Professional Wine Consultants - Milwaukee Wine - Sommeliers

Title: Palms Bistro and Wine Bar presents…Spring Vacation Wine Dinner with Master Sommelier candidate Toni Johnson
Location: Palms Bistro Bar 221 N. Broadway Milwaukee Wi 53202
Link out: Click here
Description: Travel with us to old world Europe for an unforgettable experience. Cuisine and wine featured will be inspired by classic European expertise with a few modern surprises.

Your local tour guide will be Master Sommelier Candidate Toni Johnson.

If you can\’t get away this spring, let us take you!

$55.00 per person plus tax and gratuity

Contact Sam or Sarah 414-298-3000
Start Time: 7:00
Date: 2009-04-22

I can’t stop praising this grape. I sound like a zealot. Riesling isn’t the most consistent wine on the planet, admittedly there is an ocean of Riesling based booze infused sticky icky grape juice that many an unsuspecting burgeoning wine lover has had forced upon them, only to gag at the sheer lack of balance and gooey flab of this innocuous beverage that a friend or family member kindly was trying to pass off as wine. That said, few wines reach such dazzling heights of complexity or are so painfully cultivated in harsh conditions for miniscule yields. The lesson is that you can’t write off an entire style of wine because you’ve had a few wretched examples… or possibly many wretched examples. There are great Rieslings out there! They are relatively easy to find. (more…)

Oh the red wines of Burgundy. When I was the Wine Director for a local restaurant, my favorite area to navigate with our guests on our list was the two pages devoted to Pinot Noir. Granted there are plenty of wines that have dizzyingly steep prices on those pages. Like all wine making areas of the world, certain wines and winemakers command exorbitant prices. Sometimes I get criticized for having some of these wines on the list. But I often say, (mostly to myself) “If you are going to have a French wine list, there are things that must be on it.” And those things are usually the most expensive. But there are some wonderful selections in Burgundy that are under $100.00 and some that are just a touch over that are well worth seeking out in a retail outlet.

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My love affair with Pinot Noir began in the late eighties when I was a retail wine buyer for a group of wine stores in Portland Oregon. (Pronounced OAR-eh-gn, not Oar–eh-GOHNE.). Of course the Willamette Valley has become to be known as a mecca for domestic Pinot along with the Russian River AVA in Sonoma County and the Santa Ynez Valley AVA in Santa Barbara County, California. Even though the world may not have known how fabulous they were back then, all of us Oregonians knew it.

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I’ve noticed that over the last two years Syrah has been a tough sell. Even under the guise of  Shiraz it has seemed to slow down a bit.  Retailers I work with are telling me the same thing.

This is a surprise because at a variety of price points I can’t come up with another style of red wine that offers the same quality to value ratio.

It has become an ongoing joke in the California wine industry that Syrah will be the next big thing. Californian Syrah wears a few hats and maybe it’s problems in the market place is that the wine has somewhat of an identity crisis. My opinion is that a good Syrah should show some signs of smoke and or spice, especially pepper. That is always that telltale indicator of the grape in a blind tasting. It’s not wussy wine this is the real deal folks. We are talking about deep purple hues and burly tannins. It should be a bear of a wine, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be  one of those really big nearly life sized teddy bears that you want to snuggle with. The bottom line the wine should have guts!

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It is another busy day in December and I stop at a good account with a couple of wines to taste. As I fight the wind and snow, I enter the store and there is this incredible smell and the sound of laughter in the back room. The people in the back look up and say “T-bone!!” and invite me to join in the festivities.
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MORIC Neckenmarkter Blaufrankisch 2005, Mittelburgenland Austria

FROM DAVID SCHILDKNECHT FOR ROBERT PARKER’S WINE ADVOCATE: The 2005 Blaufrankisch Neckenmarkter delivers aromas of blackberry, smoked meat, and walnut, making for a pleasantly bitter, rather Cabernet Franc-like cast. Juicy, faintly bitter and salty, with subtle tart black fruit and walnut oil on the palate, this clings with a tart, bitter-sweet cast and striking salinity. There will be plenty of rewards for anyone who takes this wine through its paces at the dinner table. And it may gain over a couple of years in bottle, but will, I suspect, be best drunk within 3-4 years.

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2005 Rocca di Frassinello Poggio alla Guardia Maremma Toscana IGT

A collaboration between Baron Lafite Rothschild and Castellare di Castellinathis, this is the entry level wine of this estate of Rocca di Frassinello. On the nose it has ripe plum anise pepper and Granite. 45 Merlot, 40 Cab and 15 Sangioveto and ages in steel and concrete. Great structure and length. Great value compared to the higher end wines from this estate. Great texture on the palate mochaey and black berries not red berries.

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Every Friday…almost……I participate in a ritual where I and some of my contemporaries gather at a co-conspirators wine store on Milwaukee’s chic east side on the even chicier Brady Street called Waterford Wine. http://www.waterfordwine.com/

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A huge pet peeve of mine is going to a restaurant and never being offered some kind of sparkling wine as an aperitif or with appetizers. It is just about the easiest way for a waiter of waitress to add a couple of drinks to a bill. I can’t believe how rare this is, even casual places can step it up and bring their bubble game to the table. Why not?

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