Buddha Kat TV: Episode 3. Seeing

Buddha Kat TV: Episode 3

Starting down the road of wine tasting you will learn that there are 5 S's involved. They may seem a bit strange getting started, but you will find that you probably do half of them already and don't even realize it. Here we will formally cover all of them, and then it is up to you as to how frequently you use them when tasting.

The five S's are
Seeing
Swirling
Sniffing
Sipping
Swallowing (or spitting if you have to drive or plan on visiting more than 3 wineries in a day)

Here we will cover the first S which is Seeing.
Seeing your wine is important because it can tell you about the age of the wine, how it was treated before getting into a bottle, it's clarity, and overall how aesthetically pleasing the wine is.

Color - Notice the overall color of the wine, is the white wine almost clear? Is it a dark straw color? Is it almost brown? And about that red, is it more of a purple? Ruby?

Clarity - Is your white wine crystal clear or is there a haze to it? Maybe it's so cloudy you can't see through it? Reds can also range from such inky intensity that you can't see the bottom of the glass so a dark rose that you can almost read through.

If you tip a glass of wine slightly on it's side you will create different depths of wine in the glass. Around the edge of the wine, where it is the shallowest you can see different color hues as compared to the overall bulk of the wine. Is this area almost clear or is there a brownish hue? The brownish hue tends to indicate a wine that has aged for a while. There is nothing wrong with the wine but it's a good indicator of age.

All of these things should come together to give you an overall idea of what the wine will taste like and how it should feel in your mouth. Unless of course you are drinking a white wine that is actually brown, and so cloudy you can't see through it. That particular wine would probably never make it in my mouth.

Like everything in wine tasting it sounds pretentious, but let's face it, you take notice of all of these things when you drink any liquid. You probably wouldn't be too quick to take a big gulp of water that was murky and brownish, or drink that light lawnmower beer if it was a dark amber color instead of crystal clear straw color. Wine drinkers have just taken what you already do and put it into words. So congratulations you are well on your way to being an un-pretentious wine snob!

Seaside Wine Walk

Another week is beginning and things are perking up in the winery after the long winter. We've go our cellar crew bottling, we are coming up with some new White wine blends, which we are excited about. They should be perfect for sipping in the summer sunshine. Our new Buddha Kat labels are being sent off for approval, with their release set for spring 2014!

All of this nice weather we've been having here in the Pacific Northwest has got us itching to go to the beach. So, this weekend 5/18, we will be in Seaside Oregon for the Seaside Wine Walk. Join us and 16 other wineries and local businesses for some food, wine, and shopping at the beach! I (Josh) will be pouring our Merlot, Riesling, Muscat, and Cherry wines. Come out from 3-7, taste some wine, eat some food, and have fun with us on the beach.

I strongly suggest you make the short drive (from Portland) or I will have to start using empty threats to get you there. And nobody likes empty threats.

More information about the Seaside Wine Walk can be found here. See you in Seaside!

-Josh

Buddha Kat TV: Episode 2. Glassware

Buddha Kat TV: Episode 2


Pretentious as it might sound, glassware is important in tasting wine. Seriously. And every wine has a different glass made specifically for it with slight variations on it from one glass producer to the next. They all have their own spin on everything, that's what makes their glass "better" than the competition. I'm here to tell you why glassware is important, then let you find whatever glass you like best. Even if it's a mason jar.

Seriously though, if you are just drinking wine, and not "tasting", mason jars are amazing! They can be so sturdy compared to a wine glass. But I digress...

There are 3 main types of wine glasses, Flutes - for sparkling wines, White wine, and Red wine glasses. All of the glasses have three main pieces that make them up.
The foot - the base of the glass.
The stem - The part that connects the foot to the bowl. (some glasses lack a stem)
The bowl - the part of the glass that actually holds the liquid.

Flutes - These sparkling wine glasses are tall and slender and designed to minimize the contact area between glass and wine to help keep the bubbles in. There is also no need to swirl sparkling wine because the effervescence naturally brings the aromas out of the wine.

White wine - White wine glasses have a larger bowl to allow for swirling the wine. The glass bowl should taper at toward to top to condense the aromas that are released when swirling.

Red wine - Red wine glasses have the largest bowl to allow for maximum surface area to wine contact while swirling. This releases the largest amount of volatile aroma compounds possible. This bowl should also taper at the top condensing these aromas.

With all of these glasses, the more the bowl tapers the more the wine aromas will be condensed for your olfactory pleasure.

If you are curious and you don't fully believe that bowl size and taper matters, get yourself 3 different glasses (wine glasses, jars, drinking glasses whatever) with varying tapers to them. Pour the same wine into each glass then swirl and sniff and see how the aroma differs from glass to glass.

One last word about glassware, when handling a wine glass, hold it by the foot or the stem. NEVER GRAB THE BOWL! Please! Again, some wine snobbery sounding stuff but it just looks terrible when you are trying to taste wine and the bowl is covered with fingerprints.
EXAMPLE: If you sat down at a restaurant and the server gave you a glass of water or a beer and all you can see are smudgey fingerprints all over the glass, you probably wouldn't be too psyched to drink out of it. Most people would probably ask for a clean glass. It just looks un-appealing. The same goes for wine. This is a prime example of people having high standards but not realizing it. Wine people just put those standards into words, but once they are put into words they just sound snobby.

With that, I leave you. Now go drink from your favorite glass, jar, or mug and enjoy some wine!

Buddha Kat TV Premiere

I would like to introduce you all to Buddha Kat TV, and me. We will have more videos coming up about wine tasting and I think some are in the planning stage for harvest and all kinds of fun. Subscribe to the youtube channel, follow on twitter and stay up to date with an un-pretentious winery that makes some killer red, white, and yes, even fruit wines.


-Josh