Cats, Grass, and Gooseberries

Cat (pee). Grass. Gooseberries. These are the flavors and aromas that are sometimes associated with assertive sauvignon blancs from the Marlborough region of New Zealand. If you're thinking "I'll pass, thank you," you may want to think again. Marlborough sauvignon blancs are very good summer wines, and about as refreshing as white wine can get with the exception of vinho verde.

Cat pee aside (which I don't usually smell, to be honest), the herbal and grassy qualities of a Marlborough sauvignon blanc give the wines a summery feel, and the slightly sour, tart gooseberry flavor has the briskness to cut through the most humid day. Never had a gooseberry? If you've had an under-ripe Thompson green seedless grape it's not too far off gooseberry, and the truly desperate can look for some Follain's Irish Jam which comes in a fairly tart gooseberry variety. It is still a jam, though, so it is sweeter than any sauvignon blanc you're likely to try.

Perhaps it would be easier to just look for the 2006 Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc Private Bin ($10.95, Chronicle Wine Cellar; widely available from other merchants for between $9.99 and $14.99)? This yummy, refreshing, and excellent QPR Marlborough sauvignon blanc exudes grassy, grapefruity, and gooseberry aromas. A pale straw in color, the flavors are also full of gooseberry, with notes of the tart white pith from a grapefruit, a bit of cilantro, and a distinctive mineral streak that really adds freshness and complexity. This is not a tropical fruit salad style sauvignon blanc, but will make you think of cool green ferns, cool green vegetables, and juicy fruit.

On a hot, sticky day this wine is perfect paired with a bowlful of peel-and-eat shrimp (I buy mine cooked at the store or frozen in the bag at Trader Joe's), crack open a jar of cocktail sauce, and toss a salad. Serve with some chunks of a good baguette, and the summer heat won't bother you nearly as much--especially since everything's so cold, crisp, and refreshing and you've barely spent any time at all in the kitchen.

Villa Maria is a family-owned New Zealand estate winery, and they were one of the first wineries to go 100% screwcap in 2004. Their Private Bin line of wines was developed to display the true varietal characteristics of the grapes in question. While their sauvignon blanc is the most widely available of their wines in the US, keep your eyes out for their other bottlings (including pinot noir and gewurztraminer) since this is a producer that consistently produces high quality, good value "go-to" wines.

Winery Watch: Anglim Winery

An ongoing series of Friday posts highlighting California family wineries. You might not be familiar with all of these vineyards and winemakers--yet--but they produce wines that speak with the voices of this state's people, places, and history. They are worth seeking out. These posts will be longer than most posts on the blog, but I hope you will find them perfect for leisurely weekend reading and internet browsing. To read previous posts in the series, click here.

It all began years ago on Father's Day.

Steffanie Anglim and her daughter gave Steve Anglim a home wine-making kit to celebrate the day. Pretty soon Steve took over the garage for his wine hobby, and started attending classes at the famed wine school UC Davis. Now his "wine-making kit" is much bigger--read: as big as a winery--just proving that you never know when, where, or how a life-long passion will get sparked and your inner talents will get released. (photo of Steve Anglim at work courtesy of Anglim Winery)

Since 2002, wine-making has been a family affair at Anglim, with all hands pitching in to craft distinctive, vineyard- designate wines and blends made with the best fruit that they can source from their viticultural partners in Paso Robles and Santa Barbara County. (picture of the Anglim Crew courtesy of Anglim Winery). Today, they produce around 3000 cases a year and specialize in Rhone varietals. In their wines, the Anglims try to achieve the perfect balance between the varietal essences of the fruit, the added character provided by the barrel, acidity, and freshness--and they succeed. They've opened up a tasting room in the old Paso Robles train depot, so if you're planning a trip out there you should definitely make a stop and check out their wines.

So where do they get their fruit? From lots of vineyard producers you've heard of (Bien Nacido, Cass, Fralich, and French Camp ring any bells?). With these grapes, it is no wonder the Anglims are able to produce such a high quality product. They get their pinot noir from Kathy Joseph's Fiddlestix Vineyard, their viognier from Bien Nacido, and their roussanne and marsanne from Harry Fralich, for instance. And if you're interested in seeing some of Anglims' grapes grow, you can stay at Starr Ranch on the west side of Paso Robles, where the Anglims get some of their cabernet sauvignon, grenache, and syrah grapes. (vineyard photo courtesy of Anglim Winery)

Here are my impressions of the Anglim wines I tasted at the 2007 Rhone Rangers Tasting. Prices indicated are the suggested retail prices at the winery; as always the price you pay may be higher or lower. Clicking on a wine's name takes you either to a list of merchants who stock the wine, including Anglim itself which maintains an online store which you can reach directly by clicking here. If you become a fan of Anglim wines you may want to consider joining their Winemaker's Club, which will ensure that you get quarterly shipments of 3 or 6 bottles as you prefer. Their wines are popular, and they do sell out of them, so joining the club is your best defense against seeing the dreadful word "unavailable."

2006 Anglim Rosé ($15) I just loved this excellent QPR, salmon-colored wine. Made from grenache, syrah, mourvedre, and viognier grown in Paso Robles, it is full of rich floral aromas from the viognier. Then the wine turns rich and complex with raspberry and strawberry flavors that have a real depth thanks to that mourvedre. An outstanding example of a US dry rose, this is the rose I'd buy a case of and have on hand for all your summer BBQ and picnic needs. Save one for Thanksgiving, too, since this is sure to appear on my list of wines that would go great with turkey. (PS: I'm not the only one who thinks this wine is great. Check out Ken's Wine Guide for a comparably enthusiastic review.) Excellent QPR.

2005 Anglim Roussanne ($22). Another beautiful wine from Paso Robles fruit, here fresh orchard pears and apples dominate the flavors and aromas. This wine tastes like spring, and is less heavy than most wines made with this varietal. An excellent food wine. Excellent QPR.

2003 Anglim Syrah Fralich Vineyard ($20) This chewy, beefy syrah had interesting grilled herb aromas and flavors that accented the blackberry and raspberry fruits. A very nice value, and excellent QPR.

2004 Anglim Viognier Fralich Vineyard ($22) Nice, fresh honeydew aromas accented with floral notes are the lead in to this wine that has loads of fresh-picked, juicy honeydew flavors. Great for summertime. Very good QPR.

2005 Anglim Viognier Bien Nacido Vineyard ($24). Winner of a silver medal at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, the Santa Barbara fruit used in this Viognier give it a riper, rounder flavor profile than the Fralich Vineyard bottling. Appealing honeydew aromas and flavors predominate, accented with flowers. Very good QPR.

2004 Anglim Grenache ($24) I really liked the abundant blackberry, coffee and spice aromas and flavors of this wine. Aromatic on the front end, rich on the back, this is very appealing and more complex than many wines made with this varietal. Very good QPR.

2003 Anglim Syrah Best Barrel Blend ($40). This wine is still too young to judge it fairly, with its balance between acidity and fruit not fully developed, but there are already lovely chocolate notes underneath rich red fruit and spice. Give it time, and it should be excellent, and make for a good special occasion wine for a grand dinner, or for a candlelit meal for two syrah lovers. Good QPR.

If you got a wine-making kit for Father's Day, you may want to clear out the garage and start looking for some viticulture and enology courses now. Steve Anglim was bitten by the wine-making bug. You could be, too. Or, you could just do what I do and buy Anglim wines whenever and wherever you see them!

Wine Blogging Wednesday #35: Spanish Value Wines

Right on the heels of yesterday's Spanish wine review comes the announcement of next month's Spanish-themed WBW. Michelle and Kevin over at My Wine Education will be our hosts for the July edition (#35!) of Wine Blogging Wednesday, the online tasting event started by Lenn Thompson of Lenndevours.

They have a great theme: Spanish value wines. Drink red, drink white, drink rose, drink whatever you want and try to stay around $10 (they'd like us to try for something under $10, but promise not to penalize folks for straying slightly above).

As regular readers know, one of my wine resolutions for the year was to try to learn more about Spanish wines, and wines under $10 are right up my alley, so I am looking forward to this theme. Here at GWU$20, I've tasted a number of wines that fit My Wine Education's brief, including some albarinos, a memorable rose, and tempranillo, and I've enjoyed each and every one of them.

To participate, drink something Spanish by Wednesday, July 11 and email your reactions (and your URL if you are a blogger) to spanish.wbw@gmail.com. The folks at My Wine Education are especially eager to know what the selection of Spanish wines was like in your store, and whether you felt the wine you tried was good value. No blog? Just email Michelle and Kevin your thoughts, and they will post them in the roundup.

Great Spanish Wine You May Not Be Drinking

Tempranillo. Albarino. Verdejo.

If you are living in the US, and are just getting started on Spanish wines like me, these are most likely the wines that you are drinking. In general, I have tended to like the white varietals (Albarino and Verdejo) more than the reds, which may just be a result of not drinking enough of those wines, or drinking not very good examples.

But the other day I had a fantastic wine that made me think there was a world of Spanish reds that I'm not yet finding easily in the stores: the 2003 Bodega Inurrieta Norte ($12.99, Rosso Wine Shop). And it wasn't made from tempranillo, but from a blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot. This was a rich, smoky wine, with a deep inky crimson color and inviting aromas of spices, flowers, and rich red and black berries. Bodega Inurrieta makes their wine in the Navarra region, which has both warm Mediterranean and cooler Atlantic influences. These different influences help the grapes to develop their full potential without over-ripeness. The flavors of cassis, clove, and cedar were equally rich and inviting and lingered in your mouth, making it a pleasure to drink glass after beautiful glass. And you could do just that because the wine had 13.5% alc/vol despite its rich and flavorful profile. What most impressed me, however, was the wine's superb balance, since the acidity that gave the wine structure was perfectly paired with the fruit and the oak. Excellent QPR.

I drank this wine at a terrific restaurant in London that specializes in tapas and small plates called The Salt Yard. If you are in the UK for whatever reason, try out this restaurant located in Bloomsbury near the British Museum and the University. Great food, great service, and a great location combined to make it a very nice place to spend an evening with friends. I couldn't decide between 2 Spanish wines and our server let me taste each (this is fantastic, and I wish more places offered this service). Both were great, but we picked the Inurrieta which arrived at our table at the perfect cool cellar temperature (just lovely on a warm summer night when you plan on eating a fair amount of chorizo!). It cost around 18 BPS (roughly $35) which is amazing considering wine markups, how good this wine was, and the unbelievably weak dollar.

I found only one wine merchant in the US who carries this wine, and happily they're right around the corner in beautiful Glendale: the Rosso Wine Shop. I've not been there, but they will be at the top of my shopping list later this summer since they specialize in everyday wines from Italy, Spain (check out their list of Spanish offerings here), France, and California. And at $12.99 a bottle, this Bodega Inurrieta "Norte" certainly qualifies as an everyday wine bargain. If you've found a great Spanish red--whether a tempranillo or some other varietal--let us know in the comments below because I'd certainly like to try a wider range.

WBW #34 Roundup: Washington State Cabernets

A big thank you to Catie of Through the Walla Walla Grape Vine, our fearless host for WBW #34, who has posted the roundup for this month's virtual tasting event which focused on Cabernets from Washington State.

32 bloggers reviewed 45 wines (including a riesling!) which gives you lots of good wines to look for in your local shops if you are a cabernet fan.

Still no news on WBW #35, but when there is I'll be sure to let you know!