july 19. 2002
C U LTU R E
................... ▼....................
gixxd friend of mine recently introduced
me to the world of connoisseur-ship. She
has a beautiful cabinet stocked with
scotches and an informational
video from a group of Scottish distilleries. In a
fit of three-year-old admiration and envy, I
decided I, too, wanted to be a connoisseur.
Chocolate. Wine. Scotch. Mustard. Cotton
candy. Beer. For every fixxl product there seems
to be a group of fanatics dedicated to finding
the best representatives to savor for their
unique traits. Which food or drink did I love
enough to dedicate years of taste hud-inspired
excursions to specialty retail outlets?
Scotch is expensive. I don’t have a
thing for chocolate. Mustard is good, hut
I can hardly imagine enticing my friends
to share my newest find. “Look! Mustard!”
When 1 moved to Portland four years
ago 1 learned quickly that Oregonians take
their beer very, very seriously. And though
1 love a good frothy one now and again, it
fills my tummy with bubbly carbonation.
So I headed on over to Hip Chicks Do
Wine to learn how to taste the nectar of the
Goddesses.
Owners Laurie Lewis and Renee Neely
have chosen a great hiding spot for their fab
ulous winery. Following bright signs strategi
cally placed just off Holgate, the treasure at
the end of the rainbow is a looming ware
house with an incredible inside mural and
barrels and barrels of women-made wine. A
table set with “wine tasting word” place mats,
wipe-off markers for inspirational notes and
spittoons for, well, spitting, drew us tasters to
the center of the rixim.
The lesson started with a rundown of how
wines are made, how they get their names
Woody (left) and
Mitch of Crush
flank the July 3
Naked Wine
Tasting’s very
special guest star,
Lady Liberty
stay
Hip chick does wine
Everything you ever wanted to know
about wine tasting but were afraid to ask
by
E rin S ex to n
and how to look at wine. T h at’s right,
campers, 1 learned a good wine should he
clear and not cloudy when held up to the
light and that- specially on Chardonnays—
, brown edges are bad.
5
Then begins the sniffing
2 process. Now, I have heard
| people talking about the
2 “nose” and the “bouquet,”
| hut, frankly, I just thought
“ they were being snotty. Turns
out that the nose (or aroma)
reflects the grapes used and
that the bouquet is indicative
of the wine-making process
as well as how the ferment
ing and aging processes come
together.
To get a good whiff, wine
has to settle after it’s been
poured. Once you’ve stuck
your nose in there, swirl the
glass gently and sniff again to
smell the bouquet. I was sur
prised to notice a really big
difference.
The tiny, sharp
The dykes of Hip Chicks Do Wine teach wine, too
StatScript Pharmacy has left
Portlandbut Apex pharmacy
will continue to provide you
the same services and staff,
from the same location.
1215
NW
23rd
wine in our mouths, swish it about, suck air
over it on our tongues, then SPIT IT OUT.
Lest you think wine can be best tasted by swal
lowing it, let me be the first to sadly admit that
spitting it out allows you to experience the fla
vors in a simpler, less convoluted manner. That
small fact, however, did little to discourage me
and some of my fellow rogue tasters from swal
lowing after the initial taste.
hat does one do with this newfound
knowledge of wine? My fellow queers, we
live in a wonderful city with a rich blend
of diversions to tickle our every fancy. I took
my educated taste buds to Crush for Naked
Wine Tasting.
This Wednesday evening event features
four wines from the same region decanted
and served for your tasting pleasure. It’s your
job to discern the variety, vintage and vine
yard. Hah!
I set my own personal goals of not
dribbling whilst spitting and using my
new words to describe what 1 tasted.
Unfortunately, there are no spittoons,
and I was too self-conscious to ask lest
the sweet boys of Crush be offended 1
was spitting out their nice wine.
My favorite of the evening was a
1999 Joseph Drouhin Cote De Nuits-
Village. It has a spicy nose with a
robust and full bouquet. I’d tell you
more, but I got carried away and
drank it before I remembered to write
the rest down. Plus there was this naked, paint
ed lesbian running about, which made concen
trating really difficult.
While I don’t feel like a connoisseur yet, I
did learn my most important lesson at Crush.
Across from me was a long table full of laugh
ing, talking, drinking wine-type folks. I may
not be able to tell you what
vintage or vineyard my Pinot
Noir comes from, but I can tell
you that the best thing about
wine is drinking it with
friends. j n
edges of your crystal or glass vessel act to
release the complex fragrance that you then get
to describe using wine words.
H ie most useful piece of paper I’ve
received in a long time has to he the “Aroma
Wheel” published by the American Society
for Enology and Viticulture.
(Say that three times fast.)
This simple page breaks down
common vino scents into cate
gories like "fruity,” “vegetative”
and “woody.”
From there you can distill
what you’re smelling even fur
ther into “tropical,”
“canned/cooked” and
“resinous.” And, finally, you can
assign words like “cherry,”
“asparagus” or “oak.” Such as,
“ It has a vegetative nose with a
canned asparagus bouquet.”
Once you’ve described the
smell you get to taste the wine.
Finally, the reason I came!
Imagine my horror when
Ju st O ut’s own wine-tasting
Laurie calmly told us to take the snob, Erin Sexton
APEX Y
Pharmacy
Avenue,
Portland,
OR
Hir C hicks D o W ine ,
4510 S.E . 23rd Ave., offer tast
ings and are perfectly happy to sell
you wine, too. Visit them at
www. hipchicksdowtne. com.
C rush is located at 1412 S.E .
Morrison St. Visit them at
www.crushbar.com.
E rin S exton is the Office Man
ager at Just Out when she’s not
unscrewing a spicy vintage of Mad
Dog 20/20 with a cherry bouquet.
Free Parking
Community-Based
Private one-on-one
consultation
(503)525-9094
Now Serving Medicaid and ADAP programs for Oregon and Washington*