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Posted Aug. 24, 2007 at 1:00 pm by Jonathan Kauffman

It's been a few months since Maggie Dutton and I had time to get together to record our wine-tasting podcast. (You can find the previous casts here.)

Having wandered my way through a number of mass tastings, dodging drunkards and salespeople at every station, this month I asked Maggie whether it was worth it to go to an event like TASTE Washington—and if so, how do you make the most of it?

The answer, not surprisingly, involves spitting:

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Posted May 31, 2007 at 5:00 pm by Jonathan Kauffman

Last month, I asked Maggie Dutton, our drinks columnist, to help me become a wine geek. Well, not a geek—I don't have the money, time, or patience to invest into true oenophilia—but someone who can hold his own with the geeks. We decided to turn our conversation into a podcast just in case anyone else was curious about the term "structure."

This month, I asked Maggie how to tell me if a glass of wine I'm served comes from a bottle that has been open too long. With the proliferation of full-on and sort-of wine bars (restaurants that serve wine at their bar), a lot of wine in Seattle is being sold by the glass. A lot of bottles are being opened just to pour one glass of wine, then recorked and allowed to sit until the next customer wants some. Sometimes that's 30 minutes later, sometimes a few days.

How can you tell the difference between a bum wine and a bum sommelier?

Wine Geek Podcast, vol. 2 (length: 10 minutes)

Next month, Maggie's going to show me exactly how to sniff, swirl, and spit at a winery or formal tasting and not look like a sitcom parody of a wine pro.

A few post-recording notes after the jump.

Continue reading "Podcast: How to Become a Wine Geek, part 2"

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Posted April 24, 2007 at 11:54 am by Jonathan Kauffman

I love wine, but not to the point of obsession. I have definite opinions on what I like and what I don't. I can drink a wine and figure out what food I would pair with it, and generally vice versa. But some wine language floors me. It’s hard to sort out useful technical terms from the connoisseurship-bluffing and status-inflating that anyone who neatly arranges unopened copies of Wine Spectator on their coffee table loves to indulge in.

Almost all the people I know who make, sell, or write about wine can talk about their passion like normal humans, both with and without the jargon. I want to make sure that if I’m discussing what I'm drinking I sound like them and not one of the boors.

So for months I’ve been talking to our Maggie Dutton—who has taken the tests, sold the bottles, and set up her own cellar for aging wines—to help me sort through a few of the terms and issues that I can’t figure out on my own. “Make me a wine geek,” I told her. Being a media type, unable to come up with a single clever thought without yearning to bestow it upon the universe, I thought we should record Maggie’s lessons. Ergo:

Wine Geek Podcast (length: 16:25)

Last Friday, she showed up in the Seattle Weekly International Wine Tasting Headquarters (yeah, sorry about the ringing phone a couple minutes in) with some professional tasting glasses and a few bottles from her cellar in order to teach me about the word “structure” and its many poetic variations. From here on out, when I hear, “Her 2003 Syrah had such a strong backbone” or “Pthah, that merlot had no structure. It was so flabby...” I can nod the knowing nod. Or snicker.

Wines we tasted:

House Wine (Red), Washington state

2005 The Little Penguin Shiraz, Australia

2001 Nickel & Nickel Carpenter Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa

1997 Grand Puy Lacoste, Pauillac (Bordeaux)

Next month: Maggie demonstrates how to tell if a wine that you’ve been served has been left open too long or stored hot, which wine geeks say destroys the flavor.

Continue reading "Podcast: How to Become a Wine Geek"

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To Do List

Tuesday, May 13

Augusten Burroughs
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Town Hall, Tue., May 13, 7:30pm

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Neumo's, Tue., May 13, 8:00pm, $12 adv

Dorothy Rissman
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Fetherston Gallery, Daily from Mon., April 21 until Sat., May 24, 11:00am

90 more things to do today>>