Some wines enjoyed over that last couple of weeks.

2003 Castell del Remei Costers del Segre ODA - Looking at my handy-dandy Cor.kz application (plug!), which is integrated with my cellartracker.com (another plug!), this bottle was sitting at the top of my drinkability report, so that was reason enough for me to give it a go.  Experienced some earth and dirt on the nose with plum and leather. The palate presented blackberries and spice with a medium level of tannins.  A nice wine on this fine Friday night.

1998 Parducci Pinot Noir Vineyard Select - I received this wine as a gift many years ago and kind of forgot about it in the cellar.  Unless from Burgundy, I am not aware of Pinot’s that age this long, but I certainly wasn’t going to let it go without a try.  The color was brick red/orange color as expected showing it’s age. Early nose a little musty and slight hint of olives and green pepper sensing this bottle is past it’s prime but still somewhat drinkable. Not the light and bright red fruits one expects from Pinot. Taste is lacking and somewhat flat, but that’s not a surprise.  At the very least it was a great learning experience to see how wine changes and what a wine that is past it’s prime smells and tastes like.  Ah, science!

2007 Tandem Chardonnay Manchester Ridge Vineyard - Dark straw/light golden hue. Nutty and yeasty nose with citrus notes (apples, lemons) on the nose. Great texture due to sur lies aging, crisp, lemon, honey, and good acid. Great finish and refreshing. This rocks!  Oh, and just between you and I, Tandem wines are going at huge discounts because the new owners will be changing the name of the winery.  This Chardonnay is normally $54 per bottle at retail and we practically stole it for $18/btl when buying a case.

2007 The Winner’s Tank Shiraz - Nose is pleasant and not hot like many Shiraz’ I’ve had recently. Very fruit forwrd with distinct blackberries and some raspberries. The spice shows up on the finish.  This went well with chili that ended every bite with a spicy crescendo.

2008 Château Rives-Blanques Limoux La Trilogie - Straw color, bright and surface reflection. Nose of apple, apricot and other citrus. Apple and lemon citrus on the palate with the Chenin Blanc acid supporting the structure well.  While this region is best known for sparklers, it is also known for still wine like this will have the “trilogy” of Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and must have at least 15% Mauzac.

2007 Santa Ema Reserve Merlot - From Maipo Valley, Chile this Merlot only comes in at 13.5% alcohol which is a nice change of pace allowing the fruit to really blossom in this wine.  On the nose we got some blueberris and cocoa powder.  The palate presented black and red fruits and chocolate.

LocalWineEvents.com is a great website that I use quite often to find tastings, wine dinners and other wine-related events in the Atlanta area.  After my recent review of the iVisit Sonoma County application on the iPhone, Eric V. Orange, CEO/Founder of LocalWineEvents.com reached out and asked if I’d take a look at their new application too.  The app was just released on January 28, 2010 so it practically hot out of the oven.

PROS

1. Just like many iPhone apps, this program will be more valuable when you allow it to use your current location.

2. Once you select your location, you are given a list of today’s and future events that are closest to your current location.

3. The Details screen show some good information including the phone number of the establishment that can be pressed and automatically called.  You can also view the establishment on a map and even forward the event in an email to a friend.

4. If you know you are travelling to another location other than where you are currently, you can easily select another city in a another country to find events.

OPPORTUNITIES

1. The event listing screen always defaults to 30 Mile radius and only has 4 options.  It could be helpful, at least in my opinion, if it remembered my previous setting and offered more flexibility in radius options.  For example, by having the radius options as buttons at the top, the number of selections are limited.  The scroll list type of function could be used and allow more options to be made available, or it could allow the user to type in the radius directly.  Personally, I would like the option of 5 mile radius to be made available.  In most cases, I will not be travelling 50 miles around Atlanta to go to an event, especially with the lovely traffic we get here

2. Just like I found with the Sonoma County app, the map option on the details screen does not allow the user to get directions that is so common and helpful via Google maps.

3. I’d like to see a website link, if available, for the establishment on the Details page, which is often available on the event page on the website.

4. It may also be very helpful to add a calendar feature which allows the user to specify a date in the future to further filter the event list.  If I know I am not available until this coming Saturday and want to see what’s going on then, I have to scroll through the list currently.

5. In addition to the mail feature, it might be nice to include some of the social media links like Twitter or Facebook so that a user can inform their networks they are attending an event and include the event link.

6. Unfortunately, as with many version 1.0 releases, I did stumble upon a few bugs that I am sure will be worked out over the next couple of releases.  Some of these still occurred after deleting and reinstalling the app as well as hard-booting the iPhone.

<<02/19 2:52pm EST: Error screenshot removed to not reveal proprietary code or vulnerabilities>>

Overall, I feel this application can be very valuable for those users looking for wine-related events in their cities while on the go.  It can become even more valuable when even more valuable mobile and social features are added including those mentioned above.  The more users can do with regard to filtering and finding events, making it easier to get to an event and finally sharing the event with others, the more valuable it will become.

Our local Atlanta wine funkmeister, Hardy Wallace, who won the now infamous Wine Country Lifestyle Correspondent Challenge and just completed his 6-month stint at Murphy-Goode has moved on to realize his wine-dreams.  And in true Hardy style, it’s going to get Funky!

Two announcements have been made today in which Hardy will be shacked up at Michel-Schlumberger and literally living with the livestock since he had to move out of the bumpin’ bungalow near downtown Healdsburg once the Murphy Goode gig was over.  In return for rent, he’ll work on some marketing content and social media projects for the winery.  Click here for the press release.

His ultimate new home, however, will be The NPA or Natural Process Alliance, who make only about 800 cases of wine a year and are dedicated to responsible farming, minimalistic winemaking and transparency for consumers.  This is not a surprise to those of us who know Hardy, because the NPA is known for making some good, funky juice and Hardy has said that all along.  I believe he has found his calling and his home.  Follow Hardy in his new role on twitter at @theNPAhardy or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TheNPA

Congratulations to Hardy and good luck to your future endeavors.  As always, we are all watching.

Cheers!

I visited a new wine store this weekend helping a friend grab a few bottles for her Valentine’s party.  The store was not new in the area, but rather new to me, but I had heard a lot of about it recently and wanted to check it out.  The store had a pretty decent and broad selection, but much like many stores in this economy, there were many empty bins and slots throughout as well.  But, this story is about our sales guy.  Yeah, sounds funny.  We weren’t at an auto dealership, but, again just a wine store, so why must there be a salesman?

No, it wasn’t just someone working there offering to help us as many other stores do.  This guy was a salesman because when we were ready to check out he asked that we tell the cashier that he had helped us.  We said to ourselves, obviously he wants to get the “credit” for working with us.  Then I wondered, why is this necessary for such a shop?  And then I wondered again, had his commissioned job status impact how he “helped” with our wine purchases?  Did he really listen to what we were telling him about what we were looking for and did he guide us to the best option to match our desires or match his desired payout?

Don’t get me wrong, this guy was pretty nice and he and I chatted about a few wine-related topics along the way that I believe showed him that I knew a thing or two about wine, but I still had that though in the back of my head the rest of the way.  I understand the incentive-based approach to certain jobs and I don’t think all sales people are the stereotypical pushy and untrustworthy type, but it just seemed a little out of place here and with all the talk and concerns about scores, ratings, and critics not representing the wine-loving population as a whole, if we can’t even trust the guy at the wine store, who can we trust?

Share your pros/cons of commissioned wine sales folks?

We have been planning a trip to Sonoma for past several weeks and much like planning for any vacation, it takes some time to prepare an itinerary especially when you’re looking to visit several wineries a day.  There are several approaches we like to use and after polling some wine friends, we’ve learned of other things to consider, which I’ll compile here shortly.  But, in the meantime I came across this article from the Pressdemocrat.com about an iPhone application called iVisit Sonoma County from the Sonoma County Tourism Bureau.  Let’s see how it works and if I think it will be helpful for when we are in Sonoma next month.

Of course, the first thing I look for is the wineries by selecting the wine icon which brings up a list of all the wineries in Sonoma county initially listed in alphabetical order.  Here are the pros and cons:

PROS

1. You can sort the list of wineries by distance to your current position, which is cool if you are travelling the wine country roads of Sonoma and want to be spontaneous and hit the next winery near you.  Note: I was in Atlanta when testing this which explains why the wineries are over 2000 miles away — depressing, really.

2. You can filter the list by the types of varietals the wineries are producing.  If you only like Gewurztraminer, no need to gamble that the winery you’re rolling up to only makes Cabs.

3. Oh, it’s FREE!

CONS

1. When you select a winery, the Details tab does not give you the option to get directions from your current position to the winery like Google Maps does.  You can “Map It” but that doesn’t really do you much good if you’re more than a mile or two away.

2. Limited in number of options overall.  This is only the first release of this application and enhancements are forthcoming.  I would like to see more filters (include and exclude) to narrow down the list of wineries such as those requiring appointment only, wineries open at 10 am, and tasting fees (yes, no or $$).  How about some social media links, especially if the winery is on Twitter or Facebook and links to review sites.

All of the other menu selections function in the same way:  List of the establishments including distance from your current location and some options to filter the list by type of establishment and sort by distance or name.  The Dining selection doesn’t offer any additional filters at all such as type of cuisine or price, though with Sonoma County Restaurant Week just around the corner, it may still come in handy.  Right now this application doesn’t do anything more than show me a list of what’s nearby.  I look forward to version 2.0.

Cheers!