tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27659862720463941652011-11-27T15:49:40.019-08:00Ramblings, rants, and romance.Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.comBlogger341100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-85673644587904056012011-03-10T14:12:00.000-08:002011-03-10T14:12:26.233-08:00

I've moved to a new blog: http://peripheralscrutiny.blogspot.com/ The blog focuses on not just wine, but also other areas I'm interested in. My primary goal is to explore "ways of knowing" in a more reflective, rigorous mode. My latest post is a casual statistical romp through my CellarTracker scores over the past three years: http://peripheralscrutiny.blogspot.com/2011/03/3-

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-86140435495294400342009-09-26T09:50:00.000-07:002009-09-26T14:14:27.033-07:00

The recent film Bottle Shock, starring Chris Pine and Alan Rickman, reminded us of the 1976 Paris Tasting, where Napa first reached international acclaim. A little over 30 years ago, no one in Europe knew or cared about Napa wines. But for the last millennium, the wines of the Loire Valley have been known throughout Europe.Within the valley, the Vouvray appellation has championed the Chenin Blanc

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-91813548931840647492009-09-19T14:38:00.000-07:002009-09-26T15:25:45.624-07:00

It was disorienting walking into the store and stepping behind the counter for the first time. I've perused the shelves many times before as a customer. Now it's my job. Well... part of it.I recently joined CoolVines, a 2-year old specialty wine store with branches in Westfield, and Princeton, NJ. My official job description is business development and operations research, but in a small company

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-78107735298865984622009-05-27T05:58:00.000-07:002009-05-27T06:04:46.382-07:00

It's been a while, hasn't it. Rest assured, I have a couple more pieces in the cogs. The last couple months in my life have been consumed with 1) my thesis, on enhancing the sensitivity of sensors using nanostructured materials, 2) wrapping up my final courses at Princeton, including a fantastic class on the development of Western science by D. Graham Burnett. From now until graduation on June 3,

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-48071714738446335932009-03-09T16:03:00.001-07:002009-03-09T16:26:09.953-07:00

Less than two weeks after our unremarkable tasting, I was forced to eat my words. In the unbelievably refined atmosphere of Restaurant Daniel, I was treated to a Champagne that slowly but surely, over half a dozen courses, burrowed its way into my memory, to borrow a phrase from Veronelli.1998 Taittinger 'Comtes de Champagne' Blanc de Blancs Pale gold in the glass, with extremely fine mousse,

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-9227736164857162342009-02-27T17:11:00.000-08:002009-03-04T01:13:05.923-08:00

The world of wine is mind-bogglingly huge. Stupendously varied and enormous. Let me say it again: there are a shit-ton of different wines out there. It follows that you should not make blanket statements about categories of wine unless you have tasted as widely and deeply as his Lord Parker himself. Thus I prefer to say "I still don't understand region X" or "I'm still searching for an example of

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-37995808235742113832009-01-26T15:04:00.000-08:002009-03-04T01:09:47.125-08:00

"These are extraordinarily pure, natural expressions of winemaking... primitive in the best sense of the word." -Robert M. Parker, Jr.*"Why would you want to drink a wine that, if it were a person, you would be bored of talking to?" -Sean ThackreyIn the wine world, tasting is believing. It seems like every winemaker has a captivating fairy tale to tell, something that sets them apart, makes them

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-79485153294582215552009-01-21T19:43:00.000-08:002009-03-09T16:33:01.004-07:00

I owe my parents a lot. And I don't just mean four years of college and 18 years of room and board (plus an extra 9 months' rent, according to my mom). From my dad I inherited an engineering bent, entrepreneurial spirit, and a high sensitivity to acetaldehyde and methoxy-pyrazines. From my mom I inherited musical sense and a love of numbers, metrics, data, whatever you want to call it - I'm a

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-35902279158998558732008-12-21T00:23:00.000-08:002008-12-21T00:53:05.551-08:00

"It's actually illegal to talk about Bandol without mentioning Domaine Tempier" -Gary V., WLTVFamily owned since 1834, Tempier has always produced good wine, winning gold medals as early as 1885. However it was Lucien Peyraud who, from 1943 to 1980, established Tempier as a leader in Bandol. The influential importer Kermit Lynch

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-44051510239300339402008-12-18T23:07:00.000-08:002009-01-06T22:00:57.656-08:00

Here are some useful links: Cold Shower: How to Spit with the Wine Pros, by Micheal Steinberger GrapeRadio's Bordeaux Bdx Video - Kyle Meyers spits about 2/3 of the way in Kyle Meyers: Hot Legs vlog Andre Mack on WLTV: Check out 4:10

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-82912939251981310222008-11-22T03:20:00.000-08:002008-12-22T09:50:09.306-08:00

Winemakers are thoughtful people. Dealing with fickle weather patterns, temperamental fermentation, and the vagaries of bottle aging seems to preclude the damning judgments, prejudices, and generalizations that pervade the rest of the wine world. I was reminded of this by the stark contrast between two recent tastings .The first was led by a Rutgers professor, also a certified wine judge. Alarm

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-82828159530377636752008-11-21T16:35:00.000-08:002008-11-21T17:33:22.267-08:00

It's been a year and 3 months since I started my wine journey, and sometimes I feel like I haven't gone anywhere. In fact I haven't gone anywhere - I'm still at school, living in a dorm room down the hall from where I lived last year. But whenever I meet someone new and taste wine, or talk about wine, I am reminded that I'm actually a subtly different species. How have I changed?1. I smell

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-16071911467661783702008-11-05T06:23:00.000-08:002008-11-05T10:36:58.247-08:00

In the Time Warner center, between Per Se and Masa, a simple white table stands, surrounded by a chic enclosure of Enomatic wine dispensers. The tabletop is alive with an interactive projected display that allows you to browse a hundred or so wine-by-the-glass selections, including region/appellation info and tasting notes. After choosing a selection, you take your glass to the appropriate

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-91387754676298772172008-11-03T16:55:00.000-08:002008-11-03T17:19:39.811-08:00

I never wanted this blog to become a catalog of wine-related exploits, partly because on a student's budget my "exploits" aren't all that extraordinary. However I was recently invited to a tasting of wines that were of such a high caliber that I was intellectually and olfactorily disoriented. From the point of view of a beginning taster, this tasting provided excellent examples of different

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-30114484793435090972008-09-24T05:49:00.000-07:002008-09-24T06:01:58.216-07:00

I'm not a wine critic or a winemaker. As a chemical engineering student, most of my time is spent in a materials science lab, where I work with surfactants and strange forms of silica. Even back when I did study yeast, I was more interested in genomic analysis than the bouquet of their by-products. In my spare moments, though, I can inevitably be found with my nose buried in a wine glass or a

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-73581621121866927412008-08-30T19:30:00.001-07:002008-11-30T13:56:31.298-08:00

In the past few weeks, I've stumbled across wines from two wine makers whose approaches are so original, and deliberate, that they immediately captured my attention. As luck would have it, I found the last bottle of Sean Thackrey's Pleiades XV in the Corkscrew, and it now sits on my shelf, awaiting sufficient courage to open it. Even though it's the largest production of all the wines produced by

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-69626756200851617172008-08-28T07:55:00.000-07:002008-08-31T22:00:20.207-07:00

It's definitely a happy day for wine lovers in the Princeton area. The wine store CoolVines just completed it's first week in it's new location, on Harrison and Nassau. Here's the rundown:The location is a bit out-of-the-way for students. In particular, it is not within easy walking distance of the Palmer Square/Witherspoon St. area. On the other hand, it is within range of the Blue Point Grill,

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-51516112299319950812008-08-13T10:01:00.000-07:002008-08-25T13:57:12.860-07:00

Early on in my wine drinking career, I was convinced that the evaluation of wine could be completely objective. I brandished Robert Parker's 100-point system like a golden cross. My good friend Liz argued vehemently that the evaluation of wine is completely subjective, and can't be reduced to anything as mathematical and clinical as scores. As I learned more about wine I realized she was partly

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-57141862585752021372008-08-11T19:04:00.001-07:002008-09-05T11:01:15.105-07:00

As the singular vintner-rebel Sean Thackrey is fond of pointing out, there is no word in the French language for "winemaker." The word used instead, vigneron, means "wine-grower", but it connotes vinification as well (Rosenthal, memoirs). Paul Draper, the wine-maker/philosopher in charge of Ridge, asserts that wine is "grown, not made." Who, then, is a wine-maker?Perhaps, he (or she) is one who

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-32867213502203297782008-07-28T09:18:00.000-07:002008-07-31T11:39:44.943-07:00

On Saturday I worked at the newly-planted Sesson Vineyard (Santa Clara Valley AVA), with Paul's vineyard construction manager, Millie. An electrician by trade, Millie is as practical and tough as the irrigation lines she showed me how to string. As we were stringing the beginnings of a 5-wire trellis, and attaching black drip-lines to the lowest wire, she waxed eloquent about the clay soil,

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-52429503257317753942008-07-27T07:04:00.000-07:002008-07-28T07:40:24.860-07:00

Ex-sommelier, wine guru, and teacher extraordinaire Joe G recently led a series of blind-tasting challenges on the WLTV forums. Here are links to the Mystery Wine threads. Read his initial post and try to guess based on flavor descriptors what the wines are! Joe's advice: reasoning is more important than getting it right. Not all wines are typical of their region/varietal. Joe coached us through

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-69026517629124632492008-07-10T19:06:00.000-07:002008-07-31T11:39:55.434-07:00

Those of you on the WS and WLTV forums may have followed my recent search for a summer job (screenname "barrelmonkey"). As I learned, there is little work in small wineries for a chemical engineer. "For every hour of labwork" said vintner Paul Romero, "there are one hundred hours of spraying vines, pruning, hauling nets, and cleaning barrels." In the end, I took a research job here at Princeton

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-864657758587688242008-04-23T12:00:00.000-07:002008-07-31T11:40:08.806-07:00

Proclaimed proudly or with disdain, these words always puzzle me when uttered by an admitted wine geek. Sure, spitting is gross, and seems counter to our instincts. Many people feel that they can't taste wine properly without swallowing it - implying that their nose and palate are located somewhere south of the epiglottis. Some are content with scrutinizing microscopic sips of wine, sacrificing

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-53679669870512039092008-04-06T11:29:00.000-07:002008-07-31T11:40:24.861-07:00

...the effect of drinking a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick. - Douglas Adams...the wine was like satin, but with a print on it. - Jancis RobinsonWhile I dream of one day writing a tasting note as memorable, punchy, and utterly useless as the above examples, Alder Yarrow at vinography.com provides constant

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-61852933558385703142008-03-30T13:12:00.000-07:002008-08-10T20:05:52.269-07:00

I'm sitting at a table with four glasses in front of me: a Barolo, a monster Shiraz, a Bourgueil, and a Barbera. I glare at each of them in turn, then dig into my chocolate cake and cannoli with frustration. I hear that someone just popped a Turley Zinfandel downstairs, and there's a 94-point Rioja on the table. It's 80 minutes into the Wine Library event at Basilico's restaurant, and I can no

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-71808987763023009462008-03-29T13:04:00.000-07:002008-07-14T07:57:40.340-07:00

First, realize that for many drinkers, glycerine (glycerol) registers differently from residual pentoses and hexoses - it can be confused with fruit flavor, heightening the midpalate experience. Normally yeast produce glycerol in insignificant concentrations, but there are several known ways of inducing higher glycerol yields:1. Increase the sugar. Yeast produce glycerol in response to

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-13448071826823525592008-03-25T19:54:00.000-07:002008-07-31T12:22:33.791-07:00

In honor of Gary Vaynerchuk's request for WBW 44, I chose a cab franc from a region I have not tried before, at a higher price point than I'm used to, and with more age on it than any wine I've had before.1996 Jöel Taluau St.-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil AOC, Vieilles Vignes, 12.5%, $35 at the Princeton Corkscrew.This is an extraordinary wine.When the longish cork was halfway out, I caught a whiff of

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-34144420016010876582008-03-24T15:05:00.000-07:002008-07-31T12:21:23.827-07:00

I really have nothing to say today, except to thank Ms. Bowman for allowing me to link to her singular post:You Can Never Drink It Again

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-52654305798521601742008-03-23T12:05:00.000-07:002008-03-30T14:37:29.076-07:00

Food and Wine pairing is a scam. Just ask Alder Yarrow over at Vinography. And yet I could not resist diving in for the first time. Over three nights, I tasted the same 5 cheeses with three different wines. Here are my findings.The Cheeses:1. Petite BasqueOne of my favorite cheeses. A very nice, delicately perfumed aroma of wood and earth, with hints of apples. Medium-firm, with a sublimely

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-64715881723247149952008-03-16T23:44:00.000-07:002008-07-31T12:21:57.807-07:00

I was in love with the bouquet as soon as it touched my memory. Lychees, rose petals, saffron - some of my childhood memories of the flavors and scents of India. However when I first tasted the wine, I nearly cried. Cloying sweetness rode on top of an ugly bitterness that I could not stomach. I've tasted several Gewurztraminers since, including one from Canada, but always with similar misfortune.

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-38862125021522336202008-03-16T14:17:00.001-07:002008-07-16T07:45:15.370-07:00

Here are reviews and scores by four respected critics on the same wine - 2003 Leoville-Poyferre.Robert M. Parker, Jr. – 98 pointsI have had this wine three times out of bottle, rating it 97 once and 98 twice. It is a colossal success and a potential legend in the making. Its saturated, dense inky/blue/purple color offers up notes of crushed rocks, acacia flowers, blueberries, black raspberries,

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-83178667214549003072008-02-05T08:20:00.001-08:002008-09-05T12:49:26.271-07:00

Critics and wine gurus often recommend blind tasting as the best way to train one's palate. In addition, the major critics (Parker, Wine Spectator, Tanzer) taste blind to reassure us of their unwavering objectivity. However objectivity is not always the same as accuracy (for more on this, see an article by Eric Asimov), and it is not at all clear to me why blind tasting is a useful form of

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-55400395889910314692008-02-03T12:43:00.000-08:002008-03-30T14:35:46.801-07:00

First a brief profile of my palate when it comes to beer. I am a hop-head. Some of my favorite brews are Stone's Ruination, IPA, and Arrogant Bastard. I'm no fan of sweetness (in wine or beer), which is what keeps me from listing Dogfish Head's 90-minute IPA among my favorites, despite its beautiful aromatic complexity. I see beers as relaxing entertainment, with their clear-cut, bold,

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2765986272046394165.post-44822734318093258372008-01-26T08:10:00.000-08:002008-02-03T13:46:42.123-08:00

Welcome to Questions of Taste!This is my second endeavor in the wine-blogosphere. My first, Students of Wine, detailed my introduction to the wine world following my 21st birthday. It allowed me to clarify and crystallize my changing perspective on wine, to record my excitement at an epiphany, and often to vent my frustration at the complexity and imprecision of the wine world.Now it's time for a

Rajiv Ayyangarnoreply@blogger.com0