When a “Corked” bottle is a good thing…

The first two Mira Luna bottlings totally integrated with our comic strip http://www.corkedthecomic.com are now available, and they’re both drinking and looking fine. Creative Director Dave Griffin, (Basement Boy to the cognoscenti), and myself have been regularly polluting cyberspace since 2008, but started the current continuity, in embryonic form, back in 2006. While poking fun at the wine industry – easy enough to do - the strip chronicles the staff adventures of fictitious Russian River Valley cult winery, Isinglas Cellars.

CAL914, $12.99 Mira Luna, Crusher & Stemmer Red, California, is a field blend that features the Isinglas dogs on the label. We bottled this in Western Sonoma after we modified-for-the-better an existing bottle blend. My mid-June notes on the base wine, originally a Bordeaux blend follow: “looks less than attractive; over-ripe red/brown berry, pepper, leathery, stewed vegetables - some dimension in the nose; lots in the mouth - tangy nose berries from nose - sort of cranberry, herbaceous, pepper, black tea; almost OK weight, almost OK structure, too alcoholic, nice texture”

By mid-September, our version, at the time about 13% Syrah to improve color and temper the herbaceous and over-ripe elements, was on its way:” bit murky deep red; touch of oxidation, stewed fruit, leather, vanilla, plums and red berry nose - pretty complex! pleasant, some acid-driven vif, adequate tannins, light-to-medium-bodied brown and red berry fruit, short finish though”
The final January release, buttressed with other material like Zinfandel, Nebbiolo, Dolcetto and Primitivo, improved the color, unearthed more ripe fruit aromas and flavors, added structure, balance, and lengthened the finish. All of these different vintage and varietal components throughout the process eliminated any legal appellation beyond California and vintage on the label, so Crusher & Stemmer Red evolved from a Bordeaux blend to a field blend. Since 1997 I have been bottling a successful non-vintage field blend as Backyard Red for a partner wine company, for G&W we required a new name. The “field blendish” name came since the Isinglas dogs were already named for winemaking equipment, so the strip tie-in was perfect for this new red.

Using our Mira Luna label allowed us to take advantage of our cast’s full-moon-crazy behavior.

Originally the dogs were to function as a Greek chorus in the strip, but they developed personalities of their own. Crusher, the Chihuahua, drawn in a Ren Hoek less realistic style (I served my Spumco time) feels he’s the baddest banger on the planet, and thinks in Cheech Marin’s voice. Stemmer, the French poodle, thinks he’s Cary Grant in “To Catch a Thief”, with Maurice Chevalier’s voice.

SON573, $17.99 2009 Mira Luna, Tough Day Chardonnay, features Isinglas Tasting Room Manager and all around Uber-Babe (sorry KP, you’ve been relegated to Garbo status), Chenin Meunier. Again, we used our Mira Luna label, but hedged our bets – we wanted a more timeless label concept - one that would not live and die only with the strip. We continued to work in black and white as essentially we’re producing a variation on a newspaper strip.

Chenin and her twin sister Rose (no fan boy fantasies from this creative team) are clearly the favorite characters of the straight male demographic, as BB has spent plenty of research time with Gil Elvgren and Alberto Vargas. Originally the Chenin label was a 100% swipe from http://www.corkedthecomic.com, episode 2, but, strictly in the name of culture, we homaged the still of Jean Peters in the bathtub from Sam Fuller’s classic “Pickup on South Street”, coincidentally enough, screened at January’s Noir City 8, http://www.noircity.com program 3. Anticipating potential label approval difficulties and delays if we drew a prude as a clerk at the TTB, we changed the image to a profile.

The bottling occurred at one of the greatest estates in Carneros, tweaking Sonoma Carneros Chardonnay fruit with a touch of Muscat for more accessibility. My mid -

October notes follow: “tank-sample needs-to-settle look, light copper; difficult to identify aromas and flavors at this stage; difficult-to-find tropical fruits, figs/dates/nuts, toast, under the yeast nose”.
By late October, we felt we had nailed it “same visual; finally, a nose! floral golden delicious apple, tropical fruits; adequate apples, acidity and heft, tropical fruit notes - mango & kiwi.”

By the February release we had a Chardonnay exhibiting pristine varietal fruit proudly framed in Sonoma Carneros terroir, accessible to a rank beginner while providing value to the most jaded connoisseur.

Geerlings & Wade’s Mira Luna, “Corked” the comic wines – so delicious they don’t need to take themselves seriously.
 

Feb 26, 2010 at 11:31 AM

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March features, with special Easter and Passover meals in mind...

March features, with special Easter and Passover meals in mind…

ITA669, $24.99 2007 Salvano, Sognante, Langhe Chardonnay DOC,

Affinato in barrique, Piedmont, Italy: The time is right for us to offer top quality Italian Chardonnay. California is evolving away from excessive oak use, Australia is having a tough time selling quality wine on it’s own merits rather than via subsidies, and new world influences are apparent even in parts of France. The Salvano family winery, currently guided by Ezio Salvano, the founder’s grandson, has been producing excellent wines in the hills overlooking Alba since the mid 1930’s, and has struck a nice balance between traditional and modern, rusticity and technology – exactly where overlooked Piedmont Chardonnay needs to be. Orthodoxy and innovation meet happily in Salvano’s refurbished-in-1982 winery. The Sognante is refreshingly light on its feet, while exhibiting an intense, toasty nose. Balanced yet concentrated varietal character and textural elements sustain aromas and flavors of white flowers, toast, citrus, apples, tropical fruits and nuts. This 07 Salvano Sognante Chardonnay pushed all similarly priced wines from the US, Australia and France off of the tasting table for price/value ratio while delivering almost unparalleled accessibility and depth.

SPA104, $14.99 2007 Loxarel Ops, D, unfiltered, Penedes, Spain:

Just in case you missed this gem during past holiday season, we’re featuring this bargain for the last time, while we still have adequate wine on hand to emphasize this Spanish envelope-pusher. The $14.99 07 Loxarel Ops, D, unfiltered, from the Penedes, hails from Spain’s spiritual and ancestral home of Cabernet Sauvignon, the land of Jean Leon and Miguel Torres. The wine’s model, named for the Roman goddess of plenty, appears to be the Super Tuscans - indigenous Tempranillo, blended with Bordeaux grapes - but at a fraction of the price. Obviously, the Cabernet component has the right pedigree, and Merlot also works well in Spanish Cabernet Central – think Bordeaux and California’s North Coast. Brawny yet appealing, licorice, leather, tobacco, smoke, berries, vanilla oak cry out for big Mediterranean dishes, or if you’re a carnivore like myself, steak and mushrooms on the grill. And for you green scorekeepers, how many wineries do you know of that use sheep to trim their vines?

SOA363, $17.99 2007 Rietvallei Estate Wine, Robertson, Shiraz, South Africa:

Pinotage may be the signature red of South Africa, but for quality reds, South Africa’s future is Syrah, Bordeaux varietals and Bordeaux blends. South Africans are masters of both Northern and Southern Rhone traditions - 100% Syrah, or as a major blend component with Grenache and other varietals when necessary. They learned their winemaking from the from French Huguenots and the Dutch, and have quite a wide palette - New World terroir is supported by Old World traditions and expertise, particularly in the service of that highest quality level of Southern Hemisphere Shiraz – increased phenolic ripeness at harvest time and consequently heightened alcohol levels. Rhone varieties don’t mind sunshine, and cope with the heat. Finally, vintner Kobus Burger may have a small chip on his shoulder, as it has fallen upon him to guide Rietvallei Estate’s continued evolution from a dessert wine and fortified wine producer to a world class table wine producer – he wants to place his imprint on Rietvallei Estate. The 07 Rietvallei Estate Robertson Shiraz pushed a couple table loads of Rhone, California and multiple country Southern Hemisphere samples to the reject pile in our blind comparison tastings. Kobus’s notes nailed it, “intense ruby red coloured and complex flavoured with the fruit and peppery, spicy and toasted oak flavours well integrated. A full bodied wine [for Shiraz, not a Parker bottle North Coast Cabernet] with pleasant ripe tannins and a smooth, lingering aftertaste.”

ITA676, $19.99 2005 Corte alle Mine, Cuvee CEP, Toscana IGT, Italy:

We’ve been offering Castellani family winemaker Sabino Russo’s Corte alle Mine bottlings to rave reviews from clients and the wine press since 1997. As a rule, we strive to keep Corte alle Mine wines fairly inexpensive, but every few years we unearth then offer something unusually profound, as evidenced by this new, 05 Cuvee CEP release. My notes (before I scoffed the 05 CEP tasting samples to take home to the wife) follow: “05 Toscana IGT, 85% Sangiovese/10% Cabernet Sauvignon/5% Merlot, 6 months oak, slightly more traditional Tuscan in style [duh!]. Muted nose of spice, earth and oak gives way to vinous berries. Dominant component Sangiovese here is rich, round and balanced – insistent flavors with everything properly proportioned – think scallops – not as a pairing, but as when perfectly cooked.” “Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate” concurs “…meant to be more serious in nature. This full-bodied red flows with masses of super-ripe red fruit and sweet scents of French oak…made in a richer, more concentrated style…Judging by this first release the wine is a work in progress, but it will be very interesting to see how this project develops over the coming years. Anticipated maturity: 2009-2013…”

NAP957, $24.99 2005 San Valencia Winery, Napa Valley Meritage:

Remember, San Valencia Winery is our almost-too-good-to-be-true-deal California label. Meritage is a designation for high quality Bordeaux-blend-style wines that are among the very best wines produced by a California winery in that vintage. Since I signed reams of non-disclosure, here’s what I can tell you: This 05 is dominated by Rutherford-grown Cabernet Sauvignon from some of the most expensive dirt in Napa Valley, fermented in small tanks, which enhanced the Rutherford Dust quality of the magnificent 2005 growing season. True to its Bordeaux blend model (think Saint Julien), the wine, while stuffed with bold, extracted cassis, currant, mocha and vanilla aromas and flavors, proves elegant, balanced, and stylish, with finesse to spare. Accessible now, it will improve for some time in the bottle. And under our San Valencia label, it is at minimum $10 per bottle less than the wine’s metro Napa price. A bargain.
 

Feb 18, 2010 at 4:15 PM

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February is ultra-affordable-values month.

February is ultra-affordable-values month.
(I’m being forcibly restrained from imposing the Crazy Eddie school of wine writing upon you.)

CAL895, $9.99 2008 Stone Briar, Sauvignon Blanc, California:
Due to my inability to use a calculator properly, we are able to offer this gem for even less money than we originally planned! Though I’ve signed a zillion pages of non-disclaimer, I can tell you that this wine is now almost one-half of it’s metro Napa retail price. The 100% certified organic Yountville vineyard fruit source routinely yields Sauvignon Blanc that exhibits purity and definition of flavors unique to both place and season. Said pedigreed Sauvignon was one-quarter barrel fermented and aged on the lees for six months, three-quarters cold fermented in stainless steel. Forty percent got soaked with the skins one full half day before pressing. This handling unveiled tropical fruit flavors of gooseberry, guava and kiwi, in addition to the expected herbal, grapefruit and pineapple notes. While it lasts, this wine temporarily eliminates any need to explore affordable New Zealand, Chilean, South African, Loire Valley and Northeast Italian Sauvignon Blancs.

AUS298, $11.99 2008 Circle Springs, South Eastern Australia Cabernet Sauvignon:
In retrospect, it was the right decision to choose this 08 Aussie house brand as the first ever Cabernet Sauvignon to bear our Circle Springs label. Having tasted thousands of Cabernet Sauvignons since then only confirms my June 18, 2009 tasting notes - “cold soaked gorgeous; seems one-dimensional in nose but isn't, herbaceous black fruits, cacao, touch of licorice - blackberry nose; ripe, round tannins, red fruits, cacao and a touch of pepper - currant palate; certainly good enough” – we cannot produce Cabernet anywhere, California, France’s pays d’Oc, Chile & Argentina included, at the price/quality ratio this 08 delivers. Bottled by Westend Estate winemakers Bryan Currier & Sally Whittaker with the blessing of vintner Bill Calabria and his four children – the third generation of Westend Calabrias since 1945 - the wine exhibits a sweet berry nose, with violets over subtle French oak. The palate is replete with ripe berries, spice, vanilla oak and soft, chewy tannins. It bears repeating, we cannot produce Cabernet anywhere at the price/quality ratio of this wine, possibly no one can.

BOR658, $11.99 2005 La Tonnellerie du Chateau de Segonzac, Bordeaux Superieur, France:
I’m a sucker for affordable, mature Bordeaux that’s drinking fine right now and has been aged on the producer’s dime. This wine proves more than just a double dip of value, it’s a picture in the bottle of the magnificent 2005 vintage in the form of a deuxieme vin from an undervalued, historic 120 year old Premieres Cotes de Blaye estate. Blaye itself is practically synonymous for Bordeaux value central – this is where the Bordelais shop. The Bordeaux Superieur designation indicates that the wine has proven to the INAO (the appellation system governing board) that it meets even more stringent requirements for alcohol percentage and aging potential. Don’t take my word for it, you can look it up - this was the least expensive highly recommended, silver-medal-winner cellar selection at the 2007 World Wine Championships. The short form is that this meaty blend of 75% Merlot, 25 % Cabernet Sauvignon bears aromas and flavors of plum and oak framed in that unique-to-Bordeaux forest floor quality – affordable elegance, breed and finesse in a bottle, courtesy of at least 10 values-in-Bordeaux touch points.

SPA103, $14.99 2006 Finca La Estacada, Tempranillo, 6 months oak, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain:
This is a repeat of a featured wine you may have missed, a wine so versatile that, based on the amount of cases delivered to and brought home by Braintree, MA Vinification Ventures office employees, has become our the East Coast satellite office house red. The Cantarero-Rodriguez family winery, in the heart Cervantes country, produces Spanish wines more modern and international in style - people drink Castilla-La Mancha wines. Tradition, prestige and impressive price tags reside more in Rioja, Ribero del Duero and recently, Priorat. Deemed “very good” by Mr Parker, this Tempranillo exhibits the expected olives and nuts aromas and flavors, beneath vibrant blackberry fruit with bramble notes. Lip-smacking cherry and vanilla (catnip for humans) are a direct result of the time spent in new American oak. Accessible, but will age well, this Finca La Estacada is great with tapas, if you’re in a Spanish mode, but if you were raised like myself, via meat on the grill, it’s perfect with BBQ.
 

Jan 28, 2010 at 1:50 PM

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Super Bowl Party: Main Game Recipes

sponsored by: 

By Jeanne Benedict
Celebrations Expert

A Super Bowl party is the ultimate sports celebration, so fire up the grill for your main game meal!  Put a twist on traditional football party food by serving homemade Stuffed Pizza Burgers and Maple-Bourbon Glazed Chicken Wings. Complete your menu by serving a green salad, potato salad, and pasta salad.

Super Bowl: Stuffed Pizza Burgers

Combine classic fan favorites with this creative dish!

Serve with: 2006 Hamilton Estates Merlot (90 Points) $9.99

Click here to see the full recipe

Super Bowl: Maple-Bourbon Glazed Chicken Wings

No Super Bowl party is complete without chicken wings! This recipe adds kick to a classic.

Serve with: 2008 Glass Ridge, Pinot Grigio, California (90 Points) $11.99

Click here to see the full recipe

Super Bowl: Easy Roasted Garlic Potato Salad
Potatoes and garlic make this side dish the perfect complement to your Super Bowl main course.

Serve with: 2006 Paseo Reserve, Pinot Noir, unfiltered, Aconcagua Valley, Chile (90 Points) $14.99

Click here to see the full recipe

Super Bowl: Italian-Style Pasta Salad

Be creative with this versatile crowd-pleaser by adding cut-up cooked chicken, turkey, bacon, ham, pepperoni, Parmesan, cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese or roasted red peppers to this dish. Buon Appetito!

Serve with: 2008 Stone Briar, Sauvignon Blanc, California (90 Points) $9.99

Click here to see the full recipe


Super Bowl: Avocado Caesar Salad
Add a spin to a regular Caesar salad by using avocado and serving it garnished with Parmesan crisps.

Serve with: 2006 Mira Luna Central Coast Chardonnay, California (Rated 91) $14.99

Click here to see the full recipe

 

Jan 28, 2010 at 1:48 PM

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Perfect last minute holiday bottles – affordable, drinking beautifully now, and all do their pedigree proud:

NAP958, $14.99 2007 St Supery Vineyards and Winery, Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc, California
Southern France vintner Robert Skalli’s world class Napa Valley winery has only reinforced his already-legendary status. At St Supery,Bordeaux varietals are the signature grapes, though this unblended and unoaked 07 happens to be produced firmly in a Loire Valley tradition. Sauvignon Blanc routinely out-performs Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio on the price/value ratio, and this complex white doubly delivers: vibrant, rich aromas and flavors of herbs, grapefruit, lime, nectarine and pineapple, at fraction of the general market price.

SPA107, $14.99 2007 Serna Imperial, Joven, Rioja, Spain
I first met Bodegas Escudero proprietor Amador Escudero in the Napa Valley, where he confided that he is a life-long admirer of California wines and was learning quite a bit that applied to his own projects in the north of Spain. (He may have been a bit too excited to learn that I annually bottle an Amador County Zinfandel, however) Amador’s 07 Rioja Joven illustrates why he could be the poster boy for the changes-for-the-better that have evolved with Spanish reds over the last 35 years: improved quality in the bottle, more fruit driven, more international in style, less oak or at least the more judicious use of oak, more food friendly and longer lived wines. From a producer working in Rioja, Spain’s Bordeaux in terms of prestige, where rustic Tempranillo/Garnacha blends held sway for centuries…In the old days Joven (“young wine”) of this quality would have been impossible – the clean, creamy blackberry, raspberry, strawberry and anise fruit elements, with earthy tobacco and leather notes would have been submerged beneath the oak.

CHI114, $17.99 2003 Vina Alamosa, Premium Cabernet Sauvignon, Cachapoal Valley, Chile
Older, under $20 reds, held until optimum drinking on the winery’s dime, from the winery library, are always worth the try. Here in Chile’s Cachapoal Valley, parent winery Chateau Larose-Trintuadon of the Haut Medoc coaxes the finest New World Cabernet imaginable from its pre-phylloxera vines at their Casas del Toqui property. Bordeaux invented the Cabernet Sauvignon business – ask any Napa Valley winemaker – and this bottling may be the perfect sum of Bordeaux tradition plus New World terroir. This ample Cab spent two years in French oak, adding toasty cedar and cigar box notes to jammy strawberry, chocolate and leathery fruit. Another two years maturation in the bottle at the winery, and this wine just begs for hearty winter fare.

Dec 15, 2009 at 3:25 PM

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Excerpted from Santa’s Nice List:

CHP027, $39.99 Jean Velut, Brut Tradition, Champagne, Tradition
A tiny, family-owned farm in the village of Montguex - every small winery and hand-crafted wine cliché applies.
Forward-thinking Champagne Jean Velut patriarch Denis Velut is even sending his sons to Cal Davis to better learn the New World side of the business.
This 80/20 Chardonnay/Pinot Noir blend, the winery’s flagship, delivers consistency plus value, particularly considering the enormous effort involved in making each bottle of Champagne.
Plus it earns awards up the wazoo.
Velut is affordable elegance, and makes any occasion an event.
Perfect with unusual textured foods – have the elves prepare some soups and quiches as part of our post-Christmas-Eve menu.
And make sure there’s plenty of the world’s most romantic beverage on hand for some late night quality time with Mrs Claus.

BUR564, $21.99 2007 Vingnerons des Terres Secrtes, Chai Prisse, Macon Villages, Burgundy, France.
Sometimes you just want something from the ancestral & spiritual home of the varietal – in fact, this is produced not far from the historic village of Chardonnay.
Enough about unoaked or naked Chardonnays as something new & different – this is the region that invented the concept!
Plus anytime I can score a bottle with some fruit sourced from the Macon La Roche-Vineuse site, the wine’s gonna be definitive in style - vibrant , pristine apple, pear and nutty flavors that perfectly exhibit the terroir, especially the clay and limestone soil.
Perfect for Santa’s world-famous shellfish course – have the elves prep some oysters to make sure I’m really ready for Mrs.Claus.

ITA648, $17.99 2004 Sorelli, Chianti Classico, GW Cuvee, Italy
Almost everything good about Tuscan food, wine, art & culture is in this one affordable bottle.
An award-winning, exclusive-to-Geerlings & Wade cuvee, in a classic vintage, from the region that made Chianti serious again, by a family that’s been doing it the right way now for over a century.
I’ll even forgive them for their flower power-type label – these specific vines were planted in the late 1960’s and their marketing head must have worked for NPR at one time – not everyone’s life on the planet was changed by Woodstock.
If it were my label I’d rather equate the Uffizi with Florentine culture…
Have the elves pound some veal medallions into submission.
Sorelli family: nice, Sorelli family label guy: leave him a late 60’s vintage reindeer turd.

CHI118, $14.99 2006 Paseo Reserve, Carmenere, unfiltered, Maule Valley, Chile
Gone are the days when Chile only meant cheap to the American public… Chile does lots of things well, but they do Carmenere best.
The seventh generation of the del Pedregal family continues to improve upon the family legacy at Vina Carta Vieja.
When this wine was first unveiled at a trade function the elves & I attended, the other Chilean producers present, unsolicited, to a man, told us we just scored the best affordable Carmenere in Chile.
It looks and drinks like Merlot, with a far more interesting, rustic, earthier flavor profile, all smoke and ash, red and black fruits - and the signature grape from Chile remains a much better value.
Have the elves grill up an assortment of sausages.

NAP962, $19.99 2006 Bommarito, Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, California
Affordable Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, in a screw cap, from Whitehall Lane, one of the highest profile alternative closure champions.
The “Whitehall Lane Cab for the masses” is named for Napa Valley pioneer Dominic Bommarito.
This 90/10 Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot blend delivers bold, concentrated currant, cassis, “dried raisin” and cherry fruit, surrounded by a nice, toasty vanilla component (catnip for humans), derived from 15 months in American oak.
Have the elves grill up some that aged beef the cattle guys tried to bribe me with.
Winemaker Dean Sylvester and the Leonardinis: nice.
 

Dec 4, 2009 at 1:57 PM

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Alazar's 2006 Merlot

Alazar's 2006 Merlot base material was harvested on 12th of Oct and the sugar level was 26.5.  It is fermented in stainless steel tanks, and after fermentation 25% was aged in French oak and 35% was aged in American oak for 6 months.

This was assembled to be the "significantly better than Hamilton" Merlot.  When we prepared to bottle this, one component was unsatisfactory-to-nasty.  I wanted to preserve the Clarksburg appellation and the "homage" to St Emilion and the old school CA Merlots that preceded the Merlot boom.

And I learned an ugly lesson that my choices were change the appellation to Lodi, or Yolo County or Sacramento or CA, none of which have the right cachet.  So we replaced that component with some 07 Clarksburg Petite Sirah, my favorite blending varietal for Bordeaux Rouge varietals.

And we kept increasing the 07 Petite, as it was still improving the wine, but we crossed the vintage line beyond the % wiggle room.  I liked the "amped up" wine enough to lose the vintage, but got to keep keep the Clarksburg, and still had miles to go before any varietal changes on the label.
 

Nov 27, 2009 at 2:03 PM

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Shopping smart in Europe for the holidays? What the locals buy?

ITA622, $17.99 2006 Deltetto, Langhe Arneis, Piedmont, Italy

Arneis is always way undervalued in the US, especially when compared to the best-selling categories of Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay.  Plus white wines from a region famous for its reds are often deliver better values.  Arneis leterally translates to “rascal”, because the vines can be a bit stubborn to grow.

This Arneis obliterates the cliché that Italian whites are not serious, mainly light, clean, crisp and refreshing, usually with no oak.  Plus it’s an ABC (anything but Chardonnay) from the Antonio Deltetto, the undisputed “emperor of Arneis”.
The wine is vibrant, textural and assertive, with plenty of personality – rich concentrated flavors of herbs and lemons, in equal parts.  Classic beauty is always a better bet than rather than overpaying for current popularity – think Catherine Deneuve or Sophia Loren versus the whomever is the media’s bimbette of the week.

SPA108, $14.99 2007 El Salegar, Joven, Ribera del Duero, Spain

Spain is hot though the US dollar is not, so we have to pick our Spanish features extra carefully for our clients.

If Rioja is Spain’s Bordeaux, Ribera del Duero is Spain’s Burgundy.  This item is a perfect representative of the current Spanish wine industry – more international (read as new world friendly) in style, better quality, more accessible when young, more food friendly, fruit not submerged by the oak as it ages.  This is a house wine price alternative to the almost-see-God $50 September feature SPA106, obviously with less time in oak.  100% Tempranillo, regionally named tinto fino or tinta del pais:  Spain’s greatest varietal - high acidity, herbaceous olives & nuts flavors.  Lush, vibrant, red velvet in a glass, with ages, will sacrifice the exuberance for profundity while it develops additional layers of complex flavors.

BOR661, $14.99 2004 Chateau du Piras, Premieres Cotes du Bordeaux, France

Bordeaux created the modern wine business world-wide, and despite of all the changes in the region, it remains number one in prestige.  It is becoming increasingly rare for us to be able to offer house wine price Bordeaux that delivers the complete package.  This item exhibits terroir, here that forest floor quality that smacks of affordable elegance, breed and finesse, elevating those spicy, smoky, earthy black fruits notes.  The wine was held back at the estate on their dime so it’s ready to enjoy now, upon release, but still exhibits bottle age potential.  One of the Cinq Cotes, this is an appellation where the smart shoppers and the locals go for values, coupled with Robert Parker’s opinion that 04 is the last affordable Bordeaux vintage.  51%/30%/19% Merlot/Caberent Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc blend isn’t just a sum of its parts, it’s a picture of this terroir in 2004, in each bottle.  We chose to to ffer the 04 Piras because it pushed literally 200 other Bordeaux off our tasting tables.

RHO162, 2006 Jean Berteau, Cotes du Rhone, Cuvee Prestige, France

The Southern Rhone is a smart wine shopper’s area, the wines deliver accessibility, aging potential, value, coupled with a magnificent 2006 vintage.

Jean Berteau, the man, the myth, the legend is not just me speaking tongue-in-cheek. Everything he produces comes in this in the 18th century replica bottle with the big “B” in the center, which may be interpreted as the ego.  There really is a separate cuvee prestige, here it’s a modified Southern Rhone blend 85/10/5 Syrah/Grenache/Mourvedre – a with-the-new-world-in-mind variation on traditional dominant Grenache/Syrah/Mourvedre blend. Varietally, it could be labeled Syrah, and the sleek, smoky peppery back fruit flavors are tailor made for new world palates. This reminds me why the better California vintners & winemakers still use the Rhone as a model, not OZ, for their Syrah.  This resides in the Ultimate BBQ Wine category, but a personal favorite, unusual pair, is have it with grilled trout!  The Berteau Cuvee Prestige beat all of the Cotes du Rhone satellites, Cotes du Rhone and Cotes du RhoneVillages, at the table, in addition to plenty of more prestigious Southern Rhone appellations.
 

Nov 9, 2009 at 4:10 PM

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If You’ve Got it, Flaunt it! Our Happy House Brand Primer, Part 1

At Geerlings & Wade, we follow the most arduous, labor-intensive wine buying process in the nation.  Our pool of California suppliers represents some of the finest vintners, winemakers and wineries working on the Left Coast.  We have the resources and flexibility to consider for our clients existing market brands, custom bottlings, brands we’ve improved upon in some way, unknown wines, and wines blended or assembled under our own direction.  More than in any other category, our house brands, aka “signature selections”, exhibit the fruits (sorry) of our expertise and labor.  Here we bottle the optimum wine values available at their price points.  The right to become a Geerlings & Wade house brand producer is earned through rigorous blind tastings, plus the vintner, winemaker and their facility must demonstrate the flexibility for my team to be part of the production process, if necessary, every step of the way. And that right must be re-earned each vintage. As anyone who’s been there over time can testify, it’s far more difficult to repeat.

New, CAL896, $14.99 07 Black Shadow, Syrah, California:
Black Shadow is traditionally our own Syrah and Zinfandel label Philip Zorn and Brent Shortridge

If this wine were the model for the Aussies, Shiraz would still be the current vin du jour!
Mother Nature’s magnificent 2007 Central Coast fruit, fermented in stainless steel, malolactic completed in French oak (20% new), and barrel aged one year prior to bottling.  Dark and dense while complex and beautifully balanced. Sleek and supple in the mouth.  Blueberry, blackberry and pepper flavors, over vanilla and all spice, due to nicely integrated oak.  A touch of minerals present, just enough to remind you that this is an agricultural product. Other tasters identified dried black cherry, plum, molasses, tobacco and leather – perfect barbecue wine.  This will become the thinking person’s house red for the duration.

New, CAL909, $19.99 08 Mira Luna, Pinot Noir, California (not to be confused with our SON549, $24.99 06 Mira Luna, Russian River Valley Pinot Noir):  Mira Luna is our “more serious” Burgundian varietals label  Hossein Namdar and Bob Goyette

The final blending session for this “post-Sideways-affect” Pinot Noir took four of us 3 ½ hours! The almost one-half Sonoma Coast fruit component delivers balanced deep black cherry flavors and spice. The similar percentage Central Coast component furnishes vif and intensity - vibrant, complex dark berries, with hints of leather and spice. The small but cost-effective Mendocino component is delicate and floral, violets and rose petals. I wish there was more of this fruit available, and not just because I’m a cheap bastard and worry over price. This deep ruby Pinot boasts soft tannins, a satin-like texture, floral strawberry, cherry and raspberry aromas and flavors, backed by graham cracker with a touch of toasty oak. Complex and well-balanced, overall, the impression is “here’s one satisfying wine”. The Bud Light marketing gurus beat me to the punch, however, as the difference here really is drinkability.

New, CAL893, $19.99 05 San Valencia Winery, Reserve Malbec, Mendocino, California:
San Valencia Winery is our almost-too-good-to-be-true-deal California label Shahin Shahabi, Dennis Patton, Jon Alexander-Hills

Is Argentine Malbec still the current vin du jour, or is it Malbec, the wine grape? Argentina clearly benefits from varietal labeling – there was no Malbec madness in the US due to it being a part of the traditional Bordeaux blend. Even less Americans know the “black wine of Cahors”, in spite of the region’s recent educational blitzes. When compared with Argentina, a stronger US dollar makes most Argentine Malbec sold here at least as much about price as it is about quality. But at the $15 and up price points, it becomes far more about value - does the wine deliver - and just like the Merlot boom of 15-20 years ago, Argentine Malbec at the most affordable price ranges has slipped. Supply and demand, Argentina’s fiscal strength and the world financial crisis have all eroded price/value ratios. Most of all I miss the display of affordable complexity – inky purple fruit juxtaposed against a delicate violets nose, followed by juicy, yet still rustic fruit – too many wines are now “homogenized”, lacking any sort of personality or dimension. What I am find more and more is that non-Argentine Malbecs often now clearly out-deliver the world market leader when at the same price. Time to abandon the soapbox…the cost-effective Mendocino County fruit for this gem hails from one of the best vineyard sites in Sanel Valley, Southern Mendocino County. Here, the “reserve” on the label is not just a legal marketing term, as was we culled this lot out of a somewhat larger production that retails for approaching $30 per bottle - our San Valencia label, remember – feeling it has about a 10 year bottle age potential. Small tank fermentation was the key, allowing the dense, inky purple-black color to emerge. An almost dainty floral nose leads into a hefty, slightly rustic (plenty of pepper) juicy, soft, silky mouthfeel bursting with black cherries, blackberries, anise, hazelnut and white chocolate. This Malbec will be magnificent - give the Argentines credit where credit is due – they know their beef - with a grilled steak, chimichurri sauce and fries.

New, NAP960, $24.99 04 Brava Terra Reserve, Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, California:
Brava Terra is our Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon label and we almost never - one time in the past twelve years – bottle a Brava Terra Reserve, to give some perspective as to how special this wine really is.  Robert Skalli, Emma Swain, Josh Anstey, Michael Scholz

Fruit for the 04 Brava Terra Reserve originated at a model-for-sustainability, a family-owned ranch farmed in a tranquil corner of Napa Valley. Cabernet Sauvignon is one the family’s trademark varietals. Here the Napa Valley ‘s warm days and cool nights are exaggerated a bit, due to elevation and distance from the moderating influences of the San Francisco Bay. This yields ripe, luscious fruit with crisp acidity – well balanced grapes that produce well balanced wines. Enough stress on the vines insures concentrated, complex flavors. This yields rich, sophisticated, accessible-when-young wines that unfurl layer upon layer with bottle age. And this 2004 was already aged for two additional years on the family’s dime! (Most of Napa Valley is shipping 2006’s or 2007’s.) This is classic, delicious now, intense, luxurious Napa Cab. A blueberry, cherry and currant nose precedes explosive cassis, cherry and anise flavors in the mouth. The topper is that we’ve seen current vintages of Cabernet from this ranch for $30 to $40 per bottle, back vintages at $100 to $130. And since this $24.99 wine will continue to age gracefully minimum another six years, I’ll let you do the back vintage price math…

Nov 2, 2009 at 9:16 AM

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Bad Ideas to Best Seller-The Story of Hamilton Merlot

Hamilton Estates Merlot has evolved from a handful of questionable marketing decisions to an affordable, go-to item for legions of long-time Geerlings and Wade clients.

You don’t just decide to create a brand named after a call center employee without lots of forethought, no matter how fine a worker Ms. Hamilton was. Would a $10 wine with the Monkees on the label, for example, be taken seriously, excluding by the Monkees collectors? Shouldn’t a bottling sporting a Declaration of Independence/Bill of Rights swipe be at least a little suspect? Especially when this $10 bottle bears a “reserve” moniker, attempting to ride the Glen Ellen brand school of wine marketing, implying that this wine was a better lot, carefully culled out of a much larger production, strictly because you can get away with it legally? When my team inherited the Hamilton label, it was during the height of American Merlot Mania, so of course all Merlot response rates were quite high – Hamilton Merlot sold like it was free, as opposed to the closer-to-normal–moving Hamilton Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc. Hamilton became “the $9.99 Merlot” label - right place, right time for that decision.

Hamilton Merlot’s continued success is due to the wine over-delivering at its price point.

The real problem, as any production guy will tell you, is that to bottle the volume of domestic Merlot needed to satisfy the market at a $9.99 retail and maintain award-winning quality year-after-year is less rewarding and probably more difficult than making wines greater than the ten dollar price point. Remember, wine is first made in the vineyard! Plus we didn’t want to fall into the dumbed-down-to-cherry-juice trap that was already starting to sour (bad pun) the world Merlot market. Though there were no illusions that we were bottling Petrus, we were careful to insure that the wine always furnished tangible value at all touch points: supple in the mouth, some heft, adequate structure for short-term bottle aging, a touch of oak to help temper the varietal’s herbaceousness, plus textbook cherry and plum fruit flavors, with a hint of black tea. We still do that. This involves the assistance of winemakers long on integrity, willing to put their all into a project often less profitable for themselves than their own brands, in the service of our vision. And over the years, Hamilton has been a who’s who of California winemaking talent helping me: Dennis Hill, Guy Davis, Paul Moser, Steve Rued and Philp Zorn have all held the Hamilton reins in different vintages. It’s out of respect to them I refuse to put “reserve” back on the label even though it’s quite legal to do so – they don’t practice misdirection on their own projects.

Finally, the continued success of Hamilton Merlot generates resources that allow us to tackle some other, potentially more rewarding projects.

Oct 23, 2009 at 9:15 AM

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