How To Host a Blind Wine Tasting!

What could be better than a wine party?  How about a wine party teaching you how to throw a wine party!  The Stay At Home Winos were most fortunate to be asked to host just such a party!

Last Thursday, the Winos hosted "How To Host A Blind Wine Tasting" at Fezziwigs's Marketplace in Lebanon, Illinois.  First, a little back ground on Fezziwig's!(http://www.fezziwigsmarket.com/index.html)

Fezziwig's opened their unique shop in historic Lebanon, Illinois in 2007.  Ellen Leaf-Moore and her husband Tim Moore, both with extensive retail management experience, decided the shopping district in Lebanon would be the perfect backdrop for a wine and gourmet food business.  They didn't stop there, later adding home decor, entertaining essentials, gourmet olive oils and an enormous list of loose leaf teas.  My Husband and I started visiting (with and without our children) soon after Fezziwig's opened their doors.  In some ways for the Stay At Home Winos, Fezziwig's was the beginning of our journey.  Both Lisa and Beth have worked, and still occasionally work, at Fezziwig's and the three of us have spent a lot of time (and money) in this great shop.

One of the specialties at Fezziwig's, other than wine, is loose leaf teas.  Ellen Leaf-Moore is a Level IV Certified Educator Specialist with the New York-based Specialty Tea Institute.  Fezziwig's "Wall of Tea" contains over 100 different types of loose leaf teas!  Teas can be purchased in-store or on line! In addition, Ellen teaches classes, such as "Blending Your Own Botanical Tea", which will be held on Tuesday, August 13.

Finally, this wonderful store offers home decorating and entertaining items, as well as classes on cooking, decorating and entertaining.  But my personal favorite is Fezziwig's delicious wine!  They carry an assortment of varietals that are unique and delicious!  To this day, some of my favorite wines are those I have purchased or enjoyed at Fezziwig's!  Further, the atmosphere of this lovely gem has contributed greatly to some wonderful memories I have made with my family and friends!

But, back to the wine class!  The main focus of this class was to teach participants how to host their own blind tasting at home.  The Stay At Home Winos gave an overview of how the evening would go, and we got started!

The first step in hosting a blind wine tasting, is to decide on a theme.  For the class, we chose three red wines and three white wines - all different varietals.  We gave participants a sheet that outlined the characteristics of five red varietals and five white varietals, letting them know that the three wines of each type were listed among the five.

In their own wine tastings, participants would also need a group of wine drinking friends, wine (covered - of course!) and finger food.  We had three types of cheese, crackers, cashews and bread sticks to go with our wines this evening.  Of course, chocolate covered grapes were offered at the end, as well!  Other staples of a blind tasting include water, white background with which to judge the color of the wine, paper and pens, a dump bucket (if you do that sort of thing), a scoring sheet and a small prize for the winner.

For our class, we started with whites.  We gave participants helpful hints on how to hold their glasses (by the stems), how and why to swirl (my specialty!), how to properly enjoy the nose and how to taste. Participants were asked if they smelled any particular aromas and what they tasted.  They were also asked if anyone had an idea which wine was which varietal.  After all the score sheets for the whites were handed in, we found we had one participant who had guessed all three varietals correctly!  She received a bottle of wine preserver.  (Congrats, Jackie!)

After a brief intermission, and some shopping, our guests were once again seated at the table for round two - reds!  We went through the same analysis of our three reds, as we had done for our whites.  The reds proved to be infinitely more challenging to our guests.  There were many great responses about what our guests found on the nose and mouth.  In the end, however, no one matched all three...or two...but several people were able to guess one of the three.  Those guests received a bottle of delicious gourmet BBQ sauce.

Overall, the evening was a resounding success, and demonstrated that a blind tasting isn't as easy as one would think!  Our participants had great questions that sparked interesting discussions.  The Stay At Home Winos truly enjoyed hosting this class and meeting all of the participants.  Further, we enjoyed being together at a place that holds such amazing memories for the three of us.

Cheers!

Mary Jo

Wine School-Texas Cabs, July 16, 2011

Theme:  Texas Cabernet Sauvignons

Since I have lived away from Texas for the past 11 years, I decided it was time to check out the Texas Cabernets just to see how they taste.  Having more knowledge of California Cabs, I was excited to try a new locale.  I chose three from very different parts of the state- Lubbock  (northern), Fredericksburg (central hill country) and Bryan (east-central). Let's see how they add up!

The wines:

McPherson Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon 2009

• Color - Garnet
• Nose – A bit of spice, pepper and earthiness
• Mouth – A lighter bodied Cab with nicely balanced tannins, the finish ends with a bit spice, tart, red fruit apparent.
• Price – $14.69
• Conclusion – Alone this Cab was okay for a $15 bottle of wine, but when matched with the food the wine was elevated to a new level. We really enjoyed it with the lighter gouda.

Becker Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2010

• Color - Garnet
• Nose – Much bigger nose than the first wine with notes of asparagus, black olives and a deep earthiness.
• Mouth – A bit too much pepper on the mouth for us when we first tried this wine. Tannins were abundant. Once paired with the food the fruit of wine came shining through and the tannins were tamed. 
• Price  $24.99
• Conclusion – The fruit really comes forward with the food that really balanced the overpowering pepper we initially tasted. Nose on this wine was the most interesting of the night.

Messina Hof Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve 2011  

• Color – Deep garnet
• Nose – Floral note comes out with the first inhalation. Also a bit of a chemical smell.
• Mouth – Tannins are as big as Texas. No mistaking that this is the youngest of the wines. It will benefit from more time in the bottle. Definitely needs to be paired with a meal at this point to round out the tannins.
• Price $19.79
• Conclusion – This wine really stood up well to the dinner! All of the big, young tannins didn’t overpower the steak, but help the fruit of the wine shine. This wine will be interesting to try later when it has had time to age.

The Pairings:

Cheeses

• Marieke Aged Gouda – This was a new gouda that we tried this evening and we all loved it. It was definitely the best cheese of the night-pairing well with all the wines. I think “delish” sums up this pairing!
• Wyngaard Chevre Gouda – Although we all enjoyed this cheese, it paired best with the Messian Hof.
• Rembrandt Extra Aged Gouda – Again, one of our favorite cheeses, but was a disappointment with McPherson Cab. However, with the Becker the tarty fruit of wine was enhanced and the best match was with the Messina Hof.

The Meal

• Green salad with balsamic vinaigrette – We had to have our green leafy vegetables! Best to save the Cab for the main attraction, the steak!
• Mashed potatoes – The potatoes were delicious, but again, leave the wine for the steak, cheese and chocolate!
• Steak – What can we say-steaks and Cab-a match made in heaven. All of the wines were fantastic with the wonderful steaks Lisa’s son prepared for us. A big thank you goes out to Dylan, your dad trained you well. The McPherson was completely changed with this pairing. It took this inexpensive wine to a new level, really filling it out and elevating its body. The Becker and Messina Hof were also excellent with the steak. The fruit shined through with the Becker and tannins in the MH really met their match!

Chocolate

• Chili Infused Chocolate – This was a hit with all the wines. One of our favorite chocolates-best with the Messina Hof.
• Cabernet Matinee Intense Dark – This pairing was a mixed bag and we found it hard to all agree. Overall, we think it depends how much you love this chocolate, and Lisa does!
• Sea Salt Intense Dark – This was a disappointment, the almonds in the chocolate brought out bitterness in the wine.

Conclusion

Beth – Another night of successfully broadening my wine knowledge while enjoying the company of two great friends! I have had Cabernet from all over the world, but these Texas Cabs were a real treat. They were all enjoyable, especially with the steak, which makes it too hard to pick a favorite of the night. Although I did love how the fruit really came out in the Becker when paired with the cheese, steak, and chocolate. It was also interesting sampling from three different years, an excellent example of how the flavor profile of wine changes as it ages. Looks like I need to make a wine trip to Texas Wine Country! Thanks Lisa, it was a great class.
Lisa - Well I was pleasantly surprised to find out I DO like Texas Cabs!  I've heard they are bold and a great pairing to a big thick steak and I found out that's true.  For simply just enjoying the wine alone, these wines were not wowing me but when paired with the meat, especially the steak, they popped!  All three were very different-from the nose to how they paired with each of the cheeses and the chocolates.  I'm ready to see what else the state has to offer. Road trip!
Mary Jo - Texas reds were a first for me! It was a wonderful surprise! These were three very different and delicious cabs! They were so different, I am not sure I can choose my favorite! The Messina Hof, being the youngest of the three, was a big, tannic wine that could stand up to any of the foods served. The Becker had enormous pepper on the mouth and became more fruit forward with the food. The McPherson had wonderfully balanced tannins, a wonderful finish and we found it to be a lighter bodied cab. Thanks Lisa, for opening our eyes to a great region to explore! These wines were fantastic!

Messina Hof Winery & Resort

As you may or may not already know, I am originally from Texas.  It is true- you can take the girl out of Texas, but you can't take the Texas out of the girl! -even though we have moved a couple of times and a couple of states over the past eleven years. So recently while my husband (also native Texan) and I were back visiting we thought we would locate the nearest winery.  Having visited California multiple times and Oregon, I was anxious to see how Texas wines stood up to the more well known wines.

Since we were in the Bryan/College Station (home to Texas A & M University where our daughter is attending and I am an alum) area, we found Messina Hof Winery & Resort.

What a delightful discovery!  Messina Hof is located in Bryan and was established in 1977 by Merrill & Paul Bonarrigo VI.  Messina Hof's winemaking heritage dates back more than 200 years, originating in the founder's homelands of Messina, Sicily (Paul's family) and Hof, Germany (Merrill's family), hence the name. The art of winemaking has been handed down for seven generations. 

Our timing was a little off so we were unable to take the winery tour, but since we had time to spare, we decided we needed to do a wine tasting.  They have quite an extensive offering of wines from Cabs, Zins, Merlots (to name a few dry reds) to Chardonnay's and Rose's to other semi dry reds and whites, dessert & specialty wines.  We however, concentrated on the dry reds (can't do them all in one tasting).  Our first was the Pinot Noir and then several of the various Cabs.  The owner Paul also offers a super-premium line under the Paulo label.   One of the more memorable labels was the Texas Hold 'Em Red blend which is a great everyday enjoyable wine.  We were then treated to a tasting some of the Ports, which were all amazing!

Not only do they offer tastings, as I mentioned, they also have winery tours and a Wine Bar attached to the Tasting Room & Gift Shop.  They offer tons of events, such as Happy Hours, Sunset Tours, classes and themed dinner parties.

 

If you care to extend your stay beyond tastings, they have The Vintage House Restaurant which features fresh produce from local growers. You can also dine in the Barrel Room.  If you still can't leave, they have The Villa, voted "America's Most Romantic Bed & Breakfast", which provides guests with romance, privacy and world-class elegance.  The Villa houses ten romantically unique themed and decorated rooms.  They can also arrange corporate and special events.  There are too many aspects to mention here so go to their website for more details (www.messinahof.com).

 



If you can't make it to Bryan and are closer to the Texas Hill Country, venture over to  Fredericksburg and check out their newest location.  In 2011, The Bonarrigo family established the Messina Hof Hill Country Winery.  Merrill's family originates from Hof, Germany and settled in Fredericksburg in the 1800's. This beautiful 10-acre estate includes a Wine Garten, "Manor Haus" B&B, VIP Room and Guest Center.  This place will be my next trip!

 

Can't wait to return!

 

Cheers!

Lisa

 

 



Delightful Tasting at MacPhail Winery

On our recent California wine excursion, one of my favorite stops was MacPhail Family Winery. MacPhail specializes in Pinot Noir, a favorite of mine and my husband. Having tasted and enjoyed a MacPhail Pinot at our Pigs and Pinot dinner in October(see October 29, 2012 blog entry), I was looking forward to tasting a variety of their Pinot offerings.

We arrived at the winery, completed in 2008, and were greeted by assistant wine maker William Weese. The barn like structure was built with the environment in mind, using natural sunlight and specially constructed wet land that recycles waste water from the winery. A lovely table was all set in the middle of the winery. William gave us an overview of the history of the winery as well as the philosophy of James MacPhail’s winemaking. At MacPhail they believe in small batches of hand made wine, the winery produces only about 5,000 cases a year, with minimal intervention. Grapes are sourced from cool climates of the Sonoma Coast, Mendocino, and recently added Santa Barbara and Oregon. The grapes are hand picked and hand sorted and fermented using natural yeast. As we tasted a variety of the wines MacPhail has to offer, the terrior of each distinct vineyard was definitely apparent. All agreed we had found a wonderful winery for outstanding Pinot Noir!

If you plan on visiting the Sonoma area in the future and are a lover of Pinot Noir, I definitely recommend a visit to MacPhail. Tastings are made by appointment only, but they are easily reached through their website www.macphailwine.com or by phone. The small family winery truly treats you like an old friend.
Cheers,
Beth
P.S. While chatting with assistant winemaker, William, we discovered he has his own label, Weese Family Winery www.weesefamilywinery.com that produces a Cabernet from the Rockpile AVA, another favorite AVA of mine! Check him out online or on Facebook.