Wine for a Wardrobe Malfunction

I made an unfortunate wardrobe choice this morning: it was another cold, rainy day, so I thought I would stay nice and warm with a dark grey wool sweater with a cowl neck. Under normal circumstances, a sweater with a massive neck would have been a fine choice, striking even. But when I am spending half my day leaning over and spitting wine into a small sink, it is not perhaps, the best idea.

I have never liked the idea of spitting out wine during tasting, partly because I hate to waste good wine and partly because I think spitting is disgusting. It was one of the things I disliked most about living in New York: how often people spat everywhere. I once was walking behind some guy on my way to the subway, and he spat sort of behind him, and it almost landed on my shoe. Gross.

But in a wine class, spitting is sort of necessary. When you are tasting nine different wines in an hour or less, you can't very well drink it all and then hop in the car to drive home. So down the sink it goes. This at the best of times is hit or miss. There are red wine drips, dribbles and splashes everywhere. When wearing a massive cowl neck that comes up to your chin, however, it gets even more exciting. I think half of my wine actually wound up in the neck of my sweater. Maybe I'm onto something here, though. I could design a whole line of clothing for Sommeliers: "Forget those cumbersome and unsightly spittoons. Now you can just dribble into your sweater and no one will ever know!"

Maybe not.

Today we continued with the Loire Valley in France, specifically focusing on reds and sweet wines. I felt much more comfortable overall with the wines, partly because I love sweet wines, and partly because I have realized that I just feel much more comfortable with red wines. I feel more connected to them, if that makes any sense of all. White wines feel a bit foreign to me, I have trouble figuring out what they're all about. But when I take a deep whiff of a red wine, I right away relax and think: "I know you." It's hard to describe, but I love the warmth of red wines. I feel like I can smell the sun on them, the ripeness, the mellowness, the fullness of the fruit. I love smelling those red and black cherry, blackberry, black currant aromas along with the spice, smoke, wood and tobacco that so often are a part of the smell and taste (nose and palate) of red wines. What can I say, red wines just make me happy.

I think I can say that overall, wines from the Loire are not my favorites. The climate tends to be cooler there, so the fruit just doesn't get as ripe. This contributes to a tartness, an acidity in these wines that in my opinion makes them hard to drink by themselves. They really need food, hearty, flavorful, fatty foods like cheeses and cassoulets to make them more drinkable.

That said, my wine for a wardrobe malfunction is a Domaine de la Chanteleuserie Bourgueil 2007. This wine is made from the Cabernet Franc grape, and while it is tart and acidic, it also has nice black currant, black cherry fruit and an aftertaste of tobacco smoke/ash and dried leaves. The smokiness of this wine would be delicious with barbeque and/or bacon!

Let me know if you give it a try.