This conference went in great detail on the French wine business. If you have never attended a wine class before, this was not for you. But if you already know the basics of French wine, this conference was definitely for you. The best thing to compare it to would be taking the chapters on France from Tom Stevenson’s Annual Wine Report and making it into a conference.

Every time I attend some wine class or conference I get rediscover something. This time it was Beaujolais. Maybe it was because we tasted three 2000 Beaujolais crus that were outstanding, sadly the 1990 had travel shock. But I did not expect these wines to hold up as well with age as they did. I will be adding more Beaujolais to my classes in the future and personal drinking.

Tonight I opened a bottle of wine that I purchased from The Wine Sellers in Union Pier, MI. It was a bottle of 04 Lucien Crochet Sancerre La Croix du Roy. For starters, in pulling the cork I notice red at the bottom of cork, which is generally not what you expect when opening a bottle of Sancerre. I was so taken aback, I turned more lights on in the kitchen to make sure I wasn’t just seeing things with me eyes. After pouring a taste, I clearly saw it was red wine. A quick taste confirmed it was French with the great mineral quality.

Now, generally when one thinks red wine from Loire you think Cabernet Franc. After tasting the wine I started wondering what was really in it. After enjoying the bottle I finally got the computer to do some research and found it is 100% Pinot Noir. I have completely forgot red Sancerre is Pinot Noir.

With a bit more research Pinot Noir makes up 20% of the vineyards in Sancerre, Loire, France.

Needless to say it was a very enjoyable bottle of wine to drink. And a very rare treat to be that surprised.

Having read about the French tradition of touching Champagne to the lips of new born babies in “Love by the Glass: Tasting Notes from a Marriage,” written by Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, we decided to do the same with a bottle of Henriot Champagne Brut Souverain. This is a fruit forward Champagne with a touch of traditional Champagne yeast.

I currently hold the following wine certifications:

• Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW) from the Society of Wine Eductators
• Intermediate and Advanced Certificates from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust
• Passed the Introductory Sommelier Course from the Court of Master Sommeliers

I am currently studying for my Diploma of Wine and Spirits from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust. I am actually fairly far into this program. And assuming (actually more hoping, *knock on wood*) I passed my exams in June, I have only one paper to write and one exam to take. For those who don’t know, the Diploma program is a 2-3 year program where you essentially memorize the Oxford Companion to Wine and get a greater understanding of the wine business.

I spend most of my time teaching wine classes in the Greater Cleveland area, and I work part time for a local wine shop.

My promise to you, the reader, is to date, everything I have written about I have either purchased, tasted as part of a normal trade or public event, or borrowed from the library. If I recieve anything that is not normally available to all in the trade or public I will clearly tell you and I will still give it a fair and unbiased review.

Oddly enough, I still have ethics and believe full disclosure is the best way of doing things. There are too many people getting too much for free and not disclosing this fact in todays society.

For starters, how do you find a good retailer?

• Ideally this should be someone somewhat close to your home. You don’t want to drive hours every time your want a good bottle, but it also might not be the shop around the corner. I’m not saying you can not join winery clubs or have good out of state shops to order from, but nothing beats a good local shop.
• Ask people whose taste in wine you respect where they buy there wine.
• Look on Localwineevents.com, local wine publications and newspapers for local retailers who do regular tastings. Regular public tastings are a good way to get to know the staff and develop a better understanding of the type of wine the shop carries and the knowledge the staff has.

Once you have found a shop of interest, now what?

• Look around and see if they carry the type of wine you are interested in. If you only like Italians and they have 2 Italian bottles? This might not be the place.
• How many of the wine labels on the shelf are new to you? You don’t want a shop that only carries wines you know. You want a place that can broaden your palate.
• Find out how often public tastings are held, weekly, monthly, never? A shop should hold at least a once a month tasting. See reasons above.
• If you have a favorite wine and you don’t see it on the shelf, ask if they can get it. You want a place that is willing to special order bottles for you, even if you only want one bottle. If the wine is highly allocated and there is none available in the city, that’s a different issue, but for readily available wine, the shop should work with you.
• You want to find out the knowledge level of the staff, yet, you don’t want to be a jerk about it. You can’t walk in and ask for credentials, rather you need to give them an opportunity to show they know there stuff in a conversation. If they are raving about a particular region or wine, ask a few questions about that region, what’s the weather like there, have they visited, etc.. Especially in the US, the more time you talk with a retailer about French wine helps you quickly find out if they know something or not. Again, I stress, you can’t walk in with a quiz for them to pass, this needs to happen in a conversation.

Purchase a few bottles of wines they recommend to you based off of information you give them. What are you drinking now? Cabernet only? Well, try 5-6 Cabernets from around the world. Only drinking French, try some new labels. Remember, you are dealing with someone who is attempting to get to know your tastes. If all the wine you tried was horrible, than time to find another shop. If they only got a few good wines for you, giving them the direction of what you liked and didn’t like and reasons why will greatly help improve your odds. If you liked most or all the wines picked out, run back to the shop and make sure they never go away!

If you are looking for hard to find wines, it helps to have already developed a relationship with a retailer. This way when new things arrive, you will be one of the first called. But if you are just starting a relationship, make sure to let the staff know what specific wines you are looking for.

And most important, become a regular. Either stop in for the weekly tasting and pick up a bottle, or getting a case every few weeks, but keep going back and especially purchase items. When you are there look to see what is new and inform the staff of what you are currently drinking a lot of or looking for. If you don’t ask, there is no way for them to know.

So what is your favorite wine shop?

Here are the upcoming “F” litter suggestions that are due in a week or two.

• France is very obvious, maybe too obvious
• Fermentation would be fun, especially for a boy
• Fara is a small wine DOC from the Piedmont region of Italy, where wines are made from Nebbiolo (similar to Barolo and Barberesco)
• Fattoria is Italian for farm (if you have a heavier kitten)
• Favorita is a white grape from Piedmont, Italy, becoming very rare
• Feinherb is German for off-dry, rare on labels now days
• Feteasca, Fetiaska or Feteaska is a white grape from eastern Europe, mainly Romania
• Fixin is an appellation in the Cote d’Or in Burgundy, there are 5 premier crus here
• Fizzy, in reference to bubbles in wine or if you want to be Italian Frizzante is semi-sparkling in Italian
• Fino is a type of Sherry, dry and light, the palest.
• Fleurie is one of the 10 crus in Beaujolais
• Flurbereinigung is the German restructing of vineyards
• Fröhlich is half of the name of one of the major rising stars in German wine
• Fonseca is the name for a major Port producer
• Franciacorta is a very high end sparkling wine region in Lombardy, Italy, revivals Champagne
• Franken is a wine region in Germany
• Freixenet is the largest exporter of Cava (Spanish sparkling wine)
• Fresno is a city in California with a major wine school
• Friuli is a northern wine region in Italy
• Fronsac is a region on the right back of Bordeaux (Merlot based wine)
• Fume Blanc the Mondavi marketing name for Sauvignon Blanc
• Fuder is a larger German barrel
• Furmint is the main grape used to make Tokay

This is a light, crisp, medium plus acidity wine. It pairs perfectly with asparagus wrapped in prosciutto and covered with mozzarella.

According to the Oxford Companion of Wine, edition 3, there are only 7,000 ha of this varietal growing.

So what is this? To me, this isn’t another blog. Rather it’s a public place for me to put wine writings and musings. Sometimes there will be tasting notes, rants or raves about various other wine personalities, but mostly this is a place learn about wine.

Just about everything is a possible topic. Articles currently in the works will address dealing with allergies for a wine lover, wine education, and investing in wine. If you have an idea, feel free to drop a line. And from time to time there will be non-wine beverages addressed.

Finally, there is area a number of posts from the past three years, culled from my personal blog and former wine blog. Enjoy the archive!