The theme of GINI 15 is to compare cool-zone and moderate-zone Pinot Noirs.  The book Great Wine Made Simple ((Immer, Andrea. Great Wine Made Simple, New York, 2000. Pg 106)), outlines what we can expect from the wine in different climate zone.  For the cool-zone, we have two bottles of Burgundy (same wine in fact, just different vintage), and for the moderate-zone, we have one from California and one from South Africa.

The Look
In terms of color, we were expecting the moderate-zone ones to be darker than the cool-zone ones.  However, that's not the case for us; our Burgundy was darker and the New World ones have a lighter ruby color.  Notably the back label of the Burgundy has a comment of the wine having deep color, so it might be uncommon for Burgundy.

The Smell
Without a doubt, the Burgundy have strong scents of tangy berry.  It certainly taught us what to expect from the smell of Burgundy in the future.  As for the moderate-zone ones, they do have scents of berry or cherries, but definitely do not have the same bite as the Burgundy.  The book also points out that moderate-zone ones may have a bit of sweet oaky smell.  I wonder if that's what it is when I thought it smelled "Californian".

The Taste
Similar to the smell, the Burgundy have stronger, more spicy acidic taste.  The book uses the word "tangy"; I suspect it means strong and more intense taste.  The moderate-zone Pinot is more fruity and juicy.

From the rankings, I guess I prefer wine to be more fruity and juicy, while most of us prefer more spicy complex wine.  One strange thing happened in this tasting; quite a few of us were having trouble emptying our glasses, even though we all like the wine.  One of us even vomited.  I wonder if it is the "Fresh" fruit salad we had from that take out place.

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We just had our GINI 15 last night, Sept. 28, 2007.  (And I'm blogging the next day, now how's that possible?)  Our theme this time is to compare cool-zone and moderate-zone Pinot Noirs.  We got this theme straight from the book Great Wine Made Simple. ((Immer, Andrea. Great Wine Made Simple, New York, 2000. Pg 106 )) We have two bottles of Burgundy, the cool-zone, and two bottles from the moderate zones (California and South Africa)  Here are the wines we had:

1. Vincent Girardin Volnay 1er cru "Les Santenots" 2003 (Burgundy)
2. Vincent Girardin Volnay 1er cru "Les Santenots" 1999 (Burgundy)
3. Hamilton Russell Vineyard Pinot Noir 2005 (South Africa)
4. Calera Pinot Noir 2005 (California)

I don't think Andrew has his tasting notes of the wine in his SeaTourist blog yet, but I'm sure it'll be there soon. I am also posting more information of the wine in my Flickr pictures. For the wines in this tasting, here is the link. Following is the voting results for our favorite in this tasting.

The GINI Cool and Not-so-cool Pinot Noir Index
We ranked the bottles 1 to 4, add up the numbers, whichever one has the lowest score is the best. Here is the list of participants: Aaron, Andrew, Kelvin, Kwong C, Kwong T, Naomi, Stephanie, and Vincent W.

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One of the few websites I visit regularly is one for the public radio show Prairie Home Companion for their old show archive.  There is one section in their home page is letters to the host of the show, and this time, someone asked about the Scandinavian principle of "good enough." The show is from Minnesota, many people there are of Scandinavian origin, and the host regularly jokes about his own origin.  So the good enough principle is one of them.

So writer of that letter was commenting how he has trouble finding that principle anywhere online, including Google search, and so of course next thing I do, I google for "Good Enough".  First result, POGE from wikipedia.org, I was like, of course the Wikipedia.  But it's not quite the Scandinavian principle, but the rule of software and system design.  Then I remember back in the school days, I may have learned something about POGE in Software Engineering... The reasoning behind it is simple, we can take forever trying to improve the program/system, trying to get it perfect.  So the only way to know when to stop is to achieve Good Enough.

It also reminds me of someone telling me just a short while ago, seeing one of the clients have this saying on the wall, "Ask for the Impossible, Receive the Good Enough" Fairly common mentality in my industry (sadly).

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As I mentioned in my previous post, we wanted to have a tasting of wine with distinct differences.  So we ended up focusing on the concentration part of the wine.

At first, I thought that's pretty easy, I thought it's about the concentration of flavour, whether it is weak or powerful.  However, as Vincent W explained to me, it's not exactly that; one wine could have stronger or bolder flavour, but with less concentration than another one.  It is like the concentration of juice made from frozen orange juice; the more water we have, the less concentration the orange juice becomes.

However, that is not quite a good analogy, as water is not part of any wine making process.  I continued to press, so are we talking about the concentration of the grape itself? Is it like talking about "concentration" of the orange (for fresh-squeeze OJ)? It's like trying to say how much is stuffed inside an orange, stuff like seeds, pulp, juice, or even the skin. 

Some other terms came to my mind, such as the body (as in weight, light like skim milk, heavy like cream), or depth (as in complexity, like deep or shallow, of layers of flavor)  I would think depth (or complexity) is closer to what Vincent means by concentration, just amount of stuff in the wine.  With that in mind, I wonder if a blend wine (with a mix of different grapes) will give more "stuff" because of different flavors coming from multiple kinds of grapes.

In our tasting, the 3 wines were Cabernet Franc, Syrah, and Shiraz.  We all agree that Cabernet Franc was the least concentrated, and the Shiraz was the most concentrated.  But then I think we were really thinking about the strength of flavor, and in this case, it's really a no-brainer.  Australian Shiraz is always bold and strong in flavor.

I do think concentration (or depth) is an attribute for more advanced drinkers to discuss.  With me having tasted so little of wine, I still need to learn to tell just what kind of flavor I can taste from one wine.  Or, as many wine writers say, not to think too much, just drink and enjoy the wine.

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GINI 14 was taken place on August 11, 2007, and so that was less than a month ago. And that means one thing, I have no more GINI tasting to blog (until the next GINI, which could happen quite soon) As you can tell, even though I have stopped blogging, we have not stopped wine tasting. (Don't you think we need a break?)

There is one thing different about GINI 14 from the previous ones; Vincent W was not the only person deciding the theme of the tasting (although he is still the only person getting the wine) This time, we requested for a tasting of wines with some distinct differences. In the end, we settled on differences of "concentration" (a separate blog is needed on this topic) Not only Vincent W prepared the selection of wine, he provided the place as well, being our host this time. Here are the wines we had:

1. Couly-Dutheil Chinon Clos de l'Olive 1999 (Loire Valley)
2. E. Guigal Crozes-Hermitage 2003 (Rhone)
3. d'Arenberg The Dead Arm Shiraz 2001 (Australia)

As usual, Andrew has posted tasting notes of the wine we tried in his SeaTourist blog. I am also posting more information of the wine in my Flickr pictures. For the wines in this tasting, here is the link. Following is the voting results for our favorite in this tasting.

The GINI Concentration Index
We ranked the bottles 1 to 3, add up the numbers, whichever one has the lowest score is the best. Here is the list of participants: Aaron, Andrew, Jim, Kwong C, Kwong T, Naomi, Stephanie, Vincent W.

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Unlike the wine labels in the Old World, the ones in the New world are easier to read (mainly because it's mostly in English)  But there are more names to the famous regions of Napa and Sonoma.  Within those big regions, there are quite a few sub-regions, or appellations, and they are called Approved Viticultural Areas (AVAs)

For GINI 13, there were two from Napa Valley; Stag's Leap and Sterling.  Stag's Leap is actually also name of the AVAs (Stag's Leap District).  Sterling is in an area called "Calistoga", which is not yet classified as AVA (maybe that's why is not on the label).  The most famous sub-AVA in Napa is probably the Carneros, where all the famous Chardonnay are from.  There is a map of the AVAs in Napa Valley http://www.13appellations.com/13appellations/page/newmap.jsp

The third Californian Cabernet Sauvignon we had, Ernest & Julio Gallo, is from Sonoma.  The AVA in this case is Dry Creek Valley, which is actually better known for Zinfandel.

Finally, the Australian Cabernet Sauvignon, Leeuwin Estate, is from Margaret River, which is in Western Australia.  The climate there is similar to Mediterranean, even though it is widely thought as having cool climate.  This region became Australia's first Appellation in 1978. 

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While I'm at it, I guess I should just keeping blogging. Who knows how long I can keep this up, before another long drought of silence (in my blog of course)

GINI 13 was taken place on July 14, 2007. It was the second time for us GINI group trying Cabernet Sauvignon. Andrew is the host this time, and he prepared us some snacks to go with wine. The snacks were an interesting mix: cheese and crackers, and a few Chinese dishes like chicken feet, pig's trotters (took me awhile to find the English name), and vegetarian fake meat (mostly bean curds). Interesting to go with Cabernet Sauvignon, I have to say. Anyway, here are the red wines:

1. Leeuwin Estate Art Series Cabernet Sauvignon 1997 (Margaret River, Australia)
2. Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon 1999 (Napa Valley)
3. Sterling Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 1999 (Napa Valley)
4. Ernest & Julio Gallo Stefani Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 1999 (Sonoma County)

As usual, Andrew has posted tasting notes of the wine we tried in his SeaTourist blog. I am also posting more information of the wine in my Flickr pictures. For the wines in this tasting, here is the link. Following is the voting results for our favorite in this tasting.

The GINI Cabernet Sauvignon II Index
We ranked the bottles 1 to 4, add up the numbers, whichever one has the lowest score is the best. Here is the list of participants: Aaron, Alex, Andrew, Kelvin, Kwong C, Kwong T, Naomi, Vincent M, Vincent W.

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As with French wine names, I am just as lost when it comes to Italian wine names.  There are tons of information about wine in the web and in books, but a lot of them require you to have some knowledge about wine already, so it's a little hard to follow.  Then a friend of mine recommend a book called Great Wine Made Simple by Andrew Immer.  It's a great introductory book on wine.  So I'm relying on this book again for Italian wines.

For simple Italian wines shopping, there are two categories: one is the classic style from famous regions (Tuscany and Piedmont), and the other category is also from those regions, but more widely available, cheap-but-good offerings. ((Immer, Andrea. Great Wine Made Simple, New York, 2000. Pg 196))

As for wine names, there are 3 ways it could be named: 1) by region name, e.g. Chianti; 2) grape name plus region name, e.g. Barbera d'Alba (Bar-BEAR-uh DAHL-buh), the Barbera grape from the Alba region in Piedmont; 3) by made-up name, like brand name. ((Immer, Andrea. Great Wine Made Simple, New York, 2000. Pg 197)) A few common Italian words we can see in wine labels: Riserva -- Reserve in English; Classico -- a geographical term referring to the historic heart and quality center of a particular growing region; Cantina-- Italian word for winery.

First bottle in GINI 12, Villa Cafaggio Chianti Classico Riserva 1997, seems to be the easiest to understand; Villa Cafaggio is the producer, Chianti Classico is the region, and Riserva means reserve. 

Second bottle, Castello Banfi Brunello di Montalcino 1997, is probably a little harder.  Castello Banfi (BAHN-fee) is the producer.  The name Brunello di Montalcino (Broo-NELL-oh dee Mohn-tall-CHEE-no) is the grape name plus region; Brunello is another name for the grape Sangiovese in Italian, also called Sangiovese Grosso (an especially high quality version of the Sangiovese grape, Grosso means big). Montalcino is referring to the region close to the town of Montalcino, in Tuscany region, of course.

The other two bottles are from Piedmont region, and they are by the same producer, Michele Chiarlo (Mee-KELL-eh Kee-AHR-loe). For the third bottle, La Court Barbera D’Asti 1997, "La Court" is the brand name. Barbera is the name of the red grape that is most widely planted in the region.  D'Asti refers to the region close to the city of Asti in Piedmont. 

For the last bottle, Countacc Monferrato 1997, "Countacc" is the brand name.  Monferrato is another region in the Piedmont region.  From the back label, it has roughly equal portion of 3 different grapes, Barbera, Nebbiolo, and Cabernet Sauvignon.  Nebbiolo is the most prized vine behind Piedmont's most famous wines (Barbaresco and Barolo) ((Immer, Andrea. Great Wine Made Simple, New York, 2000. Pg 211))

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As I mentioned in GINI 11, we were going to try some Italian Red wine, but then because Vince M, a big fan of Italian Red, couldn't make it, we had something else instead.  So for GINI 12, here are the Italian Reds.  And we made Vince M to host this gathering for us (Thanks, Vince!)

We had GINI 12 back in June 1.  This time being Italian, we got some pizza and pasta from Dante's. (I had to look at Kelvin's pictures to remember what we had, it was so long ago...) Anyway, here are the red wines:

1. Villa Cafaggio Chianti Classico Riserva 1997 (Tuscany, Italy)
2. Castello Banfi Brunello di Montalcino 1997 (Tuscany, Italy)
3. Michele Chiarlo La Court Barbera D’Asti 1997 (Piedmont, Italy)
4. Michele Chiarlo Countacc Monferrato 1997 (Piedmont, Italy)

As mentioned in my previous post, Andrew is posting tasting notes of the wine we tried in his SeaTourist blog.  I am also posting more information of the wine in my Flickr pictures.  For the wines in this tasting, here is the link.  Following is the voting results for our favorite in this tasting.

The GINI Italian Reds Index
We ranked the bottles 1 to 4, add up the numbers, whichever one has the lowest score is the best. Here is the list of participants: Aaron, Andrew, Kelvin, Kwong C, Rita, Vincent M, Vincent W.

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I'm this close of getting rid of my MSN Live Space blog page...

While I continue being impressed by WordPress I installed in lightrelay.com, Live Space is quite restrictive.  It doesn't allow embedded Flash or Javascript in the blog (although they do provide a Sandbox that allows those, but there could be only one Sandbox)

So while I added a Flickr slideshow to lightrelay.com, I know it wouldn't work in Live Space.  I did try the Sandbox, and it was alright.  But then it is not associated to the blog entry, and it takes quite a bit of time loading Live Space.  So I was thinking maybe I can live with just a HTML Flickr Badge. 

To my surprise, even the HTML Badge provided by Flickr requires Javascript.  So I figure it can't be that hard to convert it into straight HTML.  By "can't be that hard", I meant being able to google search it.  But after hours, the best thing I see was someone's online service that reads from Flickr sight.  http://flickrbadge.theducky.com/  It's a fine service, and it's free, but it could be crashing this guy's hosting service.  So I would rather not using it.

After google-exhausted, I thought maybe I can do it myself, figuring out what does the Flickr's Javascript do.  The key is the URL Javascript Call like this: http://www.flickr.com/badge_code_v2.gne... After spending another hour or so, I finally figure out how to see the source code; I just need the Firefox browser, and enter the URL Javascript Call, then the browser would just display the code.

I do understand why Flickr made this a Javascript call, it is because it allows the Badge to display different pictures (if you have more pictures in the pool than you are displaying)  But that's not what I have, I just want to display all 4 pictures in the Badge.  Now knowing the source code, I can change the code from Flickr Badge to not having Javascript (and CSS definitions, another Live Space limitation)

So in the end, is it worth the trouble?  I'm not sure either, after all, the work of converting the code is not that quick and easy, but at least it's not complicated.  And I just like the way Flickr does it... the look and style.  I guess it's worth it if I post more Flickr Badges, like here...

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