Wine Not: Sauvignon Blanc & Pinot Gris

Episode Transcript

Hello! And welcome to the Wine Pair podcast. I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and wine-pairing partner in crime. And we are the Wine Pair.

Now, in today’s episode we have two very special guests! Our oldest son Joey and his girlfriend Kiera. Thank you so much for joining us today. We are super excited to have you here! And, we know you are super excited to be here. 

We also have our daughter back with us, as it is the Holiday season and everyone is back for a little time with family. 

Full disclosure, all of them are of drinking age, so don’t get weirded out about that. Also, full disclosure, Joey’s actual name is Giuseppe, but since birth we have called him Joey. 

This could not be more fun - we’ve been waiting in anticipation for you to join us, and we know that each of you has been preparing for this for months. Months! 

I should also say that this podcast was your idea, Joey. Do you recall mentioning starting a podcast to me? I distinctly remember sitting in the kitchen and I was geeking out on some wine, probably describing its taste and trying to get you to describe it or taste it or something, and you put your head in your hands and in an exasperated voice said “Dad, you should have a podcast?” So it’s your fault!

So, we gave Joey and Kiera an assignment before the podcast - they had to go out and select three wines for us to try that fit into our parameters - they must be reasonably priced - that means in the $20 or less range, and they must be relatively easy to find. So, they selected two sauvignon blancs and a pinot gris that I am very intrigued by because of its name: Thor’s Well Spouting Horn pinot gris. Feels intimidating. And very Marvel movie tie in. One of the sauvignon blancs is also a “light” wine, so we will see what we think about that. These are both wine varietals that I really like, so we’ll see how these do against our amazingly discerning palettes :)

Now, before we get to the tasting and review, we are going to do something that we do every episode, and that is take a left turn and do something that is only slightly related to the topic at hand - or maybe not related at all.  Now, Joey and Kiera live in New York City on the upper east side - a place that Carmela and I love love love. So, we have some questions for them about New York.

• What is the thing you like best about NYC? Maybe something that you just think is unique to NYC. 
• What is something about NYC that you don’t like or that drives you crazy?
• If someone were to visit NYC for the first time, what would you suggest they do?
• Is there something about NYC that visitors do that you think is overrated? 
• When you are in NYC, what do you miss most about Seattle?

Alright, now we have some things we want to ask you that are a little different. 

• What is your favorite grandma Marie moment? While you think about that, I will stall for time by letting you know that grandma Marie is my mom who is now 86 years old. 
• Can you please share your end of the year Spotify list with the people in listening land?

Ok. Let’s get back to the wine and ask you a few more questions. You’re young people. You like wine, but I wouldn’t say you are massive wine drinkers. Are there occasions where you like to have wine?

And let’s talk a little about these wine choices. 

• How did you come to select these wines?
• What role does price play in your wine selection? Do you have a break point?
• When you do buy wine, is there a place you generally go?
• Do you always look for a certain varietal?
• Does the look of the bottle make a difference?
• Do you have some “go tos” that you generally like to choose?

Alright, let’s get down to it. Are you ready? Let’s talk a little bit about the format of the tasting portion of the show

• We’ll focus on each wine one at a time. While you pour it and start smelling it, I will give a little information about each wine. 
• Then we will talk about what we smell
• Then we will taste and give our impression of the taste, and if there are any notes that we can pick up - like fruit or wood or herbs or whatever. And we’ll use normal words that normal people use. Carmela, or mom as you might call her, will write down what we are saying about each. 
• And then we will score each wine on its own - we are not scoring the wines against each other, really. Scoring is on a 10 point scale, and the way I think about it is anything 7 and above I’ll probably buy, and anything 4 and below I will probably think about getting rid of. The ratings are really just degrees of that. And, we don’t give half points. You give each wine a full point. And we do give you a chance to change your ratings after we taste them all. 
• At the end, we will see how our tasting compared to the expected taste profile of these wines. It’s really just for fun, and to see if we agree with what the “experts” might say about these types of wines. 

Wines

Wine: Liquid Light Sauvignon Blanc (screw cap)

Region: Washington

Producer: Liquid Light is owned by Chateau Ste. Michelle in Washington

Year: 2020

Price: $13.99

Retailer: QFC

Alcohol: 12%

Grapes (if not clear): Light wine. So, not light in alcohol, but a lower calorie wine. 

Rating: Joe 4 Carmela 6 Joey 5 Kiera  6   Marianna 4

Wine: Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc (screw cap)

Region: New Zealand Marlborough

Producer: Delegat's Wine Estate

Year: 2021 (remember, their seasons are the opposite)

Price: $9.99

Retailer: QFC

Alcohol: 13%

Rating: Joe 6 Carmela    6 Joey 5 Kiera   7   Marianna   5

Wine: Thor’s Well Spouting Horn Pinot Gris (feel like I need to put on a horned helmet and drink out of a goblet)

Region: Oregon

Producer: 

Year: 2020

Price: $12.88

Retailer: QFC

Alcohol: 12.5%

Rating: Joe 4 Carmela   6 Joey 8 Kiera 6 Marianna 6

Taste profiles expected

• Sauvignon Blanc: Peach, passion fruit (sometimes I think about the hawaiian juice pog), grapefruit, melon, and gooseberry -whatever the fuck that is. Evidently, a gooseberry tastes kind of like a sour grape. Lime, slate, ripe pear, jasmine, guava, and green pepper. Cut grass, asparagus, peas sometimes, too
• Pinot Gris: white peach, lemon, lemon zest, green apple, 
• cantaloupe, raw almond, crushed gravel

Which wine are each of you finishing tonight? 

Well, that was super fun! 

If you have ideas for wines you would like us to try and give you advice on for future podcasts, let us know. You can visit our website at thewinepairpodcast.com and leave a voice message or send us a note. You can comment or reach out on Instagram or Twitter - on Instagram you can find us at thewinepairpodcast, and on Twitter at winepairpodcast (no “the” on twitter ‘cause it don’t fit). You can reach out to us at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com and we just hope to hear you comments. And we hope you’ll subscribe and follow us

Thanks for listening to the Wine Pair podcast, and we will see you next time. And, as we say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine