If you’re reading this post, you could possibly count yourself among the avant garde of the American wine-consuming public. So, you may already know that wine now surpasses beer as the alcoholic drink that American adults consume most often.

That’s what they’re saying! And “they” are the International Wine and Spirit Record (ISWR), who bill themselves as “the wine market’s most authoritative source of intelligence.” Over the next ten years, says ISWR, world wine sales will continue to rise by as much as 62.5 percent.

That’s quite a contrast to the early ’90’s, when nearly half the American drinking public preferred beer, and only about one quarter of such consumers preferred wine. The IWSR predicts that before the end of this decade, America will become the largest wine consuming country in the world, edging out France and Italy.

Could this trend be due to increased awareness of the health benefits from moderate wine consumption, or perhaps to an increase in the popularity of culinary courses and wine travel? Quite possibly both are true. It is said that wine tourism is one of the fastest growing segments of the travel industry. Of course, many wine regions around the globe can boast of being the most beautiful places to visit.

This trend in wine consumption and wine tourism should be good for the California wine and tour industry. Wine lovers who visit California, after all, will want guidance about the source of their favorite wines, as well as a little education about wine during their visit.

Toss a little outdoor fun into the mix, and you’ve got the makings of a memorable wine experience.

~winehiker

You may have arrived here at Winehiker Witiculture by clicking on a feed for which there is no longer a source post! Alas, yesterday I quoted a segment by a wine writer whose words I admire, only to have a request from the author to remove the post from my blog - a request I complied with.

It was the idea behind the article that inspired me to want to share it with you. Sometime this week, I’ll filter that idea through my noggin and it’ll land here. Thanks for your patience, dear reader.

~winehiker

In my wine tasting rounds, I’ve often used wine-scoring sheets that were supplied by the proprietor of a tasting room or something a friend found on the Internet. I had often scoured the Internet searching for a tasting sheet that delivered a fairly comprehensive approach to scoring wine - something that displayed more than just have six circles and a dozen straight lines. I often came up empty-handed.

So back in 2005, I decided to develop my own wine scoring sheet. And then I tested and tweaked it with the help of a group of friends that I regularly taste wine with. Since I loaded it onto my website*, hardly a day goes by that someone else isn’t searching for a wine scoring sheet and finds mine.

Based on the Davis 20-point scale, the Wine Scoring Sheet is meant to be used primarily for comparative blind tastings. It will serve both individuals and groups with its two-page approach. The first page is designed so that each individual in a group can score up to 7 wines. The second page allows a 12-person group to rank all wines based on the results that are tallied on the first page. There’s even room for adding your own notes.

Using the Wine Scoring Sheet, a typical blind tasting follows these 7 tasting criteria:

• Appearance
• Aroma
• Balance
• Body/Texture
• Taste/Flavor
• Finish
• Overall Quality

The Wine Scoring Sheet also includes a third page that lists a simple set of instructions for its use.

So if searching around the ‘net for a simple-to-use wine scoring sheet has left a bad taste in your mouth, consider trying the winehiker’s free Wine Scoring Sheet. If you like using it, please add your comments to this post - I’d love to read them.

~winehiker

*As of February 2009, you can also find my wine scoring sheet on DocStoc.

The continual March rains have hit the west coast and made a firm down payment on April. But sooner or later, Spring is finally going to arrive, and when it does, I have a feeling that California’s many species of wildflowers will unleash themselves in a colorful eye-popping frenzy much like last year’s record show.

In the meantime, the weather hasn’t kept me off the trail, no sir. In fact, I must consider myself lucky, in that I’ve somehow managed to schedule my winehiking days when there’s been a brief lull in the storm pattern.

Last Saturday was one of those days. I met a group of winehikers in Santa Clara down by the university and drove them to Henry Coe State Park, the humongous 87,000-acre natural area so close to us here in the Silicon Valley, and yet seemingly so far away when you walk its trails.

Our group was happy to enjoy the path that leads northward from the Visitor Center up toward Eric’s Bench for a nice blend of oak, yellow pine, bay, and manzanita forest along with a scant few wildflowers in filaree, hound’s tongue, buttercups, and a scattering of shooting stars. Returning from the Little Fork of the Coyote River via Flat Frog Trail, a single-track trail that can often showcase the park’s best wildflowers, we realized that Spring had not yet descended upon the area, but that some of the flowers just can’t wait!

In the sparse forests and grassy meadows of Flat Frog Trail, crossing over many small seasonal streams, we saw many more shooting stars, lupines, and milkmaids, and out on the grasslands approaching the Manzanita Point Road, we saw violets, popcorn flower, many more buttercups, as well as one of my all-time favorites, the fleeting red maids.

I think it’s a simple bet that when we get a string of a few good days of warm sunshine, we’ll start seeing the likes of checker lily, chinese houses, larkspur, blue-eyed grass, and Ithuriel’s spear. I’m almost counting on it. But I’m monitoring the weather reports too.

Meanwhile, Coe Park had borne a foot of snow only 8 days before our tour, and it had left its mark along the contours of Flat Frog Trail. We must have stepped over or circumvented no less than 10 downed trees - pines, manzanita, madrone - there was almost no steep hillside that didn’t show Nature’s depradations. The trees just weren’t used to holding all that snow in their branches.

Not yet satisfied after our stroll, my intrepid winehikers and I drove back down to Morgan Hill for a catered lunch at Pedrizzetti Winery, where tasting manager Stacie poured us her wares. It was warm and sunny enough to eat outside and be comfortable, so we enjoyed our feast of fruits, cheeses, salad, bruschetta, pasta marinara, and my personal favorite of the meal, charbroiled chicken with a nice garlicky sun-dried tomato cream sauce. I doff my Aussie hat to Darlene at Golden Oak Restaurant of Morgan Hill, who put on the spread. Of course, Stacie took care of us by pouring cabernet, chenin blanc, and a very light and delectable sparkling wine.

Ah, this winehikin’ stuff is fun. And the season is still young!

~winehiker