We added a small new feature the other day. Now, on all the new article pages, there is a module that will list and link to articles and blog posts from around the web that we’re reading over at Snooth HQ. We read a lot about wine and the wine industry each day, this makes it easy to see the best of what we’ve encountered:
It’s no secret that we’re excited about the articles section. As the newest pages to launch on Snooth, they represent our continued commitment to bring information about the greatest wine regions, wine varieties, wines and wine producers directly to you. Through our emails and now the article pages supporting the emails, we’re ready to start sharing.
What’s sharing without friends to share with? Snooth is a social site, and an article without a place to talk about it is like a tree falling in the forest. If we don’t invite conversation from you, we aren’t doing the right thing. So this week, we’ve got a few exciting additions to the article pages. First off, you can leave comments right on the articles. We’re going to do everything we can to make sure your voice is heard.
To make sure that voice continues to be heard, everyone should be able to find articles from the past and the comments that have been made on them. As of today, you’ll notice a convenient search box to the right of the articles so you can find commentary about whatever you’d like to learn about.
If you’re keen to browse, we’ve also added a related articles section. If you love an article, and you’d like to learn more about related topics there’s a simple way to do that. All of these (and a few other goodies) we’re happy to present to you today.
Check these new features out on Greg’s articles about California Sauvignon Blanc or California Syrah.
I’m looking forward to future changes. Have you told me what you’d like to see yet?
Wine fascinates me on so many levels and has added so much to my life but I would have to say that my most emotional connection to wine is its bond with food, mealtimes, and convivial conversation.
My earliest experiences with wine were at my uncle’s table in Trentino, Italy. From an early age I spent my summers there and from an early age I enjoyed a bit of wine with my meals. In the beginning it was no more than a drop of wine in my water but over the years it passed through more minimal stages of dilution until I was allowed to drink pure, unadulterated wine with my meals.
Even in its pure unadulterated state the wine we generally drank was pale and low in both alcohol and tannin yet high in zesty acidity. That acidity made the wine the perfect compliment to the foods we ate. It also set me up for a lifetime as what is known as an “acid freak” in the rarified world of wine geeks. But most importantly it served as my foundation for understanding how wine and food work together.
My love of food and wine saw me through many stages of evolution. From my earliest forays into dinner parties for my friends, at age 16, to nearly 2 decades in the restaurant industry, I never lost interest in the intricacies of food and wine pairings.
Fast forward to today and we may be seeing the culmination of all my accumulated experience: Snooth’s food and wine pairing algorithm that is being used to power the wine pairing widget on our latest partner’s site www.MyRecipes.com.
MyRecipes.com has one of the greatest collections of recipes on the web, sourced from the myriad titles in Time Inc’s portfolio. Some of my favorite recipes seem to consistently come from Cooking Light and Health magazines.
For example, I love jerked foods, that smoky, spicy specialty of Jamaica. I will tell anyone who’ll listen that one of the best pairings I’ve ever come across is Petite Sirah and Jerk Chicken! So what does one do when one wants to jerk something else? I found this great recipe for Jerk-Spiced Shrimp on MyRecipes.com and checked to see what types of pairings I thought this would work with. I know, it sounds a little weird but I’ve also been checking to make sure everything is working as it’s supposed to!
Well things look pretty good since the pairings are the correct bright aromatic white, fruity, rich rose and a rich, medium-bodied white. The actual wines that may appear for you might be different than what I am seeing since availability is a criterion we are using to choose which specific wines to display.
While I have chosen the styles of wines, trying to make sure to offer a pair of more familiar choices plus a geeky choice for each recipe, the actual wines that get shown to the user will change based on availability and how highly the wines are rated on Snooth.
Our rating system combines the input of professional tasters with that of our user to generate a unique Snoothrank for each wine. If a wine gets rated favorably, its Snoothrank goes up, increasing the likelihood that it will show up in the recipe pairing results.
Not only have we selected specific styles of wines that work with each dish but we are also filtering our huge database of wines to show you the preferred wines within each category. No other wine site brings you the sort of in-depth, intelligent food and wine parings that Snooth does. Our massive database, the largest on the web, gives us a unique advantage to offer this added value to our partners and our users.
Beginning tomorrow you’ll also be able to see the MyRecipes.com database of recipes displayed on Snooth. Each of our wine detail pages lists three dishes to pair with each wine. It’s a great way to get ideas for your next meal and will make planning your next successful dinner party a breeze.
I hope you enjoy using our recipe pairing widget on MyRecipes.com as much as I enjoyed creating it. It really was a labor of love and I look forward to tweaking it and making sure the results are not only good, but take advantage of our ever growing and improving database to continue to bring you compelling, interesting and varied wines to pair with your favorite dishes.
And now to see what might pair with a nice roast lamb dish and peppers from my garden…
Gregory Dal Piaz
Community Manager
Snooth
Like virtually everything Snooth has a definite growth cycle. I missed the conception and infant stages and was fortunate to join Snooth just as the toddler stage was coming to an end. Imagine my surprise when I realized Snooth was going through its big change.
But lo and behold change is here. Snooth has moved beyond the basic data functions that we perform so well, particularly finding and researching wines. We know have the ability to not only host editorial content, in the forms of articles, but can be proved easy access to them as well via tags as well as title and content.
As I see the roster of articles grow, and see all my hard work finally cataloged and accessible, I can only think of one thing. I wouldn’t mind a little help! It’s not easy writing for so many people and to be honest a few fresh voices around here would be fun to have.
So while I look forward to continuing to contribute to Snooth I am also excited to grow within my position here as well. I am hoping to share the great platform that Snooth has become with other aspiring authors and get the word out about more regions, more varietals, more wineries and more wines.
So who out there is up for the challenge? Can you contribute to Snooth by writing about your regional wineries? Cover wine events or interview favorite winemakers? It’s not for everyone and while it may not be the easiest thing to do it may just be the most fun!
So let me know if you’re interested in adding to Snooth’s ever growing repertoire of wine related articles and in the mean time check out our article index here and let us know what you think!
Gregory Dal Piaz
Community Manager
Snooth
This week we’re proud to unveil two new and exciting additions to Snooth that we think you’ll find extremely useful. The first is our new editorial homepage, and the second is the launch of our much-anticipated articles section. Together, these enhancements kick it up a notch and help make Snooth an even richer online resource for wine.
The new homepage puts the best of Snooth front and center. With a site as large as Snooth it’s helpful to have a starting point that ties it all together. With popular wines, forum topics, news items, food pairings, and easy access to your account, the new homepage is a great place to come whether you’re looking for something specific, or just looking for inspiration.
But the centerpiece of the new homepage is our new articles section. For roughly the past year, Snooth users have been receiving helpful Snooth emails chock full of wine reviews, winery and winemaker spotlights, region profiles, wine deals, and much more. And this week we’re proud to announce it all has a permanent home on Snooth. Starting today, every Snooth email you receive will also be published on the site - meaning you’ll never have to dig through your email to remember the name of that winery, or that intriguing varietal with the funny name… Now it’s all on Snooth and always just a few clicks away.
While we’re thrilled to launch these new features, we’re just as exited to make them even better. We hope to hear your feedback on what’s new, and what else you’d like to see in the future. We also wanted to thank our users who took last month’s user survey. Your feedback was instrumental in creating these features that aim to make Snooth - and wine in general - more enjoyable for everyone.
Cheers!
Mike
Continuing my posts about the Quebec liquor board, SAQ, and following on from this recent post, I’m taking a look at the consumer facing operations of SAQ, particularly their collector services.
SAQ splits their products into two broad lines, every day wines sold in their stores, and collector wines, which are sold through direct relations with the buyers. As before, their focus on the consumer surprised and delighted me.
They offer their latest acquisitions through a large format magazine (looks like the Wine Spectator) called Le Courrier Vinicole. Each issue has detailed information on the production, aging, terroir and tasting notes for each wine - see an example here. In addition things like drink dates as well as the number available in the province on Quebec are covered. If you’ve bought from them in the past year they’ll send you a copy each year free of charge. If you haven’t, you can phone up and they’ll send one to you. Once you’re ready, just pick up the phone an place your order.
If you are looking for something different or older, SAQ has a subterranean cellar with 75,000 bottles dating from as far back as the 1800’s to the present day. Again, just pick up the phone and one of their trained sommeliers or wine professionals will help you put together a selection. If you have a wine collection that you need to sell, they’ll help you with that too. And, of course, you’ll need somewhere to store all these wines. Again, SAQ’s there with locked temperature controlled cabinets (in multiple locations in Montreal and Quebec city) that you can rent for a very reasonable $1 per bottle per year (it’s around $12 per bottle per year in NYC). Want somewhere to drink the wine? Well, the main cellars are located in a converted revolutionary period prison, and they’ll let you uncork your wines in the eerie ambience of a converted cell, or if you like daylight, they’ll rent you the formers Govenors Mansion for an event.
Above: Remains of the wall mounted rings that the prisoners were manacled to
They also organize vino tourism holidays - a recent one to Bordeaux involved organized trips to d’Yquem, Lafite Rothschild, Lynch Bages, Beau-Sejour, Haut-Brion and so on. I’m fairly confident you’d be royally received when under the umbrella of such a large purchaser.
They also have a museum, but then so do all state run wine monopolies…oh wait, thats not right!
Above: Very rare bootleg still from the late 1800’s
I know I’m starting to sound like their marketing brochures here (very glossy), but I really thought I’d died and gone to…well, to some mythical place that combined the passion and romance of Europe, with the operational and business focus that the US has.
My thanks to Jessica Harnois, Sommelier of SAQ’s Signature Services division for being my guide.
Update: The storage is a little over $2 per bottle per year, not the $1 as I mistakenly reported.
Snooth was happy to be able to host The Big House Wine Company’s winemaker, Georgetta Dane, while she was making the rounds here in New York last week.
Georgetta, originally from Romania and trained in food sciences as well as oenology, happened to fall into the wine business in her home country but is certainly making a name for herself while defining the style at Big House wines.
Some of you might associate the Big House label with the irrepressible Randall Graham who founded the brand. For some two years now it’s has been functioning independently of Mr. Grahams Empire with the desire to continue to provide complex and interesting wines at affordable prices. One way of keeping the value proposition in balance is to avoid competing for the big money wines, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in particular.
In their place Georgetta and Big House wines rely on a vast palette of grapes, 42(!) in total. By drawing on the nuances from each grape, Georgetta builds wines of quality and consistency, a difficult challenge indeed.
While speaking with Georgetta, we were able to review her winemaking philosophy, which she compares to a perfumer. Each varietal wine at Big House is vinified separately, with the exception of the Big House Pink which is produced via the saignée method, bleeding some pink juice from many vats of fermenting red wines to alter the juice to solids ratio in those reds, adding some oomph to the reds and providing a complex base for the wonderful “Pink” they produce.
Once each wine has finished fermenting Georgetta begins the intricate task of creating the final blend that will become either the Big House White or the Big House Red. In the case of the red there may be over 20 varieties in that final blend. The base is always a big, bold wine full of dark fruits. To that base Georgetta adds a middle drawn from “Italian varieties” that are valued for their “ insane fruit that brings harsh tannins but they disappear into the base.” The final layer of the wine consists of the top notes contributed by perfumed and spicy varieties, perhaps even a floral white to add some lift to the nose.
The process is repeated for the white in much the same manner yielding wines that are full yet deliver a remarkable amount of complexity and even finesse at their price points.
There are two tiers of wines produced by the Big House Wine Company, located in Soledad California with vineyards that surround the Soledad State penitentiary, hence the name. The original Big House wines: White, Pink and Red, represent the “lower tier” while the more distinctive offering: The Birdman, The Lineup, The Slammer, and The Prodigal Son, are the “upper tier”. In addition the Big House Wine Company also represents the Cardinal Zin brand which was sold by Randall Graham along with the big house wines.
While these wines offer great value and are lovely on their own and with food I am hopeful that Georgetta might some day have a free hand with some of the varietals she currently works with. I look forward to trying her, Charbono, Tempranillo and Teroldego!
This is surprisingly aromatic with a base of apricot fruit topped with very floral notes that recall viognier and a bright lemon drop tone that is complimented by bay leaf, herb, and powdered sugar notes. Medium full in the mouth with enough acidity to balance the touch of sweetness here. A bit simple in the mouth, it’s pretty front loaded but does return some nice floral character on the moderately long finish. 84pts.
~
A nice note of almond milk greats the nose followed by a grassy, dandelion note that is more wildflower than green grass. In the mouth there is almost a hint of minerally tannin here with decent acids supporting a round but well balanced mouth feel with nice kiwi fruit and a minty top note that leads to a clean, spicy finish of decent length. 86pts
~
Big House Pink 2008
Still a touch tanky on the nose with some floral notes and lightly jammy strawberry fruit that picks up a bit of nuanced spice, tea, sandlewood and juniper berry. In the mouth this is bright and juicy with a lean, crisp feel that partners well with the slightly earthy, tarry spice tones. Not a fruit bomb but with fresh strawberry and a hint of peach. 87pts
~
~
A touch grassy at first but then gaining a bit more of an earthy edge that evolves into a dried floral tone. Fairly nice wild red berry fruit on the nose with a core of grapy and lightly gamy tones. The bright acids in the mouth help to support nice sour berry flavors and the modest, if slightly angular, tannins add volume in the mouth with a salty, mineral tang on the back end that leads to a surprisingly long finish. A very solid table wine with character. 86pts
A Grenache/Syrah/Mourvedre blend
Very perfumey nose with subtle gamy undertones supporting blue fruits and a snappy Syrah element with a a nice hint of sisal and dried flowers. Nicely balanced in the mouth with a fresh lively feel and intense juicy red berry fruits with hints of spices, cigar box, leather and black pepper adding nice complexity to the black plum fruit on the finish. 86pts
Another nicely perfumed nose with pepper, tar, wood spice violets and maple bacon all adding depth to the blackberry fruits. Bright and crisp in the mouth with a touch of woodspice brownie up front followed by sweet, but not sugary, red fruits that have a nice vegetal/violet top note that gains intensity but is not off-putting since it offers nice contrast to the fruit. A nice balance of flavors though this does finish a touch short. 87pts
The Prodigal Son Petit Sirah 2006
This smells nicely earthy with a slight edge of char right out of the bottle. Big black grape skin and blueberry fruit are edged with hints of petrol, powdered sugar and bay leaf. This is round and fleshy with plenty of acid to help support the red cherry fruit and nice sandpapery tannins that add a hint of astringency to the mouthwatering mid-palate. With that blueberry dichotomy of sweet and sour this remains lively in the mouth with good length and volume and a nice finish with a touch of asphalt and hint of woody mintiness reinforcing the slightly rustic quality of the wine. 88pts
Cardinal Zin 2006
A touch stewy on the nose with slow to open notes of macerated cherry with hints of cocoa, pipe tobacco, coconut and eucalyptus. Supple in the mouth with good acids and slightly chewy tannins that are well integrated in the dark wild plum fruits. The back end shows a bit more spicy and wood tones with a touch of woody astringency that adds to the red currant fruit tones on the final. A well rounded and well behaved Zin. 86pts
Gregory Dal Piaz
Community Manager
I was in Montreal last week and was fortunate enough to spend some time with the Société des Alcools du Québec (SAQ), see their facilities and meet some of their staff. Before I go any further, I need to state that I have never seen a government monopoly behave with such care, obsession and interest in serving its customers. SAQ is a behemoth. They are one of the worlds largest purchasers of wine, top three, maybe number one or two, and yet, they act more openly and nimbly than many startups I know. The complexity of their operations was riveting and I’m really glad to have their permission to share this with you.
SAQ is the government monopoly that serves as importer, distributor and retailer of beer, wine and spirits for the province of Quebec, Canada. With sales of $3 billion, they are a global force on the wine market, and because they buy as a single entity they are one of the three largest purchasers of wines globally. They import 10,000 containers of wine per year, manage a fleet of hundreds of trucks and delivery vans, and operate almost 500 retail stores.
$3 billion dollars of wine works out to approximately 16,000,000 cases of wine, all of which passes through their two distribution centers, which total 1,000,000 square feet. To put this in context, the mighty Zappos has a mere 800,000 square feet of distribution space.
Seeing 50 million bottles of wine stacked 35 feet high (above image) was awe inspiring.
What really intrigued me, was not just the scale of the operations, but also the knock on benefits of (benevolently) controlling the entire market from import to final sale. SAQ has huge buying power, so the end prices are reasonable. They have the clout to make sure that their containers are stored low down on the ships, so the wines are less affected by weather. Because importing is centralized, and SAQ offers a 1 year guarantee on all purchases (really!) they are able to have a chemical lab where they inspect bottles from each lot, and test them for sulfite levels, presence of toxins such as methanol, or most commonly the presence of yeast and sugar, which could lead to an undesired secondary fermentation. Its only after passing these inspections that they feel comfortable offering such a promise.
I wish I had a better picture of the labs, but felt a little awkward taking photos inside a government building. However, as someone who studied Chemistry to a graduate degree level, and who worked in several chemical labs, let me say that they had some slick machinery: filtration, titration, automated chemical analysis machines, reaction booths and so on. Every contaminated bottle is labeled and stored, available for inspection in case the case is reopened.
Next time I’ll talk about their consumer facing operations - in particular the fact that they have an entire division which is focused on collector services. For, while the backend operations were impressive, they are also necessary, the consumer operations were where they differentiated themselves in my mind.
As many of you know we recently distributed our newly minted Snooth biking jerseys to our avid fans. Well it didn’t take long to get back an impressive pic!
Robert Reimann, President of Bike Sherpa Tours, was spending some time tracing some of the great climbs of the Tour du France and sent us this great picture from the Col du Galibier, a pass in the East of Southern France quite close to the border with Italy. The Col du Galibier is the highest pass to be part of the Tour and from either approach is quite a challenge.
Bravo Robbie and thanks for the shot!
And the rest of you, are you wearing your Snooth Jersey?
Send us your pictures and we’ll add them to our Hall of fame!
Gregory Dal Piaz
Community Manager
