2010 Finca el Origen Reserva Torrontes

I have a couple of go-to food and wine pairings. One of my favorites is a roasted chicken with a bottle of Pinot Noir. Another one I really like is seared duck breast with a green peppercorn sauce and a stout Chateauneuf-du-Pape. One that I tapped tonight was fish tacos with Torrontes. Nothing fancy here. Fried basa filets on tortillas dressed with a bit of cheese, angel hair cabbage, shredded cilantro and a simple chipotle crema. Light. Fresh. Delicious. Flavors that I could use to describe the tacos or the 2010 Finca el Origen Reserva Torrontes, Valle de Cafayate.

Pale, light color that one would expect from a Torrontes. Aromas of intense rose petal, fresh peach, tangerine and a hint of petrol leap from the glass. Crisp and refreshing on the palate, yet a light, mineral oil-type viscosity. Nice, long, dry, floral finish with a refreshing note of bitter orange pith. Might be one of the more floral Torrontes I've ever had and just a spectacular pairing with dinner. About 410

2006 Linne Calodo "Nemesis," Paso Robles

It's really difficult to convey just how impressive and delicious the 2006 Linne Calodo Nemesis, Paso Robles is. I wanted to open something pretty special for tonight, the Wall Street Journal's Open that Bottle Night, but I had no idea just how pleasing this wine would be. The incredibly dark maroon color shows hardly any sign of age. The nose? What can I say about the nose? It continues to give up a melange of aromas including chocolate-covered cherries, fresh-cracked black pepper, cherry cough syrup/camphor, black shoe polish and resinous, sweet herbs (rosemary, thyme, lavender). The palate is still youthful with chocolate-covered cherry, mineral and black pepper flavors and an uncanny balance of tannins and acidity. The structure makes me think this wine could easily age another decade or so. The 15.7% alcohol is definitely there, but there's so much fruit in the glass that it really isn't obtrusive. This blend of 82% Syrah, 14% Mourvedre and 4% Grenache is easily one of the best wines I've ever had from the Paso Robles region. About $50

My wife and I purchased this bottle from the winery on a visit to Paso Robles in the spring of 2009. At the time I had reservations abut purchasing wine from this winery as we never really felt any "love" there. Everything there was really expensive, the young woman working the tasting counter was rather aloof and it was one of the few places that charged us a tasting fee even though we purchased a couple of bottles. It really didn't embrace the Paso Robles spirit that we felt everywhere else we tasted. But as I've opined before, I guess you can afford to be that way if your wines are just that damn fantastic.

Dinner tonight was flank steak grilled over charcoal with a zesty charmoula sauce, steamed broccoli and porcini rice pilaf (kind of gummy - ugh!). If you aren't familiar with charmoula, here's a quick recipe. It's delicious over grilled beef, chicken and might even be tasty on a slab of grilled salmon:

Charmoula
1 T toasted, ground cumin seeds
1 1/2 cups Italian parsley
1 1/2 cups cilantro
2 garlic cloves
1 T smoked paprika
1 t kosher salt
1/4 t cayenne pepper
1 T fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Process everything in a food processor (or mortar & pestle) and then stir in olive oil. Keeps well at room temperature for 2 weeks or so.

2009 Sean Minor Pinot Noir

I know it's completely cliche by now, but I just can't get over the unbelievable value of Sean Minor's wines; particularly his Pinot Noir. Tonight's 2009 Sean Minor Pinot Noir, Carneros gives up intoxicating aromas of buttery brioche, red fruits (think: cherry, strawberry) and vanilla with just a flutter* of sweet Asian spice. Super smooth on the medium body with cherry-vanilla notes, moderate tannins and balancing acidity. I've said it many times and I'll say it again: you just won't find a better California Pinot Noir for under $20.

Beautiful pairing with tonight's grilled salmon with an Asian five-spice powder rub, roasted sweet potato and braised Brussels sprouts. The last bottle of a case purchased last fall. Time to reload......

*tip of the cap to my brother-in-law

2010 NO/CO Chardonnay

2010 NO/CO Chardonnay, North Coast - A new project from Matt Licklider and Kevin O'Connor of Lioco. Really explores the pear-influenced aromas and flavors of unoaked Chardonnay. Pretty notes of ripe pear and red apple in the nose with hints of baby powder and honeysuckle. Love the texture on the palate - like biting into a fresh, ripe pear with the juicy fruit and the drying tannins of the skin. Bit of yeast on the finish adds body and roundness. Imminently gulpable, but to call this a "quaffer" would be somewhat insulting. About $15.

2009 Alpha Box & Dice Golden Mullet Fury

I've been waiting for this wine to hit Kansas for a number of months now. Of the 7 cases that made it to the Sunflower State, our store snatched 3. So I just had to grab one and give it a whirl. The 2009 Alpha Box & Dice Golden Mullet Fury, South Australia is the first white wine from genius winemaker Justin Lane. This 50/50 blend of Muscadelle (also known in Australia as Tokay) and Chardonnay shows practically no color in the glass. Intense nose reveals layers and layers of lemon, unripe peach, candle wax, petrol and gardenia. If I tasted this blind I wouldn't hesitate to guess Riesling. Waxy petrol notes on the light, crisp palate. Nice minerality. You can almost feel the enamel being stripped off your teeth by the jaw-clenching acidity. Short finish is a bit disappointing. Another white wine that drinks better the closer it approaches room temperature. $28

Dinner was saffron and green pea risotto topped with seared sea scallops and sauteed shrimp. When I do a seafood risotto, I replace the Parmesan cheese with mascarpone. I don't feel the pairing was all that great. I might should've gone with a richer interpretation of Chardonnay for this meal. The wine was, however, a great pairing with the red leaf/radicchio salad dressed with a lemon vinaigrette. The acidity of the wine and vinaigrette perfectly balanced one another.

Semi-Blind Pinot Noir Tasting

Last Saturday I attended a Pinot Noir tasting hosted by my store for some of our better customers. It was billed as a blind tasting for our customers. The only thing we told them was that all of the wines were "new world" and that there was 1 wine at each $10 price increment from $10 to $100. The idea was to see if you could pick out a $10 wine from a $30 wine from a $70 wine from a $100 wine. It was only semi-blind for me as I knew the wines in the line-up, but I had only actually tasted 2 of them.

All of the wines were served from bottles covered in paper bags and customers were invited to take notes and then guess which price range each wine should inhabit. After everyone had sampled each of the 10 wines, the identities were revealed and brief commentary was offered by our host - Aaron Meeker formerly of LDF Companies and now with Vine Street Imports.

Wine #1 – Sweet herbs, Juicy cherry-raspberry nose with a hint of menthol. Dusty, herbal palate. Tart fruit. Is this from New Zealand? Australia? Too herbaceous for me. Light and acidic. My guess: Auntsfield Hawk Hill ($70). I’ve had this wine a few times at tastings and figured that light, herbaceous, dusty profile just screamed “Down Under.” I was pretty far off as this turned out to be the 2009 Peay Scallop Shelf, Sonoma Coast ($60). I had the 2008 vintage of this wine in August of 2010 and found it yeasty with cherry compote and camphor notes; bears little resemblance to the 2009.

Wine #2 – Earthy and mushroomy with a bit of cherry and menthol on the nose. Rich, fleshy palate. Sweet fruit turns a bit green. Bay leaf on the finish. Oregon? My guess: R. Stuart ($20). I hadn’t had this wine before, but the earthy/mushroom notes immediately made me think Oregon. And I was spot on as this was indeed the 2007 R. Stuart Autograph, Willamette Valley.

Wine #3 - Oaky, latex, alcohol, licorice and black cherry on the nose. Extracted, alcoholic, astringent on the tongue. Varnish finish. My guess: No guess on the winery, but by process of elimination, I figured this was the wine in the $60 price range. Turns out this was the 2008 Paul Hobbs Hyde Vineyard, Carneros ($90). I liked the extraction and power of this wine, but found it to be a little too rough and disjointed. A couple of years in the cellar would probably do this wine some good. But at that price, I’ll never know.

Wine # 4 – Herbaceous (celery?), black pepper, barnyard. Celery blows off to reveal woody, cherry/vanilla notes. Nice acidity and minerality. Overall a bit green. Based on the acidity and minerality, I guessed this was the $60 Peay. Turns out it was the 2007 Littorai Les Larmes, Anderson Valley ($40); a wine/winery I have no experience with.

Wine #5 – Stewed fruit, herb, prune nose. Hot and acidic on the palate. Tart cherry “Jolly Rancher” fruit. New Zealand? Okay, I’ll admit I hedged my bet with this one and guessed it could also be the Auntsfield Hawk Hill. And that’s exactly what it was: 2007 Auntsfield Hawk Hill Pinot Noir, Marlborough ($30). Once again confirms that I am just not a fan of New Zealand Pinot Noir.

Wine #6 – Cloudy appearance, light cherry/vanilla nose with candied cherry and orange peel on the palate. Quite acidic. Tastes cheap. Surely this had to be the cheap, generic, non-vintage 99 Vines, right? Uh, no. This was actually the most expensive and smallest production wine in the line-up. Let me just say I would be inconsolably shocked if I paid $100 for this bottle of 2008 Bindi Block 5, Victoria. Not only was this a shocking reveal to me, but the crowd of 40 or so was equally stunned as most had also pegged this at the bottom end of the price/quality range.

Wine #7 – Ridiculous amounts of vanilla and sweet cherry, borderline cough syrup. Turns more chocolate-covered cherry with air. Fine tannins, sweet cherry finish. This is a one-trick pony, but it’s a pretty impressive trick. I was up in the air as to my guess on this one. I thought the lack of complexity might make this a cheap wine, but I guessed more expensive ($70) based on the extraction. Now would’ve been the correct time to vote for the Nonvintage 99 Vines, California ($10). This isn’t the best cheap Pinot I’ve ever had, but it was a solid daily drinker. And if given the choice, I’d take a case of this over a bottle of Bindi any day. (If that totally blows whatever respect you may have had for my palate and you stop reading my blog now, I'll totally understand.)

Wine #8 – Herbs, cranberry, high acid, quite tannic. Bit green on the finish, but there are some nice black pepper and dusty notes in there, too. Some thought the oxidation on the finish added complexity, but I found it a bit unsettling – and a big hint as to the wine’s identity. I correctly surmised this to be the 2007 Auntsfield Heritage, Marlborough ($80); another wine of miniscule production. I think 7 6-packs of this made it into Kansas and my store got 5 of them. Regarding the oxidation, the last bottle of 1905 Auntsfield Muscat was added to the barrel that this wine came from as a tribute to the winery’s 100th anniversary.

Wine #9 – Black olives, dark fruit, French oak, latex and the darkest color by far. Alcoholic with nice tannins and a long, dry cocoa finish. Easily my Wine of the Night. I had no idea which wine this was but I took a wild a$$ guess that it was the Littorai which would’ve put it in the $40 range. Unfortunately, it was the $70 Failla Occidental Ridge, Sonoma Coast. Tremendous wine and everything I look for in a great Pinot Noir. But at that price I’m not a player.

Wine #10 – Herb, green peppercorn & spice with a solid core of fruit. Marred by some odd plastic/Band-Aid notes. Nice color, acidity. Big, dry tannins and a note of campfire. Spice had me thinking “Down Under” again so I thought this may be the Bindi. This was actually the 2009 Soter Mineral Springs Ranch, Yamhill-Carlton District ($50). I’ve had more than my fair share of Tony Soter wines (Araujo, Etude, Dalle Valle, Viader, Shafer, etc.) but I’m pretty sure this is the first Oregon Pinot I’ve had of his. Can’t say I was terribly impressed.

I love tasting blind. It's always such an educational and humbling experience. On the other hand, it would've been nice to be able to spend an entire evening with a bottle of some of these wines over a nice meal. When you only get 5 minutes or so with an ounce of wine, you can't really get an idea of where the wine is going or how it might react with food. I definitely wish I had had more time with the Hobbs (to see if it would integrate a bit), Bindi (to see if it would tell me why it cost a c-note) and the Failla (since it's just so...damn...good).

2009 Red Silk Shiraz

The 2009 Oliverhill Winery Red Silk Shiraz, McLaren Vale is anything but your typical Australian fruit bomb. I love the saturated color that temporarily stains the glass as it settles after a good swirling. There's a nice core of that jammy red and black fruit that one would expect from an Aussie Shiraz, but from there, the wine takes a wild departure. On the palate, the deep fruit is augmented by an atypical earthy/black olive flavor profile as well as acidity not normally associated with this varietal/region. Not a whole lot of spice or pepper, but the finish is long with sweet/tart acidity. Relatively tame tannins suggest consumption sooner rather than later. The (mostly) French cooperage is greatly appreciated and is relegated to a minor, supporting role. Consistent with a bottle sampled at a staff meeting last week and a nice value in the mid-high teen range.

Enjoyed tonight with grilled beef fajitas, home made chunky guacamole and black beans.

2005 Treasure Cellars Stag's Leap Cabernet

I've spent the last two nights with two bottles of 2005 Treasure Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, Stags Leap District and I'm still trying to figure out whether or not I like this stuff. Pretty, deep garnet color. The nose seems a bit disjointed with stewed blackberries, licorice, purple flowers and minerals. Maybe it's just that cooked fruit thing that I can't get on board with? Palate seems a bit murky, too, with the stewed fruit, minerals and dusty tannins. Not only does the fruit lack definition, but the wine seems a bit more advanced that a five year old Napa Cabernet. There's definitely a hint of oxidation in the glass. In fact, I opened a second bottle tonight just to make sure last night's bottle wasn't "off." But my notes are consistent from last night to finishing last night's bottle with dinner tonight to breaking into a second bottle halfway through dinner. Develops a rather nasty green streak on the long, dusty finish, too. I bought two bottles based on the fact that it's $25 and that there really aren't any bad wines coming from Stag Leap. I won't be going back for any more.

In case you aren't familiar with Treasure Hunter, it's one of the labels from Three Fingers Wine Company. I'm not sure about the other labels in this line-up, but Treasure Hunter is a negociant label. That means they buy wines that other wineries have an excess of and sell it for 1/4 to 1/2 of the wine's original price. I've recently had mixed results with two other Treasure Hunter wines. I absolutely loved their 2008 "Radio Caroline" Diamond Mountain Cabernet but loathed the 2009 "Silk Sling" St. Helena (actually Spring Mountain) Cabernet. Allegedly, the "Treasure Cellars" label is only used on the best Treasure Hunter wines. Not sure about that. I guess I'd put the Stags Leap offering somewhere between the other two. But I don't think I could recommend it; even at $25. There are just too many other good Cabernet and Cabernet-based blends out there for the same amount of money.

2007 Dunning Syrah

Having been a member of their wine club for the last four years or so, I've had more than my fair share of Dunning wines. And I can honestly say that all of them have fallen somewhere between Really, Really Good and Stupendous on the patented Ugawino Awesomeness Meter. So imagine my surprise and disappointment at tonight's bottle of less-than-stunning 2007 Dunning Vineyards Private Reserve Syrah, Paso Robles. Great color, as always, and a slight cloudiness that is to be expected from an unfiltered wine. Light, tart blackberry and odd, sour oak notes on the nose. The palate is nearly devoid of fruit (something I never thought I'd say about a Dunning wine) but shows lots of chalky, dry cocoa notes. The finish goes on and on with the dry cocoa and sour oak notes. 15.2% alcohol is barely noticeable. Not a total disaster, but very atypical of this wine and hopefully just an isolated off bottle.

I've had 3-4 bottles of this wine and I think I have 3 more in the cellar. I'll have to try another one in the near future and hope that tonight's experience was an anomaly.

Shame, too, because dinner was a delicious smoked pork shoulder (8 hours over charcoal with apple and cherry chips) with cilantro coleslaw and baked beans. A great, traditional BBQ meal that was longing for a slightly better wine accompaniment.

2006 Allegrini "La Grola"

Had a great time with a bottle of 2006 Allegrini La Grola IGT Veronese and a plate of vegetarian lasagna this evening. This single vineyard blend of 70% Corvina, 15% Rondinella, 10% Syrah and 5% Sangiovese shows a beautiful, clear ruby color in the glass. Amazing cherry compote, licorice and soy/beef broth notes on the nose and palate. Full-bodied palate coats the mouth in cherries and bittersweet baker's chocolate. Seamless balance of fruit, tannin and acidity. Some nice green tobacco notes and more bitter chocolate on the long, tannic finish. Other than a few older Amarones, I don't have any experience with drinking wine from the Veneto with any age. But I can't imagine this drinking any better than it is tonight. Really firing on all cylinders and a great value in the $25 range.

Sh*t Wine Geeks Say

Have you seen this? I thought it was hilarious.



Reminds me of a good day at work or the time I spend updating the blog! Ha!