After having a very nice Rueda Verdejo last week, this bottle caught my eye when I was at the wine shop. I opened it for tonight’s penne with pesto, potatoes and green beans.
Importer: Jorge Ordonez – If you’re ever stuck at a wine shop and not sure what to get, head to the Spanish section and look for this logo on the back label. (Any wine he imports is worth a shot.)
Grapes: 100% Verdejo
Appellation: D.O. Rueda, Spain (map). The home of Verdejo.
Vineyards: no info
Winemaking/aging: no info
Alcohol: 13%
Price: $11
My tasting notes: A little waxy on the nose with lemon, faint tropical fruit and a little metallic twang. On the palate, I get more lemon, unripe peach and a little spice. Good mouthfeel, it finishes with nice acidity without being tart.
Overall assessment: Not bad at all. It’s a good crisp white wine that’ll go well with lots of food. (It was nice with the pesto pasta dish). If you’re looking for a Rueda Verdejo, though, I like the Valdelainos better. B-
Free association:
More info:
Gary V. tasted this wine on WLTV. Also, check out the episode with Jorge Ordonez.
Appellation: D.O. Rueda, Spain (map). The home of Verdejo.
Vineyard: from an estate vineyard named “Fuente Elvira” – gravel and sand over a red clay sub-soil
Winemaking/aging: aged 2 months in stainless steel on the lees.
Alcohol: 13%
Price: Don’t remember exactly what I paid, but it’s in the $10-12 range.
My tasting notes: Juicy/mouth-watering nose of grass and citrus. Smells like a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. More of the same on the palate with some apples joining the party, along with a faint minerality. As it warms in the glass, I start to pick up more melon: honeydew and underripe canteloupe. Very crisp and fresh and perky.
Overall assessment: Just a great little wine. Many of the New Zealand SBs that this is similar to have crept up in price closer to the $15 price point. This gives you a similar experience for a few bucks less, with a little extra geek-cred. “House white”-worthy. B+
Free association: For some reason, this wine reminds me of the The Cosby Show theme song (circa Season 4 – it changed quite a bit over time).
This is Part 5 of my Lodi Old Vines Zin series. Part 1 was Spellbound 2005, Part 2 was Ravenswood 2006, Part 3 was Gnarly Head 2006 and Part 4 was Campus Oaks 2007. In the next few days I’ll post my overall takeaways (pardon the corporate-speak) from this series.
The last wine I picked up for this Lodi Old Vines Zin series turns out not to be from old vines (I just read the label wrong), so I needed to pick up a replacement. (I didn’t want to end on that Campus Oaks.) I ran into Spec’s and scanned the Zin selection for something that fit the series and wound up with this bottle. It’s a little over the initial price range I specified ($10-15), but I wanted to check this odd closure and was hoping I’d be able to end the series on a high note.
Plungerhead Old Vines Zinfandel 2007 Lodi
Producer: It’s actually a little confusing. The brand is obviously Plungerhead, but it’s from Don Sebastiani & Sons and also sits in their The Other Guys sub-brand.
Grapes: Zinfandel (no indication on label or website whether it’s 100% or a blend)
Appellation: Lodi
Vineyards: No info other than they’re old vines.
Winemaking/aging: No indication on label or website.
Alcohol: 14.9%
Package: Cool label and funky name, though certainly pushing the gimmicky angle. It has a Zork closure. This was my first encounter with a Zork. I must be dense, because I had a lot of trouble with it. You tear off this wraparound piece then you’re left with a plastic cap and a short little plastic “cork” sticking into the bottle neck. I don’t know what you’re supposed to do then. I tried just pulling it off to no avail. I tried wiggling it back and forth – nope. I resorted to jamming a knife under the lip of the cap and prying it up. Uh, if you aren’t going to use a cork, just use a screwcap, please. [Gary V. at WLTV did an episode on wines with a Zork closure and he had a much easier time than I did. Apparently, I’m just a doofus.] Also, since I hadn’t seen a Zork closure before, I assumed it had something to do with the brand Plungerhead. I mean, it’s a red rubbery cap – it seemed to be a part of their shtick. So I accepted it in that context, but I don’t think I’d like it, aesthetically, on any old bottle.
Price: $17 at Spec’s in Austin
My tasting notes: This wine has an aggressive nose of creamy red berries, cedar and sweet tobacco. Very oaky. The palate is loaded with more vanilla creaminess, like a cream soda mixed with dark cherry juice. Some spice shows up at the end and some heat, like cinnamon red-hots soaked in vodka.
Overall assessment: I’m going to coin a new term for this wine: it’s a “froak bomb” [fruit + oak – restraint]. Having said that, it’s tasty. It’s like deep-fried Oreos: you may not serve them at a dinner party (do people still have dinner parties?), but you don’t mind scarfing a few down at the fair. B-
Vineyards: The grapes are sourced from vineyards averaging 90 years old.
Winemaking/Aging: There is no indication of the oak treatment on the label or the winery’s website.
Alcohol: 14.5%
Price: I paid $14 at Central Market in Austin
My tasting notes: Whoa – the color on this is very light. It looks like a White Zinfandel that skipped a few showers. I literally could read the newspaper through it (trust me, I actually did it). Hmm, I’m worried. The nose has a nice raspberry creme note, but there’s a lot of sweetness coming through and a bit of the alcohol. On the palate, I get red fruit and even some overripe peach, wrapped in vanilla creaminess, but I find it soft and flabby and in need of some acid or tannic backbone. Definitely some residual sugar, too.
Overall assessment: Different strokes for different folks. This wine is not for me. D+
Free association: Seems like it would be a winner on a bachelorette party wine tour bus.
This is Part 2 of my Unoaked Chardonnay face-off: Toad Hollow Unoaked Chardonnay 2007 Francine’s Selection (Part 1 was the Clos LaChance Unoaked Chardonnay 2007 Monterey County.)
I didn’t know this before I starting researching this post, but Toad Hollow is one of the pioneers of unoaked Chardonnay in the US, their first vintage being 1993. So I’m glad I picked this one up; it should serve as a good benchmark. The only caveat is that they employ malolactic fermentation (MLF) while the Clos LaChance does not.
Producer: Toad Hollow
Grapes: 100% Chardonnay
Appellation: Mendocino County (AVA, California)
Vineyards: 90% Mendocino County and 10% from Sonoma County
Winemaking: No oak aging (9 months in stainless steel tanks), but it does get 100% MLF and 8 months on the lees.
Alcohol: 13.9%
Price: About $12
My tasting notes: A bit more golden than the Clos LaChance, but less so than most Chards. It’s a little tight on the nose – once it warms up a bit I get melon, a bit of tangerine and a sort of plastery aroma. More melon on the palate with a pleasantly rich/viscous/oily mouthfeel from the MLF. I wouldn’t describe it as crisp, though it’s not flabby either. Lingering finish, but the flavor you’re left with is a little odd, actually. (I don’t get the same spice notes I got from the Clos LaChance, which were confusing me.)
Overall assessment: I really went back and forth on this one. Compared to the Clos LaChance, it is not as expressive of fruit, but it is perhaps more interesting overall. I still didn’t get the crisp green apple zing I was expecting this unoaked Chardonnay experiment to produce. In the end this is a pleasant and interesting wine, but the aftertaste is a bit off-putting, which keeps this from scoring better. C (I certainly wouldn’t go this far.)
Free association: “Lost in our convictions, lips stained with wine / As the sun sank west of the Mendocino county line” – Mendocino County Line by Willie Nelson/Lee Ann Womack. (YouTube video here)
Unoaked Chardonnay Summary: I may have to extend this little series. These two left me disappointed. I think there are steelier, crisper, zingier examples out there that might appeal to my palate more. Perhaps you need to move up the price ladder to find good ones. After all, without the buttery/oaky “makeup”, the quality of the fruit is all the more important. If you have any recommendations, please leave a comment.
This is Part 1 of a series of posts on Unoaked Chardonnay. (Part 2 — the Toad Hollow 2007 Mendocino County — is here)
Unoaked is the way the cool kids are drinking Chardonnay these days. I decided I’d pick up two widely available bottles this week and compare and contrast them. The first one I opened was the Clos LaChance Unoaked Chardonnay 2007 Monterey County.
Actually, the full name of this wine is: Clos LaChance Glittering-Throated Emerald Unoaked Chardonnay 2007 Monterey County (that’s quite a mouthful!). The folks at Clos LaChance have a thing for the hummingbird “due to its territorial nature and ability to chase away the grape-eating birds from the vineyards.” So they have a series of wines called The Hummingbird Series each named after a type of hummingbird they think reflects the wine in some way. I kinda like this idea except that you end up with some pretty awkward wine names: Clos LaChance White-Tufted Sunbeam Sauvignon Blanc, Clos LaChance Pink-Throated Brilliant Rosé, Clos LaChance Crimson Topaz Meritage.
Back to the wine…
Producer: Clos LaChance
Grapes: 100% Chardonnay
Appellation: Monterey County (AVA, California) (map)
Vineyards: 50% from the Riverview Vineyard near Soledad in the cooler northern half of the Salinas Valley. 50% from the San Lucas Vineyard (in the San Lucas AVA sub-appellation) in the warmer southern end of the valley. These are not estate vineyards, they are owned by Scheid Vineyards.
Winemaking: Stainless fermentation, no malolactic fermentation (MLF) and no oak aging.
Alcohol: 13.5%
Price: Around $10
My tasting notes: Color is a bit less golden than most (oaked) chards, more like a pilsner. On the nose, I note pineapple and pear and a spiciness I would normally associate with oak. Hmm… has my brain permanently linked chardonnay with oak to the point that I can’t disassociate the two? In the mouth, I get more spiced apple/pear and pineapple and a prickly/raw mouthfeel that (again) I would normally attribute to oak treatment. It certainly doesn’t have the buttery quality of oaky/MLF chards, though. Still, I’m starting to question my assumptions about what oak does and doesn’t contribute to a wine. I will need to compare to the other unoaked chard I picked up and see if I’m just imagining things.
Overall assessment: When I think unoaked Chardonnay, I expect crisp apples. I got apples, but not enough crispness for my palate. If you’re not going to give me crispness, seduce me with richness — but to be fair, that’s not the goal of this unoaked Chard either. Ultimately, I’d say this is a serviceable white. Certainly not a bad wine, but not something I’d seek out, and (unless my palate was just playing tricks on me) not a great representation of unoaked Chardonnay. C
Free association: Not what I expected…
Note: I am NOT suggesting that the winery is misleading the buyer in any way, just that what I tasted was not what I expected.
So what do you think? Have you ever had this experience with an unoaked Chardonnay? Are spice notes a common characteristic of Chardonnay sans oak? Am I crazy? Leave a comment and let me know.
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.
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.
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.
Old vines…ten bucks…Eric Solomon…you don’t have to twist my arm. Let’s get into it.
Producer: Altavinum
Grapes: 100% Garnacha
Appellation: Calatayud (D.O.); Northeastern Spain
Vineyards: High altitude vineyards (2400-3000 feet) in the mountainous village of Atea. Pure slate soils. Old vines “planted up to 100 years ago.”
Aging: tank, no oak
Alcohol: 14.5%
Importer: Eric Solomon
Price: I paid $9.98 at Spec’s in Austin
My Tasting Notes: Deep plummy purple with a bit of fuchsia at the edges that seems common with Grenache. Unusual nose. Not a ton of fruit. I mostly pick up a strong maple syrup/antifreeze note. A little mint and stone. With more time in the glass I start to pick up raspberry. In the mouth it is medium-bodied and lively with mashed berry flavors. Maybe a little golden raisin. Very pure and clean. Very little tannins, but good minerality and acid provide structure. Nice, interesting little bottle for ten bucks. The minerality in this is what makes it a winner for me at this price point.
After having a very nice Rueda Verdejo last week, this bottle caught my eye when I was at the wine shop. I opened it for tonight’s penne with pesto, potatoes and green beans.
Producer: It’s actually a little confusing. The brand is obviously Plungerhead, but it’s from 
Producer: Campus Oaks (Gnekow Family Winery)
Producer: Chateau Routas
Picked this up on a whim at the grocery store for a spaghetti and meat sauce dinner.
Maybe because I had just posted about the 
