It’s Monday, February 18 and it’s National Drink Wine Day. Why can’t every week start off like this? Come on people…blow off the office, pack off the kiddies to playgroup (it’s also Presidents Day…they drink, too…they kind of have to don’t you think) and dust off your opener of choice. It’s time to lubricate!
I know, I know. You see me as more of a martini girl. It’s true I cleave to the gin and the vodka. But sometimes only a glass fine wine can mellow out the soul of this blogging gypsy girl.
The only white wine I’ll let pass by my lips. *raised eyebrow*
However. I only drink reds. I had a bad experience once with white wine. The Mister poured me a chablis or a chardonnay…I don’t remember the vintage or brand. I took a sip, swirled it around my mouth, swallowed and said,
“You paid how much for this?”
He said it was one of the more expensive whites and that what I had just swallowed would pay for a week in rehab.
I said I’d rather have the rehab.
I don’t like white wine and I’ve tried them all. The Mister made me. He’s actually poured me samples and held the glass to my mouth…threatening to pinch my nose to make me swallow. To me it all tasted like unsweetened fruit juice.
“Do you get that hint of granny smith apple?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“How about the faint hint of pear?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Now. Take a sip of this and tell me if you discern the undercurrent of fresh vanilla bean?”
“Oh, yeah…are you making me a fruit loaf? You know I hate fruit loaf so why you’re making me drink something that tastes like fruit loaf…”
For me, white wine is too damn crisp and refreshing. It tastes “healthy.” I prefer my salad in a bowl…not in a glass.
HOWEVER…
As some of you know, we have a big trip planned this spring. We are heading to Italy for 10 weeks with a possible week tacked on the end to visit Paris. We’ve watched our pennies and decided to blow some of our when-we-are-decrepid savings on an extended holiday.
The Mister keeps showing me pictures on the Internet of wines he wants me to try. He smiles while he does but there’s a hint of condensation in that smile.
The bastard.
So, I’m counting on you to give me some pointers in fine white wine appreciation. I figure I can stomach whatever swill he forces to pass between my lips but I have to be able to “talk the talk” of a knowledgable vino-ette.
What I’d like you to do is give me your list of favorite white wines along with the proper words to describe them. The more esoteric the better. I want to drink this man under the table (so to speak) with my perfect grasp of the grape.
So, va bene! Go forth and uncork then (once you’re sober) get back to me in the comment section below. Grazie!
The white wine flavor/characteristic which always gets me is “toast”. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy me some white wine and champagne, but I have yet to taste toast in any of them. If I did, I’d be upset, since I don’t really consider toast to be a flavor to aspire to in a wine. I be much more impressed witha piece of toast which tasted like, say…tequila. red wine is just as bad as far as flavors go. Berry, chocolate, and earth are supposedlty in there. If I want to taste earth, I’ve got a back yard full of the stuff.
FYI, today is Presidents Day and most schools are closed – so it’s tough to send the kiddies off to school. No one reading your post would have guessed you were burdened with crumb-snatchers anyway, as 10 week trips to Italy and possibly Paris don’t usually mesh well with daycare rosters and soccer travel team schedules. Plus most of us have re-allocated our retirement funds to state-school college funds before we ever get a chance to travel anywhere. I’m not jealous though – no not at all.
Well thanks for the heads up on President’s Day. Another day off school for the rug rats. Nice.
As for not being burdened…once a parent, always a parent. And when mine was small, she did what I did. And since I didn’t do much other than daycare rosters and sports-related schlepping, she got to learn her ABCs and I’m making up for all that car-pooling insanity now. She paid her own way through university and I promised her that whatever was left of my savings when I die is hers.
She’s never been much for reading murder mysteries but now… hmmm.
The only toast I like is one with jam on it. I do manage to pick up on berry notes, chocolate, etc. in the reds. Just not the whites. I must be a white wine bigot. But because it’s the Mister, needs must and all that. *sigh*
The nose and stylish shades in your pic belies a woman too young to have had a child go through university, so you had me fooled.
Perhaps I too can take a trip abroad and impress the locals with my inablity to find any toast notes in my bubbly.
Like a fine wine, I age well. Plus I had her when I was of a fairly young vintage
I love the sweet whites: moscato (less sweet but sweeter than pinot grigio), Riesling (sweeter than moscato) and ice wine (syrup). I don’t like heavy whites like Chardonnay as much, though after two glasses, who cares?
And that’s the problem…I can’t get past the first sip of white so I care. I CARE!
Thanks for the hints about the sweet wines…so when he makes me try them I can say “Ah, yes. I can taste the sweetness…just like you” and see what it gets me.
I only undertone of any wine that I can taste is the undertone of crappiness in cheap wine. LOL Of course, I hear you’re supposed to spit out the wine in order to taste the flavor, and I can’t bring myself to do that. I am not the kind of girl you take to wine tastings because I will drink the spittoon.
I love red wine…it’s white I don’t care for. In a spittoon or otherwise. But I hear you on the spitting…I’d rather it in me than out of me…if you know what I mean.
Oh, ho, ho! You naughty woman!
Naughty woman…is that anything like Pretty Woman only with MORE hooker wear?
And red wine that does NOT come in a box.. and more pretty.
I think wine is just like Mozart. Too many notes.
And why in God’s name would anyone ever want a hint of tabacco in their rot gut? Perhaps we should watch Sideways tonight in honor of this great day. Love that movie.
Two words. Virginia Madsen.
The Beloved is just like you — she can’t bring herself to drink white wines. She’s all-red all-the-time. That is, when we’re not drinking cocktails. I think it’s mostly from too many over-oaked California Chardonnays. And lets face it — if there’s anything to turn you off to white wine, it’s a really oaky Chard. Some people call them “buttery”, I call them “crap”.
Here’s something you can try: find a good un-oaked Chardonnay. Usually, these are aged in steel casks. Some of the ones I’ve had are great wines — and even The Beloved thinks they’re good.
In general, here’s a starter vocabulary:
BAD WINE
jammy
fruity
fruit-bomb
plummy
over-oaked
grape-y
thin
cloying
GOOD WINE
earthy
granite
minerally
hints of pepper (or cocoa, or banana, or something you think wouldn’t come from grapes)
crisp
elegant
firm
PRO-TIP
The difference between “a finish that lingers” (good) and “a lingering aftertaste” (bad)
I was wondering what you’d come up with.
Thanks for my very first primer on what to look for in the imbibing enjoyment of the white grape. I think it’s really the crisp I don’t care for but all the others sound good. Perhaps it would be a good idea to do a little sampling before I go? Just so I can impress the locals…
Thanks!
Instead of worrying about the type of wine you should just savor your intoxicating time together. Have a good trip.
*snort* It will only be an intoxicating time if I can get the Mister drunk off his ass so he’s not bugging me about all the white wine I’m NOT drinking.
Anyway, I think I’ll be eating more than I’m drinking and overdoing it on the coffee.
I can’t help you with the wine advice, but surely there is an app for that?
Good thinking! I’ll get right on that.
Pingback: 49/365: National Drink Wine Day* « Eat My Words·
I am not a wine drinker. If there is going to be a liquor based holiday that I can embrace it will have to be based on Scotch.
On another note, we had neither Presidents Day or Wine Day to celebrate in Canada. Our holiday here is called “Family Day”. It’s another one of those that reminds everyone that doesn’t have a family what there life is missing. Sort of like Valentine’s Day when you don’t have the other half of a couple. Can you imagine they didn’t even give us a week in between these two sadistic holidays!
I want a Scotch Holiday.
I would fully support a Scotch Holiday if only to help keep you Scotch drinkers away from my vodka!
I am with you, I love reds and whites not so much. There are though some lovely French Burgundy’s that I enjoy now and again.
And I bet you speak with a cute French accent when you do.