Blogger Tools

posted by philip in Website Updates, Snooth

Just a quick post for now (its a sunny Saturday morning and I want to get outside), but we added some much asked for blogger tools yesterday:

- Snooth badges: If you want to link from your blog to your account on Snooth, or you want to show off your reviews, profile, recommendations etc. These nifty little badges are what you’ll need.

- Export wine details: Want to blog about a wine that we have on Snooth? Rather than wasting time cutting and pasting, then formatting each piece of wine information by hand. Just find the wine and then click on the ‘export’ link in the top right of the page. You’ll be presented with a neat little summary thats pre-formatted with html. If you’ve reviewed the wine, your notes will be there as well too.

As always, more to come.

Tell us what to do

posted by philip in Snooth, Partnerships

JuiceCowboy put out a video overview of Snooth - you can see it here. Ryan at Catavino, also talked about Snooth recently. My question is this: what are we missing that would really engage the wine bloggers and hardcore wine fans?

Before you answer, here’s what we have coming up: cellar and wishlisting; better recommendations; social recommendations; more stores and wineries from around the world; more deduping (as always!); groups and fan clubs; better blogger tools; ability for users to fix incorrect wines. And some more to come after that.

Please give me your comments, or drop us a line.

PS. After a good 10 weeks, I’ve decided to stop announcing new winery and store partners for the following reasons: they are piling up faster than I can mention them, too many of you said you were bored with the weekly lists, and finally, the definition of partner is becoming blurred - with anything from full integration to a winery simply uploading better images and tasting notes, its hard to know where to draw the line. To stay somewhat up to date look at our partner page.

Faking the Finer Things

posted by mark in Snooth

In the past, Philip has reported on the counterfeit wine problem. Recently I read this article at Slate which in turn led me to read this much older article at the Wine Spectator.

It seems somewhat less pure of a forgery case than the story of Han Van Meegeren. The notorious art forger took a great deal of pride in his work and by all counts was a fantastic artist and painter. He managed to convince some of the most well-known art critics of his day of the authenticity of his forgeries. I say the fake wines are less pure mostly out of ignorance. Without a case study — a person who has engaged in the act of producing counterfeit wine — we really cannot know what the motive is. Do these producers take pride in the wines they put into expensive shells? Or is it merely a money making scheme?

On the subject of hoaxes, I find the Museum of Hoaxes to be an excellent read. I’m often amazed by what some people are able to pull off!

I wouldn’t be surprised if I discovered that 5% of what I’d come across on a daily basis turned out to be some manner of hoax. How’s that for a measured portion of cynicism!

New Blog Design

posted by Clint in Website Updates, Snooth

The day has finally arrived, as we pushed out our new blog design this morning. There are still a few very minor bugs and nits to be worked out, so if you come across anything that seems broken or missing, please leave a comment and let us know!

Press Archives

posted by admin in Snooth

Snooth Archives

posted by admin in Snooth

Tasting Wine Blind

posted by natalya in Wine

Though there’s been a bit of debate recently about the virtues and drawbacks of blind tasting, one thing is rather certain: it’s unlikely the average consumer will ever do it. He will likely have purchased the bottle himself or received it as a gift. In either case the label will have served as the ‘face’ of the wine– its first impression. Nevertheless, in spite of the prominence of the label, most consumers will, in actuality, blind taste, at least in terms of acumen about the bottle’s contents- varietals (I, personally, know a number of people who think chardonnay and cabernet are brands), producers, vintages, and geographic origins.

Eric Asimov wrote about this very subject last week.

“Fairly or unfairly, wine experts are expected to be able to judge a wine simply by tasting what’s in the glass in the course of tasting many other wines. Personally, I feel it’s a little like judging a book by reading one chapter or one page, but you can’t do away with mass tastings altogether.

Speaking of books, why are book critics permitted to know who wrote what they are reading? Why are film critics expected to know all about the director and to use that knowledge when they judge a film? Don’t we think their objectivity will be compromised in the same way? Or is it that wine writers are not accorded the same level of respect, since the public assumes their perceptions will be compromised if they know what they are tasting?”

I hadn’t thought of the blind tasting business this way before. It got me thinking, how important is context?

Wikipedia, comes out on the other side of the debate. In its “Wine Tasting” entry it is argued that “To ensure impartial judgment of a wine, it should be served blind — that is, without the taster(s) having seen the label or bottle shape… A taster’s judgment can be prejudiced by knowing details of a wine, such as geographic origin, price, reputation, color, or other considerations.”

Bottom line: in order to judge a wine, must we know more or less about it?

Seems there are two answers. The more one knows about wine in general, the less she should know about it BEFORE she tastes it. She will meet the wine fresh, a first date. After the tasting notes are written, the myriad details of what was tasted must be revealed and integrated into the complete tasting notes. If, however, one’s a novice (and I use the term loosely here, since most of us are novices) it is helpful if she’s informed about the wine prior to tasting it. She may, for instance appreciate the fact that what she’s sipping is a pinot noir, lighter in color and tannins than her cabernet because the pinot grape is thin skinned, unlike the cabernet which has thick skin and produces a darker, more tannic wine. Or she might connect to the wine’s geographic origin in Maremma, Beaujolais or Margaret River. In her case this information adds to the richness of a multi-layered wine experience, offering up a taste of terroir and varietal.

Napa Valley Harvest Update

posted by philip in Wine

[Another treat today, as I have the pleasure of introducing Daniel Petroski, Assistant Winemaker at Larkmead Vineyards, where I was fortunate enough to experience their hospitality and to taste their wines during a recent trip out west. Dan reports on the current harvest conditions:]

An update on the 2007 harvest, while I have a moment. Mother Nature has played some significant games with Napa winemakers this year. A lack of water (i.e. rain) and a late summer heat wave (seven straight days of 100+ degree heat) shut the vines down. And put us all in a late August panic. However, a successive string of colder days, even cooler nights and some morning fog has re-hydrated most vines and they are progressing towards phenolic (taste) maturity.

However, this did not stop us from picking a fair amount of the vineyard early on, about 30% of it. Currently we have Merlot, Syrah and some Cabernet finishing fermentation and our Sauvignon Blanc is basically in that awkward stage of going “dry” and will be blended and prepped for a long winter’s (wine development) nap. We are very excited about our SB this year because we are trying out some new fermentation and development techniques which include a more significant New French Oak presence as well as aging some of the wine in stainless steel barrels.

The former will help add some depth and richness to the wine’s mid-palate, while the latter will help retain the racy acidity on the finish. A much more complex wine than we have produced in 2005 and 2006.

Over the next two weeks, we’ll harvest the remainder of our grapes. Starting the next two days with back-to-back 15-ton efforts. Thirty tons of Cabernet means I am staring at about 30 hours of work over that same period. So, wish me luck and when I get up again, I will write more about what’s happening on the vineyard.

Our Larkmead Merlot has the unique characteristic of being Cabernet-like in its power and structure. I am excited about the prospect of this wine, and maybe it will fall into the category of new-wave St. Emilion style, a la garigiste. We’ll see.

Also, like most things in life, art or business, you create a point of reference. Throughout this growing season (even the ups and downs) we have likened the year to 2004. On a good note, Wine Spectator just released some of their Cabernet ratings from the 2004 vintage, and I am proud to say that our 2004 Solari Reserve garnered a 94 point rating.

The most appreciative part of the rating is that all the wines rated above us, at our level, and even a couple of points below us, have a price per bottle anywhere from $100 to $350. The Larkmead wine retails at $75. Hands down, a QPR TKO. However, I know that is out of price range for basically any of us, including yours truly, but if you promise a visit, I promise to share a bottle with you.

By Daniel Petroski, Assistant Winemaker, Larkmead Vineyards.

About Daniel: Born and raised in Brooklyn and attended college at Columbia University. After graduation, Daniel spent nine years working for Time Inc. - a career that began on the edit side in the halls of Sports Illustrated and moved on to the dark side of publishing as a Financial Director and Sales Manager at TIME magazine. In 2005, he sold all his worldly possessions and moved to Sicily to live for a year in the town of Catania making wine on a small estate called Valle dell’Acate. He also spent time exploring the Italian wine regions, enjoying the food and wines unique to each area. Leaving Italy in mid-2006, Dan arrived in California for harvest to work as an intern at both DuMOL and Larkmead Vineyards. He joined Larkmead officially on January 1, 2007 and is in charge of the cellar and assisting with all winemaking and viticulture operations at the Estate.

Playing with Wine

posted by philip in Wine

Start practicing your Japanese, as on November 15th, Nintendo is releasing Beginners Wine DS. Nintendo’s first wine ‘game’, sadly only in Japanese, but there’s hope for the rest of us it it takes off over there. And, there’s reason to believe it will - Japan has been a fanatical wine country for a decade now. Witness Wine.com’s only international presence being in Japan and the fact that Bordeaux futures are quite so high because the Japanese market bids them up so much.

The game “features step-by-step instructions on choosing a bottle for a romantic dinner or correctly swirling a glass when wine tasting. The game…also comes with a database of 120 selected bottles, a glossary, a quiz and a guide to bluffing knowledge about wine”.

What I want to see is the same game, but for the Wii. With its motion sensitive remote, you wouldn’t just have to read about how to swirl a glass, you’d be judged on how you swirled the remote. Maybe even on your motion for popping a bottle of bubbly. Heck, you could even try a virtual Champagne Saber.

But, finally, as for a “database of 120 selected bottles”?!? How’s that going to help?

Decanting Vintage Port

posted by philip in Wine, Guest Bloggers

Whilst it is fun to do, there is no real mystery to mastering the act of decanting vintage port (or any other wine).

Most people feel more comfortable using some kind of filter: either a purpose made funnel, or other such material eg. coffee filter paper. However if the bottle of Port has been properly prepared and addressed, such items are not always necessary.

If using a filter, people tend to pour the entire contents of the bottle into the decanter - assuming that all the deposit will be removed. At times the sediment in a bottle can be quite fine and passes through some filters leaving the Port somewhat cloudy. For this reason I prefer the following method:

A day before you intend to decant, place your bottle of Vintage Port upright. This will allow any loose sediment to fall to the bottom of the bottle.

Obtain a clean, odourless container. A decanter is ideal. Alternatively you could decant into another container, rinse out your bottle and return the port to the bottle.

When pouring the Port into the container it is important where you hold the bottle. When the Port has been lying in our cellars in Vila Nova de Gaia, we will have marked the uppermost side of the bottle at the bottom with a white mark, called the splash mark. The reason for doing this is that over the years sediment will have formed in the bottle and settled on the lower side. Some of this sediment can stick to the glass so that if not careful when decanting, air bubbles can dislodge this material and it will ruin the effect of your having stood the bottle upright for a day.

To avoid the risk of this happening, when decanting, always place your hand on the same side of the bottle as the splash mark. In this way, any sediment stuck to the side of the bottle is below the wine and away from air bubbles entering the bottle as you pour.

At times, however, this splash mark has been wiped off, which is why at Taylor’s we will always put the front label exactly above the splash mark. In this way all you need to remember is that when you pour, have the label in the palm of your hand.

Now you must hold your decanter so that when you pour the port you can see it briefly passing over the neck area of the decanter. This is because, as you pour with your steady hand, you are looking for signs of the deposit starting to come through. Stop as soon as the sediment starts to enter the decanter.

You will need a light background to see the sediment clearly. In the past, candles have been used for this.

Pour in one steady movement. Stopping part way through will stir up the sediment and you will need a filter from there on in.

I suggest you decant before the meal, you are likely to have a steadier hand and it will give all but the very oldest vintages the required time to breathe.

Finally, do not throw away the sediment. It is very nutritious and excellent in soups, sauces and gravy. I freeze mine in freezer ice cube bags.

It seems a long explanation, but once understood (and practised) you’ll soon be a master.

[By Andrew Costello of Taylor Fladgate - click here to see their wine’s on Snooth.]