SoBe Wine & Food Festival Grand Tasting Village

More coverage: SoBe wine highlights | Dispatches from “Sweet” | Festival scores a touchdown

Sweet and I spent a fantastic weekend in Miami for the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. The festival, now in its ninth year, was a star-studded event packed with celebrity chefs, master sommeliers, top winemakers and the who’s who of SoBe socialites.

It was also an excellent education in wine from some of the top professionals in the field. Here’s some valuable lessons I learned. Check back tomorrow for more from Sweet.



There’s no better way to start the day than with Pommery Rosé Champagne

Holly MacDonald-Korth sips Pommery

My SoBe wine and food experience began Saturday at 10 a.m. with the Wine Spectator Seminar Series A. Wine Spectator ran three 2.5-hour seminars through the course of the weekend. Series A covered “La Vie en Rose by Pommery”, a tasting of Domaine Jean Grivot Burgundies and a vertical tasting from Opus One.

It was all good — well, fantastic, really — but there’s just something about South Beach and rosé. It’s kind of like peanut butter and jelly, except more fabulous, dahling.



Vintage year matters

This was a great lesson I learned at the Wine Spectator Series A. Sure, I’ve heard like many others to look for the ’05 Bordeaux. But beyond that, I’ll admit to wondering how much difference a year can make.

The Domaine Jean Grivot Burgundy tasting really changed my mind. We tasted eight wines: one premier cru and one grand cru from four different vintages. I noticed differences in all of the wines, but especially between the 2004 and 2002 vintages of the Nuits-St-Georges Premier Cru “Aux Boudots”. Considering it’s the same vines from the same plot of land, just two years apart, this difference surprised me.

The ’02 was really lovely — full of pungent, slightly dried fruits like sweet cherry, cranberry and raspberry, with hints of sweet spices and tobacco. The aroma really pulled me in, every time I went back I got something more, something different. On the palate, it was like drinking silk — so soft, smooth and luxurious.

The ’04 felt like a completely different wine. The aromas were sharper and slightly tart. I got a hint of a vegetal, branchy aroma. On the palate, the wine had a similar silky mouthfeel, but the flavors were not as ripe. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a lovely wine, but it definitely wasn’t as good as the ’02.

Domaine Grivot proprietor, Etienne Grivot explained that while ’02 was a phenomenal year in Burgundy, with superb weather and even ripeness of the grapes, ’04 was much more difficult, with record low temperatures and a late summer outbreak of oidium and mildew. A warmer September helped save what was left on the vines, and hand sorting at the winery ensured that only the best grapes were vinified.

Regardless of all the technicalities, it was a great lesson in how the weather (and human intervention) can affect outcome, and how nothing in the wine world can be taken for granted.



Find your own sweet spot

A few months after we started Swirl Girls, I wrote about my wine hoarding ways. While I still reserve space next to my pajamas for those incredibly rare and special finds, my collection quickly outgrew my dresser drawer capacity, and it was really time to come clean.

I’m now out of the closet (literally) and piling bottles on the cold tile floor of my living room, covered with a black sheet. Yes, my AC bills are outrageous, and yes, a wine cooler is the next step.

Color difference between the 1988 (left) and the 2006 Opus One

But I learned a valuable lesson at the vertical Opus One tasting that’s going to change my hoarding habit in a big way — I don’t want to save my wine for 20-plus years. It was quite an experience to sip on the 1988 vintage, full of mature dried fruit flavors and ever so smooth. But honestly, I wanted a little more oomph — a little more of the tannic structure I found in the ’93 and younger vintages.

I’m not saying one or the other is better. It’s just my personal preference. I like my tannins a bit firmer, my fruit slightly fresher. So maybe I’ll save my ’05 Bordeaux’s another five years rather than 10 or 15.

Now I know what you’re thinking — my plan may be flawed from the outset. Piling anything on the floor under a cloth for decades is not a great storage system. But that’s not the point.

It’s about figuring out your own likes and dislikes. Sure, the Wine Spectator vintage charts with directions on when to drink are helpful. But remember, you’re the one buying, saving and drinking. So trust your own palate and drink what — and when — you like.



When in doubt, say ‘cherry’

This valuable tidbit came straight from the lips of the ever-so-knowledgeable and hilarious Doug Frost during the Taste like a Master Sommelier seminar on Saturday afternoon. Frost is one of the only people in the world who is both a master sommelier and a master of wine. In other words, he is the Yoda of the wine world, but taller and with more hair.

He gave us all sorts of tips on how to decipher what’s in your glass, and a few crib notes for what to do when you’ve got no idea. Like you can never go wrong with cherry. Every red wine you smell or taste, you’ll find some element of cherry, whether it’s red, black, sweet, dry, baked, freshly picked in a meadow on a warm July afternoon … you get the picture.

So if you want to impress your friends at the next cocktail party, just throw in a “wow, I’m getting a strong cherry note in this wine,” and no one is going to call you out, except perhaps a master sommelier. This technique works equally well for apple if you are drinking a white.

In all seriousness, the Taste like a Master Sommelier was a fantastic class that taught the basics of deductive tasting. The class helped me focus on the specifics of what I was smelling and tasting in a wine, and what those hints tell me about what varietal it is and where it came from. It’s a great learning experience for anyone who gets into the geekier side of wine tasting.



Watch what — and where — you tweet

@SwirlGirls have been part of the online Twitter community since we began writing about wine last May. We usually leave the tweeting to Sweet (Libby), but I chime in once in awhile when I’ve tried something great or I’m at an event with other tweeps. SoBe (or in the Twitter-verse #sobewff) was one such event.

We’d made it through six of the eight blind wines at the Taste like a Master Sommelier seminar when Master Sommelier and winemaker, Richard Betts (AKA @yobetts) asked who in the room was tweeting as @SwirlGirls and would I like to use the deductive tasting method to figure out what the next wine was.

Now, I’ve tried my fair share of wines. But my only other experience with a blind tasting was at a party a few months back, when my friend Jimmy stuck a glass of red under my nose and asked me what I thought. I studied the wine — dark purple color with aromas of ripe dark fruits and peppery spice. I looked at Jimmy — a big lover of A) Bordeaux and B) Australian Shiraz. I chose B) and wow-ed all of my friends.

Fast-forward to me sitting in a room full of serious winos in front of a panel of master sommeliers. Yes, even SG’s have those intimidating wine moments. I started swirling vigorously and bargaining with God for my first-born child.

The wine was dark purple, almost black, and quite obscure. It didn’t show much sign of aging (not much color variation between the center and edges of the wine in the glass), so I guessed it wasn’t very old. On the nose, it had a lot of ripe dark fruits like plum, blackberry and black cherry (hey, you can’t go wrong with cherry). The wine also had a strong spicy note — I said black pepper — and @yobetts agreed enthusiastically. He asked me if I got any earthy notes and I said maybe, but the fruit and spice were much more apparent. So far, so good.

On the palate, the wine was definitely fruit-forward with a strong spice element, full-bodied, high acidity and a long finish. I guessed correctly that Syrah was the varietal, based on the spice element, and New World rather than Old, based on the bold fruit. I guessed incorrectly that the wine came from a warm climate — I remembered that ripe, juicy fruit, but forgot the strong acidity (which can suggest a cooler climate). I’m not sure why I guessed California over Australia, but luckily, California was correct. I got a bit lost on the specific region, but did manage to guess the vintage year correctly — 2005. That might have been beginner’s luck!



There’s more to Spain than Rioja

I started Sunday morning with another supremely entertaining seminar led by Doug Frost on the wines of Spain. I tried to take notes, but soon realized there really is no way to keep up with this man — just sit back and enjoy the ride.

I looked down at the 10 wines in front of me and was surprised to see only a few familiar names. There was Cava — Spain’s most popular sparkler — Albariño from Rias Baixas, and of course, Rioja. I’d heard good wines were coming from Priorat, but the rest were a bit of a mystery.

I’ve never met an Albariño I didn’t like, and the ’08 Morgadío was no exception. I also thought the ’04 Bodegas Bretón Dominio de Conté Rioja Reserva was consistent with other Riojas I’ve tried and enjoyed. But the wine that everyone got excited about was a 2005 Pago de Vallegarcia Syrah from Castilla la Mancha. It was lovely and luscious, full of dark fruits and warm, sweet baking spices. On the palate, the wine was full bodied but smooth, with a long dry finish.

Who knew wines of such caliber could be found in La Mancha? Isn’t that in the hot, dry center of the country where nothing good happens? And since when were they planting varietals like Syrah and Viognier?

The other bonus, perhaps because of the region’s lack of notoriety, is the values to be found. The ’05 Syrah has a suggested retail of only $35, a great price for this wine. Looks like La Mancha deserves another look.



Remember to balance work and play

Okay, so drinking isn’t really work unless you are a master sommelier. But the wine seminars did carry a certain element of seriousness and professionalism. They were an excellent opportunity to try some top-notch wines and focus on learning.

On the flip side, the Grand Tasting Village was laid-back, glammed-out and lots of fun. I finished my SoBe experience there on Sunday afternoon, and it was the perfect end to a fantastic weekend of wine. The weather was beautiful — sunny and breezy — ideal for a tasting set on the beach, just steps from the ocean. The tasting village was a series of tents filled with celebrity cooking demonstrations, lounge areas and an endless array of food, wine and spirits.

Just like winemakers strive for balance in their wines, SoBe Wine & Food Festival did a great job of balancing the opportunity to study wine in the seminars and to enjoy it at the tasting village. There was something here for every level of wine lover. I can’t wait to return next year!



Creamy blue cheese balls rolled in milk chocolate crispies

Worth every penny of the $234 admission to the Grand Tasting Village. Why has no one thought of this before?



~ Dry (J. Gwen)