Wine Class

Kings Daughters meet Knights of the Wine Table

By Jennifer Larmie • Photos by Jennifer Kettler

Here we are at the top of The Tiger Hotel at twilight. It has stopped raining, and the view of Jesse Hall is simply beautiful. I invited members of my Cecille Taylor Kings Daughters Circle to what I hoped would be a fun and educational spring “New Release” white wine tasting. Most of the women had never been to a formal tasting — one where you actually have to twirl, sniff and taste with the patience of Job — it’s a no-no to move onto your next wine before completely evaluating the previous one.

Ron Newman, Tays Taylor and Chuck Johnson of Glazer’s Midwest prepared quite a show for us. Glazer’s was founded in 1909. Currently operating in 11 states, it’s one of the nation’s largest distributors of wine and spirits. Ron Newman is the general sales manager for the Glazers branch in Columbia and is an industry veteran of 37 years.

Our other presenter, Tays, a native of New Zealand, has been with Glazer’s for 15 years. Between the two and Chuck Johnson, they have a combined 80 years experience selling wine.

We gathered our cheese and crackers and got the party started. All the wines we were about to taste retail for less than $15 and can be found at local retailers in Columbia.

Ron started out by giving us a brief history of wine, then moved on to direct us on how to experience the tasting. First, you check the clarity of the wine. He held up a white sheet of paper next to the glass to demonstrate how clear the color was. Second is body. We swirled the wine in the glass to see how thick the “legs” were as they slid down the glass. Third is aroma. This is the most pleasant aspect, according to Ron. Fourth, and the best according to me, is the tasting. Tays explained how our tongues pick up different aspects of the wine —the front part gets the sweetness, the sides when swishing pick up the acidity, and on the back of the tongue, the finish will let you know how tannic or bitter 
it is.
Tays then threw out a great comment, “The best wine is the wine you like the most or the one you are drinking at the time!” Ha! With that, it was time to dig in.

The first wine was the Kris Pinot Grigio from northern Italy. This particular Pinot Grigio is consistently rated as one of the top selling restaurant wines. It had a nice citrus nose with apricots and almonds coming through on the finish. I would drink this alone as aperitif or served with lighter foods like omelets or veggie risotto.

The next wine was the Cono Sur Vision Sauvignon Blanc. Its style was very European, not the highly acidic citrus and pineapple characters we tend to associate with SB. This wine was more complex and earthy. Ron thought it would be good with Foie Gras. Jackie Baugher, who is French, commented that she didn’t have one type of specific wine she liked with duck liver but probably leaned toward sparkling wine when indulging.

Someone asked about malolactic fermentation and whether it’s still a popular option in winemaking. Another question was about barrel ageing. The guys gave us great perspectives without losing us in too much technical jargon.

Next up was Kunde Sauvignon Blanc. No wonder the winery calls this wine, “A vacation in the glass.” They blend in small amounts of Semillon and Viognier to add suppleness and body. Honey, pineapple and grapefruit were the standouts, plus it had a crisp, clean finish. You wouldn’t go wrong serving this wine to a crowd. The tasting profile would please even the toughest critic.

Tays gave us a great analogy on scent and our brain. He described how all of us have a “scent filing cabinet,” where over our lifetime we file away different smells even without knowing it. When smelling wine, he encouraged us to really pay attention to our “files,” which will help us enjoy our wine-tasting experiences even more.

The Cline Viognier was next. Ron told us about the Jacuzzi family who started this label. The Jacuzzi bathtub was invented because this family had a son with rheumatoid arthritis, and they wanted to help ease his pain. What a multitalented family! This Sonoma Valley wine was lovely with ripe peaches, orange blossoms and honey. Its refined characters would make it a great match with some light cheeses and fruity salsas.

Right about now we started discussing the age-old debate — screw cap versus cork. Ron and Tays shared their thoughts on why the screw cap is truly the ideal closure for wines that will be consumed fairly young.

Cork taint ruins almost 10 percent of wines, which leads to millions of dollars in losses for wineries in product alone, not to mention the loss of customer loyalty. I’ve seen firsthand how cork can truly flaw the wine, as I used to sell cork in Napa.
We reign ourselves back in so we can finish the tasting before midnight. We move on to our only chardonnay of the group, Souverain Alexander Valley Chardonnay. My first impressions were smoke and nutmeg. You could detect lots of ripe pear on the finish. It’s a classic California-style, rich chardonnay. Jim Laube, of the Wine Spectator, liked it enough to score 90 points. I’m not sure that I would go that far, but if you want a wine to go with butter, cream and shrimp, this is the one.
Then we transitioned to a discussion about AVAs or American Viticultural Areas. Ron tells us that Augusta, Mo., was the first AVA in the country with Napa coming in second. German immigrants came to Missouri and started growing grapes. Soon wine production was in full force and launched Missouri to the second largest wine producer in the country behind New York state. This is a cool factoid about our local wine industry, which today is still very strong.

Two more wines to go. Pacific Rim Gewürztraminer was next. Most people really shy away from this varietal because they think it’s too sweet. Truly, they don’t know what they’ve been missing. This wine is refreshing, light and clean. Only slightly sweet, this wine would be great with spicy food and even blue cheese. Ron found a lychee character in it. … Sure, why not?

The last wine we taste, according to Ron, was the first wine we would ever have from Idaho — the Ste Chapelle Soft Chenin Blanc. Maybe it was the order in which we tasted, or maybe it was because the wine was a little warm, but somehow it didn’t quite stand up to the rest. It was a little thin and uninteresting. Even the Glazer guys commented that it would probably not be their first choice to put at the end of a tasting.

Now it was time for us to vote on our favorites. We had a tie for first — Kunde SB and Cline Viognier — and a tie for second — Souverain Chardonnay and the Cono Sur Vision SB. I think we impressed our presenters with our choices. Sophisticated pallets were apparent in this group.

Then Ron comes out with a sweet surprise for all of us: a bottle of 350ml Banfi Rosa Regale sparkling red wine and a lovely single chocolate covered strawberry. The ladies were charmed and thrilled to say the least.

Ron and Tays had done a terrific job of entertaining and educating us without boring us silly. They make a great team, and I told them that they should take their show on the road. Right … they had already thought of that.

If you would like to purchase these wines in Columbia, go to your favorite local retailer and ask them. If they don’t have them in stock, they can order them for you. Because all of these wines were new releases, the vintage dates were 2007 except the Cono Sur, which was 2006.