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Category Archives: Price: 16-20 bucks
Still Life with Randall Grahm, MacBook Pro & Bonny Doon 2011 Clos de Gilroy
Bonny Doon Vineyard’s 2011 Clos de Gilroy is made from grapes not quite right for BDV’s top bottling, Le Cigare Volant (clos but no cigare, as Randall like to say).
83% grenache
7% cinsault
6% syrah
4% mourvèdre
from various locales around the Central Coast AVA
I love the freshness of this wine. It’s got lifted aromatics calling to mind exotic spices and red fruit, and a brightness and life on the palate that makes it highly quaffable. (I know “quaffable” can sometimes be a backhanded compliment, but I mean it in an exclusively positive way, as in I’d happily drink this all night.) A style of wine I wish was more common. You should definitely try this wine. Highly Recommended.
Lists at $18/bottle, but available for under $15 via several sources online.
Mourvèdre Monday #28: Bandol Rosé
With spring just around the corner, my pick for this Mourvèdre Monday is a lovely little Bandol rosé. Bandol, located within Provence, is France’s only wine region where Mourvèdre is the dominant grape. In other words, heaven. I couldn’t find the exact varietal composition of this bottle, but the Bandol AOC regulations require at least 50% Mourvèdre in its red and rosé wines (the rest most often Grenache and/or Cinsault).
Château des Baumelles 2010 Bandol Rosé
The gorgeous coral pink color of this wine entices before the first sniff. Citrus and red fruit drive the nose and palate, with a nice mineral core and plenty of twangy, bright acidity. In fact, one might just call it lip-smackingly good. I wish I had more of this for the Austin spring/summer ahead. If you see some, grab it. Around $18-20. VINEgeek Approved.
It Tastes Good, But I Don’t Like It
Have you head of the new “Locations” project from Dave Phinney (of Orin Swift)? I hadn’t until recently. He’s sourcing the wine from sites across France and blending them together:
2011 is the first vintage of our French red wine sourced from some of the finest locations throughout France. Grenache from the Roussillon, Syrah from the Rhone, and assorted Bordeaux varietals are sensibly blended in an original style that showcases the best of what this historic land has to offer. During months of travel throughout storied growing appellations, winemaker Dave Phinney was able to secure prized vineyard sites to realize his objective. Utilizing a carte blanche approach and forgoing tradition, a powerful and balanced wine emerged that justly pays homage to the country of France.
In addition to this Franc-enstein bottling, he’s done one from Spain (Spain-kenstein?) that blends across Priorat, Rioja and Ribera del Duero. Another from Italy is in the works.
This offends my sensibilities on several levels.
That said, I got a chance to taste the French version and I actually kind of enjoyed what was in the glass. Go ahead and call me a snob, but just because it tastes good, doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Wines of Chile Terroir Master Class – Part 2: Pinot Noir
Chilean Pinot Noir is not something I have a lot of experience with, so I was happy to get to taste three side-by-side as a part of the Wines of Chile Terroir Master Class blogger tasting. I’ve previously posted about the three Sauvignon Blancs that were a part of the tasting. And there will be two future posts on the other varietals included: Carmenere and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Emiliana Novas Gran Reserva Pinot Noir 2010 Casablanca Valley ($19)
Pretty strawberry and raspberry aromas with a puff of smoke and a little bit of barnyard as it opens up. On the palate, the fruit leans to cherry with a light earthy note. A nicely balanced wine. (ORGANIC)
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Cono Sur ’20 Barrels’ Pinot Noir 2009 Casablanca Valley ($32)
Seductive tobacco notes dominate the nose of this wine, with bright red fruit playing second fiddle. On the palate, the smooth, luscious texture and sweet fruit makes this a sexy Pinot, for sure.
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Morandé Gran Reserva Pinot Noir 2009 Casablanca Valley ($18)
A complex and rich nose, with the red fruit accented by tobacco (not quite as much as the Cono Sur) and a bit of earthy funk. Lovely cool red fruit flavors with bright acidity and a clear cinnamon red-hot note.
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All three of these wines are from Casablanca Valley, one of the coolest wine regions in Chile. Despite the cool temps, the fruit gets very ripe due to the abundance of sunshine. So these are definitely New World pinots. All three are enjoyable to drink and worth checking out if you like the style. I’d probably choose the Cono Sur for drinking on it’s own and the Novas or Morandé for dinner.
Salud!
Wines of Chile Terroir Master Class – Part 1: Sauvignon Blanc
Recently, I participated in the Wines of Chile blogger tasting Terroir Master Class. Fred Dexheimer led the tasting from Chile while sitting with and chatting up the winemakers. We bloggers followed along via video, twitter and a chat tool. It was great fun.
There were 3 wines in each of 4 flights: Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Carmenere and Cabernet Sauvignon. I’ll focus on each flight in a separate post, starting today with Sauvignon Blanc.
Wine #1
Viña Casablanca ‘Nimbus’ Single Vineyard
Grapes: 100% Sauvignon Blanc
Appellation: Casablanca Valley
Vintage: 2012
Price: $13
Nose full of gravel and citrus. High acid, green apple palate with some floral/herbal notes ending with a long, flinty finish. New World sap, but the overall impression manages to feel elegant. This wine drank nicely for almost a week after being opened.
Wine #2
San Pedro ‘1865’ Single Vineyard
Grapes: 100% Sauvignon Blanc
Appellation: Leyda Valley
Vintage: 2011
Price: $19
The funk has arrived! Pungent, vegetal nose – like grapefruit squeezed over grilled asparagus. Distinctive, for sure, but not the most pleasant for me on this night. The palate is more appealing: full-bodied, rounded and almost creamy, but retaining Sauvignon Blanc’s crispness. The flavors are melony and spicy. Reactions from the live-chatting bloggers varied from wow to whoa. This one grew on me.
Wine #3
Casa Silva ‘Cool Coast’
Grapes: 100% Sauvignon Blanc
Appellation: Colchagua Valley
Vintage: 2011
Price: $25
Pineapple & lime on the nose with a chalky character. Racy and full on the palate, continuing the bright pineapple theme, complimented by a rocky minerality and long finish. This is more one-note than the others (it’s like a pineapple lightsaber), but it’s a great note.
Overall verdict:
A fun flight. Shows the wide range of styles of Sauvignon Blanc that can come from the varied Chilean terroirs. The winner for me was the Nimbus (and the best value at $13), but overall I continue to be impressed with what Chile is doing with this variety.
Stay tuned for the next three flights. And in the meantime, if you haven’t tried a Chilean Sauvignon Blanc in a while, give one a try and let me know what you think.
Oddball Wine of the Week: Tempranillo Blanco
I’m always game to try something unusual when it comes to wine. On this blog you’ll see as much Baga as Bordeaux, as much Tannat as Tuscany, and more Mourvèdre than Merlot and Malbec combined. So you know when I had a chance to taste a Tempranillo Blanco, I was all over it. That’s right, white Tempranillo. Not white as in “white” zin, but white as in not red. The grapes themselves are not typical red Tempranillo, but a white- (well, green-) skinned mutant.
Producer: Bodegas Juan Carlos Sancha ‘Ad Libitum’
Grapes: 100% Tempranillo Blanco
I’ll let Wikipedia tell the tale:
In 1988, Jesús Galilea Esteban found a cluster of white grapes on one of the Tempranillo vines in his vineyard, Murillo de Rio Leza, located in Rioja. He removed the cluster, leaving a heel which in turn produced two buds of white grapes. Galilea then contacted the Rioja government agency CIDA, who grafted the buds at their research station in February 1989.
CIDA concluded that apart from the leaves and fruit being a little smaller, the new plants were identical to normal Tempranillo in most respects, and confirmed this with DNA evidence. The most notable difference was that the grape skins were green-yellow rather than the usual blue-black, due to a natural mutation in a single skin colour gene. Similar mutations appear to have happened in many other grape varieties, such as Pinot Noir and Grenache.
CIDA, once the mutation had stabilized, expanded their collection to 100 vines in 1993, and started to make wine on an experimental scale. The first bottling of wine was in 2005, from a hectare of vines planted in 2000. It was fermented in stainless steel tanks and aged in oak barrels. The green-tinged wine had discreet aromas of flowers and tropical fruit such as pineapple, refreshing to drink but lacking a little in acidity. White Tempranillo is currently being distributed to growers having been registered with the State and approved for use in the Rioja D.O.Ca.
Appellation: Rioja
Vintage: 2009
Vineyards: Organically-farmed 1.5 hectare vineyard with clay and limestone soils. Dry-farmed.
Winemaking: Stainless steel fermentation. Native yeasts.
Alcohol: 13%
Price: I paid $16.83 via Garagiste. Closer to $25 online.
Tasting notes: I had no idea what to expect with this one. It starts off with a bold, aromatic nose of stone fruit and petrol. On the palate, it’s an intriguing mix of peach, plum skin and nuttiness with a pleasant bitter note. It has an oily palate presence and finishes long.
Overall impression: A must-try wine for the wine geek set. B+
Free association:
More info:
A good read from 2009 in Decanter on “the rise of indigenous grape varieties” in Rioja.
Image used in Oddball Wine of the Week header found here. If anyone knows the original source, let me know and I’ll credit.
Cleavage Creek Trio
I am long overdue to review these wines from Cleavage Creek, kindly provided as samples by the winery. I had been waiting to do some sort of tie-in with Breast Cancer Awareness Month or something like that (Cleavage Creek donates 10% of gross sales to various breast cancer research organizations.) When I heard the awful news last month that the winery’s owner Budge Brown had died in a plane crash, I knew I couldn’t wait any longer. Rest in Peace, Budge.
Note: each of these wines is priced at $18, though I received them as press samples from the winery.
Cleavage Creek Tracy Hills Merlot-Shiraz 2007
Tasting notes: Though it’s labeled “Merlot-Shiraz” it’s more Shiraz (67%) than Merlot (33%). Using the Aussie name for Syrah, tips you off to the style. Very dark in the glass. The nose is fruit-forward and fumey. A little something sour or pickley in there, too. On the palate, the wine delivers loads of sweet (almost pruney), fruit but wrapped in a smooth texture that I think many will like. It’s big and full-bodied, reminding me of Zins with punny names like Zinsanity or Livin’ in Zin. There is a note in the background, perhaps a faint Syrah-ian peppery prickle, that keeps it from total mayhem. Finishes cleaner than you’d expect; despite its’ fruitbombiness, I’m left wanting another sip. C+
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Cleavage Creek Tracy Hills Secret Red 2007
Tasting notes: The website says it’s 73% Cabernet Sauvignon and 12% Shiraz, leaving 15% unknown (that’s the Secret, I guess). On the nose, it starts out more subtle with the fruit than the Merlot-Shiraz, but by day two has opened up considerably with a heady red & black fruit aroma. I also get a bit of the pickled note I got on the Merlot-Shiraz. On the palate, it’s certainly fruit-forward with big cherry/berry flavors, but a cranberry tartness keep things in check. Finishes clean. My favorite of the three. B-
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Cleavage Creek Tracy Hills Chardonnay 2008
Tasting notes: A pretty appley/melony nose, half-buried by oak. On the palate, the oak dominates the faint melon & honey flavors. Waxy-textured, it could use more acid. Kinda what I expect from a new world Chardonnay. The nose makes me wonder what might have been if they’d dialed back the oak and let the fruit shine. C
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Overall, these are well-made fruit-forward wines. Not the style I’m into these days, but plenty of people will like these. And you can’t beat the cause.
Vacqueyras-on-a-Stick
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Price: I paid $16.81 via Garagiste.
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Like a fruit punch popsicle on a stone stick. Vibrating with energy. Meaty. Full. Hot. B
Mourvèdre Monday #25: M5 Monastrell 2009 Yecla
First Mourvèdre Monday in the new format!!
Image credit: Alaskan Dude via Flickr
I’ve tried 3-4 of the wines in this lineup over the past year or two and this is first one that has really grabbed my attention.
Price: around $17
