Megan over at Wannabe Wino has rounded up all the posts for last week’s Wine Blogging Wednesday #60 – I Have Zinned.
You should check it out. I discovered lots of great wines to seek out (I never knew Washington was producing serious Zin) and blogs to revisit.
Thanks again to Megan for a great topic (and for letting me participate with a post that was a few weeks old!).
I’ve been drinking a lot of the “new-fangled” Spanish wines lately, but it’s been a little while since I’ve had a Rioja. Let’s see what this one’s got under the hood.
Producer: Marques de la Concordia
Grapes: 100% Tempranillo (I haven’t been able to find total confirmation of this, but several references to it for other vintages, at least on retailer websites)
Appellation: Rioja (D.O.C., Spain)
Vineyards: calcareous clay, hillside vineyards
Aging: 18 months in new French & American oak casks (This is a Crianza, which means it was required to spend at least 1 year in oak)
Alcohol: 13.5%
Price: $11.40 at Spec’s in Austin
My tasting notes: Grapey-purple, not opaque. On nose, I first get a lot of sawdust, but with coaxing the berry fruit shows up. First glass, drunk soon after pulling the cork, seemed hollow. Second glass better. The oak is coming through a bit harsh. Fruit is there, some plum and blueberry. A touch of spice. Finishes a bit creamy.
Assessment/score: Changed a lot as it breathed. First reaction was that I didn’t like it so much. Then I’d find myself thinking, why didn’t I like this before. Then I’d be back to thinking it just isn’t satisfying. I’m settling on… meh. C
Free association:
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/infinitewilderness/ / CC BY-NC 2.0
Another blogger’s take on this wine is here (End of the Vine).
More people’s tasting notes at CellarTracker.
In honor of Wine Blogging Wednesday #60 – I Have Zinned, I’m digging up a post on Zinfandel and BBQ from last month. Enjoy!
I’ve opened several bottles from Cline recently and I was in the mood for this Mourvèdre. Cline is one of the few Cali producers that focuses on this grape and they’ve got some historic old vines to work with.
Producer: Cline Cellars
Grapes: Mourvèdre (100%, I think … but it’s not stated on the label or tech sheet)
Appellation: Contra Costa County
Vineyards: While Contra Costa County is generally very hot, the vineyard site for this (and other Cline wines from the appellation) are cooled at night by the adjacent San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers.
Aging: 10 months in American oak (25% new), dark toast, before being transfered to neutral barrels.
Alcohol: 14.5%
Price: I don’t recall what I paid for through the club, but these usually retail around $15.
My tasting notes: Candy on the nose, plus mint and maybe tobacco. More candied fruit on the palate. Like if Now & Later made a flavor called “chocolate-covered sugarplum.”
Assessment/score: The old-vine intensity manifests in a very candied way which is a bit “too much.” I don’t recall this in past vintages of this wine. For me, this is a C+ tonight. I’d drink it again (it may mellow with more time in bottle), but if I were buying, I’d look for other vintages. I’ll look forward to trying the ’06 or ’07.
Free association:
After recently enjoying a rosé, the Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare 2007, and asking myself why I don’t drink pink more often, I picked up another — this time from France.
Producer: Chateau Routas
Grapes: 40% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 30% Cinsault
Appellation: Coteaux Varois en Provence (AOC, France).
Vinification/Aging: [from the producer’s website] The grapes are cooled and kept on their skins for 12 to 24 hours immediately following harvest, then gently pressed. All the Syrah and half of the Grenache go straight to neutral oak barrels after being pressed where they go through their primary and malolactic fermentation. The remaining Grenache and Cinsault are fermented in stainless steel tanks and blocked from malolactic fermentation. The two different lots are aged separately for five months and blended prior bottling.
Alcohol: 13%
Price: I paid $11 at Spec’s in Austin.
My tasting notes: Very nice salmon/apricot color. On the nose, I’m struck first by soapy aromas, like a heavily-scented hand soap — Wild SugarBerry Blossom, or something like that. There’s a bit of crayon box, too. And slightly oxidized aroma like sherry. Maybe I have an off bottle. Mrs. VINEgeek adds that there is a “creek water” element to it. In the mouth, it comes across somewhat sugary on the initial attack, like sugar-coated strawberries and raspberries, followed by bit of that oxidation I smelled (though not so much as to make it unpalatable). It has good acid and finishes dry.
Overall assessment/score: I hesitate to give this a score since there’s a chance I got an off bottle. Even without the possible oxidation, I think it was a bit out of balance. For my palate, this is not nearly as nice as the Vin Gris de Cigare. Here are some other people’s thoughts. Also, Wine Spectator gave it an 87.
Free association:
Capcanes Mas Donis Barrica 2005 Montsant
Even though I try not to be a score-shopper (“90+ only, please!”), it’s hard to pass up a 91-pointer for under $12 from an up-and-coming appellation: Montsant. It’s a relatively new Spanish D.O., formerly a sub-region within the Tarragona D.O. It essentially surrounds the Priorat D.O., which is home to many high-dollar cult wines. Like Priorat, Montsant is planted mostly to Garnacha (Grenache) and Cariñena (Carignane). Let’s check it out.
Producer: Celler de Capçanes
Grapes: 85% Garnacha, 15% Syrah
Appellation: Montsant (D.O., Spain)
Vintage: 2005
Vineyards: 80+ year old Garnacha vines and 30+ year old Syrah vines
Aging: 8-9 months in new and old French and American oak “barricas”
Alcohol: 14%
Price: I paid $11.60 at Spec’s in Austin
My tasting notes: This wine brings a lot to the table aromatically. There are berries at the core, but draped with layers of violets, clove, cedar, tar, Swiss Miss hot chocolate powder. I even caught a kind of a swampy smell. In the mouth, it’s pretty rich with jammy berries and spices, and a pleasant minerality. It gets a little hot & prickly at the end, but not too bad.
Assessment/score: Very interesting wine for the price. It could easily pass for a $20-25 bottle, I think. Worth seeking out. B
Free association:
Robert Parker has given this wine 90+ points in several of the last 5 or 6 vintages. Here are his notes on this 2005:
“It offers up an expressive nose of slate, mineral, licorice, violets, black cherry, and blueberry. Layered, long, and complex, this spicy, hedonistic effort has 2-3 years of aging potential but can be enjoyed now without guilt. It is a great value.”
Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate
91 Points
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.)
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.
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.
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:
More details on Bonny Doon’s sell sheet for this wine here.
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:
