Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler wine thread

...but they only ship within Ontario.

I never said finding it would be easy.
Three of us just ordered a case and we had it shipped to one of the parent's homes in northwestern Ontario. Since we are heading there for the July long weekend, we can pick it up, but otherwise we would not have been able to get it in Manitoba either.
If you have a local wine shop that you normally go to, i recommend talking to the person who does the ordering to see if they can get a case in stock. There are only a couple tens of barrels made though so the number of bottles are limited to about 20,000 if i recall. I had two, we drank one, and now ordered 12 more. They are at least down to 19,986.

How do you tasters come up with those flavor and smell descriptors? What’s oak taste like by the way?

That’s one thing that has always baffled me. I either like it, or I don’t. It’s either heavy or light, or dry or not. Spicy, I get that too. Fruity, I get that as well. But the rest??

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

Hey, are you chewing gum?

Ummmm... ya lost me with that one. It was a serious question, take it easy on a redneck would ya? I’m still learning about wine. I at least spit my Copenhagen out now before drinking a bottle, or two.

Oh, I wasn't implying anything about you... I was actually agreeing, in a roundabout way! It would probably have made a little more sense spoken.

Sorry mdrew.
It was a quote from the movie "Sideways' that sparked not only a huge interest in wine tasting but especially the pinot noir grape. The boys were sipping wine and discussing flavours and the newbie wine fellow said...

You can get the idea of the smell of oak from wine barrels if you get the chance to visit a winery. I've never really come across the smell except from that source although i suppose if you had a good fresh chunk of American or French oak you could give it a quick burn, soak it awhile then sniff but i imagine it still might not be exactly the same. They usually roast the barrels before wine is dumped in so the 'toasted' smell comes from slightly burned wood. It tends to add a nutty flavour depending on how/what wine was put in along with the character of the oak wood.
If you have the chance, try to find two wines from a very similar region (or from the same winery if possible) where one is oaked and another not oaked. Chardonnays are done both ways but oak barrels are used in ageing the wine for virtually every common grape to varying extents.
Once you try some oaky chardonnays and then try a non-oaked version, you should get a pretty good idea as to how the oak adds to the flavour. It is pretty distinct and a relatively robust scent.

If i recall, there are scent kits out there which sell something like 40 common scents and flavours in wine to help out the beginning taster.

Ah... you do the chewing thing while tasting, right?

Well how else could i have detected that fine minty flavour and the smooth chewy texture?