When I started this blog three weeks ago, I said that I would be blogging within 24 hours of each of our games. A lofty goal, but one that I had stayed relatively true to through our first three games. Then came Wednesday's game, a game that saw the Mad Ants race out to a 26-point lead with six minutes left in the Third Quarter. With most teams - and by "most" I mean 98% of all teams at the pro, college, high school, junior high, and pee wee levels - such a large lead would be safe. The Mad Ants, however, have spent the better part of three seasons looking at such leads as a challenge - they know they'll find a way to give away the game, they just try to find novel avenues for doing so each time.
With such a bad taste in my mouth from the loss, and being tired of writing negative blogs about the team, I decided to wait until our weekend two-game set against Iowa to blog. Surely I'd have something positive to say about after those two games. We're bound to win one of them, right? Absolutely, positively, take-it-to-the-bank WRONG. We got destroyed in both games, including the Saturday game in which the nation again got to see us again on Versus.
So, with three straight losses fresh in my mind, I went to the store to grab the most fitting bottle I could find - a bottle of Gabbiano Chianti. What is significant about Gabbiano, you ask? Nothing, other than the fact that it was a large-format 1.5L bottle, and I had a lot of sorrows to drink away. A 1.5L bottle is often referred to as a Magnum, and contains two normal-sized bottles. At $11.99 for the Magnum, the Gabbiano Chianti was really a great buy. Not a ton going on either the nose or the palate, but it was really pleasant, and you certainly cannot expect much more than that from a wine that costs only $6/bottle (do the math with me!).
As non-descript as the wine may have been, it does bring up two interesting (to me, at least) talking points: the first is the bottle size, which deserves a bit more attention. Bottle size is an issue that very rarely becomes a factor in buying a wine. Of course if you have dinner guests - or are hiding from the fact that you sell tickets to a terrible basketball team - a Magnum is a convenient option. However, other even larger bottles do exist. These bottles are popular in the French regions of Bordeaux and Burgundy, each of which - typical of the French - find it necessary to have their own separate naming system for these large format bottles. Having lived in Burgundy I lean their direction and will therefore give you only the Burgundy names, all of which have Biblical significance. A 3.0L bottle (4 btl equivalent) is a Jeroboam, a 4.5L is a Rehoboam, a 6.0L bottle is a Methusalah, 9.0L bottle is a Salmanazer, a 12.0L bottle is a Balthasar and a 15.0L bottle (a whopping twenty bottle equivalent) is a Nebuchadnezzar. While impressing the wine-drinker is one reason for creating such large bottles, aging is another: the small amount of air in the bottle (between the cork and the wine) and a large amount of wine results in a small air-to-wine ratio, which favors slow development of the wine when compared with smaller formats.
The second significant element of the Gabbiano Chianti is the identification by region (Northern Italy) instead of by grape varietal, such as Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot. Most Old World wines - i.e., wines made in Europe and the Mediterranean basin - are identified by region, whereas most New World wines - wines made in America, Australia/New Zealand, South Africa and South America - are identified by varietal. This makes shopping for New World wines fairly simple, and buying Old World wines quite complex. To successfully navigate Old World wines, it is necessary to know which regions grow which type of grapes. For example, wineries in Chianti use almost exclusively Sangiovese grapes. Listing the grape varieties grown in each Old World region is well beyond the scope of this blog, but a good reference site is www.bettertastingwine.com/appellation.html.
I have no doubt that I will revisit Old World v. New World topic in a later blog, so for now I will simply advise you to either research a region individually before buying a wine from that region, or dive right in a grab whatever bottle looks good! In the meantime, I will cross my fingers and hope that Jeff Potter can pull off some roster moves that will give us a New Team...
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Two Vines for Two Faces
After the disappointing loss on Friday night to Sioux Falls, our heroes, the Mad Ants, turned around and beat the Skyforce handily on Saturday. As excited as I would normally get for a Mad Ants win, I have every confidence that the strength of the win was directly related to the game being broadcast nationwide on Versus. Although most of these guys are used to having played on CBS as collegians and you would think it would not be a big deal, they have just enough collective ego to act like tough guys in front of the cameras. Whatever the reason, I'll take the win.
As you can imagine, there is a large degree of frustration that comes with watching such uneven performances and so I chose a bottle of 2005 Columbia Crest Two Vines Chardonnay (http://www.columbiacrest.com/twoVines/release/198) from Washington State in honor of the two faces of this team. At $8.99 this wine was a steal. Truly a terrific bottle of wine for the money, and one for which I would have gladly paid upwards of $16. The wine had a very bright nose for a Chardonnay, which is fairly typical of Chards from Washington, with pear, honeysuckle, apple, candied lemon and caramel forming a very complex and delicious combination. All of these flavors transitioned nicely to the palate, where they turned into caramelized pear and pineapple, with caramel and toast lingering at length on the finish. Overall, I highly recommend this wine as an everyday wine.
That said, I do have an ax to grind with the marketing behind both the Two Vines and the 14 Hands that I reviewed yesterday. Both 14 Hands and Columbia Crest are part of the Chateau Ste. Michelle family of wines, with all of the above being owned by tobacco giant US Tobacco (a subsidiary of Altria Group, aka Philip Morris). That being the case, you can imagine that they have some pretty savvy marketers behind the brands, all of whom are doing whatever it takes to get you to buy these wines. I mean this with no offense to the CEO of Ch. Ste. Michelle, Ted Baseler - who is actually a family friend - but the marketing that they have done with these wines is so transparent as to be offensive.
Allow me to explain: I mentioned that these wines are from Washington State. This is these wines' "appellation". Wines are given an appellation based on where the grapes are grown. For example, if a wine is made exclusively from grapes grown in Napa Valley, the label will say Napa Valley on it. If, however, a wine is made from grapes sourced from a larger area than Napa Valley, then the label may say "Central Coast" or "California", depending on just how spread out the vineyards are.
An appellation is often very important to determine a wine's quality, as a winemaker and vineyard manager will have substantially more control over the quality of the grapes and the care that the grapes are given if he or she can go into the vineyard and personally inspect the grapes. As such, smaller and higher priced wineries often have more specific appellations, with some wines even having single vineyard appellations that denote that all of the grapes for a wine were picked from one vineyard. Massive wineries that sell wine in grocery stores nationwide rarely have that luxury and so are forced to fulfill their demand for grapes by sourcing them from vineyards over a large geographic area.
This in itself is not damning of a winery. However, the blurb on the back of both the Two Vines and 14 Hands both make bold and poetic proclamations about the tending of their vineyards that create a romantic image in the buyer's mind and infer that the wines come from quaint little vineyards. If this were the case, the wines' appellations would be "Walla Walla Valley" or "Columbia Valley" (which is a pretty massive appellation in itself). Instead, they are designated "Washington State" which means that the wineries did not get their grapes from any one vineyard, but rather sourced them from all over the state. Again, this is not a terrible thing in itself, but combined with their descriptions of the respective vineyards, the marketing is misleading at best and more accurately deceitful.
Offended or not, I still enjoyed this wine tremendously and would recommend it to all of you. Further, I got to enjoy it while basking in the glow of a Mad Ants victory! Let's see which of their two faces the Mad Ants wear next time.
As you can imagine, there is a large degree of frustration that comes with watching such uneven performances and so I chose a bottle of 2005 Columbia Crest Two Vines Chardonnay (http://www.columbiacrest.com/twoVines/release/198) from Washington State in honor of the two faces of this team. At $8.99 this wine was a steal. Truly a terrific bottle of wine for the money, and one for which I would have gladly paid upwards of $16. The wine had a very bright nose for a Chardonnay, which is fairly typical of Chards from Washington, with pear, honeysuckle, apple, candied lemon and caramel forming a very complex and delicious combination. All of these flavors transitioned nicely to the palate, where they turned into caramelized pear and pineapple, with caramel and toast lingering at length on the finish. Overall, I highly recommend this wine as an everyday wine.
That said, I do have an ax to grind with the marketing behind both the Two Vines and the 14 Hands that I reviewed yesterday. Both 14 Hands and Columbia Crest are part of the Chateau Ste. Michelle family of wines, with all of the above being owned by tobacco giant US Tobacco (a subsidiary of Altria Group, aka Philip Morris). That being the case, you can imagine that they have some pretty savvy marketers behind the brands, all of whom are doing whatever it takes to get you to buy these wines. I mean this with no offense to the CEO of Ch. Ste. Michelle, Ted Baseler - who is actually a family friend - but the marketing that they have done with these wines is so transparent as to be offensive.
Allow me to explain: I mentioned that these wines are from Washington State. This is these wines' "appellation". Wines are given an appellation based on where the grapes are grown. For example, if a wine is made exclusively from grapes grown in Napa Valley, the label will say Napa Valley on it. If, however, a wine is made from grapes sourced from a larger area than Napa Valley, then the label may say "Central Coast" or "California", depending on just how spread out the vineyards are.
An appellation is often very important to determine a wine's quality, as a winemaker and vineyard manager will have substantially more control over the quality of the grapes and the care that the grapes are given if he or she can go into the vineyard and personally inspect the grapes. As such, smaller and higher priced wineries often have more specific appellations, with some wines even having single vineyard appellations that denote that all of the grapes for a wine were picked from one vineyard. Massive wineries that sell wine in grocery stores nationwide rarely have that luxury and so are forced to fulfill their demand for grapes by sourcing them from vineyards over a large geographic area.
This in itself is not damning of a winery. However, the blurb on the back of both the Two Vines and 14 Hands both make bold and poetic proclamations about the tending of their vineyards that create a romantic image in the buyer's mind and infer that the wines come from quaint little vineyards. If this were the case, the wines' appellations would be "Walla Walla Valley" or "Columbia Valley" (which is a pretty massive appellation in itself). Instead, they are designated "Washington State" which means that the wineries did not get their grapes from any one vineyard, but rather sourced them from all over the state. Again, this is not a terrible thing in itself, but combined with their descriptions of the respective vineyards, the marketing is misleading at best and more accurately deceitful.
Offended or not, I still enjoyed this wine tremendously and would recommend it to all of you. Further, I got to enjoy it while basking in the glow of a Mad Ants victory! Let's see which of their two faces the Mad Ants wear next time.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
14 Hands, and One Broken One
In honor of a weekend split with the Sioux Falls Skyforce, I tasted two wines last night and will be discussing them in two consecutive blogs. I wouldn't dare bore my (two) readers by breaking down two wines in the same column!
The first game I needed to pair a wine with was Friday night's loss. As anyone who follows the Mad Ants knows, losses are not a unique occurence with this franchise and so I needed to find something more specific on which to base my wine selection. Fortunately (or unfortunately if you are an Ants fan), our best scorer and emotional leader, Ron Howard, gave me inspiration by BREAKING HIS HAND in the closing minutes of our previous loss against Erie and will be out for 4-5 weeks. Ouch. Without Ron's 22.4 points and +18 efficiency rating we tumbled, losing 115-97 and giving up 36 points to Reggie Williams.
In honor of Ron's injury, and because I was in the mood for a Washington wine, I grabbed a bottle of 2007 14 Hands Cabernet Sauvignon for $11.99. Tasting this wine last night, I got to enjoy the company of my sister, Kelsey, who is in town from Seattle on business for the week. Kelsey and I worked together in the wine industry and she has incredibly sensitive taste buds, so if you think my tasting notes are particularly on point then you can give credit directly to her (or you can still give the credit to me and I will do my best to share it with her).
Regardless of the apportioning of credit, we thoroughly enjoyed breaking down (like Ron Howard's broken hand. Get it? No, seriously, get it?) this wine. The nose was powerful and very pleasant, with huge dark fruits like blackcurrant, fig and brandied cherries melding nicely with chocolate, sweet tobacco and a woodsy scent. The pallet, however, left much to be desired. It was very dark, with chocolate and smoke, but the fruit that was so heavy on the nose fell away like a Jeremy Richardson jump shot. The tannins were too pronounced, and Kelsey remarked that it "felt like swallowing sand." The only fruit left was on the finish, and that fruit was a combination of raisin and sour cherries.
A quick note about tannins. It is normal to have strong tannins in a young red wine. In fact, tannins will mellow with age, so these are normally indicative of a wine that will age well. However, as tannins become less aggressive with a wine's age, the fruitiness of a wine also diminishes. Therefore most wines that will age well carry a lot of fruit flavor when they are young; with this 14 Hands already lacking strong fruit, this wine will not age well. Being that the wine is not particularly good now, and is not likely to get better, I do not recommend the 14 Hands Cabernet.
Similarly, I would not recommend losing your top scorer for 4-5 weeks. Being an eternal optimist, I remarked to Coach Meyer that maybe there is a silver lining here and that our players could enjoy spreading the ball around more, resulting in more assists and a better flow to the offense. His look of scorn, combined with the resigned head shake, told me that I had better stick to selling tickets and sponsorships...
The first game I needed to pair a wine with was Friday night's loss. As anyone who follows the Mad Ants knows, losses are not a unique occurence with this franchise and so I needed to find something more specific on which to base my wine selection. Fortunately (or unfortunately if you are an Ants fan), our best scorer and emotional leader, Ron Howard, gave me inspiration by BREAKING HIS HAND in the closing minutes of our previous loss against Erie and will be out for 4-5 weeks. Ouch. Without Ron's 22.4 points and +18 efficiency rating we tumbled, losing 115-97 and giving up 36 points to Reggie Williams.
In honor of Ron's injury, and because I was in the mood for a Washington wine, I grabbed a bottle of 2007 14 Hands Cabernet Sauvignon for $11.99. Tasting this wine last night, I got to enjoy the company of my sister, Kelsey, who is in town from Seattle on business for the week. Kelsey and I worked together in the wine industry and she has incredibly sensitive taste buds, so if you think my tasting notes are particularly on point then you can give credit directly to her (or you can still give the credit to me and I will do my best to share it with her).
Regardless of the apportioning of credit, we thoroughly enjoyed breaking down (like Ron Howard's broken hand. Get it? No, seriously, get it?) this wine. The nose was powerful and very pleasant, with huge dark fruits like blackcurrant, fig and brandied cherries melding nicely with chocolate, sweet tobacco and a woodsy scent. The pallet, however, left much to be desired. It was very dark, with chocolate and smoke, but the fruit that was so heavy on the nose fell away like a Jeremy Richardson jump shot. The tannins were too pronounced, and Kelsey remarked that it "felt like swallowing sand." The only fruit left was on the finish, and that fruit was a combination of raisin and sour cherries.
A quick note about tannins. It is normal to have strong tannins in a young red wine. In fact, tannins will mellow with age, so these are normally indicative of a wine that will age well. However, as tannins become less aggressive with a wine's age, the fruitiness of a wine also diminishes. Therefore most wines that will age well carry a lot of fruit flavor when they are young; with this 14 Hands already lacking strong fruit, this wine will not age well. Being that the wine is not particularly good now, and is not likely to get better, I do not recommend the 14 Hands Cabernet.
Similarly, I would not recommend losing your top scorer for 4-5 weeks. Being an eternal optimist, I remarked to Coach Meyer that maybe there is a silver lining here and that our players could enjoy spreading the ball around more, resulting in more assists and a better flow to the offense. His look of scorn, combined with the resigned head shake, told me that I had better stick to selling tickets and sponsorships...
Friday, January 15, 2010
The First Vintage
I'm finally caving to the peer pressure. Jeff Potter and Garrett Martz - bloggers extraordinaire both, and two of my Mad Ants coworkers - have been on me for months to start a blog of my own, and here I now find myself in front of this screen, typing away. No turning back now!
With Jeff and Garrett's blogs focusing on inside information about the Mad Ants, I wanted to take a different tack, one that I can lend a bit of expertise to. While I know almost nothing about basketball (other than selling it), I do have an extensive background in wine. But how on Earth am I going to marry wine and basketball? Carefully, and only in print; I can assure you that none of our players are going to be pulling a Ron Artest any time soon.
My plan is this: within 24 hours of any Mad Ants game I will select a bottle of wine that seems to fit something significant from that game and I will publish tasting notes for that wine. I will try to focus on reasonably priced wines because a) I want them to be accessible to all of you (especially my public interest lawyer friends) and b) I'm buying these bottles myself and minor league sports is no lucrative venture!
Our last game was a miserable loss to Erie, in which we quickly turned a 94-90 lead into a 104-94 deficit through a string of terrible shots, Swiss cheese defense and sloppy play. The lone bright spot, however, was Oliver Lafayette who had 25 points in the first half and finished with 32. In honor of Oliver's performance - and despite his awful three pointer during a crucial point down the stretch and my belligerence in cursing out my computer as I watched it happen - I decided to open a bottle of Oliver Winery Zinfandel.
The wine itself is rather unremarkable but the interesting element is that while the winery itself is located in Bloomington, IN, the grapes from most of the winery's traditional varietals are imported from California and Washington. They do this because wines made from grapes grown in Indiana are, well, awful. There are many factors for that, including climate, soil quality and vineyard slope, among other things, but going into detail will only bore you (generously assuming that you are not already bored and are not only reading this far because you are family or friend). The bottom line is that you never want to drink a bottle of wine from Indiana unless you are doing so as a dare.
This particular Zinfandel is made from grapes grown in Lodi, California, home to many of California's best Zins. I am a huge fan of Zinfandel, with its rich body and massive bramble and plum flavors. While I appreciate almost any wine in the right situation - i.e., with the right meal - Zinfandel may be my favorite to drink on its own. It is easy to drink - though it is one of the highest alcohol content wines out there, which can result in the alcohol taste overpowering the fruitiness - and it is soft enough that you don't have to deal with sour-lemon-face induced by the tannins in so many Cabernet Sauvignons and Shiraz.
The Oliver Zin was drinkable, though a bit overpriced at $16-$18. Similarly overvalued was Oliver Lafayette's performance, as his 32 points and 4 assists did nothing to make his teammates better. Apparently he had a lapse where he forgot that the PG next to his name on the roster means he is supposed to pass the ball on occasion. Regardless, the Mad Ants fell to 8-12 and I got to enjoy an average bottle of wine. Things could be worse.
With Jeff and Garrett's blogs focusing on inside information about the Mad Ants, I wanted to take a different tack, one that I can lend a bit of expertise to. While I know almost nothing about basketball (other than selling it), I do have an extensive background in wine. But how on Earth am I going to marry wine and basketball? Carefully, and only in print; I can assure you that none of our players are going to be pulling a Ron Artest any time soon.
My plan is this: within 24 hours of any Mad Ants game I will select a bottle of wine that seems to fit something significant from that game and I will publish tasting notes for that wine. I will try to focus on reasonably priced wines because a) I want them to be accessible to all of you (especially my public interest lawyer friends) and b) I'm buying these bottles myself and minor league sports is no lucrative venture!
Our last game was a miserable loss to Erie, in which we quickly turned a 94-90 lead into a 104-94 deficit through a string of terrible shots, Swiss cheese defense and sloppy play. The lone bright spot, however, was Oliver Lafayette who had 25 points in the first half and finished with 32. In honor of Oliver's performance - and despite his awful three pointer during a crucial point down the stretch and my belligerence in cursing out my computer as I watched it happen - I decided to open a bottle of Oliver Winery Zinfandel.
The wine itself is rather unremarkable but the interesting element is that while the winery itself is located in Bloomington, IN, the grapes from most of the winery's traditional varietals are imported from California and Washington. They do this because wines made from grapes grown in Indiana are, well, awful. There are many factors for that, including climate, soil quality and vineyard slope, among other things, but going into detail will only bore you (generously assuming that you are not already bored and are not only reading this far because you are family or friend). The bottom line is that you never want to drink a bottle of wine from Indiana unless you are doing so as a dare.
This particular Zinfandel is made from grapes grown in Lodi, California, home to many of California's best Zins. I am a huge fan of Zinfandel, with its rich body and massive bramble and plum flavors. While I appreciate almost any wine in the right situation - i.e., with the right meal - Zinfandel may be my favorite to drink on its own. It is easy to drink - though it is one of the highest alcohol content wines out there, which can result in the alcohol taste overpowering the fruitiness - and it is soft enough that you don't have to deal with sour-lemon-face induced by the tannins in so many Cabernet Sauvignons and Shiraz.
The Oliver Zin was drinkable, though a bit overpriced at $16-$18. Similarly overvalued was Oliver Lafayette's performance, as his 32 points and 4 assists did nothing to make his teammates better. Apparently he had a lapse where he forgot that the PG next to his name on the roster means he is supposed to pass the ball on occasion. Regardless, the Mad Ants fell to 8-12 and I got to enjoy an average bottle of wine. Things could be worse.
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