So, without any further ado:

Singlijan Estate Assam TGFOP1

Dry Aroma: floral and fruity
Brewed Aroma: tree fruit, malty, creamy, citrus
Color: dark copper
Flavor: malty, savory, fruity, with citrus notes and floral finish
Sweetened: fruit and citrus enhanced, with honey notes

Overall: This tea is very balanced, with restrained tannins that play well with the other flavor components.  It leaves your palate clean, with a long, lingering finish of apple, lemon, and honey.  The mellow tannins allow the natural sweetness to come through.  Complex flavor, appealing aroma, and general good behavior make this my far and away favorite.  5 out of 5.

Koilamari Estate TGFOP1

Dry Aroma: fruit/citrus
Brewed Aroma: malty, citrus
Color: deep reddish-brown
Flavor: malty, slightly cooked-fruity, good body and solid tannins, with a leathery and floral finish
Sweetened: maltier and leather notes more pronounced

The tannins in this tea are assertive when brewed for 4 ½ minutes.  The citrus in the aroma doesn’t carry through into the palate.  The tannins tended to overwhelm the other flavors, so perhaps a shorter brewing time is called for.  However, the body was just about right at this length, so shortening brewing to attenuate the tannins may leave the liquor thin.  Showed promise, but ultimately disappointed.  3 ½ out of 5.

Harmutty Estate STGFOP1(S)

Dry Aroma: tree fruit (apple, apricot)
Brewed Aroma: malty, creamy, some fruit
Color: deep reddish-brown
Flavor: malty, slightly tannic, slightly fruity, a bit light and thin on the palate
Sweetened: better fruit

In the first batch, I sampled the TGFOP grade from this estate.  This is much like it, to no surprise, and shares its lighter, thinner body.  Better overall flavor, though, with more subtlety and fruitiness.  Not a bad selection.  4 of 5.

Zaloni Estate TGFOP

Dry Aroma: herbal/green, leathery, earthy
Brewed Aroma: malt, earth, leather, slightly green
Color: bronze
Flavor: leather, earth, slightly malty, slightly green finish
Sweetened: tannic impact reduced, green flavors more to the foreground, slight fruit on finish

The liquor was a little blah when plain, but better when sweetened.  Flavors are a bit muted, overall.  This might be acceptable with sugar and lemon, but would not hold up to milk.  The flavor profile just doesn’t excite my palate – too much leather and earth which seems muddy.  3 out of 5.

Banaspaty Estate TGFOP1

Dry Aroma: malty, spicy
Brewed Aroma: malty, floral, vanilla spice
Color: deep copper
Flavor: restrained tannins, vanilla, slight spice, light body
Sweetened: same, but sweeter

This tea is just too bland, and the bolder leaf and very restrained tannin leads me to believe this needs a bit longer brewing time.  Even then, the flavors here are just uninspiring.  I will probably revisit this and extend the steeping to see if any more nuances can be wrung out of this Assam, but for right now it’s just “Meh.”  Not much to like or dislike.  2 ½ out of 5.

To sum up, not much here that I’d likely seek out again.  Out of eight teas, there had only been one that’s really struck me as interesting enough to keep around.  If you’re looking for an inviting and warm-flavored Assam, the Marangi Estate FTGFOP1 is definitely one to pick up.

Next time, we’ll sample a couple of Keemun teas from China.

BV Napa Valley Zinfandel is an affordable wine: $13-14 most days.  Beaulieu wines are generally solid, but not necessarily outstanding in their field.  Zins are usually pretty big with lots of tannin structure, so before tasting this I poured it into a decanter, to sit for a little under two hours prior to sampling.

Details:

Name: Beaulieu Vineyards 2004 Zinfandel, Napa Valley
Type: Red
Country: California
Region: Napa
Grapes: 100% Zinfandel
Price: $14

My score: 89 points (out of 100) – full bodied, pretty well balanced and delicious, with decent complexity.  Nice nose.  A little fruit-bomby, especially on the attack.  Relatively long finish.

Notes:

Color: Deep plum

Nose: Lots and lots of blackberry, with creamy vanilla from oak aging.  In fact, it smells a lot like baked blackberry pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream melting over the top.  A little woody/cedary component, and a little black licorice as the fruit component subsides.

First Taste: Blackberries!  Blackberries!  Blackberries!  Did I mention blackberries?  Bing cherry, too, followed by cassis and vanilla on the mid-palate.  Finishes on the back end with dark cocoa and cedar.  Mouth-filling.

Second Taste: This is a hearty wine, with pretty good structure and balance.  It’s very fruit-forward, but the black fruit and 14.5% alcohol is contained nicely.  The tannins and acid help offset the fruit, so it’s adequately balanced, but not perfectly so.  Flavors are abundant and powerful, with a long finish lingering with dark cherry and cocoa notes.

Impressions: Not a bad Big Red Wine for $14.  A bit more balance between the fruit and tannins, and this is a 90-point wine.  Would pair well with cured meats (salamis – yum), mutton, game (venison, boar), or grilled beef.

The first set I’m going to look at consists of eight teas from the Assam region of India, which I’ll be dividing into two tastings.  Assam teas are made from a variety of Camelia sinensis native to the area (var. assamica), and are characterized by their dark color, rich body, and round malty flavors.  Also, unlike many other teas, Assams are typically grown at or near sea level instead of on elevated hillsides.  This contributes to their deep flavors and assertive character.  My current gold standard for Assam is the currently unavailable TGFOP leaf from the Singlijan tea estate – rich, smooth, malty, and complex, with fruit, cocoa, and citrus notes.  If it doesn’t become available again, I’ll be very sad when I’m out.  So, I’m looking for its replacement in my tea chest.

My tasting method:  Tea is measured out at 2.5g to each 6 oz. of water.  Black teas are brewed with water at a full boil, oolongs at 185-190°F, green teas at 170-180°F, and white teas no hotter than 160°F.  Brewing times are slightly shorter than those recommended by the vendor in most cases, as the tea is brewed in a 12-ounce iron tetsubin-style pot that allows for a much more thorough extraction than an infuser or tea ball.  The liquor is initially tasted plain, then sweetened with white table sugar in the case of Indian black teas.  I don’t normally take milk in my tea, so I don’t sample it that way.

Borpatra Estate STGFOP1S

Dry Aroma: herbal/floral
Brewed Aroma: green herbal, leathery, malt husk
Flavor: bright, slightly tannic, lightly floral (chrysanthemum/daisy)
Sweetened: enhances floral components
Body: smooth, medium weight
Color: dark amber / copper

Pleasant enough, but to my palate lacks the body and depth characteristic of Assam teas.  Brewed with water off the boil for 4.5 minutes.  Brewing longer would enhance the tannic astringency that’s starting to show here, perhaps this needs a slightly lower temp along with longer extraction.  Rating: 3½ out of 5.

Duflating TGBOP

Dry Aroma: malty, fruity, earthy
Brewed Aroma: Slightly sweet, malty, woody/earthy
Flavor: earthy, malty, hints of cocoa and molasses
Sweetened: more cocoa/malt flavors
Body: full, balanced
Color: reddish-brown

Brewing time: 4 minutes.  Thick mouthfeel and full bodied with an earthy finish and balanced tannin.  Probably very good with a splash of milk, if you take it that way.  Interesting woody/cocoa/nutty elements.  Not what I’m searching for, but not bad.  Has some complexity, which is nice.  Rating: 4 out of 5.

Harmutty Estate TGFOP(S)

Dry Aroma: light, floral, fruity
Brewed Aroma: floral, vanilla, malt husk
Flavor: wood, earth, light vanilla
Sweetened: slightly vanilla/caramel with a hint of the floral elements from the dry leaf
Body: thin, unsatisfying
Color: deep copper

Brewing time: 4.5 minutes.  Disappointing tea.  Slightly malty, both mostly woody and earthy.  Kinda bland and neutral, and what flavors are present are muddy.  The vanilla notes are interesting, but not enough to rescue an otherwise uninspired brew.  Rating: 3 out of 5.

Marangi Estate FTGFOP1

Dry Aroma: malty and spicy
Brewed Aroma: vanilla, spice, cinnamon/caramel, very appealing
Flavor: deep, vanilla, cinnamon-spice, dark malt (like porter or dry stout)
Sweetened: More caramel and malt flavors, sweet spice accented
Body: very full, mouthfilling
Color: dark brown

Brewing time: 4.5 minutes.  Very interesting tea, with an incredibly appealing spicy aroma.  Pleasant rich, dark, delicious flavors both plain and sweetened.  Would hold up very well to milk, and one of the few teas I might actually get around to trying that way.  Would be a great breakfast tea as a substitute for coffee.  This is a tea where you can really mentally appreciate the classic image of the Englishman with his pipe and teacup (I’m actually enjoying it with some aged matured Virginia in a 4-dot bent Sasieni).  The only fault is a slight lack of complexity.  Rating: 4½ out of 5.

No new Gold Standard in this round, but one really solid performer and another offering that’s interesting.  Assams are hearty workaday teas, so finding exceptional samples isn’t easy.  Really good Assams are diamonds in the rough.

Shape up.

You pitch your wines as a boutique product, with prices to match.  I’m not going to pay $20+ a bottle for wine that’s quite obviously inferior to $7 California plonk I can pick up at any wine shop.  I’m not going to go out of my way for your products, because they don’t offer anything more than a warm fuzzy feeling for supporting local producers.  That isn’t enough.  Goodwill only goes so far.

I spent a day at the Maryland Wine Festival in Westminster, MD on the 21^st of September.  I visited the tents of every winery there.  Of the 3 hours I spent sampling wine, I found fewer than a half dozen that were even average examples of their type.  There were many horrible wines – oxidized whites with sherry aromas, bitter reds, sharp, sour, and tasteless varietals that poorly represented their key characteristics, and dessert wines that taste little better than slightly alcoholic grocery-store grape juice.  In this day and age, there is no excuse for producing undrinkable wine, but you all are managing it with aplomb.

No wonder sweet wines are your biggest sellers – your dry table wines are just not good.  Do you even drink wine?  Do you appreciate what makes wine appealing, and what qualities make up a good wine?  Do you really believe that your products compare favorably to those readily available to the wine consumer?  I find it hard to believe that you can honestly, and with a straight face, put a Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc out on the market for $15-25 that lacks the even a hint of the balance of fruit and acid, minerality and toastiness that even the most average $10-14 bottle from New Zealand, California, or Italy offers.  If the examples I tasted this weekend are the best you can manage, you are delusional.

Flaunt your Governor’s Cup medals all you want – they’re bloody meaningless and they’re awarded in unseemly volume.  I’d really be interested in seeing those scores, because there are gold- and silver-medal winners listed here that I immediately dumped after the first taste, as they were wretched.  The state agriculture folks need to stop rewarding bad product – you as winemakers need a reality check, and the state organizations need to stop cheerleading for inferior goods.  It does you and the state of Maryland no favors.

Stop trying to grow Pinot Noir.  It all sucks.  It is a very challenging grape, and Maryland does not have the climate nor terroir to support good Pinot.  Just because it’s the hot varietal doesn’t mean you should plant it.  Retire your DVD of Sideways and leave Pinot Noir to the Willamette Valley, Santa Barbara, Sonoma County, and Burgundy.  Neither does Cabernet Sauvignon do all that well here – it’s thin and lacks body.  It’s best blended with other varietals, not sold as a pure alternative to the excellent offerings from Napa.  Riesling requires cool summers and mild transitions to colder weather to develop their famous acidity – our hot summers produce flabby Rieslings.

Find varietals that do well here in the Mid-Atlantic and exploit them to their fullest.  Take a cue from Virginia and pursue perfecting Cabernet Franc and Viognier, grapes that seem to thrive on Mid-Atlantic hillsides.  Your Chardonnays are middling, and that can be helped with better treatment in the winery, especially through eschewing aging in wood.  Italian grapes like Sangiovese and Barbera show some promise.  Stop trying to be Napa Valley.  Maryland is not Napa, not Sonoma – it’s Maryland.

Oak is not your savior.  Oak is not a magic spell that makes poor wine good.  Please, please, please quit over-oaking your wines.  I got so sick of smelling funky, overwhelmingly woody oak barrels every time I lifted a glass to my nose.  I don’t want to taste barrel, I want to taste fruit and acidity and grape tannins, with oak’s vanilla components as a complement.  I don’t want to feel like I’m chewing a mouthful of oak chips along with every sip.  I don’t want to be roughed up with a two-by-four in every glass.  More oak does not equal more quality or more class.  Learn what the hell stainless steel tanks are good for.  Limit the amount of time your wines spend in wood, or use older casks.  Right now, the signature Maryland wine characteristic is not that of the vineyard or winery, but that of a lumberyard.

If you’re going to pretend to being serious winemakers, get serious.  Find out what works, and take maximum advantage of it.  Drop varietals that have no business growing in our climate.  If your wines cannot stand alone without massive amounts of oaking to add body, then you need to fix that.  If you really love wine, show it.

Because right now, you’re a joke.  Your wines are an insult.

This Blanchet 2007 comes out of a small 8-acre winery in the heart of the Pouilly-Fumé region, and goes wonderfully with fish and seafood.  It would also complement summer salads with bitter greens and vinaigrette dressings, but not likely those with fruit.  I can also see this pairing well with pastas tossed with vegetables or seafood, dressed with olive oil.

Details:

Name: Gilles Blanchet 2007 Pouilly-Fumé
Type: White
Country: France
Region: Loire
Grapes: 100% Sauvignon Blanc
Price: $17

My score: 90 points (out of 100) – Intriguing, somewhat complex, makes me want more.

Notes:

Color: straw yellow

Nose: The first thing that hits me is the clean citrus smell.  Underneath the lemony fruitiness is a grassy note, almost asparagus-tips in its green-ness.  There’s a steely/flinty/smoky minerality that’s noticeable as the other aromas fade.  It’s not a lush aroma, but it’s clean and enticing.

First Taste: The initial impression I get is one of restrained fullness.  The primary flavors are tart apple, lemon zest, and tangerine rind.  The green component in the nose is manifesting itself here in combination with the citrus to give almost a lemongrass – or white tea with lemon – feel.

Second Taste: The primary fruits are still there and asserting themselves.  I like this – it shows that the cleanness and bright acidity leave my palate fresh, and the wine isn’t tiring out my sense of taste.  The body is good – a solid medium mouthfeel.  The fruit on the initial attack fades through the green components and a stony/flinty stage to a crisp acidity on the back end with the lingering impression of the citrus and apple.

Impressions: I definitely want to drink this again.  The central elements were all very consistent and well balanced, and every time I picked up the glass I noticed a slightly different nuance.  This wine held my interest, and asked me politely to pay attention to every sip.

Last time we had Riesling, it was a German vintage from the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer region.  Rieslings from Alsace, France are a different beast.  They retain the fruit, acidity, and floral nose of their German counterparts, but are fermented completely dry, or very nearly so.  The Jean Albrecht 2006 Reserve is a clean, crisp wine that is well suited to summer dining as well as the roasted, toasted flavors of fall.

This wine is as different from the Moselle variety as can be – bracing acidity, big, honeyed aromas, and moderately full body.  If you dislike the sweetness of the German types, Riesling from Alsace may very well be your thing.  They’re under-appreciated wines in the US and, even with the weak dollar, a good value for a wonderfully food-friendly wine.

Details:

Name: Jean Albrecht 2006 Reserve Riesling
Type: White
Country: France
Region: Alsace
Grapes: 100% Riesling
Price: $16

My score: 88 points (out of 100) – solid wine, interesting qualities.

Notes:

Color: greenish-gold

Nose: My initial impression is of clover or golden tupelo honey, canned pears in syrup, and granny smith apple.  The floral component comes through very strongly.  As I get accustomed to the most forward flavors, there are suggestions of ginger and a sweet botanical component.  Maybe mint, maybe licorice root.  A pleasant nose.

First Taste: I like it.  This wine has a good, solid body.  The acidity balances well with the mouth feel and very forward fall-fruit flavors.  The tartness is pleasant, not overwhelming, with lots of green apple flavor and some unripe pear.  Theresa mentions she doesn’t like the drier style as much, but goes back for seconds anyway.

Second Taste: More fall fruit.  I like that the acidity is balanced nicely with the barest hint of residual sugar.  I’m getting some dried apricot coming through.  The finish is moderate, with a transition from the initial fruitiness to honey flavors on the back end.  Leaves a clean, fresh palate.

Impressions: This is a very good food wine.  The acidity works well with meatier fishes (we had blackened rare tuna) and would probably stand up to roasted poultry.  I have a feeling this would be a great Thanksgiving wine – it holds its own against a lot of flavors.  The transition from the attack to the finish is a bit abrupt, with not much interest on the mid-palate.  However, this is a solid dry Riesling and a good sub-$20 pick.

Mosel wines are typically characterized by floral, fruity aromas and fall fruit flavors – apples, pears, quince – their lighter body buoyed up by their aromas and tantalizing tartness on the palate.  Beneath the fruit, a mineral component should be present, a clean minerality like a good artesian water.

Unfortunately, this particular wine did not deliver the goods.  While it delivered solid fruit flavors, it lacked in other areas.  Admitedly, at $11 a bottle, this isn’t a top example of the style, but I’ve had $11-12 QbA wines (unclassified vintages) that have provided more classic Riesling profiles than this QmP (Qualitätswein mit Prädikat).

Details:

Name: Adolph Mueller 2007 Piesporter Michelsberg Riesling Spätlese
Country: Germany
Region: Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Piesport
Grapes: 100% Riesling
Price: $11

My score: 83 points (out of 100) – some good, some bad, doesn’t quite live up to expectations.

Notes:

Nose: Tight out of the bottle.  Not much coming through.  After a good long swirl, there’s some apricot, citrus, and pear there.  There’s an odd green component – I want to say green bell pepper, but that’s not quite right.  Not getting the typical Riesling floral notes, which doesn’t bode well for a Spätlese.

First Taste: The initial sense is sugar.  Rather sweet, but with lots of fruit.  There’s apricot, pineapple, and pear (Theresa agrees on the pineapple).  I’m missing the acidity.  It’s not so lacking as to merit the term “flabby,” but it’s noticeably out of balance.

Second Taste: I’m letting the wine warm up in the glass a bit, and the balance of sweetness and acidity seems to improve a little.  Of course, it could just be my palate getting used to the sugar level.  The nose is still fairly tight, but a little honeysuckle note creeps in – maybe this was that odd green scent I picked up earlier developing as the wine warms.

Impressions: With a little more acidity, this becomes a much more interesting wine.  As it stands, it’s tiringly sweet, better suited to a small glass with fruit for dessert.  A good Riesling plays well with seafood – this would overwhelm it.  Pass on this – for the same price, you can likely find an unclassified Riesling that’s more satisfying.