Archive for February, 2016

G’day mates. “Diverse Aussie Wines” is the feature of the February 20th release for Vintages. Unfortunately I was only able to taste a couple of the wines, but they were both bonza (Aussie term meaning exciting). I am happy to say there are some stellar wines from California that haven’t yet been subjected to the price increase due to the instability of our plummeting Canadian dollar. Get them while you can as I am sure we will see a dramatic increase on the price of American wines in the very near future.

DIVERSE AUSSIE WINES

627869 GLAETZER BISHOP SHIRAZ 2013 Barossa Valley, South Australia $39.95
Notes of straw, iron and mineral soon give way to massive jolts of sweet black cherry, the purest black fruit and black licorice. Juicy and ripe on the palate, with some chalky tannins; a well-balanced wine with pristine acidity. Find this wine

246629 MOLLYDOOKER THE MAITRE D’ CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2014 McLaren Vale/Langhorne Creek, South Australia $29.95
I have always enjoyed wines I have tasted from Mollydooker, Aussie Lingo meaning “left-hander” and this wine is as good as any. It’s vibrant, laden with Cassis, mint, clove, band aid and lead pencil aromas. An inky wine, its texture is silky and full bodied, with an amazing concentration of dark fruit, plum, and currant, well integrated oak and a blast of sweet spice. Find this wine

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We don’t drink a lot of Barolo here at Gang Central, which is a shame, because it seems like every time we do, we ask ourselves why we don’t drink more. I felt this when I tasted the terrific wines from Massolino some months ago, and again a few weeks ago, when my buddy, Charlie Engelhardt, posted a picture on Facebook of a bottle he was enjoying with his father, Kris.

As chance would have it, Charlie stopped in for a visit the following week, and told me that he’d just seen the wine in question a few minutes earlier at our friendly neighborhood Trader Joe’s. I boogied on over the next day, picked up a bottle and opened it that night. Here are my impressions of what we tasted.

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So, here’s how it all went down.

We decided we wanted to grill a leg o’ lamb for Super Bowl Sunday, and enjoy it with some nice wine. Kim put a post on Facebook inviting interested parties to join us and our good friends Martha and Gary Shea, Shar Douglas, Ken Hebenstriet and Gang of Pour Charter Member Scott “The Geek” Tobias took us up on the offer. Shar and Ken offered a short menu of wines from their cellar that they were willing to bring over and share, and as soon as I saw Mr. Ridge mentioned, I suggested we go with some of those. They brought three bottles, and we added an ’01 Monte Bello to compare to their 2000. Scott contributed a late model Napa Cab and Martha and Gary added some great homemade hummus, pita chips and scintillating conversation. (Click images to enlarge)

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It had been a while since we last tried anything from Etude, perhaps as long as 10 years. I had a most interesting and informative chat with founder Tony Soter back in 2004, and usually liked what I tasted a lot, but, for whatever reason (price maybe?), I haven’t gotten (or taken) the opportunity to try another until last week, when I found this in a bin at my friendly neighborhood Costco. As is so often the case, I was curious and asked myself, “How bad can it be?” Turns out it’s pretty damned good!

2013 Etude Pinot Noir Carneros Grace Benoist Ranch, 14.4% alc., $33.99: Medium dark in color, with a beautiful perfumed Pinot Noir black cherry nose, with hints of tea leaf; the rich, earthy flavors generally echo, finishing decidedly dry, a little green and somewhat astringent. Medium full bodied and well-structured, which is a good thing, because this should benefit from some years in the cellar.

I like this. The green aspect isn’t imposing enough to be a detraction; it actually fits in well as a complementary component of the greater whole. It opens nicely with air, and offers real drinking pleasure now, but give it five years to develop and it will be even better. The vineyard site obviously produces superior quality grapes, and the winemaking team of Soter, Jon Priest and Franci Ashton knows just what to do with them. Given the quality here, I have no problem with the price tag, and plan to go back for more. Find this wine

Reporting from Day-twah,

Bastardo

This release features some extremely tasty juice from Southern France. This is a vast region well known for producing a substantial array of artisanal and unique styles of wines. Geographically it starts just outside of Nice in its eastern regions then runs right down the Mediterranean coast just shy of the Spanish border. Not only do the wines produced here offer great value, the region showcases some of the prettiest and most bucolic parts of the country. It is split into numerous sub appellations, all creating wines that are distinctive to the soils they are produced in. There are several other tasty gems as well in this release including both the “Wine of the Month selections”.

The aforementioned Wines of the Month selections.

444059 JOEL GOTT 815 CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2013 California $24.95
Although this is designated as a California AVA, don’t be fooled, it really shows a sublime expression of Cabernet fruit, highlighting sweet blackcurrant, black raspberry, a trace of eucalyptus and milk chocolate. The palate is fruit forward, but well balanced delivering flavours of black fruits, red currant and mineral. Find this wine

384248 FINCA DEL MARQUESADO GRAN RESERVA 2008 Rioja, Spain $21.95
Lovely aromas of tobacco leaves, dried cherry, currant, raspberry, mocha and leather with a touch of coconut. The fruit is maturing beautifully, but there is still a spicy component and some chewy tannin. This is a fair price for those who want to sample an eight year old Spanish Gran Reserva wine. Find this wine

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