Spring From The Vine Newsletter
Spring 2008
Unleash the
potential...
For
an ultra-premium
winemaking experience,
make the best that
Winexpert has to offer -
Selection Estate Series.
Wines made with Estate
Series deliver
unsurpassed,
award-winning quality
(as indicated by their
performance at the 2007
WineMaker International
Amateur Competition
where every Estate
Series variety won a
medal).
Estate Series wine kits contain 100% pure varietal juice from region specific vineyards from around the world, allowing you to produce authentic wines that are true to style with longer ageing potential. Fabulous after 1-2 years in the bottle, that you will be proud to share with friends and family. We are pleased to introduce you to the four newest varieties in our Selection Estate Series line:
Sonoma Valley
Pinot Noir
With more than 200,000
acres stretching from
the rugged Pacific coast
to the Mayacamas
Mountains, Sonoma County
offers a rich and varied
landscape. Cool nights
and warm days contribute
to layers of fog that
creep into Sonoma’s
interior valleys from
the Pacific Ocean,
moderating the intense
California sun.
Winexpert’s Estate
Series Sonoma County
Pinot Noir has silky
tannins carrying notes
of truffle, toast,
herbs, gorgeous cassis,
black cherry and
raspberry flavours and
black spice.
Food-friendly, it shows
restrained toasty oak
and well-balanced
acidity.
Washington
Yakima Valley Pinot Gris
Washington State is a
classic cool-climate
viticultural area, with
the Cascade Mountains
providing a complete
rain shadow for the
vines. The resulting
arid climate, combined
with the long daylight
hours of the growing
season, ensures that
grapes fully ripen,
developing complex fruit
flavours, good acid
levels and pleasing
aromatics. Winexpert’s
Estate Series
Washington Pinot Gris
offers fresh aromas and
flavours of ripe
honeydew melon and crisp
green apple and an
attractive
floral note. The wine
has an elegant, creamy
finish restrained by a
refreshing crispness
that makes it very food
friendly.
Crushendo Sonoma
Valley Cabernet
Sauvignon
Most people are unaware
that Sonoma red wines
win more awards than
Napa. Winexpert
Crushendo Sonoma
Cabernet Sauvignon’s
elegant and powerful
nose showcases big black
cherry character with
nuances of mocha cedar
and cigar box. It is
bold and chewy on the
palate with concentrated
cassis, blackberry and
cedar flavours along
with firm structure and
smooth (but powerful)
tannins showing elegance
on the long finish.
German Mosel
Valley Gewürztraminer
The Mosel valley is
famous for its beautiful
scenery and excellent
wines. Gewürztraminer
grapes from this region
tend to be a dusky pink
colour, and result in
wines from light to a
dark golden yellow with
subtle copper tones.
Gewürztraminer is quite
fullbodied, more so than
most any other white
wine type and the
combination of its
strong and heady
perfume, exotic lychee
flavour and rich texture
make it a powerful wine
with an intense and
memorable finish.
Wine and food - A match made in heaven
Wine with food has been
a long standing
partnership. By finding
a great wine and food
pairing you can change
the way your food tastes
and vice versa and doing
so will make your whole
eating experience fun
and unique. There are
some easy and
interesting guidelines
to pairings but there
are no real rules when
it comes to wine.
There’s lots of room for
experimentation and
expressing your own
personality when pairing
food with wine. Having
your own home wine
tasting is a great way
to try different foods
with wines, to see how
they match up. Remember
that rules are made to
be broken, take the
suggestions and give
them a try, but don’t be
afraid to discover your
own strategies.
Here are a few of our
favourite strategies
around making the
perfect match:
• Match your wine to the
strongest flavour on the
plate
• Match the lightness
and freshness of the
flavours (if there is
lemon or lime involved,
a wine with high acidity
is good). Try our
Selection Estate, New
Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.
• Hot or spicy dishes,
get a white wine that
has more flavour than
the dish has spice. Like
a fruity wine with a
touch of sweetness, our
Selection
Gewürtztraminer would be
perfect!
•
Rare meats need young
tannic reds and well
done meats need older or
fruity reds with little
tannin
Here is a great pairing to get you started:
Roast Chicken In Lemon - Rosemary Marinade2/3 c. Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
1/3 c. Selection Estate New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc
2 tbsp. Olive Oil
3 tbsp. Crushed Black Peppercorns or Coarsely Ground Pepper
4 tbsp. Fresh, Chopped Rosemary or 2 Tbsp. Dried
Excerpts from Tim’s Wine Blog: Alcohol by Volume - Just How Loud is Your Wine?
The query that I was
pondering today is the
puzzler: ‘My wine
doesn’t have any
alcohol’. Sometimes
folks will open the
first bottle of wine
they’ve made from a kit,
drink it, and think it’s
lacking something. Since
the wine is typically
fairly smooth (with the
exception of our premium
and super-premium kits
we deliberately keep the
acids and tannins in
gentle balance, so the
wine can be consumed
fairly young) and many
people equate intensity
of flavour or character
with a ‘strong’ drink
like whisky, they assume
that a low level of
alcohol is the culprit.
Wineries typically don’t release even their lightest, most heavily processed wines for a full year after they’re fermented. If you drink a kit wine—or any wine—that’s only a few months old, it will have some ‘green’ flavours and smells snuffing out the aromas and bouquet. A little patience and poof! They’re all there for the sniffing and slurping.
The problem seems to be stemming from the high levels of alcohol in current commercial wines. When I began learning about wine, the average alcohol content I saw for whites on the shelves of my local bottle shop ran from 9% (light German whites) to 11-11.5% (dry white table wine) and 12-12.5% (dry red table wine). Rare and intimidating California reds that had ABV (Alcohol by volume) ratings of 13-14% were sold as ‘Blockbuster’ reds, and anything above that was a dessert wine.
Today? The Germans seem
to have retained a grain
of sense, but even the
finest producers around
the world, from
California cults to
first-growth Bordeaux,
are making dopey hot
wines that mug the
palate and crush the
tastebuds, never mind
the production wineries
that are run by
corporations to pander
to the lowest common
denominator of taste.
Alcohol levels in reds
start at 13.5% and some
people are selling what
is ostensibly table wine
at 16.5% ABV. Now
Winexpert kit wines have
alcohol contents
appropriate to the
sensibilities of our
consumers: light,
off-dry German whites
are around 10.5%, other
whites run from 11.5% to
13% for the biggest
ones, and reds run from
12 to 13.5%. There are a
few of exceptions: our
Luna Bianca is 13.5-14%
and our Luna Rossa is
14.5 to 15.5%. Both of
these kits are designed
to mimic big California
wines (the ones I’m
railing against) and
they do a pretty good
job. The other exception
is our Italian Amarone,
which is nearly 16%,
like its continental
namesake. But for the
most part our ABV
numbers are about where
the commercial numbers
were 10 or 15 years ago.
Tim Vandergrift is
Winexpert’s Technical
Services Manager and
general wine guru. You
can find more writings
from Tim on his wine
blog at
www.timswineblog.com
ask the expert
time to start
Mist behavin'
Summer is just around
the corner. It’s time to
start thinking about
relaxing in the backyard
with friends and sipping
on your favourite Island
Mist refreshment
beverage. Get ready to
mist-behave again this
year with new Island
Mist WhiteCranberry Pinot Gris!
This exciting addition
to the Island Mist
lineup is a spectacular
crystal white colour
which is the result of a
special blend of white
cranberry and Pinot
Gris. White cranberry
juice is somewhat less
tart than regular
cranberry juice due to
an earlier harvest than
the traditional red
cranberries. Winexpert’s
White Cranberry Pinot
Gris bursts with the
sweetness that has made
White Cranberry a unique
and popular flavour in
juice, and now Winexpert
brings that flavour to
you as part of our
refreshing line of
Island Mist varieties.
This wine is very easy
to drink and is perfect
for backyard barbeques
and sharing with
friends.
3 mint sprigs
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tbsp sugar
1 ½ oz white rum
Island Mist White Cranberry Pinot Gris
Cracked ice
from the
vineyards of...
Washington State
is a premium wine
producing region located
in the northwest corner
of the United States.
Although a relatively
young wine industry, it
is now America’s second
largest wine producer
and is ranked among the
world’s top wine
regions.
To
download a PDF of our
Spring 2008 From The
Vine Newsletter, please
click here.