this heaven gives me migraine

2003 Delas Côtes du Ventoux

Notes: This is my desperate attempt to do something for Wine Blogging Wednesday 19, despite the fact that I had a crazy busy weekend involving not only work, but an emergency room and a dislocated elbow (not mine, thankfully), and didn't make it to the wine store or my wine storage, so any good or interesting blends I might have around or at my disposal were, well, not at my disposal. I am also working late Wednesday so I had to pre-drink and write all this up. Oh, the trials!

Anyway, I had to root around in the wine I keep in the house here and find something that would work. I do have a thing for Rhône blends, so I had some stuff lying around, but sadly nothing was very interesting. Mostly Grenache/Syrah blends, and this bottle won out simply by being a Grenache/Syrah/Carignane blend, which gave it one-third more interestingness and blendedness. And blending wine is not easy... I have had to do it in a wine class and it is harder than you think to come up with something tasty and balanced. It is very easy to end up with a muddy, difficult wine, and that is exactly what I had in my glass when I got done.

I think it is a bottle I got through the K&L wine club or picked up there when I was doing a run for cheap bottles to drink. This wine is a Côtes du Ventoux Contrôlée, which means it comes from a specific area between the Rhône and Provence, an area that has climactic conditions similar to the Rhône. A main feature of the limestone-ridden landscape is Mont Ventoux, rumored locally to be the source of the Mistral (the bitterly cold wind that blows through the Rhône).

Delas Frères has been around since 1836, and despite being bought by first Deutz in 1978 and then Roderer in 1993, flew low and under the radar for years, making so-so wines that did not receive much acclaim. In 1997 Jacques Grange took over (he who revitalized Chapoutier and served under Jean Luc Colombo). He turned things around and started paying close attention to vineyard and cellar practices. No more heavy-handed fining or filtration, careful pruning, and judicious use of oak improved the wines' reputations and gave new life to Delas.

This is a bright purple-red in the glass, and looks pretty young. The nose is slightly hot, and has plum, blackberry, and tobacco, along with peppery spice. It might be fading slightly because there is not a lot of fruit on the palate. It's not old, per se, but not as bright as it might have been when younger. The palate is all about chalky leather and pepper. There is some ripe fruit quality there, more blackberry and cherry, but not a ton of it. When first opened the finish had a bitter rigidity that you know I will blame on the Carignane, but after a while of being open that seemed to dissipate somewhat (I can still taste it's cardboardy-ness, though, so it did not go away completely). The finish, heavy on the savory spice and pepper, is a little short, but really, it is pleasant enough for a ten-dollar bottle of wine. Not particularly memorable, but drinkable and good enough.

I imagine other wines in their portfolio are more interesting and might have made a more interesting entry for WBW19, but this one was worthy in that you can tell what aspects it gets from the Syrah (pepper, blackberry), Grenache (spicy herbs, cherry) and Carignane (rigidity, bitterness).

Cost: $10

Overall: B-

WBW17 Wrap-up posted

Belatedly, I am noting that the wrap-up of WBW17 has been posted. I definitely lost out; there were some much better bottles had out there. But it was all a learning experience, and good for that. Thanks to CD for hosting! (And also for knowing who Gang of Four is.)

Other than that, not much of note is going on (well, besides leaving for DC to meet with contractors in two days) except that K Vintners FINALLY got me a problematic missing order and I can stop cursing them under my breath and mentally wailing "why do you hate me?". I ordered futures back in April, and they were supposed to ship in October. October came and went, and in mid-November I sent them an email asking about the status (I wasn't in any huge rush to get the wine, but was just wondering, since I hadn't heard anything at all). They replied fairly promptly and told me that their shipping manager had quit or something, and that things were messed up, and that they would send out the orders immediately (I had two orders, technically, since when I couldn't get The Boy I ordered some other stuff). Anyway, I got a shipment a few days later, but it only contained one order. And when you get a K Vintners order, the wine mysteriously just shows up at your doorstep, or, in this case, my office, with no packing slip or anything. So I wasn't sure if the second order had been forgotten or was going to be shipped separately. I wrote asking about it in late November, and heard nothing back, even though I was extremely polite, having worked in customer service at one time. About a month later, in mid-late December, I wrote again. I was just about to send yet another of my monthly emails, when, again, bottles of wine just showed up at the doorstep. Anyway, all is well now, and I am looking forward to some delicious Ovide, El Jefe, Milbrandt, and Roma. But be warned that K moves in mysterious ways, should you place an order.

WBW17 Announced: Red Kiwis

I have been drowning in holiday shopping and cooking and spirit, but the Corkdork just reminded me that yes, Virginia, there is a Wine Blogging Wednesday 17, and he is hosting it!

This time the idea is to think outside Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc a little bit and try a New Zealand red wine. There is a lot going on in NZ apart from Sauvignon Blanc, and there are a lot of good regions for growing other grapes (Pinot Noir from Otago is what comes to mind for me, but there is some handy info on the New Zealand Wine page, too).

WBW 16 roundup posted

Looks like Derrick got the WBW 16 roundup posted. Some really good labels over there, some I have seen before, and some I will have to seek out.

2004 Bonny Doon Grignolino d'Asti

Oh, what to say. I haven't been drinking much. Why? For once, I am not sick.

We are presently buying a house. A first house. A house 3,000 miles away. A house in need of a lot of work. Needless to say, this has been taking up a lot of my free time and meager mental powers, and when I am not thinking about all that, any drinking I have been doing has been of the stress-release and drink-to-forget variety and I haven't necessarily been doing anything other than going "yum" and drinking. I have been going through periods of sleeping 4-5 hours a night, waking up at 5 AM, and have been even losing weight because of the immense worry that has, even though I have been eating normally, done something to me (I imagine that being actually awake for about 19/20 hours a day has something to do with that). Right now I'm interested in cork mostly in plank form, to put down on the kitchen floor. And I am worrying/investigating things like "how to move a wine collection across the country (safely) without going broke in the process". You know, fun things like that.

Anyway, wine of the immediate and drinking sort. I have some things to write about later, but right now, at the last minute, I am attempting to at least participate in this lovely Wine Blogging Wednesday number 16, hosted by Derrick of An Obsession with Food. This month the challenge is to see whether the pretty outside means tasty inside, and find a wine with a good label.

Even though my first thought was Ridge, because they have fantastic labels (simple, text based, and dating back to the 1960's) I chose this wine because it has a Gary Taxali label, and I love me some Gary Taxali. This is a slightly more sedate label than some others he has done for Bonny Doon, but it is great nonetheless. Even if I am not sure what exactly it is. I am a sucker for a good label, even though I am under no illusions that it actually indicates good wine is inside. I have had some really bad wine in nicely labeled bottles, and some really good wine in dreadfully labeled bottles, so it goes both ways.

The wine itself is a Grignolino d'Asti, from Piemonte in Italy (this is one of Bonny Doon's wines made from European grapes), and the name of the grape variety is supposedly derived from the fact that the grape is one with many pips. It's a light but vibrant clear ruby in the glass, with a paler orangish edge. It was pretty funky directly out of the bottle, with a medicinal smell of old Band-Aids (not as bad as you might think), but as it sits it is getting softer, and now has an aroma of old chair leather, thyme, and violets. It's much bigger and more full-bodied than you would expect from the color-- robust with a good amount of drying tannins and nice acidity. There is a clear thread of cherry red fruit woven though the tannins and the expected leathery/iodine overtones, and overall it is very pleasant, although not overly complex. It's a funny combination of refreshing and tannic.

I have had some really bad Bonny Doon wines with great labels (like the Freisa), but happily, this one is nice and I will be glad to drink the whole thing later on. Later on, while I am learn more about cork flooring and homeowners insurance.

Cost: I think it was around $15 or $20

Overall: B

WBW14 Announced: New New World Pinot Noir

I am medicated with lots of exciting pills right now (antibiotics) and starting to return to the land of the living. How do I know?

1- I am starting to have urges to clean the house again
2- I've realized I am in need, desperately, of a haircut (and have no appointment, so have to grit my teeth and bear it)
3- I am really, really, missing drinking wine
4- I realized today that there is probably an announcement for a Wine Blogging Wednesday out there for October, and I don't know what it is.

Well, I do now.... Jens of Cincinnati Wine Garage is making us all try a New New World Pinot Noir. Well, sorta. France and the West Coast here in the US are out. He says Spain is okay, although I think of Spain as Old World. In any case, Spain is okay. Australia, Chile, Argentina, all okay. Even Italy (I see Jens is saying Pinot Noir is new to those countries so that is all okay by him). It's all about the new and exciting.

And if you want to be a really good guy on October 5, take your bottle to or get your bottle at a restaurant participating in Dine For America and help give some money to the Red Cross.

Family Winemakers of California #15

A little over a week ago I had the luck to attend the fifteenth annual Family Winemakers of California tasting up at Fort Mason. Being that this was the fifteenth one, things went pretty smoothly: there were spitbuckets galore, wide aisles with room to walk around, and even though it got crowded, it was pretty manageable (I only had to cut my visit to a few of the tables short because of other people). I felt a little down and off that day for various reasons, so I didn't get through quite as many wines as I might have liked, but since there were almost 400 wineries there pouring at least two (in more cases, more like four or six) wines each, I had no illusions that I was going to get through them all, or even through most of them.

So what I did was decide on wineries based on a few things:

1- I keep seeing or hearing about a winery's wine, enough so I feel like I know the winery, but have never had it or don't remember having it and am embarrassed to admit it so I corrected that (Nickel & Nickel, Navarro)
2- The winery makes a wine I have had that has interested me enough to check them out (Mantra, Surh Luchtel, Bacio Divino, Saracina)
3- Totally random sightings (Seduction, just because I have ranted about it so much I had to taste it)

I also took the time to talk to a lot of the people working the tables (now I just have to get better at documenting all the stuff they tell me) and found out about some of the wineries, which was more enjoyable to me than keeping my head down and power-tasting through twice as many wines (not always a bad thing, but I was not up to it for this tasting). The wines were all pretty interesting and well-done, even the ones that weren't my cup of tea, so to speak.

Since I was busy for the trade-only tasting (pesky day job!), I went to the Sunday trade-and-public tasting. I would have liked to go to both, since there was so much to taste, but c'est la vie. The public tasting meant I was exposed to the usual annoying wild-women-on-wine junk, glasses hitting the floor (not as many as I have heard at other tastings), gaggles of tipsy twentysomethings standing around and blocking the tables, and fifty year old women who seemed to be on manhunts because they were overdressed and wearing a lot of perfume, which is very annoying since they stink and prevent you from smelling the wine because you are reeling from a big dose of Poison or Trésor as they trip by. Most excitingly, I was almost run over by a Trésor-free but very drunk man while I was tasting at Saracina (he slurred at me something about not trying to run me over and not being able to run me over if he tried). About four minutes later he dropped his glass and staggered his way out the door. I clutched my spit cup, and, as he staggered by us, said to Patricia Rock, "I hope he doesn't take out your table," and thought that there are a few good reasons for spitting at these things, and he was demonstrating most of them. It seemed a good omen that it was time to go (as did the time on my watch), so I left in his wake, listening to people mutter to each other "I hope he's not driving" as they shook their heads.

Navarro

Talked to Chris Spazek. The verjus will be out before Christmas, he told me a little bit about the wines and winery.

2004 Anderson Valley Gewurztraminer dry, nice nose, spicy in the mouth, finish is pretty zippy, pretty tasty
2004 Anderson Valley Pinot Gris a lot of acid acid in it, really nice! soft floral nose and then it bombards your mouth, mouthwatering
2004 Mendocino Sauvignon Blanc Cuvee 128 Floral, grassy, lingering finish, but not as interesting as the previous two
2003 Anderson Valley Ancient Method Pinot Noir a lighter style PN, bubbly redfruit cherry cola, some oak but nice and well-done
2003 Mendocino Zinfandel restrained, nice tingly finish, nice fruit and not too much spice, balanced, very pleasant

O'Brien

After all my griping about the marketing, I spotted the table on my way back from finding a napkin and figured the time was right to taste it. The nice lady behind the table pointed out that each bottle comes in its own "fun wrapping".

2003 O'Brien Seduction fruity, dark, extracted, a lot of licoricey flavors, very Cabbish (Cab nose, Cab finish) and not terrible like I expected or hoped, but not very interesting, one of those not very interesting but easy to drink wines

(Go Rebecca Chapa, the new wine ambassador for Niebaum-Coppola!)

Nickel & Nickel

2003 Russian River Valley Syrah starts off super austere and smooth and silky and then gets a bit of spice on the finish-- close to too extracted and fruity for me, but not quite over the top
2002 Dragonfly Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon funky stemmy nose, not a lot of blackberry spiciness you would expect, but it is all in the finish, which is very nice, starts out slightly medicinal but the finish makes it very nice
2002 Schlumberger Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon (the vineyard where the winery is) not as medicinal on the nose as the Dragonfly, mouth drying, heavily tannic

Project 3000

Grenache soft spicy nose, a LOT of fruit in the mouth, has a nice finish, but the fruit is a little much for me, somewhat overwhelming

Ravenswood

Icon heavy funk fruit nose, kind of crazy smelling especially after all the Cabs, it is very fruity and intense and overwhelming but still kind of fun

Red Car

2004 Red Wind (freshly bottled) brooding and dark and intense and everything I usually don't love in a wine, but it works for me in this case, for some reason I don't understand
2004 Boxcar (entry level Syrah) has that sweet cigar/blood/manure nose I love in all those Italian wines, beautiful, pleasant in the mouth but finish is a little tight; still pleasant and a big CA Syrah
2003 The Fight will be out in October, more of that sweet fruity manure nose, slight coffee/mocha notes, lots of extracted dark intense fruit, a goodly amount of tannin that sort of sneaks up on you

York Creek

Talked to Scott who works in the winery

2002 Merlot odd green smell in nose... not stemmy or planty, but soapy... clean in the mouth, lots of berry fruit in mouth
2002 Cabernet Franc slightly fruity on the finish, extracted
2001 Petit Verdot brett on nose, okay, but I didn't love it because it is bretty, I didn't love it but what's a person to do with Petit Verdot?
2002 Meritage green bell peppery in nose that dissipated with swirling, pleasant but not mindblowing (I have that thing with Cabernet, though)
2002 Port whoa! super spicy on finish, very peppery, along with the typical Port profile (lots of sweet fruit)

Surh Luchtel

2003 Gary's Vineyard Pinot Noir clean cherry fruit, pleasant fuzzy finish with slight tongue-tingling spice, a little fruit-forward
2002 Napa Valley Zinfandel spicy finish, fair amount of fruit but not overwhelmingly so, most of the wine is in the finish
2002 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon green nose, lots of fruit, softish tannins on the finish and slightly too much fruit at finish for me, personally

Mantra Wines

stopped because I liked their rosé at ZAP, talked to Michael Kuimelis, the winemaker, don't have proper notes because we were talking

Started in 2001, 3500 cases in production now, 2005 vintage will be up to 5000 and that is where they want to be, (and maintain at about 5000), bulk of production is in the black label Cab

2002 Revelations Reserve (500 cases) has some Syrah in it, I liked it best, I think
2003 75/25 Cabernet (700 cases) slightly stemmy but okay
2002 Zinfandel Reserve (350 cases) high alcohol, almost desserty (old vines at high elevation next to cab, dry farmed, watered twice a year, 5 percent Petite Sirah and in an isolated vineyard with no phylloxera, mostly aged in Hungarian oak) the wine is not always like this, but this is what Michael said "the grapes wanted" this year, they know it is a little over the top, but kind of go with the grapes

DuNah

wines are unfined, unfiltered, and all made using only wild yeast, no inoculation, usually around 1/3 new oak and full malolactic fermenation

2002 DeeDee's Vineyard Chardonnay nose slightly on the oaky side, but very pretty and in the mouth it is beautiful, with some peaches and creme brulee, a goregous soft finish (yes, and even with all that ML! go figure)
2002 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay (3 vineyard blend) lots of oak on the nose, lots of fruit on the palate, more fruit than DeeDee's, very rich and girly (I preferred the DeeDee's)
2002 San Giacomo Vineyard Pinot Noir good nose, but descends into a little too much cherry fruit for me
2003 DuNah Vineyard smells like it has more oak on it than the San Giacomo

Laetitia

2003 Laetitia Estate Pinot Noir barnyard funk going on, fair amount of oak and fruit, this is where I started thinking maybe I was having Oak Issues and was off in some way, but it was well done and I liked it. It warmed my chest like a hot toddy

Eric Ross

2001 Saralee's Vineyard Pinot Noir cigar/manure nose, very very soft, with perky finish, soft soft soft and then bam! almost-spicy finish with a lot of stuff going on
2004 Old Vines Carignane really blueberry? nose and no weird Carignane finish... some slight spice and then it fades out, nicely

Flowers

2003 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir some barnyard on the nose, tobacco, possibly a little brett? pleasant but not mindblowing, which I think I was hoping for
2002 Andreen Gate Pinot Noir more oaky, woody tobacco smells on nose than the Sonoma Coast, well-balanced, nice acid, some spice on the finish, overall a woodier, tobacco-ier, more dried leaf type of wine

Fritz

talked to Stephen Schelke

2003 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir funk on the nose and a nice little Pinot overall, very friendly, easy to drink, slight puckery finish
2003 Estate Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel very happy and friendly, lots of cherry fruit, not a dark Zinfandel, but a kind of happy and light Zinfandel, if such a thing exists

Hendry

2003 Blocks 4 and 5 Napa Valley Pinot Noir well integrated oak on the nose, so far possibly my favorite of the day
(did I try a second pinot)

Cambria

2003 Katherine's Vineyard Chardonnay nose too brown for me (oaky, brown smells) but the finish is pretty, creamy but not too much, tart apple and nectariney and white stone fruit
2003 Estate Benchbreak Vineyard Chardonnay less oak and more peaches than the previous, and I think I liked the first one better, overall, even though both were fine
2004 Julia's Vineyard Pinot Noir finally a Pinot that isn't super oaky! cherry and iodine, not very big, slightly medicinal finish, not so sure about that finish
2003 Benchbreak Vineyard Pinot Noir softer, less aggressive, less medicinal than the Julia's

Bacio Divino

talked to Brian Lipton

2003 Pazzo (just released, 66% Sangiovese, 23% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Petit Sirah, 4% Viogner) a very pretty floral nose, high acid, not much tannin, mostly fuzziness, I like this wine and this is going to be a really nice year for it
2002 Bacio Divino (66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Sangiovese, 15% Petite Sirah) while Pazzo is more red fruit, this is more black fruit, all about the Cab (it's a Cab, Sangiovese, , dark and brooding, intense, nicely done

Corison

2001 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon not much on the nose but is very elegant, very well done, so smooth
2001 Kronos Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon this one has a nose that is more willing to talk to you, more fruit in the mouth than the Napa Valley, not quite as smooth as the Napa Valley

Dashe Cellars

2002 Todd Brothers Ranch Zinfandel more extracted and fruity style of Zin, a lot of spice, a lot of alcohol
2002 Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon good nose but finish is a little awkward and blocky

Acorn

2002 Sangiovese nice lingering finish, almost too clean and fruity for a Sangiovese, not as rustic as I am used to
2002 Medley (Cab Franc, Zin, etc) the perfect bastard child of Cabernet Franc and Zinfandel, lots of cherry-strawberry-blackberry fruit
2002 Allegria Vineyard Axiom Syrah a soft fruity Syrah, but there is an element of medicinal bandage, not band-aid, not iodine, kind of a cough syrupy flavor, it is my least favorite of the three

Davis Bynum

2004 Fume Blanc slightly tropical nose, not as grapefruity as the 2003 (or was it the 2002?) and closer to the 1999 which I loved (I tried this to see if it was similar) with some hay bale/grass/straw on nose, but full of pineapple and peach in the mouth
2002 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir spicebox tobacco nose, slight bready manurey touch, soft and clear in mouth with pleasant fruit

Fiddlehead Cellars

2003 Happy Canyon Sauvignon Blanc first sniff freaked me out, smelled like frying chicken (and I mean that in a nice way, although it was very unexpected) but that disappeared, maybe I hallucinated it... very fruity tart apple on palate, not grassy at all, pleasant enough but I didn't love it
2002 728 Pinot Noir not much on the nose, but at least there isn't too much oak (ha), a quiet Pinot Noir, light red fruit, would be good with food, pleasant

Saracina

talked to Patricia Rock, wife of winemaker (John Fetzer, and yeah, he is the guy who started Fetzer years ago, with his family)

Altrea is the Saracina second label, devoted to blends, while Saracina is all varietals

NV Atrea "The Choir" White (300 cases, just released, already those 300 cases are allocated) Viognier/Roussanne blend beautiful, floral, nice acids, bright and tasty
NV Atrea "Old Soul" Red a little fruit, a little spice, a little tannin, very pleasant and well-balanced

2004 Saracina Mendocino County Sauvignon Blanc grassy nose good high acid finish, lots of tart citrus and even pear and hay, nice, almost has a snap on the tongue at first hit
2003 Saracina Mendocino County Syrah crazy, starts out with a lot of fruit and is very extracted, then goes into a bitter period and then comes out with more fruit and spice on the finish, dark and brooding, lots of tannin

WBW13 Announced: Wine and chocolate cake

Next month's Wine Blogging Wednesday will require everyone to get out of the cellar and into the kitchen. Clothilde of Chocolate and Zucchini, in keeping with her site title, wants everyone to find a wine to pair with chocolate cake. You can buy the cake if you don't want to make it (she has a recipe for those who want to bake but need direction), and the wine choice is entirely up to you. September 7 is the deadline, so it's time to start planning!

WBW12 wrap-up posted

Lenn posted the wrap-up for WBW12 a few days ago, but I was busy having some very long days at work so have not been able to catch up on things. A record 43 people checked in to drink local wines. Which means there is a lot of interesting reading!

Family winemakers tasting Sunday August 21

This Sunday (and Monday, if you are trade) head on up to Fort Mason for the fifteenth annual Family Winemakers tasting. For $35 you get the chance to taste the wines from almost 400 winemakers who will be pouring their best.

I won't even pretend to myself that I will get to taste them all, but I am coming up with some form of Plan of Attack as we speak. It might involve throwing darts at the list, but I am not telling.