Now here’s some technology that is likely to make things better for keeping track of large wine collections that looks to be competitive with CellarTracker. The Wine Collector 150 supports Bluetooth and reads wine bar codes. It’s Mac or Windows software then populates the producer, varietal and other metadata about the wine which is saved to their online database. Hopefully it supports export for those of us who prefer CellarTracker and I’m sure there are other bar code solutions that are more cost effective than $200-300 dollars. Looks like something to check out, however, if you have several hundreds, or thousands, of bottles to keep track of.

…with technology. Take, for example, this ridiculous device that claims to “improve” or “age” wines without the cellaring. As covered by other wine bloggers, this is a bad idea but I’m sure some vintners looking for an edge to move their lower end wines will give this one a try. For me, I only like my wines micro-oxygenated

HRM Rex-Goliath, “Giant 47 Pound Rooster”, Pinot Noir, California NV ($8.50) - Clear ruby in color with nice Pinot aromas of black cherries and spice; mouth-filling raspberry and black cherry fruit and a surprising kick of tannin. Not your average Pinot and surprisingly varietally correct for under $10 a bottle. An impressive wine for current drinking and a great value. Score: 8.5/10

Update: The second day this wine picked up much more aromas and some flavors from oak, so I suspect some wood chips were involved on this one. As I have said in the past, oak doesn’t bother me as long as it’s not overpowering, as it was in this case.

The Institute for Justice, a non-partisan law firm, has filed suit against Minnesota’s wacky double standard as it relates to direct wine shipping to customers. In Crockett v. Minnesota Department of Public Safety the Minnesota chapter of this non-profit group argues that free speech of wineries and MN consumers are being violated. The law here says that any winery in a reciprocal state - one that has an agreement to allow shipment of MN wine in - can ship their wine directly to consumers. They just can’t advertise the fact on their websites or accept web orders. This means that those of us in MN have to call or fax our orders into the wineries and some wineries just will not ship here, period. On the other hand, any MN liquor store can have an online store and advertise it as much as they want. Clearly unfair to both wineries and consumers, but protective of the three-tier status quo of wine distribution here.

As a Minnesota resident and wine lover I wish the IJ well in their quest and hope to report good news of their victory here in the future.

Fatemeh from the food blog Gastronomie has posted the theme for the next Wine Blogging Wednesday coming up on November 2nd. Her challenge is to pick a wine that fewer than 250 cases were made. Hmm, I just received a bottle today that was from a batch of just 84 cases; perhaps this will be the choice? Or maybe I’ll visit Solo Vino to select an obscure bottle such as the Alsatian Pinot Noir from last week, who can tell? All I can say for sure is that the usual three bottles will be a supreme challenge.

One of the joys of doing this podcast is I get to enjoy the wines tasted for the better part of a week. The past two shows were done fairly close together, so I have had both Viognier and Pinot Noir over the last several days. Both tasted differently than most weeks, given the Viognier did not show well on the first tasting, something that I chalked up to overly chilling the bottles. The second day, I did the “final” tasting for Winecast 41 but I lived with the wines for the next week. In that time, the Cline Cellars Viognier showed the tropical fruit expected on day one and really stepped up in the flavor department. The other entries didn’t get any better, but didn’t deteriorate that much, either.

For the Pinot Noir however, something really did happen. When tasted just before I did my podcast last Wednesday, I recorded what I saw, smelled and tasted at the time, but this didn’t tell the whole story. The next day, the Kim Crawford Pinot, the best of tasting, really improved with excellent cherry fruit and the Domaine Hering, my exotic selection from Alsace, developed a wild cherry cough drop nose and flavor profile. Somehow, this didn’t detract from its charms in my book and remains a great tasting experience. The Henry of Pelham Family Estate from Canada didn’t fare so well, developing an unpleasant weedy aftertaste; so drink them up fast, eh

All this changed my final judgment of the proceedings, but I will stand by my original ratings in Winecast 42. It’s interesting to note that your mileage may vary if you live with your wines over a few days.

Jens has posted a roundup of the “Newâ€Â? New World Pinot Noir over at Cincinnati Wine Garage. It’s interesting to note that most of the 30 participating bloggers chose wines from New Zealand. Could this be the next elite terroir for Pinot Noir? The Kim Crawford that I tried has opened up very nicely since Wednesday and I really think this is an excellent value that will take a place in my Pinot-laden cellar. More on this tonight in a follow-up post…

This month’s theme is provided by Jens from the Cincinnati Wine Garage blog who has challenged us to sample Pinot Noir from outside of Burgundy, California or Oregon. So I first thought of a Spanish Pinot Noir I recently had at a tasting that really was different from my paradigm of Pinot from it’s more famous appellations. It was from Bodegas J Belda, their barrel fermented Pinot Noir from 2001. This wine was ruby in color with black cherry and oak aromas not unlike other ripe Pinot Noir, but the spicy dark berry fruit and hard tannins had me thinking more about the Rhone than Burgundy. I scored this an 8.5/10 on my scale. I looked for a bottle of this wine for this event, but couldn’t find one, so I asked for the most obscure Pinot from the hand picked stock of St. Paul’s Solo Vino, my new favorite wine store here in the Twin Cities. And obscure it was, but not from outside of France, it is from the Alsace region. What, you say, from the land of Riesling, Pinot Blanc and Gewürztraminer? What on earth are they thinking? Actually, Pinot Noir has a solid track record of producing interesting wines in the vineyards of Germany, so why not the cool climate, northern province of France?

Domaine Hering, Pinot Noir, Alsace AC 2003 ($19) - Very light ruby color with salmon edges, almost like a rose; has strawberry aromas and raspberry and strawberry fruit flavors that finishes with nice balancing acidity. An interesting and elegant expression of Pinot Noir, very close to the best Spatburgunder from Germany I have had in the past. Score: 8.5/10

My second selection came from my northern neighbors here in America, from the Henry of Pelham Family Estate, their Pinot Noir, “Unfiltered”, from Niagara Peninsula, Canada VQA 2003 ($20 CAN) - Ruby in color with a salmon rim; strong black cherry aromas with raspberry fruit flavors with some light tannins. I found this wine to be quite enjoyable. Score: 8.5/10

My final selection is from the Southern Hemisphere, but not from Australia as I had originally intended. Following the advice of new listener Graeme from the UK, I picked up a Kim Crawford, Pinot Noir from Marlborough, New Zealand 2004 ($12) - Bright ruby color with fresh Pinot fruit aromas of strawberry, raspberry and a bit of earth; raspberry and strawberry flavors, nicely balanced with a touch of vanilla. Conventional Pinot in style, but very nicely done and a great value. Score: 9/10

Best of tasting: Kim Crawford, Pinot Noir 2004
Best Value: Henry of Pelham Family Estate, Pinot Noir 2003

So this roundup reinforced that really good Pinot Noir can be made in many places outside of the regions for with it is famous. All these wines are from cool climates, so I guess that is a common thread that might be useful in choosing wines to try. But I do recommend the Pinot from Spain I mentioned earlier as a wine that is completely different from any Pinot you’ve ever had.

Thanks to Jens for the theme and I’ll see you next month for whatever the host dreams up for WBW 15.

Feedback: winecast@gmail.com | Audio comments: +01-206-33-WINE-9 (+01-206-339-4639)
Copyright 2005 Tim Elliott. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

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Today’s podcast features the great white grape of the Northern Rhone: Viognier, and I take a look at John Cleeses’ “Wine for the Confused” DVD.

Show Notes:

0:20 - Welcome
0:34 - Background of Viognier
3:03 - Tasting Notes
3:36 - Cline Cellars, Viognier, Sonoma County 2004 ($10)
3:58 - Yalumba, Viognier, South Australia 2004 ($10)
4:18 - Elemental Cellars, Viognier, Deux Vert Vineyard, Willamette Valley, OR 2002 ($15.50)
4:41 - Best of tasting
5:04 - Best Value
5:21 - Review of “Wine for The Confused”
7:17 - Wines for virtual tasting
7:55 - PSA from Michael Butler from The Rock & Roll Geek Show
9:12 - Contact Details
9:36 - Next Show Theme

Feedback: winecast@gmail.com | Audio comments: +01-206-33-WINE-9 (+01-206-339-4639)
Copyright 2005 Tim Elliott. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

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Ravenswood, Zinfandel, Napa Valley 2002 ($12) - As I have noted on my podcast, I always considered Napa Valley Zin’s as being more “Cab-like” and not one to get down and dirty like Sonoma or Sierra Foothills bottlings. I found this one on sale, so I picked it up earlier in the week to give it a try. Like it’s cousins from other appellations, it’ a bruiser with 14.5% alcohol.

Garnet in color, with nice blackberry and cedar aromas from oak. Ripe blackberry and plum fruit with dusty, but quite noticeable, tannins. I might cellar some of these for another couple of years. Very good value. Score: 8.5/10