Beau's Barrel Room

Portland Dining Failures at Paley's Place and The Bent Brick

2012-01-24T11:43:00.000-08:00

Have you ever heard great things about a restaurant then experienced almost exactly the opposite? How did that make you feel? If you're like me, you probably felt a mix of frustration, sadness, maybe some anger, and even a sense of betrayal. Such is the nature of our emotions when we get our hopes up then have them dashed to pieces on the rock of bitterness.

I generally refrain from blogging about negative dining experiences, preferring instead to use Twitter and/or Facebook to share my story. In this case though, I felt that after two bad dining experiences in the span of about a month, it was time to speak my mind.

My good friend Dan Hammer and his lovely wife were in town this past December, and despite his trip being short, we vowed to get together for dinner at a nice restaurant. He and I both did some research and settled on Paley's Place, in Northwest Portland. To a man, everyone I told about our upcoming dinner had good things to say, noting their food is locally sourced and organic as well as the wine list being very well put together. In the interests of keeping this blog constrained to one page, I'll refrain from any chronological narrative.

Arriving at Paley's, we four were escorted to our table in what seemed like the cocktail lounge. If you've been there, imagine walking in and looking left past the bar, towards the back of the restaurant. Since the occasion was a special one (I get to see Dan only once or twice a year, he lives in White Plains) we both brought bottles of wine. His was a 2008 Sojourn pinot noir, one of his favorite California producers, and mine was a 2002 Kramer Vineyards Rebecca's Reserve pinot noir. I was able to get our server to decant each for us but it would have been nice to have the sommelier come over and say hello too. Becky chatted with our server for a moment, explaining it was her family's vineyard and asking if she (server) would like a pour. All told, we sent back nice sized pours of each wine, and the server did come back to express her enjoyment. What surprised me was that we were charged corkage for both bottles. As an industry courtesy, corkage is usually waived. Also, in my experience, when you send a pour back to the kitchen corkage is often waived. Our party had two industry people, myself and Becky.What bugs me the most is that these people are the same ones going to tasting rooms all over the Willamette Valley (and other places) and expecting their free tasting and industry discounts on purchases. We in the wine industry are happy to extend discounts and are we wrong to hope for some reciprocal discount? I wrote this off to poor server training or poor management.

What I struggled to write off though was the average food. I, like most humans, love salt but use it judiciously. At Paley's, everyone's dish was heavily over-salted. Why? The diners can always add their own salt and I would imagine any kitchen worth their proverbial salt would want diners to taste as much complexity as possible in the food. When everyone at the table notices a problem with their entree and there are three separate entrees, something is wrong. Lastly, upon depositing the check, our server took off for 20-30 minutes, leaving us sitting around waiting for our payment to be processed. For such a heralded establishment, Paley's Place sure screwed the pooch that Saturday night...A good rule: Don't piss off industry people, it gets around. As a restaurant veteran myself, I understand there are variations in the food depending on who is in the kitchen that night, but I really expect more from a high end place.

Refusing to write off Portland's epicurean scene (that would be highly irresponsible), we looked forward to our next outing at a highly regarded place. That outing was this past Saturday at The Bent Brick, located in Northwest Portland. What intrigued me the most was their tasting menu, in the past I've had some amazing meals courtesy of a chef's willingness to prepare his entire menu for us. Again, positive reviews flowed in from all corners. The occasion: celebrating my good friend NubianOR's birthday! She and her husband, along with some mutual friends, had spent a wonderful day tasting wine before making their way back to Portland for this much-anticipated dinner. The experience turned out to be worse than at Paley's Place.

First the good: I liked the decor and vibe at the Bent Brick. They do a lot of things right, creating a fun atmosphere and offering a wine list featuring only Pacific Northwest wines...on tap! I was impressed and happy to be there. Our friend Tamara had been there before and suggested we do the chef's tasting menu. Priced at $55 a piece, it was certainly expensive but she had done it before and told us that there was a lot of food and that couples could split it up and still be full. Of further note, the Oregonian also suggested sharing the tasting menu, reasoning that the amount of food was sufficient for two people.

Here too, Becky and I brought wine, two bottles from Kramer Vineyards. We chatted up our server and sent back a nice healthy pour of the Kramer Vineyards Brut. I'll cut to the chase for their first #fail moment: They charged us corkage, despite there being three industry people, and we are also food and wine bloggers! While I NEVER expect corkage to be waived, within the service industry there is usually a better sense of helping each other out. Also, since we were a party of eight, there was automatically a gratuity charge added. Our server was getting a tip no matter what!

Next, when we presented our request to the server, asking for three tasting menus, to be split by three couples, we were greeted with an exasperated eye roll and the lazy-server anthem "let me go see if it's ok with the kitchen". Apparently the kitchen was able to accommodate our horrifically complex request. So nice of them. But wait! Instead of bringing out three of each of the courses, one for each couple, they decided to screw us by bringing out community-plated courses! By doing this, the Bent Brick got away with serving far less food than we'd normally get. Furthermore out of our party of eight, one couple didn't order the tasting menu but for some reason they had to wait for almost two hours to get their entrees. More issues attributable to poor management? The tasting menu came out at a glacially slow pace, our dinner took almost three hours to complete, which I couldn't believe until I checked the time myself.

(img copyright Becky Kramer 2012)

In the above picture, each person gets one sliver of egg and one sliver each of the assorted pickled vegetables. Yes, I get that it is a "tasting menu", but seriously? For $55? The plate above should have been for one couple, and three just like it should have come out.

Before anyone has ideas that we were trying to get out of there on the cheap, we weren't. Our party ordered a full carafe (that's how they serve their kegged wine) and seven beers. We were happy to spend our money there, provided the experience was worth it. In this case, at the Bent Brick, it was not. I have no interest in recommending that restaurant or returning, despite the cool decor and thoughtful wine list.

At this point I am wondering what is wrong with the service industry here in Portland? Remember, these servers and managers are the ones expecting deals all over wine country and at other restaurants. I've had great meals in Portland, at The Country Cat and Gruner, so I know Portland is capable of wonderful food AND service. In the quest to be relevant though, is managerial proficiency sacrificed? Why is good service so sporadic? I struggle with these two bad instances because I am both a restaurant industry veteran and wine industry veteran, meaning I have a good idea of how things should work. When they don't, I have less sympathy because there really is no excuse for poor service..

The birthday girl herself posted an account on her blog, titled "Dining Debacle". Check it out for another view on our experience at The Bent Brick.

Have you eaten at these restaurants? Share your experiences, good or bad!

Beau Carufel

TasteLive, December 20th.

2012-01-20T19:37:00.000-08:00

In celebration of TasteLive moving into a new building in downtown Santa Rosa, they hosted an opening night party. Since I couldn't join the party in person, the great folks at TasteLive sent me and a selected few bloggers a sampling of wines that will be poured at the tasting room. During the festivities, Joel Quigley interviewed the winemakers and/or owners of each of these wines while we peppered them with questions. The venue was crowded and the atmosphere was great, I think each of us who viewed from afar really did wish we were there.

This month marks the official opening of The Wineyard, located at the Santa Rosa Vintners' Square. In its past life, the facility was a big strip mall. (Re)Construction began in 2011 on a new "urban wine village", and many of the materials used in outfitting each of the venues is recycled, be it barrel staves for decoration or even the bar in the tasting room. From what I can tell, the Santa Rosa Vintner's Square will be a pretty cool place to hang out at in 2012. The list of the wineries located there is listed below:
D'Argenzio Winery
Krutz Family Cellars
Sheldon Wines
Atascadero Creek Winery
Flocchini Winery
Jazz Cellars
Shone Farm Winery (The winery is part of Santa Rosa Junior College)

I liked the fact that this tasting didn't have any cabernet sauvignon or chardonnay, rather, some "back seat" varietals (and pinot noir) that may not get the coverage of the former two grapes but are just as important to California's wine industry.

Without further ado, here's the tasting notes for the wines we bloggers got to taste:

2010 Shone Farm Sauvignon Blanc: The label also says "Estate Grown, Block Seven, Russian River Valley, Sonoma County". Very precise, specific..and academic, no? No surprise then that this winery is part of Santa Rosa Junior College. Immediately this wine shows it's stripes as a sauvignon blanc. Unfortunately it appears to be made in the New Zealand style. And it's a bit under-ripe too, with lots of asparagus, whiffs of ammonia, and freshly cut grass on the nose. Hints of grapefruit hide behind those volatile methoxypyrazines, and a bit of minerality that you have to look hard to find. On the palate it's got some bittering notes, a green, stemmy quality, and the barest traces of grapefruit and lime juice. Refreshing due to it's acidity, but not something I'd want more than a glass of.

2006 Flocchini Andrea La Rue Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast: I didn't know what to expect from this pinot noir. All too often, Sonoma Coast pinots are over-oaked and juiced with syrah to pump up the flavors. Luckily that trend is falling by the wayside. This Flocchini doesn't taste like it has any syrah added and the oak treatment is minimal. The bouquet is a melange of cherry and strawberry, baking spice, campfire, and a dusty earth note. Flavors of red fruit mingle with earth and tannin to create a very nicely balanced wine that has benefited from four years in bottle. I was impressed with the acidity present too, it kept the body of this pinot light and balanced against the fruit and tannin.

2008 Atascadero Creek Zinfandel Russian River Valley: This zinfandel comes from the Haun Ranch, outside Healdsburg. There's 90% zin with a smattering of other red grapes, and the zinfandel vines go back to 1948. The bouquet is surprisingly complex, with notes of anise, mixed berry preserve, mint, and a touch of heat from the alcohol. I picked up a medicinal scent that seemed to meander throughout the bouquet too, but I couldn't pin it down. For people who like big, juicy zinfandels, this is your wine. The mixed berry comes through, as does that medicinal thing I picked up on the nose. Mild tannin, and a very nice smooth finish. At around $28 a bottle it's extremely well priced and something I would love to pair with barbecue.

2007 Jazz Cellars Las Madres Vineyard Carneros: I'm glad a syrah was included, especially a 2007. Carneros to me is a strange region, you see vineyards growing side by side that really shouldn't. For example, pinot noir, syrah, zinfandel, and sauvignon blanc. It's quite confusing. But a lot of the time, it just works. Like in this case, the team at Jazz Cellars put together a delicious syrah. Aromatically this 2007 Jazz is all smoked meat, black cherry, plum skin, and milk chocolate, with just a touch of a green stemmy quality and a tickle of alcohol. On the palate, well integrated fruit and oak, a touch of pepper, and some beef jerky notes all combine for a nice mouthfeel. Smooth, integrated tannin creates a nice framework for the fruit and savory notes. The alcohol is nearly imperceptible compared to the nose, which given the 15% listed, is impressive. At $34 a bottle it's certainly not cheap but the quality you get is wonderful.

Four wines, three of which were quite good and the sauvignon blanc just didn't do it for me. Still, guests at The Wineyard got to try some delicious wines and if this is indicative of the lineups that'll be poured each week, I predict much success for the Santa Rosa Vintners' Square going forward.

As always, I thank Cailyn McCauley and Joel Quigley for inviting me to participate. 2011 was my first year doing TasteLive events and I had a lot of fun. For those of you who follow me on Twitter, sorry for clogging up your Tweet-stream on multiple occasions! If you are a winery looking to do a TasteLive event, contact Cailyn or Joel at CreativeFurance Marketing.

These wines were media samples.

Beau Carufel

L'Oca Ciuca Brunello di Montalcino, Drunken Goose Wine

2012-01-12T19:21:00.000-08:00

One of my resolutions for 2012 was to get out and taste more Italian wines, so getting this sample from the folks at winechateau.com was a great way to kick things off. Every few months, they send me a bottle of something fun and interesting to taste and blog about, usually imported, and always at a really good price. This time I was given the option of this 2006 L'Oca Ciuca Brunello di Montalcino or a 2006 Tenuta Rocca Barolo, both wines which received high scores from Wine Spectator.

I chose the Brunello because it would be more approachable right now, compared to the Barolo which will probably be a tannic beast for the forseeable future. Don't go grabbing your torches and pitchforks yet though, I am well aware that Brunello di Montalcino wines also need a lot of age, often over ten years before they start truly showing the magnificent angles and nuances that sangiovese can produce.

What is Brunello di Montalcino then? Brunello is the regional (in Montalcino) name for the sangiovese grosso species of grape. In the regional dialect, Brunello means "little dark one", a reference to the size and color of the grapes. A wine bearing the DOCG stamp from the region can only contain sangiovese and must follow strict barrel and bottle aging requirements. Montalcino is a warm, dry region in Tuscany, a region also home to Chianti. Vineyards in Montalcino are planted in varied soils including limestone, clay, volcanic soil, schist, and a crumbly marl known as galestro. Vineyard elevation is between 500 and 1,500 feet.

Now let's talk about this Brunello, a 2006 called L'Oca Ciuca, or "Drunken Goose".

After being passed through a vinturi into my glass for about two hours, I figure it was time to give the L'Oca Ciuca a proper evaluation. The 2006 vintage has been getting some great press lately, with the print media critics calling it a superb, balanced year.

The L'Oca Ciuca Brunello has a beautifully aromatic nose full of dark cherries, spice, saddle leather, and a whiff of sweet plum. The secondary flavors manifest as a dusty, brown soil component as well as a hint of thyme. The aromatic complexity of good Brunello never fails to put a smile on my face. I'd even be so bold as to state this is a wine, when sniffed, that you will instinctively know is great. Not good, fine, decent, okay, but a great bottle of wine.

The palate presence gives away this wine's age, but it has already developed a silky, beautiful texture. There's the ever-present sangiovese acidic snap, enveloping gorgeous black cherry and plum flavors. As the wine continues to unfold, an earthy note reaches through the tannic mid-palate, beckoning you towards a finish of dried herb, oak, tar, and more silky smooth tannin. There's a soulful depth to this wine, like Etta James singing "At Last", where you cannot help but be touched by the magic at play. Like the song's rise and fall, the flavors rise and fall in intensity, leaving you with the sense that you've just experienced something special.

I highly recommend buying a few bottles of the 2006 L'Oca Ciuca, and Winechateau.com is selling it for $29.97, versus the regular price of $65. You can visit their site and purchase some to drink, but I recommend a few more years of rest for this Brunello. After 2015, you'll be rewarded with even more flavor integration and silky texture.

This wine was a sample for review purposes from WineChateau.com

Beau Carufel

Smoking Loon Current Releases

2012-01-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

I was recently sent the new releases of Smoking Loon, another project of Don Sebastiani and Sons, to review. You may recall previous blog features on the Don Sebastiani wines that I posted, in 2011, where I explored the brands "Project Paso" and "The Crusher". In this lineup, the wines are each at a suggested retail price of $9, though often can be found for a few dollars less. The bottles are all labelled California, meaning that the grapes can come from all over the state. Similar to the other brands, the Smoking Loon wines are made with grapes purchased by the company.

According to the press materials I got, the name derives from Don's love of cigars and his father's (August Sebastiani) love of waterfowl. Interesting amalgamation to say the least. The PR stuff also says this is the largest and most popular brand in the portfolio. When I worked for Trader Joe's, we sold the syrah and I think the pinot noir. Both were popular wines priced around $6.

2009 Smoking Loon Pinot Noir:
Nose: Cherry, strawberry, candied fruit, touches of spice and pepper. Fairly one dimensional though. A bit of heat on the nose distracts from what could be a rather complete bouquet.
Palate: Soft initially with ripe red fruits appearing first. Spices come through in the mid palate, some nice acidity too. Tastes light, clean. Hint of dusty earth on the mid palate that disappears on the finish. Solid wine, not overly complex but a very drinkable wine. Lacks soul and any expression of terroir but for $10 what do you expect? 13.8% abv.

2009 Smoking Loon Merlot:
Nose: Blackberry, black cherry preserve, red licorice. Touch of earth and oak.Very simple nose, even more one dimensional than the pinot noir.
Palate: Soft tannin, light body. Red candied fruit, earth, strawberry licorice. Light bodied, not hard to drink, but not exciting. Rather unappealing to me but I can't detect any flaws. Seems like an attempt to add a bit of dimension to merlot through the addition of tannin and oak chips. This will please people who just want something red in their glasses. 13.5% abv.

2009 Smoking Loon Cabernet Sauvignon:
Nose: Very ripe dark fruit, blackberry, blueberry, candied cherry. Slight green note lurks in the background. A little more complex than the merlot, and one that perhaps could stand to age a year or so. Yes, I realize I'm recommending aging a $9 wine.
Palate: Firm tannin, dries the mouth out. Medium bodied. Darker fruit flavors and acid combine for a nice texture. The finish is nice and clean, a pleasant surprise. Biggest disappointment was the hollow mid-palate, I felt like the wine evaporated. Flavors came back on the finish, dark chocolate predominantly. 13.5% abv.

2009 Smoking Loon Old Vine Zinfandel:
Nose: Juicy plum, hint of raisin, cherries. Lots of ripeness, no zin spice or pepper that I could detect. Was really hoping for more, especially if this truly an "old vine" zinfandel.
Palate: Full bodied ripeness, hints of vanilla and a fine grained tannin are the first to appear. Plenty of fruit, like a mixed bag of summer berries. A touch of cracked pepper meanders through the mid palate along with a touch of dusty soil. Pleasant, but not exactly expected for an "old vine" designation. Finish evaporates quickly, leaving a bitter tannic note. I had the highest hopes for this wine but it just failed to elicit any excitement. 13.5% abv.

The pinot noir and cabernet were the two here I could see having a glass of, if the only other option was Kendall-Jackson chardonnay. None of these wines were unique expressions of their component grapes and they each tasted like they'd been designed to fit a certain profile. Therein lies the secret to the success this brand enjoys though. For the people desiring a bottle of wine that drinks easily and is very non-threatening, the pinot noir and cabernet sauvignon are just fine. Taking any of the Smoking Loon wines to a casual party won't make you look like a buffoon. Just don't bring any of these to a gathering of wine geeks. Don Sebastiani and Sons has created a brand that doesn't necessarily open up the world of wine to anyone, but it does quench their thirst.

I'll give a lot of credit to the winemaker, Greg Kitchens, for keeping the alcohol levels reasonable in each of these wines. While I cannot tell if that's from using spinning cones or just naturally using less-ripe grapes, it's encouraging when a big producer puts the brakes on the runaway booze levels in California wines.

These wines were media samples from Balzac Communications & Marketing.

Beau Carufel

Win Tickets to the ZAP Tasting in San Francisco!

2012-01-04T14:05:00.000-08:00

(img src: zinfandel.org)

Happy New Year! To start 2012 off right, I have some tickets to the ZAP, that's Zinfandel Advocates and Producers, festival in San Francisco from January 26-28. It's a big, three day Zinfandel extravaganza where most of California's zin producers come to share their wines with the public. Tickets can be pricey but with a few minutes work here on this blog, you could win a set!

You could win these tickets a few ways, all zinfandel-related. In the comment section, I'd like to hear a bit about why you want to go, why you like zinfandel, your favorite producer, something about zinfandel wine. You could also include favorite food pairings, who has the best zinfandel wine list in the country, or even give a list of zinfandel producers to visit. Each comment is going to count as one entry, and there is one comment per person allowed.

Now, to clarify: You are entirely responsible for getting to San Francisco and surviving for the time you're there. I am merely awarding tickets to the winner of this little contest. To further clarify, I have two (2) sets of tickets to give away. That means there will be two (2) winners chosen. The sets of tickets are one for the Epicuria and one for the Grand Tasting. The winners will then receive two (2) tickets for that event. It is critical that you specify which tickets you'd like to win when you enter this contest!

In the interest of fair play, please don't try to win unless you're certain you can make it to the tasting. There are currently 22 days before the ZAP Festival, this contest will run for 14 days, until the 18th. On the 18th or 19th I will email the winners (so include some contact information!) and ask you what tickets you want.

This contest is open to anyone over 21 years of age and is void where prohibited by law. Failure to respond to my notification email within 24 hours means you forfeit the set of tickets.

These are the two events you could win tickets to:

(img src: zinfandel.org)

Thursday January 26:
Epicuria: Food & Zinfandel Pairings, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m., at The Concourse (635 8th Street at Brannan, San Francisco 94103-4901). Discover the diversity: take your palate on a culinary adventure as you discover the diversity of Zinfandel and its wide range of complementary flavor combinations. This informal dine-around expedition features pairings of 50 top Zinfandel wines with creations from master chefs in the ZinKitchen. Mingle with winemakers and epicurean experts as you take a sensual journey.
The teams will be Artezin Wines paired with Kollar Chocolates; B.R. Cohn Winery paired with Preferred Sonoma Caterers; Calstar Cellars paired with Cabot Creamery; Claudia Springs Winery paired with Pacific Catch; D-Cubed Cellars paired with A-16; Dogwood Cellars paired with Sift Cupcake; Four Vines paired with City College of San Francisco; Gamba Vineyards and Winery paired with ESTATE; J. Dusi paired with First Crush; Klinker Brick Winery paired with Fifth Floor; Ledson Winery & Vineyards paired with Centre du Vin at the Ledson Hotel; Mazzocco Winery paired with Radio Africa Kitchen; McCay Cellars paired with Wine & Roses; Outpost Wines paired with Mustards Grill; Peachy Canyon Winery paired with Swan Oyster Depot; R&B Cellars paired with Paul's Paella; Ravenswood paired with Central Market; Rock Wall Wine Co paired with Angela's Bistro; Selby Winery paired with Bocanova; St. Francis Winery paired with Executive Chef David Bush; Starry Night Winery paired with Il Davide Restaurant; Terra d'Oro Winery paired with Taste; Three Wine Company paired with The Fairmont; Trentadue Winery paired with Sarah's Forestville Kitchen and Tres Sabores Winery paired with Dean and Deluca.

(img src: zinfandel.org)

Saturday January 28:
Grand Tasting: From A To Zin, 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. at The Concourse.
From A to Zin: savor the journey through the world’s largest single varietal tasting as you explore hundreds of barrel samples and new releases. Meet winemakers from different Zinfandel growing regions and explore the dimensions of this authentically American varietal at the most comprehensive showing of Zinfandel wineries in the world. You can also experience the Grand Tasting by using ZAP’s ZinTracks ‘map’--- a way to choose one path through the Tasting and build your knowledge. ZinTracks will illuminate the many distinguishing features of Zinfandel----whether it’s why Dry Creek appellation Zins share a certain taste profile…or even just the fun of how many Zinfandel winemakers have red hair! A key part of The Grand Tasting is the role of Zinfandel as America’s “Heritage Wine.”

Either of those sound like they'd be awesome to attend, and I admit I'm a bit jealous of whomever wins, I'll be stuck up in Oregon shivering away! Winning is so easy too, why not take a minute to comment and start 2012 off with an epic wine tasting? If you do, take a lot of pictures and let us know who your favorite producers are. Good luck!

Beau Carufel

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T13:21:00.000-08:00

As 2011 draws to a close, the inexorable march of time once again comes to the forefront of our consciousness. Since the beginning of the week, the wine blogosphere has been awash with posts highlighting "Top 10" lists, year-end wrap ups, and Champagne-education posts. Forgive me, but this won't be one of those.

I choose to look forward in 2012, to a job here in Oregon managing a tasting room, new wines on my radar, and a shift in the tone and direction of my wine blog. I also am setting some goals, both personal and professional, that I will endeavor to accomplish next year. Looking forward, I feel excited and invigorated about the prospects for next year and chronicling it will be very satisfying.

Since the internet wine scene is evolving quickly, so must wine bloggers. As more consumers start to read wine blogs and actively seek out blogs for information, what they read becomes far more important than whom they read. Therefore, the weight of integrity and transparency is upon all of us who call ourselves wine bloggers. Associated with those responsibilities is the need for better writing, and at the very least the use of spelling and grammar checks by most of us. You know who you are.

Part of the change in tone of my wine blog will seem strange to longtime readers, but I hope new readers will find it refreshing, and longtime readers will enjoy what I have to say. Since a large part of my posts are wine reviews, I won't change that focus very much. However, the majority of my wine reviews will not include grades anymore. If I like a wine, I'll recommend it and tell you why I like the wine. On the other hand, if I don't like a wine, I'll be precise as to why I don't like it and obviously will not recommend buying that bottle. In other words, I'll be a stricter critic of the wines I review, while striving to maintain at least a polite tone. What remains to be seen is how the marketing and public relations professionals adapt to that, if they do at all.

The shift in direction of my blog is a goal I've wanted to bring to fruition for a while, to shift away from almost 100% wine review posts to more focus on living in wine country, the people I meet, and finally, living the wine lifestyle. No, I am not writing a book on that, because there are certainly enough crappy books on wine out there already. The shift I'm talking about will be confined solely to my blog posts, and I hope you enjoy them as much as you enjoy my wine reviews.

Beau's Barrel Room wouldn't have survived in 2011 without you, my readers. I want to thank you all so much for taking the time to read and comment on my blog, whether we agree or disagree, I value your thoughts so much. With each post I try to become a better writer, a more engaging host, and a more adept communicator in the hopes that you will keep reading and enjoying my words.

To many of you, I suspect we'll get to share a bottle at some point this year, which only serves to heighten my anticipation for 2012. To others, I hope we finally meet in real life for the first time, because I would love to shake your hand and learn more about your own personal wine journey. To everyone, I offer my humblest Thank You for being a part of my life in wine.

Beau Carufel

Christmas Wine, A Cautionary Tale

2011-12-30T19:00:00.000-08:00

This Christmas, I brought wine to the Kramer household. For Thanksgiving and now Christmas, I revel in the opportunity to serve bottles I wouldn't normally open, bottles that are suitable for the occasion. It's not that the Kramers don't have enough wine, but that I seek a somewhat perverse satisfaction in presenting wines to them and gauging my palate based off their reactions. As much as I preach "trust your palate", often I am just as guilty of second guessing myself as the next person.

This is the lineup, a set of wines that represent some of my favorite regions around the world. The four are:
2008 A Tribute to Grace Grenache from the Santa Barbara Highlands AVA.
2008 Leonetti Cabernet Sauvignon from the Walla Wall Valley AVA.
2006 Robert Groffier Burgundy from the Passetoutgrains AOC
1999 Chateau Simard Saint-Emilion AOC

Each of these had been acquired over the past year or two via the internet or local wine shops. The prices ranged from around $20 all the way up to $100. With the exception of the grenache, I had not tasted any of these wines before, but have had other examples from either the producer or region.

First though, some sparkling wine from the Willamette Valley. This Elk Cove beauty was picked up by Kim Kramer a few days ago when we went tasting up and down the Willamette. The base wine was made in 1999 and bottled in 2000. In 2010 it was first disgorged, and when it's gone, it's gone. To my knowledge, Elk Cove hasn't made any more vintages of sparkling wine since.

How is it? In a word: wonderful. Although it's not as yeasty or doughy as a lot of Champagnes, it retains a bright crispness and layers of apple, pear, lemon zest, and a hint of apricot. Despite sitting on the lees for a decade, there isn't a lot of creamy weight to the wine, something both Kim and I found very interesting. The bubbles are small and uplifting, just like in a real Champagne, providing excellent mouthfeel. For about $30, this is one of the tastier domestic sparkling wines I've had in 2011. Only 200 cases were made, so it's best to purchase some now before it's all gone.

Moving on to the wines we had with the meal:

2008 A Tribute to Grace Grenache Santa Barbara Highlands: Already on my list of top wines I tasted in 2011, this grenache didn't disappoint. Sourced from vineyards over 2,500 feet high, the wine is the color of fresh-pressed strawberry juice. It's moderately opaque too, indicating it's unfined and unfiltered. The nose is redolent of raspberry sorbet, rose petal, wild strawberry, and black peppercorn. Initially there's a burst of acidity layered with raspberry, that recedes quickly into cracked pepper that sweeps the insides of your palate. Strawberries, wild and a touch green, bring the mid-palate through to a sour-cherry laden finish. All the ripeness is tempered by the acidity, balancing this wine out perfectly. My only regret is that this was my last bottle of the 2008.

2008 Leonetti Cabernet Sauvignon Walla Walla Valley: I bought some bottles of this in the Fall, intent on aging them for many years, but I also reasoned that a bottle of wine that routinely goes for $100 should be pretty awesome right now. This is one of Washington's cult wineries, and the cabernet is routinely awarded huge scores from the print rags. 2008's Leonetti cab is a blend of 77% cabernet sauvignon, 16% merlot, 4% carmenere, 3% malbec. I decanted this for several hours, reasoning that despite it's youth, a decanter would help bring out some great flavors. I was wrong. Aromatically pleasing with notes of tobacco, cassis, tar, and black fruits built anticipating for an equally complex palate presence. Sadly, this wine was flat out boring to drink. Lots of sloppy black fruit up front, a somewhat hollow mid-palate, as if the wine evaporated, and a finish so oaky that it felt like someone dragged a vanilla-soaked cedar plank across the back of my tongue. If this is something that gets high scores, it's a mystery as to how. I'll probably age the other bottle I have for a few years but this is a lesson: don't always believe the hype.

1999 Chateau Simard Saint-Emilion: I paid $20 for this wine at San Diego Wine Company back during the summer, so I had appropriate expectations. However, there was an undercurrent of excitement that I cannot deny feeling, since most of my Bordeaux are far younger and not yet ready to drink. The chateau dates back to the 17th century, and the current ownership ages their wines for around 10 years before releasing them. According to my research, this is 70% merlot and 30% cabernet franc. It opened up nicely in the glass, with an earthy, cherry and bittersweet chocolate nose that also had some spices and a whiff of brettanomyces. Some call that terroir, others a flaw, but it wasn't horribly overwhelming to me. On the palate I picked up the cabernt franc's tannin structure, framing a cherry/leather/herbal/raspberry flavor profile. It had very nice mouthfeel and I suspect it could even age longer, perhaps till 2015 or so. I'm pleased with this purchase.

2006 Robert Groffier Bourgogne Passetoutgrains: I should have figured an '06 could be over the hill. Passetoutgrains from Burgundy contain pinot noir and gamay and are usually meant to be consumed within two years of production. I took a gamble, read on to find out how I got burned. The volatile acidity was powerful, almost smothering an undercurrent of cherry-soaked minerality and some barnyard funk. Beyond the VA issues, a dollop of ripe red cherry sat squarely in the mid palate, bounded by a little bit of (good) acidity. More of the barnyard came through, but compared to the VA problems it wasn't bad at all. A somewhat clean finish was laden with chalky minerality and sour cherry notes. Unimpressive wine and at $26, also overpriced. It went down the drain.

Strictly speaking, I went 1 for 4, batting a whopping .250 on Christmas Day. That's not exactly where I want to be. I still struggle to wrap my head around the Ch. Simard because it was interesting wine, just a little boring. Good Bordeaux has a certain palate presence, one that Bordeaux lovers immediately know. While this Saint-Emilion was good, it could have been more smile-inducing. While I would buy the it again, I wouldn't pay over $25 for it.

The Leonetti does confound me as well, it's just so atypical of what I expect from a high-scoring Washington wine. I know my palate is different than Paul Gregutt's, as well as all those who criticized me on Twitter for not loving the wine, giving it enough aging time, or other "helpful" advice. On the day I tasted it, the 2008 Leonetti cabernet was not very interesting wine. Winemakers can do a lot with heavy extraction techniques and oak barrels, as well as acid addition and tannin manipulation. What they cannot do is create a wine with soul, one that touches your palate.

I could wax poetic about the A Tribute to Grace, but what's the point? You can't find it anywhere and as far as I know, the last magnum was snapped up a couple of days ago. Don't ask me how I know that, of course. Luckily the 2009 is available and you should buy as much as you can. One of the best wines I tasted in 2011.

The Passetoutgrains was shit, plain and simple. It didn't hurt my feelings for Burgundy though, just reminded me that even self-important wine bloggers occasionally get burned.

With that, I wish you all a Happy New Year, see you in 2012! Let's drink some great wine together!

Beau Carufel

Two Shepherds' Wines Part Two: Tasting New Releases

2011-12-29T11:07:00.000-08:00

Two Shepherds wines are a creation of William Allen, publisher of the Simple Hedonisms wine blog, among other things. In the first part of this two-part blog series, I interviewed William via email to get inside the bottle, so to speak. He explained his motivation, goals, and told us about the great support he got from friends and winemakers around California. For this second blog entry, I am posting my tasting notes on each of the wines I purchased from William.

2010 Two Shepherds Grenache Blanc Saarloos Vineyard: Nose of Asian spice, kiwi fruit, limestone, lemon zest, and pear. At room temperature I detected a little heat from the alcohol but it's not too distracting. Good intensity and a complex set of flavors create an expressive, vibrant bouquet. The palate opens with a burst of lively acid that gives way to a balanced mid-palate of ruby grapefruit, tangerine, limestone, and peppery spice. Great flavor integration that will only get better with time had me thinking this wine will last 5-7 years. More heat comes through on the finish but it's something that will go away when this grenache blanc is chilled. This is an impressive effort, well worth the $24 per bottle. I would suggest pairings of grilled chicken, fish & chips, and even pasta with cream sauce. 13.9% abv.

2010 Two Shepherds Viognier Russian River Valley: Beautiful nose of apricot blossom, yellow peach, and a touch of sweet cream. I was impressed with the aromas because they weren't too overly sweet, instead being in perfect harmony. The mouthfeel is rich and beautifully smooth, yet with some focused acidity to create a nice framework for the grapefruit, pear, yellow peach, and wet river rock. A lingering finish with hints of pine sap and grapefruit tapers off gently after almost 20 seconds. This is one to buy a full case of, it will get better and better with each passing year. As someone who frequently finds California viogniers too sweet and lacking structure, the Two Shepherds is a shift away from that, to a Condrieu-style expression. Pair with chicken tetrazzini, Indian cuisine, or even a simple chicken salad. $21. 13.78% abv.

2010 Two Shepherds MRV Saralee's Vineyard: A white Rhone-style blend of 47% marsanne, 47% roussanne, and 6% viognier. The bouquet is all mint leaf, sea air, hints of peach, and star fruit. Secondary aromas of golden apple and asian pear create a lively sensory experience. Impressive for such a young wine, I think this could pass for a white Cotes du Rhone in a blind tasting. The palate is composed of nicely integrated mint leaf, apple, English toffee, and pear notes. I really enjoyed the mineral character, which gave this white blend a round texture without being flabby. The flavors combine to build a nice crescendo before slowly tapering off to an elegant finish. Out of the three Two Shepherds white wines, this screams at me that it needs food. Pair with lobster or herbed chicken, a cheese plate, or grilled whitefish. $24 per bottle. 14.2% abv.

2010 Two Shepherds GSM California: A blend of 50% grenache, 25% syrah, and 25% mourvedre. The grenache and syrah are from Sonoma County and the mourvedre is from Alameda County. After being open for a few minutes, aromas of raspberry, strawberry, dried herb, and cola waft out of your glass. This is young but showing nice integration even at this point. Secondary aromas of cracked pepper and good minerality build an impressive background to support the red fruit. Upon tasting, you will notice the acid in this GSM is young and a touch raw, but is also the type to hold this wine together for several years. Right now it needs food, cheese and meat especially. Spicy raspberry and wild strawberry, cracked black peppercorn, tobacco, and just a touch of oak that ends the beautifully tapering finish. Although the palate is a bit disjointed, you get the sense of a dominant syrah right now, that's something that will evolve out. That said, the spice and pepper notes carry this wine beautifully. I'm going to be buying more. 13.8% abv. $32 per bottle.

Now before you accuse me of bias and all manner of unsavory things (most of which are probably true), I will state that these wines aren't perfect. That's a double edged sword though, because to be too perfect would rob William's wines of their garagiste-winemaker charm. If each of these wines was flawless, they would be a little less interesting. It's critical to keep in mind that these are Two Shepherds inaugural releases, and they all need some time to settle down.

My biggest gripe ($5 to the person who already guessed it!) is the relatively high alcohol on the Grenache Bland and the MRV. If I were to nitpick, I would also suggest that some of the more angular acidic edges could be refined, but that would be more to please the critics than my own palate. Bring on the angles, and just say no to flabby, boring white wine. The same goes for the Two Shepherds GSM, which will evolve beautifully over the next few years. I must note that it isn't quite available yet for the general public, but you'd best email William about any quantity you may desire, and email quickly.

After tasting through this lineup, I was pleased that they were all so good. My tasting partners agreed, and while they had some suggestions for improvements as well, our unanimous sentiment was that they were all very drinkable, high quality. For that, I raise a glass to William Allen and his Two Shepherds wines. It's great when a wine blogger starts making wine, and even better when the wines are delicious!

Two Shepherds on Facebook
Two Shepherds on Twitter
Two Shepherds on the web

Beau Carufel

Two Shepherds' Wine Part One: Interview With the Winemaker

2011-12-28T13:19:00.000-08:00

This is the first blog of a two-part series introducing a new California wine producer. William Allen, a friend and fellow wine blogger, recently released wines under his Two Shepherds label for the first time. These wines express his passion for Rhone varieties as well as his belief that wine should be interesting, unique, and accessible. I support William and the Two Shepherds wines so I sent him ten questions, hoping to gain some insight into his motivations, goals, and dreams. William was kind enough to respond and I am posting his answers verbatim for you to read.

In the next blog installment, I will be tasting and sharing my thoughts on his three current white wines as well as an un-released red Rhone blend (hint: it's great!). For now, pour a glass of your favorite wine and get inside the bottle with Two Shepherds Vineyards.

1. What got you into Rhone varietals?

"As my palate progressed away from over extracted New World styles, to wines that were more subtle and nuanced, I fell in love with Rhones. Rhone wines and blends offer complexity more succinctly. Rhone varietals sing when blended, and each variety offers more unique contribution, then say, Bordeaux varietals. They also tend to be less tinkered with by wine producers. Rhone lovers are passionate about their wines and this category."

2. Why make your own wine?

"I have been a garagiste wine & beer maker for over ten years. Making wine in very small lots has its limits to what you can do. I really wanted to start making blends, which meant producing at least a barrel of each varietal. It turns out even that was too limited for the tools I wanted. I also wanted to put my money where my (wine writing) mouth was: after many years of tasting and writing, I felt I could bring wines to the world that would be enjoyable, and unique."

3. Biggest challenge in making these wines?

"Working with varietals I haven’t before, so not knowing how they are doing during each phase, and projecting how they would taste in the future, and if they would achieve the stylistic goal I clearly had in mind for each. Using techniques like broad scale use of native yeast. Triangulating the many inputs from other winemakers into the many decisions I had to make.
Ask 10 wine makers the same question, and you’ll get 7 answers back."

4. Did you model your wines on any particular producer or more of a regional style?

"It’s a combination of Old World focus, and wines that were epiphanies for me, like Kinero Grenache Blanc, that stylistically I loved. Certainly Tablas Creek blazes a bright trail for me. Successful small winemakers, in my opinion, make wines to their own palate and passion. I have been preaching about balanced, modest, distinct wines and rampaging against Parker-esque extracted styles for years. By sourcing varietals from cool climates, like the Russian River Valley, I was determined to make wines that were properly ripened, but lower in alcohol and higher in acidity."

5. Future plans for the label? Burgundy or Bordeaux varieties perhaps?

"The goal right now is Rhones, but never say never. Artistically I love to play, and its easy to chase shiny objects, but the marketer in me knows the importance of focus. That said, I will always be on the lookout for interesting varietals and vinification techniques. This year for example, I did two ‘orange wine’ projects, one from an obscure white, that could end up as a wine club offering. Two Shepherds is focused on bringing consumers interesting & unique wines."

6. Is there one thing you're most proud of with the current releases?

"That stylistically they expressed what I wanted, and have been so widely received by some very picky people, like the girl & the fig, the Bay area’s most Rhone focused cult restaurant, and Mike Jordan, a very picky wine buyer for K&L Wines, one of San Francisco’s best wine shops. I adore Grenache and I think the Grenache Blanc and Grenache based GSM are wonderful. I’d gladly drink every bottle if they didn’t sell, but they are flying off the shelves and I have already had to limit sales. Luckily, we boosted 2011 production from 175 cases, to ~500."

7. Why the name Two Shepherds?

"We struggled on the name for a long time, it actually delayed our launch by months. So many great names were taken, and wanted something that captured our old world philosophy. Our friends at Cartograph finally gave us the idea, commenting I was a shepherd for the local wine industry with my networking. It also fit my view of myself as a writer, trying to help and guide consumers on the voyage of wine exploration. The other Shepherd, or Shepherdess is Michelle my girlfriend, to whose creative talent we owe much of the design credit, as well as our brilliant label designer Nick McNeil at Agency Orange. Her last name is Berger, which is French for Shepherd. We ran the idea past a few people, and its been a big hit."

8. Any winemakers in particular whom helped you?

"Very many, including some coaching by none other than Randall Grahm. Anthony Yount in Paso Robles, of Denner & his own label Kinero. Alan Baker of Cartograph, the Sheldons. Many of my good friends offered advice. Direct supervision and consulting came from Darek Trowbridge (Old World Winery) and Kevin Hamel (Preston, many others) both known for the minimalist intervention focus. Jon Philips of Inspiration Vineyards, where we presently vinify at, was a huge asset during blending, bottling, and this tricky 2011 harvest."

9. What's the best bottle of wine you've ever tasted?

"That’s pretty tough one for someone who tastes a ridiculous amount of wine each year, wearing my blogger hat. The Sheldon 2009 Graciano comes first to mind."

10. Is there one thing in particular you want people to know about the Two Shepherds wines?

"More about our wine philosophy overall, than us. I want consumers to always be open minded, try new things, and push their palate. I hate when I hear things like “I don’t drink white wine” (try my Rhone winter white MRV blend), or "I hate chardonnay" (ever tried French?). I can’t stand that consumers have been trained to think that all red wine must be dark, or all whites clear. That’s like saying all cheese should come in single wrapped slices. The world produces hundreds of great varietals, and unique wines are finally coming into vogue. Open up, live a little, and try them."

We now have a more complete picture of the Two Shepherds label, and I will reiterate how cool it is to see a blogger put his money where his mouth is. Read the next blog post, Two Shepherds' Wines Part Two: Tasting New Releases, to see my tasting notes on the current releases.

To purchase the Two Shepherds wines, visit the website or email them direct. If you're in the Bay Area or don't mind having the wines shipped, K&L Wine Merchants also carries the Two Shepherds label. Tomorrow I will post the second part of my Two Shepherds blog series discusses each wine in more detail, along with tasting notes and some food pairings.

Two Shepherds on Facebook
Two Shepherds on Twitter
Two Shepherds on the web

Beau Carufel

Hedges Family Estate, Red Mountain's Guardian

2011-12-27T12:00:00.000-08:00

Hedges Family Estate. Do you know this producer, of Red Mountain, Washington? They've made a lot of waves lately for their adamant refusal to accept or deal with scores. Indeed, Hedges Family Estates first came to my attention through their vociferous opposal to assigning numerical scores to wines. Billing themselves as "The Guardians of Red Mountain", Hedges has been up on the mountain producing wine since the late 1980's. When you consider the relative modernity of Washington's wine production, the Hedges family might be called among the pioneers of Red Mountain.

The Hedges story is wonderful, full of romance, determination, dedication, love, respect, and more. The natural skeptic in me goes "this is too good to be true", but on some level, this is the story we all want to believe. It is the story of romance through a wine glass, a truly powerful concept that wine lovers all over the world can connect with. Romance and wine go hand in hand, and at the very least, when you read the Hedges website, you cannot help but get caught up in the aura of a family attempting to create a world class, ~~important~~ authentic, winery here in the Pacific Northwest.

During some discussions via Facebook, I was asked if I'd like to sample any of the Hedges wines. Wanting to see if they made wine that could stand up to the "no score" mantra, I eagerly accepted. A few weeks later, a bottle of their 2009 Hedges CMS Sauvignon Blanc and a 2008 Hedges Family Estate Red Mountain red wine were dropped off by my awesome UPS guy. After resting for about five weeks, I eagerly opened each to taste it and take some notes.

2009 Hedges CMS Sauvignon Blanc: A white blend, 77% sauvignon blanc, 20% chardonnay, and 3% marsanne,all from the Columbia Valley. This white blend saw no oak, with each wine fermented entirely in stainless steel. Pours a nice greenish-golden straw color with surprising vibrancy. The resulting blend is very interesting, with notes of perfume, green apple, pear, honeycomb, and melon. I thought the bouquet to be somewhat disjointed and too linear though, with aromatics battling each other for supremacy. On the palate the sauvignon blanc provides a steely acid and citrus note, the other grapes providing some pear, white peach, and floral elements. Just like the bouquet, the palate presence was clunky and the flavor transition could have been smoother. Still, for about $14, this is a very intersting, fun wine to drink and I recommend picking up a bottle or two. I plan on buying some to try pairing with roasted chicken or sushi. 13.5% abv, 10,400 cases produced.

2008 Hedges Family Estate Red Mountain: Each year this red blend is made up predominantly of cabernet sauvignon and merlot. The 2008 is 36% cabernet sauvignon, 33% merlot, 14% syrah, 11% cabernet franc, 6% malbec. Let me just state that for $25 it is very hard to find a wine this good. It pours an inky dark purple into the glass. The different varietals present form a bouquet of dark chocolate, graphite, tar, blackberry and cherry, and cigar box. I felt as if each whiff contained some new aroma. I expected a tannic monster, based on the blend, color, and age, yet this is a very smooth wine. Yes, the tannin is presenet but it's well integrated and not dominating. The acidity present does a great job holding the ripe core of black and red fruit in check. I liked the mid-palate tar and tobacco notes that transitioned into a dark chocolate streak right through the finish. Overall, a very impressive wine at a suitably impressive price.

Out of respect for what the Hedges family is trying to do with their anti-score position, I am not going to rate these wines. I will give them each a STRONG BUY recommendation and suggest you pick up multiple bottles of each to enjoy as we move into 2012.

You can connect with Hedges on Facebook and their Twitter account. To order these wines, visit the Hedges website or your local retailer.

The wines were sent as media samples from Hedges Family Estate.

Beau Carufel

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

(img src dibariwines.com)

I want to wish all my family, friends, readers, followers, and everyone I chat with a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Your presence in my life serves to inspire, challenge, and strengthen my journey along this path. Thank you all, and may your holiday season be filled with great people, food, and wine. I will be toasting you from beautiful Oregon wine country. Cheers!

Beau

Occupy Syrah Day, Building Awareness For an Under-Appreciated Grape

2011-12-23T17:00:00.000-08:00

December 7th is an auspicious day, on it we Americans remember Pearl Harbor, the Japanese sneak attack on America that plunged us into World War II. This day is one for rememberance and hopefully, one for looking toward the future as a time when perhaps we won't be fighting each other anymore.

Fast forward 70 years later, and December 7th was the first ever "Occupy Syrah Day", founded in part by Bill from Cuvee Corner Wine Blog and Shawn from A Wandering Wino. Riffing off the "Occupy Wall Street" theme may not have been popular with some people, but they're party-poopers and not worthy of our time. The point here was to build awareness, through social media, for a grape that here in the United States at least, has a bad rap.

Syrah, once destined to be the "next big thing" according to such prestigious publications as Wine Spectator, never has lived up to those prognostications. Pinot noir came along and kicked over the proverbial sand castle, relegating a grape made famous in the Rhone Valley to something whispered about by wine geeks and pumped out as commercial grade plonk by the Australians. Luckily, the past several years has seen a resurgence, led domestically by outstanding examples in Washington and California. Overseas, Chile and France have come on strong (France..again) while Australia has languished in a sea of cheap shiraz. Unfortunate, but things are finally starting to change in the land of the Kangaroo, as the two selections I was sent will attest to.

2006 James David Cellars Syrah Central Coast: Medium-dark purple in the glass. Right away, aromas of campfire and bacon fat followed by earth, black pepper, and blackberry/blueberry. This is a big, bruiser of a syrah with tons of pepper on the front palate, leading into a core of dark fruit flavors and oak through the mid palate. The finish brings more crushed pepper and a firm dollop of oak as the this syrah winds down. It's clear that the 55 months spent in oak barrels are influencing the wine. The spices come back on the finish too, it's like swallowing a teaspoon of ground peppercorns. Nothing subtle about this syrah, it means business. Best paired with very full-flavored foods. 15.7% abv. $NA.

2008 Wakefield Estate Shiraz Clare Valley: Pours a dark red-purple in the glass. On the nose, a touch of brettanomyces leads into a bouquet of bacon fat, blackberry, smoked meat, blueberry, and vanilla oak. The palate profile consists of ripe black cherry, blackberry, ~~eucalyptus~~ menthol, tobacco, some peppery spice, and more vanilla oak. I like the tannic structure and in particular, the nice finish. This would be a pretty tasty summertime barbecue wine to serve with all manner of charred red meat. $15 is a good price for a shiraz that has a bit more complexity than we expect from that price point. 14.7% abv.

2008 Plantagenet Shiraz Mt. Barker: Pours a very dark red in the glass. Aromas of smoked meat, campfire, red berries, white pepper, herb, and a touch of heat form a pleasing bouquet. Dried basil and thyme, red cherry, menthol, subtle oak notes, and a bit of tannin create an excellent suite of flavor and texture on the palate. I am very surprised at how good this shiraz is, perhaps $20 is the entry for quality Australian shiraz. The balance is something unexpected and the wood doesn't clobber you over the head, despite it enclosing the wine for 20 months. No need to cellar this wine any longer, it's drinking extremely well right now. 14.2% abv. $20.

Participating in the #OccupySyrah day was a lot of fun. While some people lack a sense of humor and were not enthusiastic about the name, I feel it was a lighthearted stab at a topic which we all are aware of. Bill and Shawn did a good job spreading the word and I was pleased to see multiple PR and marketing groups send samples out for bloggers to sample and share. In a small but important way, that was indicative of the power of social media.

For my part, I'm going to keep drinking syrah, be it domestic or imported. I love the complexity that's possible with a well-made syrah, where you truly can feel the power, restrained. In 2012, I hope more wine lovers take the time to explore syrah and share it with their friends.

The wines featured here were media samples.

Beau Carufel

Exploring Port Wines For the Holidays

2011-12-22T13:18:00.000-08:00

As the leaves change color in the vineyards, the temperature drops and the air takes on a crisp, snappy feel, we know it's fall. Like it or not, the holidays are upon us, surely to contain excess food and drink, office parties, over-shopping, wine club shipments, and ballooning credit card balances. Each of these events carries with it a certain amount of stress upon we humans, sometimes the stress is good and sometimes it's bad. I'm writing this blog post to share what I consider a nice remedy to that holiday-induced stress.

Port wine, something of a favorite tipple in my household. Many people (myself included) consume Port year-round, so let's pat ourselves on the back for a moment. "The Holidays" provide a perfect excuse to explore Port, to drink more Port, and to share our affinity with our friends and even..just maybe..our family.

And so it goes, I was sent three bottles of Port, the real kind (hint: from Portugal) to sample. Another bottle of "port" comes from California, and I should call it port-style wine, a truer description. That bottle was contributed by my good friend Dan of Wine is Serious Business fame. As a quick shout-out, Dan and Chas do one of the most entertaining, authentic video wine blogs out there, period.

I was sent bottles of Fonseca Bin 27, Taylor Fladgate LBV 2005, and Taylor Fladgate 20 Year Tawny to taste. The California Port-style wine was a bottle of Terra d'Oro Zinfandel Port. The first three are wines made from well established producers in Portugal, and very easy to find on retailers shelves. The Terra d'Oro is available through the winery website and it looks like they can ship most places.

Before I get into the tasting notes on each of these fortified wines, let's go through a very brief Port primer, to better understand what I'll be talking about. Hopefully after the primer, you'll be able to place these wines into proper context.

Port can be made with 48 (WOW) different grape varieties but five are considered the best and most widely used: Touriga National, Touriga Francesa, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca and Tinta Cão. The Douro river is considered the source of the best Port grapes.

Port wines can be divided into two main styles: Ruby and Tawny. Most Ports are blended wines from various years with the aim of producing a consistent house style. Ruby ports are often dark purple in color with rich fruity and spicy overtones, and a sweet character. Tawny Ports are amber in color with flavors of toffee, dried fruits and nuts. More complex (and expensive) Tawny Ports have an indication of age on the bottle: 10, 20, even 40-year old Tawny. Late Bottled Vintage, or LBV Ports spend between four to six years in oak prior to bottling, softening the acid and tannin which then allows them to be consumed at a younger age. They combine the mellow flavors of a Tawny Port while retaining the fruitiness of a Ruby.

Terra d'Oro Zinfandel Port NV: Right away I was picking up zinfandel notes. Plum, black pepper, raisin, and cherry preserve all waft out of the glass. The unmistakable scent of alcohol was there too, something I tend to pick up in all but the oldest, most expensive vintage Ports. On the palate the Terra d'Oro is smooth and rich, with a sweet, candied nut flavor to go with the grapey component. For about $12 per 375ml bottle, it's a really good deal. I think my friend Chas made a great point when he said it's close to a regular zinfandel bottling, lighter than a typical syrupy Port.

Fonseca Bin No. 27 Porto: Next up is a ruby Port, the real deal. Fonseca has been making Port wines for a long time and this is their entry-level bottling. True to it's nature, the nose has cherry preserve, brandy, hints of dark chocolate and earth. I think for a $15-$20 bottle of Port, this is very approachable. I tasted more of the sweet cherry, oak, dark chocolate, and earth along with a little bit of acidity that helped liven up the wine. It wasn't my favorite of the tasting and is more for people who do like sweeter wines. This is a good introduction to Port wines and is equally at home on its own or with a chocolate sampler.

Taylor Fladgate Late Bottle Vintage 2005 Porto: This LBV smelled great to me, lots of nutty aromas mixed with oak, red and black fruit, and some spice mix going on too. One thing about Late Bottled Vintage Port that I always enjoy is the way that a lot of what I smell carries over onto the palate. The Taylor Fladgate LBV tastes a lot like it smells with regards to the oak and spices mixed with berry flavors. My initial taste was of oak and fruit and that quickly gave way to a tannin and woodsy mid-palate, ending with a bit of heat from the alcohol. When you do drink Ports though, it's important to remember that they're higher in alcohol and you probably will feel both the burn of the ethanol, and if you're not careful, the effects too. That is one of the reasons Port is not served in the same quantities as unfortified wine. At around $24, it's a great value that I highly recommend.

Taylor Fladgate 20 Year Tawny Porto: The final Port was this 20 year old Tawny, meaning that the average age of the wine inside is 20 years, not that it was made 20 years ago. There could be equal parts 30 year and 10 year Ports, respectively. When Port starts to age, it truly turns into a magnificent beverage. The bouquet is lovely, with whiffs of cherry and toasted nuts, warm oak, and hints of cigar box. Warm and rich on the palate, there's a subtle earth note along with a beautiful mix of toasted almond and cherry preserves. I love the balance and integration of the flavors, there's no sense of a beginning or end to each specific aroma, everything seamlessly flows together. At $35-40 a bottle it's a bit pricier but also showcases what makes Port wine so excellent.

Hopefully you've now got an idea of the different styles of Port and what makes it so delicious. The Center for Wine Origins is working to promote awareness that real Port only comes from Portugal, and that is a message this blog supports. January 27th, 2012 is Port Day,and there will be tastings all over the country. If you're on Twitter, you can use the hashtag "#PortDay" to connect with other wine lovers taking part. If you've ever been curious about Port wines, this is a day to use to your advantage.

The Port wines in this blog were all media samples.

Beau Carufel

Napa Valley Film Festival Wine Tasting

2011-12-19T20:55:00.000-08:00

The inaugural Napa Valley Film Festival was in November of this year, starting on November 9 and ending Sunday, November 13. Despite being called a "film festival", there is a lot more going on than just watching movies and mingling with famous and semi-famous people. The Festival weekend is packed with concerts, sponsor events, meetings, food/wine demonstrations, and more.

Obviously wine is an integral part of the Festival, and this year the people at TasteLive, CellarPass, and the NVFF teamed up to bring a group of 12 bloggers "to" the event. The 12 of us selected were sent a very expensive (and in most cases, very good) selection of wines from all over the Napa Valley to taste and tweet about using the TasteLive platform. During these live tastings, which coincided with the Napa Valley Film Festival, representatives from each winery would come to a booth or table and discuss the wines with Alan Kropf, the Chief Mutineer behind Mutineer Magazine. These chats were streamed live to us bloggers, and we tweeted thoughts, questions, and general chit chat about each wine.

The events and their paired wines are listed below, along with tasting notes and my thoughts:

Thursday, November 10: Opening Night Gala.
Winery: Robert Mondavi Winery

2009 Robert Mondavi Reserve Fume Blanc To Kalon: Sauvignon blanc aged in oak, 25% new. Previous experience with the non-reserve bottling of the Mondavi Fume Blanc have been disappointing. This was a very pleasant surprise though. I liked the bright citrus and apple aromas tinged with a hint of oak. There's a nice sense of depth to the bouquet. Upon tasting, the oak treatment is evident, as is the dash of semillon added for texture and aromatics. I liked the weighty feel of this wine, and it had a pleasing depth of stone fruit, green apple, and a hint of lychee. Solid minerality for a Napa wine, and at a real-world price of about $30, it's a nice alternative to chardonnay. B+. BUY recommendation.

2008 Robert Mondavi Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon: On the opposite side of the spectrum, I've had some amazing cabernets from Robert Mondavi. This was not one of them. I found this cabernet aromatically interesting, with notes of blackberry, cocoa, black dusty earth, and black currant. Unfortunately that beautiful bouquet dies on the palate, where all that's left is firm tannin, dust, bittersweet chocolate, and a hollow finish. While this could just be a function of the lack of age, I tasted a friend on this one and he came to a similar conclusion. How this scored a 93 points from Wine Spectator is beyond me. How the other bloggers salivated over this overpriced cabernet is also beyond me. At $135, it's just not worth the money. B. PASS.

Friday, November 11: Noon: MountainView Hotel, Calistoga.
Wineries: Merryvale Vineyards, Tedeschi Family Winery, Mumm Napa

Mumm Napa Brut Reserve Rosé NV: A blend of pinot noir and chardonnay, this was a great way to start the morning off. The pink hue is beautiful in the glass, and the bubbles flow upwards in beautiful pearl chains. The bouquet is a nice mix of tart raspberry, bread dough, and Granny Smith apple. I enjoyed the mouthfeel immensely, a lot of the raspberry flavors gave way to a dry, yeasty note on the mid-palate. The finish was clean and precise, hints of apple and pear trailed off gently. It's not cheap at $36, but it's also very high quality sparkling wine and worth buying for the upcoming New Year's Eve celebrations. B+, STRONG BUY recommendation.

Merryvale Winery 2007 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon: Merryvale's 2007 cab is 99% cabernet sauvignon and 1% cabernet franc. What that cabernet franc adds, in such a small quantity, is beyond me. This wine spent 19 months in French oak barrels, the breakdown being 70% new, 30% used oak. I like Merryvale as a consistent producer but they've never wowed me. This 2007 echoes that theme. It's a beautiful ruby-brick pour with thin, well spaced legs. 14.5% alcohol by volume is normal for Napa cabernets. Aromatically it's a nice mix of currant, oak, mint leaf, black cherry, and a touch of dried herb. The palate opens with a black cherry and currant mix before transitioning into a tannic mid-palate of earth and campfire smoke. The finish is good, a smooth tapering effect ending with a minty dark chocolate thing. It's good wine, nothing more, nothing less. Expensive at $65, but available at $45 and then it becomes a solid value. B+.

Tedeschi Family Winery 2005 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon: I'm somewhat in the minority among most of my California cabernet-loving friends, but I really enjoy the 2005's. The best wines of this vintage take an "old school" approach, revealing bouquets of black cherry, leather, olive, and dried herb. This 2005 Tedeschi is hitting its stride right now, drinking beautifully. There's touch of oak yet it's very nicely integrated and gives the wine a nice tannic structure from the mid-palate back. Those firm tannin and lively acid hark back to the great Napa cabernets of the 70's and 80's, wines which are drinking beautifully right now. Along with the ripe fruit and leathery flavors, a touch of baking chocolate comes out. The finish is dried herb and a little fleur du sel, very interesting. At $58, I feel it's fairly priced wine. A-, BUY recommendation.

Friday, November 11: 3:30pm: St. Helena Pavilion, Carnegie Building.
Wineries: Ramian, Clif Family Winery, Raymond Vineyards

Savour St. Helena 2008 Ramian Canard Merlot: Conceived as an offering from the Savour St. Helena tasting room, this merlot was made by Brian Graham of Ramian Winery. It pours a dark ruby, indicating a still-young wine. The aromatic palette was straightforward with oak, dark chocolate, ripe red cherry, and a touch of spiced vanilla. Some bloggers went crazy for this wine but I felt it lacked some structure. Merlot can be a beautiful wine, equal parts rich, velvety fruit and firm, embracing texture. While this merlot is good, it's definitely not worth $45 a bottle. B. PASS recommendation.

Clif Family Winery 2008 Kit's Killer Cab Napa Valley: Yes, this is the same family that makes those energy bars, powders, pastes, and whatnot. They got into wine a few years back (2004) and make a nice variety of reds and whites. If you're in St. Helena, you can visit Velo Vino and check out the Clif Family Winery selection. This 2008 red blend is primarily cabernet sauvignon with the balance of 8% merlot, 8% malbec, and 6% cabernet franc. The final blend spent 18 months in French oak barrels. The bouquet is impressive, at once fruit-forward - think blackberry, cherry, currant notes - and yet restrained by a peppery, earthy streak. The tannin is firm throughout, building a structurally sound wine across the palate. More of the ripe fruit balanced by oak, earth, and a touch of leathery character. At around $38, it's a steal. B+, STRONG BUY.

Raymond Vineyards 2008 Reserve Selection Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon: According to the tech sheet, this 08 Raymond is 85% cabernet sauvignon, 12% merlot, and 3% petite sirah. Raymond Vineyards is widely distributed and somewhat of a generic, supermarket type brand. Or at least, it was, now a new owner and complete renovation has (hopefully) steered this winery onto a different track. I looked forward to tasting this cabernet in the hopes that it showed a glimpse of what is to come. In the glass it's a bright ruby-purple, a color indicative of youth. A straightforward bouquet of black cherry, cassis, plum, and toasty oak. On the palate, more of the ripe fruit elements woven throughout with some oak and a fine grained tannin. I picked up some heat too, and found that this is 15% alcohol by volume. The 2008 Raymond is drinkable but also falls into the "just another overpriced/oaked/alcoholic Napa cab"category. B. PASS recommendation. $35 SRP.

Saturday, November 12: Noon: Yountville Wine Pavilion, V Marketplace.
Wineries: Chiarello Family Vineyards, Jessup Cellars, John Anthony Vineyards

John Anthony Vineyards 2010 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc: From another relatively small producer, we bloggers were sent a sauvignon blanc and a cabernet to sample for the NVFF. My own sauvignon blanc preferences lie with Sancerre and Bordeaux blanc, but California is perfectly capable of producing delightful examples too. The 2010 John Anthony version pours a pale straw into the glass. Aromatically it's powerful, with notes of tropical fruit, lemon, pineapple, and limestone. On the palate, a lively acid bolt cuts through the massive weight of 15.3% alcohol, rendering this one almost palatable. Problem is, this doesn't feel like sauvignon blanc, rather, un-wooded, hot-vintage chardonnay/semillon blends. It's the kind of texture I expect from a crappy Australian white wine, not a Napa Valley sauvignon blanc. C+, PASS recommendation. $20 SRP.

John Anthony Vineyards 2007 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon: I was gun shy after that sauvignon blanc, but this cabernet sauvignon impressed me. While it's still young, as evidenced by the clear ruby-purple it pours, there is a lot to be hopeful for. I liked the aromas of wood smoke, leather, ripe blackberry and cherry, as well as the dusty earth. The bouquet was very well balanced with each flavor complementing the next. This '07 had a nice palate presence too, with lots of ripe berry fruit up front that segued into the firm tannin, leather, and dust notes I was hoping to find. Again the balance was impeccable and this is a great example of a lush, rich, layered Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon. It hits the price point fairly and is worth seeking out. A-, STRONG BUY recommendation. $56 via the winery, as low as $45 on wine-searcher.com.

Jessup Cellars 2009 Juel Napa Valley Estate Grown: Another red blend from Napa Valley, this time from the talented hands of Rob Lloyd, winemaker at Jessup Cellars. This one is 52% merlot, 28% cabernet franc, 13% cabernet sauvignon, 5% petite sirah and then 1% petit verdot. While this 2009, bottled in August, isn't released yet, I suggest you get in line. This wine is fantastic, full of black cherry, smoke, ripe berries, dusty earth, and in a nicely integrated if somewhat strong package. Given 10-15 years, this wine will sing. Right now it's bold and dark, I picked up the green herbal note of the cabernet franc right away, along with a dose of tea-soaked leather, chocolate, and ripe blackberries. The finish was long and lingering, like taking a ride down a dusty dirt road full of spices, vanilla, and firm tannin. As the 2009 Jessup Juel ages, those flavors will continue to integrate into a delicious package. A-, BUY recommendation. $90 suggested retail.

Chiarello Family Vineyards 2008 Roux Old Vine Petite Sirah: I am still in the awkward phase of my relationship with petite sirah and it feels like middle school. I like it, I want to get to know petite sirah better, but I am shy and unsure of myself. Do I shake it's hand? Furtive glances have confirmed it's interest in me, I think. Maybe this '08 Chiarello Family Vineyards example will be my first kiss. It's pouring a dark garnet, opaque purple juice, into my glass. As my buddy Chas says, this is purple drank! Beautifully intense aromas of plum skin, cracked peppercorn, dark, loamy soil, and mint. I was worried that this petite sirah would be all tannin, but it's got so much dense ripe fruit and rich, layered texture that it balances the intense tannins extremely well. I'd love this Chiarello wine with something meaty, a t-bone steak. B+, STRONG BUY. $46 suggested retail price.

Saturday, November 12: 4:00pm: Oxbow Napa Wine Pavillion, Napa.
Wineries: Swanson Vineyards & Winery, Saintsbury, Pine Ridge Winery

Swanson Vineyards & Winery 2009 Napa Valley Pinot Grigio: The series of tastings so far have had two other white wines, the rest being reds. I was pleased to see Swanson throw in their 2009 pinot grigio. In my opinion, if you're gonna drink California pinot grigio, this one is the best out there. The 2009 comes in at 13.6% abv, not at all bad. It's fermented dry and sees no oak or malo-lactic fermentation, rendering this as pure as you can get. I was impressed with the bouquet, think lime peel, summer flowers, white peach, and a little melon. On the palate the texture comes from vibrant acidity, flowing along the lines of citrus and floral notes. The melon picks up on the mid-palate, continuing through the finish, lending some weight to a nice, clean closing. B+, STRONG BUY recommendation. $21 suggested retail but I found it as low as $15.

Saintsbury 2009 Lee Vineyard Carneros Pinot Noir: I hear a lot of people knocking Carneros pinot, saying that it cannot express the grape properly. I think in this case, Saintsbury proves them wrong. This pinot spent ten months in French oak with only 29% of the wine in new barrels. I like the color, it's a clear ruby that reflects the light very nicely. In what I would term a traditional Careneros pinot noir bouquet, I detected strawberry, cola, raspberry, baking spices, and just a hint of oak. This procession of aromas carried over very nicely on the palate, ending with a burst of red fruit and tobacco that I thoroughly enjoyed. 2009 has been heralded as a standout year for California pinot noir and this is no exception. The price point is about what I'd expect to pay. A-, BUY recommendation.- $45

Swanson Vineyards & Winery 2007 Oakville Merlot: I'm not even sure it's worth putting up this review, the winery has just released their 2008 vintage Oakville merlot. However, someone took the time to ship me a bottle so I may as well share my thoughts. I have always been a fan of Swanson wines and this is no exception. It's got all the things you want in a merlot, namely ripeness AND structure, and none of that overly-ripe fruit taste that so many poorly made California merlots have. Aromatically it's all plum, blackberry, red cherry, and oak. The oak isn't overwhelming though, and on the palate it contributes a balancing effect versus the firm tannin. Everything is nicely integrated, from the blackberry and cherry notes, the oak, a touch of dusty earth, and the fine-grained tannin keeping it all together. A wonderful wine and at a real world price of $26, one excellent deal. B+, STRONG BUY recommendation. Suggested retail price: $38

Pine Ridge Winery 2007 Stags Leap Cabernet Sauvignon: Seventeen wines into this series of tastings, we hit the end, with a cabernet-based blend from the iconic Stag's Leap district. Pine Ridge has been around for a while and consistently makes excellent, if expensive wines. The 2007 is a blend of cabernet, merlot, petite verdot, and malbec. It's a wine to sit on for a long, long time. I think 15+ years isn't out of the question. The aromas rushing out of the glass are gorgeous, cassis, plum, blackberry, sour cherry, spicy oak, and textbook dry earth. Each taste seems to bring a new flavor, be it ripe berries, subtle oak notes, earth, old baseball glove, or even a hint of eucalyptus.This is a marvelous wine that will only get better with time. It's not cheap, with a suggested retail of $80, but a little digging will find it for $50 or less. A-, STRONG BUY recommendation.

I was happy to get the invite and participate in this series of tastings, we got to try some average wines but also some fantastic bottles that I would gladly purchase at my local wine store. Tasting along with eleven other bloggers was a good experience too, because being able to see what others taste in a wine can only help your own palate develop. While I wasn't ecstatic over seemingly every bottle we were sent, I think that out of the small sampling we tasted, it's clear that Napa Valley continues to produce outstanding wines every single year.

These wines were blogger samples for review purposes.

Beau Carufel

Navarra Wine Adventure, Day Three: Bodegas San Martin, Otazu, And More

2011-12-13T19:01:00.000-08:00

I pick up the travels of the #Navarra5 returning to the beautiful Palacio Guendulain in Pamplona after another great day of tasting wines, eating food, and getting cultured. Day three was a smashing success in my book, leaving me further impressed with the wines and perhaps more so, the people. I admire the passion for creating world class wines as well as the willingness to take risks in that pursuit.

As much as I've tried to write about day three of this incredible journey, the words just don't seem to want to appear tonight. Sleep beckons and the bed in my room is so comfortable that I would not mind a day spent there, with plenty of Champagne of course. This scribe must take a mental break for a night, and I'll pick up the tale in the morrow.

Reflecting upon today's itinerary makes me realize how much I'd love for my real job to be traveling the world, bringing eager wine drinkers stories from afar. Not schlepping cheap plonk at Trader Joe's. Come to think of it, I said the exact same thing about Day Two! Since I can't go out and travel the wine regions of the world..yet..I suggest anyone reading this try as many wines from around the world as you can. Throw away preconceived notions you might have about a particular grape or region and just taste wine.

We return to this blog entry more than a day after the events of Wednesday, when I've had time to sit and think about the experience, reliving some moments in particular. The day saw us visiting a Templar church, Puente la Reina along the Pilgrim's Way of St. James, Bodegas San Martin, Otazu, and the best food and wine pairing I've had all year. That evening, a visit to one of Pamplona's famous fish restaurants (La Runa Sideria) was in order, further stuffing the #Navarra5 with amazing cuisine.

Starting the day off right, with a visit to the Church of Saint Mary of Eunate, a 900+ year old Romanesque hermitage. Think about that for a moment..For all the self-congratulating we do here in the United States about how amazing we are for having a 230+ year old democracy, that church was ancient before this country was even a glimmer in Mr. Hancock's eye. Being able to walk those stones was a humbling, extraordinary experience.

The group's next stop was Puente la Reina, a town along the Way of St. James that ends in Compostela. Here we were exposed to more ancient churches and took a walk down to the famous bridge itself.

After a time spent at the church and Puente la Reina, we re-boarded the wine shuttle for our first stop, a co-op called Bodegas San Martin. I'd tasted their Senorio de Unx label in previous Navarra wine tastings. Those bottles would be priced around $15 here in the U.S. Like Malon de Echaide, Bodegas San Martin also makes a lower end label, called Ilagres. Beyond the Senorio de Unx, at about $25-$30 is the Alma de Unx, a truly outstanding wine despite it's ugly label.

At Bodegas San Martin I discovered a couple of wines that I'm positive would be very successful here. The co-op started in 1914 and now consists of 175 growers making anywhere between three and five million liters of wine a year. The vineyards are all at elevations of 400-800 meters above sea level, in mountainous chalky and gravel based soils. Some areas with more clay based soils are planted too, though the vines there are younger. Currently, distributors in Phoenix and Connecticut bring in the wines, though that may change soon as more progressive distributors bring in wines from Navarra.

Here are some notable wines I tasted at Bodegas San Martin:

2010 Flor de Unx Vino de la Tierra: A rosado with a bit of carbonation and some residual sugar, I think this wine would crush it in American markets. It's 100% grenache and brimming with aromas of strawberry, raspberry and rose petal. It's got sweet red fruit across the palate, a hint of bubbles, and just a touch of acid to keep things in line. At $12-$14, it's a bit pricey compared to cheap Moscato de Asti or Lambrusco but the quality is so much higher than a lot of those wines that I feel this is a smart buy for those who like a little sweet and a little bubbly.

(img: http://bodegasanmartin.com)

2005 Reserva de Unx: 100% tempranillo, aged 15 months in American and French oak. The nose is all smokey meat, spices, and dry soil. On the palate it's smooth with integrated tannin, red cherry, dust notes, cracked pepper and sun dried tomato. If you love tannic, full-bodied red wine, this would be right up your alley. My ideal pairing is a medium-rare steak fresh off the grill with a teaspoon of garlic butter on top. Put this tempranillo against a similarly priced Rioja example and the Reserva de Unx would shine for it's lack of heavy oak and more balanced character. The vines are around 25 years old and show a nice maturity in the fruit characteristics.

2006 Alma De Unx: 100% grenache, aged for nine months in Navarra oak. The nose is full of bright red fruit, mountain herbs, pepper, and a touch of oak. On the palate I picked up more of the herbal note with a streak of minerality racing along the palate. Further along, a complex mix of pepper, cherry, and very firm tannin enhanced the texture. If the bottle and label are changed I think this wine could be a commercial success here in the United States. It comes in around $30 a bottle and is the most expensive wine Bodegas San Martin makes. The price point illustrates something important about wine from Navarra, that you get extremely good quality wine without an exorbitant price tag. That theme repeated itself throughout my stay in the region.

From this co-op the #Navarra5 then went to the next winery, called Señorio de Otazu. We met Javier Banales and he proceeded to wow us with some incredible bottles of wine, equal to some of the best of ours here in the U.S. After that, we dined on a sumptuous lunch, one I chronicled in a separate blog entry because the food and wine pairing was just that good. I urge you to take a moment and read that other blog, that meal is a memory I will cherish for a long time. Incidentally, if you're looking for Otazu wines, check out New Age Imports.

Otazu is relatively new, restarted in it's current location in 1990. Today they produce around 350,000 bottles, on 115 hectares of land. The vineyards are unique, they are the northernmost in Spain and close to France, which plays a role in influencing the style Otazu makes. Javier told us that the winemaking philosophy stresses balance over extraction, and the committment to quality includes a program of controlling as many of the variables as possible. I liked the oak program at Otazu, where each barrel is used for about four years and each red wine vintage sees between 20% and 30% new French oak.

Here are some highlights from Señorio de Otazu:

otazu.com

2009 Otazu Chardonnay: An unoaked, Chablis-style chardonnay. No malolactic fermation takes place, leaving a nose bursting of green apple, Bartlett pear, and lemon zest. At 14% alcohol, there is some weight to the palate, but the malic acid does a great job of showcasing apple, pear, and wet river-stone minerality. The finish draws out in a very linear fashion, but that's a good thing. I would love this wine with Dungeness crab, grilled scallops, or any number of chicken dishes. For around $15, the quality is very hard to beat.

otazu.com

2006 Otazu Altar: A blend, 85% cabernet sauvignon and 15% tempranillo that pours inky purple in the glass. The nose is gorgeous, full of dried herb, leather, bittersweet chocolate, and black cherry. The Altar spends 18 months in French oak barrels, and the total production run is about 7,000 bottles. On the palate this is an elegant, full-bodied red. Loads of dark fruit, cedar, stunning minerality, and impeccable tannic structure create an outstanding bottle of wine. While at about $50+ it's not cheap, it's also a showcase for what the terroir of Navarra is capable of.

otazu.com

2005 Otazu Vitral: 700 bottles of this were made, a blend of 95% cabernet sauvignon and 5% tempranillo. Javier suggested that future vintages would not include any tempranillo at all, because the cabernet vines were finally producing the quality fruit that is needed to make this wine. The nose is full of licorice, dark earth, chocolate, ripe black cherry and blackberry, along with a whiff of smoked meat. This wine is one you could stand side by side with the best of the world and it would hold it's own. I judged this to be one of the top three wines of the entire trip. At $150+ it isn't cheap, nor should it be. Ideally a filet mignon would accompany the Vitral, with the rich meaty flavor of the steak balancing the firm tannin of the wine.

I fell asleep in the wine-shuttle as we returned to Pamplona, the combination of awesome food and incredible wine just did me in. I think each lunch we had in Navarra lasted between two and three hours, something we Americans are not used to. Upon our return to the hotel, the group was somewhat dismayed to find that we only had a few minutes to get ready for dinner. More food, if you can believe it, was built into the agenda. Our destination was a seafood restaurant called La Runa Sideria (The Rune Ciderhouse) that is also home to great casks of cider. Seafood and cider aren't what I immediately think of as a pairing but I was determined to try this out.

As we all sat around the table ordering plates of freshly caught fish, I went to a cask and drew off some of the Navarran cider. It was bone dry and had only the fainest hint of apple flavor, as well as being practically flat. While not everyone liked it, this seemed an important ritual for us and I happily partook. The #Navarra5 did of course drink wine, but I didn't have my notes with me so I cannot recall what they are. I'll end with some more shots of our delicious dinner, before we climbed back into some taxis and made our way "home".

Our fearless guide Michael Matilla of Argos Wine Consulting is seen drawing off some of the cider at La Runa. He loved this stuff! The picture was my attempt at an action shot, I feel my little Canon Powershot just wasn't up to the task..Or maybe it was me, after a long day.

Some kind of fish, freshly caught that morning, and now prepared into a delicious meal for us. Paired with a chardonnay, it was perfect. I'm glad we did seafood tonight because trying to consume more beef would have possibly been disastrous.

Another fish, also of unknown provenance, but also quite delicious. Often the "fresh fish" we get here is multiple days old, but not the fish at La Runa, or so we were told.

Each day kept getting better with new wineries and experiences. Seeing ancient bridges and churches reminded me of how old this land is. Tomorrow, day four, the group is going to another winery and an excavated ancient Roman winery. That got me thinking; people have been making wine in Navarra for two thousand years, isn't it about time we here in the United States caught on? If this area wasn't suited for wine production and didn't know how to make good wines, they'd have stopped by now.

Beau Carufel

You Could Win Tapena Wine!!

2011-11-29T18:55:00.000-08:00

Raise your hand if you'd like to win some free wine. Perhaps that's a rhetorical question, because I don't know anyone who doesn't want free wine, especially good wine. With some help from the Tapeña group, I'm running a contest on this little corner of the internet. The winner of the contest will get a Tapeña party pack consisting of wine (duh!), a Spanish cookbook, corkscrew, those neat fridge magnets with words on them, and some other special goodies.

Now onto the legalese: By entering into this competition you are verifying that you're 21 years of age or older. You also verify that you're living in the 48 contiguous states.

Here's what I want to see from you:
1. Post a comment about Spanish wines and a favorite pairing to go with Spanish wines. That will get you one entry.
2. Post a recipe for tapas that is holiday-party themed, that'll get you two entries! Note: The recipe must be relatively simple and original, please don't cut/paste from a food magazine directly to this blog!
3. Submit a picture, via email, of some tapas you've cooked up, along with the recipe for me to post here. That will get you three entries. I'll then post the picture(s) and recipe(s) after I pick the winner.

Three ways to win, and on December 10th I will pick a winner using random.org and the corresponding entries I receive. All entries must be in by midnight Pacific time on December 9th.

To spread this competition to as many people as possible, anyone referring other wine lovers to this blog competition gets a bonus entry. The person referred must include the name of who referred them to this page in their entry.

I'm making this competition as easy as I can, yet still trying to retain a sense of fun and exploration for us all. I spent a week in Spain this past September and fell in love with the concept of tapas and the Spanish way of going from tapas bar to tapas bar, having a plate of tapas and a glass of wine at each. Call it a sophisticated twist on the British/American tradition of a pub crawl.

Some background will perhaps help to put this competition in the proper light. Tapeña group, the brainchild of the Ferrer house (they of Freixenet cavas), is a way of putting $10 Spanish wine onto American tables. The thing is, a lot of $10 Spanish wine is plonk, with too much oak and other manipulation that covers up what the grapes really are. Not so with the Tapeña wines, which come in four varieties; tempranillo, grenache, verdejo, and a rosado (rosé). All the grapes come from the middle of Spain, in the Tierra de Castilla region.

To learn more about the Tapeña wines, here are some helpful links:
The Website: http://tapenawines.com
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/tapenawines
Twitter: @tapenawine
Tapeña Blog: http://blog.tapenawines.com
Tapeña Rewards program. Details online at: http://www.tapenarewards.com

I hope you'll join in this fun competition and be inspired but what other people create, as well as create a tapas recipe of your own. It's all in fun and you could very well win a few bottles of wine and a cool cookbook, to say the least. That and the bragging rights that go with winning such a highly prestigious competition..

Let the games begin!

These wines were sent as samples for review purposes.

Beau Carufel

Thanksgiving Pinot Noir

2011-11-22T17:53:00.000-08:00

In lieu of a "Drink _______ on Thanksgiving" type of post, I'm going to suggest a few wines that you, gentle reader, may or may not want to seek out on that last-minute shopping trip. I certainly won't tell you what to drink because we all have different taste preferences. Thanksgiving is usually about gut busting quantities of food crammed down our feeding holes, followed by intensely lethargic periods spent watching Americans beat the crap out of each other on TV, while wearing pads of course. Why add to the stress of preparing a mammoth feast by worrying about which wine to pair with what food?

For this post, I'll highlight some pinot noir's that are easy to find and quite good, as well as being reasonably priced. First though, my view on why pinot noir is a nice pairing with turkey and the assorted side dishes we gorge ourselves on each November. With the plethora of dishes weighing down the table, finding a perfect catch-all wine is impossible. For simplicity's, I suggest a high acid wine, specifically a high acid red wine like pinot noir.

There you have it, my suggestion for this year's Thanksgiving. I like to go with red wines because they have a bit of muscle behind them, and when paired with some acid, can still retain a lightness that won't contribute to weighing down your stomach like that pecan pie will. And by the way, I love pie. There are other options, I've seen bloggers recommend everything from Barolo to Zinfandel. If those are more your style, go with them and enjoy!

Here are three pinot noir selections that might interest you, at price points under $40, from three regions around the world that produce consistently excellent wine. They were all sent as samples for me to review. The imported wines are brought in by WJ Deutsch & Sons.

1. 2009 The Crossings Awatere Valley Pinot Noir Marlborough - This Kiwi beauty comes in at under $20 and only 13.0% alcohol by volume. There are notes of cola, baking spices, dried cherry, and cranberry on the nose along with just a hint of white pepper. I tasted ripe red fruit, a hint of cedar, more of that white pepper, and some nicely integrated mushroom flavors. The finish is clean and precise, leaving your palate ready for the next bite of food. I liked the acidity because it kept the wine light and easy to drink, yet the mix of cherry, pepper, and cedar made for some interesting flavors within my glass. I think it would hold up well under the onslaught of turkey and stuffing.

2. 2010 Llai Llai Pinot Noir Bio Bio Valley - Hailing from Chile, we get another low alcohol (13.5%) pinot noir. At a suggested price of $12.99, this was the least expensive of the pinot selections I was sent to taste through. Noticeably riper nose, with aromas of black earth, sun dried tomato, red cherry preserves, oak, and a touch of rhubarb. Compared to the Crossings, the Llai Llai is a softer, fruitier pinot. I tasted raspberry and cherry notes, some oak, a touch of spice, and a nicely integrated tannin. Everything was well integrated, unfortunately the finish was a little too short and abrupt. That said, the pinot still retained a light mouthfeel and I wouldn't minding having it with sweet potatoes or stuffing with bacon.

3. 2009 Sonoma Coast Vineyard Pinot Noir Freestone Hills - Hailing from the Sonoma Coast AVA, this is the most expensive pinot noir in the lineup with a suggested retail of $40. Unfortunately it's also the booziest, coming in at 14.3% abv. Aromatically I think I liked this the most, as it was expressing more intensity across the bouquet than the previous wines. There was a lovely strawberry jam component that wove through the aromatic palette, along with red licorice, dusty earth, and some cola notes. All together very pleasant though I did get a touch of heat right at the back of my throat. Wild strawberry and raspberry along with black cherry come through on the palate, the acid does a great job of restraining those fruit flavors though, which in turn leads to a nice peppery finish. Some oak does show but it's minimal and overall this wine is very nicely balanced.

These three pinot noirs are all of good quality and fairly priced, I'd be happy with each of them at Thanksgiving. Check your local wine shop or wine-searcher.com for listing of who might carry the labels in your neighborhood. Lastly, remember that Thanksgiving shouldn't be a time of year to stress out about wine pairings. I figure that since you already have enough on your plate (bad pun alert!), the wine should help ease that stress.

One final note for those of you who prefer white wines to red wines, my personal preference is a riesling, like the 2010 Weingut Ackermann or 2010 Cornerstone Napa bottlings. If you're more adventurous, try to find a riesling from the Finger Lakes region of New York or a fine New Zealand label like Mt. Beautiful or True & Daring.

Don't forget sparkling wine either, be it a Prosecco, Champagne, Cava, or Sekt. Open whatever you want and enjoy it with your friends, family, and guests. Yes, that includes your Mother in Law...

Happy Thanksgiving!

These wines were press samples for review purposes.

Beau Carufel

2010 Weingut Ackermann Riesling

2011-11-16T23:05:00.000-08:00

I'll be the first to admit that I don't know a lot about riesling. The grape has always been somewhat of a mystery to me, as one of the many wines that I thoroughly enjoy, yet not showing up on my radar enough to warrant frequent purchases. In the case of German examples, all too often I (and many others) are confused by the myriad words on each label, all seemingly full of "eich", "ich", "zelt" and "wein". Wait, that last one is pretty easy to figure out..Let's move on!

I'm fortunate to have two good friends, Dan and Chas of Wine is Serious Business, who happen to love riesling. These two willingly take a riesling luddite and coax me into exploring the grape more often. Tonight, after filming a show about Port, Dan graciously offered to open the following wine, a 2010 Weingut Ackermann Zeltinger Himmelreigh Mosel riesling. The first two words are the producer, Weingut Ackermann. They're small, and most people who know of them are the serious riesling-heads.

Luckily an importer called Teutonic Wine Company decided to bring in some of the Ackermann wines, benefiting people like Dan and by extension, me. If you're a riesling fanatic, or just a fan of unique, hard to find German wines, check out Teutonic Wine Co. and see what they do. Dan speaks highly of them and I have tons of respect for the little guys, bringing in the under-the-radar wines that frankly, we should all be seeking out.

Zeltinger Himmelreich is the name of the vineyard, and it's located in the Mosel region of Germany. Even with my limited knowledge, I recognize the Mosel as being one of the greatest places on the planet to grow riesling grapes. Clearly I have a lot of reading to do, but then again, what else is new? Quick aside: the more you learn about wine, the more you realize you don't know and might never learn.

This Mosel riesling pours a pale greenish-straw color into my Riedel. It's very pale and clear, no little bits floating about within the glass. The green is less pronounced towards the edges, where it becomes absolutely colorless and crystal clear.

I was able to detect notes of pineapple, lime juice, green apple, and a pleasing dose of limestone minerality on the nose. Not necessarily complex, but the Weingut Ackermann is very pleasing and enjoyable just to sniff. I noticed that as the wine warmed up a bit, some subtle hints of apricot also emerged, further enhancing the bouquet.

If you thought riesling was sweet, this one will change your mind, as well as blow it. It's wonderfully acidic, curling your lips back into a "riesling smile" as the acid dances along the edges of your tongue. Sweet apricots galore, pineapple, a laser beam of wet rock, and even a dash of peach nectar are all jumping around my palate. This isn't the most complex white wine or riesling I've had, but it's absolutely a smile-inducing drink. I love the finish in particular, the way each flavor seems to fold in on itself until you're left with a nice crisp ending to the taste. It lingers too! Easily a 20 second tail on this Ackermann bottling.

What then should I pair this with? I'd suggest almost anything, as the high acid here creates a clean flavor profile that will cleanse your palate of any vestiges of the last bite you ate. Me, I'd love to pair this with a citrus-marinated chicken breast, spicy Asian cuisine, or teriyaki glazed shrimp fresh off the grill.

The cost, according to Dan, was about $15. To me, that's a QPR-beater, more of a QPR-destroyer. If I paid $25 for this I'd be happy. That acid I referred to creates a wonderfully textured wine, one that you can sip for hours. At 9% alcohol, it shows just what can be done with white wines. No need for 15% sauvignon blanc crap here, this has every ounce the flavor and intrigue, if not more. I cannot recommend trying this wine enough, it's a B+ and a STRONG BUY, perhaps one of the best values I have tasted this entire year. As I noted, the Teutonic Wine Company imports this gem, produced by Weingut Ackermann. I believe it's worth stocking up on three or six bottles, to drink over the next few months whenever you want a clean, pure white wine with no pretension whatsoever.

This wine was shared with me by my friend Dan, I did not pay for it.

Beau Carufel

The Scourge of Wine Bloggers

2011-11-14T13:36:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about this for a while now, my frustration growing at times, receding at other times. In the hopes of creating dialogue, I'm posting my feelings openly and honestly for everyone (all nine of you) to read.

Should wine bloggers be nice?

Yes, by all means we collectively should be nice to people, and of course, about the wines we review. However, should we be nice at the expense of our integrity as bloggers and responsibility to accurately report/blog about the wines we're drinking? The answer to that is a resounding NO. There's a line to be drawn between being polite, gracious, and nice, and being a jerk, insulting, and rude. Staying within the accepted societal norms of behavior is easy, unless you're the WAWineMan guy, but that's a "special" case.

With that out of the way...

If I'm sent a bottle of wine by a winery, PR group, or trade group with the understanding that I'll review it, whomever sent the wine must understand that I'll review that (and every) wine according to my tastes and based off of my own experiences. In other words, my life experience plus my accumulated wine training. Expanding that concept, wine bloggers shouldn't be expected to sugarcoat their reviews, and disliking some wines is a good thing, even if you got it for free. When you write about a wine you don't like, any smart PR agency or other wine-related group will read the review and understand that perhaps you aren't the best person to review a certain style or type in the future. Readers too will benefit by gaining a sense of where your palate lies in relation to theirs.

This all stems from me being sent a lot of inexpensive, budget-oriented wine to sample. In what context do I place those wines? Confession: I place them near the bottom, qualitatively, of my wine-consciousness because they are not as good as the more expensive wines I've been fortunate to taste in my career. Without any pretension, that is a fact. There are occasional exceptions which never fail to bring joy and a smile (and a positive review), but generally, wines that are inexpensive are also of lower quality and "score" lower on my (and other's) scale.

How do I convey that fact to my readers without coming across as a snob?

I strive to balance the positives and negatives of every wine while remaining careful not to endorse something that I myself wouldn't drink. In my firm opinion, readers can see through the bullshit, especially from Wine Bloggers. What's required is a deft grammatical touch, correct phraseology, and being nice. I've spoken before of accepting all wine drinkers from the neophyte to the gurus. Inclusiveness is obviously vital to expanding the reach and influence of the wine blogging community.

Though I always take self-appointed "wine gurus" (or divas, gods, goddesses, etc) with a grain of salt...

Now, about those Wine Bloggers...

Wine bloggers are under an obligation, which more and more of us seem to forget or dismiss, to write about what we're sent. So then, why do wine bloggers forget that obligation or dismiss it? That's easy; the main reason is that they don't want to cut of the flow of free wine. I'll be polite and refrain from naming any names, but when you gush over every single wine you're sent, without fail, in every public forum you can get into, something is wrong.

The word disingenuous comes to mind when I think of these bloggers, and quite a few of them are very "famous" in the insular wine blogging community. When I read their reviews, I grimace and understand why people like WAWineMan and the HoseMaster of Wine love to insult and demean wine bloggers. Perhaps those two have a point. If ever a small group within a large group harmed the collective image, those disingenuous bloggers are it.

Another point must be made: what is often forgotten is that someone took the time to reach out and send us a product that was made (by someone else) and is now on store shelves. Refraining from writing about that wine is basically ripping off the producer and entity that sent you the free bottle. By accepting samples we accept the mantle or responsibility to write honestly about those samples, not ignore the ones we don't like or gush about every single free bottle that ends up in our kitchen.

Backtracking just a bit to the consumers, i.e. our target audience..

Consumers want an accurate, non-sugar-coated wine review to assist them in their buying decisions. The only way to get more wine lovers to read wine blogs is to gain their trust while encouraging them to keep expanding their drinking boundaries. Bringing an element of personal evaluation into your review is critical, so long as you can do so without the rancor or rudeness of a cad. By showing a human side, one that likes some wines and dislikes others, without pretension, the average Googler will read your blog and might actually take away something useful.

My point is that every wine deserves a fair chance, and going back to what I wrote before, I personally do give every single wine I taste a fair shake before taking notes and writing up the review. After that fair shake, all bets are off, and that's how it should be, right? MY blog reflects the sum of MY wine experience. Is that unreasonable, or should we all strive for a similar philosophy?

Wine bloggers already have a bit of a bad reputation, and generally speaking, it might just be deserved.

Beau Carufel

Tudal Wine Group: Tractor Shed Red & Honker Blanc

2011-11-11T16:48:00.000-08:00

This feature is about two wines from Tudal Family Winery, a producer I hadn't heard of, let alone tasted, ever. I was sent two samples, their entry level red blend and their sauvignon blanc. The red blend "Tractor Shed Red", is priced at $12 and the "Honker Blanc" is at a suggested retail of $14. From there, the price goes up (and so does the quality, we hope) for the Vineyard Series and Signature Series. Sadly, I was not sent those wines to taste.

Unfortunately, the Tudal website is pretty useless, not giving current pricing or even current releases. A quick check on cellartracker.com shows that the higher end bottlings are generally considered to be excellent, and the two bottles I was sent are considered to be good to very good. My tasting notes will follow, below the fold.

According to the backs of the bottles, the Tudal family has four generations of winemaking experience and have been making the Tractor Shed Red since 1997. These wines are made in St. Helena, at the actual Tudal winery..I think..It may have been branded as the Cerruti Cellars winery though, owned by the Tudal Group.Again, the website is rather useless so I was left to do research on my own.

Also on the back of the bottle are the words "Cellared & Bottled by Cerruti Cellars", so apparently this kitchen-sink of a red blend is produced under a different legal entity, from grapes that the Tudal family grows. The Honker Blanc has the same verbiage. More reading of the back label tells us that the "Tractor Shed Red" is an "Artful blending of noble Bordeaux and Italian-style varietals from each California harvest...". Unfortunately when I read that, I immediately conjure images of a $4 red blend from Trader Joe's. In other words, something that is utter crap.

(img src:http://cerruticellars.com/)

2010 Honker Blanc - 100% sauvignon blanc grown in Napa Valley. 13.8% abv, yes it's high but this is also Napa Valley. Aromatically pleasant, sweet melon, citrus, maybe a touch of apple. Where the Honker Blanc gets really sensational is across the palate. Vibrant acid, full of lime and lemon, green apple, a touch of sweet kiwi, and a hint of green jalapeno play extremely well together. Suffice it to say, I like finding wines at this QPR, especially with Napa Valley on the label. I didn't detect any alcoholic heat or out of balance flavors. Suggested pairings include citrus-glazed seabass, scallops and linguine, or pre-party nibbles. Well worth the $14. B, BUY recommendation. Bravo!

(img src:http://cerruticellars.com/)

2009 Tractor Shed Red - Now to the red blend, coming in at 14.2% abv. The Cerruti Cellars website reveals that the 2009 Tractor Shed Red is a blend of Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Sangiovese, and Zinfandel. Like I said, kitchen sink. I couldn't detect any heat on the nose, which was full of very ripe red fruit and some peppery spice. I suspect this saw some oak chip treatment, but it's not offensive by any means. There's a pleasant ripeness at play, which makes the Tractor Shed Red very easy to drink. It's not syrupy sweet, and the tannin are enough to balance out the wine nicely, especially on the finish. What stuck out was how this drank like a $25 red blend when it cost a lot less than that. A solid effort, easy to drink, and let's face it, cheap. This delivers above the $12 price point and is a wine to have around when you just want a pizza in the middle of the week. B- and a BUY recommendation.

Two good wines at good prices, worth seeking out. You can go to the Cerruti Cellars website and find out who carries them in your geographical area.

These wines were media samples for review purposes.

Beau Carufel

Quivira Zinfandel, 2009, Dry Creek Valley

2011-11-09T10:00:00.000-08:00

Sent as a sample some months ago, this Quivira zinfandel ends up being one of the first wines reviewed since I moved up here to Portland, Oregon. The rest of the samples are done resting after the two day, 1,050 mile journey from San Diego, so you can expect to see the pace of reviews pick up a bit as we get into the holidays.

Zinfandel has always been a favored grape for me, it was perhaps the first red wine I tasted, 20 years ago at my family's dining table. For that reason, while others disparage zin, I love and drink it with gusto. During the course of my blog I've tasted multiple excellent bottles, including zinfandel from Shannon Ridge, and from Paul Dolan Vineyards.

So let's talk about this 2009 Quivira Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel. It's not an alcohol monster, coming in at a currently-normal 14.8%. It's got a beautiful purple color, turning garnet towards the outer edges. I can see through it, save for the center where it's inky purple.

The Quivira is aromatically quite nice, with notes of candied raspberry, plum, black pepper, and just the barest hint of earth. None of that mixed-berry jam you can get out of Paso Robles zin, the Quivira wears it's ripeness very, very nicely. Aside from some heat, it was hard to find fault with the bouquet.

If you like balanced zinfandel, this is it. In 2009, California experienced a very good growing season, some might say excellent. I feel that this good vintage, combined with good winemaking, led to a lot of balance even in varietals where it's easy to veer towards over-ripeness. This wine has a great peppery start, then a lush, ripe plum/blackberry flavor comes charging through. Behind that are some tannin, perhaps from the oak barrel, lending to a structurally sound finish.

To me, the 2009 Quivira zinfandel is a food-wine, one that I would happily pair with burgers, meatloaf, and especially some autumn stew with big chunks of meat in it. If you do like big, rich red wines with Thanksgiving, there's another pairing that could work out very nicely.

There you have it, a deliciously affordable zinfandel from a producer who clearly knows what they are doing. I rated this a B and STRONG BUY recommendation. Well worth seeking out at good wine shops and high end markets, especially for $20 or less.

This was a media sample for review purposes.

Beau Carufel

Wente Named American Winery of the Year by Wine Enthusiast

2011-11-08T10:22:00.000-08:00

This came down the PR wire the other day. Congratulations to Wente Family Estates, they've a long heritage behind them and should be very proud of this achievement. In my near-decade selling wine, Wente has consistently been a customer favorite.

Press Release Below:
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Wente Family Estates Named American Winery of the Year

by Wine Enthusiast Magazine

"November 7, 2011 - Livermore, CA - Carolyn Wente, CEO and Fourth Generation Winegrower of America’s oldest continuously owned and operated winery, is pleased to announce that her family business has received the 2011 American Winery of the Year award from Wine Enthusiast magazine. Wente Family Estates is comprised of Wente Vineyards, Murrieta’s Well and Tamás Estates as well as entwine, a partnership between The Food Network and Wente Vineyards. Known as the Wine Star Awards for the last 11 years, the magazine honors international wine personalities who have had great influence on the world of wine.

Wente Family Estates joins an esteemed group of winners this year including Restaurateur of the Year Michael Mina, Winemaker of the Year Bob Cabral of Williams Selyem, and Georg & Maximilian Riedel as Generations of Innovation, among others. Upon learning of the news, CEO Carolyn Wente stated, “This is really such a wonderful acknowledgement and recognition for the five generations of my family who have remained committed to the wine business. We all love what we do and my two brothers Eric and Phil and my niece and nephew Christine and Karl are individually helping to build our company into a strong, relevant and quality driven winery in the 21st century. We have built on the foundation laid by my great grandfather, Carl Wente, who came to this country as an immigrant in the late 19th century, to the Livermore Valley in 1883.”

This award comes at an auspicious time for the winery as 2012 will mark the 100th anniversary of Chardonnay coming to America. In 1912, Ernest Wente, son of founder Carl Wente, brought Chardonnay cuttings from Montpelier, France to California. His plantings and experimentation with the Chardonnay clone began a chapter in California wine history that continues today. Post Prohibition, Chardonnay plantings encompassed roughly 100 acres in California, and today nearly 100,000 acres are planted to Chardonnay and it is the top selling varietal in the country. Over 75% of the Chardonnay planted in California is derived from the Wente clone, making the Wente family integral in the development of wine culture for Americans.

As one of the top 30 wine companies in America several years running, Wente Family Estates has established itself as a unique company given that it is family-owned, and all of its fruit is estate grown and sustainably farmed. Due to the vision of CEO Carolyn Wente, the winery was also among the first to develop a wine country destination program when 25 years ago, Carolyn launched both an onsite fine dining restaurant, The Restaurant at Wente Vineyards, as well as the renowned Concerts at Wente Vineyards. In 1998, the winery opened the Course at Wente Vineyards on property, an 18-hole championship course designed by Greg Norman. Blazing a trail that many would follow, Wente Vineyards made wine country more than just a casual stop by a tasting room to an entire wine country experience.

In 2008, on the occasion of their 125th anniversary, the Culinary Institute of America inducted Wente Vineyards’ founder Carl Heinrich Wente into the “Vintners Hall of Fame” as a “Pioneer.” In 2010, the winery was named both Winery of the Year by the California Travel Industry Association and received the Lifetime Achievement award at the 2010 California State Fair. Several generations of sustainability efforts were also recognized when Wente Family Estates became among the first wineries to attain Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing status for its business and winemaking practices in 2010. Also in 2010, the Course at Wente Vineyards became a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary by the Audubon International Program, recognized for its commitment to provide a sanctuary for wildlife on the golf course property as part of its holistic sustainability mandate.

With the Winery of the Year Award, Wente Family Estates is recognized in good company in the Winery of the Year category with previous recipients J. Lohr, Trinchero Family Estates and Concannon. The winners will be announced in the December 15th issue of Wine Enthusiast and a private ceremony honoring the awardees will be held at the New York Public Library on January 30, 2012.

About Wente Vineyards
Founded in 1883, Wente Vineyards is the country's oldest continuously operated family-owned winery. Today, Wente Vineyards is led by the fourth and fifth generations of the Wente family. More than 128 years of committed stewardship to the land led to the development in the 1990s of Wente Vineyards’ Farming for the Future program, a system of sustainable viticultural practices designed to produce the best quality wines with the least environmental impact. This philosophy extends to all aspects of winery operations, where energy efficiency, waste reduction, recycling and social responsibility are all integral to the culture.

Located just east of San Francisco in the historic Livermore Valley, Wente Vineyards is recognized as one of California’s premier wine country destinations, featuring wine tasting, fine dining and championship golf. For more information, visit www.wentevineyards.com."

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Congratulations again to Wente and the people there.

Beau Carufel

California Cabernet's from Chateau Felice, Krutz, Wente, and Rodney Strong.

2011-11-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

About a month ago I took part in a tasting of four California cabernet sauvignons withTasteLive and group of fellow wine bloggers. I've been fortunate enough to participate in other TasteLive events, the format being that select bloggers around the country are sent samples to taste and talk about, live. TasteLive's website allows each blogger to log in and appends each tweet with hashtags relevant to the tasting.

For the wineries and PR groups, TasteLive represents a great way to spread each brand across a huge chunk of the wine-drinking, new media-using demographic. It's also a smart way to build background buzz about wines and/or regions that the PR groups are trying to build awareness for. For us bloggers, well, let's face it, we get free wine to taste and talk about..Things we already love doing to begin with.

The event last month was titled "Luscious Hedonisms", and was intended to showcase four different cabernet sauvignon growing regions in California. We were sent these bottles of wine a few weeks before the tasting, then on October 11, we all gathered at our respective homes and swirled, sniffed, and sipped our way through some expensive wine. I think some of us spit too, though I confess to not spitting a couple of the wines. The lowest priced bottling was around $49, the highest coming in close to $75. Those are, of course, suggested retail prices.

Here are the wines:

2007 Chateau Felice La Craie American Celebration: From the Chalk Hill AVA, this is actually a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and cabernet franc. It's what we here would call a "Meritage", "we" and "here" being totally irrelevant of course. The Chateau Felice is tight upon pulling the cork, but soon reveals aromas of leather, plum, baking chocolate, and herbs. Out of the four wines, I feel it had the most tannic presence, but backed up the firm tannin with gorgeous flavors of cassis, black cherry, baseball glove, and a bit of dusty oak. I rated this wine a B+, it's very, very good and worthy of your cellar. Suggested retail: $50. Alcohol: 14.3%

2007 Krutz Cellars Stagecoach Cabernet Sauvignon: Ok, first off, why the hell would Krutz even want to send a bunch of bloggers a 95 point (W.E.) cabernet sauvignon? It's suggested retail is $75, so the score:price ratio is right (for once). This was by far the best wine of the tasting, and you can find it for $65 at good retailers. The bouquet is all Napa mountain fruit, brimming with cassis, black cherry, herb, dark earth, and hints of vanilla. Despite four years of age (two in bottle) this wine is still a bit tannic which only means it needs more time in your cellar to become even more delicious. Gorgeous plum and blueberry, vanilla cocoa, dry desert herb, and leather all balance out very nicely on the palate. Wonderfully integrated despite it's young age, the Krutz Stagecoach has many years left. I gave this wine an A and STRONG BUY for those who want a cabernet that reminds us why Napa Valley is one of the best places on earth to grow that varietal. 14.8% abv.

2008 Rodney Strong Alexander's Crown Cabernet Sauvignon: Another $75 srp California cabernet sauvignon, this time from Alexander Valley. Wine Spectator rated this a 93 points, so we have another highly rated wine given to a bunch of bloggers. And again, I am somewhat baffled. That said, I'm more than happy to taste and talk about wines with high scores. Unfortunately, I disagree with the 93 point rating, mine is closer to a B+, or 87/88 points. This smelled of ripe blueberries, sweet red cherry, and oak. After a few hours I was able to detect some bits of minerality but they were lost behind the over-extracted fruit flavors which themselves had to contend with massive amounts of vanilla oak. The palate left me feeling much the same, this wine feels big and tastes intense. More of the ripe berry fruit and a big dollop of vanilla oak are battling it out. I think with time this might mellow out and allow the intriguing mineral element to come play but for now, it's just not my thing. PASS recommendation, especially at $75. 15.5% alcohol. (wow!!)

2007 Wente "The Nth Degree" Cabernet Sauvignon: The last wine of the evening was from Wente, a producer I generally avoid because I've always found their wines to be heavily oaked and lacking structure. Their winery is located the same area they get their fruit from, the Livermore Valley AVA. The 2007 The Nth Degree was heavily oaked as usual, but luckily there was also some firm tannin that acted to restrain the vanilla and cocoa flavors of the oak barrels. Like the Rodney Strong, I smelled a lot of vanilla, cocoa powder, ripe berry fruit, and the barest hint of minerality. Across the palate, more of those extracted berry flavors and vanilla oak, framed by the tannin I mentioned before. Luckily the Wente cabernet is also balanced nicely, so those of you who enjoy a California cabernet sauvignon that is made in the style that California is now departing from need not despair! The suggested retail is $60, teetering on the edge of the "overpriced California wine" precipice. I feel the quality is high, but it's too extracted and still too oaked for my palate. B+ and a PASS from me. If you want this style, don't pay $60 a bottle, despite the obvious quality here. 14.3% alcohol.

Tasting four brawny California cabernet's is one thing, but tasting them in a realistic setting means that you need food to accompany the wines! Cabernet and steak go together like Beau and Burgundy, so it was time to cook up three pieces of tri-tip. Becky was in town helping me pack for my move to Oregon, and my buddy Justin came over because he likes free wine and to hang out. Here are some pictures of our meal:

Tri-tip steaks marinated with a spicy Cajun sauce for a few hours, then put into my cast iron skillet to broil in the oven. I could have gone with rib-eye or New York Strip but those are pricier options and these were the perfect size, one for each of us.

Some people wonder why steak or red meat pairs so well with tannic red wines, one of the reasons for this is that tannin binds well with proteins in red meat, creating a nice synergy of texture and flavor. Another reason, the actual taste of good beef, a "meaty" taste, pairs with flavors like herb, earth, and even spicy black fruit.

Here you see the tri-tip steaks fresh out of the oven, ready to be enjoyed with the different cabernet's. When I pair steak with wine, I tend towards reds with firmer tannin levels opposed to fruitier reds like merlot. Cabernet fits that bill perfectly - if you pick correctly. Forgive the rant, but too many California (Napa Valley in particular) cabernet's are so fruity and over-extracted that their flavors completely overwhelm any food you try to pair with them. As a result, I look for cabernet from Washington state, Mendocino and Lake Counties, the Sierra Foothills, and France. That said, the Krutz paired brilliantly, as did the Chateau Felice.

I have to confess, I reduced the mushrooms in the 2007 Krutz Cellars cabernet, which was so good that I knew it would ensure the mushrooms were awesome.

They were, and spooned onto the steaks created a delicious match of flavors. Again sticking with the more tannic reds of the tasting, Chateau Felice and Krutz, earth flavors found in mushrooms are complementary to those wines.

I wish I had the finished meal to show you, plated and all, but I don't. That's a major fail on my part, but I can leave you with this: the meal was damn good.

Cabernet Sauvignon is versatile, it can grow in many places on this planet and the finished wine can run the gamut from austere to overly sweet and tasting of vanilla sawdust. My tastes run towards the former, and lucky for me and those with palates like mine, there is a shift towards more restrained styles going on in California. Each wine we tasted was high quality, of that there is no doubt, unfortunately the latter two were simply over-made wines. They aimed for a flavor profile that is increasingly out of sync with today's wine drinker. Time will tell if in future vintages, Rodney Strong and Wente's top offerings begin to resemble those of producers like Krutz, Round Pond, and Elizabeth Spencer.

The TasteLive event itself was a lot of fun, even if I wasn't able to tweet as much as I'd hoped. Juggling hosting duties, taking notes, and interacting with people on Twitter and TasteLive was a daunting task, one that I need to work on. That said, I want to thank the TasteLive folks and the winery representatives for taking the time to get this all up and get us bloggers the wine, as well as sticking around to answer questions and give us good data on what we were drinking.

These wines were media samples for tasting purposes.

Beau Carufel

Bordeaux Vintners Run the New York Marathon

2011-11-02T09:49:00.000-07:00

This came in over the PR wire the other day and caught my eye. I love how it's for a good cause, and for once, Bordeaux did put a smile on my face. Read below to see more details, and maybe some day a team from Napa, Sonoma, Washington, or even Oregon could do something similar to this...

Anyways, as a native New Yorker, the Marathon has always been something that's made me proud, both for it's worldwide appeal and sheer difficulty. I have immense respect for anyone who even attempts to finish one, and running in New York City in November is no easy task.

"45,000 runners, 42.195 km (26.2 miles), 4 million spectators: the numbers are impressive. Amateurs and enthusiasts of all kinds from all over the world will be making their way to America on November 6th for the magical race that is the New York Marathon. Among them is an unusual team drawn from fifteen top Bordeaux wine estates. Baptised the Bordeaux Grands Crus Runners specially for the occasion, they represent more than twenty of the most famous names in wine, familiar all over the world. Some of the runners have already been training for over a year under the guidance of a coach who is also a renowned cardiologist, wearing out numerous pairs of shoes and covering hundreds of miles, come rain or shine.

A French TV crew has decided to follow them in their adventure, together with a journalist from a leading French newspaper, a marathon runner himself who will also be taking part in the race. But more than just a sporting challenge, the New York Marathon also offers a unique opportunity to represent the wine estates and their wines. Taking advantage of the spotlight turned on one of the world's most popular sporting events, all the participants will be offering their wines at tastings and dinners in Bordeaux and New York. As well as a challenge, the marathon is also and above all a human adventure just as important as promoting wines. Lysistrata, the women's rights charity of which Titouan Lamazou is the ambassador, has taken a particular interest in the competitors from Bordeaux. That is why the Bordeaux Grands Crus Runners have chosen not only to run but also to raise money, not least through an auction of wines, to defend the cause of women in the world and to help fight violence against them.

For more information about Lysistrata: www.lysistrata.org

The first New York City marathon took place in 1970, when 127 competitors ran several laps round Central Park. 40 years later, the annual event draws over 40,000 runners. The route has been redrawn to take in all the city's five districts: Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan. Over 300 million TV viewers around the world follow the live broadcast. The record of 2:07:43 was set by the Ethiopian Tesfaye Jifar in 2001."

Next year I'd love to see a group of young Napa vintners do this, especially if they also raised money for a charity.

Beau Carufel

Robert Parker Makes Some Predictions

2011-10-24T12:27:00.000-07:00

Just came across this article, written by Mr. Parker, on the FoodandWine.com website. He writes twelve wine predictions to take place between now and 2015. The list is an entertaining read, and I noticed a couple of intriguing items to touch upon.

His second prediction is this:
"2 The wine Web will go mainstream
Internet message boards, Web sites tailored for wine geeks and state-of-the-art winery sites all instantaneously disseminate information about new wines and new producers. Today the realm of cyberspace junkies and hardcore Internet users, these sites will become mainstream in 10 years. A much more democratic, open range of experts, consultants, specialists, advisors and chatty wine nerds will assume the role of today's wine publications."

It appears that Mr. Parker is giving a tacit nod to wine bloggers as a legitimate voice of wine criticism. He, who infamously called them (us) "blobbers", is basically saying that the role of wine critic, held today by wine publications like Wine Spectator, The Wine Enthusiast, and The Wine Advocate, will be taken over by a wide range of new voices. Obviously that includes wine bloggers.

This isn't surprising to me or my fellow bloggers, indeed we're already seeing guys like Joe Roberts and Alder Yarrow become more and more known as respected voices in the wine community. The aforementioned wine guys are moving beyond the digital domain by having their work exposed to a wider audience. That audience is not the wine-blog-reading type, rather, the people who may google a wine's name and then quickly scan the relevant (to them) article. Enough of the self-congratulations though, because wine bloggers do have a long way to go in order to garner the levels of respect accorded the print publications and critics.

Another prediction, the sixth:
"6 Spain will be the star
Look for Spain to continue to soar. Today it is emerging as a leader in wine quality and creativity, combining the finest characteristics of tradition with a modern and progressive winemaking philosophy. Spain, just coming out of a long period of cooperative winemaking that valued quantity over quality, has begun to recognize that it possesses many old-vine vineyards with almost unlimited potential. Spanish wineries recognize that they are trapped neither by history nor by the need to maintain the status quo that currently frustrates and inhibits so many French producers. By 2015, those areas that have traditionally produced Spain's finest wines (Ribera del Duero and Rioja) will have assumed second place behind such up-and-coming regions as Toro, Jumilla and Priorat."

On one hand, having just returned from Spain on a blogger trip, I agree that it is indeed ascendant because there is a lot of seriously good quality wine just waiting to make it here. I saw evidence of this in Navarra, where winery after winery was producing inexpensive, high quality, expressive wine that would appeal to a large part of our wine drinking population here.

However, Mr. Parker fails in that he notes a region already held in high esteem (Rioja) and a region that still is known for producing high priced red wine (Ribera del Duero) versus a more balanced selection. Instead, Parker needs to elevate Toro, Navarra, and La Mancha into the tiers of wine that we should be seeking out from Spain. First off, with Rioja, Parker completely avoids the fact that the stylistic framework of those wines is evolving away from his signature style. That style being a highly extracted, intensely fruity, heavily oaked wine. Momentum is shifting towards fresher, low-oak wines that have a lot more acid than your typical Rioja. A lot of his high scoring Ribera del Duero wines are the same way, as are the Priorat and Jumilla wines he gives those big 90+ points to. Big, overly extracted, heavily oaked wines that are borderline undrinkable.

Lastly, the 11th prediction:
"11 Value will be valued
Despite my doom-and-gloom prediction about the prohibitive cost of the world's greatest wines, there will be more high-quality, low-priced wines than ever before. This trend will be led primarily by European countries, although Australia will still play a huge role. Australia has perfected industrial farming: No other country appears capable of producing an $8 wine as well as it does. However, too many of those wines are simple, fruity and somewhat soulless. Australia will need to improve its game and create accessible wines with more character and interest to compete in the world market 10 years from now."

Once again, Parker sidesteps the fact that he helped create this fruity, soulless wine currently lapping our shores from Australia. He also completely misses the fact that this style of wine does and will continue to hold immense appeal to many casual wine drinkers. The kind of drinker who probably doesn't read any wine blogs, who buys Yellowtail because they've had it and it's easy to drink, and who thinks a 90 point score means the wine is good.

Another question I ask is whether Australia wants to be known as the world's best producer of $8 wine or not? I doubt it, because at the $20 and $40 level there are some wonderful Australian wines to be had. For $8, there are solid, unimpressive, good quality wines available, but if a consumer has only bought those wines before, what's the chance they'll risk it and take that $20 bottle off the shelf? I would argue that they would turn to France or Italy, even California, to buy that "expensive" bottle. Therefore, in the value-wine segment, I have a feeling we'll see Australia's role diminish from "huge" to more along the lines of California. It will take a concerted effort from the Aussies to make this happen though. Hmmm, maybe they should send me on a blogger trip down there?

What do you think? Care to make any predictions for the next five years?

Beau Carufel

Dinner at The Country Cat, Portland Oregon

2011-10-21T14:43:00.000-07:00

Last night I had a fantastic meal at The Country Cat here in Portland. As a recent emigrant to this city, I've been excited to start exploring the highly regarded restaurants in the area. Living in Beaverton, I'm a short drive into Portland yet also live in a neighborhood that has it's own hidden gems. As I continue to get settled and explore, I'll be writing about some of those cool places to.

For now though, let's start with the amazing dinner my friends and I had last night. I was downtown with Becky, meeting with the always-wonderful Karin McKercher to discuss some business (I'm still looking for a job remember!) and while we had a couple of delicious bottles of wine, including a 2006 Belle Pente Estate Reserve pinot noir and a 2007 Hamacher Willamette Valley pinot noir, there wasn't any food to be seen! I did really enjoy our venue though, Oregon Wines on Broadway. Great selection, nice staff, and good pricing make this a wine bar I'll be visiting often.

Naturally, after the three of us polished off those two bottles (both of which were quite good, earning a B+ and an A- from me, respectively), my thoughts turned to food. That always seem to happen, but I've no complaints. Becky found out her friend Anna was downtown too, literally blocks away. Anna writes a great food blog, one I highly recommend you foodies check out. She was entertaining H.C., a fellow food blogger from Southern California. Karin took off and the four of us turned our attention to getting something into our growling bellies.

The first place we stopped at, The Woodsman Tavern, has just opened and had an hour wait..minimum. Plus, it looked like every other pseudo-speakeasy run by hipsters with scraggly beards, too much pomade, and tattoos of sparrows on their arms. I rolled my eyes and figured it just wasn't my scene. My jeans weren't tight enough and I wasn't wearing plaid.

Anna then suggested The Country Cat, a short drive down the street, further into Southeast Portland. This neighborhood, called "Southeast" by the natives, is considered an up-and-coming hip place to be. Lots of gastropubs serving nouveau-American comfort food. Take that for what it's worth, I am always skeptical of restaurants that market themselves as such.

Walking into The Country Cat, we saw the place was not crowded and had plenty of open tables. A nice selection of liquor and wine was mounted above the bar, and there was a chalkboard listing beers on tap as well as their "liquor in a jar" special. Our server, Brian, came over quickly enough and we began to order. Anna and Becky led the way, ordering the pretzels to start, while I took a moment to peruse a nicely organized beverage list.

As we sat and chatted, Brian came back with our first wine, a 2010 Grochau Cellars Commuter Cuvee pinot noir. The night before, I tasted this wine with my friends Dan and Chas of Wine is Serious Business and we all enjoyed it. The Country Cat charged $31 a bottle, retail price is around $18 or so. That is how restaurant wine pricing should be. Unfortunately, I saw a bottle of 2010 Bonny Doon Clos de Gilroy for $41 when I believe it sells for $18 off their website. Kind of a bummer that it cost $10 more than the Grochau, yet retails at the same price.

The pretzel was good, it needed more salt on top but had a nice crunchy outside and a warm, soft doughy interior. The portion size was good for two people but I think we should have ordered two. Perhaps other dipping options can be offered too, as I think that a spicy deli mustard would have been a better choice. Still, this was something I'd order again.

Becky brought up that the hamburger at The Country Cat is apparently noteworthy and has been featured locally as one of the best around. Since I'm a bit of a burger fiend, this naturally resulted in me placing an order for the burger, replete with American cheese and bacon. Again I will suggest more variety, this time for the cheeses available on the burger. I may sound snobbish, but a locally produced, artisan cheddar would be an amazing complement to the burger. And what a burger it was! Look at that picture! A bit too much mayo perhaps, but that was made up for by the fact that the burger was cooked to a true medium-rare. Thank god, a restaurant that can do that! The meat to bun balance worked out, and the bacon had a great crunch factor, providing a foil to the rich beef. You Portland burger fans, check this place out.

Those onion rings were epic. As was the catsup, perhaps the most natural-tasting version I have ever had in my life. This plate was so full of epic goodness that I nearly ordered another one. I never do that. Reveling in the meaty glory that is this burger was perhaps Portland's way of saying "welcome kid, it's gonna be a fun ride" to me.

What is a great meal without a great dessert? Check out the picture below, and drool for a while.

Apple pie, almost always incredibly good and a perennial favorite of mine, topped with pecan ice cream and drizzled in caramel. At this point, my synapses began to overload, screaming "this just isn't fair!" at me. But like a champ..or like a boss, I dug in. Great balance between sweet, rich apples and flaky butter crust, and the ice cream had a bit of dry nuttiness which was complemented nicely by the sweet caramel drizzle.

Apologies for the terrible picture quality. Anyone want to give me $100 so I can go buy an iPhone 4? Yea, that's what I thought. Still, I hope you enjoyed reading about my first big culinary adventure in Portland. Thanks to Becky, Anna, and HC for sharing a great night with me. Thanks to Karin for showing me a wonderful new wine bar right in the heart of Portland. This is the start of a great adventure for me.

Beau Carufel

Where Have I Been?

2011-10-19T11:26:00.000-07:00

The eight of you that read this blog may have wondered why it's been so quiet lately. After living in San Diego for over 20 years, I packed up and moved to Oregon. Right outside Portland is a small community called Beaverton, where I'm now making my home. The drive north, up Interstate 5, took two days with a stop in Sacramento overnight. Becky had flown down the week previously and was invaluable, helping me pack and load the truck as well as keeping me entertained on the drive up.

Preparing for the move took up a lot of time and energy, so I was unable to get much writing done. As of now, I have four blog entries in the draft queue, but none are fit to print...As if anything I post is ever truly fit to print. In the final weeks of my San Diego life, I tasted through some good and not-so-good California cabernets as well as a lineup of decent carmeneres from Chile. Notes on each of those tastings will be forthcoming. More coverage of my September press trip to Navarra is also on it's way, including some of the best wine I've tasted this year. I've also a slew of single-bottle/winery reviews coming along in the pipeline, and some op/ed pieces I've been brewing in my head for a long time now.

So now that I'm in Oregon, will this blog change much? I hope it only changes for the better, with more commentary on the wine world and fewer cut and dry wine reviews. I don't think I have the energy or drive to write exhaustive articles on every single wine event that goes on, but there are some interesting tastsings coming up that I hope to attend and report to you on.

With that, I ask your pardon for a few more days as I get everything settled into my apartment in Beaverton. I'll be posting up some coverage of the harvest work I did yesterday at Kramer Vineyards, and recapping the aforementioned Curry & Carmenere tasting, as well as the (very) interesting California Cabernet tasting I did a few weeks ago.

Cheers!
Beau Carufel

Foley Steel Chardonnay, 2009, Santa Rita Hills

2011-10-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

I used to be firmly against oaky, buttery chardonnays. The "California style" that was so prevalent in the mid-90's through the early '00's grossed me out. Wines that reminded of movie theater popcorn and vanilla extract were (and are) horribly offensive to my palate. As a result, I avoided chardonnay for the most part, occasionally allowing a Montrachet to seduce me or a Chablis to dance a tango for me.

With age and maturity, I have evolved, much like a fine wine. Today those chardonnays are viewed as elements of a meal and I've had a few that were incredibly friendly and palate-pleasing. Rombauer, Far Niente, Kongsgaard, Kistler and the rest of them could be made in a technically complex style and are certainly capable of high scores...and the associated high prices.

The other side of the chardonnay coin would be examples that see no oak and no malolactic fermentation. Crisp, clean, bracingly acidic wines that highlight intenese minerality over oaky richness. Chardonnay like that holds immense appeal to me, and I remain an unabashed fan of white Burgundy to this day. Here and there, a wooded chardonnay would appeal to me, and I remain a fan of the Derbes offering, though it's rarely seen here in San Diego.

That brings us to this wine, the 2009 Foley Steel Chardonnay. The word steel referring to the lack of oak barrel aging. Also, there is no malo-lactic fermentation taking place, which results in higher malic acid for more of the green apple and lemon flavors. The suggested retail price is $30 but I've seen the 2009 Foley Steel sell for as little as $23 per bottle.

Some wine geek info: 14.3% abv, pH of 3.35, 100% chardonnay, and all fruit from the Santa Rita Hills AVA.

But what's this Foley Steel all about? Is it worth your money?

One of those answers is a simple yes or no, the other requires a bit of exploration. Is the 2009 Foley Steel Chardonnay worth your money? Yes, it's an excellent chardonnay and goes head to head with white Burgundies at the same price. But why?

Aromatically there are all sorts of fun things going on. I was struck by how fresh this chardonnay smelled, being devoid of oak and m-l fermentation allowed the natural bouquet of summer flowers and lemon zest to shine. Intense minerality plays a part too, showcasing a wet river rock scent, or perhaps that of a gravel driveway after a rainstorm. In short, this Foley chardonnay is a wine you want to sniff for hours, enjoying the picture that it's bouquet paints.

But that's only part of what makes the '09 Foley so deliciously fun. At first sip, lots of green apple and lemon pith present themselves. As the wine moves across the palate, it fattens up to reveal lemon curd notes with a core of tight minerality akin to limestone in the sun. That fatness comes from the relatively high 14.3% alcohol, perhaps the only flaw I found. Despite this cabernet-level amount of alcohol though, the Steel chardonnay remains balanced and food-friendly.

I reviewed this wine a couple of months ago and gave it a B+ and STRONG BUY recommendation because I was impressed with the quality and balance. Later, I learned that Wine Spectator gave this exact wine a 90 points, it's nice to know my ratings agree with the "professional" critics once in a while. For suggested food pairings, go with something light and fresh. Grilled ahi tuna or mahi mahi fish tacos would be wonderful. Pasta with pesto would also work out and any kind of vegetarian pizza pairing would be awesome.

This wine was a sample for review purposes.

Beau Carufel

Navarra Wine Adventure, Day Two: Malon de Echaide and Finca Albret

2011-10-03T17:39:00.000-07:00

Today arrived way too early in Navarra because we (the "#Navarra5") were out eating a stunningly good meal until 11:30pm the previous night and I didn't fall asleep until 12:40. My alarm went off at 7am, when it was still dark outside in Pamplona. Luckily the jet lag either hasn't hit me or won't hit at all. After discussing it with Ward and Mike, I think it may have something to do with the arrival-night's festivities. Those activities helped re-set my body clock to Spanish time, which is nine hours ahead of San Diego.

Breakfast was quick, we had to meet downstairs at 7:45am to get a start on the day's activities. Our schedule consisted of visits to wineries, tastings, a huge lunch (more on that later), and a walking tour of Pamplona. After that, another sumptuous dinner was scheduled but that ended up being cancelled in favor of more pintxos! Instead of boring you with words, and in the interests of keeping things concise, I'll post some pictures below.

After about an hour, we began with a tour and tasting at Malon de Echaide. This is a cooperative of growers, around 200, that grow then sell their grapes to the Bodega, which makes wine to sell. We spent some time touring the cellars and tasting their wines, all were great examples of why wines from Navarra are QPR smashers.

A Farmer Brings In His Load Of Muscat

New Oak Barrels from America

500,000 Liter Tank!!!

After tasting and the tour, we headed to another winery, Finca Albret, to taste a different style of Navarran wine. At Albret, the emphasis is on expression of terroir, letting the grapes do the talking. Perhaps the biggest difference between Albret and Malon de Echaide is that Albret owns all it's land, controlling literally every step in the winemaking process. As a result, the winemaker and oenologist can work together to ensure optimum ripeness levels in the vines before they're harvested.

Ripe Graciano at Albret

Bodegas Finca Albret

Lineup of Albret Wines

After this tour we headed to lunch to gorge on more awesome Spanish foods, including fresh vegetables grown right in Navarra. Unfortunately I failed to take any pictures during lunch, my bad. Two days and two big lunches made it clear which meal is the "big meal" of the day As such, getting used to eating a six course lunch, complete with wine, then dessert is in fact difficult. But that isn't to say that I'm not having fun trying!

Following the giant lunch, our group loaded back up into the rented van and drove back to Pamplona (roughly an hour away) to take a walking tour through the heart of the city. For me this was a highlight of the trip (yes, my interests go beyond wine) because I got to see some real, live history. The pictures above and below highlight the amazing things we saw as we walked the route of the Running of the Bulls, saw the ancient city walls, and even witnessed Basque musicians.

Ancient church

Countdown clock for next year's Running

Basque musicians

Returning to the hotel tired, still full, and maybe even a bit thirsty, I sat at my computer and began to compose this blog. We had a long day and will be up and at it tomorrow for more winery visits plus an old church and town. Seeing this history somehow makes the wine mean something more, the buildings are a part of the land and have been here in the first vineyards were planted, could we consider them somehow part of the terroir? A romantic notion perhaps, but Spain has given me a heady sense of romance so far.

I didn't finish this blog entry before bed, so what you're reading now was composed a week after I returned home.

As I look back, Day Two of the Navarra Wine Adventure was everything I had wanted out of the trip. Touring the vineyards, tasting the wines, and learning the history of the place I was in checked off the three main "needs" I had for this trip. Since the trip, I have become even more interested in visiting wine regions and reporting back what I find. Perhaps the beginnings of a wine journalism career were formed in Navarra, drinking wine.

Beau Carufel

A Perfect Wine and Food Pairing in Navarra

2011-09-29T16:21:00.000-07:00

Last week I was in the Kingdom of Navarra on a wine blogger trip, and while I tasted some amazing wine, I also was fortunate enough to eat delicious meals at multiple restaurants throughout Navarra and the city of Pamplona. One of those meals came at a restaurant on the third day of our trip through Navarra wine country. The account is below.

The Navarran Coat of Arms

Today while reading Matt Kramer's latest piece in Wine Spectator, I saw a passage that reminded me of one of the best wine and food pairings I've ever had, at a restaurant in Navarra. Matt wrote: "At a dinner with friends, we opened a bottle of 2008 Tokaji Furmint Sec from Kiralyudvar with a lemon risotto. We collectively gasped with pleasure and sensory surprise so striking was the wine. You could practically feel the universe expand, if only for an instant"

The theme of his column in the October 31st issue of Wine Spectator, was the romance of and in wine. While the article makes a good point that for some people, the romance has gone, the quote above is what stirred my memory. Experiences like what Matt describes are for me, rare, but that makes them more special and perhaps that's the romance of wine. Creating experiences such as what I'm about to describe won't come about from pairing a burger and Coca-Cola, or a glass of ice water and some suckling pig. Wine is integral to great meal experiences, and that's the truth.

After tasting some delicious wines at Senorio de Otazu with Javier Banales Vanes, he took the #Navarra5 to lunch at Sarbil, a small restaurant overlooking the valley which holds Otazu. The pictures do not do the location justice, as Restaurante Sarbil sits out over the cliff itself, leaving it's diners sitting on air! This was one of the most beautiful sights during my time learning about Navarra wine.

There you can see the restaurant and amazing view we had, the perfect setting for an equally amazing lunch. Sarbil was founded by a local man who had previously worked for years in industry before coming to his senses and realizing he and his wife could make amazing food. Javier said it was one of his favorite places to lunch and after our meal there, I can see why.

After tasting at Otazu, Javier brought two bottles of wine with him to the restaurant, the 2006 Altar and 2005 Vitral. Both are red blends, the Altar featuring 90% cabernet sauvignon and 10% tempranillo and the Vitral taking the cabernet even further, at 95% with the rest tempranillo. When I do my Otazu writeup, you'll read more detailed tasting notes on each wine, and their commensurately high scores.

(img src http://www.otazu.com/vinos.php/senorio_de_otazu/4/Vitral/en)

My choice of entree was suckling pig, something I've had and enjoyed a few times here in the United States, and to be honest, an alternative to the multiple kilograms of steak I'd already consumed during the trip. That's not to say the steaks weren't bad, quite the opposite. However, eating more steak would have been like going to France and having escargot at every stop.

After going through multiple courses to even get to the suckling pig, and consuming multiple bottles of the amazing Otazu rosado, I witnessed the sight of a perfectly cooked portion of suckling pig make it's way to the space in front of me. The skin was crackly and crunchy, and underneath, the flesh came apart as if by magic. I thought to myself "this is just not fair" and remember looking over at Mike Wangbickler who was also sporting an ear-to-ear grin.

My "moment" came when the Wine Harlot was trying to engage me in conversation. I'd just taken a bite of the suckling pig, part skin and part flesh. The salty, crunchy skin giving way to creamy, decadent flesh that itself was marvelous, without any wine! Then, I took a sip of the Vitral and my world stopped. I was speechless, my brain exploded into colors, purple, garnet, ruby, and electric blue fireworks inside my head.

My eyes were closed as I savored this perfect synergy of food and wine. THIS is why I drink wine, THIS is why I pair wine and food. The Vitral, all $105 dollars worth, seamlessly complemented the flavors of the pig. The skin, glazed to perfection, gave way to earth and dried herbs from the tempranillo, the creamy flesh of the baby pig bathed in the cassis and black cherry fruit of the cabernet. The entire experience is seared permanently into my brain. I couldn't tell where the wine stopped and the food began, or vice versa.

I held up a finger to the Harlot, begging her indulgence and after a second, she understood what was going on. Right then, there, for me, the entire world was perfect.

Beau Carufel

Navarra Wine Adventure, The First Day (Officially)

2011-09-26T13:39:00.000-07:00

So begins the first day on my Navarra Wine Adventure.
After a bit of a blow out on the night we arrived, I found myself in my hotel bed thinking that perhaps I needed to nurse my drinks in order to survive the trip. Whenever a group of wine bloggers get together, things have the potential to get a bit fun. That realization caused me to get out of bed, while still remembering the events described below, and begin my first day in Navarra.

The "#Navarra5" had a blast on Sunday night, visiting various tapas bars around Pamplona. In fact, tapas is not used by the natives of Navarra, they kept reminding me that the term was "pintxos", pronounced "pinchos". As those of you who speak Spanish know, a slight mis-pronunciation of that word could have dire consequences. Pintxos are single-serve bites, sort of like a large amuse bouche. They can be anything from a small roll with Jamon Iberico on it, freshly cooked eel, tortillas (not that kind), cheese and jamon bites in a crunchy shell, even smoked sardines. You go to the pintxos place and order a bunch of small plates, usually for about one Euro or so, wash it down with a glass or two of wine, then head out for dinner or to a show. I love this idea!

The group's favorite restaurant/bar for pintxos quickly became El Gaucho, located only a half kilometer from our hotel, Palacio Guendulain, making it very conveinent. We ended up visiting El Gaucho multiple times throughout the trip, always in search of delicious pintxos, and of course, Navarra wine!

Meeting downstairs in the overcast, cool light of a Navarran morning (September 19th), our van was quickly loaded with camera gear, bags, and wine bloggers. The first stop was 30 minutes away, at the headquarters for the D.O. Navarra. Set in a beautiful postmodern building, this is where Navarran wine is administered. The facility also acts as a research station for Spanish viticulture.

Thankfully there was coffee and water for us all, and we were introduced to the D.O. of Navarra via a slide show from the wonderfully enthusiastic Pilar García-Granero, who is the head of the administrative agency. Some of what was covered includes the history of the Kingdom of Navarra itself, Navarran grapegrowing, and an overview of some of the rules that wine from Navarra must adhere to.

Given a proper sense of context, we were ready to explore the area, starting with the Castle at Olite, where we got a guided tour of the grounds. The pictures below make an effort to capture the beauty and sheer scale of Olite. To view more pictures of my trip to Olite, visit my Flickr photostream.

With that tour complete and the #Navarra5 getting thirsty, it was time to visit a winery! Another 30 minute car ride brought us to Bodega Inurrieta, where we met Jose Antonia Pellicer and winemaker Kepa Sagastizabal who gave us a tour of the winery before leading a tasting of their wines. I've written about Inurrieta previously, one of their wines was in a Wines of Navarra Live Tasting and showed well.

After tasting and discussing the wines, we were treated to a magnificent lunch, with the winery owner himself doing the cooking. Lasting a full two hours, we ate summer greens, piquillo peppers, chickpea soup, steak, and a dessert called cuajada, one of the most interesting things I've ever had.

Stuffed with both food and information, the #Navarra5 journeyed to the next stop, Bodegas Ochoa. That name should ring a bell, I've written about their wines in my Dessert Wine blog post as well as the Wines of Navarra Live Tasting post. Talking to Beatriz Ochoa and Pablo Aguirre, I enjoyed their enthusiasm and passion for the bodega. It also didn't hurt that the wines were superb. We even got to talk (via translator) with the founder himself, Mr. Javier Ochoa Martínez.

In the span of one day, I had visited two wineries producing deliciously accessible wines which are primed for the American market. Considering how we Millennials are growing more adventurous in our quest for good bottles, I really hope my generation starts asking for Navarra wine at our local wine shops. These kinds of wines, priced at around $7-$15, would sell like crazy one wine lovers tasted them. That is a fact.

Back into the van, a somewhat tired group headed back to Pamplona for a few hours of rest before heading to dinner at Enekorri, a restaurant of great renown. In the pictures below you'll see that I ate some amazing dishes, all paired with Navarra wine. The freshness of the ingredients combined with the care at their preparation left me impressed (and full!)

The food was amazing, one of the best meals I've had all year and each dish paired very nicely with the wines. Our host for dinner, Conchi Biurrun, picked wines from all over the region to showcase the versatility that is Navarra wine.

After the meal the #Navarra5 headed back to our marvelous hotel for a much needed break, to rest our minds, bodies, and palates for the next day. On our second day, September 20, we were to tour more wineries and take a walking tour of the city of Pamplona. That blog entry will be a lot of fun, and I promise some wonderful pictures are to come.

Beau Carufel

Day One, On The Way To Navarra.

2011-09-17T14:13:00.000-07:00

The airlines tell us to arrive two hours early for international flights, and I rarely any attention to that advice. Over the past 10 years of traveling as an adult, I've never had issues arriving an hour or so before my long distance flights. For some reason I felt a sense of urgency today though, despite having packed everything the night before, checked in online, and had my travel clothes laid out ahead of time.

Was my gut trying to tell me to listen to the advice, for once? Probably. I'm happy I did listen, because the security lines at Terminal 2 were about 35 minutes long this morning, another aspect of travel I'm not used to. Granted, my past travel has been in First and Business classes, I am very fortunate to typically avoid the long lines at the check-in and security areas. Already, after experiencing both long lines while checking my bag and going through security, I feel so fortunate to have avoided that in the past. Also I now understand the frustrations of many travelers and the frequent complaints. It all makes sense, and as this trip progresses and I continue to travel in Economy class, my understanding will only grow. A great sense of perspective, even a learning experience.

Does this have anything to do with wine? No, not really. The wine selection here at the San Diego Admiral's Club is nondescript and very "safe". Since it's only about 9:15am, having a glass of wine seems a bit sloppy and I have settled for a very good Bloody Mary. Settled might not be the best word, since this one is quite good and better than what I usually get at United Red Carpet Clubs.

Musing on the wine list here for a moment, I think Southern Wines and Spirits stocks this place, or at least, whomever distributes Kenwood does. While not a bad wine at all, a person like me has no reason to have a glass of wine. Perhaps that's not bad though because people like me (and maybe even you, reader) aren't the target here. Stocking the wines we want would be cost prohibitive, imagine a scenario where I order a Condrieu and that bottle is opened, then sits open, with 6 oz. emptied, for days. Cost prohibitive indeed, so once again I return to my Bloody Mary.

Time to schlep it to the gate and board, in Group 2, my flight to Dallas. I'll pick this up in a few hours.

On the ground in Dallas, roughly two hours until my flight to Madrid. I'm sitting at the D Gate Admiral's Club and it's swanky! But I can tell why American Airlines has to charge for booze here, this place must have cost a fortune to build and operate, so to recoup their investment they charge $6 for a Shiner Bock. It's not all gloom and doom though, free WiFi is awesome and at least the beer is cold.

I started to think about what I should expect in Navarra and in Pamplona specifically. At the top of the list is my expectation to learn about the wines of Navarra. What drove the vine choices? What are the goals of the producers in the region? Do they want to be known as a premium wine area or as a value-oriented region? I'd love to also learn about the relationship between food and wine there too, which is a greater influence?

Tomorrow I'll start getting answers to these questions and more that I'll think of on the long flight over. Now, I'm going to hydrate and get as much time on my feet as I can before the flight over the Atlantic. Bon Voyage!

Beau Carufel

It's #Wine Time In Navarra!

2011-09-16T20:22:00.000-07:00

(img src:http://www.jpmoser.com/hotelelperegrino-d.html)

Tomorrow morning at 10am, my journey to Navarra begins. Along the way, I stop for a few hours in Dallas and Madrid. Upon arriving in Navarra, I'll meet up with my fellow wine bloggers drXeNo, cuvee_corner, wineissrsbiz, and WineHarlots. For the next six days and seven nights, we'll be sipping (and spitting), eating, thinking, and writing our way through Navarra to gain a better understanding of the wines in the Kingdom. It is my hope that along the way, I'll find out where these wines fit into the American palate and how to best open this nation's eyes to what is still a relatively undiscovered region.

Frequent readers to this blog will know that over the past year I've participated in multiple "live" Twitter Tastings of Navarran wines. Here's a list of previous blog posts to look at, should you be interested in what I've tasted and reviewed so far:
Tasting Wine From Navarra, Spain.
A Winner From Navarra: 2006 Bodegas Ochoa Tempranillo
Back to Navarra!
Bodega de Sarria Senorio de Sarria Vinedo no. 5...A Rosé By Any Other Name.

Also, a superb moscatel from Bodegas Ochoa made it into my dessert wine tasting earlier this year and proved to be a smash hit.

Needless to say, when I first started wine blogging back in late 2009, I never expected to be going on a wine blogger media trip. This past May, I was asked if I was interested in going on a trip, naturally I jumped at the chance. Of course, I'd seen reports from famous bloggers like Joe Roberts and Alder Yarrow of the awesome trips they took, and those guys set the bar very high for the rest of us in terms of reporting and educating our readers. I will attempt to reach that high with my own blog posts.

Mike Wangbickler of Balzac Communications & Marketing will be there with us too, because Balzac is working directly with the Wines of Navarra people to promote and inform the American audience. Mike will be the bloggers liason with the wineries, as far as I understand it. That and he'll of course try to keep up with us bloggers as we "taste" and "learn" about all the wine we possibly can! (Just kidding, Mike!)

Stay tuned to my Facebook page to see pictures as I journey through Navarra, I'll be uploading pictures every night, time permitting. Also keep your blog reader tuned here to follow along as I attempt a series of micro-blogs throughout the week. Will they succeed or fail? I'll know in two weeks!

I'm all packed, checked in on American Airlines (anyone wanna upgrade me to Business Class to Madrid??), and my batteries are charged for this trip. Who'd have thought, me, a 28 year old wine geek from San Diego would get to go to Spain to taste and learn about wine? Cheers!

Beau Carufel

Shannon Ridge Winery Current Releases

2011-09-13T20:34:00.000-07:00

Shannon Ridge Winery, of Lake County California, recently sent me their new red wine releases to taste through. As someone just beginning to learn about the wines coming out of the Lake County AVA, this was a good chance to get to know one of the wineries from the area. I've reviewed a Shannon Ridge wine in the past, unfortunately a disappointing sauvignon blanc. On the other hand, it's rare that I find a California sauvignon blanc I like. That said, I'm always up to try new ones!

Lake County is located in California, north of the famous Napa Valley and inland from Sonoma and Mendocino counties. This American Viticultural Area is somewhat higher than other notable AVAs as well, and Clear Lake plays a major influence on how the vineyards ripen. You probably won't be surprised to learn that cabernet sauvignon is the most-planted varietal, merlot being a distant second.

These are the wines I was sent to review:
2008 Shannon Ridge Lake County Cabernet Sauvignon $19 suggested retail
2009 Shannon Ridge Lake County Zinfandel $19 suggested retail
2009 Shannon Ridge Lake County Petite Sirah $24 suggested retail

(img src: http://calicabs.eventbrite.com)

Each of these wines can be purchased at local wine stores and directly from the Shannon Ridge website.

First up was the 2008 cabernet sauvignon. This cabernet is actually made up of 89% cabernet sauvignon, 8% petite sirah, and 3% merlot. All the fruit comes from Lake County and the abv is a relatively (sad, I know) normal 14.5%. After fermentation, the 2008 cabernet spent 16 months in French and American oak barrels.

Aromatically this 2008 Shannon Ridge cab is all smoke and wood, with a bit of a boozy heat on the finish. A vigorous swirl session brought out some dark, ripe berry aromas too. I wrote down one word, then circled it repeatedly: "pleasant". That sums up the bouquet in this cabernet, it's nice and interesting yet lacks some depth. Above average, yes..but mind-blowing, no.

The way this wine tasted was a different story however. I loved how it was dry and dusty, with some firm tannin keeping a dollop of soft red fruit flavors firmly in place right in the middle of my tongue. There is some influence from the oak barrels too, a toasty sawdust note hangs out at the fringes of my palate throughout the sip and swirl. Unfortunately the finish did leave me wishing for more depth, but that could be a function of this relatively young wine needing some decanting.

For around $15 in the retail environment, this 2008 Shannon Ridge cabernet is good and veers away from the typically overripe, fruity cabernet's that $15 buys from Napa Valley. I'd love to pair it with a grilled steak and some garlic french fries. B and a BUY recommendation.

Next, I tasted the zinfandel from Shannon Ridge. One of the varietals (along with petite sirah) from Lake County that's getting some coverage in the blogging community, zinfandel can be a very structured, focused wine or an overripe, sweet, high alcohol fruit bomb. Guess which kind of zinfandel I like?

This 2009 zinfandel is again 14.5%, around the norm for what we see these days. A blend of 93% zinfandel and 7% petite sirah, this wine spent 12 months in oak barrels. 2,060 cases were produced.

I liked the spice and earth notes right up front, very dark aromas that set the tone for the wine. There's also some black cherry and fig creating a balance with the spice and earthy primary scents. If I had to pick one aspect of the bouquet that I enjoyed the most, I would choose the mixture of earth and black cherry. Imagine dark, dry earth and crushed cherries, inhale deeply and I think you'll get a sense of what I smelled with the 2009 Shannon Ridge zinfandel.

After tasting this zin, I wrote the following: "Plenty ripe but with nice balance between ripe red berry fruit and the tannin. Well built wine, my attention was taken by a dollop of spice on the mid-palate. Very enjoyable, especially for zin lovers!"

Good stuff, this is a very good zinfandel at a great price. Using wine-searcher.com I found it at $18, which compares favorably to zinfandels costing a lot more. This is a very high-quality wine with great complexity and for most zinfandel drinkers, atypical of what they usually drink. Upon some reflection, this might be a zin for cabernet lovers...B, STRONG BUY recommendation.

Finally, the "big daddy", petite sirah. Again, 14.5% alcohol, I detect a theme...This is varietally pure, 100% petite sirah and also spent 12 months in oak barrels. A relatively small 7,000 cases were produced, though the Shannon Ridge cabernet did see 12,000 cases making it the largest of the three. I did a quick check of wine-searcher.com and found this petite sirah at only $12 at a number of stores. That's half the suggested retail price. The question then is, how good of a deal are we getting?

An intense blend of blackberry and blueberry are framed by baking spices and dry, dusty earth. I was intrigued by the restraint, even after running the wine through an aerator. There is a green, herbal component at work but it's very light and doesn't show up with every sniff of the glass. Even after being open for three hours, the bouquet remained a lot more muted than I expected.

Sipping this Shannon Ridge petite sirah is a different story entirely though. An initial smoothness full of ripe berries give way to a thick, tannic mid-palate that begs for a steak. I used words like "beefy" and "chewy" to describe how dry and intense that mid-palate sensation is. Balancing a ripe core of black fruit with a muscular, tannic sensation is a hallmark of good petite sirah and one of the reasons I tend to enjoy it so much. In that regard, the 2009 Shannon Ridge achieves notable balance and intensity. I suspect that given a few more years of aging, we'll see an even better wine.

Of the three Shannon Ridge wines I tasted, this was my favorite by a comfortable margin. An easy B+ and STRONG BUY recommendation, at $12 it's a no-brainer. Bring this out at the end of a Barolo tasting or when you're grilling thick steaks, I bet it'll wow your friends.

A successful tasting of three Lake County wines that showcase the high quality and low prices that create some outstanding bargains in that region. All three of these are wines I'd gladly purchase and indeed, if I spot the petite sirah around town, I'll be picking up a few to have on hand. If Shannon Ridge keeps pumping out wines like this, I think they'll become a very well known Lake County producer in a short period of time.

These wines were media samples for review purposes.

Beau Carufel

2009 Von Holt Russian River Valley Pinot Noir

2011-09-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

**BREAKING NEWS** For the next 24 hours: September 14-15th you can get FREE SHIPPING on your purchase at Von Holt Wines, just use the promo code: BBR-VHW on checkout. This is your chance to try the amazing wines including what I reviewed here. Well worth a visit, don't ya think?!

About a month ago, during the course of tweeting up about wine and specifically, California syrah, I started tweeting with the Von Holts, who own Von Holt Wines. They produce pinot noir and syrah from a small winery in Belmont, CA. After some tweeting, one of the two Von Holts, Chris or Pam, offered to send me some samples to try. At the time I was on a bit of an Oregon pinot noir kick, so the chance to sample some syrah and pinot from this state was something I jumped at..

Boy am I glad I did! After getting four wines from the Von Holts, I laid them down for a few weeks to settle down, as I usually do. Fast forward and we're already into September and Labor Day weekend. After consuming Oregon pinot noir rosé and a red Rhone the past few days, I needed something to ground me in California once again.

Von Holt Wines to the rescue!

I opened their 2009 Russian River Valley pinot noir. It's made up of fruit from two vineyards, Suacci and Ketcham. Picked on September 19, 2009, this pinot noir almost made it two years from picking to my mouth. Neat! For us wine geeks, there are four clones present: Pommard, 828, 115, and 777. This particular pinot spent 11 months in French oak, 25% of that was new oak barrels. Alcohol is a refreshingly "low" 13.8%. Compared to the 14.7% pinot rosé and 15% Rhone I had recently, this is in another league entirely.

The color is beautiful, a light, translucent ruby red that pales towards the meniscus. It looks like pinot noir should, without the darker purple hues that come from additives like Mega-Purple or the addition of syrah or valdigue.

Aromatically I picked up ripe red cherry, some warm baking spices, and a nice forest floor component. The red fruit dominates, especially as the wine opens up. There is a touch of kirsch that seems to blend well with a hint of green grape stem. I think this is a classical Russian River Valley bouquet, elegant and fun at the same time.

My first sip brought a vibrant red cherry and pepper note, which I found incredibly appealing. The acidity is clean and pure, each flavor follows the line of acid along your palate all the way to the finish. The 2009 Von Holt RRV has a lightness of body, and the way that an earthy, truffle note takes over from the cherry flavors is almost perfect. I wish there had been a bit more of the earthy truffle note though because the red cherry is so ripe and pure that it does tend to dominate. The pinot had a wonderful finish, with the acid keeping things light and fresh while the flavors slowly faded away.

The first of four wines from Von Holt that I tasted, this set the bar high, but I have no doubt I will enjoy the rest. For a suggested retail price of $38 on the website, this is well worth the money. I suspect it would be around $8 cheaper at local wine stores, making it a screaming deal for pinot noir of this quality. It should age nicely until around 2017 or so, but is perfectly good to drink right now. A-, STRONG BUY recommendation.

I'd love to try another bottle of 2009 Von Holt with a bacon-wrapped salmon or some marinated grilled chicken, but this would also stand up to something like a rack of lamb provided you didn't go too crazy with the herbs.

Visit the Von Holts on Twitter and you can purchase the 2009 Von Holt Russian River Valley pinot noir on the website.

This wine was a media sample for review purposes.

Beau Carufel

Whole Foods Market, La Jolla, Friday Wine Tasting

2011-09-07T17:56:00.000-07:00

Check it out, if you're a San Diegan or La Jollan (is that right?), our local Whole Foods Market is having a cool wine tasting this Friday, September 9th. It's at 6:30pm and is only $5. The image below sums up the tasting quite well, and it's worth a visit if you'll be in the neighborhood.

Events like this, showcasing a brand's own efforts to field new and interesting wines, are very valuable to building relationships with customers. Whole Foods has been making great strides in recent years targeting wine and craft beer drinkers. Earlier this year I tasted through a selection of Whole Foods Summer Wines, and while these wines aren't blockbusters, at their respective prices they showcase good quality and drink-ability.

So then, this Friday night, check out Whole Foods in La Jolla for a fun, inexpensive wine tasting. Hope to see you there!!

Beau Carufel

Cornerstone Cellars' Stepping Stone Red Rocks!..And it Does!

2011-09-06T18:30:00.000-07:00

Throughout this summer I've explored some of the wines from Cornerstone Cellars and their Stepping Stone label. This blog marks the last of the wines I received in the sample shipment from a few months ago. The 2009 Stepping Stone Red Rocks! was something I'd been looking forward to tasting, yet also holding off until the occasion was worthwhile. Since the vast majority of wine drinkers (me included) aren't looking to drink their wines in a sterile environment, tasting and evaluating wine in such an environment can be a bit counterproductive. That's why I'll often open a sample with food, to gain a better sense of how the wine interacts with other tastes, textures, and flavors. Recently, the occasion to open the 2009 Stepping Stone Red Rocks! was appropriate.

Backing up a bit, here's a list of the Stepping Stone by Cornerstone Cellars wines I've tasted to date:
2010 Stepping Stone White Rocks!
2010 Stepping Stone Corallina Rosé
2010 Stepping Stone Riesling
2010 Stepping Stone Sauvignon Blanc

The 2009 Stepping Stone Red Rocks! is a blend of zinfandel and pinot noir, perhaps one of the odder blends you'll ever see. When doing background for this blog feature, I sat back and shook my head when I learned of the blend here. My fear was that the two varietals would clash, creating a disjointed, unpleasant wine.

(img src http://www.cornerstonecellars.com)

Luckily, the 2009 Red Rocks! was anything but disjointed. It's also not for the faint of heart or those seeking "subtle, light wine". Clocking in at a whopping 14.9% abv, this is a textbook "big, juicy, intensely ripe" red blend. I smelled a lot of ripe blackberry and black cherry preserve on the nose, along with vanilla toast, indicating some time spent in oak. The tell-tale heat from the high alcohol crept in but wasn't too distracting, to me that was a pleasant surprise.

Tasting the Stepping Stone Red Rocks! evoked memories of my mom and/or grandmother cooking a Finnish summer berry dish in the kitchen. Basically, you boil ripe strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and sugar, as well as a touch of corn starch, to create a sweet berry compote. The aromas of fruit in the kitchen were often very intense and sweet, two characteristics to describe the flavor of the Red Rocks! If you're looking for a pairing, think smoked spare ribs, marinated tri-tip, or Sloppy Joe sandwiches. They'd all play well against the sweet black and blue berry fruit, toasty vanilla oak, and bits of spice that pop up on the edges of your tongue.

Does this wine sound good to you? For me, serving it with barbecue-sauce drenched ribs was awesome, and I made sure to back up those intensely sweet, ripe flavors with a side of cole-slaw. The 2009 Stepping Stone Red Rocks! is a powerhouse of a wine, and somewhere along the way I think the pinot noir just gives up, letting the zinfandel work it's magic. That turns out to be a good thing, allowing more focus on ripe fruit and spice.

For around $15 a bottle at the Cornerstone Cellars website, this is a great deal on an outstanding summer barbecue wine. It's well made and fits into a style that a lot of us enjoy with heavy, hearty foods. You can order the Red Rocks! via the website or find it at some fine stores in and around Napa Valley.

This blog feature wraps up my tastings of the Stepping Stone by Cornerstone lineup, thanks go to Craig Camp for sending me these bottles to taste. I had a good time tasting and sharing them with you, and it's proof positive that a winery who produces very high end wines can also have a viable, high quality second label that comes in at a very, very friendly price point.

These wines were media samples for review purposes.

Beau Carufel

[yellow tail] Moscato

2011-09-04T16:37:00.000-07:00

Moscato. "Serious" wine drinkers (me included) make fun of it. Moscato is a varietal, easy to grow, easy to make into a lightly sweet white wine. When moscato is vinified, it's stylistically a rather simple drink, almost always with that sweet taste. Recent studies have shown that most people's palates prefer sweet flavors to bitter or astringent ones, therefore a wine made from moscato would be something that a lot of people would prefer, right? The folks at W.J. Deutch & Sons think so and have begun importing a moscato from [yellow tail] into the United States.

Perhaps we shouldn't make fun of moscato. The moscato grape is now the fastest growing varietal in the United States. AC Nielsen reports that the moscato category has jumped an astounding 96.2% in sales volume from last year's. Whole vineyards are being ripped up all throughout California's bulk-wine producing Central Valley, and guess what they're being replanted with? Sure the logic might be a bit faulty, since those moscato vines won't produce viable fruit for 4-6 years and by then tastes may change, but the point is clear.

Enter Yellowtail, or [yellow tail]. The original "critter wine", a $5 shiraz that almost single handedly redefined both a varietal and a wine market. A wine that introduced millions of new wine drinkers to red wine. This is their Moscato. Similar in style, eerily similar to low-priced moscato from Asti, Italy. Those are known as Moscato d'Asti or Asti Spumante. A wine like this [yellow tail] appeals to a giant swath of the population looking for a fun, easy to drink beverage that still carries the "wine" designation yet isn't expensive, complex, pretentious, or hard to drink.

(img src http://www.prweb.com/releases/yellow_tail)

Yellowtail advertises their moscato as: "Lil' Sweet. Lil' Fizzy" and that is certainly the case here. Ripe peaches and fizz define the smell and the taste. I picked up a hint of something tropical, like mango juice, as well, further sweetening up the [yellow tail] moscato to the point where it was a bit overwhelming. As someone who enjoys dry sparkling wine, I couldn't drink a full glass of this on it's own. This isn't a dessert wine though, so it doesn't reek of residual sugar the way a late harvest riesling might.

What did happen was inspiration, because I think the Yellow Tail moscato is perfect for cocktails. Mix it with a citrus based soda and some vodka, add two drops of bitters, and enjoy. Another recipe is to use just the moscato, some frozen, blended peach, and a couple of ounces of light rum. Still one more is to just do the moscato and vodka, with a lemon twist. That's called a "Moscatini"The point is to experiment and find recipes that work.

I'm not trying to sound like this [yellow tail] moscato is undrinkable! Just for my palate, it's something I'd avoid, along with 99% of all moscato. Add to that my hesitation at even considering the [yellow tail] brand, and it's hard to recommend this as a summer sipper. Why then did I accept this sample? Professional curiosity, the chance to taste something new, and the desire to experiment with wine cocktails.

Sure, the price is good, $6.99 for a 750ml bottle, and throughout it's existence, Yellowtail has always been very affordable. What it's lacked is identity, uniqueness, a sense of place. Admittedly those are hard when your wines cost $5.49 at Trader Joe's, and I am taking the low price into account.

With that in mind, if you are looking to drink (or serve) a light, airy, slightly sweet wine, this might be a wise choice. You get name recognition from your guests (or yourself), solid quality, and an easily quaffable wine. All for a real-world price of around $5. Hard to ask for more at that price point. As they say in the land of Oz, good on ya', [yellow tail].

This wine was a media sample for review purposes.

Beau Carufel

#CabernetDay Recap; a Live, Global Wine Tasting

2011-09-02T18:03:00.000-07:00

Another "varietal day" has come and gone. By all accounts (read: measured metrics across social media channels) this "#CabernetDay" was a huge success. Just like last year, I participated by opening some cabernet sauvignon and tweeting about what I was having. Unlike last year, I invited some friends over to hang out, eat food, and enjoy the samples I was sent. Also, I was lucky enough to get some wines from Hahn Family Wines and Sequoia Grove to sample. My Cabernet Day was set up for success, to borrow a term from work.

My buddy Brian and his girlfriend, Teenie, came by to hang out and sip some wine while enjoying spread of delicious food I prepared. Since the wine was cabernet, that naturally called for meat, lots of it, the red kind. I stopped by my local grocery store to get some bone-in New York Strip, ground bison, bacon, aged cheddar, and various other bits and pieces. Brian brought over some cheese, apples, grapes, and carnitas; we were set to gorge on food and wine.

There you can see some of the food I bought for the Cabernet Day tasting. Instead of ground beef, I went with ground bison because it's a leaner meat with different flavors than cow. The point was to see how gamey, earthy flavors paired with cabernet sauvignon, something I have done before and enjoyed. Bacon is a necessity in most kitchens, there was no way I was making gourmet cheeseburgers without it.

Hand formed bison burgers and bacon about to go in the oven, and the festivities are about to get started! Since bison is so lean, I added in an egg and about half a teaspoon of barbecue sauce in an attempt to keep meat moist. Why did I cook the patties in the oven? Good question, I think it was an experiment to see if I could keep the juices locked into the meat more than if I'd used a frying pan.

Now I can talk a bit about the wines I was sent. From the Hahn Family Wines portfolio I was sent three samples and I decided to open another sample, from Sequoia Grove, as a fourth bottle. Here they are:

2010 Cycles Gladiator Cabernet Sauvignon Lodi: Overripe cherries, black pepper, herbs and cocoa powder on the nose give way to a cabernet lacking acidity and structure. Some interesting spices on the mid-palate but that's it. A one dimensional, boring cabernet sauvignon. Thin and lacked tannin. 86% cabernet sauvignon, 9% merlot, 5% petite sirah. C+. 14.5% abv. $12 suggested retail price.

2009 Hahn Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Central Coast: A nice, simple, medium bodied cabernet. Good balance of ripe red fruit and spices wafted out of the glass. Not much tannin again, but what's there does help with the sweet cherry and plum flavors. A blend of 90% cabernet sauvignon and 10% merlot. Still, too flabby and a bit hot for my tastes. Solid finish, good length and there's a hit of roasted coffee at the end that keeps this wine fun. B-. 14.5% abv. $12 suggested retail price.

2009 Smith & Hook Cabernet Sauvignon Central Coast: Very nice mix of herb, cherry, and black currants make up the bouquet. The oak influence is here and in force, but it just works. Beautifully bright ruby color, the best of the four wines. This is 88% cabernet sauvignon and 12% merlot.Firm, linear tannin carry cassis, dark chocolate, blackberry, and dried herb flavors through a nice lengthy finish. Paired very, well with the New York Strip but needed less tannin to work with the bison burgers. Still, a very good wine. B. BUY recommendation. 14.8% abv. $30 suggested retail price.

2007 Sequoia Grove Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley: Typically "Napa Valley" bouquet: dusty earth mingling with intense black currant, spice, oak, and blackberries. Purple-garnet color, very impressive and still very young, this Sequoia Grove cab has another 5-10 years left. A blend of 82% cabernet, 12% merlot, 6% cabernet franc, and 6% petite verdot. Stronger oak influence is evidence of the 20 months this cabernet spent in American oak. Ripe black cherry, blackberry, mocha, and some nicely integrated tannin created a great mouthfeel and texture. I enjoyed the depth of flavor and the way this wine seemed to spread to all corners of my palate. B+. BUY recommendation. 14.2% abv. $38 suggested retail price.

Kudos to Rick Bakas for promoting this event and getting so many people on board. I had a great time cooking food for my friends and sharing wine with them. Additional thanks to Mark Buckley of Hahn Family Wines and Jeff Donegan of Kobrand for sending me samples. #CabernetDay turned out to be a smashing success, and I loved seeing the discussion from around the world. While I still feel that the various "varietal days" are getting out of control, I certainly won't stop opening bottles and sharing them with my friends, because that's really what these days are all about.

Those of us who write about wine, sell wine, make wine, and educate about wine should be the ones leading the charge to get more Americans to drink good wine on a regular basis. We do that by showing enthusiasm, passion, humor, and patience in our interactions with those just beginning to explore wine.

Beau Carufel

Big House Cardinal Zin, Beastly Old Vine Edition

2011-08-30T13:00:00.000-07:00

With summer continuing, I remain on the lookout for wines to barbecue with. In my mind, a barbecue wine is cheap, easy to drink, and perfect for sharing with friends. It can also serve as a "3rd bottle" for those nights when you're entertaining and the good times last into the evening. Notice how I didn't mention barebecued food pairings, that's because I tend to think of barbecue wines or outdoor wines as ones you don't have to worry about pairing with any particular food. Over the course of this wonderful summer I have had the chance to sample and review multiple wines I'd put in the barbecue wine category, a few of which are listed right here:
1. 2009 M. Chapoutier Cotes du Rhone "Belleruche"
2. 2009 Santa Carolina Reserva Carmenere
3. 2010 Stepping Stone Corallina Rosé
4. 2010 Muralhas de Moncao Rosé
5. 2009 Bodega Tamari Torrontes

In May I even did a "barbecue wine showdown" pitting the 2009 The Usual Suspects cabernet and the 2009 Pueblo del Sol tannat.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I opened another Big House Wines selection, the 2009 Cardinal Zin Beastly Old Vine. At a suggested retail of around $10 and an actual retail price closer to $7, this meets at least one of the criteria for barbecue wines. Tasting and evaluating it will determine if it's another winner for the summer, and perhaps one to stock up on as we head towards Labor Day.

The 2009 Cardinal Zin is actually a blend, like most Big House red wines. This year, winemaker Georgetta Dane blended 80% zinfandel, 10% mourvedre, 8% carignane, and 2% petite sirah. The zinfandel comes from old vines, something like 40+ years old.

(img src: http://www.bighousewines.com)

Nice packaging! I like the "Cardinal" on there, he looks so thirsty! But so are we, so that means it's time to talk about this Cardinal Zin.

It pours a fairly nondescript purple/red, so basically it looks like red wine. There's no electric violet hue like in some 2009 Beaujolais, nor an entrancing rusty burgundy that I experience in grenache sometimes. Just red wine. With that said, remember this is a potential barbecue wine, so my expectations are simple.

How does it smell? Zinny with a touch of the earthy mourvedre, if you ask me. "Zinny" is candied raisin, plum, black pepper, and a bit of sweet cherry. Some vanilla oak makes an appearance, a bit too heavy for my taste though. The ripe plum and cherry create a good richness and depth, so in a way the 2009 Cardinal Zin coats your palate. I wasn't really happy about the candied raisin, but then again that is a flavor I have found in other old vine zinfandels. For a $10 (or $7) zinfandel-blend, the nose offers good complexity and enough intensity to still be discernible by a slightly dulled olfactory sense. The kind that you get after spending a day grilling and drinking those other two bottles of wine with your friends.

Onward to how the wine tastes. What pleased me the most was the black pepper, prickling the edges of my tongue after a few seconds and restraining the sweet fruit flavors. Yes, I know there's carignane in there, along with mourvedre. I really can't tell though, unless the carignane was letting in the red licorice and candied cherry flavors, and the mourvedre gave the wine it's tannin and earthy flavors right on the fininsh. As for the petite sirah, maybe it was added for color or just to fill out the tanks, I have no clue because I don't think I tasted it at all. Then again my palate might not be sensitive or trained enough.

So, does the 2009 Big House Cardinal Zin Beastly Old Vines make the cut as a barbecue wine? Yes, it does. I gave it a B- and for $7, a BUY recommendation. This isn't something to break out for special occasions or a wine to age in your cellar. It's a good choice for a mid-week pasta dish with red sauce, a weekend barbecue back-up bottle, or that third bottle to open after a fun day with your friends.

This wine was a media sample for review purposes.

Beau Carufel

2007 Elizabeth Spencer "The Guardian" Cabernet Sauvignon. A Stunner.

2011-08-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

I've struggled with what words use for this blog post for about two weeks now. Conveying the impact of a sublime wine experience is difficult, something only the best wine scribes can effectively accomplish. Luckily we live in an age where such scribes are out there on the internet and in print, thus easy to find and read. If you're at this blog I fear you've mis-navigated. Before you leave however, read on to find out about the best red wine I have tasted so far this year.

Although it's not the best way to start the a new pargraph, I admit I'm left at a loss for the appropriate words to convey how much the 2007 Elizabeth Spencer cabernet impressed me, satisfied me, and touched the happy place deep within each wine geek's soul. It's not often I can freely write about how amazing a wine is, there are constraints to most of the blog posts I write, be they self-imposed or comprised of externalities.

In June I was happily tweeting on a glorious day. Bacchus was smiling, Becky was visiting, and I believe there was delicious wine or some great craft beer open and being enjoyed. Out of the blue, a winery I'd been following tweeted at me that I was their Follower of the Month or some such thing. At first, being the jaded, skeptical, even cynical (no, not really) blogger that I am, the word "scam" popped into my head. I even sent a Twitter DM asking if they were for real. Lucky for me, they weren't kidding.

Elizabeth Spencer Wines, based in Rutherford in Napa Valley. I had heard the name talked about by some wine-collecting friends but never tasted their wines before. A producer of some very good repute, by all accounts. The winery makes a lot of different wines, all in small lots. Cabernet sauvignon and franc, syrah, pinot noir, merlot, grenache, petite sirah, chardonnay, chenin and sauvignon blancs, and a rose of pinot. For a smaller winery, this is one of the most impressive lineups I have ever seen.

Allison at the winery was kind enough to send down my prize, a bottle of their 2007 E x S "The Guardian" cabernet sauvignon. She very smartly packed it in a two bottle shipper and enclosed an ice pack. Little touches like that let me know a winery has smart and caring people working there.

As you can see from the bottle shot, there's also that neat little bit about ten barrels being made. Or, a few hundred cases total production for this cabernet. My intent was to stick the bottle in my cellar and forget about it for a few years, but alas that wasn't to be. I was sent samples of some other very exclusive wines including the 2009 Seghesio Costiera pinot noir, and decided to open them at one big tasting with some wine-loving friends from work. This would give them a chance to taste true upper-tier wines, examples they might not otherwise get to taste.

Before those wine-loving friends of mine arrived though, I felt the weight of responsibility upon my shoulders to ensure that each of the four wines was in fact ready for my friends to taste and enjoy. Therefore I pre-tasted all of them and took notes. While one was cooked in transit and will be written up after I get another sample bottle, the remaining three were out of this world. The Seghesio has already been written up, the Hedges Red Mountain will be up soon too.

2007 is considered a great vintage in Napa Valley by the critics, from Wine Spectator to Robert Parker and Wine Enthusiast. The growing season was superb, a small crop and ideal ripening conditions led to a huge collection of wonderful wines. The 2007 E x S "The Guardian" is no exception.

Pouring a deep, dense garnet, almost no light shines through this cabernet sauvignon. Despite (or in spite of) the nearly four years of bottle age, all the signs point to a still-young wine. The color is marvelous, hinting at what might be something truly delicious waiting to be experienced.

After a few whiffs my notes consisted of: "Dark chocolate ran full speed into a wall of old leather sitting in a vat of plummy reduction sauce! I love the cassis, dark chocolate, and tobacco secondary aromas, can't get enough of those. There's even a touch of bretty funk, and green pepper playing in a dust storm here. WOW!"

Impressive, no? The only changes I made to the above notes were to correct the punctuation. What you see is the verbatim olfactory experience that I had that afternoon.

At first sip the E x S cabernet is intense, full of muscular tannin and a wall of earth, but once you ascend that, there's a beautiful tapestry of ripe fruit flavors. Cassis, blackberry, and cherries are all supported by the continuing undercurrent of firm tannin. This wine is amazing. The way it is so bold and strong before giving way to a rich, velvety smooth mid-palate is a testament to quality fruit and a talented winemaker. I loved how deep or thick the wine felt as I swirled it around, and the finish was magnificent. Lots of ripe fruit and dark chocolate that tapered off with such supreme elegance. In a way, sensual is perhaps the best descriptor I can think of because you want to know every facet of this cabernet and you want to experience every flavor, nuance, and texture you can.

The 2007 E x S "The Guardian" cabernet sauvignon is the best red wine I have had so far this year. Tasting it reminded me of just how amazing the cabernet grown in Napa Valley is. Drinking this cab reminded me of why I drink wine, in a never-ending quest to find more of these moments. Moments that enrich my life, create a sense of perspective, and add texture to me as a person.

If you're looking for a bottle, visit the Elizabeth Spencer Wines website. It's suggested retail price is $60. However, if you want to purchase some of this outstanding wine, use the code "beausbarrelroom" and receive 10% off your purchase, as a thank you from Elizabeth Spencer Winery!

This wine was a gift from the winery, I received no compensation for this post.

Beau Carufel

2009 Stoneleigh Marlborough Pinot Noir

2011-08-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

Back in June, we had "Sauvginon Blanc Day" and I tasted the 2010 Stoneleigh from Marlborough, which unfortunately had been attacked by the acid monster, leaving not much in it's wake. Still, Stoneleigh is a terrific producer and I have had previous wines from them that were very good.

Enter the 2009 Stoneleigh Marlborough pinot noir, a deliciously tart and spicy example of a New Zealand pinot noir, made in a style that's really starting to make waves over here in the States. New Zealand pinot noirs differ from California and Oregon by having a combination of higher acid and lighter-weight fruit. In a lot of the better made wines, the acid fairly pops on your tongue, and that coupled with flavors like rhubarb, baking spice, and ripe red cherry can create wonderfully complex wines.

This New Zealand pinot noir pours a nice pale ruby color, creating an air of understated elegance. That seems appropriate considering the subject, itself a grape that can manifest as understated, elegant wine..But only in the best case scenario. The notes below should help us understand whether the Stoneleigh falls into that category or not.

Aromatically the 2009 Stoneleigh pinot has a good undertone of earth mixed with sour red cherries and a hint of green stems. I also detected a very interesting secondary aroma, ripe wild raspberry, the little tart ones you find in a forest for a few weeks out of each year. Popping them into your mouth immediately elicits a sigh of pleasure and a wide smile.

Per my usual routine, an hour of open time was allotted to this pinot noir in order to let it breathe a bit and (hopefully) gain some complexity. The image I like to use when explaining why a wine needs breathing time is that of a flower. Imagine a flower that's closed up, you're not going to see or smell anything beautiful. Now when that flower opens up, we can revel in it's beauty, aromatically and visually. Add in the taste component and substitute wine for flower to get my point.

With that in mind, the Stoneleigh pinot noir had a light, delicate mouthfeel. The acidity of the pinot noir grape was there, but it was more subtle than I expected. Perhaps this can be attributed to the neutral French Oak regimen used by the winemaker. Flavors of raspberry and strawberry mixed with silky smooth tannin to create a wonderful sense of balance. Baking spices tried gamely to hold up the finish, and they almost succeeded, almost.

The biggest knock on this 2009 Stoneleigh was the relative lack of finish, it's like the wine just disappeared off a cliff while I was enjoying the strawberry and cherry flavors. A touch of baking spice cried out desperately to be saved but was dragged down and out before it had a chance to make any impact. Interestingly I didn't detect a lot of heat from the 14.0% alcohol, something very pleasing.

The 2009 Stoneleigh pinot noir is good wine, not great, but quite nice. At around $15, you get a pinot that's balanced and food friendly. Try pairing it with duck or veal, and lamb would work too. Pizza works with almost any red wine, this is a darn good pizza wine to share with friend. Like the 2010 Stoneleigh sauvignon blanc, this is a wine that does bat above it's price level. I gave it a B+ and a BUY recommendation. Well worth the $15 to get a sense of what New Zealand pinot noir is doing these days.

This was a media sample for review purposes.

Beau Carufel

2010 Stepping Stone White Rocks! (It does!)

2011-08-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

After tasting the 2010 Stepping Stone Riesling, 2010 Stepping Stone Sauvignon Musque, and 2010 Stepping Stone Corallina Rosé, I feel like I'm getting to know the Stepping Stone wines a bit more. Granted, I wasn't a fan of the sauvignon blanc but I loved the riesling and rosé. Their combination of high quality and great price are proof positive that Cornerstone Napa Winery is doing it right with their second label.

For this, the 2010 Stepping Stone White Rocks!, we're exploring a blend of chardonnay and muscat, two grapes that can stand on their own quite well. When blended, I honestly have no clue what to expect here. Chardonnay runs the gamut from dry and steely to lush and oaked beyond all recognition, whereas muscat often becomes a sweet, light, perfumed wine that is surprisingly versatile. To blend them is certainly an exercise in daring, the risk here that I'll be tasting a washed out, overly sweet, flabby glass of liquid nastiness.

Then again I know the Cornerstone Cellars and Stepping Stone wines fairly well, so I have some faith that this will be an intellectually stimulating exercise at the very least. Or simply, this wine shouldn't suck.

As a mission statement for the Rocks! wines, the Cornerstone website says this: "Inspired by the blends of southern France, each vintage of Rocks! is a new creation weaving the characteristics of each vintage by interlacing the personalities of each variety selected. The style of our Rocks! wines will flow with the vintage as our goal is not to replicate a certain taste profile, but to make the most interesting wines possible each vintage."

(img src:http://www.cornerstonecellarblog.com/)

A nice golden straw color appears in my glass as if by magic, but it's really just me pouring a "taste". All in the name of research of course. As usual, this wine (and all other white wines) get to sit out and warm up a few degrees before I review it. The White Rocks! coloration reminds me of sauvignon blanc that's been aged in oak barrels. It's not dark yellow like a chardonnay or sweet riesling, yet there is more here than with a translucent pinot grigio.

The bouquet can best be described as a mish-mash of stone fruit, summer flowers, wet rocks, and green apples. Ripe peach and nectarine comprise the two most prominent aromas, but the light flower scents helped to balance out the sweetness of the fruit. There's a nice mineral element too, I kept imaging wet limestone or wet chalk. Again something to contrast the ripe peach/nectarine that seemed to dominate. And yes the green apples were awesome, cleaning up the entire bouquet and wrapping it in a neat package for me to ponder. It's obvious that the team at Cornerstone paid attention to detail when blending this white wine.

So how does it taste? Great! Clean fruit flavors and vibrant acidity make the 2010 White Rocks! a very enjoyable, refreshing wine. Think of a chardonnay stripped of the oak and malolactic fermentation, all apple and nectarines. That wine would have a certain lightness yet retain a nice sense of depth. Add in that muscat and there's a richness through the palate, part sweet and part soft, taming some of that acidity while allowing a nice balance to be struck. I guess I should point out something that did disappoint, though it's nitpicky. On the front-palate this wine does struggle a bit with it's identity. I got the sense that the juicy (in a lip smacking way) acid wanted to come first but the sweet muscat fruit flavors weren't letting that happen. Still, that's about all I could find wrong.

Cornerstone's 2010 Stepping Stone White Rocks! would pair well with a fresh summer salad of baby lettuce, spinach, candied cherries and crumbled feta. You could also work with a grilled, herb-marinated chicken dish to create a traditional southern California summer dinner.

At $15 suggested retail price, it's a QPR home run and for those of you looking for white wines that remain light and dry, yet come with a bit of sweet fruit, this is your wine! I give a B and a STRONG BUY recommendation. Check out the Cornerstone website for where to purchase this delicious wine.

This wine was a media sample generously provided by the winery.

Beau Carufel

2010 Napa Cellars Sauvignon Blanc, A New Release.

2011-08-22T19:27:00.000-07:00

You can definitely tell it's summertime in Wine Blogger Land, most of us are getting lots of sauvignon blanc samples. In this blog I'm going to feature the 2010 Napa Cellars sauvignon blanc from you guessed it, Napa Valley. The Napa Cellars brand is relatively new, I believe I tasted this label's selections at the Family Winemakers tasting in March of this year. That being said, the 2010 sauvignon blanc was released in June so it probably wasn't part of the lineup.

The fruit is sourced from some of the warmer regions of Napa Valley, those being Rutherford, Calistoga, and St. Helena. As such, we can infer that the 2010 Napa Cellars will be a richer, riper style when compared to an offering from New Zealand or France. This blogger still isn't sure if he likes the Napa Valley expression as much as that of Sancerre or even Marlborough. Still, to continue to offer wines that you, gentle reader, might be interested in, I happily accepted this sample.

Right away the nose is filled with tropical fruit, freshly cut grass, and just a hint of lime juice. I smelled loads of passion fruit and guava nectar with a hint of pineapple. A veritable "fruit salad" if you will. While some professional (read: paid) critics decry that way of describing wines, if a wine smells like tropical fruit, I'm gonna post it.

The fruit salad aroma set isn't a bad thing, I think winemaker Joe Shirley did a good job balancing those sweeter fruit aromas with the grass and lime notes that temper any tendency towards over-ripeness. He strove for balance and very nearly achieved it.

As usual, I let the Napa Cellars sauvignon blanc warm up a bit before I tasted. I found it to be typically Californian, lots of sweet tropical fruit balanced out by a drying acidity. There was a fun theme of grapefruit and guava at play with just a bit of something like orange blossom too, which I found fascinating. Despite being fermented in 100% stainless steel, there's a familiar rich body that I associate with Napa Valley grown fruit.

That "Napa fatness" lent itself to a bit of a sloppy finish, with the wine seemingly confused as to what it should do. On one hand I wanted a clean, crisp finish befitting the varietal, yet the Napa Cellars sauvignon blanc seemed to get flabby on the mid palate before just vanishing. The flab I attribute to the 14.3% alcohol, and my familiar refrain is "that's too much!!!".

On a hot summer day, eating lighter foods, the last thing I want is a sauvignon blanc with as much alcohol as a Napa Valley cabernet or (nowadays) a Cotes du Rhone. That right there is my biggest gripe with the 2010 Napa Cellars sauvignon blanc. It did shine with the nicely balanced tropical fruit and citrus elements but just fell apart on the finish, perhaps because of that high alcohol creating too much flabby weight. I suppose that's just how I experience a lot of Napa Valley sauvignon blanc. This is a solid wine, a B- and a BUY recommendation if you're into the more "full-bodied" style. If not, I don't think you will enjoy this wine, that's just how it goes. At around $15 the 2010 Napa Cellars sauvignon blanc is very affordable and the QPR is solid, if unremarkable.

This wine was sent as a media sample for review purposes.

Beau Carufel

A Quick and Dirty Recap of the 2011 #PinotSmackdown

2011-08-19T19:48:00.000-07:00

Where were you last night? If you're a wine lover, specifically a pinot noir lover, you should have been drinking the stuff! Last night, Thursday August 18th, marked the second annual "Pinot Smackdown". This unique event, started by infamous wine bloggers Ed Thralls and Joe Herrig, is a massive online tasting of pinot noir from around the world. The goal, to find a winner among the world's pinot regions, by popular acclaim, instead of having some critic appoint a region as the best in the world. Cause we all know that critics suck, right?

I'll repost the official details right here, so that you can see what you missed. *Evil laugh*
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#PinotSmackdown is an all-day global celebration of the world's most expressive wine grape combined with a knock-down, drag-out cage fight between YOUR FAVORITE Pinot-producing regions!

TIME: 24 hours in order to give everyone time to share a glass when it makes sense in their time zone.

This event is FREE and all you need to participate is wine and Twitter, Facebook or your favorite social channel. Everyone is encouraged to invite wine lovers to your location and make the Twitter stream of #PinotSmackdown tweets visible to attendees. We like to use Tweetdeck, TweetChat.com or Twitterfall.com to display all the tweets with the hashtag "#PinotSmackdown"
Here's the twist!... who makes the best Pinot you've ever tasted? To vote via your tweets simply add another 2-character hashtag after #PinotSmackdown and we'll count the votes so that region gets bragging rights for the night!
Voting region hashtags:
#OR - Oregon
#CA - California
#WA - Washington
#NY - New York
#46 - U.S. The "Other 46," outside of the Big Four
#FR - France
#IT - Italy
#DE - Germany (Deutschland)
#EU - Europe, beyond France, Germany, Italy
#CN - Canada
#NZ - New Zealand
#CH - Chile
#AR - Argentina
#AU - Australia
#SA - South Africa
#WD - World, as in none previously listed
For example, if you are drinking a Pinot from a region in California, simply tag the end of your tweets with: #PinotSmackdown #CA
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Very simple, I agree, but incredibly fun and a great way to get some people together for a night of wine and discussion.

About two weeks before the event, Ed reached out to myself and a handful of other wine bloggers with a trifecta of pinot noir samples from the Sonoma Coast and Russian River Valley AVA's. Those were:
2009 Sonoma Coast Vineyards Freestone Hills - $40 SRP
2009 Windsor Sonoma Russian River Valley - $30 SRP
2010 Windsor Vineyards Pinot Noir, Sonoma County - $28 SRP
These were all wines from the Vintage Wine Estates portfolio. As a disclaimer, Ed works for them and they were a huge backer for the Pinot Smackdown.

In addition to those California (specifically, Sonoma County) pinot noirs, I opened a 2007 Kramer Vineyards Cardiac Hill pinot from Oregon to throw some contrasting style into the mix. The Kramers were hosting an event at The Friendly Vine in Forest Grove, Oregon. Apparently (according to Becky Kramer at least), the event was a real hit.

With those four pinot noirs, I was ready to go. While I could have also opened other pinots, including some great stuff from Burgundy and New Zealand, I wanted to keep it somewhat under control. I mean, I didn't want to get absolutely hammered while tasting and tweeting. Drunken tweeting, while fun, can be dangerous.

Here are the tasting notes on the four pinots I sampled last night:

2010 Windsor Vineyards Sonoma County pinot noir: Bright acid but disjointed and unbalanced. Very young and it shows. Needs time to settle down. Ripe, sweet strawberry fights with baking spices and surprisingly thick tannin. Cranberries try to come play but are smacked around and leave in tears. Perhaps a few years in the bottle will settle this wine out, perhaps not. Hardly any finish, just disappears from my palate. Tastes cobbled together, which it was. 14.5% abv.

2009 Windsor Sonoma Russian River valley pinot noir: Soft, ripe, rich, and brimming with the flavors that American oak barrels impart. This is one of those pinots that stand up well on their own due to the sheer ripeness of the fruit. Like a strawberry fruit roll-up. That's how ripe and oaky this Russian River Valley pinot is. Imagine eating vanilla-buttered raspberry/strawberry toast. If you really dig fruiter, softer pinot noir, I bet you'd love this.. 14.5% abv.

2009 Sonoma Coast Vineyards Freestone Hill pinot noir: Here we go, bright acid, restrained berry fruits, and silky tannin. Each of those three elements are in balance, creating a very nice, smooth, light mouthfeel. I liked the wild strawberry tartness mixed with a bit of raspberry puree. Both of those added depth to the mid-palate. A warm, happy baking spice flavor brought a smile to my face. While this pinot did see oak barrel aging via American oak, the effect here is merely to add dimension versus squashing the acid like in the other two California wines. 14.3% abv.

2007 Kramer Vineyards Cardiac Hill Yamhill-Carlton pinot noir: Compared to the first three, this is in another part of the pinot spectrum. Earth and sour cherry show through, supported by fresh cranberry and a bit of peppery spice. Here and there, cigar-box and a hint of plum skin make tiny impressions across the mid-palate. The '07 Kramer Vineyard had a lightness to it that reminded me of a Côte de Beaune. The tannins were nicely integrated and firm enough to give this pinot noir structure and balance. A wholly different expression of the grape but one that's perhaps focused more on terroir and less on using oak and other techniques to create a wine. 12.8% abv.

What was my favorite? I picked the 2009 Freestone Hill from Sonoma Coast Vineyards last night as the "winner". The balance was impressive and no part (flavor, tannin, acid) of this wine felt muted. The winemaker used a deft touch to express the terroir of this particular vineyard. Sure, it's $40 a bottle, but that's right about the price you start to get excellent pinot noir. The reason I preferred this (on August 18, 2011) to the Kramer Cardiac Hill pinot noir was that it spoke to me more last night. It's that simple.

Enough about me, what about the rest of the world, busily tasting and tweeting away to support their favorite region! The winner, by a relative hair, was New Zealand! I was surprised! Last night (due to the time difference) I didn't notice much if any "#NZ" tweets from the "#pinotsmackdown" but apparently when us Yanks were asleep, the Kiwis were tweeting up a storm. Congratulations to them! Now let's get the exchange rate fixed and some more pinot from New Zealand into the USA, I want to taste it! In second place, Oregon, no surprise there. Perhaps the king of domestic pinot noir producing states (sorry, California), I saw a multitude of tweets in support of their pinot noirs. California brought up third place, a respectable showing and only a few votes behind Oregon.

Ed posted a great recap of the 2011 Pinot Smackdown on his blog, go read it and you'll see the amazing reach that this event has. He breaks down the numbers to show how this is a global event and impressions that were generated across all the social media platforms is truly amazing. We gotta give it up to Ed and Joe Herrig for promoting and steering this event along. Nicely done, gentlemen.

The wines featured here were provided free of charge for the Pinot Smackdown tasting event.

Beau Carufel

A Port Wine Primer

2011-08-17T17:41:00.000-07:00

File this under the category "useful". Ever been curious about Port wine? To the beginning wine drinker, Ports can be very confusing. There's a lot of misinformation being peddled by ignorant "wine people" that causes a lot of you to hesitate before ordering or buying a Port.

If you study this ‘Port 101’ from Fladgate Partnership winemaker David Guimaraens, you'll get a good foundation of knowledge to help your initial foray into these fascinating wines. As always, tasting is of course mandatory! Also, ask questions! I can't stress that enough, especially about wines like Portos.

What is Port? Port is a fortified wine produced from grapes grown exclusively in Portugal’s Douro region. Port was created in the 1700’s so the British would have wine to drink while at war with the French. As wines spoiled during the voyage to England, they were fortified to improve shelf-life. (Factoid: A wine is “fortified” by adding a neutral grape spirit to stop the fermentation, leaving residual sugar in the wine.)

Port Grapes: Port can be made with 48 different grape varieties but five are considered the best and most widely used: Touriga National, Touriga Francesa, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca and Tinta Cão. Vineyards are cultivated on steep terraced slopes along the Douro River, arduous and costly work.

Grape Stomping: Grapes are hand-harvested, and in order to quickly extract colors and flavors without getting harsh tannins from the pits, the finest producers opt for the traditional way of crushing grapes by human foot treading in shallow stone tanks called lagares.

Port Styles: Simply put, Port can be divided into two main styles: Ruby and Tawny. Most Ports are blended wines from various years with the aim of producing a consistent house style (much like Champagne).

Ruby Ports: Dark purple in color with rich fruity and spicy overtones, and a sweet character. Bottles marked “Ruby Reserve” offer more complexity than a basic Ruby as they are aged longer before bottling and are generally higher quality blends.

Vintage Ports: Vintage Ports are the highest quality Ruby Ports from one single year. A Port producer will ‘declare’ a vintage in exceptional harvests. Vintage Ports can be consumed young, but will develop in the bottle for decades, with powerful fruit flavors and tannins mellowing with age. Vintage Ports need to be decanted as they develop sediment in the bottle. (Factoid: 2009 is the 4^th vintage declaration of this decade, a rarity over the past three centuries.)

Tawny Ports: Aged in large oak casks, Tawny Ports are amber in color with flavors of toffee, dried fruits and nuts. Ready to drink when bottled, Tawny Ports don’t need to be decanted. More complex Tawny Ports have an indication of age on the bottle, e.g. 10, 20, 30 or 40-year old Tawny. Their mellow, nutty, character comes from contact with air during long maturation in oak casks. (Factoid: Tawny Ports are delicious chilled served with or without ice.)

Late-Bottled Vintage (LBV): LBV Ports spend between four to six years in oak prior to bottling. The wines combine the mellow flavors of a Tawny Port while retaining the potent fruitiness of a Ruby Port. They do not need to be decanted.

Port Pairings: Ports can be enjoyed on their own at the end of the meal but are also an excellent dessert pairings. Ruby Ports are delicious with blue cheeses like Stilton or Roquefort and rich chocolate desserts. Tawny Ports are best accompanied with caramel and toffee desserts like crème brûlée or apple crumble.

I confess that the original press release that I copied into this blog did contain Port recommendations from Taylor's and Fonseca, two well-respected Port houses. I can certainly recommend Ports from each one. In fact one of my favorite Ports of all time is Taylor's 1985. The recommendations were deleted so as to remove any apperance of bias.

Tomorrow night at 5pm pst, I'll be participating in a live, virtual tasting of a new Port from Croft. It's unlike any I've tasted before, a rosé style Port made by extracting fresh, fruity flavors and a subtle, delicate pink color from the grapes. The result: a vibrant, lighter Port.

Follow along using the Twitter hashtags "#TGTaste" and "#CroftPink" as I (and other wine bloggers around the country) open and taste this interesting development in Port wines. I think it'll be fascinating to watch the bloggers react to Croft Pink.

Beau Carufel

2009 Seghesio "Costiera" Russian River Valley Pinot Noir

2011-08-14T11:43:00.000-07:00

Just when I think I am jumping off the California pinot noir bandwagon in favor of Oregon's, I get a sample from the awesome folks at Seghesio to taste, and it turns out to be one of the best pinots I've tasted so far in 2011. Their Wine Spectator 93 point rated "Costiera" pinot noir was sent down in June and rested in my wine fridge for a while. I don't want to say I was saving it, but I was. The occasion: a group of wine loving friends I work with came by to explore wine and food pairings with me.

Having spent about a decade in the wine business now (geez, time flies!), I remain a big, big fan of Seghesio and in particular their zinfandels. Those zinfandels are consistently some of the best examples you can buy, period. Plus they're relatively inexpensive to boot. I confess to not knowing that Seghesio made pinot noir though, and after seeing some tweets about the 93 point score from Wine Spectator, I was intrigued.

Like most bloggers, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with wine scores. I realize their utility, serving as a quick point of reference to that weekend wine drinker seeking something they trust to be tasty. Yet I still lament the inherent sterility of a point score, how it reduces the magic of a great wine down to a number on a scale. Granted, I do use my own scale based on letter grades, but I feel that allows for a less firm actual score, hopefully allowing my tasting notes to convey how I feel, or more importantly, how the wine makes me feel.

Seghesio's website gives a good account of their family story and history, going back to 1895. It's safe to say that they are one of the true old guard of Sonoma. Equally important, I have it on good authority that Pete Seghesio is one of the nicest guys around. Next time I am up in Sonoma County, I'm going to stop in and hang out for a while. If they're pouring their zinfandels, it might be impossible for me to leave!

My good friend Grace aka cellarmistress has tried this wine and suggested I give it lots of time to breathe, so I ended up opening the '09 Costiera two hours before I tasted it. Right before all my friends arrived, I was able to go through this Seghesio, the 2007 Elizabeth Spencer The Guardian cabernet, and the 2008 Hedges Family Estate Red Mountain. The other two red wines will be featured in upcoming blog posts, and they're knockouts so stay tuned!

The first thing I noticed about the Seghesio pinot was the color, a dark burgundy. Had I not known the vintage, this would have helped to tell me what a young wine I was about to drink. Pinot noir's color changes as it ages, getting progressively lighter and more burnt-brick or dark-salmon as the years pass.

To the bouquet, and the 2009 Costiera pinot has quite the impressive array of scents at work. Rushing up out of the glass was a lot of baking spice and sour cherry at first, followed by wild strawberry and dark soil. Falling under the "barely perceptible yet still there" category, whiffs of Crimini mushroom and a green, stemmy quality seemed to weave in and out among the larger, riper primary flavors. While this 2009 Seghesio pinot is definitely high in alcohol at 14.7%, there's not much heat at all, just a little tickle right at the end. Take that alcohol down to about 14.2% and I think we'd have a stunner of a wine. Still, don't let that small issue detract from an impressively balanced, fascinating bouquet.

Woohoo! Now I get to taste the wine.

True to the Russian River Valley style, this pinot has a light acidity that melts into a ripe, rich red cherry note as it progresses through the mid-palate. Before the red fruits can get too ripe and sweet though, flavors of earth and herbs provide exceptional balance. I also liked how there was some very silky tannin, whenever I taste that I realize the wine does have some life in it and can perhaps age for as long as ten years. What impressed me most about this Seghesio pinot noir was the balance between the ripe cherries and the acidity, supported by the beautifully expressive earth and herbal notes. It was like drinking something silky smooth but light and airy at the same time. There wasn't much in the way of oak influence here either, despite the wine spending 12 months in 100% French Oak barrels. For those of you who don't like the oak monster, this is a big win.

As of now this 2009 Seghesio Costiera pinot noir is the best California pinot I've tasted this year, and it might be the best pinot noir I've tasted this year, period.

Seghesio's offering from the Russian River Valley one of my highest grades for a pinot noir this year, an A- and STRONG BUY recommendation. At the Seghesio website it's listed for $43 but you can also find it on wine-searcher for as low as $38. Well worth the investment and if you're looking for a pinot to sit down for a few years, one that will reward your patience, this 2009 Seghesio Costiera will do that in spades. I know I need to buy a few more bottles before it's all gone.

This wine was provided as a media sample by the winery.

Beau Carufel

Drink Wine with Dinner Day...

2011-08-09T18:49:00.000-07:00

At first, I thought, "no shit, of course you drink wine with dinner".

Then I realized that my attitude is the result of my upbringing, my passion, and my education. Many people out there, probably about 220 million of them, do not in fact drink wine with dinner very often. Sure, wine is a natural and even essential part of a meal in France, Italy, Spain, and indeed all over the world. Perhaps our misguided societal approach to alcohol has kept us the "Coca-cola nation", but change could still happen.

Enter Rosina Wilson, a veteran wine wine writer and educator. Despite this summer's assault of "______ Day" promotions, we get another one. "Drink Wine With Dinner Day". So in the interests of spreading the word, of hopefully working to get just one or two people to switch to a good bottle (notice, I didn't say pricey) of wine for dinner instead of that two liter bottle of Coke, I (re)post the following press release:

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Wine Writer Rosina Wilson Announces August 15, 2011 as “Drink Wine with Dinner” Day

Specific day selected to pay tribute to Julia Child

August 9, 2011 (San Francisco, CA) – Veteran wine writer and educator Rosina Wilson announces a new holiday ~ “Drink Wine With Dinner” Day ~ to celebrate the pleasures of wine with food. August 15 has been selected as this new holiday in recognition of what would have been Julia Child’s 99th birthday.

“For decades, Julia Child showed America how natural and enjoyable it is to drink wine with dinner,” says Rosina. “And I’ve always considered Julia my mentor, as well as my inspiration for embarking on a culinary career. What better reasons could there be for creating a day of joy and feasting ~ in Julia’s honor, and on her birthday!”

“Until now,” Rosina remarks, “there has been no official celebration to bring wine to the table. “Drink Wine With Dinner” Day will unite like-minded people throughout the world who love wine, love food, and love how much each can enhance the other.”

For those who want to take part in “Drink Wine With Dinner” Day, Rosina assures that “it doesn’t matter *what* you plan, as long as it involves wine, food, and people. It can be an upscale dinner at a restaurant or winery, with a different wine for each course. Or it can be a down-home backyard barbecue with friends, and a favorite value-priced bottle or two.”

Rosina is using the immense power of the Internet to establish “Drink Wine With Dinner” Day worldwide. On her blog, and on Social Media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, Rosina has invited restaurants, wineries, and individuals around the globe to create their own meals and tastings ~ then notify her, and also notify *their* personal and Social Media contacts.

Rosina then re-posts the information ~ including scheduled events, menus, and recipes ~ that she receives from her online followers and her “IRL” (in real life) friends and colleagues.

“Each of us is spreading the word about “Drink Wine With Dinner” Day in our own way, with a big ripple effect,” Rosina comments. “I like to think of it as a semi-planned, semi-spontaneous, international ‘flash mob’ of food and wine lovers, springing up on August 15th and celebrating “Drink Wine With Dinner” Day in dozens, hundreds, or thousands of locales around the planet.”

“Being of Italian heritage,” she continues, “I would love to see America embrace the sheer love of wine, and the custom of enjoying it daily at mealtime. This is the norm in much of Europe, and in many ‘New World’ wine-growing areas.”

But in the United States, Rosina notes, “wine still needs to be more widely accepted.” She views “Drink Wine With Dinner” Day as “a great opportunity not only to enjoy a special meal with special people, but also to help strip away the ‘intimidation factor’ that has kept so many people away from wine.”

“After all,” she continues, “every one of our 50 states now produces wine. Mainstream America deserves to know the pleasures of wine with dinner. And it’s finally time for us to catch up with the rest of the world!”

“I view “Drink Wine With Dinner Day” as a true win-win,” Rosina concludes. “It benefits the consumer; it benefits the wine, food, and restaurant industries; and I’d venture to say that it also benefits the greater good.”

Rosina invites *everyone* ~ culinary professionals and amateurs alike ~ to take part in “Drink Wine With Dinner” Day on or around August 15th ~ “the more, literally, the merrier.” To publicize *your* plans, simply email Rosina ~ at RosinaWilson.com@gmail.com ~ with details about your event or menu. Please include wine-friendly recipes where appropriate. (Rosina will of course credit you fully.) Then tell your own contacts about your plans, and invite them to create “Drink Wine With Dinner” Day events of their own, and to email Rosina with the details. Thank you!

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Beau Carufel