As we watched “The Hurt Locker” put a hurtin’ on fellow nominees, we were putting a hurtin’ on a couple great bottles of wine!

The first of the evening was the 2009 Finca La Linda Torrontes bottled by Luigi Bosca.  This wine was produced in Argentina and consists of 100% Torrontes grape.  Torrontes is the wonderful and distinctively aromatic signature white grape of Argentina.  If you’ve never tried a Torrontes before, this one will certainly make a great first impression on you!  There’s a lot of interesting layers of flavors swirling around in this wine.  It’s a bombshell of racy, crisp acidity, packed full of tropical flavors, that reminded me of a Pina Colada.  The 2009 Finca La Linda Torrontes was a big winner and left us wanting more.  Costing less than $10, it secures a lofty 4 star WineLife365 taste rating and also earned itself many repeat visits as the weather in our neck of the woods continues to warm up.

Next up was the 2006 La Corte Solyss Negroamaro.  This red wine is from the South of Italy in the Puglia (Apulia) region.  Negroamaro, also known as Negro amaro, is one of the most widely planted native red grapes grown in the Southern regions of Italy.  It’s grown almost exclusively in Puglia (Apulia) and also in Salento, which is located at the “heel” of Italy.  The Negroamaro grape and the winemakers in this region tend to allow these wines to express rustic, earthy, and natural tasting characteristics.  This particular Old World red showcases some really interesting mineral, herbaceous and cherry twists that will undoubtedly make you question whether you’re a fan of it or not.  We were fans of 2006 La Corte Solyss Negroamaro and give it 3 stars out of 4 on our taste scale.  One final note on this wine – I paid $12 for it at a local retailer, but I’ve seen it as high as $25 online.  I’m not sure whether or not I’d be willing to fork over 25 bones for it, but if you can find it for less than $20, it’s certainly worth a shot!

With the 2010 Oscars behind us, I can’t say that there were many moments that will replay in my mind for any length of time.  However, I did find some winners that will have repeat performances in my glass.

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I really love and appreciate wines of unique character.  This past weekend in New York, I was reminded of how much this actually means to me, as I found lots to love in the wines I tasted from Argentina and Brazil.  Frustratingly though, one place that I can’t seem to fall in love with is South Africa.  Maybe it’s the wines and producers that I’m trying, maybe it’s just me.  Maybe it’s a little of both!?  Who knows.

Time and time again over the years, whether it’s been a Pinotage, a Cab, or even a Syrah – I’ve been greeted by that distinctive smell and taste of smoky, red cherry tobacco that leaves me feeling green for days in an awful kind of way.  Is this familiar smell and taste just a byproduct of the climate, geography, and soil conditions that exist in South Africa?  Or, does it have more to do in creating a particular style of red wine that is uniquely South African?  Whatever it is, I just can’t seem to find many South African red wines under $20 that satisfy my palate.

Last night marked another chapter in my quest to find a satisfying and affordable South African red wine that I could fall in love with.  On the advice taken from a wine guy at my local wine shop, I decided to give the 2007 Excelsior Cabernet Sauvignon a shot.

My wine guy gave this wine two enthusiastic thumbs up.  I, on the other hand, give this wine 2 stars out of 4.  Why?  For $7.99, it provided that familiar long lasting smoky, rich cherry tobacco flavor that I just can’t stomach.  However, it is unique – that’s for sure!  On that merit alone, I’m sure that someone else will appreciate it for what it is, just like my local wine guy did.  My mission to find an affordable 4-star South African red continues.

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Were my wife and I the only ones that missed the episode of Sex and the City where Carrie and the girls strolled the winter NYC streets wearing Spiderman rubber boots?  This past weekend, my wife and I took a road trip into the Big Apple to attend the New York Wine Expo and we were asking ourselves that very question after stepping down into that first slushy puddle!

Note to all you newbies that ever plan to visit New York City just after a snowstorm:  Keep your Manolo Blahniks high heels and whatever other form of footwear that you deem as being “cute” at home, because they don’t look particularly fabulous when they’re filled up with seven inches of wet sloppy gray slush.  Trust me when I tell you, even Spiderman looks great with Chanel!  To the guys - your Gore-Tex hunting boots are highly recommended in this particular situation!

With this new life lesson under our belts, we weren’t about to let some soggy socks and water-soaked shoes stand in our way of drinking some great wine – heck no!

Upon entering the Expo, my wife and I immediately took notice of one important element that had been missing from all of the other wine expos and events that we’ve attended in the past – Crowd Control.  The organizers and security company for this particular event did a terrific job of not allowing this party to get too big; which gave attendees the opportunity to make their way around to all the wonderful exhibitors’ tables.

A couple of the exhibitors that stood out at this event were Wines of Argentina and get this – Wines from Brazil.  Yup, that’s right, Brazil!  I was quite surprised to learn that over the past fifteen years the Brazilian wine industry has been investing a tremendous amount of money into equipment and vineyard management in order to one day become a player in the global wine market.  Although I tasted several outstanding Brazilian wines, the most notable were from Patricia Carraro’s family run vineyard called, Lidio Carraro.  I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with Ms. Carraro about her wines.  The thing I found most interesting and appealing about her and her family’s winemaking philosophy is that they’re extremely passionate about allowing the wines to express their true “terroir” (sense of home).  They do not believe in masking their wines’ natural flavors with unnecessary additives.  In addition to the wonderful tasting wines from Lidio Carraro, I was also impressed by a refreshing, inexpensive sparkling wine comprised of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes from the Miolo Wine Group.  Taking into consideration the quality level along with the price level of these wines from Brazil, they seem to be forming a perfect storm that is headed straight from the importers, to the distributors and onto wine retailers’ shelves.  So, if you start to see Brazilian wines showing up on the store shelf, don’t be surprised.

Sorry for the blurry pic!

Another great stop at this year’s expo was Argentina.  Argentina is making some of the most beautifully aromatic wines in the world today, and this tasting really showed off that characteristic in a big way!  We were graciously taken through several fine examples of Torrontes (white) and Malbec (red) by Ms. Nora Favelukes, President of QW Wine Experts.  Similar to our experience with the Wines from Brazil, Wines of Argentina was also very well represented by several great whites and reds that displayed unique and distinctive characteristics.  Overall, it was an outstanding showing from the Wines of Argentina, and I can’t say enough kind words about the energy, insight, and passion that Ms. Favelukes and her team shared with us and other attendees at the show.

There were a lot more great peeps and vino at the NY Wine Expo, but here’s a short list of some of the stand-outs at the show:

Lyrarakis Heraklion Cuvee Grande Colline from the Greek island of Crete.

Fulcrum Wines from California.

No pic from NY Wine Expo - this is from AC Food and Wine Festival

Brianne Fisher, Testa Wines of the World - featuring Nemea Agiorgitiko Red.

Manuel Moreno,  Vinicola de Villarrobledo - featuring a killer Syrah.

Richard Morgenstern, Creative Wines International  – featuring Mettler Wines.

All in all, the New York Wine Expo was a well organized event with a diverse representation of wines.  If you didn’t make it this year, I highly recommend marking your calendar for next year…just don’t forget to bring your boots!

To see more pictures, visit the WineLife365 Fan Page.

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Hey baby don’t you worry, even though the road is rocky
I’ll be coming home to you again
And if you thought that I was lost, I have to bury my cross
Now I’m free from all these chains.  Stephen Marley

There’s a whole big world of wine out there just waiting to be discovered.  As I looked over my own experiences from last year, one whole big world that I sure was missing out on was Italy.  Italy is home to some of the oldest wine producing regions in the world.  Long before the Romans started planting vines, there were the Etruscans and Greeks. Two thousand years later, Italy has become one of the world’s foremost producers, responsible for approximately one-fifth of the world’s overall wine production.  

Located in the province of Verona, Italy, east of Lake Garda is the very hilly and marble rich soil of Valpolicella.  Winemaking has existed in this Italian region since the time of the ancient Greeks.  The name Valpolicella is derived from a Latin and Greek mixture, which translated in English means “Valley of Cellars.” Today, the “Valley of Cellars” economy rests heavily on the production of wine.  The hallmark or signature wine of this region is the recognizable full-bodied style red wine known as Amarone.

However, one not so familiar style of red wine from this Italian region is Ripasso.  Ripasso comes from the verb, ripassare, meaning to “pass over” or to do something again.  The process of making Ripasso wine is by first taking the leftover skins, pulp, and seeds of a previously made Amarone wine, then having this liquid go through a second fermentation that can sometimes last for as long as 3 weeks. The result of this technique gives the wine an increased level of alcohol that clocks in around 14%, yet compared to a traditional Amarone, Ripasso wine will be a bit softer, fruitier and less tannic in its youth. The process of creating a Ripasso wine only occurs in exceptional vintage years. Think of Ripasso as being the “Baby Amarone” that you drink today.  The best part about this style of wine is that it costs a fraction of what you’d pay for an Amarone.  

I recently had the pleasure of trying one of these “Baby Amarones” and sure was kicking myself for passing them over time and time again in the past.  The 2006 Tezza Corte Majoli Valpolicella Ripasso is a terrific example of “Old World” winemaking with just the right splash of “New World” style to liven it up a bit.  This wine is made with a blend of estate grown grapes, mostly Corvina. The double fermentation or ‘Ripasso’ method gives this wine big fruit flavors that reminds one of ‘New World’ wine, but being Italian, there’s plenty of dried cherry and rich spicy flavors that let drinkers know where this baby was born.

We paired the 2006 Tezza Corte Majoli Valpolicella Ripasso with a lobster mac-n-cheese dish that was, in a nutshell, pretty fantastico!  The 2006 Tezza Corte Majoli Valpolicella Ripasso is an outstanding value for under $15.

3 Stars out of 4.

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So, if we were taught that diversity is a good thing, then why is the wine industry so hell bent on pouring one homogenized, “cookie cutter” flavor, and style of wine down our throats?

I recently attended a blind-tasting and sampled about 40 different wines comprised of whites, reds, and sweet wines.  And guess what?  Nearly all of the whites (as a collective group) and all of the reds (as a group) tasted stylistically the same – in a scary sort of way!  No joke.  Only a handful of these wines stood out in the crowd, and it wasn’t just me and my palate that noticed the frightening similarity.  At the end of this tasting, when the identities of these wines were revealed, all of the tasters conveyed similar thoughts.

In defense of all the wines that were poured that particular evening, each one of them could be found across the US for less than $15 and had production numbers that exceeded 10,000 cases per year.  Let’s face it, 40 wines priced under 15 bucks with big production numbers is certainly not enough empirical data to make a proclamation that all wines are beginning to taste the same.  However, if you’re an everyday wine drinker like myself, who spends on average between $10-15 on a bottle of wine, it should be very apparent, “New World” style wines have a strangle-hold on consumers in the world of “inexpensive” wine – and they’re not about to loosen their grip anytime soon.

One can place blame for this often repeated and copied blueprint on the likes of influential critics that prefer their wines overripe, over-oaked, and high in alcohol.  You can even blame California, Australia, South America and others (Europe too) for flooding retailers’ shelves with wines that are separated more by a marketing budget and less by their unique characteristics. 

The bottom line and reality of it all, is that it’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference between two wines because so many of them have been made devoid of the slightest individual personality that gives drinkers a sense of where they came from.

My question is:  Has diversity and geographical nuances, that were once common in wines from different parts of the world, been sentenced to a slow and painful death? 

The Mercy Rule is in effect.

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