Barnes & Nobel and Borders book stores have become my destination of choice for books to learn more about buying, tasting and producing good wine.  I want to know everything I can about wine.  I have immersed myself in studying and taking notes on wine facts and characteristics.  I did not study this diligently in college!  My wife thought at first that I was “cracking up”!  I loved it and still do.  What an amazing science, that of producing great wine!

After reading the first book or two, I yearned for more varied and concentrated information to broaden my knowledge and curiosity about wine.  Knowing that I had become such a “nut bag” about studying wine, my wife showed me an article that she had read had read in our college alumni news about a wine course that they were offering (back in the Midwest).  The text they were using, according to the article was a book by Kevin Zraly, “Windows on the World – A Complete Wine Course”.  I didn’t need any more of an excuse to trek off to the book store to find it!

I spotted it quite easily in the racks of “wine buff” books, purchased it and headed home for some hopefully good and informative reading.  Wow!  What a book!  This is what I had been looking for!  I’d hit the jackpot!  I read, highlighted and read some more.  It is a fascinating book written in very plain laymen terms and is devoted to the total education of anyone who enjoys learning about and trying new wines.  I’ve read the book twice (which I had never done to a book in my life) and have re-read the highlights again and again.

I could now read the label of a German Riesling and know when and where it was grown and how it was made and probably tasted.  I could now see a wine from Italy on the shelf at the wine store and know which region of the country it was from.  I now know that the “tastes” I was experiencing were all able to be categorized and mentally listed and also written down to aid in buying wine the next time that I knew I really liked.  I also found that I certainly needed to expand my knowledge and tastes of all types of wine – not just cabinet and merlot.  It is a “must read” for anyone wanting to learn more about wine.  The author is realistic about personal taste vs. price.  I have learned one very important thing from this book! That is; try a lot of different wines and then buy and drink the ones you like, not the ones others tell you you’ll like.  I do just that and am having a ball!

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

The more new wines I tried, the more I wanted to read about them, find out how they were made, where they came from and what to look for in the new ones to try.  A few years ago I bought a copy of the “Wine Spectator” and was immediately taken in by it.  There was so much information for a novice like me that I was able to finally slice, dice and analyze it for hours on end.  I was particularly “smitten” by the 100 point wine rating scale.  I soon found that almost all the rated wines were not available in the local grocery stores where I had been buying my wine.  I figured most of them to be out of reach and not available in our area being from California, Washington and Oregon and were simply out of the question for me to buy and try.

I decided on one of my outings to stop by an up-scale wine store in Naples, Florida to search out some of the varieties I’d been reading about and was constantly urged to buy in the wine magazines.  As I entered the shop I realized there were only two other customers there along with the man behind the counter.  He was cordial enough, smiled and asked what I was looking for in a wine and if he could help.  I told him very generally what I was looking for and he pointed me to the correct section of wooden racks holding rows and rows of bottles.  I moved in close and started reading labels and very quickly realized that I did not recognize anything that I was observing.  I’m sure my face got red, but I studied each wine – especially the price.  Holy crap!  I can’t afford this stuff.

I remembered the one California Pinot Noir that had been near the top of the 100 point tasting chart in more than one magazine, so I started to really search for it. They must carry it especially since it is that popular.  After searching the entire section without seeing it anywhere, I wandered back to the counter (where the three guys were probably talking about me).  Again, the shop keeper asked if he could help me, so I blurted out the name of the highly rate wine.  They all three began to laugh their fool heads off.  “You can’t buy a wine like that in Florida!  It’s a small prestigious winery with limited production.”  Still giggling, one of the guys told me, that, “At certain times of the year, you may see it available in the Ritz-Carlton for around $28 per glass – but worth every penny of it!”  Yeah right!  I’d never paid that much for a bottle, much less a glass!  I smiled and said something generically gracious while the others continued to chuckle.  I left and never went back.

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

It was truly amazing!  We actually found a vintage of cabernet that we really liked from a California winery.  My wife even said, “Why don’t you go get several bottles just to have on hand?”  Wow!  That was so out of character for her that I could hardly believe it!  I dutifully trekked off to the grocery store to buy a case of wine.  I went directly to the section and shelf where I’d bought that “really great wine” last week and it was GONE!  What the heck? 

I cornered a stocking guy who was pulling new bottles out of a case of wine and setting them on the shelves further down the isle.  I asked him if he had any more of the vintage I was looking for in the back room.  He smiled and said, “Nope, that’s it!  The new vintage should be here in a week or two.”  Oh, God!  Would it be as good?  Would it cost the same?  Maybe I could still find it in other stores!  I panicked!

I set off on a search and seize mission to the local liquor stores, grocery and convenience stores.  After 5-6 hours of driving and searching, I found 8-9 bottles at 5 different locations, with great relief.  Now the storage of this collection was going to be a new problem in our small condo.  Where do you “stuff” all those bottles?  I’d learned enough about wine storage to know not to put it near a heat source like the top of the refrigerator or in the back of a shelf of a warm cupboard.  We certainly did not have the room for a small wine refrigerator so a small rack that we were currently using was going to have to do, but it would not all fit.

My wife came up with a brilliant idea that turned to be an ingenious solution that we still use today.  She had an extra sweater storage box on wheels that held 20 bottles side by side and will roll with ease on the cool tile floor under the bed in the master bedroom.  What a find!

In about 4-6 weeks, reality hit hard.  I’d tried and enjoyed several new wines and drank them in between the ones that I had stashed under the bed.  I found that we actually liked several of the new ones better than our hoard of that one vintage in the “rolling wine cellar”.  Was buying all that wine the smart thing to do? It was good wine at the time!

Lesson: When you find a wine that you really enjoy, buy a few bottles.  Don’t hoard cheap wine if you can’t drink it in a short period of time especially when stored without a bit of cooling available.  There will always be another favorite “better wine” to find!

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

My wife and I were invited to a recently acquainted friend’s home near us on the beach.  She is a well-to-do realtor and the evening promised to be fun and interesting.  She offered us a glass of wine and in tandem, we responded, “A glass of white wine, please.”  I soon learned that this person was way beyond opinionated and replied, “All white wine tastes like crap!  I only drink cabernet – you’ll love it!”  (Yeah right!)  I watched as she took it out of the rack, popped the cork out and poured three glasses (balloons, of course) of warm red wine.  This was going to be horrible but, remember, you’re a guest so shut up, sip it slowly and don’t pucker or comment.

I moved the glass cautiously to my lips, took a sip and WOW!  This stuff is really good!  I took another sip and could not keep silent any longer so I let out the reply, “This stuff is really good!”  My wife looked at me and figured I’d slipped a cog, but I meant it.  I saw that she too had liked what she had just tasted by the look on her face, but knew she wouldn’t say anything just yet.

I asked what it was and our host happily told me, “A 1999 ‘Honig’ cabernet sauvignon from Napa Valley, California.”  She described the taste as “freakin’ butter” and said it had a smooth, pepper finish.  You know what?  She was exactly right!  The feeling instantly came over me that this “red wine” was really good and it wasn’t served cold!  I guess they are right and it should be served at this temperature!

We drank that bottle and then one more!  That’s when I found out that it cost $40.00 a bottle.  Great!  Now I’ve found a red wine that I really like and I can’t afford to drink it!  We left very satisfied but yet I wondered if there were other red wines out there that could compare in taste but not cost as much (half would be too much).  I started my search that night and I have never quit – and I’m not going to, either!

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

In the year 2000, my job moved us to Fort Myers Beach, Florida and for once in our life the closest McDonald’s was not a 30 mile trip to the nearest “big town”.  Shopping was amazing and even the basic necessities were at our fingertips.  The grocery stores are huge and have everything you need and a lot that you don’t!  Among the completely stocked shelves we found a complete isle, 200’ long, full of wine!  Holy Crap!  We not only couldn’t figure out what it all was, but we couldn’t begin to pronounce most of the names.

This was the complete opposite of the stores in rural area of the Midwest we’d lived in, to this “there’s so much to pick from where the heck do you start” type of wine department.  So, we didn’t really start buying anything different, reflecting back to our past with wine.  We did agree to buy a couple bottles of chardonnay that we seemed to recognize and a bottle of “red” to have on hand.  We chose a California (cheap) cabernet as it was the most prevalent on the shelves.  We took them home to be placed in the refrigerator to get them “cold”! We had also moved our four wine glasses with us to Florida and placed them in their allocated spot in the back of the cupboard just in case we needed to pour a glass of wine for “company”.  They were stemmed, narrow and cute.  A glass is a glass, right?

Our first visitors arrived on a Saturday night about 3 weeks after we’d moved to Florida.  We met them at a gathering of condo owners in our building and as we talked, we found so many mutual topics and had so much fun that we invited them up for a drink to finish off the wonderful evening.  When I asked what they’d like to drink, they both answered “red wine, please.”  Good thing I’d bought that bottle of cabernet that was in the back of the refrigerator!

I found the corkscrew, popped out the cork and picked out the bits of cork from the first glass that I poured since I’d drilled through the entire cork like I was drilling for crude oil.  I poured them both the red in our “wine glasses” and my wife and I opted for the chardonnay. 

I handed them the wine and settled down for more pleasant conversation.  As nicely as she could, our lady guest told me that red wine should “never” be served cold.  I guess I should have guessed from the pucker on her lips!  Oh Crap!  My first faux’ pas’ of the evening and the relationship!  Red faced, we moved on in the conversation and the gentleman asked, “Do you have any red wine glasses?”  OK! That’s the second mistake of the evening.  I’m sure by now I had “Midwest Hick” stamped across my forehead.  The evening progressed in a great mood, they were very gracious and we got along famously.  (We still do!)   My wife and I immediately agreed after they left to get out and buy red and white wine glasses ASAP!  It was a hard lesson from really nice people.   Red has to be served warm, hmmmm!

Since our first visit with that couple, and that initial embarrassing evening that proved that I didn’t know anything about wine, we have become rather close friends.  We soon joked about that night and I started to learn as much as I could as fast as was possible about red wine. This new friend’s heritage stemmed from a Portuguese father and an Italian mother and I quickly realized that he had a really good set of taste buds.  (I guess I should say, “a very refined pallet.”)

  I came right out and asked him for advice and help in shopping and selecting some good, moderately priced red wines.  He certainly was not biased and jumped at the chance to help us explore all kinds of wine from all over the planet.  He did have a very soft spot in his heart for Italian wines, so Chianti, Sangiovese and Pinot Grigio were the ones that we explored to the greatest extent.  He was right!  I found many good wines from around $10 - $15 and soon found myself and my wife enjoying drinking red wines at room temperature more that the chilled white wines that we used to drink exclusively. 

I liked Chianti but my wife and his both preferred cabernet, so she would usually have a bottle or two if lesser expensive California or Italian cabernet when we would visit them.  I really developed a sense of adventure in trying to sort out all the differences between the different grape types, the styles and the vintages of all of the ones we experienced.  We did not like the taste of all of them but it was still fun exploring them.  We were actually training ourselves to recognize the wines we liked and didn’t like and then committing them to memory if for no other reason than to aid in selecting wines to buy the next time out.  We were “refining our palates” and it was fun!

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

Giving up the hunt for a red wine that we liked in the early 80’s was an easy thing to do.  At a bar or restaurant the request for a glass of white wine was still the cool way to go as an alternative to hard liquor or beer, and it was easy to drink.

My wife and I attended a wedding of a very wealthy friend and at the meal with them we were served a favorite chardonnay of his.  I was astounded by it and really liked it.  That was the first white wine that did not taste sweet and syrupy to me.  It had a bit of dry taste (I thought about oat straw) but it was really quite pleasing.  My wife didn’t really like it and wanted her wine to be a bit sweeter.  After that first chardonnay, we did investigate and seek out new and different ones as we traveled and really found some that we totally enjoyed. 

We started to ask for chardonnay instead of Chablis when we went out and we both finally felt we were on to something.  We found favorites together and started to enjoy wine with meals and sitting around in the evening with each other.  We even purchased white wine glasses, just to be correct to our friends and then soon found out the drinking out them did taste better that the regular 8 oz. tumblers straight from the every day cupboard full of cups and glasses.

Looking for and finding a wine that matched both our tastes was a real challenge and it did not happen often.  When it did, however, we felt like we had found something worth looking for.  Wine drinking had now become fun for us and gave us something to explore and really enjoy.  Who’d of “thunk”?

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

It seems like my wife and I were (are) always on a diet of some sort.  Fighting weight is a fulltime job for us.  I hark back to one of the first articles that we read; put out by the diet folks we were following, that alluded to the fact that “red wine” was possibly really good for you!  What a revelation.  But I don’t like red wine, like that communion stuff from my youth!

After much consideration, we decided to stop and shop in a large Iowa town that had a “Cub Foods” huge discount grocery store that really had a quite a big selection of wines.  With a very serious goal in mind we went into the walk-in cooler where all the wines were kept and started to read the labels.  We studied what few details were listed on the back labels of the bottles since you could not taste them in advance of a purchase, and worked on selecting 2 bottles of burgundy.  We promised each other that we would have a glass each evening with dinner (supper if you’re from Iowa).  All we knew is that is was “red”.  We drove home the 100 miles and put into the refrigerator to get it “cold” to drink the next evening.

The diet that we were on was the typical regimented food list that seemed to follow my take on dieting, “If it looks good, tastes good or smells good, don’t eat it!”  I was really looking forward to trying the glass of red wine that night.  I uncorked the bottle (fancy stuff – no screw cap) and poured out 2 glasses for us. We sipped it cautiously.  I have no idea now where it was from, what vineyard produced it or where on the planet it actually came from.  It was O.K.  We tried to be objective and accepting of this new taste but try as we may, we were not impressed.  We struggled through the second bottle as it was a different brand, but came away with the same reaction.  It was O.K but not what we’d call “good”.

Unfortunately, that was the last bottle of red wine that either of us drank for the next 10 years.  I resolved myself to the fact that I did not like red wine and it must be an acquired taste.  I really didn’t want to acquire it.

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

The next installment of this story can be found here.

Growing up in a beer drinking culture, drinking meant “COLD” beer.  We heard stories of the ‘old country’ where all the beer was consumed warm and we all agreed that we were glad to live in the modern world of refrigerators and ice chests.  Living in rural Iowa in the late 70’s and early 80’s and you wanted a cool temperature wine to drink you ordered “a glass of white wine” or if your really wanted to sound worldly, a glass of Chablis.  It was usually served cold (well, cool) and sweet enough to not taste like vinegar since the bottle had probably been open at the bar since last weekend when some one actually wanted a glass of wine.  It was a socially acceptable alternative to beer or whiskey in a drinking group of friends.

I distinctly remember in 1974 starting to socially imbibe at gatherings by drinking pink Catawba wine in the community where I taught school.  Talk about sweet!  My wife really liked it and I tolerated a glass or two, but after the second glass you started to feel “sticky” if you got it on your lips or fingers.  There are few foods in my life that can start a fire in my gut (heartburn) but this was on the top of the list. I didn’t last long with good old pink Catawba wine.  For me it was back to beer and a few types of hard liquor.  It only reinforced in my mind that “wine” was sweet, sugary and not fun to wake up to in the morning after having let caution go to the wind the evening before.  I can remember those youthful days waking up to the worst of the “slimy belches” with near death heartburn and headache and vowing, as most drinkers do in that situation to never do that again, although that statement only seems to last until the “next time”!

The next chilled wine that we investigated years later was white zinfandel.  In our early 40’s, we had both searched for a good tasting wine and this wine, being served cold, was our next venture.  In the late 80’s and early 90’s in Iowa, more wines were on the market and obtaining them at a reasonable price was easy to do.

An unprecedented, monumental state government decision was set into motion by letting grocery stores carry not on beer but “WINE”!  Holy Crap!  This was like the most amazing thing that ever happened to the liquor business in Iowa! But, of course now with that granted, the restrictions and regulations were very stringent for those stores.  If you ventured into a grocery store on Sunday, the clear plastic blinds were drawn over the few shelves of wine in the cooler case (wine has to be kept cold, you know)!

So entered the white zinfandel phase of wine consumption for us.  Generally, we had at least one bottle in the “fridge” and a couple in reserve in the wine rack on top of the refrigerator (great storage place, huh?)  My wife really did like it and I tolerated it but it was still too sweet for me, but over the years we enjoyed a lot of it.

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in small-town northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

Most old German families in our rural Iowa community made their own wine.  Not much, but some each summer and not necessarily out of grapes.  What ever was in the current batch was in a 5 gallon “Red Wing” crock, sitting on the kitchen counter, covered with a thin dish towel  with little fruit lies hovering over it day and night.  Who would ever drink this stuff that bugs liked that much?  I was truly clueless at age 9.

I was lucky as a kid as Grandma had Concord grape vines along her garden when I was very small.  I remember sitting in the grass at the base of those vines and eating the sweet grapes with my grandfather.  They were really good! Then the modern farm chemicals came along like 2-4-D.  The vines curled, browned and dried up and fell off.  The vines never came back and were dead by the next spring.  Everybody justified the loss of the local grapes as “progress” in farming as corn was worth so much more compared to a few grapes.  Sad, but it was true.

With the grapes gone from the area, wine was then made from all kinds of “stuff”, not just grapes.  Raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries, mulberries, cherries, rhubarb, pear and even dandelions were turned into wine.  I did remember that once the mix was made and put into the crock, the work was done.  How it ever turned out was not known to me and at that age, I really didn’t care.

In 1971, my wife and I were in our college apartment and the popular thing to do in our circle of friends was to make wine in a gallon plastic milk jug with a really expensive (25¢) balloon on the top.  We mixed the concentrated “Welch’s Grape Juice”, water, sugar and yeast into the jug and patiently watched over the next days the balloon stretch to amazing limits.  What excitement!  The anticipation was off the scale for both of us!  We waited until the balloon had completely deflated (about 3-4 weeks) and carefully poured the contents into a new plastic jug.  We tried it! It was amazingly pretty good!  We shared it with another couple and they were equally amazed.  Let’s do it again!  So, we did.

We diligently bought the ingredients for the next batch, mixed it in a gallon plastic milk jug and bought a new balloon (another 25¢ expensive balloon down the drain).  The concoction was set on top of the refrigerator in our small apartment and we watched the balloon expand over the next days and were quite pleased with ourselves now that we considered ourselves great wine makers.

That balloon was at full extension sitting up there on that warm refrigerator and that is when we encountered our first wine making disaster!  We had just gone to bed that fateful night when we heard a large “POP” from the kitchen!  We knew it had to be the wine so I jumped out of bed, ran into that little kitchen, threw on the light, and there on the top of the refrigerator sat our Siamese cat “Sam” looking at her paw that was holding the remains of the green balloon next to the now purple wall beside the jug.

Well, that batch ended up shot to heck as we rushed out the next day and got another balloon to put on the top but the mixture never made it to the “wine” stage.  The cat was none too popular at this point either!  We tried a couple more times to make “grape juice” wine but it never turned out quite the same as that first batch.  That was the end of our wine making career.  Buying it was much easier – and cheaper! 

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in small-town northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

You can find the next installment of this story here

I don’t completely remember when the Iowa Liquor Control Commission (ILCC) actually allowed humans to not only “see” the bottles at the state stores before they made a selection on what type of alcohol to buy, but at some point in time they actually allowed the public to walk in and pick up (touch) the individual bottles, put them into a cart and just pay for them without filling out the liquor book.  They had finally moved out of prohibition forever!

In the early 1970’s in a few large state liquor stores in bigger towns actually stocked a section with only wine on a few shelves.  Wow, so many jugs and no idea what they tasted like!  Paul Masson, Gallo, Lancer’s, good old Mogan David, etc, were the staple offerings.  I was in college at that time and everyone had to go through the ritual of getting the straw covered bottle of Chianti so you could set a colored “drip” candle in it for your dorm room.  Most guys dumped the wine instead of drinking it because it was usually really bad tasting stuff!  It was a ritual of college life you had to do.

My wife and I were married in 1970.  On one of the trips to Omaha, Nebraska, to shop in a larger city, we were in the biggest department store downtown, and we walked by a small area (about 10’ x 10’) that sold wines we had never seen before.  Nebraska was ahead of their time and could sell alcohol in public stores not owned by the state.  I guess it pays to advertize because a bottle of Paul Masson “Very Cold Duck” caught our eye.  We bought it and transported it “illegally” back to our home in Iowa.  It was actually against the law to transport “booze” across state lines at that time.

The next week end we chilled the bottle, my wife cooked a great meal and we popped the plastic stopper and drank the bubbly wine.  Guess what!  We really liked it!  Over the next few years we stopped back at that store in Omaha and bought more “cold duck” as you still could not find it in the Iowa state owned stores.

Over the first years of our marriage we did try to broaden our wine tastes.  We had such great wines such as Ripple, Boone’s Farm Wild Mountain Grape, Thunderbird and MD 20-20.  I distinctly remember my wife and I and another couple trying to get “buzzed” on Boone’s Farm wine one hot summer evening.  We drove three trips to the next town to the liquor store and all we got was “gassy’ and tired!  What fun!

A few of the wines we tried were better like some of the Rose’.  The bottom line was that we had settled into the rut of drinking cold wine that was sweet.  My wife liked it.  I didn’t.

Jim Albinger (Andrew’s dad) grew up in smalltown northwest Iowa in the 1950’s.  He has been writing down his experiences looking back at all that has shaped his current wine tasting hobby.  Expect to see more of Jim’s writings here at offthecork.com.

You can find the next installment of this story here