Beringer Chardonnay Private Reserve

Beringer Vineyards
Chardonnay
Private Reserve
Napa Valley
St. Helena, California, USA
2012
14.7%
$29.99 -- The Still, Lincoln, NE

Color: Medium gold
Nose: Cedar, clementine-lime, toasted bread, tiny hint of menthol
Body: Full
Front: Salt, lime
Middle: Honey and cream, Meyer lemon
Back: Faint sage, apricot, a hint of Tate's chocolate chip cookie
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

Ain't a damn thing wrong with this wine. It's big and rich. But it is also nuanced, with flavors poking in and out with each sip. My face likes it better when it's at room temperature, or just below, than when it's straight out of the fridge. This is delicious with an appetizer of sweet pears and Gorgonzola verdi dolce.

Tablas Creek Patelin de Tablas Blanc

Tablas Creek Vineyard
Patelin de Tablas Blanc
Grenache Blanc, Viognier, Roussanne, Marsanne
Paso Robles, California, U.S.A.
2010
13.5%
$19.99 -- Tablas Creek Vineyard, CA

Color: Light gold, almost a hint of peach?
Nose: Charred flowers, honey, pear rind
Body: Light
Front: Peach, honey
Middle: Creamy sage, orange
Back: A hint of salted almonds
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

The nose on this wine is reminiscent of the Vin Soave I just reviewed, with a little more orangey action. The Tablas Creek folks, whose wines I generally love, have started making wines with bought fruit, not just their own; the "Patelin" series is the name for such wines, and this is the first release. 16% of the fruit for this wine is from Tablas Creek's land.

It's a charming, light wine, with persistence on the palate and a summery lift to it--very drinkable. This will go well with food, especially seafood. It doesn't have the strong orangey, gassy quality that some southern Rhone whites have, but it's not a pushover, either.

Freemark Abbey Merlot

Freemark Abbey
Merlot
Napa Valley
St. Helena, California, U.S.A.
2007
14.5%
$19.98 at Twin Liquors, Bee Cave, TX

Color: Dark ruby
Nose: Sour cherry, sage, a hint of orange peel
Body: Medium
Front: Cherry
Middle: Cassis, salt, coffee
Back: Hint of pepper, soft tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

I am a fan of Freemark Abbey wines, which I think are underrated. To the company's credit, they've priced their wines realistically, and this is a particularly good bargain (though I did get it on sale).

This is a Merlot, not a Cab, to be sure: it doesn't have the beefy body, but the herby aromatics are pronounced and interesting. The fruit is from Rutherford, and you can tell by the haunting, microfine tannins. My guess is that in two years this wine will be even more interesting on the palate than it is now.

Mendelson Pinot Noir

Mendelson Wines
Pinot Noir
Sleepy Hollow Vineyard
Santa Lucia Highlands
Napa, California, U.S.A.
2007
14.5%
$34.29 [$48.99] -- Twin Liquors, Bee Cave, TX

Color: Dark brick
Nose: Stewed plum, wet gravel, sour sage cigarettes, heat
Body: Full
Front: Fruit soup, orange
Middle: Plum licorice, espresso grounds
Back: Thyme, a little heat, burned popcorn
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

I'm going to go buy another bottle of this wine, because it has a combination of characteristics that I find absolutely enchanting. The heat on the nose and in the glass is a little unfortunate, especially five years out, but it's not overwhelming. Oddly, there aren't many reviews of this wine, perhaps because the maker is best known for dessert wines. Then again, maybe he just pissed everybody off.

Either way, here's the thing: this tastes almost exactly like two other high-tone Pinots I've had, that had a little age on 'em. Stewed fruit, then some earthy or beefy or smoky secondary flavors, and a burned popcorn type of ending. And the flavor profile didn't evolve in any of these cases either: an hour later, they basically tasted the same as after 15 minutes. Two hours, same deal: still delicious, but still the same flavors in the same structure.

This puts me in a quandary. One of the things I love about wine as opposed to, say, Dr. PepperTM, is that it sometimes evolves as it opens. A single wine can be delicious in five or twelve different ways over the course of a few hours. Then again, I love Dr. PepperTM! And this tastes a lot like it.

So I'm going to get another bottle, as I said. And I'm going to be flexible about what I imagine the unfolding of a wine that I enjoy might be like. At $35, I think this is an absolute steal in Pinot, unless you hate sour sage cigarettes.

Andrew Will Cabernet Franc

Andrew Will Cellars 
Cabernet Franc
Columbia Valley
Vashon, Washington, U.S.A.
2009
14.2%
$25.99 at Twin Liquors, Bee Cave, TX

Color: Dark ruby
Nose: Ass coffee, fresh berries and cream, roasted orange, faint nutmeg
Body: Medium to full
Front: Red cassis, cherry
Middle: Cherry-flavored coffee, with a touch of cream
Back: Currant tea, soft tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

Andrew Will makes some phenomenal wine. But it's hard times, and now they're making a sort of second-label wine. Mind you, it's $30 a bottle, so perhaps the concept didn't quite sink in. The 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon, which is the initial release of the value series, is a total Pottery Barn Wine. But this one is different.

Now, you could ask, If you're going to try to make a more popular wine, with a wider reach, why make a Cabernet Franc? Americans don't know what Cabernet Franc is any more than they know what ass coffee is, even though both are in a lot of reds they drink. But the balance of bright, tart fruit with coffee-cream goodness in this bottle will erase such questions. If there was ever a Cab Franc that might convert average wine buyers, this is it. I'm guessing, however, that the black label Andrew Will series is going to rotate varietals, and that's all good as far as I'm concerned. Much though I want this house to succeed, I don't want too many people getting into these wines.

This lacks the power of their more senior wines--has a shorter finish and less body. But with any kind of food, it's great; it opens fast, and if this were $50 at a restaurant, I'd order it and be delighted. And second rank though it might be, this will age a bit, without question: the tannins are soft and polite, but they are insistent, balancing the acid of the fruit, and promising some deeper harmony in a few years.

Melville Estate Chardonnay

Melville Winery 
Chardonnay
Santa Rita Hills
Lompoc, California, USA
2007
14.9%
$22.39 -- Bee Cave, Austin, TX

Color: Medium gold
Nose: Cedar, salt, clementine-lime
Body: Full
Front: Salt, Meyer lemon
Middle: Honey and cream, lime
Back: Oak, white pepper
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

I'm increasingly a fan of Sta. Rita Hills wines. This one is delightful, though without the 20% off sale, I'm not sure if I'd go for it again. I had the same experience with one of Melville's Pinot Noirs awhile back.

This deserves a brief but perhaps important digression. There's a threshold of cost and interestingness that I want to give a name to, because I think it actually influences the drinking experience (assuming you paid for the wine--if you didn't, this isn't a factor, except for you misers out there). If the wine is expensive and tastes beautiful, you don't shy away from buying another bottle. If it's cheap and tastes really good to you, maybe you buy a case, or make it a regular. But if it's really good, yet not quite priced right, you say, I'll take my $23 to a new wine, hoping to find one that's fantastic at that price.

I always have this same feeling at Pottery Barn. That rattan side-table is fantastic! But it's $300. Target has a rattan side-table that's really good, and it's $45. Restoration hardware has one with a secret compartment, that's much sturdier, for $400. Whatever happens next, it's not going to happen at Pottery Barn. Thenceforth, wines that provoke this feeling I will call "Pottery Barn Wines." I look forward to ireful comments from either Pottery Barn execs or Soccer Moms and Dads who love their Pottery Barn for Kids wines.

That said, this wine is really good! It's tasty with the appetizers of chorizo, mustard, cornichon, and triple-creme cheese I'm having; and it brings a sea-side reminiscence with its mineraliness, which suggests it would be phenomenal with seafood.

P.S.: I got one of my rattan wine-storage chests from Pottery Barn, and it's fantastic! It was on sale, 25% off.

Hedges Red Mountain

Hedges Family Estate
Red Mountain
Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Cabernet Franc
Benton City, Washington, U.S.A.
2007
13.6%
$19.84 -- Twin Liquors, Bee Cave, TX

Color: Deep strawberry jam
Nose: Cherry, sage, hint of orange, vanilla
Body: Medium
Front: Tart cherries
Middle: Caramelly cedar
Back: Spice, chocolate
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

It's time to figure out which Washington reds I like. This one is great for the money. It's phenomenal with a pepper steak, not bad with a romaine-and-egg salad. It doesn't seem to evolve much as it opens--the tannins soften considerably, suggesting the wisdom of a year or two of patience (I'm going to get a couple of bottles to lay down). But the cherry-and-oak driven profile stays true for hours.

I reckon some folks will say this is over-oaked, but I'm not sure, as the fruit and acid still come through; others might think it one-dimensional, but that doesn't tally for me either, because of the herby dimensions. Whoever made this wine seems to me to be wondering, How can I make a Merlot-based blend that tastes like serious Bordeaux, yet also tastes like the Pacific Northwest? (If I learned that they fudged down a half-point on the alcohol level, however, I'd not be surprised.)

I think that it's nicely balanced, and that with a little time--or the right pairing--it'll be more interesting than many wines at this price. (My latest thing is to try all wines with pickles: this one tastes like a McDonald's cheeseburger when paired with pickles, and that is just awesome.) {Note, in 2014: Much, much better. Haunting, rich, and delicious.}

Siduri Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir

Siduri Wines
Santa Lucia Highlands
Pinot Noir
Central Coast
Santa Rosa, California, U.S.A.
2008
14.1%
$29.98 -- Twin Liquors, Austin, TX

Color: Medium garnet
Nose: Strawberry jam, cherry, a little herb
Body: Medium
Front: Strawberry-cherry cola
Middle: Raspberry, banana
Back: A little sage, soft tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Screwcap

This is a tasty, food-friendly, almost too-easy-drinking wine. It's rich, but not terrifically complex or deep or long on the palate. It was splendid paired with roasted chicken and a little avocado and tomato salad. Again, perhaps a tad overpriced for what you get, as is often the case with Pinot--I might try a circa-$20 Central Otago wine before this one, in the future. I don't think this is made to age particularly long, given the tannin structure, but it wouldn't hurt to wait another year, I reckon, before drinking it.

Lange Reserve Pinot Noir

Lange Winery

Pinot Noir

Reserve
Willamette Valley
Dundee, Oregon, U.S.A.
2008
13.5%
$30.99 -- Twin Liquors, Austin, TX

Color: Medium reddish purple
Nose: Cherry candy, a hint of earth and smoke, a spritz of bug spray

Body: Medium
Front: Cherry

Middle: A hint of cassis, cinnamon, spiciness

Back: Cherry again, creamy this time

Burns clean?: Yes

Cap: Cork

This is a tremendously elegant wine--so elegant that I think I didn't really notice much flavor in the tail end of it. It's smooth and balanced, and perhaps in a year or two might become more intense. But at the moment, this is exactly the sort of bottle that has me scratching my head at Pinot Noir prices. For my palate, it's not as interesting as the Innocent Bystander, yet costs twice as much. Had I bought two bottles of this (as I did with the Pessagno), I'd put the other in the closet and wait for a couple of years before opening it. I'm not sure time does heal all things, but I reckon in this case it can't hurt.

After a long hiatus thanks to work, Asmodeus is BACK. I'd have dropped four wines on you today instead of three, if only the Falanghina hadn't been maderized. Believe it: four years may be too long for Falanghina.

Margerum M5

Margerum Wine Company
M5
Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, Counoise, Cinsault
Santa Barbara County
Los Olivos, California, U.S.A.
2008
14.1%
$19.94 -- Twin Liquors, Austin, TX

Color: Medium reddish purple
Nose: Cherry candy, orange, green apple, a hint of paprika

Body: Medium
Front: Cherry, plum, orange peel

Middle: Watermelon Jolly RancherTM

Back: Caramel espresso, soft tannins

Burns clean?: Yes

Cap: Cork

Finally, I think, I'm starting to see the core differences between French and California Rhone-style blends. The brightness of the mid-palate fruit in this wine--whose structure and flavors are otherwise very similar to a CDP--is distinctive. The tannins aren't as cultured as the CDP, either, but they're not the brutish ones of Napa Valley.

I've had earlier vintages of this wine and also liked them; it's much better with some decanting, as the fruit comes out more. Crucially, this wine is fantastic with a range of foods.

(Tonight I'm alternating sips of this with tastes of day 2 of Soos Creek's Sundance Merlot, which is fantastic, but which I won't review here because I want it all.)

A note on the notable, and to me suspect, glass ceiling of 90 points on Cellartracker for this wine: I fear that its questionable longevity is making folks rate it lower than their taste experience justifies, especially if they're drinking it with food. Cellartracker folks--knock me down if I'm wrong!

Vineyard Block Estate Block 939 Cabernet

Vineyard Block Estate
Block 939
Cabernet Sauvignon
Napa Valley
Calistoga, California, U.S.A.
2008
14.2%
$19.94 -- Spec's Liquors, Austin, TX

Color: Deep reddish purple
Nose: Plums, stewed black cherry, orange, a little heat
Body: Full
Front: Plum, vanilla
Middle: Cherry, coffee, orange rind
Back: Chocolate, soft tannins
Burns clean?: No -- almost immediate headache after glass 2.
Cap: Recycled cork

This is pretty good for negociant wine. It's full on the palate, but not too cloying; great with grilled rack of lamb and almost as good with a tomato-basil soup. There's a lot of oak, so if you like that, you will be thrilled--there's not much spice or weird earthy flavor, which I prefer, but it's a hedonistic wine at a slightly less-than-indulgent price.

Kinton Syrah

Kinton Vineyards
Syrah
Santa Barbara County
Sta. Maria, California, U.S.A.
2004
14.3%
$13.39 -- Twin Liquors, Bee Cave, TX

Color: Beautiful, dark ruby
Nose: Blueberry, petrol, cherry,
Body: Medium to full
Front: Cherry, lime
Middle: Orange peel, plum, apple
Back: Coffee grounds, firm tannins
Burns clean?: Mostly
Cap: Cork

This has much of the style of Australian syrahs: big, bold, fruity, but dark and multilayered notwithstanding. I like this style, especially on a cold night and with old-school cooking. Some might find it too oaky, but it's getting reasonably old at this point, and I found the balance of fruit, acid, and secondary flavors pretty delightful. It's neither the smoothest nor the biggest Syrah out there; in the midpalate it backs off, a little, but I like the acidic fruit that you can taste when it does, so it doesn't bother me much, and the alcohol is reasonably under control.

Von Strasser Cabernet Diamond Mountain

Von Strasser Winery
Diamond Mountain District
Cabernet Sauvignon
Napa Valley
Calistoga, California, U.S.A.
2005
14.1%
$39.43 -- Spec's, Austin, TX

Color: Dark cherry red
Nose: Stewed plum, herbes de provence, black cherry pipe tobacco
Body: Medium
Front: Sour cherry
Middle: Roasted fig, orange
Back: Toasted spices, soft tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

I got this wine on a bit of a sale; I'd heard good things about the house, and loved a Diamond Mountain cab that I had at Sattui's Castello di Amoroso a couple of years ago.

This isn't a huge wine, but it's complex, and evolves in an interesting (though not quite distracting) way as it opens up. The nose is delightful; like the palate, it combines fruit and herb elements in a seductive way.

Ravenswood Pickberry Vineyards Red Wine

Ravenswood Winery
Pickberry Vineyard
Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon
Sonoma Mountain
Sonoma, California, U.S.A.
2006
14.2%
$19.99 -- Costco, Austin, TX

Color: Dark cherry red with purple tinge
Nose: Blueberry pie, cherry cola, cumin
Body: Full
Front: Cherry cream
Middle: Licorice, salt
Back: Marshmallowy tannins, green herbs of some kind
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

This wine is powerful, but young. The tannins are nicely distributed throughout the wine, but they're everywhere you turn, as my "marshmallow" description is meant to suggest. I'm thinking of the outside of the marshmallow, there, though the richness of this wine lends it a more comprehensively marshmallow-like texture, come to think of it. The combination of big fruit and curry-like smells on this wine is completely enchanting to me, I must say; if the wine ever ends up tasting like that (and I think it's got several years to go before it really integrates) it'll be astonishing.

Angela Pinot Noir

Clawson Creek
Angela
Pinot Noir
Willamette Valley
Carlton, Oregon, U.S.A.
2008
13%
$29.98 -- Costco, Austin, TX

Color: Medium garnet
Nose: Strawberry jam, cherry
Body: Medium
Front: Raspberry
Middle: Strawberry-cherry cola
Back: A little Slim Jim, soft tannins
Burns clean?: Very
Cap: Cork

The taste of this wine reminds me a bit of the Innocent Bystander Pinot Noir. It's bright, but not just fruity, with a couple of layers, and has a lovely texture. The price is, under the circumstances, a little shocking even at Costco (though after reading the hype about this wine, I'm curious why it is available at Costco; perhaps there was a large harvest in 2008).

But it certainly goes well with food -- grilled lamb chops, roasted beets, and sauteed beet greens with onions, dried red pepper, and garlic. After it was open three hours, it gained weight and interest, particularly when paired with some late-night sorpressata. And it comes in a gigantic bottle with a huge punt, so you can wear it on your head when you are finished drinking it.

Tablas Creek Vermentino

Tablas Creek Vineyard
Vermentino
Paso Robles, California, USA
2009
13.5%
$24.00 -- Tablas Creek, Paso Robles, CA

Color: Light gold
Nose: Pear, honeysuckle, lime
Body: Medium
Front: Pear, apple
Middle: Marshmallows--not roasted, river stones
Back: Lemon, pine
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Screwcap

There's a slight effervescence in this wine that I find delightful, right off the bat. This isn't the acidic, cutting style that I'm used to from Italian vermentinos, but it is damn fine. The pine flavor is an illusion; this wine is not fermented in oak, and they stop malolactic fermentation to keep the acid levels high. Still, it's very smooth, and would be great with seafood, particularly of the briny sort. I'd serve this to anyone.

Hall Cabernet

Ceramics by Wayne Bates.

Hall
Cabernet Sauvignon
Napa Valley
St. Helena, California, U.S.A.
2006
14.5%
$28.99 -- Costco, Austin, TX

Color: Deep cherry red
Nose: Blueberry jam, cherry, white pepper
Body: Full
Front: Cherry vanilla
Middle: Cream, raspberry
Back: Cafe au lait, blueberries, firm tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

This is a large, rich wine, in a big California style. The oak is elegantly balanced, though, with interesting fruit. And it's not cloying or sticky; it has nice texture, and will evolve into a much smoother version of itself over time. The tannins will kick you if you try to drink it too soon after opening, so beware of it at a restaurant and ask for some time to breathe. If so, it's splendid with food--on its own at this age, it's a little too wound up, like having dinner with a smart, talkative humanities graduate student; he's brilliant, but more pleasant when occasionally silent from scarfing down food. Oddly (and maybe it's just my weirdo palate du jour) it was more fascinating with the bleu cheese, tomato, and iceberg salad tonight than the grilled ribeye (though tasty with both).

Wine Spectator gave this wine 94 points, which I can't quite support, and not just because we don't do points here at Caveat Emptyer: but I will say that it's a bargain at the Costco price.

Virage

Virage Vineyards
Napa Valley Red Wine
Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon
Napa, California, U.S.A.
2007
14.4%
$45.00 -- Virage Vineyards, Napa, CA

Color: Deep ruby with a tinge of purple
Nose: Herb, spice, a little lovely stank, vanilla, violets
Body: Medium to full
Front: Cherry
Middle: Currant, cilantro
Back: Smooth tannins, anise 
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

My affection for Cabernet Franc is well-known to my tiny following. As it happens, one of my blog's followers makes one, and this is her maiden vintage. I'm delighted to be among the first to drink this wine, and have been looking forward to it for months. As a point of information, this bottle (pictured at right with Wayne Bates pottery) wasn't a gift; indeed, I've never had a wine company send me anything to review, which shows that I have been doing something wrong!

This is a wine of tremendous subtlety, that rewards patience and a good meal to accompany it. The nose is enchanting, and more so the more air it gets. It has a combination of greenness--herby greenness, more than broccoli or that sort of thing--with dark fruit and telluric aromas that I like in some European wines and that's pretty rare in American ones.

At this price point, doubtless people who encounter this wine will decant it and give it an hour or two to open. Having gifted three bottles of it (see, Emily, I'm spreading the word in the best of ways, not just in the watered-down medium of a review!) I'm going to lay down my other two for two and five years: structurally they're built to last, and I am excited to see what the future holds for them and their younger siblings. {Note, in 2014: Just a beautiful wine, evolving slowly and surely.}

Domaine Carneros by Taittinger Sparkling Wine

Domaine Carneros
Brut
Pinot Noir, Chardonnay
Napa, California, U.S.A.
2006
12%
$19.99 -- Costco, Austin, TX

Color: Pale gold
Nose: Apple, minerals, a hint of bread
Body: Light
Front: Lemon
Middle: Bread, orange
Back: Lime, wet stones
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

What better way to ring in the new year--and more or less this blog's fourth--than with sparkling wine? This one has long been a family favorite, though I seldom, for some reason, take the time to review sparkling wines (a fault I'll correct this year), so it hasn't shown up yet.

The 2006 is super, at this price. Nicely balanced, with good bread, acidity, fruit, and a hint of something more. Just a hint, though: it doesn't have that powerful late-mid-palate delivery of something bizarre that I like most in sparkling wine. But it's a good pairing with almost everything except bubble gum and raw pork. Wasn't superb with pistachios, but you cannot win them all.

As for this blog, I note that last year was a banner year, if one measures things in terms of volume. This year I'm focusing a little more on quality. I'm not sure what that means, but I think it has something to do with reviewing odd varietals, tackling a couple of problems in the wine world, more carefully reviewing things made by houses I gravitate to, including more photos, and reporting on more wine dinners.

Round Pond Cabernet Sauvignon

Round Pond Estate
Cabernet Sauvignon
Rutherford, Napa Valley
Rutherford, California, U.S.A.
2007
14.5%
$39.00 -- H.E.B., Austin, TX

Color: Deep cherry red
Nose: Cherry
Body: Full
Front: Cherry vanilla, banana
Middle: Clove, cream, raspberry
Back: Heat, blueberries, strong tannins
Burns clean?: Yes
Cap: Cork

Back when I first tried Caravan and liked it, the sommelier at Wolfgang's in Highlands, NC told me I should try Round Pond. I thought, awesome: and then it turned out their Cabs were really expensive. For some reason, this was on sale at HEB, so I went for it.

Admittedly, 2007 was a good year, but this is quite lovely under any circumstances. It takes a while to loosen up, and even then, the Rutherford tannins are still assertive. But the fruit is lovely (some people will hate the banana-vanilla-ish business in it, but I like that) and the oak is tempered. It's great with a grilled ribeye and tomato salad, and makes Band of Horses songs sound even better than usual.