Vinoyo

Thanks for the feedback on the Thanksgiving video. I’ll keep my day job for now. This is a follow-up article to focus on the wines I’ve mentioned in the video. Some are very reasonable and easy to find like the Chateau St. Jean Chardonnay ($21 @ Costco!) or Le Cigar Volant. Others, like the DuMOL Viognier, are difficult to find and more expensive, so look for similar wines of the same varietal.

For some wines Chateanuf du Pape (CDP), you have to plan well ahead for. Stock up and cellar the very good 2006 vintage to enjoy in 2009. The 2007 vintage of CDP looks outstanding. You can still find reasonably priced 2004 CDP around, or better yet check out Le Cigar Volant.

Basically, look for food friendly wines: balance, low alcohol, high acidity. I strongly suggest French rose. I usually buy a mixed case easy drinking French rose when they are released early in the summer. The prices range from $7-15/bottle. I enjoy the case over the summer and keep an extra bottle or two around specifically for Thanksgiving dinner. American rose is refreshing, but usually more expensive and has a higher alcohol content. Often, it’s difficult to appreciate a highly acidic wine, but they pair extremely well with food. Rieslings (but not the late harvest desert wine) are also a good choice for the same reason. More on rose later.

the “line-up”

Start here. A good non-vintage sparkling wine. I prefer Piper. Gloria Ferrer is a good, and more reasonable alternative. Read the rest of this entry »

It has been a difficult year…for almost everyone, but there is a lot to be thankful for, especially with the results of the last election.  I never believed there would be an African-American, or person of color, in the White House.  I wonder, what kind of wine President-elect Obama would enjoy?

I’m ready for Thanksgiving; I am looking forward to the Holidays.  Here is a video to my suggestions for pairing Thanksgiving dinner with wine.

I am anxious about this video post, it’s raw video, and I appreciate any feedback.

Reg

Although the focus of Vinoyo is to become wine network for people who love wine, occasionally I will include post on my other liquid passion: sake.  I would like to introduce more African-Americans, and people of color, to the Joy of Sake.

Below is a article I wrote for the feature “sake spotlight” I wrote for the True Sake monthly newsletter earlier this year.  I’ve mentioned True Sake, and the proprietor Beau Timken, in a previous post (Osaka - Stranger In A Strange Land). www.truesake.com

Read the rest of this entry »

On Saturday, June 14, the annual event celebrating the Association of African American Vintners (AAAV) was held at COPIA in Napa, CA.  I was my first time attending this event which included panel discussions followed by wine tasting.   This was a fantastic event:  well attended,  enthusiatic panel discussions; good, food, music and people.  Even the weather was nice.  The annual AAAV event is an excellent opportunity to learn and enjoy wines produced by African-American vintners.  I highly encourage you to attend next years event.  I’ll be there.

Later that evening, my wife and I, enjoyed dinner at 1300 Fillmore on Fillmore St. in San Francisco.  1300 features a menu of noveau-soul food by Chef David Lawrence.   I recommend the “shrimp ‘n’ grits.”  Many of the wineries featured at the AAAV event are featured on the wine list.  Highly recommended. 

Panel 2 - left to right: Pam Moore (moderator), Dr. Ernest Bates (Black Coyote Wines), Stephen Sterling (Esterlina Vineyards & Winery), Daniel J. Bryant (Running Tiger Wines), Vance Sharp III (Sharp Cellars), Stover Oaks Winery (Louis Garcia), Vision Cellars (Mac McDonald)

One of the world’s premier sommeliers, Mr. Andre Mack, and his proud mother

Mac McDonald of Vision Cellars with a glass of his supurb ‘07 Rose

Mrs. and Mr. Daniel Bryant (Running Tiger Wines)…their outstanding Syrah was a big suprise

Some of the wineries featured.

Reg

This Saturday, June 14th, is the 5th annual African American Vintners Winetasting sponsored by the Association of African American Vintners.  It’s a unique opportunity to meet and try excellent wines from people of color.

The event is held at Copia in Napa.  It will start at noon with a panel discussion.  Wine tasting begins at 1:30pm.  Tickets are available at the door,

For more details:  http://www.copia.org/content/node/1170

I’ll definitely be there.

Happy Juneteenth and Happy Fathers Day!

Reg

In case you did not know, Screaming Eagle is perhaps the most ”cult” of Cult Wines.

If you go online a bottle will cost you upwards of $1800.

On May 14th, 2008 I had the opportunity to go to a vertical tasting of Screaming Eagle including 2003, 2004 and 2005.

The most amazing things about the vintages was how distinctively different each was.

The 2003 vintage was ready to drink, subtle elegant balanced.

The 2004 vintage was big, with marvelous flavor but not a “fruit bomb” with wonderful silky tannins.

The 2005 vintage was massive, and bold, and dense but not harsh.

All three were special wines.

I was probably the only one in the room who could figure out which one I liked best.

The bottom-line:
If you can afford to spend upwards of 1800 bucks on a bottle of wine, go for it!

Otherwise there are great bargains at 25 bucks!

Check out my Blog on buying Cabernets!

Mack

 There are two days I will never work…the MLK Holiday and the Friday after Aprl 15th.   I will not work on the MLK Holiday for obvious reasons.  I will not work the Friday after April 15th because I need tax relief.  On April 15th, I always pay and I pay big.  I don’t mind paying taxes, I just wish I had more control over what my tax money is being spent on.  So, in an ongoing effort to bring the wine culture to African-Americans and people of color, I took Friday (April 18th) off and went to Dry Creek Valley to do some wine tasting.

 I also wanted to take advantage of the VISA Signature complementary wine tastings on approximately 50 wineries in Sonoma County.  As you may know, tasting fees can add up, so this VISA Signature deal is serious tax relief…check it out.

I had intended to leave San Franacisco and drive up Hwy 101 to Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma County.  I wanted to visit 8 wineries in one day!  Instead, I only made it to three:  Trentadu, Michael-Schlumberger, and Montemagorre.

Read the rest of this entry »

We are planning on updating the website within the next several months.  It is our goal to establish a wine community for the African-American community, for people of color, and for people who love wine.  Stay tuned…

 Cheers…Anani, Reg, Mack, and Michangelo

I recently returned from a long overdue vacation in Maui.  It was my 5th trip to Hawaii and my third time in Maui.  Sand-and-sun are not my thing, but overall it was a great family vacation.  On most of my travels, I bring a few bottles of wine.  On this trip I bought two bottles of wine and one sake.   I always think it is a good idea to travel with bottles of wine or sake, either for personal consumption or to give away as gifts.

On this trip I bought an excellent 2006 Conundrum White Table Wine, a good bottle of 2006 Vision Cellars riesling, and a very good sake.  I highly recommend the 2006 Conundrum.  It’s a multi-varietal white wine from Napa, made in cojunction with Caymus.  It’s inexpensive (~$20), refreshing, and unique.  Conundrum will not improve with age.  I would drink Conundrum within 6 months of purchase.

I almost always bring a bottle of sake when I travel, except of course when I journey to Japan.  Sake travels better than most wines, will not lose its flavor profile if kept cold for several days, and it’s difficult to find good sake on the road.  For my trip to Maui, I brought a very good bottle of Masumi Okuden Kantsukuri, the “Mirror of Truth.”  This post, however, is not about what I bought to Maui, but about a winery in Maui.

Read the rest of this entry »

How much should you pay for a good bottle of Cabernet?

Simple answer: “no more than you can afford”. So if your budget for Cabernet is $9.99, look real hard and you can probably find a descent one. Hopefully this not “where you are at”!

More complicated answer: You can afford to pay more but don’t want to pay more than you ought to. How much should you pay? Suppose you want to collect higher end Cabernets but want to shop for bargains how much should you pay? .

The two top producers of Cabernet based wines (in terms of volume and quality) come from Bordeaux (France) and California (Napa & Sonoma). In an attempt to answer the more complicated question, I created the “Roach Curve” (see Table 1 and Figure 1). I took all the wines on the Wine Spectator website and sorted them by score and price and placed them into groups. I then found the median price of each wine. For those of you who don’t remember (never knew or forgot) the median price simply means, one-half of the wines cost more than the median price and one-half will cost less. For example, if there are five wines costing $12, $15, $20, $35 and $1500, the median is $20. In contrast the average or mean price would be $315. Obviously $20 is more representative of a type price of these wines. The beauty of this approach is that you usually do not calculate the median, you simply sort by price within a score range, count the number of scores (4th column of Table 1 and take the middle value). If there are an even number of prices, take a value mid way between the two middle prices and you have it!

Figure 1 graphically displays the data from Table 1. Admittedly this is less than a perfect approach because the ranges are relatively wide. For example, 90 points is not as prestigious as 94 points. The argument I would use however is that “if a wine is near the top of the rating range (e.g. 94 points), and it is priced is well below median (or at the bottom of the range), then from a price standpoint it is a good buy compared to other Cabernet based wines”. Even if the score is not at the top of the range this information can be useful.

For example, take 95-100 point cabernets, the median price is $125, range is $65 to $350 (see Table 1). A 95 point Cabernet for a $65 is probably a good purchase. Buy one bottle and taste it. You may want to purchase a large quantity because if the rating is accurate it is likely that it will keep for a long time and prices for Cabernets keep going up!

In addition, what’s also interesting from this type of analysis is that the median price of California wine rated by Wine Spectator are slightly higher than French wines which are 95 points and below. However, the high-end French wines are significantly more expensive than California wine (as is shown at the right portion of Figure1). A similar analysis can be performed for all the types of wines the readers may wish to consider purchasing!

Stay Tuned for more “Roach Clips”!