Wine Blogging Wednesday #37: Going Native with Indigenous Grapes

It's time once again for Wine Blogging Wednesday, the online virtual tasting event started more than three years ago by Lenn Thompson of Lenndevours. This month our host is Tyler Colman, better known in the blogosphere as Dr. Vino. He set the theme of indigenous grapes for WBW #37, and asked us all to find a wine that was made with grapes indigenous to its place of production. He also asked us to steer clear of the big grape varietals--sauvignon blanc, cabernet--if we could. That left me with choices from the Loire, the Languedoc-Roussillon region, and from Spain. Or England, which is where I'm writing to you from at the moment, but it turns out England doesn't have a native grape--or not one that I could find.

The wine I chose was from Spain, and is a classic bargain sparkler. The NV Cristalino Cava Brut is made from not one, not two, but three indigenous grapes: macabeo, xarel'lo, and parellada. (Whole Foods, $8.99; available practically everywhere else for between $3 and $8). All three varietals produce acidic, citrusy juice that is blended to produce Spanish sparkling wine.

As budget sparklers go, I was impressed with the very good QPR that this wine had. Interesting aromas of bread dough and lemon give way to a citrusy palate with an edge of buttered toast. While this was not as complex as a vintage French champagne or US sparkling wine, it had much more complexity than many of the proseccos that are available at this price point. As a result, it would be a great bubbly for making mimosas at brunch, but it was good on its own with food, as well. I would definitely buy it again. And again!

Thanks to Dr. Vino for hosting such a great event, one that had me hitting the reference books to find out where grapes came from and which wines they made. When the roundup is posted I will, as always let you know, as well as giving you a heads-up on the theme for October's WBW #38.

Cellaring White Wines

I read an interesting article the other day by Jancis Robinson, one of my favorite wine writers. She wondered why there is so much more expert wine writing focused on red wines than on white wines. (image from Ian Britton and FreeFoto.com)

There are a few possible explanations. But one leading reason is that most folks drink white wines young and fresh--they don't cellar them, and they often don't spend much money on them in the first place so they aren't seen as an investment that demands a lot of time and thoughtfulness. In the case of reds, however, many wine drinkers do age their wines, and are willing to pay hefty price tags for their favorites--both of which lead to a desire to know more about what will soon be taking up precious financial and storage resources.

Robinson points out that this ongoing media fascination with reds is especially odd given the kinds of food we tend to eat these days--chicken, fish, vegetables and other foods that go far better with white wines. And she provides some good tips on white wines that do improve with aging and deserve a place in your cellar. Chardonnay, for example, is a white varietal that often shines after a little cellar time. Recently, I pulled out two older chardonnays--a 2001 chardonnay from Burgundy, and a 2003 chardonnay from Oregon--to see whether they agreed with my palate. I didn't buy either one of these wines specifically to age, so take my findings with a grain of salt, but I felt that in neither case were the wines necessarily improved with their extra time in bottle.

First, there was the 2001 Domaine Anne Gros Chardonnay ($16.99 on sale; now I can't find it anywhere else, but you can buy a more recent vintage for under $30). Recent tastings that others have had of the 2006 wine suggest that this may be a wine that is best drunk young. This is the entry-level wine for the talented Anne Gros, and I think this was past its prime. The aromas of toast, butterscotch, and apple were very promising, but these notes did not emerge in the flavors. When you took a sip, it was flat a bit acidic on the palate. I didn't store it myself, so there is no way of knowing whether this was because of improper storage somewhere in its life, of whether it was just a bit tired.

The next older chardonnay I tried was the 2003 Argyle Chardonnay ($8.99, Costco; available elsewhere for around $14). This wine was sealed with a Stelvin closure, and was holding up pretty well with pear and lemon aromas that were muted and subtle. More pear flavors emerged as you drank the wine, which veered towards apple towards the end and was accompanied with a high, citrusy note. There was a creamy, tangy finish that reminded me of creme fraiche. What was interesting to me was to compare my note with one made by Jerry Hall at Winewaves in September 2005, almost two years ago. He found much brighter aromas, and much tarter flavors. The creme fraiche I seemed to taste was a "butterscotch twang" when Jerry drank the younger wine.

Based on this experience, I'm not sure how to proceed with cellaring white wines. Is it worth the space in my cellar, given my preference for crisper, fruitier whites? Am I buying the right kinds of white wine to cellar, or should I steer clear of chardonnay for the moment and focus on rieslings or some other varietal? If you've got experience cellaring white wines, I'd love to hear your advice. And if you have questions, like me, feel free to leave them in the comments in hopes someone will know the answer.

It's Too Darn Hot

It's hot in LA. Really, really hot. After a relatively cool summer, the Labor Day weekend was a scorcher. It was 108 degrees yesterday--and that's air temperature, not heat index temperature. Drinking wine in such conditions is not always pleasant. Sometimes, the alcohol does funny things in the heat, like give you crashing headaches and make you feel even hotter.

And food. I usually pick what I'm going to drink based on the meal I'm making for dinner and in this heat wave I didn't want anything that was even tepid in temperature.

So I got some peel and eat shrimp, cooked up in lots of Old Bay seasoning. I got a loaf of crusty bread with rosemary. I tossed a salad with tomatoes, arugula, baby romaine, and some sliced avocado. And I popped a bottle of white wine in the fridge. The white wine in question was the 2005 Arnaud Gaujal Picpoul de Pinet Cuvee des Comtesses ($9.99, domaine547). And it was just perfect for the meal and for the heat. (picture of the 2004 label nicked from domaine547's site, too)

I've never had a wine made with the picpoul varietal, one of the 13 Rhone varietals permitted in Chateauneuf du Pape. Despite its use in the Rhone, picpoul is (we think) native to the Languedoc-Roussillon and I had planned to save this wine for Dr. Vino's indigenous grapes Wine Blogging Wednesday next week--but I couldn't wait. The name "picpoul" literally means "lip stinger," and all I can say is it's well-named! It was lip smackingly bright and acidic, but not in an unpleasant way. Instead, there were really bracing citrus and mineral aromas when the wine was poured. The flavors were of white grapefruit, fresh lemon zest, and a touch of pineapple on the finish. As the flavors held in your mouth, they took on an almost bitter edge, like lemon pith. This was tart, refreshing, and an ideal companion to the meal and to the hot late summer temperatures. For under $10, this represented excellent QPR in my book, and was a nice change of pace from California sauvignon blancs or a Spanish white.

This wine would be perfect not only with shrimp, but with crab, oysters, or fish. If you're looking to beat the heat, this is the wine to pick up and eat with a cool salad and some critters from the sea. You'll feel cooler--and not just because you're drinking a hip, little-known varietal. This wine tastes like a cool dip in the pool--which sounds just about perfect right now.

A Rhone Reminder

One of the great things about being a wine blogger is you are always on the look out for new wines to write about, and new regions to explore. This year I've tried to focus on getting to known Spanish and Burgundian wines in order to expand my palate and wine knowledge. I've loved every minute of it. But, as Tyler Colman pointed out in his list of the pros and cons of wine blogging in Wine and Spirits magazine, the upside of exploration has a downside: you drink less of your favorite wines.

I just got a big reminder that I love Rhone wines. Whites, reds--doesn't matter. Bring them on. I love syrah, grenache, mourvedre, grenache blanc, roussanne, and marsanne. And I could go on and on about the Rhone blends that are so drinkable, and yet so complex at the same time. The Rhone has its expensive wines, to be sure, but it also has bargains and those bargains often come under a Cotes du Rhone label. These wines are grown in vineyards that fall outside of the more famous named appellations like Crozes Hermitage, Cote Rotie, and Chateauneuf du Pape. As a result, they are often less pricey than their better-known neighbors.

They often represent excellent QPR, too, like this 2005 Domaine les Grands Bois Cotes du Rhone Les Tres Soeurs ($9.95, Chronicle Wine Cellar; available from other merchants for between $10 and $15). Let me say off the bat that this was a lot of wine for under $10. A rich ruby color made the wine look as luscious as it tasted and I was eager to get my nose into the glass as soon as I had poured it. The wine was blended from 60% old vine grenache, 30% syrah, and 10% carignane, producing a wine that had abundant aromas of berries, herbs, and spice. These are the classic hallmarks that I associate with the grenache varietal. Berries and herbs continued through the flavors, with that distinctive brushy-dusty-herbal flavor that is known as garrigue and always reminds me of country lanes in the height of summer. Underneath it all was a Rhone funkiness of earth and leaves, and it ended with a mouthful of spice.

This was a really good, classic, and drinkable Rhone wine. It was the kind of wine that would go as perfectly with roast chicken as it would with chili or stew. And it was a reminder to me that sometimes you just need an old favorite to bring your day to a satisfying close.

A Perfect Pairing

I pair wine with food all the time, and am usually happy when the food and wine don't clash, or when the wine picks up a few elements in the food (or vice versa) that make for interesting flavor compatibilities or contrasts. But sometimes you find a pairing so perfect that you are just blown away by the synergy created between the food and the wine. I just found a pairing so perfect that I'm still trying to figure out what happened a few days later.

The pairing started with a bin end that I picked up in my small coastal town's independent grocery store. It was on a massive reduction, so I decided to try it. The 2004 Block 13 Sauvignon Blanc is a non-estate label from the legendary Gundlach Bundschu winery. ($8.99 in a bin end here on the coast; available from other merchants for between $14 and $20) It was unlike any other sauvignon blanc I've had, with aromas of key lime pie, ginger, and mandarin orange. Hmmm. What could I make that would go wit that? The flavors on the palate continued to develop along spicy, tropical lines with citrus fruits, a distinctive note of ginger, and juicy passionfruit. Despite all the tropical elements of the wine, it was very fresh and zingy. For under $10 this was a sauvignon blanc with excellent QPR (and even for $14-20 this would be a very good QPR choice). Still, the flavor and aroma profile of the wine was going to make it a challenge to find a recipe to go with it. Or so I thought.

I needed to find something light and zesty, with tropical fruit and spice. Surfing through myrecipes.com, I found the perfect dish in a salmon and "forbidden rice" salad with loads of ginger and lime, and big chunks of mango. As soon as I read the ingredients I knew that this would work with the wine, but I had no idea that it would achieve pairing perfection. It did. And it was healthy, low-calorie, and good for you. Who could ask for more?

Pairing wines is always a trial and error process, and it takes experience and quite a bit of luck to get it right. Have you had a perfect pairing lately? If so, let us know what it was in the comments.

2007: the Summer of Roses

1967 was the Summer of Love, when Hippie counterculture was born in the streets of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. Now, forty years later (ouch!) baby boomers and their younger friends can enjoy the Summer of Roses.

Rose wines are everywhere. In newspaper and magazine columns, piled high in end-cap displays, and on the internet, you can't move without coming into contact with another rose recommendation. Since December I've tasted nearly two dozen roses, and written up reviews here on the site of quite a few. My peak of consumption was in April with Catavino's Virtual Tasting of roses. They've come from the US, France, Spain, and Argentina and have been made of pinot noir, cabernet, grenache, and malbec. Eric Asimov may be the only holdout who is still not wowed by the prospects before him, even though Dr. Vino launched an impressive defense on the pink stuff's behalf.

The 2006 Cameron Hughes Lot 37 Campo de Borja Rose of Garnacha may be the best bottle of rose I've had all summer ($7.99, Costco; $10 from Cameron Hughes). This wine is not a salmon-colored, delicate Tavel-style rose--much as I love them, too. Instead, the deep, rich color of the wine is your first indication that this is a rose wine that most red wine lovers will find appealing. Floral aromas mix with whiffs of pretty raspberry and strawberry. The first taste you get is pure strawberry essence, with a note of watermelon on the finish. There are indeed some streaks of stony minerality running through it, but the overwhelming impression is round, rich, and dry. Made from 100% grenache, it is the perfect BBQ wine and represents excellent QPR.

Grenache, as I mentioned in a previous post, is superb with food grilled on the bbq, and this wine was no exception. I paired it with a recipe that caught my eye in the New York Times for cashew chicken. You make a paste with jalapenos, cashews, herbs, and spices and then smear it over the chicken (I used drumsticks) before popping them on the grill for 20-30 minutes. The wine's crisp berry flavors were the perfect foil for the green spiciness of the jalapeno and the buttery cashews paired nicely with the round, full-bodied feeling of this rose.

As with all Cameron Hughes wines, we don't know who grew the grapes, but we do know that they came from the relatively young Campo de Borja DO. I've bought quite a few Cameron Hughes wines recently, and I've yet to have a single one that has disappointed me or failed to represent excellent QPR. So use his "lot locator" on the website to see if your local Costco stocks this (and other) Cameron Hughes wines, or order some directly. There are two more months of hot weather before us. Get yourself some drums(ticks), a tambourine, and a tie-die shirt and celebrate. If you're going to San Francisco, both the San Jose and Novato Costcos have CH Lot 37, so pick it up on the way in to the city. It's the summer of roses. Cameron Hughes is making it easy for us to really enjoy it.

Rock, Paper, Scissors

I've had my eye out for Roshambo wines ever since I starting reading Sonadora's blog, Wannabe Wino. She's a big fan of Roshambo wines, and her enthusiasm for the label was infectious. I looked high and low and finally found a Roshambo wine to try in a small independent grocery store here on the coast in Anchor Bay.

It's fortuitous that at a time when everyone is talking about inexpensive chardonnay, the 2004 Roshambo Rock, Paper, Scissors Chardonnay ($10 direct from winery; available from other merchants for between $12 and $16) was so good. Add it to your list, if you can't get your hands on Mr. Shaw's wine. One thing, though: if you serve this wine too cold, it's not a good thing. You will smell and taste almost nothing but something like wet stones. Once it warms up to proper serving temp, however, you will be rewarded with aromas and flavors of apples, hay, and a rich touch of creme brulee. I think this wine saw some oak, but it was very lightly done if it did (I couldn't find out anything about the making of this wine on the website or at any other site). Here any oak gives the wine richness, not woodiness. Excellent QPR for a wine that was very well done if not terribly complex. And believe me, for bargain chardonnay, you could do a LOT worse.

With your wine, how about a fabulous summer salad, like this chicken and bulgur salad? It was zesty and creamy with a citrus dressing, the toasted taste of bulgur wheat, and chunks of rich avocado. It's a great main-dish salad for this time of year, since it takes almost no time to cook and if you have leftover chicken nothing to cook at all (well, you have to boil water).

Enjoy the weekend!

Wine Blogging Wednesday #35: Spanish Value Wines

Welcome to the 35th Wine Blogging Wednesday, the monthly virtual tasting event started nearly 3 years ago by Lenn Thompson of Lenndevours and still going strong under the guidance of Michelle and Kevin of My Wine Education, today's hosts. Their theme for July was Spanish value wines, and they asked us to try to find a bottling under $10.

The wine I found was made by Bodegas Castano, located in the Yecla DO, south of the city of Madrid. They have a comprehensive website, complete with a soundtrack and flash. If you want something a bit more narrative, check out the bodegas' profile over at the Wine Doctor. The family that operates Bodegas Castano, one of the largest vineyards in the appellation, have been making wine for generations. In the 1980s they rebuilt their winery, and have been making high-quality, budget-friendly wines ever since making full use of their old vines such as the ones that produced the grapes for this bottling.

The 2003 Bodegas Castano Yecla Solanera ($9.95, Costco; available from many merchants for between $10 and $19) is a big, bold wine made with 75% monastrell (or mourvedre, as it is known elsewhere). The monastrell is blended with cabernet sauvignon and a touch of grenache. At present, the wine is taking about 45 minutes to fully open up. Once it does, abundant cherry aromas emerge along with a bit of black tea and herbs. The aromas are more effusive than the flavors, which are a bit muted with cherries and mineral notes. This is a tannic wine, and can make the sides of your tongue pucker, but they soften with food and with decanting. I found that this wine wasn't fully integrated yet--its alcohol, aromas, flavors, and tannins didn't quite hang together into a harmonious package. Still, once we'd let it sit for a while it was an easy drinker with good QPR. If you've got a bottle of this wine, I'd put it aside until the winter and see how it's doing then, or remember to decant the wine before you drink it.

This big, bold wine needed some hearty food to go with it and help tame the tannins. We had it with rib-eye steaks grilled outside, and some baked potatoes with sour cream and chives. These were a perfect partner with the wine, and I would recommend something similarly meaty if you have a bottle.

Thanks to Michelle and Kevin for their great theme. I'll have the roundup posted once they manage to draw together all the contributions from what I imagine will be a popular event. And, as always, I'll see you here next month for WBW#36, the theme of which is still TBA.

Surf's Up--the Wine

Penguins. They're everywhere this summer. On the big screen. Even on wine bottles.

The folks at Little Penguin sent me a press sample bottle of this summer's special release wine, a blend of Chardonnay and Riesling that is designed to be a simple summer white. If you needed a clue about its contents, the surfing penguin on the label has pretty much captured its essence. It's all about relatively mindless summer fun--and there's nothing wrong with that.

The 2006 Little Penguin "Summer White" ($7.99; between $6.50 and $8.5o from many merchants) is made of an unorthodox blend of chardonnay and riesling. I honestly couldn't figure out what they were going for here, but when I opened it I think I understood: this is the white wine answer to shiraz-viognier. The chardonnay provides the body, Granny Smith apple aromas and flavors, and a vanillin tinge. The riesling provides flowery aromatics and a softness that lightens up the heavier chardonnay texture. If you like simple chardonnays, this wine is priced right and is not loaded down with artificial tasting oak. It is also fairly true to the varietal characteristics of both wines that went into it, so I give it good QPR.

The Little Penguin Summer White is a wine that tastes mostly of chardonnay--with a summery whiff of flowers that helps the wine go down smoothly and easily. This is not a wine to ponder. It is a wine to take to a picnic, to have with crab cakes under an umbrella by the beach, or pop open with some simple grilled chicken. Oddly enough, to do so you will need a corkscrew since this was bottled with a synthetic cork rather than a more sensible screwcap. Too bad, because the folks at Little Penguin missed a perfect opportunity to match form, function, and message there.

The Breezy Las Brisas Rueda

Now that the weather is turning warmer, it's time to bring out the summer whites, and what could be more summery than a white wine named after a cooling breeze? I bought the 2005 Bodegas Naia Las Brisas ($9.99, Beverages and More) on the recommendation of Sonadora at Wannabe Wino, who gave me some help back in January when I posted my New Year's Resolution to learn more about Spanish wines. I had a hard time finding it--it was always out of stock at my local BevMo--but finally I got my hands on some.

The 2005 Bodegas Naia Las Brisas was very pale straw in color, to the point of being almost translucent. Made of 50% Verdejo (which is not the same as Verdelho, but an entirely different grape), mixed with equal parts of sauvignon blanc and viura, I liked the fresh aromas of apples, pears, and the pungent white pith of a lemon after you've zested it. All of these aroma notes can be found in the flavors of the wine, and that lemon pith note gives the finish a slightly bitter edge. One important point: if you serve it too cold there will be almost no flavor to this wine at all, just a citrus impression. Let it warm up a bit, and the orchard fruits characteristic of the varietal do come out, along with an almond flavor that is very appealing and different. I've never had a verdejo wine before, but its strong display of the grape's varietal characteristics combined with its low price makes me think this represents excellent QPR.

The Las Brisas is a perfect appetizer wine, or just for sipping with a handful of almonds or nuts after work. But it also goes great with shellfish. We had it with a Southeast Asian Shrimp Salad, made with a simple dressing and loads of vegetables and herbs. It was a terrific pairing, since the clean, tart flavors in the wine and the salad matched each other.

This wine was made in the Rueda wine region just north and west of Madrid, an up-and-coming area that is known for its white wines. Even if you can't get your hands on the Las Brisas, try a Rueda white this summer. Chances are it will be just as crisp and refreshing as this wine was.

Catavino's May Virtual Tasting: Albarino

Catavino's May Virtual Tasting theme is Albarino, the white grape that is planted abundantly in the Rias Baixas region of Spain in Galicia, and is increasingly popular with US consumers and grape growers. How to explain this white's growing fan club? It's an excellent food wine, with great balance between ripe fruit flavors and refreshing acidity. It's also very affordable, although I have a sinking feeling that may change as US consumers gain some familiarity with it.

Albarino has a long history in Spain, and albarino wines made in the traditional fashion emphasized the mineral qualities of the grape along with its acidity and fruit. Modern growers and winemakers are concocting more fruit-forward wines to appeal to the majority of 21st century drinkers who seem to prefer that style. So for the Catavino Virtual Tasting I decided to get two albarinos--one made in the traditional style, the other in a more modern, fruit-forward style--and compare them. We had folks over for drinks and appetizers by the pool and I served some serrano ham, bread sticks, olives, cold peel-and-eat shrimp with cocktail sauce, and even some tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole. Then we started sipping. While we had a definite favorite among the two Albarinos we tasted, both represented excellent QPR, something I've grown to expect and enjoy from Spanish wines.

First we tasted an albarino wine made in the traditional style, the 2005 Pablo Padin Albarino Segrel (Chronicle Wine Cellar, $13.95; available at other merchants for around $15). This wine had white stone fruits, apple, and pear in perfect balance with stony, mineral, and herbal notes. While the wine had lovely, food-friendly acidity it was not all harsh or sharp on the tongue. It was especially good with the shrimp and the olives, since it seemed to pick out the brininess of the shellfish and the fresh greenness of the herb-infused olives. I liked the warm peach aromas when the bottle was first opened, and the way these led to a dry, refreshing flavor profile. This wine was most people's favorite, and we agreed that it didn't taste like any other wine we'd ever had--it was full of distinctive albarino varietal characteristics.

Our next bottle was an albarino made in the modern style: the 2005 Martin Codax Albarino Burgans (Chronicle Wine Cellar, $9.95; available at many merchants for $10-$20). This wine will definitely be easier to find than the Pablo Padin, and it has a label that fits in with all the other wine labels in the store. This wine was much more fruit forward, with grapefruit, apple, and peach aromas and abundant fruity flavors. There were notes of flowers in the aromas, too, but very little minerality among its flavors. Like the first albarino we had, this had nice acidity, but overall the wine wasn't as balanced between acidity/fruit/minerality as the first wine. Most of us felt this was not as distinctive as the Pablo Padin, and could be mistaken for other dry white wines.

If you want to explore Albarino wines more, I found a great podcast on Albarino wines at the Remarkable Palate Podcast. This podcast was made in conjunction with a tasting of wines made by 19 producers, and lasts just under an hour, so it's a good option for listening to during your commute if you are intrigued by this varietal and want to get to know it better. It included a lot of discussion of the varietal characteristics of the grape, and a very lucid overview of food pairing for this wine. Experts suggested that Albarino would be good with Indian food, which I would agree with now that I've had a few more of them--especially seafood curries.

Thanks once again to Catavino's Gabriella Opaz and Ryan Opaz for hosting this event. If you'd like to see what other people have been drinking this month as they learn more about albarino, check out their forum where you will find over 2 dozen posts and counting. And if you've had an albarino this month, you still have a few days to leave your impressions of the experience over in the forum. I'll post the June theme as soon as it's announced if you'd like to join in the fun next month.

Pizza Wine

Most weekends, Fred Koeppel has a homemade pizza. He shares his culinary successes, and his wine pairings, with his readers over on his blog, Bigger than Your Head, and his last picture was so mouth-watering that I just had to have pizza. Mine was "home assembled" rather than homemade, from pizza dough, sauce, and toppings I picked up at Trader Joe's. That was the easy part. Then there was picking wine to go with it. As you probably know, pizza can be a pairing problem. Not any old red will do. Ever had cabernet with pizza? Yech. Too oaky, too tanic, too huge. Sangiovese is a natural partner for pasta with red sauces or pizzas, but it can be difficult to find inexpensive sangiovese that strikes a balance between its acidity and its richer flavors.

If there is a perfect pizza wine (read: one that's easy to find, easy to pay for, and easy to drink) it's the Falesco Vitiano from Umbria. I recently had the 2004 Falesco Vitiano ($9.99, Beverages & More) and it had excellent QPR. Made from a blend of sangiovese, cabernet sauvignon, and merlot, it was deep, dark ruby in color. Aromas of earth and herbs give this wine a distinctly Old World character. These give way to flavors of cherries, chocolate, and eucalyptus. More earthy notes round out the finish and keep the wine grounded. All in all, the fruit is of secondary importance to the other abundant flavors and aromas. I found it exceptionally complex for a wine at this price point.

In the past I've highlighted this wine's usefulness as a party wine. But this is also the spaghetti and pizza wine that you've been looking for. It is widely available, insanely inexpensive, and yummy. Your takeout pizza will probably set you back more than the wine will. I've had the past 2 vintages of this wine, which were consistently good although not quite as good as this, and the 2005 was recently released. Drinkers over at CellarTracker! report that it's pretty darn good, too. My only caution is that this label can have a higher than usual incidence of bottle variation--that aggravating tendency for bottles to taste slightly different despite coming from the same vintage. Bottle variation is the price we pay for drinking something as vibrant and alive as wine. Don't want any bottle variation? I'm afraid it's Coke for you--and more Falesco Vitiano for the rest of us.

Catavino Virtual Rose Tasting #3: the Spanish Entry

The Catavino Virtual Tasting for April closes today. This month I've had three wonderful rose wines, and I concluded with this bright pink beauty from the Rioja.

One of the reasons Gabriella came up with this tasting theme was that she wanted to compare Spanish roses with those from other regions and I can report that based on my experiences Spanish wines are different.

But they're different in an intriguing way that surprised me.

Briefly put, the Spanish wine that I had seemed to be much more reflective of the place where the grapes were grown and the wine was made. It was less about indefinable pink fruit, and more about the soil and the growing conditions. In this case, that means the limestone vineyards of the Rioja. Located on the north-west coast of Spain, this area has maritime influences, a warm Mediterranean-type climate, and rocky soil. The 2005 Cortijo III Rose ($9.99, Beverages and More) managed to capture each of these essences.

The wine was an extraordinary bright rose pink (which I understand it typical of roses from this region) and had a briny, sea-air aroma upon first opening the wine with the merest hints of fruit around the edges. When you sipped it, the first taste you came to terms with was stone, and then raspberry. Both were wrapped up in a steely, bone dry package. Made with 100% Grenache grapes, which are usually sweet and fruity when in red wines, in a rose these characteristics were much less in evidence. Still, it did have a kind of tannic edge which would, I think, make this wine popular with red wine lovers who don't usually like rose, as well as those who prefer wines that are less fruit-forward. Excellent QPR.

We had the wine with a Mediterranean-inspired scallop dish that combined seared shellfish with pasta, orange, mint, and olives. It was delicious, and brought out the sea-air tang of the wine. As a cold pasta salad, it is perfect for taking out onto your balcony, deck, patio, or terrace and enjoying along with a cool rose wine.

A big thanks to Gabriella and Ryan at Catavino who dreamed up this event and were our fearless leaders. Check out all the rose reviews that have been posted over in the rose forum. FYI: they are much more interesting than those in the latest edition of Wine Spectator!

Catavino Virtual Rose Tasting #2: the French Entry

I'm having a great time with Catavino's Virtual Wine Tasting for April, which is focusing on rose wines. The folks at Catavino know how to time an event--the May 31 Wine Spectator will have rose on the cover and a big story with their tasting notes. But thanks to the blogosphere you get a jump on the competition in the wine store!

For my last rose post for Catavino, which gave tasting notes for a 2005 Bonny Doon Vin Gris, I experimented with a new format, first tried here at Good Wine under $20, called the "tag-cloud review." Here's my latest experiment in reviewing, which attempts to take the standard color/aroma/palate wine review and put it in the context of a much more common social interaction: meeting up with someone new. After all, having a glass of wine should be the start of a beautiful relationship between you, your five senses, and the wine in question. Most reviews just try to give you the high points you can expect as you get to know an unfamiliar bottling. But maybe this will put it in more friendly terms! I got great feedback on the "Tag-Cloud Review", so let me know what you think of the "Getting to Know You Review."

Getting to Know the 2005 Mas Grand Plagniol Costières-de-Nîmes Tradition Rosé (Beverages and More, $9.99)

First Impressions: I've never seen a rose this dark before. It's the color of slightly diluted cranberry juice, which makes me think this is going to be a rich, round wine. It's packaged in a relatively plain bottle, which has an attractive shape. And the wine comes from a region in the Languedoc-Roussillon area of France, an area known for its superb roses, so I'm pretty confident that this meeting won't be disappointing. Though I find it odd that this wine from the area where the Languedoc meets the Rhone has Rhone all over it and Languedoc no where on the label. Is this a case of Rhone wines being more familiar than Languedoc wines?

Shaking Hands: I pop the cork on the bottle, and give the bottle a good sniff (never can wait until it's in the glass). Already there is a garden of flower smells emerging, especially roses (or do I just think I smell roses because of the rosy color? Is this the power of first impressions?) and sweet berries. The wine, once poured into a glass, is still that rich cranberry color, and still has all the smells of a warm summer garden. I already think I like this wine.

Getting to Know You: Now it's time to really get to know this wine. I take my first few sips, and my first impressions were not wrong: I like this wine. It has round, strawberry flavors that tinge towards more powerful cranberry notes (or am I being influenced by my first impressions, I wonder?) It is not as dry as the Bonny Doon wine I had earlier, but it is not sweet either. It is ROUND and ripe, like a field-ripened, fresh-picked strawberry, and it even has a fresh strawberry's tannins around the edges, puckering up the borders of your tongue and making you thirsty for more wine. I wonder what's in it in terms of varietals, and the web reveals that it has 60% Grenache, 30% Syrah, and 10% Cinsault grapes. This explains a lot, since grenache is known for its berry and floral flavors and aromas, as is syrah. The Cinsault is best known as a blending grape with a sweet, sunny personality and low tannins. It's a nice blend here, and I particularly like the predominance of Grenache which I can really taste. And it goes well with my dinner companion, a rosy chicken tikka masala with warm spices, grilled marinated meat, and a creamy-tomato sauce.

Waving Good-bye: I feel like I've found another friend on the wine shelves, one that is juicy and round without being sweet, that will go with nearly every food imaginable, and one that is priced right. Is there another wine type around that delivers so much in the neighborhood of $10? I don't think so; this wine is food-friendly, has abundant varietal characteristics, and excellent QPR. Will I buy a Languedoc-Roussillon rose again? Absolutely! (and I sure hope folks drink some for WBW #33). Am I sorry to leave you, yes. But is that a Spanish rose I see around the corner?? This rose makes me want to get to know more pink wines, and to deepen my knowledge of European rose bottlings.

You still have time to participate in this April tasting, and you don't need a blog. If you've had a rose this month and remember what you thought about it, drop a note in the Catavino Forum. Two Good Wine Under $20 readers and fellow bloggers have already posted over there, Nate from VinVenio and Deb from Key West Wine Deb. The forum participants have left some good recommendations for you to check out when you need a rose in the upcoming months, and I'm putting some of my rose finds from Rhone Rangers in a separate forum post. I'll pop the cork on my Spanish rose, the grand finale of my April rose experiences, this weekend and post the notes in the forum and on the site on April 30.

In this Corner: the Bruiser from Bulgaria

Some wines announce themselves with with a gentle purr. This is not one of those wines.

This is a bare-knuckle prize-fighter of a wine, a big, bruising red that is not for the faint of palate. It is a wine that needs some careful handling to bring out its softer, more sensitive side. But it is unusual, and (like many prize-fighters) possesses an unforgettable character.

The 2005 Damianitza Rubin Uniqato ($7.99, Trader Joe's) is a red with good QPR. It is made from Rubin grapes, a cross of Nebbiolo and Syrah developed in Bulgaria in 1944. Unfiltered and full of sediment, it was dark garnet in color and full of mouth puckering tannins. In short, this was a wine that benefited from decanting, and would also benefit from some more time in the bottle.

I don't bother much with decanting in the normal course of things, though I probably should, but as soon as this went into my glass I thought, "OK, time to bring out the decanter." If you don't have a decanter, a clean jar or pitcher will do. What you are doing is getting some more air in the wine and, in this case, hoping to filter out the sediments by using a wine funnel with a screen on it. FYI, a mesh tea strainer works just as well and you probably have one in the back of the same drawer where you store your corkscrew. If you want to see someone demonstrate decanting, and what it can do for a wine, check out this video from Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV as he does a decantation!

After decanting this wine, the spicy aromas and indefinable black fruits detectable on first opening and sipping the wine gave way to herbal, fruity, and meaty flavors. The aromas and flavors developed along the grilled meat/grilled herb spectrum, with fruit taking a back seat. There were notes of cinnamon on the dry, dry finish.

Damianitza is in southwestern Bulgaria near the Greek border in Thrace's Struma River Valley. Founded in 1940 during the height of communist wine-making in the region, it was privatized in 1997. Not surprisingly, privatization has brought both challenges and opportunities to Bulgarian vintners and winemakers, and Damianitza is one of the wineries that is recognized for its efforts to bring the best Bulgarian wine traditions into the 21st century. Wine Report 2007 listed Damianitza among the 10 fastest improving wineries in Eastern Europe, for example. They bottle over 2,000,000 bottles a year, and use native grape varietals like Melnik and Rubin. JohnG over at Quaffability tried their Melnik a little while ago and was less than completely impressed. I'll try to open up my bottle soon and add my tasting notes to the mix.

In the meantime, if you want to try this affordable and easy-to-find Bulgarian wine, here are my recommendations for dealing with this young, brawny specimen: 1. decant 2. Serve it with hearty food, like steaks, grilled meat, or any robust fare that's not too spicy because trust me you do not want to accentuate the tannins in this wine. 3. Take your time drinking it and enjoy the way the flavors change with more air and time out of the bottle.

Party Wines

We had a party last night--the kind with about 80 people and lots of standing around talking, eating and of course drinking wine. Finding good wines to serve at parties is always a bit of a challenge, because you need to find a wine that is affordable, that suits a wide variety of palates, and that doesn't require food to be at its best.

I set a strict under $10 limit for party wines, and usually head over to a wine superstore like Beverages and More to make my selections. For most parties I stick pretty much to pinot noirs from New Zealand and Sauvignon Blancs from California or New Zealand. This time, though, I went a bit mad and decided to get chardonnay and sauvignon blanc for the white wines, and two red blends because I just couldn't find an affordable pinot. But I did find four wines that promised to have good QPR or very good QPR.

I ended up with the 2004 Falesco Vitiano ($9.99, Beverages and More; even less elsewhere, like Wine Library). Made from equal parts of sangiovese, cabernet sauvignon, and merlot it has received high marks from critics, but mixed reviews from consumers. Still, I thought it would appeal to folks who loved cabernet, but be a little softer and less in need of food to drink well. I was right, and people were drinking this down with great enthusiasm. I didn't get a chance to drink a proper glass and think about it, but will post a full review in the upcoming weeks.

My other red choice was the 2005 Rosenblum Chateau La Paws Cote du Bone Rhone ($9.99, Beverages and More), a red blend of 98% Syrah mixed with touches of petite sirah and zinfandel. I love syrahs--so drinkable, so lush tasting. From my brief encounter with this wine last night it was very juicy and fruit forward. A bit simple but very quaffable, which is what you are looking for in a party wine. I think this would be excellent with bistro fare, like burgers, rotisserie chicken, and French onion soup as well as your Friday night pizza.

For the whites, I picked up the latest release of the 2006 Pomelo by Mason Cellars ($9.99, Beverages and More). I reviewed the 2005 Pomelo in November, and this wine was consistent with its grapefruity flavors and aromas. Definitely a hit, and its Stelvin screw-top closure made it a great wine for a party. The other white was definitely most popular among the dedicated oaky chardonnay lovers. The 2004 Buehler Chardonnay Russian River Valley ($9.99, Beverages and More), was bright gold in color, with aromas of smoke, pears, and apples. There were proncounced oaky flavors, tempered slightly by ripe pear and a barely discernible rocky taste, which was more apparent when the wine was cool. As it warmed, however, the oak took over. It was my least favorite wine, but it was a big hit among the Chard Brigade.

Parties are a wine challenge, but it is possible to serve some good wines like these without breaking the bank. What do you serve at your parties, and how do you figure out what types of wine to buy? Leave your comments and suggestion since I still think I could do a better job finding wines that are more interesting and get people talking about the wine, and not just drinking it.

Back to the 60s with a Smokin' Sauvignon Blanc

Chateau St. Jean wines are available everywhere--at least in LA. In the supermarkets, CostPlus, and of course in every pallets section of every Costco in the greater metro area. I recently picked up a bottle of their 2004 Fume Blanc from Sonoma County, and it turned out to be a good QPR wine with a 60s, retro feel to it.

What, you might ask, is fume blanc? It's actually a term unique to America, coined in 1968 by the legendary Napa winemaker Robert Mondavi, to describe a dry, oaked sauvignon blanc. Modeled after the Loire's Pouilly-Fume, the fume blanc wines were intended to be smoky, inflected with the taste of minerals, and elegant. They are a far, far cry from the New Zealand style sauvignon blancs popular today, with their tangy, grassy, and citrus flavors and aromas. Back in the 60s, though, this was as trendy as could be when it came to sauvignon blanc.

The 2004 Chateau St. Jean Fume Blanc from Sonoma County ($7.49, Costco) is pale straw in color. It has aromas of smoke and citrus, which are followed by round flavors of melons, citrus, pear, and oak. This wine was a little disjointed--the flavors didn't evolve smoothly, one into each other but seemed at times to almost fight for dominance. Initially, the smoke won out, and if you're going to try this you might want to open it a bit before you drink it and let some of the smoke blow off. As the wine sat in the glass, the melon and pear flavors began to move to the foreground. This wine might overwhelm delicate food, and I would recommend thinking of pairings that might work well with chardonnay, rather than sauvignon blanc if you want to serve this wine with dinner.

I thought the wine would be perfect with a salad, so we had it with a suitably retro, only-in-California fusion salad of hotly contested origin--the Chinese chicken salad--updated by the folks at Sunset magazine to include more vegetables (asparagus and avocado). It was good with the wine, and I suspect that the wine would do equally well with other retro favorites (like chicken tetrazzini), or even a simple (and timeless) roasted chicken.

Having this wine was another good reminder about wine trends and fashions. Soon the New Zealand style sauvignons will have to make way for something else--wonder what that will be? This is one of the true joys of being a wine enthusiast: no two bottles are the same, and the world of choices is always changing and evolving.

Think Pink: the NV Blason de Bourgogne Crémant de Bourgogne Cuvée Rosé Brut

It's Valentine's Day this week--the time when you throw your New Year's diet out the window (if you haven't already done so), buy a box of chocolates, trawl supermarkets for flowers, and put together complicated dinner menus for the one(s) you love. And, even if you are averse to pink most of the year, you suddenly find yourself drawn to the color.

Fulfill your need for the pink stuff by trying this N.V. Blason de Bourgogne Crémant de Bourgogne Cuvée Rosé Brut ($7.99, Trader Joe's). A companion bottling to the regular brut sparkler from this winery I reviewed for WBW #28, the rose brut is salmon pink tending towards rose in color. There is not much of an aroma, but what you can smell is slightly biscuity like toasted bread. Once poured, there is lots of froth/mousse, and the bubbles/bead is a little rough and rasping on the tongue. Flavors of raspberry, toast, and yeast come through as you sip this wine. Brut rose wines are not as common as blanc de noirs and other pink or pinkish sparklers that are softer in style. This is not the smoothest brut rose you'll ever have, but it is still very good QPR. And, if you like your wine brut and pink, this is the way to go.

With this sparkler we had a fabulous pink pasta, as well, that I pulled off of Epicurious. Shrimp and bay scallops were tossed with garlic and oil, then added to a sauce made of tomatoes, clam juice, cream, and basil. This rich meal with its shellfish and tomato flavors responded very nicely to the brut wine, and of course it all looked fabulous together, too. If you are in the mood to bake, you can try your hand at this chocolate souffle cake from Cooking Light. It has a nice touch of orange from Triple Sec and deep, dark chocolatey gooey-ness and is surprisingly low in calories. It's a bit fiddly to make but you do need to make it in advance and refrigerate it, so you can hide all the work and whisk it out of the fridge, topping it with a dusting of confectioner's sugar and some orange peel at the last moment. Also: I think you could easily substitute 3 Tbs of Chambord for the OJ/Triple Sec and top with a smattering of raspberries if you want to stay on the pink/red/V-Day theme.

A Soft Landing in Spain: the 2003 Tarantas Tempranillo-Cabernet Crianza

Determined not to fall completely off the wagon with respect to my New Year's wine resolutions, tonight I opened up my first bottle of Spanish wine: the 2003 Tarantas Crianza ($8.99, Whole Foods). Made from 70% Tempranillo (which Tim Elliott predicted would become the hot red in 2007) and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, this was a nice, soft entry into Spanish wines for a relative beginner. (image from their importer, Natural Merchants)

Made in the Utiel Requena DOC of Valencia, a region distinguished by very cold winter temperatures, followed by hot summers., all the grapes in this wine were sourced from 25+-year-old vines that are farmed organically. Bright garnet in color, the wine delivers a lot of flavor for the price, with the cab providing some extra acidity to balance out the typical fatness of the tempranillo. (fatness here being winespeak for low-acid wines, not big or alcoholic wines) At last, a red blend that makes sense! Hurray!

Even with the blending, I was able to discern the aromas of herbs and berries characteristic of Tempranillo. These aromas were echoed in the flavors, along with some black currant notes from the Cabernet. Like all wines labeled "crianza," the Tarantas Tempranillo-Cabernet was aged for at least 6 months, in this case in new American oak, so that contributed aroma and flavor notes of sweet wood. The whole package was wrapped up in a pleasant, slightly silky texture. It represents very good QPR, and as it was featured in the Whole Foods Top Holiday Wines List it should be widely available through those stores.

I'm still a neophyte with Spanish wine and food pairings, so I played it safe with a grilled steak accompanied by chimichurri sauce and a huge, deconstructed Caesar salad with torn romaine, parmesan crisps, shaved parmesan, lots of cracked pepper, and dressing just drizzled on top. The herbs in the sauce really accentuated the herbal flavors of the Tempranillo, while the grilled steak was an ideal partner to both of the red varietals in this blend. I suspect that the wine would be equally good with food that had an acidic tomato component.

German Sparkling Wine: NV Schloss Biebrich Sekt

Do you know which nation consumes more sparkling wine per capita than any other?

No, it's Germany. I learned this fun fact from Golly over at Golly's Wine Drops, where he reviewed a different German sparker for you to check out when you're done reading this.

Every LA area Trader Joe's that I've been to in December has end-caps full of this German sparkler: the NV Schloss Biebrich Sekt ($3.99, Trader Joe's). While I tend not to find their $5.99 wines either exciting or particularly drinkable this is the third bottle of $3.99 wine from Trader Joe's that I've really enjoyed. It represented excellent QPR, and at that price I'd buy quite a few and put them away for the rest of the winter.

Bright and floral, this wine was almost as translucent and colorless as water. It had a modest apple aroma, and when the wine was poured in the glass there was an alarming amount of froth (ok, mousse for the geeks out there). Usually wines with lots of froth/mousse the bubbles are big and harsh, but the Schloss Biebrich bubbles were smooth and small. On the palate, there wasn't a harsh or bitter note, just warm pears flavors and a lingering impression of flowers on the finish. This wine is probably made with riesling grapes, but I can't find out much about it on the web, so that's just conjecture on my part. The Deutsches Weininstitut has a great article on German sekt sparklers, if you would like more information.

This wine is just a hair off-dry, and would be perfect with Indian food, Thai food, Szechuan food, and light appetizers. We had a yummy Asian fusion meal with it: a spicy sauced salmon with coconut rice topped with edamame and a fresh mango salsa (note: I subbed a salmon fillet for the chicken in the original recipe). This was perfect with the wine, and it would be a fast recipe to knock together for an impressive meal for guests who might drop by during the holidays.