Cheers from Vintage Connections!
See last week's post. This was a hugely successful and fun event. We went to Manatawny with some friends and Dean served as the official "witness," filling out an official form to document the wineries participation and number of participants in the event for the Guiness World Record. We should know in a few days if the PA count exceeded the current record of 17,429. 382 people toasted at Manatawny, so if the other 57 participating wineries averaged this number, we should have made it!\
Wine Tips of the Week!
Chateau St. Jean Chardonnay
While out looking for donations to the Silent Auction which will be part of the USA vs. France Wine Tasting event on September 18, Lisa, Lori and Cecelia stopped for a bottle of wine to share over lunch.
This rich, buttery chardonnay comes from vineyards all over Sonoma County in California. It has aromas of creamy lemon and mango with flavors of Asian pear and golden delicious apples. It has good balanced acidity and a lasting finish. Alcohol is 13.4% by volume. PLCB product code is 5524 and is available at most PA Wine and Spirit stores for $14.99 a bottle.
Wine Glasses
We're often asked if the difference in wine glasses really makes a difference in the taste of the wine.
So, what’s all the mystery about what glass to use for that glass of wine you’re having with dinner? Don’t you just need something to hold the wine? Wouldn’t your morning juice glass work just as well? Of course, any glass will hold wine and allow you to drink it, but it may not give you the complete satisfaction available that the wine has to offer.
There are many shapes and sizes to a wine glass, many different manufacturers and quality of glass. They can even come stemless! Wine glass shapes and sizes were created to allow the wine to be better appreciated according to its type. For most of us, three types of wine glasses in the cupboard are sufficient, red wine glasses, white wine glasses and champagne flutes.
A red wine glass usually has a broader bowl with a wider mouth than most white wine glasses, which allows more aeration to occur allowing the aromas and flavors to “open up”. There are some more specific types of red wine glasses like the Bordeaux glass which has a broad bowl and is usually very tall allowing the bolder red wines to be placed in the back of the mouth. Or the burgundy glass which has a broader bowl allowing the delicate aromas and flavors of pinot noirs to be fully appreciated.
White wine glasses come in many shapes and sizes though they are usually smaller bowled and the mouth is also smaller than red wine glasses. The larger the bowl and mouth the more oxygen is introduced to the wine. This can be good for the bolder whites like oaked chardonnays, but most white wines don’t need as much oxygenation as the reds so usually have smaller bowls and mouths. Smaller glasses also mean a smaller surface area, allowing the wine to stay cooler longer than it would in a larger glass.
Champagne flutes are tall and narrow with a long stem allowing you to hold the glass by the stem keeping the champagne colder than if your hand held the glass bowl. The narrow body of the glass keeps oxygen out, since the champagne/sparkling wine doesn’t need the oxygen to be appreciated to the fullest extent. It also allows all those tiny bubbles to travel from the bottom of the glass to the top adding to the visual enjoyment.
Most wine glasses are clear and colorless allowing us to enjoy the variety of colors in all the different wines. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your wine from a pretty colored or designed glass, it just makes it that much harder to enjoy the color of the wine itself.
Wouldn’t those hefty rolled edge wine glasses at the dollar store work just as well as the expensive delicate thin-lipped wine glasses? We’ve found that the thicker-lipped glasses don’t allow as much air into the mouth when you sip as the more expensive thin-lipped glasses. The more air that enters the mouth with the wine when you sip allows the molecules to move around more letting you get more of the flavor of the wine on your tongue.
Reidel is probably the most famous wine glass maker and they make many different shapes and sizes to accommodate different types of wine. They make wine glasses for nearly every type of wine.
But there are many wine glass manufacturers and with all the choices out there it should be easy to find a glass that suits your needs and pocketbook.
Up-coming Events
Perkiomen Valley Library,
290 Second Street, Schwenksville
Benefits the American Wine Society Educational Foundation
Wine and Appetizer pairing and
"blind tasting"
of USA vs French wines.
Taste and vote for your favorites!
$49 per person
$90 per couple
$350 per group of eight or more.
Bring a group of family, friends, and co-workers!
Visit the Perkiomen Valley Chapter of AWS website for more information and a registration form.
Please register by September 4th. Late registrations available on a space-available basis.
Saturday, October 23
Mom's House
Benefit Wine Dinner
Five course dinner, each course paired with a different wine. Kimberton Arts Center 6:30 PM
$75 per person or $525 for a table of 8.
For more information about Mom's House, click
HERE
Fun Fact
Chardonnay is one of the most planted grapes in the world with over 400,000 acres world-wide. It is also planted in more wine regions than any other grape. (wikipedia)
Someday (soon) there will be a quiz!
RSS
