Domaine Jean Masson & Fils Apremont 2008 Vin de Savoie Villes Vigne Traditionelle

Raises your glasses, saluting adieu to 2010 and hailing the coming of a potentially identical successor year. Be it a good or evil twin, ready or not – it’s 2011 tomorrow. Toast your unlikely-to-be-true-Champagne to your new make-out partner at midnight, as you accidentally spill most of it down your new froufrou designer dress that you might take back to Nordstrom come Monday and get prepare for that pounding migraine in the morning with a Kamikazi shot to seal up the first 10 years of the millennium.

In the mean time, let’s drink something else – don’t get me wrong, I love me some bubbles but don’t find it necessary to position it only to celebrations/New Year’s Eve. So this NYE, I’m looking for something a little esoteric.

And esoteric I did receive – after walking into McCarthy & Schiering Queen Anne and requesting the weirdest thing they could get me (price point considered). We came to the agreement that moderately odd was the best solution to my Same Year’s Eve dilemma.

Leading us to the lesser known region of Vin de Savoie (often referred to simply as Savoie), we found a wine with the same name that struck a chord with me as it was described as “sharp.” You had me at musical terminology.

What to chug on Christmas while avoiding your in-law’s halitosis

Welcome to your Christmas drunk play-by-play. Not that I need to tell you this, but it is mandatory to consume copious measures of alcohol during the holidays. Why, you ask? Let me run through the list.

1) You’re stressed from not only work because you don’t want to work the week of Christmas but also because no one wants to work or deal with you and you can’t stop focusing on anything but the guilt you have acquired from re-gifting an ex-boyfriend’s present for a family gift exchange. Thank God Target is having a last-minute sale. Again. Take a drink.

2) The seasonal cocktails are hard to shut down, especially when they’re titled “Naked Reindeer,”  “Sexy Elves” or “Back Door Santas.” And you deserve all of them. Take a drink.

3) You’re broke from shipping costs because online purchasing is 1000 times better than warding off the crazies of the downtown shopping centers. Buying both of your parents presents at 11:30pm during a Macy’s miracle sale was possibly the wisest move you made this season and for that, take a drink.

4) You have three solid days of family holiday festivities/small talk with the extended clan who have twangs/explaining the use of your college degree yet again. God love them (and so do you), but that’s a lot. Take a drink.

5) Every store is throwing down the big guns in the procrastinator’s heaven with sales and price-tag slashing, not excluding those that sell wine. See below for a grocery list and take a drink.

Seven Ways to Puncture a Wine Windbag

By Richard H. Miller/Washington State University

Uncle Patrick gargles his wine. “I taste blackberries and cherry and oak,” he says, “and a lot of tannins.”

The only thing you know about wine is that it comes in different colors. But, with holiday meals approaching, here’s how to puncture wine windbags, thanks to Washington State University Professor Kathleen Williams:

Precipitate saliva. When Patrick says he tastes tannins, you say: “Tannins don’t have a taste. They create a sensation as they precipitate the proteins out of your saliva.” Tip: Stroke your chin sagely as you pronounce “precipitate.”

Throw in a German word. Patrick swirls the glass. “Good legs,” he observes. You say, “The French call them tears. The Germans call them Kirchenfenster or church windows, because they form an arch.” Want more? Try this: “Water has more surface tension than alcohol. The evaporating alcohol pulls the water up with it. When the alcohol breaks through, the water runs down.”

Hit him with Brix. Patrick looks at the label. “Oh my,” he says, “14.9 percent alcohol.” You’re ready for him. “Did you know that wines from hot areas tend to have more alcohol? That’s because the grapes have more sugar. As a rule of thumb, every 2 percent of sugar will produce about 1 percent alcohol. So this wine was originally almost a third sugar. Of course, wine makers don’t call them sugars. They call them Brix.” Tip: Refill his glass. Keep refilling his glass. This becomes important later.

Diamonds are your best friend. He holds the glass up to the light. Tiny crystals stick to the sides. “It’s going bad,” he says. “Not really,” you say. “Those are potassium tartrate crystals, same thing as cream of tartar. They’re a naturally occurring acid in grapes.” Smile tolerantly, and add, “In Canada, they call them wine diamonds.”

Herbal harmony. Patrick says, “A red wine would overwhelm the turkey.” You say, “It’s not really about the turkey. It’s about the herbs with the turkey, such as onion, celery and sage. What works well is to contrast the herbs with a fruity wine, such as a Beaujolais Nouveau or a Gewürztraminer.”

Make something up. By now, Uncle Patrick should be a bit toasted, so hit him with something ludicrous, but difficult to disprove: “Gewürztraminer has an umlaut,” you say. “The word umlaut is derived from the word omelet and Gewürztraminer pairs well with omelets. As a matter of fact, most umlaut wines go well with egg-based dishes, such as quiche. It’s called a bio-linguistic reaction.”

Fancy footwork. As he sputters to object, quickly change the subject: “Do you know what the best pairing is? Scientists in England proved that it is milk and chocolate chip cookies. Speaking of dessert, how about some pie?”

WSU’s viticulture and enology program offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees, and certificates. For more information go to http://wine.wsu.edu/education.

Chateau Roc de Segur 2009 Bordeaux Rouge

‘Tis the season – for joy and happiness, for restoration of the human spirit and religious faith, for giving and for thanking. More importantly, ’tis the season for some mother lovin’ deals.

From Target to Amazon, with Macy’s door-buster events battling off Old Navy’s awkward mannequin commercials, every retailer is claiming their bargain is the new gold.

Wine is no different this season, with grocery store chains boasting their advertisements through colossal holiday themed stacks of bottles glaring at customers the second they step in the store.

Pressure’s on, man – it’s time to focus finances on gifts for others but still maintain a healthy wine blog that has been leaner than it should be as of late…

Wine value for the pocket-pincher was located through my homies at Queen Anne’s McCarthy and Schiering. King of the road for selection north of the stadiums (you know I heart you too, Esquin), M&S provided once again with a 2009 Bordeaux for a measly $12.

Wine World Warehouse Grand Opening

It is a small world. Wine World, the new grape-inclined superstore brought to you by sommelier David LeClaire (of Seattle Uncorked fame), is not a part of the previously mentioned world.

A dawning 8-foot-tall neon sign rises in the Northwest of Seattle to greet the city, rimming the southbound I-5 corridor and sizing up Mount Rainier from a distance. The building on which the sign sits has been looming in indecision as a dated Office Max and now has been replaced by the 23,000 square foot wine universe known known as Wine World.

Inside the cosmos of LeClaire, two 30-foot tasting bars stand back to back at the epicenter, with an artisan cheese and charcuterie selection on one side and a wine-related gift shop on the other, complete with various brands and shapes of stemware, decanters and charms. A private event space stares out at the city, offers an exclusive tasting bar, a platform for live music, flat screens on pillars and wi-fi for the geekiest of winerds to tweet upon taste.

French Wine Scholar™ Program, taught by global wine expert, Joel Butler MW (Master of Wine)

December 7, 2010
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
December 14, 2010
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
December 21, 2010
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
December 28, 2010
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
January 4, 2011
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
January 11, 2011
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
January 18, 2011
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
January 25, 2011
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
February 1, 2011
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
February 8, 2011
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
February 15, 2011
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm
February 22, 2011
6:00 pm	to	8:00 pm

WineKnow LLC, Seattle’s newest wine appreciation and education company, is the sole provider of the excellent and nationally praised French Scholar Program, a nine week intensive course (including exam) for those who really want to get at the heart of the most highly acclaimed wine country in the world for the last 2 centuries!

Classes include Course Manual, visual presentations, Wine tasting and Final “exam”. When you pass the exam (optional but strongly recommended), you will have the right to the wine-industry recognized post-nominal: French Wine Scholar (FWS) AND on line support. Go to Registration section on mywineknow.com website for class details/dates

WineKnow LLC is: Joel Butler MW (Master of Wine), one of the first two Americans to hold this distinguished Certification, the highest in the wine business (1990), and one of only two MW’s in Washington,and former Director of Education for Ste Michelle Wine Estates, and a global wine judge and writer. He also instructs Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) courses (Look for WSET courses offered by WineKnow starting soon!), the most widely recognized global wine education program.

Karen Graf is: currently Director of Retail operations for DeLille Winery in Woodinville, holds the Advanced Certificate from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust, and has worked in the Washington wine industry for over a decade.

Urban Enoteca
4130 1st Ave. South (south of West Seattle Bridge overpass about 2 blocks)
Seattle, WA 98115
ph. 425-765-4080

ONGOING December 7 2010 – Feb. 22, 2011