Mini Tasters: A New Way To Sample Wine

The best way to learn about wine is to taste it. But not all stores that sell wines have complimentary tastings. So, in those places, how can you find out whether you would like a bottle of wine or not?

The UK supermarket Asda, which is owned by Walmart, may have a new solution. Their wine buyer is Philippa Carr, a Master of Wine, and she has launched a new program intended to give customers a very inexpensive way to taste a number of wines that they sell.

Asda now stocks a growing range of Mini Taster wine bottles, each about one-third the size of a normal wine bottle. That is about 8 ounces of wine. They are priced between £1.50 and £2 and come in red, white, rosé and sparkling wines. The Mini Tasters include well known brands such as Campo Viejo, Jacobs Creek and Casillero del Diabolo. They also include wines from Asda's own labels. They expect to add new wines every few months.

Now just having these small Tasters available is a good thing. They are cheap and give you enough wine for two small glasses. But it gets even better. After you finish the Mini Taster, you can actually bring in your receipt and get a full credit towards the purchase of a regular-sized bottle of wine. So you basically get the Mini Taster for free. In addition, if you do not like the Mini Taster, you can instead get a full refund for it.

This is certainly a deal where you cannot lose, a no risk proposition. I think it is a great way to get people to try more wines. Unfortunately this is currently only available in the UK, and the number of wines is limited. But if it catches on, you might eventually see other places trying this as well.

Scanning Wine Bottles?

When you visit a wine store, you may spend some time reading the labels of various wine bottles. I bet though that you ignore the bar code. But then why would you care about the bar code? Well there may now be a reason why the bar code matters.

IntelliScanner is a small, hand-sized bar code reader and more. You use it to scan bar codes and then can organize the data you obtain in various ways. They have one specific for wine enthusiasts, the Wine Collector 250, which costs about $200.

Their website states: "Take your IntelliScanner with you anywhere, scan wine bottles, then plug it in to download the details. Wine Collector's mature software system automatically calculates optimal maturity periods, prints detailed reports, tracks locations with built-in Virtual Cellar, links you to sites like eRobertParker.com and Wine Spectator for wine research, and lets you add your own custom ratings. When you've finished the bottle, just scan it again and take it off the list."

So, you can scan bar codes on the bottles at a wine store and get info about those bottles. The scan provides details of the wines including name, varietal, winery, country, type, color and region. Or you could scan your wine collection at home and create a database. It would certainly be quicker than typing all of the information. It is thus like your own personal Cellar Tracker.

There are only about 67,000 wines in their main database but that is continually expanding. They even have a website where you can post your wine collections for others to see.

I like the basic idea of this scanner. It would make it much easier to keep track of my wine cellar. And I think the info derived from the scanning could make some interesting reports. But, the price tag is too high. At $200, this is more a toy for those with money to burn. I'll wait to see if the price eventually decreases significantly. And continue to type in my wine bottle info.

2003 Goldeneye Pinot Noir

I first had this wine at a wine dinner earlier this year and enjoyed it very much so I went out and bought a couple bottles.

The Goldeneye winery, located in the Anderson Valley, is part of the Duckhorn Company. The Goldeneye is a type of diving duck. The Anderson Valley is a cool California wine region on the western slope of the coastal mountain range about eighty miles north of San Francisco in Mendocino County. The winery is also located along the migratory pathway of the Goldeneye duck.

In 1990, Dan and Margaret Duckhorn, who were already making other wines, decided to craft a world class Pinot Noir so they chose to create the Goldeneye winery. Over the next six years, the Duckhorns experimented with fruit from the Russian River, Sonoma, Carneros and Anderson Valley appellations. They eventually settked on Mendocino's Anderson Valley. In 1996, the first 80-acre estate vineyard was selected.

Goldeneye harvested its first grapes in 1997. Since then, the winery has grown to include four estate vineyards, totaling 149 acres of vineyards which are planted with 23 different clonal varieties. The winemaker, Zach Rasmuson, focuses on achieving a balance between fruit, extraction and oak. He only selects a small percentage of the best fruit for the Goldeneye Pinot Noir. The rest of the grapes, still very good, are used to create a different label, Migration.

The 2003 Goldeneye Anderson Valley Pinot Noir ($50) is made from 100% Pinot Noir and has an alcohol content of 14.5%. The wine is aged in French oak, about 90% new, for around sixteen months. The wine is darker red than many lighter Pinots though still with a bit of translucence. It has a spicy nose with some dark berry notes. On the palate, the wine opens up into a complex melange of ripe dark berries and a variety of spices. It has some noticeable tannins and it feels more muscular than other Pinots. The finish lingers in your mouth for quite a long time. It is smooth, well balanced and eminently satisfying. This is a wine which could stand up to a good steak but which might overpower lighter foods.

I was very impressed with this wine and definitely recommend it as a Drink & Buy. It is a bit pricey but well worth it for a special occasion.

Stoneham Sun: What's New?-Part 1

My new column of "A Passionate Foodie" can be found in the December 5 issue of the Stoneham Sun newspaper. This is a weekly column that concentrates on reviews of local restaurants though it may also touch on a few other food and wine topics.

The new column will be published tomorrow and is currently available online. The new column is the first part of a two-part series discussing what is new and different on the local culinary scene. This week, learn about two new restaurants including Angela's Coal-Fired Pizza and the Midwest Grill. Also learn about a new wine store in Belmont, the Spirited Gourmet.

If you have any questions or comments about my column, feel free to add them here. Next week, I will present more of what is new and different on the culinary landscape.

Dine with passion!

Asian Master of Wine

China is poised to become very important to the world of wine. It will likely become a huge market for wine, as well as producing much of its own wine. I have thus been reading numerous articles about wine and China. You can read some of my previous posts on China here.

The Agence France-Presse has an article about a woman who might become Asia's first Master of Wine. Jeannie Cho Lee, a Korean who currently lives in Hong Kong, has been preparing to become a Master of Wine. She has already passed the first two sections of exams and only has to complete a dissertation based on original research.

The test is extremely hard, with only about a 10% pass rate. Only 265 people worldwide have earned the title of Master of Wine.

Lee received support from the famed wine writer Jancis Robinson. Jancis encouraged Lee to take the exams. What has made it even more of an achievement is that Lee is not part of the wine trade. Plus, while preparing for her preliminary exams, Lee found she was pregnant with twins. Lee plans to write her dissertation on the marketing of foreign wines in China.

I certainly wish Lee the best of luck. She has accomplished much so far and I certainly have faith that she will eventually earn the title of Master of Wine. It is certainly very interesting that a woman may become Asia's first Master of Wine. Kudos to her.