this heaven gives me migraine

2000 CL Pinot Noir, Armagh Vineyard

Region: Sonoma Coast, California, US

Composition: 100% Pinot Noir

Background: I couldn't find much of anything out about this wine, but I liked it so I want to note it for future reference. It was offered to us as a substitute at dinner the other night (the restaurant was out of the wine we ordered, and the owner recommended this as a substitute, and we figured we would take a chance). As far as I have been able to figure out, "CL" stands for Craven and Lattin: Kendra Craven and David Lattin, a husband and wife team. Lattin has made wine for Acacia in the past and is presently winemaker for Kuleto Estate Family Vineyards (owner Pat Kuleto is the man who brought San Francisco restaurants like Boulevard, Farallon, Jardiniere, and Postrio).

The bottle claims CL has a website at www.clwines.com, but there is no real content there (it looks like the domain is owned by some company in New Orleans, and my attempts to stalk CL via Google failed for the most part). It also says that 191 cases were produced, and I will just trust the bottle on that. It's another one of those hard-to-find wines (sorry about that for anyone who is trying to play along at home, I promise I will drink something not obscure soon)... I know I haven't seen it around.

Notes: This is a fairly intense Pinot Noir... a deep red/purple (it was hard to tell in the restaurant, but dark for Pinot) and has a nose full of brambly dark fruit, along with some barnyard and smoke. It has a lot of black fruit in the mouth, fruit like black cherry, and I am guessing the wine has seen a fair amount of oak from the leathery spiciness that is also present. The finish is almost chocolately, with mocha and a little more leather. As the bottle got some air, the smokiness became more apparent, which I enjoyed. It certainly has a lot going on, something else I appreciate.

Cost: I am not sure, but I think around $27

Overall: A-

2002 Roc d'Anglade Rouge

Region: Nimes, Languedoc, France

Composition: 25% Grenache, 25% Carignane, 50% Syrah

Background: Remy Pedreno used to be in the computer industry, but left in the 1990s to go into the wine business, setting up shop a little west of Nimes (based on what I am drinking lately I am starting to think everyone is making wine a little west of Nimes). For Roc d'Anglade he teamed up with Rene Rostaing, a well-regarded winemaker of the Cote Rotie... Pedreno supplied his grapes and money, and Rostaing provided the know-how and his winemaking ability. They made the first vintage in 1999, using grapes from a tiny vineyard not quite 12 acres big. The wine is aged for about 18 months in oak (one third of it new, one third one year old, one third two years old).

This is the kind of wine, that if it were from the Rhone, would be twice the price (at least). It's pretty solid, and the only thing that will cause you any pain will be getting your hands on a bottle, since it is such small production and not easy to find. If you can find a bottle, though, it is a great example of some of the exciting stuff going on in the Languedoc these days.

Notes: A beautiful, deep cherry red in the glass, this has a goregous nose on it full of strawberries (it has what I think of as "hot funk" to it, that scent of ripe fruit on the vine on a hot summer day) and roses, and has a little spice. It's fairly lush on the palate but also very restrained and elegant, and has enough acid to carry the fruit. The tannins are soft and full and add interest, and the finish has some nice spice in it but it is not overwhelming in any way. Overall it is a very rich wine, but not overdone. Beautifully balanced. And living proof that I don't hate everything with Carignane in it!

Cost: $35

Overall: A

2003 Porter Creek Carignane, Angeli Vineyard

Region: Alexander Valley, California, US

Composition: 100% Carignane

Background: I got this mostly because I don't like Carignane. Which is weird, but I have a habit of buying wines made from grapes or in ways I don't like until I find one I do like. Or just to try to determine what it is about said grape/method I don't like. I can't say I hate all Carignane, but I often find that wines with Carignane in them have something I mentally refer to as a "stop sign" finish... they are slightly acrid at the finish and stop short and abruptly. There is a burnt rubber rigidity I don't like. Again, not all the time, but it is often there. In any case, I am trying to like Carignane more. Or make peace with it. Something made me decide buying a bottle of Carignane, no other grapes to mess with it, was a good idea.

I had been eyeing this one for a while and finally picked it up (I am thinking I should have also gotten the Wild Hog Carignane and compared the two, since I have had the Wild Hog before. Oh, hindsight). It's made by Alex Davis, who took over winemaking at Porter Creek in 1997 (his father George bought land and started the winery in the late 1970's and was winemaker until 1997). Alex worked at the winery on and off as a kid, then went and got his BS in enology, working in Burgundy for a while (under Marcel Gugial, Bernard Michelot and Christophe Roumier) before coming back to Porter Creek.

The winery is certified organic and working towards biodynamic certification, and they focus on making wines from grapes found in Burgundy and Rhone (to date it looks like they make Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Viognier, and Syrah as well as this Carignane). They are small and only make about 2,000 cases of wine a year. I haven't been to the winery but might check it out when I am up in the area next month (I ended up finding this okay, and anyone who can make Carignane okay for me is worth checking out).

Notes: This is a pretty, deep, cherry red in the glass with pink edges. It has a slightly hard to discern nose- nothing jumps out at me- but there is red fruit (cherry, raspberry), violet, and some dust and spice in there (a woody spice smell, like dried leaves). On the palate it has a good amount of cherry fruit and you can also taste some oak (more of that dried-leaf woodiness). The tannins are very very soft, chalky at most. It has some nice bright acid in the mid-palate and the finish is not unpleasant-- slightly spicy, even though I get a hint of that rubbery harshness. Only a hint, though, and it isn't unpleasant or overpowering. The wine is a lot like a Pinot Noir in style (light, with soft tannins), but has different flavors. We drank it with some pizza I made with roasted tomatoes, garlic, and rapini, and it was nice (it fared slightly less better with the asparagus, cherry tomato, and feta pizza, but that's asparagus for you).

Overall, it did not blow me away, but I have yet to meet a Carignane that does. It might be that the grape can only do so much.... there is a reason it is not a noble grape, I guess. But the fact that I didn't make a face at it and open something else is something to consider.

Cost: $15

Overall: B

1998 Davis Bynum Cabernet Sauvignon, Hedin Vineyard

Region: Russian River Valley, California, US

Composition: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon

Background: I have a special fondness in my heart for Davis Bynum, since the first case of wine I ever bought was a Davis Bynum Fume Blanc. Cabernet Sauvignon is different, and I don't have a special place in my heart for it. I don't end up drinking a lot of it since it's not really something I seek out. It's not that I don't like it, I just haven't gotten into it, like The Flaming Lips or The Magic Mountain (I am making my attempts with The Flaming Lips, but may have given up on the latter). I sometimes have good ones and think I should reconsider, but never do. If given a choice between Cabernet and Syrah, I will pick Syrah many times before I go for a Cabernet. And even then I will usually be more interested in Bordeaux.

I don't think a 1998 California Cabernet will change my mind. '98 wasn't a great year, especially after 1997. The growing season was cool and wet, and the grapes didn't ripen quickly. The cool weather continued into fall, when the grapes were supposed to be harvested, and it left the wineries with a decision... hope for some warmer weather (which didn't happen), or thin the grapes to allow the remaining grapes to ripen. Many grapes were harvested a month or so later than usual, and the resulting wines varied greatly in quality and many were not very intense or full.

The Hedin Vineyard (as far as I can tell) has not been used for Cabernet by Bynum after 1999. At least, I can find no records of a Hedin Cab from post 1999 (it looks like they are now using the grapes from Hedin in their second-label River Bend wines). The vineyard, owned by Dr. Roger Hedin, is on Westside road close to the winery, and this wine was made under Gary Farrell's supervision (he was a consultant in this case, even though his first winemaking job had been at Davis Bynum). Each vintage (this one 900 cases) was aged in French oak for a year and a half. You can tell this when you taste it.

I remember I bought this back in 2001 on a trip up to Arcata (I got in to town the day after The Great Fire of 2001, and was in town to meet Kevin Hoover, writer of the best police log ever). I wasn't sure I liked it then, but was intruigued by the band-aid I got in the nose (brett). Funnily, I got a whiff of it when I opened the bottle, but it was mostly gone, now, almost four years later. Or my nose has changed. In any case, it was a lovely tasting and lunch I had at the winery, and there were a lot of Bynum family members running around working (there are four or five Bynums, at least, involved with running the winery and making wine).

Notes: Ruby red, and it hardly shows its age aside from the fact that the red is slightly red-based and almost orange-based, rather than bluer. Typical blackcurrant and some tobacco leaves are strong in the nose, along with some cedar, and it has black fruit and olives in the mouth with a bitter chocolate finish. It's got a minty/bell pepper thing going on, too. The tannins weren't too bad, which was a nice thing, although I think this could age longer and it might be a little smoother and more integrated... there were a lot of flavors roaming around in the glass, but they felt a little disjointed and smorgasboard-y to me.

Cost: About $30, from the winery

Overall: C+

Sorry, Fred

Well, it's over for now (well, until the pending issues get heard in Sacramento, because legal issues are fun like that). The U.S. Supreme Court decided to not step in in the case of Fred Franzia versus most of the Napa wineries. So if Fred wants to keep using the winery names he bought seemingly to confuse consumers, he is going to have to at least get Napa bulk grapes instead of Central Valley bulk grapes. I admit that I am not sad about this.

2003 Mas de Guiot Grenache/Syrah

Region: Costieres de Nimes, Languedoc, France

Composition: 40% Grenache, 60% Syrah

Background: This is another wine from the Costieres de Nimes, also from St. Gilles in Gard. The estate is run by Sylvia and Francois Cornut; Syliva is winemaker and Francois and sons tend to the vines. They seem to be very in touch with the vines they tend to and harvest... they prune a lot to keep yields down and practice individual leaf-pulling to help ripen the grapes when it's needed. They also tend to pick later than their neighbors do, picking grapes based on taste and nothing else. It seems to work pretty well for them, and I idealize their existence (as I sit here in the rain in San Francisco, thinking how it would be to be making wine in France).

It's interesting to think back to the Le Triage and compare/contrast it with this wine, just because they are so different. Winemaking or terroir? Or, weather? Oh, the eternal question.

Notes: A very clear deep purplish ruby in the glass. The nose is violets, minerals, and some leather. It's slightly leathery on the palate, and tannic, but in a soft way.. the tannins are well-blended with the blackberry, licorice, and spice. We had it with some Epoisses de Bourgogne (I know, wrong region, but it is tasty cheese and did well with the wine and we are just crazy like that) and a dinner of sauteed chard, carrots, and beluga lentils with lots of garlic, (over pasta), and it was pretty nice. It was definitely a little softer and fruitier than that Le Triage we recently had (since it is of similar composition and region, even though 2003 was a way better year than 2002), and was a little easier on the palate overall. For ten bucks it is a nice find (and I thought I was totally Rhoned out after the Rhone Rangers on Saturday).

Cost: $10

Overall: B

WBW8: Sicilian red wine

I am about to run off to work a silent wine auction (oh, the excitement) but wanted to mention that the month of April is all about Sicily, as the latest Wine Blogging Wednesday challenge has been announced: review a Siclilan red wine by April 13. This challenge is hosted, appropriately enough, by Ron over at Love Sicily. I have not had a ton of Sicilian red wine, but will be interested to find one (and find one that is in decent shape, which seems to be my own personal WBW challenge, lately. Maybe I should just go have dinner at A16, hmm).

For more info on Sicilian wine, this looks like a good place to start. And I also promise to link to the wrap-up this time, something I just realized I have slacked terribly on (I am guessing you people are all smart and know how to navigate the internet and found them yourselves, but I will make it easier).

I also vow, for the second month in a row, to finally start reading Vino Italiano. I have been in such a reading slump lately, maybe this is the answer.

The vinegar baby

I had a wine tragedy recently. Yes, another bad bottle of wine. I am starting to think maybe I should go back to vodka for a while.

We had some good news and I finally decided to bust out the bottle of 1997 Williams Selyem Olivet Lane Pinot Noir I picked up a year or two ago. It was bad. The cork had leaked (I was heartbroken when I got the foil off and saw the ooze) and it was oxidized/spoiled. It wasn't undrinkable, but it wasn't good, and it was extra sad because there was a tiny hint of what the wine would have been like if it wasn't ruined. And this time I couldn't run back to the store and return it (who knows, maybe I stored it poorly).

Anyway, what to do? I didn't want to pour it out since that seemed too tragic, so I decided it was finally time to try to make vinegar, something I have been thinking about for a while, and something probably every serious and frugal wine drinker has at least considered. I mean, who doesn't cringe a little, tossing out the last bit of that really good bottle because it's been a few days and you never finished it? I know you can't just sit the bottle out on the counter and hope for the best (well, you can, but it probably won't work out) but I wasn't sure what exactly I had to do. So I did some research and read about vinegar mothers (seemingly the liquid kin to sourdough starters) and you know, you can make home vinegar-making very difficult if you want to, looking at some sites out there and what they tell you to do. And come on, now, it just doesn't seem like it needs to be THAT hard. It's vinegar!

Anyway, I found the Vinegar Man. He's funny and no nonsense and provided me a way to get some vinegar started without mail ordering a mother or scouring stores for it (I didn't want the wine to sit around for a long time while I did that).

I should probably get a better container (I might look into a crock or sun tea type container, as I read that they work well) since I have a pitcher and a carafe set up right now and that isn't the best thing. But what I did was easy:

- I picked up a bottle of unpasteurized, raw vinegar at the local Yuppie organic food super chain store (this has the mother of vinegar in it)
- Diluted the wine to about 7 percent (the wine was 15 percent, so that was easy)
- Mixed the two liquids together and stuck them in glass containers (you do not want metal or plastic, and you want a fair amount of air to get to the surface, so choose wisely)
- Put cheesecloth over them so they could get air (this is important) but no bugs could get in (also pretty important) and rubberbanded it down
- Stuck the containers in a cabinet in a fairly room-temperature-but-on-the-warm-side place that is dark (also important)

Now I wait. I think it will be about two months before anything good happens or is done happening. Supposedly the mother will form on top of the vinegar (it's a slimy looking mass) and then fall to the bottom. In about two months I can remove the mother, either toss it or keep it around to give to friends (whee!) and then bottle the vinegar (I can home-pasteurize it or not). I have read that aging the bottled vinegar a few months can mellow it out a little, too. I guess in about 9 months I will have some vinegar, should all go well. It's kind of like a baby!

In the meantime, I am wondering if my kitchen will start reeking of vinegar in a few days.

I can keep some of the raw vinegar around to do this all over again, too. I guess I should start looking for recipes using a lot of vinegar, or plan on giving some away...

Winemaking behind bars

Orin Swift makes a wine here in California called "The Prisoner", but in Italy, actual prisoners make wine (login required, sorry... use Bugmenot if you want). Murderers and robbers in the Velletri prison a little south of Rome make wine as part of a rehabilitation program (they also grow produce and make olive oil), and turn out 45,000 bottles a year of wines called "Fuggiasco" (Fugitive) and "The Seven Turns of the Key" (referring to the permanence of imprisonment). This is all part of the attempt to rehab Italy's much-criticized penal system, and even though the efficacy is debated, is an interesting idea. I guess it is the Italian version of having prisoners answer your state tourist information calls like New Mexico does.

Paul Draper, still doing things his way

SFGate is running a nice little article about Ridge and Paul Draper in today's Wine section. I noticed it in the paper version of the paper (I know, odd to call it that, considering it came first) when I was on the commute home because someone else on the train was reading it and it caught my eye.

I have loved Ridge for a long time (in the Bay Area here Paul Draper and Ridge are legendary, whether you like what Draper does or not), and not only because their library-card labels are a UI design geek's dream. They make some really good wines, too, and are proof that blends are not cheap things done to get away with making wine from cheap grapes. If anyone can prove that you can blend wines thoughtfully and for a reason, it's Draper.