Archive for the Tasting Notes from the Underground Category

Since we first tasted Zinfandels from Bruce Patch’s Wine Guerrilla back in January of 2011, they seem to have undergone a change in style. Back then, they weren’t quite old-school in character, but neither were they the kind of over-ripe, over-extracted monsters that became all the rage in the late ‘90s and, frankly, turned us off to the variety for a while. We had similar feelings about a batch we tried last December; if anything, those leaned even more toward the style that we loved back in the late ‘70s and into the ‘80s and early ‘90s. Judging from the latest samples sent to us for review recently, something a little different seems to be going on. All three show the same kind of delicious fruit that the previous selections did, but there are some “cosmetic” overtones, for lack of a better term, that we find disconcerting in at least two of them. They are reviewed here in the order they were tasted. (Click image to enlarge.)

2011 Wine Guerrilla Sonoma Zinfandel McClain Vineyard Alexander Valley, 80% Zinfandel and 20% Petite Sirah, 14.5% alc., $35.00: Showing clean, dark color, this immediately exudes aromatics of dill and mint that morph into something like celery seed; whether or not this is a by-product of the obvious oak treatment may be up for debate, as I’ve heard arguments both pro and con regarding similar characteristics in other wines. What I do know, is that for me and three fellow tasters in the wine biz, these characteristics are rather overbearing at this early point in this one’s evolution. There’s a nice core of lovely fruit here, and the wine is sleek, full bodied and well-structured for future development. When I suggested that the dill, mint, celery seed and oak might integrate with some years in the bottle, my colleagues weren’t having any of it, and they’re probably correct. I guess time will tell. This style must have its fans, but sorry to say, we’re not among them. Your mileage may vary. Find this wine
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After enjoying a wonderful retreat at the 6th Annual Above the Bridge Songwriters Weekend, it was something of a relief to return home on Sunday, if only because it had been the third straight weekend I’d been on the road with music-related activities. Kim and I celebrated simply by sharing a few glasses of a delightful new rosé from Provence. What makes this wine particularly interesting is that it is a collaborative effort from what at first seems the unlikely team of Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and the Perrin family, of Chateau Beaucastel fame.

Château Miraval is located in the ancient village of Correns, described in the Vineyard Brands brand sheet as “the first organic village in France.” The estate is comprised of 500 hectares in the heart of Provence, at an altitude of about 350 meters, with ancient woods, olive trees, vineyards, wildlife and an abundant water supply on the property. Jazz pianist and composer Jacques Loussier bought Château Miraval in 1970; he built a recording studio, Le Studio de Miraval, where artists such as Pink Floyd, Sting, Sade, The Cranberries and The Gipsy Kings recorded. Now, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have established a summer residence at the Château, and have made it a place dedicated to the arts, including music, cinema, theater, local food and fine wine. I am told that Pitt has taken a very hands-on approach in the production of this wine; whatever his input may actually be, this stuff is quite delicious.

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For our tastes, Cono Sur’s whites have a well-established track record for being balanced and enjoyable, but, with the exception of the Pinot Noir program, the reds are rather less satisfying. I’ll let my tasting notes tell the rest of the story.

2012 Cono Sur Bicicleta Chardonnay Valle Central, 13.3% alc., $12: Clean, medium color; a note of lime adds zest to the apple and pear personality. Full bodied, rich and ripe, with good acidity and length. Does everything you could ask from a $12 Chilean Chardonnay. Find this wine

2012 Cono Sur Bicicleta Sauvignon Blanc Valle Central, 12.9% alc., $12: Clean medium color, and correct varietal character, with grapefruit and green apple flavors and aromas underscored with subtle minerality. Medium bodied, with good acids and length, this continues to be an appealing alternative to similarly priced Sauvignons from New Zealand and elsewhere. Find this wine

2012 Cono Sur Bicicleta Viogner Colchagua, 13.7% alc., $12: Clean, medium color, with a nice nose of apple and pear accented with floral overtones; flavors echo and expand, with a note of lime, nice minerality and zesty acidity. Rich, round, fairly ripe and delivering plenty of depth of flavor on a medium-full-to-full bodied frame. A pleasure to drink, now and over the next few years. Find this wine
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I had the distinct pleasure of playing the opening set of music for my old friend Charlie Walmsley’s new folk-rock band, “Crazy Chester,” last Thursday in Mount Pleasant, MI. It was a fun gig, and you can read a bit more about it here. Afterwards, we retired to Charlie’s home, where we celebrated playing music together again. Champagne would have been a good option, but Chaz had a better idea, and pulled the cork from an 18-year old bottle of Mr. Ridge, which we enjoyed immensely with his wife Melinda. Here’s what I wrote about this beauty; the picture was taken with my cell phone camera.

1995 Ridge Spring Mountain Zinfandel York Creek, 90% Zinfandel, 6% Petite Sirah, 4% Alicante, 14.5% alc.: There’s some bricking to the slightly murky dark garnet color here; the lovely, mature nose still shows obvious and unmistakable “Draper perfume” in all its glory, along with a slight mustiness that gradually blows off. There’s more of the same in the mouth, with a rich core of Zinfandel fruit shaded with attractive secondary nuances. Classic Mr. Ridge, and very silky; there’s still plenty of life left here, but I wouldn’t wait much longer if I had any of this in my cellar. I’d rather drink it while it still gives plenty of pleasure, rather than letting it turn into a museum piece. Charlie said he purchased this for around $30 from Valley Produce in Midland, MI, about 6 or 7 years ago. I sort of doubt that they have any left, if the place is still even in existence… Find this wine

Reporting from Day-twah,

geo t.

Dry rosés aren’t just warm weather quaffers here at Gang Central; we drink them throughout the year. We have had the opportunity to taste some very nice selections over the past several weeks, however, so now seems as good a time as any to file a report on these six delicious pinkos. They represent different styles and price points, so there are good choices here for a variety of tastes and budgets. We start things off with three selections from two of our very favorite California producers.

2012 Tablas Creek Vineyard Paso Robles Dianthus, 60% Mourvedre, 25% Grenache, 15% Counoise, 14.5% Alc., $27 SRP: Dianthus is a new name of Tablas Creek’s estate rosé (in former vintages it was simply called Rosé), and refers to a genus of flowering plants known for their deep pink blossoms and known colloquially as “pinks”. Bright strawberry pink color, with lively, not quite candied strawberry and raspberry flavors and aromas that are ripe, intense and delicious; subtle minerality and a hint of herbaceousness add to the appeal as it opens and warms in the glass. Medium-full bodied, with good acids and decent length on the finish. I like this, but not enough to warrant the $27 price tag. 1200 cases produced. Find this wine

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After an improbable playoff run that went further into the second round than many thought possible, my Detroit Red Wings finally came up short and now have lots of time for golf and other extracurricular activities. The boys gave the Chicago Black Hawks everything they had, and acquitted themselves admirably, but, in the end they’re still on the outside looking in. We drank some delicious red Rhône mojo during the conference semi-finals, and I will file reports on them, but first, I need to finish my reports on Round One, which I have been woefully remiss in doing, due to a number of musical projects and distractions.

We enjoyed four southern Rhônes from producers with whom we are very familiar, having had several selections from each in past years. All more than live up to the high standards set by their predecessors, and are highly recommended by this taster. Here are my impressions of each.

2008 Domaine de Font-Sane Gigondas Tradition, 72% Grenache, 23% Syrah, 3% Mourvedre, 2% Cinsault, 15% alc., $22.99: Clean, dark garnet color; nice leathery black fruit nose fleshes out on the palate with earth, saddle leather and slightly pruney black fruit flavors. Full bodied and still well-structured for at least 3-5 years of further development, and perhaps as many as 10 strong years of enjoyable drinking. Domaine de Font-Sane is always a solid producer. Find this wine

Imported by AHD Vintners, Ltd., Warren, MI

2009 Domaine de l’Espigouette Vacqueyras, 14.5 % alc., $21.99: Deep, dark garnet color, and tight and primary in character, even after having been opened for a few hours. Full bodied and very well-structured, with lots of depth and substance; earth, iron and somewhat hard black plum, currant and berry gains a subtle note of leather with extended air. Give it plenty of air if you’re going to open one now, but this one’s best days are well ahead; a 10-year wine and then some. Find this wine
Imported by J et R Selections, Bloomfield Hills, MI

2010 Domaine de l’Oratoire St. Martin Côtes du Rhône Villages Cairanne Réserve des Seigneurs, 14.5% alc., $21.99: Deep, dark color, almost inky; appealing black plum and berry nose carries over onto the palate, where, as with the first two selections noted here, it also shows an appealing note of leather. Big and brawny, this wants 5-10 more years to develop, but it’s approachable now with a couple of hours in a decanter. I’ve never had anything from this producer that wasn’t very good, and this is no exception. Find this wine

Imported by J et R Selections, Bloomfield Hills, MI

2010 Chateau de la Font du Loup Chateauneuf-du-Pape, 14.5% alc., $48.99: Anne Charlotte Bachas usually likes her wines to be enjoyable in their youth, and while this one needs time to be at its best, it provides great red Rhône mojo in an overtime win for the Red Wings. Clean, dark color, with big black plum, blackberry, earth, iron, briar and bramble character; full bodied, with excellent structure, yet relatively svelte for Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Give this one at least a few more years in the cellar for it to give you everything it has. Find this wine

Imported by AHD Vintners, Ltd., Warren, MI

Reporting from Day-twah,

geo t.

I have been loving being a born again Detroit Red Wings fan these past few months, and, of course, the red Rhônes that we sample while rooting on our home town heroes are always carefully selected and quite enjoyable. Red Wings fans everywhere were extremely pleased to see the boys wearing the winged wheel on their jerseys qualify for the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs in a must-win situation on the last game of the regular season, qualifying for their 22 consecutive post-season appearance, the longest current streak in the league. Red Wings fans everywhere were also thrilled to see the boys win their first round series against the Anaheim Ducks, in seven hard fought, no-quarter-given games, moving on to tonight’s second round appearance, with a classic matchup against another Original 6 team, the Chicago Blackhawks. Let the fun continue!

In this first of three reports on our selections, I’ll focus on the three wines currently available in Day-twah from a producer that we’ve been fans of for some years now, Domaine Sainte Anne. We actually consumed the regular Côtes-du-Rhône during that playoff clinching regular season finale against the Dallas Stars, while the two Côtes-du-Rhône Villages provided some serious red Rhône mojo for the big overtime win in Game 2, on Anaheim ice.

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Since our first serious encounter with Argentine wine back in 2003, I’ve maintained the somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but perfectly arguable stance that beef and Malbec are the unofficial national food and drink of that country. The two complement each other about as well as any pairing one might imagine, as we’ve seen (and tasted) again and again in the ensuing years.

We rarely eat beef anymore, because of our changing dietary habits. We avoid giving any support to factory farms, for health, environmental and animal cruelty concerns, and when we do consume the flesh of four-footed mammals, it’s usually in the form of Kim’s pork projects or pasture-raised, grass fed lamb.

We also don’t drink much wine from Argentina these days, either, not because they aren’t making high-quality juice down there, but for the same money, or less, our preferences come from southern France. Mostly different grape varieties, true, but those are what we like, and we tend to stick with them. Still, we are always happy to see what they’re producing in South America when we get the chance, and such was the case a few weeks ago.

We’d never heard of Hand of God Wines before we tried these two, but it’s obvious that they have some seriously good things going for them. Hand of God is a collaboration between American venture-capital entrepreneur Jon Staenberg and Argentine winemaker Santiago Achával, better known for his highly acclaimed Achaval-Ferrer winery in Mendoza. The two selections we sampled for review were sourced from the two estate vineyards, Stolen Horse Vineyard, planted in the 1920s in the Cruz de Piedra area of the Maipú region, and Sobremesa Vineyard, established in 2007 in Valle de Uco. Stolen Horse consists of 8 acres of old vine Malbec, while Sobremesa is planted to more than 47 acres of Malbec, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Viognier, Roussanne, Marsanne and Sauvignon Blanc. (A white blend of 35% Viognier, 35% Marsanne and 30% Roussanne, 2011 Fingerprint Series Único, is yet to be released.) Both the new and the old world techniques are used to produce the wines; the vineyards are still plowed by horse, even though tractors could do the job more quickly.

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We’ve been fans of Bonny Doon wines since well before I interviewed head honcho Randall Grahm back in 2005, so much so, that we’ve kept track of what they’re producing over the ensuing years and reported accordingly on several occasions. (The cyber-trail going backwards starts here.) I’ve even gone so far as to write Bonny Doon into one of my songs, “I’m Getting’ Squirrelly in My Old Age,” so we were quite geeked when we received a box containing several of the Doon’s recent releases not long ago, including some things not available through normal retail outlets. Read on for the full rundown on our impressions, starting with a couple of nice whites, and including pertinent comments by Randall following each note.

2011 Bonny Doon Le Cigare Blanc Arroyo Seco “Beeswax Vineyard,” 62% Grenache Blanc, 38% Roussanne, 12.5% alc., $28: Clean, medium color; white peach and mineral nose carries over nicely onto the palate, where the minerality takes on a slightly chalky character. Full bodied, with good acids and length. As mentioned in the accompanying notes from BD, this is a food wine, rather than an easy sipper, and indeed, it pairs nicely with lightly braised chicken thighs and onions, a brown rice/beluga lentil medley and steamed broccoli. It seems somewhat muted when tasted alongside the ’10 Réserve, which is perhaps an unfair comparison. Considered on its own terms, it’s a solid white that will get better with some years in the bottle. 1650 cases produced. Find this wine

RG: “Another cool vintage with a blessedly low degree of alcohol (12.5%), much as we had observed in 2010.”

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Our good friends Kris Engelhardt and Kathy Bunting let it be known that they were on their way over with raw oysters yesterday, and it occurred to me that it would be the perfect opportunity to open the magnum of Wyncroft Riesling that had been resting in our cellar for some years. The wine was a gift from another good friend, Mr. Wyncroft himself, Jim Lester, and it turned out to make a perfect match for the wonderful Kumamoto oysters.

2004 Wyncroft Lake Michigan Shore Riesling Madron Lake Vineyard, 1.5 L, 13% alc.: It’s interesting to compare yesterday’s impressions of this wine with those from 2006, when we first tried it, shortly after it was bottled. Back then, it was quite primary, as one might expect, with subtle minerality taking a backseat to the upfront fruit. The intervening time has been very kind (and the 1.5 liter format didn’t hurt either), as it has developed into a thing of beauty, reminiscent of Jim’s great 1999 Wyncroft Lake Michigan Shore Riesling Avonlea Vineyard. Like a hypothetical cross between Riesling from Alsace and Austria, this is now all about river stones and petrol over under-ripe green apple and quince. Medium-full-bodied, it still exhibits excellent acids and good length on the finish. I can’t think of a better example of just how good dry Riesling from Michigan can be. Find this wine

Reporting from Day-twah,

geo t.