Tag Archives: 2007

Price: 16-20 bucks, Tasting Notes

Bonny Doon Syrah “Le Pousseur” 2007

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I’ll admit to having a geekcrush on Randall Grahm, president-for-life of Bonny Doon Vineyard. So take my opinion on his wines with a grain of salt. You can geekcrush on him, too, here and here and here and here and here.

FYI: “Le Pousseur” translates to “the pusher”.

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Producer: Bonny Doon Vineyard

Grapes: 100% Syrah

Appellation: Central Coast

Vineyards: Sourced from multiple growers. Hand-harvested.

Vintage: 2007

Winemaking: French oak barrels (duration unknown). Untoasted oak chips also used.

Alcohol: 13.5%

Price: $18.00 (currently $15.30 from the winery website)

Tasting notes: Gamey, peppery, floral accents grace the dark fruit on the nose. I could sniff this all night. Full and rich on the palate without being sappy. Black fruit flavors, with meaty notes, earth and more pepper. It’s got a cool-mint finish with some tannic grip.

Overall impression: This wine’s no swag. It had me from first sniff. I’m buying what Randall’s pushing. B+

Free association:

The visual symmetry between the figure in the label and this image of Eric Stoltz’s drug dealer (le pousseur, bien sur) character in Pulp Fiction makes me unaccountably happy.

More info:

CellarTracker average: 86.8 points

Price: 16-20 bucks, Uncategorized

Oddball Wine of the Week: Cline Ancient Vines Carignane 2007

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Carignane is about as unsexy as grapes get. Firstly, it’s a pretty ugly-sounding word. And have you ever heard anybody say, “My favorite wine is Carignane”? I didn’t think so. When it is used, it’s most often in blend, so today’s varietal Carignane from Cline is suitably oddball. And being “old vines” adds a little extra something. Although, now that I think about it, I bet a large portion of the Carignane that exists in California is “old vines” … because who the hell is planting Carignane these days?

Producer: Cline Cellars

Grapes: 100% Carignane

Appellation: Contra Costa County (AVA, California)

Vineyard: Blended from several lots drawn from Cline’s old old old vineyards in Oakley.

Winemaking: Stainless steel fermentation then six months in French oak (35% new)

Alcohol: 15.0%

Price: About $16

Tasting notes: It’s got a meaty/savory aroma. Intense, concentrated cherry/red berry flavors. But it seems infused with more: woodsmoke, herbs, sweet tobacco. Enough acid to rein in the plump fruit. A touch too heavy with the oak treatment, perhaps. But good juice.

Overall impression: I’m enjoying this wine. Maybe Carignane is sexy after all. B

Free association:

Get the reference? Leave a comment, Bender.

Price: 16-20 bucks, Tasting Notes

Mourvèdre Monday #23: Becker Vineyards Prairie Rotie 2007

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Mourvèdre Monday finally makes it to Texas. Becker is a big name in the Texas wine scene. I’ve tried quite a few of their wines over the years with mixed results. I had high hopes for their “Prairie Rotie” — a Southern Rhône blend of Mourvèdre, Grenache, Syrah and Carignan (though the name is a play on Côte Rôtie, which is a Northern Rhône appellation where the wines are either all Syrah or Syrah + Viognier). Let’s check it out.

Producer: Becker Vineyards,whose winery and tasting room are in the Texas Hill Country near Fredericksburg

Grapes: 68% Mourvèdre, 14% Grenache, 12% Syrah, 6% Carignan

Appellation: Texas High Plains AVA – way up in the panhandle

Vineyard: Martin Vineyard

Vintage: 2007

Winemaking: This wine spent 9 months in new American oak barrels.

Alcohol: 13.8%

Price: $16.95 on Becker’s website, but I believe I paid about a few dollars less at HEB (supermarket).

Tasting notes: This wine smells purple, grapey. Or like some imaginary Kool-aid flavor called Sparkleberry. Some sweet oak coming through pretty strong as well. Extracted, overripe berry fruit on the palate, coming across a little raw. The winery’s description promisingly mentions forest floor and herbs and coffee, but I didn’t pick up any of that in the wine. I grew bored of this very quickly.

Overall impression: A Texas winery taking pains to make and market this as a Rhône-style wine set my expectations to a way different place. I hope Becker (and others) continue working with these grapes here in Texas, but this particular wine didn’t do much for me. C

Free association:

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Oddball Wine of the Week (Slovenia Edition): Marof Beli Križ

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Here’s another Slovenian wine for the Oddball series. This one blends Welshriesling with Sauvignon Blanc. Welshriesling is not Rielsing with a funny accent. It’s an unrelated (and inferior) grape grown in places like Austria, northern Italy, and a bunch of old Iron Curtain countries: Hungary, Bulgaria, Albania and Czech Republic. According to Oz Clarke’s Grapes and Wines, it produces round, low-acid wine. Let’s see how this one comes together with Sauvignon Blanc.

Marof Beli Križ 2007

Producer: Marof

Grapes: 65% Sauvignon Blanc and 35% Welshriesling

Appellation: Prekmurje (Slovenia)

Vineyards: The name Beli Križ means white cross, which refers to an actual white cross that stands at the point where the three estate vineyards that produce the grapes for this wine come together. The vineyards are: Bodonci, Grad and Mačkovci. Soils, depending on the vineyard, are volcanic or sandy loam.

Vintage: 2007

Winemaking: Stainless steel fermentation. No oak aging.

Alcohol: 12.5%

Price: $11.83 via Garagiste

My tasting notes: The wine is very pale in color. The nose is all stone & stone fruit aromas, with a light lemony perfume. There is also a slight nuttiness. More stone and stone fruit on the palate with a lemon-lime background note and the vaguest whiff of fresh green beans. It finishes very dry with decent length. Despite the lemony citrus notes, the flavors are soft, not aggressive. To my palate on this evening, it is a bit too soft – I could use a little more brightness and acid.

Overall impression: A very drinkable and pleasant wine. Based on the blend, and what I’ve read of Welshriesling, I can’t help but think that I would enjoy the wine more with a higher percentage of Sauvignon Blanc. But it would be interesting to share with someone who finds most Sauvignon Blanc too aggressive and see what they think. Bonus points for getting to use a new diacritical mark on the blog. B-

Free association: Slovenia is in the same group as the USA in the 2010 World Cup. Their match is tomorrow. Let’s hope their defense is as soft as this wine.

More info:

Other reviews at: CellarTracker (mean: 87.7), Cork’d and The Ancient Geek.

Price: Over 20 bucks, Tasting Notes

Mourvèdre Monday #14: Calcareous Estate Reserve 2007

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This wine was shared with me by Mike Castleman, whom I met via Twitter. He heard about my Mourvèdre Monday series and recommended this wine to me. When we realized we were both in Austin, we planned to meet up and taste it together. Thanks, Mike!  I’ll have to return the favor soon. (Mike makes wine, too. Check him out at Castleman Cellars.)

For those of you who read my comment-reply in the last post and are expecting a bad wine review here this week, this ain’t it. I’ve lost my notes on the wine I had planned to post this week, so I substituted this one. As for the wolf dog wine, I’ll keep my trap mouth shut on that for now in case I find my notes.

Calcareous Estate Reserve Mourvèdre 2007

Producer: Calcareous Vineyard

Grapes: 100% Mourvèdre

Appellation: Paso Robles (AVA, California)

Vineyards: The winery has a single block of Mourvèdre amongst its estate vineyards on a limestone outcropping in Paso Robles’ Westside hills.

Vintage: 2007

Winemaking: French oak (time and % new not specified)

Alcohol: 15.9%

Price: $42 from the winery

My tasting notes: Juicy, sweet blackberry/blueberry aromas, with a big dose of oaky-vanilla and cinnamon. On the palate, the blackberry fruit is very intense and extracted, but smoothed out by the creamy mouthfeel. It’s like a blackberry cobbler with whipped cream. But there is also a wet earth and crushed rock sort of minerality at the back end that adds interest. Despite the 15.9% a.b.v., I don’t really notice any heat.

Overall impression:  A very confected style of Mourvèdre, but very seductive and fun to drink. This one will appeal to a lot of people, I think. B/B+

Free association:

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

More info:

185 cases produced

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Mourvèdre Monday #10: Nabuko 2007

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This is the tenth installment of Mourvèdre Monday. Click here for the other posts in the series.

We return to Spain for this week’s Mourvèdre Monday post. And not only back to Spain, but back to the producer of Week 1’s wine: the Barahonda 06 Monastrell. This is another wine in their lineup – this one blended with Syrah.

Producer: Señorio de Barahonda

Grapes: 50% Monastrell (Mourvèdre), 50% Syrah

Appellation: Yecla (DO, Spain)

Vineyards: High-altitude (2339 feet)

Vintage: 2007

Winemaking: A brief stint (3 months) in French oak

Alcohol: 14%

Price: $15

My tasting notes: On the nose, I get smoky wild berry fruit with aromatic herbs. A bit of cranberry juice cocktail and earthy minerality. It feels alive in the mouth with a prickly acidity, almost like your mouth feels after eating Pop Rocks. It dances across the tongue rather than coating it. The flavors are a bit richer and darker than that would suggest: plummy and chocolatey – almost like a chocolate soda. The green/herbal note from the nose sticks around here as well. On day 2, it’s drinking very nicely. That initial prickly-ness is gone and the wine has smoothed out and feels more “complete”.

Overall impression: Another enjoyable Monastrell – this one a bit more interesting and nuanced than some of the others. Not sure it’s a “No Brainer” like the label says (that’s what the NB stands for in the picture below), but worth checking out. B


Free association:

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fragmented/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

More info:

90 points from Parker: “The 2007 Nabuko is a blend of 50% Monastell and 50% Syrah aged for three months in French oak. Purple-colored, the aromatics feature fragrant blueberries and blackberry. This is followed by a chewy, layered wine with spicy blue and black fruits and mineral notes making an appearance. Long and rich, this tasty, balanced effort can be enjoyed over the next 4-5 years.”

More reviews at Johnston Spissinger Wine Blog, Honolulu Wine Scene and CellarTracker.

Price: 16-20 bucks, Tasting Notes

6th Sense Syrah 2007: I See Fruit Bombs

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Producer: Michael~David Winery

Grapes: 84% Syrah and 16% Petite Sirah

Appellation: Lodi (AVA, California)

Vineyards: no info

Vintage: 2007

Winemaking: The wine spent 20 months in French oak (% new unknown)

Alcohol: 15%

Price: $17 at the online store

My tasting notes: The wine starts off with sweet blueberry and blackberry cobbler aromas along with smoke and tobacco notes. It actually reminds me of a cobbler you’d buy at a BBQ restaurant here in Texas, which always ends up permeated with the wood smoke from sitting around the restaurant. The wine is soft in the mouth, almost flabby, with very ripe berry fruit and sweet oak flavors. There is an interesting slightly earthy note at the end, but not enough to keep this from coming across as a definite fruit bomb.

Overall impression: This wine has some yum-factor, but is just not a style I want to drink very often. But I could see a lot of people liking the fruit-forwardness of it so it might be one to serve at a backyard BBQ or party. For me, tonight, it’s a C+.

Free association:

SXSW Salt Lick BBQ Trip by CC Chapman.

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

More info:

Other reviews at Wine Harlots, Gabe’s View, and The Wine Snob.

I received this wine as a press sample from the winery.

Price: 10 bucks or less, Tasting Notes

Oddball Wine of the Week: La Mano Mencía

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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

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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: 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.