Class Notes- February 26

4:58- Getting settled into my seat. I bought a bottle of Pinot Gris today at the Vintage Cellar and haven't been home to drop it off, so it's just chilling in my backpack. No big deal.

5:00- A wild Boyer appears. A hoard of students appears to talk to him.

5:02- Relay for Life plug. Kind of awkward approach, calling everyone out who's lives have been touched by cancer. I feel like that's a raw topic for lots of people.

5:03- CLASS BEGINS YEAH
"The word 'reserve' doesn't mean shit." -Boyer (on the topic of Yellowtail Reserve wine)

There are few affordable/cheap wines coming from the Alsace region, because most of their wines are high quality. A standard Alsacian white wine would be around $17-25.

"Table Wine" is a legal description of wine in Europe. It is the most unregulated, the most average, and the least nuanced of wines.

Europeans tend to drink more often, with most meals.
"I try to mimic the European model and drink with every meal. Even breakfast. Some frosted flakes with a moscato d'asi, I highly recommend it. Or champagne in the rice krispies." -Boyer

Semillon
Region: France (Bordeaux: Graves, and Sauternes), Australia, Chile, S. Africa, CA, WA
Flavor Profile: apple, date, dig, lemon, pear, saffron, light grass.
Dessert: Low in acidity, heavy, viscose, silky, peaches, figs, mango, stonefruit
Oaked: butter, cream, vanilla hints

In most places, it doesn't make a terribly exciting white wine. It's higher in sugars and thin on the acidity. They feel heavy and oily because they are lacking acidity.
Sauternes is famous for making a SUPER SWEET dessert wine with the Semillon. It's a super complex wine that hits you with the sweetness, but the back and mid palette develop much further. See past the sugar!

Food and wine pairing tip: Try pairing cheeses with white wines and dessert wines. Bleu cheese in particular will pair terribly with red wine, a very sweet sauternes with bleu cheese will be magnificent.

Grenache/Garnacha (A workhorse grape like Merlot)
Regions: Spain, France (Rhone GSM), Sardinia, CA, Australia
Flavor Profile: Spicy, berry, high alcohol, fruity, jammy, pepper, red current, raspberry, fleshy, rustic, sweet berry....
Of note: Southern Rhone, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Rioja...

-They're the base of LOTS of wines. 50/60% Grenache, then add lots of other shit on top of it. It's an OK grape on its own. It has a general spicy/berry profile and high sweetness.
-This grape is a late ripener, so it needs long, hot, dry summers
-One of the most planted grapes in southern France

5:45- TO THE LECTURE!
Israel has a great climate for wine. They've been making it for, oh, 1000 years.
Climate plays the biggest factor in the finished grapes.
Grapes like mild, rainy winters and dry rest of the year with low humidity. It's hot during the day but cool at night. The grapes "rest" at night. Cool nights mean they retain their acids and sugars.

"What happens in Virginia? 100 degrees during the day, but HOT DANK ASS NASTINESS at night."- Boyer

You can still have great wines from other places, but the vintage is WAY more important there than it is for wines and vineyards in a mediterranean climate. There's much more variability outside the mediterranean climate.

Rain during the harvest! What does it mean?!
The plant sucks up all the water and shoots it into the grapes. It ruins the flavor profile and dilutes the sugars. It waters down your finished product.
Once heavy rain can screw up a crop and make it not great.
Two days makes it questionable.
Three days ruins it.