Geographical Digest - A Wine Education Series

I registered to participate in SommCon's live educational series Geographical Digest last Thursday which focused on some of the top American wine regions in the western United States. That week's webinar was called Domestic Bliss: The West Coast - California, Oregon and Washington. This wine tasting series is in conjunction with The SOMM Journal and National Geographic Books who publishes The New Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia.

I tuned into the Zoom webinar to watch it live but the monthly series is also available through an on-demand streaming platform, SommGo. This is a new service that provides year-round training and education for both beverage professionals and wine enthusiasts. It can be watched live one Thursday a month or it can be viewed at a time that is more convenient. Wines for each seminar are also available for purchase from BottleTribe.

Sarah Quider with Chalk Hill Estate Winery and Heidi von der Menden with Merry Edwards in Russian River Valley, Aly Wente with Wente Vineyards in Livermore, Miles MacDonnell from Round Pond Estate in Napa Valley, Damien Grindley with Brecon Estate in Paso Robles, Guillaume Large with Résonance Wines and Wayne Bailey from Youngsberg Hill in Willamette Valley, and Dennis Cakebread with Mullan Road Cellars in Columbia Valley were the guest speakers for the Domestic Bliss webinar.

I was given media sample bottles of two of the wines that were discussed to taste while I watched, I will be sharing my tasting notes in a separate post.

The remaining schedule is listed below:

November 19, 2020: Burgundy and Bordeaux: Choose your Passion
December 16, 2020: The Southern Hemisphere: From Down Under to the Top of the Andes
January 21, 2021: A Exploration of Renowned Single Vineyards
February 18, 2021: Technique or Terroir: Is it Production or Nature That Make These Wines Great?
March 18, 2021: Italy: North to South
April 22, 2021: Luxury from Remarkable Sites
May 20, 2021: A World of Bordeaux Blends
June 24, 2021: Western Europe

Comments

Lust Zinfandel 2007

My husband loves this wine so he purchased quite a few bottles at a recent Michael~David dinner that we had attended. Last night, I decided to open a bottle to serve with dinner. I was making a roasted southwestern pork tenderloin, sweet potato fries (w/ chipolte ketchup) and a salad consisting of baby lettuce (fresh from my garden) with strawberries, red bell peppers, red onions and walnuts tossed with a white balsamic-raspberry vinaigrette. This turned out to be a great pairing. It is a bold wine that really stood up to the strong chipolte seasoning while complementing the fruit flavors. I opened the bottle a 1/2 hour before I served it as I have found this wine to be more enjoyable when I do so. The Lust Zinfandel by Michael~David 2007 was a dark purple color with a ruby rim. It has intense aromas of very ripe mixed berries and baking spices-both allspice and ginger with hints of cedar. It has flavors of creme de cassis, milk chocolate and also more of the baking

Nocera - A Native Grape from Sicily

Nocera is a native grape from Sicily. It comes from the Messina province which is located in the northeast. Nocera is a quality red wine grape that is most known as a blender in the red wines of the Faro DOC. I had the opportunity to taste some pure versions (which according to Wine Searcher are rare) this week at a trade tasting held at Roma Restaurant in Houston. Wine production in the region dates back to the 14th Century BC, however, phylloxera decimated the vineyard area in 1881 leaving it at a fraction of its original size. The area boasts a Mediterranean climate with sunny days and coastal breezes, moderate rainfall, and mild winters, all ideal for grape growing. The Nocera grape is a bluish/black color and has a thick skin which allows for the production of structured wines with prominent tannins which are balanced by good acidity. High alcohol is common. Red wines produced from the grapes are an intense ruby color with purple highlights and aromas and flavors of dark fruits a

The Salta Tour 2012

Vine Connections and Pioneer Wine Company hosted a seminar and tasting event for Houston's wine trade and media at Backstreet Cafe yesterday. All but two of the wines were from the Salta Province of Argentina. Salta is the most northern wine region in Argentina lying close to the Bolivian border. The climate is very extreme due to the high altitude. Plantings start at 5,000 feet above sea level and climb to 9,000 feet, making these vineyards the highest in the world. The intense sunlight the area receives helps to create grapes with more anthocyanins, these are the color pigments which result in softer tannins, lower astringency and more intense flavor. The wines produced are extremely pure, concentrated and terroir specific. Torrontes Riojano which is considered the best of the three Torrontes clones is the most widely planted grape with plantings of Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Tannat increasing. The seminar started with a tasting of four Torrontes wines, three from diff

Wine Life - Houston

Search This Blog