To start, I ordered an Old Speckled Hen. Old Speckled Hen is an English pub Ale that has a rich malty and fruity aroma that translates to a mouth-watering palate. The full body of this beer lingers on and on and finishes with hints of caramel and a slight bitterness that is refreshing. For my GF, a Affligem Blonde which is very light straw in color and has tiny bubbles that dance on the palate, showing subtle hints of bitterness that don’t overpower the rich flowery hops. If I had ordered this, it would have been calling for my bacon mac & cheese. Now, my buddy ordered a Pale Ale I had not seen before, Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale ,in the 16oz. can. This Pale Ale is America’s first hand-canned craft beer. It has ample hops that give way to a smooth balanced malt, not overwhelming but you certainly get the hoppy perfume from the moment it hits your glass all the way through its powerful finish. 

While toasting and looking over the menu, my attention was immediately drawn to The Fire Starter, an amazing burger topped with deep-fried jalapenos, crispy onion strings and a slice of Pepper Jack Cheese, served with a mouthwatering side of BACON Mac & Cheese!! (That sealed the deal for me). As for my GF and buddy it was The Athens Salad and the Black ‘N Blue Burger. Now don’t fool yourself, this salad was no joke, baby spinach (a ton of it), black olives, crumbled Feta, cucumbers, red onion, & tomatoes topped with chicken. The Black ’N Blue was topped with blue cheese, applewood smoked bacon and BBQ sauce (I might also point out that they grind all of the meat in house). We all got down to business on the mouth watering burgers & salad.  As my mouth began to heat up it was time for another round. Taking a look over the Beer Menu I noticed a Canned IPA that I had not tried, Point the Way IPA from Golden Road Brewing Co. Now I’m always skeptical about a canned beer but this flag ship IPA of Golden Road, lower in alcohol than your average IPA still gave all the HOP flavors I have come to expect in a good old American Craft Brew. I call this the little IPA that could as it really surprised me. Sitting around, taking in the lively atmosphere and throwing back a few more we all decided that our thirst was sufficiently quenched and that our bellies were full.  What a wonderful place to hang with good friends! The long and short of it is, if you find yourself in Sherman Oaks hungry & thirsty this is the place to be, nice helpful staff, great food, & a awesome beer selection. I don’t always drink beer but when I do i drink a lot of it…stay thirsty my friends!!

I ordered my first glass of Slovenian white out of sheer curiosity at Hearth, Riesling Chairman Paul Greico’s New York City flagship, in 2008. It was an unpronounceable white, which I’d clearly never heard of. Intrigued, I tasted, thought, then tasted again. Exotic pink grapefruit and classy, restrained saline minerals on the finish lingered in my mind. I finished my glass and promptly another before we even sat down to table.

Fast forward a couple years: Blue Danube, a small import outfit out of Palo Alto specializing in central European selections is making headway; Slovenian autochthonic varietals are appearing on the lists of the cognoscenti: Anfora and Terroir in New York, Bar Covell , Lou, and Gjelina in LA. Skin macerated whites (see my earlier post on Orange Wine), a practice widely elaborated in Friuli, Primorja (Brda, Vipava,) and the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia, are gaining appeal in somm and consumer circles alike. Slowly but surely, this tiny country nestled into an Alpine enclave between Italy (Friuli) Hungary, Austria, and Croatia, which has quietly produced wine for 2 millennia, is establishing itself on the radar of savvy wine drinkers.

Part of the allure is that Slovenian producers are widely iterating organic and biodynamic viticulture, and that small production wine opens the door for use of natural practices. Batic Winery (in the odd-shaped bottle) was founded in 1592; their belief in making wine with minimal interference long precedes the current ‘natural wine’ fashion trend. Fermenting with indigenous yeasts and without temperature control echo the customs of their predecessors, and also make for incredibly unique bottlings. Kabaj Winery, the culmination of a Brda viticultural family and a French oenologist, applies all organic treatments in the vineyards and ferments without added yeast. In the inland appellation of Podravje, Kogl is crafting fresh, bright whites of madcap combinations (their flagship Magna Dominica is Yellow Muscat, Auxerrois, and Riesling, vinified dry) that buzz with firm acidity and minerality.

These wines offer an enlightening alternative to the same old standby whites in your fridge. They also pair well with difficult-to-match cuisines like Thai, Malaysian, and Indian.

Here are a few of my current favorites:

2010 Kogl Mea Culpa Pinot Gris –  Spritzy and fresh, medium-bodied with lime and white pepper. Guzzlable.

2009 Kogl Magna Dominica Albus –  Yellow Muscat, Riesling, Auxerrois. Aromatic white flowers on the nose with pear and mirabelle on the palate. Long finish.

2009 Kabaj Rebula Goriska Brda –  100% Rebula (Ribolla Gialla) Clove, cinnamon and lemon peel on the nose lead to deep macerated orange on the palate. Lots of grip – funky spicy. 

2008 Batic Pinela Vipavska Dolina –  100% Pinela. Autolytic apricot on the nose leads to glyceriny Golden Delicious Apple on the palate. Pleasantly oxidative, with a full mineral finish. 

Give them a whirl as the weather heats up. And let us know what you think. Thanks!

Yesterday’s Dry Wine Tour hosted annually by Rudi Wiest Selections pulled a quite a crowd. And thank goodness, because the 35 dry German wines reds and whites we tasted ranged from superb to absolute knock outs, rife with the power, intensity, and the sleek minerality that only cool climate wines can amalgamate.

Dry Wine Tour (for whom LA was their 7th stop in 10 days) featured the wines of 7 different houses, and represented the gamut of regional styles, from elegant Rheingau, to exotic Pfalz, Mediterranean Baden, and fresh, fruity Franken. Palpable passion exhibited in the words and gestures of these German wine makers shone through any language barriers. It was a pleasure to listen to Markus Mleinek, winemaker at Dr. Heger/Weinhaus, who is a zaftig sort of guy, giggle about how important food-friendliness is to him in the Pinot Gris & Pinot Blancs he crafts. “As you can see by looking at me, I like to eat, I like to cook [pause] with a lot of butter and cream [laughs, audience laughs] and I want my wines to work well with the foods I cook.” We tasted through his Baden lineup and the whites were like no wines I’ve ever had from Germany, weighty, with some caramel and roasted notes, and lots of hazelnut.

Carl Erhard of Kunstler buzzed like the electric minerality and piercing acidity of his Rieslings. I got a chance to speak with this tall, gentle character briefly after the event to congratulate not only his wines but also his passion. I told him that one really can taste the love and joy that goes into his wines. “With wine it’s all about the passion you put into it,” he said with a smile, “that’s how you make good wine.” I was particularly taken with this man’s inspiration; though he spoke a bit more at length than some of the others, he wrapped by saying “My wife says, ‘when you talk about wine, you talk too much!’” The whole room had a good hearty laugh.

And it’s not all about Riesling. I was pleasantly surprised at how much good dry Pinot Blanc there is for quaffing and also at the richness and density of the Pinot Noir. For varietal expression, Rebholz in the Pfalz that stole the show. Each wine was unique and had its best characteristics teased out expertly. Wines were well-made, balanced, bright, and harmonious. Their 2009 Pinot Noir exhibited characteristics of smoke, red licorice, cinnamon candy, and tea leaves which coalesced in an integration whose result was both pleasurable and intellectual.

The large majority of the German dry wines were make organically and biodynamically. And frankly the more I pay attention to wines made without pesticides and in a sustainable environment, the more I notice how much better they taste, not only from mass produced wines, but also from smaller production wines that spray or fertilize with harsh chemicals. Below is a selection of my favorites –  some of which will soon be available here at WHWC. Stay tuned.

Rebholz Pfalz

2010 Pinot Blanc Estate: Bright, bold, dry, crisp, one of the better Pinot Blancs I’ve had. Guzzlable.

2010 Riesling GG Ganz Horn –  Pepper, mineral, spicy, medium-bodied, big finish.

2010 Riesling GG Im Sonnenschein –  Briny, saline, lime flower, & white rose.

2010 Riesling GG Kastanienbusch –  red slate soil, hay, tea, dusty summer earth, dry herbs

2009 Pinot Noir Spatlese Dry Tradition –  Smooth, velvety, sweet fruit, dense, cinnamon, clove

Wagner Stempel Reinhessen

2010 Riesling GG Hollberg –  Gardenia, concentrated, ripe, stone fruit, mouthcoating

Heger Baden

2011 Heger Pinot Gris Estate – Heavy Loess soil, medium body, round, lower acidity, drinkable, Food friendly, Rhone-ish

Becker Pfalz

2010 Pinot Blanc Estate –  Mouthfilling, delicious, ‘sweet’ fruit, lanolin, peach

2008 Pinot Noir GG St. Paul –  Beachy, brambly, bright, orange rind, Campari, food-friendly

Kunstler Rheingau

2011 Riesling GG Kostheim Weiss –  Closed upon opening, after 15 mins steely minerality, beeswax, lemon curd, white flowers

2009 Pinot Noir Estate –  Slate, smoke, currant, like a good Bourgogne rouge, woodsy, candied fruits, bright

The study used a probe compound that would be easily detected as very bitter by people with sensitive palates while those with average palates would only detect slight bitterness, if anything at all. Out of 330 people tested at wine tasting events, only 111 participants detected the compound. All participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire to declare if they were an expert or not. They concluded that experts were much more likely to detect the compound and as such, expert recommendations may be based on tastes that are too subtle for the average person to notice.

They are careful to note that while the difference between an expert and the average consumer may have something to do with experience and education, previous research has shown that biological factors may explain the very sensitive taste of experts. In that case, if you are an average consumer, don’t hold out hope for becoming an expert taster. John Hayes, assistant professor of food science and director of the sensory evaluation center at Penn State says “If an expert’s ability to taste is different then the rest of us, should we be listening to their recommendations?”

I agree… sort of. In a perfect world, we should not care what reviewers say. I do agree that everybody actually does have different palates… it is the WHY that it up for debate. I like to hold onto the contention that the biggest factors in “palate awareness” are experience, education and training, not physiology. This view allows me to believe that there is room for anyone and everyone in the land of wine appreciation. It might be exposed as inaccurate someday, but for now, there is no fun in thinking that someone’s enjoyment of wine could be limited by their biology. 

I do not personally pay attention to ratings and reviews when it comes to choosing what to spend my own money on. However, I understand that I have a lot more experience and knowledge at my fingertips to help with my judgment then some folks do. For some, ratings and reviews can be a comfortable place to get started and I would rather someone have a comfortable starting place then feel lost in a metaphorical (and literal) ocean of vino. In short time, most people will learn to take what a review says about a wine with a grain of salt, if not ignore it altogether anyway. Just remember, at the end of the day, the only persons palate that matters is YOURS. If you like a wine that scored low, stand proud. If you don’t like a wine that was reviewed well, don’t be afraid to speak your mind… you’re not “wrong.” There is no wrong or right when it comes to personal taste.

So, where do you start when you are deciding what to buy? Easy. The one thing a wine reviewer can’t ever say to you specifically is… “Yes, you will like this wine.” Why? Because they don’t know a damn thing about your individual palate. Go talk to a wine professional at a reputable wine retailer. Be ready to articulate what you like and just as importantly, what you don’t like… and then trust when they say you’ll like something… repeat after me: “ignore the score.” A wine reviewer cannot and will not ever take the time to learn about your likes and dislikes and personally recommend wines just for you…. some who you can actually converse with… CAN. The more time you spend developing trust with a retailer and the more feedback you can give… the more rewarding your drinking experiences will be. With just a morsel of info from you, they will be able to recommend wines that your palate will be able to understand, appreciate and enjoy. Just imagine what they can do for you when they have a deeper understanding of your preferences?

Do I think that things will change and move away from a marketplace controlled by the critics? Yes. Do I think that is a good thing? Yes. Do I think it will be anytime soon? Surprisingly, yes again. It is going to be a very exciting time to be in the wine industry but my thoughts on that and my other reasons for being anti-critic are best left for a different post. In the meantime, what are your thoughts? How much weight do you give to reviews and ratings? Why? Do you trust the “experts” over your own instincts, or the recommendations of people you know personally?

An Evening with Anthill Farms

• Meet Web Marquez and Dave Low of Anthill
• Taste limited production New Releases
• Bonus Winery Selections (Knez Winery)

APS Wine & Spirits Imports

‘Mini’ Portfolio Tasting @ the Wine Bar

Friday, March 16th, 2012

5-7 PM

Featuring:

• Domaine Romain Collet – Chablis (meet Romain Collet)
• Fattoria di Fubbiano – Tuscany
• Gianfranco Bovio – Piedmont

Join us as we welcome Romain Collet of Domaine Collet Chablis and Alan Sobczak of APS Wine & Spirits for an evening extravaganza of wines from France and Italy.

Domiane Collet – The Collet family has cultivated wines in Chablis since the late 1700′s. Romain now represents the fourth generation to run the winery.

Fattoria di Fubbiano – Located some 30 minutes outside the great city of Lucca, Fubbiano is set atop the “Colline Lucchesi,” or the hills of Lucca, which is the acknowledged pinnacle of this DOC.

Bovio – Comprised of 10 hectares of crus in the prime Barolo slopes of Arborina, Gattera, Rocchettevino, and majestic Bricco Parrusi, Bovio’s project has been an unprecedented success, elaborating a range of vineyards that exemplify the terroir of La Morra.

*Reservations recommended. Sorry, no shared pours.

RIESL’INSANITY’ Happy Hour

w/Jenna Levy, Rudi Wiest Selections

@ the Wine Bar

Friday, February 24th, 2012

5-7 PM

Spring has sprung. With bright new leaves appearing on trees and temperatures rising, people are starting to think about outdoor parties and hanging once again by the pool. Most savvy oenophiles have now caught on to the tremendous potential and delight that Riesling from Germany has to offer. These whites run the gamut of bone dry to sappy sweet, with representation of every sweetness designation in between. They are among the top three most food-friendly whites in existence and pair with everything from cucumber sandwiches and onion dip to cilantro-spiked ceviche to schnitzel.

Join us this Friday night 2/24 for an all star line up of some of the best houses in Germany. German Wine Maven Jenna Levy will be on hand to pour answer your questions about Riesling, Silvaner, and Spätburgunder. A selection of regionally specific nibbles (sausage, sausage, sausage) will also be provided. See you there – Prost!

$15 taste all 7