Archive for the ‘Review cabernet sauvignon wine’ Category

Part of this story is about The Wonders of Modern Technology.

The other part is about good wine.

I’ll start with the technology part. A few weeks ago I was invited to participate in something called a Twitter Tasting. The invite came from Wente Vineyards, and although I didn’t have a clue what a “Twitter Tasting” was, I was keen to find out, because I’ve tasted and liked many Wente wines..

So our Twitter tasting happened last night, and now I can tell you what it is — it’s a blast! Turns out Twitter has this feature called TasteLive that’s like a video conference call. On my laptop the TasteLive page shows a live streaming video of the folks hosting the tasting, in this case Karl Wente and a young woman from their PR firm. He sipped his way through five wines, commenting on each. And we in the “audience” could comment or ask questions through the Twitter feed. A commentator off-camera read our questions/comments to Karl as they came through, and he replied or commented back. This is a fun and efficient format, and a great use of Twitter. Thanks to the folks at Wente for initiating it.

So let’s get to the wine. We tasted through five wines, and that’s more than I want to review in one post. I’ll look at two today and the others in a day or so.

The first two wines don’t bear the Wente name, because the family also owns Murietta’s Well (also in Livermore, California) and Tamas Estates in the Central Coast. Each winery has its own personality, wine style and price point, so let’s start with the entry level wine.

Tamas Estates is a label that’s designed to come across as “hip and adventurouus,” and I’m guessing it’s aimed at a younger audience. The wines are supposed to be ‘approachable,” i.e. fruit-forward and easy on the finish. The first wine we tried in the Tamas line is very new to the market, and I think is pushing the envelope for California “fun” wines. Tamas Sangiovese Rosato 2010 is a pink wine, and those of us in the wine biz know that 95% of Americans think pink means semi-sweet White Zinfandel.

This is most certainly not a White Zin. It’s made from Sangiovese with a dash of Pinot Noir, and it has real character and class. The color, first, is a deep rose, which indicates slightly longer skin contact than your average American blush. In the glass it’s very pretty, and invited me to come hither. The nose was relatively light at first, suggesting watermelon and maybe a hint of cherry. And thankfully, there was absolutely no sweet edge.

My first sip was lots of fun. The watermelon jumped up and said hello, followed by delicate cherry and strawberry flavors. There was good intensity to the fruit — you didn’t have to hunt for flavors like you do with too many roses. But the best part? There’s a great burst of bright acid around mid-palate that carries all the way through the finish. It keeps this Rosato clean and snappy, and sets it totally apart from all but a few American pink wines. It was a great choice to use Sangiovese to lead this blend, because its natural cherry fruit and high acid seem ideally suited for a good rose.

Another thing I like about this wine is the packaging — it’s vaguely exotic, suggesting faraway places and European origins. It helps differentiate it from the herd of American pink stuff.

And did I mention this Tamas sells for around $10? That’s a deal and a half. I’d certainly recommend it in my retail store as a fun picnic/barbeque/patio summer wine.

Next up is a wine that’s on a different planet from Tamas. The winery, Murietta’s Well, has a great backstory, and dates almost to the beginning of California wine. It seems there was a guy named Joaquin Murietta, who was, depending on which biography you read, a Mexican patriot who helped settle the West or a renegade horse thief. While running his horses down to Mexico sometime around 1850, he stumbled on an artesian well in the beautiful Livermore Valley, just east of the San Francisco Bay. The area became known to the locals as Murietta’s Well, and around 1880 a European immigrant named Loius Mel fell in love with it. He bought 92 acres and planted vineyards with rootstock from Chateau d’Yquem and Chateau Margaux. Not a bad lineage for a winery…

The Wente family, who have been making wine next door for even longer than Louis Mel, got involved around 1930, and ended up taking total control in 1990 when they set out to resurrect the historic Murietta’s Well winery. Their mission now is to create “unforgettable estate blends from California’s Livermore Valley.”

The first blend in our Twitter tasting was Murietta’s Well “The Spur” 2008, which plays a twist on the traditional Bordeaux-style blend. There are four Bordeaux varietals — Cabernet Sauvignon (54%), Petite Verdot (23%), Cabernet Franc (9%) and Malbec (4%), but they’re joined by a classic California grape — 10% Petite Sirah. And that 10% really sets the tone.

The color is deep and intense, and right off the cork the nose showed that fleshy, iodine-y thing I get from Petite Sirah. Not that that’s a bad thing! That component calmed down with some swirling, and then the dark fruit started to develop. I got deep Cab aromas like blackberry and blackcurrant, and then the oak started ro suggest itself.

The palate had loads of richness, with blackberry and black currant darkened by some gamy notes. An initial burst of acidity resolved to a soft, sensuous mouthfeel. The oak came into play as the wine sat and developed: caramel and vanilla rounded out the back of the palate, with a hint of exotic spice. Tannins were… not very tannic, so I guess they were well integrated.

This is a pretty hedonistic bottle of wine. It’s a “more is more” wine — not that there’s anything wrong with that! I’d like to drink this again with some rich comfort food (Lamb Stew anyone?). But I can certainly recommend it as a unique and well-made blend.

Thanks again, Wente, and Cheers!

Courtney Benham tripped over some dusty boxes, and the ghost of an old winemaker slipped out.

It happened one day about 20 years ago, in a dusty warehouse in San Jose. The winemaker was Martin Ray, long since gone but once known as “the father of California fine wine.” He’d left behind some 1500 cases of library wines, some dating back 40 years, and boxes of press clippings, winery brochures, and price lists.

Courtney, who had grown up working in his father’s winery in the Sacramento Delta,  couldn’t let the past disappear all over again. He set out to reinvent Martin Ray Winery, and started by tasting and analyzing the Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir he’d unearthed.

Courtney discovered that the keys to the Martin Ray style were two things — hillside or mountain-grown fruit, and “intuitive winemaking”, or knowing when to intervene and when to let the wine alone to create itself.

Judging from the two wines I tripped over, Martin’s ghost is surely resting easy in his grave. First I tasted Martin Ray Napa Valley Merlot 2009, and I said, “Holy Cow!” (or something like that). This is a big, balls-y, lush, seductive Merlot, and I’m guessing the mountain fruit has a lot to do with that. Read the rest of this entry »

OK, I’ll admit this isn’t really a picture of the four sisters who’re the namesakes for this Australian winery. But they look like they could kick some serious ass, just like the wines.

Four Sisters may sound like a silly, frilly little winery, but it’s got some serious chops. In fact, it was created by one of Australia’s most respected winemakers, Trevor Mast. At Mount Langhi Ghiran, Trevor produced award-winning wines that could be massive and very bold. He started his second winery so he could create a line of fun, accessible, easy-drinking wines that his daughters and their friends could enjoy.

Some of the girls got into the act, too. The eldest, Daliah, created the silhouette art that became the winery’s logo and label.

I’ve already tasted and reviewed Four Sisters Shiraz (“Great Value Second Label Shiraz”), and gave it my top rating because it drinks twice as good as it costs. This is way more than “fun, easy-drinking” wine. So I was excited to bring home the Merlot.

I gotta admit that Merlot isn’t anything like my favorite varietal, because I’ve tasted a lot of insipid stuff made in California. And the Aussies don’t usually devote a whole lot of vineyard space to this grape, favoring the mighty Shiraz instead. But this Merlot has a whole lot of style and character.

The fruit for Four Sisters Merlot 2008 comes from Victoria, which has a cooler climate than many of Australia’s wine regions. We know what cool does to grapes, right? When it’s managed correctly, it creates structure and acid in the fruit, and contributes to more intense, concentrated flavors.

The difference shows from the first sniff. I got  intense cherry and plum, with a sharp note that signals depth and structure. The palate offers gobs of rich dark  berry fruit, with a hit of cocoa, vanilla and spice. The French oak isn’t overpowering — it rounds out the finish while letting the bright fruit show.

If I were you, I’d go grab a bottle or 12. And if you have any sisters (I have two), grab them too. Share a glass of this and enjoy. Cheers!

Mr. Chardonnay makes great Chardonnay. That’s not surprising.

But he’s pretty good with Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon, too.

So who is “Mr. Chardonnay?” He’s a winemaker named Chuck Ortman, once a consulting winemaker for big-name Napa Valley wineries such as Shafer, Cain and Far Niente. He was given his nickname by Wine Spectator magazine because he helped make California Chardonnay great. Among his successes was the 1973 Chardonnay he made for Spring Mountain winery. It was chosen to be one of just 10 wines from California and France that were entered in the famous Paris tasting of 1976.

Remember that? That’s the tasting where California Chardonnay and Bordeaux-style blends seriously kicked French butt.

So fast-forward 35 years to the Central Coast of California. Chuck is now Winemaster at Ortman Family Winery in San Luis Obispo, working side by side with his son, Matt. The second generation of the Ortman winemaking dynasty (dare I call it that?) put in his time learning the winemaking trade in Italy. He apprenticed at Castello di Gabbiano, and I’m grateful for that: it taught him how to make a kick-ass Cal-Ital wine, Ortman’s O2 Sangiovese.

But I digress. Let’s look at the Ortman line, as we tasted it at a wine dinner we hosted recently. Read the rest of this entry »

They just keep on coming.

I’m talking about great value, great tasting reds from Washington State wine country. I just tasted Waterbrook Melange Noir 2008, which I’d grabbed just because I figured it would be as good as all the other red blends I’ve tasted from the Columbia Valley.

And I wasn’t disappointed. It showed the guts and elegance I’ve come to expect from the reds of the U.S. Northwest.

Let me give you a little background on the region. Washington’s wine country is in the eastern half of the state, far away from the  rainy Pacific coast. In fact, it’s separated from the ocean by two mountain ranges, the Cascades and the Olympics, which create a rain shadow in the Columbia Valley. This produces a micro-climate that wine grapes love, where the days are warm and dry to ripen the grapes, and the nights are cool enough to develop acid and structure. On top of that, the area’s northerly latitude gives it more daylight hours, and therefore more ripening time for the vineyards.

Here’s what all this means: Washington State wines have intense flavors, with bright acid that keeps them exceptionally well-balanced. Read the rest of this entry »

I just read a post by Tim Fish, a contributor to WineSpectator.com. He talked about the effect our expectations have on our experiences. He tells a really cute story about childhood memories that’ll make many of us think back to the wood-paneled station wagon and 8mm movie camera’s of our youth.

In wine terms, he said we expect much more from an expensive bottle than an inexpensive one, and are much more disappointed when “name” bottles and legendary vintages don’t live up to their press.

I couldn’t agree more. We live in a culture where the price tag is equated with the value, and a big-ticket car or watch or wine bestows tremendous cachet on its owner — sometimes more cachet than they deserve.

Fish says it’s a pleasure to find things that over-deliver: where the value far exceeds the price. Again, ditto. He mentions several California wines that are a great deal for the money.

So here’s where I disagree: I’ve become more and more disappointed with the value of California wines. The cheap ones — i.e. under $10 — have flaws that put me right off. The whites usually have an edge of sweetness where there shouldn’t be one: I don’t want sugar in my Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay! (Watch this video to see me rant about this.) I assume they put sugar in wine to cover up the wine’s flaws, and to pander to Americans’ penchant for sweet foods (Sugar Frosted Flakes anyone?) Read the rest of this entry »

I opened up the wine list at a cool little pizza place in Florida and was surprised to see “not-your-usual-pizza-joint-winelist.” It was a very pleasant surprise, because I’ve come to dread the pathetic short list of cheap Italian and not-so-cheap but still lousy California selections.

The joint is actually part of a small national chain called “Grimaldi’s,” and they do a great job with build-your-own pizzas, craft beers and lots of wines by the glass and bottle. We drank a glass of Ferrari-Carano Siena (an elegant Sonoma County Sangiovese blend) at a bargain price, but we’d had it before and already knew it was a stellar wine.

The new winery of the evening was Vina Robles, which we learned sits in the rolling hills just north of Paso Robles, California. It was actually kind of a “deja-vu all over again” experience, because we realized we’d visited the winery on a buying trip many years ago. It was probably not long after the release of their first vintage (2000), and we met with the Swiss restaurateur who is their owner. Our impression of the wines then was that they were very Old World in style: leaner than typical California and more earthy and dry. We weren’t sure the wines would “fit” in our area, or that the winery had good long-term prospects.

I guess we were very wrong (it’s happened before, I’ll admit…) Vina Robles now has a magnificent retail and restaurant operation, and wines that have gotten great ratings from Wine Spectator, and Wine Enthusiast, and medals from a long list of competitions.

In fact, Vina Robles now hangs their hat on their Old World heritage: their publicity tag line is “European Inspiration– California Character.” It seems they’ve learned to work with the ultra-ripe fruit that the Paso Robles climate produces: its very warm days and cool nights grow Bordeaux and Rhone varietals that are rich and intense.

We got a feeling for that style with Vina Robles Red4 2008, a blend of the Rhone varietals Syrah, Petite Sirah, Grenache and Mourvedre. The rich, jammy nose said, “this ain’t no European wine” right off the bat, and the palate delivered lots of sweet blackberry and raspberry flavors with an almost viscose mid-palate. You could practically spread this thing on toast (not that that’s a bad thing…). But the balance isn’t way off — the Petite Sirah lends enough structure to keep it from being flabby. Interesting, too, that I didn’t detect any of the bacon-y or tar-y notes I sometimes get from California Syrah.

Next we drank the Vina Robles Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon 2007. This shows much more of its European heritage, with a leaner but fruit-filled palate and deep, dark berry fruit. There are flavor notes of toasty oak and coffee, and drier tannins that are nevertheless well-integrated. This is a really nice Cab that balances elegance and intensity, and is also a great value for around $20.

The website also shows a Chardonnay and white blend that I’d like to taste. let me know if you try them: Cheers!

Once upon a time there was a remote patch of soil in the shadow of some mighty snow-capped mountains. The soil grew only scrub and rocks, and was teased all day long by the “remolinos,” little whirlwinds that kicked up the dusty soil.

A young man with Switzerland and Napa in his ancestry came over the snow-capped mountains and found the patch of soil. He must have been visited by a strong vision, because he decided to dig down into the soil and plant vines that he hoped would someday grow wonderful, rich, ripe red grapes…

So that’s enough of the fable format. Rather than wearing it way too thin, I’ll just jump right to 2011 and the Finca Decero estates in the once-remote Agrelo region of Mendoza, Argentina. It really was created “from scratch” (the meaning of Decero) and includes the Remolinos Vineyard, which is planted to several red grape varieties. This being Mendoza, Malbec is king, but Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Petit Verdot also get some space.

We know the soil can produce some wonderful reds: Finca Decero’s wines have received huge ratings ever since their inaugural vintages (the Malbec earned 92 points from the Wine Advocate, the highest score ever given a Malbec). So what’s so special about this land? Read the rest of this entry »

“Negociant” isn’t an American word. At least, it didn’t used to be. Wine negociants were guys like Georges Dubouef and Jorge Ordonez — men with European accents who I imagined wearing berets and pencil-thin mustaches. Back in the day it was accepted in the American wine market that fellows like Georges and Jorge (Wow! That’s the same name in two different languages!), would scour the French/Spanish countryside, finding wonderful lots of wine from small, independent producers and labeling them under their own name. These negociants chose their wine well and developed a reputation for quality — for always putting good value in their bottles. American wine drinkers became loyal followers.

But we didn’t have the same kind of creature Stateside until the Great Recession made the bottom fall out of the wine market, leaving a huge bubble — maybe even an ocean! — of surplus wine. And I don’t mean Central Valley, hot-climate, destined-for-a-5-liter-box wine. There was a big giant surplus in the premium to ultra-premium category. Napa and Sonoma wineries that had sold their Cabs in the $50 and up range saw finished cases stacking up in their warehouses, from not just one but two or more unsold (or under-sold) vintages. And let’s not even talk about all that juice in barrels that had nowhere to go…

Most high-end wineries were reluctant to start discounting their wine, because they didn’t want to devalue a brand whose prestige they’d worked many years to develop. But they needed some cash-flow, damn it! So what’s a winery to do? Read the rest of this entry »

Fake wars seem to be hot these days. If you turn on your TV, you  can see Bridal Wars (about bitchy brides), Parking Wars (about bitchy parking meter attendants), and even Cupcake Wars (about… cupcakes). I’m not kidding: you can apparently make a war out of anything.

If you’ve seen any of these shows, you know they’re all based on the premise that you can generate hysterically overwrought competitive fervor by pitting one boring thing against another, and offering a cash prize to the winner.

My War is anything but boring. Its mission is to find the World’s Greatest Wine To Drink With Pizza. That’s a tall order, since there are many, many worthy candidates out there, and it’ll take a lot of drinking to choose the winner. But I’m up for the challenge. Put me in, coach!

I already have one worthy candidate, which I reviewed a few weeks ago. You can click here to read the entire post about Garnacha de Fuego, but let me just say that it’s a kick-ass Spanish red that was born to marry pizza, or for that matter, any red sauce dish.

Last night I found another contender. I had a Hawaiian pizza in front of me (ham and pineapple, a relic of my college days) and popped (or rather, unscrewed) a new Australian Cabernet. I usually like Aussie Cab — lots of punch for the buck. This one is called Woop Woop Cabernet Sauvignon 2009, and it’s made by a group of  seemingly crazy Aussies in the McLaren Vale district. At least they seem crazy, because on their website they say stuff like, “Do ya reckon he went all the way to Bullamakanka? Cut it out. He wouldn’t have gotten within a cooee of Woop Woop.” Huh?

Gotta love those Aussies.  Woop Woop is apparently an Australian expression similar to our BFE (do I need to explain?), so they say their wines are “Out there from Out There.” This Cab’s grapes are sourced from remote vineyards in South Australia, including McLaren Vale and Langhorne Creek. Both sites feature topography that creates a substantial cooling influence, producing very good acid in the fruit.

So that’s why this works so well with pizza! The bright acid in this wine hits the natural acid in the tomato sauce and the whole thing ignites the fruit in the wine. It caught me by surprise, because the nose is pretty restrained, showing just tart red currant and cranberry. But the fruit on the palate is rich and intense, suggesting black raspberry, dark cherries and blackberry. When I sipped the Woop Woop with my pizza’s sweet pineapple and smoky ham, I thought I was in heaven.

Woop Woop Cabernet weighs in at 15% alcohol, so it’s no lightweight. But that great acid keeps it from being heavy or jammy, and gives it great balance. It really is an amazing bottle for $12 or so. And here’s one final kicker — there’s no oak in this wine, but you won’t miss it. The rich, tangy fruit is all you’ll need.

Make sure you send a comment if there’s a wine you want to enter in the Pizza Wine Wars, and Cheers!