Wines of the Earth Seminar #euphoriagreenville

"Wines of the Earth" is an excellent play on words from the brilliant mind of Wayne Belding, MS. I knew that we were in for a treat when I walked in and say the power point set up.  How many times in your life did you wish that you could drink wine while sitting in a power point presentation? Well, if Wayne is your instructor, you'll be in good hands. (and drinking good wine)

Those eight glasses in the picture above represented a world tour.  There were some rock stars among them, notably the Amarone that was mistakenly shipped and replaced #5.

Wayne wrote the book Diving Into Wine - I haven't read it yet, but will link to my review once I do. It is great that he is a geologist by training.  How else would I have known about the secrets of Kimmeridgian soil?  He gave up maps & explanations, and then we talked wine:


Joseph Drouhin Chardonnay Premire Cru `08 $39.99
We start in France, Chablis, in the classic style.  Nuanced, with bold acid and a bit tart.  No oak, I loved that.  Hints of citrus (grapefruit? lemon), but also unripe pineapple.  This was a nice Chardonnay to sip as Wayne described the limestone in Kimmeridgian soil.

Allan Scott Millstone, Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc `10 $14.99
From the famed Marlborough region of New Zealand, this was a mineral, yet grassy wine with a sweet finish.  It was great to taste the wine as Wayne discussed the growing areas and why wines tasted the way that the do.

Husch Gewurztraminer`09  $14.00
Anderson Valley, CA  This was an interesting "spicy" wine.  It was aromatic, had a substantial taste when I sipped it, but was not sweet.  It was dry.  It was an interesting example of a California Gewurztraminer.  A classic match with Asian food, it smelled like lychee, but the taste was more dry, and prepared to tone down/compliment spicy Asian food.

Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt Piesporter Goldtropfchen Riesling Kabinett `06 $23.00
Of course, I loved this.  It was rich, sweet and slightly effervescent.  (I guess that the pros would call that a minerality) This was where Wayne explained German naming.  (I wish that I had taken better notes - but I was too busy drinking this wine!) Seriously, I dare you to walk into your corner wine shop and ask for a bottle of "Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt Piesporter Goldtropfchen Riesling Kabinett". (if they have it, you won't be disappointed.)

So we had been around the world in white wine.  (Although I was firmly still sipping in Germany)  It was time to enter the bonus round of our class, the reds, where a shipment error can sometimes be in our favor!

Tedeschi Amarone della Valpolicella  `06 $48.00
(30% Corvina, 30% Corvinone, 30% Rondinella, 10% Molinara, Rossignola, Oseleta, Negrara, Dindarella) 15.5% ETOH
From the Veneto.  Wow. This was the first time that I have ever tasted Amarone.  I've read about it, I have friends that love it, but I had never tasted it before.  Dry, smells of fruit and alcohol.Wayne had some great pictures of grapes going through the drying process. He had some great stories about the making and exclusivity of Amarone; being made by using only the "Ears of the bunch" I never thought about the anatomy of a bunch of grapes but from now on, I will.


Elk Cove, Mt Richmond Pinot Noir `09 $45.99
Willamet Valley, Oregon (I'll be there next August!)
Wayne taught us why the Willakenzie soil in the Willamet Valley makes for good wine. (my word for the day... Jory Soil) This was a very light, dry Pinot Noir with very subtle fruit.

Mil Piedras Malbec `08 $9.99
I am a fan of Argentinian Malbec.  Wayne helped me to understand why.  Ripe, big, tannic, this wine was a great example of the region.  It was delicious.  It is the growing region, the sun and the heat that produce thicker skins and more color. What better to have with a luscious Argentinian Steak than a big, bold Argentinian Malbec? And you can't beat the price!

Finally, I have to admit that I sipped and dashed on this wine.  Which was unfortunate, because it came from my favorite region in the world, Piemonte, Italy.  But I was running late for euphoria's Grand Tasting, and I had just done six hours of wine tasting with no lunch... Sorry Wayne, I did not mean to run out on you.

My last wine of the afternoon:
Renato Ratti Barolo Marcenasco `07 DOCG $49.99
This is a celebration wine. A wine that we could easily be drinking 18 years from now. 14.5% ETOH, with deep dark tobacco flavor, and a dark fruit forward.  This wine is all about overwhelming your taste-buds. A classic representation of the area, is it wrong that I just wanted to keep my glass, grab the bottle, kill a wild boar and eat it with fresh truffles in between sips?

Instead, I dashed across the street for the last 15 mins of the Grand Tasting....

A slideshow from all the seminars that day:

Long Live the King! Cabernet Sauvignon Wine Seminar #euphoriagreenville

I love wine seminars. They suit me.  Bonus points to euphoria, because they hosted three seminars in one afternoon. I started my morning with Bubblemania, (sparkling wines in all their glory) and then went upstairs to the Gold Room at the Westin Pointsett where J. Scott Carney, MS was going to talk to us about Cabernet Sauvignon.

When walked into the room, the tables were set and the wine was poured.  The smell was incredible.  Imagine hundreds of glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon wafting through an otherwise empty room.  I watched as participants stepped through the entrance, stopped, inhaled, and smiled. It was a great reminder that enjoying wine includes taste and smell.

Scott has the presence of a college professor.  (which is good, because he teaches at CUNY)  Not the stuffy kind of professor that you dread, but the cool kind of professor that recommends movies "Bottle Shock.  You can get it on Netflix"; and says things like "When I first read 'Long Live the King, J. Scott Carney', I though gee, thanks euphoria, but that is a bit much..."  The group laughed along with him and then we got down to the business of Cabernet Sauvignon.

There were six glasses set before us:

Trig Point `08  $20.00 Diamond Dust Vineyard, Alexander Valley
A light wine with a very slight tannin, this wine was a good starting point.  We tasted and discussed the changes in color that happen as a wine ages.  We held this glass up and looked at the color.  "Color loss begins at the rim" was what Scott said.  It was a nice, easy to drink wine, with a good hit of blackcurrant, a classic Cabernet Sauvignon flavor.  This wine still had its primary aromas;  as it ages, secondary aromas will develop, creating the bouquet.  This wine is a 10-15 year wine as far as drinkability.  It will develop complexity in years to come, but it is also good to drink right now.

This was also a good time to start discussing ETOH content in wines.  Did you know that "claret" the wine that I am often invoking when I write about Jefferson, was generally a low alcohol red wine.  It was only 12% ETOH.  Note to Self:  I may need to re-do my presentation "Our Drunken Founding Fathers" and rename it "Our slightly tipsy Founding Fathers".  Scott was great at putting into words how ETOH affects us "You can feel it in your chest and in your throat".  He also reminded us that we were at a disadvantage, because "Cabernet needs food." We were tasting wine straight up, and the nuances really do develop better when they have other flavors to play with.  Scott mentioned a nice steak and my mouth watered.


CrossBarn by Paul Hobbs `08  $39.99    Napa Valley
(96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc)
With  the second wine, Scott discussed the wine maker as well as the wine.  Paul Hobbs is a legend in the business.  One of the "Flying Winemakers" he works his craft in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres because the Napa harvest is in October, and the South American harvest is in March..  Pretty cool to be doing what you love in two hemispheres and creating a great product along with it.  This wine has a sweet smell.  Scott pointed out the nostalgia in wine, "A sense of smell warps space an time". (see, I told you that he was like a very cool college professor! - well duh, he IS a college professor.  I felt very lucky to be sitting in his "class").  CrossBarn is a rich wine, that brings a textural concept to the palate.

This is where we discussed tannins.  "Tannins are the acid that put the breaks on". Again, we lamented not having a steak dinner in front of us, but I was learning so much! Tannins in wine set your palate for other textures. Imagine the contrasting fattiness of a nicely seared steak with a tight, fruity, tannic wine - I am sure you can.

Manifesto North Coast Cabernet Sauvignon `09 $21.00 North Coast AVA
This was a dry, light wine.  ETOH 14.4%.  "Pink on the edge, a very young wine" (By now, I was getting so good at looking at the edges of wine, I could snap a picture while holding!)



Château Sénéjac Cabernet Sauvignon`05 $30.00
Now to France, ancestral home of Cabernet Sauvignon,  Bordeaux, Haut-Médoc.  This was probably the closest resembelance to the "Bordeaux Claret" that I write about.  It is a low alcohol (13%ETOH), spicy (baking spices - clove, cinnamon, nutmeg), subtle wine. With its age (`05), it is developing secondary aromas, cedar? menthol? To me, it was a very light wine, and a bit sour.  But I am imagining that paired with the right food, this could be amazing.

Regusci Cabernet Sauvignon `08 $58.00
(92% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Merlot, 2% Cabernet Franc)
By far, my favorite wine of the day. It was a full flavor, jammy wine, with a lovely "toasted oak" flavor (vanilla).  And oh so smooth.... I just wanted to grab a bottle and run next door to euphoria's "Grand Tasting" tent. I was very proud of my self control. There may be a case of this wine in my future.

Back to the wine.  From the Stags Leap District, it is one of Napa's few "Ghost Wineries" which is a great story, involving California, Italy and prohibition.  I won't tell it here. It is a story to be told while sipping a glass of this wine while sitting around the fire-pit.


Shafer One Point Five Cabernet Sauvignon `08 $70.00
(98% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Petite Verdot, 1% Malbec)
At 15.1% ETO, this is a powerhouse wine from Shafer Family Vineyard in Napa's Stags Leap District.  A classically dark forest fruit flavored, tight, dry Cabernet, I wonder what it would be like aerated and served with an amazing crown roast.  

Thank you Scott for walking us through these great representatives of Cabernet Sauvignon.  It truly was a Master Class on Cabernet Sauvignon.


My slideshow from all the Wine Seminars:

Bubblemania Wine Seminar #euphoriagreenville

11am Saturday morning.  I took my seat at the back row in the Westin Hotel's  Poinsett Room and watched as dedicated euphoria volunteers poured sparkling wine for us.

It was a beautiful sight to behold.  Bubbles, blithely bouncing bubbles bursting to the top of our glasses.



 Laura Williamson, MS, CWE introduced us to each glass.  The smells, the tastes, the processes that brought them into this world. When to drink them:  "You don't want a five year old prosecco".  What the grapes bring into the flavor process:  "Pinot Noir gives the earthy dimension".  What is it with aging anyway?: "Acidity is the key component for ageability".


For me, Laura's gem statement of the day was "We talk dry, but we want sweet".  With regard to wine sold in the United States, that is so true.  No wonder our best seller is Riuniti Lambrusco.  There is a huge market for sweet. But we love to discuss other nuances.  When I read people writing about wine, it is like our national sweet tooth is a dirty secret.  Well, I'll say it, I LIKE sweet wine. I drink it, I write about it, and I won't hide it.  After all, I was raised on Boone's Farm Tickled Pink.  (but I still love my Tempranillo!)

One of the highlights of this session (besides the wine and the teacher) was that in the volunteer section was Alexandra from Devereaux's Restaurant.  She had some GREAT pairing ideas and would come up and share them with us.  She also had a cooking tip to share.  "When cooking with dark meat, use black pepper.  When cooking with light meat, use white pepper".  Hmm, you wouldn't think sparkling wine with anything peppery normally now would you?  But I bet that something with a bold flavor, like the German Raumland Pinot Blanc Brut Prestige or even The Gloria Ferrer would pair really well with a pork loin stuffed with cornbread, dried apricots, cranberries and raisins.  (Great, now I am hungry.)

Laura said something that made my ears stand up: "There's great sparkling wine coming out of England".  Wwhaaat? I asked myself.  There are vineyards in England?  How did I miss that?  I must go now and find out where these English vineyards are.  And so, this will be my 2012 wine project.  (after I pass my CSW)

Here is a run down of what we tasted that morning:




Segura Viudas Brut Reserva, NV DO, Cava  $8.99
A nice dry Spanish bubbly.

Mionetto IL Prosecco DOC di Treviso $13.00
I smiled.  This was the last wine  I tasted before my kidney transplant in `08.  It was a lovely happy flowery memory.  (the wine was flowery too!)

Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Noirs Sparkling NV $20.00
Hello old friend!  I love this California sparkling wine. It is one of my go to bubblies.  I savored this glass.

Moët & Chandon "Imperial" NV  $34.99
Yes, here we are in France with the big boys.  Our first "Champagne" of the day.  I've never been a label person. (unless I am labeling someone... but I digress) It was nice to taste one of the classics. This is the wine that replaced White Star.

Moët & Chandon "Imperial" Rosè NV $50.00
Pretty, strawberries.  I liked it. Soft, creamy and elegant.  Ok, this is what the money is for.  What a great special occasion wine.


Raumland Pinot Blanc Brut Prestige `02 $65.00
My first vintage sparkling of the day, and it was from a small German producer that leaves the wine on the lees for 5-7 years.  Now this is what a wine seminar is all about.  There were only 500 cases of this wine produced.  It is exclusive.  Laura had it because she works for the distributor.  It was the richest sparkling that I tasted for the day, and it had a long finish.  Which is remarkable (to me) for a sparkling wine.

Umberto Fiori Moscato d'Asti DOCG $10.99
And we end our tasting in one of my favorite corners of the world Piemonte, Italy. This super sweet dessert sparkling is like drinking a luscious over ripe pear from a bottle.  Crisply chilled, it is a magic elixir, and it is only 6% ETOH.  All sweet, no hangover.  (maybe a diabetic coma, but hey, what a way to go!)


Here's a slideshow from all three of the wine seminars of the day:

euphoria 2011: a higher state of food, wine and music in Greenville, SC 9/22-25

One of the magical ways to experience life is to step away from your day to day existence and experience total cultural immersion.  That is euphoria:  a happening in Greenville, South Carolina showcasing Food, Wine, and Music - simply for the joy of  it (and to benefit many deserving charities).

From Thursday, September 22nd to Sunday the 25th, I'll experiencing Greenville for the first time (and you never forget your first time); I'll write about the sights, sounds and tastes that for one magical weekend converge at Greenville, the secret destination of the foodie world. I expect that euphoria will be reached many times that weekend and I'll be blogging all along the way, but rather than read about it, come to Greenville!  We'll all be there -  from all over the world:  Chefs, Musicians, Sommeliers and the people who love and appreciate them.

Greenville is for foodies. The whole city will be immersed in euphoria. Either as VIP or À la carte, it will be all right there. In a break from my normal blog policy, I am using euphoria's photos for this blog post, as I have never been before.  What is great about euphoria is that many of this year's participants are in the ascendancy of their careers, they are working, have just started thinking about writing their cookbooks, and the sky is their limit.  Like Justin Bogle from Gilt here in NYC, who earned two Michelin stars at 28.  (Take THAT Gordon Ramsey - he was 31 when he was awarded two stars!) and Gilt has one of the most amazing wine lists I have seen. Gilt won Wine Spectator’s Grand Award for 2011.  Their highest award for a restaurant wine list - it is safe to say that Justin knows pairings! I am just so excited to be going, and to be able to say that "I was there when...".

I arrive on Thursday, people will be moseying into euphoria, a laid back stroll of Greenville's Main Street merchant participants.  I'll be easing my way into the weekend, remembering to relax and soak in the surroundings; trading a "New York Minute" for a "South Carolina Mosy", and I can't wait! That night, I'll be at Songwriter's Recipe: Songs and Stories from euphoria Unplugged listening, unwinding, meeting new friends, and tasting some wine. (J. Lohr Vineyards and Wine are pouring)

There are so many events going on that weekend, I can't possibly cover all of them. So, I have decided to focus on wine and take a few diversions along the way.  First will be the VIP BMW Performance Drive on Friday morning,  (JPH would never forgive me if I didn't show some love to BMW - I do drive their Mini-Cooper (in British Racing Green) after all!); then an afternoon tour with Greenville History Tours, after that, it'll be all food and wine, all the time for me.  Of course, there will be parties and special events along the way. (I am wondering how I will squeeze in a trip to the Beer Garden) and the Spirits Dinner sounds amazing, but I need to pace myself. 

Friday night is Taste of the South, downtown Greenville being serenaded and fed by the South's best and brightest from 6:00 - 10:30.  This will be a marathon for me, but what a marathon to take part in!  I will be on the hunt for Shrimp and Grits.  (You'll be hearing a lot about my discovery of Shrimp and Grits over the next few weeks.  It has become my obsession since I returned from the Wine Bloggers' Conference in Charlottesville, VA)

On Saturday morning, I'll be taking the Nikon to Greenville's Saturday Market. Their Farmers Market is local and seasonal, it'll kill me to not be able to buy things and go home to cook them, but I'll take plenty of pictures.

Then, an all day and night immersion in wine - I won't be pickled, but my taste-buds should come out of this better educated.  I have learned more about wine from going to tastings  - just by being there, sipping wine, and listening to the experts share their thoughts on what is being poured.

From 11 until 2:30, on Saturday, I will be at Wine Seminars led by three Master Sommeliers: Laura Williamson presenting sparkling wines,  J. Scott Carney will discuss Cabernet Sauvignon and Wayne Belding will be talking about the big reds. These Master Sommeliers have built their careers by working with some of the world's best restaurants and wine importers/growers; I am so glad that they will be at Greenville to meet us, drink with us, and talk about their passions for wine - broadening my palate all along the way.    I'll be blogging about it, but tickets are still available, come join me!  I'll put your picture in the blog post  ; ).

Photo by Stephen Stinson

On Saturday night, there are many Saturday Wine Dinners at top Greenville restaurants, featuring a guest Chef and winemaker.  It'll be at The Lazy Goat.  This should prove to be EPIC, Rory Golden of the Deerhurst Resort in Ontario, Canada (G8 Summit 2010) and Haley Bitterman, Corporate Executive Chef, Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group  (Mr. B's Bistro, New Orleans) team up with The Lazy Goat's Executive Chef Victoria Moore.  I can only guess what surprises the menu will have.  Will we get famous New Orleans BBQ Shrimp? Pan Seared Loin of Elk that wowed world leaders? or Lamb Ribs or Lazy Paella? My mouth is watering as I type this.

On Sunday morning, in a totally random act of cosmic convergence, I will be going to Mass at St. Mary's Catholic Church.  A great friend of S. & JPH's is Fr. J. Scott Newman. Priest, Princeton alum and part time blogger. I could not go to Greenville without a visit to St. Mary's - and as I have been to Mass before and nothing burst into flames, I figured this would be a nice time for a repeat visit.

Then on to a New Orleans-style buffet Jazz Brunch 10am - 2:00; while I am nibbling and listening, I will watch the Culinary Cook-off from 11:30am - 2:30.

For me, it all will wrap up with Sunday Supper, sampling bourbons and craft brews while I kick back to the sounds of southern blue grass with the Weasel Creek String Band.


On Monday, I'll head back to Long Island.  The Nikon full of photos, my head full of memories and blog posts waiting to be written.  You'll be able to read along with my trip to euphoria, or you can go yourself.  Tickets are still available.

Don't forget, there will be dancing.