AnuvaBlog

What a kind and generous man, Zach Everett. He and his lovely wife Robin invited over several guests and the Anuva team to present some of our wines. The Mayol Bonarda turned out to be the hit of the evening.

Ostensibly the reason for this I see, is that the Mayol Bonarda has many distinct characteristics not found in many “common” varietals. This Bonarda in particular has quite an aroma of juicy fruit in the nose and stays consistent in the mouth, has a very nice structure and medium-full body. All in all its a crowd pleaser. This wine I think is the one that drove several people to become members of Anuva right then and there.

And all this on top of a Celtics championship over the Fakers… what a splendid evening it was.

For those of you who feel overwhelmed in making choices about wine at restaurants or at wine shops and supermarkets that have inordinately large selections, this blog is for you. Any restaurant with an enormous wine list (say 1000 labels or more) should have a sommelier on hand to guide your decision. Remember, a sommelier ultimately wants to sell you wine but also should ask some basic questions to help guide his recommendation.

First, the sommelier will probably ask what you are eating, or what type of event the wine is for (solo consumption, a dinner, a series of hors d’oeuvres, etc.). This will help to characterize the pairing. Usually sommeliers will go with traditional pairings: stronger wines with stronger foods, like-like combinations.

Second, the sommelier will likely ask how much money you had in mind to spend. The tendency here will be to push the price higher as most sommelier work on commission.

Third, they may ask if you have any specific preferences as to the qualities of the wine. Full-bodied, a specific varietal, etc.

Then they should make 3-4 recommendations and let you choose. Very rarely will they actually choose for you as this minimizes their risk. I find they tend to be much like lawyers in this way. Giving several options but not actually exercising their opinion on you.

And in a sense this is good because each sommelier also will have his or her own personal preferences. Some hate entire regions or varietals of wine. In a recent Food and Wine article, I read about several sommeliers who used very nasty language to describe Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, and other respective varietals and one who condemned the entire Alsace region’s white wines. Thus, it is  important to know the expert or critic who is giving wine advise.  I even met a sommelier once who said he actually hates ALL wine except for muscat.

Why the heck is this guy a sommelier?

We cracked open a bottle of the Mudai Pinot Noir, just to spite all of my home grown Oregon Pinot lovers. Earthy and red fruit rich, the Mudai is quite a treat. What really impressed me though, was the pairing of the Mudai with last night’s dinner. I cooked shrimp in a red onion with butter sauce as an appetizer which we ate with a lemon and garlic butter. We then followed this with a grilled salmon filet, which I did in olive oil with lemon and lime juice, and red onion as well. Washing down the seafood with the pinot was just delightful. Not too strong but not too soft either. A nice balance of body, fruit and acidity.

We chatted about it during dinner because the quality of the combination was so apparent. We didn’t notice only the wine, nor did we notice only the food, a great balance had been found. We decided that the Anecon Torrontés would also go well with the meal we made, the other parts of which were a mixed green salad and red potatoes. We thought about how a malbec or syrah would do with this meal and agreed that it would just be too much. Those wines, for me at least, would just overpower the natural flavors of the seafood.

That said, I still encourage you to find what works for you. A seafood pasta with a cream base may stand up better to fuller wines and conversely, a seafood salad may not go too nicely with a Pinot Noir requiring a lighter white. But this is what makes it fun, the searching and sampling…. Que disfruten!

Last night, about 14 people attended an Anuva wine tasting and sampled Hom, Anecon, Uruco, Cavagnaro and Don Juan. We are very pleased to say that many of them are now members. It never ceases to amaze me how many people like all of our wines for different reasons:

Full bodied Reserves

Fruit forward Malbecs

Exclusive, hard to find wines

Unique varietals

Velvety wines

Easy to drink wines

These were the top reasons I heard last night. It also never ceases to amaze me how a group of strangers can come together over wine. It can start as the topic of discussion and then become the “title” of a given memory. E.G. “Do you remember when we had that Cavagnaro Malbec Reserve with Al and Nancy from the Bay Area? What a great night that was. The wine was so earthy and full of red fruit and I remember how that started a discussion on whether California wineries will be able to… what a good time that was.”

Last night was very similar. We discussed the terroir of Argentina, the culture, the winemaking culture, business practices and then, a whole slew of things ranging from food pairing to Argentine politics (yikes) to my wedding plans. I appreciate everyone’s company lat night and I hope to have more tastings like this because they are not tastings. They really are events where people come together over wine, and I get to truly enjoy my job.

I find that themes are the best for this. Regions, varietals, vertical tastings (different vintages of the same wine), food pairings, etc. all work nicely because they naturally generate a topic of discussion.

Once you have decided on the theme then you have to decide on the price. I also find that themes or plans work well here. If you are doing 5 wines you could select 5 from the 25-30 dollar price range or one at 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35.

Glassware is key. When you do 4-5 wines, which a decent tasting should be (as these are good numbers to give a lot of variety but not so much as to overwhelm people), you need to have a glass for each wine. This will allow people to compare colors, bouquets, tastes and textures of wines side by side. It is much harder to sample, then finish one wine, start a new one and then compare through memory.

Also, having a glass for each wine will allow people to experience how wines open. One should go through and smell and taste all the wines once or twice, leaving at least two more sips in each glass. Then when finished with the first pass, go back and sample again to find the more secondary and tertiary characteristics of each wine.

Of course, food will be an integral part of any wine tasting experience. More on this later…

In response to a recent article about American cult wines in the San Francisco Chronicle, I was a bit awestruck when I read the following quote from Shaun Bishop, the president and buyer for online wine auction house WineCommune: “The name has to be right, the marketing has to be right, the rating has to be right.”

The article in the SF Chronicle talks about how cult wines from known winemakers of low production volume can fetch exorbitant prices (thousands for a single bottle). And of course, the only rating that really matters is the Parker rating, says the article. James Laube from Wine Spectator can only do so much, evidently.

It is entirely possible that Parker is, in fact, God, and that no mortal man may make a claim to the contrary of his divine palate. But I can’t help but wonder… isn’t wine a matter of taste? And hasn’t it been said that there is no accounting for it? So why are people paying so much for these wines? Pure economics ostensibly.

When the wine obsessed (of which I may be becoming one) hear about extremely highly rated wines produced in micro productions, like Anuva’s wines, they scramble to snap up these bottles. Demand goes through the roof and supply is short. I truly believe it’s just a matter of time before the same thing starts happening with our wines.