Wine Weekend

Since last post I've had the chance to enjoy some really great wines. On Thursday HamGeek and I sampled a few of my Sacramento finds. Ironically one is from Australia and the other I picked up at Total Wine in McLean, VA.

The Australian is the 2004 Tir Na N'Og Old Vines Grenache. This one originates in the McLaren Vale, an area just south of Adelaide Australia. This area of Australia is rightly famous for its Shiraz. Don't let the plethora of cheap wines fool you; Australia does make some great stuff. HamGeek and I agree that this Grenache is one of those. It has wonderfully complex fruit and caramel flavors that continuously change as you taste it. It will go well with any sort of cheese or red meat or even a zesty pasta dish. I'll look for it in local stores and if I find it I'll pass that on here. It's worth picking up to try something different and very good. I paid about $30 at Beyond Napa in Sacramento.

The second good wine we tried is a 2003 Montevina Terra d'Oro Zinfandel. This Zin was far better this time around than I remember from the tasting room in Amador. I can't tell offhand if this is because of the amount of wine I'd already tasted before reaching Montevina or the fact that it's a year older. Regardless this was a suprising and pleasant experience. The flavor was deep and complex with layered spice, fruit and herbal tastes. It had a pleasing aroma that grew on us over time. HamGeek stayed to finish his glass which really does indicate this is a good one; I'm not THAT entertaining! I found this at Total Wine for $14 or so and I strongly recommend it.

On Monday we had some folks over for chicken and burgers and I managed to sneak some wine in there too. The chicken was pretty good, very garlicky and citrus. I attempted to pair it with a 2005 Whitehaven Sauvignon Blanc. The wine was decent, strong overtones of grapefruit and sour apple weren't spoilt by bitterness or buttery flavors. Unfortunately it didn't stand up well to the assortment of foods we were eating. I brought out the 2003 Dobra Amador Syrah I picked up at Dobra (the winery we couldn't find at first) and pretty much everyone was very impressed. The wine had enormous fruit flavors balanced with pepper and earthy undertones, great aroma and character in the glass. It sounds a bit overpowering yet despite all the flavor it was amazingly easy to drink. Myself, BrewGal and BrewGuy finished it off quickly with a little help from guests. I was instructed to go find a case of this wine; I'll do my best, maybe they take phone orders.

A good time was had by all at the BBQ and I was happy to get some more opinions about wines that I really like. The Whitehaven was an experiment that didn't work out so well and a Merlot just doesn't go well with burgers. Lessons learned!

Good, Good, not so good

Some quick reviews of three wines; a 2003 Steele Vineyards Zinfandel, a 2004 Cooper Barbera and a 2004 Black Swan Shiraz.

In a previous entry I mentioned a great Steele Carneros Pinot Noir had at dinner while in Sacramento, and that it will be available at Total Wine in the beginning of June. While I wasn't able to get the Pinot, I did find a 2003 Steele Old Vine Zinfandel Mendocino (Pacini Vineyards) that I decided to try based on the other wine.

This Zinfandel is from Mendocino. Quite a bit north of Gold Country and very much cooler. Closer to the coast, Mendocino doesn't get as hot as the interior does. This has a huge affect on the flavor of the wine.

In aroma it's similar to other Zinfandels, a hint of alcohol and spice with some woodiness, almost a cypress scent. It's a very pleasant aroma. The flavor is distinctively Zinfandel, but amazingly different than the Amador County version of the varietal. It has a pleasant spiciness and woody flavor common to Zinfandel with fruit flavors that are far more restrained. There is just a touch of sweetness and almost none of the jam-like flavors you'll get from a Sobon or Cooper. All in all I found this one more to my liking.

Another big difference between this Zinfandel and the Amador ones is the alcohol level. The Steele is 13.5% A.B.V., about average for wine. The alcohol content contributes to the wine's drinkability.

If you've tried Zinfandel and written it off as not your thing, I encourage you to give the Steele Mendocino Zinfandel a try. It may please your palate more than you expect.

I picked up the Cooper Barbera from Beyond Napa, during my recent trip to Sacramento. According to the WinePros site, Barbera grapes "...when cultivated in temperate areas and cropped for quality, ... can exhibit an attractive ripe aroma of red fruit, currants or blackberries that can be enhanced by vanilla, smoky or toasty notes added by barrel aging. On the other hand, neutral aroma, high color and acidity are all good characteristics for blending with other grapes and this is how Barbera is most frequently used."

I found this wine to have a spicy aroma with dried thyme, oak, cedar and blackberry that is complex and quite soothing. Smelling the wine in the glass is almost like opening a cedar cabinet full of spices. The wine has a brilliant gem-like purple color that I found very appealing, with a pronounced rim that's hot pink. It has a powerful flavor that contains some of the spiciness noted in the aroma with a touch of sage, oak and a bright lemony citrus finish that is rather suprising. The aftertaste is long and distinctly acidic, again reminiscent of lemons. The wine is pretty light on the tongue but doesn't feel watery. It's a complex wine with lots of different overtones, somewhat refreshing on the palate. This is dangerous; it's highly alcoholic (15.7% A.B.V.) All together this is a very intriguing wine of high quality but it fits into a narrow band of food pairings and may not be to everyone's taste.

Last and certainly least, the 2004 Black Swan Shiraz. I found the wine had an unpleasant yeasty odor which mellowed slightly but insufficiently over time. The flavor was unremarkable, not having many distinctive fruit flavors. My notes on this one are scanty, other than repeated "I don't like it" remarks. There are far better wines and better shiraz's at the same price point.

Turning Leaf - Suprisingly Good

At the suggestion of BrewGal I tried a couple of Turning Leaf wines, the 2002 Sonoma Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2004 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. Both are under $10; the Sonoma Reserve the pricier one at about $9, the Reserve coming in at only $6.

Labelling these wines "Reserve" is probably a misnomer. A reserve wine is made from the best grapes of a particular harvest, held aside during the sorting because of their high quality. I'm not sure where Turning Leaf gets their grapes (probably from all over California) but I'd be quite suprised if they were inspecting each batch and setting some aside to make these particular vintages. I could be wrong. They may have a non-reserve version of both these wines priced at $3 and only distributed wholesale.



Regardless of the correctness of the labelling, both of these wines were suprisingly good for the price. When doing a review of a new wine I try not to read the back-label of the bottle or a website with a review, since reading about flavors and quality is a very strong suggestor. If you hear something described as "blackberry" and it tastes vaguely berry-like the mind is practically forced to agree with the description. I was a bit suprised then to discover that other than a number of superlatives my tasting notes agreed pretty well with the description on the back of the bottle. This is a good sign.

The 2002 Turning Leaf Sonoma Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon has a definite aroma of raspberry and vanilla. The vanilla isn't as astringent as that found in [yellow tail], but it did seem a bit out of place in a Cabernet. The wine is deep purple in color with strong legs (sticks to the glass). The coloring is a tad light for Cabernet but not out of the expected range. In taste I find it oaky and tannic, almost astringent. There are distinct flavors of sour cherry (not the candy kind, the real kind) and certainly vanilla. The overall experience is pleasant. This is a very easy-drinking wine. What separates it from wines of higher quality (and price) is the lack of layered fruit aromas, the slightly watery mouthfeel, a small degree of late harshness on the palate and an uninspired taste. Overall I think this is a good deal for the price.

The 2004 Turning Leaf Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon has an aroma of peppers, crushed green leaves and a hint of balsamic vinegar. None of this is offensive except for the vinegary odor. After a few minutes in the glass the odor recedes into the background. In its place I would have liked to have some fruit, but you can't have everything you want for $6. While tasting I detected dried cherries, vanilla and oak flavors. Finding oak and vanilla in both wines from Turning Leaf indicates one of two things; either they try to develop a definite style, or all their "reserve" grapes have that particular vanilla/cherry flavor. The oak should come from aging and processing although at this price it may come from wood shavings added to the wine. In color it's very close to the Sonoma reserve, a deep purple color. What separates this wine from those of higher quality are again the aroma, the mouthfeel and the absence of intensity of flavor.

I found both of the Turning Leaf wines to be good deals for the price. If you're looking for something cheap to try, I recommend these.

Wrapping up Gold Country

I try to avoid malapropisms when describing the flavor of a wine, but I'm starting to feel that it's not possible. A quick perusal of a famous magazine's online review section provided these descriptive gems: "has guts, cherry-cola, modest toast, clean, vibrant, modulated, bright, slate, nervy, generous, supple, focused, wrapped, open, sinewy, firm, fleshes out, round, balanced, racy, solid, light, unadorned, lean, refined". If you combine them appropriately you get a wine with personality worthy of clinical study -

This supple and focused vintage is sinewy, but fleshes out into a racy light and lean yet generous concoction.

I bring this up because I feel that my reviews of Amador County wines are a bit... lacking in descriptive power. There are only so many ways you can say sweet, acidic, tart, tannic or oaky before you begin repeating yourself. Without resorting to interesting metaphors it's hard to describe the difference between a Cooper and a Sobon, or between a Zinfandel and a Syrah, yet the tongue can immediately tell them apart. My future plans for WineGeek include a compiled review section which will inevitably include some sort of point scale or stars or some other metric to sum up my opinion. I simply don't have the vocabulary to successfully describe things and will have to resort to some sort of system like this.

So forgive me if I start sounding too much like a wine advertisement; it's not for lack of trying.

To wrap up my experiences in Amador I'll briefly mention the visits to Dobra, Deaver, Renwood, Montevina, Nine Gables and Kelson Creek. I'll start with the story of how we eventually found my favorite winery of the trip, Dobra, after a lot of muddling around.

As we drove slowly along Steiner Road returning from Sobon we saw the small sign for Dobra Winery and made a quick turn into an unpaved driveway. Immediately the driveway branched into two unmarked sections, one heading downhill and the other up. Neither looked very inviting so the rental car was turned around and put back onto the main road. The next tasting room was Charles Spinetta which I thought was more interesting for the upstairs art showroom than for the wines. Deaver followed this one. Deaver had quality product in various forms and a friendly, informative staff. They had the best gift shop of the wineries we visited. It was almost entirely filled with wine paraphenalia and cute wine and cooking slogan-covered goods. Pithy wisdom such as "Life is a Cabernet" and "Got Wine" can be found here on napkins, aprons, tablecloths, desk miniatures, fridge magnets and so on and so forth. From the staff at Deaver we got directions to Dobra and were encouraged to visit.

This is one of the best things about Amador County. Several natives to the area and also some who work in the wine trade told me that Amador is like Napa was about 20 years ago. This doesn't just mean that the tastings are free - which they are, unlike Napa. It means that a lot of the wineries still have the feeling that the owner would be perfectly happy as an amateur hobbiest selling home-made products out of their garage. The staff at Deaver was eager for us to find Dobra and try the wines there because they thought the wine was good and that they should succeed. This is the sentiment of someone that really loves what they do first, and is running a business second.

With appropriate directions we made it to Dobra. In order to get there you take the right fork of the unpaved road, cross the stream (it helps to have a jeep here) and ascend a tall hill until a set of buildings and trees come into view. Once you get to the winery grounds they are quite nice though little space has been set aside for visitors wanting to picnic or hang about drinking wine. A shirtless white-haired gentleman with large mustaches was driving a forklift as we pulled up. Seeing us he grabbed his shirt (plaid) and headed into the tasting room, a dark and barrel-filled barn/cave stocked with a cash register, a blackboard with prices, and not much else. This gentleman was of course Milan Matulich, the owner and chief winemaker of Dobra Winery. Mr. Matulich is an immigrant from Croatia and makes wines from Amador grapes in a style similar to those from his country of origin. I found these Zinfandels and other varietals (a Syrah and a blended table wine) to be very interesting and quite good. They don't have the up-front sweetness I found in the other Zinfandels, instead having far stronger spicy and peppery flavors. According to my handy pamphlet "Zinfandel: America's Heritage Wine" this is probably due to picking the grapes earlier rather than later. However he did it Mr. Dobra really succeeded and I bought a number of bottles. This is one that you won't find in Total Wine. From here on out my wife was a bit tipsy and it's easy to see why - the A.B.V. of the Syrah at Dobra is 16.5% (the highest I've ever seen) and the Zinfandel is 16.1%. Very, very high alcohol content for wine. I'll do an in-depth review of Dobra when I open one of the bottles I brought home.


Renwood was the largest of the tasting rooms we visited and we were happy to see that they sell cold cuts and cheeses along with bottled water and crackers. We had a small picnic here (a wine-tasting tradition) and relaxed a bit. I found the Renwood wines to be pretty forgetable, but the staff was friendly and it's worth a visit anyway.

After Renwood we tried Montevina (available at Total Wine) which I liked. I bought their last bottle of 2002 Syrah which has a remarkable herbal flavor, with thyme and sage as well as blackberry flavors. Beyond Montevina was Kelson Creek, a tiny winery with a nice Koi pond in the back. The tasting room at Kelson Creek is jarringly decorated in a style reminiscent of a sports bar. My wife enjoyed their almond sparkling wine although I didn't care for it. I found the wine ok - not worth a purchase. They distribute online through their wine club. Last but not least was Nine Gables.

The Nine Gables tasting room is laden with several layers of kitsch, balloons and other country garden style artifacts. Inside we met the chief winemaker who is the son of the owner/founder. Nine Gables is interesting due to their Mission and Primativo wines. Mission I mentioned before; it's the very old varietal brought to California with the Spanish missionaries in the 18th century. Primativo is a clone of Zinfandel (maybe, they argue about the exact origin) with a strikingly different flavor. I was happy to sample these unusual wines at Nine Gables because it's doubtful I'll ever try them again. It was disappointing that I found all of the wine there had a flavor which I simply don't like. It reminded me of wines from Santa Barbara more than a decade ago and is something I can't quite put my finger on. "Pencil Box" is a flavor description I noticed on a tasting chart that was present at the bar and this is the closest flavor description I've been able to make. My wife didn't find this an issue at all and thoroughly enjoyed the wines - though by this time she was definitely tipsy.

That wraps up my Amador adventure! To finish everything off I'll post my notes on tasting the 2003 Sobon Estate Rezerve Zinfandel, Paul's Vineyard. This is the most expensive of the Sobon Zinfandels and honestly I don't think it's worth it. I always hate to dis a wine but this one just doesn't live up to my expectations. The nose is mild with old sawdust, grassy and slight alcohol scents. In color it's a reddish-purple, a bit murky. I detect a distinct musty taste that would make me think this bottle is corked if I hadn't tasted the same thing at the estate itself. There is a definite note of "pencil box" in this one, a woody flavor that persists from beginning to end. I expect that a lot of people will like that though I'm not one of them. The mouthfeel is good (it's not too watery) and there's some intriguing cherry licorice flavors that seem to be struggling to get free but overall I'm just not enjoying the wine very much. I recommend Sobon's standard label (and much cheaper) Zinfandels over this particular vintage.

Coming very soon I have my first request review and the continuation of my search for a good wine under $10. Until then!

More about Sacramento and Amador

The evening following graduation (Sunday) we had dinner at Paragary's in Sacramento and ordered a 2003 Steele Pinot Noir (Carneros). Paragary's has a good selection of local (within an hour's drive of Sacramento) and other California wines. I thought the Steele was an excellent wine and a good purchase even considering the restaurant markup ($45). The aroma is powerful, fruity and fragrant; it had great fruit flavor reminiscent of both cherry and strawberry/blackberry that isn't too sweet; it is tannic enough to feel full and balanced with a nice aftertaste. I rank this up there with the Esterlina Russian River Pinot I reviewed a few weeks ago.

This story has a happy ending for Arlington wine drinkers - you can find the Steele Carneros Pinot at Total Wine for around $18 dollars. Right now the McLean store is out of stock but they expect this year's vintage to arrive in early June. It turns out that Total Wine has many of the Zinfandels that I sampled in Amador including some from wineries that were closed on the day I visited. This is great news. I'm not going to proclaim that Gold Country wines exceed Napa or Sonoma in quality, or that they are incredible bargains. I don't feel that either fact is true. Rather I think that it's fun to explore the character of a wine-growing region and recognize some of the influences that go into a wine's flavor.

I saw Sobon, Shenandoah Valley, Karly, Renwood and Montevina at the store. Sobon and Shenandoah are owned by the same folks (the Sobon family). Of the above I visited Sobon, Shenandoah, Renwood and Montevina. Karly was closed at the time but I picked up a bottle of their 2003 Amador County Zinfandel "Warrior Fires" which I'm sampling right now. Sobon was the first winery we visited in Amador. We picked it because it's located at the far northern end of the loop where most of the tasting rooms are found. The winery includes a museum and is open daily.

I'd had several of the Sobon Zinfandels before this trip because I saw them at - you guessed it - Total Wine, in particular in the staff favorite's section. Total Wine is their major (and perhaps only) distributer on the east coast. They have several selections including Rocky Top (named after a hill) and Fiddletown (named after a local town), Reserve and the new Paul's Reserve ranging in price from $15 to $25. I think that the Sobon wines are a great place to start with Amador County sampling. They exemplify the region's flavors of sweet fruit and acidity. The picture below was taken from the Sobon tasting room/museum parking lot, looking south towards the hills where most of the other wineries are located. Of the Sobon wines I tried at the winery I enjoyed the Cab-Shiraz blend the most. I believe this is a matter of style and not quality. The Cabernet grape adds a great layer of flavor and body on top of anything and the Shiraz adds interesting notes to the mix. Cabernet does grow in Amador county but it's a very different sort of flavor than what you get out of Napa, being much less fruity and more "severe" if you'll pardon my adjectives. I encourage you to try both out and taste the difference for yourself; good examples of Napa and Amador Cabernet can be had for around $13.

Over the last few days I've tried two Zinfandels from Amador in "controlled" settings and the contrast in style is quite striking. The first was the 2003 Cooper due cugini Zinfandel. It was the recommendation to visit Cooper winery that sent us off to Amador in the first place so I was disappointed that they were closed on Mondays. Fortunately I was able to pick up a bottle from Beyond Napa as mentioned before. The Cooper is a sweet and strong Zinfandel (14.8% A.B.V.) with distinct herb, spice and grass flavors that are hard to pin down. You can tell that there's significant tannins and oak because the sweetness doesn't completely overwhelm the palate. The taste is almost sugary and verges on the flavor of Port. If you like this style of wine than the Cooper can't be beat (in fact it's won numerous awards).

The Karly 2003 "Warrior Fires" Zinfandel is aptly named. The A.B.V. is a startling 15.1% making it significanlty stronger than standard. It has a strong aroma of alcohol, a deep purple color and is almost viscous in the glass. The alcohol also comes through in the taste. This wine doesn't have the "oomph" of the sugars in the Cooper so feels a bit less vibrant. The tannins and acidity are more apparent. The Karly was significantly cheaper than the Cooper (about 1/2 as much) so I'm not disappointed in the wine. I recommend it for someone interested in learning what Amador wines taste like but I don't recommend it if you are just looking for a good Zin.

I still have lots of ground to cover in Amador County including Renwood, Dobra and the Mission wines of Nine Gables.

Adventures in Amador

The broadest definition of adventure includes any sort of gamble or risk-taking. Even so I'm being disingenuous by describing my recent trip to Amador County, California as an adventure. True, it was a trip to a place I'd never been, undertaken with a rough map and some recommendations heard late at night in a crowded bar. That information was more than enough for me to be confident that a trip would be worth the time and effort. In this case my confidence was amply rewarded.

I was able to try a number of new things in Sacramento and my wife and I covered quite a few wineries in Amador. Due to the amount of material this article will be split into a number of parts (total number unknown right now) describing the wine finds from Sacramento, the road trip to Amador, and the wines which I brought back home with me to taste again.

The city of Sacramento deserves far better treatment than it will receive here. It's the state Capital, is pretty diverse in population and industry and has a number of excellent restaurants. If you'd like to know more I'd suggest here. I was in Sacramento to celebrate the awarding of Juris Doctor to a dear friend of mine. Since it was a celebratory occasion we spent a good deal of time drinking with friends and family.

I was first granted a happy occasion to explore new wine selections at Taylor's Market. This is a wonderful grocery and butcher that does its own grilling, aging and smoking of various meats. My friends were kind enough to join us for a relaxed chill dinner before the swarms of relatives descended. We selected an assortment of sausages (all superb) and a pair of "local" wines, one from Amador and one from El Dorado. Amador lies about an hour southeast of Sacramento city, El Dorado is north of Amador and east of Sacramento, also about an hour away. This area is known as Gold Country because of the numerous gold mines which dot the hills and the regional history tied to the Gold Rush.

Jumping ahead in chronology a few days, I had one more opportunity to shop for local wine in Sacramento at Beyond Napa where I picked up a number of Amador wines. I was interested in visiting here because my trip to the wineries was due to fall on a Monday. Unlike in Napa or Sonoma, half or more of the wineries in Amador/El Dorado are only open for tasting on weekend afternoons or when they feel like it. I was due to miss out on a number of my late-night recommendations. Beyond Napa came to my rescue. They offer a really nice selection of wines that aren't distributed to the outside world and I picked up a number of them which I'll describe in future updates.

We tried a Sangiovese from Noceto (Amador appellation) and a Zinfandel from Singleleaf (El Dorado appellation). At this point I feel it's necessary for a diversion into the grape varietals of Italy and Austria/Croatia. Sangiovese is traditionally grown in Italy, in particular Tuscany. A simple web search will dig up great swaths of information on this particular grape. To make things short and to the point it does well in hot dry climates, like the Amador and El Dorado areas. Other grapes that do well here include Syrah, Barbera, Mission, Viognier, Muscat, Sauvingon Blanc, and of course Zinfandel. I would say that Gold Country wineries are most famous today for their Zinfandels and Zin blends although Sauvignon Blanc may run a close second. For a very nice description of common grape varietals and their climate needs I recommend the Professional Friends of Wine site. These varietals were brought over by immigrants in the late 19th century (around 1880) and have been used in winemaking since that time. Many of the vines from that initial planting still produce grapes - meaning that the vines are a hundred years old or more. Older vines produce fewer grapes with very concentrated sugar.

A fascinating immigrant with a different history is the Mission grape. This was originally brought to the New World by Spanish settlers in the 1500's. It was planted in California in the mid to late 18th century. It took its name from the Spanish Missions which were often the center of wine-making activity. Only a few wineries still make wine from Mission grapes and I was fortunately able to try one (although I didn't purchase any).


To sum up - hot and dry climate, old vines from Italy and Austria/Croatia. To finish this evening's post I'll describe the Noceto and Singleleaf.

In Italy Sangiovese grapes are blended into Chianti and Brunello. If you've had either of those wines you'll recognize the flavor of Sangiovese when you have it as a stand-alone wine. It has a distinct initial sweetness followed by strong acidity and mild clay or earthy flavors. The color is lighter than a cabernet or merlot and the mouth-feel is definitely more liquid (I'd say watery but that's usually seen as a bad thing). The Noceto was a very nice wine and it was reasonably priced (~$16). It went fairly well with the sausages. The bad news is that you won't be able to purchase this locally. Noceto will ship to Virginia via their web site. I'm afraid this is going to be a common situation with all the reviews from Amador - of the 8 wineries we visited only 2 are available in the DC area at Total Wine.


The Singleleaf was a more herbal and tannic example of Zinfandel than some I tried (for example Sobon Estate Rocky Top) but had good balance. To me Zinfandel has a very distinct flavor. The tip of the tongue will receive a very sweet almost sugar-like flavor while the sides of the tongue get a strong dose of acidity and mouth-drying tannins. All sorts of other flavors are intertwined with this baseline including earthy or mineral tastes, herbal, woody, etc. The smell can often contain distinct notes of alcohol but will also contain cassis or other berry aromas as well. Zinfandels tend to have a high alcohol content (due to the high sugar levels) compared to other wines, up to 20% more.

Out of town

I'm headed to Sacramento so doubt I'll have time to post until next week. I'll be sure to take notes on anything good I find to share!

Santé!

Cheap Wine 2 of 6 - Jacob's Creek

As I opened the bottle of Jacob's Creek Shiraz/Cabernet I was optimisitc. They use a higher-quality synthetic cork than either the [yellow tail] or the Fat Bastard reviewed recently. The cork is not designed for a wine which will age; you can tell that due to the "cork" length.

I've found at least 3 different kind of synthetic in use for cork these days, as well as the real deal and screw-tops. Like many wine reviewers I'm pro-screw-top. The cork, while an ancient tradition, just leads to problems. Real cork is susceptible to fungal and bacterial contamination, it can dry out and crumble leading to leaking or spoilage (via oxidation), it can swell and become impossible to remove or it can half dry out and break when you're trying to remove it. Basically it's a technology with lots of potential problems. This site has a good background article on how corks are made. FYI, synthetic corks are recyclable.

Synthetic cork gets around most of this. It's not subject to contamination by fungus and won't dry out. It comes out in one piece. My objection is that once you use a synthetic, why use a cork at all? Just put an air tight screw-top on the bottle like every other bottle we get from a store.

Regardless, wines that are designed to age for an extended period of time have longer corks, to protect the wine from all the problems I mentioned above. So far all of the < $10 wines reviewed have very short synthetic corks; they are obviously intended to be drunk now.

That's what I proceeded to do with the Jacob's Creek. I was again disappointed in the aroma of the wine. There is the barest touch of fruit scent and something like vanilla, though it's ephemeral. The scent is not harsh or inorganic but it's not encouraging either. The flavor is better. (A mismatch between armoa and taste means something about quality; something to explore later). Due to the addition of Cabernet this wine has more character and strength than the pure Shiraz's. It's also drier with a more traditional (i.e., French) taste profile. The wine is lacking in several areas, including mouth-feel and finish. It's a step up from the [yellow tail] and Fat Bastard in both of those categories.

This wine is one of the most expensive of my under $10 batch, lying right at the border. Apparently for 50% more you get get 50% better quality. Of the wines tried so far the Jacob's Creek is the only one I would buy again. I don't recommend this wine for entertaining or a special occassion. If you're looking for something to just have around or if you need to serve a crowd cheap I'd check it out.

6 wines under $10

To follow up on the [yellow tail] experiment I decided to try a batch of the "new" cheap wine. The picture above is a bit blurry; from left to right we have 2005 Fat Bastard Shiraz, 2004 Jacob's Creek Shiraz/Cabernet, 2005 Little Penguin Shiraz, 2004 Rosemount Estate Shiraz, 2004 Black Swan Shiraz and 2004 Black Opal Shiraz. I did what I could to match year and varietal but wasn't able to find a 2004 of the Little Penguin.

The first one I've tried is the Fat Bastard Shiraz. Its aroma is superior to the [yellow tail] due to the absence of chemical smells. I can't say that it provided much else in that department. The wine lacks character, probably on purpose. It tastes like "wine" but not much else. I couldn't characterize a particular fruit flavor, the finish was quick and empty and the mouthfeel was watery. Still there was nothing offensive about it. I feel this wine is defined more by what it does not have than what it does.

So overall Fat Bastard is a worthy competitor to the [yellow tail]. It lacked some of the Australian's quirks but this is not entirely a bad thing. The wine was so hollow that I really can't recommend it, unless you don't like wine all that much. Perhaps a good analogy is light beer. I have friends that drink light beer not because they are worried about the calories, but because they just don't like the taste of beer. Fat Bastard Shiraz falls into the same category - some people probably really like it.

More about [yellow tail]

A friend of my wife's gave me an article from the New York Times about the rise of [yellow tail]. It's an interesting story; the winery basically went from completely unknown to being one of the largest imports in the U.S. in 5 years - in other words internet time. According to the article the wine agrees with new, younger wine drinkers. I'm not sure I buy that image.

Even though wine drinking ages in the U.S. are trending downward, you're not going to find a good Burgundy at the next kegger. The average age of a wine drinker these days is more likely than ever to be 30-something or even 20-something. Still, according to the most recent survey I could find at least half regular consumers are over 40. In the end it was the article as well as this demographic that prompted me to give [yellow tail] a try again.

The wine I'm trying right now was lent to me by my father, who's qualified to join AARP. He's been a wine drinker since at least his grad school and post-doc days, some of which he spent in Paris. There he learned a bit about French wine some from illustrious tutors. If I get the chance I'll try to collect a few of the more colorful stories and relate them here. Suffice to say that he has an opinion about wine and is a regular consumer.

He really likes some of the inexpensive Australian products now available of which [yellow tail] is only the most widely distributed. There's also Jacob's Creek, the Little Penguin, Black Opal, Bonny Doon, Rosemount Estates and so on. A French competitor in the low-price market is Fat Bastard. Do these wines have anything going for them other than the price? That's what I aim to find out, starting with the largest and most available.

I try not to be a snob when it comes to wine, and to look past the price tag. That's often hard to do; if you pay a premium for a wine you'll justify the purchase in one way or another. The same sort of defensiveness applies to houses and cars and is a well-known trait of consumer psychology. Most of the wine I drink and review falls into the "inexpensive" category (for wine), under $30 a bottle and usually under $20. I'd be happy to pay even less for items of similar quality. For me, though, [yellow tail] just doesn't quite measure up.

In particular while the 2005 [yellow tail] Shiraz has a nice color the aroma leaves something to be desired. Some fruit elements are there but also something else that I find unpleasant, a raw and almost chemical smell. It has a medium-sweet flavor with an interesting vanilla-tinge but not much else. The finish is quick - too quick. Within seconds you can't really tell you've had a glass at all. It goes down easy, but doesn't leave much of a memory.

What do I expect for $6? In this day and age of high-quality wine, about what I got. Compared to a number of wines that come in boxes or other odd containers [yellow tail] is of higher quality. If I'm looking for a cheap drink, a substitude for a 6-pack, it's a good choice. What I anticipate when I drink wine is a memorable experience and a bit of history. [yellow tail] delivers a nice history lesson in supply and demand, the power of markets, and globalization. It fails to deliver a memorable experience.

So if offered a glass of the Shiraz at a bar I'll take it for what it is. When I'm ordering something to go with a special meal or when I'm entertaining friends I'm going to seek out something far more interesting for a few dollars more.

A Quest Completed

The last time I was in California it was to visit friends, not to tour wine country. We met in Mendocino, a beautiful beach-town and artist's colony in the northern part of the state a couple of hours by car from San Fransisco. If you take the long way (along the coast) it's a much longer, beautiful and somewhat scary trip. It's certainly a tourist town but fun in the off-season.

While in Mendocino we ate our most fancy dinner at the MacCallum House inn and restaurant. The restaurant has a liberal corkage policy (which means you can bring your own wine) and to save a bit of cash we bought a couple of bottles at the local market. One of those bottles was an Esterlina Pinot Noir. We all thought the wine was wonderful - although it may have been the company and the fact that it was our second bottle. Since that evening I've been looking for another bottle of Esterlina to see what I thought about the wine in more controlled settings.

I failed utterly, until today when UPS delivered.

I had no idea at the time but Esterlina is a small family-owned winery that's located a short distance from Mendocino, in what's called the Anderson Valley. They get some of their grapes from their own local vineyard and some from other areas including the Russian River Valley. These two areas are "appellations" in wine-speak which basically means the grapes taste distinctive due to climate, soil and so on. That, at least, is the claim. Having an appellation generally lets you charge a higher price for your wine. I suspect that many appellations are really just marketing gimmicks. Regardless, the Mendocino area and parts of the Anderson Valley get year-round cool breezes from the coast so it's no suprise that Pinot Noir does well in the area. Because they are small and family-owned Esterlina doesn't distribute their wines nationwide. According to their published history they only decided to sell their wine after a few years of making it for themselves and friends. To give you a better concept of scale, they produced 500 cases of the 2002 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir. This year Yellow Tail of Australia will sell between 8 and 8.5 million cases in the U.S alone.

To be honest it took me a while to even remember the name of the wine we had at dinner that night. Eventually, with some help from image-processing tools, my wife and I deciphered the writing on the label in one of the pictures we took at dinner. Armed with this I searched the local wine stores but didn't find it. Eventually I got the right Google search entered and discovered the Esterlina web site; at the time they didn't ship their wines to Virginia, so I was resigned to never doing my comparison.

Things have changed in the last couple of years. Now almost every winery in California will happily ship to your home in Virginia or the District of Columbia (Maryland, sorry, you're still under strict regulations). All you have to do is pay them full list price for the wine as well as shipping, and if it's really special you should pay for insurance too. Normally the cost involved is enough to prevent me from doing this. In this case I decided to make an exception. On the 25th of last month I placed my order and got my confirmation email the same day, all very professional. The wine arrived 10 days later in good condition.

I decided to try the one that was closest to the mysterious dinner wine in age if not source; the 2002 Esterlina Russian River Valley (Sterling Family Vineyards) Pinot Noir. Right away I knew that this was the right one. The aroma is powerful, containing hints of apricot and date as well as the distinctive smell of the Pinot grape. The wine has a garnet color (purplish red) with a hint of rust. If you look closely in the glass you'll see a rim of light pink; I'll talk some more about the importance of this in another review. The actual taste is delicious with full fruit, a bit of raisin flavor and a tart finish; not too sweet or overwhelming. There's just enough oak there to give it some character. I really enjoy the wine and I'd have absolutely no problem serving this to company or on a special occassion.

My chief regret is that at $30 plus shipping and handling I can't afford to buy a case of this one and see how it ages. I think it will get better a few years on.

Followup Items, Sebastiani

It was pointed out to me that I didn't mention the cost of the Pinzimini dinner. Our bill ran around $130, including the wine. We felt it was reasonable.

Two nights ago I tasted the 2003 Sebastiani Cabernet Sauvignon, another Costco purchase. This relatively inexpensive wine is full-bodied and pleasantly fruity. I agree with the description on the web page about the blackberry flavors and that it will mature a bit over the next few years. This wine is good if you just feel like having a glass after dinner or while reading a book on a rainy day. I may have time to do a full tasting and review next week.

Sebastiani has a wine-tasting complex in Sonoma that's pretty elaborate. They're one of the original vineyards in the valley and the area would have had a very different history without them. I have not yet had an opportunity to visit it.

Tomorrow I'm expecting a direct shipment of wines which I purchased over the web from a vineyard in Napa. There were recommended to me by a friend with ties to the Napa/Sonoma area. He regularly gets to taste some of the best of the best, and I'm fortunate that he's willing to pass on his best finds.

A second reason for the direct purchase is that I'm slowly gathering notes for an article on wine-buying over the internet. There's a lot to cover including cost, convenience, availability, interstate commerce regulations and so on. One thing that's already obvious is that you will end up paying more for wine than you would in a brick-and-mortar store. Distributors are able to buy large quantities at a discount. The largest buyers (such as Costco) are able to get some of the largest discounts. For example the Sebastiani mentioned above is listed at $17 on the manufacturer's website. Buying at Costco was 30% cheaper and it's also discounted at the grocery store.

Dinner at Pinzimini

Just over a week ago my wife and I had dinner at Pinzimini which is the restaurant attached to the brand new Westin hotel in Ballston. It was a spur of the moment thing but we had reasonably high expectations. The chef (Jeffrey Haight) previously worked at Kinkead's as a sous chef. If you live in the DC area and haven't yet been to Kinkead's, you should immediately open a new browser window, head to OpenTable and make a reservation. All done? Alright then let's continue with the Pinzimini review.

For some reason they're billing this as a steak house, but "not your usual steak house". While they do have steak on the menu (and the waiter said it was very good) there are a multitude of other tempting choices. Since this was our first visit we went a bit overboard on the ordering - appetizer, main course, side dish and desert. Oh, and of course a bottle of wine.

I picked out a 2004 Gloria Ferrer Pinot Noir. Gloria Ferrer is well-known for their sparkling wines* which are quite good. They also have what I feel is the best property in Sonoma. If you ever make it to the Valley of the Moon you owe it to yourself to enjoy a mid-morning glass of Blanc de Noirs while watching the Chardonnay grapes ripen. Since I admire the bubbly so much I was willing to give the Pinot a try based merely on the name on the bottle. For the appetizer we picked the prosciutto; for the main course my wife had the white pizza and I had gnocchi; I also ordered a side of spinach (I always think you can tell a restaurant's true character by how they cook the veggies and how they make the coffee); for desert tiramisu and a chocolate cake of some sort.

The prosciutto was razor-thin and served in jumbled stacks with melon. It was excellent, far better than the chewy gunk you'll get in the grocery store. The quantity of meat was a bit overwhelming at first but we bravely carried on to the main course. My gnocchi was pleasant and well-prepared with a suprising spicy kick, something like Cayenne pepper. My wife was very impressed with her pizza - it was not the traditional American white pizza but rather a crisp thin crust sparingly spread with soft garlicky cheese, almost a cheese spread. To quote her directly - "I will crave this." My spinach was fresh and properly cooked with a hint of lemon and I enjoyed it very much. After-dinner coffee was also a nice suprise, my espresso tasted like espresso should. The only serious disappointment was the deserts, which were not worth it.

The service was friendly and knowledgable but they seemed a bit under-staffed. It took some time before our order was taken. A couple near us got fed up and left before anyone could arrive to take their drink order. Hopefully they'll hire a few extra wait-staff to fix these problems. The atmosphere could best be described as suburban chic, or what folks in the suburbs tend to think of as modern. It had some round lights and lots of beige. (For urban modern try the 'W' hotel in Times Square). The television at the bar was a bit distracting if you were seated facing it since the bar is separated from the restaurant only by a low wall. We enjoyed ourselves, and I recommend the place.

The wine? It was pretty good. In hindsight I would have picked something else to go with pizza and gnocchi. If I saw it in the store I'd certainly pick up a few bottles for the cellar, but it seems to be a restaurant only release.

*Only sparkling wine that originates in the Champagne region of France can be called Champagne. Everything else is sparkling wine.

Arrowood Costco Bounty

I was a little bit shocked to find this 2000 Arrowood Sonoma County Merlot for about $15 at Costco last week.

My suprise was due to a number of factors - the history of Arrowood, the vintage year, the price, and the fact that I was in Costco. The chief vintner at Arrowood (Richard Arrowood) came from Chateau St. Jean, a pretty distinguished vineyard in Sonoma whose wines I enjoy. I first learned about Arrowood when I read a review of their 1997 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. This was also close in time to my first trip to Sonoma that was dedicated to wine tasting and touring. My wife and I visited Arrowood in October of 2001 and tasted what was available; it wasn't a great experience. If you wanted to try the reserve versions of their wines there were extra fees; the tasting room wasn't very comfortable; and the staff wasn't terrifically friendly. Still I was determined to try out this very highly rated wine, and when opportunity presented itself that evening at dinner I went ahead and splurged on a bottle of the non-reserve Cabernet from the same year (1997). That was a very nice dinner! I wish I could recall the name of the restaurant offhand, but I can't. The wine was really memorable, what I thought was an outstanding Cabernet, and the food was pretty good too. Arrowood is a little bit off the beaten track in Sonoma. Technically it's in Glen Ellen, to your right on the Sonoma Highway as you head north out of town.

When I heard that Arrowood had been bought out by Mondavi I was concerned that their quality would go down, and that impression was borne out by a couple of mediocre vintages considering the price in the non-reserve line. I can't say how the reserve wines turned out since in general they are out of my price range. They also introduced a "Grand Archer" label that's not bad, but definitely a lower quality product. Still I pick up the wines whenever I see them at a reasonable price and this price was the lowest I'd ever seen for the label. (In 2005, Arrowood was sold to Legacy Estates, owners of Freemark Abbey. I think this is a good thing since I generally like the Freemark label.)

When you see a wine that's a couple of years older than the regular releases (say, a 2001 when 2004's are coming out) you have to wonder what's going on. Vendors get shipments at regular times and the majority of producers will age the wine the same amount of time before releasing it. For wines that aren't intended to be aged (like most Syrah and Chardonnay) that delay is only a year or two. For Cabernet the delay is usually 2 1/2 to 3 years. Just now the stores are getting some of the 2003 vintages and they'll continue to appear throughout the spring and summer. This is why seeing a 2000 for the first time in the store made such an impression on me. Side note - Sebastiani is an exception to the 2 1/2 year trend. They tend to release things a couple of years later than most. While at Costco I picked up a Sebastiani Cab which I hope to review this week.

The wine itself was suprising also - because it was good. If you include the price into the equation it's a great deal. It has complex fruit flavors and a touch of oak, a long finish, good color and a very nice aroma of black cherries. After it breathes for a few minutes it gets a tiny hint of what I will call bell peppers. I'm sure there's some wine-speak for that particular flavor which I just haven't picked up yet. Compared to most Merlot in the price range this really stands out as something with impact. I would happily serve it with steak or Gloucester cheese (I don't think lamb or fish would work too well). On the downside, it's a Merlot - not that there's anything wrong with that! I also think it will get a touch better in a couple of years, say 2008. I'll make a point of trying it again then.

Interestingly I read the review here after writing my own. I guess I'm not totally full of it, other than the lamb comment. That site also gives you an online price to comparison shop.

If you belong to Costco this one is well worth picking up before it vanishes. Online I see it advertised for more than twice the store price.

In other news I'm preparing my article on where the best places to buy wine are. If you have a favorite store, drop me a line at j-a-i-k-i-n at a-i-k-i-n dot c-o-m. I apologize for the email mangling but I already get plenty of spam.