Category Archives: Wine Reviews

Wine Review: E.Guigal La Turque Côte-Rôtie 2008

26 Tuesday Mar 2019

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guigal cote rotieThe best wines in the world show well even in poor vintages, and 2008 was cold and rainy in the Northern Rhone throughout much of the summer. This wine from the iconic E.Guigal lacks the concentration and depth you expect from this producer but it makes up for it with cool weather crispness, bright red fruit, intense floral notes and a distinctive background wash of rainforest mist, a soft, filigreed, green-laced mineral note that I don’t think I’ve encountered before. In the right hands, these subtleties come out to play when the sun stays home.

After a three-hour decant, the wine opened with bright, red cherry although the fruit darkens as it sits in the glass. Hints of chocolate, black olive, and roasted herbs fill out the pretty flavor profile. At first it revealed only brief hints of the barbecued meat character of more robust vintages, although with lots of air some smoke began to emerge.  On the palate a seam of juicy fruit supports a taut line of soft acidity blooming coldly as it traces the wine’s considerable length. Its relatively slender, medium body has a texture more like silk than velvet. The early onset tannins are exquisite, meandering quietly through the gorgeous, endless finish.

Elegant and stylish, the energy is relaxed and graceful, unhurried yet bursting with good cheer. A wine like this cries out for Miles witnessing the Birth of the Cool, especially the warm, inviting Boplicity with its shifting tonal colors which match the polished ebb and flow of the wine.

It has just entered its drinking window and shows great integration and balance with only a hint of dried fruit on the finish. It will gain complexity with a bit more time but it drinks well now. I would not hold on to this for the long term as it seemed quite advanced on day 2.

Technical Notes: Guigal is the benchmark for Cote Rotie wines and produces about 40% of the wine coming out of the region. La Turque is a small vineyard with southern exposure on the steep slopes overlooking the village of Ampuis. It’s planted with 93% Syrah and 7% Viognier which is included in the blend. Fermented in stainless steel tanks and macerated for four weeks, the wine is then aged for 42 months in new French casks.

Score: 94

Price: $232

Alc: 13%

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Budget Wine Review: Chateau Rodier Montagne-Saint-Émilion 2015

22 Friday Mar 2019

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chateau rodierChateau Rodier is owned by Vignobles Capdemourlin, a large and highly regarded Saint-Émilion wine company. These grapes are from Montagne-Saint-Émilion, the largest satellite of the more famous Saint-Émilion appellation in the right bank Libournais sub-region of Bordeaux. This is straightforward vin ordinaire, a rustic table wine made from mostly Merlot, a lesser percentage of Cabernet Franc with a small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon.

The nose is quite ripe showing black plum and a hint of raisin, with prominent graphite. The palate sports a juicy introduction with leather and licorice, but hard, bullying acidity enters at midpalate battling with grainy, grippy tannins to create quite a scrum on the finish. Oh well. There is lots of robust flavor here, sinewy with utterly no finesse but an honest wine.

Lo/Hi by the Black Keys brings the same simple, raw energy. Both the wine and the song are throwbacks

Score: 83

Price: $13 at Trader Joes

Alc: 14%

Wine Review: Upchurch Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Red Mountain 2014

19 Tuesday Mar 2019

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upchurchChris Upchurch co-founded DeLille Cellars in 1992, and as Executive Winemaker, has built it into one of the top wineries in Washington State. This wine is from his family winery in the Red Mountain AVA which he runs with his wife and daughter. Red Mountain AVA is a hot, barren hill, about 1400 feet in elevation at its highest point, located in the larger Columbia Valley AVA. It’s a desert with only about 5 inches of rainfall per year. Yet it is the fastest growing region in Washington and home to many dense, concentrated wines made from Bordeaux varietals.

With great concentration up front, this wine promises power and depth but then turns on the charm with striking tenderness and elegance, its dark tranquility a respite for a burdened soul.

Soothing aromas of black currant with a soft vanilla penumbra, gentle wood notes more like balsa than cedar, and sage, shaded by pepper and a clove note.

On the palate there is a significant drop in fruit intensity as the finish launches a slow, concise crescendo but the fruit power is sustained at a lower volume with a relaxed, tender core framed by ebullient acidity that seems to rush along the periphery as the fruit softens. The lengthy finish is absolutely mouthwatering. There is plenty of breadth from the advanced tannins but they are gracious and supple willing to share the spotlight with the bright acidity.

A big wine with a heart of gold, with oak and tannins now well-integrated, it’s adorned for a superior grace for the next 5-15 years.

Quietly centered, gently flowing but with latent power like Massive Attack’s Teardrop

Technical Notes: 91% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, 100% new French oak.

Score: 93

Price: $70

Alc: 14.6%

Budget Wine Review: La Garenne Blaye-Cote de Bordeaux Red Blend 2016

15 Friday Mar 2019

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la garenneWhen you can find no information about a wine online that tells you it is probably a private label wine, made specifically for a retail operation and sold there exclusively. These are usually bulk wines made by large companies and branded by a marketing team. The producers like the guaranteed sales channel with no marketing costs. The retailers like them because they have higher margins and no price competition. They can be decent or dreadful but there is no way to know except to try them.

This wine (not to be confused with Domaine de La Gareene) is probably a private label wine made for Trader Joe’s. The grapes are sourced from the large appellation, Blaye—Cote de Bordeaux, a bulk wine region across the Gironde River from Medoc. The blend is likely Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc.

For $8 this is good value. It tastes a bit like Bordeaux except softer with less acidity than is typical.

Red current, coffee, and graphite with a licorice hint are the dominant aromas. The juice is soft and lean but sports a mineral layer that gives the wine some firmness and heft. The finish features soft tannins and medium acidity with a note of bitter burnt wood that is distracting. A very dry wine with no hint of sweetness,  it feels compressed and lacks expression, with very little movement on the palate. But it’s not trying to be something it’s not. An ordinary, rustic table wine from Bordeaux at a good price. What’s not to like?

Reserved, remote maybe cynical–or just a wry sense of humor, it played well with the Merle Haggard/Ray Price/Willie Nelson collaboration “Pick Me Up on Your Way Down”

Score: 83

Price: $8 (Purchase at Trader Joe’s)

Alc: 12.5%

Wine Review: Succés Vinícola Trepat Cuca de Llum Conca de Barberà 2016

12 Tuesday Mar 2019

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succes trepatTrepat is a relatively obscure grape grown primarily in Northeastern Spain and used in blends and for making  rosado and Cava sparkling wine. But in D.O Conca de Barberà, a tiny appellation in northern Tarragona,  some producers are making it as a stand alone grape and it shows considerable potential, especially as a lighter, red wine that would pair nicely with meatier species of fish.

This is a natural wine from winemakers Mariona Vendrell and Albert Canela who started Succés Vinícola in 2011 when they were only 20 yrs. old. Stand-alone Trepat has always been in their lineup.

Red raspberry with darker hints and a pleasing pungent aroma, not quite barnyard but in that direction, held in check by prominent floral notes, against a background of baking spice.

Acid heads will like this wine. Slender, fresh and tart, the acidity is pronounced  but is neither aggressive nor hard and the overall impression is of a vibrantly active wine that darts and flutters like an acrobatic butterfly. The introduction is fleeting and quickly develops an ascending line hitting very high citric and floral notes anchored by a tender mouthfeel at midpalate. The finish is mouthwatering with a squirt of lemon, the tannins yielding a soft, fine-grained sandy character but narrowly focused and shy.

Pretty, coltish and, carefree like a young girl at play, the virtues of this wine are well highlighted by Katy Perry’s California Gurls.

Technical Notes: Organic. 20-47 year-old bush-trained vines. Native yeasts with 30-day maceration aged 5 months on the lees in stainless steel and bottled with minimal SO2.

Score: 89

Price: $20 (Purchasing information here)

Alc: 12%

Budget Wine Review: Ruggero Di Bardo Susumaniello Puglia 2017

08 Friday Mar 2019

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ruggero di bardoSusumaniello (pronounced su su man yell oo) is a relatively unknown grape in the U.S. It’s origins are uncertain but today It is found primarily in Puglia, in the heel of Italy’s boot, where it has long been used as a blending grape, although some producers are now making it as a stand alone varietal.  That you can find it for $10 on a supermarket shelf but search for it in vain at good wine shops is a testimony to some weird gravitational quantum functions in the wormhole that distributes wine to us.

It is in fact an interesting wine for the price and worth a trip to Trader Joe’s to secure a bottle before the wormhole closes.

Inky in the glass, the stewed black and red berry aromas mix with smoky chocolate, herbal notes, and a background burnt rubber note for a odd but complex nose.

Soft, slightly viscous, and medium-bodied in the mouth it has good acidity and broad, mellow tannins introducing a short finish, with a sour note from exposed acidity giving the wine a rustic edge.

Although ripe and rich it is not excessively sweet. As far as I can tell, this is a Trader Joe’s exclusive owned by the big Italian import company D’Aquino.

A mellow personality with a somber bearing pairing well with Please Read the Letter by Allison Krause and Robert Plant

Score: 86

Price: $10 at Trader Joe’s

Alc.: 14.5%

Aging Report: Chateau Fontenil Fronsac 1997

05 Tuesday Mar 2019

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chateau fontenilThis is a $30 wine from a Chateau with a solid if unspectacular reputation, from an uncelebrated region compared to its more famous neighbors in St. Emilion, and from an inferior vintage. So why is this wine so damn good 22 years after vintage date? This is quite revealing about Bordeaux wines at least as they were made many years ago. Even the cheaper bottlings were built to age and some of those rugged wines that seem to be little but dirt and acid when young become elegant charmers when mature—like some people I’ve known.

This wine shows still vibrant cherry, loads of leather, and pleasant, damp-forest-wood aromas, with a bouquet of dried roses. There is not a bit of mustiness on the nose.

The palate is backward.  Graphite with some hard acidity  up front is replaced by flirtatious,  fresh berry that blossoms  at midpalate. The fruit dries out on the still robust finish but mouthwatering acidity, and drying yet softly textured tannins provide good length and sustained satisfaction.

I suspect this was a hard wine when young. You can still taste vestiges of that stubbornness but the wine now moves with vibrant ease through its stages showing modest beauty, exuding an amiable warmth, comfortable in its skin but possessing depths.

Etta James’ A Sunday Kind of Love has the warmth, simple charm, and mature fortitude of this wine.

Technical Notes: 90% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, aged 15-18 months in new and used French oak. Fronsac is located close to the northern bank of the Dordogne river, just a few miles to the west of Libourne , with soils consisting of more sandstone and limestone than clay.

Bottle Opened: 3/2/19

Score: 90

Price: $30

Alc: 13%

Budget Wine Review: Epicuro Salice Salentino 2016

01 Friday Mar 2019

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salice salentinoI’m revisiting an old friend I haven’t tasted in several years. I’ve always considered this Trader Joe’s exclusive to be a competently made wine although it has acquired a bit too much chocolate for my taste, at least in this vintage. Salice Salentino is a wine region in Puglia,  in the heel of the Italian boot, a formerly bulk wine region that is improving its quality. The main grape is Negroamaro which forms 80% of the blend in this wine. (The other 20% is Malvasia Nero).

Black cherry aromas with prominent mocha and a hint of smoke, the medium body is smooth at mid-palate with more richness and firm acidity than most wines at this price. The tannins have presence but stay in the background on the medium length finish that shows too much sourness as it fades.

Although it’s among the better $5 wines available, it’s not exactly pulsing with personality. But music that’s soft and chill like this nouveau, late-night R&B from Toro Y Moi adds the richness the wine is striving for.

Score: 83

Price: $5 (Purchase at Trader Joe’s)

Alc: 13%

Wine Review: Gravner Ribolla White Wine Venezia Giulia 2008

26 Tuesday Feb 2019

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gravnerOrange wine has the potential to be great if handled with care. If you’re unfamiliar with orange wines or have had a bad experience with some of the clumsy examples on the market, this is the one to try.

Orange wines are made from white grapes. But unlike white wines in which the juice is pulled off the skins after pressing, orange wine is allowed to rest on the skins, often for several months,  extracting compounds similar to red wines, hence the orange hue and tannin-induced textures that are giving some contemporary wine geeks epiphanies and ecstasies. The best orange wines I tasted on my trip to Italy and Slovenia last summer were from Ribolla Gialla grapes grown in vineyards near the border town of Gorezia. That is where Gravner is located. Gravner is the gold standard of orange wine gaining high scores from a variety of critics. The accolades are wholly deserved.

The wine shows a beautiful copper hue with a glowing orange rim. It exudes aromas of apple, apricot and coriander highlighted by orange zest, subtle mushroom, and a light touch of intriguing spirit-infused wood notes. The complex nose continually throws new aromas, hay and ginger, as it sits in the glass.

Anchored by the bristly textures from skin contact, the palate has a supple viscosity yet remains fresh and vibrant 11 years after the vintage date. The wine sneaks up on you. Light and elegant as it opens, it gains volume at midpalate marching forward with that serrated mouthfeel cosseted by a halo of fresh mineral water even as it launches high-toned, dried orange peel and floral notes. The finish is very long and meandering showing dried apricot, then sherry notes and finally salinity at terminus.

There is great oscillating tension between the hi-toned fruit amped up by searing acidity and the textured foundation that makes this a thoroughly exciting wine.

Both atmospheric and earthy, it combines mystical exoticism with relentless friction and drive, resonating with Peter Gabriel’s “I Have the Touch” from Security one of the finest rock albums ever made.

The technical notes are fascinating: Legendary winemaker Josko Gravner ferments the wine in amphorae buried in the ground where the wine remains on the skins for 6 months after completing malolactic fermentation. The wine is then racked off the lees and returned to the amphorae where it remains for an additional 5 months after which its placed in large Slovenia oak barrels for 5 years. Unfined, unfiltered, and native yeasts only with some sulfur added during racking and at bottling. In 2008 the grapes had a touch of botrytis.

Score: 94

Price: $80 (Imported by Rosenthal)

Alc: 14.5%

 

Budget Wine Review: Vignobles and Campagnie Bois de Menge Gigondas 2016

22 Friday Feb 2019

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bois de mengeMany inexpensive red wines from France can be simply described as “dirt and acid”. This Grenache/Syrah blend from the south of France is no exception although a hint of juiciness reminds you of happier times.

The characteristic strawberry jam of Grenache shows on the nose but it’s buried intriguingly by freshly turned earth and spades of gravel and black pepper. This rustic theme is continued on the palate where joyful red berry fruit is squeezed by stern acidity turning sour on the medium length finish. Tannins are hard and drying, a fitting, austere end to a wine that gives only moments of pleasure.

If you’re tired of sweet fruity wines, this is a welcome respite. But don’t expect rapture.

It would be wrong to say a wine like this is inexpressive. It’s expressive like Jim White proclaiming “the truth forever hid behind the static on the radio”.

Score: 84

Price: $14 (at Trader Joes)

Alc: 14.5%