Return to My Blog

So its been a number of months since my last post.  Blame it on getting caught up in work and getting ready to go back to college to finish my degree.  But here I am, the landscape for me has changed since last time. I now work for Yaeger's Fine Wine and Spirits and I've really enjoyed my time there so far.  Working in the cellar at Casa Larga was a blast but selling wine is infinitely more enjoyable.  Getting to interact with costumers is nice and its always exciting to have one return and really enjoy a wine I have suggested.  So I plan to get back on the blog more frequently doing reviews and forwarding good wine advice and the likes!

Casa Larga's Vineyard Hill Riesling

Alright I bring you thing wine review thanks to my wife.  This past weekend we had to go up to Casa Larga so she could see where I'm working now and of course this bottle of wine came home with us! Now on with the show!

Price: 12.99 @ Casa Larga

Alcohol Content: 11%

Appearance: Pale Yellow with no legs.

Nose:  Green Apples and Pears.

Taste: The start of this wine was a sweet and had some light acidity to it.  After a little of swishing it bought out some stony/slate tastes which can be characteristic of Riesling.  The finish was slightly sweet and refreshing.

Rating: 4/7  This wine is everything you look for in a Riesling table wine but not much more.

Final Comments: This Riesling is easy drinking and people of both dry and sweet tastes will probably like this wine.  Good to have around if you like the Riesling but don't want to spend over 15$ for the equivalent of 2 bottles.

Coming this week an Introduction to stemware and the many price points, styles, and an overview of everything that goes with it!

10/8/10 WineSense Tasting!

The Wines we got a chance to sample tonight at the Wine Sense were three wines from the same winery of Shinas Estate.  Sadly they have poor little cups to drink from the its hard to get a good sense of the smell out of them. But regardless on to the wines!!!

The Innocent is a Viognier wine that was soft on the nose with slight grassy hints as well as some fruitiness.  The taste was equally as delicate and filled with fruity flavors and light acidity.  It was an easy wine to enjoy.

The second wine we tried was the The Verdict.  It was a Cabernet Sauvignon that I also found to be enjoyable.  The nose was light and a little spicy.  The taste was also light on the tongue and didn't leave much after taste.  It had some light tannins in the back end that lingered a little.  All and all it was an enjoyable drink.

Finaly we were on to The Guilty!  Which is made from the Shiraz grape, which is also the most prevalent grape of Australia, and was the wine that we decided to go home with! The nose had some roasted nuts and a little bit of spice to it very pleasant.   The taste was slightly spicy with a little bit of olives.  This was a very good wine from down under and I will be doing a full review of it in my next post!

So I hope you enjoyed this quick run down of the tasting I went to at Wine Sense.   Remember they have tastings every Friday from 5-7 and they do 10% off the wines they are serving!

The Week At Work and Some Odds and Ends

So my first week at Casa Larga is drawing to a close and its been a wonderful eye opening experience.  I've found that I haven't forgotten nearly as much about wine as I had previously thought.  Also for the first time I've realized a lot about what goes in to getting a bottle of wine ready to for the shelf... And I haven't even done anything pre-bottling!  I spent the first 4 days of this week putting numbered decals on the neck of their new vintages of Ice wine, Vidal Blanc, Riesling, and Cabernet Franc, to be specific (see above photo for the Cab Franc varietal).  I haven't had a chance to sample the Riesling or the Cab Franc but the new release 07 Vidal is pretty tasty and it might be something I do a review on.   So thats pretty much been this week in work, I am going in the next hour or so and will find out what is on the plate of things to do today.  I'll keep you posted!

On to some other news, Wine Sense  is having their weekly free tasting from 5-7pm tonight and its a chance to get out an get your Sniff and Sip on.   This is only my second day of working on this I will be digging around Rochester and locating any tastings I can find and posting them here, be they paid or free.  Also on Wednesday my wife and I were able to attend a tasting at the Lovin' Cup at RIT's little retail quad (sorry I don't know the name of the area yet) where they were doing a New York vs. California wine tasting.  This wine drinker does have a slight bias towards New York wines.... but that aside there was some fun samples there.  There was a great Chardonnay from Fox Run that was a great drink.  Also there was a Chenin Blanc from California that I wish I remembered the name of!  So I'll get back to you as things progress, again I'm open to comments on subject and just typical discussion!

Casa Larga's Limited Release Reserve Riesling

The first wine that I am going to post for you is the first wine I brought home from my job at Casa Larga.  The Limited Release Reserve Riesling is a Finger Lakes Region Riesling that is aged in old oak barrels and stainless steel.

Alcohol Content: 13%

Appearance: Light Yellow but darker than typical Rieslings.  From the oak aging I presume.

Nose (Smells from the wine): Apple, Hints of Caramel, Gummy Worms

Taste: This Riesling had the standard acidic bite at the start but mellowed quickly to a crisp finish.  I would say that this is a softer Riesling as far as acidity.  The finish was clean for the most part with a slight apple-ish back end.

Rating: 5/7  I was expecting something different with the oak aging and what I got was better than what I expected.

Final Comments: I enjoyed this different take on the Riesling, its slightly softer bite was an interesting change from what I'm used to with a more traditional one.  While I did enjoy this wine it isn't something I would pick up if I was looking for a true Riesling.  Casa Larga did a good job putting a subtle twist on this particular grape.

The Rating System

So seeing how this is a blog about wine and things like that I figured I should rate them.  And as you will see with my first rating post, Casa Larga's Reserve Riesling,  I rate on a 1-7 scale. You may be asking your self, Court? why 1-7.  Well I'm going to let you in on something.  1-7 has a defined middle.... 4.  And the way I use my scale 4 is a very important number.  Its the base line, it's what I expect out of the wine.  So if I'm drinking a Riesling and I've read the bottle I am expecting A,B and C from it.  If I only get A, B, and C from it gets a 4. Its exactly what I expected. But if it brings more to the table, like D, then I might bump it up to a 5-7 depending on how much more I like it.   And conversely if I expect A,B, and C and I get let down, by only getting A and B, the score might fall in the 1-3's.  The great thing about this scale is its based on your, mine or who ever else wants to use its expectations.  So if you don't like Rieslings and you get exactly what you expected... Its still a 4.

So this is the system I will be using.  Feel free to comment on it and discuss it with me if you don't completely get it!

a silly little endeavor.

So I find my self back in Rochester for the first time in 5 years for any length longer than a weekend and I have just landed a job at a local winery called Casa Larga.  I have discovered in the few days of working there that I truly love wine.  I'm starting this blog to share my adventures in the wine business, drinking of wine, and wine culture.  I'll try to make semi consistent posts on local tastings, wines I and my wife are drinking, and what I'm doing involving wine!  So on with it!