AMERICAN WINE SOCIETY
A non-profit corporation

John Marshall Chapter


Quality in wines is much easier to recognize than to define.

Maynard A. Amerine
Professor Emeritus, enology, University of California, Davis


FEBRUARY MEETING

On February 3rd, while many watched the Super Bowl, a dozen John Marshall Chapter members chose a pleasurable evening with Walt and his Ports of Call presentation. There was a rumor lurking about before the meeting that a certain female friend of Walt's was selling the answers to his quiz and not sharing the proceeds with Walt. So, he brown bagged his tasties, passed-out a description of each of the wines that did not identify which was which, hence requiring attendees to match the description with the wines. Hence, Walt reinvented the quiz.

He initiated the tasting with the only port from Portugal as a benchmark, Taylor-Fladgate '94 LBV. In the aftermath, the consensus was that the South African Ruby Port tasted similar to Portuguese ports, but real port is from Portugal and all the others, while very nice wines, were not ports. Walt, as usual, taught us a deeper appreciation for the genuine article. However, he has yet to tell us how we can afford the real McCoys.
 


Social Wine		      
Grand Veneur  2000  Cotes du Rhone    $8.99

Benchmark Port		      
Taylor-Fladgate 1994 LBV Porto $21.99

"Mystery Ports"		      
KWV Full Ruby  N/V South Africa   $7.99
Messina Hof Papa Paulo  N/V Texas $24.99
Beringer 1978 California $24.00
Horton Vineyards 1997 Virginia $18.99
DiGrazia Blacksmith Port  1998  Connecticut $21.99
Stone Hill 1998 Missouri $29.15
Peter Lehmann 1999 Australia $30.00

 

MARCH MEETING

No more calls, folks! We have another winner. Mr. George Wilson will please our palates with Virginia gold medal winning wines on the SECOND Sunday in March, the 10th. Once again, George is hosting this event at Heritage Hunt's Marsh Mansion. Social begins at 6:30 p.m., formal presentation at 7 p.m. Here's a list of the excellent wines we will be tasting.
 

White Wines
White Hall 1999  Chardonnay Reserve Gold VWH
Jefferson 1999 Estate Reserve Gold VWH & Silver VWGA?
Chrysallis 2000 Viognier BIS VWGA & Bronze VWH
Breaux 2000 Viognier Gold VSF & Bronze VWGA

Red Wines
Afton Mtn 2000 Michael Shaps Merlot  Gold VWH
Rockbridge 1998 Dechiel Merlot Gov's Cup VWH & Gold VWGA
Tarara 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon Gold VWH
Villa Appalaccia  1998 Francesco Gold VWH

Desert Wine
Rockbridge 2000 V'dor Gold VWH

 

FUTURE MEETINGS

Date
Host
Theme
April 7  Carl Brandhorst  Spectacular Maderias *
May 5 Glenda Leister Cabernet Franc
June 9 Bruce Schaefer Consumer Reports Best Buys 

* Mike reports that there are some seats remaining for the Madeira tasting.  If you want to experience these unique wines, presented by the ubiquitous Carl Brandhorst, call Mike and Barb Schlosser at (703) 369-6416, or e-mail mikeschlosser@erols.com, to reserve a seat.



SENSE OF CLOSURE

Have ya ever anticipated opening a particular bottle of your favorite beverage? Then, in your exuberance, proved Pavlov's theory by salivating profusely when ya cut the capsule and lovingly extract the cork, and been let down by a musty or band-aid like odor assaulting your senses?

"What difference does the closure type make?" is a question that has the wine world scrambling for answers. Is natural cork, filled cork, coated cork, chunk cork, double-disk cork, fine ground cork, a synthetic cork, T-top, or screw cap the best closure? It is generally accepted that approximately 2% of all natural cork closures cause a fault in wine -- whether it be from TCA (2,4,6-trichloronisole), which gives a musty corkiness or band-aid like aroma to our favorite beverage; or a flawed cork, which prevented an airtight seal and lead to oxidized wine. But, are any of the other types of closures fault free, allowing the fermented juice to flow onto our palate with pure ecstasy every time? The jury is still out on what affects the various closures have on wine. By the way, there is a prolonged study underway in Australia (or is it New Zealand?) on the potential of screw caps for fine wines. Stay tuned for further developments.
 

See ya on the 10th!

Smile . . .

Fletcher