Price: 10 bucks or less

Trader Joe’s Wine Find: VINTJS Carignane 2013

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VINTJS Carignane 2013 label photoSometimes you just need a good cheap bottle. At this price point, I’ll keep it short and sweet.

This was a surprisingly tasty bottle of wine for seven or eight bucks!

Juicy and tense with with cherry-red berry notes on a light-bodied frame. An almost smoky note and a dry, tannic finish brings some welcome depth and interest. Not a flabby fruit bomb. The next time I’m at Trader Joe’s, I will definitely pick up another couple of bottles of this for the “open whenever” stash.

If you have a Trader Joe’s in your town, look for this on your next visit. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

(Don’t buy their salsas though. As a naturalized Texan, I can say every one I’ve tried has been no bueno.)

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VINTJS — a terrible, terrible name — seems to be a Trader Joe’s house label as I can’t find anything online about the winery. But varietal Carignane (which you don’t see very often – Cline Cellars does one that I’ve liked over the years) from a specific AVA (Mendocino County) makes this more interesting than the usual fodder of generic, cutesy-named “California” blends you usually find at this price point.

Price: Over 20 bucks, Tasting Notes

Bonny Doon 2014 Semillon

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Bonny Doon Semillon 2014 front labelA club shipment earlier this year brought this lovely bottle of 100% Yountville Semillon to my doorstep.

Let’s check it out.

(By the way: If you are looking for a wine club to join, Bonny Doon’s DEWN Club is a personal favorite.)

(By the way #2: Isn’t it nice to see stuff like Semillon from places like Yountville, where surely, replanting to Cabernet would make more financial sense.)

It took a bit of time to open up, but once it did it was a beautiful bottle of wine. It’s got that waxy, melony quality of semillon, which I’ll admit to not always being excited by, but a beautiful texture and acidity emerges and ultimately turns this into a wine that calls to mind that quote about wine being bottled sunshine.

Thanks, Semillon, Randall.

Bonny Doon Vineyard
2014 Semillon
Yountville AVA
Yount Mill Vineyard
Price: $24

Price: Over 20 bucks

Caymus Cab at 40

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I was invited to a twitter tasting to celebrate the 40th Anniversary release of Caymus cab this afternoon. I was happy to participate, as Caymus is such a classic name in Napa cab.

I remember visiting Caymus on my very first visit to Napa when I was first getting into wine. It felt very special — I remember that you had to schedule a “private” tasting in advanceand while we were there, sitting around a big wooden table, a group of poor schlubs walked up to taste and were turned away. Fancy. I was impressed by the cabernet, but couldn’t really afford it, so I remember leaving with a bottle of their rosé called “Oeil de Perdrix”. That wine, or at least the name, was moved to the Belle Glos label, which sits under the Wagner Family of Wine group along with Caymus, Conundrum, Mer Soleil and Emmolo.

So back to the 40th anniversary wine.

Caymus produces 2 cabs each vintage, the “Special Selection” and the normal Napa Valley bottling. (They also produce a Napa Zin.) The 40th anniversary bottling is from the 2012 vintage and it replaces the normal Napa Valley bottling, not the Special Selection.

So how is it? I’ll let my live tweets do the talking.

[media sample provided by the winery]

Music

Metal Monday at Terroir

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NOTE: I just found this finished post that I never got around to publishing. I wrote it back in March (in case you’re confused about the snow references).

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I heart metal
I heart wine
More so when they’re combined

Silversun Pickups – Busy Bees

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I was in NYC recently for a (day job) conference and found myself with a free evening in Manhattan. It was snowing so I wanted to walk around a bit (living in Austin, I don’t see a lot of snow) and eventually find somewhere to have dinner. The conference hotel was in Times Square and I quickly realized there were not many inspiring choices nearby. It was then, standing in the falling snow, that it dawned on me: Terroir. A quick Google Maps search told me the closest of their locations (Murray Hill) was a 25-30 minute walk. Perfect.

Thirty minutes and two soggy oxfords later, I walked into heaven: Mondays at Terroir Murray Hill are Metal Mondays.

After settling in and making friends with the fellas behind the bar, I ordered some olives and chicken liver bruschetta and studied the wine list. I wanted to try as many things as possible while remembering that I had to be at the conference at 8:30 am the next day. So I was very happy to see that their wines by the glass list was extensive and had full glasses and tasting pours. I stuck with the tasting pours and below are the wines I tasted along a very brief note/reaction (unhelpful, I know, but I wasn’t in the mood to write proper tasting notes) and metal track that was playing when I was tasting it. (They deviated from the theme — Chicago Dance Metal Scene — early and often, including an extended Metallica interlude, which was fine by me.) It was an excellent evening.

Tell your children not to walk my way.

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Gutturnio Colli Placentini Rosso, La Stoppa, 2009 Emilia-Romangna

Seriously savory. Seriously good with the olives.

KMFDM – Godlike (12″ Mix Edit)

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Musar Jeune, Château Musar, 2010 Bekka Valley

Legit.

Metallica – Hit The Lights

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Campi Raudii, Vallana, 2010 Piedmont

Really? Really.

Metallica – Whiplash

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Nicolas Joly 2010 Le Vieux Clos Savennières Loire Valley

Hells, yes.

Metallica – Seek & Destroy

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Peter Jakob Kühn 2008 Quarzit Riesling Trocken Rheingau

Flinty, f*ckyou fantastic.

Ministry – You Know What You Are

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Mas Coutelou 2011 Classe Languedoc

The title of this track says it all.

Slayer – Beauty Through Order

grand cru geekery