Sorry – couldn’t resist.  I mean, just look at those cute, furry-cuddly, viciously-fanged mammals over there!

I mean “other badges” of wine reviews, of course – in my case, I’m the late-comer to the wine badge review par-tay masterminded by Vintank; that is, late-comer in terms of getting my badges ready for prime-time (I was part of the “wine badgers” group from the conceptual phase).

What the hell are wine badges? Essentially, they are intended to be a visual way to help you identify a wine that I think has something “special” going on, beyond the quality ‘grade’ and mini-review that I might give to a wine when reviewing it.  Here’s the overview from Vintank brainiac Paul Mabray:

“As with everything the digital arena is transforming everything we used to know about wine.  I am fortunate to watch a group of talented bloggers bucking tradition and judge wine on new merits by creating a whole new movement for scoring wine.  It seems like a small thing, create a category for a wine that you believe in and assign a badge to it, explain the criteria openly and transparently, and only give those wines that you appreciate fit that category a badge.  Simple, elegant, but more importantly a TRUE representation of the quality you admire in the categories you create.  A wine fits or it doesn’t.  A wine earns an accolade or it doesn’t.”

It might help to think of the badges as a cross between a score and a medal, but with more awesome.  The cool thing is that the badges are already in use by Mark deVere, Ward Kadel and Steve Paulo. The badges aren’t yet standardized, which I personally think might come back to bite us in the tushie somehow, but in terms of distribution these puppies are primed for success.  HelloVino, Cruvee.com, and Yourwineyourway.com are already signed-on and using the badges, which thanks to their distro. system are automatically being included in content like winery Facebook pages.  We often talk about on-line technology having the potential to change  things in terms of the wine world – this is an example where the potential is starting to actually be realized.

Some great discussion on the badges available so far has popped up over at Vinotology and at DrinkNectar.com, and I left a comment in the DN thread that sums up my view and vision behind the badges, so I’m reprinting it here:

“If I give a wine an A- or a B+, does that tell you much aside from my view of its quality? Not really. If I categorize a wine as ‘Elegant’ or ‘Sexy’ does that tell you much? It does – it tells you which wine to try if you want to impress someone, or in the latter case if you want to get lucky on a hot date. So, by giving a badge to wines that meet some kind of minimum standard, I’m hopefully telling people a bit more about that wine without them having to read the entire post or review or whatever (unless they are curious and want to do that). I see no conflict between the badges and scores of any kind. I see them primarily as complimentary.”

The main criterion for a wine receiving a 1WD badge is that I give it a “grade” in the B or A range; after that, if I think that they meet the criteria for a particular badge then tat wine will be “awarded” one.

So at this point you’re probably thinking “enough already, what the f—k do these badges look like?!??”

Well, my friend, read on for the badges and their explanations…

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“I almost named the wine Serendipity because I discovered the technique which produces this wine by pure accident.”

This is a story that I’ve been chomping at the bit to tell for months.  It’s the kind of story that makes you excited about the influx of talented, young winemakers in the Napa Valley, who are shaking things up with an attitude and passion that probably hasn’t been seen in the Valley since John Trefethen accidentally exploded a trash can full of fermenting juice in his basement in the `70s.

The quote that kicks off today’s article comes from Modus Operandi Cellars owner and winemaker Jason Moore.  And he is either a bit of a genius, a bit ingenious, or certifiably nuts (or some combination of the three), depending on whether or not you come from the traditional U.C. Davis school of California winemaking.  The story of the wine – called Antithesis – is the kind of stuff that is a bit stranger than fiction – in other words, you can’t make this kind of stuff up if you tried – which is why I’m excited to tell it.  Or, I should say, I’m excited to have Jason tell it, which he did via a recent e-mail exchange.  In that way, this article is part wine review, and part interview:

“In 2006 I had a little problem with one of my fermentations… the yeast stopped fermenting which left me with about two brix of sugar to ferment. I knew that the winemakers usual response to this issue is to prepare a new yeast build up and re-inoculate. I also knew that this is horrible for ultimate wine quality so I reeeeeally don’t like to do it… only as a last resort. So, I learned a trick from Phillippe Melka which has the ability to solve the fermentation problem while still retaining as much wine quality as possible.”

Before we talk about how Jason (quite creatively) overcame this little conundrum, I need to tell you a bit about the wine itself, which I first tried back in February during a get-together at Vintank HQ in downtown Napa.  Jason was pouring the `07 Antithesis (among some of his other M.O. wines).  I was struck by the quality and depth of the wine; I knew that it stood out as special, but couldn’t quite put my finger on why – that didn’t become totally clear until Jason described the strange history of the wine, which, as you will soon discover, is sort of like a twisted CA version of Valpolicella Ripasso.

Jason kindly agreed to send me a sample for review so that I could taste the wine under more controlled circumstances. And I enjoyed it just as much the second time around…

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The latest video edition of 1WineDude.com, in which I recap. my experience at the D.C. Toast of the Town event, and wax all googly-like about one of the most awesome Ports on the planet.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Wine Enthusiast’s Toast of the Town D.C.
• Erika Strum
• The Capital Grille
• Destination Riesling
• Quinta do Vesuvio
• Arrowine

Cheers!

Last week, Mrs. Dudette and I had the (relatively rare) treat of a double-date night with our groovy neighbors.  Since this excursion into the (now strangely fascinating) world of conversation that doesn’t involve Elmo took place at a fabulous BYOB joint in (a recently revitalized and restaurant-friendly) downtown Phoenixville, PA – Majolica – you might actually care, in a “tell-me-about-the-BYOB-part” kind of way. All of the wines mentioned below were samples, from different sources and picked (somewhat randomly) for the event.

Double-Date Night (DDN) began, as most quality date-night’s do, with a sparkler: in this case, a non-vintage NV Lamberti Rose Spumante.  I hadn’t had a Spumante in what felt like forever, so I was stoked to try this.  Our waitress just about recoiled from the aggressive opening procedure of this bottle; the only thing keeping the cork from achieving escape velocity into Earth orbit was the (now slightly worse-for-wear) Majolica ceiling.  That should have been a warning sign about the aggressiveness of the mousse on the Lamberti, but I ignored it anyway and I nearly injured my brain when I stuck my schnoz into the glass for a good sniff.  When the aggressiveness died down a bit, the flowery components really came out (a function of the Charmat method of production, I suppose?) but overall it’s a wine for Now and not a wine for “Wow!”

For appetizers, I went for a 2009 Nobilo Icon Sauvignon Blanc (a fave of the groovy neighbors).  I get a good deal of grief for liking the larger-production New Zealand SB producers, but there’s something to be said for going with a winning formula and overall I really dug the aroma profile of this wine, though it was also a bit aggressive (our dinner table review was summed up as “it’s like having gooseberries shoved up your nose while you’re mowing the lawn; but in a good way”).

It was the final two wines of the DDN, however that were, for me, the real winner and loser of the event – for which I expect I’m gonna get some more flack…

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Alright folks – time for another giveaway, this week featuring a brand new release from leading World Music label Putumayo.  The new CD, titled Latin Party, is a funky, dance-infused, eclectic mix of tunes from Latin American artists, and features bands hailing from Cuba, the U.S., Peru, Columbia, Mexico, and Jamaica.

From the album press release:

“It includes a mix of boogaloo, funk, cumbia, son, salsa, ska and dancehall and spotlights cutting-edge bands and rising stars that pay homage to Latin music’s past while creatively moving it into the 21st century… features songs from New York-based hip-hop collective Brooklyn Funk essentials, Texas-raised Mexican-American musician and producer A.B. Quintanilla III (Selena’s brother), Peruvian salsera Cecilia Noël, multicultural French/Cuban collective Mas Bajo, Afro-Cuban group Luis Mangual y su Conjunto Mangual featuring José Mangual Jr. and from Colombia, three respected groups: salsa super group Fruko Y Orquesta, popular salsa band Orquesta Lo Nuestro and ska/reggae band Coffee Makers. The CD liner notes also feature a drink recipe by Food Network chef Daisy Martinez and an appetizer recipe by leading Mexican chef Patricia Quintana, owner of renowned Mexican restaurant Izote.”

And YOU can win a copy of Latin Party just by commenting on this here post!

Here’s the dilly-yo:

Leave a comment and tell us what wine would you pair with this album of funky Latin dance grooves?  At the end of next week, a winner will be randomly selected from the commenters using a super-secret, totally objective process that involves my dog (details are best left unexplained).  That winner could, of course, be YOU!

I’ll kick things off with my choice of wine pairing…

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Today marks the 67th (!) edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday, and I’m honored to be hosting the event again. 

For those playing along at home, the gist of WBW is that it brings together multiple people across the wine blog-o-world to review wines on the same date based on a unifying theme.  For #67, we chose “Seeing Red For The First Time” as the clarion call of united wine geekiness (a.k.a., “the theme”).  Here’s how this shin-dig goes down:

To participate, you’ll need to pick a red wine that you would use to introduce a white wine drinker to red wines for the first time.  Think of a person that only ever drinks white wine, and answer the question: What Red Wine would I use to convince that white-wine-only person that they should also drink reds?

Include a review of the wine, and be sure to tell us why you chose that style of wine, or that wine in particular (or both).

A potentially challenging but fun theme, I hope – and I can’t wait to see what you’ve all come up with to try to tempt white-only drinkers over to the Darker Side, so to speak.

My choice, of course, was picked out quite some time ago since I had some advanced notice of the theme, but I had a trickier time than I’d expected in fulfilling my WBW duties.  In fact, while I wouldn’t call my attempt a total failure, I’m pretty sure it ain’t a total success, either. 

But before we get into the wine itself (which was not a media sample this time), let me unravel for you the tapestry of my logic on this puppy…

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