Monthly Archives: December 2009

Price: 10 bucks or less, Tasting Notes

Árido Malbec 2007 Mendoza

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Arido_Malbec_2007_snapshotProducer: CAP Vistalba

Grapes: 90% Malbec, 10% Merlot

Appellation: Mendoza (Argentina)

Vineyard: Finca Los Álamos, Upper Uco Valley. The soils are sandy loam and limestone. These vineyards are at serious altitude – 3500 feet above sea level – with only 4 inches of rainfall per year (Árido means arid. Presumably they irrigate.) Wineries like to talk about the “diurnal shift“, the difference in the daytime high and nighttime low temperatures. A hot days and cool nights allow the grapes to ripen fully while preserving acidity. Arido claims a 60 degree swing.

Winemaking: no info

Alcohol: a modest 13.5%

Package: A screwcap closure. I didn’t “get” the label until I read that Árido means arid. Now I dig it.

Price: $8.99 at Spec’s in Austin

My tasting notes: Good deep purple color. Interesting nose of violet, black currant, a little prune and a kind of crushed rock/gravel dust note. The palate is less interesting, but serves up some ripe, juicy, plummy fruit with good acid. Medium-to-full bodied with fine tannins and decent length.

Overall assessment: Another wine that piques my interest with the nose, then underwhelms on the palate. I need to come up with name for those. (Any suggestions?) C+

Free association:
nose_disguise
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/myklroventine/ / CC BY 2.0

More info:

Wine Spectator scored this wine an 88.

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Helfrich Riesling 2007 Alsace

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helfrich_riesling_2007_snapshotProducer: Helfrich

Grapes: 100% Riesling

Appellation: Alsace (AOC, France). This region of France has been handed back and forth between France & Germany numerous times depending on who won the last war. So many of the names don’t sound very French. If you generally avoid Riesling because you’ve tried German ones and found them too sweet or you can’t figure out their labeling, give Alsace a try. The wines are almost always dry or just off-dry and I’ve rarely found a dud.

Vineyards: “The grapes come from the Couronne d’Or (Golden Crown), an association of local vineyards that run through the middle of Alsace. The vineyards are sloped with a South/South East exposure, while the soil is mostly calcareous and thin. The vines are dry farmed and trained upwards for maximum exposure to the sun.” [From the importer’s press release]

Winemaking: no info

Alcohol: 12.5%

Price: Around $15 (I paid $13.67 at Spec’s in Austin)

My tasting notes: The wine is a green-tinged pale yellow in the glass with a steely, stony, citrusy nose. On the palate, the citrus fades and more apple & pear flavors emerge, accented with baking spices. Though just off-dry, it’s fairly crisp – but not as racy as the Rieslings I enjoy most. The wine improved a bit by the second glass.

Overall assessment: Not bad. I like the nose, but I wasn’t thrilled with it in the mouth. You could do a lot worse…  B-

Free association:

silversurfer

More info:

The guys at WineGeekTV reviewed this bottle and Helfrich’s Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer from the same vintage.

Other blogger reviews at The 89 Project and Gabe’s View. And few more reviews at CellarTracker (avg. 90).

Sonadora over at Wannabe Wino recently reviewed the Helfrich Pinot Gris and has a review of the Riesling coming soon, I think.

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Santa was good to the VINEgeek

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I received a raft of wine- or blog-related gifts this year. Here’s a rundown:

A Crushpad Fusebox

I’ll be planning a blending party soon!

fusebox_napa_kit
You can order one here.

A bottle of Da Vinci Petite Sirah

A few weeks ago, I tweeted a link to a post at Bigger Than Your Head about this wine, commenting that I’d been out-Oddballed that week. My wife read it and tracked down the wine. (Aren’t I a lucky geek?) It’s a library release of a wine bottled in 1984 (!) from a blend of the 1979-1982 vintages. Wacky. Can’t wait to taste it.

davinci petite sirah_bottleshot
Buy it from the winery here.

Been Doon So Long by Randall Grahm

It’s taken all my willpower to not order a copy sooner, but I knew someone would want to get it for me for Christmas. Can’t wait to dig in.

Liquid Memory and Mondovino (The Series) from Jonathan Nossiter

Expect my posts to get rant-ier.

Jancis Robinson’s How to Taste

A book I’ve been wanting to add to my wine library.

First Big Crush by Eric Arnold

Also on my wish list for quite a while.

Wines to Check Out – a wine journal

For tasting notes on the go.

101 Essential Tips Wine

I’ll keep it in the car for reading at red lights. And by car I mean bathroom.

A badass Nikon D5000 digital SLR

My wife again (I told you I was a lucky geek). Expect better photography on the blog.

The Ultimate History of Video Games

Should help me do a second post on old-school arcade games and wine and provide Free Association fodder.

Bald Bull/Punch-Out T-Shirt

As referenced in the arcade games post.

Question:
Did you get any wine-related goodies this year?

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Oddball Wine of the Week: Bonarda

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Durigutti_Bonarda_07_snapshotOkay, so this may be the least odd of my Oddball series to date. (So far, I’ve done Lagrein, Prieto Picudo, and rosé of Spatburgunder.) I bet many of you have heard of Bonarda from Argentina, and some of you may have tried it. What makes it an oddball to me is no one seems to know just what in the hell it is. Is it the same Bonarda as in Italy? Or is it really Charbono? Or could it be related to Dolcetto?

Here’s an inexpensive example that was recommended to me. Let’s check it out.

Durigutti Bonarda 2007 Mendoza

Producer: Durigutti Winemakers

Grapes: “Bonarda” (More on the tangled past of Argentine Bonarda in a future post.)

Appellation: Mendoza (Argentina)

Vineyards: From vineyards in Luján de Cuyo and San Carlos

Winemaking: The winemakers take a natural approach, fermenting with native yeasts and leaving the wine unfiltered and unfined. And this is a first for me, I think: the website says the wine is spent 18 months in “stave-studded cement tanks (first use American oak).” Anyone familiar with that process?

Alcohol: 13.9%

Price: $10.53 at Spec’s in Austin.

My tasting notes: The first thing I think of when I sniff this wine is “grapey” – but not just any grapey-ness, it makes me think of Grapples. Have you ever seen these frankenfruit? They are apples that have been infused with Concord grape flavor. I’ve never tasted one, but I’ve smelled them at the grocery store. They are way more aromatic than actual grapes in the produce section, but in a somewhat artificial way. Anyway, back to the wine… I also get cherries, a bit of wood smoke, a whiff of vegetal character and, oddly, a sort of caramel quality (Mrs. VINEgeek contributed this last note, which I was struggling to ID). On the palate, it hits you with sweet, fruit-bomb intensity at the very beginning, but then it drys up quickly and goes slightly bitter, in a good way. The fruit flavors are in the red family: more cherries and a hint of raspberry, maybe some plum as well. It ends with some tannic grip, but isn’t especially lengthy. By the second glass, some of the complexity seems to be evaporating and I’m left with something juicy, but fairly simple.

Overall impression: Interesting initially, but in the end, not totally sold on it. B-/C+

Free association:

Grapple_logo

More info:

87 points from Wine Spectator.

Production was 4500 cases.

Durigutti_Bonarda_cork-and-foil

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc 2008 Marlborough

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This is a benchmark producer of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc in the under $15 category. I haven’t been drinking as much NZ SB as I used to, but I thought I’d check this one out again.

Producer: Kim CrawfordKC_MSB

Grapes: 100% Sauvignon Blanc

Appellation: Marlborough (New Zealand)

Vineyards: A blend from vineyards across the Marlborough region.

Winemaking: Night-harvested and cold-fermented, techniques used to preserve a crisp, fruity character.

Alcohol: 12.9%

Price: $12.65 at Costco

My tasting notes: Aggressively grassy nose but with lime and a little something tropical. Textbook NZ Sauvignon. Subtle peach and melon flavors join the citrus and grass on the palate. It’s crisp and clean, but there is a bit of creamy heft to it as well.

Overall assessment: Nice stuff. If you like the NZ SB style, this one won’t disappoint as an everyday value. If you don’t, I doubt this one will change your mind. If you still haven’t tried a NZ SB, this is a decent place to start as it’s pretty true to the style. B

Free association: Green and a little in-your-face, but ultimately lovable.

greenman_Charlie_Sunny
Charlie in "Green Man" costume, from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

More info:

Wine Spectator: 91 pts (was #40 in WS Top 100 2008)

Wine Enthusiast: 90 pts

The winery’s tech sheet.

Nice write-up at Good Grape. More reviews at Wine Harlots, Wine Peeps, Cork’d (avg: 87) and CellarTracker (avg: 89).

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Wine & Old School Arcade Games

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A few weeks ago, I did a post on the Kung Fu Girl Riesling from Charles Smith and it reminded me of the old-school arcade game Kung Fu Master, which I used to play at the arcade in my local bowling alley back in middle school. This got me thinking what other classic arcade and video games have a wine-world equivalent? Here’s a starter list. If you can think of others, leave a comment.

Kung Fu Master = Kung Fu Girl

KungFuMaster_screenshot

2008_kungfu_girl_bottleshot

~~~

Duck Hunt = Duckhorn

Duck_hunt_pic

DuckhornMerlotLabel

~~~

Frogger = Frog’s Leap

frogger

Sauvignon Blanc master

~~~

Punch Out = Mollydooker ‘The Boxer’

PunchOut

Mollydooker_TheBoxer_label

Price: 16-20 bucks, Tasting Notes

Oddball Wine of the Week: Prieto Picudo

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Pardevalles ‘Gamonal’ Prieto Picudo 2006

Pardevalles_Gamonal_2006Producer: Vinedos y Bodega Pardevalles

Grapes: 100% Prieto Picudo – Google Translate converts this to both ‘acacia weevil’ and ‘billfish’. However, the importer’s website says it means “bunched and peaked” for the way the grapes grow in a very tight cluster and the bunches taper sharply at the bottom. I prefer acacia weevil.

Appellation: Tierra de León (DO, Spain)

Vineyards: Gamonal – a 16-hectare (about 40 acres) dry-farmed, hand-harvested vineyard of alluvial and clay soils.

Winemaking: The wine underwent malolactic fermentation in new French and American oak, then spent another 9 months in new oak barrels (50% French Allier and 50% American oak). Unfiltered.

Alcohol: 14%

Price: $19.10

My tasting notes: A dark purple color, though not especially dense. A complex nose with scents of dusty flowers, red berries and (just like it says on the back label) “fallen leaves and freshly turned earth”. It is lively on the palate, with Luden’s-like cherry and blackberry flavors predominating with an herbal and mineral edge. Modest tannins and plenty of acidity, but it maintains a nice, polished mouthfeel. It has good length on the finish. I’m finding this wine is growing on me with each sip.

Overall assessment: Not necessarily a value play at nearly $20, but a very nice wine. B/B+

Free association:

ludens

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bessicajach/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

More info:

Only 2000 cases of this wine were produced.

This wine was rated 90 points by Wine & Spirits and Wine Advocate, and 87 by Wine Spectator.

Reviews at CellarTracker and The Spanish Table in Berkeley.

An acacia weevil:

AcaciaWeevil

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Viña Zaco 2006 Rioja

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VinaZaco_Stilleto_screengrabVinaZaco_bottleshotThis wine is #71 in Wine Spectator’s Top 100 for 2009, making it one of the most exciting wines of the year in their view. They rated it 90 points.

This winery is trying very hard to make this wine seem young/hip/sexy/cool/rebellious. The bottle and website are stylish black, red and white. On the website they talk about pairing the wine with modern music (including a press release about a psychologist’s study on the subject). They talk about being “a new generation of Rioja”, “a contemporary twist” and “not constrained by the rules.”

I can forgive some over-eager marketing if the juice is good. Let’s see…

Producer: Bodegas Bilbainas

Grapes: 100% Tempranillo

Appellation: Rioja (DOC, Spain)

Vineyards: from the Rioja Alta region

Winemaking: Assuming they used a similar oak program as 2005 (website doesn’t have details for 2006), this wine spent 9 months or so in American and French oak.

Alcohol: 14%

Price: Around $10-12 at Costco. ($15 according to WS)

My tasting notes: Sweet blue & red fruit with hints of chocolate/mocha and herbs on the nose. On the palate, it’s medium-bodied and a bit empty – the fruit is on the thin side and disappears quickly leaving just a slight cool mint kind of impression and dry woody tannins.

Overall impression: Style over substance in my opinion. Not sure what Wine Spectator saw in this one. Nothing special. C

Free association:

Paris_Hilton

More info:

Other reviews at Slashfood and Good Wine Guru.

Price: 10 bucks or less

Cotes du Rhone STEAL update

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galevan_bottleshot6I finally made it back to Costco to pick up a few more bottles of the Galévan ‘Paroles de femme’ 2007 Côtes du Rhône, which I gushed about in a post last week. My recollection was that it was $10-12 and that to me was a terrific value. So imagine my excitement when I arrived and discovered that it was only $7.99 per bottle! That’s a crazy good deal, kids.

I grabbed 6 bottles, which is a lot for me. I just don’t often buy more than a couple of bottles of something. When it comes time to pull something from my stash, I’m always in the mood for something new. So half-a-case is a serious endorsement from me.

I urge you to dash out to your local Costco and see if they have this wine. At $8, what have you got to lose? If you do pick some up, I’d love to hear what you think. Do you love it as much as I do?

Commentary

For I Am ZINFANDEL!

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Last week, in a post on the 7 Deadly Zins 2007 Lodi Zinfandel, I included the poem that was on the back label of the bottle. It reminded me of this poem that used to appear on the back label of Cline’s always reliable California appellation Zins:

Know me, stranger, for I am thy
blood and thy nectar.
I shall wet thy lips, parched
by the winds of deprivation.
And nourished shall be thy body,
desiccated by the scorching
inferno of temperance.
Rest thy head upon my busom,
Lose thyself in the ecstasy of
my caresses,
And know me, For I am
ZINFANDEL!

— Author Unknown

Incidentally, I have a t-shirt with this poem on the back, purchased from the Cline tasting room.

According to this article, Cline removed the poem from the label after drawing the attention of some bureaucrat claiming that “nourished shall be they body” was some sort of health claim. Ridiculous of course, but that never stopped a bureaucrat.

~~~~~

Magician_Master_coverThe last line — “And know me, For I am ZINFANDEL” — reminds me of an uber-geeky reference from my high school days. In the book Magician: Master by Raymond E. Feist, the main character Pug/Milamber (if you haven’t read it, it will take too long to explain why he has two names) goes into a fit of rage over an injustice he is witnessing. Just before he lays waste to everyone and everything in sight with his magical powers, he launches into a scathing monologue that ends with…

“Tremble and despair, for I AM POWER!”

I know it won’t seem particularly impressive if you haven’t read the book, but when you’re reading it the first time as a pimply teenager, it’s epic. Trust me.

I want to see which of my readers was a D&D/fantasy novel geek like me! If you read the novel and/or remember this quote, PLEASE leave a comment.