Category Archives: Tasting Notes

Blanc Pescador NV

July 28, 2009 Jim/VINEgeek 2 Comments

BlancPescador This bottle was recommended to me as “If you like Vinho Verde, you’ll like this.” By which the recommender meant a light crisp white with a little natural effervescence and low alcohol. That style of wine isn’t exactly the stuff of contemplation, but it can be just right sometimes. Let’s check this one out…

Producer: Cavas del Ampurdan (of The Perelada Group)

Grapes: Macabeo 50-60%, Parellada 20-25%, Xarel-lo 20-25%. These are the grapes of the Spanish sparkling wine Cava.

Vintage: Non-vintage (NV)

Appellation: Not clear. Nothing on the bottle indicates where this fits in the Spanish appellation system — no DO, no VdlT (Vino de la Tierra), not even VdM (Vino de Mesa). The bottle mentions Girona, which is northeast of the Catalunya region. Given the grapes it makes sense that it would be produced near the major Cava region.

Vineyards: Unknown

Aging: Unknown, but clearly no oak. Since it’s NV, some of it has been laying around the cellar for a little while.

Alcohol: 11.5%

Price: I paid $10 at Spec’s in Austin.

My tasting notes: Very pale color. Muted nose, just a little citrus. Good crisp lemon-lime flavor, maybe a bit of granny smith apple. The fizziness is very palate-cleansing. A bit metallic. Not very complex, but nice & refreshing.

Assessment/score: Not sure if I’d buy it again. Even at $10 it’s not a value compared to $7 Casal Garcia Vinho Verde. Why pay more for such a simple quaffer. If you like that style (as I do) and you’re looking for something new, this is worth trying, though. I don’t think I can really give this a grade. It’s like grading a nice glass of lemonade or a La Croix.

Free association: This wine seems like the sort you’d get in a little tumbler at a simple restaurant in a coastal town like this. (This photo is of Vernazza in the Cinque Terra region of Italy, not Spain. But I’ve been to this spot so that’s what comes to mind.)

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

Fun fact: In Spanish, this sort of effervescent wine is called “vino de aguja” which translates as “needle wine”.

TV commercial: Found this on YouTube. Any Spanish-speaking readers want to give us the general idea of what he’s saying? Share in the comments.

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Rubizzo Sangiovese di Toscana 2007

July 26, 2009 Jim/VINEgeek 1 Comment

Rubizzo_SangDiToscana2007 Picked this up on a whim at the grocery store for a spaghetti and meat sauce dinner.

Producer: Rocca delle Macie (pronounced ROH-kah DELL-eh mah-CHEE-ah)

Grapes: 95% Sangiovese, 5% Merlot

Appellation: Sangiovese di Toscana (IGT)

Vineyards: estate vineyards

Aging: unknown

Alcohol: 13%

Price: $13

My tasting notes: The first whiff bursts with juicy cherry aromas followed by some leathery notes. Subsequent sniffs don’t elicit the same bright fruit…I start to get more dried flowers with the fruit in the background. (We have this bunch of roses that I gave to my wife at least a decade ago and she dried and kept — the smell of those dried roses is what comes to mind.) On the palate, the cherry notes remain, though now a bit darker and mixed with spices. Makes me think of a Persian dish of rice and cherries that I’ve had a few times. There is also a iron/graphite minerality to this. Finishes very dry.

Assessment/score: As I write this, I feel like it’s sounding better than it actually tastes. Not that I’m not enjoying it…it’s a solid bottle. I like it just fine. But I don’t “like it like it”, as we used to say in the 6th grade. B-/C+

Free association: Tropic Thunder – On paper I should have liked this movie more than I did. Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. … all actors I like. And funny previews. But at the end of the day, it didn’t add up to a memorable movie.

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare 2007 California

July 26, 2009 Jim/VINEgeek Leave a comment

VinGrisCigare07_bottle_600pxh_300dpi Maybe because I had just posted about the Bonny Doon Mourvedre, I picked up this bottle on a recent replenish-the-stock-of-everyday-wine trip to the wine shop. I don’t drink much of the pink stuff, generally. It has a top-of-mind awareness problem with me. I just don’t think about it very often. When I go to the wine shop or grab a few bottles at the grocery store, I tend to think of value reds from Spain or Portugal or the Rhone, Argentine Malbec, Sonoma Zins. Or whites like New Zealand SBs, Albarino, Vinho Verde, various Alsace whites. Rosé as a category just doesn’t cross my mind.

I opened this one for one of our “grazing dinners” as my wife like to call them: prosciutto and melon, caprese salad, olives, some cheese, etc. Let’s see how it did.

Producer: Bonny Doon Vineyards

Grapes: 47% Grenache, 27% Cinsault, 14% Syrah, 7% Grenache Blanc, 5% Roussanne

Appellation: California (though it’s hard to tell from the label — it just says “Pink Wine of the Earth”)

Vineyards: unknown

Aging: unknown

Alcohol: 13.5%

Price: I don’t remember exactly what I paid, but it’s in the $12-14 range.

My tasting notes: Beautiful color. Strawberries and a distinct balloon aroma on the nose. On the palate, it has nice fruit leaning toward strawberry and cherry and possibly peach. Hints of earth and herbs. There is a really great texture to this wine; good weight. Am I imagining a little bit of an oily quality? Finishes dry and delicious.

Assessment/grade: I really like this. Beautiful color, nice aromatics, great mouthfeel and flavor. What’s not to like? Why don’t I drink this more often? B

Free association:

credit: D Sharon Pruitt (flickr account: Pink Sherbet Photography)

More details on Bonny Doon’s sell sheet for this wine here.

Price: Over 20 bucks, Tasting Notes

Bonny Doon DEWN Mourvèdre 2003

July 8, 2009 Jim/VINEgeek 4 Comments

BonnyDoon_Mourvedre2003 Mourvèdre has been a favorite of mine for a long time, probably due to my early attachment to Cline Cellars (see previous posts), one of the few California wineries to focus on the varietal. I liked (and still like) its ability to produce dark, brooding fruit flavors with an Old World earthiness. Nice write-up on the grape here.

Bonny Doon Vineyards is a wine geek’s dream. Not only do they champion “ugly duckling” varietals and innovative techniques (biodynamics, screwcaps, putting grapes in a freezer to make ice-wine), but “president-for-life”/winemaker Randall Grahm is as interesting as they come. Cleverness coats everything they do, from the wine labels to the names of the wines to the winemaker’s notes (which will send you to Google to try to understand all the literary/philosophical/scientific references). I used to belong to their DEWN (Distinct Esoteric Wine Network) wine club, which they use for their most experimental efforts. In the 2 years or so that I was a member, I received a grenache blanc, a grignolino d’Asti, a spumante of erbaluce, a barbera/arneis, dolcetto, cinsault, chenin blanc, cab franc, barbera, an angelica and more. Good geeky fun and some very tasty wine.

Producer: Bonny Doon Vineyards (for its DEWN wine club)

Grapes: 100% Mourvèdre

Appellation: Contra Costa County (AVA, California)

Vineyards: old vines in the Sacramento River Delta region

Aging: unknown

Alcohol: 14.2%

Price: Not sure. Part of my DEWN club shipment in Feb. 2005 … probably $20-25

My tasting notes: Dark purple color, but not opaque. Roasted fruit and meaty/animal aromas on the nose. In the mouth, it is medium-bodied with red and black fruit flavors framed with earth and mineral characteristics. Good acidity and a lengthy finish. This wine rewards contemplation, and I’m enjoying it more and more with each taste.

Assessment/grade: This wine has lots of interesting earthy/mineral/meaty notes while retaining an appealing fruit character. That makes it a winner for me. B+/A-

Free association:

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Price: Over 20 bucks, Tasting Notes

Cline Los Carneros Syrah 2006 Carneros

July 8, 2009 Jim/VINEgeek 5 Comments

Cline_LosCarnSyrahRT

I opened another bottle from Cline last night. My stock of everyday wines has gotten low, so I’m raiding my nicer bottles. I have four vintages of this wine in my cellar. It was a stand-out for me on my last visit to the winery a few years back and I’ve been saving my club shipments of this wine ever since. I thought maybe I’d arrange a vertical tasting or something. But I wanted a nice bottle to go with my wife’s awesome eggplant parmesan, so I picked the current vintage (the 2006), saving the others for that hypothetical vertical and assuming I could replace the 2006 more easily.

So how was it? Let’s see…

Producer: Cline Cellars

Grapes: 100% Syrah

Appellation: Carneros (AVA, California) – from the Sonoma side of this AVA, which straddles the southern ends of the Sonoma Valley and Napa Valley AVAs.

Vineyard: Estate hillside vineyards with shallow clay and loam soils. Classic Carneros climate of foggy mornings, warm afternoons and cool evenings due to nearby San Pablo Bay. Photos here and here.

Aging: 12 months in French oak (30% new) with dark toast

Alcohol: 14.5%

Price: $28

My tasting notes: Near opaque color, with a muddy garnet at the rim. On the nose, I get plenty of vanilla oakiness and an interesting pine aroma that reminds me of Christmas. There is some red fruit, but it does not smell highly extracted, which is promising. In the mouth, it’s lovely. Plummy fruit with mineral and leather notes accented with very appealing oak. It has great weight and mouthfeel, smooth but with a bit of tannic grip. And it carries the alcohol much more gracefully than the Bridgehead Zin from last night. Really delicious stuff.

Assessment/score: I really like this. I’ve had a few vintages now and it has always impressed me. Highly recommended. A-

Free association: Not sure why exactly. Sleek but comfortable. Elegant. Smooth wood.

Price: Over 20 bucks, Tasting Notes

Cline Bridgehead Zinfandel 2006 Contra Costa County

July 5, 2009 Jim/VINEgeek 1 Comment

Cline_Bridgehead06_withgrill Yesterday was Independence Day (I wish people still called it that instead of “The Fourth”) and so that means I, like millions of others, BBQed. Pork shoulder smoked for 5 hours with a mix of Jack Daniels oak chips (made from used aging barrels) and applewood. Pulled the pork into tender shreds and put on a bun and dressed with sauce and coleslaw on top, Memphis-style.

It’s become cliche in wine circles, but BBQ and Independence Day means Zinfandel. While not a truly native grape varietal, nowhere else is Zinfandel as important, or historic — some of the oldest vines in America are Zinfandel. And I love the stuff. My second wine epiphany was a bottle of Bannister Zinfandel from the Rochioli vineyard (mid-90s vintage) that I had at Bistro Ralph in Healdsburg. That bottle made Zinfandel my favorite varietal and I’d say Zin has been the most common varietal in my wine history ever since.

Cline is also near and dear to my heart. On my first trip to wine country (the same trip where I had the Bannister), Cline was our first stop of the first day. Though I was still fairly new to wine, I was already geeking out. I was a proud disciple of the ABC crowd (anything but Chardonnay) and was avoiding Merlot well before Paul Giamatti told me to. So Cline was perfect for me. They focus on Rhone varietals and Zinfandels from old vines vineyards (geek heaven). I joined their club after that first visit and have been a regular drinker of their wines ever since.

Bridgehead is one of three single-vineyard Zins they produce, all from the Contra Costa County appellation east of San Francisco. While the county is generally very hot, these vineyard sites are cooled at night by the adjacent San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers. These are some of the oldest vineyards in California up to 120 years old.

Producer: Cline Cellars

Grapes: 100% Zinfandel

Appellation: Contra Costa County (AVA, California)


Note the very sandy soil in the photo below. It apparently keeps the phylloxera louse at bay. It also forces the vines to send roots very deep in the soil for nutrients. Many winemakers claim this leads to a greater sense of terroir in the wines.

Vineyard: Bridgehead vineyard; sandy soils, head-trained and dry-farmed

Aging: 11 months in oak (new & used, medium dark toast)

Alcohol: 14.5%

Price: I believe this bottle retails for around $28. (I got it through the winery club.)

My tasting notes: Deep color. Strong chocolate aroma, more like a tootsie roll than actual chocolate. Also some mint. Sweet berry fruit in there as well. The alcohol is strong in the nose (a bit like paint thinner). Very extracted blackberry flavors on the palate with sweet tobacco and minerality. Good tannins and pleasant mouthfeel. While there are some interesting aromas and flavors in here, it somehow comes across a bit simplistic.

Assessment/Score: I think this could use some more time in bottle to maybe dial back the extracted fruit and let the other notes meld into something more nuanced. I didn’t enjoy this as much as the 2003, which wasn’t exactly nuanced, but had more “deliciousness”. BBQ may not have been the best match for this particular Zin. A thick, peppery steak probably better. I’d certainly drink this again, but won’t be stocking up. B-

Free association:

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Chateau Liversan Haut-Medoc 2005

July 2, 2009 Jim/VINEgeek 1 Comment

Producer: Chateau Liversan (Domaines Lapalu)

Grapes: 50% Merlot, 49% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Cabernet Franc (that is according to the label; I find different %s in different places online)

Appellation: Haut-Medoc (AOC), France

Vineyard: 96 acres; gravel limestone on a chalk subsoil acts

Aging: 12 months in oak

Alcohol: 14%

Production: 20,830 cases

Price: I believe I paid around $15 at Costco.

Tasting Notes: Nice dark color. Nose starts off pretty tight. With time I pick up some blueberry, whiskey barrel and a definite lotion-y smell. (Not some fancy herb-infused botanical beeswax aromatherapeutic stuff, but basic Curel or something.) On the palate, it’s a little thin and angular for me. The tannins attack my tongue, almost sealing off my taste buds to prevent them from tasting any fruit that might be hiding in there. I pick up very little else; maybe some cranberry and some graphite. Finishes very dry.

Assessment/Score: Hmm. The nose is pretty cool once it opens up, but it’s just tight tight tight in the mouth. Definitely not “delicious”, but seems like it would do better with more time in bottle. For drinking right now, I have to go with C+.

Free association:

Wine Spectator (85 points): Mineral, blackberry and licorice aromas follow through to a medium body, with firm tannins and a medium finish. A bit simple on the palate, but pleasant. Best after 2010.

Lots of other tasting notes at Cellar Tracker.

Price: 10 bucks or less, Tasting Notes

Shades of Africa 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon South Africa

June 30, 2009 Jim/VINEgeek 1 Comment

Shades of Africa I can’t really find anything about this wine online (and the label is no help either), so I won’t be doing a full post on this one. It’s a very young cab from South Africa — that’s all I know.

Nose is all over the place: chocolate milk one minute, wild berries the next, ashy, “thorny” according to my wife (I read that as sort of green and underbrushy), “grapey” according to my 3-year old. In the mouth it’s pretty rustic, with more funky overripe berries, meaty/gamey flavors and some drying tannins. Overall it’s pretty awkward and it tastes cheap (it was: $9), like if you ordered the house red at an Indian restaurant and they looked at you like “Really?”

Grade: C-/D+

Update: I looked back at the label and found a couple of things I missed before. First, it’s 14.0% a.b.v. Second, it’s from the Western Cape region within South Africa’s “Wine of Origin” system, which apparently is kind of a catch-all appellation that covers the majority of SA vineyards.

Also, I added the photo above. Why do these South African producers (see Sebeka) use such obvious “Africa” imagery in their label designs? You don’t see French producers putting white flags on their bottles. (Sorry – couldn’t resist the joke!)

Price: 10 bucks or less, Tasting Notes

Finca El Portillo Sauvignon Blanc 2008 Mendoza

June 28, 2009 Jim/VINEgeek 5 Comments

FincaElPortillo_SauvBlanc

Producer: Bodegas Salentein

Grapes: 100% Sauvignon Blanc

Appellation: Mendoza (Argentina), Valle de Uco

Vineyards: 100% estate vineyard Finca El Oasis. High elevation (3445 feet). Alluvial soils. Night harvested.

Aging: 100% stainless steel

Alcohol: 13.5%

Price: I paid $8.49

My tasting notes: The nose is steely, with citrusy aromas. The high elevation, night harvesting and stainless fermentation/aging all lead to a lively crispness in the mouth with good fruit that leans toward the tropical. It has nice, lengthy finish as well.

Score: This has the crispness that I want in an everyday white. Not complex enough to be much more than that. But what can you expect for less than 9 bucks? B-/C+

Free association: Makes me think of lemonade which makes me think of… “Lemonade – that cool refreshing drink” Eddie Murphy on Elvis Presley, from ‘Delirious’ (video)

Fun fact: The Valle de Uco is not named after a river, but a pre-Columbian Indian chief who introduced irrigation to the region. (from the World Atlas of Wine)

Finca El Portillo (photo by jaraya via Panoramio)

Price: 16-20 bucks, Tasting Notes

Kenwood Jack London Vineyard Zinfandel 2006

June 28, 2009 Jim/VINEgeek Leave a comment

Kenwood JackLondon Zin bottle I’ve really liked this wine in the past and saw it for a good price recently and picked it up. I’m always intrigued by single vineyard Zins (though I don’t think these are particularly old vines). Let’s see what this vintage is like.

Producer: Kenwood Vineyards

Grapes: 100% Zinfandel

Appellation: Sonoma Valley

Vineyard: Jack London Vineyard (on Sonoma Mountain with southeasterly exposure, red volcanic soil)

Aging: 18 months in French and American oak

Alcohol: 14.5%

Price: I think I paid around $18

Production: 6,335 cases

My tasting notes: Right off the bat I’m noticing that the color is rather thin for a Zin. Hmm. Not what I expected. On the nose, I get sweet pipe tobacco accenting the red fruit cherry/berry aromas. I’m smelling the alcohol a bit too, which is worrying. In the mouth it feels pretty plush, which isn’t what I expected after seeing the color. Flavors are red fruit, like in the nose, but with an appealing note of fruit skin — like cherry or plum, or even peach maybe. There is a meatiness coming through as well.

Score: All in all, I enjoyed this wine. It took some time to open up — the second glass was much better than the first — but it came through in the end. Not a stop-the-presses value, but a nice bottle. B/B-

Free association: Amy Winehouse (thin and high in alcohol)

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Packaging: It’s a pretty cool-looking bottle. There is no paper label; the image and text is printed right on the bottle. The big wolf-head apparently was Jack London’s bookplate logo for many of his books, including the middle-school classic Call of the Wild. Also on the back there is a cool quote from Jack London writing about this very vineyard land in 1913:

“I ride over my beautiful ranch. Between my legs is a beautiful horse. The air is wine. The grapes on a score of rolling hills are red with autumn flame. Across Sonoma Mountain, wisps of sea fog are stealing. The afternoon sun smolders in the drowsy sky. I have everything to make me glad I am alive…”

Jack London Vineyards (Photo by Lance and Erin via Flickr)

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