Wine Tasting in Amador County California!

Hey guys,

I went wine tasting yesterday in Amador County. I was initially quite skeptical when my parents said it was good (they’re not used to getting wine that costs more than $8 and their taste is…), but we actually did find some pretty decent wine!

First stop was Karmere Winery. They specialize in making sweeter wines and non-grape based wines. I took a few notes (largely ignored taking sight notes, though).

1. Almond Sparkling Wine – I’m assuming it’s made from almonds. It tasted like almonds and was sweet and creamy. It was ok.

2. La Petite Drew Syrah – Purple, oak, spice, berries, tobacco, smokiness. The wine was not that good

3. La Petite Morgan Nebbiolo-Syrah – a “chocolate” purple, spicy, pepper, oak, long finish, cheese on distant finish. Interesting, but not that great either

4. Empress Julie Ann Barbera – Can read through it, red tinger, long legs, oaky, spice, caramel and jammy. Had mocha, spice, and jam on the palate. Light bodied. I think this was supposed to be their best wine. The aroma was amazing, but the palate was pretty weaksauce. Definitely not worth the $26 they charged per bottle.

5. Empress Juana Primabera – Mix of Primitivo and Barbera. Aroma had notes of crushed and fresh red fruit, clove, black pepper, toasted oak. It was jammy and and a long finish. Apparently, I liked this wine on tasting, but not worth $22.

6. Empress Hayley Zinfandel – Black pepper, broccoli, green/leafy veggies, herbaceous on aroma. Palate had dark fruit, still herbaceous, full bodied, very full “chewy” tannin. This was ok, but I’m not a fan of veggies in my wine.

7. Temperance Tart – Plummy, very fruity, full with a long finish. The pourers made a big show of this one…I didn’t think it was that great

8.  3 Princes Forte – Their port. I believe it is based off Zin? Can’t read through it. Aroma of berry and plum preserves, spicy, with a touch of flower. Palate of sweet fruits, full bodied, spice and some nut. I liked this one enough to recommend purchasing it. Upon arriving at the next winery, I regretted that decision (this port was not as good as the next place’s).

Karmere…interesting first stop. Not very good, in my opinion. Then again, I like drier wines and wines that taste like dirt and leather.

Sobon Estate:

1. 2008 Viognier – Pale, dull straw color. Aroma of slate, minerals, rhubarb, and cinnamon. Way too acidic for me on the palate, rhubarb characteristic was still going.

2. 2008 Roussanne – Straw color. Grapefruit aroma that was also “dry”. Spicy with oaky finish. I didn’t agree with the wine maker’s tasting notes at all.

3. 2007 “Old Vines” Zin – Brick red color. Jammy berry aroma with a little sweetened chocolate. Lots of jammy fruits on the palate and was very drinkable. $13, I liked it. So did my dad. I know the price because we bought one bottle.

4. 2007 “Cougar Hill” Zin – Aroma of dried plums with jammy berries. I also got strawberry scents and oak. Fruit forward palate with a dustiness to it. Tannic finish. Pretty good. Pourer said that this was his favorite one of all of Sobon Estate’s wines, but he said the 2006 was way better (had spiciness and black pepper to it). Didn’t agree 100% with wine maker’s tasting notes, but I liked this one.

5. 2007 “Fiddletown” Zin – Rich fruit aroma with some cocoa and fruit preserves on nose. Tasted a little spicy, lots of dark fruit, and tannic. Had a long finish. Didn’t agree with wine maker’s tasting notes.

6. 2006 ReZerve Zin – “Cranberry juice” color. Aroma of slight mushroom, spice, dry figs, and possibly some mint or eucalyptus. Palate had dried berries and plums balanced with chocolate. Very nice smooth chocolate on finish. Didn’t agree on wine maker’s tasting notes (how the fuck did they not smell mushroom)

7. 2007 ReZerve Primitivo – Translucent crimson color. Dusty leather aroma, almost like candied berry, some spice. Palate had mocha with black pepper and a fruity backbone. This was really good, got a bottle at $24.

8. (forgot vintage) Sangiovese – Strawberry red. Had mushroom, earthy berries, and some leather on nose. The palate had intensified versions of the aroma. This was really good too.

9. Zin port – Viscous, slow legs. Had nose of blueberries, boysenberries, and cassis. Tasted honey, caramel, berry syrup, and had a long finish. Nom!

Sobon Estate wasn’t too bad! I liked 5 wines from here, unfortunately they were mostly all zinfandels. The pourer said that for some reason in Amador County, Zin grows really well (hence why everyone makes like 3-4 different Zins), but the California staples of Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon grow terribly. I liked Sobon Estate.

Driven Cellars:

1. 2007 Pinot Grigio – Smelled a little oxidized….But had nose of cream, vanilla, tropical fruits, and some herbaceousness. Palate of bright citrus. This was a hot wine at 14.5% EtOH and seemed a little unbalanced.

2. 2006 Barbera – Aroma of dried berries, dustiness, cedar, and raspberry. Palate of dark fruit. Slow tannins and oaky. Nom! I liked this one a lot. The EtOH was really really high (15%? Coulda been 15.5%) but it seemed really well balanced. Worth $17, but didn’t get a bottle (wish I did).

3. 2007 Tempranillo – Their first time making Tempranillo and it was really good. Crimson color. Mushroom, oak, and banana on the nose (for some reason I said tannic, but that doesn’t make sense for the nose…). Palate of caramel, butterscotch, berries, plum, and cherry. I liked this a lot. Pourer said that it was her favorite and that she was surprised it came out so well. Got a bottle at $23. This was also high in EtOH, I believe. Actually, all of Driven’s wines had an unusual amount of alcohol, but the wines were so balanced that I couldn’t really tell. I checked with my mom and brother (who were sober) to make sure that I wasn’t just getting the crap kicked out of me by alcohol bombs, and they said that the wines didn’t smell like alcohol at all.

4. 2005 Syrah – Deep garnet color. Mocha, oak, jammy raspberry on nose. Subtle spice backbone with chocolate on the palate. Pretty good. $17. (didn’t buy)

5. 2006 Zin – Aroma of blueberry pie, pastry crust, and toffee. Big fruit flavor with caramel, cassis and a long, deep finish. An extremely juicy wine. Nom! $23. I thought this was a phe-nom-enal example of California Zin.

6.2006 Primitivo – The pourer said they know that Primitivo and Zin are the same grape, but they use the different varietal names because the style of wine is completely different. This was aged in American oak instead of new French oak. On the nose, there was coconut and jammy berry. Palate had cocoa, mint, jam, and some spice. $23. Pretty good.

7. 2005 Primitivo - Big difference from 2006. Used new French oak, but the weather was apparently drastically different too. Brick color. Strong black pepper, tobacco, earthiness, sundried tomato, and cherry syrup. Dry fruit on the palate with an herbaceous finish. I liked this wine until the finish. Well, the black pepper nose was also off-putting…smelled almost like an Australian Syrah, there was so much pepper. $21, but didn’t get a bottle.

8. 2006 Petite Syrah – Inky color. Jam and pepper on nose. Plum, blackberry, cocoa and oak on palate with big, full tannin. $18. Very good.

Driven Cellars is very very small. Apparently, they only have 3 people working the place (80-something year old father, the son, and the daughter) and they collect and restore old cars. The place is so small that they hadn’t thought out distribution even to San Francisco yet (too busy) and didn’t have a parking lot for visitors (with marked spots, anyway). This was my favorite winery of the ones we visited. I’m going to try to get these (somehow) in Mass. Not sure what the family was doing before (other than the dad…he was a classic car mechanic) or how they could make such high quality wine for relatively cheap. I don’t even know how they balanced out all the alcohol in the wines so well.

Shenandoah Vineyards

Sister vineyard to Sobon Estate. I tried a few wines here…wasn’t too impressive. Their out-sourced Chardonnay was pretty good, not too buttery. We showed up right before closing, so I didn’t want to take forever with my tasting notes. They had a black muscat dessert wine that was very nom. We bought a bottle of that at $13 and will probably pour it on ice cream, per pourer’s suggestion.

Fun trip! Amador County surprised me…plus I was even more surprised when I realized we DROVE THROUGH Lodi! I’ll probably go try some more old vine Zin. I’m not sure if we’ll head out to Napa and Sonoma…too busy and too much like Disneyland. Sorry, Frog’s Leap…=(

Plungerhead Zinfandel Tasting

Couple things:

1. The fact that Cornell hockey was going to play Quinnipiac the day I made this video should tell you how old it is/how backlogged/how busy i got.

2. It’s pronounced “Lo-die”, not “Lo-dee”

3. The wine oddly gained back all of the “missing components” in the 2nd glass….and 3rd…and 4th. i couldn’t figure out why only the 1st glass seemed oxidized.

4. Up next: either Finger Lakes wines or more Layer Cake! If you have any preferences, let me know.

Stay tuned.

No content until my desktop is fixed…had a “Disk Read Error” after a restart….

Feedback: Video Tastings, Yay or Nay?

Hey guys,

Sound off in the comments on whether or not I should keep doing video tastings. Should I just stick to text tastings instead? Should I have a text transcript with the video tasting?

Goal is to have the production values go up eventually (it’s tough now since space in the dorm is very limited). The 2007 Layer Cake video wasn’t even edited, just straight from the webcam.

2007 Layer Cake and Connecticut Wineries

First video from my webcam! A tasting of a 2007 vintage Layer Cake, a Malbec from Mendoza, Argentina

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Cross posting with Ka!

And now my opinions on Connecticut wineries. I went with Ka to 3 different wineries along the Connecticut Wine Trail (she drove). I did not take any notes…simply because…I really wasn’t expecting any wine to justify the time spent making the notes…I was wrong in some places, sadly.

1. McLaughlin Vineyards (Sandy Hook)

a. Chardonnay ($20)
Was not a huge fan of this. The pourer implied that most people over-oak Chard (yes, in the US), so I was expecting a nice, crisp apple/pear element that I had enjoyed in a Chard from Santa Barbara (they didn’t oak at all)…then I was disappointed when we were told the winery used oak chips in stainless steel tanks. Didn’t think this was special, if I remember correctly, I think it was way too acidic.

b. Coyote ($16)
Vidal grapes. Pourer claimed that growing these grapes near an apple tree gave it a “granny smith apple” character. Ka said she didn’t believe the apple soil could influence the wine to that extent, which is a good point. When I tasted it, I didn’t notice an apple taste, but I thought I could smell a little from the aroma. Granted, if Vidal grapes have an apple characteristic to them, then the apple tree soil would have done nothing.

Wine was ridiculously foxy. After we left the winery, all I could taste was this Coyote wine. I told Ka that it tasted like I licked a cat.

c. Snow Goose ($20)
Cornell grape! Made from Cayuga White (Ka and I definitely perked up and exchanged glances/smiles when the pourer said it was from Cornell)! I think I liked this one the most out of all of the ones we tried…but…mreh

d. Vista Reposa ($20)
I think all I remember was black pepper taste.

e. Merlot ($22)
Pourer told us to try it with and without dark chocolate. It was definitely better with the dark chocolate…but…seemed to me like it was kinda cheating…I didn’t think the wine was special by itself.

Overall: Hm. Not sure why one person who was at the tasting came more than once. I probably would not go to this winery again.

2. White Silo Farm and Winery (Sherman)

This place makes fruit wine…and only fruit wine. Tastings allowed only 4 choices…so Ka and I alternated choices.

a. Rhubarb
dry:  don’t remember much. i think I liked the smell of this wine…but…I think I thought the taste was kinda too spicy for me.
seni-sweet: i remember tasting this and wishing i had a dry bubbly to make a cocktail with it

b. Blackberry
dry:  apparently, i liked this one enough to buy a bottle. i really should have taken notes. i think i liked this because it reminded me of a lighter zin (ie, NOT sonoma county style zin)
semi-sweet: i think i wondered how this one could be blackberry since it smelled and tasted like strawberries

c. Raspberry
dry: one of these tasted like medicine to me. the other one i just didn’t find special.
semi-sweet: one of these tasted like medicine to me. the other one i just didn’t find special.

d. Black Currant
dry: mar?
semi-sweet (cassis, $14): this was AWESOME. it was like a nommy port and was a pleasant surprise.

e. Sangria
wasn’t a fan.

Overall: the lady who poured didn’t seem like she knew what she was doing. she seemed very motherly though! they had a decent amount of free food that used all the fruit harvested at the farm. i had their cranberrry bread and didn’t like it: too sweet and the berries weren’t mixed evenly throughout the breadloaf…they were pretty much all at the bottom.

3. DiGrazia Vineyards (Brookfield)

Haha…this place…

a. Winners Cup ($15.99)
I remember tasting this and going like “wow, it’s like a chard *1 sec later* oh wait, now it’s like a hybrid? *1 sec later* oh god, what is this crap?”

b. Meadowbrook ($15.99)
mar?

c. Honey Blush ($15.99)
mar?

d. Paragran ($18.99)
This one was a blend of pomegranate and pear…and definitely sounded more intriguing than it tasted

e. White Magnolia – White Port ($24.99)
Excellent! Won’t touch a good Taylor Fladgate, but it was an enjoyable port

f. The Birches ($24.99)
God. The second I tasted this, it was Robitussin all the way

g. Winterberry ($18.99)
I think this was ok? Nothing special

h. Wild Blue ($24.99)
I hated this. If I wanted blueberry juice, I would eat blueberries. Our pourer evidently loves this stuff because she said she was drinking it all day. She poured one for Ka (which I tried) and then poured this for me when I asked for a recommendation…since she made a face when I asked for pretty much anything on the tasting menu

i. Wild Blue Too ($24.99)
I liked this a lot more than the Wild Blue. The pourer let me try this to compare. The apple gave this some nice acidic kick which better balanced the over syrupyness of the Wild Blue, I thought. Still wouldn’t uh…buy it.

j. Signature Blacksmith Port ($39.99)
This was also quite good. However, at $40 you can definitely get much better ports. Actually, at $40 you can get much better wine period. Even at $25 for the other port, you could get better wine…

h. Autumn Spice ($15.99)
This wine smelled great. It smelled like a fall home… pumpkin pie..maybe some more cloves, etc….but it did not taste like much…I think i remember warmed water. Ka commented that it could have tasted better hot.

Overall: Some of the wines were like “wtf, people drink this?” I was supremely disappointed in the direction the winery was taking. On their wall, they had bottles of wine made from vinifera grapes that won awards! They even had the guts to have a bottle of Riesling they made with a true German description…when I asked if they had any of that stuff left, the pourer said that they had something kinda similar but they didn’t make that style any more. This was the only place with a spit bucket…and it wasn’t really a spit bucket…it was more like a “i don’t like this so i’ll pour it out” bucket.

Connecticut wineries overall: Really? What kind of wineries don’t have spit buckets? How can you expect people to visit all 21 wineries in a day? How are you charging so much? I…pretty much got what I expected out of the wineries…but the trip was fun! And it makes for interesting stories. I’ve gotten a lot of “They make wine in CT?!” comments.

Til next time!

Review of LensRentals.com

Hey all,

So, we all pretty much know that I can’t afford to buy every good lens out there…which sucks because I’d love to have quite a few more. Two lenses that I had been staring at for a long time were the Carl Zeiss ZF 35mm f/2 and the Canon EOS 85 f/1.2L Mark II. The former is regarded as an excellent wide angle lens and the latter is part of Canon’s “Holy Trinity” of lenses, renowned specifically as a great portrait lens. However badly I want them though, the Zeiss costs ~$800 and the 85L costs ~$2000.

I stumbled upon LensRentals.com and noticed that they carried a LOT of gear in stock and were up front about all their policies and costs. I saw that they had both lenses in stock and said “you know what, $200 for 2 lenses over 10 days is really pretty reasonable…especially with fall here and lots of people to take photos of”…so I went ahead and placed a reservation. They are not paying me for this review.

Customer Service:

Their staff is excellent. Because I ordered a Nikon mount AND a Canon mount lens, they were concerned and sent me an email to double check that I ordered everything correctly (I have a Nikon adapter and didn’t want the Zeiss with an electronic shutter). They were very quick with any questions I emailed them and even used Twitter! When the order was sent out, I got an email and a tweet from them to make sure that I was kept up to speed.

Lens Packaging and Shipping:

They packed the lenses extremely well. They sent the lenses with hoods, lens bags, caps and covered all of that with big bubble wrap and foam. They also packed handy copies of the invoice and return policy inside.

Plus, they overnighted the lens to me to try to make me have the order on time (it was!). Cost of shipping (both to and from) is included with the rental price. The return shipping label was included with the box and it was crazy easy to pick up and return. Well…logistically. I didn’t want to part with the lenses.

Lens quality:

The site claims that if they don’t have a copy of your requested lens in stock, and you order enough in advance, they will simply buy a new copy and send it to you. I think that is what happened with the Zeiss lens as it looked and felt brand new. The 85L seemed to have a dust speck inside the lens, but it didn’t affect image quality at all. I think LensRentals does a good job of cleaning everything given their turnaround schedule. Plus, if the lens really isn’t up to par, they’ll send you a different copy.

Conclusion:

If you want to try out some photo gear and see whether or not you will purchase it, definitely try LensRentals. They rent more than just lenses now and have a great thing going. I would not hesitate to use them again. Although, using their service definitely makes you want to go out and buy new lenses…

Stay tuned for some photos from my time with the rented lenses!