Latest Wine News Updates
Last few days were filled with important announcements in the wine world, so I wanted to bring them to your attention just in case you missed them.
Target, one of the major department stores in the US, made the decision to catch up with success of Trader Joe’s “Two Buck Chuck” wines and announced the new wine series called One Buck Willie. The wine will retail at $1.01 and will initially include Pinot Grigio, Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, as well as “Hello Willie” Moscato. Target’s major rival, Wal-Mart countered that with their Rollback series which includes Rollback Red, Rollback White and Rollback Sweet Ending, all proprietary blends. Rollback wines will retail for $0.98 and $1.96 in the magnum size and will be available this fall at the Wal-Mart retailer near you.
According to the information leaked on Twitter by the law firm Trellis & Press, Antonio Galloni surprised James Suckling with the lawsuit a few days ago. He claimed that James Suckling’s bad influence forced him to quit his lucrative position at the Wine Advocate. The lawsuit is seeking an unspecified amount in damages, but it seems that its major target is Suckling’s exclusive collection of Barolo and full vertical of Petrus starting from 1928. James Suckling declined the request for an interview.
Chinese wine fashion finally arrived in New York, and it is all official. Coca-Cola and Chateau Latour cocktail, called CocaTour, is now served at all leading New York restaurants, and it seems that bartenders can’t make it fast enough. The cocktails are priced according to the vintage ratings, with 1947, 1961 and 1982 being the most expensive. Eying the success of the competitors, unconfirmed reports seem to indicate that Pepsi-Cola entered into preliminary talks with Domaine Romanee-Conti to endorse the new Pepsi-Cola/DRC cocktail which will be called PepsidRC. Representatives from both companies couldn’t be reached for the comment.
Riedel, the world leader in the manufacturing of the wine glasses, announced a new line of plastic glassware. In the recent interview given to National Enquirer, Maximilian Riedel admitted that customers long enough demanded high-quality plastic glassware capable of highlighting qualities of the different wines. The first release of the plastic glassware series called PlastiXtreme will include Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Port glasses, and it will be available exclusively at Costco this fall. Single-use plastic duck shaped decanter will also be available in time for holiday season.
Joe Roberts of 1WineDude fame and Gary Vaynerchuk of VaynerMedia announced their new joint venture which will be called DudeChuk. DudeChuk owners wowed to create content will be funnier than Ron Washam’s HoseMaster of Wine and Chris Kassel’s Intoxicology Report combined. Partners also plan to continue writing wine reviews not only for Playboy magazine but make them specifically white-labeled for ease of reuse by Natalie MacLean.
That’s all I have for you for today, folks! Cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #52: Oak Trivia
It’s the weekend, and here comes our new wine quiz. This time, the theme is … Oak.
As you know, oak barrels are major part of winemaking – depending on desired style of the wine, winemaker will decide on what type of the oak barrel should be used, should it be new barrel, old (previously used) barrel, American oak, French oak, how toasted the barrel should be and so on. I would roughly guess that about 80% of all the red wines and about 30% of all the white wines are made with the use of oak – if you know the exact stats, please share them in the comments section.
So below are the fine questions related to the use of the oak in the winemaking. Whether you can answer one, all five or none at all, your comment will be appreciated in any case.
Here we go.
Q1: True or false: American oak typically imparts stronger flavor than the french oak?
Q2: There are 5 major forests in France from which the oak is used in the wine making. Oak from which forest is considered least suitable for use with the wines and more used in production of the Cognac?
A. Allier
B. Never
C. Limousin
D. Troncais
E. Vosges
Q3: Troncais forest was planted by the order of Napoleon. Do you know what was the intended use of the oak trees from that forest?
Q4: True or False: The use of Oak chips is illegal in France?
Q5. True or False: When barrels are made from the trees in the same forest by the same cooperage, all the barrels will be identical and will impart flavor of the wine in the same way?
Bonus question: Which winery logo is shown on the barrel in the picture?
Have fun, good luck and enjoy the rest of your weekend! Cheers!
3/415/1863
Let me ask you a question (no, today is not Saturday and this is not a quiz post) – what do you think the numbers in the title represent?
Any ideas?
Okay, here it is.
3 years.
415 posts.
1863 comments, which translates into more than 900 dialogs.
Today is third anniversary of Talk-A-Vino blog.
This blog started on March 29, 2010 with this post. Started is somewhat of a big word, as the very next post came out almost 4 month later, on July 20th (interestingly enough, it was about Wine Century Club, same as my post from yesterday).
From there on, this blog went forward. Slowly. Sometimes, I was questioning the entire premise of this writing (believe me – I still do). Sometimes, the going was easy. And sometimes, getting a single word out was as easy as successful as convincing oneself that tooth pain is enjoyable. But – there was always something else to say. Something else to share. And the lucky day would bring a comment. An opportunity to talk and to engage, to have a dialog. I think ultimately, the dialog is what I value the most in the whole blogging paradigm. Yes, I can express myself, I’m talking about the subject I’m extremely passionate about – but I really strive for discussion, strive for dialog, strive for the feedback. Good, bad or ugly – doesn’t matter; having any feedback is much better than having none. This is why I included the number of comments as probably the only metric I care about. No, I’m not trying to lie to you – of course I look at the number of views and visitors. But – dialogs are what really matters, and it is the major reason for this blog to exist.
Okay, I think you got my point (can I please have a comment from each one of you, so I know my message went across? What, no comment? Well, please promise that you will leave one next time?).
Considering that any birthday is an opportunity to reflect, I wanted to give you my own retrospective and tell you what was planned, what worked, what didn’t work, what I liked and what I didn’t like. I dutifully scrolled through many posts, to no avail – I’m ashamed to admit, but I like a lot of them… Here is an “oenophile” mini-series – Fears of the Oenophile, Five Essential Traits of the Oenophile, Five Traps of Oenophile. And then there are Wine and Time, Wine = Art and Taste Of Wine – Engineering Approach, as well as the “wineries” mini-series – BV, Ridge, Paumanok, Chateau Ste. Michelle, … Wine quizzes, Daily Glass, Bars and Restaurants, Travel – all with pictures (can I share one more number? 1309 pictures are attached to this blog…).
Many things didn’t work as planned. My Daily Glass is very far from even weekly. My Categories are all over the place – grapes, wines, experiences and regions are all just lumped together, without any system. I don’t update pages on time (Top Wine Ratings is 5 month behind, for instance)…
Well, it is what it is. It is a live blog. And does create dialog. Thus, I’m happy. Cheers!
Spotting Rare Grapes
It’s being a while since I talked about new additions to my “grape collection”. No, I didn’t stop looking for the new grapes (I think this will go on forever), I just couldn’t get around posting about the new grape discoveries.
Actually, one of the “pushers” for this post to come out was the fact that subject of Wine Century Club became very popular in my close “blogosphere”, the blogs I’m reading on more or less the regular basis. Oliver of The Wine Getter just crossed his first hundred grapes – here is the post where he explains what makes him going with the Wine Century Club. Here is account of another blogger, GourmetVicariously – she is undertaking the Wine Century Challenge in Australia, and you follow check on her progress here.
So for my own update, I finally submitted my Quattro application, and I’m inching little by little closer to the Pentavini status. As I didn’t post on this subject for a while, today’s update includes 22 grapes, a lot of them came through after the VinItaly and Gambero Rosso tastings I recently attended. Below you will see some pictures of the wine labels, and the names of the grapes and the wines follow right after. Another challenge for me will be to update my grapes of the world table, but I will worry about it later. This same table might be a good resource for you in terms of searching of the new wines and the grapes. Also, if you are using Pinterest, please make sure to check the Wine Centurions shared pinboard, and feel free to join in and start contributing the rare grapes information. Also, if we are talking about resources for the aspiring Wine Centurions, here is the link to all the Wine Century Club posts in this blog, hope you will find it helpful.
Here are the labels:
And the grapes:
Groslot – Sparkling Brut Rose Bouvet ‘Excellence’ NV Bouvet-Ladubay
Carricante – 2010 Planeta Carricante, Sicilia IGT, Italy
Le Crescent – Boyden Valley Winery Cowtipper, Vermont
Rougeon – Palaia Joyful Pink, Hudson Valley, New York
Prensal – 2010 Binigrau Nounat Vi de la Terra Mallorca, Spain
Marquette – 2010 Lincoln Park Vineyard Maquette, Vermont
Turbiana – 2009 Lugana Superiore Il Rintocco
Malvasia di Candia Aromatica – 2011 Lusenti C.P. Malvasia Frizzante Emiliana
Caberlot – 2009 Podere Il Carnasciale Caberlot
Trebbiano Spoletino – 2010 Tabarrini Adarmando
Verdiso – Bisol Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Brut Jeio NV
Cesanese di Affile – 2010 Casale della Ioria Cesanese del Piglio Camponovo
Malvasia Puntinata – 2011 L’Olivella Frascati Superiore Racemo
Bellone – L’Olivella Frascati Superiore Racemo
Cesanese – 2008 L’Olivella Lazio Rosso “>”
Durello – Lessini Durello DOC Spumante 36 Mesi
Lambrusca di Sorbara – 2011 Chiarli 1860 Lambrusco di Sorbara del Fondatore
Lambrusca Grasparossa – 2011 Chiarli 1860 Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro Vign. Enrico Cialdini
Ginestra – 2010 Marisa Cuomo Costa d’Amalfi Furore Bianco Fiorduva
Fenile – 2010 Marisa Cuomo Costa d’Amalfi Furore Bianco Fiorduva
Ripoli – 2010 Marisa Cuomo Costa d’Amalfi Furore Bianco Fiorduva
Perricone – 2010 Firriato Ribeca, Sicily
If you are not going through the Wine Century club challenge yet, you should really consider doing that, and if you are already living through your obsession – good luck in your journey and remember to have fun! Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, Round and Around WBC and more
Meritage Time!
Let’s start fromt he answer for the Wine Quiz #51 – Hiding in the plain sight, part 2.
In that quiz, you were supposed to identify as many wines/wineries as possible in my fictional writing. Here is the same fragment, with the actual wines shown in bold and underlined:
– Hey, Gloria, Mr. Giribaldi is here. You really have to tell me if you are going to Sicilia with him. The ticket will cost only $890. Your aunt Elena and cousin Ben will be excited to see you. Your great-grand aunt Olga is turning hundred! Everybody will be there. Remember Livio, the blue eyed boy? He was such a little angel… Anyway, he is coming with Virginia, and I’m sure you will have lots of catching up to do.
– okay, mom, I will go. By the way, if you see Kay, tell him that I’m through with him.
Now, in the order of appearance:
Chateau Gloria – Famous French winery from Saint-Julien
Mario Giribaldi – winery and winemaker in Piedmont
Vega Sicilia – legendary winery from Ribero del Duero, Spain
La Rioja Alta “890” Gran Reserva – one of the top wines from La Rioja Alta
Elena Walch – great winery and winemaker in Alto Adige region
Olivier Cousin – rebel natural wines wine maker in Anjou area of Loire
Ben Ryè – spectacular sweet wine produced by Donnafugata in Sicily
Olga Raffault – great winery in Chinon
Turning Leaf – Vineyard in California
Hundred Acre – a cult wine from California
Livio Felluga – great Italian producer from Friuli
blue eyed boy – name of the Shiraz wine from the great Australian producer Mollydooker Wines
Ballet of Angels – white wine produced by Connecticut winery Sharpe Hills
Virginie de Valandraud – second label of legendary Château Valandraud (had a mistake in the spelling – should be Virginie and not Virginia, sorry about that)
if you see Kay – red wine from Lazio region in Italy, produced by Jason Woodbridge
Whew, this was a very long answer. I guess it was a tough quiz, as there were not that many players, but – I can tell you for sure I had lots of fun putting it together. VinoInLove came up with 10 good answers, even though many of the names he came up with didn’t match my intended answers, but as I mentioned in the description of the quiz, this will be still qualified. Thus VinoInLove is our winner, and Frank from WineTalks get honorable mention for coming up with 5 right answers. Great job!
Now, to the interesting stuff around the vine web. I got an e-mail from Wine Bloggers Conference, and it lead me to the collection of noteworthy information on Wine Bloggers Conference (WBC) web site. First, a few weeks ago I got an invitation from WBC to complete the wine blogging survey, which I did. Preliminary results are already available here, and you can learn there a few interesting things. For instance, it appears that average wine blogger has 3,418 follower on twitter – I guess I’m well below of an average wine blogger, as I have less than one third of that number. Another interesting fact is that less than 19% of the wine bloggers had being blogging for 6+ years. Anyway, check it out for yourself, and if you didn’t take the survey, you still have time to do it ( you can found the link on that same page with preliminary results). WBC site holds other interesting links – for instance, here is the link for so called Citizen Wine Blogs in America ( which includes both US and Canada) – the WBC web site is definitely worth exploring.
Another important news is that the call for nominations for 7th Annual Wine Blog Awards is now open! It will be open until Sunday, March 31st, so if anyone thinks this very blog worth a nomination, you can do so using this link (needless to say that I will be forever grateful).
Moving on, I still have a few interesting things for you. There are new wines on the market from the state of Washington, produced by Paul Gregutt, who you might know by his blog called Unfined and Unfiltered. The wines are produced under the label of Waitsburg Cellars. While I’m sure it will be difficult to find those wines, at least you can enjoy the descriptions coming under the theme called The Aromatics.
While this might be an old news for many of you, but it is interesting to see that now Parker is suing Antonio Galloni for the breach of contract. The world of wine, as everything else under the sun, becomes anything but boring once the big money start talking. Not sure if wine lovers will benefit, but the lawyers will be able to afford a few extra bottles of Petrus.
Last for today is a local update. I added a few links to the blogroll for the blogs I follow, and I also created a new link category called Wine Travel. American Winery Guide, To-Tuscany, Winerist and Napa Now are the four web sites listed there. If you have a blog or site dedicated to the wine travel, please let me know and I will be glad to add it to the blogroll.
It was a long post – but the glass is finally empty. Enjoy your Wine Wednesday and until the next time – cheers!
Daily Glass: Kosher [and not only] Wines
Originally, this post was supposed to be titled Happy Passover! – but Passover started on Monday, and today is Wednesday… Well, considering that celebration technically continues for a week, I guess it is still appropriate to wish Happy Passover even on the third day… By the way, Happy Easter too – just in case I will not be posting anything on Sunday.
In our family Passover is rather cultural holiday than religious, which means that our Passover dinner (seder) takes just a little longer than the regular dinner (when it is done properly, you might have the first real bite of food closer to midnight). What is important for me here, as with any other holiday where dinner is a part of the festivities, I can pay special attention to the wine (not that I don’t do it every day, but holiday is a holiday).
Of course Passover dinner calls for the Kosher wine. About 10 years ago, selecting a kosher wine for Passover or any other holiday used to be a very dreadful experience – sweet grape-juice-more-than-wine Manischewitz was undrinkable, but still better than most of the actual “dry” kosher wines which were outright terrible. Over the last 5-7 years the situation changed dramatically, and now at the most of the stores you can find a great variety of outstanding kosher wines. You don’t need to take my word for it – here are kosher wine recommendations from Eric Asimov of New York Times, here is the list from Lettie Teague from the Wall Street Journal (subscription required, unfortunately), and here is a very interesting post from Alice Feiring describing her recent kosher wine tasting experience.
I had a great experience with a two different kosher wines. The first one was 2009 Psagot Merlot Judean Hills (about $25, 14.4% ABV). Psagot means “peak” in Hebrew, and the small community of Psagot is actually located on the peaks of the Benjamin region mountains, 900 meters above sea level – and this is where this wine came from, made at a boutique winery under the same name. It is 100% Merlot, aged for 13 month in small French oak barrels. On the nose and the palate this wine has perfect dark power (umph – I gave you one strong description, but you know that I often describe the wine emotionally rather than technically). Coffee, chocolate, dark fruit on the nose, same on the palate. Roasted notes on the palate. Excellent balance of fruit, acidity and tannins, very harmonious. Drinkability: 8-
The second wine was 2007 Flam Classico Judean Hills (about $30, 13.5% ABV). Flam winery is also situated in the Judean Hills area. It was founded in 1998 by the brothers Golan and Gilad Flam after they visited Chianti Classico region and fell in love with the wines. While “Classico” is the name of the wine I’m about to present to you, the wine itself is more of a super-Tuscan than an actual Chianti Classico. This 2007 vintage is a blend of 50% Merlot and 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, and if anything, it resembles classic Bordeaux (it is interesting to note that 2010 vintage is even more “classic Bordeaux” than the 2007, with the addition of small amounts of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot to the blend).
2007 Flam Classico has nice dark fruit on the nose and the palate, with a tiny whiff of Bordeaux greenness. Classic Bordeaux profile with touch of eucalyptus and mint. Very round and polished, smooth but with pronounced acidity, and literally unstoppable – in terms of not being able to stop drinking it until bottle is empty. Great wine which will evolve further (but it was my one and only bottle, sigh). Drinkability: 8
I have one more wine to tell you about. It is not kosher wine – but we still drunk it, and I liked it quite a bit so kosher or not but I would like to mention it.
2011 Cave Pomerols Picpoul de Pinet “Hugues de Beauvignac” Coteaux du Languedoc (about $10, 12.5% ABV) – this wine is produced by La Caves Pomerols and it is made out of 100% White Picpoul grape. The wine was clean and refreshing on the nose, with touch of minerality. The same on the palate – white flowers, white fruit, round and easy to drink. Very balanced. Considering the price, this can be your every day white wine – and it will pair nicely with lots of different foods. Drinkability: 8-
This is all I have for you for now, folks. The usual “Wednesday Meritage” post still should be coming out today, as it is in the works already, so until then – cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #51 – Hiding in the Plain Sight, Part 2
It is Saturday again, therefore, it is time for the wine quiz!
I want to continue the theme of the previous wine quiz #50, where you were supposed to find as many wine and winery names as possible in a small fragment of [poorly written] fictional dialog. The quiz seemed to be successful, but it happened to be focused mostly on California wines. Below you will find the text where I really made an effort to include the wines from all over the world. Just to give you some clues – it is possible that some of the words will lead to multiple wine/winery names – you will need to name at least one. Also, a lot of words (but not all) below will be a part of the two-word wine/winery name – you will need to name the full two-word name for it to count. To give you an example – if you would see the name Phelps in the text, the right answer would be Joseph Phelps, as it is an official name of the California winery. Capish? I thought so. Last note – it is okay to use Goggle – I think it will be a fun game in any case. Let’s proceed.
– Hey, Gloria, Mr. Giribaldi is here. You really have to tell me if you are going to Sicilia with him. The ticket will cost only $890. Your aunt Elena and cousin Ben will be excited to see you. Your great-grand aunt Olga is turning hundred! Everybody will be there. Remember Livio, the blue eyed boy? He was such a little angel… Anyway, he is coming with Virginia, and I’m sure you will have lots of catching up to do.
– okay, mom, I will go. By the way, if you see Kay, tell him that I’m through with him.
Again, there should be more than ten wines (and I will also wait for someone to tell me about the wines I even didn’t know exist) – but even if you can’t find any – your comment will be loved in any case.
Good luck, have fun, have a great weekend and cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, Following Steve Heimoff, and more
Meritage Time!
Let’s start from the answer to the wine quiz #50, Hiding in the plain sight.
In the quiz, you were presented with the little fragment of fiction where you were supposed to find as many wine names as possible:
– Hey, Justin, see that skinny girl standing there?
-Which one, the one in the “to the rescue” t-shirt, almost naked?
– No, the other one, with the cupcake in her left hand.
– Ahh, that is Patrina, she is one of the three girls in the Bryant family, the middle sister. Let me introduce you.
– Hey, Patrina, please meet my friend Kris – he is the worshiper of Orpheus, the poet.
As you can see above, now all the wine names are bold and actually linked to the available wine info, so you can check them out. There are 14 wine names plus a little curve ball – Left Hand is the name of the beer brewing company. And I have to honestly admit that I learned that Ahh is the wine name only from thedrunkensyclist‘ s answer, so I guess that should make him a double-winner here. I’m glad to mention that this was a very successful quiz, with many answers.
And the winners are (drum roll, please)… thedrunkensyclist, who identified 15 wines and gets double-award for exceeding expectations. Both armchairsommelier and Zak get honorable mentions – they both did very well. Now, I can’t decide if I want to repeat this quiz trying to focus on European wines, or the wine names with the numbers in them – but you will be the first to know. Decision, decisions…
And now, to the interesting stuff around the web. This time around I came across a number of interesting posts by Steve Heimoff, an editor for Wine Enthusiast magazine. The first one is about the coveted subject of the wine world – terroir. In this post, called The End of Terroir, he is talking exactly about the whole concept of “terroir” and whether it is real or not. The debate is endless, but for me, terroir, or “sense of place” is something I always look for in the wine (I rarely find it for real, in most cases I only think I do) – and looking for that “sense of place” is a part of enjoying the wine, so I will continue doing that no matter what the general consensus is.
His next post is about the California wines and whether they can taste too sweet, which I’m sure they do for many of us, at least from time to time. No need for me to comment here, but it is an interesting read.
And the last one from Steve Heimoff posts relates to the restaurant experience, and the power of Sommelier’s suggestion (or not). How many times have you being in the restaurant, asking for the wine recommendation? How many times did you actually end up taking that suggestion? Did you enjoy the pairing after all or did you dislike it? Hmmm, I think this might make it for a nice poll (note to self). Anyway, read the post, I think it is interesting.
And that now leads us to the last post I want to share with you for today – this one is written by W. Blake Gray and it talks about unwanted but related part of the restaurant experience – corked wines. What do you do when you come across corked wine in the restaurant? Do you actually drink it? Enjoy it? Send it back? Again, I think this is an interesting subject for the whole blog post.
Okay, we are done here. The glass is empty. But another pour is on the way. Until the next time – cheers!
Special Tasting Report: Trione Winery
A few month ago I got an email from Trione winery offering me a gift. Not just any gift – wine. Free wine. Words “free” and “wine” put together sound almost magical for the anyone who drinks wine daily (I refuse to take the calculator out – don’t ask). But the word “free” in the email usually means danger. After careful consideration, and actually looking at the winery web site, I decided that it was not a scam or phishing attempt, so I answered that I would be happy to get a free wine. The only caveat in the follow up response was that they can only ship wine to the limited number of states. Connecticut not included (of course). But New York was. And so my friend Emil became a recipient for the wine.
When Emil called me that he got the wine, he mentioned that the box looks very small. Well, okay – it is what it is – free wine, whatever the package is. And then some time later, the package made it to my house. A small black box, probably half of the shoebox in size. But there was actually wine inside. And this is how it looked like:
Trione Winery, which I never heard of before, is a new venture of Trione family who was growing grapes in Sonoma for 35 years. Here is what you can read on the front page of their web site:
“For over three decades, the Trione family has raised premium grapes that have been the foundation of many award-winning wines. Now we bring our grapes to you in wines bottled under our own label, Trione Vineyards & Winery. It is the culmination of our family’s long commitment to Sonoma County.”
Here are few more views for you (just trying to build up the anticipation here):
Another interesting detail – it appears that this tasting set consisting of the tiny bottles is actually a concept called Tasting Room. While web site provide literally no information, the card enclosed with the package explained the concept:
The wines are bottled in the small bottles using special technology which preserves all specifics of the wine, so it is exact same wine which will go into the regular bottles. The only exception – the wine in small bottles is not intended for aging (as you can imagine), so as the card says – drink up!
And with this, let me share my tasting notes. Well, not only mine – in majority of the cases we drink wine together with my wife, especially when we are looking at the interesting and unusual experience – so I’m including her tasting notes too.
2010 Trione Russian River Valley Sauvignon Blanc (14% ABV) – “Pear Grove” my wife said. Some fresh grass on the nose with a bit of grapefruit, but mostly earthy and herbaceous, Earthy and herbaceous on the palate as well, lots of residual acidity, but not “in-your-face”. Food friendly. Interesting. Drinkability: 7+
2010 Trione Russian River Valley Chardonnay(14.3% ABV) – nice butter on the nose, vanilla. Nose is very promising, but palate is not good, very acidic, no fruit, kind of flat. I’m sure it needs time or at least different serving temperature, therefore it is not rated.
2008 Trione Russian River Valley Pinot Noir (14.2% ABV) – Nice nose of dark fruit, tobacco, touch of roasted meat flavor. Nice palate of dark fruit, raspberries, plums, tobacco, pencil and sage undertones. Good palate, good balance. Very good overall. Drinkability: 8-
2008 Trione Russian River Valley Syrah (14.8% ABV) – Wow color – very dark, intense, almost black. My wife’s notes were “oh, this is good” , “great potential”, “very promising” (disclaimer – my wife loves Syrah, probably her favorite wines). Dark roasted fruit, silky smooth, perfect balance, perfect acidity, cherries, earthy notes. Definitely very promising. Very good overall. Drinkability: 8-
2007 Trione Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (14.5% ABV) – absolutely beautiful nose – perfectly classic, with mint and blackcurrant – textbook flavors. Coffee showed up later on the nose. Wife’s notes: “overpowering , but very yummy”. Big, powerful, silky smooth, noticeable tannins – but excellent balance. Touch over-extracted on the palate, but only in terms of power, not sweetness. Needs time. Drinkability: 8
2007 Trione Alexander Valley Red Wine (14.5% ABV) – Dark chocolate, coffee, blackberries on the palate, nice complexity. Beautiful, round and open fruit. Needs time. Drinkability: 8-
As you can see, it was a very enjoyable experience (it’s too bad that the bottles were that small) – next time you see Trione wine in the store, don’t just stand there, grab a bottle…
That concludes my special tasting report, folks. Until the next time (hopefully someone will send me good and free wine soon) – cheers!
Disclaimer: the wine was provided by Trione Vineyards and Winery free of charge. All opinions are my own.
Daily Glass: Perfect [Monday] Wine
Can there be such thing as perfect Monday wine? What makes Monday special? On one side, it is almost “politically appropriate” to dread Monday as “yicks, it is work again” kind of day. But if you think of it the other way, Monday is the beginning of the new week – you got seven more days ahead of you, and nothing stops you from enjoying every one of them. Of course Friday is great, the weekend is ahead of you, yay! – but you just bid farewell to the 5 days of your life, and hopefully those were the good days… The Monday is the beginning, bright and exciting – I’m ignoring the smirk on your face… So excitement is the angle I want to take, because in the simple terms, the wine I’m about to present to you is exciting!
What wine is that and was it the wine at all, or may be it was some kind of obscure drug or a head trauma which caused my brain to falter and call Monday exciting? Yes, this was the wine, delivered to my doorstep by Last Bottle wines.
2009 Zýmē Valpolicella Réverie (a blend of Corvina 40%, Corvinone 30%, Rondinella 25%, Oseleta 5%; 11.5% ABV), made by Celestino Gaspari. Don’t know about you, but I never heard of Celestino Gaspari before. But when I read the note from Last Bottle wines that this Valpolicella is made by the winemaker who worked before for Giuseppe Quintarelli, I was sold instantly. Giuseppe Quintarelli holds a lot of respect in my mind (never tasted his wines, but according to the general consensus, it is very hard to find better Italian wines than those made by Giuseppe Quintarelli) – so when I see the wine made by someone who worked for Giuseppe Quintarelli for 11 years, you don’t really need to convince me to buy the wine as long as I can afford it – $13/bottle sounds quite affordable to me.
What makes me call this Valpolicella a perfect wine? It is the whole package.
Color – ruby red, pretty bright.
Nose – fresh fruit, raspberries, touch of cherries, very inviting.
Palate – clean acidity and young fruit, very light at first, evolves in the glass as it breezes, showing broader shoulders, more substance, adding plums and earthy notes to those bright sour cherries which were dominating at first.
Finish – long, with lingering fruit.
Overall very balanced, very bright, well made wine – guaranteed to brighten up your Monday, no matter what. As a bonus, I think this wine will evolve with time (will I be willing to wait is a whole another question). Drinkability: 8-
In addition to this Valpolicella Réverie, Celestino Gaspari makes a number of other wines at Zýmē, including Amarone and Amarone Riserva – but those would have to go more into the dream category. Well, Monday is as good of a day for dreaming as any other day, isn’t it?
Do you have a special Monday wine? Happy Monday to all of you and cheers!
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