Sensory Analysis Day 2

After a day filled with tasting wine and spitting it out to identify it's characteristics but not get drunk a couple of my classmates and I stopped in at V Sattui for some wine tasting. I was quite surprised that what I feel is a tourist trap had a couple of very nice wines including a sauvignon blanc that is not on the tasting list.

What was interesting was the tasting room guy that we spoke with. He was a friendly if not patronizing dude who declared "it's the end of the day so all the wines are open for tasting". Bonus. He managed to put his foot in his mouth when he said the wrong thing after observing my classmate spit his wine sample in the spit bucket. "90% of the alcohol is absorbed in the mouth so spitting makes no difference" our jovial server declared. Open mouth, insert foot I say.

Had he thought about the audience that he spent a bit of time mocking when he saw my name tag from the CIA I think he would have been more careful with his comments because it was clear to us after a full day of tasting had we not spit we would have not made it to V Sattui in the first place.

The proper pronunciation of Reidel is REE-DULL not RYE-DELL. Those south orange county folks think they are so smart and yet they have miss pronounced it all along. And the main reason you think that your wine tastes better in your Bordeaux Bowl is just because you think so . The Reidel folks are smart marketers and talked the public into believing a specific glass must go with a specific wine. As long as the glass you use has curved in sides to allow swirling it is a fine wine glass. So drink up bitches!

Some fun facts:
All red wines go through a process known as Malolactic Fermentation (MLF) which comes from the fatty acids in the lies (the skins, pits, stems of the grapes) which create a softer creamier wine with enhanced aromatics. Most whites do not go through this with the exception of chardonnay which is frequently known for it's oakey silky butter qualities.

In California it's illegal to add sugar to wine. This is not the case in other wine regions. You can however add sweet grape juice to a mash to sweeten up the mix. Sometimes a winemaker will stop a tank from fermenting out all the sugar to use it for sweetening up the other tanks.

Phenolics are chemical compounds in the pulp, seeds, and skins of grapes that affect the color, taste, and mouthfeel of a wine. Anthorocyanins give color characteristics and Catechins give bitterness and astringency. Astringency is the feeling of drying out of your mouth because catechins bind up your saliva and it takes some time for your mouth to recover.

We finished the night off at PRESS in St Helena a restaurant owned by Leslie Rudd who is one of primary reasons (if not the primary reason) the wine school at the CIA exists. The food was quite good. I had a Kobe Burger that was huge (I only finished half of it) cooked medium rare with some Swiss Gruyere cheese and lots of fresh veggies. Accompanied by a plate full of the best fries in Napa prepared with garlic and herbs. At $18 it is a bargin for Napa.

Hungry? HA!