Penfolds Shiraz/Cabernet Koonunga Hill 2006 $10

There are four main flavor centers on the human tongue, salt, sweet, sour and bitter. There's a mysterious fifth called umami, but I won't address that today. In my experience there are certain cravings, sweet or salty. You'll gravitate towards one or another when the snack bug calls... but what if you had both, let's say a buttery toffee popcorn, imparting both the sweet and salt? You've something special, a snack you can't put down until the bag is empty! The following wine was just that for me, very hard to put down.

The Penfolds Shiraz/Cabernet Koonunga Hill 2006 ($10), had the dense berry you expect for an aussie shiraz but also a salty/briny taste from the Cabernet. Not being a big Cabernet drinker I asked Keith from the Wine School of Philadelphia why they peppered my wine with sea salt! According to Keith, Cabernet often carries a briny flavor profile and a chemistry close to mercaptans but without the skunky odor. Science aside, this wine was thoroughly enjoyable at the right price. Penfolds is an excellent producer at both high end and low end wines. Enjoy some high end taste at a low end price with The Koonunga Hill 2006.

Cheers everyone, happy New Year!

Affordable Wine Hiatus, Orin Swift the Prisoner vs. Quita Do Crasto Old Vines

Around the holiday's I like to splurge a little on wine, getting away from my traditional affordability theme. That being said, what's affordable to one person is not affordable to the other, so these wines might be right up your alley!

I was unfortunately reminded again that price and rating do not necessarily dictate how good the wine is. Take the two bottles below, both retail for around $40, I got them on sale for $30. Any time I splurge on wine there's definitely a palatable excitement as I open the bottle, something akin to the salivating Pavlovian dog. I was very excited with The Prisoner a 2007 Wine Spectator top 100, rated 93 and Quinta Do Craston Old Vines 2005, a Wine Spectator rated 95.

The first bottle I opened was the Old Vines Quinta Do Crasto, which I learned later was from Portugal. I've had some excellent Madeira from Portugal, but in my mind Portugal doesn't have the wine making prowess of it's neighbor Spain. Unfortunately that played itself out in the wine.

A little closed at first the wine did open up with time and was enjoyable to drink, no more so than some of the $10 bottles I've reviewed though. I was a little perplexed by Wine Spectator's take on this one, “Deeply colored, with intense yet refined aromas and flavors of kirsch, boysenberry, dark cherry and spice. The fruit is supported by focused notes of mineral and graphite, and the finish is loaded with dark chocolate and medium tannins. Drink now through 2015.” My dollars would have been better spent on the next wine:

Do you have or ever had a friend that smoked cigarettes? Not being a smoker myself, out of curiosity I took my friends pack of cigarettes and whiffed an open pack. The first recognizable smell was raisins! Sounds a little strange? Check it out for yourself. It was only after I started drinking wine and doing reviews did I put two and two together when adjectives like "fresh tobacco" were used. Fresh Tobacco smells of Raisins, Raisins are dried grapes, wine is made from ripe grapes...

Orin Swift The Prisoner, 2005, was an absolute joy to drink. I drank it alone so I was able to stretch the enjoyment over three days. It was so dense and rich it was like drinking out of a jelly jar! If you're looking to splurge a little this holiday season, you won't go wrong with this beauty. WS: "A Delicious Wine that offers the best of both worlds:zesty wild berry,spice and fresh tobacco,with focused,well-structured blackberry flavors, plush, rich and concentrated, with a wonderful focus on the core fruit flavours."

Cheers!

Chewy Wine???

You've may have heard of a wine being "chewy"? Chewy refers to a wine that's rich, dense and full-bodied, so much so it feels like there's something to chew! You may have also purchased an unfiltered wine. Sometimes an unfiltered wine (even a filtered wine) will have some purple "sand" at the bottom of a bottle (ground up seeds, stems, etc). I personally enjoy the sand, I think it tastes like granulated sweet tarts! But have you ever encountered a chunk of grape in your wine? This happened to me last weekend. I was enjoying a nice Shiraz when, bam, I was quite literally chewing on the wine. I know what you're thinking, perhaps it was a left over from dinner stuck in my teeth. I assure you readers, this was not the case!
This might turn off the staunch connoisseur, but I have to say I enjoyed the experience. I also enjoy heavy pulp orange juice, if that says anything. To all the wine makers out there, perhaps I'm on to something, why shouldn't the occasional wine have some texture as well?

How Many Grapes in a Bottle of Wine

"Question: How many grapes does it take to make a bottle of wine?

Answer: A ton of grapes yields about 143 gallons of wine. There are 2.38 gallons of wine in a case (12 bottles), so a ton of wine will produce about 60 cases. Since there are 12 bottles in a case, a ton of grapes makes roughly 720 bottles of wine. The average wine bottle holds .750 ml, and one gram = 0.0044092 pounds, so for each bottle of wine, one needs about 2.78 pounds of grapes. To sum it all up, it takes about 630 grapes to produce one bottle of wine."

Pillar Box Red 2006, $8.50-$10.00

Have you ever been stuck on a train or plane next to a person that insisted on talking to you, despite the fact your nose is in a book and you have earphones on? At first you're a little annoyed but after a while you discover the conversation isn't that bad? That's how I started my tasting of the Pillar Box. It was gawdy, obvious and I thought I had the wine all figured out. Boy did I jump to conclusions on this one! After letting the wine breath for another hour it really started to form some character. At a heady 15% alcohol it went down very smoothly too. In the end I didn't mind spending the rest of my evening with this wine and neither with you, especially at $8.50 a bottle. Cheers!

Robert Parker, 91 points: "The 2006 Pillar Box Red is 50% Shiraz, 42% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 8% Merlot aged in a mix of used French and American oak. Purple-colored, it offers an enticing, fruity nose including aromas of cassis, black cherry, black raspberry, and blueberry. Full-bodied, ripe, and layered with flavor, this wine totally over-delivers on my hedonist’s meter. Drink this awesome value over the next 2-3 years. Pillar Box has a powerful pedigree; fruit sourced from Henry’s Drive and winemaking consultation from the renowned Chris Ringland."

The Subjectivity of Wine

The following post is both interesting and humorous. Never underestimate the power of suggestion (marketing). Cheers.

by Jonah Lehrer http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2007/11/
In 2001, Frederic Brochet, of the University of Bordeaux, conducted two separate and very mischievous experiments. In the first test, Brochet invited 57 wine experts and asked them to give their impressions of what looked like two glasses of red and white wine. The wines were actually the same white wine, one of which had been tinted red with food coloring. But that didn't stop the experts from describing the "red" wine in language typically used to describe red wines. One expert praised its "jamminess," while another enjoyed its "crushed red fruit." Not a single one noticed it was actually a white wine.

The second test Brochet conducted was even more damning. He took a middling Bordeaux and served it in two different bottles. One bottle was a fancy grand-cru. The other bottle was an ordinary vin du table. Despite the fact that they were actually being served the exact same wine, the experts gave the differently labeled bottles nearly opposite ratings. The grand cru was "agreeable, woody, complex, balanced and rounded," while the vin du table was "weak, short, light, flat and faulty". Forty experts said the wine with the fancy label was worth drinking, while only 12 said the cheap wine was.

What these experiments neatly demonstrate is that the taste of a wine, like the taste of everything, is not merely the sum of our inputs, and cannot be solved in a bottom-up fashion. It cannot be deduced by beginning with our simplest sensations and extrapolating upwards. When we taste a wine, we aren't simply tasting the wine. This is because what we experience is not what we sense. Rather, experience is what happens when our senses are interpreted by our subjective brain, which brings to the moment its entire library of personal memories and idiosyncratic desires. As the philosopher Donald Davidson argued, it is ultimately impossible to distinguish between a subjective contribution to knowledge that comes from our selves (what he calls our "scheme") and an objective contribution that comes from the outside world ("the content"). Instead, in Davidson's influential epistemology, the "organizing system and something waiting to be organized" are hopelessly interdependent. Without our subjectivity we could never decipher our sensations, and without our sensations we would have nothing to be subjective about. In other words, we shouldn't be surprised that different people like different bottles of cheap wine.

Wicked Brew

I once heard that most cases of wine will have one bottle that's "off" in taste. If you drink enough wine you've probably encountered a bottle gone bad, but is there any truth behind this?

I've never made or bottled wine myself but I have made numerous batches of homemade beer. At least in the beginning it seemed like the simplest mistake would make my beer nothing more than a carbonated mess. So what causes a perfectly good bottle of wine to taste bad? Looking for answers I contacted my friend and owner of the Wine School of Philadelphia, Keith Wallace. Keith is my mentor and the most unassuming wine expert you'll ever meet. According to Keith the most common reason for a bottle gone bad is the cork. Apparently a lot of wine makers selling affordable wine use cheaper cork, which means lots of fissures. Because the introduction of oxygen to the bottled wine means sure ruin, the wine maker will use a binding agent to fill the fissures. Unfortunately this binding agent is a chemical and it can give the wine an "off" taste. In the case of more expensive wines, occasionally an unfiltered wine can be a little off. Because unfiltered wine carries a lot of particulate there can be some variation in taste from bottle to bottle.

Wine For Every Occasion

I've always been a big fan of drinking wine with or without food. I'm also not particular about what food I eat with the wine. I can appreciate that there's a art form to wine and food pairing, and that wine can bring out subtle flavors, but it's more effort that I'm usually willing to expend! That's why I loved a recent post I found in a magazine pairing wine varietals with everything from corn chips to sorbet. Unfortunately I tore out the page and don't know what magazine this is from, otherwise I'd give credit where credit is due:

Fun and affordable wine & food pairings:

• Red Bordeaux & Salty Corn Chips
• California Pinot Noir & BBQ Potato Chips
• Napa Chardonnay with Buttery Popcorn
• Amarone with Pate'
• Prosecco with Sorbet
• Brut Sparkling Wine with Brazil nuts

Cheers!

Jim Jim Shiraz 2005

I broke out of my rut a little for this post. I was getting lazy, primarily giving a thumbs up or thumbs down on wine's that were already reviewed by someone else, notably the "experts". While I do disagree with them on occasion, it takes the challenge and satisfaction out of finding an excellent, inexpensive wine myself or conversely uncovering a wine not to buy... Jim Jim Shiraz 2005 falls into neither of these categories.

Jim Jim Shiraz has a cute label with a cartoon dog, aptly named Jim Jim, who apparently likes this wine and give his paws up. It makes me wonder if the dog was drinking it, was it undrinkable to the owner??? But at $6 a bottle and from the 2005 Aussie vintage, it was worth a taste test!

I look for distinction and unique characteristics in wine. I look for unique flavors, sensations in the mouth, etc. One of the beautiful things about wine is, every bottle is a surprise, at least to me. Unfortunately with Jim Jim Shiraz I didn't get much, it was quite simply fermented grape juice, no noticeable acid, tannin, unique flavors other than grape. Remember the generic food isle in the grocery store filled with white label products with black letter identification? e.g. CORN or CEREAL Jim Jim would be labeled WINE. Is this a bad wine for $6, no, it's very pedestrian, no-nonsense, fermented grape juice. Would I buy this wine again? No, but it might make a nice purple dye for a tie-dye t-shirt...

An Inconvenient Yet Tasty Vintage

Intrigued by the title of this post? I finally had the opportunity this week to watch "An Inconvenient Truth", the documentary from Al Gore. It was very educational, but one thing that particularly jumped out at me, which will be very relevant to this blog, 2005 was the hottest year ever across the globe. What does this have to do with wine? If you've been reading my posts I frequently shower accolades on the Aussie 2005 vintage, so far I've yet to have a bad wine from this group. I'm not viticulturist but I do know that some grapes respond very well to lots of hot sun, the more robust varietals like Shiraz/Syrah for instance. The global warning threat is a serious problem, but it's fascinating to see that's there's a silver lining in this global disaster, intensely flavorful grapes!

Along this same "vine" of thought, I tasted the 2005 Rosenblum Heritage Clones last night. For $15 (on sale), I was not disappointed. It didn't match up to it's older 2004 brother in complexity, but it was an excellent drink. I liken it to licking the inside of a jelly jar, very jammy! The 2005 had a lot of the same flavor profiles of 2004, but it was a little more juvenile, with hints of tooty-fruity, believe it or not. I'm still very new to Petit Syrah but it seems Rosenblum knows what they are doing with this little grape.

Cheers!

Wine Shopping

Ok, I'm a bad boy, no posts in the last week or so. The big problem is, I have too many of the same bottle! I guess that is one downside of buying a case. Not so good for a wine blogger. Alas, it's by birthday this weekend and I will be making a wine run for some excellent values. Look for my next post next week!

Cheers,
Daniel

2004 Rosenblum Heritage Clones San Francisco Bay Petite Sirah

What a fine sandwich this is! If the wine on the right, is anything like the wine on the left, I'm going to be a happy camper. I had the opportunity to try the Heritage Clones Petite Sirah about a year ago. After casually taking a sip from the newly opened bottle I was immediately struck with intense fruit and a finish that went on for days. I leaned over to the fellow who brought the bottle and asked the price, $120 he said, or at least that's what I heard in the crowded restaurant. I made a mental note, now THIS is what an expensive bottle of wine should taste like! I was resigned however that I might never taste this wine again, at least at that price! For kicks I looked the wine up the next day online, and to my surprise it was only $20, not $120. Even better I was able to find it for $14.99, a steal in my opinion. I picked up a case and even gave them out as birthday gifts, this wine was so good. Sadly, like most excellent, fairly priced wines, the 2004 is very difficult to find now. I came across an auction today at $75 a bottle. Worth it? Perhaps... but pick up a bottle of the 2005 first. Retailing at only $15 a bottle, this might be a suitable replacement. I hope to pick-up a bottle myself shortly. Below are the adjective rich musings of Mr. Parker:

WA 90 "The 2005 Petite Sirah Heritage Clones is a full-bodied, flavorful, mouthfilling wine offering loads of peppery, blackberry, and cherry fruit, surprising density, a supple texture, and beautiful length and richness. This stunner should drink well for 5-8 years or longer."

WA 92 “There are nearly 10,000 cases of the stunning 2004 Petite Sirah Heritage Clone. A dense ruby/purple hue is accompanied by glorious aromas of creme de cassis, vanilla, incense, crushed rocks, blackberries, and smoke. It is a full-bodied, tannic, chewy, rich, pedal-to-the-metal effort with low acidity as well as ripe tannin. The latter two components will make it difficult to resist, but it should age well for 15-20 years.”

Everyone Wiki now: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petite_Sirah

Cheers!

A Real "Ball Buster"

Ok ok, I said "this" weekend not three weekend's ago for my next post, do you believe me? At any rate, I figured it's time to climb back on the proverbial vine with another wine review.

To be extremely honest, I picked this wine up because I liked the name. If the wine was awful, you could always have a good laugh afterwards at the name. But at $19 a bottle, it would be cheaper to stay home with a bag of popcorn and watch the Jerk on TMC and get more laughs.

The Ball Buster definitely lives up to its name, with explosive flavor and very high alcohol content. The legal limit for wines before being classified as a spirit is, 16%. Ball Buster was pushing this easy, even though the bottle read 15.8%.

I have to say I was wholly unimpressed and thought the high alcohol content took away from what would otherwise have been a very good wine. Even tasting at a cool 60 degrees Ball Buster was overwhelming. I tried this wine a few months back but I recall this being the consensus at the dinner party too.

The "expert" review: "A great value in full-throttle red wine from Barossa is Tait’s 2005 The Ball Buster. This cuvee is becoming an incredibly popular choice for addicts of what are pejoratively called “fruit bombs.” However, there is a lot more to this wine than just fruit, and that simplistic term is the vinous equivalent of phony baloney. This blend of 80% Shiraz, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 10% Merlot was aged in old American and French oak for 12 months. It offers a dense purple color in addition to a big, rich perfume of blackberries, plums, chocolate syrup, and subtle wood in the background. Powerful and rich with loads of glycerin as well as hefty alcohol (15.8%), it is a classic example of an opulent, full-throttle Barossa red to consume over the next 4-5 years"

Thoughts...

One upside and downside of running a wine blog, where the primary goal is sharing affordable wine is, I feel the need to give my personal stamp of approval before listing them! I'm only human though and my liver needs a break... Expect my next post this weekend. Cheers!

$10 Affordable Spanish Tempranillo, Put on your Oh face

Two of my favorite wine growing regions right now, both in price and quality, are Argentina & Spain. I had this little beauty for the second time last night and wow was I impressed! I'm a big fan of full body, fruit forward, dense wines and this didn't disappoint. The tannins were very mild, perfect if your tannin averse like my Dad or brother. At only $9.50 a bottle this is one outstanding value. (I must point out I am a completely unbiased reviewer here, I have no relationships with vineyards or distributors from which these wines come.) Pair this with some bloody meat or stinky cheeses!

The Wine Advocate, who's name I seem to utter a lot recently, gave this wine a 90; just on price alone, I have to give it a 91-92 (too bad price isn't a part of the ranking equation). Here's what he had to say:

"The 2004 Senorio de Valdehermoso Joven is an unoaked cuvee of 100% Tempranillo. According to the proprietor, 2004 was one of the best vintages in many years and this effort certainly supports that claim. Purple in color, it exhibits aromas of smoke, plum, and spice. The fruit is sweet and layered, supported by well integrated tannin into a lengthy finish. It is a sensational value"

Drink up and let me know what you think?

Cheers!

Affordable Washington State Wine, $10

I've started to take this blog in a new direction recently, less education and more quality wine reviews. While the domain is Wine4Dummies, I still include myself in this "dummy" group. I like to think the search for wine knowledge is a journey not a destination; so don't get frustrated if wine appreciation isn't coming easy to you. Simply open a bottle and experiment, you'll be surprised at what you'll discover.

Another affordable wine I'd like to share with you comes from Washington State of all places. When I first heard of this growing region a few years ago it was hard for me to grasp that a colder, rainier region of the country can crank out quality wine, particularly amazing reds. A few inexpensive bottles later and I was very impressed, you will be too.

House Wine (don't you love the label?) comes from the Magnificent Wine Company located at the base of the Blue Mountains in Walla Walla Washington. The wine aside, I've always enjoyed saying that city, I remember it from a Bugs Bunny cartoon when I was a kid. Walla Walla Washington. But I digress...

Wine Spectator named the 2005 vintage a Best Value Wine with a rating of 88, and if you bargain shop you can pick up a bottle for $10 (less with a case discount) "silky, round and generous with its spicy, earthy plum and blackberry flavors, lingering nicely as the finish persists." House Wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah. If I may add a little tasting note as well, I noticed some vegetal hints while drinking this, a little "green" but this was a nice nuance for me instead of a detriment. Frankly I'd expect a little "green-ness" in this wine because of the climate.

Pick up a bottle and let me know what you think? I personally plan to pick up a case to stash for the long winter ahead.

Cheers!

2005 Castano Monastrell $6

Another affordable wine for you, tasty but a little underwhelming compared to the Colonias Bonarda (featured in a previous post). The price point is unbeatable and this slides down the gullet with much ease. At $6 a bottle this is better than just about everything in the same price range. Pick up a case for a party or the long winter ahead. I don't know about you, but I have a tinge of guilt every time I open a bottle, it's an investment in time and money. You can feel like a robberbaron with the Castano as you open bottle after bottle for friends, guilt free!

The Wine Advocate gave this a 90, a number he likes to use a lot. Based on his other ratings of 90 I give this closer to an 88. Maybe the vineyard through a couple extra cases his way to influence his decision...

"The 2005 Monastrell is an insane value produced from three vineyard sites ranging in age from 40-60 years. Opaque purple-colored, it gives up fragrant aromas of blue fruits, plums, and prunes. Ripe, layered, and full-flavored, this hedonistic effort can be enjoyed now but will surely evolve for 2-3 years. Match it with beef and lamb."

One interesting note before I close, notice the review mentions three different vineyards? Many inexpensive wines are made with grapes from multiple vineyards. There's nothing wrong with the practice, but sometimes you can lose some complexity as the grapes from one vineyard may vary from the other. One of the best wine's I've ever tasted came from a multiple vineyard bottle, so don't judge a book by it's cover. There's a huge market in buying and selling grape juice for wine. Check out this website, it's fascinating: http://winebusiness.com/grapesBulkWine/?ref=hn

Cheers

Sol de Mayo Chardonnay 2006

As promised I'm starting my series of news and reviews on white's for the Summer. As I mentioned in a previous post, white wine always seems to leave me hollow, like there's something missing. I enjoy the taste of white's, but they don't have the personality, complexity and depth of a solid red.

Sol de Mayo was a bottle that came across my path in a very unusual way. When asked during Christmas time what I wanted, I thought why not a wine of the month club? I got my wish, fulfilled by my brother. However a week later another shipment came, addressed to me but with a message inside to someone else. After calling Customer Service and matching up the order numbers, they established there was a mix-up at the warehouse. The good thing was, they didn't want the wine back!

Most of the wines I tasted from the set were easy to drink, very approachable but a little pedestrian for my taste, so I was surprised that this one was different. I'm not a huge fan of the overwhelming butter taste from California Chard so I was curious to see what they were doing with this varietal in Argentina.

First of all the vintage was a 2006...too young you say? What most people don't know is 95% of the wine out there is made to drink young, particularly white wine. Think about that the next time you're deciding between two bottles.

After opening I was greeted with a nose of tropical fruit. The wine was very creamy on the palate and had hints of fresh mango. This wine was very easy to drink. Notice that I use the descriptor "creamy", why is that? Malolactic fermentation. It's a process in wine where tart malic acid is converted to softer-tasting lactic acid. You've probably heard of the sugar lactose, which is found in milk. Lactic acid=creamy feel, just like milk. The conversion process happens usually in oaked wine's upon introduction of a certain type of bacteria. If they taught this in Chemistry class, perhaps I would have been more attentive!

While I enjoyed drinking this wine, I personally wouldn't want to spend more than $7-$8 for it. The website of the wine club lists it for $15 which very few white's are worth, in my opinion. If you happen across Sol de Mayo in a store, at a reasonable price, pick it up and let me know what you think?

Affordable Wine of the Week, Sorry, it's Red!

An excellent wine value for you today. I had the opportunity to try this wine at a local restaurant called Kitchen 223, and I've been looking for it ever since! I was able to locate both the 2004 & 2005 at the local wine store, relatively inexpensive for the quality too, only $13.00 a bottle! The 2004 scored a 90 and the 2005 a 92, although I thought the 2004 was a little more complex on the palate. Tasting notes from the Wine Advocate:

"The 2005 Shiraz Jester exhibits an opaque purple color along with sweet aromas of blackberries, charcoal, white chocolate, and espresso roast. Rich, full-bodied, heady, and long, it explodes on the back of the palate (always a good sign). Drink it over the next 5-7 years"

Jester will hold up to a nice bloody piece of meat & stinky cheeses. While this is not summer wine per se, I couldn't help but share this tremendous value with you. Cheers!

Why BYO's Rock, Expensive Wine You're On Notice

I'm sure we've all been there, whether it be a special occasion or you're looking to impress your date... You're at dinner and if the restaurant has one, the waiter brings over the wine list. First of all, having worked as a "server", the politically correct version of Waiter or Waitress, I'll tell you that alcohol is the number one source of profits for the restaurant, hands down. Food is just a low margin vessel for which to get alcohol down your throat and the wallet out of your neatly pressed pants. The wine costs vary from restaurant to restaurant based on a variety of factors, most notably the cost of the liquor license. In Philadelphia they cost upwards of a million dollars, so you better be sure the patrons are paying for that in some shape or form. As a general rule however figure that the actual price of the bottle is what the restaurant is charging for one glass. I resent this for numerous reasons, notably, I have no choice of the wine choices I'm given or why they were chosen and they are bloody expensive!

If you're feeling very daring and have some money burning a hole in your pocket, you might dine at an establishment with a professional Sommelierwho can help you navigate the wine list. Lucky me I was at such an establishment over the weekend, and let me tell you, I'm not impressed and my wallet hurts a little. After looking through the wine list for a few minutes I was struck with the sheer number of bottles, 750+. Surely a professional can help me find a wine I like?

A stuffy French man appears (Sommelier), nice but a little full of himself. I give him the flavor profile and region I want, for which is skillfully navigates the menu to several wines I might enjoy. I must have been high on the atmosphere or just a little intimidated by the guy in the tuxedo but I took his suggestion, quite sure this was going to be the best bottle of my life... particularly at that price! If you're following the sarcasm in the post I probably don't need to tell you, I was VERY disappointed. Was it a bad wine? No. Was it worth the price I paid? No! Was it even CLOSE to the price I paid? NO!!

Case in point here, have a cocktail before and after dinner and avoid the wine list. Alternatively visit your local BYO restaurant and bring your own bottle. At least if you're disappointed with the wine, you'll only be out $10.

Affordable Wine Finds of the Day

Two little affordable wine jewels for you under $10.

I shop at WineLegend.com as they have a local pick-up point a few miles away. Both are 2005 Grenache/Garnacha, the Bitch from Austrailia, Tres Picos from Spain. I invite you to buy both and do a side by side tasting to see how the same grape and same vintage grown in different locations can reflect in the taste of a wine. I particularly liked the story on Bitch and the bottle is a lot of fun. Apparently the wine maker had a Bitch of a time growing this very temperamental grape so he resorted to name calling! Cheers!

Summer Blush

Summertime is here, in a major way, the last few days have seen our A/C on hours out of the day. The summer heat makes rich, deep, red wine a little harder to drink. Much like a change in your wardrobe from slacks to shorts and change in your meals from rich to lighter fare, most people opt for lighter reds, whites and blushes in warmer weather. I personally mourn this transition because white wine doesn't have the complexity of red wine. For some reason it also leaves me with a little headache, often from one glass, go figure!

A lot of what gives red wine it's complex flavors is the poly-phenol's in the skin. With white wine you're just getting the fruit. All this being said there are some excellent lighter wine's out there to accompany any meal. My personal favorite's (by varietal) in warmer weather are: Pinot Noir (red), Sauvignon blanc (white), Riesling (white), Gewürztraminer (white) and Pinot Grigio/Gris (white). Completely a personal bias, I prefer a crisper white wine, obviously feel free to explore on your own and discover your favorite's. One really good thing about white wine that matches one goal of this blog is, it's REALLY affordable. You can get some excellent bottles for $10 and below that would cost much more if they were comparable red's. In the next few weeks I'll be reviewing one quality inexpensive wine from each of these varietals, stay tuned!

Onix Priorato 2005, finally...

Sorry folks, my sniffer has been out of commission for over a week, a cold has sapped my energy and my sense of smell. I had my first beer in a long time last night, I couldn't taste a thing, just bubbles and the cold on my tongue. We often forget how integral the nose is to smell.

I finally had the opportunity to test out the 2005 vintage of the Onix in my last post. What a difference a year makes! Each growing season vintners are faced with new challenges in weather, pests, soil condition, etc. A hail storm one year wiping out most the crop and the next year drought; you never know what mother nature is going to do! These variables also reveal themselves in the wine. An unusually hot year will result in a grape with a lot of sugar, a cooler year would produce a wine with more acid. A vintner could also make an acid heavy wine in a hotter year, he would just pick the grape sooner. It's truly an art form and labor of love.

The Wine Advocate gave this review: "The unoaked 2005 Onix is the best vintage of this wine to date, a blend of old-vine (average age 55 years) Garnacha and Carinena. The wine has a lovely nose of mineral and ripe cherries, nicely layered and intensely flavored, with a lengthy finish."

I got the cherries on the nose but I also got a hint of sweet saddle leather, which I found intriguing because it was unoaked. The finish was lovely, it coated the mouth and went on a good 5-6 seconds. If you see either the 2004 or 2005 in the store, pick up both and hold a tasting. I think you'll be surprised at the contrast.

Yummy Onix Priorato 2004 & 2005

I had the opportunity to drink the 2004 vintage of Onix this weekend and I was very impressed. Typically wines from Priorato are very expensive (and good), but this wine was only $10! I had ordered the 2005 vintage but there were some delivery problems to my local store, so they substituted the 2004 vintage until the order could come in. If the 2005 is anything close to the 2004, I won't be disappointed!

If you happen to pick up a bottle, give it about 2-hours to open up. You'll be greeted with dense berry fruit, balanced acid and mellow tannins. The 2004 vintage was given an 87 by Stephen Tanzer and the 2005 a 90 by the Robert Parker. This is an excellent buy if you can find it in your local store. If not, go online like I do!

A little information on Priorato from Wine.com:

Priorat(pree-ohr-aht)
The Catalans call it Priorat, most others in Spain say Priorato - however you choose to pronounce it, it's easy to see it has been an up-and-coming region for Spain, sparking envy among collectors. The region has become something of a cult wine producer, creating wines that cost up to 5 times that of a quality Rioja. The region has a special soil, called llicorella made of a brown slate mixed together with rocks. Mountains surround the area and the vines are tended by hand.
Notable FactsThe red wines here are based on Garnacha, and produce inky wine with intense fruit flavors of blackberry and plums, not to mention a required minimum of 13.5% alcohol. The secondary grape of the region is Carinena (Carignan in France). This grape has lost favor in most parts of the world due to its rustic nature, but here in Priorat it's a welcome structural addition to the Garnacha based wines.

Certified Organic Tequila

From AlternativeConsumer.com: "Now the green movement is finally getting somewhere. I find my crochet and macrame works are more creatively expressed after a couple of organic margueritas. Some other distillers may try the "all natural" or just plain "organic" tags but these folks are the first and only certified organic tequilla distillers..."

http://www.alternativeconsumer.com/2007/05/07/4-copas-worlds-first-certified-organic-tequila/

Bodega Norton Reserva Malbec 2004

I've been a bad blogger, this is my first post in a week!

So, I leave you with an excellent wine value for the weekend. This Norton Reserva 2004 Malbec is one heck of a value at $8-$12 depending on where you live. It has dense berry flavor, nice structure, subtle tannins and a nice finish. This drinks like a much more expensive bottle. This marks the second bottle from Argentina, there's some tremendous value wines coming from the New World. Cheers!

Saving Your Wine, Vacu Vin Style

In the last post I discussed the benefit of letting wine breath and stretch it's legs, but there's a limit. Wine is a fermented product which contains preservatives, sulfites to be exact. Sulfites or sulfur dioxide is a fruit preservative widely used in dried fruits as well as wine. These sulfites will help preserve the wine in the bottle but after it's opened, it's a different story. After the wine is exposed to air the wine starts a slow and steady decline towards vinegar. In my experience a wine tastes starkly different the day after it's opened and it only gets worse as more time passes.

A lot of people stick the cork back in the bottle, which helps a little, but not much. I saw a special one day on the human body, I learned that one antioxidant keeping us alive, Oxygen, is also killing us slowly. The very same Oxygen is also killing your newly opened bottle of wine.

Alas there are some things you can do to extend the life of your bottle. Much like produce, milk, eggs, etc. keeping the wine refrigerated after opening can extend it's life a little, but removing the oxygen can extend it's life a LOT.

The Vacu Vin, is a simple contraption that enables you to re-cork and remove the air from an opened bottle of wine. It's a simple product, easy to do and works like a charm. You can pick up a pack with pumper and two rubber corks at most liquor or wine stores. The Vacu Vin works like a bicycle pump in reverse. The rubber corks within have a valve not unlike your bike tire, accept instead of accepting air when you pump you're actually removing air when you pump. Depending on how much wine is left in your bottle, it make take more or less time to pump out the air (5-10 pumps). For good measure I like to pump until it becomes difficult to pull the "pumper" up and/or I can no longer smell the "wine air" I'm pumping out.

Let's face it, unless you're having a dinner party or sharing a bottle of wine with friends, the odds of you getting through an entire bottle of wine are slim. Unlike a beer, a bottle of wine is an investment when you open it, so why not save it for later without sacrificing taste? I have to admit, the first time I used a Vacu Vin, I was a little skeptical. After tasting the same wine I Vacu Vin'd a full week later, I was pleasantly surprised. The wine was very close to the day I opened it. Trust me, once you use this little contraption, you'll never go back. Cheers!

Wine Breathing, Wine "Stretching"

Imagine yourself in a box, the walls are tight against your skin as you curl up in the tightest of fetal positions. Imagine that you have no oxygen, very little light and the last thing you remember is someone telling you to put a cork in it. No this isn't the latest installation of the "Grudge" this is a day in the life of bottled wine, yearning to be free!

A friend told me a story today about a special wine that he opened for a very special occasion a few days ago. The much anticipated wine on first taste was harsh, acidic, and what he called awful. We've all been there, as we uncork a random bottle from the local store, but was it really all that bad? He proceeded to tell me that hours later when they tried the wine again it had "opened" up and was quite drinkable.

Imagine yourself again, stuck in the bottle (never mind how you were able to survive this long), and a nice gentleman decides to let you out. At first you can't really move, your muscles so affixed in the fetal position all you can do is roll from side to side. But as time passes you're able to move an arm, stretch a leg, bend your neck, until eventually you can walk upright again. This analogy in not unlike the process of letting a wine breath.

Don't believe me? Open a bottle of wine, any wine. Take a sip then let it sit open for a few hours, or for maximum effect pour the wine into a decanter. Take another taste later, in some situations it's like trying a completely different wine, you will be blown away.

This post is not to say wines are tasty right after corking, they can be, but good things come to those who wait...

Woop Woop Yeah

Thanks to all who have commented so far, I will definitely try and incorporate some beer & spirits information on the blog as well. In fact I'm drinking a bottle from my latest home brew right now, a nut brown ale, yum.

I figured it was time for my first wine review and I approach this with much consternation. Most wine reviews list exotic flavors like cassis and rose water and on occasion offer up the description of granite and road tar. While I have been able to isolate flavors in wine I like to leave the elaborate descriptions to the experts. The wine education I received at the Wine School of Philadelphia taught me, what you taste in wine will differ based on your culinary background, e.g. a Pakistani may taste something completely different than a Brit. This made complete sense to me and left me relieved that each bottle I opened as I delved deeper into wine enjoyment was going to be a test. I'll explore the different flavors that can be tasted in wine later, but just remember, fruit, earth & barrel.... more later.

Without further ado the wine review for this evening. Most of the experts use a 100 point rating scale, 100 being perfect, I however am going to use a simpler more elementary scale of bad, so-so, decent, good, great! This scale may change at any time to include, kick ass or toilet water, so be on your toes.

I had the pleasure last year of tasting a fun little wine from Australia called Woop Woop. If you're a person that buys wine by the name or label, you'll stumble upon a good one here. At around $9 a bottle you can't beat the rich, dense fruit from this wine. The Wine Advocate gave this wine an 89 (not too bad) and posted: "Dark violet. Smoke-tinged blackberry and blackcurrant on the nose, with complicating notes of cured meat and sweet vanilla. Suave and round, with supple tannins framing sweet raspberry and blackberry flavors. Finishes fleshy, sweet and persistent, with subtle lingering notes of smoke and spice."

The cork from this wine is a little crazy too. Ever had a loose bit of string hanging from your shirt and when you tried to pull it off it just unraveled more of your shirt? The cork is vinyl but it's more like a stopper than a cork. Wrapped around the neck of the wine is a vinyl string you have unwind before you can pop the stopper, unique.

In summation this is a very good wine for your buck, test it out and post your response? I think you'll be surprised.

Corks, Screw Caps & More

To some, drinking wine is an experience, more than the taste, the buzz, how it complements foods, the fellowship you can have with friends when tongue's are loose and opinions are flowing; to some, there's the ritual. In the finest restaurants across the land the time honored tradition of presenting and uncorking a bottle is an art form. I remember trying it for the first time in college while working at family chain restaurant. I was like a teenager fumbling to unloosen a bra, and I broke the cork on many an occasion. There are many out there that enjoy the presentation, many that feel a little awkward, whispering over their shoulder "should I tip him?" So it was with great trepidation that I bought and opened my first bottle of screw top wine. This wasn't your college experience screw top wine (yes that's a picture above of Mad Dog 20/20), this was a 2005 Aussie Shiraz that would knock you over it was so good. This left me confused and raised many questions... what happened to the cork? What happened to the presentation? Should getting to this nectar be so easy? Will it taste the same? I'm happy to say that after extensive research, i.e. drinking many a screw top wine, that taste is not compromised but what about the "experience"? Some would tell you corks be gone! (see last convoluted post) but I need some time... For those not ready to switch from tree bark to the screw top there is some middle ground that will save a few tree's (see above), the synthetic cork. You've probably seen them in every color of the rainbow, guaranteed not to break or crumble on you and probably have a half-life of 10,000 years in the landfill. The debate still rages in elite wine circle's whether chemicals or fumes emitted from these corks taint the wine's flavor, personally I've never noticed a difference, but I'm still learning to isolate flavors in wine. You might be saying by now, "who cares, people are so pretentious, just open a bottle and enjoy." And to that I say Cheers!

Yellowtail Killer

If you've been to virtually any wine store you've no doubt come across the brand name Yellowtail. It's hard to miss with it's bright yellow, orange and purple labels and the displays are as high as an elephant's eye. Over the last few years Yellowtail has become very popular, mostly due to marketing and price, but to some degree the taste. You won't be bowled over with complexity and nuance in the wine, but you will find something drinkable or an inexpensive bottle surely to be recognized (for good or bad) at your next party. I don't want to knock the wine because I'm a firm believer if YOU like it, it's a good wine. I did want to offer up an alternative a friend calls the "Yellowtail Killer" however. This wine competes on price but blew me away on taste, for the $$. If you can still find it, Colonia las Liebres Bonarda 2005 from Argentina is an amazing value at $5.00-$8.00. The wine is inky dark, fruit forward with light tannins, overall a very good bottle. The 2006 version isn't quite as good, but for $5.00 it's still better and sometimes cheaper than Yellowtail. Both the 2005 and 2006 vintages come from a lesser known grape the Bonarda grape, if I had to compare probably closest to Malbec. Long review made short, pick up a case or two and leave the mass produced Yellowtail on it's obnoxious Yellow display. Looking to buy online? I'm a big fan of Wine-Searcher.com which pulls prices from numerous wine websites so you can find the best deals.

Pop That Cork!

Well, this is my first post, I've officially joined the ranks with the 600,000+ other bloggers.