Whole Foods Market's Top Ten Summer Wines

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Whole Foods Market is aiming to help us all with summer wine selections by highlighting wines with great quality and price throughout this summer. Called the "Top Ten Wines", there's actually a list of 12 wines split between six red and five white, with one sparkler in there for good measure. In June Whole Foods held a live, virtual tasting with some bloggers from around the country, unfortunately I wasn't able to participate that night but the awesome people at Whole Foods were kind enough to get me some samples anyways, so that I could check each wine out and feature them in this blog.

One of the things Whole Foods has done right is to feature wine from all over the world, the list contains bottles from France, Argentina, California, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, and Spain. Price wise, these run from between $6 and $20, offering a variety to choose from at prices that will play nice with your budget.

The Whole Foods wine people were kind enough to set me up with six selections off of their Summer Selections to taste through and comment on. Over the course of the past few weeks I've been opening and tasting each wine, jotting down impressions as I pair them with food or simply enjoy a glass on a warm (or cool) evening.

2010 Elios Mediterranean White
Ready for this? A white blend: 50% moschofilero, 30% chardonnay, 10% roditis, 10% savatiano. A Greek kitchen sink wine. Color-wise, not much there. It's almost like looking into a glass of Fresca, without the carbonation. I loved the nose of ripe melons, salt air, summer flowers and hints of lemon zest. While not overly complex, the Elios smelled delicious and appropriate for the 82 degree day on which I opened the bottle. The mouthfeel was light, helped by the acidity and citrus flavors of grapefruit and lime. Though the chardonnay lent weight through the mid-palate, it did muddle some of the stone fruit and grassy flavors, leaving me a trifle disappointed. For a food-friendly, inexpensive summer white wine though, this is damn good stuff. B-. BUY recommendation.

2010 Santa Julia Innovac!on Torrontes/Pinot Grigio Argentina
Palest of straw hues and 13% alcohol, a wine that combines two of my favorite white varietals from a region exploding onto the scene in the last decade. The Innovac!on smelled like a summer bouquet of orange blossom and Bartlett pear. Peach nectar mixed with a mango smoothie, perhaps?. On my palate, a very light wine, clean and nicely acidic, yet not at all what the bouquet promised. I struggled a little bit to find lemon peel and a bit of tropical fruit but that is about all there is to this wine. Not too interesting, nothing wrong with it though. C+. Pass.

2010 Presto Moscato Dolce
I like how Moscato is really exploding right now, one of the highest-growing categories of wine in the United States. It's the perfect gateway wine, getting people into wine and allowing them to have a solid base to jump into other grapes and styles. The Presto is a "dolce", meaning it's definitely got some sweetness to it. I opened this on a hot evening after chilling it for a few hours in the fridge and it hit the spot. At once sweet yet refreshing, it's no Cava or Champagne but at around $10 it isn't designed to be. The bubbles in the Presto Moscato seemed smaller and softer than in either of the aforementioned sparklers.  Soft notes of apple and sea breeze, a hint of sweet peach, and smiles all around. Very nice and a great change of pace. B. Buy recommendation.

2009 Perrin Nature Cotes du Rhone France
Perrin is a big, big producer in France's Rhone valley, hundreds of thousands of cases big. This is their "Nature" wine, made from organically grown grapes predominantly from the Southern Rhone river valley. It's another $10 value from a critically acclaimed vintage. The Perrin pours a dark purple with a bit of violet towards the edges, it looks very much alive and full of personality. I liked the whiffs of leather and crushed red fruit along with a good hit of bittersweet chocolate. I enjoyed the balanced ripeness, crushed white pepper, earth, and firm tannin. The word of the day for the 2009 Perrin Nature: "rustic".  Some rough edges yet a deliciously different $10 bottle of wine. B, BUY recommendation.

2009 Vitiano Cabernet Sauvignon/Sangiovese Italy
This is a Leonardo Locascio selection, Mr. Locascio being a guy who brings in a lot of good quality Italian wine. Clocking in at 13% abv, it's what I would term a "Super Tuscan" red wine. The color is dark, vibrant red that's nearly opaque, perhaps a tribute to the cabernet sauvignon in this blend. I smelled ripe cherries, almost overripe to the point of being like cough syrup. Cedar and spice, red licorice and a bit of brettanomyces to round out this rustic red. Very smooth initially with firm tannins carrying heavy red fruit through the entire taste. Barest hint of a snappy red currant too, but very easy drinking wine if somewhat simplistic. This is rustic Italian red wine, best enjoyed with grilled eggplant or a meat lovers pizza. Thin crust please. B-. Pass recommendation.

2009 Altovinum Evodia Old Vine Garnacha Spain
From 100 year old grenache vines comes a ripe, rich, big, fruit bomb of a wine. That is just what is needed on a summer day with your buddies, standing around a hot grill of awesomely charred meat. Evodia does age the wine in oak for a bit, tempering some of the acidity and tannin from the grenache, and enhancing the mouthfeel. I was assaulted (in a good way) by ripe plum, blackberry, and red currants, hints of cooking spice, a touch of green herbs and some warm oak. Perhaps my favorite of the Whole Foods Top Ten Wines lineup, the 2009 Altovinum Evodia is begging to be paired with a chunk of mancego cheese, or better yet, a thick burger with bacon and a chunk of mancego cheese! See where I'm going with this?! B, STRONG BUY recommendation.

During my exhaustive research, I tasted through each wine at least twice, over a minimum of two days, this helped me gain impressions that might not have been there on the first day. The exception to this was the NV Moscato, which had lost all it's bubbles after the first night and was rendered into sweet, gross, fermented grape juice rather quickly. As such, the notes on that wine are from the first day only.

For the red wines, I opened each one about two hours before I tasted them, then poured each red wine through a Vinturi. When I tasted the white wines, I removed them from the refrigerator about one hour before tasting, to allow each bottle a chance to warm up a few degrees and therefore allow the taster (me) a better idea of the wine's acid and sugar levels.

Before this blog gets longer, I will post my final thoughts and impressions. To be honest, I'd never considered Whole Foods Market as a place to buy wine before, but with this tasting, my opinion is beginning to change. The wines I tried were all interesting in their own right, while there were a couple of clunkers, none were actually bad wines. At Whole Foods, the wine buyers are doing a good job finding unique selections at varying price points, I admire them for that. As we continue through the summer months, I urge you to go check out your local Whole Foods Market and take a peek at their Top Ten Wines selections.. Chances are, you'll walk out of there with a few bottles of yummy wines.

Follow Whole Foods on Twitter, and send them a tweet asking for the account of your local store!

These wines were media samples for review purposes.

Beau Carufel

Taking Some Mystery Out Of Dessert Wines:Part 2

Here's the second post in my dessert-wine blog featurette. In the first post, I explained what my friends and I were tasting as well as went over the dessert wines themselves. Here, you'll find the tasting notes and suggested food pairings. I've included the suggested retail price as well as bottle size so you can make your own comparisons. Let's get to the wines!

The dessert wine lineup, sans Sauterenes

It's a rough life being a wine blogger

While you are gazing at those two pictures, I'm feverishly trying to arrange this next blog entry the right way. In the previous page, I had listed the dessert wines that Keith, Bill, and myself tasted on April 23rd. Now I get to talk about them as well as suggest pairings should you decide to seek them out.

1. 2009 Kracher Cuvee Auslese - Alluring nose featuring river stone, nectarine, and stone fruit. Everything was so light but also complex, I kept smelling the glass just to get more aromas. When tasted, I found a light, sweetly acidic wine with orange pith, nectarine, dried apricot all bound by a pleasing acidity that kept each fruit flavor restrained. This contributed to the balanced, palate friendly nature of the wine. An absolute gem of a dessert wine that paired extremely well with the panna cotta, as well as sugar cookies. A-. $13-$18. 375 ml.

2. 2009 Kracher Cuvee Eiswein - This is a dollop of sweet peach juice and fresh cream! Beautiful aromas of fresh apricot and a touch of tropical fruit, a nice touch of minerality giving context to the fruits. Utterly divine on the palate, with fleshy peach backing a burst of mango and more of those delicious apricots. The mouthfeel was so ripe and rich that it felt almost creamy. We all loved this wine with the fruit tarte and also the wonderful Brazilian Mousse de Maracuja. A-. $32-38. 375 ml.

3. 2009 Kracher Beerenauslese Zweigelt - Shimmered like a glass full of rubies in the sunlight, I was enthralled by the color. Aromatically complex with notes of candied flower petals, wild strawberries and some wet rock thrown in. Surprisingly light with the nearly perfect backing of acidity against some awesome flavors like cherry and candied plums. There was even something like baking spices on the finish, which certainly kept me guessing. Simply stunning for me. I think this paired amazingly well with the chocolates from Honest Chocolates, as well as the tarte Bill brought.  B+ . $24. 375 ml.

4. 2008 Bodegas Ochoca Moscatel - Made from small berry muscat vines, this was my first time tasting a dessert wine from Navarra, Spain. The bouquet was explosive, like a sweet tropical fruit salad drizzled in white grape juice. A touch of acidity balanced the notes of passion fruit, pineapple, and mango. At first, it was somewhat difficult to wrap my head around what I smelled. The Ochoca moscatel was that good! I tasted golden apples, peaches, tropical fruit and more of the white grape juice all seamlessly blending together. My favorite wine of the night. Another stellar pairing with the chocolates and also the fruit tarte. A (95 points). $20. STRONG BUY. 375 ml.

5. 2003 Sigalas Vinsanto Santorini VQPRD -  The first vinsanto I had tasted in a while, blew my socks off. Insane smells of caramelized sugar and dried figs, even a hint of toasted nuts. At once interesting and alluring, I could put away a bottle of this myself, with no problem. The sweet nutty flavor carried through the palate, mixing with figs and a hint of burnt sugar. Pleasing acidity was there throughout, so the Sigalas vinsanto avoided getting into the saccharine-sweet territory that had me worried when I conceived the tasting earlier this year. Excellent, spicy finish and I was content to sip it on it's own, not needing any desserts. A-. $50. 500 ml.

6. 2009 Seven of Hearts Coupe's Cuvee - Sent down to me after the other dessert wines had arrived, this was the first time I had ever tried pinot noir made into a dessert wine. The aromatics were fascinating, with an earthy, almost barnyard aroma (in a good way!), notes of sweet cherry and even what I thought was a touch of menthol on the back end. When I tasted the Coupe's Cuvee I found a great flavor of cedar and red cherry along with great spices and a tangy acidity. The complexity surprised me, in the best of ways. Along with the complex flavors and aromas was the awesome color, I thought it looked like an electrified ruby sitting my glass. Paired with the Honest Chocolates, it shined. The flavors all melded together to create a sensational taste. B+ $21. BUY. 375ml.

7. 2003 Chateau Rieussec Sauterenes - 2003 was apparently a good year for Sauterenes, and the Chateau Rieussec is aging beautifully. Smells like botrytis laden grapes, hints of pine with a bit of acidic astringency. I tasted sweet cream, apricots, beautiful hints of caramel and hard candy almost like a Werthers. The way it effortlessly glides around in your mouth reminds you why Sauterenes are so highly prized. I loved the pairing with the panna cotta and on its own, needing no accompaniment save for a beautiful sunset. B+. $39. 375ml.

We got into Bill's tarte, hard.

Wrapping up a post like this is not easy for me, because I don't know if words can express my gratitude to those who participated. This was the first time I reached out en masse (so to speak) to try to put together a series of blog posts framed around one type of wine. In my opinion it worked out perfectly and I'd like to thank Catharine Seda, Constance Chamberlain, Byron and Dana Dooley, Keith, and Bill. They readily agreed to ship me samples of wine, bring tasty desserts, and reminded me to get my butt in gear with these posts. A thousand thank-you's, I am deeply appreciative of the support. Until next time!

Panna Cotta, so good!!

This tasting was a mix of wines sent as media samples and donations from a private cellar.

Beau Carufel

Taking Some Mystery Out of Dessert Wines

Dessert wines can make even an experienced wine connoisseur nervous. While most people know of dessert wines, there's something of an air of mystery to that category. Some of that air might be cultivated, as way of elevating this class of wine above others *coughCHAMPAGNEcough* but for the most part, dessert wines are a non-threatening, delicious, fun way to cap off a memorable meal. In February I had the brilliant idea to create a couple of blog posts detailing my experiences with dessert wines and that in turn would hopefully spur some dialogue and exploration on your end.

I reached out to some contacts in the wine industry and soon had a wonderful assembly of dessert wines to taste and write about.I was lucky enough to have samples from Austria, Greece, Spain, and Oregon sent to me for this tasting. A special thanks goes out to the Brand Action Team, Balzac Communications, and Seven of Hearts winery for generously sending me some amazing wines.

The next step was to figure out some food combinations, in an effort to make this more of a "real world" kind of test. Since I had invited my buddies Keith and Bill to participate, I figured why not put them to work procuring some tasty, sugar-laden goodies for us? They each contributed various pastries, chocolate bread, and a special Brazilian Mousse de Maracujá dessert while I contributed some panna cotta, one of my all time favorite desserts (and I brought the wines). Our plan was to try the wines with various desserts, both to mimic more casual dishes and also to throw desserts into the mix that you may have at an upscale restaurant.

On the next page (see the link at the bottom of this one) I'll go more into detail with tasting notes about each wine as well as the dessert pairings that I found to be very interesting and fun.

If you're with me so far, good. Some of you might be wondering what exactly a "dessert wine" is. Definitions vary around the world, as do names. The Aussies even call them "stickies", how quintessentially Australian! At their heart though, the vast majority of "dessert wine" is sweet in nature. This is often due to elevated sugar levels left over after primary fermentation has been completed, called "residual sugar". Two of the main reasons for those elevated sugar levels come from the way the grapes are grown and harvested.

In wines from Sauterenes and Barsac in Bordeaux, the sauvignon blanc and semillion grapes are allowed to succumb to "Noble Rot" caused by the botrytis bacterium. This rot concentrates the sugars in the grape by drying it, allowing for a sweeter wine to be made. Alternately, a method practiced in Canada, New Zealand, and Austria (among other places) produces what's called "ice wine" where the grapes are allowed to freeze on the vine, thereby concentrating their sugars so that when pressed, the resulting juice is lower in water and higher in sugar. There is no hard and fast rule about what method you have to use to produce sweet wines though.

During the tasting, we had wine from Sauternes as well as an ice wine (eiswein) from Austria. There were also several others; a muscatel from Navarra, an Auslese made from chardonnay and welschriesling (not regular riesling), a vin santo from Santorini, and a Beerenauslese made from the zweigelt grape. Obviously we were trying totally new varietals in the form of dessert wines, an awesome way to get acquainted with them.

My friends at Seven of Hearts in Oregon contributed a bottle of their dessert port, made from pinot noir grapes grown in a couple of vineyards in the Willamette Valley. Pinot noir, you ask? I asked too, and at the very least this is a fun experiment with the varietal. The Coupe's Cuvee was made in the traditional style, with some brandy being added at a certain point to arrest the fermentation and preserve some residual sugar. That's also how Port is made, one of my all-time favorite drinks!

Keith and Bill getting dessertified

Below is the list of dessert wines we tasted on April 23rd:

1. 2009 Kracher Cuvee Auslese
2. 2009 Kracher Cuvee Eiswein
3. 2009 Kracher Beerenauslese Zweigelt
4. 2008 Bodegas Ochoca Moscatel
5. 2003 Sigalas Vinsanto
6. 2009 Seven of Hearts Coupe's Cuvee
7. 2003 Chateau Rieussec Sauterenes

Mousse de Maracuja

Click Here To Go To Part Two

Beau Carufel