Segura Viudas Cava Brut Reserva

Segura Viudas
Cava
Brut Reserva
Macabeo, Parellada, Xarel-lo 
Torrelavit, Spain
NV
11.5%
$9.99 -- Wine Pro, Paducah, KY

Color: Pale gold
Nose: Pineapple, apple
Body: Light to medium
Front: Lemon
Middle: Bread, caramel
Back: Lime, straw
Burns clean?: A little headache; go easy on it
Cap: Cork

A delightful acidity and just enough baked bread to make me happy. This is a great bargain and a good one for mixing with orange juice, cranberry juice, cassis, and so forth. It's a cold day, and a celebratory one, and this is a perfect match for it. For those planning New Years' celebrations, and wary of spending too much on Champagne, this is an excellent choice, I can say from experience.

Bret Brothers Pouilly-Loché

Bret Brothers
Pouilly-Loché
Climat "La Colonge" 
Chardonnay
Burgundy
Vinzelles, France
2005
13.5%
$38.00 -- Grapevine Market, Austin, TX


Color: Pale gold
Nose: Graham cracker, apple, mint, wet bark
Body: Medium
Front: Bread and butter
Middle: Cod brandade
Back: Lime, oak
Burns clean?:
Cap: Cork

This is a haunting, many-layered wine. I realize that I've dropped a peculiar description into the middle of the palate profile above, but the middle is quite short, while the front and end of the palate are robust and long. It's not hollow, by any means, but it rewards a little attention to the wine.

I'm having it with my usual smoky spicy almonds and a little bit of cheese, but I think it will actually go well with a wide range of foods.  The soundtrack tonight is President Barack Obama talking about the recent passing by the Senate of the health care bill, and it's as good an accompaniment as I can imagine.

Villa Pozzi Nero d'Avola

Cantine Francesco Minini
Nero d'Avola
Sicily
Verolanuova, Italy
2007
13.5%
$12.99 -- Wine Pro, Paducah, KY

Color: Dark garnet
Nose: Roasted Fruit-Roll-Up-stuffed mushroom
Body: Medium to full
Front: Roasted plum
Middle: Rosemary
Back: Black currant jam
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Plastic pseudo cork

This is a lovely wine, fruit-rich and great with food.  It's not many-layered, but it's a crowd-pleaser, with some interesting earthy dimensionality.  It's certainly easy on the tannins, so I'd be surprised if it will age much; it was an excellent match with pizza tonight.

San Román Toro

Bodegas y Viñedos Maurodos
San Román
Toro
Tempranillo
Valladolid, Spain
2005
14.5%
$39.98 [$65.00] -- Wine Library, Springfield, NJ

Color: Inky reddish purple
Nose: Mocha, pepper, vanilla
Body: Full and dirty
Front: Cherry and chocolate
Middle: Raspberry mocha pie, thyme, Slim JimTM
Back: Oak, espresso, soft tannins
Burns clean?: Mostly
Cap: Cork

To my taste, this is a stunningly beautiful, seductive wine. It's by no means for everyone, I can tell, even through my ecstasy of affection. It's tannic; it'll cellar for another 5-7 years easily. It's bossy.  With a spicy chorizo-chicken-artichoke dish, it never even flinched. I'm not sure whether to recommend Rage Against the Machine or Beethoven to drink it with; probably either will work perfectly. I'm'a gonna wait until it's on sale again, and hit 'em up for more.

Sattui Los Carneros Merlot

V. Sattui Winery
Los Carneros
Henry Ranch
Merlot
Napa Valley
St. Helena, California, USA
2005
14.5%
$27.00 -- Sattui Winery, St. Helena, CA

Color: Dark garnet
Nose: Raspberries, vanilla
Body: Medium to Full
Front: Spicy ripe cherries
Middle: Chocolate cream, pickles
Back: Earthy tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

I'm going to take a political moment, for which I apologize up front. Sattui will soon be changing its label design, and I object. I look at this bottle, with its perfect label, all Napa baroqueness and charming pseudo-old-world-pretension, and I love it. It's perfect.  I'm not nostalgic (much): this is an aesthetic and political judgment. Usually I say, with Hafiz, that all things point to Allah--and if the redesign were as good as this label, I'd say, go for it! But not this time, on either account.

None of this imminent disappointment should distract from an appreciation of the stunning aromatics and rich flavors of this wine, which kicks most Merlots' asses, regardless of hemisphere of origin. It's probably drinking at its peak right now. With the pulled pork barbecue tonight, it was frankly stunning: like pork chocolate mousse.  If you find that description grossifyin', you need to be drinking things like this instead of this.

Albada Garnacha Viñas Viejas

Albada
Garnacha Viñas Viejas
Grenache
Calatayud
Zaragoza, Spain
2005
14.5%
$13.98 -- Costco, Austin, TX

Color: Deep garnet
Nose: Red currant, black pepper, Blue Angels exhaust
Body: Medium to full
Front: Cassis, raspberry jam
Middle: French bread, white pepper, cream
Back: Thyme, leather
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Plastic cork

This is an intense, complex wine.  It's dark, berry-driven, and fully present, in your face. Zin drinkers will love it. After being open for about two hours, it mellowed out a little bit and became more to my taste. Tonight it was paired with a chicken and leek and cream dish, an excellent combination. My sense is that this wine will be good in a crowd, though it won't have papparazzi. I'm drinking it while listening to "O Tannenbaum," which is a horrific combination, JSYK.

J. Vidal Fleury Saint-Joseph

J. Vidal Fleury
Syrah
Saint-Joseph
Ampuis, France
2000
12.5%
$19.98 -- Grapevine Market, Austin, TX

Color: Medium garnet
Nose: Violets, caramel, raspberry, thyme
Body: Light to medium
Front: Raspberry jam
Middle: Pepper, Horsey poo
Back: Orange, oak
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

Vidal-Fleury is a French company owned by the Guigal family, and so this wine unsurprisingly has a lot of shared ground with Guigal wines. It's a classic southern Rhone profile, with a floral and earthy nose and a not-huge body with a delightfully diverse palate.  Splendid with onion soup, and a complex, thought-inducing wine.

Drink this next to a Marquis Philips if you'd like an extraordinary demonstration of the flavor variations you can get in the Syrah grape.

Irony Chardonnay

Life's Strange Twists Wine Company
Chardonnay
Napa Valley
Manteca, California, USA
2007
14.5%
$18.00 -- Wine Pro, Paducah, KY


Color: Pale greenish straw
Nose: Pear, apple, onion
Body: Medium
Front: Pear, white pepper, onion
Middle: Banana, inner tube, onion
Back: A little wood, honeysuckle, onion
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

In general, irony is a word we don't understand too well and use a bit too readily. Alanis Morrisette's song "Isn't It Ironic," which contains a string of examples of mere coincidence, rather than actual irony, is a good negative example. So I was perhaps prejudiced against this wine going into it.

Also, it's worth knowing that I'm roasting onions for an onion soup this evening.

I actually found this wine delightful, despite my dire feelings about its name and the powerful presence of onion in the kitchen.  It's not particularly complex, and has a bit of a short delivery and perhaps a little hollowness.  But I'm going to put on some Kingston Trio Christmas music and have another glass.

The Great Maderized Wine Tasting

Hello, ancient beauties.

DOWN IN MY PARENTS' BASEMENT IN WESTERN KENTUCKY are a few wine racks.  The temperature is perfect for wine storage.  For some time, there have been all sorts of interesting things down there, including a lot of white wine bottles so covered with dust that it's hard to see what they are--or were.  The oldest of them date from the Reagan Era (that's President Ronald Reagan, kids), the youngest from the middle 1990s; they span the globe in origins.

A couple of years ago my father suggested that we haul a sample of them up and taste them someday; this week, a cold winter day in Kentucky called out for a couple of good friends, a light seafood lunch, and a case of aged wine.  Today's blog entry may not have much practical use for my readers, but both of them may find it amusing.

Like white people, some white wines age well, and others don't.  But to complicate this, many white wines that are made to age are also deliberately made to taste quite unusual after a decade or so.  An open mind makes wine taste better, no matter the tendencies of the palate.  Going into the tasting, we knew that there were several possibilities: all the wines might taste the same (and awful); a few of them might have survived and be quite good; and we might be surprised by which ones were which.

Still, we did take some precautions. Many of these wines were not built to age, by any means, and none of them originally retailed for more than about $15. So we decided to order them by "guessed likelihood of not sucking" rather than from lightness to heaviness of body as is customary.  What follows are my notes on what happened, accompanied by a couple of photos to show both some of the colors of the wine and the unusual cork phenotypes that we found, ranging from white mold-covered to dirt-covered.  I was exhausted just trying to get the bottles clean enough to put on a table.

All spruced up...mostly. White mold, left; brown "dirt," right.

Monteagle Wine Cellars, Tennessee Seyval Blanc, 1990, 12.5%, Monteagle, Tennessee, USA: A mellow, deep, golden brown color, this one had a nose of burned hazelnut, apricot, and varnish.  The palate delivered old lemon peel, leather polish, and toasted acorns.  It was praised by one of the five members of the crowd, and detested by most of the others.  But in retrospect, most drinkers considered it to be in the top three of the tasting.  In this respect, a complete shock.  Also the first Tennessee wine I've ever had, and only the second Seyval.

Slaughter Leftwich Vineyards, Sauvignon Blanc, 1990, 12.5%, Austin, Texas, USA: First Texas wine I've ever tasted, too.  What a day!  A deep, clear straw color, and a nose that brought poetry from one of the assembled company: "Smells like the hill country...in a dust storm."  Do they make mango varnish?  That's what it smelled like to me; the front palate was a blast of apricot gasoline, then an eerie emptiness in the middle, and a finish of butter and oak.  If you came in on the last 5 seconds of the taste, and then left again immediately, you'd swear it was a California Chardonnay.

Sebastiani Vineyards, Eye of the Swan, Pinot Noir Blanc, 1984, 13.2%, Sonoma, California, USA: This was a piece of my parents' past, and brought smiles of recollection all around.  Yet no stories were forthcoming.  A cloudy golden brown color, this Pinor Noir blanc (meaning it spent just a little time on the skins before being bottled) was the crowd favorite for the day.  With more tannins, and also in a magnum format, it had a better chance in the basement.  Still, 25 years is a long time for what was a bottom-shelf wine at the time!  My pronouncement that it had a nose of wet dog ass mixed with Pine SolTM was mocked, but I stand by it.  Flavors of peach and oak were rapidly followed by something like kirsch-flavored paint thinner.

Cantina di Montefiascone, Est! Est!! Est!!!, Trebbiano, Malvasia, 1984, 11.5%, Montefiascone, Italy: The color of bourbon, mixed with cloudy river water.  The nose?  Sherry, all the way.  If you were a pirate, you could say from experience that this wine tastes like a bad oyster served in a moldy rag.

Federico Paternina, Blanco Seco, Viura (probably), 1988, 11%, Ollauri, Spain: Though white wines have to have a splendid balance of acidity and other things to age well, this one testifies that color doesn't work by the same principles; it had a beautiful, rich golden hue.  The nose, however, smelled like nothing more than spoiled milk (really, it's extraordinary to think such an odor could have been produced by fruit, but some kinds of education are not edifying).  The palate was of pears preserved in acetone. "Here's to temperance," my father pronounced, upon tasting it.

Rutherford Hill Winery, Napa Valley Chardonnay, 1989, 13%, Rutherford, California, USA: I love Rutherford Hill wines, as I've testified elsewhere on this blog.  This one was the best of the bunch, to my taste, but universally hated by my companions.  Its color was a dark greenish-gold, and it had oak and butter, with an aftertaste of snow tire chains--a little radial, a little metal, a little soggy ash.  I drank half a glass.

Viña San Pedro, Gato Blanco, Sauvignon Blanc, 1991, 12%, Lontue, Chile: A hideous brownish-yellow, the nose of the Gato Blanco sported oak, nail polish remover, and roses.  Yes, roses, which didn't bode well.  The palate delivered tart, tart strawberry mineral spirits, with a bit of a novacaine effect.  Admittedly, the latter might have been a cumulative effect, by this point.

Hugh Ryman Wines, Richemont, Chardonnay Reserve, 1996, 12%, Pays D'Oc, France: A sickly bourbony color, the Richemont featured lemon peel, oyster shell, and oak on the palate, in rapid succession, until collapsing into a varnishy haze.  This one was universally despised, though we did have some hopes for it at first because of its youth (and because there are 5 more bottles of it in the basement).  The fascinatingly hideous Richemont cork is pictured here.

Louis Gisselbrecht, Gewurztraminer, Cuvee Reserve, 1988, 12.5%, Dambach-la-Ville, Alsace, France: Another lesson: whatever complex chemical stuff has to happen to keep a white wine going in the cellar in the absence of nice balancing tannins does not apply to the nose, necessarily, either.  This one had a light gold color, perhaps a little dark for a Gewurz but well within reason, and a delightful grapefruity nose.  But sadly, to quote one drinker, "It smells like Gewurz but it tastes like shit!"  Ok, it didn't actually taste like poo, but a strong front of grapefruit rapidly yielded to Testor's model glue and pine needles. One drinker pointed out that glue is not universally despised, but I think glue huffers will be disappointed that the nose on this isn't more in line with its flavor.

Bodegas Olarra, Cerro Añon, Viura, 1984, 11.5%, Logroño, Rioja, Spain: We had high hopes for this one, too, but despite an interesting medium orange gold color and a roasted pear nose, the nail polish, oak, burned hazelnut, radish, and cedar that it delivered ("Agent Orange blossoms," was my phrase at the time) got it dumped out quickly by our assembly.

What have we learned, one dump bucket-full of wine and ten empty bottles and broken corks later?  First, that the variety of bad-tasting things is nearly boundless.  Second, that wine's individuality is hard even for long-term, unbalanced chemical processes to suppress.  Third, that when you do a maderized wine tasting, you should have on hand at least two bottles of really good stuff, and something pickled, to clear palates!

Ramón Bilbao Rioja Gran Reserva

Ramón Bilbao
Rioja
Gran Reserva
Tempranillo (& Graciano, Mazuelo)
Spain
1998
12.5%
$12.50 -- Wine Pro, Paducah, KY

Color: Medium rosy red
Nose: Tootsie roll, a hint of horsey poo, dried cherries
Body: Medium
Front: Cherry cola
Middle: Tootsie roll, coffee, hint of mushroom
Back: Dusty tannins, oak, radish
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

A delicious, aromatic, not-too complex but food-friendly wine. When I say not too complex, I just mean that there's not a clear sequence on the delivery. I don't mean that there aren't lots of flavors in it, because there are more than I have written down above, ones I can sense imprecisely at the edges of recollection. The tastes linger on the palate, too, haunting the flavor. It makes you want to drink more.

This is a case where my food and music pairings are failing me. I really want some Wisantigo Stravecchio cheese, but I'm in the boonies of Kentucky and there ain't none. And I want to listen to J.J. Cale with this: to mellow out completely. But for some odd reason, there's no J.J. Cale here either!  Outrageous. I will have to sing little songs to myself in my head...

Penfolds St. Henri Shiraz

Penfolds Wines
Shiraz
Magill, South Australia
2003
14.5%
$39.98 -- Twin Liquors, Austin, TX

Color: Inky red
Nose: Blackberry jam, smoke, eucalyptus
Body: Full and creamy
Front: Cassis
Middle: Raspberry, mint
Back: Chocolate, dusty tannins, clove
Burns clean?: 
Cap: Cork

This is a beautifully structured, rich, but subtle wine.  It needs a bit of time open, to be sure, and will cellar for a goodly while longer.  It feels a little closed, to me, compared to the last time I had it, so the 2003 may have gone a bit dormant.  Then again, I paired it with chili, the spice of which might have prejudiced the vino.  In the grand scheme of things, this is a much more elegant, French-style Syrah than one often gets (at least if one drinks the Syrahs that Caveat Emptyer has reviewed!) from Australia.  Dave Brubeck was on the stereo tonight--a good match for the wine.

Bon Anno Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon

Bon Anno Vineyards
Cabernet Sauvignon
Napa Valley
Napa, California, USA
2007
14%
$26.00 -- Vino100, Lakeway, TX

Color: Dark purplish red
Nose: Baked apple pie, cherry,
Body: Medium to full
Front: Blackberry jam, codfish brandade
Middle: Espresso, black currant
Back: Cilantro, oak
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

Yesterday I spent a lovely evening at my friend Gloria's wine establishment in Lakeway, Texas, the axis of which was this wine.  With some lovely jazz renditions of old standbys on the stereo and a few nice and salty artisanal cheeses and toasted bread on the bar, it was like being in Paris.  Except everybody was speaking English.  And drinking California wine.

This is young, but delicious.  Give it two hours -- the tannins soften and the greenness (the cilantro was not spicy pleasant so much as biting, in context) alleviates, letting the jam and a little sweet spiciness through.  The acid wasn't terrifically strong in this wine, so it might not age forever.  I might get another bottle and lay it down for a year or two and see what happens.  The cod flavor (a good thing) has me intrigued for this wine's future.

Domaine Jean Grivot Nuits-St-Georges

Domaine Jean Grivot
"Les Boudots"
Pinot Noir
1er Cru
Nuits-Saint-Georges
Vosne-Romanée, France
2001
13%
$40.99 [$63.99] -- Twin Liquors, Austin, TX

Color: Medium, smoky strawberry peach
Nose: Strawberry, grilled ribeye, ...
Body: Medium
Front: Sour cherry
Middle: Broccoli, pencil lead
Back: Substantial tannins, raspberry
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

The flavor description above is utterly phantasmic.  This wine evolved in fascinating ways over the course of about five hours.  I didn't decant it; just left it in the bottle, and started drinking it after it had been open about two hours.  At two hours it was spicy and meaty; at four hours it was passive and graphitic; who knows what it will be like five minutes after I hit "Publish Post."

I got this puppy on sale, and at the price I got it for, it's divine.  Given how long it's been open and how the flavors are still roiling around, I'd have to guess it can age for much longer; so it may eventually be worthy of the top price for it. Usually I don't rank things against each other, but at this price, I think it's important to note that I enjoyed the Pieure Roch more than this from a complexity and general "what the hell is going on in this bottle?!" standpoint.

Note: Day 2 on this wine; open a total of 9-10 hours: roasted fig, olives, cranberry, thyme.  Ferreal.  This thing will age for some time; like, 5-10 more years.

Chalone Estate Chardonnay

Chalone Vineyard
Chardonnay
Estate Grown
Monterey County
Soledad, California, USA
2007
14.3%
$20.00 -- Grapevine Market, Austin, TX

Color: Pale straw
Nose: Baked peach, biscotti
Body: Full
Front: Apricot, banana
Middle: Salmon, gravel
Back: Peach, graham crackers, bread and butter
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

It's another frigid night in the south--well, most places in North America, I'd guess. There is some minor celebrating going on around the house, so this will be a wine-intense evening. First, a California white in a burgundian style, then an honest-to-Allah Burgundy pinot. In between, fondue and salad with radishes, mushrooms, and other wintery sorts of substances.

This wine has a really interesting nose, which I've only inadequately described above. There's a tinge of heat in the nose, too, but I think that with a little time that will fade and it will get both more fruity and more herby. The palate develops for a long time, and is nicely balanced. The oak comes in at the very end, and fades in really delightfully, to my taste. I'll certainly get more of this wine.

Note: Impressive: It's three days later, and this wine has probably been open for seven hours or more, and then corked for three days in the fridge. It's astonishingly rich, buttery, spicy, even still has a smidgen of acidic peariness or apricot involved. Bread pudding, really.  This will age. If you usually take two or three days to drink a bottle, this is a colossal bargain.

Pillar Box Reserve

Henry's Drive Vignerons
Pillar Box Reserve
Shiraz
Padthaway, Australia
2007
15%
$15.98 -- Wine Library, Springfield, NJ


Color: Opaque blood red
Nose: Clove, blackberry jam, a little heat
Body: Full and creamy
Front: Blueberries, cafe au lait
Middle: Cherry, pepper, sage
Back: Asphalt, cedar
Burns clean?: Yes, mostly
Cap: Screwcap

Break out the roasted beets and the grilled lamb and the syrah.  It's winter. Pillar Box is, I assume (loyal readers, spank me if I am wrong), sort of a "second label" of Henry's Drive, which makes a killer syrah.  Back in the day I had the Pillar Box Red, and found it lovely, if uncomplex.  This is a step up in every way, and not terrifically more expensive.

One of the most interesting things about it to me is the texture of the wine.  The flavor profile isn't all that uncommon in Australian syrah.  There's a bit more going on in it than, say, the Marquis Philips wines, but they're a dollar or two cheaper and easier to find.  But they don't have the elegant roundness, the creamitude, of this bottle.

Château Côte Montpezat Cuvee Compostelle

Vignobles Bessineau
Château Côte Montpezat
Cuvee Compostelle
Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon
Côtes de Castillon 
Castillon, Bordeaux, France
2000
13%
$18.99 -- Wine Library, Springfield, NJ

Color: Rich dark garnet
Nose: Cassis, cherry, espresso, mint, mustard
Body: Medium
Front: Cassis, mint
Middle: Roasted bell pepper, chocolate
Back: Thyme, graphitic tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

The nose on this wine is fantastic.  Leave it open at least an hour before you drink it.  The structure of this wine isn't particularly clear, but the flavors and the aroma are superb.  It's a good bargain, too, with a lot of fascinating things going on (mustard and mint?!) that keep it interesting as the wine opens up.

I paired this with a chicken, chorizo, and red bell pepper thing to which I have kind of become addicted. It's a freezing night (ok, 42) and something stewed was called for, along with some toasted bread and interesting wine. And tonight I raise a glass to my friend Jace Everett, who's among the musicians on the soundtrack to HBO's hit show True Blood -- a soundtrack just nominated for a Grammy.

Cameron Hughes Lot 102: Cabernet Sauvignon

Cameron Hughes Wine
Cabernet Sauvignon
Lot 102
Rutherford
Napa Valley
Geyserville, California, USA
2006
14.5%
$13.99 -- Costco, Austin, TX

Color: Medium to dark ruby
Nose: Cassis, cherry, rosemary, anise
Body: Medium to full
Front: Cherry
Middle: Raspberry, black pepper
Back: Herbes de provence, soft tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Composite cork

This is the second in the Cameron Hughes tasting diptych. This wine is more to my taste. And it went well with onion soup, the link to the recipe for which I must provide out of gratitude.

Lot 102 is not a masterpiece of subtlety like the Andrew Will. It's not a powerhouse like the Sattui Preston. But it's the tastiest $14 bottle of wine I've had in years. A caveat, however: I opened this puppy at 4:30 p.m. and didn't drink any of it until almost 8 p.m. It really needs air, so don't take it to dinner at someone else's house unless they've got a big decanter and/or patience and they really like you. That said, I'm not sure it will cellar well, since it's not a particularly complex wine, with the acidic flavors more or less dominating.

Cameron Hughes Lot 115: Chardonnay

Cameron Hughes Wine
Chardonnay
Lot 115
Russian River
Sonoma County
Geyserville, California, USA
2007
13.5%
$10.99 -- Costco, Austin, TX

Color: Medium gold, extremely clear
Nose: Pear, apricot
Body: Medium
Front: Apricot
Middle: Green apple, butter
Back: Minerals, lime
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Composite cork

The smell of roasting onions wafts from my oven. It's freezing tonight (which for Austin means it's 53 degrees), so it's time for some French onion soup.

French onion soup is labor-intensive, done well. It took 14 hours to make the stock that I'm putting into it, and it's going to take four hours of roasting, scraping, and stirring to get 'er done tonight. But the odd thing is, it's practically free to make: the Gruyere at the end is the most expensive part! So with that in mind, I'm tasting two cheap wines with promise (or at least, mixed reception in the reviewing world to date) by a California negociant called Cameron Hughes Wine.

Each of their different blends has a "Lot" number. Poke around on the internet and you'll find their strategy; here I want to focus on these bottles and what's going on inside them. This is not a super-complex wine, but it's nicely balanced, with equal shares of oakiness and acidity, but more importantly, with a definite structure. A little oddly (from my admittedly limited experience), there's a apple or lime flavor at the end of the palate, after the buttery portion has been delivered. It's delightful; I wish they would serve this at the receptions I'll be having to attend as the Christmas season approaches!

In my next entry: the CH Rutherford Cabernet.

Monte Antico Toscana

C. Santa Lucia
Monte Antico
Toscana IGT
Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, MerlotPisa, Italy2006
12.5%
$10.99 -- Whole Foods, Austin, TX

Color: Medium to dark garnet with purple tinge
Nose: Mushrooms, blackberries, green pepper
Body: Light
Front: Cherry, earth
Middle: Some chocolate, a little light here
Back: A little game, soft wet-rock tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Screwcap

This is a delightful, but not beefy, wine. Now, I must confess up front that I'm not a huge Sangiovese fan. But the blend on this wine is balanced, and for a lot of folks who don't like full-bodied wines, but like a varied flavor profile, this will be a gastronomical and economic godsend. The earthy and minerally flavors are nicely balanced with the berry fruits up front.

I had it with pizza and it was fine, but I think a pasta with lemon, butter, white wine, capers, that sort of thing would be better. The cheese was a bit of a challenge for the Monte Antico; something not too spicy or heavy would pair well with it. I'm not listening to music tonight--there's a howling wind outside.

Rex Hill Reserve Pinot Noir

Rex Hill Vineyards
Pinot Noir
Reserve
Newburg, Oregon, USA2005
13.8%
$34.99 -- Austin, TX

Color: Medium garnet
Nose: Cherries, smoke
Body: Full
Front: Red currants, cherries
Middle: Plums, cedar, licorice
Back: Steel, tar
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

This is an intense webfoot Pinot. The fruit is strong, yet there are a bunch of non-fruity flavors lurking all around the dark corners of this one. It's no Vosne-Romanee, but it's got some complexity on its side.

I'm sitting by a lovely fire and listening to Lily Allen and it's getting to be about perfect relaxation, taken with this wine. This would pair well with a lot of different foods, but I'd think fish, chicken pot pie, and garbanzos (done not too spicily) in particular.

Piper-Heidsieck Champagne Extra Dry

Piper Heidsieck
ChampagneExtra Dry
Pinot Noir, Chardonnay
Reims, FranceNV
12%
$30.02 [usually around $40] -- Grapevine Market, Austin, TX

Color: Medium straw
Nose: Baking apple pie, nutmeg, bread
Body: Medium
Front: Almond, pear
Middle: Cinnamon, orange peel, honey
Back: Apple, pie pan scrapings, a hint of cognac
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

My first sparkling wine review! I drink sparkling wine all the time, actually, but often at restaurants or other people's houses. When I have it at home, it sort of feels like a travesty to write anything down about it. This seems particularly the case with honest-to-Allah Champagnes like this one.

Now, I dig the Piper Brut, which is dryer than this (the crafty French always fool you with their marketing prowess, calling the sweeter wine "extra dry" indeed). But this is a crowd-pleaser, and delightfully complex; the sweets are largely in fruity flavors, not straight-up sugar, so the more subtle things come through. Git you some salty-spicy almonds and nutty semi-soft cheese, and you will be in good company.

Frank Family Chardonnay

Frank Family Vineyards
Chardonnay
Napa Valley
Calistoga, California, USA2007
14.4%
$23.99 [usually around $30] -- Grapevine Market, Austin, TX

Color: Medium golden yellow
Nose: Buttery violets
Body: Full
Front: Ripe apple, lime
Middle: Butter, pear
Back: Caramel, oak
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

As I've said before, the Frank Family wines are damn tasty. Their Chardonnay is rich but balanced, complex but friendly. It's a sexy wine, if such a metaphor could be used (I seem to recall sort of doing so in writing about their Cabernet).

There are so many flavors in here that I can't describe; it drinks like a much more expensive wine. And remember, Frank Family is one of the few outfits in Napa that still doesn't charge for tastings. This is great with food, and lots of different palates like it -- though don't feed it to friends who claim to just totally hate oak or butter in their Chardonnays; it, and many of your other good wines, will be wasted on them until this phase of popular mimicry passes.

Sinskey Merlot

Robert Sinskey Vineyards
Merlot
Los Carneros
Napa, California, USA2004
14.3%
$23.99 -- Spec's, Austin, TX

Color: Medium garnet
Nose: Violets, raspberry, vanilla
Body: Medium
Front: Cassis, pomegranate, cardamom
Middle: Fennel, roasted fig, bitter chocolate
Back: Espresso, a hint of greenness, like kiwi
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

As is probably obvious from the stacked flavor description above, I adore this wine. This is, to my young and inexperienced mind, what Merlot is all about. It's different from, if perhaps inspired by, some Bordeaux classics, the Merlot-heavy ones, that I also like. But it has structure and complexity; the latter exhibited in a mixture on the palate that eludes clear description but that's a mashup of the tastes listed above, and a few more, too. I didn't decant this one, but let it unwind slowly out of the bottle.

Sinskey uses organically grown grapes to make this wine, and all of their wines (I confess to having spent an hour, perhaps more, at the winery) are subtle and complex. Okay, the cardamom taste is subtle, but really, how do you make any kind of cardamom taste out of grapes or oak? Not to say that this kind of alchemy is the foundation, origin, or soul of winemaking--probably, like all aesthetic endeavors, there's no foundation per se. But it's enchanting, that's for sure. Go out and buy a bunch of this, and then send me some.

Canoe Ridge Merlot

Canoe Ridge Vineyard
Merlot
Horse Heaven Hills
Columbia Valley
Walla Walla, Washington, USA
2005
14.5%
$14.99 -- Spec's, Austin, TX

Color: Deep garnet
Nose: Cinnamon, nutmeg, licorice
Body: Medium; round, like there's a hole in the middle, yet not watery
Front: Dried cherries
Middle: Cream, plum
Back: Cedar, very soft tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

I read about this wine in Time Magazine online, and was intrigued. It's so cheap! And yet, so tasty! The nose is lovely, though utterly at odds with what the label tells me I should smell. The palate is multilayered, but not overpowering, like yer Merlots tend to be. But it's got presence and weight, and paired well with the New York Strip and organic lettuce and tomato salad I made this evening. The tannins are barely there, but there, giving some texture.

It also paired perfectly with the Back Yard Tire Fire that was on the stereo; their record Bar Room Semantics. They're a working-class band, from Chicago, and have a bit of a Wilco sound, but a bit more economic urgency and a bit more actual laid-backness. They have a song on this record about having to wait for your friends to pick you up and how easy it is to lose your cool, even though the stakes are so low and clearly they're not doing it on purpose to piss you off. That is the sort of reflection that this wine ought to induce.

Note: 4 January 2010. I had the 2002, and it's over the hill, by my standards; just strong plum and oak, both too sweet, coming through. A few weeks ago, I had the 2004, and it was quite good, layered and interesting for a $15 bottle.

Longoria Chardonnay

Richard Longoria Wines
Chardonnay
Cuvée Diana
Santa Rita Hills
Lompoc, California, USA2004
15.4%
$37.99 -- Grapevine Market, Austin, TX

Color: Medium golden yellow
Nose: Hibiscus, orange, caramel
Body: Medium to full
Front: Almonds
Middle: Ripe orange peel
Back: Oak, cinnamon
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

I don't get to drink five-year-old chardonnay every day, so this was a treat. It's quite French; not as oak-forward nor as acid-forward as the two California options tend to be, but an elegant balance of the two. Don't drink it too cold, or you'll lose most of the complexity of the wine. If you doubt that southern California can compete with Napa and Sonoma, try this wine.

I drank it with a sweet Italian sausage and penne dish that was the heated creation of my distracted and overworked brain, and it was a delightful accompaniment. The Norah Jones I paired it with musically was a little too self-conscious for the wine, I think -- something like the Lyle Lovett of It's Not Big It's Large would have been a better match for this grown-up, but not unplayful, wine.