Wine 103: Keeping Track in the Field

One of the great frustrations of finding wines that we enjoy is the stark contrast of the almost universally poor quality of most wine sold in restaurants.  Quickly glancing over a wine list in an unfamiliar restaurant is usually a recipe for disappointment because if my favorite wines are not listed I am typically flying blind and picking countries and regions by reputation not actual knowledge of the wineries themselves.

A co-worker recommended the Wine Notes free app which he got for his Android based phone.  At first I though he was being overly bourgeois on this.  After thinking about it for awhile using a smart phone app makes tons of sense. After all I was beginning to keep a list of my favorites  in the notes section of my IPhone anyway.

Wine, and to a greater extent drinking in general is supposed to be about having fun. Part of having fun is finding and drinking something you already put in the effort to discover.  Nothing is more frustrating than spending your hard earned money on something that is substandard.  So anything that helps in the effort of getting you what you like and want is a good thing.   The fact that the app is free is just icing on the cake.

This app should not dissuade you from trying new wines though, because half of the fun is in the discovery.  Kind of like the first time I drank coconut rum, I like neither flavor independently yet together they were heavenly.  My buddy seems to like this app, I will have to see if they have a version for the IPhone as well and will report back.  

If you have a droid you can get the app here:

http://www.appbrain.com/app/wine-notes-free/com.sh0rtshift.wineNotesFREE

Wine 101 (Pre Kiddos) @ Copia of Napa

Back in June of 2007 Carmen had a conference up in Berkeley, CA and I was off from my Adjunct Professor job for the summer, so I went with her.  After the last day of the conference we had time for a quick trip to Napa before our flight out the next afternoon but could only visit one winery.  After some research we decided to visit the Copia in Napa Valley.  It was a great concept a museum/winery dedicated to food and wine.  It also  had a wonderful restaurant attached to it called "Julia's Kitchen."

The food and presentation were top notch and Carmen was quite pleased with our lunch there. 

Copia  had tours, rotating exhibits and classes.  Carmen and I only had till the afternoon before we flew home so we signed up for the first class available.  Luckily for us we Wine Tasting 101 was available.

The instructor lets call her, "Jane" was a no nonsense young woman in her early twenties from a small Napa wine growing family who was working at Copia to increase her general wine knowledge and marketing savvy.

Carmen and I were ushered into a wonderfully appointed room, she had serious wines, a serious slide show, serious wine glasses divided into sections for different wines and only us as students for that class.  

Unfortunately for Jane, my sense of humor just like my palate had not yet matured.  Jane did her best to  instruct Carmen and I on the basics of observing the appearance of the wine, smelling the aroma in glass, tasting and experiencing the sensations in mount and finally paying attention to appreciate the aftertaste (finish).  In return Jane had to endure endless jokes about; "the wine looking like wine," "smelling like grapes," "tasting like grapes," and "still tasting like grapes..."  Jane showed great patience that day.

All joking aside, (apologies to Jane) I learned a great deal about my wine preferences that morning.  I prefer red wine over white.  I prefer sweet over dry.  I also typically prefer medium bodied to full bodied wines.  Sadly I recently read that Copia had closed.

If I ever bump into Jane again or if you happen to remember Carmen or I and are reading this blog, we apologize and promise to be better next time...  And can we start with a flight of red wine?