Wine of the Week - September 04, 2006

It should be no secret that I have a sweet tooth. It's apparent to me and, well, anyone who knows me. So, it should be no surprise that I like sweet wines. And fruity wines.

So, I'm recommending Cafele's Recioto Di Soave "Le Sponde." Most years are good; I'm drinking a 2000 that's phenominal. A viscous dessert wine, its very fruity with apricot and, to me, a touch of honey. It's got a strong fruit nose and is very smooth. My only real letdown with it is that it has a very short finish, not lingering in the mouth very long after a sip. Some people might find this a blessing, as it's very much a sweet dessert wine. Almost like a white port, but not as mature.

Here's some intersting information on this wine (taken from http://sette-bello.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_sette-bello_archive.html):

Le Sponde, Recioto di Soave... [is a] vino dolce. This wine comes from the Coffele vineyard outside Verona. It's made from a perculier grape called the garganega. It's what they call a "creeper" because the vines like to stretch out their arms. In this area, the vintners tend to situate them on pergolas to get the most sun exposure... It was incredibly smooth with a powerfully fruity taste. According to the vintner, it's best with dry cakes and biscotti, but also with cheeses like Gorgonzola.

Interesting pairing ideas, to be sure. I'll have to check out that gorgonzola pairing.

This wine isn't cheap, however: my local, discounted price (I'm in a wine club at a local liqour store over in Brooklyn Heights) is $30.00 But, if you find it and have the money, I'd defintely buy a bottle. It's a great finish to a meal and an excellent little wine to sip & relax to after a long day—whether that day's spent hard at work or hard at play... or hard at rest :)

Ciao!

Wine... And How Everything Lately Seems Related To It

Strangely, I was just thinking that I haven't written—as in writing, what I got my degrees in, what I used to feel I was going to do for a living—in a long time, and I think I've just thought of (an/the) answer: because I can't seem to describe things lately. And I used to be able to describe things really well. You kind of need to be able to do that as a write.

But how did I get to that? Well, I was thinking about wine. I'd just opened a bottle of Syrage—it's a blend of Syrah and Petit Syrah and one other red—and I can't for the life of me tell you what it tastes like. I think it's plum (but I can tell you it had a slight tar note when I opened the bottle), but I'm not sure. It's tannic as hell, I can tell you that. It made me feel like my gums were receeding as I drank it. But I can't describe the flavors of the thing.

So, I went for a walk. And on that walk, I was thinking about what to write in this blog. I knew it would be wine-related; that's just where I'm at right now. I'm about to start my introductory sommelier class soon, so wine's on my mind a lot lately (in 2 more weeks, my mind wil be on voiceover stuff a lot, so ust wait for that). The inability to describe the wine was leaking through to other areas, though. Which is when I thought of the writing thing.

And, on the heals of that, it leaked into my life in general. I've been doing a lot of soulsearching in the past few months, which is all thanks to losing my last job (see previous post). I've been trying to figure out what it is I want to be doing with my life, after seemingly waking up from a ten-year sleep. Which has led me to voiceover stuff and sommelier track. So, I was thinking that I'm also unable to describe how I feel from moment to moment. Makes it hard to communicate with people sometimes.

So, wine related all these things together for me (or was it the inability to describe things? :). And, hopefully, expanding my palette and doing voiceover work will help me out and leak out into the rest of my life in positive ways...