Andrew has posted a cracking summary of Wine Blogging Wednesday 42 over at Spittoon just 2 days after the event. He chronicles all 54 participant’s seven word reviews which makes great reading. Well played, chap!

Next month will not be as challenging but still a bit of a test as Joel is looking for our comfort wines. Here in sub-zero Minnesota, an uber-Syrah sounds about right… or perhaps some Zin; decisions, decisions…

This month Andrew from the fine UK wine blog Spittoon has challenged us to review an Italian wine in just seven words. Sound like a fairly easy task as wines from Italy are plentiful in stores at all price ranges and seven words can cover quite a bit of ground.

So I ventured to my favorite wine store, Solo Vino, to challenge the staff with an Italian wine from a region I was not familiar with to feature. After a few bottles were suggested, I settled on Tenuta Delle Terre Nere, Rosso 2006 ($17). It’s made from old-vine Nerello grown on the slopes of Mt. Etna in Sicily.

As soon as the first taste was swirled and sniffed, I knew I was in trouble as the pronounced aromas were difficult to describe in 14 words. How could I describe what was going on with this wine in just seven words? I jotted down my normal review of 25 words or so, then attempted to cut the prose down to a skeletal seven. Nothing seemed to make sense so I settled on the following:

Cherries, earth, raspberries on a dusty highway

14% ABV
Natural cork closure
Rating:

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This got me wondering if a more straightforward wine would be easier to encapsulate in the meager amount of words allotted. So I picked up the widely available A Mano, Primitivo 2005 ($10) from Puglia. Longtime listeners of my podcast will remember this wine from a couple of years back and I reconsidered another bottle sometime later. But I had not picked up this wine for quite a while so I thought it would be easy to review in just a few words. A twist of the screw-cap closure and taste later, I jotted down the following:

Raspberries, cranberries, tar and spices on horseback

13.5% ABV
Stelvin closure
Rating:

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Although the A Mano was more fruit driven than the Tenuta Delle Terre Nere, there was still quite a bit going on here. I liked each wine roughly about the same with a slight nod to the Tenuta Delle Terre Nere, Rosso (89 vs. 88 on the 100-point scale). But this experience got me thinking more about wine reviews in general and how I approach them in particular. In the back of my mind, I kept hearing Ryan’s call for wine writing on the internet to be different than the established print model. And for the first time, I confronted a vastly different review structure to work with.

No, I’m not going to review wines here with seven words but I expect my reviews to be less about the actual aromas and flavors of the wine but how they evoke something related to the world around me. Some context about how I came to try the wine in question and how it connects with my life at the time of the tasting. So, ironically, this will lead to more descriptive and less clinical reviews here.

Cheers to Andrew for such a thought provoking and, yes, fun theme. I’m looking forward to getting back into my comfort zone next month with a seasonal theme (at least here in the snowy Twin Cities) from Joel at Vivi’s Wine Journal.

Much has taken place in the Wine Blogging Wednesday world since I last posted about our monthly virtual tasting, so I thought it would make sense to gang up all the news in one post.

Jack posted a great summary of WBW 41 over at Fork & Bottle. Many excellent whites from Italy’s Friuli-Venezia Giulia region are featured along with some from just across the border in Slovenia (like mine). I’m looking forward to trying many of these selections once the weather becomes more favorable for such vino here in sub-zero Minneapolis.

Meanwhile, my friend Andrew from Henley-on-Thames, announced the theme for Wine Blogging Wednesday 42 as Just Seven Words. Looking more closely, that’s an Italian red wine review in just 7 words. In a word, challenging. But I think I’ve cracked the code after a tough start and might actually try my hand at the more complex wine I started with in my short post tomorrow. As always, you can post your review on our WBW community blog if you don’t have a blog of your own.

And finally, WBW founder Lenn Thompson has announced a contest to create a new logo for Wine Blogging Wednesday. Aspiring creative types have until March 31, 2008 to submit their entries and the finalists will be put to a vote in April. Lots of great wine prizes are to be won along with the glory of being the designer of the WBW logo for the next couple of years.

I’ve been participating in Wine Blogging Wednesday since #8 and have only missed one month and that was due to a crazy workload. This month came down to the wire as I could only find 3 bottles in the 10 wine stores I visited that would qualify, thus making this the most challenging WBW yet for me.

Hosts Jack and Joanne of Fork & Bottle have chosen white wines made in Italy’s Friuli-Venezia Giulia region as this month’s theme. This region is in the northeastern corner of the country that touches Slovenia. As I found out when I started looking for wines from this area, some Friuli actually comes from Slovenia. Although most well known for their signature Tocai Friulano grape, most wines available from this region here are made from Pinot Grigio. A number of other native Italian white varietals are also produced along with German grapes such as Riesling and Müller-Thurgau.

After finding few choices, I selected the only Tocai Friulano I could find in town, from Movia, their “Gredic” Tokaj Friulano (Slovenian for Tocai Friulano). The winery is located right on the border of Italy with a portion of their vineyard on the Italian side. Since the the winery is in Slovenia, they are not technically in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, but I’m sure Jack and Joanne will not mind. Purchased by the Kristancic family in 1820, this was the only wine estate not nationalized during the country’s communist period. Today, Ales Kristancic carries on his family tradition of producing compelling, biodynamic wine.

Movia “Gredic” Tokaj Friulano (Tocai Friulano) 2004 ($28) - Golden-yellow in color with aromas of ripe pineapple, baked apple, honeysuckle and almond. Rich and thick mouthfeel, with pear, pineapple and mango fruit flavors finishing with tart acidity, a creamy texture and nice minerality. A very unique and full-bodied white that will not appeal to everyone but I think it’s delicious. An outstanding value.

12.5% ABV
Natural cork closure
Score: 90
Rating:

Thanks once again to Jack and Joanne for a unique theme this time and I’m looking forward to next month when I’ll attempt to review an Italian wine in seven words as suggested by Andrew from Spittoon.

Jack over at Fork and Bottle has announced the theme for January’s edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday as the wines of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. For those not familiar with this region, it’s in Northeastern Italy and borders Austria and Slovenia. Although the wines are well respected, they seem to fly a bit below the radar for most wine lovers as they are almost totally white and made from blends of obscure native grapes. All this makes for an interesting challenge of finding a bottle but I’m sure there are some selections in some of the better stores here in the Twin Cities (your mileage may vary so start checking stock at your local wine store).

Join us on January 16th by either posting a review to your blog or register and post at our WBW Community website.

Sonadora, the hostess from Wannabe Wino, proves she’s no wannabe with her round up of over 75 Petite Sirah tasted for Wine Blogging Wednesday 40. Over 50 participants enjoyed wine made from this underrated grape from Israel, Mexico, Australia, Chile, and it’s “home” in California. A lot of great values are to be discovered reading the summary; check it out here.

Meanwhile, Andrew, the unofficial photographer of WBW, has started a new Flickr pool to share our photos taken for the event. If you want to contribute, just visit the group page and join us.

Watch for the announcement of WBW 41 coming soon…

This month’s host, Sonadora from Wannabe Wino, picked one of my favorite varietals for this month’s virtual tasting: Petite Sirah. This grape is originally from France where it’s known as Durif, a name also commonly used in Australia for the variety today. According to Jancis Robinson’s “Oxford Companion to Wine” now resting in my lap, DNA research in California linked the name Petite Sirah with four varieties: Durif, Syrah, Peloursin and a Peloursin + Durif crossing. But today I think all that is sorted out and Petite Sirah in California is actually all Durif.

I think I’ve always loved Petite Sirah because of it’s connection with Zinfandel. In the century old vines of Sonoma, Petite Sirah is often found inter-planted with Zin to make the field blends I love, such as Ridge Lytton Springs. It’s tannins backbone and soft fruit help to bolster Zinfandel and transform the result into something more complex. Another reason I like this variety so much is the best examples are pure fruit bombs.

So I was really looking forward to tasting a few examples of this variety this month. As luck would have it, I received some samples from Foppiano Vineyards, a name like Concannon closely linked with Petite Sirah. My other selection was from a producer I’ve never heard of before but will seek out from my tasting this evening.

Tasting Notes:

Foppiano Vineyards, Petite Sirah, Russian River Valley 2004 ($23/sample) - Dark black-purple in color with aromas of blueberry, plum and licorice. Soft black currant and blackberry flavors with pepper and spices finishing with firm tannins. Textbook Petite Sirah but could use some time in the bottle to soften those tannins.

14.6% ABV
Natural cork closure
Score: 88
Rating:

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Peltier Station Winery, Petite Sirah, Lodi 2005 ($18) - Dark purple-black in color with aromas of boysenberry, black raspberry, bacon and fennel. Rich and massive blackberry and blueberry fruit with cracked black pepper, medium tannins and a bit of minerality & sweet caramel on the finish. A blockbuster Pet that I’ll be cellaring to see what happens.

14.8% ABV
Natural cork closure
Score: 90
Rating:

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Thanks again to Sonadora for an excellent theme this month. Join us next time when we’ll be exploring an underrated region of Italy.

Lots of action this week as Neil over at Brooklynguy’s Wine and Food Blog posted his summary of WBW 39 “Silver” Burgundy. Lots of nice and affordable wines from the Burgundy region are featured that I’ll certainly be checking out soon.

Meanwhile, Sonadora at Wannabe Wino got the ball rolling on WBW 40 by posting the theme of Petite Sirah. What a great varietal to feature for the final virtual tasting of 2007.

Check back on December 12th to see what I come up with but I think another podcast focused on the grape is in order

Another Wine Blogging Wednesday and this time I’m podcasting for the first time since WBW 23. Neil from Brooklynguy’s Wine and Food Blog came up with a great theme this month: ‘Silver’ Burgundy. Instead of investing in a Côte d’Or (’gold coast’) wine, we are drinking affordable Burgundy from the Côte Chalonnaise and the Mâconnais.

Since I favor red wines this time of year, I selected a village wine from Mercurey made by the well known Faiveley family. Listen to the podcast for more details but here are my tasting notes:

J. Faiveley, Domaine de la Croix Jacquelet, Mercurey 2003 ($20) - Deep ruby color with aromas of dark cherry, fennel and sage. Rich black cherry and raspberry fruit with a touch of earth finishing with firm tannins and good acidity. The bold fruit balances the tannins so I expect this wine to improve with a year or two more in the cellar. Alternatively, you could give it a couple hours in the decanter to open up before enjoying. A very good value in Pinot Noir.

13% ABV
Natural cork closure
Score: 88
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

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Gabriella and Ryan have posted the summary for WBW 38 as a Google map. Very innovative and quite interesting to see exactly where all those Portuguese wines actually were made. In all, over 30 bloggers tasted and reported on more than 60 wines.

Meanwhile across the pond in NYC, Neil from Brooklynguy’s Wine and Food Blog has announced the theme of next month’s virtual tasting as “Silver Burgundy.” Instead of wines made in Burgundy’s Côte d’Or (”slopes of gold”), he has suggested we focus a bit to the south in Côte Chalonnaise and the Mâconnais. These appellations produce fine Chardonnay and Pinot Noir at prices that will not bust your budget. Join us November 14th to find out where the best values in Burgundy can be found.