Producer: Wegeler

Grapes: 100% Riesling

Appellation: Rheingau (Germany)

Vineyards: Loess/loam and clay soils

Vintage: 2006, so it’s got a bit of bottle age on it.

Winemaking: no info

Alcohol: 11.0%

Price: I paid $11.99 via Garagiste, but this normally retails for around $20.

Tasting notes: Pale, brassy color. Pretty citrus and stone fruit aromas lead the way, accented with talc and gravel notes. There’s a little pineapple juice, too, and I keep thinking it’s reminding me of Juicy Fruit gum. Round fruit flavors with a touch of sweetness (medium-dry) on the palate, but with bright acidity that makes this very fresh, and dare I say, PURE. A little crushed rock shows as well for added interest. This wine was drinking well for several days after opening.

Overall impression: This is the Germans doing what they do. And I appreciate it. I bet you would to. B

Free association:

More info:

Imported by Rudi Wiest Selections.

10,000 cases produced.

Santola Vinho Verde

Free association:

Image credit: Stéfan via Flickr

Producer: Cline Cellars

Grapes: 44% Mourvèdre, 35% Grenache, 21% Syrah

Appellation: California (AVA)

Vineyards: From the winery’s tech sheet…

“Contra Costa County provides the lion’s share of the grapes for this blend. Careful attention to the Massoni Grenache vineyard in Oakley involves cluster thinning and leaf pulling, which increases fruit concentration. Big Break Grenache is harvested from older lower yielding dry-farmed vines. The Oakley Syrah experiences warm days and cool nights. And the Mourvedre, planted in sand soil, is dry-farmed.”

Vintage: 2008

Winemaking: 9 months in dark toast French oak (25% new)

Alcohol: 15.0%

Price: Around $15

Tasting notes: I get raspberry cream and a bit of black pepper on the nose. The palate is blackberry pie filling, but with the polished mouthfeel I’ve come to expect from Cashmere (though not as luxuriously silky as the 2007). A brief bit of grip at the end that quickly morphs into a sweet, oaky finish. I don’t get the minty note I usually get in wines with fruit from Cline’s Big Break vineyard, which has eucalyptus trees adjacent to the vineyard.

Overall impression: Because of the increased presence of Mourvèdre in the blend, I wanted to like this even more than past vintages, but I have to say I liked the 2007 a bit more. But, the 2008 is another crowd-pleasing Cashmere from Cline. (Old-Worlders may want to pass) B

Free association:

(it's a Blackberry... get it?)

Image credit: 1sock via Flickr

More info:

Grape Stories/CellarTracker reviews (avg: 87 pts)

Cline donates a portion of the proceeds from every bottle of Cashmere sold to the Breast Cancer Network of Strength.

Note to wineries: putting the vineyard name(s) on the bottle always makes me more interested in your wine, whether I’ve ever heard of the vineyard(s) or not.

Producer: Hess

Grapes: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon

Appellation: Napa Valley AVA

Vineyard: Allomi Vineyard, a 210-acre estate vineyard at the eastern base of Howell Mountain (though outside of the Howell Mountain AVA)

Vintage: 2006

Winemaking: 18 months in American oak (30% new barrels)

Alcohol: 14.2%

Price: I bought it at about $20 at the supermarket, discounted from around $25-30.

Tasting notes: Currants and spice dominate on the nose, with hints of woodshop and creme brulee. On the palate, it s smooth-textured and weighty with rich, plummy fruit. A slightly minty-cool tingle at the back. A nice bit of tannic structure shows at the end, though this is certainly not a tannic monster Cab.

Overall impression: While it may not blow your mind, I doubt this one will disappoint you if you’re looking for a quality bottle of tasty California Cabernet. B

Free association:

More info:

If you like 90-pt validation, Connoisseurs’ Guide gave it 90 points.

Producer: Bonny Doon Vineyards

Grapes: 100% Mourvèdre

Appellation: Says Central Coast on the bottle, but the info in the winery newsletter suggests it’s from Contra Costa County (perhaps not within that official AVA?). CCC has some of the oldest Mourvèdre vines in California.

Vineyards: Rose Vineyard – very old vines in sandy CCC soil

Vintage: 2004

Winemaking: couldn’t find any details here other than that they use “a light touch in the cellar”

Alcohol: 13.5%

Price: $18

Tasting notes: After some initial funk blows off, the nose is all crushed rock and raspberries with a smoked meat note. On the palate it has good acid and bright flavors with more red berry and cherry fruit, but with a dark streak (hinting toward blackberry and plum). It’s like a gourmet Jolly Rancher, if there were such a thing (and there should be — get on that, Thomas Keller).

Overall impression: I’m digging the minerality on the nose and the overall purity of the wine. Really good stuff. B+

Free Association: Isn’t that a badass label? I want that on a t-shirt. It reminds me of this Lizard Man drawing from the old D&D Monster Manual.

More info:

CellarTracker reviews (avg: 87 pts)

If you’re not familiar with vinho verde, you’ve got to rectify that. It’s a very light, low alcohol (<10%), slightly effervescent white white from Portugal. (Actually, it is an DOC appellation in Portugal and there are red and pink versions, but the vast majority of vinho verde that is exported is white.) It’s called vinho “verde” not because it’s actually green (like crappy American beer on March 17), but because it’s meant to be consumed young. The grapes typically used are Loureiro, Trajadura, Batoca, Arinto/Pedernã, Avesso and Azal. You can also find versions made from Alvarinho, but those are a bit of a different beast – higher alcohol levels and a few dollars more.

What vinho verde is mostly is refreshing. And goddammit I live in Texas and it’s hot. And sometimes I just want a wine that is thirst quenching and fun to drink.

But back to the headline. When I drink vinho verde, I forget about assessing it. I don’t care about flavor descriptor or scores. I just drink it. I usually keep the bottle on the table because I know I’m going to want a quick refill – and at <10% abv you can actually drink several glasses.

And if you pay more than $10 or $11, you did it wrong. You can find plenty of satisfying examples for $7 or $8, or even less.

This is what wine should be about.

—

This post was inspired by a recent dinner after I stood over the grill on a 95-degree evening on the second day of Summer. The bottle I opened was the Opala Vinho Verde (NV). In the spirit of this post, I won’t do a full VINEgeek review with grape percentages, vineyard details, etc. Instead, I’ll just hit you with a Free Association:

It’s a lifesaver when you need thirst-quenchin’
like a kiss with a lymon twist, now you know that’s kickin’

and to push deeper into the realm of geekery…

Lorca Monastrell 2008

Producer: Bodegas del Rosario

Grapes: 100% Monastrell (same grape as Mourvèdre, for newcomers). The 2006 had 30% Syrah.

Appellation: Bullas (D.O. Spain)

Vineyards: From youngish (10-20 years), dry-farmed vines at altitudes ranging from 550 to 1060 meters. The soil is clay, sand and limestone.

Winemaking: Stainless steel fermentation and 8 months in 2-year-old French and American oak

Alcohol: 13.5%

Price: $9 or $10 at Costco

My tasting notes: Sticking my nose in the glass, I get the sense of walking the aisles at a hardware store. I start in Aisle 1 with the paint thinner and other solvents. Aisle 2 is the loose nails and bolts. Aisle 3 for some lumber. Oh look, they’ve got cherry Tic Tacs at the checkout. On the palate it’s light with the same sort of dusty red fruit as the 2006 bottling, still without much pop. It disappears very quickly at the end. A very flat experience.

Overall impression: Once again, the Lorca is not fun to drink. Please don’t make this your first Monastrell if you’ve never had one. Try this one or this one or this one instead. C-

Free association:

Photo credit: D’Arcy Norman via Flickr

Foodista has selected this humble blog as it’s Featured Wine Blog of the Day today. That’s pretty cool.

If you’re arriving here for the first time from Foodista, welcome. They’re linking to my Mourvèdre Monday #18: Lorca 2006 review, but I hope you’ll check out some other stuff, like Oddball Wine of the Week and the Free Association Mosaic.

Regular readers, if you aren’t familiar with Foodista, check them out. It’s a sort of a wikipedia for food and cooking, but much prettier.

Thanks, Foodista!

Memoirs can be hit-or-miss, though. And if you don’t connect with the author’s “voice” it can be tough sledding. And I did not find myself connecting with Ms. Borel, her inner torment or issues with her dad.

Basically, Ms. Borel has some issues, her wine-loving overbearing dad has some issues and she joins him on this “wine trip to end all wine trips” hoping it will help them connect. Now, I knew this was a memoir, not a wine book, but the wine felt REALLY secondary to the angst here. I hung in there, hoping to get to some good wine-geekery or even some good armchair travel, but those moments were too few and far between for me. In a way, it reminded me of Julie & Julia, the memoir by Julie Powell about an unhappy woman who decides to cook her way through Julia Child’s The Art of French Cooking. That book, too, was a bit to angst-y for me. But if you like that book, you very well could like this one.

I’m going to see if I can talk my wife into reading and reviewing this book here on the blog. As a fan of the memoir (travel and otherwise), she may have a different take.

I have an extra copy of the book, so let’s do a little giveaway. Leave a comment about a memory you have of (1) your parents and wine or (2) a wine-related road trip. I’ll put all commenters names in a hat and draw a winner and ship you the book.

(If you’ve read the book, I’d love to hear your thoughts as well.)

Here’s another Slovenian wine for the Oddball series. This one blends Welshriesling with Sauvignon Blanc. Welshriesling is not Rielsing with a funny accent. It’s an unrelated (and inferior) grape grown in places like Austria, northern Italy, and a bunch of old Iron Curtain countries: Hungary, Bulgaria, Albania and Czech Republic. According to Oz Clarke’s Grapes and Wines, it produces round, low-acid wine. Let’s see how this one comes together with Sauvignon Blanc.

Marof Beli Križ 2007

Producer: Marof

Grapes: 65% Sauvignon Blanc and 35% Welshriesling

Appellation: Prekmurje (Slovenia)

Vineyards: The name Beli Križ means white cross, which refers to an actual white cross that stands at the point where the three estate vineyards that produce the grapes for this wine come together. The vineyards are: Bodonci, Grad and Mačkovci. Soils, depending on the vineyard, are volcanic or sandy loam.

Vintage: 2007

Winemaking: Stainless steel fermentation. No oak aging.

Alcohol: 12.5%

Price: $11.83 via Garagiste

My tasting notes: The wine is very pale in color. The nose is all stone & stone fruit aromas, with a light lemony perfume. There is also a slight nuttiness. More stone and stone fruit on the palate with a lemon-lime background note and the vaguest whiff of fresh green beans. It finishes very dry with decent length. Despite the lemony citrus notes, the flavors are soft, not aggressive. To my palate on this evening, it is a bit too soft – I could use a little more brightness and acid.

Overall impression: A very drinkable and pleasant wine. Based on the blend, and what I’ve read of Welshriesling, I can’t help but think that I would enjoy the wine more with a higher percentage of Sauvignon Blanc. But it would be interesting to share with someone who finds most Sauvignon Blanc too aggressive and see what they think. Bonus points for getting to use a new diacritical mark on the blog. B-

Free association: Slovenia is in the same group as the USA in the 2010 World Cup. Their match is tomorrow. Let’s hope their defense is as soft as this wine.

More info:

Other reviews at: CellarTracker (mean: 87.7), Cork’d and The Ancient Geek.