How to Make Hot Toddy

Gary: Hello everybody and welcome to Wine Library TV. I’m your host, Gary Vaynerchuk and this, my friends, is the Thunder Show, a.k.a. the internet’s most passionate wine program. And as we continue on to our march to 600th, we are invading Pinotage, a very fascinating clone put together in 1925 where they blended—where they married Pinot Noir and Cinsault, a grape that has a lot of tradition in the South of France and the Rhone region, and have created some of the more controversial varieties of all time, the Pinotage, which a lot of people love and a lot of people hate. Oh yeah, go turn them off. People can see the like the difference between like the overnight. And now— So Pinotage value-driven show today, the economy is getting a little tougher. We’re looking for values out there but we want to continue to expand your palate regardless if the world’s exploding outside. And so, I’m focusing of three wines, $9.00, $10.00, $12.00, good price points. Pinotage is a fascinating varietal. Let’s get right into it. Let’s get started with Nederburg 2006 Wine Master’s Reserve Pinotage, $9.00, let’s see what’s going on here. A little bit of a sniffy-sniff, good little colors, strawberries, red—a little sniffy-sniff, very grassy on the nose, believe it or not, right off the bat, little tropical fruit coming through as well. I get bacon fat, which is quite nice. Actually, it smells like charcuterie, you know, like you go to an upper east side restaurant and they give you a lot of different stuff, little duck fat or little bacon and little cauliflower, it just smells like food that way. Give a little copper tone to it as well, which is nice, and some good red fruits. I get a little cherry action, cherry pie, real hot cherry pie on the nose as well, which is quite nice. Let’s give it a whirl. Super! Wow! Call me baffled. This wine is really decent. Mott, try this. I’m curious what somebody just getting into wine and drank a lot of wines in their lives. Taste that; I want you to drink it. I’m super curious. Mott: Not bad. Gary: You like it? Mott: Yeah, I could drink that. Gary: It’s not bad, right? Mott: No. Gary: Very—a Pinotage is funny, guys. The reason I was so baffled and I wanted Mott to try it, Pinotage is very unpopular to a lot of people. They don’t like the roasted banana meets copper-lead pipe thing going on. You get a lot of banana, coppery—a lot of people refer to it as taking a banana, putting a lot of pennies in it, putting it in a microwave for five minutes, I mean just a wild scene that you get sometimes, but this was so delicious and that is the furthest thing that I think about when I think about Pinotage. But the flavor on this Nederburg comes across very drinkable, very lively, very fragrant, blackberries, fruit, more fruit than I ever expected. This is a very good value play. I’m very surprised right now. Let me give it one more shot. Lots of plum, I get some nice herbaceous play in there, like oregano. I don’t know—really favorable tasting notes, very approachable, and this is what makes me scream at people when they but the same old $10.00 Cabernet, whether it’s a great value like Bogle who does a great job, or anything else. Rodney Strong, Kendall-Jackson, Sidney, the same old boring crap, same old boring Shirazes, Yellow Tail Reserve and Rosemount, mix it up. Mix it up with a pause because wine exploration is what we’re all about here in the Thunder Show. Expand your palate and listen to yourself and nobody else. Don’t listen to me. Just because I love this, you try it and it’s horse crap, e-mail me that you want to throw it down at four o’clock at the flag pole. That’s how we roll. You got to trust your own palate, listen to nobody. I’m doing that right now and I’m telling you right now, this wine blows my socks off. 88 plus points, value city U.S.A, drive up, order at the drive-thru, take it home because this is a winner. Let’s move on. That was pretty cool. I want to re-watch that. You know, you black out and you just forget, Mott. Lion Hunt 2007 Pinotage from South Africa, $10.00, 14.5% alcohol content. What I’ve always liked about Pinotage is it’s different first and foremost. It’s got a different scene going on. It’s always very different and I’ve loved it with ostrich. That’s my go-to pairings, so if you’re looking for a pairing, if you’re an exotic food and you like ostrich, please order a Pinotage. There’s something magical that goes on, especially if you use blackberry reduction sauce on your ostrich. I’m just saying a little fun fact. Two to four-year drinking window on these wines in my opinion and opening for about an hour, maybe decant for two hours, drink them over two days. I’m trying to give more fun facts, Mott. That’s what I’m trying to do here. Let’s give it a sniffy-sniff. Now, this has such a meaty beef jerky meets strawberry jam kind of thing going on. It’s quite fascinating. Very gamey on the nose and very fruit-driven, almost Australian like and then with some “gameyness”. It smells like a car freshener, like if you get like the two little happy cherries Mott, instead of the pine cone tree, you get the two happy cherries. That’s what this smells like. Mott, you used to put the Playboy logo in your car when you’re rolling hard. You listen to Meat Loaf. Let’s give this a whirl. It’s a little fruit balmy, fakey-fake for me right now, just saying, and it’s Kool-Aid. It’s good but it reminds me so much of the $7.00 to $10.00 Australian Shirazes that are uninspiring. It’s good fruit. It’s jammy jam jam city. It’s fresh since I’m using 1985 words, “rad”, but it’s very boring and one dimensional. This is classic textbook. I’m going to give you one flavor. I would never even think this is Pinotage. Really, this feels and tastes like a Cab Shiraz blend, not showing its true terroir even though they say this wine captures the terroir. I just disagree. It feels a little overoaked, uninspiring, and one dimensional and very much tastes like a California wine to me. Let me give it one more shot. Good fruit—I mean, it’s not horrible, right? It’s just boring and it tastes like, you know, a classic Gallo, Yellow Tail, Kendall-Jackson wheel production where the sugar levels are a little higher to tricky trick you. I’m going to go 80 points on this wine. It’s got delicious factor. I think a lot of people can actually like this wine, but it’s not inspiring and the Nederberg right next door to it is far more masterful—remember, it’s a Wine Master’s—than the Lion Hunt, which is too bad because I like the Lion Hunt name and it seems a little tougher. I always want to act a little tougher because I’m not that tough, and so I could use it. Do you know what I mean, Mott? Finally, False Bay 2006 Pinotage, $12.00 and let’s see what’s going on here. False Bay, sounds like a new punk band, False Bay. That’s Fall Out Boy. That’s where I was going with that, I guess. Sniffy-sniff, this is interesting. I do get a little oak across but it’s got a little bit more of an interesting nose than the last two wines, little hints of pepper bouncing around. I get heavy dosage of mulberry on the nose, which is exciting for me. It’s been really a nuance we’ve been picking up on a lot of wines, but here it takes the lead act. It’s like when a supporting actor makes that jump into super stardom, kind of like Reese Witherspoon. When she really did Walk the Line, that took her to the next level. This kind of reminds me a little bit of Reese Witherspoon. Let’s give this a little bit more of a sniffy-sniff. Now, let’s give it a whirl. This walks the line of a new world and old world line extremely well, very simple red wine, not the most complex; none of them are. Not the most thought provoking; none of them are, but a solid conversation dinner date. Do you know what I mean? It’s not like you’re having dinner with the person you most ever wanted to, but boy, this person really engaged and brought it. This one really brings it, subtle white pepper coming through, mulberry once again on the attack on the nose and on the mid-palate, gorgeous. Good richness, nice velvet body in your mouth, very pleasant. These Pinotages are showing really well. So it’s a little bit boring but man, this had been a little bit of an eye opener even for me. This is probably the best I’ve ever had Pinotage in this price point and it makes me question, one, how good is the ‘06 vintage, because these are all ‘06s. So that’s a little homework I need to do, but two, is Pinotage in South Africa starting to find its way in this price point? And if it does, be careful because it’s going to make its footprint in the U.S market. If they can deliver consistently at $9.00 to $12.00 this kind of wine, this is starting to be—this is why I love doing this show. I went in truly believing these wines would struggle. Knowing my palate, knowing what I’ve tasted from Pinotage under $20.00 over the last decade, I was very much like, hmm, but I want to find value so you got to scrape the barrels and try to find new things. Plus, it was one of the shows somebody wanted Pinotage and I got to be honest with you, there’s blackberry, there’s a little white pepper. I’m really appreciating this wine. This smells like a smoked hamburger a little bit. It’s got a little like a charred beef thing going on. It’s pretty darn good, little old world action. I’m going to score this wine 89 points. I’m going to tell you right now, these two wines are no joke, a very good showing. Big ups to South Africa, very surprised, very surprised. The wines showed really well though not completely traditional Pinotage nuances because I didn’t even say banana once. Though I have to admit, maybe because I was saying it, or maybe that’s what led me to say it, I do taste a little bit of banana peel on the back end of this last False Bay. I’m very impressed with these wines. I’m caught off guard to be honest with you by the quality. And I’ve got to say right here, right now with Panthro and Raman in my hand, so you know I’m not fooling around. Pinotage could be coming on the scene as one of the great values of the world. If I’m going to go out and try another $15.00 to $20.00 wines in the Pinotage, $8.00 to $15.00 category and get this kind of quality, I’m going to start screaming loud like (shouting) like that loud that Pinotage is here to stay as a value play. I feel like Don King there. You—oh, question of the day. Question of the day, word association—South Africa. You, with a little bit of me, we’re changing the wine world.