Wines That Rock Blog

The Wines That Rock Guitar is on Display at SPECS, Houston

This tasty, tricked out, first of it's kind Wines That Rock Les Paul Jr. Guitar is now proudly on display.  Yes, it's real, and it's hanging from the ceiling at Specs Houston Central location. 

Downtown
2410 Smith Street
Houston, TX

Wines That Rock is very excited to announce our partnership with SPECS in Texas. With over 50 stores in the Houston area SPECS is your one-shop stop to experience all the Wines That Rock varietals. So head on over, talk to their knowledgeable wine consultants, check out the first store to display the Wines That Rock guitar, and enjoy The Official Wine of Rock 'n Roll!

Thanks Spec's!

Wine Tasting in New Jersey Friday night

Taste Wines That Rock in New Jersey!

Here's a Wines That Rock Tasting Event you just can't pass up. 
The FIRST  Retail tasting in New Jersey.
Rock out with Atlantic Wine & Spirits this Friday

Our friends over at Atlantic Wine & Spirits (183 First Ave. Atlantic Highlands (Next to the Shell Station, you know...) are going to Rock it out Friday April 30th between 4pm - 8pm 

Featuring:
Rolling Stones
Forty Licks Merlot

Pink Floyd's
The Dark Side of the Moon
Cabernet Sauvignon

Woodstock
Chardonnay

Enjoy great wine, awesome music and appetizers.  They will be Rocking it out with the Stones, Pink Floyd and Woodstock selections! 

Wine Tasting Friday April 30th - 4pm - 8pm

Here are the Map and directions:

Atlantic Wine & Spirits
183 First Ave.
Atlantic Highlands
(Next to Shell Station)
(732) 291-0283

View Larger Map

La Vino Clozet in Houston

Great news coming out of Texas where we just launched Wines That Rock.

La Vino Clozet,  the first and only wine bar in Friendswoods is hosting a Wines That Rock tasting/listening party Thursday April 22nd at 7PM.

They will be playing all the great rock classics and pouring all the great Wines That Rock varietals. If you live in the Houston area make your way down to La Vino Clozet for what will surely be a very unique wine experience - the perfect pairing of wine and music!

 

Here is their web site with the location/directions - http://lavinoclozet.com/ Rock On La Vino Clozet!
View Larger Map

Wines that Rock for sale in New Jersey

Look'n for Wines That Rock in Jersey, here you go. Please help us welcome these fine New Jersey retailers.  If you do live in New Jersey, we recomend you get into your car and get to these fine shops today.

Tell them we sent you!

Here you go!

IN NEW JERSEY
GLEN GARDNER LIQUORS
2127 RT 31 SOUTH
GLEN GARDNER, NJ, 08826
Phone: 908-537-2836
 

Riverside W&L
45 Main Street
High Bridge, NJ, 08829
Phone: 908-638-6150

BISHOP’S WINES & SPIRITS
ROUTE 22
WHITEHOUSE STATION, NJ, 08889
Phone: 908-534-2316

READINGTON WINE & SPIRITS
547 ROUTE 22 EAST
WHITEHOUSE STATION, NJ, 08889
Phone: 908-534-5772

In the Studio with Mark Beaman - Winemaker

Final decision- In the studio. To polish or not to polish?

The blend/band has been gathered together; everyone is getting along and working together. It is time to record the assemblage and bottle the sound for others to witness. In the mixing booth tons of equipment is available to smooth out imperfections. The level of how much studio manipulation to utilize is up to the band and managers and there is no lack of options on what can be done. For example, there is “auto-tune” which is a device that can adjust the singer’s pitch automatically just to name one. Some have gone so far that many albums have been created without a person playing a single instrument!


Mark Beaman at the Wines That Rock Launch Party, New York City

In that case the Grammy should be handed to the computer rather than the artist! When I can hear Lenny Kravitz fingers move over the strings while finding cord positions on “Fly Away” I like that organic sound. In the Rolling Stones “Gimme Shelter” vocalist Merry Clayton lets her voice rip and go over the edge on her final solo. If you listen closely in the background you can hear one of the band members yell out a “Yeah!” in encouragement.

The studio easily could have bleeped it but chose not to and I think the song is better for it. The confidence to leave something as it is and not tweak it is something that seems to be disappearing not just in music but also in many wines of today. Winemaking has plenty of tools to work with to adjust the wine if something seems out of place. While the technology can be a blessing it can also be over-used. Every time something is added to the wine then something is covered over. As access to these methods increase so to have technologically rendered soda-pop recipe wines in the market place.

Authenticity in wines is fading from sight of the consumer. There is a battle to preserve unique authentic wines and have them available for the wine drinker. Wines that have a soul, a story, retaining varietal attitude, acidity, age-ability, are something share with people you care about. It would be a terrible shame if that were lost or became no longer recognized as authentic. That is why I love Mendocino County and the fact this is where the Wines that Rock are coming from. Our county is still at a young and hungry point in the wine world despite having a long history in it. Our hunger for success is rooted in farming, a deep respect for the land and Mother Nature which follows through into the cellar in making authentic wines and not chasing the preferences of others.

We choose not to over do it in terms of manipulations or technologies available. With Wines that Rock we want to go further and actually bottle authentic wine representing a language formed via a synergy between wine and music. This is possible because of the approach of Mendocino grape-growers respectful methods of farming that result in intensely flavored grapes that are capable of sounding out loudly and in tune in the final wine. My job, which I love so much, is to assemble the best selection of “band-members” for the pleasure of the fans. We are having a blast, you should join us!
 

More about the wine and music connection!

Band Chemistry in Wine Making

Band chemistry- Talent and ego.

Are they all going to get along in there?
Blending two or more wines together with the goal of making a wine better than any of the individual lots is a long established practice. In Bordeaux red wines there are 5 different varieties allowed and in the Chateauneuf-du-Pape of the Rhone region there are 13! Why do this? Well in the case of some Rhone wines for example the Grenache variety may be wonderful in terms of it aromas and soft raspberry/strawberry flavors, but weak in body and length.

The Syrah may be dense, chewy and decadent in the finish, but lack aromatics and the fruit attack at the front palate. Put the two together in some ratio and the result is a wine with the best of both worlds. The % of each to add is where the challenge is. You rarely if ever get it right on the first try. Practice makes perfect and eventually enough scenarios are experienced that a winemaker has an idea of what to do. An example we see often is, if a wine is lacking in tannin, it may be best to add a small amount of the tannic wine (2-5%) to the base blend rather than shooting for the moon (25-50%). You can always try to add another 2 to 5% if the first trial has failed. Intuition can be your best friend or it can lead you in the wrong direction. Blend two good wines together and get a great wine right? Not always, because the complexity of the chemistry is an honest rush hour tangle of compounds it is not always going to end up where it should according to what is on paper.

That is why you have to smell and taste again and again to give a chance at arriving at the best destination. Blending is like band practice. The individual talents and egos of the band members need to meet up and jam together until they all understand their respective strengths. Once those roles are understood and respected teamwork emerges. This synergy can bolster the bands identity as each individual knows when to take center stage or shift to play a supporting role. Finding the right combination with the sometimes bull-headed personalities can be a strain. However, with patience, when the moment occurs when things click and sound right all around the room there is a confidence found and at this point the raw materials are together. Then it is near time to share this discovery with the world outside.

part two of three - More From Mark to Follow :)

Read more on the connections between wine and music

Welcome to New York City

Wines That Rock in New York City?

Looking for Wines That Rock in New York City?  Look no further.  We are totally PHSYCHED to announce these new shops that are now offering Wines That Rock, in the heart of New York City.

Go in there and tell them we sent you!

54 Wines & Spirits
408 West 55th St.
New York, NY, 10019
Phone: 212-757-7123

Garnet Wine & Liquors
929 Lexington Ave.
New York, NY, 10065
Phone: 212-772-3211
Garnet Wine Online

Manhattan Plaza Winery
589 9th Ave
New York, NY, 10036
Phone: 212-695-8170

Crafting a Wine Inspired by an Album of Music

Band tryouts. Let’s see what you got.

Trying to craft a wine after an album of music is a new concept and while the project was narrowed down considerably by choosing specific varietals for the three albums, there were still heaps to decide on how the blends should represent the sound of the bands.

Maria Angel & Winemaker Mark Beaman emerges from the Secret Laboratory

There clearly was a need to have “try-outs” and check out all the potential candidates that may make up the blend/band. At the winery we keep all our vineyard lots separate up until it is time to blend. In any one season we may have 20-30 different wines of the same variety each from a unique location within Mendocino County’s diverse micro-climates. Also if that particular vineyard was divided up into a redwood tank, new oak barrels from a French cooperage or an American cooperage which may be new barrels, once used barrels, twice used barrels, and so on.

So clearly there are many spices in the spice rack to select from any one vintage. So to get a snapshot of these separate lots of wines they have to be sampled (Yeah, that part of the job is a bummer).

Wines are lined up, swirled, sniffed, sipped and spit and notes are recorded on traits of the wines. One wine may grandstand one or two particular traits (aroma, fruit, acid, tannin…) over others. The next wine will have the opposite attributes even though they are same variety, picked at roughly the same time, and from within a few miles of one another. There can be incredible diversity in wines due to the different vineyard sites expression. So with all this available options the objective was to assemble an appropriate mixture of wines of the selected variety that forms a singular wine that captures the best of each component.

Blending is a search for the best grouping of individual highlights that when assembled can achieve a wine of harmony, energy, and focus that each wine alone could harness without the others. This, of course takes some trial and error. Luckily, the music is something I have no problem listening to, over and over again and the same goes for sampling wines. Call it band try outs.

Part one of a three part series.  More to follow from Mark :)