Ever wondered how a whisper of citrus or a hint of oak can transport you to the heart of the Loire Valley? We embark on a sensory journey through the essence of blind wine tasting, revisiting our inaugural episode's challenge, with a twist. Your ears will be treated to the unexpected twists of our tasting notes, with the muted aromatics of an Alta Sellers Sauvignon Blanc that played hide and seek with our senses, and a Chardonnay that whispered of its Burgundian lineage, courtesy of Dominique Lafon. As we savor these revelations, we weave in personal tales that bind us to these bottles, bringing the experience closer to heart.
Raise your glass to the melody of wine and music intertwining, as we draw parallels between the delight of uncovering a wine's origin and Taylor Swift's triumph in re-recording her albums. Swift's legal acumen and connection with her fans echo the empowerment and education we find in the world of wine. As summer approaches, we share our bubbling excitement for upcoming dialogues with the creative vintners behind Upside Down Wines and Armor Wines, and our planned excursion to Santa Barbara. So, pour yourself a glass and join us for stories drenched in wine lore and the palpable anticipation of a season filled with interviews, explorations, and the joy of shared discoveries. Cheers to that!
Ever wondered how a whisper of citrus or a hint of oak can transport you to the heart of the Loire Valley? We embark on a sensory journey through the essence of blind wine tasting, revisiting our inaugural episode's challenge, with a twist. Your ears will be treated to the unexpected twists of our tasting notes, with the muted aromatics of an Alta Sellers Sauvignon Blanc that played hide and seek with our senses, and a Chardonnay that whispered of its Burgundian lineage, courtesy of Dominique Lafon. As we savor these revelations, we weave in personal tales that bind us to these bottles, bringing the experience closer to heart.
Raise your glass to the melody of wine and music intertwining, as we draw parallels between the delight of uncovering a wine's origin and Taylor Swift's triumph in re-recording her albums. Swift's legal acumen and connection with her fans echo the empowerment and education we find in the world of wine. As summer approaches, we share our bubbling excitement for upcoming dialogues with the creative vintners behind Upside Down Wines and Armor Wines, and our planned excursion to Santa Barbara. So, pour yourself a glass and join us for stories drenched in wine lore and the palpable anticipation of a season filled with interviews, explorations, and the joy of shared discoveries. Cheers to that!
Okay, all right, all right, all right, we are back with our jabroni gang. All right, all right, all right. It's your host, jazzy J, and my co-host, wine Wonder Boy aka. E-gang.
Speaker 2:
FKA, what up, what up.
Speaker 1:
So in the first episode we did a blind tasting. We did we did so I guess we could give notes on them now.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, actually, let's do some notes.
Speaker 1:
So what are you? What key are we in?
Speaker 2:
C major what, what are you? What key are we in?
Speaker 1:
What C major? What glass are you? Yeah, you have the Saab Blanc. This is.
Speaker 2:
Saab EB right now. So, alta, sorry, this dump bucket's in the way, so we'll just do away with it, explain, explain.
Speaker 1:
So I brought the Alta Saab Blanc and let's explain what you went through when you were tasting this as a blind tasting.
Speaker 2:
So whenever I'm blind tasting, I'm always a detective, right. That's like the whole point of doing a blind tasting is putting your experience and your knowledge to the test and trying to figure out what the hell is inside your glass. So I was looking for clues Any clue you can get a hold of, that's what I was looking for. So I was looking for oak, I was looking for super aromatic things, aromas. I was looking for super aromatic aromas and I honestly couldn't find it, and I still can't in this one. So it is not a quintessential Sauvignon Blanc.
Speaker 2:
I think it was picked very early, and where aromatics really play a role is you pick at a certain point. The riper the grape, the more aromatic it'll be, but also the more boozy it'll be. So you have to be correct on your picking dates. And really, where the aromatics come through is during fermentation. That's where most of the expression of the wine is going to come out, and so the more you manipulate the wine after it turns to wine, um, the the less character you're going to get out of it, um. So that's why people will do things to the juice before they, you know, uh, ferment it. So because of fermentation gives you your aromatics and all of your tasting profiles and whatnot. But yeah, this was very muted. I couldn't really get much out of it. Um, this reminded me more of a sancerre style sauvignon blanc that's in the loire valley. That's where sauvignon blanc comes from.
Speaker 1:
Um, I was he went originally with a chin Blanc and a stainless Chardonnay, kind of was his guess.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, a stainless, both Chenin and Chardonnay New World. I thought it was from Washington. It is from Washington, but at least I was right on the vintage. So yeah, this really tricked me a little bit. I thought I got a little bit of woolly character and so I kind of went along with that. Um, but yeah, I was wrong.
Speaker 1:
Um, yeah, so this is a 2022 saw Blanc from Alta sellers, which, funny enough, is right down the road and in the old uh firehouse here in Manson, washington, in the Lakeland, ava. So this is one that I was curious if he would get, knowing that he's been there multiple times. Um, but so I I kind of kept it almost too easy where he does blind tastings, enough that I was like wonder if I just like make it so easy that he's gonna overthink this. And it's exactly what happened, which was great.
Speaker 2:
I mean, that was the whole purpose of me bringing this honestly, knowing what it is now and also tasting it, I still wouldn't have guessed Sauvignon Blanc on it, because this variety doesn't really speak to me in that way, but yeah you know, it's just a very simple wine where it doesn't have a lot of aromatic qualities to it for an aromatic grape variety. Um, and so it doesn't really. I'm not faulting the winemaker at all for it, but, um, my mistake, um that.
Speaker 2:
I didn't get it rightemaker at all for it. But my mistake that didn't get it right. It's stupid. But yeah, I still wouldn't guess Sauvignon Blanc with it. But it is more a Sancerre where it's kind of more mineral. But still I didn't get very much mineral quality to it.
Speaker 1:
All right, you want to give us the tasting notes, now that you know what it is.
Speaker 2:
Yes, I still think it's SO2-y, like it burns the nose a little bit.
Speaker 1:
It does have a little SO2.
Speaker 2:
That's not what's in my glass, so yeah, but I think my notes are still the same. They haven't really changed. Like there's not much on the nose on it on the nose on it, but yeah I am, there's more that mineral kind of thing going for it. But I'm not getting like very much now that I know what it is. I my palate's kind of picking up the gooseberry like slightly, but not much yeah um, but yeah anyways all right, so then you brought the Chardonnay. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
Do you want to tell about that one?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, dominique Lafon, one of the best winemakers in Burgundy, arguably, I guess, one of the most well-known.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
I would say that One of my friends knows him pretty well, which is kind of cool. I had this bottle with my buddy. He's from France, so that's why they know each other, but my buddy is from the Loire Valley originally.
Speaker 1:
Oh cool, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:
And so, if you know French geography which I shouldn't assume that people know this but Loire Valley is on the Atlantic Ocean, so it's on the west coast of france. It's north of bordeaux. I don't know how many miles and I don't know how many hours, because I've never driven it, but it looks like four on the map to me, but it could be like five or six no, I mean france is smaller than Texas. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
Is it yeah?
Speaker 2:
I didn't know that.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, fun fact.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so it's probably like three hours north of Bordeaux, okay, and Burgundy is on the complete other side, so the east side of France, kind of east southeast of Loire.
Speaker 1:
Okay.
Speaker 2:
Over some mountains, Central Massif Mountains if you will. Next to the Sune River, on the Sune River, but it's fairly cool over there. It's continental cool. I would say it's kind of mid-range. It cool over there. It's continental cool, okay, um, I would say it's kind of mid range, it's not. It does snow there.
Speaker 1:
Okay. So, so when I blind tasted this, I instantly picked up on the barrel. Um, it is a golden like a has a green tint to it. So it is golden but there is a green like like edge to it, almost. Yeah, I did pick up instantly on that barrel.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and then, right when I it's pretty Leezy too, like there's some like Lee's character.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, totally. Like bread brioche kind of thing, yeah, totally, like bread, brioche kind of thing. Yeah, totally. And then so for me, I anytime I think barrel, I like instantly go to Chardonnay. Yeah, and I felt like I did that with this one. I was like I don't want to exclude anything else but barrel. I think chardonnay, yeah, um, especially with my whites yeah, that's fair um, I definitely had like a little butterscotch flavor to it yeah, there is definitely just that general buttery flavor um.
Speaker 2:
The last time I had this it wasn't like that at all. It wasn't butterscotchy, it was lazy still, but it wasn't butterscotchy. But it's a 2019. It has a little bit of oxidation, so that would make sense to me. When I first had it it was 20, just after the pandemic 21 oh, wow, um, let's get a little.
Speaker 1:
I mean, there's this little sourness there sour maybe a little sour apple, like a light sour green apple on it. I get it on the edges of the palate.
Speaker 2:
He might have done partial malolactic, then, don't he? Maybe, but it is acid-driven.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
I mean not acid-driven. There is enough acid there that cares to the palate. It's not like the Sauvignon Blanc acid.
Speaker 1:
Okay, yeah, oh, yeah totally.
Speaker 2:
Yeah acid.
Speaker 1:
Okay, yeah, yeah, oh yeah, totally yeah, um, but yeah, so I, um, I said a 2020 chardonnay. Um, I originally thought it was from the new world warm climate, but I was wrong there. I was close on the year, but I nailed the great variety you did I I know my Chardonnays.
Speaker 2:
I thought I'd bring this one out, because I don't think you've ever had an Old World Chardonnay before.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I don't know if I have.
Speaker 2:
So yeah, I thought it would be fun.
Speaker 1:
I'm like all right.
Speaker 2:
Let's give her something new that she hasn't had before. Yeah, totally, it's kind of what blind tasting is all about so you. You know it's all about new experiences and education so, just like your new experience with the taylor swift era era's video yeah so I'll put it this way I'm I am not a taylor swift hater, but I'm also not a taylor swift fan okay either I just don't really like chart topping pop music because I think it's mostly superficial for the most part.
Speaker 2:
but Taylor does have a lot of meaning in her songs, Certain songs.
Speaker 1:
I feel like the ones that she's altering now are like in her Red Albums or Taylor's version.
Speaker 2:
Oh, the Taylor's versions. Yeah, Super smart though, Because she was locked in on a record contract that owned all her masters and she put in a lot of work to recreate and re-record those songs so she can have the masters on those songs yeah so I didn't know it worked that way in the record industry. She must have had a lawyer really dissect that fucking contract and saying like, hey, if you re-record these, you own the masters outright and she's like done yeah I'm gonna re-record all of them, songs already written, let's just re-record them yeah she's like I play them live yeah
Speaker 1:
enough so he is. She's amazing. I mean, she is a businesswoman. Yeah, her cat is worth more than travis kelsey.
Speaker 2:
That's why I heard the insurance and insane, yeah, insane.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I mean not to not that this is very wine related, but so tell me about your experience watching the heiress tour so I so yeah actually me and your girl went to the theater and watched it. Yeah, um, we sang our little hearts out. Or I sang my little heart out, yeah, and then ran across the street and got a tequila shot and then ran back in and sang my little heart out again um, but what a babe.
Speaker 1:
Not only was she just looks good, she looks happy, but also her performance was yeah, her performance is really.
Speaker 2:
That's what stuck out to me the most. It was like songwriting is great. She's an awesome songwriter beautiful songwriter, um, um, but it's the stage design. Is the stage design, um, the performance itself? Like I, it's like a three hour concert, yeah, and so you have to have so much stamina and endurance in order to pull that off.
Speaker 1:
Did you hear how she trained for it?
Speaker 2:
No.
Speaker 1:
Apparently so. She made a playlist of all the songs that she would be performing and she would go on a run yeah, and she would run until that playlist was done. That's how she trained.
Speaker 2:
That's what Beyonce does, so the way. Beyonce trains for her tours is she sings while she's running in high heels?
Speaker 1:
Because Beyonce does a lot of dancing oh yeah.
Speaker 2:
Taylor doesn't do as much dancing as she does.
Speaker 1:
I feel like she did more in this one, though Taylor can't really dance that well, but I feel like she did more things in this one compared to she was active.
Speaker 2:
Very active, definitely very active. And the stage designs, the aesthetics, they're on point.
Speaker 1:
Just because you sing doesn't mean you need to be a dancer at the same time.
Speaker 2:
No, it doesn't Not at all? Not at all.
Speaker 1:
Some people just have two left feet, and that's okay. Yeah, yeah, taylor is definitely a white girl, that's a fact, but she crushed it. Yeah, okay, but back to you. What your experience?
Speaker 2:
the whole oh, that's all. It was like. Uh, it was a performance. It was how active she was and how, um, I was surprised she did, like I think, five songs and then she was talking to the uh, the audience, and it was just her and her guitar. So it was a stripped down version of yeah, one of her earlier songs that came out when I was in high school. Um, and I was surprised in how like the timbre of her voice. Timbre is texture and color. It's a musical term for texture and color. The timbre of her voice was very fresh still, so her voice wasn't raspy at all, it wasn't like, it didn't sound like she's been singing five songs.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
I know when I'm doing car karaoke and I'm singing my heart out for five songs. I'm just like yeah, like coughing the whole time yeah so um even though I still think I'm a professional. I'm not, there is that too, but, um, yeah, it was. It was very impressive man it was. I've never really been a taylor swift fan um, except for her first album, I think, but she is a great songwriter and a great performer.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, she in general, I think, just crushes it. She does a wonderful job performing, but also she's such an influencer for not only people my age still, but even to the younger generations. Like boss up, little girls, like you can do anything you'd put your heart to.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
Um, and I think this generation needs some positive influence where she, she's such a girl's girl. And that's another thing I love about her is like people that aren't girls, girls like, just not a fan as much like I want to see all my friends and family succeed yeah and why would I try to bring you down? Like there's no competition, so why would you even try to bring me down?
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
But she does a really good job of doing that, but also even talking to the crowd, like she's very good at like yeah, she's performing, but she's watching what's happening out there.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
I know there's a couple times where she stopped her concerts and was like get that person water or do this or that. Yeah, and that's what performers should be doing.
Speaker 2:
She's got it, man, she's got it.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we were going to talk about now that we're back on to actual wine education here Indeed, a little bit about the new world and old world. I think we should discuss different styles, different styles, different, um, great. It's also a great way, when you do blind taste or if you're just tasting in general, of understanding a new world wine and an old world wine where, like for me today, like I, I don't taste old world wines very often um, and you know how can I tell the difference?
Speaker 2:
yeah. So nowadays the lines are getting more blurred as far as telling the difference. There used to be a stark difference where new world wines were more fruity and fruit forward and old world wines had more earth or gaminess or complexity. So one thing I'll give an example of Bordeaux versus the US. So Cabernet Sauvignon, for example, you have a Cab Sauv from Bordeaux, the tannins will be kind of more rustic, it'll taste a little rustic if that makes any sense at all, that's the only terms I really know how to put it in Versus a Napa Cab, for example, very fruit-forward, baked fruit, a lot of oak influence. You can tell that the oak is there. New World producers like new oak a lot, especially for Cab Sauv.
Speaker 2:
And so when there's this brand new oak flavor or aroma like vanilla and baking spices and clove, and then it has, like black current uh aromas and concentrated fruit flavors, you know that's a new world wine and the new world consists of the us, of a australia us of a the us of fucking a dude, um the us, australia, new zealand, south africa, um, and pretty much anywhere that the roman empire didn't conquer so okay canada, mexico, argentina chile costa rica doesn't make wine yeah, they do um, they do sure they're super fucking close to the equator they sure do.
Speaker 1:
I was looking at it recently and they definitely have been there interesting I know mexico has some um and uh.
Speaker 2:
Valladolpe, um. They have some vineyards over there.
Speaker 1:
I haven't had a good mexican wine, though, to be honest it would be fun to like, during some of our episodes, pick a region. We can have our little map and just like I'll point somewhere and we can specify what grapes are known there. Yeah, start, you know, educating our viewers that way yeah that'd be fun our viewers that way like you know, what does new zealand like what? What do they focus on? And yeah, grapes and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:
So yeah, new zealand is mostly sauvignon blanc and pinot noir yeah, um at least that's what they export most, but they do have some sar and cabs that they don't really export.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. So yeah there's certain yeah Syrah. I've seen they actually Do some Syrah over there. Yeah, do.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it's a cool climate, kind of Syrah.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
It's really interesting. I haven't had it, but the idea is very interesting to me and I mean that's so interesting too because a lot of new world outside of the U? S. They export a certain amount but like their highest quality stuff they don't export. Like Australia, new Zealand, chile, especially Chile, and Argentina like you, and South South Africa like you won't get a better wine than a local boutique winery there you know like they're not going to export that.
Speaker 2:
So there are some really really good um wines that they do export from those areas, but uh, most of what they export is just like a lot of bulk stuff. You know, so it's, you know, trying to make bank on that. But yeah, I don't know. It's really interesting I I understand the reason behind it um but, yeah, it's crazy like they mostly just consume all their local wines.
Speaker 1:
They don't really go outside of that that often I and I mean I could see that especially the whole concept of importing and exporting is a huge, huge deal, especially with wines and coming from boutique wines yeah, I mean, they're all generally family owned, they're little.
Speaker 2:
Well, the Old World market has been like exclusively exporting, like they export their best stuff to the us which I could see because we're the some of the biggest, heaviest drinkers in the world, believe it or not.
Speaker 1:
Well, I don't blame. Yeah, obviously, yeah, um, they give me a reason to drink um but yeah, no, I think that would be really fun. It's maybe next, next week, I'll grab a random wine and we can talk about that region, yeah, and start focusing on the general map and kind of go into that yeah, I will be in will be in Santa Barbara next week, so I'm doing a podcast there. Oh, that's right. Well, next time we're together that will be our topic.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, gosh, that means you know our viewer. This won't be released until probably right after Easter. So happy St Patrick's and Easter to everybody.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
I'll be on a trip somewhere. I'm not going to say it now, but yeah, I'll be on a trip.
Speaker 2:
Nice.
Speaker 1:
That is not a wine region.
Speaker 2:
Oh, not a wine region. No, oh, you're not going to Greece.
Speaker 1:
Huh, not going to Greece? No, that's 2025. Oh my bad, that's right this is a surprise trip for my significant other nice and it is not a not even close. I'll tell you after we go off the air, wrap this up um, I think I've already told you this, though it's for his birthday.
Speaker 2:
You might have, but you tell me about so many trips that you go on that they all get blurred to me.
Speaker 1:
You go on so many trips all the time I'm envious.
Speaker 2:
I'm so envious.
Speaker 1:
I'm glad I'm the friend, that's when you call me. I'm like, hey, I'm in.
Speaker 2:
Jamaica.
Speaker 1:
Jamaica. I'm in Jamaica, I Jamaica. I'm in Jamaica. I'd love to go to Jamaica.
Speaker 2:
Dude, I want some fucking jerk chicken, is what I want? Some Jamaican jerk chicken. Be, fire, be, so fire.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I won't, yeah, but yeah. So I guess really the next time we'll see if people is or see wow, I won't see, see you for a while in a couple episodes yeah, because you're leaving or you're not going to be here in two weeks.
Speaker 2:
Two weeks, yeah, damn so I gotta figure out what I'm gonna do for that episode.
Speaker 1:
We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out for you guys do something well, now that it's beautiful out yeah it's, you know, not a bad life anymore yeah um well, what else were we gonna talk about? We still got five minutes.
Speaker 2:
I thought those things, those topics, were gonna go further yeah um I hope everybody's enjoying their merch. If they have merch, we've actually had quite a few people yeah, um, by the time this comes out, we'll have tank tops available. So go and cop those tank tops for the spring and summertime bro bro tank. Bro tank.
Speaker 1:
Bro tank.
Speaker 2:
Bro tanks.
Speaker 1:
It's my workout running tanks.
Speaker 2:
There you go. Yeah, we're going to be doing a little bit of different kind of style. Yeah, it's not going to be the typical bung pod logo. We're going to go something different for the summertime, something fun.
Speaker 1:
Good, I'm ready.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
I'm super ready. Yeah, um, yeah. Well, I hope you guys are enjoying it. Let us know if there's anything we can do. We're gonna actually have a couple different um podcasts. We have a virtual one coming up with someone very special.
Speaker 2:
Yes, we are.
Speaker 1:
And that will be exciting. I'm really excited about that one.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I'll tell you who it is for the Jabroni gang, because you guys pay for this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
I'll give you a sneak peek. It is Paige Comrie. She is known on Instagram as WineWithPaige page. She was just named as a top wine influencer of the year. She got a little award, which is awesome. Um, she's rad. She's based in napa, so it's going to be a remote call. She's adorable. She's awesome. She did come to our area recently, which is how we got connected. She's super nice. Yeah, really cool.
Speaker 1:
I can't wait to pick her brain Literally so sweet.
Speaker 2:
There's so many questions about influencing that I want to ask.
Speaker 1:
I'm so excited, yeah. So yeah, you'll be seeing us actually getting that interview and you'll be going down to Santa Barbara and getting a couple interviews, I'm guessing.
Speaker 2:
One. Yeah, I'm guessing One. Yeah, I think I only have time for one. I'll only be there for like two nights or whatever.
Speaker 1:
Cool, yeah, and we just have some good things coming up and we'll try to start scheduling some more interviews with people. Now that it's getting sunny, it's a lot easier for us, especially traveling, yeah, um, that's huge. So, yeah, that's kind of the plan, you guys yeah, we have one coming up.
Speaker 2:
I'm um. We're scheduling seth kitsky from upside down wines um this summer. Um, he's super busy in april. He really wants to do the podcast, so it'd be cool to have him on yeah um, we have a lot of. We have a lot of, uh, a lot of things in common, me and him. We both are huge hip-hop fans. Um, a lot of his wine releases are. They have hints and winks to hip-hop, um artists that he loves a lot, from pusha t to dr dray to rick ross and jay-z. It's pretty fucking sick.
Speaker 1:
And then, um, we're hopefully getting tyler armor from armor wines and when, actually on here too cool so yeah I'm just here to look good boom, boom, boom and interview cool people and drink great wine. Hell yeah, so well. Thanks you guys. Um, sorry, this was kind of a short episode, but we're we're excited for what the summer has to bring yeah so awesome, absolutely well cheers. I'm excited for what the summer has to bring. Yeah, so Awesome, absolutely Well Cheers. Thank you.