Drinking The World

Where do you want to be on Friday October 14th? At the Ultimate Blast!

The Ultimate Beverage Challenge's second annual Ultimate Blast, a consumer, media and trade tasting event returns to New York City. Friday, October 14, 2011 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, 1535 Broadway @ 45th St., NYC.

Ever dream you could go to an amazing tasting where you would learn about the world’s best spirits, cocktails and wines? Where the host encourages you to try a little something from the rarest bottles on his bar – whether wine or spirits – AND he has trays of the most delectable specialty cocktails for you to sip and savor? That dream becomes reality when the second annual ULTIMATE BLAST consumer, media and trade tasting event returns this fall to New York City.

Hosted by Ultimate Beverage Challenge (UBC), the country’s foremost spirits and wine evaluation company founded by beverage expert and author F. Paul Pacult, this gala tasting event featuring spirits, cocktails and wines will take place on Friday, October 14, 2011 from 5:30pm - 9:30pm at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square, New York City. Tickets to this can’t-be-missed event are available now at www.ultimate-beverage.com/blast-info. Through September 15, a 30% Advance Purchase Discount applies to all tickets.

This year at ULTIMATE BLAST, guests can once again look forward to not only being educated about the finest products the beverage alcohol world offers, but also a high-spirited party in a nightclub-like atmosphere. The famed Broadway Ballroom at the Marriott Marquis hotel will feature tables brimming with the best libations as well as branded lounges hosted by major spirits and wine companies that will be decorated to create special and unique ambiances – like a party within a party! Many of the beverages at Ultimate Blast are UBC Chairman's Trophy winners and finalists from the trio of Ultimate Beverage Challenges held earlier this year. All guests will enjoy:

o SPIRITS – hundreds of world-class whiskies, brandies, vodkas, tequilas, rums, gins and more, produced by the world’s finest mainstream and craft producers
o COCKTAILS – scores of thrilling cocktails, created by an array of the world’s best bartenders
o WINES – a bevy of the world’s most acclaimed Champagnes, wines and sparkling wines
o BOOK SIGNINGS – by some of the world’s pre-eminent spirits and cocktail authors
o LIVE MUSIC and FOOD

Says UBC founder F. Paul Pacult: “If you want to have fun this fall, you’ll come to Ultimate Blast and learn about world-class beverages. Period.”

Not too long ago at Winterport Winery we were starting off a batch of pear wine. We use large, 500 gallon tanks for the initial fermentation and the juice gets pumped in from the bottom and slowly fills up the tank. As the tank filled with the juice air bubbles formed, and I started to see what looked like a strange world developing before my eyes. Continents, storms and clouds, constantly changing as I watched. I grabbed my camera from my office upstairs in the brewery/distillery and came back down to the winery and started snapping shots every few minutes. Click to see more of a world of pear.

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Pink Criquet 2006 Rosé Wine is 13% abv. and an Appellation Bordeaux Rosé from France. The slim and elegant silver label with a bright pink criquet on it, is set off by the metallic pink screw top. Don't make the mistake that this is an inferior wine because of the screw top, because it is anything but. Many great wine makers are switching to screw tops and plastic corks to prevent their wines from becoming "corked." This is where a wine has been bottled with a cork contaminated with TCA (2,4,6-Trichloroanisole) which can ruin the taste and smell of the wine, giving it musty aromas and tastes. It is estimated that as many as 3% to 7% of all wines have TCA contamination, but you don't have to worry about that with the Pink Criquet.

Pink Criquet 2006 is made with 60% Merlot, 35% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from Bordeaux. A percentage of the grapes are left to sit on their skins for a short time after crushing so that it picks up more flavor and color, in a process called saignée. This gives the wine its deep, solid, bright rosé color and complex flavors.

The aroma is that of deep red fruit. Berries of all kinds, apples, with a wisp of citrus. I was chopping some Buddha's Hand citrus the other day and caught faint notes in this wine. The taste is crisp and refreshingly dry with good fruit, sweet berries and tart citrus, and even a hint of cranberry. All with a medium light and smooth body. A bit of acid and tannins make this a nice sipping wine that works in the summer or winter. You can also serve it as a before dinner aperitif. Served well chilled it is crisper and lighter, but if you serve it a bit warmer it becomes deeper and fuller, almost like one of the light red wines.

Pink Criquet Rosé works well with any dish where you would serve a white wine, like fish or poultry, or some of the lighter meats like pork. I think it has enough body and character to pair well with spicy and Asian dishes, as well as soups and lighter stews. I was sipping a glass of the Pink Criquet as I made a Japanese style soup for dinner. It was made with a dashi containing a few tiny dried anchovies and shrimp; some Japanese konbu and slivers of local seaweed; thinly sliced, sauteed, locally wild foraged mushrooms, primarily a nice matsutake and a handful of black oyster mushrooms; thinly sliced, local, baby, purple topped turnips; and a bit of soy sauce and turbinado sugar. As I tasted the soup I realized it was lacking something, so I poured in half a glass of the Pink Criquet. This brought in acidity and fruit flavors that bound it all together. Finished with the addition of lots of fresh, frozen, soba noodles imported from Japan; it was quite tasty, and the wine went well with the complex, but light, soup.

Peter Lehmann Barossa Valley 2006 Botrytis Semillon is 12.5% abv. / 25 proof and bottled at 13.5 brix. According to Aussiewines.com the Botrytis affected fruit was picked on the 26th April, sourced solely from the Peter Lehmann Semillon vineyard on the banks of the River Para. Chief winemaker Andrew Wigan declared 2006 the best vintage for botrytis development that he has ever experienced. The vintage conditions were perfect. Weather in the latter part of the growing season gave ideal conditions for the natural development of Botrytis on the late picked Semillon grapes which were allowed to develop their intense characters while still on the vine. Approximately 20% of this wine was fermented in new French oak hogsheads. Botrytis affected wines are the most complex and longest lived of all sweet table wine styles. The 2006 vintage is an outstanding edition, and the winemakers are fully confident that it will give pleasure for many years to come. It was a Medal Winner at the Sydney & Melbourne Wine Shows. Peter Lehmann 2006 is a great release from an outstanding vintage for the Barossa's Botrytis Semillon.

The color is a nice medium-light gold with a hint of yellow/green to it. I expect the color to mature over time to a full, rich gold. The aroma is of bright fresh fruit like, pineapple, lemon, pear, with hints of hint of citrus and honeyed botrytis notes. The taste is that of fresh, ripe apricot, lemon zest, orange blossom honey, citrusy acid and botrytis flavors, over the classic semillon taste. This is a young, bright, and fresh tasting dessert wine that should age very well for decades, developing depth and complexity.

I have to pick up a few bottles to lay down to age and see how they develop, because the wine is an excellent young desert wine that shows promise of aging into an amazing mature one. The suggested price of just under $20 for a 375 ml. bottle is a good buy but if you shop around you can pick it up for much less. I paid $13.99 at the New Hampshire State liquor store and that was a steal.

Recently I was invited to The Pink Party, a Rosé wine tasting event co-sponsored by Maximilian Riedel, CEO of Riedel Crystal of America and Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC), an education and support organization for breast cancer survivors.

For the past few years Riedel Crystal has been making special wine glasses from which a portion of the proceeds are donated to LBBC. This year the specially designed glasses are made especially for drinking dry Rosé wines and showing off their attributes to the best advantage. This event premiered the new Riedel limited edition Pink Vinum Rosé glass, that sports a light pink stem, benefiting Living Beyond Breast Cancer.

The party was held on Wednesday September 26, 2007 at Duvet, a lounge in NYC with a bed theme. I have heard about places like this, where you and a group of friends and new acquaintances can loll around on enormous beds, getting toasted while you try not to spill your cocktails and wine all over yourselves and the bright white sheets. Have you ever had one of those enormous and trendy cocktails, served filled to the brim and it slops all over as you try to take that first sip? As I was driving down to NY from Maine on my way to the party, all that kept going through my mind was Rosé wine and white sheets. I expected to see quite a lot of pink by the end of the night, and not just from the pink ribbons supporting LBBC sported on shirt and dress fronts.

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Hardys 2003 Botrytis Semillon is 11.5% abv. and packaged in 375 ml. bottles. The wine is 18.2 brix at harvest and the wine has residual sugar of 210 grams per liter.

The Hardys Winery in South Eastern Australia was established in 1853 and they have been making fine wines, including dessert wines, what the Aussies call 'stickies' for over 150 years. Their wines are made from premium grapes sourced from and grown in diverse areas and multiple vineyards then blended and crushed together depending upon the type and style of wine.

This is the second vintage of Botrytis Semillon released in the US by Hardys, following the 2005 launch of their 2002 Botrytis Semillon. In the near future I will do a vertical tasting of the two and compare them.

The color of the wine is a medium golden yellow, with a medium to full body with a nice, slightly syrupy mouth feel. It has that classic Australian "stickie" feel in your mouth, like many other fine dessert wines.

The aroma is that of a combination of a young dessert wine type of fruits, like green apple and one of the sweeter pineapple varieties such as a 'Gold' or a South African 'Victoria'; and more mature wine flavors like golden sultana raisins.

The taste is a melange of both young and mature wines, again with the afore mentioned pineapple and golden sultanas; as well as dried apricots, hints of figs, and honey, with a nice presence of botrytis, and carried by some slight oak.

The finish is medium to long lasting and very complex as all the flavors meld together.

This in excellent wine and at an approximate cost of $14.99 for 375 ml. it's a bargain as well.