this heaven gives me migraine

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

2003 Cuvaison Carneros Pinot Noir

Notes: This wine was sent to me by Pete Danko of Paterno Wines, right before I got sick (thanks, Pete!). Because of that, I was remiss in my duties of promptly drinking it and writing about it, but I am playing catch up now, and had this a few days ago. (I have a Chardonnay to report on, too, but more on that, later.)

I didn't know much about Cuvaison but some investigation tells me it was started by some engineers (the computer sort) in 1969, and changed hands a couple of times between then and 1979, when a Swiss family bought the winery along with a bunch of vineyard. Right now the winemaker is Steven Rogstad, who was at Clos Pegase a while back, and found his way to wine through his literature major in college. He ferments these hand-picked grapes for about three weeksn and then the wine spends 9 months in 60 percent new French oak barrels.

This wine is a light burgundy-red in glass, not a blue red, but more of a brown-orange red, which is not surprising in a Pinot Noir. It has a slightly hot nose of cherry and strawberry, along with bark and nutmeg. On the tongue the fruit (more of that cherry/strawberry, and a lot of it) is immediate, and then gives way to a bitter orange astringency. A cardamom-cherry cough drop finish cleans up. I find that the astringency in the finish is too much for me, and the bitterness I am getting is somewhat jarring, but the finish is long and pleasant.

Cost: $28

Overall: B-. A nice effort, but not my style of Pinot Noir, really.

2003 Napa Creek Merlot

Notes: I had this at our occasional company-sponsored it's-friday-stand-around-and-drink-and-chat deal. It's a kind of running joke at these that the wine is terrible but we pretend it isn't. The beer served is also not great, but I think the wine might especially suffer, given the budget and knowledge of the people doing the purchasing. Anyway, it's one of those things and you don't really expect to get delicious drinks, nor should you.

Well, hooray to my company for bringing the Napa Creek last week, just because I have wanted to try it and I finally got a chance to without having to buy the stuff. I know I've talked about it before. I've been meaning to pick some up, but first didn't remember, and then when I did remember, couldn't remember if it was the right Napa-whatever wine when faced with it in the store, since I had a mental block on the actual winery name. This is Fred Franzia's wine that says "Dear Napa Vintners, bite me". Fred said he would make a good bottle of Napa wine for under ten dollars, partly because he wanted to prove that it could be done and partly to piss off the Napa vintners. I see that it is 4 bucks at Trader Joe's and up to 10 or so elsewhere, so prices vary, and you can also get it in the Chardonnay flavor.

This was tasted out of a big plastic Solo cup, which was at least one of the clear kind and not the red or blue kind, so I could tell that the wine is dark purplish-red, with ruby-red highlights. It has a pleasant nose full of bramble, black plum and blackberry, and toasty vanilla and oak. When tasted, it starts out with an initial velvety vanilla-plum flavor but then finishes with a harsh and astringent wooden note that is slightly acrid and rough. The lingering flavors are of wood and spice (clove, cardamom, pepper) and there is a slight bitterness. The wine has not much by way of tannins, substituting this rough spice. Overall, it isn't bad, but the finish makes me not enjoy it very much.

Cost: Free for me but I think my friend who bought it said it was $8 at Mollie Stone's (where we get all our Friday wine and beer). If you get yourself to Trader Joe's you can probably get some for half that.

Overall: C+. It didn't kill me or anything, but it wasn't particularly great, and for 8 bucks I think you could do better and find something more interesting and with a better finish.

Random Handful

This is mostly for my own brain since I don't want to forget them.... I drank these here and there a while back, and meant to post them pre-illness, but didn't. Most of them were eh or okay, but the Meric and the Palacios were both interesting and I would seek them out again. And the Le Grive, that was pretty tasty.

2002 Cold Heaven "Vogelzgang" Viognier
Santa Ynez Valley, CA, US
Deep straw, unusual color, very dark
Very perfumey nose honeysuckle and some mineral and lemon
Honey and vanilla and citrus green apple in mouth
Slightly bitter (dull bitter) finish but honey peachy bitter

2002 Erhart Pinot-Auxerrois "Val St. Gregorie"
Alsace, France
Pale straw, soft nose
Almost foxy soapy
Soapy vanilla in mouth
Kind of flabby, slight citrus apple at finish

2003 Brick House Chardonnay
Willamette Valley, Oregon, US
Pale yellow
Sweet soft floral nose creamy white flower
Green apple in mouth leading into creme brulee finish
lemony!

2000 Forteto della Luja 'Le Grive' (Barbera/Pinot Noir)
Piemonte, Italy
Ruby red in glass
Soft astringent nose soft red fruit bacon fat
Gobs of red fruit in the palate, velvety
Some dust on finish
Very simple but enjoyable

2000 Chateau Bousquette Cuvée Tradition
St Chinian, France
Eric Perret, vigneron
Dusty blackberry nose
Light, almost thin spice in finish
Slight smoke
Some carignaney rigidity mid to back palate

2002 Alvaro Palacios "Les Terraces"
Priorat, Spain
Blue purple, vibrant
Nose of sweet black raspberry, cherry, sweet extracted dried blackberry or raisin
Elegant restrained leathery fruit, tannins sweep in but then finish is very very good, and lingers
Goregous finish, leathery but pretty

2001 Allegrini "La Grola" (IGT)
Verona, Italy
Nose like musty attic, funky
Burnt wood, char, bacon fat, meat
Some red/black fruit, bitters
Very chalky finish, big tannins at finish

NV Meric Catherine de Medicis Cuvee Prestige Grand Cru
Champagne, France
Golden yellow in glass fine bubbles
Sweet biscuit and peach funk crazy sweet funk
Sharp mousse (slightly) descends to slight lemon and toast
All about breads in the finish toasty muffiny

2001 Nigl Reseve Sauvignon Blanc

Notes: I had an earlier vintage of this wine years ago and spent years trying to find it again, which I finally did this last spring. Nigl is well known for Riesling and Gruner Veltliner, but their Sauvignon Blanc is either so unremarkable that it is not bothered with here in the states, or so good that it is all drunk up in Austria and nothing usually gets out this way. In any case, the one I had years ago was the first wine that I'd ever had serious snap on the tongue from CO2 and I remember being in love with it from the first sip. This incarnation of the wine is different from what I remember, but then it is a different vintage and also a bit longer in the tooth than the one I had many years ago (which was only a year or two old).

Clear gold in the glass, this is all about fruit, and smells like it could be the bastard child of Riesling and Gewurztraminer, not Sauvignon Blanc. It's not green at all, but round and rich and full of fruit and floral craziness (think white lilies). Peaches and apricots abound in the nose, along with some warm spices like nutmeg and ginger. There are a lot more very ripe peaches and apricots in the mouth, with a toasted cream finish laced with honey. It's funny that I drank this worried that it would be tired and the fruit would be gone, and there is really nothing but fruit going on in here. My only complaint is that it made me very congested! (That was either the sulfites or my endless sinus infection talking, since I had this one back in the throes of on-and-off sinus infections.)

Cost: $42

Overall: B+

2001 K Vintners "Milbrandt" Syrah

I am not dead. After two months of sickness, sinus, and ear infections, three rounds of antibiotics, a few false thoughts of being better, a round of steroids, and a trip to Washington, DC, I am alive (although with a lingering eustachian tube problem, I suspect). Alive is good, because I have been missing wine. In between some of the antibiotics (what was that? late September? mid-October? It seems forever ago) I had an uninspiring bottle of Sangiovese, an eh glass of Cabernet, and a really-not-bad-but-it-was-my-birthday-and-I-didn't-take-notes bottle of Zinfandel, but nothing worth talking about, and really, I was mostly feeling too crappy to do anything but try to sleep and take a lot of pills. And I wasn't sure if my lack of excitement about the wine was my sickness or the fact that the wine really was not interesting, or both.

I also missed Wine Blogging Wednesday 14 AND Wine Blogging Wednesday #15, both which sounded fun and I am sad to have missed out.

Anyway, I tried to make up for everything once I got to DC and was free of antibiotics and weaning myself off steroids (since they bludgeon you with steroids and then slowly reduce the amount over a period of days). We started the week off with the K Vintners "Milbrandt", a wine I dragged out there with me. (Dear K Vintners, what's up with the October shipments? I am guessing they are late? Don't forget about me!)

This is Syrah from the Wahluke Slope sub-region of the Columbia Valley in Washington state (an area that is predicted to get its own AVA designation soon). It's one of the warmer grape-growing areas and I guess there is a lot of apple tree land being turned over to grapes up there (something also happening in Anderson Valley in California right now-- often that is not looked upon with excitement by the locals, as I learned when I was up in Anderson Valley in early September and heard a lot of bitter rumblings about the wineries).

Notes: This is an inky purple-red in the glass, and looks fairly young still (not that it is very old). It has a nose of violets, old chairs, smoke, tar, earth, and, even though I was told this was totally not correct and if I smelled them ever I would recant my description, raccoons. I think there was a tiny gamey element that made me think "raccoon" even though it was not overwhelmingly gamey. The smoke/tar/earth element was most prevalent. The tannins were pretty soft and the finish was pretty fatty and round, leaving a tarry element behind. I thought it was delicious, although not as good as the near-perfect "The Boy".

Cost: $28

Overall: B+. I would love to have a case or two around, but it is definitely a wine made for some big food (or cigars), because it is a bruiser.

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+

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

2001 Chehalem Stoller Vineyard Pinot Noir

Region: Willamette Valley, Oregon, US

Composition: 100% Pinot Noir

Background: I remember that my friend Dan first touted Chehalem wines to me, years ago. He'd had a chance to taste some of them while working at Asia Nora, and tipped me off that they were worth investigation. Because of this, I always think of Dan when I drink Chehalem wines. I've had a smattering of their Pinot Noirs and also their Pinot Gris, and I have had some very long days at work lately, so when I got home tonight I decided to open this up while I made a fig/arugula/goat cheese pizza. I am glad I did. I am also glad I liked it, since (and I don't know if it was me or the wines or both, I suspect both) when I was at Family Winemakers on Sunday I had a streak of Pinots that screamed OAK to me, and not much else, and I couldnt deal with it. But more on that when I write up Family Winemakers.

Aside from the aforementioned oak issues, I have always liked Pinot Noir. It's the first red grape I fell in love with, which isn't surprising since for a few years I thought reds didn't agree with me (one night of a migraine made me superstitious) and only drank white wines. It's a friendly way for white wine drinkers to learn about reds, since it isn't normally monstrous or tannic.

The land on which this particular Pinot was grown is possibly the only connection in the world (and here you werer never even looking for one, were you?) between Pinot Noir and turkeys (live ones, not Thanksgiving turkeys), since it used to be a turkey farm. The folks who own it, the Stollers, are co-owners of Chehalem. The land has other vines planted on it, but the 90 acres of Pinot dominate. 820 cases of this wine were made.

Notes: Burgundy with a paler brownish pink rim. A prickly (if a smell can have a shape), earthy nose full of black and red fruit, with dark chewy earth and mushroom, bramble, and herb. In the mouth it is round and lush with soft tobacco spice, mocha, and cherry, and has more warm spice than tannin on the finish. The acid is very fine and the finish lingers in a pleasant way. Overall, I think it is a very nice example of an Oregon Pinot Noir... slightly dark and earthy, but friendly and delicious.

Cost: $30, but I paid about half that on sale

Overall: I have to say A-, because I wouldn't mind having a case or two of this around.

2002 Domaine du Closel "La Jalousie"

Region: Savennières, Loire, France

Composition: 100% Chenin Blanc

Background: Anjou-Samur of the Loire is the second region in from the Atlantic coast (to the east of Nantais, which is on the coast) and enjoys a climate moderated by that body of water... mild winters, warm summers, good humidity. The main grape of importance in the area is Chenin Blanc, which is made in a variety of ways; historically it was sweet, but now the trend is to dryness. Within that region lies Savennières, a tiny (150 acre) appellation for white wines made from the Chenin Blanc grape.

Domaine du Closel, in Savennières, has a long and interesting history that ties into the appellation. Ownership of the property can be traced back to the grandson of Emmanuel-Augustin-Dieudonné-Marin-Joseph, the Marquis de Las Cases, who was an intimate and historian of Napoleon. From there it went to the Marquis' daughter, who married Bernard du Closel, a man who was at one point the mayor of Savennières (and a strong advocate who worked to get the region recognized as an official appellation, which happened in 1952). Madame du Closel had no children and thus gave the estate to her niece, Michèle Bazin de Jessey, in 1961. Madame de Jessey, who runs the estate with the help of her son and daughter, has always had a great love of wine and winemaking and even served as the first woman to be president of an appellation (the Savennières AC, of course).

The estate makes both red and white wines, but the white wines are the stars, as one would expect in the Loire. They farm and hand-pick the 30 acres of Chenin Blanc that they have planted, which, if you think about it, is about 1/5 of the total land devoted to the Savennières appellation.

Notes: Clear pure gold, this has a very forward nose of honeyed pears, dried grass, lemon zest, and tart apples. It's less fruity in the mouth...it has a lot of rocky gravel, dried grass and hay, and maybe some more lemon. The finish is very dry with some herbal and soft lemon flavors. It's pretty high acid, and makes a nice pairing with food (arugula, garlic, tomatoes, in this case), and the finish is long and clean. This wine is fermented in stainless steel and has the clean zippiness you get from wines fermented that way.

Cost: B+

Overall: $15