Even before the clock struck midnight on this week’s Wine Blogging Wednesday, host Bill of the Wine for Newbies podcast had posted three summaries of entries in a near live-blog of the event. A great innovation that I’ll have to remember when my time to host comes around. It was very interesting to look at all the entries that ranged from a crappy Gewürztraminer fellow podcaster the Cellar Rat sampled to some interesting Rhone whites to the great vino of Austria. Joe and Pam from A Guy, A Girl, and A Bottle even tasted one of the same Verdejo that I did.

Check out all four summaries here, here, here and here; then Bill’s own entry here. It was good to see the founder Lenn making a late appearance this month yesterday; I thought perhaps he preferred plumbing to the fruit of the vine

This month’s Wine Blogging Wednesday is hosted by the first wine podcaster/blogger, Bill Wilson of Wine for Newbies. And since his theme is any white wine, “…But Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, or Riesling�, I’ve selected a varietal native to Spain’s Rueda region, Verdejo. I’m also going to be doing my blog post separate from my podcast on these wines because for the first time in many years I feel I have discovered something new and want to research this grape a bit more for the audio version. The first time I had this feeling was discovering Gewürztraminer in the early 1980’s; the second, Viognier in the mid-1990’s. It seemed like the right thing to do to honor the host by producing the best podcast for this WBW, so stay tuned for this coming shortly.

So why Verdejo? The short answer is I’ve covered most of the major white varietals that are left and the few that remain, like Semillon and Grüner Veltliner, I’m saving for some upcoming shows. I again consulted my local wine merchant, Solo Vino, for some suggestions. Their recommendation was Verdejo from Spain and Australia, of all places, to get a sense from how the grape travels. Before I get into my tasting notes I’ll cover a short background on the grape.

Verdejo is the signature white grape of the Rueda DO of Spain and one of the best white wines made in Spain. Often compared to Sauvignon Blanc, the characteristics are a bit less austere on the palete, but certainly similar on the nose. Long grown in this region, it had a renaissance of sorts in the 1980’s with modern winemaking techniques producing clean, un-oaked wines in place of the barrel fermented and aged wines of earlier times. Many of these wines are blended with Sauvignon Blanc to round out the flavors.

Tasting Notes:

Vina Sanzo, Verdejo, Rueda, Spain 2004 – Light straw/green in color with aggressive aromas of fresh hay, apricots and hazelnuts. An exotic mixture of gooseberry and apricot flavors finishing very crisp and dry. A Sauvignon Blanc on steroids. Score: 9/10

Garcia Arevalo, “Casamaro�, Rueda, Spain 2005 – Light straw yellow in color with fine bubbles. Grassy apricot aromas with pear and peach on the palete finishing dry with a nice spritz from bottle fermentation. Very good. Score: 8.5/10

Woop Woop, “V 2005″, Verdelho (Verdejo), Southern Australia 2005 – There seems to be some controversy that this wine is made from the grape responsible for Madeira and not the noble Verdejo of Rueda, but I’m going to give this bottling the benefit of the doubt because it’s so good.

Pale straw in color with pineapple and pear aromas. Peach and some grassiness, a bit like the bitterness of Gewürztraminer, on the palete finishing dry with zingy acidity. Drink this one with some roast chicken or a salad on a hot summers day. Very good, but more like a blend of Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc than the other two wines tasted, so perhaps there is some credence to the Madeira connection. Score: 8.5/10

The best of tasting this month clearly goes to the Vina Sanzo, Verdejo 2004 with the best value to Woop Woop, “V 2005″. If you couldn’t tell by my tasting notes, I was blown away by these wines and look forward to exploring them further on my podcast. Thanks to Bill for a great theme and I’ll see you soon with a podcast version with more details and perhaps another wine tasting note.

And, yes Bill, I’ll say nice things about you and your podcast on mine

As I blogged last year, there is an important case here in my home state that challenges the protectionist law preventing wineries from directly soliciting and selling over the Internet to Minnesota residents. On Monday, this law was ruled unconstitutional and such direct sales can now begin. This is especially important for small wineries that depend on wine club and web store sales for a large proportion of their sales. It is also a great win for Minnesota wine lovers, like me, who will now have a more convenient way to order our favorite beverage. No more snail mail orders for Pax for me

Hot on the heels of Lenn’s announcement of tasting wines from all 50 States, Beau from Basic Juice is doing him one better by blogging his way through Austria this May and June. Better yet, Beau will be sending back audio for me to build special editions of Winecast around during his journey. Expect to uncover the secrets of Grüner Veltliner and other interesting, if not obscure, facts from this little explored Old World wine region. As Beau says in his press release, this is “not your father’s wine tour”:

“The Live Austrian Wine Adventure (LAWA) hits the Worldwide Web from May 15th, through June 21st, 2006. Basic Juice will broadcast daily from Austria’s wine country. Beau Jarvis, proprietor of Basic Juice, plans to publish his experiences across the diverse country of Austria. He will serve up the dish on Austria’s cuisine scene, pen tales from Lake Neusiedl, explore Vienna’s vibrant wine bars, scale the Wachau’s terraced slopes and post breathtaking photos of Styria - Austria’s Tuscany. But wait; there’s more! Jarvis will also podcast his interviews with some of the most interesting and eccentric personalities in Austria’s wine community; including wunderkind vintners and a wine priest.”

Today’s podcast is another vintner profile show with a discussion with Wolffer Estate Vineyards winemaker Roman Roth.

Show Notes:
00:23 - Welcome and show theme
00:35 - Wolffer Estate Background
01:24 - Discussion with winemaker Roman Roth
25:03 - Tasting Notes
25:15 - Wolffer, La Ferme Martin, Chardonnay 2003 ($13.50)
25:39 - Wolffer, Chardonnay, “Reserve� 2002 ($19.50) +
26:06 - Wolffer, Chardonnay, “Estate Selection� 2001 ($29)
26:33 - Wolffer, La Ferme Martin, Merlot 2002 ($13.50)
26:54 - Wolffer, Merlot, “Reserve� 2002 ($22)
27:12 - Wolffer, Merlot, “Estate Selection� 2001 ($35) *
27:41 - Best of Tasting *
27:46 - Best Value +
28:20 - Contact Details
28:48 - Next Show Theme

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Copyright 2006 Acan Media, Inc. Licensed to the public under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

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The Wine Institute released an interesting report yesterday about the growth in California wine shipments in 2005 fueled by “Sideways� inspired Pinot Noir sales and the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on direct wine sales to consumers. While we still have a long way to go on the direct shipping front, it will be interesting to see if sales growth can be sustained this year without the motion picture buzz factor… perhaps an actor buying a Barolo wine estate will help

As usual, Tom has an excellent industry insider’s view on the report over at FERMENTATION.

Sorry about being off the ‘net for a while… an unplanned outage after a server upgrade knocked Winecast out late last night my time. Seems to be back in normal operation, but I am now doing regular tar dumps and database backups