New to us: White Merlot

Some of our best wine finds have been as a result of eavesdropping. Our first was when we overheard some people in a restaurant raving about a Cabernet Sauvignon called Silver Oak. Being very new to wine, we did not realize as we scribbled a note on a napkin that Silver Oak is a rather upper-end trophy wine that is not for beginners. Tasty indeed but very much a special-occasion wine for people who have been around the stuff for awhile.

So with a good track record and a sense of adventure, we waltzed over to Wal-Mart after overhearing a nearby diner rave about the White Merlot to be found there. We had heard of White Zinfandel but not White Merlot so we were very curious.

A word about these white wines made from red grapes. Yes, Zinfandel comes in red, too! Actually, Zinfandel is traditionally a red wine but it was made commercially famous in the white (or, more technically, pink) version. How does a red grape make a white wine? It’s all in the skins.

Grape skins give wine its color (among other things). After grapes are picked and the juice is squeezed out of them, the winemaker decides whether to toss away the skins that are left behind or let the skins hang out in the juice for a while. When making white wines, the green skins are tossed away almost immediately. When making red wines, the red skins may linger with the juice for several weeks. So what about these pink wines like White Zinfandel or Rosé or White Merlot? The red grapes are pressed and the skins hang out with the juice for less than a day. Just enough time to give some flavor and a hint of reddish color, resulting in that pretty rosy pink.

As promised, Wal-Mart offered a 2006 Beringer White Merlot. How did we like it? We didn’t. But, we need to say we are not big fans of White Zinfandel either. If you like White Zins, you might like White Merlot.

The White Merlot’s color was its best feature; we should have taken a photo before we opened the bottle. It was a pretty, light red color similar to a cough drop. The nose (smell) was sweet and a bit alcohol-y. It reminded us of a drugstore perfume. As for the taste, it was very thin and did not have much of a finish; the taste did not linger at all. The flavor was sweet like a flat wine cooler. And in fact, that might be how we would most enjoy this White Merlot – mixed with 7-Up as a wine cooler or sangria for a patio party. At $5.49 at Wal-Mart it was a fun experiment but we won’t be going back for more.

A nice red blend for under $10

Thanks to a recent wine class, your Two Wine Nuts discovered a new everyday red that will go with a variety of meals.

CMS by Hedges in Columbia Valley (Washington) is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah – hence the C-M-S name. According to the back label, this 2006 red is 52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 44% Merlot, and just 4% Syrah. This is pretty typical for blends, in that one or two varietals are dominant and the rest are marginal additions to help add color or flavor or body.

The back label also has an unusual explanation. It says: “This wine may occasionally show a deposit of natural tartaric acid crystals, a result of Hedges’ winemaking philosophy of less intervention, and less filtration of naturally occurring grape components. They are totally harmless.”

As hobby winemakers, we can tell you we had these crystals form in our early vino efforts and had to offer similar explanations. The crystals look like little floaty things and they will somewhat disappear if you shake the bottle a bit before opening. But that is purely for aesthetics. The crystals won’t hurt you nor will they impact the flavor of the wine. However, your Two Wine Nuts view the presence of these crystals as more of a sign of cheap (on a commercial scale) wine making and less an indication of organic, green methods. There is an easy way to prevent the crystals from forming. The wine simply needs to be cooled considerably (close to freezing) for a week or two during the winemaking process. This causes the crystals to collect at the bottom of the container/vat allowing the wine to be siphoned into a new container leaving the crystals behind. Homemade efforts may not allow the space or resources to stabilize the wine to this level. However, we feel commercial wines should.

That being said, we like this wine! At $9.99 at Trader Joe’s, CMS is an accessible wine for sipping or a casual dinner with friends. It smells primarily like a Cabernet Sauvignon – berries, some cherry, some plum. Taste-wise, it is not as heavy and full-bodied as a Cab but it is easy to sip for folks who consider themselves wine drinkers. However, this wine might be too astringent for the occasional wine drinker or for those who much prefer whites over reds.

A great $5 Fumé Blanc

While shopping in Trader Joe’s not long ago, one of your Two Wine Nuts was on the look out for Rock Rabbit Sauvignon Blanc. We have yet to find it locally but we are not giving up! In the meantime, while discussing our search woes with a TJ staff member, it was suggested that we try a 2006 Trader Joe’s Coastal Fumé Blanc instead. Always up for a wine adventure, we paid the $4.99 and waited for an opportunity to give it a whirl.

So why was a Fumé Blanc suggested when what we were looking for was a Sauvignon Blanc? Well, believe it or not, they are the same thing. Sauvignon Blanc is the real name for the grape that originally came from the Bordeaux region of France. Fumé Blanc is a name for the same thing, made up by none other than Robert Mondavi.

Apparently back in the late 1960’s, Mondavi came up with a rather tasty Sauvignon Blanc. But at the time, Sauvignon Blancs had a pretty bad reputation. Being the marketing genius he is, Mondavi decided to name his new wine something completely unknown. He came up with the new name Fumé Blanc, referring to a French wine appellation called Pouilly-Fumé. New name, no baggage. Now Mondavi’s a bazillionaire and lots of white wine drinkers have been confused in his wake.

And how was the $5 bottle of Trader Joe’s Fumé Blanc? Really, not bad at all. We decided it was a good porch wine: nice to sip casually with friends, just hanging out on the patio, not trying to match food or make a statement. The Coastal Fumé Blanc had a sweet smell of apricots and grapes but the taste was more acidic. It was a dry wine with a sharp tropical flavor that was somewhat pineappley. The finish was somewhat metallic. So overall, while this was not a fantastic wine, we consider it a great buy at just $5. We plan to keep a few bottles on hand to enjoy during the summer.

The Original Pizza Wine

Years ago, before Two Buck Chuck, your Two Wine Nuts discovered their first-ever pizza wine. We define Pizza Wine as a wine (usually red) that is inexpensive, easy to drink, inoffensive, and appropriate to serve with pizza, hot dogs on the grill, or any other casual meal. The wine that inspired the category was Fat Cat Cabernet Sauvignon by Black Mountain Vineyards, sold exclusively at Trader Joe’s.

A few nights ago we had pizza so we went to our go-to pizza wine. It was a 2005 Fat Cat and we were satisfied by our choice. It certainly wasn’t an amazing, oh-my-gosh wine but it served its purpose well. It was exceptionally sippable and it livened up with our pizza, especially the tomato sauce.

This Cabernet Sauvignon had everything a Cab should have: some bright red fruitiness, some oak, some tannin, some alcohol, some lingering finish. It just did not have any of these things in big enough quantities to make it a great wine. The Fat Cat is not a complex, complicated wine, but it is inoffensive and sippable and only $6 at Trader Joe’s. We recommend it as an everyday Cabernet. Online rumors suggest the Black Mountain Zinfandel is also pretty tasty, so stay tuned!

A Nice Second-Label Chardonnay

Hunting for a fruity, non-oaky Chardonnay, we recently picked up a bottle of a 2005 Hawk Crest Chardonnay. We know Hawk Crest because we know Stag’s Leap, so we hoped it was a safe bet. And it was.

So how are Stag’s Leap and Hawk Crest related? Hawk Crest is the more entry-level label from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars in Napa Valley. Stag’s Leap is known for rather elevated wines at correspondingly elevated prices. If you want a $50 Cabernet Sauvignon, consider Stag’s Leap. Understanding, however, that not everyone considers a $50 bottle of wine a reasonable expense, Stag’s Leap developed this secondary line of wines intended to be approachable, affordable, and drinkable when you buy them.

Stag’s Leap isn’t the only winery doing this. There are lots of wineries out there who have what is called a “second label.” Mondavi has one called Woodbridge. Geyser Peak’s is called Canyon Road. Well-known in the Pacific Northwest, Chateau St. Michelle has a second label called Columbia Crest. Liberty School – which now is a stand-alone wine – first started out as a secondary wine to Caymus. Even the extraordinarily fancy-pants winery Opus One is in the seconds game with Overture. For some, having a second label is a way to expand their market. For others, it’s a way to profitably sell wine that is OK but not up to the standards of their higher-end brand.

So back to the 2005 Hawk Crest Chardonnay. Your Two Wine Nuts are not big fans of Chardonnay done in the traditional California style. Meaning, we don’t like a ton of butter and vanilla and the taste of basically licking the inside of an oak barrel. But, Chardonnay can be crafted in a less woody way, allowing the fruit and crispness to show through. The 2005 Hawk Crest achieved this nicely.

We first noted that the color was not nearly as yellow as many Chardonnays. Instead, the Hawk Crest was lighter and more straw-colored. It had a nicely light smell, not huge and in-your-face (or, perhaps, in-your-nose). We caught whiffs of sweet vanilla (like ice cream), honeysuckle, and honey butter. Taste-wise, we were pleased to discover a nice crispness and sharpness to the Chardonnay. It still had a smoothness and creaminess to it, but it didn’t roll around in our mouths with a heaviness typical of many Chardonnays.

Overall, we would say the 2005 Hawk Crest Chardonnay is a good go-to Chardonnay if you don’t like the heavy, buttery oakiness found in many other versions. Although we found our bottle at BevMo, we’ve seen Hawk Crest in places like World Market and wine shops. And at just $9.99 per bottle, it’s hard to beat. Compared to the Oyster Bay Chardonnay we reviewed on February 3, we would say we like the Hawk Crest a bit better due its more pronounced fruitiness and better price.

Vineyard update

It’s been quite a while since the winemaker of your Two Wine Nuts gave an update about what is currently happening on the fermenting front.

Our 2006 wines are Riesling and Pinot Noir. The Riesling grapes we normally buy from a Willamette Valley vineyard tend to produce a very acidic wine – think something closer to orange juice than apple juice. Well, in ’06, the grapes finally got ripe enough to be more gentle. It’s still not a really sweet wine, but it’s more likely to be sipped in the afternoon than with bacon-n-eggs in the morning.

The Pinot Noir is an interesting story. In May of ’06, the Two Wine Nuts went wine tasting. We found a gentleman pouring wine with a picture of his vineyard behind him. The poor vines were growing out of what looked like softball-sized rocks with the occasional patch of dirt thrown in – very similar to the soil where we have planted our 54 Riesling vines.

After some serious talk, we convinced the man to sell us some grapes. His vineyard actually has very rocky soil in one area and more standard soil in another, so we took grapes from both. The wine from the less rocky soil ended up fruity and lively, but with very little backbone. The more rocky soil wine is still waking up – it’s rather dark and brooding at the moment. Good, but hidden. Ah, but blend them together 50-50, and you have a real winning wine, even now. I can’t wait to see what happens with more aging.

In 2007, we’ve got 3 wines working. First is another Riesling, this time from a different vineyard that tends to give more standard flavors like melon, peach, and pear. Second is a Syrah which is very dark at this point and really just needs some time to figure out what it’s going to be when it grows up. And third is my first “dessert wine.” It is a faux-ice wine made from fractionally thawed Riesling juice. Yum!

Our vineyard is sure taking its sweet time growing. After the 2007 growing season, only about 6 or 8 vines grew to a height where I can let them branch off. This means they will produce grapes during 2009. The rest of the vines still need a year to grow their trunks. There were also about 5 that I had to replace from scratch. Those won’t even have a chance to produce grapes until ’10, and are more likely to have to wait until ’11. Sigh…

At $10, this Cabernet is over-priced

In two previous posts, we have reviewed some new offerings from Cost Plus World Market. Presumably in an attempt to introduce people to some traditional California wines at great prices, World Market has recently introduced Chard-on-yeah! (see November 8, 2007 post), Zin-fat-u-ation (see December 17, 2007 post), and Cab-u-lous. Having now sampled all three we can definitively say we are unimpressed at best, disappointed at worst.

Cab-u-lous is billed as “…the way one feels when experiencing a perfect Cab.” Cute enough. And we would agree that a perfect Cabernet Sauvignon is indeed a fabulous experience. Sadly, this wine won’t get you even close.

The 2005 Cab-u-lous had a heavy plum nose that mostly overcame the big whiffs of alcohol. A perfect Cab will smell of blackberries and jam and likely some woodiness. It will smell deep and rich. This one, well, we would sum it up as a mediocre house wine with a thin, burnt oak flavor. Honestly, it tasted like a cheap Cabernet which made us conclude it is over-priced at the usually consumer-friendly price of $9.99. At $5 or $6 we would have felt our money had been better spent.

Perhaps our biggest disappointment with these three varietals offered by World Market is that folks new to wine will sample them with the assumption that they are representative of Chardonnay, Zinfandel, and Cabernet Sauvignon. In our opinion, the Chardonnay comes closest to tasting like its namesake but the other two sadly miss the mark.