05-31-24 Interview - The Wine Yogi - We All Need A Drink Today

WE ALL NEED A DRINK TODAY So thank goodness The Wine Yogi is on at 2:30 to wrap up the week. We're talking summer wines just in time for summer. Her blog post about it all can be found here!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
If there's ever been a Friday thatwe need a cocktail, it is today,
because let me tell you, todayis the day I didn't bring any
cocktails. Well, you brought anabsolutely delicious wine. I brought a great
summer wine. Yeah. We actuallyhad another guest schedule today, but I
was like, look, it's theTrump verdict and we're going to be doing
that, so we'll reschedule you.And he was very kind and he'll be

(00:20):
in. We'll get him rescheduled.He's running for office. And I was
like, should I reschedule? No, I should not reschedule the Winogi because
I need her today. I needher, and you have delivered. We're
talking today about the drinks of summer. For me, Sparkling Rose is the
beverage of summer. Oh yeah,for Tanda, Fizz from Carboy for me

(00:40):
is like the perfect summer beverage.But there are lots of options and the
win Yogi has written a fantastic blogpost. It's a little bit lower in
the blog than it normally is becauseI have all the Trump stuff, But
if you look for the video ofDonald Trump reacting to the guilty verdict,
you'll find the win Yogi's blog rightbelow that, because it's like summer is

(01:03):
vacation, it is sitting by thepool, it's having a late dinner outside
with friends. It's just more relaxed. Right. It's hot, Yes,
it's hot. So yeah, mostof the well I did so I offered
mostly wines, but I did kindof also offer some non alcoholic options as
well, and some links to somefabulous folks that are doing amazing things with

(01:26):
mocktails in addition to making amazing wine. But when a Rod reached out to
me before their crews, they werein Miami and we facetimed, he said,
you hooked him up so hard,he's so happy. But my big
emphasis to him is you want somethingthat's going to be lower and alcohol by
volume. You also, especially ifyou even are a red wine drinker,

(01:47):
because those red wines tend to befuller bodied, ideavy heavy. Those may
not necessarily be your traditional NAPA cabsand things like that that are really big
and bold, tannic wines that youwould normally have by the fire, which
a Rod was asking me, what'sreally good by the fight, But so

(02:12):
you want to kind of start toexplore those wines that are lighter in body,
and there are a lot of redsout there. In fact, I
was just meeting with a distributor earliertoday picking out some wines to pair with
fixing fiece classes down at the Frenchkitchen, and I'm like, gosh,
you know, especially in the summertime, we want to go with a lighter
red for some of these steak andbeef. What are you? There are
some people who are and a lotof it has to do with the perception

(02:34):
of carbs, which I get.There are a lot of people in my
life that are like red wine forlife. They do not want to drink
anything else other than red wine.So what are the lighter reds that someone
would look for if they do wantto offer a red wine? I would
begin first in the Old World,because in the Old meaning Europe, meaning
Europe, you are looking at winemakersthat are especially if they are following more

(02:57):
traditional dioc the requirements DOCG just thestandardization of that particular country. Is it.
Let me ask you a question aboutOld World wines since we're kind of
having this conversation that we'll get intothe actual wines after the bottom of the
hour. Break. Okay, arethey I mean they've they've been making wine
for so long, so it seemslike the quality, the specs, if

(03:20):
you will, of various varieties ofwine, they're tightly regulated in Europe,
Is that correct? That is correct? Okay, So they're more rigid in
there. In there sort of youhave to be in the silo in order
to fit into this kind of wine. Yes, And it is very regionally
dependent. So what is the standardin Burgundy and Champagna as compared to what
the standard is and say Tuscany orSicily or as you move over to Greece

(03:45):
or the Iberian Peninsula of Spain andPortugal, all of their standards are going
to be different. And so sometimesit may be what types of varietals they're
going to go into this wine forit to be classified a Bordeaux. It
may be the amount of time thatit's bins uh in oak aging to be
classified Chiani classico, CANi superiority.So it's all of these different it's all

(04:10):
very regionally specific. Uh. Andso you know, Spain and Portugal are
if you're looking at summer wines forme, I like to go to hotter
areas. So while their standard maynot be as pinkies out you know,
to as Burgundy. They are stillpretty much going to have some standards that

(04:31):
they've established for wine makers for itto be called a rio haase. Those
are big, bold wines though,Are rio oha temporneo? Those are they
have a lot going on? Areyou real ha is timporneo? It's just
from rio ha perfect, But soif you can still get Spanish temporneo that
is not real hot and it reallyjust it depends though the the You can

(04:54):
get some rio has that are balanced, not just from the tannins, so
the times from from the gre themselvesfrom that skin, how much time it
spends in oak, for example,can also then increase. It's all very
complicated, it is. It's veryvery complicated. That's why you FaceTime me
from a liquor store in Miami,be giving her face time. I addressed

(05:15):
it, or hang on with zech. When we come back, we'll talk
about the actual what kind of lighterreds we're actually talking about. We'll do
that right after this. We're talkingabout summer beverages. I want to do
two quick questions from the text line. People can always text us at five
six to six and I oh,one is strawberry wine. Is it good?
My mother says it is, andshe claims that's what she got pregnant
on with me. Oh very nice, a little Boonz farm and so no.

(05:39):
So, first of all, theonly wine wine itself is made from
vitaeponefra. You can have that's grape, that's grapes, and specifically, like
even if it's Native American grapes,Okay, I'll give you a pass.
It's at least made from grapes.But if it's fermented fruit, that's not
in my world wine. So whetherit's made from limon or strawberries or rubarb

(06:02):
or whatever it is, that's justit's fermented fruit juice and it's the same
process. But because of the amountof sugar coming from those fruits, that's
why they're sweet. So if youwant a sweet wine, by all means,
go get some boons farms, strawberryfields or whatever it's called. And
I'm sure you would love it.It's not for my palate. The sugar

(06:24):
is too much for me. Thisquestion what happened to JCB sparkling Rose.
Can't find it anywhere, and it'sprobably if you are checking out your local
liquor stores and wine shops. Itmay be a distribution issue because a lot
of these companies change distributors all thetime, and because we are so far
from the coasts, and also becausewith COVID we are still dealing with the

(06:48):
ramifizations of the supply chain and production. This is why having a good wine
store that you go to is important. And the big thing is is you
can go ask them if yes,that's what I'm saying, we're carrying it
before go and talk to them.It may just be that either they stopped
carrying it because they couldn't sell itat the price that they originally were selling

(07:08):
it at, or maybe you know, it's just been rotated out of their
stock. But most wine stores willif you love it, order it by
the case and then they will typicallygive you a case discount. Yeah,
so that's why you got to finda good wine store in your area.
So what are we talking about?We're talking about rose, We're talking about
what red wines. First, doyou recommend for those hardcore ride or die

(07:30):
with my red wine people that arenever going to come off that red wine?
What do you recommend in summer that'sa little bit lighter? And I
had mentioned I had met with arep this morning tasting some wines, and
in fact I specifically asked her tobring in god Nacha, which is the
Spanish version of grenache. It's theirapproach, it is, and the ones
that we tasted were absolutely stunning.It is a much lighter, more balanced

(07:51):
wine in terms of tannin's in acidity, So you are going to have a
little bit more acidity, but you'restill going to have that tannic structure that
you like. And one of thenice things that about those types of wines
is they are very very food friendlyand because you can even put a little
chill on it when you're grilling,you can sit there and guys, I
like my wine. I mean,in my mind, I want my red

(08:13):
wine at the same temperature as thecastle. Yes, that it was supposed
to be, so like fifty fivedegrees is where I'm happiest with that.
I am the queen of my castle. We were talking about, you know,
there's a Seinfeld but that was myfavorite episode, by the way,
But that if you imagine back inthe day, room temperature was going to
be much closer to those cellar temperaturesof fifty eight to roughly sixty two degrees,

(08:37):
so ideally suited for red wine.So if you're having something while you're
grilling ribbis or whatever, or youneed something just you know, take the
heat off of a hot summer day. Yeah, I love a good gurnacha.
Okay, let's talk about my favoritefor me. Summer is all about
rose. Yes, and I lovea sparkling rose, I love a flat
rose. I love a rose becausethey're so diverse and you can broad spectrum

(09:01):
of roses. What are roses specifically? What are they made of? Obviously
they're that pale, pink or darkor pink wine, but what are they
specifically? So they are what redwine drinkers typically drink in the summertime in
places that they don't have air conditioning. I eat Old World and what it
is is it is grape grape mustthat has come into some contact. It

(09:22):
has kissed the skins. So duringthe crush process, if you are making
a red wine, say a redwine of grenache, sometimes they would capture
the residual juice that would flow offof these crush machines. Because now that
it's mechanical, they can trap everything. They're not losing it. But if
you actually go and look at theseold crushes where they or if they footstomped,

(09:46):
some of that juice would actually kindof spill over and they didn't capture
it for the red wine. Butwhat smart wine makers would do is they
would capture that juice, ferment it, and then they would throw it into
the river and have that when itwas too hot to drink the or red
wine. And so nowadays what youhave are winemakers that are catering to kind
of that uh, that palette thatenjoys some aspects of red wine without all

(10:09):
of the tannic structure that dries themouth out. That they still want some
more of that acidity which makes yousalivate. That's ideally suited for lighter food
that we typically have your salads andyour lighter fish, salmon, barbecue,
barbecues and things like that in thesummertime. So they're really starting to cater
to that. Unfortunately in the UnitedStates, and I was I'm guilty and

(10:31):
a victim of it as well.Barrenern and Sutter home back in the day
that was white n so a lotof people associated because they actually added sugar
into the white zen and it's nota rose of zinfandel, and it was
to kind of cater to that twentysomething American American palette. And so now

(10:52):
I feel like I'm constantly deprogramming focusthat's coming along night that this rose is
not sweet rose has a more fruitforward profile and it and it may not
have the tannic structure and finish thatyou're used to where the mouth completely dries
out with some of your bigger reds, but it still has a lot of

(11:13):
the components that you probably might enjoyin a typically read whine mouse. The
striations of color, the super superpale like where they literally kiss the skins
for a couple hours versus this spenttwenty four hours on the skins because you
brought in talk about the wine youbrought in. And there's a blog on
there's a link on the blog todayjust under the video of Donald Trump reacting

(11:35):
to his conviction yesterday. The nextblog entry is the wine Us blog entry.
And she writes all of this stuffdown so you don't have to make
notes and you don't have to tryand remember, she does a fantastic job
of making this accessible to you guys. And also she's got a bunch of
information on Today's blog about upcoming events. If you want to go to a
wine event, the Carboys Big RoseLa La La event is coming up in

(12:00):
a week from today. Yeah,so that's a really fun event if you
just want to kind of go anddip your toe into it. I think
Carboy does rose beautifully. Yeah,Tiazac makes a good wine, I mean
beautifully. They just there. Ilove their rose. I'm I'm I'm a
dedicated fan to Carboys and this isall gonna be Colorado Rose. So you're

(12:20):
gonna get to meet the actual winemakers themselves while they're pouring and talk to
them about, you know, howdid they make this particular rose, or
you know, just carry a bunchof stuff. I mean that's the other
option. Just try a bunch ofstuff, find out what you like,
and some amazing food too from theirtheir chef there at there. It's not
the little Tin location. It's theone that's here closer to downtown Denver,
Okay. But the I brought broughtin a rose from Centennial Sellers out of

(12:45):
Palisade. It's a Bacco rose.So Bacco is a French hybrid that if
you're familiar at all with the whitewine from France called Pickpool. It's the
same grape, but it's been hybridizedwith a native American grape that makes it
disease resistant and cold hearty, whichis kind of perfect for our western slope
because we're still recovering from the lateexcuse me, the early freeze that we

(13:07):
had in twenty twenty, which wipedout most of our crop. So a
lot of these farmers that in thesevineyards where they're growing these grapes, we're
still recovering from that, so theyare looking to kind of move into more
of these cold hardy and disease resistantvarietals. So you're starting to see a
lot of odd names like Shamberson,petite Pearl, a lot of these.

(13:28):
I just had a white one thatI mentioned in the blog from the Storm
Cellar last week at their winemaker dinnercalled Atasca, which is a white wine
again hybridized. Is that an Italiangrape? No, it is. It
was created in Minnesota, and itis meant. It is meant for our
kind of climate where we have ashorter grow period and because we have these

(13:50):
wild fluctuations of swing, you know, temperatures when it's a critical time,
whether there's full fruit on the vinethat it's not ready to be hard,
or if it's in that really criticalstage of bloom where they're they're just starting
to but you're just starting to budout. So butd break is a is
a really delicate time for grapes.So because we can have those late frosts

(14:13):
or torrential downpours of you know,hail, things that can damage these these
delicate flowers. At first, yougotta kind of pick the varietals that are
going to work for our v sometough ass, great, that's right,
and they gotta we gotta work forit. Here. This wine is pretty.
It's darker than I would I wouldsay a like a more traditional colored

(14:37):
rose is. It's like a brightred. Yeah, it has kind of
like you know, it's like alittle bit of a ruby slipper kind of
color. And any rod, howdoes it smell? It is so divine?
And I say this in the mostcomplimentary way possible. Is the only
way I could describe it properly.It is an uppercut to the chin matched
with a beautiful, fruity smelling saltthat goes sam and joy. It's like

(15:03):
the best killing smelly And I'm overhere drinking and I'm like, oh,
it smells, well, that's dreatingsomething because it tastes great, but it
smells like ruscious. It's a beautifulwine and if you are wanting to try
that. I can't remember if they'regoing to be at Rose La La La.
I know they're going to be atthe Wine Walk up in Fort Collins
that Blanchart Family Wines is hosting August. No, the this is the one

(15:24):
in June, June twenty third,which is a Sunday, and it's early.
They're only having one time period,so I think it's like eleven to
three. Tickets are still still availablefor both events, but there I highly
recommend, you know, go checkthem out because Centennial sellers outside. If
you are a red wine drinker,definitely try their cap Frank because they got
a really nice cap fronk too.Summer is made for bubbles, in my

(15:46):
opinion, So what are we lookingat Because people think, you know,
bubbles are a celebratory thing you're youknow, toasting or whatever. But for
me, it's all about the bubblesin the summer. What do you recommend
for people who love bubbles? SoI still like to kind of you know
champagne is going to be your bigcelebratory thing. We are coming. I'm

(16:07):
a week from today, yes,a week from today, as my nephew
is getting married. For the happycouple, I'm giving them moscato to ASTI
because they like sweet stuff, butthey have to toast with something. My
sister in law and I will betoasting with champagne. But because that's not
what goes with wedding cake. Youdefinitely if you are having more of a
celebratory environment like a wedding or graduation, you're having it with cake. You

(16:30):
want to go with something sweeter,so am mescato to austi. If you
are just looking to enjoy a littlebit more brunch, I would actually avoid
those traditional champagne styled sparkling wines becausethey are a little too yeasty and bread
like. So I would go morewith a prosecco because that blends really really

(16:52):
nicely with your orange juices and yourcranberry to make a spritzer. Sure,
So if you're looking for something morealong those lines, if you're doing some
drinking, prosecco is a fantastic sparklingwine. If you are more into red
wines, that have a little bitof bubble. You could certainly start looking
at your rosees. Whether it's apino noir that's been then turned into a

(17:15):
sparkling wine. There's some fantastic onesout there too that are extremely reasonably priced.
Especial talk about Lambrusco for just asecond. I was gonna mention Lambrusco.
Lambrusco was the was the bubbly wineof the seventies, right. Everybody
had like that bottle of Lambrusco.But I had one in a restaurant.
It was like eighteen bucks a glass, and I was like, you know
what, throw caution to the wind, bring me the Lambrusco. It was

(17:37):
flipping delicious. So Lambrusco is probablyone of my favorite sparkling reds. Oh
my god, I think we have. I think that's what we had on
our cruise, really, And it'sfunny because I brought one in when a
Rod decided he's now officially a winedrinker, I brought in a Lambrusco.
I think that's when we had inthe Italian Rush and he thought it was
it was too titanic, it wastoo bitter, and I was like,

(18:00):
this Lampersco yeah, it growing.His palate is shifting because our little Arod's
palets grow. I would like tosay the rose of Bacco does not.
It is not sweet. It's justvery very fruit forward. And he and
I were actually discussing how can weget him to start moving away from these
wines that are sweeter because the sweetnessis literally coming from residual sugar. And

(18:23):
I even mentioned to him we needto start finding those wines that are more
fruit forward that some people will maybedescribed as that sweet. Right, It's
not that it's actually sweet. It'snot sugar. It's just a lot of
fruit, and I think this rosekind of falls into that category. It's
a lot of strawberry and red fruitlike that. Let's talk about one last

(18:44):
thing because we got like two minutesleft before we do have the day.
You're staying for the day, right, sure? I know Crystal will always
say yes because she's as competitive asall. Let's talk about mocktails for a
second, because mocktails are really havinga moment there is younger people have now
given up alcohol for pot. Theyhave Base said, so they're they're looking
for something that makes them feel likethey're participating. But they aren't actually drinking,

(19:07):
it's kind of having a moment well, and even at the winemaker dinner
that I attended, So the blogthat I linked to is Jamie Grows Drinks.
Jamie Henderson is an amazing Her paletteis just absolutely sensational. But because
she has non alcohol drinkers attending thesewinemaker dinners, she spends as much time
I think literally, you know,building these mocktails to pair with each of

(19:32):
these courses. As thought that goesinto the winemaking process itself. And so
she uses a lot of just notjust herbs from her own garden, but
all of these amazing edible flowers,which I know grosses you out. But
she is bringing in a lot ofthe distillates that are not alcohol based anymore
because they are starting to develop thosethings. And then you start adding in

(19:55):
things like ASHWAGANDHA and CBD to kindof give you that mellow relaxation kind of
this why some people enjoy having acocktail or you know, after all of
the news of the day, alittle glass of wine to relax. So
you're starting to see a lot ofthese mocktails out there available just at your
local sprouts. During Yeah, Kingsupers that you can get that may be

(20:17):
infused with CBD or ashwagandha and allof these herbs that are naturally relaxing as
well. And so I think thereis both the tasty cocktail mocktail, and
you get the the opposite of thebuzz, you get the kind of relaxation.
Yeah, thank you for coming inhere and taking us through something that
was not Trump related. We willbe back on Monday, and at that

(20:38):
point we might have something else totalk about. I don't know, because
this story will be around for awhile. This hour around. Oh ha
ha ha, you're hilarious. Thatwas a good one.