Others in our town, state and nation are not so fortunate. Each day is a challenge for them. Many of our fellow citizens are dealing with debilitating physical, emotional and mental issues that make each day a struggle to survive. Their goal is simply to find food to eat and a place to sleep. Fortunately, there are agencies in our communities that exist solely to assist these people, many of whom are homeless.

One such agency is the Roark-Sullivan Lifeways Center (RSLC) with facilities in Charleston and St. Albans. RSLC and other such organizations exist because of state and federal programs funded by your taxes and through your generous personal contributions.

As a board member of RSLC, I can tell you this is a special organization with a great group of dedicated employees and volunteers. The center assists individuals experiencing homelessness with services that help them become self-reliant. RSLC operates the 60-bed Giltinan Center on Leon Sullivan Way (formerly the Charleston Men’s Emergency Shelter) and the 16-bed Twin Cities Center in St. Albans and provides comprehensive services such as healthcare maintenance; substance abuse and mental health assistance; outreach; and transitional and aftercare services. RSLC is also building a Veterans Transitional Center adjacent to the Giltinan Center that will be completed later this year.

Wouldn’t it be great to help programs like Roark-Sullivan and enjoy good wine and food, too? Well, you can. Join me and about 100 other thirsty wine lovers at the third annual Roark-Sullivan Lifeways Center Wine and Roses event. Wine and Roses will be held indoors at the Capitol Market from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 17. Partnering with RSLC is the Capitol Market, Soho’s and the Wine Shop at Capitol Market.

There will be wines from all over the world which are once again being donated by area wine distributors. I’ll be there to answer your wine questions (even if I don’t know the answers). If you find a wine you like at the event, you can purchase it immediately from the nice folks at the Wine Shop.

Tickets are $25 in advance or $30 at the door. You can call RSLC at 414-0109 and give them your credit card or send a check to: RSLC, P.O. Box 8957, South Charleston, WV, 25303.

I hope to see you there.

August 8-10: Taste of the Mountains Food, Wine & Jazz Festival

Looking for a great getaway wine and food weekend? Travel up to Snowshoe in August, take in the cool mountain air and partake of great wine, food and music. This wine and food weekend (Aug. 8-10) offers wine tastings, excellent food and live jazz entertainment. I’ve attended a couple of these festivals in past years and can tell you it’s a whole lot of fun. Bring your palate ready to taste some of the area’s finest foods complimented by wines from around the world.

The highlight of the weekend for me has always been Saturday’s Grand Tasting from 2-6:30 p.m. You’ll have access to 100 different wines from around the world matched with delicious edibles and you’ll hear some great jazz too.
Prices for tastings, receptions, etc., can be purchased individually, or you can purchase a two-night all-inclusive package. Call Snowshoe for pricing and more information: (877) 441-4386

First a little history lesson. Back in the 1700s, the English dearly loved the wines of Bordeaux, but because of their constant wars with the French, our British cousins were forced to look to Portugal for vinous sustenance. As they began to import red wine from Portugal, some enterprising folks added brandy to the barrels so the wines would be fortified to survive the arduous sea journey.

The practice of “fortifying” the wine was refined by the Portuguese wine makers who began to add distilled spirits to their wine during fermentation. This had the effect of stopping the fermentation and leaving the wines sweet. It also made the wines higher in alcohol. The British loved the sweet, high alcohol wines and the Portuguese were more than happy for the significant trade that ensued. Since that time, port has been exported all over the world and has become the staple after dinner drink for many wine lovers.

Some would suggest that port, like scotch, is an acquired taste. I can assure you that, from my perspective, port is a lot easier to enjoy than Scotch. True, there is a “baked” quality to the taste of this sweet wine that some folks take a while getting accustomed to, but once you try the stuff with a good blue cheese or a handful of walnuts, you’ll be hooked.

Port or ‘porto‘ (as it is called in Portugal) is made from a variety of (unpronounceable) grapes grown along the steep slopes of Douro River. The river flows toward the town of Oporto, where the wine is sold to companies (called” Shippers”) who age it, label it under their house name and then export it all over the world.

Port is fortified which means that distilled spirits are added to the fermenting wine. This causes the fermentation to stop, leaving about 10 percent residual sugar in the wine and also boosting the alcohol to about 20 percent. At first, port was produced in a dry style, but the British changed all that and, in fact, many port producers today are English companies.

There are also some very good port-style wines produced in other countries, most notably Australia and the U.S. As a matter of fact, two of my favorite tawny ports are produced in these two countries and I’ll list them for you later.

SORTS OF PORT 

Here are different styles of Port available in the marketplace:
Vintage Port: This is the best and most expensive style and is produced on average in only three years a decade. A “vintage year” is usually declared by an agreement among the shippers and the wines are then given special care and aging. Once you buy it, vintage Port can age easily for 15 to 40 years before reaching maturity. Recent vintage Port years are 1977, 1979, 1983, 1986, 1991 and 1994, 1995, 1997 2000 and 2003.

Late Bottled Vintage Port:  Not to be confused with vintage port, this wine is a blend of ports from different vineyards in the same vintage year. Late bottled vintage port (or LBV) will have a vintage date on the label, but it is not vintage port. However, these wines are vinified in the same manner as vintage ports, except they are aged in barrel longer to accelerate their drinkablity.

Ruby Port: Young port wine blends from several different vintages comprise ruby port. They are lighter and fruitier than other styles and usually the least expensive ports.

Tawny Port:  I call this ‘the poor man’s vintage port’ because it is aged for many years in oak and, when released, it is very smooth and rich like an old vintage port, though not as fine. Without a doubt, this is my favorite everyday drinking port. Most of the better tawnies are aged for either 10, 20, 30 or 40 years and this fact is listed on the label. Tawnies, without these label designations are usually less appealing.

White Port: Made from white grapes, this is the only port-style wine that is dry. It is usually crisp, yet full-bodied, and makes a nice aperitif wine.

RECOMMENDATIONS 

Okay, here is a list of some of my favorite port producers: Ficklin and Quaddy (U.S.) and Clocktower (Australia) are my favorite port-like wines produced outside Portugal. The rest of these producers are Portuguese: Warre’s, Graham’s, Taylor-Fladgate, Croft, Dow’s, Fonseca and Ramos-Pinto. Prices for 10-year old tawnies can range from about $10 to $25 dollars a bottle. If you can find it, try Ficklin’s 10-year old tawny – it’s absolutely delicious.

So there I was on the campus of Linfield College in Oregon last summer, rushing to get to class on time. I had to chuckle at the irony of it all. Me, worried about being tardy for class? Any of my former WVU professors –if they’re still breathing – would certainly need to “suspend disbelief” in order to accept the absurdity of that image.

Well, I have to admit this was not your ordinary boring lecture by some pedantic, patch-on-the-sleeve liberal arts lecturer. Rather, it was a seminar which required the class to assess the various taste characteristics of pinot noir produced in Oregon and Burgundy. This “class” was one of many such explorations of pinot noir as part of the International Pinot Noir Celebration (IPNC) held in the heart of Oregon’s Willamette Valley. (more…)

While it is undoubtedly true that 99 percent of all wine produced is ready to be drunk when it becomes available in the market place, what you won’t know until you try it is whether or not the wine will actually drink better if you allow it to “breathe.” Yet some people think that merely removing the cork will suffice in allowing enough oxygen to aerate the wine. Unfortunately, removing the cork allows only a miniscule amount of air into the bottle. Properly aerating a wine in this manner would take about two weeks.

Knowing when and how long to aerate a wine is a matter of judgment and experience. The idea is to decant the wine into a larger, more open container to allow a generous amount of oxygen to aerate the liquid and release the aromas and flavors that have been locked up in the bottle. (more…)

Even so, I’m always looking for ways to justify (my wife would say rationalize) my indulgences and wine is always at the top of the list. Years ago, a study known as “The French Paradox” suggested that regular and moderate consumption of wine (especially red) with meals was the reason the French experienced significantly fewer heart attacks than Americans. This despite the fact that the French diet is extremely high in fat.

We Americans eat a lot fat, too, but we don’t consume enough wine to mitigate the negative effects. Therefore, our rates of cardiac calamities are significantly worse than the French. So while you may disagree, I think there is a pretty strong correlation between regular consumption of wine and cardiac health - and I believe in taking care of my heart! (more…)

2006 Gramona Gessami ($18) – This unique Spanish wine (from Catalonia) is a blend of 70 percent muscat and 30 percent sauvignon blanc. With aromas of spice and ripe pear, this golden wine is chock full of slightly sweet citrus and apricot flavors that are balanced out by good acidity. It would be a delicious match to spicy oriental foods like Thai curry.

2007 Sierra Cruz Carmenere ($10) -As a member of the cabernet sauvignon family, carmenere (pronounced car-men-yare) originated in Bordeaux as one of the grapes permitted for use in the red blends of that storied region. While it is not now used in France, Chilean winemakers have embraced it and several wineries in that country produce it as a single varietal. The ’07 Sierra Cruz is a very pleasant, soft, medium-bodied wine that has fresh cabernet-like aromas and flavors of spice, dark fruit and black pepper. It is a great value and also would be a nice match with marinated and grilled skirt or flank steak.

2007 Marques De Caceres Rose ($12) – A lovely, fruit-forward and bone dry rose from the famous Rioja region of Spain. The ‘07 Marques De Caceres is a blend of tempranillo and grenache and has aromas of strawberry and hay. In the mouth, this wine has a dried cherry and spice flavor profile that gives it a richness that is balanced by crisp acidity. Great for a picnic and it is especially simpatico with grilled chicken.

2007 Sierra Cruz Sauvignon Blanc ($10) This Chilean sauvignon blanc just oozes with bright citrus flavors and a nose of herbs and grass. Stylistically, it is a cross between the herbal, grassy wines so prevalent in Sonoma County and the riper, more fruit forward products of New Zealand. Match it with pasta sauced with arugula, pine nuts, mushrooms and parmesan.

2006 Conclass Rueda ($12) – This is another sleeper white from Spain that is simply delicious! Crisp, yet full flavored, this wine is a combination of verdelho and sauvignon blanc and really delivers with citrus flavors and stony minerality. It is a mouthful of wine, but very balanced and just begs to paired with Chilean sea bass sautéed in olive oil, shallots, a pinch of thyme and cracked white pepper.

In the larger scheme of producing a daily newspaper, WineBoy takes a back seat to the need for the Gazette to produce news-related video. I hope at some point we’ll be able to resume a somewhat regular schedule of Webcasts in the future, but that depends on a whole lot of considerations out of my control.

In the meantime, you can still catch some of the WineBoy webcasts at the links in past posts. After all, most of the shows have timeless content related to the world of wine. We might even index the shows we’ve already produced and make them available at the WineBoy website. Let me (and the Gazette) know what you think.

One of the icons in the world of wine died last week. Robert Mondavi, 94, passed away at his home in the Napa Valley after a lifetime of literally and figuratively toiling in the vineyard to insure the growth of wine appreciation around the world. Wine to Mondavi represented more than just a pleasant beverage to enjoy with friends and family around the dinner table.

In his 1998 autobiography, “Harvests of Joy,” Mondavi said: “My passion for bringing wine into the American culture was motivated by a desire to plant deep into the soil of our young country the same values, traditions and daily pleasures that my mother and father had brought with them from central Italy: good food, good wine and love of family.”

He was born to Italian immigrant parents in Virginia, Minnesota, in 1913 where his father had a business supplying wine grapes to other immigrants who worked in the iron ore mines of the region. The family moved to Lodi, California and then later to the Napa Valley. During this time, Robert worked with his father and brother at the Sunny St. Helena Winery. In 1936, he graduated from Stanford University with a degree in marketing.

During World War II, he and his brother Peter convinced his father to purchase the Charles Krug Winery. At Krug the brothers managed the moderately successful winery until family differences forced Robert to establish his own winery in 1966. (more…)

The introductory paragraph to Asimov’s April 11 blog reads: “In yet another anti-intellectual effort to take fancy-schmancy wine down a peg or two, a new book purports to demonstrate that price bears little relation to quality and that the experts don’t know what they are talking about. The evidence? Blind taste tests of 540 wines by 500 volunteer tasters.”

That blog and the comments it elicited got me thinking about how we all make choices regarding the wines we select for every day drinking and for special occasions. Certainly, we can all agree that quality wines that offer great value are worth seeking out. So how do we determine what is not only an acceptable wine, but one that is exceptional? Well, let me take a crack at it. (more…)

Each year about this time, I join a group of West Virginia wine lovers who are called upon to select the best wines produced by state wineries in seven different categories (e.g., dry red; semi-sweet white; dry white; dessert, etc.). This annual tasting gives me a pretty good indication and historical perspective on the quality of Mountain State wines since we’ve been judging the competition for about 15 years. I’m happy to report that West Virginia-made wine has improved steadily over the past decade. I’m also happy to report that the number of wineries has increased from just a few to 17 in the past ten years.

While many of these wines can be good to exceptional, wine makers in the state face very difficult growing conditions that force them to use vines that can limit their ability to make great wines. Why? (more…)