trying to enjoy white wine
subtitled: A to Z 2007 Oregon pinot gris
i thought not too long ago i had read an article in the nyt (in case you have not realized i am a huge nyt fan) by wine guru eric asimov about oregon pinot gris. at least i thought it wasn't too long ago, turns out it was december of 2007, see how these things stick in my mind? :)
i'm a huge fan of eric's. he writes about wine in a way that is accessable to the layperson. he's not fussy, he's not pretentious, he's not afraid to challenge some of the "old-fashioned" was of thinking about (and drinking) wine, and most importantly his love and passion for the subject shines through each and every article and blog post. it is simply not possible to not get excited about something that he is excited about. his enthusiasm reaches across the miles here as i sit (usually at the front desk at work) reading in mississippi something that he has written for a new york city paper. wine, like words, is universal :)
as i mentioned in my first post here, my first experience with wine was with white wine. i was not impressed. truthfully i wasn't impressed with alcoholic beverages in general. beer disgusted me, mixed drinks were strong and overpowering, and no one at the time drank red wine. as i talked about, over the years i began to develop an appreciation for red wine, but for some reason that first experience with that cheap white zinfandel (sorry sally!) had soured my opinion of white wine - so to speak.
my turning point was when i moved from the greater cincinnati, ohio area back to mississippi to be closer to my parents. a new climate, a new humidity level (familiar but the extent of which i had forgotten after eight years in the midwest), a new thirst for something not only wet but cold in a hot, humid, hundred degree plus summer's day. the time, my friends, had come for ms ladylamia to try white wine again. oh, i admit i was loathe to open my palate back up to it. in truth, i had gotten a little pretentious about my red wine. red wine is more of an aquired taste so they say. people who don't know much about wine drink white wine. i don't know much about red wine, but i know what i like. white wine was the mcdonald's of wines and red wine was the truffle kobe beef burger that you are the one that is bold enough to eat!
yeah i let myself get a little wrapped up in my "red wine only" big-headed furvor. i developed my own wine pretention that had little to do with price, but more to do with finding a great taste in a bottle that wasn't going to break you. it didn't have anything to do with anything except my own deep-seated predjudice against white wine.
it was a blog post of asimov's that got me started thinking about a more summer-friendly wine that was fesibly in my universe: the pour: a red wine on ice - it's not blasphemy. i'm not ashamed to admit to you that i gasped aloud when i read the headline. chilled red wine brought back crashing horrific memories of merlot hidden in mini-fridge of my sister's dorm at millsaps when we were all still underage. "i like it cold." she told me defiantly. it also wasn't going to get the attention of a resident advisor if it were hidden in the back of a fridge rather than out breathing on a study desk of those cubby-holes they called "rooms".
i skipped that dorm experience for a myriad of reasons, i was simply never interested in sharing a bathroom with twenty virtal strangers. in fact, i've found that having my own bathroom is a big part of cutting down on tension when living with a significant other. i don't need a lot of "me time" or personal space but i do need a bathroom that is my own, but i digress. the aforementioned merlot which i can't tell you much about except that it was disgusting, probably no more chilled than it would've been at room temperature, was my only experience with chilled red wine. upon further reading of the blog i agreed with a lot of what asimov had to say. room temperature is not all created equal, and it's true that room temperature here in august of missisippi is not room temperature of a more nothern locale. so i decided to give it a go. i chose a wine that i was familiar enough with that i would have a pretty good idea of the changes that it took when chilled. a chose a light, fruity red that i thought would hold up to a bit of refridgerator time.
i was highly disappointed. perhaps it was my own lack of knowledge when choosing the wine. i tried to follow asimov's advice: "Big, heavy red wines like most zinfandels are not suited to the cold." so i thought that i was choosing something that would be ok with a bit of a frost on it. i can't tell you what it was exactly (as i've admitted i need to start writing things down because i forget details very easily, i will say that it was a tempranillo, i believe argentinian or spanish and i'm fairly certain it was a 2006. it was not a wine that asimov mentioned specifically, but it was what i chose. it was so bland when chilled for about a half an hour that i could scarcely believe that it was a wine i'd previously enjoyed. i left it out and as it began to warm the complexity came back to it, the rich flavour, the slighty spicy texture... yes that wine was not meant to be chilled, it took all of the personality out of it.
so i was confronted with a choice: i could continue expiramenting with chilled reds (something that i will do) or i could satisfy my urge for a cool refreshing summer drink by giving white wine a chance. i had no idea where to begin. i knew what i don't like: really dry white wines, most champagnes, white zin (i'm afraid i don't have the balls for it quite yet...). i knew that i'd had a lovely sparkling white that bridget had served us one evening at the W bar, but i didn't know anything about it but that it was fruity and slightly sweet. so i turned to the hometown "experts". the sweet lovely gentlemen at the northside mcdade's wine & spirits. i love mcdade's because they are a locally owned store, and they are friendly. while i frequent several wine stores in the area depending on my mood (they stock different things and some places have better prices than others) i find that mcdade's staff is simply the best at being friendly but not in your way. another wine shop, briarwood wine, i find that the staff is aloof and condescending. they will ask if you need help, but in such a way that doesn't really make you think that they want to help you. this is if i'm in jeans or casual clothes, if i am more dressed up like directly after work some of the staff is a little friendlier which frankly doesn't make me like them any more because i think that everyone that walks into your store deserves the exact same service, because my money is just as good if i am in jeans and little makeup than when i am in a dress all femmed up & hotter looking. :P so there. to be fair, the gay guy is always disinterested, no matter how i look.
i suppose it is just a personal preference, but i like the smiles and the greetings at mcdade's, that i know the staff not by name but by sight (and vice versa) and that the sweet lady in there always calls me "dear". also, the one time we did ask for help (lel and i) at briarwood wine we took home the worst wine i have ever tasted in my life, a 2007 chilean pinot noir. this was late december 2007 so i really feel that perhaps that wine may have been a bit more palatable if it had aged more, but that is neither here nor there, the recommendation was bullshit.
so when it was time for my housewarming party i wanted to have at least one white. i had told people to bring what they wanted to drink but i enjoy the role of hostess so i wanted to have something for the people that forgot, or just because. so i picked out two bottles of low-end red that are very drinkable especially at a party (barefoot red zinfandel and shiraz, both of which were big hits at the "a christmas carol" function my company put on last christmas at new stage) and began to survey my options in the similar range of whites. chardonnay lept out at me from left and right, but chardonnay was dry wasn't it? was it? is that what people like? what would my guests like? did they even drink white wine? would it just be a waste? still i couldn't not have one, i'm me...lol. so i asked one of the lovely gentlemen in there for help (the one with the thinning hair). i said that i was leaning toward one that i hadn't heard of before that was described as "sweet".
"it depends on what your guests like." he informs me.
"i don't know what they like." i said, somewhat panicked, "a lot of the people who are coming i don't know well enough to know their wine habits. they may not care at all...i just don't know!" 'help me' my gaze cried desperately into his eyes. they know me in there well enough to know that if i am asking for help it means business because generally i wander through the reds until i find something interesting and buy it, never once asking for help except when i needed something that would go well with scallops. i was at a loss, he knew that i needed help.
he suggested a pinot grigio. i racked my brain, trying to remember what i had read about pinot grigio vs pinot gris. finally i just bought the damn wine. turns out, it wasn't too bad. since it was a party however, i wasn't paying a lot of attention to the wine so i can't really say very much about it either way (just that the bottle of red i received from a guest at the party was absolutely lovely and the white paled in comparison...forgive the pun.)
so after the "it didn't make me want to vomit" experience with the pinot grigio i decided tonight to try a pinot gris. something that i could really concentrate on, formulate an opinion. to that end i chose a pre-chilled wine, A-Z 2007 oregon pinot gris. normally i would've picked something from a wider selection and chilled it myself but it was around 8pm by the time i hit briarwood (i don't like mcdade's pre-chilled selection though if you have time to wait they will chill anything you'd like for you!) since i'd spent the day with my parents and i didn't really want to wait.
overall i'd say it's a decent wine. it's not bad. but i have yet to spot the appeal of white wine. it lacks the complexity of a red, any red, which is something that i enjoy. i like a sensation or a taste that you didn't catch on your first sip that will jump up and grab your attention on the second. i like a deep, rich, wine. it's an indulgence, like a really good dark chocolate truffle. it's luxurious, like silk sheets, or an aromatic bubble bath. i like red wine i guess because in a way to me it's an indulgence, it's slightly naughty because you are doing something just for yourself. like a bubble bath or a piece of really decadent chocolate, wine is something that is just for me. i might share the experience with someone really special but at the end of the day i am going to relax with a really rich succulent wine and reward myself for a hard day of work, studying, cleaning, whatever obligation i've met. it's like intellectual orgasm... i could do it with food, but i choose not to because a.) that's a lot more effort and b.) i don't want to be huge and i love eating more than i love exercise...lol.
so i do with wine. while i can't say that i don't mind a little summer fling with white wine, and i might find one in my experiences that truly steals my heart, i think that for me white wine is just that - a fling. it doesn't satisfy me the way that it could. it's not deep, rich, complex, surprising, challenging at times. i guess that in a way wine to me is like a really good lover... newness and difference can be exciting and certainly intoxicating at first but in the end it is the layers of experience that truly entice and arouse me. i don't just want one note, one taste, one overwhelming thing no matter how good, i want the differences, the aromas, the depth, the textures, the rich luxurious flavours... ok that was a bad analogy because i'm not sure if i'm talking about wine or women now. ;) but i guess it is about the same, a woman like a glorious red wine is going to overtake every portion of your senses. making love to a woman, even the same woman, is going to be similar and yet different every time, there's a depth to it.
i suppose i will never be a great lover of white wine, and it appears evident that i either need to switch back to reds or get laid as soon as possible, lol. i'm thinking more likely it will be switching back to reds, though i see that there's no harm in having a little tryst with whites now and then, after all red wine and i have made no formal committment to one another.
i thought not too long ago i had read an article in the nyt (in case you have not realized i am a huge nyt fan) by wine guru eric asimov about oregon pinot gris. at least i thought it wasn't too long ago, turns out it was december of 2007, see how these things stick in my mind? :)
i'm a huge fan of eric's. he writes about wine in a way that is accessable to the layperson. he's not fussy, he's not pretentious, he's not afraid to challenge some of the "old-fashioned" was of thinking about (and drinking) wine, and most importantly his love and passion for the subject shines through each and every article and blog post. it is simply not possible to not get excited about something that he is excited about. his enthusiasm reaches across the miles here as i sit (usually at the front desk at work) reading in mississippi something that he has written for a new york city paper. wine, like words, is universal :)
as i mentioned in my first post here, my first experience with wine was with white wine. i was not impressed. truthfully i wasn't impressed with alcoholic beverages in general. beer disgusted me, mixed drinks were strong and overpowering, and no one at the time drank red wine. as i talked about, over the years i began to develop an appreciation for red wine, but for some reason that first experience with that cheap white zinfandel (sorry sally!) had soured my opinion of white wine - so to speak.
my turning point was when i moved from the greater cincinnati, ohio area back to mississippi to be closer to my parents. a new climate, a new humidity level (familiar but the extent of which i had forgotten after eight years in the midwest), a new thirst for something not only wet but cold in a hot, humid, hundred degree plus summer's day. the time, my friends, had come for ms ladylamia to try white wine again. oh, i admit i was loathe to open my palate back up to it. in truth, i had gotten a little pretentious about my red wine. red wine is more of an aquired taste so they say. people who don't know much about wine drink white wine. i don't know much about red wine, but i know what i like. white wine was the mcdonald's of wines and red wine was the truffle kobe beef burger that you are the one that is bold enough to eat!
yeah i let myself get a little wrapped up in my "red wine only" big-headed furvor. i developed my own wine pretention that had little to do with price, but more to do with finding a great taste in a bottle that wasn't going to break you. it didn't have anything to do with anything except my own deep-seated predjudice against white wine.
it was a blog post of asimov's that got me started thinking about a more summer-friendly wine that was fesibly in my universe: the pour: a red wine on ice - it's not blasphemy. i'm not ashamed to admit to you that i gasped aloud when i read the headline. chilled red wine brought back crashing horrific memories of merlot hidden in mini-fridge of my sister's dorm at millsaps when we were all still underage. "i like it cold." she told me defiantly. it also wasn't going to get the attention of a resident advisor if it were hidden in the back of a fridge rather than out breathing on a study desk of those cubby-holes they called "rooms".
i skipped that dorm experience for a myriad of reasons, i was simply never interested in sharing a bathroom with twenty virtal strangers. in fact, i've found that having my own bathroom is a big part of cutting down on tension when living with a significant other. i don't need a lot of "me time" or personal space but i do need a bathroom that is my own, but i digress. the aforementioned merlot which i can't tell you much about except that it was disgusting, probably no more chilled than it would've been at room temperature, was my only experience with chilled red wine. upon further reading of the blog i agreed with a lot of what asimov had to say. room temperature is not all created equal, and it's true that room temperature here in august of missisippi is not room temperature of a more nothern locale. so i decided to give it a go. i chose a wine that i was familiar enough with that i would have a pretty good idea of the changes that it took when chilled. a chose a light, fruity red that i thought would hold up to a bit of refridgerator time.
i was highly disappointed. perhaps it was my own lack of knowledge when choosing the wine. i tried to follow asimov's advice: "Big, heavy red wines like most zinfandels are not suited to the cold." so i thought that i was choosing something that would be ok with a bit of a frost on it. i can't tell you what it was exactly (as i've admitted i need to start writing things down because i forget details very easily, i will say that it was a tempranillo, i believe argentinian or spanish and i'm fairly certain it was a 2006. it was not a wine that asimov mentioned specifically, but it was what i chose. it was so bland when chilled for about a half an hour that i could scarcely believe that it was a wine i'd previously enjoyed. i left it out and as it began to warm the complexity came back to it, the rich flavour, the slighty spicy texture... yes that wine was not meant to be chilled, it took all of the personality out of it.
so i was confronted with a choice: i could continue expiramenting with chilled reds (something that i will do) or i could satisfy my urge for a cool refreshing summer drink by giving white wine a chance. i had no idea where to begin. i knew what i don't like: really dry white wines, most champagnes, white zin (i'm afraid i don't have the balls for it quite yet...). i knew that i'd had a lovely sparkling white that bridget had served us one evening at the W bar, but i didn't know anything about it but that it was fruity and slightly sweet. so i turned to the hometown "experts". the sweet lovely gentlemen at the northside mcdade's wine & spirits. i love mcdade's because they are a locally owned store, and they are friendly. while i frequent several wine stores in the area depending on my mood (they stock different things and some places have better prices than others) i find that mcdade's staff is simply the best at being friendly but not in your way. another wine shop, briarwood wine, i find that the staff is aloof and condescending. they will ask if you need help, but in such a way that doesn't really make you think that they want to help you. this is if i'm in jeans or casual clothes, if i am more dressed up like directly after work some of the staff is a little friendlier which frankly doesn't make me like them any more because i think that everyone that walks into your store deserves the exact same service, because my money is just as good if i am in jeans and little makeup than when i am in a dress all femmed up & hotter looking. :P so there. to be fair, the gay guy is always disinterested, no matter how i look.
i suppose it is just a personal preference, but i like the smiles and the greetings at mcdade's, that i know the staff not by name but by sight (and vice versa) and that the sweet lady in there always calls me "dear". also, the one time we did ask for help (lel and i) at briarwood wine we took home the worst wine i have ever tasted in my life, a 2007 chilean pinot noir. this was late december 2007 so i really feel that perhaps that wine may have been a bit more palatable if it had aged more, but that is neither here nor there, the recommendation was bullshit.
so when it was time for my housewarming party i wanted to have at least one white. i had told people to bring what they wanted to drink but i enjoy the role of hostess so i wanted to have something for the people that forgot, or just because. so i picked out two bottles of low-end red that are very drinkable especially at a party (barefoot red zinfandel and shiraz, both of which were big hits at the "a christmas carol" function my company put on last christmas at new stage) and began to survey my options in the similar range of whites. chardonnay lept out at me from left and right, but chardonnay was dry wasn't it? was it? is that what people like? what would my guests like? did they even drink white wine? would it just be a waste? still i couldn't not have one, i'm me...lol. so i asked one of the lovely gentlemen in there for help (the one with the thinning hair). i said that i was leaning toward one that i hadn't heard of before that was described as "sweet".
"it depends on what your guests like." he informs me.
"i don't know what they like." i said, somewhat panicked, "a lot of the people who are coming i don't know well enough to know their wine habits. they may not care at all...i just don't know!" 'help me' my gaze cried desperately into his eyes. they know me in there well enough to know that if i am asking for help it means business because generally i wander through the reds until i find something interesting and buy it, never once asking for help except when i needed something that would go well with scallops. i was at a loss, he knew that i needed help.
he suggested a pinot grigio. i racked my brain, trying to remember what i had read about pinot grigio vs pinot gris. finally i just bought the damn wine. turns out, it wasn't too bad. since it was a party however, i wasn't paying a lot of attention to the wine so i can't really say very much about it either way (just that the bottle of red i received from a guest at the party was absolutely lovely and the white paled in comparison...forgive the pun.)
so after the "it didn't make me want to vomit" experience with the pinot grigio i decided tonight to try a pinot gris. something that i could really concentrate on, formulate an opinion. to that end i chose a pre-chilled wine, A-Z 2007 oregon pinot gris. normally i would've picked something from a wider selection and chilled it myself but it was around 8pm by the time i hit briarwood (i don't like mcdade's pre-chilled selection though if you have time to wait they will chill anything you'd like for you!) since i'd spent the day with my parents and i didn't really want to wait.
overall i'd say it's a decent wine. it's not bad. but i have yet to spot the appeal of white wine. it lacks the complexity of a red, any red, which is something that i enjoy. i like a sensation or a taste that you didn't catch on your first sip that will jump up and grab your attention on the second. i like a deep, rich, wine. it's an indulgence, like a really good dark chocolate truffle. it's luxurious, like silk sheets, or an aromatic bubble bath. i like red wine i guess because in a way to me it's an indulgence, it's slightly naughty because you are doing something just for yourself. like a bubble bath or a piece of really decadent chocolate, wine is something that is just for me. i might share the experience with someone really special but at the end of the day i am going to relax with a really rich succulent wine and reward myself for a hard day of work, studying, cleaning, whatever obligation i've met. it's like intellectual orgasm... i could do it with food, but i choose not to because a.) that's a lot more effort and b.) i don't want to be huge and i love eating more than i love exercise...lol.
so i do with wine. while i can't say that i don't mind a little summer fling with white wine, and i might find one in my experiences that truly steals my heart, i think that for me white wine is just that - a fling. it doesn't satisfy me the way that it could. it's not deep, rich, complex, surprising, challenging at times. i guess that in a way wine to me is like a really good lover... newness and difference can be exciting and certainly intoxicating at first but in the end it is the layers of experience that truly entice and arouse me. i don't just want one note, one taste, one overwhelming thing no matter how good, i want the differences, the aromas, the depth, the textures, the rich luxurious flavours... ok that was a bad analogy because i'm not sure if i'm talking about wine or women now. ;) but i guess it is about the same, a woman like a glorious red wine is going to overtake every portion of your senses. making love to a woman, even the same woman, is going to be similar and yet different every time, there's a depth to it.
i suppose i will never be a great lover of white wine, and it appears evident that i either need to switch back to reds or get laid as soon as possible, lol. i'm thinking more likely it will be switching back to reds, though i see that there's no harm in having a little tryst with whites now and then, after all red wine and i have made no formal committment to one another.