An Expensive Disappointment

I don't often write about wines that I find disappointing. With so much good wine to review, and only so much time, I would rather focus on the great finds that you can make in your local wine store, rather than listing all the wines that I'm less thrilled with once I've opened them. I also do a fair amount of research and go to a lot of tastings, so I'm less likely to wander too far away from wines that I have a reasonable expectation of liking.

There are times when I pop the cork only to discover that the wine inside the bottle doesn't live up to my expectations. This is even more aggravating when I've spent more than usual. I found a bottle of the 2005 Adelsheim Pinot Noir for a great price, and was excited to try it. (Red Carpet Wine, $24.83; available elsewhere for between $23 and $34) There is a lot of positive buzz about this winemaker, the WineScamp loved this wine, and I'd never had one before. I love pinot noir. It all looked good!

It turned out to be an expensive disappointment.

The 2005 Adelsheim Pinot Noir had aromas of funky earth, acetone, and stewed cherries. There were flavors of earth, pine, and sour cherry. The wine was reasonably complex, but the flavors and aromas didn't hang together and that acetone note was hard to get past. It made the fruit fade into the background, and the wine lacked balance as a result. For this price, I didn't feel that QPR was there, so poor QPR on this bottle.

I don't drink much Oregon Pinot Noir, it should be said, and I'm not the world expert on wine chemistry either. Anyone who is reading this who'd like to chime in with their experiences with this wine, or to let me know whether this may have been flawed by volatile acidity, please do so. Otherwise, I'm just chalking this up to experience.

Ghosts of WBWs Past: a Biodynamic Wine from the Languedoc-Roussillon

It's been a while since two of my favorite WBW themes: biodynamic wines (hosted by Jack and Joanne at Fork and Bottle) and value wines from Languedoc- Roussillon (hosted by Dr. Weingolb). Months later, I still find myself on the lookout for biodynamic and Languedoc-Roussillon bottlings, which is the true sign of a successful WBW, in my opinion. Other bloggers sometimes call these the "ghosts of WBWs past," because they, too, find themselves going back and reading the roundups and following up on some of the great reviews and finds that fellow bloggers bring out in the open. Just in time for Halloween I had one of these ghostly WBW experiences.

The 2003 Domaine Olivier Pithon Cotes du Roussillon Villages "Saturne" managed to cover two WBW themes in one bottle, since it's a biodynamic wine from the Cotes du Roussillon ($19.50, Red Carpet Wine Shop; available from other merchants for between $20 and $30). Like many wines from the south of France, this Pithon bottling was made from a blend of grenache, carignan, and syrah and had a deep, inky purple color. Either because it was made biodynamically or because it was from the Languedoc-Roussillon, I didn't find it was as aromatic as a Rhone wine made with these varietals. Still, there was loads of plummy fruit and some anise on the palate with a decided streak of minerality. This is what I associate most with biodynamic wines: a long mineral note that extends from the aromas through the last drops in the glass and beyond. Good QPR, especially for the price that I paid for it, though I would have liked it to have a little more balance between the fruit and the mineral notes.

If you are not living in LA (where it was 92 yesterday) then you may be thinking about stews, and this wine would be a good match with beef stew, or a roast chicken that sat in the oven just long enough to warm and perfume your house.

This wine has been positively reviewed recently by the LA Times, where it was included in a list of chic and affordable wines. Domaine Olivier Pithon has an excellent website, where you can learn more about their biodynamic farming practices and their line of wines, so I encourage you to head over there to learn more if you are interested.

Wine Blogging Wednesday #33: Mid-Priced Wines from the Midi

Welcome to Wine Blogging Wednesday #33, the online tasting event dreamed up by Lenn Thompson of Lenndevours. Today our host is Marcus, better known as Dr. Weingolb, who came up with a terrific theme: mid-priced wines from the Midi. The Midi is the region in Southern France that might be better known as the Languedoc-Roussillon. The region produces hearty reds and full-bodied whites at excellent prices, and Marcus wanted us to focus for this tasting on wines that retail between $15 and $30. I've had many Languedoc-Roussillon wines that were under $15, but this was only my second foray into the slightly higher priced bottlings.

For my entry I tried the 2004 Domaine Olivier Pithon Côtes du Roussillon Cuvée Laïs ($19.00, Red Carpet Wine; $26.99 from K & L). This was a very interesting wine made with grenache blanc, grenache gris, and macabeo (aka viura) grapes. While I've had other wines made from grenache blanc, I've never had anything made from the other two varietals. And the grenache blancs I've had have been very perfumed. In this wine, the aromas were almost entirely from the mineral kingdom, with the fruit aromas very muted and almost non-existant. Sips of this wine revealed more mineral flavors, along with stone, wet grass, and herbs. There was a slight tinge of apple, as well, but only a slight tinge.

Languedoc-Roussillon wines respond well to the flavors of the Mediterranean--seafood, herbs, tomatoes, spices, and vegetables--so we had this with a roast chicken, a green salad, and lots of accompaniments, like flat-breads, olives, tzatziki, red pepper spread, and hummus. The wine went well with these flavors, and the mineral notes sliced through the varied spices without any problem.

Like many winemakers of the region, Olivier Pithon practices biodynamics, the subject of an earlier Wine Blogging Wednesday hosted by Jack and Joanne at Fork and Bottle. These are a body of traditional viticultural practices recorded by Rudolf Steiner, which include enriching the soil with natural ingredients and steering clear of pesticides (for more information, click on either of the links above which have many useful resources). I felt that Pithon's biodynamic practices may help to explain the minerality of his wine, as this was a feature of biodynamic wines that many of us commented on in the previous WBW event.

This wine had good QPR, but I still felt like the lower price bottlings often have even more bang for the buck. Still, this experience confirms that I would never shy away from a Languedoc-Roussillon wine in the wine shop. I've yet to have one that I felt wasn't worth the price I paid for it, or one that didn't deliver lots of interesting flavor. I'm looking forward to what others found out about the region's wines. To check out the WBW #33 posts as they come in, you can click on the comments section to this post on Dr. Weingolb. Or, you can wait for the round-up. As usual, I'll post a link to that over here as soon as Marcus gets it up and running. Thanks to Marcus for a great theme, and I'll see you back here for WBW #34 next month.

Monday Wine Shopping

Today I took friends back to the airport to catch a morning flight and decided on the way home to try a new wine store and see if they had any Languedoc- Roussillon wines for next week's Wine Blogging Wednesday hosted by Marcus, aka Dr. Weingolb.

I stopped off at Red Carpet Wine in Glendale, just around the intersection of the 2, 5, and 134 freeways. In LA terms this means that at some point in your life you will surely find yourself passing by the area, and it is worth stopping in to see their wide selection of wine, beer, and spirits.

The store is well laid out, roomy, and the staff is friendly and knowledgeable without hovering. I asked straight away for Languedoc wines, and Ray helped me to find their good range of Domaine Olivier Pithon bottlings to choose from. I left with a red and a white--but more on those next week. I asked Mike for some help with chardonnays, and he recommended some very appealing 2005 white burgundy that I'm looking forward to trying, too. What struck me about all their European wines--and they have Greek, Spanish, French, and Italian to choose from as well as Southern Hemisphere bottlings from places like Chile, Australia, and New Zealand--was that they offered wines at every price point from under $10 to well over $100.

For domestic wines, they are particularly strong in chardonnays, pinot noirs, and cabernets, with lots of boutique and unusual bottlings that you don't see in big chain stores. The prices are very good, too. I picked up a 2005 Adelsheim Pinot Noir for under $25, which is a very competitive price for an Adelsheim wine. I saw some favorites in the shop, too, like the Hocus Pocus Syrah and a new vintage of the Curran Grenache Blanc.

Red Carpet wine has an email list that you can sign up for, and an inviting wine bar with tastings on Friday afternoons from 4:30-8:30 and Saturdays from 3:00-8:00. Each week these tastings range from the expensive (this weekend they are pouring 2001 cabs by Opus One, Rudd, Viader, and Silver Oak, for example), to the mid-range (May 11 and May 12 offers a first look at the 2005 Rhones), to tastings of inexpensive staff favorites. They also host special events at nearby restaurants. If you're free on May 10, you may want to reserve a place at the Thursday Sip at Sabor Restaurant just down the road from Red Carpet. At 6 pm Herbert Monterrosa, a Spanish wine specialist, will be leading a tasting of a dozen wines imported by Jorge Ordonez for $25. Call the store at 1-800-339-0609 for more information.