A tasty Syrah at a good price

There are a few wines we like to stock up on when we hit a BevMo during road trips to California. Rock Rabbit Syrah is one of them. We recently opened a 2003 Rock Rabbit Syrah from the Central Coast of California and happily enjoyed it with some calzones.

Rock Rabbit produces just two varietals: a Syrah and a Sauvignon Blanc. Starting with their 2004 release, they started calling their Syrah a Shiraz. This is the same wine and the same grape. Syrah is the French name and Shiraz is the name used mostly in Australia. Sort of like Pinot Gris (the French name) and Pinot Grigio (the Italian name) - same grape, slightly different name just to confuse people.

The Rock Rabbit Syrah was deep rich purple in color and smelled a tiny bit like a Zinfandel. It smelled heavy, of ripe raspberries and dark plum. Interestingly, it smelled heavier and deeper than it tasted. It was medium-bodied (meaning it wasn't wimpy) and had some tannins, giving it a youngish feel. The most prominent flavor was blackberry jam. It was very sippable and held up against our tomatoey calzones.

At $11.99 at BevMo, we think this is a great wine to keep handy as well as a good one to serve for casual meals with friends. In addition to BevMo, also try local wine shops. We have not seen Rock Rabbit at Cost Plus World Market or grocery stores.

For more info about Rock Rabbit, check out their website.

UPDATE (1/31/08):
We just found the 2004 Rock Rabbit Shiraz at Trader Joe's for $9.99!

A bad introduction to Zins

As previously posted, Cost Plus World Market has a new wine gimmick of creatively named varietals at $9.99 each. We reviewed their Chard-on-yeah! on November 8. We recently opened up their Zin-fat-u-a-tion. So far, we’re most impressed by their marketing.

The 2005 Zin-fat-u-a-tion comes from Amador County in California. We have had some great Zins from this area nestled up against the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the northern part of the state. So we were optimistic that Cost Plus had done its homework and found something to adequately represent their label description of “…an intense and irrational passion for Zinfandel.” Unfortunately, we were sadly disappointed.

There wasn’t much to note about the color or smell of Zin-fat-u-a-tion other than we picked up hints of raspberry and alcohol as we swirled the wine before sipping. Similarly, our notes about the taste are all about how little there was to note: “No flavor.” “Very thin.” “Nothing there.” “Very easy to drink since it’s largely watery.” At best, this was a forgettable, bland, boring wine. At worst, we hate to think that folks new to Zinfandel are using this one as an introduction. There was nothing Zinfandel-y about this. No spice, no bell pepper, no rich berry fruit. None of the excitement and fun that should burst from a glass filled with Zinfandel.

We’re a little wary about trying Cost Plus's final entry: a Cabernet Sauvignon. Stay tuned.

A Mediocre Merlot

Years ago, the first wine your Two Wine Nuts bought in quantity was a 1990 Clos du Bois Merlot. That Merlot was the first wine we liked enough to stock up on, so we splurged and bought six bottles. Being rather new to wine, six bottles was quite a commitment. Unfortunately, we had very little knowledge about properly storing wine, so we made several vital mistakes:

▼ First, we stored the wine in a room that got a lot of sun. Wine likes darkness.

▼ Second, we stored the wine in a room whose temperature fluctuated. Wines like consistent coolness (we now have a wine fridge that we keep at 52 degrees).

▼ And third, we stored the wine in a rack that sat on the floor. We vacuumed the floor often enough, there was quite a lot of vibration under the wine. Wine likes to be still.

Sadly, we only enjoyed two of those bottles. By the time we found a third special occasion calling for our coveted Merlot, the wine was ruined. It was a sudden lesson in the importance of storing wine properly. If you don't have a cave or a wine cellar or a wine fridge, the best place to house your wine is often something like a dark, quiet closet. Refrigerators are too cold, and garages often fluctuate in temperature too much.

We were reminded of our first bulk purchase when we spotted a bottle of 2004 Clos du Bois Merlot while shopping at Beverages and More on a recent trip to California. On sale for just $8.99 (regularly priced at $9.99), we decided to see how this "historical" wine has held up. Sadly, it really hasn't. Or our tastes have changed measurably over the past 15 years, which is very likely.

We shared this Merlot over dinner with a couple new to wine. As your Two Wine Nuts were smelling mild hints of raisin and heavy fruit, the wife of the couple had one of the best wine descriptions ever. She said, "This smells like Communion." There you have it.

Although the Clos du Bois Merlot opened up its plummy flavor a bit as the meal progressed, it was mostly thin in the mouth and had quite a bit of tannins, reflected by the astringent puckery feeling. So, overall we were not all that impressed with this wine. We would not recommend it, even at the consumer-friendly price of being less than ten bucks. There are much better Merlots out there. Have some fun finding them and skip Clos du Bois's version.

A white pizza wine

While flipping through the Sunday supplements last weekend, one of your Wine Nuts came across an ad for the newest wine marketing ploy by Cost Plus World Market. Seemingly interested in joining the Trader’s Joe bandwagon of store-specific wine offerings, World Market is now touting three varietals creatively named as fun twists on said varietals. Being dedicated wine tasters – and suckers for a good marketing scheme – we dutifully purchased the three offerings and will review them as we sample them. Tonight our dinner suggested a nice Chardonnay was in order so we opened up our newly acquired bottle of 2006 Chard-on-yeah!. Here’s what we found.

In short, this wine is a great example of a white pizza wine. By that we mean an affordable, drinkable, unassuming, inexpensive wine to enjoy everyday. No special occasion needed. Typically, since pizza has tomato sauce, our favorite pizza wines are red wines. Tonight we found the white equivalent.

The label defines Chard-on-yeah! as “…an expression of joy upon discovering the pleasures of unoaked Chardonnay!” Since your Two Wine Nuts are not big fans of traditionally oaked, buttery California Chardonnays, we were hopeful that we’d find lots of crisp fruitiness in this unoaked version. And upon sniffing, that’s exactly what we found. But upon tasting, we were left sort of wanting more. While it definitely lacked the heavy butter and oak we tend to steer away from, this 2006 Chardonnay from Monterey County was largely flat and limp. It had some hints of fruit but mostly this wine was unobtrusive and inoffensive. It showed a bit more interest when paired with our pesto chicken, but mostly it was just a casual easy wine that didn’t get in the way nor distract from the conversation or the meal.

Would we buy it again? Probably. At $9.99, it’s a good wine to keep on hand for casual meals that call for a white wine. But we’re unlikely to bring it out when we have company or when we want a good example of a nice, fruity, complex, unoaked Chardonnay. Certainly worth a try but keep your expectations in check.

Thank goodness for Internet shopping

Over the years, we have discovered a few of what we consider simply awesome winery finds. One favorite – St. Amant Winery in Lodi, CA – was discovered on a wine tasting trip. The tasting room hidden in an industrial complex belied the fantastic Italian-style wines we found inside.

Another big find was River Run Vintners near Aromas, CA (north of Monterey). We discovered River Run at a Rhone Wine Festival in San Francisco several years ago and quickly became huge fans. Typical with small wineries, River Run wines are hard to find outside its local Monterey Bay area. In fact, the wines are not all that easy to find there, either! The winery is open just 6 days per year and by appointment otherwise. Fortunately, their wines are available via their website.

When we first met the winemaker, he was standing by himself behind his table at the festival. We sampled his wine, nearly fell over in surprise, and gushed how wonderful his creations were. We asked him a number of questions, including price and availability. Way back then, when he was undiscovered, he was charging a ridiculously low $10 per bottle. We honestly – and stupidly – told him he could charge at least double, perhaps triple that. Today, according to the website, he was listening. Any bottle across the board will set you back $29. Is it still worth it? Is it still a find? We opened a bottle of a 2000 River Run Malbec the other night to find out.

The verdict: Yep, it’s still good and it’s still a find. And while we really wish it were cheaper, we will still buy a few $29 bottles now and then.

As mentioned in a previous post, Malbec is most recognized as a French blending grape, added to red wines to give texture and color. Some folks, though, like River Run, have been experimenting by letting this grape stand on its own. The River Run version was simply tasty. It was just a good, solid wine. It was deep dark purple and had a lightly earthy plum flavor. It went great with our Canadian bacon pizza, although we could have successfully paired it with any number of more elegant dishes. It also had an average alcohol content of 13% which left it feeling refreshing and sippable instead of heavy and headache-inducing. All in all, we are still big fans and are kicking ourselves by being too honest that day at the festival.

A fantastic Cabernet Franc

Our closest wine country of any real note is Oregon's Willamette Valley. We've had a chance to discover some big, well-known wineries (Erath) in the area as well as some small, boutique-y wineries. One of our favorite stops during a Willamette Valley wine festival a few years ago was an industrial barn shared by two small producers. Both turned out excellent wines and we walked away with numerous bottles from each. A few nights ago, we dug into our stash and opened a bottle of 2004 Dalla Vina Cabernet Franc. Oh, my.

Cabernet Franc is a red Bordeaux grape which is typically used as a blending grape. Winemakers often add it to their red varietals in order to impart acidity and aroma. However, more and more, winemakers are pulling out Cabernet Franc to stand on its own. This happened with Merlot a number of years ago. And it's just starting to happen with another grape called Malbec.

(As a side note, by law, a wine needs to contain only 75% of a grape to be called that type of wine. So, it is not uncommon for a Cabernet Sauvignon to also contain a little Cabernet Franc or Merlot or any number of other grape varietals and still be legally called a Cabernet Sauvignon.)

Cabernet Franc grapes are considered a genetic forefather of Cabernet Sauvignon. In fact, recent DNA research revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon is actually a cross between Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. Your Two Wine Nuts think that's a pretty cool piece of wine trivia.

Cabernet Franc wines are thought to be lighter and fruitier than Cabernet Sauvignons, and that's just what we found with the 2004 Dalla Vina.

The Dalla Vina was a beautiful deep dark purple. Its aroma of dark rich berries was very similar to that of a Cabernet Sauvignon. It felt full and velvety in the mouth, something wine folks ingeniously call "mouthfeel." Overall, the Dalla Vina tasted just a touch lighter than a Cabernet Sauvignon but easily stood on its own.

While tasty to sip, we were totally blown away by this wine when we paired it with some food. We had the Cabernet Franc with a flat iron steak marinated in a huckleberry sauce. When paired with the steak, the wine suddenly came alive and burst with fruit. This is one of the things that can be such fun about wine: food can make a huge impact. One of your Wine Nuts is much better than the other at food and wine pairing. Surprisingly, this pairing was made totally by luck by the other Wine Nut. Jackpot!

Sadly, according to their website, the 2004 Dalla Vina Cabernet Franc is sold out. Judging from their other offerings, we probably paid $20-$25 for this bottle. If so, it was well priced and worth it. Keep an eye out for Cabernet Franc wines if you are wine tasting. If you are interested in buying one, visit a wine shop and ask for a recommendation. Don't be shy about saying you've never tried one; that always gets wine folks excited and eager to help.

For more info about Cabernet Franc, click here. For info about Dalla Vina, check out their website.

The best commercial wine in the county

There are all of three commercial wineries in southwest Washington’s Clark County. None of them have particularly good wine but they are fun to visit nonetheless.

A few nights ago we opened a bottle of 2002 English Estate Pinot Noir (Gravel Mine Vineyard) and deemed it the best commercial wine in Clark County (we know several home winemakers who make better stuff).

An interesting aspect of the English Estate winey is that a gravel mine is indeed right next door. According to the wine's back label:

Grapes love gravel. This porous soil forces the vines’ roots deeper to find water and nutrients, enhancing the flavor and character of the fruit.

We’ve heard the same about rocky, volcanic soil. This is what we are pinning our hopes on for our own grapevines.

As for English Estate’s Pinot Noir, we first noticed that it was a bit darker than is typical of Pinot Noirs. Not a bad sign; just something noteworthy. It had a nice light, berry smell but we could also smell the alcohol (listed as 13% on the label; not especially high). As for its taste, well, we pondered this for a good long while. It was honestly a bit difficult to come up with any descriptions. It wasn’t a bad wine by any means. It just was not memorable and there really was not much to it. And yes, since this is the best commercial wine in the county, you can imagine our thoughts about the other two wineries’ offerings! Again, fun to visit, but no need to leave room in the trunk for purchases.

This wine is likely only available at the winery (or its website) and in Clark County wine stores. The website lists this wine at $22.95. We could not have possibly paid that much for it when we bought it a few years ago. This is a $10-$12 bottle at best.

An overpriced French wine a la Costco

A number of years ago, your Two Wine Nuts read a book written by guy totally into French wines (Kermit Lynch’s “Adventures on the Wine Route”). It was a great introduction to the seduction of French wines but honestly, it didn’t make buying French wines any less mystifying. However, one thing we did learn was that Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines are generally considered very good.

A brief explanation about Châteauneuf-du-Pape. In Europe, wines are named for the area or region that the wine is made in, as opposed to the American tradition of naming a wine for the grape the wine is made from (Burgundy – a place – versus Chardonnay – a grape). There is an area in southern France called Châteauneuf. Long ago, before Vatican City, Popes lived in a town called Avignon, in the Châteauneuf area. This area produced wine, some especially for the Pope. Eventually, the wine became known as Châteauneuf-du-Pape – Châteauneuf wine for the Pope. Referring to our last post (July 12), Châteauneuf-du-Pape is also considered a Rhône style wine since Châteauneuf is in the Rhône region of France.

This is why your Two Wine Nuts focus more on American wines. SO much easier to understand the history and labeling!

We bring this all up because a few days ago while shopping in Costco, we spotted a Costco branded Châteauneuf-du-Pape wine for $19.99 and were too curious not to buy it. Specifically, it was a 2005 Kirkland Signature Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvee de Nalys. We opened it tonight to enjoy with some grilled pork chops. Bottom line: not worth the 20 bucks.

This red wine had just the slightest hint of brown color, sort of a maroon red instead of a purple red. The aroma (or nose) was very definitely strawberry jam. One Wine Nut also picked up a grape smell. With so much fruitiness in the nose, we weren’t sure what to expect from the taste. True to Rhône form, the flavor was much more earthy than fruity. Actually, the most distinct flavor was tannins. Tannin is a component of plants. Red wine gets its red color from being in contact with the skins of the grapes. The skins, as well as the seeds and stems, have tannin in them. So, red wine very typically has tannin in it. Another way to get tannin in wine is via the oak barrels. Either way, the tell-tale sign of tannin is a puckery, astringent feeling in the mouth upon sipping a wine. This Kirkland Châteauneuf-du-Pape had lots of tannin because our mouths felt like we had sucked on a cotton ball soaked in facial toner (you gals out there know what this is). It’s not as bad as it sounds, but as a sipping wine, this one needed food. When we paired the wine with our pork chops, fruit suddenly appeared. However, it didn’t last very long. The wine did get increasingly easy to drink over the course of the meal, but this was largely due to the moderately high 14.7% alcohol content.

All in all, this Costco offering was interesting to taste but not at all worth the $19.99. If you are interested in trying a Châteauneuf-du-Pape wine, we instead recommend visiting your local wine shop and asking for recommendations. A good one will definitely be worth $20; this one wasn’t.

A Tasty Rhône Varietal

One of our best finds recently was Tom, the Wine Steward at a local grocery store. He’s a retired wine guy who has great love and passion for the collection he’s assembled in the corner of a nearby QFC. You just never know where you are going to find great wines and great knowledge.

On Tom’s recommendation, we bought a bottle of a 2005 Syncline Mourvedre. We had had Mourvedres before but knew nothing about Syncline. It turns out Syncline is a winery in eastern Washington state, an area increasingly known for growing great warm-weather grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, and Chardonnay.

Mourvedre is a type of red grape grown most popularly in the Rhône region of France. Because it originates from this area, it is called a “Rhône style” wine or a “Rhône varietal." Other Rhône varietals include Grenache, Syrah, and Carignan among the reds, and Viognier, Marsanne, and Roussanne among the whites. Unlike in the United States where wine is named by its grape, wines in France are referred to by the area in which the grapes are grown. So, you might drink a Burgundy, a Bordeaux, a Châteauneuf-du-Pape, or a Côte-Rôtie…all places in France that make wine. It would be like saying “I think a Napa would go well with this steak.” Or “What Willamette Valleys do you have?” Honestly, reading a French wine label can be rather confusing since it’s often hard to figure out what the grape is versus the region versus the maker. We’re still learning how to do this. When we get better at it, we’ll add a post.

In the meantime, the state-side Syncline Mourvedre was quite lovely and almost too easy to drink. It was deep, dark purple in color and had a subtle yet earthy nose. Rhône style wines, if one were to make a huge generalization, are typically much more earthy and mineraly and less fruity and flowery. The Syncline followed suit, although its taste was much less pronounced than other Mourvedres we have had. The first time we tried a Mourvedre, we were stunned that it smelled like a two-mile-away skunk – and this was a GOOD thing! That first Mourvedre also tasted sort of barnyard-y and soil-y – again, surprisingly good things. To compare to better known wines, the Syncline Mourvedre was stronger than a Merlot. And it had the weight and body of a Cabernet Sauvignon without the typical dark fruitiness of a Cab. We had lasagna with the Syncline and it went quite nicely.

We have no idea how easy it would be to find the 2005 Syncline Mourvedre outside the local QFC or the winery itself. According to their website, Syncline distributes to “select wine stores” in a number of states. At $19.99, the 2005 Mourvedre was perhaps a touch over-priced. We would have been more excited at about $15. Nevertheless, we are likely to include Syncline on a future wine trip to Eastern Washington. And, if you have never tried a Mourvedre and find one in a local wine store or World Market, we would encourage you to give it a try. You just might be surprised how nice a barnyard can taste!

For more info about Rhône varietals, check out Rhône Rangers.

A favorite sweet Riesling

One of the really fun things about Rieslings is that they can vary so much. Some will be sweet and fruity; others will be dry and acidic. In the mood for a sweeter version, the other night we opened a 2005 Firestone Vineyard Riesling and were happy that this easily sippable white has remained consistently sweet and light since we first discovered it in 2003.

Like most sweet Rieslings, the Firestone version smelled like apricots and peaches. Its flavor was similar. The label also claims it boasts a honeysuckle flavor. Having never eaten honeysuckle, we can’t say for sure but we’ll at least agree with the concept. Because of its sweetness, the Firestone Riesling is another good wine for folks who are just starting to experiment with wine. We have a couple of very occasional wine drinker relatives who love this wine whenever we serve it to them.

Firestone Vineyards is owned by the same family famous for tires. It is located in the Santa Ynez Valley near Santa Barbara, CA. Several years ago, we visited the winery. We tasted about ten different offerings and the Central Coast Riesling – one of their more entry-level, grocery store wines – was the only one we liked.

We haven’t yet spotted Firestone wines in the Pacific Northwest. We do occasionally see it on wine lists. It is easily found at Beverages & More and online. Road trips to California usually involve a stop at BevMo and this is one of the wines we stock up. The 2005 Firestone Riesling is currently on sale for $7.99, regularly priced at $9.99. Either way, we think it’s a great buy.

An exciting break-through!

It's a very exciting day! Our homegrown Riesling grapevines are showing signs of happy roots. For the first time, several have grown past their protective green grow tubes! Of the 54 stalks we planted back in February 2006, we've got 50 still happy, living, and viable.

Our soil is very rocky; we're on an old volcanic bed. We have been assuming that once the vines are able to plow down through the rock and establish roots, we will have some pretty strong plants. So far our educated guessing is proving mostly true.

Next step: figure out how to protect these new taller vines from being munched by deer.

Another wine down the drain

A bad bottle of wine can still be a good experience. There’s a lot to learn from a wine that’s either gone bad or just doesn’t suit your taste buds. We had just such an experience a few nights ago.

Some friends opened a bottle of an Italian wine that had been imported by a favorite California winery. This is to say, we didn’t know the wine but we trusted its source. It was a red varietal we hadn’t heard of. Nevertheless, it had a smell and a taste that your Two Wine Nuts were familiar with.

The wine’s most distinctive scent was of Band-Aids. Yep, that plasticy, chemically, antiseptic smell. One Wine Nut also picked up some Magic Marker in the aroma. And there was Band-Aid in the taste, too. After a few sips and commiseration, the group deemed the wine undrinkable and we moved onto another bottle.

So what does that Band-Aid taste and smell mean? Band-Aids is a tell-tale sign of a very specific yeast hanging out in a wine. It indicates the presence of a yeast called brettanomyces [breht-tan-uh-MI-sees] – or “brett” for short. Brettanomyces is a yeast that grows naturally on grapes and in wineries. For the most part, wine makers try to avoid allowing brett into their wine. However, there is some debate among winos as to whether or not a brett-flavored wine is a good thing or a bad thing. A little brettanomyces in a wine can add some complexity and earthiness, especially in a red wine. However, too much brett and you start wondering who has the boo-boo and just opened the Band-Aids box.

For lots of microbiological info, click here. For a high-brow debate of the usefulness of brettanomyces, click here.

A good Cabernet for cooking

We needed a basic Cabernet Sauvignon for our favorite tri-tip marinade recipe so we went to our local Albertsons to see what we could find. We picked up a 2004 Chalone Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon on sale for $12.99 (regularly priced at $18.99). We had had good experiences with this pioneer Monterey County (California) winery in the past so we figured we had a safe bet. And the verdict? Eh. As a drinking wine, it’s great for a marinade.

This Cab was a deep rich purpley red, as we expected. Its smell, however, was not very pronounced. Aside from a wine smell, the only scent either Wine Nut could pick up was “dusty.” Having just taken the wine glasses out of the dishwasher, we know the glasses weren’t the dusty culprits.

Taste-wise, this California Cabernet started off nice and fruity but quickly disappeared. Because the flavor did not linger after the wine was swallowed, we would describe this wine as having a “short finish.” By contrast, a wine with a long finish – a very good thing – is one where even after the wine has slid down your throat, you can still taste various flavors and can continue enjoying the wine well before your next sip.

One Wine Nut also declared this pick to be over-oaked. He determined this by the astringent, dry feeling in the mouth and the wooden taste. Cabernets are very typically aged in oak barrels for some length of time in order to impart some of that oak – and often vanilla – flavor into the wine. A wine can get too oaky either by spending too much time in an oak barrel or by hanging out in a newer barrel. Some people like a lot of oak flavor in their wines (California Chardonnays are famous for this); your two Wine Nuts, not so much.

Overall, this Cabernet Sauvignon served its ingredient purpose well but it wouldn’t be our choice for a drinking wine. However, on a recent trip we picked up a bottle of a Chalone Vineyard Merlot at a grocery store. We shared it with some family while chatting in a hotel room and it was quite tasty, even when served in Styrofoam coffee cups. So if you want to try this old-standby Monterey County wine, go for the Merlot and skip the Cabernet…unless you’re marinating tri-tip. And $10-13 for either makes it worthwhile.

Favorite corkscrews

Much like people have a “junk drawer” in their kitchen, we have a “corkscrew drawer.” There are many varieties of corkscrews. Over the years, your Two Wine Nuts have narrowed the field to three favorites, depending on the Nut and the cork. Here are the three we keep on hand:

This is one Nut’s favorite. It is the Pocket Model made by Screwpull. When not in use, it collapses to a handy size perfect for drawer, pocket, backpack, or picnic basket. To use it, you slide the handle part out, put it on top of the screw, place the pronged cover on top of the bottle, and spin the handle around as it pushes the screw into the cork. Screwpull calls it a "self-pulling corkscrew’"and that’s exactly what it is. There’s no muscle required, and the screw goes in straight every time. This corkscrew is also very small and light, making it preferred over the popular "rabbit style" corkscrews which always work but are bulky and often weigh more than the bottle of wine being opened. The downside to this pull is that it is a bit more expensive and does not work well on synthetic corks. The other Nut also dislikes its lack of tradition. You can find the Screwpull Pocket Model in various upper-end kitchen stores like William-Sonoma, or online. Amazon is selling it for $14.95. See Screwpull and Amazon for more info.

This traditional corkscrew is preferred by the other Nut. This is called the Waiter Style corkscrew. It seems all waiters use this style, not sure why. It can be found just about anywhere, including grocery stores, dollar stores, and wineries. Like the Screwpull, this collapsible corkscrew is light and small, very portable and handy. The Nut prefers this screw because it is traditional and effective. It is also the best type for removing stubborn synthetic corks. The other Nut sometimes gets frustrated by this corkscrew because the screw can be inserted incorrectly and end up going in diagonally, often breaking the cork or at least crumbling a small part of it. Practice and using your index finger to guide the screw can help prevent this. This type of corkscrew typically sells for $5-$8.

This final corkscrew is called the Ahh-So corkscrew. The name either comes from it being “ahh-so” easy to use, or more likely, the eventual comment “ahh, so THAT’s how it works!” Like the others, this corkscrew is light, small, and very portable. It seems a little harder to find these days, although kitchen stores, wine stores, and various online sites will have it. It is priced similarly to the Waiter Style. The advantage that this corkscrew has over the others is that it does not have a screw that pierces the cork. Instead, starting with the longer prong, you place the prongs on either side of the cork and wiggle the prongs down between the cork and the bottle. Then you pull and twist the captured cork and it pops right out. This is a good corkscrew to use if you have an old, fragile cork to remove. The downsides to this corkscrew are that it is miserable at removing synthetic corks, and sometimes, when pushed too hard, the prongs can force the cork down into the bottle. When that happens, there are other tools to try to retrieve the cork but we prefer just to leave the cork where it is and pour around it.

A Good Introduction to Whites

As mentioned in a previous post, we recently picked up two bottles of wine while shopping at Target. While we weren’t that jazzed about Folie à Deux’s red version of Ménage à Trois, the California White Table Wine version turned out to be OK.

The first thing we noticed about the white 2005 Folie à Deux Ménage à Trois was its color. It was a very pretty, clear light yellow. It looked a lot like pear juice. The smell was very pleasant, too. It smelled sweet, like apricots and orange blossoms. Before looking at the label, we thought the wine smelled like a Viognier or a Sauvignon Blanc. Actually, the three grapes that comprise this ménage à trois are Chardonnay, Moscato, and Chenin Blanc. The Moscato and Chenin Blanc grapes explain the sweet smell.

Moscato is a grape typically used in light, sweet dessert wines. Moscatos are often just a hint fizzy and frighteningly easy to drink. We’ll review one of our favorite Moscatos as it gets closer to summer. Chenin Blanc wines are also a bit on the sweeter side, although they are not dessert wines. The first wine one of your Wine Nuts started drinking way back when was a Callaway Chenin Blanc. It was just sweet enough to be drinkable for a Wine Nut in the Making. And this white Ménage à Trois shares that characteristic.

Overall, we would describe the taste of this wine as a bit watery, bland, and lacking pizazz. It’s not offensive; there’s just not a lot to it. On the plus side, it is not harsh or acidic or alcohol-y. For this reason, we think this wine would be great for someone who is new to wine. It’s just sweet and easy enough to be enjoyable if most wines make you pucker your lips and say, “Yick.”

We think this wine is a little steep at $10. For $5-$7, we would keep it on hand for guests who aren’t Wine Nuts but want to join in the fun. Like its red brother, this Ménage à Trois can be found at Target and World Market. And it’s a better buy than the red.

Bud Break

An Update from the Winemaker:

A wonderous thing has happened in the "vineyard" this week. We saw the first signs of spring on the vines - the buds have swollen and started to break into real, growing stems. This means some of them made it through the winter alive! Yay!

I haven't taken a census to figure out exactly how many made it, but other than the ones that I already knew to be dead, every vine I've looked at is starting. How wonderful. And, how slightly unexpected given how little growth we got off the vines last year. Here's hoping they make up for it this summer.

A Red that Misses the Target

Last week while we were at Target, we spotted some wine from a winery we used to know. Folie à Deux used to be a fun boutique wine whose winery was a small farm house on a side road in Napa. Now that we can find their wine in Target and World Market for $10, we’re not sure how boutiquey Folie à Deux is any more. Hoping for the best we picked up a bottle of red and a bottle of white. Last night we opened the red version of 2005 Folie à Deux Ménage a Trois. We were disappointed.

“Folie a deux” is French for “a madness shared by two” or “a shared fantasy.” We won’t bother to define “ménage a trois” other than to say in this context it means the wine is a blend of three different grapes. This “California Red Table Wine” is a blend of Zinfandel, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. It sounds promising, doesn’t it?

The look and smell were what we’d expect from of blend of those three grapes. The wine was a deep, rich, purple-red, and it smelled like a nice heavy Cabernet – some berries, some oak, a tiny bit of chocolate or coffee. But the taste was disappointing. It was sweeter than we were expecting, almost like one of those jug wines from long ago. It was also rather light and the taste disappeared very quickly. We expected a lot more flavor and interest from a Zinfandel-Merlot-Cabernet blend, even at $10 a bottle. In our opinion, you can do a lot better for $10 – and probably even for $5-$7.

We still have the white to try. Stay tuned.

A Great “Go To” Zin

Yesterday was a wonderful preview of Spring 2007. We celebrated the sunny, warm air with BBQ’d hot dogs, cheese, crackers, tapanade, and an old stand-by Sonoma Zinfandel. We and our neighbors toasted the arrival of daffodils and riding mowers with a 2004 Murphy-Goode Liar’s Dice Zinfandel. Yum.

We first discovered Liar’s Dice at a Zinfandel festival in San Francisco back in the late 1990s. We then visited the Murphy-Goode winery in Sonoma and bought several bottles of the then hard-to-find Liar’s Dice. These days, you can find this reliable, proud-to-serve (red) Zinfandel at Costco for $14.99.

Murphy-Goode produces some very solid, representative wines. If you want to know what a Zinfandel or a Fumé Blanc (also called Sauvignon Blanc) or a California-style Chardonnay (heavy oak and butter) is supposed to taste like, Murphy-Goode is a great place to start.

In terms of their Zinfandel, Liar’s Dice has a deep, seductive berry nose with a dark cherry, currant, and peppery taste. It is a pleasantly rich Zinfandel that will go nicely with any BBQ’d meal, as well as pizza, pasta dishes, or just a nice kick-back evening on the patio. It feels a tiny bit special to open on a Wednesday night and is great to open with friends when you want a nice bottle without breaking the bank. We’ve been drinking Murphy-Goode’s Liar’s Dice for over ten years and have never been disappointed.

Little percentages mean a lot in wine

The other night we enjoyed a nice dinner out and ordered a bottle of wine we had never had before. It was a local Cabernet Sauvignon that went nicely with our steaks. What was especially notable, however, was how quickly both of your wine nuts felt the effects of the alcohol. Yowza!

We looked at the label and our suspicions were confirmed. The wine had an alcohol content of 14.6%. This literally means that by volume, the wine we were drinking was 14.6% alcohol – specifically, ethanol. That’s pretty high. Most everyday wines are typically in the 10-13% range. One of our favorite light, sweet summer wines is a Moscato that clocks in at just 7% alcohol. Dessert wines, like sherry or port, usually have an alcohol content in the 17-22% range, largely because they are fortified (they have had alcohol purposely added during the processing). But rarely do you finish a bottle in one sitting. There are also some wine makers out there, particularly in California, who are making huge Cabernet and Zinfandel “fruit bombs” that pack a punch with 16-17% alcohol. Bomb is right, cuz that’s what you’ll be after a bottle of wine like that!

So if you are sensitive to alcohol or are just curious, examine a wine’s label for something along the lines of “Alc. 12.4% by vol.” You’ll often find it in tiny print on the edge of the front label, sometimes printed sideways. It can also be found on the back label towards the bottom, near the information about who produced and bottled the wine.

What a surprise!!

We recently visited Albuquerque, New Mexico. While driving around, we spotted a sign pointing to a winery. “Wineries? In New Mexico??” Surprised and skeptical, we followed the signs to Casa Rondeña Winery. We like wine adventures and figured this would be a good amusement. An hour later, we walked out stunned, making plans for a future wine tour of New Mexico, and the proud owners of a mixed case of four wines.

Karen, the really nice lady in the tasting room, poured us tastes of nine wines (still adjusting to the 5,000 foot elevation, we wisely opted to share our tastes). There wasn’t a dog in the bunch. Karen told us that about 95% of the grapes used in Casa Rondeña wines come from New Mexico. The winery grows its own Riesling and Gewürztraminer grapes. It buys most of the remaining grapes from growers in southern New Mexico. The lower elevations and higher temps in the southern part of the state allow a variety of red grapes to grow, including Tempranillo, a tasty Spanish grape typically used for blending. It is slowly becoming more popular in the United States.

The wines we came home with were:

• 2004 Sangiovese, a red that was very light and bright and fruity ($15).



• 2005 Clarion, a red wine which was a blend of Syrah, Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. It was unlike anything we’ve tried before, although it did have the earthiness and spice of Tempranillo ($28).



• 2004 Animante Port made from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes that was a ruby port of sweet cherries and chocolate ($35).



• 2006 Viognier ($20), our absolute favorite of the bunch. It was probably the best Viognier we have ever tasted. Viogniers - a white wine - typically smell fruity and sweet and then have a contrasting sharp, citric flavor. The Casa Rondeña Viognier’s nose and taste were more harmonious. It had an apricot and pineapple nose with a sweeter, crisp, fruity, yet still lightly acidic taste to complement it.

Casa Rondeña Winery has only been around since 1995 and produces just 6,000 cases of wine per year. For comparison, in 2006, Robert Mondavi produced approximately 9 million cases. In other words, Casa Rondeña is pretty small potatoes…or grapes. And they just started selling wines outside of Albuquerque, branching out all the way to Santa Fe and Taos. Which is to say, they aren’t much into distribution. The good news, though, is that they will ship. At first glance, their prices seemed high. After tasting their wines, we think we got a bargain and plan to bookmark their website for future purchases. New Mexico hints at having fabulous wines and enough wineries to consider a wine tour – who knew? (See New Mexico Wine Country for more info.)

Faux Ice Wine

We hesitated to include this wine on our blog since it apparently isn’t readily available anymore. Rumor has it, Argyle Winery in Dundee, OR is no longer making this fabulous dessert wine. But, it serves as a great example of a ‘fake’ ice wine and therefore we thought it was worth discussing.

A few nights ago, we opened a bottle of Argyle’s 2004 Minus Five. We bought several bottles of this delicious treat at the winery itself. Now it appears to only be available through various online wine retailers. It seems to be going for about $25, and that’s probably not far off what we paid for it. A bit steep, yes, especially considering it is one of those small half-bottles (375ml instead of the standard 750ml). But, crazy as it may sound, it was worth every drop and every penny.

In a word, this wine is all about candy. Minus Five looked like one of those translucent Brach’s fruit candies from years ago. Its color was a cross between a root beer candy and a peach candy. Its nose (its smell) was just like candied apple. The flavor was sweet without being sticky sweet. It felt thick and round at first but then turned into a Kool-Aid burst of fruit. It was a beautiful balance between thick syrup and light fresh fruit. This is typical of ice wines, which Minus Five sort of is.

Traditional ice wines are made from grapes that have been allowed to literally freeze while still on the vine. These frozen grapes are then gently pressed into a thicker, sweet, highly concentrated juice that eventually turns into a delicious dessert wine. Because the climate has to be just right (COLD!), true ice wines are special and priced accordingly.

The folks at Argyle (and they are not the only ones) decided to experiment to see if they could produce a similarly styled wine by forcing the freezing. In our opinion, their experiment was very successful.

At Argyle, they hand-picked a small quantity of very ripe Pinot Noir grapes and flash froze the clusters to -5ºC (hence the name). They then waited for a very cold day and took the frozen grapes out of the freezer and slowly pressed them to extract the juice. From there, the normal wine making process kicked into gear. Because Argyle used a freezer instead of Mother Nature to freeze their grapes, they can not legally call Minus Five an ice wine. But man, it sure tastes like one!

Click here for more info about ice wine.

A good reminder -- or a good example of corked

What’s up with the cork? Well, it’s all that is worth showing after we opened a bottle of a 1999 Zinfandel from Lodi, CA last week. It was a great bottle of wine when we bought it four or five years ago. And then we let it sit way too long. Or it was “corked.” Your two Wine Nuts disagree on what the eventual state of this once-lovely wine was, other than it was undrinkable and we had to pour it out. It serves as a great reminder not to wait too long for that special occasion to open a favorite bottle of wine. “It’s Tuesday night and I didn’t burn dinner!” can be a fine reason to celebrate with a special bottle.

So what does “corked” mean? It is a wine term that describes a wine that has gone bad after being bottled. Sometimes you just wait too long and the wine turns to icky vinegar stuff. That’s not corked. A wine is corked when a chemical called TCA gets into the wine. TCA isn’t harmful to you or me but it does nasty things to wine. TCA is usually found in tainted corks, and since all corks can’t be tested before they are smashed into wine bottles, it’s estimated about 5% of bottles using corks end up “corked.” This is why there is now a push to use synthetic corks or screwcaps. Wineries are horrified to think you got one of those 5% bottles and hate their wine, without knowing that it’s a bad cork and not a bad wine maker.

How do you know a wine is corked? A corked wine often takes on a musty, moldy, wet dog or wet newspaper smell. Our Zin had this. The flavor of the wine will vary but it will taste very different from what you’d expect from that varietal. For instance, we expected lots of spice and pepper in our Lodi Zinfandel. Instead, we got some raisin and castor oil and a heaviness that just said, “ICK!” One of the Wine Nuts thinks this is further evidence of a corked wine. The other Nut thinks waiting 8 years to drink a Zinfandel was bad cellar management. Either way, we agreed we needed to move onto a different bottle.

And that tradition of test-driving a sip of wine at a restaurant? The main thing folks are looking for is whether or not the wine is corked, not whether or not the wine will go with their entrée.

For more info on “corked” click here.

A favorite dessert wine!

We consider this dessert wine one of our best finds of all-time. We first discovered it in 2004 while we were on vacation and went to a restaurant well-known for its chocolate soufflé. We dutifully ordered the soufflé but what we walked away raving about was the amazing Muscat we blindly ordered to go with it. Campbells Rutherglen Muscat from Australia is one of our favorite go-to dessert wines. We keep it in stock and are always excited by an opportunity to share it with someone for the first time.

Most Muscat grapes produce a sweet white dessert wine. Campbells is unusual because its rich amber color makes it look a lot like a tawny port. This wine gets its color from the creatively named Brown Muscat grape, which is apparently grown in the southern part of Australia (Victoria, northeast of Melbourne).

We got to bring out a bottle of Campbells last weekend when some friends invited us over for dinner. In addition to a restaurant-quality meal, they served an out-of-this-world orange crème brûlée for dessert. The wine and dessert together were fabulous. Campbells smells like oranges and it has a light caramel-brown sugar flavor. Our friends declared it a dangerous little candy wine. We declared them converts.

We’ve seen Campbells Rutherglen Muscat in various wine shops, but we made quite a scene the first time we saw it in Costco. Yep, you can get this wonderful treat at Costco for a mere $13.69 per bottle. Serve it with heavier desserts of chocolate or caramel, or just drink as dessert itself. Or just skip the meal altogether.

A tasty California Zin!

We tried a new restaurant last night and were very excited to find one of our favorite Zinfandels on the wine list (and by that we mean red Zinfandel, not white). We first discovered Edmeades at an annual Zinfandel festival in San Francisco. It had been awhile since we had had this Mendocino-area Zin. And yum! It didn’t disappoint last night.

The first thing we noticed about the 2003 Edmeades Redwood Valley Zinfandel was its nose. It had a wonderfully lingering nose of dark berry fruit – in other words, it smelled great! Its flavor matched, with a hint of green and black pepper typical of Zinfandels, but also with a touch of black licorice and lots of bright fruit. The back of the bottle describes the wine as a “super-concentrated, thick, scrumptious Zinfandel packed with black cherries and spice.” Sure, we’ll go with that.

The price on the wine list was $28. Typically, a restaurant charges about double the actual price of a bottle of wine (hence the $8-$10 average corkage fee if you bring your own bottle since the restaurant’s cheapest bottles yield them about $8-$10 profit.). So at $14 retail, this wine is a heck of a bargain in our opinion. We’ve seen Edmeades in a variety of wine shops, and a quick search on BevMo (Beverages and More) suggests the 2005 is going for $14.99. If you want a better-than-pizza-wine Zin full of flavor that minimally goes great with steak, brisket, and meatloaf, give this one a try.

We’d buy it if it were $15 or less

We had dinner at some friends’ house last night (fabulous, as always) and they brought out a bottle of 1999 Forest Glen Sangiovese. None of us could recall the winery so we really don't know when or how this wine came to be in their closet. Nevertheless, this mysterious Sonoma County wine was pretty tasty.

The Sangiovese grape is the basis for Chianti. So, this wine tasted a lot like a Chianti but a bit thicker and more pronounced. It had a nice fruity flavor and went down smoothly both as a sipping wine as well as with our Italian Chicken Soup. It didn’t go so well with the lemon cake, but then again, it wasn’t supposed to.

Web research has not been as fruitful as the wine, unfortunately. The winery’s website is currently under construction. An article by a wine writer in 1999 praises Forest Glen for its award winning wines and amazing value, as none of Forest Glen's wines at that time sold for more than $10. It does appear that the winery is now owned by a company in California’s Central Valley, and the winemaker is supposedly John Franzia. If he is the namesake of those ubiquitous boxed wines, our guess is this wine is still reasonably priced and not too hard to find. If you find it, drop us a note and tell us about it. We will do the same.

Our own wine!

So this probably won't be as well written, since it's written by the winemaker. Here's an update on our 2006 vintage aging away in the barn:

The cold snap this past week was a wonderful tool for the wine, as it went through "cold stabilization". Cold temperatures (in the 20s) take out excess acid from the wine and causes it to crystallize at the bottom of the container.

This year's Riesling is very nice. It was originally too acidic, but the cold stabilization worked wonders on it. Instead of being grapefruit-juice-sharp, it's now more apple/pear juice sharp. A lot more gentle to sip, though still not sweet (sorry to those sweet wine lovers - I'll make one of those here in a couple weeks). The wine's perfectly clear, and I'm almost tempted to bottle it now, but I expect another couple of months won't hurt it at all. Besides, it's more of a summer wine, anyway.

This year's Pinot Noir is actually two different wines. I bought grapes from a source who had two different soil types in his vineyard - very rocky like where we've planted our vines, and more typical soil. So this year's Pinot Noir is a comparison of what to expect from our plants vs. similar plants in more, um, plant-friendly soils. The two Pinots have completed Malolactic Fermentation (perhaps another post...) and cold stabilization, and at this point they're still a little young to make a firm comment as to where they'll end up. But the rockier wine is more dark, not so open with its flavors, and still obviously needs time. It's not heavy, just not ready to show itself. The less rocky wine shows a lot more light fruit already, although it shares some of the heaviness of its brother. It's only been aging 3 months at this point, so this isn't too surprising - check back over the summer.

More updates to come as the winemaking process goes along.

Snow Bound!

Thanks to 4” of snow and a lack of snow-drive-ability, we were stranded inside all day today. Not to worry, though, for we had plenty of wine! OK, so truth be told, we only opened one bottle and it was at dinner. It was a bottle one of us bought at a local Wine & Jazz Festival last summer. It cost a whopping 5 bucks and at the time, it was thought to be an amazing bargain. Tonight, we’d still say it was a pretty good deal, but we’re not about to go out and buy a case of Forest Ville Chardonnay, unless we have a big BBQ party in the works.

This wine from “California” (so unspecific about their grape heritage that the best they can do is name the state) is best described as industrial, inoffensive, and safe. It’s an un-oaky Chardonnay, which is why it made the cut in the first place. It still has a fair amount of butter, but there is also a hint of fruit lurking behind it. At first sip, it is interesting, but then it disappears into a forgettable wine. We wouldn’t keep this in stock, nor would we seek it out for a meal. However, the next time we have a large gathering and want to serve a non-homemade wine that is sippable and universally inoffensive, this will be our choice. Indicative of its caliber, Forest Ville is found in our state-run liquor stores (NEVER a good sign). It has also been spotted in most major grocery stores in our area. And $5-$9 is about right.

A Great Everyday Red!

Thanks to our local Italian restaurant, we recently discovered a great new "pizza wine". Pizza wine is what we call an easy, sippable, inexpensive, fun wine that can be enjoyed just about any time. Our latest favorite is Li Veli's Passamante. It's an Italian wine that is made from a grape we've never heard of (Negroamaro) and is grown in the heel of the boot. "Yeah, yeah, that's nice. But what does it taste like??" It's tastes like a really good Chianti. Light, fruity, a tiny bit of spice. Not as heavy or spicy as a Zinfandel but more interesting than your standard Italian Restaurant Chianti By the Glass. With a bit of research, we found the Passamante at World Market (aka Cost Plus to those who go way back) for a whopping $9.99 per bottle! Our local store is now out but expects another shipment soon. Oh, and for future reference, World Market does not give case discounts. :-(