A Flowery Song

Background: Aged on French oak for eight months.

Nose: Cherries and strawberries, earthy hints of mushroom.

Taste: Light red fruit, light hints of oak. Grapefruit pith on the finish.

Overall: Not great. The most disappointing wine I’ve had from St. Julian, particularly a disappointment since the Braganini Reserve are supposed to be their showcase wines. It’s light and drinkable, but lacks the spicy richness of a great Pinot Noir.

Background: Inexpensive white wine from the Rías Baixas region of Galicia in northwestern Spain.

Nose: Apple and nectarine.

Taste: Crisp and cleanly fruity, with a rich mouthfeel and a mild acidic backbone.

Overall: Clean crisp wine for a cool crisp evening. Decent.

The mission: “[F]ind something reputed to be Fine Kosher Wine”

I actually studied up on kosher wines about a year ago, but didn’t write up what I learned at the time.

First things first: what makes a wine kosher? Well, kosher wine will carry a hechsher from an authority certifying that it was produced in accord with kashrus, which is the portion of halakha (Jewish religious law) dealing with dietary concerns. This mark indicates that any additives (such as fining agents) were kosher, production was supervised by the appropriate overseers (called mashgichim), and the wine is either mevushal or every step of the production was done by an observant Jew. This all has to do with the historic use of wine in idolatrous religious practises and the strict prohibition in the Torah of the use of such wine (yayin nesach), as well as a Rabbinical injunction against the use of unsupervised wine (stam yaynom).

Mevushal means “cooked” or “boiled”. Once a wine is mevushal it can be handled by non-Jews without losing its kosher status. Wine can be rendered mevushal at any stage after the press, but in the US most mevushal wine is heated prior to fermentation. Mevushal can broadly be taken as synonymous with pasteurised and follows the same procedure; thus, in modern production flash pasteurisation is seen as a way to reduce or eliminate the deleterious effects of heating the wine. While it definitely will help stability from a microbial standpoint, opinions are divided: some claim that flash heating has a positive effect on the wine’s character, while others claim that it reduces the aging potential and gives the wine a cooked fruit character.

There’s actually another level to kosher certification, which has to do with Passover. At Passover kashrut becomes even more restrictive, so a wine can be kosher for other times but not for Passover. If a wine just says “kosher”, it’s not suitable for use during Pesach; it must specifically say “kosher for Passover”.
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The Mission: “You’ve got three weeks, is what I’m saying: go find a smoked beer.” Direct and to the point.

Probably the most well-known example of a smoked beer is the German rauchbier, where a portion of the malt used is dried over a beechwood fire. The other widely available smoked malt is peated malt, while various craft brewers have smoked their own malt over anything from apple wood to alder wood (okay, so that’s not all that far).

A less traditional method, while not something I’ve heard of being used, would be to directly smoke the beer itself.

The second beer I’ll be covering is an example of second-hand smoke. I’m sure everyone’s heard of barrel-aged beer, but how many of you have considered that it introduces two possible sources for a smoky flavour? First, whisky barrels are usually charred before use, which can carry over into any beer aged in them. Second, what if the barrel came from a heavily peat-smoked whisky like Bruichladdich or Lagavulin? Even a less smoky whisky such as Highland Park introduces some smoke character.
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The Mission: [C]omparing how more northerly and more southerly vineyards produce different results with the same grapes.

Being from Michigan, the natural choice for North was to go with a local wine, so I rummaged around and found a bottle from St. Julian. St. Julian is Michigan’s oldest winery, and is also the largest. They source grapes from a large number of growers, all of which are located within 50 miles of the winery.

For South, I turned to the sunny climes of California. Honig is located in Napa Valley (Rutherford, to be precise) and has a terrible Flash-infested front page that refuses to work on my computer.
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Background: The big brother of the Special 16 Reserve, this is bottle 7071, bottled in September 2007.

Nose: Heather and honey, a hint of smoke.

Taste: Sweet smoked game meat first, with hints of vanilla and tar. Dry, oaky finish.

Overall: Another excellent beer from Harviestoun, though a bit pricy at $15 for a 12 oz. bottle; were I independently wealthy (and if the only place I’ve seen this beer hadn’t closed down) it would be nice to do a horizontal tasting with the other versions.

Background: Organic rosé wine made from 100% Moschofilero. This varietal is more normally used for white wines, but some producers use extended contact with the pinkish skins to add colour and deepen flavour.

Nose: Floral rose and ripe watermelon.

Taste: Dry, with a medium-light acidity and some strawberry notes join the rose and watermelon.

Overall: A light, versatile wine that matches well to a wide range of food.

Background: Produced by Brewery Ommegang as a celebration of their 10th anniversary and released in October 2007, this 7% ABV stout is brewed with chocolate malt and real Belgian chocolate. The beer was successful enough to prompt a second release in October 2008. This bottle is from the original release and has been cellared for the past year.

Nose: Dark and muted. A hint of sourness.

Taste: Lightly tart, with a good dose of bittersweet chocolate that complements the spicy Belgian yeast notes and light herbal hop influence. Drying, almost acidic finish with a slight metallic twang.

Overall: Drinkable and tasty, but there's not anything about it that screams “indulgence”.

Background: From Harviestoun, Ola Dubh (or 'Black Oil') is a series of special bottlings of their Old Engine Oil; each one is aged in selected casks which previously held Highland Park's single malt Scotch whisky (12, 16, and 30 years old). Bottle Number 9918, bottled in September 2007.

Appearance: Dark black fading to brown at the very edge, creamy tan head.

Nose: Vanilla, caramel, smoke, a hint of iodine and peat accompanied by a smooth fruitiness.

Taste: Sweet and nutty, light oak influence. Peat smoke and heather, a hint of dry cocoa.

Overall: Oh, that's nice. Mmm. Ooh, yeah.

…

I'll be in my bunk.

Background: From Tuthilltown Spirits in New York. Yes, you heard me: New York. What? You thought bourbon had to be made in Kentucky? You were wrong. Two runs through a pot still, then aged in small, charred American oak barrels for an unspecified length of time (around three months, I believe). Bottle 25, Batch 7, Year 2007.

Nose: Quite spicy, with allspice and vanilla predominating over a background of sweet grain.

Taste: Young and brash. Smoky oak influence, some resiny notes reminiscent of pine, spicy rye notes, and some fresh corn.

Overall: Nice young whisky. While its fresh youthful bravado is enticing, I can't help hoping that Tuthilltown will eventually also release older expressions of some of their spirits.