Greetings,
A note from our friends Jason and Angella. Wine/Graduation party.
Each couple is requested to bring:
1 sparkling wine, any country, any price
1 pinot noir, any country, any price
1 nice wedge of interesting cheese.
Show up at 5 or so. Leave by midnight....
Friday May 27 at 1906 Palace Avenue.
Cheers,
Jim
----- Forwarded message from Jason Kallsen <jkallsen(a)cpinternet.com> -----
From: Jason Kallsen <jkallsen(a)cpinternet.com>
Subject: WINE PARTY 2005
Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 15:29:18 -0500
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This is your official invitation to Jason and Angela Kallsen?s
WINE PARTY 2005
(Otherwise known as ?Let?s pray it doesn?t rain!?)
Last year?s party was a memorable one, and I hope this year is even better!
There?s nothing better than great bubbly, pinot, cheese, and friends!
Please read the following carefully! All the info you need is here.
- The party is Friday May 27th starting at 5pm or so and going until
midnight (no later this year).
- Come when you can, leave when you want. Lots of restaurant
people don?t arrive until 10pm or later, and that?s ok!
- Each COUPLE should bring the following (for those coming single,
skip the bubbly):
o One bottle of bubbly from any region or country. Any price range.
o One bottle of Pinot Noir from any region or country (which will be
served blind ? more on that later). Any price range.
o One wedge of decent cheese (about ? to ? of a pound), your pick ?
get creative!
- I will provide decent but basic stemware. If you want to bring
your own, feel free but you are in charge of it.
- Kids are not only invited, but encouraged! Bring the whole
family! (we have a fenced in back yard with a play fort, and we?ll have a
pop-up soft sided crib for little itty bitty kids). Our son, Spencer (9)
will be in charge of entertainment for those under 10 ? we?ll be showing
Shrek 1 and 2 in his room. We also have a great garage with a TV,
videogames, darts, and powertools for them to enjoy. We?ll have hot dogs
and chips for the kids, as well as pop and water.
- IF IT IS RAINING keep in mind we have a small old urban house, so
the party will be happening, but space will be tight. If you don?t do well
in tight crowds, or if you have little kids you have to keep a tight eye on,
consider staying home (I?m sorry to say) and enjoy your wine.
- In addition to the cheese table, we?ll have appetizers and breads
available, as well as water and soda. If time and weather permits, I?ll be
doing the smoked pulled pork I did last year. We?ll see.
- Our crowd was wonderfully civilized last year and I hope for the
best again this year. My neighbors really appreciated it!
- The party is not only to celebrate wine and friendship, but also
Angela?s graduation from the University of Minnesota! Be sure to give her a
high five.
- Like last year, the Pinot Noir you bring will be served blind.
We?ll have a check in station on the front porch with tinfoil, numbered
bottle tags, etc. for your selection. VERY IMPORTANT: if you work for a
local distributor, you may NOT bring one of your own Pinots! This party is
about enjoying each others company, not selling wine! A wine will only be
revealed when it?s down to the last bit in the bottle.
- Feel free to email me about others to invite, but please contact
me before freely passing the information around. Last year, the party grew
from 30 to 100 in one day! If it gets too big, I just need to put on the
brakes. That being said, Jim --- please pass this to the rest of the
Thursday group.
- Can somebody get word to the following: Bubbles Hegstrom, Angela
Heffernan and David, Ted and Karmen Trampe, Melissa and Lee Short. Bob
Andrezjek. Mike Cords. Andy Hall. Zander. Jason Ross. Marci Alfonsi.
Others???
<<jle: Bubbles, Angela/David, Ted/Karmen are on the wine@thebarn list.>>
- Our address is 1906 Palace Avenue, Saint Paul. Here?s a link to
Mapquest: http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?searchtype=address
<http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?searchtype=address&country=US&addtohis
tory=&searchtab=home&address=1906+Palace+Avenue&city=Saint+Paul&state=MN&zip
code=55105>
&country=US&addtohistory=&searchtab=home&address=1906+Palace+Avenue&city=Sai
nt+Paul&state=MN&zipcode=55105
- Please reply VIA EMAIL with an RSVP including how many adults and
kids you hope to bring. Even you?re tentative, please let me know. You can
always decide at the last minute and that?s fine with me.
I hope you can make it ? it?s bound to be a memorable evening of friends,
wine, and stories.
Jason Kallsen
Jason Kallsen
World Class Wines, Inc.
pager 612.579.9398
voice mail 952.941.8795 x 301
"I cook with wine; sometimes I even add it to the food."
--- W. C. Fields
----- End forwarded message -----
--
------------------------------ *
* Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
----- Forwarded message from Joseph Cassell <joecassell(a)hotmail.com> -----
From: Joseph Cassell <joecassell(a)hotmail.com>
To: jellings(a)me.umn.edu
Subject: re: opening of Mondovino
Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 13:12:09 +0000
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 11 May 2005 13:12:09.0756 (UTC) FILETIME=[09C735C0:01C5562B]
Jim,
Looks like Mondovino is opening at either the Lagoon or Uptown theater on
Friday, May 27th:
MONDOVINO
Starts Friday May 27th
Filmed across three continents, in five languages, this epic exploration into
the modern world of wine weaves together multiple family sagas, uncovering a
complex tapestry of rivalries, alliances and conspiracies-all stemming from the
production, distribution and consumption of one of the oldest, most respected,
and still-affordable luxuries remaining. From growers to conglomerates, peasants
to billionaires, writer/director Jonathan Nossiter (Sunday, Signs & Wonders)
gives voice to those who create, critique and do commerce in wine, serving up a
varied and sometimes controversial glimpse into something everyone enjoys,
but few know much about. Rated PG-13 for brief pin-up nudity.
Joe C.
----- End forwarded message -----
--
------------------------------ *
* Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
Enjoyed some big food and big wine at St. Paul Grill.
THanks to Annette for setting that up.
This week, we've been envited to Warren/Ruth's place.
Entree will be Salmon spiced w/ sorel
Vin du jour is Pinot
Limit is 10, including the 2 trim and talented folks who will
be sharing the bench seat.
We have an invitation to Chez Gregory.
Limit is 10 for this sit down dinner.
The "white" and "desert" options are always open.
Warren, Ruth Gregory
651-698-5337
2139 Randolph
wrcgregory(a)qwest.net
Who/What
Bob Cheeses
Betsy Salad
Warren/Ruth hosts/Salmon w/ sorel
Jim/Louise Breads adn ???
Those are the 6 I know of. 4 more spots.
BTW, Joe C tells us that Mondovino is opening soon. I'll forward that
along in a seperate message. Thanks Joe!
Cheers,
Jim
May 11, 2005
When Velvety Red Is Only Skin Deep
By ERIC ASIMOV
WHAT color is your red wine? This is not a trick question, like asking about George Washington's white horse. For many wine professionals the color of a red wine is serious business.
Implicit in the varied hues are all sorts of clues about the quality and characteristics of the wine. You can tell, as a red wine arcs from bright and brilliant to dull and faded, whether it is young, aging gracefully or over the hill. You can sense whether it has matured in new or old barrels, and whether it's been filtered to the point of sterility.
Yet when producers today consider the colors of their red wines, they may think of them more as a marketing tool than anything else. Somewhere along the way consumers have come to equate darker red wines with better red wines.
"People are absolutely obsessed with color, and I think it's a mistake," said Neal Rosenthal, who imports wines, largely from France and Italy. "It has been said that the deeper the color, the more concentrated the wine. That's clearly inaccurate."
Anyone can confirm Mr. Rosenthal's point by tasting a traditionally made Burgundy or Barolo, wines of intensity and concentration that are from the paler side of the red spectrum.
To describe the myriad shades of red, you need a 64-crayon box of terms. Different hues can appear in varying degrees of intensity and luminosity, depending, of course, on the quality of the light and the background. Lighter red wines, like Beaujolais Village or Valpolicella, can be pale ruby, not much darker than the darkest ros�. The darker reds, like young syrahs, petite sirahs and cabernet sauvignons, can be practically blue-black. In between are subtle, incrementally different shadings from copper to crimson.
But winemakers today seem to view deep, dark colors as paramount. Indeed, red wines of all sorts tend to be darker nowadays than they used to be. The brick red of a traditionally made Chianti, for one, is just a pale patch on the darker Chiantis that prevail today. California reds have also gotten noticeably darker than they were, say, 15 or 20 years ago.
"There's no question that winemakers in Italy are making darker reds," said Burton Anderson, who has written about Italian wines for 30 years. "I've seen it everywhere in Italy over the last 15 years or so, from Barolo to Valpolicella to Brunello to Chianti to the deep south."
Mr. Anderson said he believes the darker wines are a byproduct of a trend toward stronger blockbuster styles, which so many critics seem to favor and so many consumers seem to want. To make these wines, many growers favor very low yields from densely planted vineyards. The competition among vines and the low yields produce grapes of great richness and concentration, as well as more intense pigmentation, which contributes to a darker color.
Modern winemakers have other ways to get dark colors: clones that produce more richly colored grapes, equipment that prolongs the juice's exposure to pigment-rich skins and limiting the use of sulfur as a preservative.
So while a darker color may signal a big wine, it doesn't guarantee one. The context is crucial. A pale garnet may signal a problem in a young cabernet, which is traditionally dark, but not in a Burgundy. "C�te de Beaunes tend to be this beautiful light cherry color, which I think is charming, but nowadays people say it's too light," Mr. Rosenthal said.
Like almost every characteristic of wine, color is subject to myth and misinterpretation. Though color may tell more about a wine than the legs that climb the inside of a glass, color offers far less information than a sniff and a taste.
As the winemaker for Turley Wine Cellars in California, Ehren Jordan makes zinfandels of rare intensity and power, yet they tend to be closer to cherry red than ultradark. Under his Failla label, he also makes subtle pinot noirs and syrahs.
"There's no doubt that people are fixated with color," Mr. Jordan said. "People seem to equate darker wines with better wines. For me it always seems odd, and it's maybe because I like Burgundy and I enjoy pinot noir, and pinot is not about color."
For a while, back in the 1980's and early 90's, pinot noir, the grape of red Burgundy, was about color. Many producers back then experimented with an unconventional technique that produced dark wines. They postponed fermentation, leaving grape skins to leach pigment into the juice for an unusually long period, producing a darker wine. But many winemakers turned away from this technique, feeling it dulled nuances in the wine rather than bringing them to life.
In California, the dark color of some pinot noirs has led some critics to question their makeup. Josh Jensen, the Calera Wine Company's winemaker, who makes intense, long-lived pinots, said he believes that some producers achieve dark colors by adding other grapes to their pinot noirs. It's legal in California, where a wine has to contain only 75 percent of a particular grape to be named for it, but for pinot noirs based on the Burgundy model of 100 percent pinot noir, this is close to heresy.
"I know of winemakers who have admitted adding 5 percent syrah," Mr. Jensen said, without naming names. "Of all the things you can do, that's an absolute no-no."
Blending grapes for color's sake is not without precedent. Mr. Jordan has found that in many of the oldest vineyards he uses for Turley, dating back 100 years or more, zinfandel is interplanted with small amounts of alicante bouchet or petite sirah, grapes that produce darker wines than zinfandel.
"Why else except for color?" Mr. Jordan asked, suggesting that this was a concern back when the vineyards were planted. "If somebody farmed it for that long, there must be some logic behind it."
--
------------------------------ *
* Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
Hi Jim - I haven't had email for a couple of weeks - only a nightmare of going over to DSL. Hopefully they will get this right eventually. Anyway for the time being I have set up an email address in Yahoo. Please send me notifications of our wine dinners to viniferamn(a)yahoo.com
Hoping to see all of you soon. Thanks!
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
----- Forwarded message from "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> -----
From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu>
To: wine(a)thebarn.com
Subject: [wine] Cabs at St. Paul Grill
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.4i
Greetings,
Our limit is 10 this week. Matt's joining us.
I've copied the Cab section of the wine list: They may well
appreciate that a 95 or 97 Arrowood is different from a 2000, but
why puch the issue.
More info at:
http://www.stpaulgrill.com/
These are the updates that I have.... Top 9 are confirmed. I haven't heard
from and usually don't hear from 10 and 11, so they are guesses. Am thinking
Roger isn't all that fond of Cab.
C,
J
----- Forwarded message from "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> -----
Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 18:56:21 -0500
From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu>
To: wine(a)thebarn.com
Subject: Cabs at St. Paul Grill
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.4i
Greetings,
Had some very interesting zins at Oddfellows.
This week, we're going to St. Paul Grill. Limit 10!
St. Paul Grill
350 Market St
(651) 224-7455
Parking: Meters are free after 4:30 or some such.
Your chances of finding a spot improves as you move away from the Ordway.
Open lot accross from Fima, Marshal Fields is inexpensive. (6th and Wabasha)
Matt/Annette S.
Bob
Betsy
Jim/Louise
Warren/Ruth
Karen T.
Nicolai
Roger
Cheers,
Jim
512 Arrowood, 2000, Sonoma
501 Beaulieu Vineyard, 2001, Napa
508 Beringer, Knight.s Valley, 2000, Sonoma
518 Cakebread, 2001, Napa
513 Carmenet, Dynamite Cabernet, 2001, Sonoma
519 Chalk Hill, Estate, 1999, Sonoma
517 Conn Creek, 2000, Napa
68 Cathy Corison, 1998,Napa
506 Chateau Ste. Michelle, Cold Creek, 2001, Columbia Valley
520 Chimney Rock, 2000, Stag.s Leap Napa
608 Estancia, .Meritage., 2000, Alexander Valley
611 Franciscan, .Magnificat., 2000, Napa
502 Franciscan, Oakville Estate, 2001, Napa
507 Freemark Abbey, 2001, Napa
523 Grgich, 1999, Napa
515 Jordan, 2000, Alexander Valley
500 J. Lohr, Seven Oaks, 2001, Santa Clara
503 Robert Mondavi, 2000, Napa
509 Mettler Family Vineyards, 2001, Ukiah
612 Mount Veeder, 2000, Napa
504 Newton, Claret, 2000, Napa
521 Provenance Vineyards, 2000, Rutherford
605 St. Francis, 2000, Sonoma
85 Silver Oak, 1999, Alexander Valley
609 Simi, 2000, Alexander Valley
63 Spring Mountain, 1998, Napa
524 Stag.s Leap, 2000, Napa
511 Trefethen, 2000, Napa
94 Truchard, 1999, Carneros
516 Turnbull, 2000, Napa
600 White Oak, 2000, Napa
66 Viader, 1999, Napa
EUROPE
505 Chateau Clerc Milon, Pauillac, 1999
514 Chateau Duhart-Milon Rothschild, Pauillac, 2000
45 Chateau Gloria, St. Julien, 2000
907 Chateau La Cardonne Rothschild, Medoc, 1998
50 Chateau Le Ormes de Pez, St. Estephe, 2000
52 Chateau Lynch Bages, Pauillac, 2000
950 Lafite, Pauillac Reserve, 1999
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
510 Henry.s Drive, 2002, Padthaway
910 Penfolds, Bin 407, 2001, Australia
903 Santa Rita, .Medalla Real., Maipo Valley, 2001, Chile
--
------------------------------ *
* Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
Greetings,
Our limit is 10 this week.
These are the updates that I have.... Top 8 are confirmed. I haven't heard
from and usually don't hear from 9 and 10, so they are guesses.
C,
J
----- Forwarded message from "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu> -----
Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 18:56:21 -0500
From: "Jim L. Ellingson" <jellings(a)me.umn.edu>
To: wine(a)thebarn.com
Subject: Cabs at St. Paul Grill
User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.4i
Greetings,
Had some very interesting zins at Oddfellows.
This week, we're going to St. Paul Grill. Limit 10!
St. Paul Grill
350 Market St
(651) 224-7455
Parking: Meters are free after 4:30 or some such.
Your chances of finding a spot improves as you move away from the Ordway.
Open lot accross from Fima, Marshal Fields is inexpensive. (6th and Wabasha)
Annette S.
Bob
Betsy
Jim/Louise
Warren/Ruth
Karen T.
Nicolai
Roger
Cheers,
Jim
--
------------------------------ *
* Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX *
e Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
----- End forwarded message -----
--
------------------------------ *
* Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
Greetings,
Had some very interesting zins at Oddfellows.
This week, we're going to St. Paul Grill. Limit 10!
St. Paul Grill
350 Market St
(651) 224-7455
Parking: Meters are free after 4:30 or some such.
Your chances of finding a spot improves as you move away from the Ordway.
Open lot accross from Fima is inexpensive.
Annette S.
Bob
Betsy
Nicolai
Roger
Jim/Louise
Cheers,
Jim
--
------------------------------ *
* Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX *
e Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
