Hello Everyone! You may have been wondering when we would get around to talking about Pinot Noir. Pinot Noir has steadily risen in popularity since 2004. Most people in the wine industry have attributed Pinot’s rise and Merlot’s fall to the movie Sideways. Pinot Noir is not our first choice in reds partially because the recent rise in popularity has driven up prices. This has also caused a rush to production and a subsequent decrease in quality at the lower price ranges. The end result is that you are going to have to pay up for a good one, or stick with a reliable producer. This is our first Pinot Noir review and La Crema Pinot is considered one of the most popular Pinot Noirs.
Pinot Noir is the noble red grape that hails from the Burgundy region of France, which can really make an elegant and memorable, if not haunting, wine. The good Burgundies can run you big bucks though, especially in the Grand Cru and Premier Cru classifications. However, some people consider Pinot Noir the best way to step into the world of red wine because it is not as woody, earthy, or tannic as Cabernet and some Merlots. It tends to have good fruit without being too jammy, with some oak for structure, and very little tannins. Outside of Burgundy, you can find Pinot Noir in California, with the cooler climates of Oregon, Washington, and most recently New Zealand (with climates that more closely mimic Burgundy) making a good push into the production of quality Pinot.
However, for a red wine grape it is really quite finicky when compared to its rivals such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Nebbiolo (source of the great Barolos and Barbarescos), and Sangiovese (Brunello and Chianti). Pinot Noir is a very thin-skinned grape and therefore needs cooler weather especially in the evening to flourish. Burgundy is approximately at 47° north latitude which is one of the northernmost wine regions. The Bordeaux region is at 44° north, and by comparison, Napa and Sonoma are located at about 38° north, a much warmer climate. This helps explain why cooler regions such as Oregon have come on strong over the last decade. For Pinot Noir to flourish in California, it needs the cooling fog to roll in off the coast in the evening. Areas along the Sonoma Coast and Russian River Valley in Sonoma are ideal, as is the Carneros region, which receives cooling fogs off the San Pablo Bay.
La Crema gets its Pinot Noir from the Sonoma Coast, which gives it a great start. It only receives about 7½ months in French oak barrels, of which only about a quarter are new. New oak imparts much more of that “oaky” taste than old oak barrels, so a Pinot usually won’t be overwhelmingly woody. It has aromas of ripe berries, spice, and pepper. There is a very good balance of cherries, plum, vanilla, and butter. This is a very juicy and fruity wine with a smooth, almost creamy, round, toasty oak finish.
This is an occasional buy again for us, for occasions when the meal or the company call for Pinot. But the usual price range of this wine is $25 – 35 and so this puts it a little higher than our preferred price range of wines that we like to buy. However, it is a well-established, quality Pinot. In future posts, we hope to explore more Pinot Noir, to really understand what makes this grape a passion for so many.
Drink what you like, like what you drink!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
The Office
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Chateau du Cardboard – What’s in the Black Box?
Hello Everyone! If you’re like us, you’ve probably noticed that there appears to be a new section of wine growing in the shop where you usually purchase your wine: the boxed wine section. Traditionally, that section has been fairly small on the bottom shelf next to the jug wines and was mostly occupied by the brand Franzia (which Rachel’s uncle immediately labeled as “Chateau du Cardboard – great for hot days at the lake). But times are changing and there are more labels and more choices consisting of varietals from Paso Robles, New Zealand, Italy, and Australia.
We became intrigued by box wine about 6 years ago when Delicato Shiraz from California – in a box! – started gaining all sorts of accolades. Before this, you didn’t see many varietal wines in a box (Franzia “Mountain Chablis” is not really Chablis, but a form of Chenin Blanc blended with others grapes). Our first box wine gamble 6 years ago was Three Thieves Bandit Pinot Grigio, and the box looked more like a soy milk carton than anything else. Additionally, it was different from the others since it was the equivalent of a one-liter bottle, slightly larger than the standard box size (generally the equivalent to four 750-ml bottles). Out of curiosity, we picked it up and found it to be pleasant. The wine had much of the acidic character of Pinot Grigio due to the stainless fermentation and lack of secondary malolactic fermentation. However, a California Pinot Grigio such as the Three Thieves tends to have more fruit than its Italian counterparts, particularly due to the warmer climate. There are more tropical fruit and apple flavors than the crisp, mineral flavors found in the wines from cooler areas of Italy such as Alto Adige and the Veneto. This was a good wine to have a glass before dinner, but for the most part, due to its size, price, and re-closeable top which preserved its freshness, we used it as the white wine for all of our cooking needs and bought it fairly regularly. It’s always fun to share your glass of wine with what’s cooking on the stove.
A quick note on cooking with wine: do not use the stuff in the grocery store that is called “cooking wine.” This is not really wine at all, but a wine-based product that is loaded with salt and other preservatives. Only cook with wine that you would drink normally. This doesn’t have to be an expensive wine. These days with the advent of screw caps, we regularly use an inexpensive Chilean Sauvignon Blanc as our cooking wine. You don’t want to ruin a sauce, braise, or other meal because you used bad wine.
Black Box New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc
We hadn’t been buying the Bandit for the last few years, primarily because we switched our wine shopping venue, and because the afore-mentioned screw caps made it easier to keep the wine fresh for longer periods. But then, we came across the Black Box Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. It was quite a bargain and a bit different from the Bandit above. It held three liters of wine, the equivalent of 4 bottles, and had a bag and spigot inside from which to draw the wine, which is great at maintaining freshness. With a price around $23, it was definitely worth a try since our favorite New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs run around $12 a bottle, and this was coming in just under $6 a bottle. Like the Bandit, this wine was nice to drink, although a little rounder/softer than our favorites. Overall, it had more tropical fruits rather than the citrus lemon and grapefruit that we are used to finding in New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. It also had a little less acidity. We rated this a buy again and have a box in the fridge now. Sometimes, you just want a glass of wine and don’t want to have to open a bottle. We still have the refrigerator white chilling for the weekends when we sit out and enjoy the garden.
Black Box Riesling – Snake River, Columbia Valley
To many people, the wine that they have the highest expectation of and the most disappointment with is Burgundy. For us, it has been Riesling. In the mid-90s while Bryan was studying chemistry, one of the professors was German and got us turned on to wines from the Mosel Region in Germany. These are incredible wines that combine the sweetness of tangerines, figs and honey with a nice crisp acidity of green apples and minerals. When it works, it’s heaven in a glass. But when it fails, it’s very disappointing. We’ll talk more about German Riesling in another post, but we have had some Rieslings out of Washington State before and find them promising and very good, especially some of the higher end wines like Eroica or the dry Rieslings from Bonny Doon. On first taste, we thought that this was going to be a great bargain. However, we found that the wine lacked the needed acidity to balance the sweeter flavors that Riesling offers. As the wine warmed up a little bit, it lost almost all of its acidity and became quite flabby and overly sweet. This was not a buy again for us.
Black Box Cabernet Sauvignon
This was the last box wine that we tried recently. Again, the whole purpose is to find a wine that offers great value, and the ability to get a glass or two of wine without opening the bottle and having it be oxidized within a day or two. If there was a theme around all of these wines, then it is that they tend to be softer than what we normally would choose in that particular varietal. For the Cabernet Sauvignon, this means smoother tannins than what you would find in more expensive wines. The Black Box Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced from the Central Coast of California including Monterey, Paso Robles, and Lodi. One of the characteristics of these regions is that they are very warm, and thus the grapes reach a high level of ripeness. This brings out the blackberry and cherry flavors and the wines tend to have fewer tannins. The Black Box Cab is balanced with some oak aging to give it a bit of vanilla and toast, which helps restrain the fruit. We would buy this again for the ability for the single glass of red wine.
The boxed wines provide a great opportunity to have the single glass when you want it, and will keep for some time. The price/volume ratio is great. The easy dispensing spigot is nice and you can keep the whites easily in the fridge and the reds on the countertop. The box prevents light from spoiling the wine. The selection of higher quality boxed wines is growing and Black Box is providing a good value for you.
Drink what you like, like what you drink!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
We became intrigued by box wine about 6 years ago when Delicato Shiraz from California – in a box! – started gaining all sorts of accolades. Before this, you didn’t see many varietal wines in a box (Franzia “Mountain Chablis” is not really Chablis, but a form of Chenin Blanc blended with others grapes). Our first box wine gamble 6 years ago was Three Thieves Bandit Pinot Grigio, and the box looked more like a soy milk carton than anything else. Additionally, it was different from the others since it was the equivalent of a one-liter bottle, slightly larger than the standard box size (generally the equivalent to four 750-ml bottles). Out of curiosity, we picked it up and found it to be pleasant. The wine had much of the acidic character of Pinot Grigio due to the stainless fermentation and lack of secondary malolactic fermentation. However, a California Pinot Grigio such as the Three Thieves tends to have more fruit than its Italian counterparts, particularly due to the warmer climate. There are more tropical fruit and apple flavors than the crisp, mineral flavors found in the wines from cooler areas of Italy such as Alto Adige and the Veneto. This was a good wine to have a glass before dinner, but for the most part, due to its size, price, and re-closeable top which preserved its freshness, we used it as the white wine for all of our cooking needs and bought it fairly regularly. It’s always fun to share your glass of wine with what’s cooking on the stove.
A quick note on cooking with wine: do not use the stuff in the grocery store that is called “cooking wine.” This is not really wine at all, but a wine-based product that is loaded with salt and other preservatives. Only cook with wine that you would drink normally. This doesn’t have to be an expensive wine. These days with the advent of screw caps, we regularly use an inexpensive Chilean Sauvignon Blanc as our cooking wine. You don’t want to ruin a sauce, braise, or other meal because you used bad wine.
Black Box New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc
We hadn’t been buying the Bandit for the last few years, primarily because we switched our wine shopping venue, and because the afore-mentioned screw caps made it easier to keep the wine fresh for longer periods. But then, we came across the Black Box Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. It was quite a bargain and a bit different from the Bandit above. It held three liters of wine, the equivalent of 4 bottles, and had a bag and spigot inside from which to draw the wine, which is great at maintaining freshness. With a price around $23, it was definitely worth a try since our favorite New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs run around $12 a bottle, and this was coming in just under $6 a bottle. Like the Bandit, this wine was nice to drink, although a little rounder/softer than our favorites. Overall, it had more tropical fruits rather than the citrus lemon and grapefruit that we are used to finding in New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. It also had a little less acidity. We rated this a buy again and have a box in the fridge now. Sometimes, you just want a glass of wine and don’t want to have to open a bottle. We still have the refrigerator white chilling for the weekends when we sit out and enjoy the garden.
Black Box Riesling – Snake River, Columbia Valley
To many people, the wine that they have the highest expectation of and the most disappointment with is Burgundy. For us, it has been Riesling. In the mid-90s while Bryan was studying chemistry, one of the professors was German and got us turned on to wines from the Mosel Region in Germany. These are incredible wines that combine the sweetness of tangerines, figs and honey with a nice crisp acidity of green apples and minerals. When it works, it’s heaven in a glass. But when it fails, it’s very disappointing. We’ll talk more about German Riesling in another post, but we have had some Rieslings out of Washington State before and find them promising and very good, especially some of the higher end wines like Eroica or the dry Rieslings from Bonny Doon. On first taste, we thought that this was going to be a great bargain. However, we found that the wine lacked the needed acidity to balance the sweeter flavors that Riesling offers. As the wine warmed up a little bit, it lost almost all of its acidity and became quite flabby and overly sweet. This was not a buy again for us.
Black Box Cabernet Sauvignon
This was the last box wine that we tried recently. Again, the whole purpose is to find a wine that offers great value, and the ability to get a glass or two of wine without opening the bottle and having it be oxidized within a day or two. If there was a theme around all of these wines, then it is that they tend to be softer than what we normally would choose in that particular varietal. For the Cabernet Sauvignon, this means smoother tannins than what you would find in more expensive wines. The Black Box Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced from the Central Coast of California including Monterey, Paso Robles, and Lodi. One of the characteristics of these regions is that they are very warm, and thus the grapes reach a high level of ripeness. This brings out the blackberry and cherry flavors and the wines tend to have fewer tannins. The Black Box Cab is balanced with some oak aging to give it a bit of vanilla and toast, which helps restrain the fruit. We would buy this again for the ability for the single glass of red wine.
The boxed wines provide a great opportunity to have the single glass when you want it, and will keep for some time. The price/volume ratio is great. The easy dispensing spigot is nice and you can keep the whites easily in the fridge and the reds on the countertop. The box prevents light from spoiling the wine. The selection of higher quality boxed wines is growing and Black Box is providing a good value for you.
Drink what you like, like what you drink!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Red, White, and Loire - Two Wines from an Often Overlooked Region
Hello Everyone! This is the second installment of our wine experience in Bermuda and as we mentioned before, this one is about some wines from the Loire Valley in France. Our connection between Bermuda and the Loire came back in 2007, when we attended a wine open house at wholesaler/retailer/importer called New World Wines. Owner John Sharpe was featuring wines from the Loire along with several other areas, and two in particular most intrigued us: a Chenin Blanc from the appellation of Jasnieres and a Cabernet Franc from Bourgueil.
Some Brief Notes on the Loire
We first came across wines from the Loire Valley in our very early days of drinking wine because we enjoy dry, earthy reds, particularly Cabernet Franc. Back then, it was very difficult to get a varietal bottling of the Cabernet Franc grape except from the Loire. In the Bordeaux region, you can find it blended in good quantities in wines from Pomerol, but it rarely stood on its own outside the Loire. It was also quite difficult to find, in retail stores or restaurants, perhaps because the dry and earthly style doesn’t appeal to a lot of people. We remember one particularly eventful dinner years ago at Piccolo Venezia in the North End of Boston, where we ordered a red wine from the Chinon appellation of the Loire. The waiter wanted to be sure that we understood what we were getting, and that we also had plenty of water to go with our meal since the wine was so dry. But we loved the wine and over a short period of time, we ordered as many wines from Chinon as we could find on VirtualVineyards.com, which has since become Wine.com. Today, it’s still not that easy to find Loire Valley red wines in the United States, but many California producers are beginning to offer Cab Franc as a single varietal or blended with smaller amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot.
In terms of white wines, the Loire produces wines made primarily from Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc. You can also find delicious wines from Muscadet, which is made from the Melon de Bourgogne grape. We have always been fans of Sauvignon Blanc from almost any part of the world, and have enjoyed the wines from Sancerre, Menetou-Salon, Reuilly, and Pouilly Fume (not to be confused with Pouilly Fuisse in Burgundy). Sancerre is across the Loire River from Pouilly Fume, and Menetou Salon is directly west of Sancerre, “the other side of the hill.” All three appellations have similar characteristics in the Sauvignon Blanc.
Open House 2007
The first wine that we tasted at New World Wines’ open house was a Chenin Blanc from Domaine Les Maisons Rouges in Jasnieres 2005. We found this to be a full-bodied white with good acidity, a hint of sweetness and some good melon flavors. This Chenin Blanc was much more of a “winter white” and we felt that it was a great substitute for meals that would pair well with a Chardonnay.
The red that really hit the spot for us was Yannick Amirault Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil les Malgagnes 2003. It was rich, earthy, spicy, with a good bit of dryness to balance the fruit and herbal notes. It has a finish that seems to last forever. We thought that this was from Chinon, but learned that it was from Bourgueil (pronounced Boar-goy; think of the Jewish phrase oy vey), or more specifically, St. Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, which is on the north bank of the Loire, directly across the river from Chinon.
Needless to say, both of these wines rated the “buy a case” and we bought a few cases over the period of our time in Bermuda and managed to keep some to bring back home.
Return to New World Wine in 2010
While planning our recent trip to Bermuda, Rachel contacted John Sharpe, the owner of New World Wines and inquired about visiting the warehouse to pick up more of these wines. With the liquids travel regulations, you can’t take wine in your carry-on, but if you have a good solid roll-aboard and bring some packing supplies, you should be able to bring some home in your checked luggage (over the years and several cases in our roll-aboards, we’ve only lost one bottle to breakage). Additionally, if you’re traveling internationally, declare all of your wine when you go through customs. You get some duty free and we found that even the case of wine that we had only carried a duty of around $6, so they did not bother with charging the duty. (Alcohol duty varies with percentage and with wine being in the 12 – 13% range, the duty is almost always very small.)
So upon our arrival in Bermuda, we rented our scooter and met John at the warehouse on Saturday morning, intending to get a case of wine split between the Jasnieres and the Bourgueil. (On the ride over, we realized there was no way we were getting a box of wine on our rental scooter, but luckily for us, John graciously agreed to deliver it to our hotel.) John recommended a sampling of Jasnieres and Bourgueil which was perfect; especially since all of the wines were from the widely hailed 2005 vintage. We also purchased an extra bottle of one of the Jasnieres that was in our sample to have while on the island, since we had not tasted it before. The bottle was a 2005 Eric Nicolas Domaine de Belliviere Vielles Vignes Eparses Coteaux du Loir Blanc. That’s a really long name so we’ll break it down for you. The producer is Eric Nicolas and the winery is Domaine de Belliviere. It is a white wine from the appellation Coteaux du Loir, which is near the city of Anjou, southwest of Bourgueil. And “Vielles Vignes Eparses” means sparse old vines, which makes this a serious white wine.
The Eparses comes form 50-year-old vines and had a very deep straw color. It felt very full in the mouth. There was a hint of sweetness, plenty of melon flavors, but also an interesting almondy flavor that came from barrel aging. The wine finished with a nice dryness. The 14% alcohol content surprised us, but then 2005 was a warm year, which allowed for additional ripening. We also found that the colder we were able to get the wine, it maintained more acids and was more pleasant to drink in the warmer weather (even in March it can be difficult to keep your white wine cold in Bermuda; if you’re in a warm area we recommend a bucket with ice and water, and if you’re in direct sun, cover it a little bit with a light towel to prevent the bottle from absorbing the sunlight). Overall, it was a nice experience and we are glad that it’s in our sampler. This is a serious wine with some heft, so we would recommend it more as a “winter white” to be served with food rather than as a sipping wine on a warm sunny day. We will look for more of these wines since they do provide a nice alternative to Chardonnay.
Both wines retailed around $20 in Bermuda, and the pricing in the US is likely to be closer to $30 since these are not your standard wines.
The Loire Valley is a great area to pick up some varietals that are produced in very limited quantities, if at all, in the US. Very little good Chenin Blanc is produced in the US and the Loire provides another version of Sauvignon Blanc so you can have fun with a tasting of Sauvignon Blanc from around the globe. Chinon and Bourgueil are home to the elusive single varietal Cabernet Franc, which we love for its earthiness and it’s a nice hearty red to warm you during the cooler months.
Drink what you like, Like what you drink!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
Some Brief Notes on the Loire
We first came across wines from the Loire Valley in our very early days of drinking wine because we enjoy dry, earthy reds, particularly Cabernet Franc. Back then, it was very difficult to get a varietal bottling of the Cabernet Franc grape except from the Loire. In the Bordeaux region, you can find it blended in good quantities in wines from Pomerol, but it rarely stood on its own outside the Loire. It was also quite difficult to find, in retail stores or restaurants, perhaps because the dry and earthly style doesn’t appeal to a lot of people. We remember one particularly eventful dinner years ago at Piccolo Venezia in the North End of Boston, where we ordered a red wine from the Chinon appellation of the Loire. The waiter wanted to be sure that we understood what we were getting, and that we also had plenty of water to go with our meal since the wine was so dry. But we loved the wine and over a short period of time, we ordered as many wines from Chinon as we could find on VirtualVineyards.com, which has since become Wine.com. Today, it’s still not that easy to find Loire Valley red wines in the United States, but many California producers are beginning to offer Cab Franc as a single varietal or blended with smaller amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot.
In terms of white wines, the Loire produces wines made primarily from Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc. You can also find delicious wines from Muscadet, which is made from the Melon de Bourgogne grape. We have always been fans of Sauvignon Blanc from almost any part of the world, and have enjoyed the wines from Sancerre, Menetou-Salon, Reuilly, and Pouilly Fume (not to be confused with Pouilly Fuisse in Burgundy). Sancerre is across the Loire River from Pouilly Fume, and Menetou Salon is directly west of Sancerre, “the other side of the hill.” All three appellations have similar characteristics in the Sauvignon Blanc.
Open House 2007
The first wine that we tasted at New World Wines’ open house was a Chenin Blanc from Domaine Les Maisons Rouges in Jasnieres 2005. We found this to be a full-bodied white with good acidity, a hint of sweetness and some good melon flavors. This Chenin Blanc was much more of a “winter white” and we felt that it was a great substitute for meals that would pair well with a Chardonnay.
The red that really hit the spot for us was Yannick Amirault Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil les Malgagnes 2003. It was rich, earthy, spicy, with a good bit of dryness to balance the fruit and herbal notes. It has a finish that seems to last forever. We thought that this was from Chinon, but learned that it was from Bourgueil (pronounced Boar-goy; think of the Jewish phrase oy vey), or more specifically, St. Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, which is on the north bank of the Loire, directly across the river from Chinon.
Needless to say, both of these wines rated the “buy a case” and we bought a few cases over the period of our time in Bermuda and managed to keep some to bring back home.
Return to New World Wine in 2010
While planning our recent trip to Bermuda, Rachel contacted John Sharpe, the owner of New World Wines and inquired about visiting the warehouse to pick up more of these wines. With the liquids travel regulations, you can’t take wine in your carry-on, but if you have a good solid roll-aboard and bring some packing supplies, you should be able to bring some home in your checked luggage (over the years and several cases in our roll-aboards, we’ve only lost one bottle to breakage). Additionally, if you’re traveling internationally, declare all of your wine when you go through customs. You get some duty free and we found that even the case of wine that we had only carried a duty of around $6, so they did not bother with charging the duty. (Alcohol duty varies with percentage and with wine being in the 12 – 13% range, the duty is almost always very small.)
So upon our arrival in Bermuda, we rented our scooter and met John at the warehouse on Saturday morning, intending to get a case of wine split between the Jasnieres and the Bourgueil. (On the ride over, we realized there was no way we were getting a box of wine on our rental scooter, but luckily for us, John graciously agreed to deliver it to our hotel.) John recommended a sampling of Jasnieres and Bourgueil which was perfect; especially since all of the wines were from the widely hailed 2005 vintage. We also purchased an extra bottle of one of the Jasnieres that was in our sample to have while on the island, since we had not tasted it before. The bottle was a 2005 Eric Nicolas Domaine de Belliviere Vielles Vignes Eparses Coteaux du Loir Blanc. That’s a really long name so we’ll break it down for you. The producer is Eric Nicolas and the winery is Domaine de Belliviere. It is a white wine from the appellation Coteaux du Loir, which is near the city of Anjou, southwest of Bourgueil. And “Vielles Vignes Eparses” means sparse old vines, which makes this a serious white wine.
The Eparses comes form 50-year-old vines and had a very deep straw color. It felt very full in the mouth. There was a hint of sweetness, plenty of melon flavors, but also an interesting almondy flavor that came from barrel aging. The wine finished with a nice dryness. The 14% alcohol content surprised us, but then 2005 was a warm year, which allowed for additional ripening. We also found that the colder we were able to get the wine, it maintained more acids and was more pleasant to drink in the warmer weather (even in March it can be difficult to keep your white wine cold in Bermuda; if you’re in a warm area we recommend a bucket with ice and water, and if you’re in direct sun, cover it a little bit with a light towel to prevent the bottle from absorbing the sunlight). Overall, it was a nice experience and we are glad that it’s in our sampler. This is a serious wine with some heft, so we would recommend it more as a “winter white” to be served with food rather than as a sipping wine on a warm sunny day. We will look for more of these wines since they do provide a nice alternative to Chardonnay.
Both wines retailed around $20 in Bermuda, and the pricing in the US is likely to be closer to $30 since these are not your standard wines.
The Loire Valley is a great area to pick up some varietals that are produced in very limited quantities, if at all, in the US. Very little good Chenin Blanc is produced in the US and the Loire provides another version of Sauvignon Blanc so you can have fun with a tasting of Sauvignon Blanc from around the globe. Chinon and Bourgueil are home to the elusive single varietal Cabernet Franc, which we love for its earthiness and it’s a nice hearty red to warm you during the cooler months.
Drink what you like, Like what you drink!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
2005 Clos du Val Merlot – A Bordeaux-styled Merlot from Stags Leap that Drinks Like a Cabernet.
Hello Everyone! We are fresh back from Bermuda after a nice long weekend and are excited to share this wine with you. When we travel to Bermuda, we like to hit one of our favorite restaurants out in Southampton – The Ocean Club. However, it’s only open seasonally so our alternate “go to” restaurant has been Blu at Belmont. It has a great view of the island and harbor and a fabulous location to watch the sun set. Okay, so this is a wine blog and not a travel blog, so we’ll get on with the wine.
When we first started to really enjoy wine, Merlot was our grape of choice followed closely by Cabernet Sauvignon. Merlot has many of the characteristics of Cabernet but it has a little less tannin that makes it more approachable at the outset. However, we do enjoy a Merlot than has the weight of a Cabernet and there are a few out there. As Merlot grew in popularity through the 90’s, the prices also climbed and the quality slowly declined. Then in 2004, the pivotal event happened: the character Miles from Sideways seemingly ended the era of Merlot with his famous phrase, “I am not drinking any f@*$ing Merlot!” From that statement, the Pinot Noir craze was born. While not so good for the reputation of Merlot, this was great for us because Merlot prices came back down, the quality rose, and only the serious producers hung in there.
Clos du Val is located in the Stags Leap district of Napa Valley, and was co-founded in 1972 by Bordeaux native Bernard Portet. Bernard was Clos du Val’s winemaker for a number of years and still remains deeply involved with the winery today. The 1972 Cabernet Sauvignon, their very first vintage, was one of only 6 Napa Cabernets selected to compete in the famed “Judgment of Paris” tasting arranged by Steven Spurrier in 1976. We have found that Clos du Val maintains consistent quality year after year. So when Rachel spotted the Clos Du Val Merlot at a reasonable price after perusing the wine list at Blu, we decided to go for it. (We have often found that the Merlot section is a good place to look on a restaurant wine list for some good bargains.)
We have been to the winery in Napa a few times, and were able to enjoy their Zinfandel while living in Bermuda. It turns out that the winery makes the Zinfandel for export only, but will be releasing a Primitivo, Zinfandel’s Italian cousin, soon. When the waiter brought the wine out and poured a sample, we could tell it was going to be good from the smell alone. Then when we first tasted it, we knew Rachel had picked a winner for the evening. It had all of the black fruit flavors of Merlot, but it also had a good bit of earth and tannins. It was full-bodied and intense but not overly astringent. After reading the back label, we found out that the wine was 83% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc, and 6% Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a classic blend of Bordeaux found on the right bank in areas such as St. Emilion or Pomerol. In the United States, a wine only needs to be 75% of one grape to be called a varietal. In fact the 2006 vintage is 77% Merlot; just 2% over the minimum. The Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon were providing the extra spice, earthy aromas, tannins and structure to the wine in great balance with the softness and dark fruits of the Merlot.
This is definitely a buy a few more bottles at a time, although we don’t see it that often. Like many wines, there is quite a range for the retail price, from $13.50 - $23. It’s often difficult to find a complex wine like this at the lower end of the price range. Typically, you’ll find non-estate Cabernet Sauvignon in the $18 - $25 range, which tend to have a bit less structure than this wine. Look for Beaulieu, Sebastiani, or Benziger if you want to stick with Cabernet. For another power Merlot, we find we never go wrong with Sebastiani’s Merlot.
Like what you drink, Drink what you Like!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
When we first started to really enjoy wine, Merlot was our grape of choice followed closely by Cabernet Sauvignon. Merlot has many of the characteristics of Cabernet but it has a little less tannin that makes it more approachable at the outset. However, we do enjoy a Merlot than has the weight of a Cabernet and there are a few out there. As Merlot grew in popularity through the 90’s, the prices also climbed and the quality slowly declined. Then in 2004, the pivotal event happened: the character Miles from Sideways seemingly ended the era of Merlot with his famous phrase, “I am not drinking any f@*$ing Merlot!” From that statement, the Pinot Noir craze was born. While not so good for the reputation of Merlot, this was great for us because Merlot prices came back down, the quality rose, and only the serious producers hung in there.
Clos du Val is located in the Stags Leap district of Napa Valley, and was co-founded in 1972 by Bordeaux native Bernard Portet. Bernard was Clos du Val’s winemaker for a number of years and still remains deeply involved with the winery today. The 1972 Cabernet Sauvignon, their very first vintage, was one of only 6 Napa Cabernets selected to compete in the famed “Judgment of Paris” tasting arranged by Steven Spurrier in 1976. We have found that Clos du Val maintains consistent quality year after year. So when Rachel spotted the Clos Du Val Merlot at a reasonable price after perusing the wine list at Blu, we decided to go for it. (We have often found that the Merlot section is a good place to look on a restaurant wine list for some good bargains.)
We have been to the winery in Napa a few times, and were able to enjoy their Zinfandel while living in Bermuda. It turns out that the winery makes the Zinfandel for export only, but will be releasing a Primitivo, Zinfandel’s Italian cousin, soon. When the waiter brought the wine out and poured a sample, we could tell it was going to be good from the smell alone. Then when we first tasted it, we knew Rachel had picked a winner for the evening. It had all of the black fruit flavors of Merlot, but it also had a good bit of earth and tannins. It was full-bodied and intense but not overly astringent. After reading the back label, we found out that the wine was 83% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc, and 6% Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a classic blend of Bordeaux found on the right bank in areas such as St. Emilion or Pomerol. In the United States, a wine only needs to be 75% of one grape to be called a varietal. In fact the 2006 vintage is 77% Merlot; just 2% over the minimum. The Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon were providing the extra spice, earthy aromas, tannins and structure to the wine in great balance with the softness and dark fruits of the Merlot.
This is definitely a buy a few more bottles at a time, although we don’t see it that often. Like many wines, there is quite a range for the retail price, from $13.50 - $23. It’s often difficult to find a complex wine like this at the lower end of the price range. Typically, you’ll find non-estate Cabernet Sauvignon in the $18 - $25 range, which tend to have a bit less structure than this wine. Look for Beaulieu, Sebastiani, or Benziger if you want to stick with Cabernet. For another power Merlot, we find we never go wrong with Sebastiani’s Merlot.
Like what you drink, Drink what you Like!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
Thursday, March 18, 2010
The Refrigerator White – A glass of white wine for any time.
Hello everyone! Well, the weather is warming up and although it may not be summer yet, the official start of spring is just around the corner. Daylight savings has given us an extra hour of sunlight and the days will continue to get longer. This time of year we begin to look into purchases of our “Refrigerator White.” The refrigerator white is a wine that you buy by the case or back the truck up, and always have a bottle handy in the refrigerator. That way you can just have a nice refreshing cold glass of wine anytime you want. In our house, we have a mantra for this time of year and into the summer: “There must always be a bottle of cold white wine in the fridge at all times.”
Our requirements for the refrigerator white are the following:
(1) You absolutely love the wine and can have at any time of year.
(2) The wine is readily available and you can get it by the case.
(3) The wine is relatively inexpensive – generally $10 a bottle or less.
(4) We prefer wines with a screw cap since they hold better for a day or two in the fridge.
Over the years, we have been using two wines as our primary refrigerator whites: Geyser Peak Sauvignon Blanc and Chateau Bonnet White Bordeaux, a Sauvignon Blanc blend. We love the crisp acidity found in Sauvignon Blanc along with the citrus flavors of grapefruit, lemon and lime, a bit of grass, and enough fruit to be well balanced with a minerally finish. Both Geyser Peak and Chateau Bonnet have all of those characteristics and both come in a screw cap. One of the other aspects of Sauvignon Blanc that we like is that it is generally the least manipulated, or most honest, wine. Each of the regions that makes a Sauvignon Blancs – California, South America, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and France – will generally put its own stamp on the wine, a stamp that shows the best characteristics of the region. With Sauvignon Blancs from New Zealand, you tend to get a crisp, racy, grapefruity acidity, a fruit-forward wine with a real zing. In South Africa, you taste the fruit, but you can also taste more of the steel and mineral flavors that are characteristic of South African Sauvignon Blanc. French wines are usually a little more restrained, frequently balanced out with a bit of Semillon (another white wine grape) added.
Geyser Peak Sauvignon Blanc
In a previous post, we wrote about Geyser Peak’s Ascentia Cabernet Sauvignon, a high-end wine. We enjoy all of the offerings from Geyser Peak and belong to their wine club. For the past nineteen years, Geyser Peak has been making this wine in its pure style with no oak aging, no malolactic fermentation, and no winemaker tricks. To do this, they source grapes from cooler growing areas, pick some grapes early to preserve the acidity and grassiness, make each lot separately in stainless steel tanks under cool conditions. The result is probably one of the best showings of Sauvignon Blanc from California; flavors of green apples and lots of grapefruit and citrus, some grass and a hint of tropical fruit flavors to round it out with a good crisp finish.
Chateau Bonnet White Bordeaux
Chateau Bonnet is situated on chalky, clay slopes in the Graves region of Bordeaux, France, known as Entre-Deux-Mers, which translates to between two seas. In fact, it’s in an area that is between two rivers. It is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Muscadelle, another indigenous Bordeaux grape that should not be confused with Muscat or Moscatel. The result is a similar flavor profile as the Geyser Peak with good crisp acidity, nice citrus flavors with a good bit of peach and melon fruit and nice mouth feel. Many white Bordeaux winemakers stick to using just Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, but Andre Lurton adds that extra touch of Muscadelle, approximately 10%, that seems to make all the difference. White Bordeaux without the Muscadelle, or that has a greater percentage of Semillon, can be a little too lean and grassy for our tastes. Chateau Bonnet has switched to a screw cap with the 2008 vintage.
Both wines can retail for as low as $8.99 which makes them a steal, but you’ll typically see them in the $10 range and perhaps a little more. If ordered by the case, you might get a 10% or 15% discount which helps bring the cost down. Geyser Peak should be available anywhere, and Chateau Bonnet has become more and more available to us over the past few years.
So go to your favorite wine, grocery, or package store and pick up a case of either one, or six and six, and enjoy for the next few months. Just remember, when you are getting to the end of the bottle, remember our mantra, and make sure you put another in the fridge.
Drink what you like, like what you drink!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
Our requirements for the refrigerator white are the following:
(1) You absolutely love the wine and can have at any time of year.
(2) The wine is readily available and you can get it by the case.
(3) The wine is relatively inexpensive – generally $10 a bottle or less.
(4) We prefer wines with a screw cap since they hold better for a day or two in the fridge.
Over the years, we have been using two wines as our primary refrigerator whites: Geyser Peak Sauvignon Blanc and Chateau Bonnet White Bordeaux, a Sauvignon Blanc blend. We love the crisp acidity found in Sauvignon Blanc along with the citrus flavors of grapefruit, lemon and lime, a bit of grass, and enough fruit to be well balanced with a minerally finish. Both Geyser Peak and Chateau Bonnet have all of those characteristics and both come in a screw cap. One of the other aspects of Sauvignon Blanc that we like is that it is generally the least manipulated, or most honest, wine. Each of the regions that makes a Sauvignon Blancs – California, South America, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and France – will generally put its own stamp on the wine, a stamp that shows the best characteristics of the region. With Sauvignon Blancs from New Zealand, you tend to get a crisp, racy, grapefruity acidity, a fruit-forward wine with a real zing. In South Africa, you taste the fruit, but you can also taste more of the steel and mineral flavors that are characteristic of South African Sauvignon Blanc. French wines are usually a little more restrained, frequently balanced out with a bit of Semillon (another white wine grape) added.
Geyser Peak Sauvignon Blanc
In a previous post, we wrote about Geyser Peak’s Ascentia Cabernet Sauvignon, a high-end wine. We enjoy all of the offerings from Geyser Peak and belong to their wine club. For the past nineteen years, Geyser Peak has been making this wine in its pure style with no oak aging, no malolactic fermentation, and no winemaker tricks. To do this, they source grapes from cooler growing areas, pick some grapes early to preserve the acidity and grassiness, make each lot separately in stainless steel tanks under cool conditions. The result is probably one of the best showings of Sauvignon Blanc from California; flavors of green apples and lots of grapefruit and citrus, some grass and a hint of tropical fruit flavors to round it out with a good crisp finish.
Chateau Bonnet White Bordeaux
Chateau Bonnet is situated on chalky, clay slopes in the Graves region of Bordeaux, France, known as Entre-Deux-Mers, which translates to between two seas. In fact, it’s in an area that is between two rivers. It is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Muscadelle, another indigenous Bordeaux grape that should not be confused with Muscat or Moscatel. The result is a similar flavor profile as the Geyser Peak with good crisp acidity, nice citrus flavors with a good bit of peach and melon fruit and nice mouth feel. Many white Bordeaux winemakers stick to using just Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, but Andre Lurton adds that extra touch of Muscadelle, approximately 10%, that seems to make all the difference. White Bordeaux without the Muscadelle, or that has a greater percentage of Semillon, can be a little too lean and grassy for our tastes. Chateau Bonnet has switched to a screw cap with the 2008 vintage.
Both wines can retail for as low as $8.99 which makes them a steal, but you’ll typically see them in the $10 range and perhaps a little more. If ordered by the case, you might get a 10% or 15% discount which helps bring the cost down. Geyser Peak should be available anywhere, and Chateau Bonnet has become more and more available to us over the past few years.
So go to your favorite wine, grocery, or package store and pick up a case of either one, or six and six, and enjoy for the next few months. Just remember, when you are getting to the end of the bottle, remember our mantra, and make sure you put another in the fridge.
Drink what you like, like what you drink!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Domaine D’Andezon – Côte du Rhone, A Value Southern Rhone Masquerading as a Northern Rhone
Hello Everyone! We love it when we wander into one of our favorite grocery stores, Trader Joe’s, and come across a new wine from an old favorite location. Trader Joe’s is unique in that they have a fair amount of wine brands that are made solely for Trader Joe’s, and also a lot of other good quality wines from a somewhat rotating stock, all at exceptional prices (translated: Trader Joe’s is a lot more than Two-Buck Chuck!) We had heard wonderful reviews of the 2007 vintage from the Rhone Valley of France – considered the “vintage of a lifetime” by no less than the esteemed Robert Parker. So we honed our initial search for Rhone Valley reds and found the 2007 Domaine D’Andezon Côte du Rhône for $9.99. You can expect to pay anywhere from $9.99 to $13.99 for this wine. Other Rhone names that we like include Guigal and Jaboulet, both of which are very easy to find.
We’ve both been fans of Rhone Valley wines for a long time now. We chose to serve the Paul Jaboulet Parallèle 45 – a nice, inexpensive Syrah-Grenache blend – at our wedding in 2001. One of our first case purchases was a mixed case of E. Guigal, from Bauer Wine on Newbury Street in Boston. As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, buying a case back then was a momentous occasion for us. The case consisted of 2 bottles of 1998 Côte Rôtie, 2 bottles of 1998 Crozes-Hermitage, 4 bottles of 1998 Gigondas, and 4 1999 Côtes du Rhône. At the time, we really couldn’t have told you very much about any of these wines, except that they alternated between powerful, full-bodied reds, and racy, spicy reds. And we knew that we liked them!
A brief description of the Rhone
The Rhone Valley in Southeastern France runs along the Rhone River and is bounded to the north by Burgundy and to the south by the regions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Provence. It is divided into two districts simply referred to as the Northern and Southern Rhone. The primary appellations (sub-regions) in the North, from north to south, are Côte-Rôtie, Condrieu, Chateau-Grillet, St. Joseph, Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, and Cornas. Continuing along south are Gigondas and Vacqueyras to the east, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Lirac, and Tavel to the west. The remaining villages surrounding the Southern Rhone are referred to as the Côtes du Rhône (the word côte translates to hillside, or slope, in French).
The dominant red grape used in the Northern Rhone is Syrah, and the Southern Rhone wines are primarily Grenache, but also blending varying amounts of Cinsault, Mourvedre, Syrah, Carignan, and Gamay. There are different white grapes used in each district but that’s an article for another day.
The 2007 Domaine D’Andezon Côtes du Rhône is a blend of 90% Syrah and 10% Grenache from some very old vines, 40 and 60 years old respectively. This is a unique blend for a Southern Rhone since we typically expect much more Grenache than Syrah. After looking further into the rating for the 2007 Southern Rhone, we found that the rating is more about the Grenache than Syrah, but the growing season was great so both grapes benefited from it. Old vines are desirable because they have lower yields and the flavors are more concentrated. This wine had a good amount of spice and black pepper which we have come to expect from a Rhone. Additionally, it did have good concentrated dark fruit flavors and a medium body. Another unique aspect of Côtes du Rhone is that they are hearty wines without seeing a lot of oak aging.
We bought several bottles over a few visits, so this fell under the rating of we would buy a few bottles at a time. Unfortunately, we did get a bad bottle in one of the batches. The bad bottle was unbalanced, tasted alcoholic and had little of the fruit and pepper flavors left. With an alcohol content of 14%, high for France, this is a risk because the wine has fewer tannins for preservation. We poured it out and opened another bottle which turned out to be the wine that we were expecting. We hope that the remaining bottles are in good shape and will be drinking them before the weather gets too warm.
Drink what you like, like what you drink!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
We’ve both been fans of Rhone Valley wines for a long time now. We chose to serve the Paul Jaboulet Parallèle 45 – a nice, inexpensive Syrah-Grenache blend – at our wedding in 2001. One of our first case purchases was a mixed case of E. Guigal, from Bauer Wine on Newbury Street in Boston. As we’ve mentioned in previous posts, buying a case back then was a momentous occasion for us. The case consisted of 2 bottles of 1998 Côte Rôtie, 2 bottles of 1998 Crozes-Hermitage, 4 bottles of 1998 Gigondas, and 4 1999 Côtes du Rhône. At the time, we really couldn’t have told you very much about any of these wines, except that they alternated between powerful, full-bodied reds, and racy, spicy reds. And we knew that we liked them!
A brief description of the Rhone
The Rhone Valley in Southeastern France runs along the Rhone River and is bounded to the north by Burgundy and to the south by the regions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Provence. It is divided into two districts simply referred to as the Northern and Southern Rhone. The primary appellations (sub-regions) in the North, from north to south, are Côte-Rôtie, Condrieu, Chateau-Grillet, St. Joseph, Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, and Cornas. Continuing along south are Gigondas and Vacqueyras to the east, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Lirac, and Tavel to the west. The remaining villages surrounding the Southern Rhone are referred to as the Côtes du Rhône (the word côte translates to hillside, or slope, in French).
The dominant red grape used in the Northern Rhone is Syrah, and the Southern Rhone wines are primarily Grenache, but also blending varying amounts of Cinsault, Mourvedre, Syrah, Carignan, and Gamay. There are different white grapes used in each district but that’s an article for another day.
The 2007 Domaine D’Andezon Côtes du Rhône is a blend of 90% Syrah and 10% Grenache from some very old vines, 40 and 60 years old respectively. This is a unique blend for a Southern Rhone since we typically expect much more Grenache than Syrah. After looking further into the rating for the 2007 Southern Rhone, we found that the rating is more about the Grenache than Syrah, but the growing season was great so both grapes benefited from it. Old vines are desirable because they have lower yields and the flavors are more concentrated. This wine had a good amount of spice and black pepper which we have come to expect from a Rhone. Additionally, it did have good concentrated dark fruit flavors and a medium body. Another unique aspect of Côtes du Rhone is that they are hearty wines without seeing a lot of oak aging.
We bought several bottles over a few visits, so this fell under the rating of we would buy a few bottles at a time. Unfortunately, we did get a bad bottle in one of the batches. The bad bottle was unbalanced, tasted alcoholic and had little of the fruit and pepper flavors left. With an alcohol content of 14%, high for France, this is a risk because the wine has fewer tannins for preservation. We poured it out and opened another bottle which turned out to be the wine that we were expecting. We hope that the remaining bottles are in good shape and will be drinking them before the weather gets too warm.
Drink what you like, like what you drink!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Sniff, Swirl, Sip – A Note on the Chemistry in Your Wine Glass
Hello Everyone! You have probably seen people swirling their wine glass and then sticking their nose far in the glass to smell the wine. For those of you who have seen the movie “Sideways,” you probably laugh at the scene when Miles is teaching Jack how to smell wine and then begins to describe all the aromas he is picking up from the wine…strawberries, passion fruit, asparagus, and a hint of nutty cheese. Why all the fuss? And as Jack says “When do we get to drink it?”
Actually, there is quite a bit going on in your wine glass and without getting too technical, we hope to help you understand it. This also might help you select a set of wine glasses and detect when you have a bad bottle or glass of wine. More times than you might think, we’ve popped open a bottle of wine, settled in to enjoy, and then … yech. The bottle goes down the drain because it was either a bad bottle or had become too oxidized, or had some other fault. We’ve even taken bad bottles back to our local store, which in one case caused the store owner to pull all of that lot off his shelves because he discovered the whole lot had spoiled. See, you’re doing everyone a favor by being able to identify when a wine is bad, versus just not your style.
The Technical Stuff:
The wine that you are holding in your glass is about 95% water and alcohol, and it generally breaks down something like 82% water and 13% alcohol. The remaining 5% consists of thousands of chemicals called phenols, esters, ketones, and acetates which are largely responsible for the flavors and aromas that Miles describes in the scene from Sideways.
Overall, in your glass there is a dynamic balance that is being achieved:
Sweet Taste (sugars + alcohol) <= = = = > Acids + Tannins (phenols)
Wine is acidic and white wines are generally slightly more acidic than red wines. The alcohol, phenols, and acids are reacting with each other to form esters and water, and the reaction is in balance going back and forth. The phenols that are reacting here are called flavanoids and the resulting esters are the components that provide many of the aromas and flavors in wine. In college chemistry class, we had a lab where we made banana oil and mint oil from some standard alcohols and acids; your wine is doing a similar lab but with many more chemicals. This back and forth reaction is why your wine tastes different from the first sip to the last sip an hour later. At the same time oxygen is factoring into this and is slowly consuming and changing the tannins.
The acids in wine consist of tartaric acid, lactic acid, citric acid, and malic acid along with a few others. You may have already heard the term malolactic fermentation associated with Chardonnay, which consists of turning the tart malic acid into lactic acid to make the wine taste softer. The winemaker often adjusts the wine’s natural acidity to balance with the sweetness and bitterness.
Tannins are the non-flavanoid phenols that are another critical component in wine, especially red wine. The tannins in wine come from the grape’s skins, seeds, and stems, and are extracted when the grapes are crushed. A winemaker can control the tannins to some extent by destemming the grapes prior to the crush, or by very gently pressing the grapes so as not to crush the seed, or the pip. There is more tannin in red wines than white wines. The existence of tannin makes a wine taste astringent, which is that dry taste you can get in your mouth after you taste a tannic red wine and it also helps preserve the wine while in the bottle. If it tastes more bitter than dry then the wine is out of balance.
However, sometimes when a red wine has absorbed too much oxygen, the wine tends to have a brownish color and will begin to taste oxidized and maybe a bit stale. When you go to a wine bar or restaurant and order a glass of red wine, it’s a good idea to check the bottle that your glass is coming from. If the bottle has been opened for a day or more and has been corked, it is likely that it will taste a bit staler than it should due to oxidation and loss of tannins. In this case, there is nothing wrong with asking for a fresh glass; you never want the bottom of a bottle especially if it has been opened a day or two before. We have quite often asked for a fresh glass if we see we’re getting the bottom of the bottle, and usually the bartender is more than happy to do this for you.
The Hardware:
Some wine glassmakers claim that the construction of their glasses can enhance the flavor of wine by stimulating some of the reactions we just talked about. The shape and size of a glass does help. You want it big enough to swirl and open up the aromas by helping the reactions along, and if it is shaped right, placing the wine in the right part of your mouth and tongue. So yes, the size and shape of the glass helps and that’s why most people like a larger glass for red wines. Some other glassware manufacturers claim that they have made modifications to increase the surface area along the glass to enhance your tasting experience. We’re not completely sold on these claims, but it always helps enhance your wine enjoyment if you have a decent set of glasses.
So, get yourself some decent sized wine glasses, give the wine a sniff, swirl and enjoy the chemistry in your glass with each sip.
Like what you drink, drink what you like!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
Actually, there is quite a bit going on in your wine glass and without getting too technical, we hope to help you understand it. This also might help you select a set of wine glasses and detect when you have a bad bottle or glass of wine. More times than you might think, we’ve popped open a bottle of wine, settled in to enjoy, and then … yech. The bottle goes down the drain because it was either a bad bottle or had become too oxidized, or had some other fault. We’ve even taken bad bottles back to our local store, which in one case caused the store owner to pull all of that lot off his shelves because he discovered the whole lot had spoiled. See, you’re doing everyone a favor by being able to identify when a wine is bad, versus just not your style.
The Technical Stuff:
The wine that you are holding in your glass is about 95% water and alcohol, and it generally breaks down something like 82% water and 13% alcohol. The remaining 5% consists of thousands of chemicals called phenols, esters, ketones, and acetates which are largely responsible for the flavors and aromas that Miles describes in the scene from Sideways.
Overall, in your glass there is a dynamic balance that is being achieved:
Sweet Taste (sugars + alcohol) <= = = = > Acids + Tannins (phenols)
Wine is acidic and white wines are generally slightly more acidic than red wines. The alcohol, phenols, and acids are reacting with each other to form esters and water, and the reaction is in balance going back and forth. The phenols that are reacting here are called flavanoids and the resulting esters are the components that provide many of the aromas and flavors in wine. In college chemistry class, we had a lab where we made banana oil and mint oil from some standard alcohols and acids; your wine is doing a similar lab but with many more chemicals. This back and forth reaction is why your wine tastes different from the first sip to the last sip an hour later. At the same time oxygen is factoring into this and is slowly consuming and changing the tannins.
The acids in wine consist of tartaric acid, lactic acid, citric acid, and malic acid along with a few others. You may have already heard the term malolactic fermentation associated with Chardonnay, which consists of turning the tart malic acid into lactic acid to make the wine taste softer. The winemaker often adjusts the wine’s natural acidity to balance with the sweetness and bitterness.
Tannins are the non-flavanoid phenols that are another critical component in wine, especially red wine. The tannins in wine come from the grape’s skins, seeds, and stems, and are extracted when the grapes are crushed. A winemaker can control the tannins to some extent by destemming the grapes prior to the crush, or by very gently pressing the grapes so as not to crush the seed, or the pip. There is more tannin in red wines than white wines. The existence of tannin makes a wine taste astringent, which is that dry taste you can get in your mouth after you taste a tannic red wine and it also helps preserve the wine while in the bottle. If it tastes more bitter than dry then the wine is out of balance.
However, sometimes when a red wine has absorbed too much oxygen, the wine tends to have a brownish color and will begin to taste oxidized and maybe a bit stale. When you go to a wine bar or restaurant and order a glass of red wine, it’s a good idea to check the bottle that your glass is coming from. If the bottle has been opened for a day or more and has been corked, it is likely that it will taste a bit staler than it should due to oxidation and loss of tannins. In this case, there is nothing wrong with asking for a fresh glass; you never want the bottom of a bottle especially if it has been opened a day or two before. We have quite often asked for a fresh glass if we see we’re getting the bottom of the bottle, and usually the bartender is more than happy to do this for you.
The Hardware:
Some wine glassmakers claim that the construction of their glasses can enhance the flavor of wine by stimulating some of the reactions we just talked about. The shape and size of a glass does help. You want it big enough to swirl and open up the aromas by helping the reactions along, and if it is shaped right, placing the wine in the right part of your mouth and tongue. So yes, the size and shape of the glass helps and that’s why most people like a larger glass for red wines. Some other glassware manufacturers claim that they have made modifications to increase the surface area along the glass to enhance your tasting experience. We’re not completely sold on these claims, but it always helps enhance your wine enjoyment if you have a decent set of glasses.
So, get yourself some decent sized wine glasses, give the wine a sniff, swirl and enjoy the chemistry in your glass with each sip.
Like what you drink, drink what you like!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
Monday, March 15, 2010
2005 Conn Creek Limited Release Cabernet Sauvignon
Hello Everyone! As we mention in our profile, when pressed about our favorite wine, California Cabernet rises to the top of the list. Cabernet Sauvignon incorporates so many of the flavors and characteristics of red wine in good balance. It has the right amounts of red and black fruits, good wood and vanilla from the oak, a variety of spices and aromas such as coffee, cedar, leather, or tobacco depending on the region, with a good amount of tannins to hold it all together and leaves a nice finish in your mouth. And it is a wine that evolves and changes over time, as it breathes and slowly opens up.
The 2005 Limited Release Cabernet Sauvignon from Conn Creek is no exception. Conn Creek is a small winery on the Silverado Trail, the east side of Napa Valley, and has vineyards scattered across Napa Valley. They are known for making Bordeaux-styled blends and Conn Creek Anthology is their flagship. A Bordeaux-styled blend generally starts with either Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon as the backbone and then incorporates varying amounts of Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Malbec to round it out. The 2005 Limited Release utilizes all these grapes in the blend, and is 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Cabernet Franc, 5% Merlot, 4% Malbec, and 2% Petit Verdot. Each of these grapes adds an additional layer of flavor and complexity to the wine; Cabernet Franc for some added tannins and earthiness, Merlot for some softness, and Malbec and Petit Verdot to add different fruit characteristics.
The 2005 vintage had an extremely long growing and maturing season with good yields, and consistently resulted in good wines across the Napa Valley. The length of the growing season resulted in the wine registering 14.8% alcohol, which would normally be too high for us. The effect of a long growing season (warm and dry weather into the fall) means that the grapes are left on the vine a little longer, get a little riper, and the sugars ferment a little more than they would in a cool season vintage. But in this case we really didn't notice the alcohol level. In the past, we have found Cabernets and Merlots registering alcohol levels over 14.5% to be a little "hot" and alcoholic tasting, but this wine was nicely balanced.
The suggested retail price of this wine is $25 and there is a bit of a range around that price. We would buy a few bottles to hold and enjoy when we want to have a wine with a bit more complexity to match a more special occasion, yet not have to reach for a more expensive $45+ wine, such as our Conn Creek 2004 Hozhoni Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon that we are still holding in the cellar.
So, if you are looking to spend a little more for a good Bordeaux-styled blend from California, give this a try.
Like what you drink, drink what you Like!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
The 2005 Limited Release Cabernet Sauvignon from Conn Creek is no exception. Conn Creek is a small winery on the Silverado Trail, the east side of Napa Valley, and has vineyards scattered across Napa Valley. They are known for making Bordeaux-styled blends and Conn Creek Anthology is their flagship. A Bordeaux-styled blend generally starts with either Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon as the backbone and then incorporates varying amounts of Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Malbec to round it out. The 2005 Limited Release utilizes all these grapes in the blend, and is 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Cabernet Franc, 5% Merlot, 4% Malbec, and 2% Petit Verdot. Each of these grapes adds an additional layer of flavor and complexity to the wine; Cabernet Franc for some added tannins and earthiness, Merlot for some softness, and Malbec and Petit Verdot to add different fruit characteristics.
The 2005 vintage had an extremely long growing and maturing season with good yields, and consistently resulted in good wines across the Napa Valley. The length of the growing season resulted in the wine registering 14.8% alcohol, which would normally be too high for us. The effect of a long growing season (warm and dry weather into the fall) means that the grapes are left on the vine a little longer, get a little riper, and the sugars ferment a little more than they would in a cool season vintage. But in this case we really didn't notice the alcohol level. In the past, we have found Cabernets and Merlots registering alcohol levels over 14.5% to be a little "hot" and alcoholic tasting, but this wine was nicely balanced.
The suggested retail price of this wine is $25 and there is a bit of a range around that price. We would buy a few bottles to hold and enjoy when we want to have a wine with a bit more complexity to match a more special occasion, yet not have to reach for a more expensive $45+ wine, such as our Conn Creek 2004 Hozhoni Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon that we are still holding in the cellar.
So, if you are looking to spend a little more for a good Bordeaux-styled blend from California, give this a try.
Like what you drink, drink what you Like!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Additional tips for buying wine
Sometimes we get asked the question "How do you choose a wine when you go into the store?". There are a few criteria that we want to share that may help you out.
(1) The occasion for the wine. This is the most important - what is the reason behind your purchase. For example, we might be looking for a wine that we can chill down and sip while we are sitting out on the bench in our garden. Other times, we might be looking for a specific wine for a meal, a gift for a friend, or some wines from a good vintage that we want to hang on to for a while. Often, the weather helps with the decision too (warm & sunny weather sends us looking for a crispy Sauvignon Blanc, while a chilly, rainy day makes us crave a rich, bold, red wine).
(2) Okay, we figured out why we are buying wine which has steered us in a particular direction. The next thing choice is which grape varietal to select. Sometimes the occasion makes this decision for us: our friend that we're buying for might be a Chianti fan or loves California Cabernet. Those are the easy ones. If you are pairing the wine with a meal, then the choice becomes more complicated. We don't strictly adhere to the rule that you should just have white wine with white meats and red wine with red meats. In fact, the acidity of a riesling can really break up a steak or you may want a hearty red with roast chicken on cold winter's day. But there are a few general guidelines, such as you would probably want a minerally white with spicy food or shellfish, and for richer, heartier meals like stews or roasts, we go for a red wine.
(3) Region. We rank the region the wine comes from relatively highly because even after you've decided what type of wine you want (i.e. grape variety), it will likely taste different from one region to the next. So it depends on your preferred style. Referring back to our discussion of Australian Shiraz vs. California Syrah, you may like the more fruit forward style of Australia, so this will drive your choice. Once you decide what type of wine you want and the region, the next two criteria, winemaker and price, follow along naturally.
(4) The winemaker/producer is next. Because we've tried a lot of wines and do have our favorites, we may go into a store looking for a particular label because we've had experience with it and know we like it. With many winemakers/producers, you can find selections at almost any price range. Some of the bigger names have a first label and second label, or you can choose between estate/vineyard designated or something that reflects a series of different vineyards or regions. In general, you pay more for an estate grown or single vineyard designated wine. The caveat to that comes when dealing with blends. A producer may offer a designated Cabernet for one price and then charge a higher price for a blend that uses that Cabernet.
(5) Price. This can be tied into the occasion - if we are looking for a quaffing wine for the beach, we are hoping to not have to spend much money on it.
(6) Label/Shelf talker. If we are going to try something completely new, then any additional information on the label or shelf always helps.
So let's try it out the logic. It's a warm sunny day and we are looking for a wine to have once the landscape work is completed. The occasion is going to push us in a white wine direction, so we'll choose between Riesling, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, or another white varietal. If we decide on the Sauvignon Blanc, we might look to California, South Africa, France, or New Zealand for our wine. Then we would narrow it down to who we like in the region and what the pricing and availability is. We have found many cases where two very similar wines have a price differential of $3 to $4.
We hope this helps you select your next bottle of wine.
Like what you drink, drink what you like!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
(1) The occasion for the wine. This is the most important - what is the reason behind your purchase. For example, we might be looking for a wine that we can chill down and sip while we are sitting out on the bench in our garden. Other times, we might be looking for a specific wine for a meal, a gift for a friend, or some wines from a good vintage that we want to hang on to for a while. Often, the weather helps with the decision too (warm & sunny weather sends us looking for a crispy Sauvignon Blanc, while a chilly, rainy day makes us crave a rich, bold, red wine).
(2) Okay, we figured out why we are buying wine which has steered us in a particular direction. The next thing choice is which grape varietal to select. Sometimes the occasion makes this decision for us: our friend that we're buying for might be a Chianti fan or loves California Cabernet. Those are the easy ones. If you are pairing the wine with a meal, then the choice becomes more complicated. We don't strictly adhere to the rule that you should just have white wine with white meats and red wine with red meats. In fact, the acidity of a riesling can really break up a steak or you may want a hearty red with roast chicken on cold winter's day. But there are a few general guidelines, such as you would probably want a minerally white with spicy food or shellfish, and for richer, heartier meals like stews or roasts, we go for a red wine.
(3) Region. We rank the region the wine comes from relatively highly because even after you've decided what type of wine you want (i.e. grape variety), it will likely taste different from one region to the next. So it depends on your preferred style. Referring back to our discussion of Australian Shiraz vs. California Syrah, you may like the more fruit forward style of Australia, so this will drive your choice. Once you decide what type of wine you want and the region, the next two criteria, winemaker and price, follow along naturally.
(4) The winemaker/producer is next. Because we've tried a lot of wines and do have our favorites, we may go into a store looking for a particular label because we've had experience with it and know we like it. With many winemakers/producers, you can find selections at almost any price range. Some of the bigger names have a first label and second label, or you can choose between estate/vineyard designated or something that reflects a series of different vineyards or regions. In general, you pay more for an estate grown or single vineyard designated wine. The caveat to that comes when dealing with blends. A producer may offer a designated Cabernet for one price and then charge a higher price for a blend that uses that Cabernet.
(5) Price. This can be tied into the occasion - if we are looking for a quaffing wine for the beach, we are hoping to not have to spend much money on it.
(6) Label/Shelf talker. If we are going to try something completely new, then any additional information on the label or shelf always helps.
So let's try it out the logic. It's a warm sunny day and we are looking for a wine to have once the landscape work is completed. The occasion is going to push us in a white wine direction, so we'll choose between Riesling, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, or another white varietal. If we decide on the Sauvignon Blanc, we might look to California, South Africa, France, or New Zealand for our wine. Then we would narrow it down to who we like in the region and what the pricing and availability is. We have found many cases where two very similar wines have a price differential of $3 to $4.
We hope this helps you select your next bottle of wine.
Like what you drink, drink what you like!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
2007 Willm Gewurztraminer
Hello Everyone! It's time to talk about a grape that you have probably heard of, may have difficulty pronouncing and have no idea what to expect: Gewurtztraminer. Gewurtztraminer is one of the noble grapes from the Alsace region of France near the German border, and grows better there than anywhere else in the world. Most of the vineyards are sandwiched between the Rhine River and the Vosges Mountains, giving near perfect growing conditions for the grape varietals they grow there. Alsace is a conundrum of a place-with both French and German influences given its back and forth history during the European wars in the last two centuries. So while Alsace is part of France, much of its culture, place names, and wine-making practices show German influence. In fact, "Gewurtz" is German for spice, and this wine generally lives up to this characterization. You can also find a less spicy version of the grape outside of Alsace known as Traminer, and it is often blended with Riesling for a smooth, very floral and refreshing wine (look for Australia's Rosemount Estates' Traminer Riesling - an inexpensive summer quaffer).
We've always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with Gewurtztraminer (Bryan loves it, Rachel vacillates between loving it and well, not loving it). One of our first experiences with Gewurtz was back in Boston in 1997 or '98 when we tried one from a well known and reputable producer, Trimbach. We thought that it was a bit too dry and a little herbaceous. But we continued the search for this intriguing grape.
The 2007 Willm Reserve Gewurztraminer is a serious, full bodied, straw-colored wine from Alsace. It's not as well-known as the offerings from the larger producers Trimbach and Hugel, but we believe that the Willm is a fantastic representation of Gewurtztraminer at its best. This wine is very lush, has a richer more tropical fruit flavors such as lychee, a bit of honey and all of the floral bouquet of Gewurtztraminer.
This wine is perfect nicely chilled as an aperitif or on its own with spicy foods such as Indian or Chinese. Willm typically runs from $15 - $20 and is generally less expensive than Trimbach or Hugel. When we are in the mood for Gewurztraminer, this is our first choice and it falls under the rating of buy often. This wine can be a bit "sweet-tasting" and the flavors can be a bit intense so it's not an everyday wine. We don't buy it by the case and most stores tend not to have that much on hand.
If you're up for a lush, floral, wine with touches of honey then give this one a try.
Like what you drink, drink what you like!
Rachel & Bryan Gavini
We've always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with Gewurtztraminer (Bryan loves it, Rachel vacillates between loving it and well, not loving it). One of our first experiences with Gewurtz was back in Boston in 1997 or '98 when we tried one from a well known and reputable producer, Trimbach. We thought that it was a bit too dry and a little herbaceous. But we continued the search for this intriguing grape.
The 2007 Willm Reserve Gewurztraminer is a serious, full bodied, straw-colored wine from Alsace. It's not as well-known as the offerings from the larger producers Trimbach and Hugel, but we believe that the Willm is a fantastic representation of Gewurtztraminer at its best. This wine is very lush, has a richer more tropical fruit flavors such as lychee, a bit of honey and all of the floral bouquet of Gewurtztraminer.
This wine is perfect nicely chilled as an aperitif or on its own with spicy foods such as Indian or Chinese. Willm typically runs from $15 - $20 and is generally less expensive than Trimbach or Hugel. When we are in the mood for Gewurztraminer, this is our first choice and it falls under the rating of buy often. This wine can be a bit "sweet-tasting" and the flavors can be a bit intense so it's not an everyday wine. We don't buy it by the case and most stores tend not to have that much on hand.
If you're up for a lush, floral, wine with touches of honey then give this one a try.
Like what you drink, drink what you like!
Rachel & Bryan Gavini
Los Ailos Malbec/Syrah
Hello Everyone! One of the hottest and fastest growing wine regions in the world today is Argentina, and the two most common grapes are Malbec and Torrontes. Malbec is the fifth Bordeaux varietal (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petite Verdot are the other four), but is usually only used for blending. However, Malbec has made an incredible surge in Argentina.
We are always on the lookout for interesting Malbecs because it brings back memories of living in Boston when we were poor students. We used to pick up Balbi Malbec/Syrah in the 2 for $13 bin at Blanchards in Jamaica Plain. It was aromatic, spicy and a bit rough, but we really enjoyed the flavors. Depending on how Syrah is done, it can be very peppery if it is made using the whole bunch press or it can be more mellow if the stems are removed prior to the crush. Malbec provides a bit of velvety smoothness, especially in Argentina. Together, they can make an incredible blend.
The 2008 Los Ailos Malbec is a 60/40 blend of Syrah and Malbec from the Valle de Tulum region. This is on the western border of Argentina just north of Mendoza. Mendoza is one of the most famous regions in Argentina, well-known for its great Malbec. We picked up the Los Ailos for $8.99. The wine was light and fruity with cherry aromas with just a touch of spice and oak. Overall, we were a little disappointed with the wine and would have preferred a bit more heft, spice and oak as we are used to seeing with this type of blend. The wine was more of a $6.99 wine than an $8.99 and if you see it for the lower price it's worth trying a bottle. On the other hand, we would recommend spending $1 or $2 more and getting Trapiche Oak Cask or Catena Alamos Malbec, both of which are much more serious wines than their prices would indicate.
Look for a later discussion on Torrontes.
Like what you drink, drink what you like!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
We are always on the lookout for interesting Malbecs because it brings back memories of living in Boston when we were poor students. We used to pick up Balbi Malbec/Syrah in the 2 for $13 bin at Blanchards in Jamaica Plain. It was aromatic, spicy and a bit rough, but we really enjoyed the flavors. Depending on how Syrah is done, it can be very peppery if it is made using the whole bunch press or it can be more mellow if the stems are removed prior to the crush. Malbec provides a bit of velvety smoothness, especially in Argentina. Together, they can make an incredible blend.
The 2008 Los Ailos Malbec is a 60/40 blend of Syrah and Malbec from the Valle de Tulum region. This is on the western border of Argentina just north of Mendoza. Mendoza is one of the most famous regions in Argentina, well-known for its great Malbec. We picked up the Los Ailos for $8.99. The wine was light and fruity with cherry aromas with just a touch of spice and oak. Overall, we were a little disappointed with the wine and would have preferred a bit more heft, spice and oak as we are used to seeing with this type of blend. The wine was more of a $6.99 wine than an $8.99 and if you see it for the lower price it's worth trying a bottle. On the other hand, we would recommend spending $1 or $2 more and getting Trapiche Oak Cask or Catena Alamos Malbec, both of which are much more serious wines than their prices would indicate.
Look for a later discussion on Torrontes.
Like what you drink, drink what you like!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
Saturday, March 13, 2010
You say Shiraz, I say Syrah
Recently an old friend asked us for a suggestion for a good Shiraz. This is a great question because Shiraz is something that we've all become accustomed to seeing in our local wine store due to the dramatic increase in Australian wine production in the last 10 years. But Shiraz, or Syrah, has been around for years and years. Shiraz and Syrah are just different names for the same grape (but don't confuse this with Petite Sirah, which is a completely different grape). Historically most people think that Syrah originated in the Rhone Valley of France, where it still makes up some of the best wines of the Rhone Valley (in the form of Cote Rotie and Hermitage). But some others think it came from somewhere else, including the city of Shiraz in Iran, which used to produce a wine called Shirazi. The grape came to be known in Australia and South Africa as Shiraz, in France as Syrah, and California - well California goes both ways.
But the differences are not just in the name. Thinking about the Rhone Valley of France, it's a cooler area, whereas Australia is really very warm. This impacts how the grape ripens and how the wine ends up tasting. In France and cooler parts of California and Australia, the grape ripens more slowly, and tend to retain more of its acidity - hence less sugar and a lower alcohol content in general. A northern Rhone Syrah will usually taste quite peppery and earthy, with some darker cherry and smoky fruit flavors. In most of Australia though, you get quite different results. Australia's summers (in January) can be very hot and dry, and as a result, the Shiraz grape ripens very quickly and can be really intense and concentrated. The sugars in the grape ferment fully, and so you often get a wine that's higher in alcohol, and has more intense red fruit flavors, rather than the more subtle pepper and smokiness than you would get in a cooler climate.
Back to that amazing increase in Australian wine over the last few years. Overproduction in Australia has, in our opinion, caused both prices and quality to go down. The US is Australia's second biggest wine market, and there is a huge glut of Australian wine out there. It's like a lot of things, you see that your product is successful, so you want to make more of it to make more money. But in trying to make more money, your quality goes down. This is unfortunately the way it is with wine - grapevines that are high-yielding don't usually make wine that's as good as those vines that yield fewer grapes (it's really a catch-22: low yield=better wine=higher prices=pocketbook squeeze).
But we digress a bit because you can really still find some great Australian Shiraz out there, at all price points. We're just going to mention a few, simply because this is an area that we haven't really "visited" much recently. Years ago when we first started tasting wine (when we were making little to no money), you could not get a better red wine than Wolf Blass Shiraz or Shiraz-Cab blend (we identified them as such: Wolf Blass red label was the Shiraz-Cab blend, the green label was straight Shiraz, and the yellow label was straight Cab - color coordination was a great thing). We also absolutely loved a wine called Jamiesons Run-a blend of Cabernet, Shiraz, & Merlot. That was a staple but due to changing times, we're sad that it hasn't been available in the US for a number of years. But since then, there's been a lot of consolidation in the wine industry, and Fosters (of oilcan beer fame) owns a fair amount of the quality labels in Australia. One of the easiest to find is the Penfolds brand.
Penfolds Koonunga Hill is a wine that we recommend for every day due to its price point in the $10-12 range. Koonunga Hill (besides being fun to say) is a nice, easy drinking blend of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon, with all the fruitiness you expect to taste in Australia Shiraz, but not "too jammy" (i.e. too much fruit, not much else to back it up). Penfolds is a really reliable name, and you'll find lots of "Bin" this or that. One of the most revered wines of the current day is a Penfolds product, the venerable Grange (between $275-400 a bottle depending on vintage!) While I would love to try a Grange (and was very jealous to read that my Australian friend Simon Kriss got one for Christmas), that's way too rich for our money. But never fear, Penfolds still has a great quality Shiraz blend within most people's price range: Penfolds Bin 389. Bin 389 runs between $28-40 depending on who you ask and is a really full-bodied and rich wine. For straight up Shiraz in Australia, Peter Lehmann is another reputable producer.
So we've talked a little bit about what a Syrah is like in France, and a lot about Australian Shiraz up to this point. But right here at home, the state of California really does make some nice ones (they generally go by "Syrah"). We like the California Syrahs from the Central Coast-Santa Barbara area - look for Lincourt Syrah (Santa Barbara County) and Qupe Syrah, also from the Central Coast, primarily from Santa Barbara County. Starting with Qupe Syrah, we first tried this wine with a Mothers Day lunch at Legal Seafoods in Boston a million years ago. We thought it had a really rich, peppery, black fruit flavor, a really dense and enjoyable wine. Unfortunately for us and our pocketbooks, the price of Qupe skyrocketed in the late '90s and early part of this decade. However we recently came across Qupe for $15-17 a bottle, a comparative bargain. It's definitely worth another look.
Our second California recommendation is the Lincourt Syrah. You may have never seen Lincourt before but I'll bet if you ask your local wine store if they can get it, most likely they can. A little bit of history - we first came across Lincourt as part of a reeallly old wine club that we belonged to in 1998, called Secret Cellars. This club focused on wines from the Santa Barbara area - which at the time we almost never saw in our local stores. Now it's not uncommon to find these wines readily available. Lincourt Syrah is grown in the cool microclimate of the Santa Barbara County, in close proximity to the cooling breezes of the Pacific Ocean. Lincourt Syrah has some nice pepper and spice, and plenty of dark red fruit to back it up.
We hope you've enjoyed this discussion of Shiraz, or Syrah, even though we've only really touched the tip of the iceberg in terms of what's out there. If you have a favorite Syrah or Shiraz, please tell us about it!
Like what you drink, drink what you like!
Rachel & Bryan Gavini
But the differences are not just in the name. Thinking about the Rhone Valley of France, it's a cooler area, whereas Australia is really very warm. This impacts how the grape ripens and how the wine ends up tasting. In France and cooler parts of California and Australia, the grape ripens more slowly, and tend to retain more of its acidity - hence less sugar and a lower alcohol content in general. A northern Rhone Syrah will usually taste quite peppery and earthy, with some darker cherry and smoky fruit flavors. In most of Australia though, you get quite different results. Australia's summers (in January) can be very hot and dry, and as a result, the Shiraz grape ripens very quickly and can be really intense and concentrated. The sugars in the grape ferment fully, and so you often get a wine that's higher in alcohol, and has more intense red fruit flavors, rather than the more subtle pepper and smokiness than you would get in a cooler climate.
Back to that amazing increase in Australian wine over the last few years. Overproduction in Australia has, in our opinion, caused both prices and quality to go down. The US is Australia's second biggest wine market, and there is a huge glut of Australian wine out there. It's like a lot of things, you see that your product is successful, so you want to make more of it to make more money. But in trying to make more money, your quality goes down. This is unfortunately the way it is with wine - grapevines that are high-yielding don't usually make wine that's as good as those vines that yield fewer grapes (it's really a catch-22: low yield=better wine=higher prices=pocketbook squeeze).
But we digress a bit because you can really still find some great Australian Shiraz out there, at all price points. We're just going to mention a few, simply because this is an area that we haven't really "visited" much recently. Years ago when we first started tasting wine (when we were making little to no money), you could not get a better red wine than Wolf Blass Shiraz or Shiraz-Cab blend (we identified them as such: Wolf Blass red label was the Shiraz-Cab blend, the green label was straight Shiraz, and the yellow label was straight Cab - color coordination was a great thing). We also absolutely loved a wine called Jamiesons Run-a blend of Cabernet, Shiraz, & Merlot. That was a staple but due to changing times, we're sad that it hasn't been available in the US for a number of years. But since then, there's been a lot of consolidation in the wine industry, and Fosters (of oilcan beer fame) owns a fair amount of the quality labels in Australia. One of the easiest to find is the Penfolds brand.
Penfolds Koonunga Hill is a wine that we recommend for every day due to its price point in the $10-12 range. Koonunga Hill (besides being fun to say) is a nice, easy drinking blend of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon, with all the fruitiness you expect to taste in Australia Shiraz, but not "too jammy" (i.e. too much fruit, not much else to back it up). Penfolds is a really reliable name, and you'll find lots of "Bin" this or that. One of the most revered wines of the current day is a Penfolds product, the venerable Grange (between $275-400 a bottle depending on vintage!) While I would love to try a Grange (and was very jealous to read that my Australian friend Simon Kriss got one for Christmas), that's way too rich for our money. But never fear, Penfolds still has a great quality Shiraz blend within most people's price range: Penfolds Bin 389. Bin 389 runs between $28-40 depending on who you ask and is a really full-bodied and rich wine. For straight up Shiraz in Australia, Peter Lehmann is another reputable producer.
So we've talked a little bit about what a Syrah is like in France, and a lot about Australian Shiraz up to this point. But right here at home, the state of California really does make some nice ones (they generally go by "Syrah"). We like the California Syrahs from the Central Coast-Santa Barbara area - look for Lincourt Syrah (Santa Barbara County) and Qupe Syrah, also from the Central Coast, primarily from Santa Barbara County. Starting with Qupe Syrah, we first tried this wine with a Mothers Day lunch at Legal Seafoods in Boston a million years ago. We thought it had a really rich, peppery, black fruit flavor, a really dense and enjoyable wine. Unfortunately for us and our pocketbooks, the price of Qupe skyrocketed in the late '90s and early part of this decade. However we recently came across Qupe for $15-17 a bottle, a comparative bargain. It's definitely worth another look.
Our second California recommendation is the Lincourt Syrah. You may have never seen Lincourt before but I'll bet if you ask your local wine store if they can get it, most likely they can. A little bit of history - we first came across Lincourt as part of a reeallly old wine club that we belonged to in 1998, called Secret Cellars. This club focused on wines from the Santa Barbara area - which at the time we almost never saw in our local stores. Now it's not uncommon to find these wines readily available. Lincourt Syrah is grown in the cool microclimate of the Santa Barbara County, in close proximity to the cooling breezes of the Pacific Ocean. Lincourt Syrah has some nice pepper and spice, and plenty of dark red fruit to back it up.
We hope you've enjoyed this discussion of Shiraz, or Syrah, even though we've only really touched the tip of the iceberg in terms of what's out there. If you have a favorite Syrah or Shiraz, please tell us about it!
Like what you drink, drink what you like!
Rachel & Bryan Gavini
Bottled Poetry Meets Ascentia
Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, once remarked "Wine is bottled poetry." (As we write this blog, the song "No Poetry" by Gary Jules is playing in the background.) Okay - now back to wine. Today we're discussing wines from two of California's great wineries. Robert Louis Stevenson's quote may be the inspiration for Cliff Lede Vineyard's wine called Poetry, which is a Cabernet Sauvignon from the Stags Leap District in California's Napa Valley. Ascentia is a reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Geyser Peak's Block Collection in the Sonoma Valley. The name comes from the Ascentia Estate Vineyard, which is a rising set of meandering hills and terraces in the Alexander Valley which creates a variety of different microclimates and soils.
Cliff Lede Vineyards is located on the Silverado Trail in the Stags Leap district, and is owned by Canadian Cliff Lede. We feel a special affinity for this winery because our friend Jack Bittner (a Massachusetts native), is VP & General Manager at Cliff Lede. We've known Jack since our early days at the Nantucket Wine Festival when he worked for Silverado Vineyards and insisted to us that Silverado really did make good white wine in addition to red (and gave us a bottle of Silverado's Sauvignon Blanc to prove it. Of course this is when you could actually walk out of the Nantucket tasting with a bottle tucked in your bag).
Geyser Peak has been a favorite for many years, and their Sauvignon Blanc is our original "back up the truck" wine. We were excited to have met the winemaker, Aussie Mick Schroeter and his friend Daryl Groom, at the Nantucket Wine Festival many years ago, and were impressed by their approach to winemaking in the Sonoma Valley. We visited the winery in Geyserville back in 2005 and had the opportunity to try some of the library wines. It was in this tasting that we first tried the Ascentia, and later joined Geyser Peak's wine club.
Okay - now how does a wine from Alexander Valley meet one from Stags Leap? Several years ago, Dorothy and John from the Wall Street Journal started an event called "Open That Bottle Night" (OTBN). On that night, which is now each year in February, people all over the world gather their friends and family together to share a special bottle and enjoy a great meal. Many of the stories that surround the wine and people are heartwarming. It's just people like you and us getting together to open that special bottle that may otherwise sit on the rack because it was too expensive or special. We have come to accept the phrase that "It's never too early to open a bottle, only too late". You can decant, aerate, or open a bottle an hour in advance to help advance the clock and open up a tight wine - if it's too late and past its prime, then there is nothing you can do to turn back the clock and revive the wine.
This year, we decided to do a comparison of 2004 vintages of the Ascentia Cabernet and the Poetry with a dinner of burgundy pepper lamb, garlic mashed white beans and a mixture of asparagus and kale. When we first opened the wines, the Poetry was a bit more aromatic than the Ascentia but both were very powerful Cabs. We could immediately tell that the Ascentia was built to last and could have been held another 5 - 10 years. The Poetry, being from Stags Leap, had softer tannins, incredible bouquet and aromas and was very approachable. We needed to aerate the Ascentia a bit to get it to open up. Both wines exhibited deep dark fruit characteristics and and Ascentia had a bit of cedar hints to it. The Poetry had a little more of a lush chocolate flavor to it. We had both wines through the course of dinner and later on; it took about 3 hours to finish both bottles. In the beginning, we both felt that Poetry was showing better, but as the time went by the Ascentia showed its staying power and held up well as it opened and showed us new dimensions with the passing of time.
Both of these wines rate as buy again and very, very good. However, they come with some pretty hefty price tags, Poetry is in the $125 - $150 range. Ascentia, on the other hand comes in at around $45. These are both truly special occasion wines and it's rare that we get them. In fact, we got Poetry as part of the Stags Leap Appellation Collection (obligatory disclosure-not sure we would have spent the money for this wine had it not come as part of the Collection). The Appellation Collection is 19 of the best wines from Stags Leap. We also belong to the Geyser Peak club which ships us great wines like this a few times a year.
A little note about Stags Leap and why it is famous. In 1976, Steven Spurrier, a British wine merchant, arranged for the famous Tasting of Paris often termed "The Judgment of Paris". This event was a blind tasting in which the highest quality red (and white) wines from France and California were tasted by French judges. Two California wines took the top prizes: the winner among the red wines was Stag's Leap Wine Cellars 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon, and among the whites was Chateau Montelena's Chardonnay. (Check out the movie "Bottleshock"-even better wine film than "Sideways.") Several other American wineries made strong showings in the competition, including Ridge, Clos du Val, Heitz, Mayacamas, Chalone, and Spring Mountain. Several interim contests have been held and a 30 Year Anniversary of the same wines was held in 2006. California still wins against French powerhouses such as Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, Chateau Haut-Brion and Chateau Montrose.
The Alexander Valley region became famous in 1975 when Chateau St. Jean created the first "vineyard designated wine" in California wine history. Today it is the largest and most fully planted region in Sonoma, and we think some of the best of Sonoma wines come from the Alexander Valley.
Like what you drink, drink what you Like!
Rachel & Bryan Gavini
Cliff Lede Vineyards is located on the Silverado Trail in the Stags Leap district, and is owned by Canadian Cliff Lede. We feel a special affinity for this winery because our friend Jack Bittner (a Massachusetts native), is VP & General Manager at Cliff Lede. We've known Jack since our early days at the Nantucket Wine Festival when he worked for Silverado Vineyards and insisted to us that Silverado really did make good white wine in addition to red (and gave us a bottle of Silverado's Sauvignon Blanc to prove it. Of course this is when you could actually walk out of the Nantucket tasting with a bottle tucked in your bag).
Geyser Peak has been a favorite for many years, and their Sauvignon Blanc is our original "back up the truck" wine. We were excited to have met the winemaker, Aussie Mick Schroeter and his friend Daryl Groom, at the Nantucket Wine Festival many years ago, and were impressed by their approach to winemaking in the Sonoma Valley. We visited the winery in Geyserville back in 2005 and had the opportunity to try some of the library wines. It was in this tasting that we first tried the Ascentia, and later joined Geyser Peak's wine club.
Okay - now how does a wine from Alexander Valley meet one from Stags Leap? Several years ago, Dorothy and John from the Wall Street Journal started an event called "Open That Bottle Night" (OTBN). On that night, which is now each year in February, people all over the world gather their friends and family together to share a special bottle and enjoy a great meal. Many of the stories that surround the wine and people are heartwarming. It's just people like you and us getting together to open that special bottle that may otherwise sit on the rack because it was too expensive or special. We have come to accept the phrase that "It's never too early to open a bottle, only too late". You can decant, aerate, or open a bottle an hour in advance to help advance the clock and open up a tight wine - if it's too late and past its prime, then there is nothing you can do to turn back the clock and revive the wine.
This year, we decided to do a comparison of 2004 vintages of the Ascentia Cabernet and the Poetry with a dinner of burgundy pepper lamb, garlic mashed white beans and a mixture of asparagus and kale. When we first opened the wines, the Poetry was a bit more aromatic than the Ascentia but both were very powerful Cabs. We could immediately tell that the Ascentia was built to last and could have been held another 5 - 10 years. The Poetry, being from Stags Leap, had softer tannins, incredible bouquet and aromas and was very approachable. We needed to aerate the Ascentia a bit to get it to open up. Both wines exhibited deep dark fruit characteristics and and Ascentia had a bit of cedar hints to it. The Poetry had a little more of a lush chocolate flavor to it. We had both wines through the course of dinner and later on; it took about 3 hours to finish both bottles. In the beginning, we both felt that Poetry was showing better, but as the time went by the Ascentia showed its staying power and held up well as it opened and showed us new dimensions with the passing of time.
Both of these wines rate as buy again and very, very good. However, they come with some pretty hefty price tags, Poetry is in the $125 - $150 range. Ascentia, on the other hand comes in at around $45. These are both truly special occasion wines and it's rare that we get them. In fact, we got Poetry as part of the Stags Leap Appellation Collection (obligatory disclosure-not sure we would have spent the money for this wine had it not come as part of the Collection). The Appellation Collection is 19 of the best wines from Stags Leap. We also belong to the Geyser Peak club which ships us great wines like this a few times a year.
A little note about Stags Leap and why it is famous. In 1976, Steven Spurrier, a British wine merchant, arranged for the famous Tasting of Paris often termed "The Judgment of Paris". This event was a blind tasting in which the highest quality red (and white) wines from France and California were tasted by French judges. Two California wines took the top prizes: the winner among the red wines was Stag's Leap Wine Cellars 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon, and among the whites was Chateau Montelena's Chardonnay. (Check out the movie "Bottleshock"-even better wine film than "Sideways.") Several other American wineries made strong showings in the competition, including Ridge, Clos du Val, Heitz, Mayacamas, Chalone, and Spring Mountain. Several interim contests have been held and a 30 Year Anniversary of the same wines was held in 2006. California still wins against French powerhouses such as Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, Chateau Haut-Brion and Chateau Montrose.
The Alexander Valley region became famous in 1975 when Chateau St. Jean created the first "vineyard designated wine" in California wine history. Today it is the largest and most fully planted region in Sonoma, and we think some of the best of Sonoma wines come from the Alexander Valley.
Like what you drink, drink what you Like!
Rachel & Bryan Gavini
Friday, March 12, 2010
A new look in Italy
Hi everyone! Tonight we're tasting some Italian wine, and Italian wine is one thing that used to completely confuse me. Like probably many of you, the extent of my Italian wine experience used to be the chianti in the basket (which also made a great candle holder after the wine was gone!). But there's so much more to Italy - there are at least 500 different grape varietals in Italy - most of which we'll never see or hear about. There are a lot of high quality, very expensive wines in Italy (high end Brunellos, Barolos, and Super Tuscans), but that's not who we are. Bryan and I love looking for the great values in Italian wine, wines that are $12 a bottle or less. Our latest find falls into our "Back the Truck Up" category - Tomassi Romeo Rosso della Venezie. It fits in this category based on its quality and price. If you have pizza or pasta night, you should get plenty of this and have a bottle ready for those nights. We bought this wine for $8.99, and it tastes a lot more expensive than that. The Tomassi Romeo is a blend of 3 grapes: Corvina, Rondinella, and Merlot. Most of you probably recognize Merlot, but what about the other two? If you've ever tried a wine called Valpolicella, then you've already had these two grape varieties.
Traditionally, Italian Valpolicella is from the area around Venice, and is made of 3 grape varieties: primarily Corvina, but also Rondinella and Molinara. High end Valpolicellas are at least in the high $20s or $30s. The Romeo substitutes Merlot for Molinara, and as a result, it has a nice round cherry fruit flavor combined with that dryness that you get with northern Italian wines. This is a wine that you could eat with pizza, pasta, a hamburger, or any other casual easy meal.
We broke the "rules" with this one and served it with a Mediterranean/Moroccan risotto with preserved lemons, chicken, kalamata olives and capers. The white wine-white meat, red wine-red meat rule is not necessary, particularly with Italian wines such as the Romeo, which are really food friendly.
As always, drink what you like, like what you drink!
Rachel & Bryan Gavini
Traditionally, Italian Valpolicella is from the area around Venice, and is made of 3 grape varieties: primarily Corvina, but also Rondinella and Molinara. High end Valpolicellas are at least in the high $20s or $30s. The Romeo substitutes Merlot for Molinara, and as a result, it has a nice round cherry fruit flavor combined with that dryness that you get with northern Italian wines. This is a wine that you could eat with pizza, pasta, a hamburger, or any other casual easy meal.
We broke the "rules" with this one and served it with a Mediterranean/Moroccan risotto with preserved lemons, chicken, kalamata olives and capers. The white wine-white meat, red wine-red meat rule is not necessary, particularly with Italian wines such as the Romeo, which are really food friendly.
As always, drink what you like, like what you drink!
Rachel & Bryan Gavini
Old Spain and New Spain
Today's first two wines are some old favorites - Marques de Caceres 2005 Crianza from Rioja Spain and Marques de Casa Concha 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile. We first became acquainted with Spanish reds back in 1997 when we sampled Vina Mayor back in the cellar at Deluca's Market on Newbury St. in Boston, Ma. They had regular tastings with wine, cheese, and the occasional Berkelee student playing music.
Spanish wines, especially the aged ones like a Crianza have many of the characteristics in reds that we like. Nice oaky, wood flavor that comes from the aging. Crianza means that it has spent at least one year in oak barrels and it tends to spend a year in the bottle for a total of two years. The wine is primarily made from the Tempranillo grape grown in the Rioja region of Spain. It can be blended with small amounts of Graciano, Mazuela and Grancha. It's somewhat similar to Chianti - where Sangiovese is the main grape with other blends. It has a distinctive, dusty, leathery taste but a very smooth finish - not heavy on the tannins. When we mention tannins think "licking a stick". I like to say there is a certain "Spanish Tannin" although innaccurate, it reflects the combination of grapes and soil known by the French as "terroir". This fell under the "we buy a few bottles" because it does go great with food. This wine retails for about $13.
Marques de Casa Concha 2007 Cabernet Sauvigon is one of Concha y Toro's middle level wines that are great values. It has good coffee and vanilla aromas from the oak aging. Additionally, we find that Chilean reds have good amounts of cherry aromas, leather and tobacco flavors. This is not as heavy on the tobacco as some, but definitely distinctive. This is a pretty powerful wine so you should be thinking steaks or other hearty red meats. Chocolate is an interesting pairing too. Cabernet Sauvignon is grown all over the world and this is a great example of one from South America. It retails for $15 - 17 and falls under the we like to buy a few bottles at a time. If you see a great pricing deal then we go for more.
As the weekend draws near, we'll be sampling many wines and should have more for you by Monday.
Like what you drink, drink what you like!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
Spanish wines, especially the aged ones like a Crianza have many of the characteristics in reds that we like. Nice oaky, wood flavor that comes from the aging. Crianza means that it has spent at least one year in oak barrels and it tends to spend a year in the bottle for a total of two years. The wine is primarily made from the Tempranillo grape grown in the Rioja region of Spain. It can be blended with small amounts of Graciano, Mazuela and Grancha. It's somewhat similar to Chianti - where Sangiovese is the main grape with other blends. It has a distinctive, dusty, leathery taste but a very smooth finish - not heavy on the tannins. When we mention tannins think "licking a stick". I like to say there is a certain "Spanish Tannin" although innaccurate, it reflects the combination of grapes and soil known by the French as "terroir". This fell under the "we buy a few bottles" because it does go great with food. This wine retails for about $13.
Marques de Casa Concha 2007 Cabernet Sauvigon is one of Concha y Toro's middle level wines that are great values. It has good coffee and vanilla aromas from the oak aging. Additionally, we find that Chilean reds have good amounts of cherry aromas, leather and tobacco flavors. This is not as heavy on the tobacco as some, but definitely distinctive. This is a pretty powerful wine so you should be thinking steaks or other hearty red meats. Chocolate is an interesting pairing too. Cabernet Sauvignon is grown all over the world and this is a great example of one from South America. It retails for $15 - 17 and falls under the we like to buy a few bottles at a time. If you see a great pricing deal then we go for more.
As the weekend draws near, we'll be sampling many wines and should have more for you by Monday.
Like what you drink, drink what you like!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
Some simple tips on buying and storing wine
Happy sipping everyone! If you are like us, it's that momentous occasion when you finally buy your first case of wine. You are feeling "How am I ever going to drink this much wine - it's a lot of wine." You are probably right - it is a lot of wine, but it does a couple things for you. If you drink only those 12 bottles the entire year, then you have saved yourself between 10 and 20% on the purchase. That's a good reason enough. You also may get recognized by the store owner as someone who likes wine and then he/she may help you find other good gems in the store or other discounts when you return. It allows you to try a variety. If it's your first case, then consider getting 2 bottles of 6 different wines - maybe 3 reds and 3 whites. You'll be rewarded when a guest shows up and you have that extra bottle on hand. Any hey, many people buy beer in 6 packs, 12 packs, or 30 packs - so why not buy your wine that way.
Okay now on storage. You bought your first case and think you need a special place to store it; like a wine cellar. Nope! You can store the box with the wine on its side in a closet (our first case was stored in a box turned on its side in Rachel's hall closet in a non-air-conditioned apartment in Jamaica Plain, MA). The reality is direct sunlight and constant temperature changes are worse for wine than storing it at room temperature in your house. Most of the warehouses and trucks that wine is shipped in are not climate controlled except for the high end stuff. As novices, we kept a few bottles of a really good 1994 California Cabernet in a rack above our kitchen cabinets and moved them around over several years before drinking. They were coated with some grease and dust, but tasted fine when we finally had them. We don't recommend storing wine this way, but it does show that they are pretty resilient. One last note on storage - do store wine on its side in your house, it keeps the corks wet and expanded for a good seal. If they are screw tops, then it does not matter, but wine, like people, likes to sleep on its side rather than standing up.
Some key things to look at when buying wine - how old is it (vintage), varietal - Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, etc., country of origin and producer. In some countries, the region may dictate the varietal such as Burgundy and in others you may find it difficult to find out; especially if it's a blend. We'll try to give this information, as much as it's available to us when we review wines for you.
Drink what you like, like what you drink!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
Okay now on storage. You bought your first case and think you need a special place to store it; like a wine cellar. Nope! You can store the box with the wine on its side in a closet (our first case was stored in a box turned on its side in Rachel's hall closet in a non-air-conditioned apartment in Jamaica Plain, MA). The reality is direct sunlight and constant temperature changes are worse for wine than storing it at room temperature in your house. Most of the warehouses and trucks that wine is shipped in are not climate controlled except for the high end stuff. As novices, we kept a few bottles of a really good 1994 California Cabernet in a rack above our kitchen cabinets and moved them around over several years before drinking. They were coated with some grease and dust, but tasted fine when we finally had them. We don't recommend storing wine this way, but it does show that they are pretty resilient. One last note on storage - do store wine on its side in your house, it keeps the corks wet and expanded for a good seal. If they are screw tops, then it does not matter, but wine, like people, likes to sleep on its side rather than standing up.
Some key things to look at when buying wine - how old is it (vintage), varietal - Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, etc., country of origin and producer. In some countries, the region may dictate the varietal such as Burgundy and in others you may find it difficult to find out; especially if it's a blend. We'll try to give this information, as much as it's available to us when we review wines for you.
Drink what you like, like what you drink!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
A new form of wine review
Hello everyone, Rachel and I hope to be able to provide you with some useful information to help you pick out your next wine. I am sitting at my computer sipping a glass of Black Box (yes red wine from a box) 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon from the Central Coast of California writing this. Whether it's wine for a nice meal, backyard barbecue or just for hanging out on a hot summer day; I think you'll find some good advice. First of all, we are not professionals, neither of us has tasted a 1969 Cheval Blanc and use that as a standard of perfection or some other incredibly rare wine that you'll never try.
We have been tasting wine since 1995 when we first went to the Brotherhood Winery in Washingtonville, NY. It is considered America's first winery. It's a small place, rich in history and they aim to educate and provide some decent examples of the major varietals that you'll come across. It was the place where I learned the difference between merlot and cabernet sauvignon, how a dry riesling differs from a Johannesburg riesling and what a sherry is. Overall, it was a fun and educational place to start. Since then we have attended many wine tastings over the years in New England and met many great people along the way. We have several books of labels and comments that we collected from our enjoyment of wine. As of this day, we both have tried at least 100 different grape varietals, either blended or on their own, and wines from nearly every major wine producing country including Hungary, Greece, Israel, and China among the other more well-known wine producing countries.
What you are going to get from us is a straightforward description of the wine and a very simple rating scheme:
(1) We would not buy it again (this does not mean it is bad; just maybe not what we were expecting).
(2) We would buy again from time to time but not more than one at a time.
(3) We would buy a few more bottles.
(4) We would buy a case or more.
(5) Back the truck up and give us all you got.
We don't believe in the point scale used by the "pros". How one can differentiate 1 point between an 89 or 90 and a 90 or 91 on a scale of 100 after trying so many wines is really quite ridiculous to believe. And even more, to benchmark a 100 point wine, many reviewers use some rare wine that I don't think they taste regularly enough to calibrate. Nonetheless, many people go by these ratings. We tend to favor the ratings used by Dorothy and John at the Wall Street Journal - Good, Very Good, Delicious, Best of Tasting - much more relevant to us.
Back to the Black Box Cabernet - I think that this is a buy another bottle from time to time. You get the equivalent of 4 bottles in a box that stays fresh as you pour a glass from time to time. It's a little fruity more black cherries, soft tannins, but has some decent body and finish. Overall a good wine to have when you just need one glass.
Drink what you like, like what you drink!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
We have been tasting wine since 1995 when we first went to the Brotherhood Winery in Washingtonville, NY. It is considered America's first winery. It's a small place, rich in history and they aim to educate and provide some decent examples of the major varietals that you'll come across. It was the place where I learned the difference between merlot and cabernet sauvignon, how a dry riesling differs from a Johannesburg riesling and what a sherry is. Overall, it was a fun and educational place to start. Since then we have attended many wine tastings over the years in New England and met many great people along the way. We have several books of labels and comments that we collected from our enjoyment of wine. As of this day, we both have tried at least 100 different grape varietals, either blended or on their own, and wines from nearly every major wine producing country including Hungary, Greece, Israel, and China among the other more well-known wine producing countries.
What you are going to get from us is a straightforward description of the wine and a very simple rating scheme:
(1) We would not buy it again (this does not mean it is bad; just maybe not what we were expecting).
(2) We would buy again from time to time but not more than one at a time.
(3) We would buy a few more bottles.
(4) We would buy a case or more.
(5) Back the truck up and give us all you got.
We don't believe in the point scale used by the "pros". How one can differentiate 1 point between an 89 or 90 and a 90 or 91 on a scale of 100 after trying so many wines is really quite ridiculous to believe. And even more, to benchmark a 100 point wine, many reviewers use some rare wine that I don't think they taste regularly enough to calibrate. Nonetheless, many people go by these ratings. We tend to favor the ratings used by Dorothy and John at the Wall Street Journal - Good, Very Good, Delicious, Best of Tasting - much more relevant to us.
Back to the Black Box Cabernet - I think that this is a buy another bottle from time to time. You get the equivalent of 4 bottles in a box that stays fresh as you pour a glass from time to time. It's a little fruity more black cherries, soft tannins, but has some decent body and finish. Overall a good wine to have when you just need one glass.
Drink what you like, like what you drink!
Rachel and Bryan Gavini
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