Mitch's Musings -- The Glass Matters!

Hope you all had a wonderfully enjoyable week! Here are a few snapshots of what's been going on around here lately. As always, I enjoy your feedback!  Feel free to share your own images/ideas/questions/comments with me. You can stop by the store to say "Hello!" or contact me via mitch_ancona@anconaswines.com or www.instagram.com/anconaswines.

1 - Can the glass you serve a wine in alter your perception of that wine? In my humble opinion... ABSOLUTELY! If you search the web you'll find a slew of information about how the shape of the glass affects everything from the aeration of the wine to how the aromas are funneled to your nose. You can find shape specific glasses for all sorts of styles of wine, Burgundy, Bordeaux, mature wine, Port wine etc. Again, each shape is specifically designed to extract as much from the wine as possible. I believe that a great Burgundy will taste even better out of a well made glass designed specifically for wines from Burgundy. For me though, it goes beyond extracting the most flavor and aroma from a wine through a style specific glass. For me it's the actual feel of the glass. The weight of it, how thick the rim is, how thin the stem is, how it displays the wine, these are the attributes of a glass that I pay attention to. The other day I had the pleasure of drinking (notice the word drinking vs tasting) wine out of a glass made by Zalto. The glass wasn't style specific, in fact it's labelled their universal glass. We drank everything from bubbly to Burgundy (white and red) to Bordeaux with a quick stop in the Southern Rhone.  Each wine was fantastic. I am uncertain that the glass made much difference as far as flavor or aroma goes but as far as the overall experience is concerned it increased my enjoyment 10 fold. First off, the glass is beautiful, sleek but simple in shape. It's feather light with a stem that looks like it would break if you looked at it for too long. After hours of filling, sniffing, swirling and sipping the Zalto was still intact. So here's the best part.... it dishwasher safe. I've tested that claim several times now and the glass is still perfect.  I'll keep my Zalto Universal glass at the Ridgefield store for a little while so if your interested/intrigued swing by and check it out... I'll even let you take it for a sip or two at our tasting bar. (We don't stock Zalto glasses because of how many different "shapes" they make. We'd be happy to special order any shape Zalto glass that you'd like.)

2 -So, you think you know a bit about wine and spirits? Check out this app that was just released by the Society of Wine Educators. Multiple levels let you test your knowledge in white wines, red wines, sparkling wines, desert wines and spirits. Be forewarned, it pretty addictive.

3 - 3 Faces of C3PO. The other day we held a quick comparison tasting with our staff in our Ridgefield store. We opened 3 New England Brewing Gandhi Bots - one that was a year old, one that was 6 months old and another that was just released. I thought there would be a greater difference between the three with the oldest one being well past it's prime. To my/our surprise all were very drinkable with the most noticeable difference being the aroma. The youngest had a much more herbal quality on the nose, as you progressed down the timeline the nose became more sweet with tropical fruit notes. All three had great balance between a sweet malt foundation and tropical fruit/herbal hops. I only wish we could get this stellar (get it?) DIPA more frequently and in greater quantity. We're currently sold out but have plenty of their flagship Sea Hag IPA which is one of my favorite "everyday" IPAs.

4 - BYOB: Proper etiquette for bringing your own bottle to a restaurant. From time to time I'll go out to dinner with friends and bring a bottle or two from my cellar. Here are a few tips for bringing your own wine to a restaurant.

• Always call the restaurant in advance and inquire about corkage (is it allowed? what is the fee? Is there a bottle limit). You can check the restaurant's website to see if the wine you would like to bring is available on the list. Don't bring a wine that is already on their list. (this assumes their list is online. If it's not, call and confirm that the wine you are bringing is not on their list).
• Only bring a "special" bottle(s). I never bring "everyday", "casual" wine. The idea behind corkage is not for you to save money on the bottle of wine, it's for you to enjoy a special bottle of wine with the restaurant's special cuisine.
• Always bring the bottle(s) in the condition that I want it to be served. i.e., whites and bubbles properly chilled, reds at cellar/serving temperature, older wines I stand up in my cellar for several days so that the sediment is able to drop to the bottom of the bottle to ease in the decanting procedure (if I'm bringing an older bottle that needs decanting, I'll call the sommelier in advance to give them a heads up)
• Personally I only bring wine out when I'm with a bigger group. This allows me/us to order a bottle or two off of the restaurant's wine list either before or after my "special" bottle. (This is just my thought. Obviously you can bring just one special bottle if  you're going out for a romantic dinner for two.)
• I always offer a few sips to the sommelier or wine steward. Wine people always love trying special wines and it's a nice thing to do. (quite often if I know the owner of the restaurant, and they're around, I'll offer them a few sips as well)
• All of these thoughts pertain to bringing wine to restaurants that offer wine for sale by either the glass or bottle. There are plenty of BYOB restaurants that don't sell any wine at all and allow their patrons to bring their own wine. In this case you can bring whatever bottle of wine (special or everyday) that you wish to. 

5 - Ummmm... true to it's name?!? I'm a pretty open minded person when it comes to "out there" beers but this one goes a little beyond my threshold of acceptance. "My Blueberry Nightmare" is a stout brewed with hot chili peppers and aged in whisky barrels with blueberries. I'm sure this beer is someone's favorite beer in the whole world. I just found it to be a little out of balance and aggressive flavor wise. If you've had this beer I'd love to get your thoughts on it. If you want to experience it for yourself we currently have it in our Ridgefield store and online.

6 - It's been a long....long...long time. Last week I showed you a picture of some old beer boxes that my cousin unearthed in a storage room. This week I share with you a picture of the guy that brought some of those boxes to us (filled with beer of course). Meet Richy. He's been part of our extended family since I was a little kid and now after 25 years of delivering to us he's retiring and headed of to Florida. I wish him a happy and relaxing retirement.. he deserves it. (as a quick note of reference, all those rainy, or supper hot, or sleety days over the past 25 years Richy has been out there in the elements delivering beer... we should all raise a glass to that level of dedication).

7- Look long enough and you'll get it.... this is apparently what my staff does at night.

Check out other pics here!