Grape Quest Continues
Treble Journey finished, destination reached – 301. Do I simply stop or do I leave the port for the next destination – Quattro? 400 different grapes to be experienced in some form?
Yes, I have to honestly admit that I enjoyed that Treble journey. I happened to discover real gems along the way, such as Nielucciu, Grolleau, Grignolino, Pigato, Pugnitello, Romorantin and many others. What now?
As it often happens with me, I decided not to decide. I don’t want to set my mind on the “quattro journey”, as level of obsession will go again ( as it was with Treble) really high. At the same time, the need to look for “what is actually inside of that bottle, may be it is a new grape?” became really ingrained into the DNA, and nothing I can do about it.
The decision is to take it as it goes. I’m not going to spend hours on internet, looking for the grapes I need to try to advance to the next level. At the same time, I’m going to keep paying attention to “what’s inside”, and continue counting the new grapes. To reflect that, “Treble count” on the front page is now “Grape Count”, and it will keep ticking.
And to make an early advance, I was quite lucky (thanks to my friend Zak) to attend a big wine tasting event (one of the posts in the near future will be raving about amazing wines we tried), so the grape counter is advancing by 8 – here is the list:
Gamay Saint Romaine: 2010 Domaine Robert Serol Cote Roannaise Rose “Cabochard”
Tressalier: 2009 Domaine Nebout SAt. Pourcain Blanc Tressalier des Graviers
Mondeuse: 2008 Roger Labbe Mondeuse
Colorino (Tintoretto): 2010 Terenzuola Rosato “Merla Rosa”
Albana: 2009 Fattoria Zerbina Albana di Romagna Secco “AS”
Vespolina, Uva Rara: 2004 Vallana Boca
Prugnolo Gentile: 2006 La Spinetta Il Gentile di Casanova
I’m looking forward continuing this journey – and of course, I will report along the way on all discoveries. Let’s go…
Dangers of Wine Drinking
Nope. It is not what you think. I’m not going to talk about hangovers. I’m not going to talk about alcoholism, not going to talk about fights and any kind of other stupid things you can do when “under influence”. Wine for me associated with life and experiences in that life, and that what I want to talk about.
To be even more precise, consider this post to be simply of a venting nature, as I had my expectations broken. Friday night we had a small get together, and so for that occasion I had a pleasure of thinking about bottle of wine which I want to open. How about Bordeaux? No, I don’t have anything which is the right age. Barolo or Brunello? We are getting together after work, not enough time for the those to breathe. Hmmm, how about California Cabernet? Sounds good, ok. And…yes, I know, 2003 Neyers Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon – perfect! That wine it is outstanding, and I’m very happy with my decision. Mind you, the decision process takes place the day before. So the expectations are building. There is anticipation of opening of the special bottle, and it is a happy thought.
And then the special moment comes. The bottle is open. Those of you who already know what I’m going to say, raise your hand. It is corked. It is kind of corked on the mild side, if this makes sense, and you can drink it, but it doesn’t taste right at all. The pleasure is gone. Expectations not fulfilled, and while you are sipping the wine you keep looking for the right taste, hoping your taste buds deceived you on the first sip. This is not the post asking to stop using real corks and switch to screwtops – I’m not convinced that screwtops are right for wine, as they interfere with normal process of aging wine in the bottle. I’m simply talking about experiences and expectations, and how quickly your expectations can fall apart – and instead of elevating the mood, can put you down.
Anyway, this is my rant for today. I still have more of the Neyers bottles left, so I hope the next one will taste as expected – but this time I will be looking for a good surprise, rather than fulfilling the expectations. I’m sure you got the story of your own – and will be glad if you can share it.
Value Wines Project And Other Updates
Few more wines to report on in the Value Wines project. First, 2007 Rengo Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ripasso ($11.98). Valpolicella Ripasso is a little brother (or a sister, take your liking) of Amarone wines, which are my favorite red wines (when they are done right). Ripasso wines made from the second pass of the grapes already used to produce Amarone wines, hence the name “second pass”. So if anything, you should expect that Ripasso wine will resemble the Amarone wine itself. And it actually does in case of this Rengo Ripasso. This wine needs a bit of time for breathing, and then it resembles Amarone with sweet raisiny nose, and then soft fruit and very balanced tannins and acidity. This wine also has medium finish and it is easy to drink. Drinkability: 8-.
The next wine is from France – 2009 Barc Vallee Borgueil Les Castines ($9.98). Borgueil wines are made out of Cabernet Franc grape. It is not easy to find a good Cabernet Franc wine, especially in this project’s price range. This wine was very nice and gentle, with good earthiness on the palate, good balance, good acidity. This wine is definitely food friendly and should work well with many dishes. It will also drink well over the next 3-4 years. Drinkability: 7+ .
The next wine in the series is called Caves Bonifacio from Portugal ($3.98). I typically avoid writing bad reviews – unfortunately, this particular wine was so bad, it tasted ” chemically engineered”, very unnatural. So it made it for the first bad bottle in the series (first out of 9). I will not even rate Drinkability here as the wine was undrinkable (had to go down the drain). Hopefully the next bottle will be better.
One more update not related to the value wines project. As you might know, I reached my goal of trying wines with 300 grapes for the Treble status in Wine Century club. However, the journey of discovery continues. I just had an opportunity to try another 8 new grapes, and I have another 5 to add shortly. Therefore, I’m continuing the journey without setting the goal of becoming Quattro member, and I changed the “treble status” section to the “grape count”, which will reflect the current state of this process. Will I make it to the quattro level? Who knows – but I will definitely have fun trying.
And one last note – few days ago, I was able to try some truly amazing wines – so be on a lookout for the interesting updates.
St. Patrick’s Day – What Is In Your Glass?
This coming Thursday, March 17th is St. Pastrick’s Day, which is probably the main celebration of Irish heritage. Leaving aside Leprechauns and cabbage, let’s talk about traditional Irish drinks.
I think Guinness is far more traditional Irish drink than anything else, but this is just an opinion ( note: I have no relationship to Irish heritage whatsoever, so may be I don’t know what I’m talking about). And the next thing which comes to mind – no, not wine – Irish Whiskey.
When it comes to Irish whiskey, there are few of the mainstream brands, Jameson and Bushmills being most well known. Few days ago I happened to come across an Irish Whiskey tasting at Cost Less Wines and Liquors, where full line-up of Jameson was represented (almost full – basic Jameson was not there), so I had an opportunity to try all of them. To tell you the truth, I didn’t care for Jameson 12 and Jameson Gold – both were not very impressive. Jameson Vintage felt over-engineered, with mostly oily flavors on the palate, and none of the fruit or acidity or any other components being noticeable. Jameson 18 had an elegance of a mature whiskey (have to stop myself all the time from calling it Scotch), good balance and good flavor profile. In any case, it was an interesting experience and I’m grateful for it.
And then there was Connemara, a single malt peated Irish Whiskey, which completely stood out. Very nice balance, may be a touch more sweetness than I would care for – but it doesn’t get very noticeable. What was working well is a very nice smokiness – for the Scotch drinkers out there, I will put it between Highland Park (which has a hint of smokiness), and Lagavulin, which is a hallmark of peated Scotch. All in all, very round and balanced, and easy to drink.If you get a chance, find a bottle and enjoy (in case you need a reference, I found mine at Super Wine Warehouse in New Jersey).
So, what will be in your glass this St. Patrick’s Day? It really doesn’t have to be green – but it’s better be enjoyable…
Daily Glass: Value Wines Project – About Portugal and Italy again
Here is your update for the value wines series – by the way, if you are bored with this – I still have about 10 bottles left to cover, but hey, it is not that I must write about them all!
It is Portugal and Italy again (you can see previous post here), and Portugal again scored (don’t forget – this is value wines category with bottle price limit of $11.99).
From Portugal, I had 2008 Montaria Vinho Regional Alentejano ($6.98). This wine is a blend of three local grapes – Trincadeira, Alicante Bouschet and Aragonez. The wine was very aromatic, soft and open from the get go. Medium body, easy to drink. Complements food very well – I had it with fried liver and it was delicious. However, another interesting food pairing observation – doesn’t work with chocolate at all. This wine is to drink now – it didn’t improve on the next day. I would put Drinkability at 7+.
Italy was represented by 2007 La Badiola Acquagiusta Rosso ($11.99). I think I got this bottle mostly for the label (looks cool). One interesting note – I used Google to translate the name on the label ( my Italian is a bit rusty), and it was translated as “Right Water”. This wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (35%), Merlot (35%) and Syrah (30%).
The wine comes from the right place – Maremma Toscana, home of Super-Tuscans, and has seemingly right blend of grapes – but it doesn’t work, it didn’t happened to live up to “right water” name. From the beginning and on the second day, the wine was all over the place, almost like all those individually good grapes didn’t want to play together… This is unfortunate, but I guess finding value in that price category is not easy (don’t worry, I’m not giving up, there are few more Italian wines to try). I will put Drinkability at 7-.
So the quest for the best value wines continues, and updates will follow – unless, of course, you will tell me otherwise…
Champagne Blind Tasting – Don’t Try That At Home?
The idea was born – blind champagne tasting. It’s going to be fun! Well, blind sparkling wine tasting, to be more precise. The date was set, menu decided upon. Everybody have to bring a bottle of sparkling wine, which is expected to be of reasonable quality. No, it doesn’t have to be from Champagne only, anywhere in the world is good – with some notable exceptions. For instance, sparkling Shiraz was not welcomed.
All precautions had being taken to ensure that tasting will be blind. All bottles placed into the paper bags, and taped on top. We ended up with 9 different sparkling wines (mistake number 1 – too many). The simplest challenge was to have enough glasses as we adamantly resisted the idea of plastic, so we had to split tasting into two groups, 5 and 4 wines – mistake number 2 stemming from mistake number 1 – all wines should have equal time to breathe, even sparkling.
There we went with the tasting. Wine #1, #2, #3… Break after #5 to move glasses, open 4 more bottles, pour and continue. I think the biggest challenge was the fact that differences between sparkling wines (in general) are often very subtle, and it requires highly trained and sophisticated palate to pick them up. For most of us, we would probably stand at least some chance if we would take extended time to assess the quality of the sparkling wine. Typically white or red wine is “in your face” from the moment you smell the wine. Sparkling wine usually is not. Therefore, you need to reflect on each sip of sparkling wine a lot longer to assess its qualities. If you are moving too quickly, those sparkling wines are becoming almost “all the same”.
Anyway, here is the list of sparkling wines we had at the tasting, in the exact order as we tried them:
- 2006 Bodegas Carrau Sust Brut Nature Vintage, Uruguay
- Franciacorta Bellavista Cuvee Brut, Italy
- 2006 Jacques Germanier Blanc de Blancs Brut Millesime Grande Reserve, Switzerland
- Champagne Gosset Brut Excellence, France
- Champagne Thierry Triolet Brut, France
- 2007 Bagrationi Royal Cuvee Brut Vintage, Georgia
- 2007 Graham Beck Brut Blanc de Blancs Premier Cuvee, South Africa
- J Cuvee 20 Brut, California
- 1998 Champagne Gosset Celebris Brut
Can you guess the winning wine? I would be surprised if you do (no, it was not the one from Uruguay if you went with the most odd choice). Actually, at the first vote we had a tie with 3 wines getting the same number of points, so we had to re-taste that group and then vote again to come up with the winning wine. And the winner was…wine #6, 2007 Bagrationi Royal Cuvee Brut Vintage from Georgia (yes, we were also very surprised).
This wine was the most interesting of the pack with unusual zesty citrus notes, good acidity and good balance. J Cuvee 20 and 2007 Graham Beck (California and South Africa!) were close runner-ups (they were in the group we had to re-taste), and it is interesting to note that all three were more fruit forward than the other wines in the tasting.
Now, from the prospective of “mistakes” I mentioned before, here are few of my personal disappointments:
Wine #5, Champagne Thierry Triolet Brut, is a Growers Champagne. I had a pleasure of tasting that wine on the second day, and it opened up a lot more, showing fruit and creaminess. It probably wouldn’t be the winner of the tasting, but I’m sure it would fare better given enough consideration.
Wine #9, 1998 Champagne Gosset Celebris Brut was the only Vintage Champagne in the tasting. It definitely didn’t get enough time to show off all its beauty. By the end of the evening it opened up enough to show off typical yeasty flavors of the vintage champagne, and it became a lot more appealing, at least to my taste.
Oh well, it was definitely a fun exercise! Should you do the champagne blind tasting? May be not. Should you enjoy a glass of champagne instead? Absolutely. Don’t wait for a special occasion, simply celebrate life as it happens. Any day is a good day for a glass of champagne. Cheers!
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…
Accidental Grand Tasting
You walk on the street (ok, in Geneva). It is Tuesday, middle of the day. You see a wine store which looks appealing from outside. You walk in, start looking around and almost fall down. Well, for two reasons. For one, simply because the store is big, and contains unpredictable amount of stair-steps, some kind of stairs and so on (one pictured here is actually fine, you can at least see it clearly). Another reason – to see such a line up of Gaja and Tenuta dell’Ornellaia? Wow. Didn’t see it yet in any store in the States. But may be then at the prices which you see there, it is not that surprising after all.
So you continue browsing the store, which is called Lavinia in case you are curious, getting ready to leave, as buying anything there is not an option. Then you see a wine tasting going in a middle of the store. With big decanters, including for white wines – that gets very interesting. And then you try the wines, and you have to declare that you attended a grand tasting, because all four wines are outstanding.
The first one, 2009 Domaine Georges Vernay Condrieu, made out of grape called Viognier, was bright, beautiful and assertive. It was “in your face” balanced – one of the most balanced wines I ever had: controlled fruit expression, full body, refreshing acidity – outstanding (Drinkability: 9). The next one, 2008 Philippe Pacalet Puligny-Montrachet, was my first taste ever of wine from Puligny-Montrachet, which considered one of the absolute best areas for white Burgundy wines (made of Chardonnay). This wine was made by Philippe Pacalet, one of the big proponents of the natural wines in France (here is a good blog post about him by Dr. Vino). This wine was totally different from the assertive Condrieu – shy and playful like a child, again with great balance, but completely different fruit profile (leeches, tropical fruits, star fruit), great acidity and asking for food. Again, Drinkability is 9.
And two reds were outstanding. 2008 dell’Ornellaia La Serre Nuove, coming from one of the best producers of Super Tuscan wines, Tenuta dell’Ornellaia in Bolghery in Italy. This wine made out of proprietary blend of red grapes, and while I had Ornellaia wines before, it was the first time for me to try La Serre Nuove – beautiful red fruit expression, full-bodied, extremely balanced – pure pleasure in the glass (Drinkability: 9-). And for the last one, 2006 Château Le Queyroux, La 8ème Merveille, Cotes de Blaye from Bordeaux in France, – I almost made a mistake of ignoring it (didn’t look appealing enough after tasting the La Serre Nuove) – I’m glad I was convinced to give it a try – big power, full body, again very assertive wine with outstanding balance of fruit, acidity and tannins ( Drinkability: 9-). In case anyone wonders about prices – all the wines were neatly squared between $60 and $100…
That’s all, folks. I’m grateful for the great experience, and I will be on a lookout for more “accidental grand tastings” – and wish you to have many “pleasant accidents” as well.
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