Read Me, Drink Me

Coleccion Privada 2007 Malbec from Navarro Correas

noreply@blogger.com (Victoria) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:02:00 +0000

I had the distinct pleasure of receiving a box of samples from Sao Anash at Muse Management (hey there government, enough disclosure for you?). We received five bottles from Bodega Navarro Correas, a Mendoza winery enjoying the services of winemaker Gaspar Roby. My notes follow, in the format that I'm practicing for my ISG certification...

Appearance: This wine is certainly clear (filtered/fined, I assume), with a dark ruby core. It fades to magenta at the rims, with an overall high intensity of color. This is the kind of color I look for in my lip glosses... and Malbecs.

Nose: First off, a clean wine. Medium to high intensity on the nose: not particularly intrusive, but rather complex. We smell black cherry and pie filling, baking spices, and an earthy quality. Rather than an 'unripe' bell pepper smell, we get a roasted bell pepper smell. Milk chocolate and coffee (a mocha perhaps) is on the finish. Delicious.

Palate: This is a medium intensity palate that is bursting with dark stone fruit: black cherries, pie filling, and any other dark fruit you bake into a pie. This fruit is generous but not fresh; more of a 'stewed' or 'pie' character. Those roasted bell pepper and coffee notes take center stage.

Conclusion: This seemed to be a young wine to us and, yes, it's actually a 2007. It's moderate tannin and acid structure would make it a bottle to age for a couple of years. The finish is rather long, with the primary fruit flavors really shining for a long time. We love this wine and said we'd pay 18$-22$ for it. Lo and behold, it's a 11$ of wine.

What do we think? This is a drink me, for seriously high QPR! Thanks to some seriously icky export laws in Argentina, we don't get the best Malbecs, but this is an excellent example of the grape for an everyday price. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Buy it. Salud!

(thank you www.drvino.com for the lovely map)

Attack of the Sweet Tooth: 2005 Chateau St. Jean Belle Terre Vineyard Late Harvest Riesling

noreply@blogger.com (Victoria) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:44:00 +0000

Whoo! That title is a mouthful. Also, this wine is a mouthful. But for a girl who likes her pinot 'garbagey' and her white wines 'gravelly', what am I doing drinking a dessert wine?

Sometimes, after a meal, I need a drink. But the usual cocktail won't do. That's when I turn to my collection of dessert wines because, let's face it, they can be really fun. This one is no exception.

The first thing I am struck by as I pour this wine is its viscosity, and its color. It looks like you're pouring warm honey... golden, viscous, and somehow hinting at sunny afternoons full of flowers. On the nose there is honey and meyer lemon, giving way to more floral tones. And a sip? Beautiful mouth feel and a taste like what you'd expect if someone made a liquor from honeysuckle.

As we worked our way through the bottle for a few days, Nick and I just couldn't put our finger on it. What does this remind us of? Where have we tasted it? Ah ha! At Crushpad a few weeks back we tasted cool, crisp, unfermented Chardonnay juice. Imagine the best (non-alcoholic) white grape juice you've ever imagined, multiply by 100, and stir in some honey. Voila! You are there!

The Verdict: Oh my goodness, this is a Drink Me. I love Chateau St. Jean and everything they do, and this is no exception. Grab some while you can, as it is obviously not an every vintage sort of thing... but it looks like you can grab the '06 here. Cheers!

Open a Bottle of Wine with a Shoe

noreply@blogger.com (Victoria) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:09:00 +0000

This made its way around Twitter this afternoon. Probably not something I should try with my collection of high heels...

WTW #62: A Grape By Any Other Name

noreply@blogger.com (Victoria) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:06:00 +0000

Another Wine Blogging Wednesday is here, and I am so excited to be able to write about a new favorite bottle (and one of my favorite wine makers): David Noyes' 2008 Sonoma Valley Tocai Friulano.

Tocai Friulano? Isn't that the name banned by the Italian government? It sure is: recently, to decrease the confusion, Italy decided that Tocai Friulano needed to go by another name to avoid confusion with the Hungarian Tokaji, Tokay d'Alsace (Pinot Grigio!) or the syrupy-sweet Tokay. Today in Italia it is simply 'Friulano'; it can also be called 'Sauvignonesse' and is commonly known in Chile and the US as Sauvignon Vert. Historically confused with Sauvignon Blanc (they believe that this confusion is how cuttings made the jump from Bordeaux to Chile), Sauvignon Vert has no close genetic connection to Sauvignon Blanc.

David Noyes? David is a cool dude. I had the honor of pouring for him at a National Hemophilia Foundation fundraiser this summer and he's fun, I agree wholeheartedly with his winemaking style (leave the grapes to do their thing!), and his wines are damn tasty. He has made wine at Ridge, works at Wellington, and has is own label. While he makes a name for himself with Pinot Noir, this Tocai Friulano is pretty special. The deets: the grapes are from a 2 acre plot of the Pagani Vineyard planted in the 1920's(!), no malolactic fermentation, and neutral oak.

For me, this is the perfect wine to enjoy when you think you want a Sauvignon Blanc but actually you want something... dustier. Bright citrus and peach give way to a very minerally, almost gravelly and dusty mouth feel. I feel like you can taste the age of these vines (in a great way) and it transports me to a field in late summer, eating a peach next to a dusty road in the sun. But we're not done yet! Let yourself enjoy the long finish on this wine, as you're in for a grassy, vegetal, almost pleasantly bitter taste at the very end. The vegetal character is enhanced when one drinks this wine a bit warmer than usual.

The verdict: Drink me. Drink lots of this Tocai Friulano- you'll be hard pressed to find another white wine from California with the age, intrigue, and lighthanded winemaking that this bottle has.

Argentina Everywhere!

noreply@blogger.com (Victoria) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:48:00 +0000

**Full disclosure: These wines came to me courtesy of Vine Connections and BinEndsWine. However, I buy the Crios Torrontes all the time at Costco and Whole Foods.**

Argentina seems to be steadily taking hold of my wine life. It started when my boyfriend went to Argentina for a couple of weeks in 2007 and came back incredibly excited about malbec... and this is a guy that used to drink nothing but riesling. Then, the group at Vine Connections had myself, lovely Luscious Lush Thea, and Lisa the Brix Chick for an interesting evening full of Argentinian wines, Japanese sakes, and geeking out (check out their synopsis of the evening here and here). As if that wasn't enough, Argentina then proceeded to take over Taste Live (and Twitter, for that matter) for the entire month of September. Crazy! Here are a few of the tasting notes and comments from my recent Argentinian inundation:

Reginato 'Celestina'- a gorgeous sparkling rose of malbec. I love anything out of the ordinary and sparkly, so this was a treat. It conveyed a lot of the big body I had come to associate with malbec, with a long finish full of cherry, strawberry, and floral notes.
Crios- It seems like these guys can do no wrong. First the Torrontes, a minerally, stone-fruit-filled bargain that I find myself buying over and over again to bring to parties. And then my Taste Live box shows up with a bottle of the Syrah/Bonarda. This stuff is a hedonistic indulgence: all fruit, mineral, and raw meat. Both of these bottles retail under $20, which blows my mind. Doesn't surprise me that Crios was Wine & Spirit's Value Brand of the Year in both 2004 and 2007.
BenMarco- this malbec is my kind of wine. Chewy, dark, almost fleshy with coffee notes and great acidity. Again, ridiculous value and way more fun than my usual Cab Sauv.

So, what are my thoughts on Argentinian wine? First of all, what a crazy value. I'm paying way too much for my Californian wine. Second of all, Ed Lehrman of Vine Connections has my dream job. Third, I'm working on booking a snowboarding-and-winery-visiting trip to Argentina.

The verdict? Drink me. I didn't write about the wines I didn't like. But there are amazing values to be had, which I think everyone should try to snap up before they figure out they could be charging a lot more for this yummy, yummy juice.

Disappointing 'special' bottles

noreply@blogger.com (Victoria) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 23:45:00 +0000

My personal cellar is merely a closet. Granted, just the fact that the closet is filled with wine instead of shoes is nothing short of a miracle. This is not a grand closet. Not a walk-in, not temperature controlled, not anything special; just a closet with a little bit of California Closets for good measure. There's not a ton of room for wine in this closet, so I have to be careful with what I buy, and carefully maintain a proper ratio between the "drink me now" pile and the "I'm too expensive to drink now" pile.

Normally we're very good about sticking to the "drink me now" but, as overachievers with insane day jobs, Nick and I will occasionally venture into the "expensive" pile. Last week,this happened twice. Both bottles were highly anticipated ones, and both bottles disappointed us to a huge degree.

I'm not going to name the bottles, but I'm sure you can at least figure out where they came from. One is made at a Foster's Group winery where the winemaker just won winemaker of the year. The other was a expensive, slightly oddball bottle from an Aussie winery with witty labels. Neither delivered what we expected, and both had us wondering seriously if either bottle merited its $50+ pricetag.

It's the great paradox of wine, right? How to know if it is good? A $10 bottle may taste better than a $30 bottle. The factors are too numerous to list. But I have to ask, what have been some highly anticipated and highly disappointing bottles for you? Let me know and we'll put them on the "Read Me" list.

Taste Live is Taste Late: Robert Oatley Rose of Sangiovese

noreply@blogger.com (Victoria) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 23:31:00 +0000

It's true. I'm a bad wine blogger. Actually, I'm an okay blogger but I'm bad at finding the time to blog. I work for a startup, and sometimes I can't be home by 4pm PST for TasteLive. So, since the lovely Robert Oatley folks sent me samples, and I am a bad TasteLive-er, blog posts it is.

Where to start? Rose` of Sangiovese from Mudgee, Australia. I was excited. And as I looked at the wine in my glass, the usual 'pink lip gloss' color was nowhere to be found. Instead, it was a perfect peachy-pink, like where the pink and yellow merged on my mom's Peace roses when I was growing up (rose` and rose... look at that).

Tasting time. It's a crisp wine, and is quite dry (which I like). But nothing spectacular. I'm trying not to use those awful wine writer buzzwords but... it's a wine made for easy, summertime quaffing. Not much more. Lovely but uncomplicated.

The verdict: Read me. I'm not saying not to drink this one, I'm just saying that everyone makes a perfectly acceptable dry rose` these days and, if you're going to have one, why not go for one with a lower carbon footprint? (Of course, if you're reading this in Oz, disregard that statement!)

Wine Blogging Wednesday #59: Sake in 19th Century Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Victoria) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:17:00 +0000

I've always been rather interested in sake... although wine has definitely taken all of the time as far as my beverage interests are concerned. So, when Rich, The Passionate Foodie, picked it as the WBW I was pretty excited. It started back when I was living in Chicago. Nick and I had a favorite restaurant, Mirai, which had awesome sushi (yes, in the Midwest) and a huge sake list. Our only exposure to sake had been the warm sake you use for sake bombs, so naturally we asked what was 'up' with cold sake. What happened was a two-year exploration of the different bottles that Mirai had, and not an exploration of the different types. We found that in general we liked a light, fruitier sake. Then, when we first moved to San Francisco, we found ourselves drinking a lot of the unfiltered 'nigori' style sake from Japan's Takara. Thankfully, our palates have developed drastically. Just how drastically was something we found out with a visit to Takara's Berkeley, CA tasting room and museum.

Takara decided to open up a stateside operation in Berkeley after realizing that Berkeley's climate was similar to their area in Japan's climate, and it gave them access to two key things: superior water from the Sierra Nevadas, and locally grown rice. The Berkeley site has since become the largest US producer of sake. What I enjoyed most about visiting the Berkeley site is their museum. Takara painstakingly gathered and then shipped to Berkeley a relatively large number of 19th century Japanese sake-making accoutrements: huge cedar barrels, bamboo scoops and cups, and a rice cooker that was nearly the size of my bedroom (check out a diagram of the whole 19th century process here). My favorite was the balls made of cedar leaves: sake makers would gather green cedar leaves into a large ball when the sake began fermenting. Once the green leaves turned brown, fermentation was complete! After a trip through the museum and a partial viewing of their very cheesy video (really, don't watch the movie; just learn from the museum) we set upon a rather lengthy tasting of the breadth of sakes that Takara makes. A rundown of what we liked and didn't like:

Sho Chiku Bai Junmai Classic: this was pretty standard, basic sake. You could probably drink this one hot or cold. Nothing special here.
Sho Chiku Bai Tokubetsu Junmai: here was a more refined, much smoother version of the classic Junmai.
Shirakabe Gura Tokubetsu Junmai: Made in the same process as the previou sake, but in Japan from 'premium' water and 'stringently' selected rice. Again, it was smooth and on the dryer end of the sake spectrum.
Sho Chiku Bai Tokubetsu Junmai Kinpaku: Want to feel like a rapper? This one has gold flakes.
Sho Chiku Bai Organic Nama: The hostess claimed this is the first fully organic sake in America. I enjoyed the earthier, mushroomy bouquet and a decidedly more savory flavor than the previous tastings.
Sho Chiku Bai Antique: This was the crowd favorite, hands down (not surprisingly, also the most expensive at $60/bottle). We were sold just on the 'antique' style bottle with its fun metal clasp and ceramic-topped stopper... but this was a surprisingly unique and complex selection from such a large producer. Earthy notes of moss and mushroom were complemented by sweet notes that went past the usual melon fruit to more floral and herbal ones.

We also tried Takara's two Nigori-style sakes and... yikes! I can't believe I used to drink the stuff. It is sweet in a sticky, candyish, straight-sugar kind of way. Moral of the story? Takara is not going to give you the unique, artisan, funky sakes that the connoisseur wants. What they can give you is perfectly acceptable selections that run the gamut of the different sake styles and, if you feel like laying down a few benjamins, the Antique is pretty interesting stuff!

Preston Guadagni Jug Wine: Fill 'er Up!

noreply@blogger.com (Victoria) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:27:00 +0000

I had the pleasure of visiting the fine folks at Preston Vineyards this past Sunday during my whirlwind tour of Dry Creek Valley for some wine newbies. Preston is a winery after my own heart: it's all organic, sustainable, they are serious foodies, and they have goats!

After the usual tasting in the front room (we had the Grenache Blanc, the Rose', Barbera, L. Preston, and Petite Syrah) we were instructed to take our glasses into the barrel room. I love barrel rooms!

What awaited us in the barrel room was an elderly man, a jug, and a barrel. He says "jug wine?" and we all say "yes please!". And from his jug he pours a blend of mostly Zinfandel with Cinsault, Carignane, and Mourvedre. Yum. A bit of of history on the jug wine, courtesy of Lou Preston:

"My old neighbor Jim Guadagni was a second-generation Italian farmer in Dry Creek Valley. His family moved to the area around 1900 and Jim grew up here during the inter-war and Prohibition periods. Unschooled, untraveled, and functionally illiterate, Jim was nevertheless wise in the ways of people (opinionated), informed in the habits of his neighbors (nosy), and savvy in the wonders of grape growing and winemaking (if you didn't do it his way, you weren't doing it right). His unofficial reputation as "Mayor of Dry Creek" wasn't for nothing."

Hence, it is in the spirit of Jim Guadagni that Preston has made this wine. After a quick taste and a quick education on the history of Guadagni, we said we'd take a jug. The gentleman grabbed a jug, filled it straight from the barrel, hand-stamped a label, and put the label on the jug. $32 later (refills for $31) and we were out the door.

I'm sipping on this right now after a dinner of a stew that contained the Guadagni, pork shoulder, cranberry beans, chipotle peppers, and the odds and ends of my vegetable drawer. It added an earthy backbone to the stew, and as I sipped on it, the wine managed to stand up to the chipotles. This is not philosophical wine, but the kind of wine you can drink every night for an entire year and not tire: fruit forward, with a nose of stone fruits and nutmeg, and just enough earthiness to keep it interesting. I'm hooked.

The verdict: Throwing a party? A definite 'drink me'. The folks at Preston are a hoot, and this wine is perfect for a gathering of food and friends (as a side note, we were there with friends who were married by the brother of Jim Guadagni, and they are planning to serve the jug wine at their reception).

Thirsty Thursday: Meridian Club Cuvee 2005

noreply@blogger.com (Victoria) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 03:54:00 +0000

The evening started with me thinking I'd be drinking one of my budget bottles from BevMo but, as I've noticed with some of my other BevMo purchases, the wine had been spoiled. Not to worry, as I've got a couple bottles of Meridian Vineyards' Limited Release 2005 Club Cuvee I've been itching to break out.

The last time I had this wine, it was probably the 10th or so tasting of the day, enjoyed with a cheese plate with friends at Cellar360. My palate was probably getting pretty fried by then, but I could tell this was going to be a great, sexy food wine for this foodie girl.

The stats: This is a blend: 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Malbec, and 14% Merlot. Paso Robles. You can still buy the bottle for $30 from Meridian here, and of course from my friends at Cellar360.

I started sipping on this one while Nick made dinner. There are definitely some hard tannins in here (it's a young one) but I was excited by the smoky, syrupy, dark-fruity aromas. This was only intensified by a dinner of flatbread with mushrooms and black truffles; the Cuvee became even more earthy and nutty. Maybe it was just wishful thinking but I was definitely sensing (dare I say it?) some bacon tones.

I write this as I enjoy the second half of the bottle, munching on pomegranate and blackberries. Aside from its earthy character, this wine exhibits some bright fruit and acids when paired with the right things. All in all this is a fun, sexy, easy wine that will let you think about it if you want to.

Verdict: This is definitely a wine to enhance food, and a wide range of foods at that. Mushrooms, nuts, fruits... it all works. Complex fruits and acid make this a fun one to drink on its own, but there are enough tannins that it can sit in the cellar for a while. A definite drink me.

Wine Blogging Wednesday: North vs. South

noreply@blogger.com (Victoria) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:01:00 +0000

I thought that taking part in Wine Blogging Wednesday would be a great way to christen this new blog of mine and get into the feel of writing about wine. What better topic than North vs. South? I had a bunch of ideas on what to do but, instead of planning ahead and being well prepared, I found myself five wines into a tasting at Cellar 360 on Saturday with no idea as to what to write about. Enter Matt Kerr, their wine club manager, and my own personal tasting guru. His suggestion: a NorCal cabernet sauvignon versus the same from Australia. Fruit bomb vs. subtlety. A true study in opposites when it comes to the same grape. So, I made my purchases and happily stumbled home, excited for the matchup.

Fighting in the north corner, weighing in at (my club discounted rate of) $20 and hailing from 2005, we have an Alexander Valley cabernet sauvignon from Souverain. Fighting in the south corner, also weighing in at $20 and priced at $20, we have the Wolf Blass Gray Label cab from the Coonwarra region. The test: my yearly corned beef and cabbage feast.

Nick set up a blind tasting for me but, to be honest, it wasn't needed. I had somewhat of a feeling of what to expect. First up, the Souverain. The color was a vivid ruby with a tinge of fuschia... what I would call the perfect shade of lip gloss. On the nose were the characteristics of the (in)famous California cab: a big hit of dark fruits, namely cherry and blackberry. The taste was the usual kick-you-in-the-ass-with-fruit, with cherries, cassis, and oak all perhaps a little too apparent. The finish was perhaps the most pleasant part of the entire experience, with lingering notes of plum and dark chocolate.

The color of the Wolf Blass was much darker, with more of a brownish tinge to it. On the nose, it was a much lighter and brighter experience. I picked up notes of raspberries, fig, and hay; I love wines that have a sort of 'barnyard funk' to them, so I could tell that this cab was definitely more of my speed. The first sip was such a relief from the California cab, with a lighter and smoother mouthfeel bursting with strawberries, white pepper,cinnamon, fig, and mint. The finish was more of that light mint, with just a hint of cedar reminiscent of the 20 months it spent in French and American oak.

The verdict: as biased as I was, the Souverain opened up very nicely and was preferred by all drinkers beside myself. It also held its own quite well with the corned beef, letting its sweet jammyness play off the salty, savory meat. However, after the meal, I continued sipping on the Wolf Blass. It just seemed like a more subtle and easier to handle wine, with the fruit, tannins, alcohol, and oak all working in much more cohesive harmony.

I'll have to give it to the south, the Aussie Wolf Blass cab. But this matchup almost didn't seem fair, for while they are both the same grape these were wildly different wines. If you love big California fruit bombs, you can't go wrong with the Souverain... but I'll be sipping my Wolf Blass in the corner!

Buena Vista Carneros 2005 Chardonnay

noreply@blogger.com (Victoria) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 04:58:00 +0000

Personally I don't like the classic buttery chardonnay. Even in the so-called 'good' examples of chardonnay, I feel like the oak is overdone and sort of manhandles the palate.I gravitate toward virgin chardonnay aged in steel, so that the beautiful pear and citrus notes shine through.

The Buena Vista Carneros 2005 has a flowery nose with a hint of meyer lemon. There is a little too much oak, but you can still pick up the pear and citrus notes. The finish is more mellow, with vanilla and pear.

The next time you're in Sonoma, do make a point to stop at Buena Vista. It's a beautiful winery and they do have some great offerings.

To Buy:

The best price is at Stirling Fine Wines: on sale for $12.99

The verdict: Depends. Like classic chardonnay? Drink me.