X RATED WINES - Couverture souple

Roberts, Darryl

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0609806327 ISBN 13 : 9780609806326

Editeur : Random House, Inc., 2008

Synopsis

Are you tired of wine reviews with flowery descriptions that read like grocery lists? Yeah, well, so are the authors of X Rated Wines, the ultimate source for everyone who likes wine but can't get into pedantic wine critics and stuffy wine books and magazines -- in other words, for real people. Features include:

More than 1,500 wines reviewed, each having received one of the magazine's trademark rankings, from X (Gets It Done) to XXX (Gotta Have It).
Reviews divided into "Over $15" and "Under $15" categories so         it's easy to buy wine within your budget.
Background information so you can learn a thing or two about what you're drinking.
Amusing sidebars like the "Top Ten Fast Food and Wine Suggestions" and "Music and Wine Pairings."

The reviews in X Rated Wines are both irreverent and insightful. Consider this critique of a Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon: "A deep French kiss in a phone booth -- nice depth, great mouth feel, a little woody, a bit tight." Or this Australian shiraz: "Like a Grant Hill slam dunk -- bold, spicy and in your face!" Whether you're pondering what to purchase at your local spirits shop or which bottle to order with dinner, X Rated Wines will open your mind to a new way of thinking about wine.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

DARRYL ROBERTS is the editor and publisher of Wine-X magazine, today's fastest-growing wine magazine. Its reviews have been quoted everywhere from the Wall Street Journal to Glamour. He lives in Santa Rosa, California.

STEWART DORMAN is co-owner/winemaker for Adrian Fog Winery.  He lives in Healdsburg, California.

Extrait. © Reproduit sur autorisation. Tous droits réservés.

chapter one

The Basics

Stop! Before you go any further, grab a nice glass of fermented grape juice, settle into a comfy chair, kick off your shoes, and forget everything you've ever read in other wine guides. Why? Because this isn't the standard wine guide.

We're not going to dictate to you what to buy, how to buy it, or from whom to buy it. If you want to be led like a blind sheep, then we suggest you pick up one of those "other" wine guides that tell you how to think for yourself.

X Rated Wines is a source for exploration; a chance to voyage outside the nine dots and learn about wine in a whole new way: by having fun. Yes, despite what all the wine experts and authorities and self-proclaimed gurus say, you can learn about wine and have fun at the same time. It's not impossible, it's simply a matter of keeping an open mind.

There are some serious parts of this book, however. These would be the educational pieces following and prefacing each chapter. Don't worry. They're not wine geek essays that you'd find in an encyclopedia. They simply contain information to help you understand what the hell we're talking about in the fun sections.

You'll also find a bunch of sidebars scattered throughout. Some pair wines with music, some with videos, others with fast food, and some are just fun top ten lists we've created for your enjoyment. Yes, these are meant to entertain you, not to change your life. They are a constant reminder that wine isn't a lifestyle, it's part of one. So no matter what you're doing or watching or listening to or eating, wine can be a part of your everyday routine.

To understand our wine reviews, well, you'd have to be as crazy as us. Actually, all you have to remember is that our notes go beyond mere aromas and flavors. You have to use your imagination and dig beneath the surface of our words. For example, consider a wine review that reads "Brad Pitt in boxer shorts." This review, on the surface, seems simple and fun. But let's look deeper, shall we? "Brad Pitt." Sexy guy. Attractive. Well-built. Rich. Popular. Seems balanced. "In boxer shorts." Bold. Forward. Revealing, but not too fleshy. Leaves a lasting impression. So string all these together and we get, "A sexy wine, rich, bold, attractive, well-balanced and -built, revealing forward fruit flavors with just enough flesh to carry it through the long lingering finish." Sure we could've written the review this way, but why use 27 words when we can use eight? (We're obviously not getting paid by the word!) And why write something boring when you can have a little fun with it and still convey the message? (Okay, occasionally we throw in a few fruits and veggies for the wine geeks.)

And please remember that our reviews are only suggestions, not absolutes. For example, a single X wine may suit your tastes more than a XXX, depending on your mood, the people you're with, and the environment you're in. For instance, if you're drinking a XXX bottle of wine with some asshole in a place you hate, the wine (and its experience) is going to suck. On the other hand, if you're sharing an X bottle with a loved one in a romantic setting, I'll guarantee the experience (and the wine) will be much more fulfilling. That's our idea behind relating wine to life's experiences, that is, music, movies, fashion and people--to present a lifestyle review, not an academic one.

Well, now that we're clear on how to proceed, go for it. Have some fun. And if any wine geek sticks their nose up at you doing so, roll this book up and whop 'em upside the head.

Who We Are, What We Write

In addition to editing and publishing Wine X magazine and Wine X Wired, Darryl Roberts is wine columnist for the Robb Report (a magazine for the extremely affluent lifestyle--of which Mr. Roberts does not belong), cofounder of WineRave--a BBS Chat Site cooperative between Wine X, Wine Brats, and the New York Times, and a member on the Executive Committee of The 100 Cru, which is a special leadership organization assembled by the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts in order to develop a group of future wine and food industry leaders. He's a regular guest on "Everybody's Cooking," a nationally syndicated daily radio program, and can be heard locally in Northern California on "The Krush" radio station. In his spare time, Mr. Roberts is developing a twenty-six-part internationally syndicated television show on wine (with Jason Priestley) as well as a series of one-minute radio and television spots called "Wine X Wine Minute." Previously, Mr. Roberts was director of public relations for Matanzas Creek Winery, on the winemaking team at Franciscan Estates, and cohost of "The Wine Cellar" radio program in Los Angeles. (He also produced television shows in L.A. for seven years but only talks about that experience in therapy.)

Stewart Dorman is winemaker/owner of Adrian Fog Winery. He's a noted wine writer and regularly contributes his creative genius to Wine X magazine. Mr. Dorman lives with his lovely wife, Janey, in a big house surrounded by lots of vineyards in Healdsburg, California. His turn-ons--full-bodied pinots with big fleshy bodies. His turnoffs--braided nose hair and stinky wines.

Bob Blumer (The Surreal Gourmet Guide to Entertaining) is author/illustrator of a series of cookbooks under the nom de plume The Surreal Gourmet. His new book, Off the Eaten Path, is published by Ballantine Books. Bob lives well beyond his means in the Hollywood hills.

S. Duda (Music sidebars) lives in Seattle with a tough old cat named Sam, a big stereo and an empty fridge. Day job: managing editor of Amazon.com's music site. No current night-time employment. Previous writing has examined everything from the ineffable greatness of Duke Ellington to the ineffable crappiness of the Seattle Seahawks. Current passions include staring into rivers trying to catch trout, staring at the art of Cy Twombly, and staring into space thinking of innovative ways to scam free wine. Those with free wine can just stop by his pad or contact him directly at spduda@mindspring.com.

Christopher Fehlinger (Wine Horoscope) lives in Brooklyn and drinks wine every chance he gets. His exploits as a waiter in New York's elite restaurants have been profiled in The New Yorker and on National Public Radio. Mr. Fehlinger's repository of wit, venom, and gossip can be seen at www.bitterwaitress.com.

Sophia Schweitzer (Wine Appellations/Regions) lives in Hawaii where, between resorts and rugged mountains, she's found the ideal terroir. She is an editorial contributor to Fodor's and Walking magazine. Her book, Big Island Notes, an alternative travel guide coauthored with a friend, will be released in 2000.

Angelina Malhotra-Singh (Film and Wine) covers politics, culture and wine for a slew of domestic and foreign publications. Like every good journalist, she has a semicomplete book filled with thinly veiled figures lurking about her hard drive. Straying from her keyboard, Ms. Malhotra-Singh plays the quintessential California jock, running, skiblading, in-line skating and kickboxing, depending on the weather.

Inspiration for Maja Wolff (The Coffee-Wine Connection) generally comes in a cup of coffee--her creative muse tends to appear only when coaxed by a mug or two. She has written for such magazines as Fresh Cup, Cheers, Food Arts, and the ever-popular Supermarket News. Ms. Wolff recently did not attend her ten-year high school reunion.

Residing in California's Napa Valley, Kim Caffrey moonlights as a hospitality specialist in a world-famous winery, preaching healthful, moderate consumption. In her spare time she teaches entertaining and educational wine appreciation classes, offering an in-depth look at how to demystify wine. Ms. Caffrey's "How to Taste Wine Like a Snob" was featured for the opening of "Wine 101," PBS's mini-series broadcast nationwide last year.

Wine X senior editor and "token boomer" Rosina Tinari Wilson has been writing about food, wine and travel--preferably combined--since the bygone days of "white wine with fish." Author of Seafood Pasta and Noodles--The New Classics, she also teaches "Wine and Food Affinities" at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. Ms. Tinari Wilson's penchant for tilling the soil finds her planting in old wine barrels and gardening à la Darwin--if it survives, it stays. She has a fetish fetish (Zuni, that is) and wishes she were snorkeling right now.

Wine 101

Wine (win), n, v. wined, wining. -n. 1. the fermented juice of grapes, used especially as a beverage. 2. the often fermented juice of another fruit or plant--vt, vi. 3. to supply with or drink wine.

Wine is made pretty much the same way throughout the world. You pick some grapes, squeeze them, put the juice in a container, let it ferment, age it a bit, then put the finished product in a bottle for all to enjoy. The reasons for the different flavors of wine have to do with a number of factors: the type of grapes used, where the grapes are grown (soil and climate), and, if barrel aging is implemented, the type of oak barrel used, the age of the barrel, and how long it stays in the oak.

Let's take a quick look at the general winemaking process in more detail, first for white wine, then red.

For white wine, grapes are brought to the winery and destemmed (by machine), which separates the berries from the stems. The grapes are pressed (squeezed) to separate the juice from the skins. The juice is then moved (usually by pump) into a container, which for most wineries is a stainless steel tank or oak barrel. Here, the winemaker will either add yeast or let the wild yeasts that came in with the grapes start the fermentation process. Basically, fermentation is the transformation of sugar (in the grape juice) into alcohol and carbon dioxide (CO2) by yeast. (The CO2 is allowed to escape during the process.) After fermentation is complete, the winemaker has a choice of aging the wine for a while or bottling it for sale. Most whites are aged for a bit in oak barrels. Depending on the type of oak and the way it's been treated, this aging gives the wine a toasty, woody flavor. Some barrels can even impart flavors such as chocolate, cinnamon and vanilla. Most chardonnays, especially from California, also undergo a process called malolactic fermentation. Without going into the gory details, this process usually adds a buttery characteristic to the wine.

For reds, instead of separating the skins from the juice right away, winemakers keep them together. Why? 'Cause wine gets all of its color and most of its flavor from the grape skins. Red grapes have red skins but white (or pink) juice. So leaving the skins in contact with the juice for an extended period of time basically dyes the juice red. (You can make white or blush wine from red grapes simply by separating the skins from the juice immediately. Thus, the enigma white zinfandel.) So, the skins and the juice are placed in a container (usually a stainless steel tank) where fermentation takes place. Once fermentation is finished, and the winemaker's happy with the color and flavor of the wine, the juice is separated from skins and moved (pumped) into another container (stainless steel tank or oak barrel). Here, as with white wine, the wine ages and picks up some of the barrel's flavors. Then, when the winemaker's happy (or the accountant's beating at their door), the wine is bottled and released.

The time from harvest to release varies with the type of wine produced. For blush wines, that is, white zinfandel, it's usually about six weeks. Thus the nickname, chateau cashflow. For chardonnay, the average process takes about one to two years. For red wines, such as cabernet sauvignon, it can take up to five years, which obviously makes it much more costly to produce.

Well, there's the basics. Remember: There's really no right or wrong way of making wine. Only a bad way.

Varietals

Just as there are many types of apples (e.g., Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, etc.), there are many kinds of grapes used in making wine. For example, "chardonnay" is the name of a specific grape variety, as is cabernet sauvignon, merlot, pinot noir, and sauvignon blanc.

In most New World winegrowing regions (United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, and Argentina) the name of the wine is the grape used in making it. So a California wine labeled "chardonnay" is made from, well, the chardonnay grape.

In Old World countries, such as France and Italy, wines are often named after the region in which they're produced. Thus, a wine labeled "Bordeaux" from France indicates that the grapes used in making the wine were grown in the Bordeaux region. Pretty simple.

The somewhat confusing part, however, is that most Old World wines are made with the same grapes used in making New World wines. In other words, even though a wine from France is labeled "Bordeaux," the grapes used in making it are, generally speaking, varietals such as cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, and so on. Follow?

Anyway. Since there are more than 5,000 known grape varietals in the world, we decided to list only the more common ones that you'll encounter on a wine label. We hope that by understanding these varietals a bit more, you'll understand the wines that they produce.

chardonnay [shar-dun-nay] Chardonnay is the most popular wine in the United States, preferred more than even white zinfandel. It's the grape used to make white Burgundy in France and grown in just about every wine region around the globe. Flavorwise, most chardonnays remind us of tropical islands and buttered toast--tropical fruit flavors, butter and oak.

sauvignon blanc [sah-vin-yon blahnk] This white grape is primarily used to make dry wine (no residual sugar). It's often blended with semillon (as in France to make white Bordeaux), and the latest trend seems to be to age it in oak barrels. Our typical description of most sauvignon blancs is taking a hayride through a citrus orchard on a sunny day--citrus fruits, grass/hay and bright flavors.

riesling [rees-ling] This is a very misunderstood grape variety because when you mention riesling to most people they immediately think sweet wine. Not true. Riesling, like any varietal wine, can be made dry or very sweet or anything in between. Most wines are what we'd call off-dry--containing a little (one to three percent) residual sugar, which makes them perfect for spicy foods (sugar helps combat spiciness). The typical description of a riesling might be a Georgia peach on a hot date with Timothy Leary--peachy sweet and good acid.

gewurztraminer [geh-verts-trah-mee-ner] Another misunderstood varietal for the same reasons as riesling: it can be made dry to very sweet. The flavor profiles for gewurztraminer are similar to riesling, adding a nice floral nuttiness to the equation. So for the riesling flavor association above, simply add that she's wearing perfume. (Timothy Leary was a nut, so . . . )

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Random House, Inc.
• Date d'édition: 2008
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0609806327
• ISBN 13: 9780609806326
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 288
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: MUSIC STORE professional GmbH; 022188841282; Lars.Mueller@musicstore.de; ; Istanbulstr. 22-26; Köln; 51103; Allemagne