The Path to Passions

Please excuse me for my hiatus in updating Deranter. School has been getting to me, and I’ve been busy running back between Baltimore and D.C., doing projects, writings essays… Finally, let me take a break from all my responsibilities and derant for a bit…

April 20th was a special day for me. It was the first wine event I’ve ever went to since I turned 21 not more than six days earlier. The gathering was at the Sonoma Wine Bar in D.C. with a bunch of Vayniacs from WLTV. Brad accompanied me to the BYOB; I brought a 2001 Chateau Larrivet- Haut Brion, which was the first legal wine purchase of mine on my birthday. Along with Brad’s 2005 Educated Guess, a Napa Cabernet I believe, there were 11 other bottles! The wine list went:

2001 Chateau Larrivet-Haut-Brion

2004 Justin Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve

2006 Saint Cosme Cotes du Rhone

2007 Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc

2005 Monchhof Riesling

2004 Olek Mery Chinon

2004 Alois Lageder Lagrein

2004 Zantho St. Laurent

2006 El Nino Loco Rhone Red

2003 Adelaida Rhone Style Red

2005 Querciabella Chianti Classico

2004 Elizabeth Spencer Cabernet Sauvignon

2005 Educated Guess Cabernet Sauvignon

Again, without making this too much of a tasting note, I’d like to point out some wines I enjoyed throughout the night. One of the tasters, Patrick, commented that the Bordeaux I brought was the wine of the night. I loved it as well, as it had a bit of age to it that gave it a nice old-world but still fruit-forward, solid structure. The Elizabeth Spencer Cabernet Sauvignon was amazing as well. The fruit was the star in that wine, and it was a very classic example of winemakers letting the fruit serve its purpose and not manipulating it. The Alois Lageder Legrein was the most interesting of the night; it had a very barnyard nose but a very fruit-forward taste.
The Kim Crawford SB tasted like Welchs’ Grape Juice to me… Very sweet and not very enjoyable. The Justin Cabernet also seemed a bit of a fruit-nuke. One taster pointed out that the Saint Cosme Cote du Rhone had a “orange peanut circus candy” to the nose- that was the call of the night!

The experience was fun and amazing. Two full boards of cheese and charcuterie were ordered to accompany the wine. I got a good look at very different styles that night, something that is invaluable to the palate. I got to chat with very wine-knowledgeable people and experience something I know I want to keep experiencing. At 21 years of age, my passionate journey into the wine world has just begun! Cheers!

-Tatum

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A Sunny Day

Let me start off by declaring that it is a wonderful day! The sun is bright and meets your face with a smile and the weather is so warm it hugs you as you walk. It is about time Spring nears!

This upcoming weekend will be the last weekend until I turn 21. Can anyone else believe this? They’re actually going to give me this little card with my picture and information on it, and I show the card to any wine store, and they let me buy wine? Wow… what were these fools thinking? But in all seriousness, I am excited, despite having massive amounts of work to do (for school, military and financial needs.)

In Computer Science class the other day we had an assignment to make a Flash animation advertisement. I made a small, very amateur ad for deranter. You can see for yourself above (if you haven't noticed…) It took me about 20 minutes with all the drawing. (There is no sound, just an animation.)

It's already a pretty amateur animation, and to top it off, I was going for the "amateur/young artist" style... So I guess that just makes it worst!

Not much else to rant about today- got to get things in motion for the “coming of age.” Finally, I can officially say that I love wine and I can drink it. My passionate venture into tasting and wine trade has begun. Watch out wine world, here I come! Cheers!

-Tatum

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Missed the Leap...

The Washington Wine Academy in D.C. offers tremendous amounts of services, including a service to help you get Wine and Spirit Education Trust certifications. These WSET certificates are a big deal, because they are a stepping stone for people who like wine and drink it often and people who love wine and want to be in the business, or just want to get a bit more serious about it. Via WSET, one can take on the Master of Wine certification, which in itself is a very prestigious title to hold. I believe there are less than 200 Masters of Wine in the United States. To my understanding, the Master of Wine certification is sort of the International Sommeliers Guild certification with more emphasis on wine knowledge (where the ISG certification is more emphasis on serving.)

In any case, I’ve put this one in the “deranter” because for a couple months, since I found out about the WWA’s existence, I’ve been going back and forth on whether to take a class. I’m going to eventually, but it’s just a matter of when. I have a lot set forth for me this summer, and I’m not sure how much I can commit to it- this is a legitimate course, with a real tuition fee, exam and serious class lectures every Monday night.

The upcoming May through June courses perfectly fit my schedule, but I’m just afraid of my summer job (I do not have a set schedule yet.) The largest thing holding me back from jumping right onto it is the exam date, which is on July 7, where I’ll be running around in the Mojave Viper in California doing my two-week training for the Marines.This sounds like something I will have to wait for the next session to start. Maybe there can be a July through August course I will definitely take.

Something like this will surely set me apart, but more importantly, it will enable me to dive into the vast, diverse knowledge-pool of wine and learn more about this great beverage.If you are yourself interested in the course, or the Washington Wine Academy, the site is below.

In addition to WSET courses, they offer numerous tastings, dinners, and classes. Have a look for yourself! Cheers!

-Tatum Read More!

Spare a Dime?

To me, and probably most all of you out there as well, owning a vineyard is the biggest step you can take to becoming an oenophile, also known as a "wine enthusiast." Being the owner of a vineyard and making your own grapes not only requires massives amounts of cash, but also your life. You need to have time to moniter the vineyard, market it, make the wine, maintain the land. Basically, you can't get "a little" into owning a vinyard, it's all or nothing.

This brings me to a NY Times article on this very subject: people who have cash and passion for wine can now own their vineyard and have other people deal with the complexities of it. Basically, the London-Based firm called AIM Vineyards offers a service to give wealthy people a hassle-free way to get into wine and own their own plot of grape-growing land. I wish I could say I will ever be able to remotely afford something like this, so I am out of the picture, but I just want to know what something like this will do to the public perspective of wine making? Will we just have a whole bunch of rich people be able to "make" their own wine, and not know a thing about it?

As I have said many times, this summer I am venturing into the wine making process. Although I will not be buying out a vinyard and growing grapes, my main focus for this wine making is appreciation. I feel that if I get a hands on of making wine, I can learn more about the dedication and knowledge wine makers need to get a nice bottle of wine on our tables.

But I get discouraged when I see filthy rich people be able to just put down cash for all the gains. This could eliminate the passion, the strive for knowledge and the rite-of-passage from wine making itself. Wouldn't it be more satisfying to be able to say that you made your wine, not that you paid for your wine to be made? Isn't it more appealing to be able to explain why you initially fermented the wine three weeks instead of two? Why you used steel barrels instead of oak? All of the ins-and-outs that made wine making so romantic and so intriguing is now lost, because a wealthy chum can afford people to make his wine for him.

I guess what bothers me is the fact that if you do have money, you can do what you want. I can sit here and rant about how passionate about wine I am, how much I'm trying to learn, how much I gain from knowledge, but at the end of the day it doesn't seem to matter that much, because if I just had $20 million dollars, I can own a vinyard and get people to do that for me.

On the other hand, that is what determines me to make it through. My professional career is still a few years away, but wine is now. Hopefully I can work at a wine store and gain knowledge, and a deeper passion and appreciation for the wine I drink. I hope that my deep passion and enthusiasm of wine will help me to stride forth into the trade of wine, and show everyone that sometimes passion, knowledge and dedication is more than cash, investments and salary. Cheers!

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The Proposal

This is the proposal I wrote up a few weeks ago for the Wine Enthusiast of Towson University Wine Club I am trying to start. Hopefully everything will go right- I've got the staff advisor, the alumni advisor and a great argument. The only thing that can go wrong is the university blindly denying my right to share the passion and knowledge of wine to Towson University.

In anycase, please have a look for yourself:

Wine Enthusiast of Towson University (Oenophiles)

The Wine Enthusiast of Towson University is an organization that strives to expand the intellectual capacity of students and faculty alike, by introducing them to the world of wine. "En vino veritas," Latin for "In wine, there is truth," is a phrase held dearly by wine enthusiast, also known as oenophiles, worldwide. This club hopes to generate education and passion by exploring the history, culture, trends, oenology and trade of wine, as well as promoting responsible drinking through a social medium to those of legal drinking age.

WETU believes that organizing larger group events involving wine and wine tastings provides a unique opportunity to unite diverse parts of the Towson demographic, including students, faculty and staff, to promote better social understanding and group interaction within the community. This will be accomplished through bi-weekly, club-sanctioned wine tastings, in efforts to explore and discover the many regions, varietals and styles of fine wine. The club hopes to focus on discerning the various complexities of wine through tasting, as well as to also delve into the importance of wine in American culture as well as other cultures worldwide, with emphasis on education and knowledge.

By promoting and introducing the educational aspects of wine to a small group of interested, passionate and wine-knowledgeable members, the club will attempt to emphasize the learning and appreciation of wine on-campus. Furthermore, the University will have capability to organize, sanction and host large-scale events for the campus and the administration with the consultation and expertise of a well-versed wine club at hand.

WETU strives to be founded on the principles that good education, deep passion and fine wine are meant to be shared with the public. It hopes to bring the truth, culture, current and future trends of the wine industry to the Towson University Community by promoting responsible drinking and sensible socialization. Carpe Vinum

Cheers!

-Tatum

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Towson Takes a Big Step

Progress! In life, we strive. We strive and try and strive and try, and if at first we don't succeed, we "try, try again." Well, I am happy to say, this is my first try, and from here I don't look like there will be need for another attempt.

If you haven't realized what I've been talking about then let me state it right out: WETU, or Wine Enthusiast of Towson University. Every step I take seems to get me closer to my goal; to have a fully functional, legitimate wine club for Towson university. So far, each step of the way has been smooth- from writing the proposal, getting Matthew to sign on as an Alumni advisor, creating a rough constitution for the club, coordinating with Rajiv on his opinions, and now a big step for me was to get an adviser to support my idea! Ms. Lynne Dowell, my academic adviser, saw the proposal today and after hearing my little rant about my visions for the club, signed on to be the staff adviser. Furthermore, she thought it would be good to get into contact with high-level administrators to collaborate.

Hearing the good news made me almost leap for joy, as my visions are slowly coming true. I hope by the time I am a junior, Towson University can hold large wine functions, with WETU being the coordinators of the events. I would love to see the students, staff, faculty and community flourish through wine. Wine is all about bringing people together anyway, hopefully it can work its magic on the Towson University community. That's all for now, check back for more good news with WETU. Cheers!

-Tatum
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Why Not Us?

Those of you who are personally connected with me might have already heard me say I was trying to bring a wine club to Towson University. But, as I would do with any young wine, let me pour this rant into the DeRanter to let it open up a bit...

Many universities across the nation, and probably internationally as well, have their own wine club. They have school funding to sanction wine events and spread wine knowledge. So I ask, "Why can't we?" What makes us different than Princeton, Duke, Cornell, Davidson, UCLA, Berkeley, or any other school in terms of wine? Someone from the WLTV forum, Rajiv, showed me the way. He is the founder of the wine tasting group at Princeton. You can look at his WLOG here. He's a chemical engineer at Princeton, so be warned, this guy will probably go over your head! But he has been very supportive of me in my endeavors, and all I can do is thank him. Rajiv, I hope to share a glass of wine with you someday!

I have already got the ball rolling to start a wine club here at Towson. It will be called the Wine Enthusiast of Towson University, abbreviated WETU. I've made a proposal/mission statement, and got myself connected with a fellow named Matthew, who is a TU alumni who has signed on to be an alumni advisor. My next step is to get a staff advisor, turn 21, and then propose this to the boards. If things go as planned, maybe we can have a WETU next semester, and by the end of the year, we can look into getting funded. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one. I hope to have an argument if they blindly deny my right to start this club, due to it being involved with alcohol.

I will have the proposal up shortly for anyone interested to read. Let's all hope this university realizes that to become better, we need to keep an open mind, even if it is about alcohol. Cheers!

-Tatum Read More!

TBAG Wine Event

A few weeks ago, while doing my daily stalking on Facebook, I saw my friend’s photo album called "Wine and Cheese Tasting." It thrilled me, so I clicked on the link to look at photographs. I didn't prepare myself to be so under whelmed; picture after picture of teenagers pouring bag wine into red, plastic cups; Boys and girls partying and dancing, all dressed up in their "tasting attire" playing slap-the-bag. Now, I know I'm sounding like a wine snob, but I truly am not. If kids want to get together and drink bag wine and play slap-the-bag that is fine, but I was a little discouraged to think they would call that a wine tasting... Perhaps a better title for the photo album would have been "Wine and Cheese Dance Party Bash."

Anyway, I bring this up only because I finally posted pictures of a wine tasting a few friends and I did a not too long ago on Facebook. It was a bit more serious, and involving wine, and less about inebriation. We had a great time, meeting a few new people, discussing the wine at hand, and “spreading the thunder” of WLTV to our loved ones. Everyone who didn’t supply the wine brought a little appetizer, so we had some cheeses, fruits, crackers and even a bread-bowl spinach dip! Everyone loved the WLTV, but because of a dinner reservation, we probably should have cut it off a bit sooner. Nonetheless, we made it to the dinner fine, and it was very yummy!

The wines tasted were:
2006 Chateau de Callac Graves Blanc2005 Chateau de Lavagnac Rouge2005 Chateau Moulin de Lavaud2005 Chateau de Callac Prestige Rouge2006 Le-Tendance Rose2006 Chateau Dereszla Tokaji Dry2003 Mas de la Barben la Danseuse2004 Marguante Garnacha Seleccion

Without becoming too much of a giant tasting note, I’ll discuss a few notable wines. The Le-Tendance Rosé was very peculiar. It looked sweet and watery, but when it touched your tongue it was very heavy and dry. It was sort of like eating green ketchup, where you mind sees one thing, and your tongue tastes something unexpected! Chateau de Lavagnac Rouge astounded everyone, with its $9 price tag, and its full-bodied, rich, complexity. It was real wine for an amazing price! The wine of the night, and my personal favorite, was the Tokaji Dry. Noble rot has done its job, as you sensed noticeable fungi-like nose, with pineapples, honey, and lime. It splashed down my palate with a myriad of fruit and floral components as well.

The experience was enjoyed by all, and I think we had a general consensus that something like this should be done again. We met nice people, we got to know each other and share a great, lasting memory. It was all due to the spirit of wine, and the magic it brings to us every time we pop open a bottle. So I urge you to gather up your friends and family and do the same; great wine was meant to be shared with great people. Cheers!

-Tatum

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