How is Wine Like Golf?
Vinturi Red Wine Aerator
They both have a ton a gadgets that well-intentioned relatives buy for interested family members at the holidays. In fact most of these gadgets are more novelty than necessity.
So I may have thought when my parents gave us a Vinturi Essential Wine Aerator for Christmas, until I tried it last night.
Although I have declared 2010 the Year of White Wine in our house we still have a considerable amount of red wines so we tried Spier Vintage Selection Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 from South Africa. We took two glasses and pour some straight from the bottle and another through the Virturi Essential Wine Aerator and into a glass. The wine went straight through the aerator as quickly as if it passed through a funnel. Absolutely no waiting.
Then we tasted both of them. The difference was remarkable. When we tasted the wine poured through the Vinturi Aerator it was as if it had been properly decanted and allowed to breath for 15 or 20 minutes. It was wonderful and ready in mere seconds.
If you are a red wine drinker you need to get this gadget because unlike that practice putting cup with the automatic return, this one is worth the money!
I’ve looked and the best price I could find was on Amazon – Venturi Essential Wine Aerator
You’ll love it.
2009 Kovacs Wine Party – Wine List
The following is the flight list I made for the party tomorrow. I thought I would provide a little preview for those that are coming.
Welcome to the 5th Annual Kovacs Wine Party
Lauren and I are so happy you could join us today as we celebrate 5 years of living in Raleigh and having this great party with wonderful friends. We enjoy wines from all over the world and have selected some from our favorite wines, locations and vintors to share with you. This year we are providing this list of the featured wines so you can note which wines you enjoy the most and seek them out. All of these wines are available at Total Wine. Sit back, relax and enjoy!
The Reds
2006 Bridgman Cabernet Sauvignon – Yakima Valley, Washington
Notes: Ruby/garnet in the glass. Powerful nose of cassis and cherry/plum. Powerful, intense flavors of fruit — cassis and plum, primarily. A bit of cedar on the midpalate, with a touch of tannin and spice on the finish. Balance is just about perfect. with a long finish. Kris’ Note: I’ve noted that I’m becoming partial to wines from Washington State. The Columbia and Yakima Valleys make incredible wines. Look for Bridgman, Apex, and Chateau Ste. Michelle they are all from this region and they may great wines.
2005 Montoya Vinyards Cabernet Sauvignon – Napa Valley California
Notes: Dark berry color in the glass. This Cab has a freshly rained on soil smell with plummy and elegant oak on the nose. It has generous blackberry, plum, currant and berry flavors with a nice lingering smooth film of oak that nicely envelopes the smoky blackberry soft tang. Kris’ Note: Montoya is consistently a good wine and frequently shows up on resturant wine lists.
2007 Terra Barossa Shiraz – Austrailia
Notes: Purple, highly aromatic, showing raspberry, smoke — lots of smoke — and spice in the nose. Powerful, concentrated flavors of cherry, raspberry, smoke, baking chocolate, and oak notes on the finish. Balance is near-perfect; the wine is quite large, but there’s enough acidity and tannin to balance it out most of the way. It’s a little topheavy. Finish is everlasting. Kris’ note: This is the wild card. I asked for a Shiraz recommendation and this is what they recommended.
The Whites
2007 Bodega Catena Zapata Chardonnay – Mendoza, Argentina
Notes: It is the most well known winery from Argentina. Nicolás Catena is like Bob Mondavi from South America. Straw yellow. Shows gorgeous aromas of exotic fruits (mango, passion fruit, pineapple), butter and sweet oak. Mid-full bodied, with very rich sweet fruit, nicely integrated oak and balancing acidity. Long finish. Kris’ Note: I really like the strong bold reds from Mendoza – Argentina so I thought we should see what they can do with white wine.
2007 River Road Chardonnay – Sonoma County, California
Producers Notes: Our Sonoma County Chardonnay is fermented in stainless steel tanks and exposed to minimal oak contact after fermentation. This approach retains the bright, clean citrus and apple flavors.
2008 Villa Lanata Moscato D’Asti – Piedmont, Italy
Notes: Lemon-yellow in the glass. Inviting nose of apricot and nectarine. Slightly fizzy. Bountiful flavors of apricot, nectarine, and some orange zest, nice. Fairly sweet (at 5.5% ABV, not a surprise), moderate acidity, well-balanced. Kris’ Note: This is a previous Kovacs Wine Party Hit. In fact, this wine has celebrity status in our house during the holidays.
2008 Bidgman Riesling – Yakima Valley, Washington
Notes: Ripe pear, green apples and lime up front with honeyed peach on the finish. Kris’ Note: Yakima Valley again, sorry I just could not help myself.
Best Wine Under $6
When the screened porch was finished my parents came over with two bottles of wine as deck warming presents.
One of those bottles has become my favorite wine of the summer season.
2007 Beringer Muscato
I’m not a huge sweet wine fan. I think Muscadine wines are vile and while zinfindel has very little flavor. But I am in love with this Muscato, we’ve had four bottles since that first one we were given. It has a great fresh flavor with a bit of sweetness. Great for hanging out on the deck with friends after dinner.
And here is the best part of all you can buy it at Walmart for less than $6. It must be catching on because when I picked up two bottles this afternoon there there only three left. Almost every other wine was packed on the shelf with a big hole where this wine is. You should get this wine if you can. You’ll love it.
Kofacts Rating: 
2008 Georges Dubeuf Nojolais
One of the great signs of the season is the release of the Beaujolais Nouveau. The Beaujolais region in France has made a name for this wine largely through maintaining the tradition of its release and producing what is typically a pretty good wine. That was until this year.
I picked up a bottle of George Dubeuf Beaujolais Nouveau 2008 for a after-Christmas family gathering.
Georges Dubeuf Beaujolais Nouveau 2008
I got home, chilled the bottle and later that evening eagerly opened the bottle and shared it with my family.
I was my sister’s reference to rubbing alcohol that truly summed up just how bad this wine was.
I’m not sure if perhaps this bottle was ruined in storage or transport, but I bought this from a local store that has never disappointed me in the past.
But sadly, this wine has. The wine lacked any real flavor and instead tasted like I was drinking cheap whiskey from a plastic bottle. Except the whiskey might have been tolerable.
Not Good to say the least.
- Kofacts.com Rating
Hi, My name is Kris Kovacs and welcome to KoFacts my blog about everyday leadership, management, technology, politics, scouting and other fun stuff. I have a diverse background in financial services and information technology so the topics I cover tend to be applicable to business and IT. Thanks for stopping by. Please subscribe to my blog or bookmark it and visit often.
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