September 19, 2007
WINES OF THE TIMES
Happiness for $10 or Less
By ERIC ASIMOV
HOW much do you want to spend on a bottle of wine? The intuitive answer, of course, is as little as possible. That stands to reason, except that the way people buy wine is anything but reasonable.
For most consumers, wine-buying is an emotional issue. The restaurant industry has a longstanding belief that the lowest-priced wine on the list will never sell. Nobody wants to be seen as cheap. But the second-lowest-priced wine, that’s the one people will gobble up.
Buying retail is a slightly different experience. Most people don’t feel as if their retail purchases are windows into their ignorant, miserly souls, the way they do in restaurants, and so are less inhibited.
Still, rationality doesn’t often enter into buying decisions. For some, money is meaningless, whether that’s true because of huge credit lines, daddy’s millions or success in business. These people will buy whatever is most expensive. Others, in a vinous form of anti-intellectualism, insist that no wine can be worth more than — pick your figure — and that only dupes will spend more.
Whichever the case, the issue of value — the ratio of quality to price — rarely enters into it.
Leave it to the Dining section’s wine panel to try to fill this vacuum. In a tasting of 25 red wines all $10 or under, we tried to pick out not only the best bottles but also the best regions to explore for good values.
Let’s face it, you can find hundreds if not thousands of bottles in this price range, down to the lowest of the low. We cannot try them all and say, “Here are the 10 best.” But we can give you some suggestions as to where to look, while offering up some good examples.
For the tasting, Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Jill Roberts, a portfolio manager for Valckenberg, an importer of German wines, and Chris Goodhart, the wine director of Balthazar in SoHo.
Frankly, the $10-and-under price range may represent the cheapest wines, but I feel the best values are in the $10-to-$20 range, where you can find sensational wines made by small producers using traditional techniques. These sorts of wines are much harder to find at $10 and under.
But this is September, that time of the year when the reality of summer vacation bills dims the hope of Christmas splurges, so right now every dollar helps. Here’s what we know:
In today’s winemaking world, there’s no excuse for bad wines. Technology and knowledge have reached the point where any wine ought to be purchased without fear of a spoiled or tainted bottle. Even Two-Buck Chuck is palatable, though I wouldn’t insult you by telling you it’s good. The exception is corked wines. Regardless of cost, bad corks can elude even the most meticulous examination.
While consumers can expect all wines to be palatable, finding interesting ones is another matter. Mass-producing inexpensive wine is a lot easier than creating wines with personality. In this price range, the great divide is between wines you can drink and wines you want to drink.
The wines we recommend are gulpable and satisfying with a modest level of intrigue. You cannot expect much complexity at this level, or subtlety. But you can hope for something more than the most basic, and you can strive to avoid wines that are obviously confected or manipulated to achieve a predetermined set of characteristics.
Our No. 1 wine, the 2002 Padre Pedro from Casa Cadaval in the Ribatejo region of Portugal, is a case in point. This wine indeed had personality, with cherry fruit, spice and smoke flavors and enough tannin to give it structure. Alas, the Padre Pedro may be hard to find now, because Casa Cadaval has changed importers since this vintage. But in general Portugal is an excellent source for good, inexpensive wines, especially those from the Douro and those, like the Padre Pedro, from the Ribatejo region.
This wine is labeled Ribatejano, which is a wine that comes from Ribatejo but doesn’t follow the appellation’s rules. It’s made from an unlikely mixture of grapes, including cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir, alicante bouschet and castelão, a Portuguese grape known in other parts of the country as periquita.
Likewise, our No. 2 wine, the 2005 Domaine de l’Ameillaud, doesn’t fit into established categories. It is labeled a Vin de Pays de Vaucluse because the grapes come from vineyards just outside the Côtes-du-Rhône zone. Nonetheless it is fresh and attractive with typical Rhone flavors buttressed by just enough tannin to keep the wine lively. For great values in French wines, it pays to look outside the more popular appellations.
In Spain, too, the best deals generally come from little-known areas like Montsant or Toro. Our No. 3 wine, the 2005 Viña Gormaz tempranillo, is an exception. It comes from a backwater in an established region, the Ribera del Duero in Spain, and is made by a little-known producer, Gormaz, that until 2004 was the growers’ cooperative. It all adds up to an unpretentious, juicy wine for $9.
Surprisingly, the ’06 Beaujolais-Villages from Georges Duboeuf, the best-known wine in the tasting, did well. I say surprisingly because Duboeuf’s less expensive Beaujolais can often taste candied or artificially sweet, but this one was delightful.
You might wonder why I haven’t mentioned any American wines. We did taste six American wines, along with five from Italy, four from France, three from Spain, two from Portugal, and one each from Australia, South Africa, Uruguay, Argentina and Greece.
I don’t usually think of American wines as great values. Too often the producers try to imitate expensive wines using artifice — mediocre cabernet sauvignon flavored with oak chips, for example — rather than making more honest wines from lesser grapes.
Nonetheless, two American wines made our list, the 2005 Wyatt cabernet sauvignon and the 2004 Ravenswood merlot, a pretty good showing.
Probably the biggest surprise in our tasting was the 2006 Domaine Monte de Luz from Uruguay, which is sort of the Toledo Mud Hens of the major winemaking leagues.
But hold on. Uruguay may have a lot in common with Argentina, although its winemaking is not yet at Argentina’s level. But Uruguay has not been at it as long.
Nonetheless, just as Argentina has focused on malbec, an obscure grape from southwestern France, Uruguay grows a lot of tannat, an obscure grape also grown in Madiran in southwestern France as well as in the Basque region. This wine was a little rough and rugged, yet distinctive and interesting. Try it with a steak, preferably grass-fed.
Tasting Report: Structure and Personality, With a Small Price Tag
Casa Cadaval Portugal Ribatejano , $8.99, ***
Padre Pedro 2002
Smoke, earth, cherry and spice flavors in a well-structured Old World wine (Importer: HGC Imports, San Jose, Calif.).
Domaine de l’Ameillaud France , $9, ** ½
Vin de Pays de Vaucluse 2005
Mild tannins with attractive, lingering flavors of berry, cassis and olive (David Bowler Wine, New York).
Viña Gormaz Spain Ribera del Duero , $9, **
Tempranillo 2005
Fresh and juicy with a lively spiciness (Classical Wines, Seattle).
Georges Duboeuf France , $9, **
Beaujolais-Villages 2006
Juicy, fruity and floral. Decent Beaujolais best served chilled (W. J. Deutsch & Sons, Harrison, N.Y.).
Altas Cumbres Argentina Mendoza , $9, **
Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
Lingering, jammy flavors of cherry and licorice (RV Distributors, Hoboken, N.J.).
Wyatt California Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 , $10, **
Big and almost over the top with dark fruit, oak and spice flavors.
J. Vidal-Fleury France , $10, **
Côtes-du-Ventoux 2005
Aroma of burnt rubber gives way to flavors of bitter cherry and spices (W. J. Deutsch & Sons, Harrison, N.Y.).
Domaine Monte de Luz , $7, **
Uruguay Tannat 2006
Rich and plummy with smoky, spicy cherry flavors (Baron Francois, New York).
Ravenswood California Vintner’s Blend , $10, **
Merlot 2004
Fruit, floral and spice flavors; straightforward and pleasant.
Paringa , $9, * ½
South Australia Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
David Hickinbotham Individual Vineyard
Big and powerful with berry, oak and fruit flavors (Grateful Palate Imports, Oxnard, Calif.).
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
The Little Penguin
Brand: The Little Penguin
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2005
Origin: Southeastern Australia
Haha, so I'm going to admit, up front, that the label was just too adorable to NOT try. Plus, I do like Australian wines, in general, and Pinot Noir in specific. This was a very drinkable wine, a bit spicy, but overall, went down REALLY smooth. On the cheaper side, definitely - this wine was clearly aiming for the masses. I read an article awhile back about how wine labels influence women more than men (we're more aesthetically inclined) and I can see the targetting efforts quite clearly (this is what business school will do to you!). The wine went alright with my dinner (yes, sometimes I do have them) which was some pot roast, mashed potatoes and gravy - but I'm guessing it'd pair well with any beef dish. Mediocre, but a still a good value for the price.
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2005
Origin: Southeastern Australia
Haha, so I'm going to admit, up front, that the label was just too adorable to NOT try. Plus, I do like Australian wines, in general, and Pinot Noir in specific. This was a very drinkable wine, a bit spicy, but overall, went down REALLY smooth. On the cheaper side, definitely - this wine was clearly aiming for the masses. I read an article awhile back about how wine labels influence women more than men (we're more aesthetically inclined) and I can see the targetting efforts quite clearly (this is what business school will do to you!). The wine went alright with my dinner (yes, sometimes I do have them) which was some pot roast, mashed potatoes and gravy - but I'm guessing it'd pair well with any beef dish. Mediocre, but a still a good value for the price.
Friday, September 7, 2007
The 'Sideways' Effect
*stolen from the Wall Street Journal
TASTINGS By DOROTHY J. GAITER AND JOHN BRECHER
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher write "Tastings," the weekly wine column of The Wall Street Journal. They also are the authors of "Wine for Every Day and Every Occasion," "Love by the Glass: Tasting Notes from a Marriage" and "The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine." A complete revision of that book, called "The New and Improved Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine," was published in September 2002. Ms. Gaiter and Mr. Brecher have been married since 1979. Ms. Gaiter was a national reporter and editor covering issues of race for the Journal from 1990 to 2000. Mr. Brecher was Page One Editor of the Journal from 1992 to 2000. They began writing "Tastings" in 1998 and became full-time wine columnists in 2002.
Charting the 'Sideways' Effect
What a Moment In the Spotlight Did For U.S. Pinot Noir
September 7, 2007; Page W3
Given its rocky history in America, we were surprised to discover a few years ago that Pinot Noir under $20 had become a far better bet than American Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot at that price. But that was BS -- Before "Sideways." We hadn't conducted a broad blind tasting of inexpensive American Pinot produced after that 2004 movie made this once-underappreciated grape trendy and cool. In our experience, wines that suddenly become popular often suffer for it, with winemakers pumping out oceans of bad stuff to try to catch the wave. Has this happened to Pinot? We lined up more than 50 bottles to find out.
By now, Pinot's story in the U.S. is well-known. The great grape of red Burgundy, which tends to be finicky and enjoys cooler weather, was dismissed in the U.S. for decades. But as winemakers found the right places to grow it -- a process that is continuing -- it finally gained respect. California began producing some high-end, world-class Pinots as well as some surprisingly good examples under $20. Oregon is making its reputation on Pinot. In the midst of all of this came "Sideways," with its Pinot-loving anti-hero and his famous quotation: "It's thin-skinned, temperamental, ripens early. It's not a survivor like Cabernet that can just grow anywhere and thrive even when it's neglected. ...Only when someone has taken the time to truly understand its potential can Pinot be coaxed into its fullest expression. And when that happens, its flavors are the most haunting and brilliant and subtle and thrilling and ancient on the planet."
Who wouldn't want to try a wine like that? The result: Interest in Pinot has risen dramatically. There's more of it than ever on shelves. Americans are even checking out Pinots from other New World wine producers, with New Zealand making a big push for its Pinot.
In tastings in both 2003 and early 2005, we found that there was a great deal to like about Pinot under $20 from the 2000 to 2003 vintages. While top American Pinot and fine Burgundy have layers of haunting complexity and a velvety texture that seems to flow right into the more romantic reaches of our souls, the less-expensive wines offer simpler delights: bright fruit, good acidity, easy drinkability and wide compatibility with a huge array of foods, from salmon and roast chicken to braised short ribs.
Oregon on the Rise
Or at least that was the case. Is it still? We bought 50 wines that cost about $20 or less from California and Oregon to find out. We picked up wines from the 2005 and 2006 vintages, both because they are most widely available and because these often are meant to be drunk young and fresh. We focused on names you're most likely to see, but added a few from more-obscure wineries as well. The first pleasant surprise was how many examples we found from Oregon. While Oregon is producing some outstanding Pinot at the high end, we hadn't found many inexpensive examples in the past. This time, about 15% of our sample came from Oregon. As always, we were not looking for "America's best Pinot," but were trying to get an overall sense of the state of the art under $20. (We decided to be a little flexible on the $20 limit because we found so many wines bumping right against that price where we shopped and it turned out that a more-representative price would be slightly higher.)
Having completed the blind tasting over several nights, we're back with good news, and a whole bunch of asterisks. The good news is that Pinot continues to be consistently reliable. While there were few wines that hit heights, a large number were bright, fun, easy and bursting with good fruit. Unlike Merlot, Cabernet and many other inexpensive reds both from the U.S. and elsewhere, these were not oaky, not sweet and not heavy. If you are at a wine shop or a grocery store looking for an interesting, tasty red for dinner, we'd continue to urge you to head to the Pinot Noir aisle.
Our best of tasting, to our surprise and delight, was Robert Mondavi. That classic winery went through a very rough period for a while and was sold in 2004 to giant Constellation Brands. The wine we tasted, the 2005, was classy, rich and tasted expensive, which gives us hope that the Mondavi name, under the new owners, might once again be ready to shine. Here's the first asterisk, though: We paid $19.99 for this at a store in New Jersey, but, when checking prices nationwide later, found that it's generally more.
Our two other favorites that rated Very Good were also interesting surprises, for different reasons. One was an organic wine from Frey Vineyards. We have written before about the tremendous strides in organic and organically grown wines and this was one of the best we've had -- fresh, real and delightful. But as the label of this wine points out, storage is especially important with wines with very low sulfite levels so these need to be bought from a good merchant who has kept them well and should be consumed early. (See our recent column about organic wines.)
The Time is Now
Our other favorite was an utter delight from Willamette Valley Vineyards. In our notes, we described it as "Beaujolais-like" because of its jazzy color and vibrant, just-picked tastes. That wasn't coincidence. It turns out that this was made in a special way -- carbonic maceration, in which fermentation takes place within whole, unbroken grapes -- that is best-known for giving Beaujolais its fresh, fruity, drink-me-now tastes. This was a lovely bottle, but will never be better than it is today.
The biggest, and most troubling, asterisk of the tasting became apparent as we catalogued our favorites at the end. While the 50 wines represented prices all over the map, all but two of our favorites cost $15.99 or more. In fact, one-third of our nine favorites cost more than $20 in many stores. This is quite different than the results in previous tastings and makes us a bit worried that Pinot's popularity has caused a price run-up that could keep it from being an everyday treat. We will keep a very close eye on this.
But that brings us to one last point: Because of the big surplus of wine in France, some American wine producers now bottle French wine under their American labels. As we looked around for our Pinots for this tasting, we were surprised to find Pinot Noirs from Camelot, Echelon and Beaulieu that looked just like they always did -- except for the "Vin de Pays" in small letters at the bottom of the label, which shows it's actually a French wine. They were generally less expensive than the American Pinots and the Beaulieu, especially, was an excellent deal at $7.47. It reminded us of the simple, no-nonsense, highly gulpable wines we drank this summer at cafés in Paris, and it's hard to give a wine a higher compliment than that.
In a tasting of American Pinot Noir around $20 or less from the 2005 and 2006 vintages, these were our favorites. We paid less than $20 for Mondavi, Willamette Valley and Frei, but their more-representative prices are higher.
VINEYARD/VINTAGE
PRICE
RATING
TASTERS' COMMENTS
TASTINGS By DOROTHY J. GAITER AND JOHN BRECHER
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher write "Tastings," the weekly wine column of The Wall Street Journal. They also are the authors of "Wine for Every Day and Every Occasion," "Love by the Glass: Tasting Notes from a Marriage" and "The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine." A complete revision of that book, called "The New and Improved Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine," was published in September 2002. Ms. Gaiter and Mr. Brecher have been married since 1979. Ms. Gaiter was a national reporter and editor covering issues of race for the Journal from 1990 to 2000. Mr. Brecher was Page One Editor of the Journal from 1992 to 2000. They began writing "Tastings" in 1998 and became full-time wine columnists in 2002.
Charting the 'Sideways' Effect
What a Moment In the Spotlight Did For U.S. Pinot Noir
September 7, 2007; Page W3
Given its rocky history in America, we were surprised to discover a few years ago that Pinot Noir under $20 had become a far better bet than American Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot at that price. But that was BS -- Before "Sideways." We hadn't conducted a broad blind tasting of inexpensive American Pinot produced after that 2004 movie made this once-underappreciated grape trendy and cool. In our experience, wines that suddenly become popular often suffer for it, with winemakers pumping out oceans of bad stuff to try to catch the wave. Has this happened to Pinot? We lined up more than 50 bottles to find out.
By now, Pinot's story in the U.S. is well-known. The great grape of red Burgundy, which tends to be finicky and enjoys cooler weather, was dismissed in the U.S. for decades. But as winemakers found the right places to grow it -- a process that is continuing -- it finally gained respect. California began producing some high-end, world-class Pinots as well as some surprisingly good examples under $20. Oregon is making its reputation on Pinot. In the midst of all of this came "Sideways," with its Pinot-loving anti-hero and his famous quotation: "It's thin-skinned, temperamental, ripens early. It's not a survivor like Cabernet that can just grow anywhere and thrive even when it's neglected. ...Only when someone has taken the time to truly understand its potential can Pinot be coaxed into its fullest expression. And when that happens, its flavors are the most haunting and brilliant and subtle and thrilling and ancient on the planet."
Who wouldn't want to try a wine like that? The result: Interest in Pinot has risen dramatically. There's more of it than ever on shelves. Americans are even checking out Pinots from other New World wine producers, with New Zealand making a big push for its Pinot.
In tastings in both 2003 and early 2005, we found that there was a great deal to like about Pinot under $20 from the 2000 to 2003 vintages. While top American Pinot and fine Burgundy have layers of haunting complexity and a velvety texture that seems to flow right into the more romantic reaches of our souls, the less-expensive wines offer simpler delights: bright fruit, good acidity, easy drinkability and wide compatibility with a huge array of foods, from salmon and roast chicken to braised short ribs.
Oregon on the Rise
Or at least that was the case. Is it still? We bought 50 wines that cost about $20 or less from California and Oregon to find out. We picked up wines from the 2005 and 2006 vintages, both because they are most widely available and because these often are meant to be drunk young and fresh. We focused on names you're most likely to see, but added a few from more-obscure wineries as well. The first pleasant surprise was how many examples we found from Oregon. While Oregon is producing some outstanding Pinot at the high end, we hadn't found many inexpensive examples in the past. This time, about 15% of our sample came from Oregon. As always, we were not looking for "America's best Pinot," but were trying to get an overall sense of the state of the art under $20. (We decided to be a little flexible on the $20 limit because we found so many wines bumping right against that price where we shopped and it turned out that a more-representative price would be slightly higher.)
Having completed the blind tasting over several nights, we're back with good news, and a whole bunch of asterisks. The good news is that Pinot continues to be consistently reliable. While there were few wines that hit heights, a large number were bright, fun, easy and bursting with good fruit. Unlike Merlot, Cabernet and many other inexpensive reds both from the U.S. and elsewhere, these were not oaky, not sweet and not heavy. If you are at a wine shop or a grocery store looking for an interesting, tasty red for dinner, we'd continue to urge you to head to the Pinot Noir aisle.
Our best of tasting, to our surprise and delight, was Robert Mondavi. That classic winery went through a very rough period for a while and was sold in 2004 to giant Constellation Brands. The wine we tasted, the 2005, was classy, rich and tasted expensive, which gives us hope that the Mondavi name, under the new owners, might once again be ready to shine. Here's the first asterisk, though: We paid $19.99 for this at a store in New Jersey, but, when checking prices nationwide later, found that it's generally more.
Our two other favorites that rated Very Good were also interesting surprises, for different reasons. One was an organic wine from Frey Vineyards. We have written before about the tremendous strides in organic and organically grown wines and this was one of the best we've had -- fresh, real and delightful. But as the label of this wine points out, storage is especially important with wines with very low sulfite levels so these need to be bought from a good merchant who has kept them well and should be consumed early. (See our recent column about organic wines.)
The Time is Now
Our other favorite was an utter delight from Willamette Valley Vineyards. In our notes, we described it as "Beaujolais-like" because of its jazzy color and vibrant, just-picked tastes. That wasn't coincidence. It turns out that this was made in a special way -- carbonic maceration, in which fermentation takes place within whole, unbroken grapes -- that is best-known for giving Beaujolais its fresh, fruity, drink-me-now tastes. This was a lovely bottle, but will never be better than it is today.
The biggest, and most troubling, asterisk of the tasting became apparent as we catalogued our favorites at the end. While the 50 wines represented prices all over the map, all but two of our favorites cost $15.99 or more. In fact, one-third of our nine favorites cost more than $20 in many stores. This is quite different than the results in previous tastings and makes us a bit worried that Pinot's popularity has caused a price run-up that could keep it from being an everyday treat. We will keep a very close eye on this.
But that brings us to one last point: Because of the big surplus of wine in France, some American wine producers now bottle French wine under their American labels. As we looked around for our Pinots for this tasting, we were surprised to find Pinot Noirs from Camelot, Echelon and Beaulieu that looked just like they always did -- except for the "Vin de Pays" in small letters at the bottom of the label, which shows it's actually a French wine. They were generally less expensive than the American Pinots and the Beaulieu, especially, was an excellent deal at $7.47. It reminded us of the simple, no-nonsense, highly gulpable wines we drank this summer at cafés in Paris, and it's hard to give a wine a higher compliment than that.
In a tasting of American Pinot Noir around $20 or less from the 2005 and 2006 vintages, these were our favorites. We paid less than $20 for Mondavi, Willamette Valley and Frei, but their more-representative prices are higher.
VINEYARD/VINTAGE
PRICE
RATING
TASTERS' COMMENTS
Robert Mondavi Winery 2005 (Carneros)
$23.00*
Very Good
Best of tasting. The real thing: rich, with deep, Bing cherry fruit, gentle tannins and a long, dry, pure-fruit finish. Good balance of fruit, acidity and weight. Could age a bit.
$23.00*
Very Good
Best of tasting. The real thing: rich, with deep, Bing cherry fruit, gentle tannins and a long, dry, pure-fruit finish. Good balance of fruit, acidity and weight. Could age a bit.
Frey Vineyards 2006 (Mendocino)
$15.99
Very Good
Best value. Ephemeral and very fine, with some nice Burgundy-like funkiness to add character. Very real and special. It's organic, with no detectable sulfites, so make sure it has been kept well, and drink it soon.
$15.99
Very Good
Best value. Ephemeral and very fine, with some nice Burgundy-like funkiness to add character. Very real and special. It's organic, with no detectable sulfites, so make sure it has been kept well, and drink it soon.
Willamette Valley Vineyards "Whole Cluster Fermented" 2006 (Willamette Valley, Ore.)
$22.00*
Very Good
Jammy and jazzy, like Beaujolais, and just as delightful. Pure, clean, lovely fruit that says, "Let's party!"
$22.00*
Very Good
Jammy and jazzy, like Beaujolais, and just as delightful. Pure, clean, lovely fruit that says, "Let's party!"
Beringer Founders' Estate 2005 (California)
$9.99
Good/ Very Good
Light, pleasant and very easy, bursting with fresh cherry fruit. Fun. Repeat favorite.
$9.99
Good/ Very Good
Light, pleasant and very easy, bursting with fresh cherry fruit. Fun. Repeat favorite.
Bogle Vineyards 2005 (Russian River Valley)
$11.99
Good/ Very Good
Especially good with food. Lovely, simple fruit, nicely dry with a dash of lemon, happy to be a supporting player in a meal. A good name in value-priced wine.
$11.99
Good/ Very Good
Especially good with food. Lovely, simple fruit, nicely dry with a dash of lemon, happy to be a supporting player in a meal. A good name in value-priced wine.
Chateau St. Jean 2005 (Sonoma County)
$19.99
Good/ Very Good
Rich, with some depth, mouthfeel and earth. Bigger and more serious than most, requiring more substantial food.
$19.99
Good/ Very Good
Rich, with some depth, mouthfeel and earth. Bigger and more serious than most, requiring more substantial food.
Francis Coppola "Diamond Collection, Silver Label" 2006 (California)
$17.00*
Good/ Very Good
Pleasant and comforting, with an easy delivery of black cherries and cranberries. Charming. Can take a chill. Reliable name.
$17.00*
Good/ Very Good
Pleasant and comforting, with an easy delivery of black cherries and cranberries. Charming. Can take a chill. Reliable name.
Frei Brothers "Reserve" 2005 (Russian River Valley)
$22.50*
Good/ Very Good
Quite pleasant, with lovely, ripe fruit. Some richness, earth and minerals. Real wine. Repeat favorite.
$22.50*
Good/ Very Good
Quite pleasant, with lovely, ripe fruit. Some richness, earth and minerals. Real wine. Repeat favorite.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
So I was thinking...
How do I know what "oaky" tastes like? It's not like I ever went up to an oak tree and just gave it a big lick or anything. Haha, just a funny thought. I suppose it's from a) tasting other wines described as "oaky" by proper reviewers and b) just imagining what a tree would taste like if it were mixed with fermented grapes. Somehow though, I just know what "oaky" is. One of life's "miracles", I suppose.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Yeah... I'm a wino - what of it?!
HAH! So I'm going to blog about 3 wines tonight.
1. St. Micheal-Eppan Pinot Grigio, 2006 (Appiano, Italy)
Cas brought this one home - a gift from her boss. Of white wines, Pinot Grigio is by far my favorite. This one was no exception. Fresh, crisp, with a hint of carbonation, this dry wine made my night. A little fruity (I want to say peaches), mainly it was just indescribable deliciousness - although it could have been my liberating mood as well. Goes down easy, great consistency - beautiful all round. Again, it constituted my dinner - but I bet it'd be good with a nice white fish (cod, tilapia or the like) or chicken.
2. Sutter Homes - Cabernet Sauvignon, 2001 (Napa Valley)
A cheaper wine (approx. $9), still very satisfying. Easy to drink, would most likely go great with steak or lamb. Oaky, with a bit of berry. But again, my palette is SO not developed. I'll have to look up real reviews. Definitely decent though. Good for a late night out on the balcony with some cigs (terrible I know - but yet so perfect).
3. Castoro Cellars - Blind Faith, Pinot Noir, 2005 (Paso Robles, CA)
I bought this wine for about $20 when I was camping down in Paso Robles with friends. It's a much less travelled wine area (as compared with Napa), but still very beautiful and the people are lovely (and all the tastings are free, as compared with Napa, which is a big plus). This was one of my favorites, but like I said, I'm hugely partial to Pinot Noir. Hard to describe (I'm also trying to do this from memory), it was a little bitter (but I like that) and spicy. You probably won't find it in your local liquor store - but you can buy it online.
1. St. Micheal-Eppan Pinot Grigio, 2006 (Appiano, Italy)
Cas brought this one home - a gift from her boss. Of white wines, Pinot Grigio is by far my favorite. This one was no exception. Fresh, crisp, with a hint of carbonation, this dry wine made my night. A little fruity (I want to say peaches), mainly it was just indescribable deliciousness - although it could have been my liberating mood as well. Goes down easy, great consistency - beautiful all round. Again, it constituted my dinner - but I bet it'd be good with a nice white fish (cod, tilapia or the like) or chicken.
2. Sutter Homes - Cabernet Sauvignon, 2001 (Napa Valley)
A cheaper wine (approx. $9), still very satisfying. Easy to drink, would most likely go great with steak or lamb. Oaky, with a bit of berry. But again, my palette is SO not developed. I'll have to look up real reviews. Definitely decent though. Good for a late night out on the balcony with some cigs (terrible I know - but yet so perfect).
3. Castoro Cellars - Blind Faith, Pinot Noir, 2005 (Paso Robles, CA)
I bought this wine for about $20 when I was camping down in Paso Robles with friends. It's a much less travelled wine area (as compared with Napa), but still very beautiful and the people are lovely (and all the tastings are free, as compared with Napa, which is a big plus). This was one of my favorites, but like I said, I'm hugely partial to Pinot Noir. Hard to describe (I'm also trying to do this from memory), it was a little bitter (but I like that) and spicy. You probably won't find it in your local liquor store - but you can buy it online.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Why Take Tasting Notes
I thought our pal over at 30sec really hit the nail on the head with this installment, so I decided to post it here in its entirety as inspiration:
Psst! Want to learn a wine-tasting secret from the pros? This advice is simple and easy to follow, and you don't need to dial an 800 number or pay a cent to hear it: Simply get into the habit of jotting down a quick summary of your observations whenever you enjoy a glass of wine.
Don't get nervous ... I'm not talking about anything really complicated. There's no need to worry about neat handwriting or even careful spelling or grammar. There's no required format, and you don't even have to show your notes to anyone (although I'll say more about that in just a moment).
All you have to do is get your hands on a legal tablet or steno pad - or, if it pleases you, a fancy journal or one of those trendy Moleskine notebooks with the leather-look cover - and when you taste wine, record your reactions. I suggest starting with the front and back label: Write down the name of the wine, where it's from, the vintage, and other information such as the grapes it's made from (if disclosed), the alcohol content and anything else that seems important. I like to add the price I paid and the shop I bought it from. On the other hand, lyrical back-label language from the winery's PR office can usually safely be ignored.
Then jot down your comments on the wine, step-by-step as you go through the tasting process: Observations about the color, hue, glints of light; is it cloudy or hazy, clear or transparent? Then the aromas, using whatever descriptions pop into your head. Your first impression is usually the best impression, even if it seems silly. (My wife is a master at discovering notes of "shampoo" or "modeling clay" or "silage in my father's dairy barn.") And she's usually right.
Carry on with your observations about the taste of the wine - flavor, texture, body, heat - and its aftertaste or finish. Then at the end, add any final thoughts about your overall impressions of the wine and, if you like, a rating, whether it's your best guess on a 100-point scale or a school report-card grade of A, B, C, D or F. Or just a verbal "love it," "hate it" or "not sure what I think about it."
Keep the notebook handy in case you have any afterthoughts (or to record the wine opening up or changing in the glass), and then, when the evening is past, close the book, returning to the next page another day.
What's the advantage in this? Even if you keep your notes as tightly confidential as Juliet's diary and never show them to anyone, by taking a record you're cementing the details in your memory. And just about every wine professional I know would agree that a strong tasting memory is one of the keys to training a good palate. The more you can remember about previous wines, the more effectively you can gauge each new wine you taste. It's also just plain fun to go back and browse through your old notes, and I think you'll find that reading your quickly jotted impressions of a wine long past is a surprisingly effective way to bring back detailed visual (and smell and taste) memories of happy past occasions.
Moreover, it can be very interesting indeed to go back and look up your notes on a wine when you're tasting a later vintage from the same producer a few years later. This process, indeed, inspired today's tasting, when I pulled the cork on an interesting Northeastern Italian white, Terlan 2006 Alto Adige Terlaner Classico (featured below), and compared them to my notes on the same wine in its 2001 vintage, tasted in 2003.
The label hadn't changed, but quite a bit else had: The wine had shifted from a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Bianco and Riesling Italico (Welschriesling) to Pinot Bianco, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Its style had shifted, too, from earthy and mineral-driven to a much more full-bodied, fruit-forward quaff. And I couldn't help noticing that four years had kicked up the price from $10.99 to $19.99, a price-tag inflation that significantly exceeded the rise of the Euro against the dollar. Go figure.
I didn't absolutely need any of this information, but I thought it was mighty interesting to have it. I think you will, too. If you aren't already taking wine notes, get a notebook and give it a try!
Finally, although I told you that you can keep your notes private, I'd like to take a moment to encourage you to consider sharing them with wine-loving friends, and we try to make it particularly easy to do so on our WineLovers Discussion Group online forum, where we make it a rule to encourage folks to taste, share impressions and learn in a supportive online environment.
Coincidentally, we have a couple of conversations going on right now, discussing the merits of sharing wine reports online and hashing out some issues about what happens when you post a tasting note and don't get much response. If you've been thinking about testing the waters with your first post, you might enjoy reading both of these "threads" and, perhaps, contributing a comment of your own:
• About tasting notes and responding to them:
http://www.wineloverspage.com
• Conversation vs. Information WTN
http://www.wineloverspage.com
Dive on in! The water is just right, and the natives are friendly.
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