Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Shiraz Tastes Good: Penfold’s Thomas Hyland Shiraz 2006

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Aussie Shiraz is approaching Merlot-backlash territory in terms of becoming a wine style that some people wouldn’t be caught dead drinking (à la Sideways). Maybe that’s just in wine geek circles (not sure I have the most objective perspective on these things), but that’s where it starts, right?

But there’s usually a reason a wine style becomes popular: it tastes good. And that’s what we have here, folks. A Shiraz that tastes good. If you like wine that tastes good, give it a try.

Producer: Penfold’s, the Thomas Hyland series

Grapes: Shiraz (presumably 100%, though Penfold’s website doesn’t have current tech sheet)

Appellation: Adelaide (Australia)

Vineyards: It appears to be a blend from across the region, though no detail is provided on the bottle or website.

Vintage: 2006

Winemaking: They state on the website that there is some new oak used for this wine, but the latest tech sheet they provide is for the 2003 vintage, which states used French and American barrels were used. So who knows.

Alcohol: I failed to note it before recycling the bottle. And, again, the website let me down.

Price: About $12

My tasting notes: Nice, intense nose full of dark berry juice, white pepper and other spices, along with some stemmy/dusty notes. On the palate, the wine delivers dense dark fruit (spiced plum comes to mind) and soft, polished tannins. It may be a bit jammy, but there is some snap to it. It has decent length with an almost cinnamon gum finish.

Overall impression: I would happily drink this again. It may not be a cerebral wine, but it’s very tasty and a nice example of its type, in my opinion. B

Free association: You know what else just tastes good? Hot dogs.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebusybrain/ / CC BY 2.0

More info:

If you like 90-point validation, this wine got a 91 point review from The Wine News.

Other reviews at CellarTracker (avg: 88)


Price: 10 bucks or less, Tasting Notes

Oddball Wine of the Week: La Mano Mencía

4 Comments

This is the second appearance of the Mencía grape here in the Oddball series. The first was the terrific Viña Caneiro 2007 Ribeira Sacra. But this one is from Bierzo, another northwestern region of Spain.

La Mano Mencía Roble 2007 Bierzo

Producer: Vinos de Arganza

Grapes: 100% Mencía

Appellation: Bierzo (DO, Spain)

Vineyards: No info on the bottle or website, but if you watch the video below the vines are head-trained and look to be pretty old.

Vintage: 2007

Winemaking: 3 months in “secondhand” American oak barrels

Alcohol: 12.5%

Price: $9-10

My tasting notes: The nose on this wine is swimming with rocky, gravely minerality. The red fruit aromas are mouthwateringly juicy with a slight herbal edge (thyme, perhaps). In the mouth it’s medium weight with blueberry, cherry and other red fruit flavors. The tannins are pretty firm and the first glass comes across as pretty austere. It smoothes out by the second glass and I’m enjoying it much more.

Overall impression: Certainly not up to the standard of the Viña Caneiro 2007 Ribeira Sacra, but it’s much cheaper and easier to find. If Mencía is a new grape to you and you want to try one, this wouldn’t be a bad option. Be sure to give it a good couple of hours of air. B-

Free association:

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/floato/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

More info:

An interesting video from Axial Wines (the importer) about the wine.

90 points – Jay Miller in The Wine Advocate

Other reviews at CellarTracker (mean: 80, median: 83), Cork’d (avg: 89), BeerAndWineReviews.net (85) and originalverkorkt (heck if I know – it’s in German!).

Price: 10 bucks or less, Tasting Notes

Mourvedre Monday #8: Castaño Monastrell 2007 Rosado

6 Comments

A recent post over at Benito’s Wine Reviews got me thinking about rosé. I need a reminder every once in a while. Almost every time I drink one, I think, “Why don’t I drink this more often?” Then I go back to my reds and whites. So, as I was contemplating what to pull from the cellar for this week’s Mourvedre Monday post, I thought of this rosé (or, more properly, rosado – though they use the term rosé on the back label). I’ve been on the hunt for the red Monastrell from Castaño, which has been recommended to me by several folks following Mourvedre Mondays. I haven’t found it yet in my local shops, but I did come across their rosé, which is how this ended up in my cellar to begin with. I haven’t done a rosé yet in this series, so it seemed like good timing. Let’s check it out.

Producer: Bodegas Castaño – a major producer in Yecla, owning about 10% of the vineyard land in the DO

Grapes: 90% Monastrell, 10% Garnacha

Appellation: Yecla (DO, Spain)

Vineyards: Limestone soils. 25-30 year old vines.

Vintage: 2007

Winemaking: Stainless steel aging (based on 08 info; no info on website about 07)

Alcohol: 13%

Price: Around $10

My tasting notes: The color is quite red for a nominally pink wine. Kinda like the color of red wine in TV sitcoms. (You ever notice that?) It smells like it’s going to be a sweet wine — kind of a burnt sugary thing — but with some good juicy strawberry and raspberry aromas. Also some Slim Jim on the nose (Oh Yeeeeah!). Good weight in the mouth and some strawberry and apple skin notes, but some slightly oxidized flavors as well. Pretty awkward overall.

Overall impression: Not an especially pleasurable beverage. You can do way better than this. C-

Free association: The kind of rosé an undiscerning Stormtrooper might order.

Photo credit: Greg Easton Photography (via Flickr). Be sure to check out the whole Adventures in Stormtrooping series and his other toy collections (prepare to lose an hour or two of your life!).

More info:

Imported by Eric Solomon.

Reviews at CellarTracker (avg: 81) and another at Chicago Vines Society, who liked it more than me.

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Hanna Sauvignon Blanc 2008 RRV

2 Comments

Producer: Hanna

Grapes: 100% Sauvignon Blanc

Appellation: Russian River Valley (AVA, California)

Vineyards: From estate vineyards across RRV: Slusser 53%, Ricioli 11%, Brooks 11%, Gann Family 9%, Chalk Ridge 8%, Jensen Lane 3%, Crinella 2%, Mirabelle 1% and Gianquinto 1%. (I know all that vineyard detail doesn’t tell you much about the wine, but I can’t resist including it when the winery provides it on the website.)

Vintage: 2008

Winemaking: Stainless steel fermentation. 25% Malolactic fermentation. No oak — aged in stainless steel on the lees.

Alcohol: 13.8%

Price: $15

My tasting notes: Grass, melon and a very nice ripe pineapple note on the nose. It is quite tropical on the palate, with a good lemon-lime zippiness. Despite the crisp acidity it manages to feel slightly plush in the mouth and has good length.

Overall impression: A fruit-forward Sauvignon Blanc in the New Zealand mold. One of the better Cali SBs I’ve tried it a while. B

Free association: Pineapple and grass…

More info:

90 points from Wine & Spirits.

Other reviews at Wine Witch and Cellar Tracker (avg. 86.8).

Price: Over 20 bucks, Tasting Notes

Mourvèdre Monday #7: Gros’Noré 2006 Bandol

2 Comments

Through six weeks of the Mourvèdre Monday series, one would be pardoned for wondering why I didn’t name it Monastrell Monday, as four of the first six wines were from Spain, where Monastrell is the name for this grape. Finally, in week 7, we make it to Bandol. This is the most important region for Mourvèdre in France. Really, it’s the only AOC where it plays a dominant role. So let’s see what Bandol brings to the table.

Producer: Domaine du Gros’Noré

Grapes: 80% Mourvèdre, 15% Grenache, 5% Cinsault

Appellation: Bandol (AOC, France)

Vineyards: Hillside vineyards with clay soil and 20 year-old vines.

Vintage: 2006

Winemaking: This wine spent 18 months in big ol’ 60 hl foudres. A foudre is a large oak cask. Sixty hectoliters is about 25 times bigger than a typical 225 liter Bordeaux-style barrique, which the common size for many wineries, New World and Old, that are trying to impart significant oak character.

Alcohol: 15%

Price: $34.40 at Spec’s in Austin

My tasting notes: Kirsch and Chambord on the nose with scrubby, herbal notes and a touch of meatiness. Intensity and structure on the palate. Red fruit and spice. Firm, dry tannins. Good earthy, mineral finish with solid acidity. There is a bit of grittiness to the texture (it’s unfiltered). The 15% alcohol definitely shows at the end, but it sort of reinforces the overall manly-man character of this wine.

Overall impression: This is not elegant stuff. This is Fight Club. This is Braveheart. This is the wine I’d want to drink before storming the castle. (I really hope that’s not a euphemism for some sexual act.) It’s a big, badass Bandol. B/B+

Free association:

More info:

Imported by Kermit Lynch.

A great post at Under the Grape Tree pairing this wine with a bluesman I wasn’t familiar with: Otis Taylor.

I almost went with this for free association:

Price: 10 bucks or less, Tasting Notes

Mourvèdre Monday #6: Wrongo Dongo 2008

8 Comments

I intended to avoid Spain for this week’s Mourvèdre Monday. Three of the first 5 installments have been Spanish Monastrells and I wanted more variety. I had my sights set on opening either a Bandol or an Aussie bottle in my cellar. But I’ve been sick since last Monday and I’m just getting back to relative normalcy. I decided to open the cheapest bottle of Mourvèdre I have on hand, in case my palate wasn’t quite ready (it was fine). I know very little about this bottle other than it’s from the same producer as the Juan Gil 2007 I liked quite a bit. Oh, and it cost me less than six bucks so what did I have to lose? Next week I’ll do my best to bring something serious to the party.

Producer: Bodegas Juan Gil

Grapes: 100% Monastrell

Appellation: Jumilla (DO, Spain)

Vineyards: no info

Vintage: 2008

Winemaking: no info

Alcohol: 15%

Price: I paid $5.71 at Spec’s in Austin.

My tasting notes:  On the nose it kind of pings around from Robitussin to earth & black pepper to blueberry-scented magic marker. On the palate it’s smooth-textured with dried cherry and blackberry fruit, a mineral component that makes me think of a wharf and a bit of a chocolate note at the end. Like many of the other reviews linked below, I get the black tea astringency. It’s kinda of like an unsweetened blackberry-flavored tea.

Overall impression: I don’t know that I’m really digging this one. If you’re looking for super-cheap bottles that aren’t bad, give this one a try. But for me, I’d rather drink something else. C

Free association:

More info:

88 points Jay Miller for Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate.

Other reviews at Palate Match, Fermented Reviews, The Small Wine Review, CellarTracker (avg. 81 pts) and Cork’d.

Anybody know the story behind the name? If so, please share.

Price: 16-20 bucks, Tasting Notes

Chateau Raspail 2007 Gigondas

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My apologies in advance for the sketchy details on this bottle. There’s not much info on it to be found online. I’ve had a draft of this post sitting around for a while and I didn’t think I’d bother posting it, but I’ve been sick for a while and haven’t been drinking any wine so you, dear readers, get the dregs.

Producer: Chateau Raspail

Grapes: The blend is not noted on the bottle or the website. But according to chateauneuf.dk (a very comprehensive Danish website on Rhône wines) it is 60% Grenache, 30% Syrah and 10% Mourvèdre. Let’s consider that as approximate.

Appellation: Gigondas (AOC, France).  Gigondas is in the southern Rhône valley region, and was originally entitled to just the Côtes du Rhône name, but in 1966 was upgraded to Côtes du Rhône-Villages, then in 1971 to it’s own AOC.

Vineyards: I can’t really make much from what’s on the chateau’s website about the vineyards. Some hillside vineyard land and some in the plain.

Winemaking: Chateauneuf.dk says it’s aged in tanks.

Alcohol: 15%

Price: I paid around $15-16 at Costco

My tasting notes: Deep, eggplant-purple color. It starts off a bit closed (to be fair, I did pop-n-pour), but with time it opens nicely to display some bright red fruit, dusty floral notes and a hint of green algae (reminding me of my dad’s tropical fish aquarium). In the mouth, it balances high-toned red fruit with a meaty/earthy character and finishes with grippy tannins and some heat (note the 15% abv).

Overall impression: Nice stuff. Somehow I’m feeling a little disappointed though. I was expecting more from the step up to Gigondas. But a good bottle, nonetheless. B-

Free association:

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/60852569@N00/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

More info:

Other reviews at  CellarTracker.

Here’s the chateau’s website if you want to try to read it. The black text on dark maroon background was not a great choice, mesdames et messieurs.

Price: 16-20 bucks, Tasting Notes

Two Angels Petite Sirah 2006

4 Comments


Producer: Two Angels

Grapes: 100% Petite Sirah

Appellation: High Valley. This is an AVA within the Lake County AVA in California.

Vineyard: The grapes are sourced from Shannon Ridge Vineyards at nearly 2200 feet, which they claim are the highest in California. (It’s not called High Valley for nothing.)  Soils are volcanic and gravelly. A nice bit of vineyard chest-beating here from the Shannon Ridge website.

Vintage: 2006

Winemaking: 10 months in 30% new French oak barrels and the rest in 1-3 year French and American.

Alcohol: 14.3%

Price: $15.99 at Costco in Austin (though it’s $24.99 from the winery)

My tasting notes: The wine is an inky black-violet in the glass, as expected from Petite Sirah. On the nose, I get mixed berries, with blueberry standing out. Also a bit of tar. In the mouth it’s more blueberry joined by blackberry and some spice/black pepper notes, but also a slight savory character, like roast beef with herbs. This is definitely a background note though, the berry fruit predominates. It’s a bit hollow to me in the mid-palate, though. And the tannin profile starts off softer than I expect in PS, then later in my notes I wrote “green woody tannins”.

Overall impression: It didn’t deliver quite the oomph I expected from Petite Sirah, but it’s not a bad bottle. Probably not something I’d recommend at the price, though. B-

Free association: The Two Angels name put me in mind of Charlie’s Angels. This wine is like Kate Jackson – clearly not the top choice, but you could do a lot worse. (Jaclyn Smith was always my favorite. Which was yours?)

Kate Jackson is on the left for you Millennials.

More info:

90 points from Wine Enthusiast

Here’s a photo from the Shannon Ridge Vineyards website of the Petite Sirah block (prior to planting). Notice the slope.

Uncategorized

Wine Terms As Band Names

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The other day, I saw this t-shirt in a shop window on Sixth Street here in Austin:

SELL YOUR COMPUTER BUY A GUITAR.  My first thought was “How would I blog? Could I write songs with tasting notes for lyrics?” (Terrible idea, I know.) Also, I don’t think VINEgeek would make a great band name. Perhaps VINEgeek and The Indigenous Yeasts? VINEgeek and the Dijon Clones? VINEgeek and The Screwcaps?

That got me thinking about wine-related terms that could work as band names. Some starter ideas below. Please add yours in the comments.

Phylloxera – Great name for a metal band, right?

Punchdown – This sounds like an early 2000s post-grunge, “alt”-rock band like Candlebox, Silverchair or Collective Soul.

The Other 46 – This wine blog’s name could work as a band name in the what-the-hell-does-that-mean tradition à la Matchbox 20 or Seven Mary Three.

Noble Rot – Goth-rock à la Evanescence.

Steen – The South African name for Chenin Blanc fits in nicely with the monosyllabic rock band names like Rush, Styx, Yes, Queen, Tool, Korn, etc.

Mataro – Sounds like an indie-rock band from the Midwest.

Frizzante – A new project from John Frusciante?

Fiddletown – This California AVA sounds ike a Charlie Daniels tribute band.

Primitivo – Some world music group (Grupo Primitivo, perhaps?) playing pan flutes and bongos.

Price: Over 20 bucks, Tasting Notes

Mourvèdre Monday #5: Edward Sellers Cognito 2006

8 Comments

It’s back to California for today’s Mourvèdre Monday post, specifically Paso Robles. Though I first fell in love with Mourvèdre via the old vines examples from Contra Costa County, Paso Robles is a hotbed of Rhône grape-growing in California. Edward Sellers is a Rhône-style specialist in Paso, with a focus on blends vs. varietal bottlings (though not exclusively). This bottle, which they call Cognito, is a CdP-style blend of Mourvèdre, Syrah and Grenache with some Zin added for a California flair. Let’s check it out.

Producer: Edward Sellers

Grapes: 45% Mourvèdre, 20% Syrah, 20% Zinfandel, 15% Grenache

Appellation: Paso Robles (AVA, California)

Vineyards: no info

Vintage: 2006

Winemaking: 100% neutral French oak.

Alcohol: 14.9%

Price: I paid $29 at Spec’s in Austin.

My tasting notes: The nose is throws a punch of raspberry fruitiness and cherry cola, with a bit of creamy vanilla and a touch of mocha. On the palate, it’s fat and fruity, mostly red fruit again. A hint of minerality if you’re really searching for it, and a peppery note at the finish. Despite Mourvèdre being the largest share of the blend, I don’t get much of what I really enjoy from Mourvèdre-based wines: structure, meatiness, earthy/savory qualities.

Overall impression: This is another one where I was not digging the first glass, but it evened itself out by the second glass into something closer to my liking. In the end, though, it’s not something I’d buy again, not at nearly $30. C+

Free association:

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/warmnfuzzy/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

More info:

576 cases produced.

grand cru geekery