Tag: Garganega

Tasting

Amarone in the streets, Recioto in the sheets, Raboso if you cancel on me.

Posted on by Josh

I can now cross Utah off the list of places I’ve been, y’all. Apparently the aggressive snowfall stopped for the 24 hours a colleague and I went to Park City for a work thing, so the snowy mountains were a nice distraction from the frigid air I sometimes despise. Anyways, I got sick when I got back, because the elevations of Park City actually can allegedly fuck you up. I didn’t believe our driver from the airport, but there you go.

I always recall a particular Veneto 2014 wine sesh (damn, was it 2014?!) where we did the typical run of Veneto wines along with a wine made from the relatively obscure Raboso grape, which basically means “angry” – maybe due to its big tannic bite.… read more

Life · Quaffing · Tasting

24 wines for turning 24

Posted on by Josh

This post serves two purposes: a sincere smile-and-nod to the 23rd year of my life, and a spring cleaning wine dump of, coincidentally, a number of bottles that equals the number of anniversaries since I was pushed out of my mother. Alas. The past prime number of a year has been good to me, and I’m stoked for the next. Beyond this whole becoming-an-adult thing, I’ve done many things including completing the WSET Diploma (i hate to keep mentioning about it – but perhaps the youngest in BC to do so!), changing jobs, travelling to New York, travelling to France, travelling to Spain, and other things that would probably be best not to put on the internet. Heh.

And home. Oh God – connecting to your roots and family – sometimes I dig myself way too deep into wine culture and its countries that I forget where I come from.… read more

Tasting

12 other white Italian grapes for when you’re over Pinot Grigio

Posted on by Josh

It’s clear that we’ve taken a departure from the experimental seminars of 2015’s Australia to the tacit themes of longevity and traditionalism of 2016’s theme of Italy for the Vancouver International Wine Festival. It’s expected that the colossal tasting room is skewed towards the stars of Tuscany, Piedmont, and Veneto, so this leaves the underdogs few and far between. There is not one Dolcetto (yeah I know: who cares) nor one pearl-clutching Franciacorta being poured during the whole festival, nor are there enough Montepulciano for me to make a terrible d’Ab(ruzzo) joke, so last year’s boner for Australian Touriga Nacional would have to be partially satiated by a seminar on all things white and distinctively not Pinot Grigio. I often find the whites of Italy frustratingly subtle – which probably says more about my taste above anything else – but this’ll be a nice opportunity to break things down past this pigeonhole.… read more

Tasting

“Il Veneto In Un Bicchiere”

Posted on by Josh

A late post from December 30, 2014. I’m the worst.

ilvenetoinunbicchiere

Even in the winter, I shave my head every four days. I’m used to the brisk air and I sort of enjoy it, but there’s the unfortunate coincidence when Shave Day collides with a wine event, because that means I have to be judicious with how much I moisturize my head. The first rule of any wine event is to skip the cologne or perfume entirely – and I don’t wear cologne anyways – but sometimes I secretly break that rule, all in the name of male pattern baldness. Why are there no slow-motion hair commercials for guys like me with Natasha Bedingfield’s Unwritten playing in the background?

Thankfully, the wines of the Veneto are generally lively enough to pair with the subtle flowery scents of my head, and brisk enough to pair with a sunny winter day.… read more

Life · WSET Diploma

WSET Diploma – Unit 3 – Week 10: Piemonte and Veneto

Posted on by Josh

Back to reality. It seems like everyone around me is getting post-holiday ailments but I’m doing my best to survive. The holidays were fun but thankfully, they’re never really over-the-top for me (besides last year’s Soave incident). I swatted all New Year’s Eve plans out of my view in favour for cooking myself a meal, drinking a bottle of wine, and sleeping at around midnight: and you’d think that would end up totally bumming me out, but I had a satisfying sleep as the planet fully rotated into 2015, and I woke up at a decent hour to do some wine reading.

I’m riveting. I know. No hangover: that was a thing, though!

I’m not the biggest fan of New Year’s resolutions, mostly because I don’t plan that far ahead, and because I think it’s weird to make weird and shallow decisions at some quasi-arbitrary time of the year.… read more

WSET Advanced

2009 Pieropan Soave Classico

Posted on by Josh

Tasting Note:

Eyes: clear, med lemon, watery rim
Nose: clean, med- intensity, developing, oak, nutty, floral, stone fruit
Mouth: dry, med body, med acidity, med intensity, med- alcohol, med length, citrus, mineral
All in all: Good quality; drink now.

2009 Pieropan Soave Classico

I’ve read about the definition and forgot about a million times, but the term “classico” refers to the original area in which these wines and grapes originated from. For example, since its inception, places like Chianti have extended to include regions like Chanti Rufina, which generally use the same grapes with different elements of terroir. “Classico” refers to those original areas in Italy.

Although Italian whites are known for their neutrality, they can often have a certain subtle nuttiness to them as well.… read more