It’s back-to-school time, so we want to get a little academic about the art of tasting. Our guest host is Sumner, IT specialist at Wine Insiders, and he speaks with Jonathon Alsop, founder & executive director of the Boston Wine School and a commentator for National Public Radio. Jonathon shares with us how he found his way into wine academia, then teaches Sumner the how and the why of tasting wine as they pour and discuss three very special wines from Italy, Hungary and California.
It’s back-to-school time, so we want to get a little academic about the art of tasting. Our guest host is Sumner, IT specialist at Wine Insiders, and he speaks with Jonathon Alsop, founder & executive director of the Boston Wine School and a commentator for National Public Radio. Jonathon began writing about wine, food and travel in 1988 and emerged as a wine expert through his syndicated wine column In Vino Veritas. His latest book is Wine Life: A Collection Of Verses.
For this episode Sumner and Jonathon will pour and discuss three unique wines: from Italy, Cantina di Solopaca Maria Cristina Falanghina Sparkling Brut, from Hungary, 020 Tüzkö Riesling, and from California, 2017 George Phillips Cellars Reserve Selection No. 39 Lodi Zinfandel.
Sniff Sip Repeat is brought to you by Wine Insiders, leaders in online wine. Wine Insiders makes buying great wine easy. Founded in 1982 as a club for California wine enthusiasts, Wine Insiders now offers high-quality wines from around the world for the best value and conveniently shipped to your door in just days. The collection is curated by a host of food and wine industry and lifestyle experts, such as Martha Stewart, Chef Geoffrey Zakarian, and Chef Ludo Lefebvre. Learn more about the wines or shop now to taste alongside our podcast guests.
Visit http://www.wineinsiders.com to learn more.
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Sumner:
From Wine Insiders. This is Sniff Sip, Repeat a monthly podcast for lively discussions, all about wine. In each episode we speak with industry experts from vineyards and tasting rooms, to restaurant and retail to give you a little inspiration for what to pour next.
I'm your host Sumner Leveque, sitting in for Kristin. As the IT specialist for Wine Insiders, you would think that I'm better qualified to talk about why your computer's giving you a hard time than let's say a specific vintage of Cabernet Sauvignon and well, you'd be right. However, since working in the wine industry, I've become more and more interested in learning how to better appreciate wine. And to do that I've invited the founder and executive director of the Boston Wine School, Jonathon Alsop, to join me in an educational wine tasting.
We try three unique wines while Jonathon helps me better understand and appreciate the world of wine. It's a fun, unique episode, and I hope you enjoy.
Hey Jonathon, thank you for joining me today.
Jonathon:
Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.
Sumner:
So, I wanted to start off by just talking about yourself, your background, um, how you got into wine, like where your passion for wine comes from.
Jonathon:
Well, I started life as a corporate, uh, speech writer, uh, doing the speeches, the soundtracks, screenplays sales meetings, that kind of thing. And, um, years ago I was, uh, writing a big international sales meeting and the Australian New Zealand wing of the company decided that they wanted to host this Australia, New Zealand wine and food night. Um, and I was writing everything else. So it was just natural that I would write this, although I I'd never written about wine, I'd never written about food. Um, before, you know, we needed, um, we needed signs, we needed handouts, we needed, uh, tea, tasting sheets and tasting notes, um, for people. And that was the first time that I ever tasted wine technically and then turned around and wrote about it.
Sumner:
What inspired you to start the Boston wine school and to teach others about enjoying wine and, uh, and about the world of wine?
Jonathon:
Well, I, um, had, uh, again, sort of, sort of, um, unexpectedly an opportunity to teach about wine. Um, I knew someone who worked at Brookline, um, adult education, adult, and community education. Um, and she called me one day and said, Hey, have you ever thought about teaching a wine class? And I said, you know, that's really funny that you mentioned that because I had thought about teaching a wine class. And she said, that's awesome. How's Thursday because the guy who was teaching the wine class Thursday, he can't do it. And I'm, and I need someone Thursday and totally unexpected. And I said, sure, taught that first class. And just, you know, seeing people, um, seeing them experience the same thing that I, I experienced when I visit vineyards and wineries and taste wine and learn about wine, this relentless process of the, of the, of the light bulb going off over top of your head. And also being able to look out at three or four people and watch that happen. Like, you know, like fireflies, um, across the people or classroom that's in, that's in front of you. Um, that's, that's, that's just the most awesome thing. Um, and to have people say that, that, you know, they came into wine class, one person, and now they're leaving wine class, a different person than they came in. It was just, um, an amazing thing to witness
Sumner:
When you are teaching, uh, about wine to new students. Cause I'm, I'm a new student in this case. Um, what do you teach as far as like how to enjoy the wine? Like, what are some goals that you have for your students when they're trying wine for the first time and getting used to different aromas and palate and taste?
Jonathon:
One of the things that we do with people is some of the elements of technical wine tasting our approach is 99% hedonistic, but there's also so, but there's also some technical wine tasting elements that we teach that really help people. Um, you know, the seven S system that we teach, seeing the wines, sniffing it, swirling it, smelling it, all of these steps in this process are designed to turn up the volume on the smell and taste of the wine, just like the audio files and the people who love sound in your life, always are playing the stereo a little bit too loud. This is what wine lovers are doing. They're swirling this glass to try and get to turn, to turn up the volume on the aroma, to be able to get more out of it and to be able to get deeper into it.
Sumner:
We're, we're turning the volume up to 11 by swirling it around.
Jonathon:
Sometimes, sometimes. Um, when, I mean, one of the things we do is, um, and this is great. Once we start eating out in restaurants and going places and doing things again, you have to do this. Is that in addition to, um, in addition to swirling the wine, you put your hand over top of the glass so that you really trap everything that's evaporating you trap in there that turns it up to 11, and then it's also cool because otherwise people are watching you around the restaurant and then they all start doing it. And, um, you know, becomes like live and viral.
Sumner:
I never thought about that, but that makes a lot of sense, like to cover it up cause it's like, yeah, you weren't, you want to compact that you want to get as much out of it. Like, cause I, I have tried just, you know, swirling at myself and smelling and trying to taste and kind of swirling the wine within my mouth and trying to get, you know, maybe some more nuanced aromas or flavors, um, you know, out of each, each sip. And, uh, um,
Jonathon:
So one thing I would say is, um, like not all wine is super nuanced. Um, when we're tasting New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc that is awesomely acidic and Zippy and grapefruit, then star fruit and lemon lime and all of these sorts of things. There's not, there's not a lot of subtle nuance there in that wine. Um, Pinot Grigio, you know, um, you know, most peanut greed chia was very, is very vivid, very forward. And, um, w what I would say is focused on what's in the foreground for now forget about the background, but let's just focused on the loudest instruments that are shining through when we smell or taste a wine and just put a few words to them. Um, we don't have to, we don't have to write, you know, we don't have to write war and peace here. You know, if we can just say like, just a couple of coherent sentences, that's, that's more than, and you're talking about you, you're talking about how, what you like and how it, how it strikes you. And if this is the right wine for you, um, you're really talking about yourself, which most people, you know, find irresistible.
Sumner:
Yeah. So, so for today, we're going to start with, uh, my version of lined paper and trying to draw an a over and over again in the world of wine tasting. So, this first one we're trying is it, it's got a long name, uh, for me--Cantina di Solopaca Maria Christiana Falanghina Sparkling Brut. And I'm probably mispronouncing that grape. I apologize to everyone listening,
Jonathon:
But that's, that's, that's Falanghina is the name, that's the name of the grape that this wine is made from. Oh, thank goodness. Yeah. So, so I, so I would call this, I would call this Maria Christina, this is, and this is a sparkling Falanghina.
Sumner:
Gotcha. Okay. So, so in this case, like, because even though it says it's, it's more, you want to, it would be more focusing on the specific grape here, because this is like an ancient grape, correct. This is an Italian, ancient grade.
Jonathon:
First of all, this is one of the things that am totally loving about this wine is that the ancient Romans were writing about this grape 2,500 years ago. And at the time they, they were reporting at the time, it was a years-old then. So, this grape Falanghina, I mean, this is a grape that we've been making into wine relentlessly in this part of Italy. This is the, this is the Hills and the countryside around, um, Naples, um, which is, which is the only place on the planet where this grape grows. Um, and so we have this ancient, ancient grape, and we're doing something extremely modern with it, which is turning it into a sparkling wine, which is just awesome. This ancient grape with this totally modern almost post-modern expression of form, you know, that's coming out that it's coming out of the popularity of Prosecco coming out of the popularity of Spanish Cava, um, uh, coming out of the popularity of all of these wines with CO2 in them. Um, you know, this is something that I don't know that our species has ever done before with this grape. So even though this is an ancient, ancient grape, I, I, I believe we're, you know, we're, we're, we're making it sparkling. We're carbonating it for the first time in our, our history.
Sumner:
I believe so, so not only, so not only am I trying a wine just to understand how wine works. I am also trying like, possibly an historic invention of wine. Like this is like, oh, have you been on a plane before? It's like, no. Okay, well, let's go fly the Concorde.
Jonathon:
Uh, I, you know, I work, this will stay more or less it's sea level. So, I think that, um, I think it should be very, very, should be very, very safe with this.
Sumner:
So, I've noticed like I am at the very, the limited knowledge I have, I have the wine glass up, but the, like the light and it looks like it's kind of like a lighter, maybe like yellow greenish color. This is more of a lighter wine.
Jonathon:
Well, that is naturally what you start thinking when you look at this color and, you know, just, and again, just the way it moves in the glass, um, you know, it's not, it, it's not moving in the glass, you know, as if it were maple syrup and like FIC and nectarine, right. You can see as it moves in the glass, it's very light. And again, that sets your expectation for what the wine is going to taste like with the wine is going to feel like what's going to be the motional with what's going to be the emotional quality of the why.
Sumner:
Gotcha. All right. So I've got, I've got my wine glass here. I'm going to do the, the S the Jonathon move here of putting my hand on top and I'm going to swirl it. Okay. Here we go. I'm swirling. This is the part that you're just listening to is very exciting.
Jonathon:
And don't be shy really, really get this thing. If you're splashing some on yourself, that is just a sign that you're doing it right.
Sumner:
Even better, really want to, got to get myself involved with the wine here.
Jonathon:
And then, and then get, and then when you smell it, get your nose way down in there. Do not be shy.
Sumner:
All right, here we go. Oh, wow. Okay. So, I think I smelled apple it's it seems kind of citrusy. Um, but like, very, like, it feels like it's almost like it kind of woke me up a little bit. Like it's like lively. Um, that was great. I, I highly recommend putting your hand on top of your glass of wine, but that made it much better.
Jonathon:
Well, when you're smelling wine, what you're smelling is what's evaporating from the surface of the Y. And if you swirl it, now you have a larger surface area that, that surface is in motion. And when you put your hand on top of it and you are trapping, what's evaporating in there and concentrating it, um, a little bit, um, it, um, it's a more intense aroma. It's more, more detailed. Um, Mo most people find that it lasts just like in the dimension of time. It lasts longer. Not only is it stronger, but it lasts longer so that you're experiencing it for a longer period of time and have more reaction to it. And more to say about it. Um, this is why we do this. It is not just to alienate normal people. Um, although, although it is great for that, and definitely, definitely does that too,
Sumner:
As a normal person, this is, this makes me feel like I I've got a foot up on the other normal people, so I'm going to taste it now, now. Okay. And I'm tasting it like, cause I know like people kind of, I, I have observed people like sipping it kind of, like I said, their sipping hot soup and then like kind of swirling it around their mouth. Do you have any tech sitting out for this? This
Jonathon:
Is a sparkling wine. So, um, in general, what we want to do is we just want to take like a little sip of this in our mouths and just let it be there and live with it for, for a bit something like this, that's carbonated. You don't necessarily want to swish it around too much. Right. Cause it's going to excite that carbonation and you know, come right out in your knowns. So you don't want to do that necessarily with sparkling wine, but with, but with, you know, we're going to taste this Riesling next, which is much lighter in flavor than this sparkling wine. Right. That's something that, and that's something that you might want to switch around more to turn the flavor up more sparkling wine. Usually doesn't need that. So, so, so take a sip of this, let it be in your mouth for a few moments, just live with it. And, um,
Sumner:
And, and
Jonathon:
I dunno, I dunno if you have a spit glass there, but make it disappear with the technique of your choice. And so,
Sumner:
Wow. My first thought is it's like, I don't know if this is a wine note, but it tastes elegant to me. It's nice. Like, I'm not sure, like, cause I know like wines can have like a nice finish. I don't know if that technically would qualify as a nice finish, but it definitely, it wasn't like the flavor wasn't like really strong, bold right in my face. But it also wasn't subdued. It could almost, it almost tasted like checking into a really nice hotel. Fantastic. And everything is taken care of. You're going to have a great trip. This is to be fine. Um, I know this also,
Jonathon:
Uh, making this wine for 3000 years now we put bubbles in it. What can go wrong? Yeah. Right. That's, that's exactly, that's exactly the emotional quality. Um, and that's what, and that's one of the things that makes this wine great. I mean, it's something, you know, something I've never tasted before. I mean, it's just part of this constantly renewing world of wine and wine ideas.
Sumner:
Yeah. And I, and I looked into this wine a little bit. It's been described to have hints of exotic fruits and ARCA, apples mingled with yellow flowers. Um, and I could definitely taste apple for sure. Like it seems like a very strong kind of apple. It's got some like kind of a little bit of citrus, not a ton of citrus
Jonathon:
People. So Fallon Dina, people talk about, um, golden, delicious apple pear and Mellon, you know, Mel like honeydew, like white melon. These are the things that you're describing. These are exactly the words that people use to describe falling Geena. So yeah, absolutely
Sumner:
Other wines I've had like, you have them in like, it's like, okay, that's what it tastes like. And it's done, but this wine and maybe this is because it's a better wine after tasting it. Even afterwards, like kind of breathing in and out. It even still like continues like the flavor still goes on like the, this apple kind of like nice velvety carpet that continues on Carla DAW. The best way to describe it. This
Jonathon:
Is what you were referring to before about this wine's finish is that when we break this, uh, tasting process down a little bit and slow it down a little bit. Yeah. What happens is we begin to have a beginning and a middle and an end. We have an arc to the experience of tasting the wine. And what you're describing now is that you tasted the wine and, and minutes later you're having like a little aftershock of flavor because you were still changing biochemically. You're still in the process of even though you've swallowed this wine or spat this wine or whatever you've done with it, you are still, you are, you are still being biochemically affected by it. And even though it's minutes later, this is what you're, this is what you're experiencing. This is one of the things th this, this is why we, so I would like to slow down a little bit if we can and break this wine tasting process down into some distinct steps. Cause we may be tasting wine after wine, after wine. So once we taste one, we need to regroup and then have a beginning, a middle and end who he tastes the second one and the third one and the fourth one. And however, however many, we might be lucky enough to taste.
Sumner:
So with this wine, what kind of foods would you pair with this wine? I've I've gotten written down that it might compliment Italian chicory, like Buffalo mozzarella, some soft cheeses, salami, salami. Yeah.
Jonathon:
I mean this, this is something that would pair great with that food as food. Um, it, it, it pairs great with that food as the time of day that you have that food, right? This is something that, you know, you've been working, you get together, you know, before you order dinner, before you figure out what you're doing with the rest of the night, you have a little, you have a little cheese, you have a little bread, you have a little charcuterie, you open this, right. It, um, it's, it's prey. It's perfect. It's perfect for the sequence of what you're setting up for food too. Um, I think it's also going to be awesome with, with, I mean, I w I'm a big fan of raw bar, oysters, mussels, clams, all of that kind of thing. I think this would be awesome with that. Felon Gita is a very strong mind, but quite strong and forward and flavor.
Jonathon:
Um, so this is the kind of thing that depending on how you did, uh, a pork recipe or, um, a sword fish, um, a tuna shark, you know, it's a stronger white, um, meat, maybe even some veal, you know, something, uh, something like that. Okay. Um, this, this could, this could go along with that. Um, this could go along with that too, in the wine world, we use this word flexible. We talk about a wine being flexible. This is something that you can drink alone. Um, and I don't mean like alone and sad, you know, with the shades drawn, right? I mean just alone without food. Uh, but it's also something that's very flexible. You could have this with Robar, you could have this with chicken, we could have this with a lot of things. So it's very, very flexible wine and we love
Sumner:
It. Well, let's move on to the next one. So this next one, um, I understand it's kind of a unique take on Riesling to 2022 school Riesling, uh, which for those that are listening just in case, um, this wine is available through wine insiders, it is a club exclusive wine. Um, so it is available when you do join the wine insiders club. So just as a, uh, just mentioning when you're looking for this wine, uh, that's where you'll find it, uh, with wine insiders, but from what I understand, reasoning as a German grape, however, this is not a German. Great. This is a Hungarian grape.
Jonathon:
Yes. This is a Riesling from Hungary. Um, not too surprisingly. This is from a part of Southern Hungary. Um, that is an historically German speaking part, um, of hungry. I'm hungry, used to be part of the, of this larger Austro-Hungarian empire. Um, and, uh, the language of this empire was overwhelmingly, uh, German. And that's how, um, that's how this part of Hungary got its reasoning, uh, which is traditionally, um, a German grape. Um, although you see also Riesling grown in Northern Italy, uh, you also see Riesling grown in Austria and other, other, other, uh, um, uh, prodo German, um, uh, overlapping, uh, cultural regions, uh, too. So it's not just in Germany, but it's definitely, it's definitely a Germanic. Um, great. So this is a dry reasoning. Um, this is a reasoning with very, very little sugar, um, left in it. Um, so this is something that people, when it comes to understanding Riesling, it's not so much about understanding reasoning.
Jonathon:
It's more about understanding yourself. What do you prefer in a Riesling? Do you like one that is utterly bone dry with zero sugar? Do you like a little bit of sugar? Do you like a lot of sugar? I mean, this is a very, very personal, you know, this is very personal individual thing. Uh, but when you go looking for reasoning, you have to be able to say that you have to say, Hey, I'm looking for Riesling and about me, I like totally drive Riesling or about me. I like a sweeter Riesling. You have to know that about yourself and be able to say that to get, you know, to, to get something close to a good, um, selection. Gotcha.
Sumner:
So this looking at the color of this again, like, you know, certainly around, it looks like it's dead. It looks lighter, obviously, you know, cause it is a white wine, um, uh, green tents and colder
Jonathon:
And colder climate. Okay. So not only a lighter grape like felon, Geena's maybe a darker skinned grape with darker juice to begin with, but now we've got a lighter grape, also grown farther north in a colder climate interest and that's going to, and that's, we expect the color to be a little lighter too, because of,
Sumner:
And then this one I'm gonna S I'm gonna swirl around and I'm, I'm here. I'm going to do the Jonathon here. I'm gonna, I'm calling it the Jonathon. Now, I don't know if this is the technical term for putting your hand on you for those at home to try the Jonathon. I highly highly recommend the Jonathon. Um, all right. It's just really around, it helps if
Jonathon:
You're, it helps if you're a little ambidextrous
Sumner:
That is actually true. I do smell apple again with this one, but it's kind of more like minerals, I guess that seems kind of a, I don't know if like earthy wood,
Jonathon:
You know, I can't, I can't, I can't prove this now, of course, but what I was thinking was, um, you know, right after it rains on a sidewalk it's aromatic and lifting, right. It's coming up out of the, off the sidewalk. Um, but it's Stony and chalky. And this is reminding me a little bit of that.
Sumner:
It rained recently here and I I'm in Southern California in the Los Angeles area. So we don't know what rain is, but so when it happens, it's unusual. Um, but the next day it wasn't raining. Um, and my girlfriend and I, you know, uh, looking at doors, I, I was like, oh, Hey, it rained last night. She's like, no, it didn't, you know, and I don't think she said no attended, but she was like, oh, like surprised. And I was like, oh, no, go to go to the window and smell. And instantly like, she like smells like, oh yeah, great. It's like, it's got that. It's a very specific smell. And I like that smell a lot. It's like kind of, sort of refreshing, but it's like kind of resetting it kind of like, it's almost meditative, um, the type of smell. Um, and yeah, like in a, in a nice way, I do smell that in this wine as well. Like that's why I was thinking like maybe it's minerals or rock earth. Um,
Jonathon:
Yeah. And that's, and that's totally, and that's a totally legitimate way to talk about it. Some, some people smell dust what we'll describe it as smelling dusty. And it's that airborne like aromatic, you know, imagine dumping a shovel full of gravel and the way that gravel dust kicks up when you do that, but not sweet. That's not a sweet Riesling. Okay. Um, you know, this is a reasoning that would usually would not think that a Pinot Grigio person would be a reasoning person. Reasoning. We think of stereotypically as being sweet potato gregia. We think of as being very dry, very edgy, very citrusy, this reasoning, this Hungarian Riesling, this is a reasoning that a Pinot Grigio person or a Soviet block person could potentially go for it. This is what happens when you take the sugar down and you have this sugar-free expect expression of this Riesling grapes. Yeah. I'll speak
Sumner:
Down, bottoms up. I'm going to drink this and see what happens here. Oh, that's nice. It is like, you're right. It's definitely not sweet, but it's like very, it's very pleasant it to me. It, it, it's cool that you I'm really glad you brought up the imagery of like rain and the smell of like sidewalk, it kind of Rocky that you do get that in this and like the flavor in it. Um, and it's like, it's almost like you you've taken a cold shower sort of, I know that's not, you know, that might be jolting for some, but you got out of the shower and you feel kind of refreshed and alive a little bit, but also then you go outside and it's kind of like a little bit overcast sort of, then there's a lot of trees around it. It's a nice, like calming meditative moment. Um,
Jonathon:
I mean, I described, I described this white wine is bracing. Hmm. Right. I like, um, as you, as you, as you described, like coming out of the shower into do a cool room. Yeah. Um, definitely, definitely like that. Um, and, and another thing that I love about this wine is that it challenges our preconceptions about what we think we know about Riesling. We think we know the reasoning is sweet wine, and guess what it isn't, and this is one of the things it isn't necessarily, sometimes it is of course, but there's so much more to know about it. Um, this is another thing we love about this wine, that it challenges these ideas that we think about what we think we know in this case about the Riesling grape, or just about wine in general. And you got to love that.
Sumner:
So as far as go, I have some notes here. Some, um, one of them that I thought was interesting was fish tacos with pickled jalapenos. Yes. Which I thought was, that's an interesting choice. Um, also raw oysters came up with this one, uh, pan seared, pork chops, grilled shrimp, and then roasted root vegetables also came up. She seems like a, kind of a wide range of different foods. Actually. Now that I'm, now that I'm saying out loud,
Jonathon:
One of the classic flavor matches with Riesling is smoke, smoked pork, smoked salmon, smoked houses. Reasoning can be tough to pair overtly with a certain dish or a certain type of food, but this smoke component, which we see in the pork chops, um, you know, [inaudible] the, you know, the Germans spec, the smoked [inaudible] awesome match with reasonings, um, and a lot of, and a lot of vegetables, grilled vegetables, roast vegetables, um, that sort of thing. There's a thousand different, uh, German ways to cook potatoes, but one way is roasted with the, with caraway seeds and that, that nutty roasted caraway flavor with the potato, with the Riesling. Absolutely fantastic.
Sumner:
Um, nice.
Jonathon:
They're good. Good wine choice for the vegetarian slash vegan slash meat, meatless meat, free people in your life.
Sumner:
Yeah, absolutely. Definitely. That's awesome. Well, I'm going to not put this point away. I'm going to drink the rest of the class. Very good. Um, and I'm going to prepare the last bottle that we have here. This is a 2017 George Phillips sellers, Lodi Cabernet seven young. And I will say before, even diving into this wine in particular information about this man, that kind of thing, as soon as I took the cork out, instantly smelled the wine. Talk through
Jonathon:
This wine is, I mean, you can, you can smell this wine from a distance. You know, one of the ways we talk about, um, a big red wine would be to say, it's very forward and this, and this is one of the signs of a really forward wine that these aromas are really escaping and are and are streaming forward out of the glass. Um, so super aromatic, super forward, loving it already, uh, just smelling it from a distance
Sumner:
I have, but swirled it yet. But I, first thing I got was jam and I was not expecting jam. Yes. Yeah.
Jonathon:
I was going to say Blackberry raspberry, mult Mulberry, you know, like mashed up all together. So if you think about French Cabernet in the Bordeaux region, that is on about the same latitude as north central Nova Scotia. So Bordeaux Cabernet is grown like Southern Canada, Northern Maine sort of latitudes Napa 500 miles south of Boston. You know, the same grape grown in a much hotter, much sunnier, much more intense climate. That's Napa. And that's a Noma. This is low Lodi. Lodi is about, I'm going to, I'm going to say low dies probably 30 or 40 miles inland from Napa farther from the ocean, much hotter. And we taste the heat in this wine straight away, the ripeness, the awesome ripeness, the jamming us that you were pointing out. That is, that is, that is hot, hot climate Cabernet. You taste a French Cabernet side-by-side with this, and it's going to be completely different, emotional quality, much less, a ripe, much less fruity, much more earthy. And this, because of all of the sun, all of the heat, all of the, all of these contributing factors driving its rightness. This is a new world style wine classic new world, hot climate style.
Sumner:
Lodi is kind of an up and coming wine. Like it's not like a traditional wine region. So this, even this wine is even a little bit more special, I guess, with it being from Lodi specifically, as opposed to like, let's say Napa. Yes.
Jonathon:
Yeah. I mean, it's a, it's a new, it's a new region to discover. And you know, the question is how do you like this style? Do you like a more restrained, a more, a more refined, less ripe Cabernet? Or do you like this sort of overblown crazy, crazy case?
Sumner:
Yeah. The crazy cab, yeah.
Jonathon:
Based in Canada, but I mean, and this is something that, you know, if you like this style of cab, you can say to someone, Hey, not necessarily from Lodi, but I had cab from Lodi, which I liked. It was crazy. I liked that crate. I liked the crazy part. What else have you got? That's like that. If it's from Lodi, that's fine. Doesn't have to be from Lodi now you're having a conversation and you're really just this one little bit of information. You're giving a huge, huge amount of information to help, to help have a great conversation and get you some great advice.
Sumner:
I am going to all right. We're going to Jonathon, this, putting my hand over, swirling it around.
Jonathon:
It sounds like it should be a compulsory move in the Olympics.
Sumner:
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Oh, wow. That's just their salt lane. Especially after the, after the reasoning, this smells like an Ima. How would American emotes emotions compared to someone from Eastern Europe? Like,
Jonathon:
Um, no, I mean, that's, this is our national motto. If it's worth doing it's worth overdoing
Sumner:
And, and, and that's,
Jonathon:
And people, the critic, the criticism of this wine would be that it's, that it's doing too much, that it would be better to take its foot off the accelerator, settle down a little bit and not try to be so relentlessly. Awesome. Yeah. Right. You're fine. You just don't know it. You don't have to be this awesome. Um, you're trying too hard. Yeah. Right. That's that's, that would be the criticism of people who do not love this style of wine. The people who love this style of wine, their responses. Yeah. But it's delicious. And you can't argue with that because it is, it's a, it's absolutely, absolutely yummy and delicious.
Sumner:
All right. Now I'm going to try it. Let's see how this goes. Oh, wow. Yeah. Ooh. It's just like initially tasting this. It's got one powerful flavor and then it almost the flavor even intensifies after a minute, it's almost like all of a sudden, there's this enormous bonfire that comes out of nowhere of flavor. And then it kind of like tapers off ever so slowly, but it's like, it's like a firework almost. It kind of goes up and then you're expecting it, you know, like, oh, this is gonna be fun. And it all of a sudden explodes, you're like, wow, that's great. It's that was wild. Like we just had, this is such a bigger, bolder, fuller experience. Um,
Jonathon:
The fireworks, uh, analogy is super app for a wine like this, right. It's just, it's, it's alive. It's intense. It's it's um, it is, it is explosive. You know, the flavors aren't laid back, you know, this, this wine, this wine is like not making you do any work in terms of guessing where it's coming from, the flavors are forward and intense and, and, and, and that's, and that as in generalization, but generally true. That is new worldwide.
Sumner:
Okay. So it's a new world wines going to be more flavorful. It's going to be bolder typically. Yeah. We're fruitless earth. This is that I feel like out of the three wines we had, this is the one you would definitely bring to a celebration. I mean, you could bring the other ones to celebration too, but like, I feel like, like this will actually not now that I think about it. Cause I mean like the fall and GA, I guess you would bring to like a typical, like, like if it was kind of a more formal celebration, like if it was a spa wine,
Jonathon:
Sparkling wine celebration. Yeah.
Sumner:
Like someone, you know, someone's retiring, uh, you know, maybe, maybe even graduation or something like that, this, this would be, this would be someone's birthday. This would be like a hot summer night, like in Spain or I guess Spain. Why not? You know, we're in Spain now. Uh, it's a, it's a heightened experience. It's a more, it may be a little bit more wild experience. You know, the
Jonathon:
Food is cut. Food is coming off the grill. Yeah, definitely. Maybe, maybe we're having this with like an elaborate cheese chorus of like two or three different cheeses and yeah. Tangy intense olives. I mean, w what's going with, what's going with this is intense flavored food and tense conversation, intense people, you know, that that's, that's, that's, what's good. That's, what's going to be matching this really intense, um, Renee,
Sumner:
I, cause the notes I have here, um, of like what foods it goes with, it would be like grilled burgers, pizza, chicken, mushroom burger is like, it definitely follows it, but then like the barbecue aesthetic, like, and like completely. Yeah. It's, uh, that's quite, that's quite a fun wine. That's that's like a big, powerful wine
Jonathon:
Flavors are very strong. The flavors are very intense. There's a lot of like of like spice and texture and all kinds of stuff going on. You know, you want to, you want to cook something for this, you know, you wanna, you know, short ribs or, you know, something that you cook forever in a day, um, to go with this is, is going to, you know, is going to be perfect. So yeah. So loving this, loving this a lot. And again, you know, this is what makes Lodi great. I mean, all of these low dies in Lodi cabs, Lodi, petite Sirah, and Karen Yon and other crazy grapes that are coming out of there. They've all got this real, super ripe expression and super ripe richness to them, um, that people absolutely. Um, the people I absolutely love.
Sumner:
Well, um, I think we're coming towards the end of the episode here today. Um, I first want to say, thank you so much for doing this, Jonathon. I really appreciate it. This has been a lot of fun for me. And before we go, do you want to talk about what the Boston wine school's up to? What's coming up for the Boston wine school? Sure,
Jonathon:
Sure. Um, the, for me, the most important thing to know about the Boston wine school is that we are a guaranteed 100% snob free zone, where people come for wine classes, we do corporate private corporate wine events, and we've also starting to do some wine travel. Um, we're doing Boston wine school in Tuscany and we've got a trip planned for the fall and a trip planned for the spring. Uh, the way we're doing it is, um, the week after the tourist season, so that we have Tuscany in the fall more or less to ourselves. And then in the spring, the week before tourist season starts. So we have the same thing in the spring, but, uh, Buster mind, school.com. That's where you'll find information about travel and classes and private events.
Sumner:
You have a binder, you have a blog. Um, do you have like any like Instagram, Twitter, anything that you use to for social media?
Jonathon:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Uh, both facebook.com/boston wine school. You can also find Boston wine school on Instagram and, um, also my, uh, blog and my, um, infrequent at least these days wine writings are at, in Vino, very task.com.
Sumner:
Um, well thank you so much, Jonathon, for joining me today. Thanks. It was a pleasure. Yeah, absolutely. Same here. This has been a lot of fun. Uh, yeah, hopefully we'll see you soon.
Jonathon:
Yeah, let's do it again. Any shot
Sumner:
Today on the podcast, we tasted three unique wines from around the world from Italy, the Cantina de solo PACA Maria Christiana fell on Geena sparkling Brut from hungry a 2022 SCO Riesling. And from Lodi, California, a 2017 George Phillips sellers reserved selection. Number one 13, Lodi Cabernet. Seven-year-old try these wines. Visit wind insiders.com leaders, an online wine, get better wine delivered in just days. And for the limited time, users can save 30% off site wide with the code Boston 30 that's Boston with a capital B. Then the number is three and zero to save 30% off site-wide again, Boston 30 to save 30% off. Site-wide thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time. Cheers.