Check out this video to finally learn how to use that beautiful decanter you got for Christmas, wedding or birthday gift…

One of the biggest complaints I hear from my students is that they cannot remember labels. We have all been there. You taste  great little value wine or even a premium wine and the next day, you cannot remember the name on the label. At Cellar Door, we hear often hear customers stuggle with labels and even try to paint a picture such as… “The wine had a blue label and a picture of a duck on it” with high hopes that we will be able to conjure up the name for them. I believe this is one of the reasons why German producers created Zilliken Butterfly ($20). Given the fact that German wine labels are difficult to decipher unless you have a bit of wine knowledge, this med-dry Riesling is easy to sip, easy to say, easy to remember and easy on the wallet. What’s not to like? Plus, most wine purchases at the market are conducted by women. That said, I can tell you that we are sometimes wooed by sweet sounding verbage!

Yet for serious wine drinkers, simple labels may sound too trendy or too kitchy giving them a preconcieved idea that the wine is of low quality. After all, would a real wine lover ever order up a bottle of ZaZa rose or Butterfly Riesling for the table? Think again my wine loving friends - cos times they are a changing….can you say Cupcake Vineyards? 

I recently tasted three varieties crafted under the Cupcake label: Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, Reisling from Washington State and Cabernet Sauvignon from Central Coast of California. Unlike most wineries, Cupcake takes  the global view of wine literally which, according to winemaker Adam Richardson, “allows us to find the most interesting expression of each grape variety.” After tasting the three bottles with my students in class, I must say we all agree with Mr. Richardson’s strategy. The wines are varietally correct and represent a fun and festive (yet serious) approach to wine.

2009 Cupcake Sauvignon Blanc: Crafted in the cool South Island of New Zealand, this Sauvignon Blanc jumps out of the glass and smacks you in the face with loads of grapefruit, tropical fruit and lemon. Medium alcohol with high, mouthwatering acidity and a long textural finish. Perfect seafood wine or serve with anything you would squeeze a lemon on…

2009 Cupcake Dry Riesling: Made using grapes harvested on the dry side of the Cascade mountians in Coloumbia Valley, this Riesling explodes with grapefruit, lemon and white peach. If you want to try a good quality dry Riesling with your Chinese food tonight - this is it.

2007 Cupcake Cabernet Sauvignon: The sun-drenched vineyards of California’s Central Coast is responsible for giving this Cab plenty of ripeness and fruit. Think blackcherry, blackberry, mocha and spice. This year’s blend 89% Cab, 6% Syrah, 2% Petite Sirah and 2% Merlot all aged in American oak.

Sure there is a story behind the name and I am sure it has something to do with sweetness like a cupcake or creamy texture like the icing on a cupcake etc. For me, how the name came about is not important. Instead, the fact that the wines are yummy, affordable (did I mention they are all priced at $10) and easy to remember is reason enough to pass on the good news. Cheers!

Unlike any other grape I  know, Pinot Noir has nervous energy that (simply put) is addictive. Zesty, full of life and honest, this thin-skinned grape likes to grow in cool climates graced with plenty of sunshine. From Burgundy, France to Oregon to Central Otago region of New Zealand, Pinot Noir has mastered the art of expression. No other grape provides such “sense of place” in the glass. No other grape is as nervous. Here’s why.In the vineyard, Pinot Noir presents a challenge for grape growers. For starters, the vine demands specific growing conditions (cooler than for most reds) and only lives to be about 35 years old, so replanting is required more often than say for Cabernet Sauvignon. The best Pinot Noir is made when yields are kept low making it a costly vine to grow. Additionally, the grape’s thin skins means vineyard pests, moulds and hail can easily damage the berry.Once in the winery, Pinot Noir is fragile and must be treated with kid gloves.. Thin skins means less tannin making it easier to oxidize. Plus, the delicate nature of Pinot Noir makes it very transparent, so fermentation techniques can often be spotted in the glass. One winemaker in Oregon told me, “Pinot Noir tastes like whatever you do to it, so it is best to leave it alone in the winery.” By doing so, the true aromas of Pinot Noir unfold on your palate and definately ring with terrior.Tasting a good Pinot Noir is like hitting the sweet spot in tennis or golf, you hear that ping or feel it in your swing and all you can think of is…I wanna do it again! Here are some noteworthy Pinot Noirs we tasted at Cellar Door last week:2006 Peregrine Pinot Noir, Central Otago, New Zealand ($40) :black and red fruit aromas pop out of the glass along with some fantastic green, spicy notes. New Zealand is a cool growing region with lots of sun, so the wines tend to be ripe and high in acidity making them perfect partners for the table.   2007 Torii Mor Pinot Noir,Dundee, Oregon ($24) Red and black fruit with forest floor earthiness and smoke. This wine is drinking well now but could hold in your cellar. Easy to sip Pinot Noir at an affordable price, this wine rocks. 2007 Jermann Red Angel Pinot Noir, Italy ($37) Crafted in the northeastern region of Italy, Red Angel offers brambly red fruit with lots spice and mouthwarming alcohol. Slight earthy, smoky aromas provide just enough depth to keep this wine from being too cheerful.   2007 Morgon 12 Clones Pinot Noir, Santa Lucia Highlands, California ($32) Soft red fruits, spice with a velvety mouth feel and mouth warming alcohol. This little wine packs a punch. The oak is sitting on top of the fruit and could benefit from a few years in your cellar. That said, a nice lean piece of beef would suffice. 

Last month, I chatted about pairing wine with chocolate and, as part of the Fabulous Food Show, teamed up Joel Fink of Fantasy Chocolate on the Wine Theatre stage. The tasting was a huge success. Earlier this month, Joel and I teamed up again, but this time on Ohio Authority’s At Cellar Door wine video. Click here to check out the video. Cheers.

A few months ago, I was approached by a former WSET student about a new on-line magazine he and a few of his past co-workers were creating after their employer, Northern Ohio Live, closed its doors. A testament to the adage - hard work pays off - the site is up, running and catching the eyes, ears and keyboards of thousands of viewers across the state of Ohio. Cheers to Ivan and the team at Ohio Authority! While the magazine does chat about food, wine, beer and the like - it also serves as a resource for finding out about various products, businesses, events and destination happenings across the state. Their goal is to be the EXPERT within the category of which they are speaking…that said, I am happy to tell you that OA has asked me to be their wine educator/expert and I could not be happier to do so. Click on the link above and check it out…our first of many videos focuses on wines from Spain. Cheers.

Sounds like a great way to keep track of all the labels we really want to remember - but simply can’t. If only they had an app for Blackberry…Cheers.

In terms of pairing these wonderful bites up with wine, our first consideration is the amount of cocoa vs added sugar in each chocolate. The more sugar in the chocolate, the more sweetness we need to consider for the wine. #1 rule of thumb when pairing up desserts with wine; the wine should always be precieved as sweet or sweeter than the dessert. When it comes to chocolate, the higher the percent of cocoa, the less sugar in the chocolate.

72% cocoa chocolate: Starting with the driest chocolate, we sampled a few wines including Fonseca Ruby Port and Ridge Zinfandel. The Zinfandel proved to be too dry with not enough fruity character to pull it off. The Fonseca port, while tasty with the chocolate did not move either of us. Seemed to be a bit too sweet for the chocolate. Given the bitter bite of the 72%, we decided to use it as an example of what NOT to do when pairing wine and chocolate and teamed it up with Rati Dolcetto. The bitter tannin-bitter chocolate pairing offered a perfect example of a bad pairing. We are keeping it in the tasting.

64% cocoa chocolate: This chocolate had decidedly more sugar and was much less bitter that the first. Joel and I decided that we could up the anti a bit and bring in a sweeter styled wine. Hands down, the FroZin from Meeker won the prize. With 17.5% residual sugar and a lovely perfume of raspberry and red flowers, this wine and chocolate pairing was heaven.

58% cocoa chocolate: Interestingly so, this level of sweetness posed a problem for the wines we had on hand. Less cocoa means more sugar and the wines I pulled for the tasting did not seem to match the unique flavor profile nor sweetness level of the chocolate. While the Fonseca Port faired well, its dried tobacco aromas over powered the lovely creaminess this chocolate from Belgium offered. We then tried an Oloroso Cream Sherry, which failed the test as well. My thoughts are leaning towards a PX or Maderia. I try and few more wines and let you know.

32% cocoa Chocolate: The only mild chocolate on the table this sweet, melt-in-you-mouth chocolate left a lasting impression. The pairing was dead on, Optima 10 year Tawny Port. The result was a to-die-for hazelnut, chocolate, cream explosion on the palate. I think Joel and I both agreed, this combination is a match made in heaven. Cheers.

This past Friday and Saturday nights, we hosted an Oregon Pinot Party at Cleveland Wine School Cellar Door. The place was packed with Pinot sipping friends, each greeted at the Door with a glass of bubbles - Argyle Brut to be exact. I think most were amazed (and pleased) with the versatility of Pinot, namely its ability to morph into a new grape variety. One of the oldest vines on record, Pinot Noir is genetically unstable and likes to misbehave in the vineyard. On my recent trip to Oregon, I actually saw a lone rogue vine within the row. Very cool. When Pinot Noir mutates to the point of changing color, we give it a new name such as Pinot Blanc. A delicous white wine that is neutral in flavor offering gullet washing properties. This weekend we featured Elk Cove Pinot Blanc. Light in body with lemon, apple and slight peachy aromas the wine is a perfect starter wine and a good value at $20. Some tasters noticed the slight residual sugar on the wine, others did not. Regardless the wine is very easy to sip. The other fantasic white, and one of my favorite varieties, that Pinot Noir takes form as is Pinot Gris. Fuller in body than its Italian version (Pinot Grigio), well crafted Gris is packed with flavor making it a great wine to sip alone or with food. Since Pinot Gris tends to lose its acidity in the vineyard, warmer climate growers race to harvest in hopes of keep acid levels high. Not so for cooler climate growers where night time temps keep bunches cool resulting in longer hangtime and flavor concentration. Chehalem Pinot Gris rocked the tasitng room last night. Might be my new favorite wine.

Then came the real deal, Pinot Noir. We sampled examples from different sub AVAs of the Willamette Valley including Bethel Heights (Old World styled with lots of minerality), Rex Hill (fruit-forward and approachable), Willamette Valley Whole Cluster (carbonic aromas with bright cherry fruit), Penner-Ash (hefty with lots of dark fruit aromas), Domaine Drouhin Laurene (big and built to age). Each wine brought something different the glass decidedly illustrating the flexibility and transparency of Pinot Noir. And that my friends is why grape growers like to grow it, winemakers like to make it, Sommeliers like to suggest it, we like to drink it and Hollywood made a movie about it. Kind of makes you want to grab a glass….go on, its noon somewhere. Cheers.

Day 1: Began when 18 WSET students landed in McMinnville at Hotel Oregon. Located in the heart of the Willamette Valley, Hotel Oregon is an authentic styled tavern and inn (circa wild wild west) that feels more like a guest house than a hotel. After a quick sip of house-made brew, we headed out for our first winery visit at one of the area’s oldest wineries, Eyrie Vineyards. Founded by the late (and great) David Lett, the Eyrie tasting room and winery is situated right in the center of town making it an easy first stop for anyone staying in McMinnville. The tasting room had lots of historic photos, each adding to the rich Lett story which began  40 years ago.  Best yet, a platter containing three tight bunches of very ripe grapes - Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc - was on display for all to see, touch and taste. A pinoneer at heart, David Lett was dedicated to growing Pinot Noir (along with its various mutations) and was the first winemaker to grow Pinot Gris in the region. After a quick taste of the 2007 Pinot Blanc (light weight, crisp acidity with bright citus and appley fruit), we walked into the barrel room for an intimate lesson on Eyrie by winemaker Jason Lett.

The barrel room was designed to create the perfect environment for barrel maturation - temperature controlled, no windows and cement walls and floors. Once we settled in, it did not take long to notice the mold on the walls which Jason quickly told us is part of the natural environment helping to keep “bad” bugs away from the wine.

While he shared many stories and interesting winemaking techniques with us, my favorite take was a line Jason quoted from a friend. “When the grapes come into the winery, you start with 100 points and you can only lose points after that.” This sentence sums up the Lett philosophy.