Archive for September, 2010
2008 Cornerstone Cellars Willamette Valley Pinot Noir
September 28th, 2010 | 
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We’re always happy to try anything that Craig Camp sends our way from Cornerstone Cellars in Napa, California. Whether they bear the Cornerstone or Stepping Stone label, the wines maintain a uniformly high level of quality, often times exceptionally so. Camp has long had a passion for Pinot Noir, and is now collaborating with Tony Rynders, who spent ten years as winemaker at Oregon’s celebrated Domaine Serene winery, to produce a Willamette Valley bottling for Cornerstone. Craig sent us a bottle to taste recently; we gave it some time to rest after receiving it, and then opened and enjoyed it with our good friends Anne Keller and Brian Klumpp. Here are my impressions.
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Two New World Music Releases from Putumayo
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We were more than a little surprised when we received an email a while back from the World Music recording label Putumayo, asking us if we’d like a review copy of their latest release, Tribute to a Reggae Legend which they described as, “A global celebration of the music of Bob Marley, featuring five new, exclusive recordings by exceptional international artists.” Why Putumayo decided to put us on their list of reviewers, we have no idea. It’s not like we do a lot in the way of music reviews, but maybe they saw our account of our adventures at Rothbury in the summer of ’09, in which we had good things to say about King Sunny Ade and his African Beats . Who knows?!
Alan Kerr’s September 18th 2010, Vintage’s Release – Tasting Notes
“The buzz on what we do best” is the theme of this week’s Vintages release that promotes indigenous wines of Ontario. However, wine makers in Lake Erie North Shore have no representation whatsoever and there is a mere one bottle from Prince Edward County. So, here are my notes on the wines of Niagara. There are some good Niagara wines available, but one should remember many of the wineries here in Niagara that make superb wines make them in very limited production and can’t supply enough for Vintages inventory requirements. All the more reason to spend time in Niagara and find out for yourself, yes?
Dinner and Wine with Friends
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For being the 500th person to “Like” Gang of Pour on our Facebook page this summer, our friend Stacey Lind won a casual dinner with Adams/Heritier and Associates at Gang Central. So, armed with some delicious home made apple dumplings with maple sauce and accompanied by her husband Jim, Stacy braved the cross-town traffic recently to join Kim, this taster and our longtime partners in crime Martha and Gary Shea for an evening of food, wine and stimulating conversation. We got things started with some nice rosé.
2009 Domaine du Pellehaut Côtes de Gascogne Harmonie de Gascone Rosé, 12.5% alc., $8.99: Raspberry pink color, with ripe raspberry, strawberry, rainwater and mineral flavors and aromas; medium bodied, smooth in texture, with good acids and length. Riper than many southern French rosés, but not unduly so, and a worthy successor to the previous model that we liked so well. Find this wine
Imported by J & J Importers, Ltd., Bloomfield Hills, MI
Five Rosés
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Rosés aren’t just warm weather quaffers for Adams-Heritier and Associates, we drink and enjoy them all year around. For instance, these five little pinkies provided some good-to-excellent swigging lately as the air turned rather Autumnal.
2009 Yellow + Blue Spain Rosé Alicante, 1 L Tetre Pac, $9.99: Raspberry pink color; Kim calls this wine “dangerous,” because it’s so quaffable. Rich, ripe and almost pungent, but rather earthy at the same time, which helps balance things out for me. Intense dusty black cherry, strawberry and raspberry flavors and aromas, medium-full bodied, with some structure and tannins to it. This will probably hold and develop for a few years. Almost, but not quite, too intense for the kind of rosé that I prefer, this stays just this side of over-the-top and offers good value for the price, and the tetra pac makes it versatile in that you can take it where glass isn’t practical. Find this wine
Imported by J. SOIF, INC., Chester Springs, Pennsylvania
We were pleasantly surprised at how good the following wine is when we first tried it at the Michigan Food and Wine Showcase last spring, so we’ve been picking up more since and our opinion hasn’t changed one bit.
Alan Kerr’s September 4th 2010, Vintage’s Release – Tasting Notes
Relief from this heat wave is on the way and with cooler temperatures forecast for this, the last, long weekend of this glorious summer, there will be no better time to sample a few of the 2007 “Red Rhones” soon to be found on the shelves of this September 4th release. From a price point, the wines are well priced even when compared to those in the US. Several tasty ones are under the $15.00 mark. In addition, I really like the way the Vintages catalogue breaks down the region, dividing sub appellation by sub appellation and giving good information on each one. Well done to the board. I also have a tasting note on one of the best Viogniers I have tasted, one that should not be missed. Enjoy the weekend.
Wines from the Cotes du Rhone
