this heaven gives me migraine

Sokol Blosser "Meditrina" II

Notes: This was actually sent to me (hooray for free wine) and it was exciting because I like its white-grape sister, Evolution 9, which is fun to drink. So this is an interesting wine to check out, especially since I didn't know it existed. This is the second release of the blend (indeed, you can know that by the tiny "II" on the label), and this year it is 48% Pinot Noir (most from the Sokol Blosser vineyards in Oregon), 39% Syrah (from Lodi in California and Columbia Valley in Washington), and 13% Zinfandel (also from Lodi).

It's very bright ruby in the glass and it looks young and fun. Nose of chlorine swimming pool, blackberry, and black cherry. As it warms up, you get more of the Pinot Noir in the nose: an earthy black cherry smell. There is a snap of CO2 when it first hits the tongue, which chills out once it sits out for a while, and then Zinfandel dominates the mid-palate with a sweet spice and fruit, and the Syrah dominates the backend, with a tarry black lingering finish. Nice acid, lots of fruit, some pepperiness and astringency at the finish, not much tannin.

It's totally a fun and easy-drinking red... not challenging, not strange, not anything but spice and fruit and, well, okay, a little chlorine swimming pool (which isn't a fault in this instance, I don't think, even though it could be: it's just something I picked up, which seems to have turned into Pinot Noir funk and spice once a little air got to it). It's also got a cute label even though I kind of hate myself for even thinking that, let alone saying it here. The snappiness on the tongue is slight and even though I don't love that in a red wine (I like it in whites) it wasn't overbearing or horrible.

I should probably give this a B+, but, like everything else in my life right now, I find that I am vaguely dissatisfied about wine. I am not even sure what it is I am looking for, but everything seems to fall short. I guess right now my glass is half-empty. But this was at least a tasty half-glass of something.

Cost: $18

Overall: B/B+

2003 Ridge Lytton Estate Late Harvest Zinfandel

Notes: This is something odd for me, a bottle of Ridge and I have no idea from where it came. Either this was a semidrunken purchase at the winery at some point or one of my ATP shipments (which, upon further investigation, it is). I probably should have let it age another year or two before drinking it. Oh, hindsight. But it was a Friday night after a long week of walking specs and filing bugs and sometimes you want something ridiculous and fruity that doesn't go at all with the pizza you end up eating for dinner and well, it just happens. I am a little tired of opening funky/corked/somehow bad French regional wines and this was a promise of something clean and simple and drinkable.

Anyway, it was pleasant company while watching bad movies. Well, a bad movie (hello, Red Eye).

And, since it was an ATP wine, that means I have another one socked away in storage so I can wait a while and have that when it is a little more evolved and I can do it up properly with a cheese plate, the way it should be had.

Deep ruby in the glass, purple red. The nose jumps out at you; bramble, hot blackberry and strawberry, with some toasty wood mixed in there. Slightly hot, alcoholic nose which isn't a surprise considering it is late picked (some of the grapes were almost 32 brix when picked and the wine itself is 16.1% alcohol). Mouthwateringly fruity when it hits the palate, full of raspberry. Clear raspberry with a somewhat minty/eucalyptus finish. Slight tannins and dryness, but not much, and the finish is mostly dominated by a vanilla flavor (the wine was aged in 20 percent new American oak, which explains that). The wine has 2.6 grams/liter of residual sugar, so the finish is definitely on the sweeter side even though it isn't overly syrupy or desserty.

Cost: $26

Overall: B+

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-

Spanish wine

This tasting happened February 18, 2005 at K&L. I was eager to go since I told someone I would find him a good, light (read: traditional) Tempranillo and every time I picked up a bottle, it ended up being a big, black-fruit, Parker-styled beast of a wine, and not at all what I wanted. I started thinking that I had been imagining lighter Tempranillo styles but finally came across an Izadi Rioja that I thought was exactly what I wanted, even though I figured I would check out this tasting as well. Funnily, the Izadi was included in the tasting and it was, of the 13 wines tasted, my favorite, still. So the tasting was maybe pointless but it was a fascinating tasting nonetheless, and I realized a few things:

1- I mentally categorize red wines into "black" or "red" based on general fruit profile and overall flavors (in this case I was looking for a red and not a black. Only two of the wines we tasted (well, three) counted as red to me, so it is good one of them worked out.
2- Tempranillo, at least what we tasted, is a lot darker than I remember (I am guessing my memory really sucks).
3- I don't like it when Cabernet Sauvignon gets into my Tempranillo. Well, sometimes.
4- 2001 was a better year for Spain than 2003.

It got crowded as it always does these days, and you have to juggle around and taste and write your notes on your clipboard (or on the counter, if you get there early like me and can stake out a good spot). Like Italian wines, Spanish wines really need food, so tasting them this way isn't ideal, because a cracker every now and then isn't really real food. Life is hard, sometimes, isn't it?

2004 Bodegas Y Vinedos Luna Beberide Mencia, Bierzo - 100% Mencia - ($13) From the area of Spain directly north of Portugal. The Mencia grape is possibly related to Cabernet Franc. Dark purple with a soapy, violet, blackberry jam nose, it is strong and tannic in the mouth. There is black fruit and some rocky minerality there but it wasn't very exciting and I wasn't thrilled by it, although I realize it had the misfortune of being the first wine tasted and that wine is always at a disadvantage. Also, it definitely needed food. 7.

2001 Viña Izadi Crianza, Rioja (Alavesa) - 90% Tempranillo, 5% Mazuelo, 5% Graciano - ($15) Light burgundy in the glass and with a goregous nose of cherries, it plies you with a lot of sour cherry in the mouth and finishes with a very slight cough drop/cardamom flavor. It has a rough, warm finish... not tannic, but nicely astringent, probably a result of the 14 months it spent in American oak. 9.

2001 Bodegas Y Vinedos Pujanza, Rioja (Alavesa) - 100% Tempranillo - ($25) Darker burgundy than the Izadi, I found it was hard to get much off the nose...some lead and tobacco with some cherry down underneath somewhere. There is black fruit but not much of it, and the finish is all leather and tannins. 7.5

2003 Artadi Viñas de Gaín, Rioja (Alavesa) - 100% Tempranillo - ($22) Blackish purple in the glass, really dark. A wacky almost floral nose that has a strange element of hazelnut in it (I am thinking, since to me it smelled like nuts and plastic, and I mean that in a nice way). It has a lot of fruit up front and an oaky softly tannic finish with lingering plum and cherry. It's a very feminine wine and very pretty. 8.

2004 El Quintanal, Ribera del Duero - 100% Tempranillo - ($11) First bottle had a must problem of some sort where it tasted and smelled musty. We got out a second one to check, and indeed, it was much cleaner. It's dark purple with a nose of thyme and herbs and is very black cherry-like and placid in the mouth, with a burst of herb, oak, and fruit at the finish. The nose is what I think of as shiny and hard... it's not rough and warm but has very precise smells in it. It's a savory-type wine, and for the price it is very nice. 8.

2001 Arzuaga Crianza, Ribera del Duero - 100% Tempranillo - ($26) Brownish-purple and with a nose full of tons of black fruit, along with leaf litter and tobacco. Loads of black plummy fruit in the mouth and some tobacco and oak on the finish. Very pleasant. 8.

2003 Finca Luzón Altos de Luzón, Jumilla - 50% Monastrell, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Tempranillo - ($14) Burgundy-black, smells like a Cab to me... lots of mocha and blackberry and currant. Has a nice spicy peppery finish, but feels heavy and dull after the previous wines. 7.

2003 Pago Florentino, La Mancha - 100% Tempranillo - ($17) Made by the Arzaga people. All about black fruit. Dark in the glass, dark in the mouth. Has a nice astringency. I really liked the first taste, but the second proved to be cloying and I wasn't so sure. Had a little too much jam in it for me... kind of Australian in sensibility. 7.5.

2003 Celler de Cantonella Cervoles Tinto, Costers del Segre - 41% Tempranillo, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Grenache, 11% Merlot - ($25) This is the second of the "red" wines, and is medium burgundy in the glass. This one is all cough syrup all the time. It's pleasant enough, though, since the slightly-medicinal sour cherry thing works for me. It also has a slight bitterness on the finish that lingers. The Cabernet isn't as noticeable here. 8.

2003 Vetus, Toro - 100% Tempranillo, maybe - ($20) Made by the Izadi people, and sports a pretty spiffy minimal label. Dark, black, with a lot of rough tannins and could probably sit around for a while to good effect. In the same rough, warm style as the Izadi. 8.5

2004 Bodegas Quinta de la Quietud "Corral de Campanas", Toro - 100% Tinto de Toro, maybe - ($22) From the former owners of Château Cheval Blanc. Dark purple and with a lot of oaky tinderbox and hope chest smells in the nose along with some mocha and cherry. Lots of big, extracted fruit descending to a prickly acid finish. A huge wine. 8.

2001 Quinta de la Quietud Muestra, Toro - 100% Tinto de Toro, maybe - ($35) Reddish black, dark. Smells like an attic filled with old papers. Lots of very ripe brambly blackberry and raspberry in the mouth. Very pretty and elegant overall. 8.5.

1996 Arzuaga Gran Reserva, Ribera del Duero - 100% Tempranillo, maybe - ($125) This was a bonus bottle opened up because everyone in the store wanted to try it. Very brown/brick red and showing that it has some age on it. Not much fruit left at this point, mostly toasty wood, tobacco, and spice in the mouth. The finish is languid and super smooth, and I really liked the finish, since I am all about the finish when it comes to wine. 9.

Tasting quote of the day:

Kirk (hosting the tasting) to me, when I didn't appreciate the Cabernet in the Finca Luzón: "Cabernet in the glass is like having your mother-in-law in your house... you don't have to see her to know she's there."

I ended up going home with the Izadi Rioja and the Vetus, even though I will probably pick up the El Quintanal at some point and possibly a couple of the others.

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+

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.

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

Quinta do Noval "Raven" Special Reserve

Region: Douro, Portugal

Composition: Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Touriga Francesa

Background: Even though I often like them, I don't drink a lot of dessert wines. Sometimes, when I am out, I will order a glass, but mostly, I don't buy them. I never have occasion to drink enough of the stuff to warrant opening a bottle or even a half-bottle at home. And even though I enjoyed this Port, I also learned that Port is killer (just like frog is killer) and will give you an evil headache a few hours after you drink it.

I had to learn a lot about Port when I took the WSET exam two months ago. There are many different varieties: white, tawny, ruby, reserve ruby, late bottled vintage, vintage, single-quinta, colheita. Like most wines, the main differences are grape quality and aging. Oh, yeah, and price. Port producers, like Champagne producers, only declare vintages in the best years, so vintage Port and single-quinta Ports (vintage Port from a single estate) are expensive indeed. Port is often handpicked (it often has to be since the slopes on which the grapes are grown are so steep) and trodden in stone lagares, since the foot crushes the grapes more gently than any machine. Many Port houses have attempted to move away from the stone lagares, but with limited success. Fermentation is arrested through the addition of a neutral grape spirit (think brandy) when the wine has about ten percent residual sugar, and the result is a sweet but fairly alcoholic fortified wine. The wines are thten usually shipped to Vila Nova de Gaia (across the river from Oporto at the mouth of the Douro River, and away from the hot Douro Valley) where they are aged, since aging in the valley results in baked wines.

This port, the Quinta do Noval "Raven" is a humble ruby Port, albeit a "special reserve" ruby of higher quality than the usual stuff. It was also aged a in oak four years, about twice as long as is the norm for ruby Ports. This doesn't make it on par with the vintage Port that Quinta do Noval (who have, by many accounts, made the single greatest vintage port of the 20th century, the 1931) makes, but it is still fairly tasty, and a lot cheaper.

Since this whole thing was for Wine Blogging Wednesday 13, and, since the whole concept this time around was pairing wine and chocolate cake, I hauled the Port and the chocolate cake (in this case, a chocolate merlot cake) to a Labor Day get together, since sharing cake is way more fun than just eating it yourself. Same goes with a bottle of Port. It may not be the most creative pairing in the world, but it seemed right at the time. I debated a lot of Zinfandels before settling on Port, but couldn't find one that seemed like it would work (although I was wishing for a good late harvest Zinfandel at one point).

I have been curious about this particular cake recipe for a long time, and I made the cake as the recipe indicates since it was the first time I made the recipe. The Merlot I used was a 2003 McManis Merlot (cheap and fruity but okay, just what I wanted). I made a raspberry/blackberry coulis for the inbetween layers and tossed some fresh raspberries on top. The recipe suggests having the cake with the Merlot used in the recipe, but I really thought that would be pushing it, since I subscribe to the "dessert wine should be sweeter than dessert" concept and figured both the wine and the cake would taste like crap if I tried Merlot with it, even if it is a good way to get rid of the whole bottle.

Notes: This was tasty enough that my pregnant friend had a tiny nip of it and then gleefully announced "the baby likes it!" since the baby started moving around. So babies, they are on the Port train. This has a plummy, raisiny nose, with mostly fruit in evidence. In the mouth it is sweet, velvety, and alcoholic. Fruit dominates at first-- cherry, strawberry, and plums. Then spice cake flavors, caramel, with a little dark maple syrup show up on the tongue. It's simple but enjoyable, and went pretty well with the cake, I think.

The cake was not overly sweet, and although I think it was a little drier than it could have been (I probably left it in the oven about three or four minutes too long), it was tasty. It was definitely a better pairing than the cake with the Prosecco we also had out with dessert, since the Prosecco was not sweet enough to carry the cake. And while the cake has some sweetness, it isn't sickeningly sweet overall. I was also pleased with the recipe since while you can taste the Merlot in the cake, it isn't overwhelming. I hate alcohol-fueled cakes that taste like sponges soaked in rum or brandy.

In the end, other than the headache I got later in the evening (and the Zinfandel I had been drinking all afternoon probably had as much to do with that as the Port), I have no regrets about this pairing. We finished the bottle that night, and that means I got a couple of beer drinkers to switch over to Port for a while. Victory! I also just now tried a bit of leftover cake with the Merlot I used to make it to see how that goes, and I have to say, I don't love it, but it isn't so bad, and I can see the merits. The cake is sweeter than the wine, but brings out the mocha and chocolate flavors in it. With some tweaking, I could see it working out.

Cost: $15

Overall: B/B+

2002 York Creek Vineyards Tempranillo

Region: Sonoma County, California, US

Composition: 100% Tempranillo

Background: Today is, in essence, the first birthday of Wine Blogging Wednesday, and for this one year anniversary, Lenn challenged us to find (and drink) wine from the closest winery to our house. This took some consideration... did I want to go by closest winery office, vineyard, tasting room, winemaking facility or something completely different? I ended up, after some debate, going with winemaking facility since that seemed most honest to me. I had a feeling I knew where the closest place that actually made wine would be, but I did some Googling to make sure there wasn't anything sneaky that was closer, and then I was good to go.

Fritz Maytag is famous for a lot of things, but York Creek Vineyards is probably not at the top of that list unless you are a wine lover. His family is the family to bring you not only Maytag washing machines, but also Maytag Blue cheese (not that he has ever had much to do with those personally). He is the man behind Anchor Brewing Company (makers of fine beer, rye whiskey, and gin) and singlehandedly brought the microbrew to power in the United States. Or at least made "microbrew" a household word. He is also quietly making wine (and making olive oil even more quietly than that), something I heard about years ago, but never got around to investigating. Which is stupid since I live less than a mile from Anchor Brewing and York Creek Vineyards.

Maytag got involved in the booze business in the mid 1960's, when he was a grad student at Stanford. He was a fan of the local Anchor Steam beer, and when he heard in 1965 that the company was in trouble and about to go under, he bought half of it for a few thousand dollars. Three years later, he bought the other half, even though he knew nothing about brewing beer, and had to figure it out as he went along. The company limped along until 1971, when he launched a reformulated Anchor Steam beer, which became an immediate hit and was so popular Maytag couldn't keep up with demand by the mid 70s.

About the same time he bought Anchor Steam, Maytag (along with his ex-roommate and friend, Paul Draper of Ridge Vineyards) tried to set up an effort to improve Chilean wine and agriculture, but that failed (even though Chilean winemaking is in full force now and it seems that they were just ahead of their time). Maytag also bought 700 acres of land closer to home, near York Creek between Napa and Sonoma, and planted vineyards on about 100 of those acres. For years he sold the grapes grown on the land to other wineries (such as Ridge), but he always secretly harbored a desire to make his own wine.

So he started to do just that in the early 1990s (with the help of Cathy Corison of Corison Winery), first using equipment and space where he could get it, then building a little winery of his own in 2000. He started out making only three wines, and, while he makes more than those three different wines now, he makes only small lots and is very much about the process of winemaking, learning about the individual grapes, and experimentation. This Tempranillo is grown for the winery's Port project (something I would also like to get my hands on) and is one of the wines Maytag says he made "just to see".

(Randomly, the label reminds me of the Anchor Brewing Christmas label (also tree-themed) and the 24 trees represented are each varieties of tree found on the York Creek property.)

Notes: This is one intense wine. It's a thick burgundy-black in the glass with a slightly pink rim. The nose is filled with cocoa and tobacco leaves, along with spice and red berry. It's smooth, generous, and mouthfilling, with good acids, a lot of black fruit, and a spicy, smoky finish. There's more spice than tannin in the mouth on the finish. I like it a lot, but I do have a thing for Tempranillo. This is a nice example; inky but kind of friendly.

Cost: $21

Overall: A/A-