Queen, and King.  Their bottles were not only pieces of art, but they looked like they came out of a deck of cards.  The meeting was co-hosted by Joel Templin, the founder/owner, and Craig MacLean their master winemaker. Everyone had the opportunity to ask [...]

Lastnight we had a blind tasting of 6 red wines. The purpose was to try to identify the four classic red grapes -- pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, syrah, and merlot – by appearance, nose and palate. We also threw in two other favorites – a zinfandel and malbec – to make it more fun and challenging. Altogether 37 Millennials participated in the tasting, and we voted on our favorite at the end before revealing the label and price. The star of the evening was a cabernet sauvignon from a brand new winery in Napa! Read on for more details and [...]

The 40 Millennials in Bus 305W tasted through 6 white wines recently in a blind tasting format.  The purpose was to attempt to identify the classic varietals by color, nose, and palate structure.  A classic varietal is defined as one which must “have manifested QUALITY over a long period of time, AND have done so in more than one place in the world.”  Therefore according to experts such as Jancis Robinson and Karen McNeil, there are 5 classic white grapes:  chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, riesling, chenin blanc, and semillon.  We also added a sixth grape which is quite popular with Millennials [...]