Jonah Lehrer points to repeated experiments showing that wine “experts” have almost no agreement when conducting blind taste tests, are completely influenced by the labels on a wine bottle, and can’t even distinguish white wines from red!
What these experiments neatly demonstrate is that the taste of a wine, like the taste of everything, is not merely the sum of our inputs, and cannot be solved in a bottom-up fashion. It cannot be deduced by beginning with our simplest sensations and extrapolating upwards. When we taste a wine, we aren’t simply tasting the wine. This is because what we experience is not what we sense. Rather, experience is what happens when our senses are interpreted by our subjective brain, which brings to the moment its entire library of personal memories and idiosyncratic desires. As the philosopher Donald Davidson argued, it is ultimately impossible to distinguish between a subjective contribution to knowledge that comes from our selves (what he calls our “scheme”) and an objective contribution that comes from the outside world (”the content”). Instead, in Davidson’s influential epistemology, the “organizing system and something waiting to be organized” are hopelessly interdependent. Without our subjectivity we could never decipher our sensations, and without our sensations we would have nothing to be subjective about. In other words, we shouldn’t be surprised that different people like different bottles of cheap wine.
Unfortunately, while we will often dislike a very expensive wine and occasionally really enjoy a cheap one, my wife and I tend to be drawn to expensive-ish pinot noirs costing upwards of $30 a bottle. You’d think that if wine tastes were completely random that this wouldn’t happen.
Come join us for a relaxing afternoon in our winery built on a hill overlooking our vineyards and northern Virginia horse country. We offer wines, cheeses, breads, salami and light fare or bring your own gourmet lunch and join us around the fireplace in our spacious tasting room with easy listening music. Nice weather permitting, enjoy your wine and lunch under our covered patios overlooking the vineyards. Enjoy our artwork by local artists or shop in our gift shop for local products and wine accessories. We are open all year for tasting and tours. We also will host your special events. Check our website for special events.
WINES: Chardonnay, Vidal Blanc, Chambourcin, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Rosé, Late Harvest, Sweet Summer, Springtime, and others.
TOURS: Thursday through Monday, 11am-5pm.
For further information and an events schedule, visit www.lostcreekwinery.com
43277 Spinks Ferry Road
Leesburg, VA 20176
703-443-9836
winery@lostcreekwinery.com
Owners: Bob and Carol Hauk
* Sweet Summer — This wine consists of 25% Apple Wine and 75% Grape Wine(Vidal, Viognier, Chardonnay). It has 2% residual sugar and is light and fruity. Sweet summer is great for sipping on the patio any time of year.
* Vidal Blanc — Vidal is a French hybrid grape which is tank fermented and aged with 1% residual sugar.
* Spring Time – Spring Time is a blend of Vidal, Viognier, Chardonnay Muscat Canelli. Light and crisp, it has 1% residual sugar.
* Chardonnay — Our Chardonnay is tank fermented and barrel aged in French Oak. It is nice and light, has great fruit character with just a hint of oak.
Red wines
* Chambourcin — Made from an American hybrid, this wine is stainless steel fermented, then barrel aged. The deep color and low tannins come from red meat grapes.
* Cabernet Sauvignon — This Cabernet is stainless steel fermented and then barrel aged in old oak. It exhibits lots of fruit and velvety tannins. The 1/4% residual sugar forms the perfect balance with the acids and alcohol.
* Merlot — This is a very unique semi-sweet Merlot wine. It is good with fun food like chili, pizza or burgers. A rare treat for those of us partial to sweeter white wines.
* Reserve — This is a more traditional Merlot wine. It is dry, fruity and has the perfect balance of tannins. This wine is a perfect accompaniment to steaks or barbequed meats.
Our unique wines
* Rosé – The rosé is a blend of Merlot, Chardonnay and Vidal wines. It is suitable for both red and white wine drinkers. 2% residual sugar.
* Late Harvest (Alyce) — These Vidal grapes were left on the vine for more sugar content, then frozen in our winery and pressed. The resulting juice is high in sweetness and the fermentation was stopped with 12% residual sugar. It is great as an accompaniment with dessert or it can be dessert in itself.
* Courtney’s Christmas Blend (available in December) – This dessert wine is a blend of Chambourcin, Merlot, and Chardonnay with a hint of cranberry. A perfect wine for the holidays.
They offer tastings at a modest price (maybe $5), which is waived if you make even a small wine purchase.
Their wines were overly sweet. We did, however, buy three bottles of Spring Time to use in an interesting-looking sangria recipe they provided.
Hidden Brook is located seven miles north of Historic Leesburg on Rt 15. Come and enjoy fine American wine in our Early American-style log winery nestled in the pines. Guests are invited to relax by a cozy fireplace, bring a lunch to enjoy in our dining area, or watch the sun set from the veranda.
TOURS: Saturday and Sunday, 11:00am – 5:00pm. Monday, Thursday, and Friday 12:00pm-5:00pm. Tuesday and Wednesday by appointment. Closed New Year’s, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas.
For further information visit www.hiddenbrookwinery.com
43301 Spinks Ferry Road
Leesburg, VA 20176
703-737-3935
hiddenbrookwine@aol.com
Owners: Eric and Deborah Hauck
Winemaker: Eric Hauck
Hidden Brook is very informal compared to Tarara. They offer generous tastings for a nominal rate and will not charge you if you buy even a single bottle of quite moderately priced wine.
Their wines were on the sweet side and none were particularly memorable. We bought a bottle each of their halfway decent Chardonnay and the Late Harvest white dessert wine.
On the bluffs of the Potomac River, Tarara is a 475-acre farm devoted to the art of producing fine wines. Each year brings new grapes with their own distinct character and Tarara’s wines are carefully crafted to showcase their true nature. Experience our award-winning wines, relax on our deck above the river or time your visit to include one of our special events. Uniquely located in a 6,000 square foot cave, the tasting room and gift shop are open year round.
TOURS: January through May open everyday 11am-5pm; June through December open Monday through Thursday 11am-5pm; Friday through Sunday 11am-6pm.
13648 Tarara Lane
Leesburg, VA 20176
703-771-7100, Metro DC 703-478-8161
winesales@tarara.com
Owners: RJ (Whitie) and Margaret Hubert
Winemaker: Rob Warren
Easily the best of the three. They offer two levels of tastings:
The Featured Selection – wines that appeal to every palette. Nine wines are tasted – ranging from dry whites and reds to semi-sweet and sweet. ($5.00/per person)
The Winemaker’s Select – includes Tarara’s limited production wines and elegant reserves – for the more discriminating palette. Six wines are tasted – starting with an elegant Chardonnay and finishing with a robust port style Merlot ($10.00/person)
Naturally, we had both. For our tastes, the Featured was by far the better bargain. Not only did we get more wines to taste for half the price, without exception we preferred the Featured wines to their Select counterparts. Whether it’s a matter of our palate (we tend to like pinot noirs) or their wines not aging well (the Selects were typically two to three years older vintage) we just liked the Selects better.
The Cabernet Franc was particularly good as was, oddly, the Merlot.
NYT debunks Julia Childs’ dictum “Never cook with a wine you wouldn’t drink.” Cooking is a great leveler, removing most of the subtlety from fine wines and smoothing off the rough edges of cheaper ones.
Furthermore, “In 1961, when Mrs. Child handed down her edict in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, decent wines at the very low end of the price scale were almost impossible to find in the United States. Now, inexpensive wines flow from all over the world: a $6 bottle is often a pleasant surprise (though sometimes, still, unredeemable plonk).”
Spätlese (literal meaning: “late harvest” Plural spatlesen) is a German wine term for a late harvest wine and is the second category of QmP wine in the German wine classification above Kabinett and below Auslese in terms of ripeness. The grapes are picked at least 7 days after normal harvest, so they are riper and have a higher must weight. Because of the weather, waiting to pick the grapes later carries a risk of the crop being ruined by rain. However in warm years and from good sites much of the harvest will reach spätlese level. In 2000, German wine producers introduced two new wine classifications “Classic” & “Selection” in an attempt to make German wine labels easier for consumers to understand. Under this new system “Classic” is meant to replace the Spatlese classification.
The wines may be either sweet or dry (trocken); it is a level of ripeness that particularly suits rich dry wines from Riesling, Weißer Burgunder and Grauer Burgunder grapes for example, as at Auslese levels the alcohol levels may become very high in a dry wine leaving the wine unbalanced, making wines with at least some residual sweetness preferable to most palates.
Many spätlese wines will age well, especially those made from the Riesling grape.
Characteristics
* Greater Intensity and strength then Kabinett
* High level of acidity that curbs any overt sweetness
* Fleshy and intensely flavored
* Often tastes of apple, pear and honeysuckle
* Elegant nose with highly detectable aromas
History
Legend has it that Rheingau vineyard Schloss Johannisberg discovered Spätlese in 1775 by mere circumstance. The Abbey’s messenger was robbed on the way to bring the official harvest picking order to Schloss Johannisberg. By the time the order finally arrived botrytis had set in and the rotten grapes were given to local peasants, many of whom still attempted to produce wine. The resulting wine was surprisingly good and Schloss Johannisberg began experimenting with different late harvest eventually discovering Auslese wine in 1787 and Eiswein in 1858.
In 1778 Thomas Jefferson tasted a bottle of Spätlese that was given to him and was so impressed that he advised friends who were in Europe to go to the Rheingau to experience the wines and bring a case back to America.
In 1971, Spätlese became part of German legislation that developed Schloss Johannisberg classification system for wine.
FRED BOUCHARD has an interesting article on the pinotage grape.
The maverick grape Pinotage is South Africa’s unique contribution to the world’s growing portfolio of interesting red wines, much as jazz and blues are America’s contribution to the world music. With its Beaujolais-like forward and youthful fruit, sometimes awkward astringency and curiously bitter aftertaste, Pinotage is not likely to become any wine marketer’s Great Red Hope. (Hey, jazz has got along for decades with a 3% market share of the music industry – but what a savvy little insider’s share it is.) Besides, Pinotage manifests other endearing characteristics, like lasting a long while in an open glass, aging rather slowly and well in the bottle, blending beautifully with “noble” Bordeaux and Rhone grapes widely and successfully planted in South Africa, and matching intriguingly with nearly as wide a spectrum of foods as that other under-valued but far more ubiquitous grape, Riesling.
Pinotage is the main red grape of South African wine, and it’s a cross between Pinot Noir — which we know and love — and Cinsault, a relatively unknown French grape that’s hardy and high yielding. Between Pinot Noir and Cinsault, you have a grape that grows around the world and produces plenty of juice for winemakers to work with.
Steve Bainbridge has an interesting piece on “The Red Wines of Summer” at TCS. While most of the wines he talks about are both outside our normal price range and too full of tannins for my tastes (although not necessarily Kim’s), his closing is worth noting:
When the rule that red wine should be served at “room temperature” arose, the rooms people were talking about were the drafty dining rooms of English manors. Central heating and global warming were centuries in the future, so room temperature meant something in the vicinity of 60-65 degrees. Even today, most red wines taste best when served at around 60 degrees. Below that temperature, many begin to taste sharp, as fruit flavors mute and as tannins and acids predominate. (The lighter bodied reds we’ve been discussing here being an exception, as they are usually better slightly colder, say mid-50s). If you’re served a wine that is too cold, just let it warm in the glass.
In the US these days, of course, you’re far more likely to encounter a red wine served at 70+ degrees. At that temperature, the alcohol starts to volatilize and you experience a hot sensation on both the nose and palate. The solution is simple, but requires confidence. Ask for an ice bucket and stick the red wine in it for 10 minutes or so to knock the edge off. You will almost certainly face anything from condescension to non-cooperation. After all, you’re dealing with barbarians — if the staff and management knew anything about wine, they’d serve red wines at a proper temperature. But it’s your bottle and you can do what you like. And next time, go someplace where they treat wine with the respect it deserves.
We keep our good reds in a coolish closet in the basement and have a wine refrigerator, too. But most guides say the reds should be kept in the 55 degree range, which is too cold for our tastes. We’ll have to give the 60-65 degree compromise a try.
