Vino Tech: Second Glass Wine Decider

On the heels of my post about DC Wine Riot, let's explore Second Glass Wine app a bit more.  I thought the app was very helpful to easily track and rate the wines sampled at the event.  However, since the app currently doesn't allow users to track wines consumed elsewhere, the best way to get use out of the app between events is the Wine Decider.

You start with four questions:

1. Who are you with?
2. What are you doing?
3. Price?
4. Style?

After selecting responses from the provided list, the app recommends a wine to fit the mood with notes describing the taste, tips for purchasing, and (sometimes) a cool story.  

This is what I started with:

And the recommendation:

The good: It's very easy to use. I think I had the most fun playing with different combinations and reading the stories attached.  

The bad: I obviously haven't used the app frequently enough to know, but it appears that there's a one-to-one match for scenario and wine recommendation (that is, saying that you want a red in the $20-35 range to have during a dinner with your parents will always yield a Portuguese port).

The meh: If this app updates, it would be fantastic to have more variety in recommendations.

2013 Wine Riot DC Review

Earlier this week, a good friend of mine sent me information about a wine tasting event that was unofficially described to her as a young, fun, non-judgmental drunkfest.  (How could I turn that down?)

Wine Riot, an event organized by Second Glass, offers attendees an opportunity to taste 250 wines from wineries from several regions and learn a bit about wine.  Tickets were $60 a pop, but the event was well worth the price.

The DC event was held at the Sphinx Club, and I spent most of the evening with friends. After having our tickets checked, we walked down the floor, grabbed our glasses, and checked out the temporary tattoo and postcard tables.

Drunktopus was my favorite.

At the front of the room were four stations for Wine 101, which offered a chance to compare different types of wine (dry versus sweet, oaked versus unoaked, young versus mature, and old world versus new world).

Winery booths were numbered 1 to 13 and showcased diverse wineries.  We didn't really have a plan going in and bounced around to tables in no particular order.  To help track wine consumption, I downloaded the Second Glass app, which is has a great recommendation feature that I'll review later.

I failed to bring my portable charger, so I eventually gave up on taking notes on all of the wines that I tried.  And, since I did drink a lot of the wine that I received, I'll admit that my palate became less discerning.  For what it's worth, here are a few of the wines I sampled and my notes:

• NV Caposaldo Sweet Pink Moscato: Two thumbs up (on the app's rating scale), and I usually think moscato is cloying.
• 2011 Caposaldo Pinot Grigio: One thumb, but it was very solid, almost buttery pinot grigio.
• 2012 Line 39 Petite Sirah from Cecchetti Wine Company: Two thumbs up. A fantastic wine in the $10 range.   
• 2011 Austerity Proprietary White Blend (Cecchetti): Two thumbs up.
• 2012 Truett-Hurst Winery California Square Chardonnay: Two thumbs up.  As the name implies, this wines are bottled in square bottles, which saves on shipping space.  
• 2011 Terra Andina Malbec: One thumb.  It had a solid flavor, but I wasn't blown away.
• 2011 Stony Brook Vineyards Ghost Gum White: One thumb, but this was a nice introduction to South African wines.

We also stopped by the Bubbly Bar.  Of the six sparking wines that I sampled, I really enjoyed the Clara Brut Sparkling Wine and the Berberana Grand Tradicional Brut Rose.

Between tasting and socializing, we also went to two crash courses: "South America Smackdown" and "Tour de California."  In addition to an opportunity to taste more wine, one of the cofounders of Second Glass shared information about grapes, production, wine history, and how to select quality wines.  I talked to him after the last course of the night, and his tip for tasting wine is basically to trust yourself.  After all, drinking wine comes down to what you enjoy.  

2011 Butterfly Kiss Pink Pinot Grigio

I don't have much to complain about in my life -- I have a career that I love, a sweet bachelorette pad, great friends, a loving family, and strong legs (the better to run marathons with, my dear).  But, I've just felt like such an emotional and mental wreck over the last week.  After my run on Saturday, I decided that I wanted ice cream because ice cream makes everything feel better.  The problem is that the local market keeps the wine near the register, so in addition to picking up a pint of mint chocolate cookie ice cream, I bought this pink pinot grigio from Butterfly Kiss.

I'm trying to figure out if this bottle is supposed to be marketed toward women - the pink bottle and giant butterfly are really my only evidence.  As for color, the wine is darker than many rosés that I've had (which look very similar to the color of grapefruit juice) -- I would even go so far as to call this wine a light red.   When I opened the bottle, I immediately smelled raspberry...and not much else.  It's much sweeter than a standard pinot grigio and tastes of summer fruit (mostly raspberry).  It's not as crisp as a standard pinot grigio, which I enjoyed.

All told, I'd buy it again.  And, I think it could be a very nice introduction for an uninitiated wine drinker.