WBW 71: Rhones Not From The Rhône

When Wine Blogging Wednesday founder Lenn Thompson asked me to host this months’ tasting I was both honored and nervous. What theme would spark new participants to join the monthly virtual tasting? How could I come up with something original after 70 tastings? But after sharing three ideas on Twitter direct messages, we were set [...]

WBW 71: Rhones Not From The Rhône</a> originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.

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Wine Word of the Week: Brut

This week?s Wine Word of the Week is brut. Official definition from Jancis Robinson?s The Oxford Companion to Wine: Brut is a French word meaning ?crude? or ?raw?, adapted by the champagne industry for wines made without (much) added sweetening or dosage. It has come to be used widely for any sparkling wine to indicate [...]

Wine Word of the Week: Brut was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.

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Moorish architecture under a natural atmosphere wraps Cap Juluca

The intimate crescent shaped coastline of Maundays Bay nestles Cap Juluca on the south western coast of Anguilla. The romantic retreat is wrapped with Caribbean luxury under the Moorish architecture here, where the whitewashed waterfront villas are graced by the overhead blue sky and the cool sea water embraces the white pillars of the elegant [...]

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A Taste of 'Summer': The 2009 Heart & Hands Pinot Noir

The Finger Lakes region is most known for its Rieslings but the wine I wanted to try most after reading Evan Dawson's "Summer in a Glass" (review) was a Pinot Noir. Perhaps it's not surprising given how much I enjoy Pinot but the story behind the wines being produced at Heart & Hands Wine Company left an impression on me.

I appreciated Heart & Hands owner and winemaker Tom Higgins' focus on Pinot Noir and how he used his background in geology to seek out land rich with limestone because top Pinot-producing regions have a similar composition. He's intent on making world class Pinot Noir in the Finger Lakes.

I was reminded of the book after watching Evan's recent appearance on Gary Vaynerchuk's Daily Grape. They tasted a wine featured in the book - the 2007 Heart & Hands Reserve Pinot Noir. I cracked open a bottle of the 2009.

Here are my thoughts.

2009 Heart & Hands Finger Lakes Pinot Noir
12.6% Alcohol
Around $20

Purchased this after reading "Summer in a Glass" by Evan Dawson. The 2007 Heart & Hands Reserve Pinot Noir was featured, this note is for the 2009 non-reserve bottling.

I'm viewing this through the lens of most domestic Pinot Noir I've consumed - Oregon and California. If I were tasting this blind I'd absolutely guess it was from Oregon. Its woodsy, twangy nose seem aligned with aromatics I've found in Oregon Pinots.

Beyond that I liked the flavor profile. It seemed to strike a nice balance between sweet and austere. Balanced in that sense. Surprisingly flavorful given its relatively-low 12.6% alcohol level.

A really nice value. Nice package too with a reasonably hefty bottle and a unique glass cork I'd not seen before. I dig it.

88/100 WWP: Very Good

Online: http://www.heartandhandswine.com
On Twitter: @FLPinotGuy

Where to Buy: Heart & Hands Pinot Noir on Wine-Searcher


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Happens Every Year

I’m not even 40.  Yet, every year (and since the recession more than once a year), I get a stroke of contemplative melancholy that lasts as little as a day and often longer than that.

It’s not depression, nor is it even a crisis in the, “Buy a two-door red car and a pair of hip jeans” kind of way, but, more importantly it’s about, “What the hell am I doing with my life?”

Sometimes it’s precipitated by the absolute inanity of work and office politics – people that would rather look good then be good or the office drone that views the world so narrowly and rigidly through her own rose-colored glasses that she can’t possibly empathize with another’s viewpoint.

I have a rough go of it sometimes with these white knucklers who cling so desperately to a false truth of right or wrong and perceived security.

Then, I go online for some mental respite and I hit the wine blogosphere and see the same goddamn conversation going on (and on…) about scores and points or Parker and suddenly what brings me joy turns into déjà vu all over again.

What this leads me to is a desire to channel my inner Buddhist and chuck the trappings of a material life, head out to a cabin in the woods with a laptop, a stash of wine and a vegetable garden in order to create something new, unique and powerful; something real: a piece of art as I know it, words on figurative paper.  I want to create something that’s not a critique of something or somebody that has already created their own value, nor a piece of work that is dependent on somebody else’s expectations. Something that just…is…

Through this, I think I understand the affinity people feel for natural wine.  In a world in which our inherent truth is a derivative of the expectations others have of us and, by proxy, the expectations we’ve subsumed for our own life, the rootedness, the anchor that we can find is in rejoicing in the simple beauty of something that is principally unadultered, a respite from the hair shirt that is life – wine that is barely shepherded from vine to glass and an idle idyll.

Or, this might be just me.

Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/happens_every_year1/

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