Why so dry??

Herein is the start of my "table-side tales" as a Sommelier in Southern California. I began my first official Sommelier job about 1 month ago at a nice Tuscan Italian restaurant in the Los Angeles area. So far it has been a full and unique experience getting to know the staff, the management, the regular customers, and the pitfalls to avoid as a new Sommelier. In this first post of my "table-side tales" I want to comment about the most frequent response I receive to my most frequent question that I ask customers who have requested my help. After I offer to assist in the selection of a bottle or glass of wine I often hear something like "we would like to choose a red... or a white wine... what do you suggest? I often reply "is there a particular style of white/red wine that you usually drink...?" Answers to this question usually don't help much, instead I am told "I just don't want the wine too dry." Occasionally I hear the opposite, "I would like a glass of dry chardonnay... "but not as often. For the last 3-4 weeks my response to this persistent criteria has been evolving. What is usually intended by "we don't want the wine too dry," is we want a wine that has "some sense of sweetness" perceived in the wine. The problem w/this narrow two-prong criteria is 1) it's based on an incorrect view of what "dry wine" is and 2) it provides very little help for me the Sommelier to recommend a suitable wine.

What is "dry wine?" Just about all the wines on your local restaurants wine list are "dry wines" unless you are at a dessert only bar or something w/only sweet dessert wines. When wine grapes are pressed & the sweet juice get's inoculated w/yeast at the right temp. this begins fermentation & the sugary must's journey of conversion to alcohol. Yeasts are micro-organisms designed by God to eat sugar, the by-product is alcohol, heat, carbon-dioxide, dead yeast cells, and many other blessings. The issue is at the right temp. (not too cold) the yeast don't know when to stop eating the sugar, this is true for beer or any other sugar solution. If you have the right strain of yeast &the correct dose they will eat up the sugar until all the yeast die because of the presence of alcohol, or some other man-made method arrests the fermentation. Moreover, if regular fermentation is completed you will usually have zero residual sugar left in the young finished wine. Sweet wines like Port are made by adding alcohol like brandy toward the end of fermentation which kills the remaining yeast and leaves a good amount of residual sugar.

What does this all mean? The chardonnays, the Napa cabs, the Pinots, the Zinfandel, the Merlot's, etc, are dry wines. A word about german Riesling later. Why do folks think dry wines are sweet then? We need to expand our wine glossary. Certain things like alcohol, tannin, body, texture, and other fruit aromas/flavors make wine "appear more sweet." It's more helpful to describe wines that you like as having: more body, black/red berry fruit flavors, spice (pepper, cinnimon, etc), earth, mineral, tropical/stone fruit flavors/aromas, soft/silky tannins, concentrated, dark/purple, bright, clean, fresh, and there are hundreds of other ways to describe wines. I don't expect average folks who drink $9 BevMo to know all the wine jargon like the Sommelier, then I wouldn't have a job after all.... but it would be nice if we could develop a few more words other than dry & sweet to express thoughts about a drink that is a bit more exalted than their daily Yuban or Coke Zero.

Only the best... Biblical wine history part 1

It's amazing to me how much delicious historical detail there is about wine and ancient wine history in the Bible. There are over 500 references to wine and other viticultural descriptions throughout the old and new testaments. Most references refer to either wine itself or the vineyards where wine begins. However, there are discussions of the use of a wine-press, wine-skins, "fermented drinks." The Bible discusses wine-vats, wine jars (Jer40), grapes, and wine that is "well-refined" or aged long on the "lees" (Isaiah25) or wine that is young "left on it's dregs" (Jer48). It's clear that the 1st thing Noah cultivated when he and his family came out of the ark was a vineyard (Gen9). In future posts I will show that vineyards in biblical times were harvested for wine grapes & to a lesser degree vinegar made from sour wine. God even commanded his covenant people to observe special feast days (i.e. Deut 16:13-17) where grain was to be gathered and wine "from your winepress," that involved a great feast w/rejoicing that included men, women, widows, and foreigners as well. The biblical account of Jesus at the wedding of Cana in John's gospel (chap2) is a beautiful record of just how important wine was

in ancient & biblical times. It records for us today that over 2 millinia ago it was the practice

of an ancient palastine wedding to first, serve a large quantity of wine (120-180 gallons) and 2nd, to serve the quality or best wine first and after the tastes have become sufficiently dulled "cheaper wine" would be served. In this case Jesus' grand miracle turned water into quality wine or "choice wine" at the start of the wedding in order to demonstrate His divinity and provide a glorious blessing to all the guests. Later on in John's gospel (chap15) Jesus would relate ones true relationship to Him in viticultural terms when he declared, "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit... As the Father loved Me, I also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love..." Abiding in Jesus is compared to the process by which a vine transfers nutrients to the fruit of the vine. In the vineyard this is called translocution. Perhaps we could abide in Him by enjoying the BEST wine?

How wine got me.

In 2004 I fell in love with a little region in California called the "Central Coast." My wife and I were mesmorized by the beautiful rolling hills, quaint cafes and old ranch houses. We purchased a lil beach cottage in Pismo Beach so we could enjoy the area more often. Little did I know know that just 5-min down our road was a wine appellation called the Edna Valley. At the time it was kind of our little secret place, there were no signs along the hwy, it became our little haven. I really found the Pinot Noir their to be beautifully delicate, complex and delicious. At the time I had no idea what Burgundy was or any other major wine region for that matter. I eventually branched out and discovered other amazing regions surrounding the central coast namely Santa Inez, Sta. Rita Hills, Monterey, and of course Napa and Sonoma. I had always been a beer and spirits connousieur from the time I was 19. Oops! sorry mom... I made my own home brew and tried every style in the world. Wine always seemed a bit complicated, snobish and expensive. Not to mention I never had tried much that appealed to me until I drove down that road in Pismo Beach. Since then the world of wine has opened up it's blessed doors to me.

I almost forgot abt this blog.

I am looking forward to doing some blogging on the subject of Wine. As I write this I am listening to a wine lecture at a 12-week Certified Sommelier preparatory course in San Jose, CA. In the past I have focused allot on brewing beer. I still love beer, ales, and the like- but my life/career path has now directed me into the wine industry. In the past 18 months I have transitioned into home wine making and now am focused on becoming a certified Sommelier (wine expert) & then a winemaker God willing.

Happy New Year!

I can't imagine that anything will be able to spoil this year for me, God has been pleased to bless me with our 1st Covenant child, currently at 20 weeks. This week at the ultrasound we learned that it appears to be a girl! God be praised! Due date is approx. May 28-June 1.

How to win an argument with your wife.

One of my favorite men's magazines that i tolerate is Men's Journal, i really appreciated there most recent issue on "how to win at everything." One of my favorites is "win an argument with your wife."

Winning an argument with your wife is like winning the war with Iraq: Once you win you're in even more trouble. And just to be clear, in 11 years of marriage i have never won an argument with my wife. But if you're still bent on trying with yours, here are five rules you should keep in mind:
1) Make sure you are 100 percent factually correct. Don't use any information from the CIA.
2) Keep repeating your basic message: "Honey, you're smart, you're beautiful, buth this one time, I'm right."
3) Don't point out that she is wrong; emphasize that you're right. Negative campaigning is for swift boat veterans.
4) Arguments with your wife, like elections, should focus on the future. Let's say there's a disagreement over where to go on vacation in 2005. She will bring up your behavior while you were dating in 1992. Don't respond! Once that happens you've lost - you won't remember anything and she will remember everything.
5) No yelling. If you want to yell and argue, get a job on Crossfire. The only differences is on Crossfire we never have make-up sex.

Gerstner the great

John H. Gerstner