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The Year of Mourvèdre

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At the beginning of a new year, I have usually tried to pick a focus for my wine drinking in the upcoming year. This year I considered a number of regions that have been intriguing me:

  • Portugal
  • Montsant (Spain)
  • Northern Italy
  • Washington

I’m sure I’ll be seeking out stuff from these regions this year, but in the end I’ve decided to make Mourvèdre my focus. I’ve been a fan of this grape for a long time and I recently noticed that almost every wine I reviewed on my blog that included Mourvèdre in the blend was a winner. Picking a grape instead of a region will also allow me to include wines from lots of places I love: the Southern Rhône, the old-vines stuff in California, the GSMs of Australia, the Monastrell in Spain. Plus, Bandol and other parts of Provence – areas I’ve not had much experience with.

Now this doesn’t mean VINEgeek will be all Mourvèdre, all the time in 2010. My plan is to start Mourvèdre Mondays in the next couple of weeks. With weekly posts, I’ll make it through 50 or so Mourvèdre wines over the course of the year. That ought to help me get to know this grape better. I hope you’ll join me.

If you have a favorite Mourvèdre-based wine you’d like to see me try, leave a comment.

Wineries: If you have a Mourvèdre-based wine you’d like me to include in Mourvèdre Mondays, see the Sample Policy.

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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?

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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

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Duck Hunt = Duckhorn

Duck_hunt_pic

DuckhornMerlotLabel

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Frogger = Frog’s Leap

frogger

Sauvignon Blanc master

~~~

Punch Out = Mollydooker ‘The Boxer’

PunchOut

Mollydooker_TheBoxer_label

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Oddball wine series

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I’m going to start a new series on the blog focusing on oddball wines. Oddball might mean an uncommon grape variety, an unusual blend, an out-of-the-way region, a variety in an unexpected location (French Zinfandel?) or an unusual production method. Now, I’m sure that sometimes a few of you will think a wine is not so odd (“I drink Australian Gargenega every week”), but I’ll aim for stuff that I expect 9 out of 10 of you (and probably me, too) won’t have ever tasted.

I’m still looking for a name for this series. What should I call it? Oddball Wine of the Week? Weird Wine Fridays? Any ideas?


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Introducing the VINEgeek Free Association Mosaic

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If you’ve read any of my posts, you’ve noticed that after the tasting notes and overall assessment I include a “free association”. It’s usually an image of some sort (sometimes a song or video) that conveys something about the wine. Sometimes its very literal, like a photo of pink balloons for a rose wine that had a balloon aroma. Other times it’s more figurative, like a photo of the ‘Darth Tater’ Mr. Potato Head figure for a wine that struck me as dark but friendly. Either way, this is the most fun part of writing posts for me, and I hope you like them too.

I thought it would be fun to assemble all these images in one place, so I’m introducing a new page on the site…

The VINEgeek Free Association Mosaic

FreeAssocMosaic_Screenshot(Click screenshot above to check out the actual page.)

It makes for an interesting collection of images, I think. And, I hope, it piques your curiousity and makes you want to click around to discover the wines behind the Sea Monkeys ad, the Iron Man comic cover or the deep-fried Oreos.

There will be a link to it at the top of the blog and I plan to keep it up-to-date.

What do you think? Fun or foolish?

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Lodi Old Vines Zin Wrap-up

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I tasted through 5 old vines Zins from Lodi over the past week or two hoping to find a few winners and learn a bit about the style.

Part 1: Spellbound Old Vines Zinfandel 2005 Lodi

Part 2: Ravenswood Old Vines Zinfandel 2006 Lodi

Part 3: Gnarly Head Old Vines Zinfandel 2006 Lodi

Part 4: Campus Oaks Old Vines Zinfandel 2007 Lodi

Part 5: Plungerhead Old Vines Zinfandel 2007 Lodi

So how did it go and what did I learn?

1. The clear winner was the Ravenswood. It was a damn fine wine for less than $12, showing great fruit, but also some real character: richness, earthiness, depth and structure.

2. But overall, I was a bit disappointed with the wines. I was expecting the old vines to translate into wines with lots of intensity and complexity, with interesting secondary flavors and a sense of terroir. Instead, I feel like the intensity I got was in the sweetness of the fruit (though not necessarily residual sugar in the wine, with the exception of the Campus Oaks). I used terms like candied, overripe, jam, cream soda, and Hawaiian Punch to describe these wines. Perhaps you need to move up the price curve (these were $10-17) to get real character, even if the wines are from old vines. Or perhaps Lodi is too hot to produce wines with structure to rein in the fruit.

3. Lastly, 3 of the 5 wines specified the age of the vines on the bottle: Spellbound at 52 years; Gnarly Head at 35-80 years, and Campus Oaks at 90 years. I think it’s bad form to use the term “old vines” and not specify the age, especially given that there are no regulations about it’s use. So come on Ravenswood and Plungerhead: how old is old?

Hope you enjoyed the series. Perhaps sometime soon I’ll do another old vines Zin series from another appellation. Thea Dwelle’s terrific post on Zinfandel at the brand spanking new Palate Press gives me some good ideas. But if you have a recommendation, leave a comment. Where have you found great old vines Zin in the under $15 range?

Update (11/09/2009): Since I only found one real winner here, I’ve been on the lookout for examples. I came across a post from Frederic Koeppel over at Bigger Than Your Head reviewing 12 other Lodi Zins. He, too, found more dogs than winners, but I thought I’d point you there for some other options. Several of them are quite a bit more than the “everyday” price range I focused on for my series, but not all of them. Check it out.