Tasting Chilean Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc With @DrinkChile

I was invited to taste again with the Wines of Chile trade group, with whom I had tasted a variety of Chilean wines last year. The format, using Master Sommelier Fred Dexheimer as the moderator of a tasting session with winemakers and bloggers, was unchanged. At the studio in New York, he had a chef preparing some delicious looking seafood recipes to showcase these white wines. We bloggers were sent these recipes, I chose to simply taste the wines though, in order not to fill my apartment with distracting aromas.

Our theme this time was Coast to Toast, featuring white wines from the coastal areas of Chile.

1. Casa Silva Cool Coast Sauvignon Blanc 2011 Colchagua Valley: At first I said this wine was trying to be a New Zealand sauvignon blanc, with its green grass, gooseberry, and lemon zest bouquet. I still think it is, but also has taken on a Chilean twist. There's a note of briny ocean air to go with the aforementioned bouquet. On the palate, lemon zest and more asparagus. A clean mineral profile adds depth and complexity but isn't enough to overcome the lack of interesting flavors. 13.0% abv. $25

2. Los Vascos Sauvignon Blanc 2011 Casablanca Valley: A wine that for me started out dull and insipid, but grew into something vastly more interesting. While this wine isn't an extraordinary experience, I respect the fact that it is unpretentious and very quaffable. The nose is mildly astringent with notes of grass, grapefruit, and stem. On the palate the Los Vascos is dry, clean, and simple. More of the citrus with hints of asparagus and a nice bit of minerality. The very definition of crowd-pleaser. 13.5% abv. $14

3. Cono Sur Visión Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2011 Casablanca Valley: Way more lime juice than initially detected, some three hours in. Hints of minerality and a strange, not unpleasant lettuce aroma. Barely-there tropical fruits too. On the palate, bursts Meyer lemon, pineapple, and light grassy flavors dominate. The finish is really evaporative though, which disappointed me. 13.0% abv. $15

4. Viña Casablanca Nimbus Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2011: Earlier during the tasting I said this wine started to gently veer towards a Sancerre, and it still does three hours later. That stated, there are more cut-grass aromas now, pushing out some of the stone fruit and limestone I picked up before. This isn't a bad thing though because it gives the bouquet nice complexity. The mouthfeel is great, acidic and cleansing. Nice citrus - lemon zest to me - along with a kick of pear help this wine achieve lofty status as the best QPR of the night. 13.8% abv. $13

5. Veramonte Ritual Sauvignon Blanc 2011 Casablanca Valley: I kind of dogged all these wines when I first opened them. There was a stunning amount of homogeneity, but then I re-tasted and this Veramonte is making me smile. The bouquet is still sauvignon blanc, redolent of limestone overlaid with grass that someone squeezed a ton of limes over. On the palate, there's a smoothness here, a depth from the subtle oak treatment. Anthropomorphically speaking, it's like a girl who's grown up from a saucy teenager to a classy, Ivy League educated 20something. 13.5% abv. $18

6. Santa Rita Medalla Real Chardonnay 2010 Leyda Valley: Aromatically pleasing, think wet rocks and buttered popcorn co-existing with a bowl of sliced pears and apples. On the palate, light and kind of sultry, somewhat unexpected. Pears really show through, that and some grassy notes, even a bit of granitic mineral quality. My only knock on this wine is that it fades away awfully quickly. 14.0% abv. $18

7. De Martino Legado Reserva Chardonnay 2010 Limarí Valley: This wine was very interesting, but not necessarily in a good way. I tasted it right after opening, when it had some acidity and flavors of tropical fruit. About two hours later, when I smelled it, I thought of rotting grass. Decidedly unpleasant, and this sharp, pepper-like note also showed up. On the palate it's relatively simple, peach and golden apple notes, acidity, but more of the strange rotting grass type flavor. Could very well be a bad bottle. 13.5% abv. $16

8. Concha y Toro Marques de Casa Concha Chardonnay 2009 Limarí Valley: I like the bouquet here, green apples mixed with cinnamon-spiced wood. There's a pleasantness this chardonnay has that keeps drawing me in. On the palate it's creamy but also balanced, the acidity shows up as a lemon and apple flavor. There's also noticeable oak here but it isn't in a bad way. In between the oak and citrus, a hint of tropical fruit - think papaya - shines through. A sweet, mineral-laden finish continues the intrigue. This chardonnay begs for king crab legs dipped in garlic butter. 14% abv. $19

What can we take from this tasting? First off, the wines we tasted were all interesting and while none were world class, all but one were very drinkable. Out of the lineup I did enjoy the Veramonte and Vina Casablanca bottles, and two of three chardonnays exhibited some pleasant characteristics too. If you are out and about, looking for an inexpensive bottle of wine that will pair with seafood or appetizers, buy any of these with confidence. The quality levels are high (save for the De Martino) and the wines are easy drinking.

From an educational standpoint, each wine showcased an area of Chile that can clearly produce high quality wines. As the winemakers in Chile gain experience with their diverse micro-climates, the onus will shift to the consumer to educate himself or herself and seek out specific regions. Personally, I enjoy syrah and sauvignon blanc from the Colchauga and Casablanca valleys, respectively. Others might love Maipo cabernet sauvignon or Maule Valley carmenere. It's so important to keep exploring countries like Chile because they're constantly discovering new areas that are conducive to grape growing.

Visit the Wines of Chile website to find out more information about the wines we tasted tonight, including some helpful links for where to purchase each one. Follow @DrinkChile on Twitter to learn more about Chilean wine and tastings in your area.

These wines were media samples for review purposes.

Beau Carufel

Portland Wine Tweetup, March 22nd, With Cave de Lugny

What are you doing on Thursday, March 22nd? If you're a Portland resident, I highly recommend joining us for a night of wine tasting at Taste on 23rd. The wines poured with be from Cave de Lugny, a producer located in Burgundy, France. We'll kick off the festivities at 7:00pm and taste wine, nibble appetizers, and tweet till 9:00 pm. The wine and appetizers will be provided free of charge, all we ask is that you enjoy yourself and tweet about the tasting!

Now, who is the "us"? I was approached by a company called Lush Life Productions to write this post (full disclosure: I'm not being paid to do this) and figured it would be a good way to meet more Portland area wine and food bloggers. As a newbie to the area, I'd love to get more involved in the wine culture here and the chance to drink some Burgundian wines with like-minded bloggers fits the bill perfectly.

What can you do to help? If you're so inclined, some tweets about this blog post would be greatly appreciated, as would any comments or suggestions down below. In other words, getting the info out to the masses! I'd like to get 40 or more people to show up, and your help would be greatly appreciated.

Who is Cave de Lugny? The short story is that Cave de Lugny is a co-op in Burgundy, producing red, white, and sparkling wines. Specifically, the co-op is located in Macon, the AOC of Burgundy which produces the most white wine of the entire region. At present, total production is about six million bottles, spread across red, white, and sparkling wines. Cave de Lugny was in fact Burgundy's first co-operative, founded in 1926. In terms of our discussion, a co-op, is where farmers bring their grapes to the winery where the winemaker takes over and produces the best wine possible. This system is in use in France, Spain, Italy, and many other places around the world, save for the United States.

During the Tweetup, we'll be using the hashtag #CaveDeLugny. All you do is append it to your tweets and then everyone following along will see what you're saying, doing, and most importantly, sipping! I'd also recommend following Pasternak Wine Imports Twitter Account @PasternakWine, they're the U.S. importers of Cave de Lugny. For those new to my blog, my Twitter accounts are @UCBeau and @BeausBarrelRoom, feel free to tweet at me anytime.

So then, that's my pitch to you! Will I be seeing you on the 22nd at Taste on 23rd?

Beau Carufel

#WineChat, Hosted by @Beckyboo503 and @UCBeau, February 29!

That's right, Oregon's premiere wine power couple* will be hosting a #WineChat next week, on February 29th! Since we live in the Pacific Northwest, our focus will be on obscure and under-appreciated wines from these parts. We urge you to do the same and support small producers in the region.

Everyone knows that Oregon makes great pinot noir and Washington's red blends are among the best in the United States. Big deal! What about zinfandel from the Columbia Gorge or dolcetto from Washington? Bet you've never tried those before! Have you ever had a wine made from Marechal Foch? This #Winechat is all about stepping beyond your comfort zone and having fun!

We're awash in an ocean of pinot gris, most of it about as interesting as Coors Light. There's chardonnay and riesling in these parts, but big deal, those are grown all over the country. How about trying siegerrebe from the Puget Sound or gruner veltliner from the Willamette Valley?

The idea here is that trying more wines will make you a better wine taster. Rules don't exist, so feel free to bring whatever you desire to the virtual table. Becky and myself will be sipping some wines from Whidbey Island Winery, ones we ordered just for this awesome event.

2009 Whidbey Island Winery Siegerrebe
2009 Whidbey Island Winery Madeleine Angevine
NV Whidbey Island Winery Island White

So then, you might ask how to participate, and the answer is simple. #WineChat works via Twitter, and we recommend using a free program like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite to follow along. Participants will be using the hashtag "#winechat" during the roughly one hour long virtual tasting. As with every #WineChat, the event is open to any and all who want to have fun and talk about what's in their glass.

We hope to see you there! For more information on what #WineChat is, visit Marie Payton's website The Life of Vines and click the #WineChat page. Cheers!

*the term "wine power couple" is used loosely but is 100% accurate, we are in fact bundles of pure awesomeness. Just sayin'

Beau Carufel

A Quick and Dirty Recap of the 2011 #PinotSmackdown

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