this heaven gives me migraine

2003 François Chidaine Clos Habert

Region: Montlouis sur Loire, France

Composition: 100% Chenin Blanc

Background: At 4 o'clock this afternoon I remembered that today is Wine Blogging Wednesday 11, and I needed to drink and write up a demi-sec/off-dry wine before midnight. Of course, I had no off-dry wines in the house aside from a way-old bottle of Moscato d'Asti that I have been abusing because I forgot it in the fridge for about three years and only noticed it shoved way in the back behind the untouchable beer we had when I cleaned out the fridge a week or so ago. I mean, knew it was there, but had forgotten quite how old it has become (let's just say it would be in elementary school right now, if it were a small child).

Anyway, I had to do some quick work and pick something up, because I have a feeling that when I open the Moscato, it isn't going to be pretty. My dirty secret (well, not so secret) is that I don't drink a lot of sweet, or even slightly sweet, wines (hence, the existence of a six-year-old Moscato in the house), so I had my work cut out for me insofar as finding one that I thought I would like.

I ended up with a bottle of François Chidaine Clos Habert, a demi-sec from the Montlouis appellation in the Loire. Montlouis is located across the river from the more well-known Vouvray, and has a similar soil composition of clay and chalky tuffeau. The wines are similar, although some say that the Montlouis wines are more rocky in nature, and this all seemed fine to me since I was originally angling for a Vouvray just because I like saying Vouvray a lot (and if that isn't a good reason to buy a wine, what is?). In fact, Montlouis was part of the Vouvray appellation until it was granted its own AC status in 1937, and the wines are also made of Chenin Blanc, the grape which produces so many fascinating wines in the Loire.

The estate makes several styles of wine from Chenin Blanc....sweet, off-dry, dry, sparkling (the same styles can be are found in Vouvray), and also makes a small amount of Sauvignon Blanc. The grapes for this wine come from 60-year-old vines and are harvested by hand in up to four passes, to achieve optimal sugar levels. The wines are certified organic even though Chidaine doesn't mention that on the label.

Notes: This wine is all about honey! Clear light gold in the glass, it has a strong nose of poached peaches and syrupy pears, with a mineral streak and a little bit of honeysuckle. The floral element is more noticeable as the wine gets warmer. It hits the tongue with a thick, heady block of intense sweet fruit (more peaches and pears), and finishes with a long honeyed note that has a little gingery bite in it to keep it interesting. There is enough acidity that my gums are left tingling, and I am not finding it cloying or unpleasant. It's not within my usual drinking repertoire and I don't think it has made a demi-sec believer out of me, but it was fun to drink and is well-done and balanced. We had it with bread, roasted almonds, blackberries, Harley Farms pepper chevre, Humboldt Fog, and Mount Tam.

Cost: $22

Overall: B

2004 Chehalem Pinot Gris

Region: Willamette Valley, Oregon, US

Composition: 100% Pinot Gris

Background: I am in the throes of frantic study for my WSET exam in July (and wondering what I was thinking, as well as wishing I could drink wine and study effectively at the same time, but that isn't possible), so I haven't been drinking much at all, but I made an effort to sit down with some wine tonight so I could participate in Wine Blogging Wednesday 10, the not-Noir Pinot challenge. We sat down with this, some bread and cheese, and an episode of Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. I may or may not get through Germany and Austria later tonight, at this rate.

Today was a lousy day for a crisp white wine here in San Francisco... it's been rainy and cool and drizzly all day, and I would much rather be drinking a nice rustic Minervois or Southern Rhone tonight, not a sprightly white. But for Wine Blogging Wednesday, I go the extra mile. And I think we had a winner... someone else in the house was eye-rolling about having to drink a white wine on a day like this. He had some, and opened a red since that was more in keeping with the weather, but I notice he went back to this after a glass of the red.

I have had and enjoyed Chehalem Pinot Noir before, and chose their Pinot Gris because I had some at Chez Panisse back in April and enjoyed it enough to want to try it again and pay more attention to it.

Chehalem was founded in 1990, and is in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, about 45 minutes south of Portland. They make a variety of Pinots (Noir, Gris, Blanc) as well as a couple of Chardonnays, and I certainly hope to visit them someday, next time I fly up to Portland (we drove the first/last time we were up there, and that drive is LONG). Chehalem is pretty dedicated to terroir and was involved with an interesting "transparent winemaking" experiment with some pals over at Rex Hill and Bethel Heights wineries back in 1998. (I love experiments like those because I love all things conceptual). They model their Pinot Gris after Alsatian Pinot Gris, favoring complexity and a full body, and they bottle the wines in flûtes d'Alsace, the traditional long, thin bottles used in the French region. They also use a very nifty-looking screwcap that I liked.

Notes: Greenish straw in the glass, like dried grass, something I am seeing a lot in California of these days, the freak rains notwithstanding. The full nose of honeyed peach with pineapple is forward, but not overwhelming. It's snappy when it first hits the tongue, with a lot of tart fruit right off (more stone fruit), and it finishes with tart green apple and apricot, along with some honeyed undertones. We had it with some Hudson Valley Camembert, Cypress Grove Pepper Chevre, and quince paste (...I called it "dinner!"), and it was pleasant. It has a lot of weight to it, and is almost Chardonnay-like in body. My only complaint is the apricot-bittersweetness at the finish, and the fact that overall the finish is a little heavy and clunky for the rest of the wine.

Before I sat down and picked it apart like this, I enjoyed it a lot more. Back then I had it with pasta and asparagus with green garlic and cream. I thought it went really well with those things, even the pesky-to-match asparagus, and the funky finish didn't bother me at all. This is what happens when you pay attention....

Cost: $15

Overall: B

2003 Marotti Campi "Luzano"

Region: Marche, Italy

Composition: 100% Verdicchio

Background: After a hard weekend of doing little and a day dominated by hangovers and general lethargy, we decided to celebrate Memorial Day by walking up the hill for dinner at Aperto. It was a nice sunny day and the food we were ordering seemed to demand white wine, so I went with a Verdecchio dei Castelli di Jesi, a wine I have read a fair amount about but have never tasted. I was just vowing the other day to try more Italian whites, and it seemed time to start making good on that vow.

Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi is one of the more famous wines of the Marches area of Italy, an area to the east of Umbria. The Verdicchio grape originated in Marches and is now grown in several regions of Italy, including Tuscany and Friuli. The Marotti Campi family grows these grapes (and the grapes for the handful of other wines they make, including an interesting-sounding Lacrima) in the hills around the town of Jesi, surrounded by castle ruins (castelli). They have been doing this since the 19th century, but are interested in trying new things such as replanting some of their vineyards with high-density plantings.

Notes: This wine is a clear, sparkly lemon yellow in the glass, with glints of chartreuese. The nose is floral and grassy, smelling of white jasmine, hay, lemons, and green apples, and in the mouth it offers more of that tart apple and lemon on the palate, along with some bitter lemon pith flavor in the finish (a slight bitter finish seems common in Verdicchio), which I of course loved. It's got a medium body, probably somewhat from the fact that the grapes were left on the lees a long time, but overall is zesty (the wine sees no oak, which is a good thing in this case) with nice acids and surprising elegance. It went well with our artichoke, leek, and pine nut ravioli and asparagus, leek, and preserved lemon risotto, which was nice considering that asparagus and artichoke can be a pain for wine-pairing. We finished the bottle while watching a guy ride up and down Connecticut Street on his bike. When I asked him what he was training for (if you could see Connecticut Street you would know that people aren't likely to bike up and down it for fun) he said he is going to try to bike up Mount Shasta. Good luck, bike guy!

Cost: about $15

Overall: B+

2003 Château la Colline "Côté Ouest" Bergerac Blanc

Region: Bergerac, France

Composition: 90% Sémillon, 10% Sauvignon Blanc

Background: Englishman and self-proclaimed Vinarchist and Terroirist Charles Martin founded Château de la Colline in 1994, and makes a small range of red and white wines. He learned his winemaking all over the globe: Napa Valley, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. He was the winemaker at Château de la Jaubertie before, as the Charles Neal website insists, he won La Colline in a drunken leg-wrestle. (There is quite a biography of Charles Martin to be found there, worth a read and a laugh.) Martin has brought some new ways of doing things to the Bergerac region, things like using argon to protect the wines, high-density plantings, and mechanical leaf plucking. Oh, those wacky Englishmen!

The Bergerac region is on the north-east edge of Bordeaux and the area grows similar grapes to Bordeaux; except, as people like to point out, without the snottiness and prices of Bordeaux. This wine is a standard dry white Bordeaux-style blend consisting of Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc. Sémillon is usually somewhat rich and kind of oily and heavy in nature, and can be a little flabby and free of acids to handle the fruit, so the Sauvignon Blanc (which is a lot more acidic and grassier/greener) is added to fix that problem and give the wine a little more zing.

Notes: Golden straw yellow in the glass, with a nose of apricot, nectarine, and honey, along with some sweet clover which gives it a lovely aromatic lightness. More nectarine on the palate, along with some sweet citrus. The fruit is so full and rich it is almost bitter, if that makes sense. A fairly zippy finish with some nice acids along with a lingering finish of honey and mineral made this a pleasant wine to have with some asparagus in garlic-lemon cream and pasta, as we did. It's definitely a fuller-bodied white, but pretty nice and balanced nonetheless.

Cost: $10

Overall: B

Sokol Blosser Evolution #9, 8th Edition

Region: Willamette Valley, Oregon, US

Composition: White Riesling, Pinot Gris, Muller-Thurgau, Semillon, Gewurztraminer, Muscat, Pinot Blanc, Sylvaner, Chardonnay

(The above are roughly in descending order of percentage, I believe, although the blend is secret and different every year. I do know that Sokol Blosser owns only 10 Sylvaner vines, and the grapes from all those go into the production every year.)

Background: This wine, so named for the nine grape varietals that go into the blend, won by default tonight since I made some Quorn, vegetables, and noodles in peanut sauce and the only other white I had chilled was a Trentino, which didn't seem like a good choice since I haven't had it before and didn't know what it would be like. I'd had this before and knew what I was getting into. Evolution #9 is made by Sokol Blosser winery in Oregon, and got popular enough in the last few years that they gave it its own brand identity and webpage. Sokol Blosser has been around since 1971 (the winery opened in 1977, once Bill and Susan, the owners, replanted the run-down prune farm) and, like many Oregon wineries, focuses mostly on Pinot Noir. Besides Pinot Noir they must make a fair amount of Evolution #9, because I see it everywhere, it seems.

Notes: This is a pretty light gold in the glass, and has a nose with a lot of peach and nectarine and cold cream. There's more peach on the palate, with a little bit of apple tartness and some nice acids. It's pretty zingy with an almost lemony pop (and when freshly opened, has a little snap of CO2 on the tip of the tongue) and although there is a little residual sugar, it isn't cloying-- the slight sweetness makes it pair well with things like peanut sauce. It's fairly full-bodied, like a big Chardonnay, but a lot lighter on its feet in the flavor profile and it seems like there is little, if any, oak in the production, from what I can smell/taste. It's got a little almond/nutty heaviness to it, but not much, and the finish is soft like lemon custard. Overall it is fairly layered and I always think of it as the lighter and goofier little sister to Caymus' Conundrum (funnily, another white that has been given its own brand and website).

Cost: $15

Overall: B+