Archive
Daily Glass: Value Wines Project – Portugal Wins Over Italy
Here are the next two wines in the Value Wines project. First is the wine from Italy, 2007 Poggio Morino Rosso Maremma Toscana IGT ($9.98). When talking about wines of Tuscany, first wine which comes to mind is typically a Chianti, which is made mostly from the grape called Sangiovese. However, starting in the 70s, most prominent (and expensive) wines in Tuscany are so called super-tuscan wines, which are made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah and other “non-typical” for Tuscany grapes (which produce truly amazing wines).
This particular Poggio Morino Rosso is a blend of 40% Syrah, 30% Sangiovese, and equal parts of Alicante, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The wine has nice ruby color, nice nose with the hint of earthiness, medium body. It can work well as everyday wine, and as many Italian wines it would go better with the food. As it didn’t exhibit any particular “umph”, Dinkability is 7.
Second wine is coming from Portugal, from the region called Lisboa, and it is 2008 Casa Santos Lima Portas de Lisboa ($6.98). This wine is a blend of Castelao, Touriga Nacional (main grape in production of Port), and Syrah. This wine showed very nice nose of crushed red fruit, and on the palate… on the palate it was playful, living substance. Very good acidity, soft but noticeable tannins, good amount of red fruit, spices and tobacco. From the spices, the most pronounced was cloves, which was then leaving the way for leather and hint of white pepper. This wine deserves Drinkability of 8-, and this is the wine to get by the case.
So far our value wines project is trending upwards in the tasting profile , which makes me happy. I hope the trend will continue!
Daily Glass: Value Wines Project – E.Guigal Cotes du Rhone
Continuing the value wines explorations, the next wine is 2007 E. Guigal Cotes do Rhone ($10.99 at the same Bottle King). E.Guigal is a very good producer making great wines in both Northern and Southern Rhone. While I keep dreaming of La Landonne (1985 vintage – Wine Spectator 100 points, many wines are rated at 99), regular E. Guigal Cotes du Rhone wines are typically quite good as well.
2007 was one of the greatest vintages in Cotes du Rhone, and it is showing through many different wines. This particular 2007 E. Guigal Cotes du Rhone wine (87 rating from Wine Spectator) showed off quite well. Dark ruby color, with good nose of red fruit, extremely concentrated on the palate. Even on the second day, the initial layer of soft fruit was intercepted by aggressive cherry pit spice with undertones of pepper, slowly mellowing down to a nice wine.
This wine needs time to fully open up, so it can safely spend a few years in the cellar. At this point, I would give this wine Drinkability rating of 7 – but again , this might improve quite rapidly.
So far we have 2 good wines under $11.99 – and this story will be continued…
Daily Glass: Value Wines Project
It is great when your wine budget is unlimited – no doubts. But this is typically not the case. Are you destined to drink bad and boring wines in such a case? I believe the answer is no – and to test it, I decided to try different wines with only one common characteristic – none of them should cost more than $11.99 for regular size bottle.
Finding good wines in this price range is not easy – there are only some regions which will deliver decent wines in that category. For instance, I wouldn’t look for Californian wines – in that price range I find many wines literally indistinguishable and boring. Same with Chile and Australia. Don’t get me wrong – there is plenty of great value wines coming from Chile, Australia or California – but you really have to cross that $12 border line.
Where do you look for value? I believe Portugal, Italy and France can provide what we are looking for, so – here I go. To implement this project, I went to Bottle King store in Glen Rock, New Jersey, which is a part of Bottle King chain of liquor stores. Bottle King has great selection of reasonably priced wines from Portugal, Italy, France and of course many other regions. I got there a number of wines in the $3.98 to $11.99 range, which I will be reporting on in this series.
First wine in the series happened to be 2009 Ciconia, an Agarones/Syrah/Touriga Nacional blend from Alentejano region in Portugal, priced at $6.98. The wine had beautiful dark purple color. On the nose, it had a scent of fresh red berries, with the touch of pepper. On the palate it was nice young wine, a bit jammy at the beginning with red and dark fruit and hint of pepper and leather coming in the second wave. The wine had good acidity and a bit sharpness on the edges, which should mellow out as it will age. Definitely excellent wine for the price. Should be good with food, and should cellar nicely for another 3-4 years (or at least I think so). I will put Drinkability at 7+.
Pretty good for the beginning – I can only hope that the next bottle will be as good or better. Don’t worry, you will be the first to know…
Last Bottle Sign Up ($10 credit)
Talk-A-Vino 