Saturday Wine Shopping--Thinking Ahead

Today's wine shopping theme was: thinking ahead. I was prompted by the prospect of dinners with friends over the next few weeks (need wine to take to my generous hosts and hostesses, as well as wine in multiple bottles to serve at a Keralan fall feast I'm cooking on Thursday), the impending Turkey Day holiday, and by the challenge of the next Wine Blogging Wednesday to get out there and do some pre-planning that didn't involve simply thinking of what to drink with tonight's dinner. Kitchen Chick is hosting the WBW in early November, and the topic is ice wines--kind of a challenge for the under $20 bracket I focus on. I love dessert wines, though, and have never had an ice wine because they are usually way out of my wallet's comfort zone. But I did some online research and discovered that my local Beverages & More had a bottle that wouldn't break the bank, as well as a nice special on Domaine Chandon Brut Reserve. So I got in the car and headed over to the Pasadena branch of the store.

People can get quite sniffy about Beverages & More, which is (let's face it) a supermarket for wine. They even have a bar-coded loyalty card, just like the supermarkets. They seem to be everywhere in So Cal and like most chains, they can vary enormously in quality from branch to branch. The Pasadena branch is neither the worst nor the best I've shopped in, and I usually just go 2-3 times a year to buy sparkling wine and the odd French and Italian good buys you can find there. In general, their selection is more varied and more interesting than what you find at Ralph's or Albertson's, and their prices are competitive with the supermarkets. Though, if you hit a Pavilions with a good sale on, nothing beats their prices if they have the wines you want. But don't go to BevMo looking for advice. Sometimes you luck out and get a great clerk, but most often they know less than a serious wine drinker does about the options. They can help you find the sauternes, though! They are also quite good about posting shelf-talkers with magazine scores on them, which can be a help when wading through aisle after aisle of California Cabernets. Yes, yes, scores are no substitute for knowledge but who among us pays no attention to those insidious little 90 point proclamations??

Today's outing yielded a few finds: 2003 Ch. Lafaurie-Peyraguey Sauternes ($23.99/375ml and $44.99/750ml) which received huge ratings (97!) from all those wine magazines most of us read. Based on Cellar Tracker, folks are already drinking this wine which probably won't really even begin to live up to its potential until 2010. I bought a couple of bottles to put away for Christmas in 2010-2013. At $23.99 this really did qualify as a genuine bargain. I snapped up the last bottle of 2004 Jackson-Triggs Proprietor's Reserve Vidal Ice Wine for WBW ($21.99). And I bought three bottles of bubbly, all non-vintage: Nino Franco Prosecco Rustico ($16.99), Domaine Chandon Extra-Dry Riche ($13.99), and the Domaine Chandon Brut Reserve ($17.99 on sale). The sparklers will start flying off the shelves soon in anticipation of the holidays, so I wanted to start drinking around in my price range for some good options to buy and have on hand.

Indian food demands Gewurztraminer in my opinion, and I found their selection less than inspired so headed back to Chronicle Wines to get all the remaining 2003 Hamel Pinot Noir I could get my hands on and see what they had in the gewurz department. I left with two bottles of 2003 Chateau d'Orschwihr Gewurztraminer from Alsace ($14.95) and will let you know how that goes down later this week.

red white + bluezz

Last night we went out to a new Pasadena restaurant that touts itself as having great food, a wide selection of wines by the glass, pre-selected flights of wine, and on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays starting at 9pm live blues and jazz: red white + bluezz. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays the sommelier offers "flight school," with topics ranging from how to navigate a wine list to tasting 101.

We all thought the atmosphere was fantastic, with attentive and knowledgeable service. The hits of the evening culinarily speaking were a very unusual watermelon and Maytag blue salad with vanilla-lime glaze ($8), Kobe burger with fries ($18), and a fettucine primavera with hazelnut pesto (can't remember how much it was, honestly). We started dinner at 6:30 and the four of us were out of there at 8:30 after a leisurely, 3 course dinner.

The music had already started at the bar around the corner, which has an open terrace area for smokers and a no-smoking policy inside. We had good seats, and drank some more wine and I tried their "Sophisticated Ladies" flight of red wines which included tasting-pours of the following for $12: A. M. Gille Cote de Nuits; Byron Pinot Noir; and Michael Picard Cote du Rhone. This was attractively priced and presented, with a great tasting sheet with three bright red dots on it. Each wine was positioned over its dot, and inside the dot were tasting cues to help you along. One quibble I had with both the tasting flights and the restaurant wine list is that no vintages where noted. I'm sure they would have told me had I asked, but it kind of detracted from the "we're serious about wine" message to wonder what vintage of Byron I was drinking. Of the three wines the Picard Cote du Rhone was the most interesting, and it was not one of their "wines by the glass selections" so I could not order more.

The crowd was a nice mix of 20s, 30s, 40s, and up. It was particularly great to see a lot of 20-somethings out there with their dotted tasting sheets arguing about who smelled cedar in the flight while they ate Kobe burgers and listened to some pretty great music from Lil' Red's band. We would definitely go back, perhaps focusing on a flights and burgers in the bar like the 20-somethings.

2003 Hamel Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast, from the Campbell Ranch in Annapolis

It's Indian Summer in southern California, with highs in the high 80s and cool, cool nights. Perfect for pinot! And to celebrate fall, we popped open a bottle of the best domestic pinot I've had in a very long time, the 2003 Hamel Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast. Technically, this wine comes from Campbell Ranch in Annapolis, CA, but if you are looking for it on Wine-Searcher (see sidebar) you will find it easily if you just leave it as "2003 Hamel Pinot Noir." I found it as several online retailers for under $30 (remember, I said mostly under $20) and at my beloved Chronicle Wine Cellar for $21.95.

Hamel Winery is in Healdsburg, one of those small, independent wineries that doesn't even have a website, never mind a fancy tasting room with monogrammed glasses and cheese knives for sale adorned with clusters of grapes. They sourced the grapes for this pinot noir from the Campbell Ranch just north of Annapolis, CA on a long, winding road that passes from Highway 1 on the coast, through part of our beloved Sea Ranch, and up into the warm Sonoma County hills. Over on calwine.com they gave this information about the ranch, to accompany their sale of the 2004 vintage of this wine:

Steve Campbell’s family has lived on this property since 1938. Over the past few years, the Campbells watched as several growers planted Pinot Noir in the neighborhood. It had become evident to them and many others that this northwest corner of the Sonoma Coast shows great potential for producing exceptional Pinot Noir. In 2000, Steve, his wife Lisa and his father Phil followed suit. They identified a few choice acres of Goldridge soil on their large ranch and planted a nicely exposed ridge top that slopes gently to the north west. The site is about four miles from the Pacific Ocean and about 700 feet up above the fog line.Kevin’s grapes came from a swath through the center of the vineyard where the flavors showed the most promise. The clone is Dijon 777.

This is a serious, and seriously good, Sonoma County pinot noir. The 2003 Hamel is dusky plum in the glass, and it has a delicious, silky texture as it rolls around in your mouth. There is a lot of spice and warm berries (raspberry, with strawberry and cherry) in the aromas and on the palate. The flavors just open up, one after the other, and there are hints of dark chocolate, vanilla, and tea as they do. At the end, there are still some strong tannins, which indicates to me that this wine may continue to improve in the bottle. Though this wine is still available, it is now 2 years since it's release in October 2004, and I think could still be interesting in 2 more years. I'm going to buy a half case and try out this theory!

This has just excellent QPR--a wine that is worth every penny, even if you are spending more pennies than you are used to in the wine store. I like this just as much (maybe more?) than the Flowers pinot noirs, that are 2x the price when you can get your hands on them. It has great complexity, along with all the subtle pinot noir varietal characteristics. I'm not the only blogger to give Hamel high marks. See how Alder over at Vinography compared this wine to the field of California pinots at the June 2006 pinot tasting.

2006 Woop Woop Verdelho V

Yesterday was a busy day of sight-seeing and showing the relatives around LA on the first day with real sunshine since they arrived. We were all exhausted and full after snacking our way through Beverly Hills and by the time we got home all we could muster enthusiasm for was soup, bread, and wine. But, hey, that's pretty good stuff! So I stuck out some bowls of olives and set out to make yummy Silver Palate Carrot Ginger Soup (you can cut the butter in half to diminish some of that wopping calorie count).

For wine, I chose the 2006 Woop Woop Verdelho V ($8.95) which I purchased a few weeks ago at Chronicle Wine Cellar here in Pasadena. Mom and Dad drink the first bottle when they were out, and I hadn't tasted it yet, so I nabbed another. It is also available through retailers on both coasts (check Wine-Searcher, see link in sidebar). Verdelho wines are known for their crispness and their herbacious flavors--very much like a sauvignon blanc. Sometimes, also like Sauvignon Blanc, they are aged in oak. This wine was not, and it retained its bright, citrusy flavor profile. In the glass, the Woop Woop was very pale, almost clear. There was a nice whiff of grapefruit rind when you gave it a sniff. Where this wine really was pleasant was on the palate, where it managed to be both crisp and round thanks to a pink grapefruity flavor mixed with herbal and flowery notes.

Woop Woop is part of Ben Riggs' Galvanized Wine Group,which includes popular labels like Penny's Hill and the Black Chook (my favorite shiraz-viognier blend!). They are based in the McLaren Vale wine region, and I think they make some of the best value wines around.

For the price, and given its excellent varietal characteristics, I am giving this one very good QPR. If you like unoaked sauvignon blancs from California or Australia, you will like this wine and it will pair easily with all the foods you usually drink with your favorite sauvignon blancs.

Field Trip to Piedmonte via the Heritage Wine Company, Pasadena

This afternoon we went out to see The Queen which we highly recommend and then over to the Heritage Wine Company in Old Town Pasadena for one of their weekend tastings. Heritage Wine is a great wine resource in the Los Angeles area, with a very knowledgeable staff and a great inventory, including hard-to-find German Rieslings, a nice selection of wines from Oregon, and a selection of Burgundies. You may not find many bargains here, but it is the place to go if you want excellent advice on special wine purchases.

Each weekend they offer special themes tastings in addition to the regular flights you can purchase (such as great whites, or interesting reds). The one we went to focused on the wines of Piedmonte in Italy. Tastings like this are great because they offer budget wine drinkers like me a chance to sip wines we might otherwise never purchase or taste (like Barolo).

There were six wines in the tasting, 2 whites and 4 reds:

NV Il Conte d'Alba Moscato D'Asti ($8.99)
2004 Fratelli Oddero Chardonnay($28.99)
2003 Icardi Pierino Barbera D'Asti ($16.99)
2004 Castello di Nieve Dolcetto D'Alba ($15.99)
2000 Giribadi Barbaresco ($49.99)
2001 Mauro Sebaste Barolo "Monvigliero" ($64.99)

None of us were that impressed with the whites, and the red that we liked best was the 2004 Castello di Nieve Dolcetto D'Alba, which I would give a rating of good QPR. It was a light bodied red wine, with a spicy, chocolatey taste. We felt it was a bit one-dimensional, and were not sure any additional ageing would improve this wine. This was in contrast to the Mauro Sebaste, which need another 2-4 years in a cool, dark place before the tannins balance out--not that any of us bought it to try the experiment!