The Future Looks Rosé

Now that we're into autumn, you may think the future looks decidedly less Rosé.

Those of us who drink Rosé wines--those pale to dark pink bottles of wine made from everything from Cabernet Sauvignon to Zinfandel--tend to think of them as summery offerings, suitable for picnics and barbeques but not for serious food.

Actually, Rosé wines are versatile and food friendly. They pair with almost everything. Served with a bit of a chill, they offer refreshment when your table contains spicy dishes. And they are usually very affordable.

Here are two of my favorite Rosés, which I tasted over the summer and early fall and which I have no problem recommending to those of you who are ready to take out your stew pot and turn on your oven. And both of them are dry wines--which means that they will pair with almost everything.

2010 San Giovanni Garda Classico Il Chiaretto ($15.00, domaineLA; available in market for $13-$15) This delicious Rosé is made from an Italian blend of Barbera, Groppello, Marzemino, and Sangiovese. You will smell the strawberries, and the aromas carry over into the flavors. There is a pleasant stony edge to the strawberry tones, and a lovely, savory note in the aftertaste. Well-balanced, medium-bodied, and excellent QPR. We had it with a Jamie Oliver dish of grilled tuna with oregano and lemon, grilled zucchini, and some garlicky cannellini beans, and the wine had the right amount of fruit, acidity, and minerality to pair with the dish. It would also be great with creamy pasta dishes, sausage, or roast pork. Note: It comes in a cute, chubby bottle but it does contain the full 750ml that you're used to.

2010 Château d'Esclans Côtes de Provence Whispering Angel ($20.99 from my local independent grocery store; available in market for $13-$27)
This wine is very, very pale pink in color--think ballet-tights pink. The aromas are even drier than those of the Il Chiaretto, with under-ripe strawberries, chalk, and melon rising up from the glass. The flavors echo the aromas, but the chalk becomes more intense. Very dry, very savory, and very good QPR (though if you can get it for under $15, you will find it's excellent QPR) This wine is made mainly from Grenache, with some Rolle, Cinsault, and Syrah blended in to it. A nice pairing for shrimp or other shellfish, salmon, tuna, or roast chicken.

A True Blue Syrah from the Central Coast

I've said before that Syrahs often taste like a color to me. Sometimes, they taste black with inky blackberry fruit and dark spices. Sometimes, they taste red, and are full of a the bright fruit of a summer berry patch. Then there are the blue syrahs, that remind me of cool walks by the ocean and huckleberries.

I recently had a "true blue" example of the grape: the 2006 Clos LaChance "Black-Chinned" Syrah from the Central Coast. (a new release with a suggested retail $18; available through AmericanWinery.com, and check soon with your local merchant) One of the bottlings from Clos LaChance's "Hummingbird" Series, this wine had luscious aromas of blueberry and huckleberry that evoked the forest and seaside summers. I loved the silky blueberry flavors that followed, as well as the roasted herb and toast undertow that lingered in the juicy aftertaste. This good QPR Wine was well made and nicely balanced.

This Syrah went wonderfully with homemade hamburgers, pan-fried in a skillet with a zesty horseradish sauce and some bacon-onion relish. Its cooling blueberry-inflected fruit was a nice counterpoint to the horseradish, and the meatiness of the burgers brought out the roasted, toasted flavors in the aftertaste.

Full Disclosure: I received this wine as a sample.

Why I Love Spanish Wine--Especially In Summer

There are many reasons I love Spanish wine any time of year. Many are made with indigenous grapes (always a plus for me). They're food friendly. They're good value. In summer, though, I add another reason to my list: they go great with grilled food.

If you'll be taking your BBQ out for its maiden voyage of the 2009 season this weekend, pick up a bottle of one of these Spanish wines to have with whatever you put on the grill.

2005 Bodegas Montecillo Rioja Crianza (suggested retail, $12; available for $7-$13) Year in and year out this is my favorite entry-level Spanish Tempranillo. It will appeal to traditionalists, who want their Tempranillo to have the earthy, herbal, leathery loveliness of the grape. Aromas of leather, earth, and herbs will greet you first, with black cherry notes in the background. In the flavors, expect juicy cherries and berries, with a lovely, long aftertaste. For $12? Impossible to beat, in my opinion. Excellent QPR.

2006 Martín Códax Rioja Ergo (available $9-$15) Also made with Tempranillo, this wine walks the line between Old World restraint and New World fruit with its black cherry, mint, and chocolate aromas. Rich berry and cherry flavors have a gamey edge that will pair beautifully with steak, burgers, or lamb. Very good QPR.

2007 Tapena Grenache (suggested retail $9.99; available for $7-$12) This is a bold, fruity wine with aromas of blackberries and cherries. You'll find more sweet blackberry fruit in the flavors along with some cinnamon, all wrapped up in a softly textured package. An enjoyable wine that will go with a wide range of foods, including grilled vegetables and chicken. Very Good QPR.

Full Disclosure: I received these wines as samples.

Still Enjoie-ing Rosé in September

It's September, and though summer is an increasingly distant memory for most of us, I'm still hooked on rosé.

Thought of as a summer quaffer, the thing that makes rosé perfect for your dinner table regardless of the season is that it's a terrific food wine. It lightens up spicy pasta with red sauce and sausage. It's glorious with tuna and salmon. It's fantastic with turkey, and roast chickens with rosemary and garlic.

The 2005 Vinroc Caves Enjoie is a gutsy rosé made with Grenache and Barbera. (I received this wine as a sample; you can get a bottle for $13.99 from Wine Q, and if you are in the WineQ Good Wine Under $20 wine club, it's been added to your Q already) It had a rich, raspberry juice color which reflected its robust character. There were aromas of red currant jam, raspberries and also wet chalk and clay. The raspberries I've smelled before in a wine, and even the chalk--but not that clay note. After smelling the wine the surprises were all behind me and then I tasted pomegranate seeds--not the juice, the slightly powdery mix of seed and fruit together in the seeds. Combined with more raspberry, these flavors led into a juicy aftertaste with a mineral undertow of clay and chalk that kept you coming back for more. It was so different, and so complex, that I have to give this wine an excellent QPR rating.

Rosés like this one are a perfect partner for late summer tomatoes. I made a fresh tomato tart (or tarte aux tomates if you want to be French about it) that was terrific. Hint: disregard the 30g of yeast part of the ingredients and just use a single packet of yeast from the supermarket. It had a light, biscuity crust and wonderful swirls of cherry tomatoes, oregano, and olive oil. When it comes out of the oven, sprinkle some chiffonaded basil on top, some kalamata olives, and (if you are like me and a cheesehound) some freshly shaved Parmesan cheese. I am so proud of it that I took a picture. The biscuity crust was quite nice with the chalk/clay/mineral notes in the wine, and the pomegranate flavors worked well with the tomatoes.

Hang onto the last whiffs of summer while you can. Rosés can help.

TAPAS Is for Tempranillo Lovers

On Friday I attended the first ever TAPAS event at Copia, the American Center for Food, Wine, and the Arts in Napa. TAPAS stands for the Tempranillo Advocates, Producers, and Amigos Society, and it has more than sixty wineries and vineyards in its membership. It was a great opportunity for me to learn more about Iberian varieties and how US wine makers and grape growers are using them to craft distinctive wines that are full of personality. (Picture of Earl Jones of Abacela Vineyards, the president of TAPAS, and other panelists)

There is a long history that helps to explain why Spanish varieties are relatively new players on the US wine scene. Most of it has to do with the government--as usual. When the Spanish came to the New World way back when, they wanted to protect the Spanish tax base and wine exports and so they prohibited the really good grapes from traveling overseas. What did this lead to? Colonists in pursuit of good wine grapes went to the French, Italians, and Germans which gave grapes like Chardonnay a leg up and put Spanish grapes way behind. Penelope Gadd-Coster of Coral Mustang Wines asked the million dollar question: "Where would Tempranillo be [now in the US] if Jefferson had not been a Francophile?"

The tasting that occurred in the afternoon was a real eye-opener for me and for most of the people there because how many times have you ever had a chance to taste 40-45 US Tempranillos side by side? Tempranillo is often likened to Cabernet Sauvignon for its versatility and quality, and that was true in the wines I tasted. I was struck by the wide range of flavors that the grape was capable of producing here in the US. There was everything from luscious, fruit-forward wines to bottles that would have been hard to identify as New World. Coral Mustang's 2004 Tempranillo from the Vista Creek Vineyards in Paso Robles ($22) had smoke, leather and a beautiful balance between these notes and the blackberry and black raspberry fruit. Tempranillo grapes have a smoky flavor, and this wine was made in neutral oak barrels, so any smoke was from the fruit, not the wood. The 2006 Bokisch Tempranillo (not yet released, around $22), had the same beef tea flavor that I last tasted in a 1991 Bodegas Montecillo Gran Reserva Especial from the Rioja, along with roasted herbs, earth, and a smoky aftertaste. The 2005 Six Sigma Tempranillo ($42), on the other hand, used French oak barrels when making its wine which resulted in vanilla aromas and juicy fruit flavors of blackberry and fig along with some coffee. I particularly liked Valley View Winery's 2005 "Anna Maria" Tempranillo from the Applegate Vineyard in Oregon ($24). It was very traditional in its flavors of cherry, strawberry, and cedar, and its lightness and elegance was striking. And Tempranillo is made for aging, as was clear in the 2005 Scribner Bend Black Hat Tempranillo ($14.95) with is cherry, strawberry, and smoke flavors and a core of bright acidity that will soften with time.

Tempranillo is also being used in blends, which is true in Spain as well. One blockbuster blend was the 2006 Twisted Oak The Spaniard, which has not yet been released but should please everybody with its ooh-la-la flavors and aromas of chocolate, cherries, smoke, and leather. The 2005 Core C3 Crazy Eights ($39) was made from a blend of 85% Tempranillo and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon. It had amazingly rich blackberry fruit flavors that exploded in your mouth, along with rich cedar and chocolate notes.

But the day wasn't all about Tempranillo. TAPAS celebrates all Iberian grape varieties, so there were people pouring wines made from other grapes like Touriga Nacional and Graciano, too. I tasted a 2007 Twisted Oak Graciano barrel sample that was one of the most interesting wines of the day, with its cranberry aromas, smoky aftertaste, and cherry and blackberry flavors. The NV St. Amant Tawny Port ($35) is made from 100% Bastarda and had heady aromas of raisins, toffee, and toasted nuts in a wine with a rich tawny color and a silky texture. Both Barreto and St. Amant produced excellent Tourigas, too. The 2005 Barreto Cellars Touriga (around $25, not yet released) was very drinkable with floral and spice aromas, spicy fruit red and black fruit flavors, and a soft finish. The 2006 St. Amant Touriga ($18) had aromas of violets and spice with cherry flavors, and a hint of beeswax in the aftertaste.

As for white wines, I think they are still a work in process. There is enormous potential in the Albarino grape, as well as in Verdelho. Albarino has the body to bump Chardonnay of its perch, and Verdelho should be on every table that is currently adorned with a simple Sauvignon Blanc, but right now the wines are a bit unfocused and I think the emphasis is on making quaffable wines. Nothing wrong with that of course, but I think we will see more wine makers trying to craft something more distinctive with these varieties. The 2007 Bokisch Mokelumne River Albarino ($16) takes a big step in that direction, with sensational aromas and flavors of orange blossom and buttered apples, balanced acidity, and a crisp yet juicy finish. This was an extraordinary and memorable white wine, and shows just how great Albarino can be.

Based on this event, I think we can all look forward to some golden years of drinking wine made with Iberian grape varieties right here in the US. It will be exciting to see what the grapes do as more vines are planted, and what wine makers do with the juice once more of it is available. If you haven't yet discovered these wines, you are in for a treat. If you have, let us know what your favorites are in the comments.

A Rosé That Drinks Like a Red

For years the US was awash in a particular kind of rosé wine (White Zinfandel) that was soft pink, softly flavored, and sweetly innocuous. They were quaffers, with very little flavor and virtually no substance. Now, there are rosés for every taste, from light, salmon-colored dry Tavel to zesty Italian and Spanish wines made from a blend of full-bodied grapes. As you might suspect from seeing the dark color of the wine to the right, these richer, rounder rosés can drink more like red wines than white wines and stand up to everything from pepperoni pizza to grilled cheeseburgers without any problem.

Because they are chilled, they seem lighter and more refreshing than red wines--especially on warm summer evenings when just the thought of drinking a red can be a little daunting (even if you've stuck it in the fridge for a bit like you're supposed to in order to get its temperature down into the 60s).

We just had a robust rosé in the 2007 Pere Guardiola Floresta Rosado, which is made from a blend of Grenache, Merlot, and Carignane, which is known as Mazuela in this region. ($9.99, Weimax; also available from The Spanish Table for $11.99). It has the color of pomegranate juice: a very clear and dark red. When opened, you could smell raspberry, pomegranate juice, and even some cranberry. The flavor spectrum was more inclined to ripe raspberry, and there was some wet stone as well as a zing of cranberry in the aftertaste. There was a surprising amount of grip and pucker from tannins in the wine, but they only helped to balance out all the fruit. This was a juicy, flavorful wine that I think would be perfect for Indian Summer weather, and represented very good QPR for its reasonable complexity and attractive price.

This Pere Guardiola Floresta Rosado seems made for Paella or something spicy made with chorizo, but don't be afraid to pair it with other dishes. Rosés are very flexible when it comes to food pairings, and they seem especially adept at handling culinary curve balls and weird mixes of flavors and textures. I pasted together a vaguely Mediterranean meal with a slightly unorthodox chicken piccata, garlic mashed potatoes, and a salad of fennel, orange, and arugula. That's a lot for a wine to handle--garlic, lemon, orange, anise, garlic, artichokes, capers, and olives. And this wine handled it.

Even though the summer is waning, there's still at least eight good weeks of rosé weather ahead of us in most parts of this country. If you are looking for something a bit different than the pale salmon French rosés with which you started out the summer season, switch over to some rosés that drink like reds from Italy and Spain.

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Cannonau: Proving "Rustic Wine" Isn't a Bad Thing

I'm wrapping up my month of Sardinian wines today with a wine that exemplifies the wine description "rustic."

What is a rustic wine? It's a topic of debate, and some people use it as a put-down to describe wines they find simple, unsophisticated, and lacking in the fruitiness that might make a wine "quaffable" (that's a subject for another day). Like my esteemed colleague Tyler Colman of Dr. Vino, however, I think it's a good thing. In a post made way back in February 2007, he entered into a spirited discussion with some readers about the definition of a rustic wine. Dr. Vino described rustic wines as "off-the-beaten-path varieties or regions that maybe have some quirks or rough edges but also have a certain undeniable charm, particularly in the face of a pasteurized, homogenized wine in an “international” style."

This definition certainly fits the Sardinian red wine that I tried. I was made from Cannonau grapes--which is what Grenache is called on the island of Sardinia. Turns out there is a bit of controversy these days about the origins of Cannonau. We used to say the Spanish brought it to Sardinia, but now experts wonder if it isn't indigenous to Sardinia ,and the Spanish took it back with them after they invaded the island in the 13th century. Whatever you call it, Cannonau from Sardinia has retained the idiosyncratic rusticity that can make you feel that you are drinking wine from a different age. Craig Camp had a Cannonau a few weeks ago, and likened it to an old-fashioned Chateauneuf du Pape from the Rhone.

The 2003 Santa Maria La Palma Le Bombarde was one of those wines that reminded you that rusticity is something that you happen upon all too infrequently these days when drinking wine. ($18, Bion Divino) Upon first sip, it smalled and tasted like iron--overwhelmingly so--with some gamey notes that made me think I had made a serious mistake with this wine. I left it alone in the glass for 15 or so, then sipped it and the iron tang had gone, replaced by flavors of meat and leather. Another 15 minutes and the meat and leather had melded with a strong, cherry liqueur flavor. In the end it was very much like an older Chateauneuf du Pape, with all the rusticity and funkiness left in and none of its opulence of plushness. This wine had great varietal typicity, but it may not appeal to New World Grenache fans. Good QPR for a wine that has oodles of character, but may cost more than you want to spend on a wine with lots of rough edges.

Like most rustic wines, the Cannonau was much better with food than without. Our favorite pairing was with a BLT and some sweet potato fries. The sandwiches were made on some toasted sourdough made by our friends at the Twofish Baking Company, and the sourdough tang was perfect with the any remaining iron notes. The smokey bacon was terrific with the meat and leather tastes, and the tomato and the cherry flavors sparked off each other without clashing.

Listening to Lynne Rossetto Kasper's The Splendid Table podcast for June 21, I discovered a new reason to love this rustic wine: Dan Buettner discovered that is has 3 times the antioxidants of any other grape on earth. It's one reason why Sardinians (who love their Cannonau) are one of the five groups highlighted in his book Blue Zones, which studied communities with exceptionally long-lived members to learn about life habits that could contribute to health and wellness.

Sardinian Cannonau will be one of the reds that stands out from my Italian regional tour. Like one of the centenarian Sardinian sheep-herders interviewed in Dan Buettner's book, it proves that rusticity is not such a bad thing, after all.

It's Time to Take Rosé Seriously

Rosé wines are the black sheep of the wine world, the relatives that no upstanding grape wants to talk about, and it’s all because of White Zinfandel. White Zin was pumped out of Napa and other parts of California in boxes, barrels, jugs, and regular old wine bottles in the 1970s and 1980s in such massive quantities that it became ubiquitous at suburban progressive dinners, barbecues, and (sad to say) formal events. It gave rosés a very bad name.

It’s time to get over it.

Today’s rosé wines are not at all like the White Zinfandel of the past. They are great wines, and they deserve to be taken seriously.

All over the globe winemakers are putting aside their qualms and taking quality red grapes (like Grenache, Mourvèdre, Cinsault, Tempranillo, and even Pinot Noir) and vinifying them with minimal skin contact to end up with a wine that combines crispness, roundness, and bright fruit.

The latest rosé that I've had that is worth serious consideration for your dining table is the very good QPR 2006 Jeriko Estates Rosé.($12.99, WineQ). This was a round and full wine, with aromas of juicy strawberries and clean, crisp wet stone. While some rosés can have a strong note of watermelon candy or Jolly Ranchers, this one did not have any melon in the aromas or flavors. Instead, your tongue tingled with the flavor of those tiny strawberries you are sometimes lucky enough to find growing wild. Made with 100% organic Syrah and Grenache grapes, this wine has 14.1% alc/vol, so it is not a wimpy or small wine by any stretch of the imagination.

Rosés go with all kind of summer foods--including hot dogs and our chosen rosé pairing, buffalo chicken wings. They deserve a place on your summer table, chilled but not ice cold, or you won't be able to appreciate their full and flavorful personalities. Today's rosés are definitely not your mother's White Zinfandel, so if you haven't tried a rosé lately, it's time.

Something Sinister This Way Comes

Last week we tried to watch Sweeney Todd on DVD. I say tried because our attempt lasted only about 7 minutes before we gave up. However, we did have the perfect wine with the movie--the 2005 Owen Roe Sinister Hand ($23.99, Mission Wines; available online for between $22 and $29)

The label shows the left hand of Irish hero Owen Roe O'Neill. Legend has it that when sailing around the coast of Ireland, a band of warriors agreed that whoever landed first could claim the land for his own. Owen Roe O'Neill cut off his own left hand, threw it on to the land, and swam ashore to claim the land as his own.

If you can think of a wine more appropriate for drinking with Sweeney Todd, let me know!

Despite the macabre story, the 2005 Sinister Hand was a lot of wine for the money and very good QPR. It is a Rhone-style red made from Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, and Counoise. There were beautiful aromas typical of the dominant variety in this red blend (Grenache) including berries and herbs. There was also a smokiness to the aromas, which carried through into the flavors along with even more juicy berry. There was a long, lingering aftertaste and a smooth and plush feeling to the wine that made it seem luxuriant and rich. This was a very enjoyable wine, and a wine that was definitely worth the few dollars over $20 that it cost.

We had our Sinister Hand with BBQ ribs and a big salad. The smokiness of the ribs highlighted the nicely smoky flavors and aromas in the wine, and the sweetly spicy Grenache was a nice partner to the BBQ sauce.

If you're looking for a good wine to go with BBQed foods this summer, remember that Grenache is a perfect wine for grilled foods and that many Rhone-style blends have a healthy dose of Grenache in them. Pick up some Grenache, get yourself some ribs, pick another movie (!) and enjoy.

Pocket-Friendly Priorat

Two confessions to start out: first, I don't drink much wine from the Tarragona area of Spain known as the Priorat because they're usually out of my price range; second, I like a good fruit bomb every now and again, and occasionally even a wine that has been manipulated to suit A Certain Palate That Shall Be Unnamed.

That's why I decided to write about the 2004 Celler Can Blau from the Montsant DO, which forms a crescent shaped arc of vineyards around the much pricier Priorat DOC. There will be Spanish wine traditionalists who might take exception to my giving this a very good QPR designation, but honestly this is a seriously good buy for those of you who like bold, smoky reds. And if you haven't heard of Montsant, it's an appellation to watch out for if (like me) Priorat wines are often out of your price range.

The 2004 Cellar Can Blau is a terrific wine, that is drinking beautifully now. If you have a bottle, I think you might be able to hang on to it for as much as 18 months more, if you are keeping it carefully. The wine was rich plum in color, with decided aromas of smoke, leather, and blackberries. The ripe blackberry aromas continued through onto the tongue, where they seemed at times as if they were dipped in chocolate. The chocolate turned dusty, like cocoa powder, and melded with the bittersweet tannins and smoke of the aftertaste. Like many wines from the region, this is made from a blend of about equal parts of Carignan, Grenache, and Syrah.

That's a lot of wine for $12.69, which is what I paid for it in the summer of 2006 at Costco. I can't find it online any more, but I wanted to review it anyway because the 2006 vintage has been released and is in stores now, and seems to have a very similar flavor profile. The 2005 did not, from what I can tell (though I hasten to add I never drank it myself). I'd recommend you but a few bottles and drink them over the next few years. Expect to pay between $14 and $17 for the 2006 either online or at your local store..

Is this wine made for New World Palates? Absolutely. A tad spoofulated? Perhaps. Absolutely delicious? Yes, that too. A bargain? Undoubtedly. Once in a while a chocolate dipped blackberry fruit bomb is a delicious, opulent treat (and most readers probably have a wine that fits into this category, even if they usually prefer something leaner). What will I be drinking tomorrow? I think I'll have a Cabernet Franc to keep my palate on an even kilter.

Wine Blogging Wednesday #43: Comfort Wine

Wine Blogging Wednesday for March 2008 is all about comfort. New dad Joel Vincent, who not only dreamed up the Open Wine Consortium but posts to his own Wine Life Today Blog, clearly knows how to find comfort in the chaos. With all that exciting stuff going on, he still hosted WBW. Pretty impressive.

Joel asked us to drink and write about a wine that made us feel relaxed, comfortable, and happy at the end of the day. In essence, he wanted to hear about our go-to comfort wine--the bottle we reached for knowing it was going to deliver.

For me, the choice was easy, and it won't come as a surprise to regular readers: the wine has to be from Chateauneuf-du-Pape. For me, drinking wine from this region is like sipping time, and time is something that I don't have enough of these days. It's historic, and old-fashioned, but fruit-forward and ready to drink young as well as with some age on it. It's made with grenache, which is aromatic, but usually has some syrah in it as well to add some heft to the wine. It's everything I ever want from a wine in term of fruit, acidity, complexity, and green/floral notes. When I feel bad and want to feel good, I open Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

So when we got news over the Twitter wires last week that Joel's new daughter, Alexa, had been born, I popped open a bottle of Chateauneuf-du-Pape in her honor. A little bit before WBW, I admit, but I thought Joel would forgive me in this case.

I bought the 2001 Clos de l'Oratoire des Papes Chauteuneuf du Pape a year ago from Whole Foods, on sale for $21.99. Right now, you can find it for around $30. While this wine did make me feel my normal, Chateauneuf-du-Pape sense of comforted, and represented good QPR, I think you can do better for around $30, although for just over $20 this was good QPR. The wine was rustic, with simple plum and spice aromas and flavors. A bit of black olive and bacon fat were detected upon on first opening, but those aromas dissipated quickly as it got some air. Then, the fruit came forward, and the wine tasted mostly of plums and cherries. After a day on the counter, preserved with some of that gas in a can, it had turned into a Grenache fest with lots of sweet fruit and very little spice.

If you have a bottle of Chateauneuf-du-Pape and want to experience even more comfort, try pairing it with this Mediterranean-style chicken and bean stew. The warm, herbal flavors were a perfect counterpoint to the spice and fruit, and the tiny bit of heat from a dried chili pepper that cooked in the stew helped to pick out the peppery notes in the wine.

Thanks to Lenndevours, for dreaming up this event, and thanks to Joel for hosting and sharing the joy of his new daughter with us in the blogosphere. Alexa has lots of virtual aunties and uncles to count on from the wine blogging world--and she better look me up when she's checking out colleges! See you back here for the WBW #44 announcement from host Gary Vaynerchuk and the roundup of all this month's posts.

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.

Red, White, and Tasty All Over

If you think there is something weird about blending red and white wine, think again. As I've mentioned before on GWU$20, I love the mixture of shiraz or syrah and viognier that produces wines that have all of syrah's spiciness, but with floral aromas and a silky quality. And I'm not the only one to like wines that are red, white, and tasty all over. Gary Vaynerchuk is a big fan, too, and you can watch him tasting a few shiraz-viognier wines over at Wine Library TV.

The 2002 Maxwell Four Roads Shiraz-Grenache-Viognier was a lovely example of what makes these red-white blends so appealing. ($14.95, Chronicle Wine Cellar; between $18 and $25 from other merchants) Maxwell Vineyards is a family-owned and operated vineyard in the McLaren Vale region of Australia that was started in 1979. They are well known for being the largest producer of mead--fermented honey wine--in the Southern Hemisphere. But they make excellent grape wine, too, as this bottle proves. (picture of 2003 bottle for reference; the 2002 label does not have the grenache mentioned on the label but it is in the wine nonetheless)

When you open this wine you might be taken aback by the smell of apricots along with spicy red fruit. But you'll find that the flavors are more familiar to red wine lovers, and are based on the varietal characteristics of shiraz and grenache: blackberry, red raspberry, and peppery spice. All of these flavors are wrapped up in a silky package, with the viognier bringing not only enticing apricot aromas but a nice lift to the wine when you hold it in your mouth. The flavors weren't hugely persistent, as they are with many Australian shirazes, but the wine is so bright and lively that I found it irresistible nonetheless. Very good QPR at under $15, and even if you have to pay more I suspect you will agree. What to have with your red-white wine? Thai beef curry, a spicy beef stir-fry, or even a bowl of chili would be perfect.

I should note that some of Maxwell's Four Roads from the 2002 vintage were bottled under Stelvin closures and some under cork; my bottle was under a cork. If anyone has has the screw-top bottle, I would be interested to know if you found the viognier even more apparent in either the aromas or flavors. But under screw top or cork, I think you will really enjoy this tasty and affordable red wine from Down Under.

Wine Identity Theft: When One Wine Drinks Like Another

Here at GWU$20 I use varietal characteristics to evaluate wine. I want my cabs to taste like cabs, and my chardonnay to taste like chardonnay. Drinking a wine that says it's one thing on the bottle, and then tastes like something else, seems like wine identity theft. It can also make it impossible to evaluate the wine's quality-to-price ratio on a consistent basis. The market price for cabernet and gamay are different; so if I have a cab that drinks like a gamay, and paid $18 for it--well, I am not happy. If I wanted gamay, I'd buy it for $13 and enjoy every drop. I've had a run of wines that were made from one grape, but drank like wines made from another. Is it wine identity theft, or is something more complicated going on?

The first was a 2005 Eaglepoint Ranch Grenache ($15 from most merchants) that came from the cool Anderson Valley in Mendocino County. This smelled exactly like grenache, but it tasted like a gamay wine from the Beaujolais. Aromas of herbs, plums, and blackberries started things off, which are some of the aromas I associate with grenache, along with a floral note. The flavors were much lighter, however, with strawberry at the core of its flavors, and some mineral freshness as well. I really liked this wine because it was a nice, light red. But if you pick a bottle up at the wine store, I'd recommend treating it as you would a beaujolais, not a French grenache.

The second wine that seemed like a victim of identity theft was the 2006 Claudia Springs Pinot Gris Klindt Vineyard ($17). Pinot Gris is known for its apple and lemon flavors, and I always associate the wine with crispness and a bit of round vanilla from the time that it sees in oak. This wine was pale straw in color, and had very muted aromas of apples, apricots, and cream. Apricot and apple dominated the flavors, and as you swallowed the last drops you tasted even more butter and cream. This was a pinot gris that would appeal to chardonnay lovers. It may be that the juice underwent malolactic fermentation which is not common for pinot gris. This would account for the creaminess in the flavors and aromas, but I couldn't find out for sure if this was the case or not.

My third case of wine identity theft was the 2005 Cline Vineyards Ancient Vines Zinfandel (between $11 and $20). A bright ruby-red zinfandel, this had lots of herbal aromas up front and not much fruit. Flavors of herbs and minerals put the blackberry fruit flavors that were present as well into a secondary role in this wine. It had a tangy, herbal finish that reminded me of a cabernet franc. We didn't drink the whole bottle the first day, and it actually seemed a little more fruity and peppery, and therefore more characteristic of the varietal, on the second day. This made me wonder if the wine needed some more time in the bottle to really shine.

While these wines were hard to evaluate from a QPR standpoint, I enjoyed drinking each of them--as long as I covered up the label! There was nothing wrong or flawed with the wines. I was just surprised at the way that they tasted.

But there may be reasons for the flavors that these wines exhibited. The grenache was grown in an unusual place: the relatively cold climate of the Anderson Valley. Grenache is most often associated with the south of France. Perhaps that accounted in part for its Beaujolais-like qualities? The second wine may have gone through an unusual fermentation process for the grape, which made it creamier than most pinot gris. And the zinfandel might have been too young to really strut its stuff.

Before you call out the wine police for your next case of wine identity theft, consider the unique growing, winemaking, and aging needs of your wine. Varietal characteristics are an important part of the story--but they aren't the whole story. And sometimes a wine identity thief can be a pleasant surprise.

First of the Turkey Leftover Wines

This post originally had a different title: Last Rose of the Summer. I had to laugh when I saw exactly this headline on Wannabe Wino's recent post. Apparently, we wine bloggers are often on the same page, and drinking the same wines! I changed mine a bit to compensate, but the point remains the same: these are the final days when it will feel summery to sit outside and drink rose. Like wearing white after Labor Day, drinking rose in October can sometimes feel a little sad.

So why the title for this post? I wanted to remind you that even if you've sworn off rose as a summer wine, don't underestimate its value in November when you are looking for something to go with leftover turkey in the aftermath of Thanksgiving. You won't be able to find very many bottles of rose on the shelf then. Might as well pick up a few bottles of this wine now, because it would be great with a turkey sandwich, oozing with cranberry sauce and a lick of mayo.

Of course, here in LA it IS still summer, and rose is a pretty attractive drinking option. domaine547 gave me a bottle of the 2006 Domaine de l'Hortus Bergerie l'Hortus Rose Saignee to sample, and it was a perfect wine for these last days of summer, just as it will be perfect in a few months with your turkey sandwiches. Its deep rose color is striking, and an indication of how this wine was made. Roses made from the saignee process are really bi-products of red wine. After a brief contact between the skins and juice, some of the juice is bled out of the vats and this is saignee rose. The rest of the wine in the vat then goes on to produce a big, tannic red wine and the rose wine is bottled separately. In this case the red wine became a Rhone-style blend of grenache, syrah, and mourvedre--which helps to explain the rich and robust nature of this rose.

The 2006 Domaine de l'Hortus Bergerie l'Hortus comes from the Languedoc, and it smells like a southern French summer, with aromas of soft strawberry and wet stone that reminded me of a strawberry patch after a summer rain. These inviting aromas lead into a flavorful mixture of cranberry and strawberry fruit, with a nice contrasting note of mineral and stone on the finish. I often find American roses too fruity, and French Tavel roses too minerally--but this wine achieved a perfect balance between fruit and mineral notes. This rose was nice and dry, with good acidity at its core. It was, I felt, much better balanced than the 2005 Chateau d'Aqueria I had recently, which received many rave print reviews, but has had a much more lukewarm reception among consumers on CellarTracker. This wine costs less, too. You can buy yours from domaine547 for just $12.99. Excellent QPR, for a full-bodied French rose, in my opinion.

If you're drinking this wine now, it would be great with grilled tuna, fried chicken, or poached salmon. Or whip up a bunch of pesto with lots of parsley and walnuts, cook up some cheese tortellini, and toss them together to serve with this wine if you've already consigned your BBQ to the garage. But don't forget: this is a great turkey wine, too.

BBQ Wine for the Last Days of Summer

The so-called "dog days of summer" ended on August 11, marking the astronomical turning point of the summer season and our tilt towards fall. The last best BBQ weather is upon us, and even if you can BBQ year round as we can in California, somehow food from the grill always tastes better in summer. I don't know how much they BBQ in France's Languedoc, but I found a perfect wine from that region to go with your grilled foods.

The 2003 Chateau de Caraguilhes is a fun, old-fashioned grenache-based blend with a little bit of syrah, carignan, and mourvedre in the mix. ($10.99, Mission Wine) It's a bit rustic and rough around the edges, with all kinds of warm herbal and brushy notes up front in the aromas. These mouth-watering summer smells are followed by ripe, blackberry fruit and a lingering aftertaste of dusty and grilled herbs. The ripe fruitiness underneath comes through at the very end, keeping the wine balanced and making it utterly perfect for BBQ. This robust wine is unfiltered, so expect it to throw a little sediment, or expect to decant it if this bothers you. I thought this wine represented excellent QPR at just a hair over $10, as it was richer and more complex than many reds at this price-point. And it's organic, to boot.

As for foods to pair with it, it would be as good with simple grilled chicken as it would be with BBQ ribs slathered with a spicy tomato sauce, burgers, hot dogs--you name it.

Chateau de Caraguilhes is a historic wine chateau located in the Corbieres district of the Languedoc-Roussillon wine region in southern France. The tradition of grape-growing and wine-making extends back to Cistercian monks in the 12th century. The chateau was a pioneer of organic agriculture, and the vines have been farmed without chemicals or pesticides since 1958, a tradition that continues today in this certified organic winery.

I tried a white from the Languedoc for WBW #33, and did not like it as much as I had expected to given the reds I've tasted and enjoyed. But this wine didn't disappoint, and confirmed my sense that if you like robust reds, you should keep your eyes out for wines from the Languedoc-Roussillon.

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.

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!

Grenache and the Grill

Summer reds can be something of a challenge. The rich, tannic wines that you loved in February can be overpowering and taste bitter in the heat of summer. Of course, most folks like Zinfandel if they are slathering lots of spicy, tomatoey BBQ sauce onto their meats and veggies. But what if you are doing something more simple on the grill--like some lemon-herb chicken, some chicken apple sausages, or some lamb kebabs with veggies?

What you might prefer when you fire up the grill for these summer foods is a Grenache. The Grenache varietal is often used as a blending grape because its sweet, almost floral, blackberry fruit profile brings some much needed softness to more tannic grapes. On its own, however, the perfumed aromas and round fruit flavors are appealing in their own right, and never more so when prepared with some smoky, grilled food.

A good example of an affordable wine with very good QPR made exclusively with Grenache grapes is the NV Saint-Cosme Vin de Table Français Little James' Basket Press ($14.99, Mission Wines; available for $10-$12 from other merchants). Made from 100% Grenache grapes from the Rhone and the Languedoc-Roussillon region, it was inky purple in color, and had aromas of licorice and blackberry that were echoed in the flavors once this wine was poured and sipped. A dry, almost dusty and mineral-inflected finish added notes of herbs and even more licorice. Made by Louis Barruol of Chateau de St Cosme fame, this wine is not fined or filtered so expect a bit of sediment even with this young wine. This wine is also a good reminder that we don't have to be afraid of all non-vintage reds. Here the grapes were selected from several vintages in order to make a wine that was neither too fleshy, nor too dusty. I would recommend serving this and other 100% Grenache wines at cellar temperature, or even slightly below, for a refreshing summer sipper.

What's your favorite summer red? Leave a comment and let us know.

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!