this heaven gives me migraine

Have wine, will travel... hopefully

So I have to get my just-big-enough-to-be-an-issue (around 20 cases) wine collection from here to DC later this year. And because the gods hate me, it looks like we are going to be moving in June or thereabouts, not earlier. So I have to figure out how to get my wine across the country, because the way I was going to do it (yeah, yeah, I know, putting it in a truck with everything else we own is bad news but we are buying and remodeling a house and moving a lot of stuff and I am about to be P-O-O-R) is probably is a really bad idea given the heat. I was willing to risk the wine-with-everything-else move if the weather was cool, but in the heat, no way. So now I am looking at my options and hoping they don't break the bank.

So far I have these:

- Adventures in Wine. They are a complete unknown, but might be able to help. The guys at K&L told me that Marco (who used to work at K&L before he moved back East) used them when he moved. I have to give them a call and see if they offer anything (I am not sure if Marco used them for storage and that got him the ability to use them for moving, too).

- Western Carriers. Good: Probably cheaper than some other options, and they can store the wine on the other end if I need it. Bad: Your wine is in a truck for a while and even if the truck is air conditioned, certain wine forums have me leery of that since they convinced me that the driver is going to be a layabout who turns the truck off to nap and gamble in Las Vegas for hours on end while the wine cooks. I know this is not likely.

- Wine By Air International. Good: Ships by air, so it is fast. They come and pack your stuff into insulated carriers. Bad: Probably most expensive, and planes crash and all (I know, also not likely).

- I could leave it here in storage for a while and somehow come back and get it, but that seems like a bad idea and is not really dealing with the problem, just putting off dealing with it for a while.

I was looking into wine storage in DC, and well. Not a lot of options there. There is one place located "conveniently" north of Georgetown, which makes a big assumption about the people who own wine that is to be stored, but they are only open six days a week and they have plywood panels on the wine storage, something that just seems sketchy to me. They can store single cases, though, which is interesting. I think I can set up something in the basement that will be fine, but just in case I find out the basement goes to 85 in the summer (not out of the question in DC) it is good to know one's options.

If my wine and I make it to my next birthday intact, I am opening the best thing I can find and not feeling guilty about it at all.

Anyone here ever moved wine? What did you do? How did you do it? Why can't I collect thimbles or silver spoons with the states on them?

Champagne!

I have been slackerly in the ways of winetasting lately and, while I have certainly been drinking here and there, I haven't been thinking about it much, and have been writing about it even less. The other day I spotted a bottle at the wine shop and I was pretty sure I remembered not liking it much, but alas, I did not make notes on it, so that information will be lost forever. And right there I decided to get back on the horse, or the wagon, or whatever it is that dumped me.

I also haven't been to a proper Saturday K&L tasting in forever, so I recently started up again. What could be better to start up with than Champagne? I don't think anything. We tasted ten of them, and I went home with two. And then went out and bought a very expensive suit for a wedding, but I can't blame that on the Champagne.

We tasted a lot of NV Champagne, which often people shun since it isn't vintage, but, as you can see from my notes below, NV Champagne has to come from some place in time, and sometimes it is actually a single vintage even if it isn't labelled as such (since a vintage year was not declared). And some of them were very good. I could go into a long boring discussion about the declaration of vintages in Champagne and how that controls supply and demand, etc etc, but even I don't want to hear myself talk about that. And I really have nothing against blending. Blending can be your friend.

I will point out that we tasted these with potato chips and crackers, and the chips were quite tasty although not as good as french fries. Naysayers hush right now... Champagne and french fries is the best pairing ever. The salty greasy starchy fries are cut beautifully by the acid and bubbles of Champagne. Don't knock it until you try it.

I rated on a ten point scale because I felt like it.

N/V Leclerc Briant "La Croisette" single vineyard Brut, Epernay ($30) Chardonnay from the 2000 and 2001 vintages. Unusual, usually he does red fruit based Champagnes, and Epernay is more town than vineyards. Pale straw. A sharp nose of lemon and cream. Sharp and acidic, with lemon zest, apples, and rocks. 7.

N/V Franck Bonville Brut Selection Blanc de Blancs, Avize ($24) Blend of 1997, 1998, and 1999 Chardonnay. Pale straw. Delicate white floral nose with yeasty biscuit undertones. Creamier and less acidic than the Leclerc, and in the mouth it is nutty, yeasty, biscuity, with a peach finish. 8.5.

N/V Launois "Cuvée Reserve", Mesnil/Oger ($26) Chardonnay, 90% from 2000 vintage, 10% from 1998. Again, pale straw. Trademark fine bubbles, with a kind of odd flinty beery nose. The mousse is sharp and acidic and we are back to green apples and lemon, although the finish is all apricot (with that slight dull bitterness apricot has). 7.5.

N/V Franck Bonville Cuvée Les Belles Voyes, Oger ($60) All 1997 vintage Chardonnay. Darker straw than the previous, this has a heady, feminine nose of peaches and flowers. It's a little big and blowsy in the mouth, with a lot of stone fruit, and it is so fruit-rich it tastes overripe to me. It was better with a potato chip, although it is not my thing. 7.

N/V Tarlant Brut Zero, Oeuilly ($27) 1998, 1999, 2000 vintages. 1/3 each Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier. Medium straw. Sharp but pleasant nose of minerals, some sweet apple and lily that starts to smell like baby asprin/orange cremesicle after it sits out a while. Not sharp or acidic, the finish is dry as expected (since it gets no dosage), but seems a little blunt and dull to me. Nice with the chips, though. 8.

1996 Leclerc Briant Cuvée Divine Brut, Epernay ($40) 50% Chardonnay, 50% Pinot Noir, 10-plus years old. People are crazy for this... the shop got it in a few days before the tasting and it was already sold out (they will have it again in a month or two). Medium yellow/straw. A sharp, prickly nose. Placid lemon-scone in the mouth, very elegant and pretty. The finish backs off gently and lingeringly. Beery but nice, I felt slightly let down by the finish. 8.5/9.

N/V Marguet-Bonnerave Brut Rose, Brouillet ($26) 70% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Noir. 60% from the 2000 vintage, 40% from 1998/1999. I have had this before and liked it. You won't see any more for a year and a half, so get it now while you can. The guy who makes it under the label had his brother die. His mother, who owned most of the stock, went kind of crazy and sold the vineyards to some big conglomerate (I forget which one). The rest of the family tried to sue to stop her but lost. So now the winemaker is left with a name and no grapes. He is regrouping and supposedly the grapes he is getting are better than what he had been getting, even, and in about two years he will release under the name Bonnerave. Salmon-pink in the glass. A goregous nose that defines why I love rosé Champagne... full of what I think of as rough strawberries. It's got some toast in the mouth, but is bursting with berries and is very very pretty. 9.

NV Ariston Brut Rosé, Brouillet ($29) 50% Pinot Noir, 50% Pinot Meunier, all from the 1999 vintage. Pale pink. Less rough strawberry than the Marguet-Bonnerave, and more of a clear fruit nose, with a tiny grassy note. Sharper acids with more clear fruit on the tongue, with a cherry flavor bordering on cough drop/cardamom. Pleasant enough, but not as good as the previous. 8.5

N/V René Collard Brut Carte d'Or, Reuil ($40) 100% Pinot Meunier from the 1992 vintage. Dark yellow. A fantastic earthy nose of mushrooms, dirt, manure, truffles (when aged, Pinot Meunier does that). Reminds me of the nose some Barberas have. Very smooth and mushroomy in the mouth... no fruit. Has a finish that borders on sherry-like but not too much so and if you aspirate it, you can taste the earthy flavors you can smell in the nose. (We had a bottle of this a few days later and it does best with a little air.) 9.

1985 René Collard Cuvée Reservée Millesime, Reuil ($60) 90% Pinot Meunier, 10% Chardonnay. Darkest yellow yet. Couldn't place the nose right away, but it is nutty and dry-smelling, like paper. Very austere and sherry-like. Interesting enough but a little too old for me, I think, and I liked the Carte d'Or better. 8.

So my favorites and the two bottles I bought (and in one case, bought again) were the René Collard Brut Carte d'Or and the N/V Marguet-Bonnerave. They are as different as night and day, really, but I loved them both for what they did and did well.

Tasting quote of the day:

Scott (hosting the tasting) to group of gay men, explaining the tasting order: "The first four are all Chardonnay based... you always start with white fruit."

Man in group: "Well, I'm here!"

2003 Boekenhoutskloof "The Chocolate Block"

Notes: I talked about this wine once before, briefly, but had the chance to have a bottle with dinner when we were just back in DC for a while. This wine is one of Mark Kent's babies, and as far as I am concerned he is The Man for South African wine. Boekenhoutskloof is his main label, but he also makes wine under second label Porcupine Ridge (even though I understand that Porcupine Ridge actually makes up the bulk of production).

I have to admit, I originally thought Mark Kent was The Man because I thought this wine involved the strange and disturbing Pinotage, and I thought anyone who could make Pinotage taste this good was a genius. Alas, the wine contains no Pinotage: just 44% Syrah, 21% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Grenache Noir, 12% Cinsault, and 6% Viognier, so consider it Rhone-ish with some Cabernet tossed in there. But I still give Kent points for making a clean wine that doesn't have that intense super-gamey-liquid-smoke-and-dirt core that a lot of South African reds have. Well, a lot of South African reds I have encountered, at least. Only 81 cases were made, so I guess I should get on it if I want to find some more.

We had this with dinner (a simple pasta dish and garlic bread) and it was generally a crowd-pleaser-- not too strange in any way, and very user-friendly. It greets you with a cherry-raspberry-barky nose that has a floral overlay thanks to the Viognier. The Syrah adds some iodine and earth in the nose for interest. In the mouth, Cabernet is at the forefront, with a blackberry-currant flavor and instant tannin/dryness. Then a sharper leatheriness takes over and the whole thing wraps up a meaty finish with some peppery spice. Finally, it leaves you with (true to its name, or perhaps I was influenced by the name) with the lingering flavor of mocha. The wine isn't exactly high-acid but has a nice gum-tingling tannic astringency in the finish that makes up for it. It is also interesting since you can almost pick out the components and tell which grape is responsible for each one, yet all the components are blended into one harmonious wine. This is very much in the spirit of Southern Rhone.

Cost: $25

Overall: A-/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.

2002 Huia Marlborough Pinot Noir

Notes: I almost didn't make this, the 17th Wine Blogging Wednesday, because when I went out Monday to get wine, I found that everywhere was closed for belated New Year's, something I should have guessed would be the case, but, well, I wasn't thinking. Anyway, thanks to the Whole Foods Palo Alto, purveyor of soups far superior to the Whole Foods San Franciscos, I found a couple of bottles of New Zealand Pinot Noir, any one of which would do for the Kiwi Red theme this month.

I chose the 2002 Huia, after doing some minor investigation and debate over the other wines offered (a "Something Bay" that I can't remember exactly but shallowly dismissed because of the boring label and sort-of-like-Cloudy-Bay name, and the 2004 Jibe).

Claire and Mike Allan named Huia after the native New Zealand bird that was extinct by around 1920. They studied wine and winemaking at Roseworthy Agricultural University and spent time in Australia, France, and New Zealand (notably, at Cloudy Bay) honing their skills before starting Huia in 1996. They use a more hands-off winemaking approach, using natural yeasts and traditional methods such as hand-picking the grapes.

This is a pale, medium intensity burgundy in the glass, and shows it's slight age in the paler rim. The nose is, when first opened, almost pure cherry fruit, but then as air hits it it gets a meatier quality with hints of thyme. In the mouth it was a bit of a surprise at first...a soft approach with unremarkable fruit is finished up with a huge, saddle-leather finish that has more than a hint of Band-Aid to it. The finish isn't very tannic but has a nice astringent quality, and the acids are fine... it doesn't taste flabby or anything.

Night 1 - I think it is on the old side, since there is little evidence of fruit, and the leather/Band-Aid thing is a little too much for me, so I don't love it. I don't hate it, either, but it isn't really my thing. Matt liked it more than I did.

Night 2 - there is both less fruit and less of the Band-Aidy finish, which makes me think even more that this this is even more over the hill. It's obviously a fruit-forward style wine, but there is no fruit to go forward anymore, even though it isn't even that old. I bet it was much nicer when it was younger, but it is merely a shadow of its former self right now. Poor thing.

Cost: $24

Overall: Eh. C. Nice effort, but this should have been drunk a year ago, at least.

2002 Sean Thackrey "Sirius"

Notes: I drank a fair amount of wine over the holiday (2002 Cakebread Chardonnay, 2003 Robert Sinskey Los Carneros Pinot Noir, and a Sean Thackrey Pleiades) but took no notes on them because I was holidaying. They were very delicious, though, I can assure you of that. And on the last day of the year, well, let's go off on a big note and talk about something I have been remiss in posting until now. Here is a nice little love letter to a bottle of wine to end the year.

My love letter is to Sean Thackrey's Sirius, which is his Petite Sirah, and the grapes come from Eaglepoint Ranch in Mendocino. I love Thackrey's stuff but mostly hoard it, and drink the Pleiades (which is nothing to sneeze at) as much as I can. I finally decided it was time to break into a bottle of something fancier. Thackrey's wines are a little crazy, and it seems you either like the crazy or you don't (I fall on the "like" side) and this one was even more wacky and complex than the Pleiades. It was the first red wine I've ever had that had a distinctive mustard aroma, and even though that sounds crazy and wrong, it worked for this wine.

In the glass, the wine is a dark purple, almost black, with purplish red edges. When agitated, it has that yellow mustard smell in the nose, and when it sits around quietly that mustard morphs into gardenia and jasmine (I know! It makes no sense! But it is true!) with a lindenlike candy smell. Under all the mustard and flower there is a solid line of black fruit (berries, plums) with a little bit of nut/vanilla creaminess. The wine assaults your mouth with a wave of concentrated blackberry/blueberry flavor beginning right at the forefront of the tongue, and this rolls around smoothly to the finish, which has some peppery spice and drying tannins. The finish leaves you with an echo of the floral in the nose, and is very good. This is a monster of a wine that has a massive amount of fruit in it, but the acids are well-balanced and there is a lot going on to keep it from being a baked fruit bomb. I would have been interested to see how this fared after a day or so (I will make a resolution right now to spend 24 hours with a bottle of Thackrey wine in 2006 and watch it change) but I have to say it was so tasty we made quick work of it over the course of the evening. Maybe next time....

Cost: $45

Overall: Could it be anything but an A? Nope. Please send five cases immediately.

2001 Uvaggio di Giacomo "Il Gufo"

Notes: Jim Moore makes wines under this label and, as Italian sounding as the label is, it just means "the blends of James" in Italian, and he uses Italian grapes, but he is in Napa Valley in California (he previously worked at Mondavi and Bonny Doon). I picked this wine up because I had his Il Gufo rosato at RAP last summer and liked it a lot. ("Il Gufo" is Italian for "owl", and, as you can see, there is an owl on the label.) 758 cases of this were made, and, as is fairly common with Barbera, it is a blend of only 90 percent Barbera with 10 percent Nebbiolo tossed in, something I think you can tell mostly in the finish.

Ruby red in the glass, pretty youthful-looking with a slightly pink rim. The nose is very woody and smells of tobacco, spice, and loads of black fruit, along with hot summer bramble and a little raspberry. It's slightly hot on the nose. In the mouth it's very fruit-forward, with lots of jammy blackberry and black plum, followed by a slightly woody finish that has a trace element of blunted bitterness. It leaves your gums tingling and your mouth watering (gotta love those acids!), and sticks around for a nice long time. It's not an overly complex or fancy wine, but is fun. This would be great if you were having pasta or pizza or even hanging out and grilling burgers.

Cost: about ten bucks

Overall: B. It's not complex, but tasty and fun, and I would keep a case of something like this around for guilt-free drinking.

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