Young Winos of LA

New Years is the time of year when this Wino feels most useless.

Invariably, I’ll be asked by other Winos for a New Years Eve bubbly recommendation, and I often attempt to steer my fellow boozehounds away from the knee-jerk strategy of buying French, encouraging them instead to venture into Spain for some Cava, or to Germany for some Sekt. Or what about lightening things up Italian style with a Prosecco, or a nice Moscato d’Asti? If they’re dead set on France, then how about trying a crisp Crémant d’Alsace, or a rustic Crémant de Limoux?

More than once, however, I’ve encountered a staunch dedication to the idea of buying Champagne and Champagne only, and I’m often asked what my favorite one is. Therein lies the problem: I literally know next to nothing about Champagne. I just haven’t drank enough of the stuff to have any favorites.

As luck would have it, though, I recently found myself at a most auspicious Champagne tasting — the annual Tasting Panel Magazine affair hosted by Blue Lifestyle — where I gleefully sampled delicious bottles from top houses in both France and California, taking full advantage of the event’s very welcoming “serve-ur-self” orientation. Based on the twenty or so bottles I tried (within about 40 minutes… not too shabby, huh?), here are my Champagne recommendations for your New Years inebriatory needs. (more…)

The holidays are coming up, and you know what that means: lots of wine, most of which you won’t be expected to pay for! But between robust reds on your dinner table, bubbly on New Years, and all the bottles you’ll receive as gifts, is is possible that a Young Wino might get sick of wine during the holiday season? Truthfully, no, probably not… but prevention is the best cure, so in order to allay the slight possibility that you’ll go sober at any point over the next few weeks, we thought we’d hook you up with a beer review.

Despite their oenocentric moniker, the Winos are nothing if not versatile. If these troubled economic times have taught us anything, it’s that any brand wishing to remain sentient better diversify its portfolio. In this spirit of diversity, we recently welcomed to one of our meetings the western regional sales manager of the illustrious Shmaltz Brewing Company, who tasted us through some of his company’s intriguing brews. (more…)

It’s a New Year for the Young Winos of LA (and likely for most other people as well, I guess), so we thought we’d start things off strong with a tasting of wines with a 15%-or-higher alcohol content.

There’s another motivation, however, for this slightly obnoxious meeting topic. As some of you may already know, longtime LA stalwart Andrew Lang has abandoned his erstwhile digs in West Hollywood and moved into Wino HQ in Sherman Oaks. Besides having the effect of establishing the Sh’oaks as the undisputed capital of the Young Winos Empire (no more of this Rome vs. Constantinople nonsense), then move also made us realize that since neither of us has to drive home, “high alcohol wines” might be an ideal theme for our first gathering. (more…)

It’s almost Thanksgiving again, and you know what that means: time to “go Bo!”  Scientists have proven that Beaujolais is the only bottle that will pair adequately with your T-day feast.  Drinking any other wine would be like drinking non-green beer on St. Patrick’s Day, and may cause your taste buds to go on strike.

When we resolved last week to taste a lineup of Beaujolais bottles at our next boozy gathering, I hardly think I was alone in assuming we’d be encountering wines of a predominantly light and fruity nature.  As it turns out, the five bottles we tasted were some of the biggest and heaviest expressions of the Gamay grape I’ve ever had.  That said, a couple of them were among the best, too.  Here’s your 2008 Thanksgiving shopping guide:

Kicking off the “bro-jolais” meeting (so-named because the guys outnumbered the girls 2-to-1) was the 2006 Pierre-Marie Chermette “Les Garants” (Fleurie), compliments of newbie Julian.  The pour came out darker than would’ve anticipated from Beaujolais – unbeknownst to us at the time, this would become a recurring theme over the course of the evening.  On the nose, Katie got strawberry, Dylan got floral notes, and Julian got lavender, while Mary got a hint of chocolate-covered berries.  “It smells like a fruit that would be purple if it existed,” offered Andrew.  John rounded off the nose with “strawberry gel fruit snack.”  If only Pierre-Marie could’ve been there to hear that… (more…)