Great Wine Find

Posted on November 8, 2013 by melsmosaic

Was looking for a bottle to open last night and checked out a couple labels in my wine rack and finally decided on one that I’d seen a few times and had no idea about it. WOW! I don’t have a clue where or when I bought this. It’s the Tarima Hill 2010 Red (from Spain). On the label it said it received 93 points and I am in complete agreement with that! Amazing. Dark fruit, spicy, a bit of smoke and leather, a bit chewy.

One quick review:

“The opaque purple-colored 2010 Tarima Hill exhibits notes of chocolate fudge, pen ink, graphite, blueberries and blackberries. This full-bodied, 100% Monastrell should drink well for a decade or more.” 93 Points – The Wine Advocate

I have no idea what I paid for this (though I’m guessing mid teens). Many of the reviews say this should NOT cost this little, but more like $30-$50. I can’t agree more! Need something to do this weekend? Go on a wine hunt…

Living (the) Social (Life)

Posted on November 6, 2013 by melsmosaic

Last weekend in DC, LivingSocial had a deal that looked good, almost too good. Per the email, for $39 you could get a luxurious 1.5 hour Wine & Chocolate Tasting AND 4 bottles of wine to take home? The tasting part included 6 tastings and nicely paired chocolates. Then 4 FULL SIZE bottles to take home. I figured even if they were roughly $10 bottles you break beyond even. Only Two (or Three) Buck Chuck would make it a bad deal if you’re that picky.

So, a few friends and I took the plunge and checked it out. It was nice! Gorgeous set up, you check in, get a nice tasting glass (plastic, ergonomic with finger ‘area’ and stemless — SMART!) and wine tickets. You travel from stations 1-6 and get a rundown on the wine and the taste, of course, and unique chocolate paired with it. The whole place was not too loud and very laid back.

The wines we tasted were 3 whites (Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Moscato) and 3 reds (blend, Malbec, Merlot):

Before we left, we each turned in our last tickets and were handed a box of 4 random bottles of wine. They weren’t necessarily ones we tasted that night. Between my friends and I, each of us had at least one of the bottles we sampled. After some research, I found that the average cost of the bottles was about $9. Not bad considering the price of the event. Would love to see more of these come to town!

CA Wine Day #2

Posted on October 27, 2013 by melsmosaic

When in CA, one must cover as much territory as possible. Time to tackle another region. Sonoma, here we come.

#1 Jacuzzi. We’re not talking hot tub here. This vineyard is one my friends insisted on visiting and I am very happy that was the case. It was a free tasting of 5 wines — can’t go wrong with that! And jumping forward, the guy kept pouring more wine (than 5). I didn’t really want that many as this was the start of the day, but wow, they were so good! Very friendly (and informative) staff to say the least.

Pina Prosecco — light, crisp, perfect, $20
Nero D’Avolo — raspberries all around, $28
Cabernet Sauvignon — wow for a cab, sweet, good, $25
Barbera — smoky, cherry, $28
Bianco Di Sei Sorelle — marginal, $18
Guiseppina — WOW!, $21
Pinot Noir — fruit, chocolate, spice, $22
Nebbiolo — dry, the Pinot was better, $30

Left this place with a bottle of Cab and Guiseppina. Nice start to the day.

#2 Sebastiani. This one is distributed nationwide so nothing too special about it (I don’t want that to come across wrong), though they do have stuff special available only at the winery. The tasting room was very nice and another great staff. The tasting fee for the not-as-high-end stuff was $10 so we opted for that.

Sauvignon Blanc (Sonoma Country) — sweet, $14
Zinfandel — smooth finish, $?
Pinot Noir — pepper, smoke, cherry, chocolate, $19
Cabernet Sauvignon (Sonoma County) — coconut !?!?!?, $19
Cherry Block (this was a special pour because it was open from a private party the night before), it’s aged long, 2010 and from a cherry orchard from the Great Depression. Nice dessert-like wine. 95 points from Robert Parker. Also $158/bottle.

#3 Bartholomew Park Winery. We came across this one by accident after another one we were going to check out was by appointment only. It’s on this gorgeous park-like area and is an organically farmed estate vineyard located at the birthplace of California viticulture. It was a former hospital, and a woman who works there (and was pouring for the group next to us) was born there. Another winery with very information and helpful pourers. The tasting fee here is $10.

Sauvignon Blanc — lemongrass, marshmallow (?), citrus, crisp, fruity, light finish, $24
Rose, Sonoma Valley — from Syrah, cranberries, strawberries, has body to it, $21
Zinfandel — dark chocolate, espresso, WOW!, $45
Syrah, Estate Vineyard — blueberries, $45
Estate Cabernet Sauvignon — marginal, $48

I splurged on a bottle of the Zin. Now, how long will I wait to open it?

When we were leaving, a tour guide suggested one more winery we had to try. So we capped off our day at…

#4 Loxton. Small and growing. Fun little place to visit where you feel very welcome because you can tell they are really trying to make you feel at home. It was $5 for a six wine tasting. They were all very dry. Nothing I really loved but was very glad to check them out.

Chardonnay, Hawk Hill Vineyard (Russian River Valley) — light, light oak, dry, $28
Rose (Sonoma Valley) — Strawberries, dry, $18
Pinot Noir, Griffin’s Lair (Sonoma Coast) — dry, $35
Zinfandel, Sonoma Hillside Vineyards (Sonoma County) — dry, $25
Syrah, Cuvee Ellen (Sonoma County) — nice, $28
Cabernet Shiraz, Grandfather’s Cuvee (Sonoma Valley) — smooth, very different from all other, $32

Just love visiting wine country. Can’t decide if it’s good or bad not to live close to it.

CA Wine Day #1

Posted on October 26, 2013 by melsmosaic

While in CA one must visit wine country! I was fortunate to have two days to tackle wine land and cover both (main) areas of wine land. On Day 1 we hit Napa and visited 3 wineries.

#1 V. Sattui Winery. For $15 you get to taste 6 wines of your choice. A few of us split a couple tastings to get a good feel for the wines. They were decent but for me, nothing to purchase. The unfortunate thing is that the pourer/employee was just somebody who worked there and did it all from the book. We were only supposed to taste one thing and nothing else. He didn’t care if we found different notes than what the bottle said. He told us we shouldn’t. Whoa! That’s odd. Overall, we had small sips of their (no prices mentioned on their tasting sheet):

-Sauvignon Blanc, Carsi Reserve — bland but crisp
-Chardonnay, Sattui Famil — buttery, light oak
-Pinot Noir, Los Carneros — peppery, smooth
-Zinfandel, Gilsson — dry
-Zinfandel, Ramazzotti, Old vine — fruity
-Syrah, Napa Valley — powerful
-Entanglement (GSM) — buttery
-Cabernet, Napa Valley — sweet, in a good way
-Muscat — thick, super sweet
-Madeira — sweet, not as thick as port

#2 Hall. For $35 you get 5 tastings, plus a little more… It was night and day compared to the first one. WOW! So great to share with friends, too. The pourer was so helpful on info, background and more. The tasting starts off with a nice bubbly. Can never go wrong with that. Next they give you (and we got extras of) — these are in random order because of their menu and my notes:

-Hall T Bar T Ranch Alexander Valley Sauvignon Blanc – crisp, a tiny bit of oak — $35
-Hall Darwin Syrah — pepper, garlic — $50
-Hall Coeur Cabernet Sauvignon — dry (least favorite) $70
-Hall Ellie’s Cabernet Sauvignon (92 pts WS) — jumps all over! $80
-Walt Blue Jay Anderson Valley Pinot Noir — fruity, nice, light $40
-Walt Rita’s Crown Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir – heavier, nice $75
-(?) Dutton Chard — Light Oak (sold out so don’t know which it was or the cost) — light oak

Loved this place and the wines! Would totally go back!

#3 Louis M. Martini. Third up, and at this one we opted for the Celebrated Reds Flight for $25, splitting the joy again.

-Cellar No. 254 Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé, 2014 — dry, fruit, nice –$28, left with a bottle.

On the next 3, we were suddenly in a hurry to get somewhere and none were very impressive to either my friend or me. Notes were not worth taking.

-Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, 2012, $35
-Monte Rosso Vineyard, Mountain Red, 2012, $65
-Cellar No. 254 Meritage, 2011, $65

Great day one of wine tasting, always exploring places, and wines, I did not know.

Wine from A to Z, literally and figuratively

Posted on October 17, 2013 by melsmosaic

To wrap up my winery visits in Oregon, I spent some time with the CEO of one of my favorites vineyards, and found out more about it. I went to what I thought was only A to Z. Well, there is so much more to it! They also produce Rex Hill wines, which is actually the primary one at the tasting room, and a few people who work there produce their own wines in small quantities.

William (Bill) Hatcher gave me a tour of the cellars and I got to taste wines that were still ‘grape juice’ — as in had no alcohol content yet — to slowly working up to perfection. The ones I sampled went from 1-7 days ‘old’ (there is a much more technical name for this) and it was interesting getting a ‘feel’ for what the process entails. There is also a labeling system for each wine as they are being produced, then I got info on bottling, corking, distribution and more.

After that I tasted many of their amazing offerings, from whites to reds, Chards to Pinots. I don’t love Chards but wow! Bring…it…on. I spent more time talking to Bill about the history of the company, what has brought them to where they are and what/where they hope to go in the future. This is yet another location where I wanted to load up on tons of bottles but I did have to travel across the country to get home so it wouldn’t be the easiest thing to do. I somehow left with only three, knowing that would give me reason to go back. The William Hatcher bottle in the middle is Bill’s own and was quite amazing!

OR Winery Visits

Posted on October 16, 2013 by melsmosaic

After checking out the first Oregon winery, I was nice and warmed up. I checked out several others during the rest of my days in wine country.

Adelsheim Vineyard — Not what I was expecting, as in many whites. But, lots of reds, too…

Bergstrom Winery — Took/could taste a ton of influence from France.

Alexana Winery — First, fun road to get there/a little off the beaten path! Great variety of wines, hard to pick from (as in which was best).

Lange Estate Winery and Vineyards — that fishing lure of a logo pulls you in then you get the goods! I love Pinot land!

Sokol Blosser Winery — They just remodeled their tasting room, which was very nice to check out. I had never had a Rose from OR. There is a first (amazing) time for everything! They also make an ‘everyday’/table wine under the name of Evolution.

Great time, great wines, keep ’em coming Oregon!

Oregon Winery Tour

Posted on October 16, 2013 by melsmosaic

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted because I was in a wine lover’s paradise — Willamette Valley (OR) — for a couple days. I visited some wineries, met some great people and enjoyed some phenomenal varietals.

To start off my trip, I booked a tour at penner-Ash. Notice the typing on that. The owners wanted something basic for the appearance of the name/logo, as in lower case, but Ash wanted his name capitalized. But, when you read the logo it’s not the easiest to catch.

While on my trip, it was high harvest season. Grapes were being picked, processed, etc. So, I got to see lots of good stuff! Grapes fresh off the vines:

One of the next processing steps — they start at the top, get pressed and move their way down:

Grapes in the process of eventually making their way to us:

Tasted five great wines while there. All were amazing and it was tough to narrow down which ones to buy.

The tasting room at penner-Ash is so nice — it overlooks fields and hills. It was a beautiful day when I visited so I could see so much landscape. I recommend checking this place out next time you’re in the area.

New Corks in MD

Posted on October 1, 2013 by melsmosaic

Sunday morning, local farmers market. You have the fun of trying and buying all the delicious produce…especially this time of year with apples and pears!!! At the one in the Bethesda, every so often there will be a local vintner making an appearance. I happened to stumble (yeah, yeah, I know what you’re thinking) upon one last time I was there….it was 10am…I wish they had bubbly, then maybe stumble could have been what crossed your mind!

Anyway, the new winery is Big Cork Vineyards and they are in Frederick, MD.

They were offering four varietals, all white. Not bad for MD. The reds will be available this fall. And, what was great to hear is that the winery will be open for tastings in Spring 2014. Look forward to checking it out.

Size Can Matter

Posted on September 19, 2013 by melsmosaic

The world of wine is constantly in a state of flux. First corks started going from true cork to synthetic. Then we started getting these screw top things. I will say at first I was not impressed but I am starting to like them, but I will always love traditional corks. And now, the size of the container of wine you buy is changing! The 750ml bottle should always be around, there can be the standby 1.5L and maybe the splits or tiny ones that you use for cooking or slipping into your pocket.

But now you go into the store and talk about eye candy! I was in World Market last weekend and just had to take pictures. Talk about kid in a candy store. So there were 3 other size options (I’d seen some of them a couple times but they overtook the wine section).

#1 350ml bottle, screw top, metal bottle (that might not be what it’s truly made of, but looks that way). This could totally pass for a non-alcoholic drink (if you peeled the label). And check out the caps — white for white, red for red. Genius! These were about $6/bottle.

#2 500 ml — I don’t know what you want to call it — paper bottle. I know there is a better name. Plastic screw top. Each container has 3 glasses of wine. Or, hey, if it’s yours for the night, either get a straw or drink straight from the bottle! The cost for these was about $5.

#3 3L Box Wine. Box wine’s been around for awhile but is getting good now. There are 4 bottles per box. Per ‘them’ there are 24 glasses in a box — are there really 6 glasses in a bottle? This one was selling for about $16.

Great to see what’s happening in wine world. Size can matter based on the situation…BBQ, tailgating, night out, night in, sample, and more. Taste on, my friends, taste on.

Wine Class/School

Posted on September 18, 2013 by melsmosaic

Last week I has my first, of five, classes with the Capital Wine School for the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Level 2 Award. Going to school for wine? What more could one ask? There are a variety of people in the class, from wine distributors looking to learn about products, caterers, retirees pursuing their passions of wine and getting background for potential work in wine stores and others of us just learning more about wine for kicks.

During the first session, we learned about various elements of wine, from environment to storage. But the primary focus was the Systematic Approach to Tasting Wine. Before you taste the wine, you have to analyze several aspects of it, with specific, pre-identified terms for each level.

Appearance — clarity, intensity, color. For this, you always want to have the wine against a white background.

Nose — condition, intensity, aroma characteristics (you use the characteristics below). Swirling is optional, personal preference, but what do you have to lose?

Next, the fun part — tasting the wine! They like to call it palate. There are several areas to determine/analyze here — sweetness, acidity, tannin, body, flavor characteristics, finish.

For the Aroma and flavor characteristics, there are many of them to base it/them on:

Floral/fruit — floral, green fruit, citrus fruit, stone fruit, tropical fruit, red fruit, black fruit, dried fruit

Spice/Vegetable — underripeness, herbaceous, herbal, vegetable, sweet spice, pungent spice

Oak/other — simplicity/neutrality, autolytic, dairy, oak, kernel, animal, maturity, mineral

Conclusions — quality

What was interesting to learn while doing this is that you have a blank palate — you do not lean a certain way. It is what is present in the wine. You might not like the wine, but it’s the flavor, aromas, characteristics, x,y,z that are there. You analyze that wine to present it to the innocent bystander who is looking for a ‘wine that will pair with ‘this” or a wine with ‘x flavors.’

We tasted 6 wines last week. They provide you with spit/dump buckets and water so you could keep going strong.

#1 2012 Mara White Grass Sauvignon Blanc

#2 2010 Robert Mondavi Chardonnay

#3 2011 Karl Erbes Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Kabinett

#4 2011 Henry Fessy Morgon Cru Beaujolais

#5 2010 Cousino-Macul Antiguas Reservas Cabernet Sauvignon

#6 2011 Bodegas Volver Tarima Mourvedre (Monastrell)

As mentioned earlier, it was tough to say, ‘this was a good wine,’ because there are a few that I put personal notes about what NOT buy at the store. But it is so neat to start learning about what goes into what sommeliers learn when they provide you all the info on the grapes we enjoy.

Class #2 is later this week. So, more to come.