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Put Some Altitude in Your Glass
15: Colorado Chardonnay Tasting Part 2
Apr 22, 2018
15: Colorado Chardonnay Tasting Part 2
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
0:00
[upbeat music] Get up. Get on up. Get up. Get on up Denver Wine Radio with Paul Bonacquisti and Cha Cha Chavez, presented by Bonacquisti Wine Company and Cha's Back in the Day Cafe.
0:16
[upbeat music] Get on up like a sex machine. Oh, goodness gracious. Yeah. Eddie Murphy. Yeah, really. The water's hot in the hot tub, hey. [upbeat music] Like a sex machine. Oh, goodness gracious.
0:26
I'm still working on it, Cha's Back in the Day Cafe. We're gathering the peeps and we're putting the band back together. Little bit more time, Paulie, little bit more time. Little bit, yeah. I'm- Little bit more time...
0:35
I just keep waiting. I know. I'm not gonna bug you. I, I know, I know. But every time I hear an old-school jam, I think of Cha Cha and Cha's Back in the Day Cafe. I know. I- I'm, I'm really anxious to get it going.
0:45
I met with some folks yesterday, and we're tying all the, how do they say? Uh, cross the T's, dot the I's, and whatever business people say. [laughs] I'm just, I'm just getting some good music together.
0:56
You gotta hit the switch. I gotta hit the switch and make the ass drop. That's right. Right? Make it happen. Like a Friday night on Federal. [laughs] Hey, you're listening to Denver Wine Radio.
1:05
Special guest in studio, Kyle Schlachter from the Colorado Wine Industry Development Board, and, uh, super wine guy.
1:11
Uh, he was, uh, featured in Wine Enthusiast Magazine 40 Under 40, and, uh, our, uh, Vinnie Nonack hotline is open at 303-831-1340. Love to hear from you. Give us a call, 303-831-1340. Fire us a question.
1:26
And, uh, we're tasting Chardonnay today. What's better than a Chardonnay Saturday in the Mile High City? Nothing. Nothing, that's right. So, um, so we went through, uh, now we're on the, we're back to Colorado.
1:37
This is- W- Go ahead. I'm sorry, go ahead. No, I was gonna say, uh, they've been taking me on a tour all morning. Yes. All, so we've, we've gone to- Yeah, we started in Colorado. Colorado.
1:46
Then we went to France France... to Burgundy. Mm-hmm. Uh, then we went to California, the Russian River Valley. Mm-hmm. And now we're back to Colorado. Okay. Okay? So, uh, we, we've got the Plum Creek Chardonnay.
1:57
This is, uh, 2014, and, um, this is Colorado grown. And, um, uh, what's cool about Plum Creek, they've been around since the mid-'80s. They were one of the first wineries kind of in the- Yeah, one of the first...
2:09
to, to really, you know, to kick this thing back into gear- Mm... in Colorado, so. Yeah, they're, they're, uh, Sue Phillips has done a great job with that winery. It's, uh, one of the iconic wineries in Colorado.
2:20
Yeah, and they've got, um, and so they had a, I remember at one point they had a Chardonnay vineyard, uh, that they had planted back in the day and it, uh- Mm... it was 20, you know, 20-something years old.
2:30
Yeah, they have vineyards, uh, in the West Elks over by Paonia and vineyards in Palisade. Yeah.
2:35
I believe they sold the vineyard in Paonia, uh, recently, and this wine is actually a blend of grapes from both those vineyards, from over in, uh, Delta County and then from Mesa County. Nice.
2:46
It's very, uh, very pungent. This one is kind of strong in the sense of it, real fruit. I mean, I can hit, I mean, I can- Yeah... really taste the fruit.
2:56
So this one, yeah, this one punches me right away more with- Exactly... a lot of tropical fruit. A lot. So. Yeah. In a good way. Mm-hmm. So a lot of pineapple. Mm-hmm. Oh, lots of pineapple.
3:07
That sound, oh, yeah, that tastes really good. It's, it just hits you. You know, it's just like, mm. Double up, mm, mm. Some good bright fruit, nice acidity. Makes your, um, your mouth water when you- Yeah...
3:20
when you taste it there. Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. It, maybe some, I don't know, I was gonna say watermelon, but I don't think it's watermelon. Some kinda like, I, it's- Kinda cantaloupe maybe. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
3:32
Yeah. Yeah. Very fruity. And what's cool about it is, um, that, that big smell I, I got up front, uh, and that you got, um, but then when it hit my palate, still nice, light, fruity. Exactly.
3:43
And like you said, Kyle, a lot of, you know, real good, bright acidity- Mm-hmm... and, uh, man, real nice clean finish. Mm-hmm.
3:48
No, you can tell it's, it's got some good, a little, uh, notes from the oak there, but it's not, not overly oaky. It's, it's really well-balanced. This is a nice wine. Yeah, very nice. Yeah, very nice wine.
3:56
Yeah, in 2014, so- Very nice... you know, here we are, uh, in 2018, so I'm not sure about the bottling, uh, dates on this, but, uh, let's just, let's just say it was bottled a year after harvest, uh, approximately.
4:12
Probably something like that. Yeah, something like that, so it's been, uh, two and a half in the, two and a half years in the bottle, maybe, you know, coming up on three years. Very good.
4:19
So, uh, still holding really nicely and, um- Oh, yeah, at, at, this point it'll drink for several years more. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's, so that's why I get, I get that question a lot at the winery.
4:29
Uh, people ask me, "Oh, well, you know, how long are wines supposed to last?" Mm-hmm. And, um, so, uh, but then, you know, in general terms I just tell, I, I always say wines are meant to drink in the first five years.
4:40
Okay. So, uh- You know how long the, uh, average wine lasts from the liquor store to someone's house? About 20 minutes. Drive home, open it up for dinner. And that's it? That's it. That's it?
4:49
Yeah, most wines are bought at the liquor store and opened up that night. So if you're cooking with one and you don't use it all, can you, you know, put it in the fridge and keep it for a couple days?
4:59
Yeah, put it in the fridge, put a cork in it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. There's little, uh, things they sell. You can put argon and- Right, right, right... pump air out of it. But just a couple of days.
5:05
You can't leave it in there for- Yeah, just a couple of days... months at a time or anything like that. Most wines. Depends on the wine.
5:09
There are certain wines like, uh, Madeira, uh, port could probably, you know- Mm-hmm... last a little bit longer there. Mm-hmm. Yeah, those la- yeah, they- Sherry... they last a long time. Mm-hmm. [laughs] Okay.
5:20
All right, um, yeah, so wines, um, yeah, two to three days- Okay... is general. You, I always say throw it in the fridge, you can probably stretch it out a week. Okay. Okay? Right on.
5:30
But, you know, why do you wanna wait, and why do you wanna let wine sit in the fridge for a week? Yeah, exactly. What, what is this leftover wine you speak of? Yeah.
5:34
[laughs] Hey, so we're gonna go to the Vinnie Nonack hotline and, uh, talk to Ray Ray. What's up? What's up, what's up, Paul, and, uh, you guys, how's it going? Cha Cha. Going really good, Ray Ray. How you doing today?
5:46
Great. In Chicago doing a show tonight, wrestling show. Match going on tonight, big one in Chicago. We'll g- we'll have to hook it up sometime with you guys.
5:53
If you guys get a winery, uh, thing going in Denver, I'll show up over there for you guys and check out you guys and, uh, enjoy the crowd and the people, man. Heck yeah
6:03
What we gotta do and then bring the wine and bring the people, and everywhere, and, uh, Mexico's listening to you live right now, and the people in California are listening to you guys live Right on.
6:12
Well, we appreciate that. Hey, what's your wrestling name? Is it Ray Ray? Ray Ray Mysterio, 619, San Diego. [laughs] Right on, dude. Well, good luck with your match. Wine and wrestling kinda has a ring to it there.
6:22
It does have a [laughs] It does. Hell yeah [laughs] It does have a ring to it. And I enjoy your guys' show on the wine and stuff. I enjoy wine, it's good.
6:28
If you chill it just right and, you know, just like Don Peyote back in the day, that was in a good, exciting movie, where this guy, uh, bought Don Peyote to have this girl in this flick, and it was a cool, interesting.
6:39
That's how I got interested in, in wine. Wow, that's awesome, Ray Ray. Yeah, so enjoy your show, and God bless. And Ray Ray, tell Mike shout out to David Broncos. God bless. Bye-bye. [laughs] You gotta love him.
6:50
Gotta love him. Good luck tonight, Ray Ray. Man, we're g- we're gonna be rooting for you. Wow. Sounds like he's having his own Chardonnay smackdown. [laughs] Yes, he is. So, I bet- I want a, I want a mask.
7:01
[laughs] I gotta think about that. Bring a ring. We'll put it in the parking lot- Right... outside the winery. Luchador, uh- There you go, luchadores Yeah. We'll- We can, we can sell masks We'll, we'll do something.
7:10
[laughs] Okay. All right. Ray Ray made me cough there. So, um- Well, okay, so this was awesome. Here in Colorado, how much would this bottle of wine cost me? Uh, this was, uh, s- uh, 16 bucks. Wow. 15.98, so. Nice.
7:28
And the cool thing about all these, uh, wines, if, if, um, we would've blind tasted them, so meaning we wouldn't have known where they come from, um- I, I wouldn't have guessed, uh, Colorado for any of them.
7:38
I c- yeah, I- I know that's obviously Colorado. I mean, they're all different. They're all different, but they're all very good. Yeah. Yeah. Very good. So, um, so yeah, that's, uh... What's coming up with, uh, Colorado?
7:49
Uh, so yeah, the, we've had a lot of good years here. Uh, the last couple years we got some good harvests.
7:53
Um, people are making some really great wine, and, uh, one of the things that the Colorado Wine Board does is put on the Colorado Governor's Cup. It's a competition.
8:01
We invite all the wineries in the state to submit their wine. We bring in judges from around the country- Oh, nice... come and taste the wines. They taste them all blind.
8:08
They don't know what they're tasting, and they say, "This is a gold medal. This is a silver medal, bronze medal." And we go through that.
8:13
It's a two-day, uh, event, and we whittle down the winners to the top 12 wines in the state, and we do a great tasting that people can buy tickets to and come taste the wines. Right on.
8:22
Have you participated in this, Paul? I have participated, yes. Right on.
8:25
I, I enter some wines every year, and, um, it's usually, uh, I think the call for wines comes up pretty soon, like you're the beginning of the summer or late spring, and, and, uh, they- Usually.
8:34
This year we're pushing it back a little bit. The judging- Oh, really? The judging's in September, so we'll have- Oh, wow... uh, wines coming in August.
8:39
'Cause when you go into the winery, you've got all these like, they're not medals, but these plaques of best this, best this, best this, you know? Yeah, I, yeah, I got a bunch of medals up there, so.
8:47
Yeah, you got a lot of award-winning wine. Yeah, so, um, yeah, so I enter my wines just like a lot of the wineries do, and then the judges- Mm-hmm... um, yeah, and they, they award bronze, silver, and gold.
8:57
And then they, like Kyle said, they take the 12 best wines out of the competition and, uh, award, call those the Governor's Cup Case. So they got extra special, uh- Wow. Yeah... extra specials.
9:07
Yeah, send those to some writers around the world, uh, let them taste it and write about them, so- Right on... been a way to get some recognition for Colorado. Absolutely. We got some really good wines here.
9:14
And then I believe this year on November 8th is the public tasting, where people can come and taste those wines. We got some great chefs- Oh, wow... to pair foods with. Nice. And it's a great night.
9:23
Yeah, it's, it's full on- Huh... full on meal there with, uh, 12 great wines. You guys, you really moved it out. [laughs] Yeah, it's down in, uh, yeah, so it's gonna be November 8th?
9:32
Uh, that's the tasting, public, the public tasting. That's the tasting, public tasting. But then September will be the judging? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, that's cool, so yeah, 'cause- Very nice. Yeah.
9:38
You gotta keep you guys on your toes. You are. You're keeping me on my toes. Now, see, I've got this great wine that I just released, uh, today, uh, this Sangiovese that I'm calling Rosso to Colorado.
9:47
Now the idea is to, I have to make sure I have enough around that I could enter in the cup. [laughs] You got enough to enter, and then you gotta have enough to keep for after. And then keep for after. Yeah, yeah.
9:56
Yeah, so that's, I gotta, now m- I've gotta think a step ahead of these guys all the time. Right. Then you gotta go back and start smashing some grapes. I do. [laughs] Gotta do something. Lucy style.
10:05
[laughs] All right, Kyle brought in a, uh, really cool, uh, wine from, uh, Italy, 2007, and it's, uh, well, it fits in, it's Chardonnay, so.
10:15
Yeah, but the little gadget that he has- And, yeah, he's using a funky- It's not like a cork- Not a corkscrew. Oh, yeah. I mean, Paul cheated half of his wines had a screw cap on them.
10:22
Okay, well, you're gonna explain that after the break. This, this thing is called an Ah-So. Okay, an Ah-So. An Ah-So. Not an asshole, an Ah-So. Okay.
10:29
[laughs] It's, it's a, uh, different, different way to- Depends who says it, okay? Depends who says it in what part of the country. Okay, go ahead. It's, uh, mostly used for older corks. Okay.
10:39
Because have you, have you ever, uh, tried to open a wine bottle and the cork just crumbles? That's the worst. That's the worst, so it's- Okay. Save that thought, all right?
10:46
'Cause w- when we come back, we're g- you're gonna finish the story and tell us about the Ah-So. All right. Or the Oh-So. Okay? [laughs] All right. This is Timberwine Radio on Mile High Sports. [upbeat music]
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