Summer Barbecue Wine Options

Summer is in full swing! It's time to barbecue as much as possible, to have your friends over at every opportunity, and to enjoy the sun whenever you can. To that end, I've lined up a slew of affordable reds and whites for you to pair with barbecued foods and backyard shindigs.

Keep in mind that these are all bigger, more full-bodied red wines Anytime you have big flavors from meat, you need to get big wines to stand up to what you're grilling. The addition of sauces, marinades, and rubs also adds intensity, further pushing palates away from pinot-land.

The white wines, on the other hand, are crisp, dry, and full of refreshing acidity. On a hot day the last thing most of us want is a big, heavy, oaky chardonnay weighing down our taste buds. To that end, I assembled a panel of well known producers' white wines to taste and talk about.

Here then are two lists, of whites and reds, for your consideration as you barbecue this summer:

White:

2010 Parducci Small Lot Blend Sauvignon Blanc: Despite the $11 suggested retail price, this is single vineyard sauvignon blanc, from Hildreth Farm in Mendocino County. Crisp notes of green apple, grass, and zesty citrus mix with summer melon to create a balanced, food-friendly wine. Very drinkable and at a great price. Pair this with ceviche, fish tacos, chicken salad, or solo on a hot day.

2010 Parducci Small Lot Blend Pinot Gris: I think it's telling that I tasted this and thought it might be a steel-tank-fermented, un-wooded, cheap chardonnay. 6% Muscat Canelli was added to the gris, creating an intersting, barely-off-dry citrus and melon set of flavors. If sauvignon blanc or 100% pinot gris is too dry for your friends, I bet they'd love this. Very pretty aromatics, so don't over chill it. $11 srp.

2011 St. Supery Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley: Loads of tropical fruit beats down a touch of green grass that dares show itself. I like that though. Crisp acidity frames the melange of passion fruit, kiwi, and lime flavors. There is a subtle but welcome minerality at play, enhancing the texture. Pair this gem with grilled-shrimp quesadillas and fresh guacamole. $15 srp.







Red:

2009 Parducci Small Lot Blend Merlot: The bouquet is all red cherry and licorice, with a bit of a medicinal quality. On the palate it's spicy, cherry, and vanilla oak. This brings the easy-drinking flavors you expect from an inexpensive merlot. Give this one to your "I don't like red wine" crowd. SRP: $11. 13.5% abv.

2010 Hey Mambo "Sultry Red" Red Wine: An explosion of red fruit; think cherries and raspberries mixed together. It's sweet and easy-drinking, with ample ripe fruit flavors and a tease of vanilla-oak lurking in the background. The finish is just dry enough to stand up to bigger foods. Another "I don't like red wine" crowd pleaser. SRP: $10. 13.5% abv.

2010 Graffigna Centenario Malbec Reserve: This bouquet is all dark aromas, think baking chocolate, spices, and leather. Some black cherry and blueberry peek out too. More full-bodied than the previous two wines, the Graffigna has ample tannin to stand up to steak. Flavors of black fruit, herb, and bittersweet chocolate create a nice texture on the palate. Worth opening a few hours before your party. SRP: $15. 14% abv.

2008 Ash Hollow Headless Red: This one is intriguing, it smells a little reductive but revels aromas of maple and bacon, black fruit, and wood. 58% merlot, 26% cabernet sauvignon, 13% syrah, 3% malbec. There maybe some volatile acidity here too, but it's not a big deal. More maple flavor comes through on the palate, along with spices and black cherry. This one is smooth and easy to sip, while retaining enough tannin and acid to stand firm against a steak or summer sausage. 30 months spent in oak. 14.1% abv.

2009 Parducci Small Lot Blend Cabernet Sauvignon: When I first opened this bottle, I was walloped over the head with a bag of oak. The wine has settled down a lot, with the oak partially retreating and letting some warm red fruits, earthy funk, and green herb come out. Firm tannin restrain that red fruit on the palate, creating a simple yet effectively structured wine to pair with steak or ribs. It's more complex than expected, especially at the $11 price point. 14.0% abv.

2011 Big House Red: The fact that this wine has over 15 different grape varieties should tell you something. My sample showed up in a 3L cask or bag-in-box, in an effort to prove that quality isn't lost. 3L is about four bottles, making this a $5.50 per-bottle red wine. The nose is an explosion of fruity aromas, think raspberry jam, strawberries, blackberries. It's no different on the palate, with jammy fruit leading the way, thankfully reined in by a bit of acidity. It'll go great during the summer when you're headed to a bbq party, and fits the very definition of "crowd pleaser". 13.0% abv.

2009 Ravenswood Sonoma County Old Vine Zinfandel: Joel Peterson consistently produces great wines at reasonable prices. This zinfandel, coming in around $15 a bottle, has all the hallmarks of old vines from warm climates. Aromas of wood smoke, tar, plum, and spices rush out of the glass. I like the complexity, especially at this price point. Lots of dark, intense red fruit to pair with ribs too, along with a wonderful peppery flavor that contrasts with some dark, dusty soil. A tight, clean package of deliciousness. 14.5% abv.




2009 Ravenswood Vintners Blend Petite Sirah: Imagine a bowl full of blueberries and blackberries sitting in a field of dark, earthy soil. Now imagine someone burning oak just a few hundred yards away. That's the nose of this petite sirah. It tastes spicy and rich, with lots of black fruit, dark chocolate, and firm tannin to restrain those two primary flavors. Practically begs for a thick steak, and is a really good deal at $7.99. 13.5% abv.







To test the wines out in more real-life conditions, I had them all open for a barbecue that several of our friends attended. Each wine was tasted along with the food, which included ribs and hot dogs, among other things. My personal favorites were the Ravenswood wines, and the Graffigna Malbec. The group did enjoy the Big House Red and Hey Mambo for what they were, big, fruity, easy-drinking reds.

Each of these wines is worth a pop 'n pour when you are grilling and want something to please a wide range of palates. Perhaps the best part is the pricing, all can be found for between $10 and $15, save for the Big House, but you get a lot of wine in that octagon!

These wines were media samples.

Beau Carufel

Parducci Small Lot Blend Pinot Noir and Chardonnay

I've written about Parducci wines frequently over the last year and the wines have generally been very good, in some cases excellent, and always a great value. You can read my past blogs about Parducci and see what I mean. Recently I was sent two more bottles to sample, the new "Small Lot Blend" series. Both the chardonnay and pinot noir are priced with an eye towards by-the-glass placement in restaurants and wine bars, their respective srp's being $11.00 and $12.00. That said, they are also both available at retail locations as evidenced by my wine-searcher.com query.

The pinot noir is 100% pinot, aged for eight months (assuming that's in oak), and produced in large quantities - 20,000 cases. The chardonnay on the other hand was subject to a neutral-wood and stainless steel regimen, along with 5% barrel fermentation. It was produced in much small quantities, only 6,620 cases. Depending on your perspective, these wines could be seen as large production or small production, but I looked forward to tasting them and seeing if Parducci had continued its run of great quality wines at bargain prices.

2010 Parducci Small Lot Blend Chardonnay Mendocino County: A very pale chardonnay, I'd liken it to a New Zealand sauvignon blanc in color. Aromatically I get a lot of sweet apple and pear notes, some buttery pastry-crust too, and maybe the barest hint of a mineral component. The mouthfeel is medium-bodied, with vibrant acidity at the edges of my tongue that restrain the pastry-crust note, providing balance and texture. Just like on the nose, that ripe golden apple comes through along with an easygoing dollop of fresh stone fruit. A light, airy finish ends the Parducci on a pleasant note. Overall I think this is a wonderfully food-friendly wine and it nails the by-the-glass intent that Parducci had when creating this line. I would gladly drink this chardonnay over many higher-priced examples for it's lightness and balance. 13.5% abv. $11 suggested retail price.

2010 Parducci Small Lot Blend Pinot Noir Mendocino County: I like the color here, it's a beautifully vibrant Burgundy that mellows out to ruby-red towards the edges of the glass. The bouquet is a nice mix of vanilla, cedar, baking spice, and a core of prominent black cherry-plum mixture. At only $12, the complexity level is unusually high. A sip brings out very ripe red fruits backed up by a firm acid streak supported by subtle oak before the mildly tannic finish cleans things up. The core fruit flavors of sweet cherries and plums are welcomed, where they form a very sippable pinot noir. This is light-bodied, fun, and still possess enough intensity to stand up to salmon and even some red meat. I often lament cheap pinot noir, but this deliver above the price point. 14.0% abv. $12 suggested retail price.


Over the course of two days, both wines showed very well considering their price. The chardonnay maintained a light, uplifting feel and the pinot held on to the firm acid and fruit notes that made it so pleasurable in the first place. I guess you could say that Parducci passed the test once again with their Small Lot Blend wines.. If you see these wines on a list somewhere, it's safe to order them and know that you're getting a good quality wine that will pair with a wide range of foods.

Visit Parducci on the web
Parducci Winery on Twitter

With that, my first Parducci wines of 2012 were a big hit and I look forward to bringing you more of their bottlings over the next 12 months. Hopefully this year they sample me on the more expensive stuff too! Thanks as always for reading.

These wines were media samples for review purposes.

Beau Carufel

2009 Parducci Chardonnay Continues Parducci's Excellence

I like to promote Parducci wines on this blog, they keep sending me samples and those samples keep turning out to be delicious and incredibly affordable. This year I've tasted the 2009 Parducci pinot noir and 2009 Parducci sauvignon blanc. Last year one of the standout QPR-winners that I got to try was the 2007 Parducci petite sirah.

Last week I tasted the 2009 Parducci chardonnay, of which 7,000 cases were made. Not exactly a giant amount, and considering the winery's suggested retail of $10.99, a rare case of a small production winery not charging a lot for their (damn tasty) wine.

The 2009 Parducci spent eight months aging, in 95% stainless steel tank and 5% American oak barrels. Eight separate properties contributed to this vintage's wine, and I was pleased to note that all were certified Fish Friendly Farming, meaning that the vineyards took rigorous steps to ensure that wetlands, creeks, streams, rivers, and aquifiers weren't harmed by the growing operations. Check out the Fish Friendly Farming website for more information, this is something a lot more Napa and Sonoma growers need to get in on.

(img src http://www.parducci.com/product/2009-Parducci-Chardonnay)

Onward to the wine!

The color, as it pouerd into the glass, reminded me of pale straw. This isn't a typical California golden-colored chardonnay. I was reminded of a 2008 Burgundy, in the best of ways. Simply put, the color was lovely to behold.

I never know how to begin the paragraphs where I describe a wine's aroma and palate presence, but I suspect using the simplest, most direct approach will help you out.

The 2009 Parducci chardonnay smelled a lot like ripe red apples and Bartlett pears, along with some very pleasant aromas of lemon zest. The more I swirled, the more I picked up an buttercream note too, something rich, thick, and delicious. I did keep getting subtle flavors of tropical fruit, like fresh cut pineapples in a mango smoothie, but they were fleeting. No oak and no buttered-popcorn flavors that I associate with malolactic fermentation. Score!

My first few sips brought great acidity, lemon juice and pineapple notes. I liked how the acid transitioned into a creamy mouthfeel, the Parducci chardonnay turned smooth and velvety with a hint of fresh flowers. Both the crisp and creamy textures were balanced pretty well, so the wine was one of those I'd describe as "easy drinking". Nothing to fight with, the flavors were all working together in harmony. Winemaker Bob Swain crafted a very good chardonnay here, with a finish that gently fades away.

All in all, I liked the 2009 Parducci chardonnay, from the nice aromatics to the pleasing mouthfeel. I would like to see more depth of flavor, the wine did seem fairly linear but that's a minor gripe considering this costs $11 (less if you search around). I can give this a B and a STRONG BUY recommendation, especially since it's that type of chardonnay so conducive to summertime drinking. No heavy handed oak or malolactic treatment, just a balanced, delicious bottle of wine at a ridiculously good price.

Once again Parducci brings it with great quality at the price point. Let me know if you happen to try this, I always enjoy hearing reader feedback.

This wine was a media sample for review purposes.


Beau Carufel

Parducci's 2009 Sauvignon Blanc from Mendocino County

I've had mixed luck with Parducci wines in the past, from a very disappointing 2007 cabernet sauvignon to the stunningly affordable and incredibly good 2009 pinot noir I tasted earlier this year. Since the weather has been steadily warming up here in San Diego, I've been opening more white wines to taste and share with you. In this blog entry I'm checking out their 2009 Mendocino County sauvignon blanc.

Priced at $11, it's made entirely with grapes grown in Mendocino by the Hildreth family. They've been doing this for five generations so they know what the Ukiah Valley is capable of. While Parducci wines are widely available at supermarkets and places like Beverages & More, there are only 2,000 cases of this sauv. blanc to go around.

Lovely aromas of fresh cut flowers and lemongrass with a burst of ripe pineapple create a very pleasing bouquet. Sweetness comes from a summer melon aroma, comparable to a freshly sliced honeydew. Comparing the 2009 Parducci Sauvignon Blanc to others, it's actually a bit darker in my glass despite being fermented entirely in stainless steel tanks.

The mouthfeel is pure California with the wine being at once rich yet balanced with nice crisp acidity. I loved the way I could taste a progression of flavors ranging from lemon pith to that great pineapple flavor that I smelled before. There's a nice yin/yang of ripeness and zesty acid to make this a great pairing for chicken salad, summer veggies, or just as a great sipper on your deck during a warm summer day.

While not as light or dry as a New Zealand sauvignon blanc, the Parducci shows that California does produce affordable, delicious, and most importantly, balanced versions from the varietal. I'm really digging this wine, and I'd like to try it sometime with a seared ahi tuna salad. B and a STRONG BUY recommendation from me. At around $11 a bottle, it's one of the better sauvignon blancs I've tasted in this price category. If you're looking for a reliable summertime deck wine or are having people over that like dry whites, try the 2009 Parducci Mendocino County sauvignon blanc.

This wine was sent as a media sample for review purposes by Boss Dog Marketing.


Beau Carufel

Parducci Surprises Me With Their 2009 California Pinot Noir!

One of the fun aspects of writing about wine is that you get samples to taste and share with whomever reads your blog. Like many bloggers, I really enjoy getting these samples of wine, be they $5 or $100. For my purposes, it's a chance to hone my skills as a wine evaluator and share something I'm passionate about with anyone who clicks on the google/yahoo/bing link to my site. The point is that getting wine samples is great, no matter what price they sell for. For example, you're about to read of a Parducci pinot noir that has a suggested retail of $12, an actual retail closer to $9, yet blows other pinot noirs that cost twice as much clean out of the water. It's almost not fair how superb this wine is, considering it comes in at way under $20.

2009 Parducci Pinot Noir California

The tech sheet/winemaker's letter I got with this states that Parducci produced 26,900 cases of pinot noir for this vintage. Also, this pinot truly is pinot, 100% of it to be precise. Of all the juice used to make the 2009 vintage, 69% of the grapes came from Mendocino County. The rest, well who the hell knows? Since the label says "California" that could mean that pinot noir is grown on the majestic Interstate 5 corridor that runs through the middle of this fine state. Nah, that's where the valdigue is grown that goes into all the Two Buck Chuck shit you see people drinking.

Parducci's 2009 pinot is light, a soft ruby color and pale too, I can see right through the glass. There's none of the burnt garnet I see in Burgundies but still, when I look in my glass, I don't doubt that Parducci's winemaker did not add any other varietals. That and it states in the nice letter that there is only pinot noir in the..well..pinot noir.

Aromatically this is textbook pinot noir. Great spices combined with a sour cherry and red currant note, rhubarb and a tiny bit of oak present as well. When I sniffed my glass for the first time, my face lit up. While it's not going to make your nose twitch with unbridled pleasure the way an aged Burgundy will, the fact that Parducci's pinot noir is so true, so varietally pure can't help but entice us to taste it.

Certain wines, really good wines, hit your palate in a way that I struggle to put into words. Better authors than myself can do this with ease and it makes for great reading. What I'm trying to describe is a combination of things, a sense of depth and weight in my mouth coupled with a savory quality that can be described as lip-smackin' good. It's when the voice inside your head tells you the wine is just damn tasty.

So describes the 2009 Parducci. I enjoyed the bright red fruits and vibrant acidity. There was a tiny bit of oak present, doing a great job tempering the acidity and lending some length to the finish. I enjoyed the taste and mouthfeel, and the pairing tonight worked out great too. I picked up a frozen mushroom and black truffle flatbread from Trader Joe's, figuring the earthy mushrooms and creamy cheese would be a great contrast to the bright acidity, lo and behold it worked!

It's clear Parducci's winemaker, Bob Swain, did a wonderful job with this vintage. At nearly 27,000 cases made, there is plenty to go around and I've seen Parducci at Bevmo and local supermarkets if that fails, check out the website I've linked throughout this blog. Easily a B+ (88+ pts) and a STRONG BUY recommendation. Do yourself a favor, taste this and you'll realize what pinot noir used to be like and that sometimes it really doesn't have to cost $20 or more to be wonderful.

This wine was received as a sample for review purposes from Parducci Winery via Boss Dog Marketing.

Beau Carufel

Another Cooking Blog! Sans Smoke and Fire even!

Here we go again. That's what went through my head when, after a lot of urging from my friends, I decided to document another culinary (mis)adventure. I love cooking and creating food but I have no formal training, so with that serving as a disclaimer, we can proceed.

I suppose I should begin with the wine, a bottle of 2007 Parducci Cabernet Sauvignon that I had written about the night before. The wine tasted and smelled a bit tired on this night, but it was still completely fine for cooking. I firmly believe in cooking with good quality wines, the kind you'd drink. I feel if you cook with cheap crap like Charles Shaw, you're doing yourself and the food a disservice. That's my rant for tonight.

Inspiration tonight comes from a good friend of mine and I thank her for that. If I'd burned the kitchen down, I'd have blamed her though!

The ingredients here are pretty self-explanatory, I was going for a flavor profile of herbs, tomato with a spicy finish.
That large steel can in the picture above held some diced tomatoes and those were first into the pot. Obviously a pretty straightforward base for a pasta sauce. I like to get all the ingredients simmering together for as long as possible so I added a tiny bit of chili flakes and cayenne pepper, crushed garlic, the wine, salt, and fresh ground pepper.

If you look closely at these two pictures,
you can see something rising from the pot. I assure you, gentle reader, it's merely steam and not the beginnings of a Stage IV Kitchen Apocalypse. Capturing the rising steam (which happened to smell delicious) was not without it's own bit of peril though. Steam, as it turns out, is hot.

Also I will take a moment to remind you all that knives are sharp and should be handled with care. Getting cut with one does hurt but can leave a neat scar.
Sharp-eyed readers might wonder what the hell "Peri-Peri Peppadrops" are. My first experience was seeing them on the shelf at Trader Joe's. Since I'm a sucker for spicy foods, a jar soon found it's way into my fridge. From the front of the jar: "Pickled Piquante Peppers"and "Not too sweet and not too spicy". Good summation, there's a nice balance of heat and flavor here, perfect for adding another dimension to food. Texturally these are very soft and if you use them, be aware that it's somewhat difficult to get the skins to brown evenly, or it was for me. Perhaps that's just my lack of skill.

Since I'm not cooking in the kitchens of the French Laundry, dicing food doesn't need to be a precise exercise, the stuff just needs to be cut up into small bits.

In the picture to the right, you can see I've added in my diced sun-dried tomatoes and the Peri Peri Peppadrops. "Where is that steam?" you may ask, at this point I had turned the burner down a bit so that I would have more time to prepare the other parts of the meal. I know there are those who enjoy cooking at a fast pace, I don't enjoy being rushed in the kitchen though. Part of my philosophy on cooking at home is that when you make a dish, you should tweak it constantly, attempting to better some element here or there.

I've learned much by my (often disastrous) "experiments" with flavorings and the slow pace at which I cook lends itself to a trial and error methodology.

To the left you can see the sauce after two hours of simmering merrily away. Can sauce simmer merrily? Yes, or else I wouldn't have said it. About 20 minutes after the previous ingredients were added, I browned and seasoned some ground beef then added it to pot. Beef has wonderful flavor to begin with, but if you allow the meat some time to soak in the sauce and take on those flavors, the result is wonderful. I partially browned the beef then let it finish cooking in the sauce pot. At no point was I worried about raw beef, since the sauce itself was so hot and the stove was on low.
Ground turkey, venison, pork, and chicken are also choices. Continuing a theme, this is what I had on hand so it went into the pot. 

I chose penne because I had the pasta sitting in my cupboard and had not used it in a while. I wish I had a better explanation but there you have it. A guerrilla-cook can often just go with what he (or she) has on hand.
Next time, I will use spaghetti or linguine, or just go with something I've never used before. Penne for me always seems to take longer to cook than the aforementioned shapes, so it was a simple matter to cook this batch part of the way then transfer it into the pot to absorb and finish cooking within the sauce. Did I mention that in my last cooking blog? I think so, since I recall someone telling me of the technique earlier this year.

To the right is the outcome of all the words above. I'm not very good at using Parmesan cheese out of a tube, and since I lacked a chunk of cheese to shave over the pasta, it's all I had to go with. The results are right there for you to see. Way too much cheese, I even attempted to pick some off but that didn't work. Still, the sauce was tasty and the pasta did as I asked, absorbing a lot of flavors while it finished cooking in the sauce pot.

You can choose to add some more salt and pepper, maybe some more chili flakes if you desire. I never have used a lot of salt in my cooking but that's merely personal preference. I seek balance and based on the ingredients in this dish, more than just a touch of salt could have overwhelmed what I was seeking.

Home cooked, full of flavors, a bit of spice and very filling. That's how I'd describe this meal in a tweet or in a one-sentence blurb.

Another culinary adventure, keeping with the theme of pasta and red sauces. Yes, I can and do cook other things quite often, it's just that I rarely have my camera in the kitchen. Some of my San Diego Wine Mafia friends have suggested I buy a Flip video camera and record my cooking (and wine tasting) then post those videos. Maybe 2011 will see that happen.

Do I remember the wine I had with this meal? Nope. I know I had some wine and I think it may have in fact been the Parducci Cabernet Sauvignon, but somehow I doubt that. Too bad, because as I type this I can think of a couple of wines that would pair well. Obviously, something from Tuscany but beyond that, a Chateauneuf du Pape would also be fun to. From Austria, a St. Laurent also would have been a neat wine to try. Next time I'll do a better job of documenting the wine and food interaction. Thank you for reading and commenting!

Beau Carufel

P.S. I Love You, Especially if you're a 2007 Parducci!

P.S. stands for Petite Sirah, the red-headed stepchild of California red varietals. I happen to be a big fan of Petite Sirah, for me the grape can combine the structure of a great Cabernet with the intense fruit of a delicious Zinfandel. Some wineries in this state blend Petite Sirah with Cab or Zin while others like Parducci and Stag's Leap produce single varietal bottlings. I was sent the 2007 Parducci Petite Sirah to sample, along with their 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon which I reviewed here. If you're interested in learning more about Petite Sirah, click here to visit the P.S. I love you advocacy group.

I wanted to open this bottle tonight and had to plan a meal around it, but I took some time to taste and think about the Parducci before I began to cook. Right away I love the color, like purple velvet drapes pouring into my glass. There was a weighty feeling, the wine seemed to command my attention and let me know in no uncertain terms that it had some presence in my glass.

After talking about an hour to do laundry, assemble dinner's ingredients, email, and tweet, I was ready to taste the Petite Sirah. Juicy blueberries, cocoa powder, violets and earth all played with my olfactory sense. Nothing was too intense, but each note lingered long enough to make itself known. I sensed that if I was more knowledgeable, I'd have allowed even more time to open, Parducci's Petite Sirah could even use a decant!

That first taste reminded me why I love Petite Sirah, power and finesse. Graceful even, because none of the tobacco, cedar or berry notes weighed down my palate. They didn't stay too long, exiting after what felt like the right amount of time. Quantifying the "right" amount of time isn't something I can do, rather it's a sensation I get after having tasted a lot of wine over the years. My friends, the tannins, built the wine, keeping it in shape so to speak. The finish was clean and simple, which worked perfectly.

Some of the nitty-gritty details about this tasty wine include the fact that it spent 22 months in oak with 40% of that being in neutral American oak barrels and 60% in redwood tanks. Parducci bottled this Petite Sirah a little over a year ago. At 13.5% alcohol by volume, my loyal readers will note that this pleases me to no end.

At the suggested retail price of $10.99, Parducci nailed the QPR. A quick internet search found some merchants selling the Petite Sirah for as low as $7.99. That's a roundhouse kick to the QPR, sending it into rarefied air and making the B rating and strong BUY recommendation that much easier to bestow. Go buy this wine.


Food Time:

Tonight's pairing was steak sandwiches and let me tell you, by some miracle I didn't screw up dinner and the pairing worked perfectly. Quick and dirty recipe: in a cast iron pan on medium heat, add a tablespoon of olive oil and the following: diced sun dried tomatoes, diced bell peppers and diced onions. Add salt and pepper as well as a pinch of cayenne pepper and cook for about eight minutes or until the pepper skins are browned. remove to a bowl.

Next, slice steak into thin slices, pour two tablespoons of soy sauce and a teaspoon of barbecue sauce over the steak, then about a half teaspoon of crushed garlic and some salt and pepper. Stir all of this together then throw it into the cast iron pan. Watch out because it'll cook quickly.

When the meat is browned, throw it into the bowl with the veggies and cover all of that back up. Preheat your oven to 400F and get those dinner rolls out, the long torpedo shaped ones. Slice them open and stuff in the mix of meat and veggies, then stuff some shredded cheese in there too, I used smoked jalapeno jack.

Wrap the sandwich in aluminum foil and cook it for ten minutes. By this time you will be starving so have some more wine. After the cheese has begun to melt, partially unwrap the sandwich so the open face is exposed to the air and put it in for another five or six minutes, to gently toast some of the bread.

Remove from the oven and drizzle a little more barbecue sauce on the sandwich. then cut in half and eat. Enjoy the way the tannins from the wine and the protein from the meat complement each other and how the ripe fruit of the Petite Sirah plays well with the richness of the seasoned steak.

Enjoy.

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


Beau Carufel

Parducci's 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

Parducci is well known as both a pioneer and a leader among organic and sustainably farmed wines. They've led the way in becoming carbon neutral and have introduced numerous green methods into the winery setting. In short, an impressive commitment to sustainable agriculture. As admirable as that is though, the fundamental question I hear is this: is organic/sustainably farmed/biodynamic wine better than wine made by more traditional (sic) methods? I don't have an answer to that, ask me again after I've tasted and compared more wines. Just give me a few more years of tasting first!

What I do know is that the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon is good wine for the money. This was a press sample, but I couldn't find the 2007 on the Parducci website, just the 2006. Not that it's a big deal but I don't know if this was a pre-release or just a website error.

Pouring into the glass with a beautiful garnet color that gets deeper towards the center, the 2007 is 89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc, 3% Syrah, 3% Malbec and 1% Viognier. Nice aromas of earth, cured meats, smoke and a hint of spice. I feel this is more terroir oriented than the Cabernet I'm used to, which often times focuses on ripe fruit. Mendocino County, with it's cooler climate, usually doesn't reach the ripeness levels of some place like Napa or Sonoma and the resulting wines can express that.

After sitting open for an hour, I took a few sips and jotted my impressions down: "earthy, sticky tannins, a bit rustic, where's the fruit?". Another sip brought: "more of that forest floor/wood note, but almost like a forest fire, very interesting!"

I couldn't find a lot of fruit, mainly a faint black cherry note that was interwoven with a savory, almost soy/teriyaki flavor.

Note: I tasted this wine the next day and found all elements diminished, the forest fire note was more pronounced and the wine simply wasn't as good as the day before. The final rating does not reflect that second day's taste though.

Parducci made a solid Cabernet Sauvignon that showcases some things you won't normally find in an example from California. For a suggested retail price of $10.99, the wine delivers a good experience, if somewhat unremarkable. Above average wine, but just barely so. The fact that it's atypical of a lot of Cabernet puts it at a B- (83 points). Pairing is a bit tricky but the tried and true combo of red meat and Cabernet Sauvignon would be your best bet.


This wine was received as a press sample with the intent to review


Beau Carufel

Live Tasting With Paul Dolan Wines, Biodynamic in the House!

Last Wednesday I took part in a live tasting with Paul Dolan of Paul Dolan Vineyards, my first semi-formal exposure to biodynamic wines. Paul Dolan Vineyards and Parducci Wine Cellars fall under the umbrella of the Mendocino Wine Company. Set up in 2004, the company has focused on organic and biodynamic farming and winemaking.


I was sent some samples of the Paul Dolan wines in cute little 50ml bottles, from a company called TastingRoom. The premise is that a full bottle is dispensed into the smaller bottles, in a controlled environment, to ensure there's no spoilage or taste changes. One of the benefits I can see is that for the cost of shipping (by weight) one or two 750ml bottles, you can send out more samples of more wine, allowing a more comprehensive tasting of a winery or winemaker's work.


The downside is that for me and others (yes you, @1WineDude), 50ml just isn't enough to properly taste a wine. Call us lushes or drunks but I and other wine bloggers like taking a large sip, swirling it around, spitting, then taking another one to confirm our impressions. Still, the concept rocks, I'm excited to sample more wines using this method.

Thanks to the awesomeness of the interwebs, anyone who signed up was able to see and interact with Mr. Dolan via Ustream, a site that allows users to interact with live video feeds while simultaneously porting their comments their Twitter or Facebook accounts.

Check out his Biodynamic 'stache! Pretty rockin', I must admit. Mr. Dolan exuded a calm, passionate confidence about his beliefs. Biodynamics is controversial and at least within the wine blogging community, is part of a contentious debate.

Personally, Biodynmaics speaks to the side of me that wants all things to live in harmony, a utopian vision of the earth as one giant, interconnected organism. On the other hand, the analytical side (the side that got me a Finance degree) wants some serious scientific study of the the claims made by Biodynamicists.

(img courtesy Joe Roberts @ http://www.1winedude.com)

So with that aside, the wines, all made with organically grown grapes save for the last one, are as follows:

2008 Mendocino County Sauvignon Blanc: I enjoyed the bright, citrus notes and accessibility of this wine. Wonderful on a hot summer day because of the great acidity but also felt a touch un-integrated, like some flavors were fighting to the surface. A good effort though and hits the price point nicely. B-. $18 SRP

2008 Mendocino County Chardonnay: You know me and most California Chardonnays. Generally they do not like my palate and vice versa. This one was well structured with some great acidity woven throughout the flavors of passion fruit and green apple. Still buttery and with hints of oak for those of you who dig that style. Nice balance, very well put together. I really enjoyed this wine, it's a QPR winner. B+. $18 SRP

2007 Mendocino County Pinot Noir: Hooray for Pinot! I think Paul Dolan did a good job crafting a more traditionally oriented Pinot with lots of sour cherry, spice and using oak as a supporting flavor. Hints of smoke and tobacco on the finish left me a bit curious though, not what I expected. B. SRP $30

2007 Zinfandel Mendocino County: My favorite wine of the night and one of the better Zinfandels I've had this year. I was absolutely impressed with the tannins and acidity that integrated so well with the dark berries and bakers chocolate. What an effort! I'm gonna buy some of this stuff and taste my friends on it, I bet they won't even know it's Zin! It also managed to kick the QPR in it's ass. A-, Strong BUY. $25 SRP.

2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Mendocino County: Not bad..But just didn't quite grab my palate the way I'd hoped. I think though that with some time in bottle, this wine would be delicious. Good tannins, under-developed fruit, some smoke flavors but really interesting fresh-cut oak too. I did like the sense of place, the expression of terroir here, this ain't no Napa Cab, that's for sure. Dare to be different!  B-. $24 SRP.

2006 Deep Red Mendocino County: The evening's most expensive wine, and also the only  Biodynamic wine of the evening. A blend of 57% Syrah, 31% Petite Sirah and 12% Grenache. Big, dark and brooding. I liked this one a lot actually, it had character and complexity which made me sit up and take notice. Perhaps my second favorite wine of the night. Lots of spicy blackberries and black cherries, earth, tobacco, tar all showed up to the party. I'm going to give this wine a BUY rating and a B++/A-. It's the good stuff, $42 SRP

Of the above wines, you should buy the Zinfandel and the Chardonnay, and splurge for a bottle of the Deep Red. I was impressed with the quality of the wines as much as I was impressed with Mr. Dolan's clear, honest speech. I'd love to meet the man and talk more about organic farming and biodynamic farming. While it may be controversial, there's no doubt that this way of farming and winemaking produces wines of at least equal quality to those using more conventional methods.


These wines were sent as samples for review purposes

Beau Carufel