Posts Tagged ‘California’
Not so petite
Lodi 2010, Petite Petit, Michael David Winery ($26.90, 12182551)
A blend of Petite Sirah (85%) and Petit Verdot (15%). Spent 16 months in French oak barrels. 14.5% ABV.
Sawdust, earth, spice and a hint of vanilla against a backdrop of plum and black cherry. Fruit-forward but in an appealing juicy way. More fluid, faceted, savoury and food-friendly than, say, the recently tasted Plume Cabernet. Drier and brighter, too. Light tannins provide sufficient structure and the oak doesn’t weigh things down, only chiming in on the decent finish. The bottle my glass came from had been open several hours and the wine was reportedly better for it, so extended carafing is probably a good idea. (Buy again? For a cookout, maybe.)
A feather in its Cab
Napa Valley 2010, Cabernet Sauvignon, Plume Winery ($31.50, 12155827)
The winery is a joint venture between two families, the California-based Zepponis and the Stewarts from BC’s Okanagan Valley. The name refers to the California quail‘s distinctive crest and to the Stewarts’ main winery, Quails’ Gate. This is the only wine Plume makes and 2010 is the second vintage. A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (90%), Petit Verdot (4%). Malbec (3%) and Merlot (3%) from purchased grapes grown in the Atlas Peak, Calistoga, Oak Knoll and Rutherford AVAs. Other than repeatedly touting that the wine is matured in “premium French oak barrels” for 20 months, the winery provides no wine-making information. 14.6% ABV.
Classic Napa Cab nose of blackberry liqueur, cassis, menthol, sweet oak and a whiff of alcohol. Full-bodied, with a smooth and glyceriny texture. Fruit-forward but not just about fruit – there’s a dark set of mineral, earth and wood flavours and a suprising bitter undertow. The tannins are ripe and round and the acidity’s high enough to keep the wine from feeling lethargic. The residual sugar and heavy vanilla oak had me thinking I wouldn’t want a second glass but aficonados of the New World style should make a beeline. (Buy again? Me, no. Cal Cab fans in search of a bargain, yes.)
MWG March 20th tasting (7/7): Singular Zins
Vin de France (2011), Z, Domaine de L’Arjolle ($19.95, LCBO 346072; available in Quebec as a $26 private import from L’Orée du bois)
100% Zinfandel from a one-hectare parcel of 16-year-old vines, the only Zinfandel planting in France. Manually harvested. Cold-soaked on the skins to extract phenolic compounds. Alcoholic fermentation takes place in temperature-controlled (25°C) wooden vats. The resulting wine is matured in first- and second-fill barrels (two-thirds American oak, one-third French oak) for 12 months. Zinfandel not being a permitted variety in the Languedoc, the wine can be labelled only as a vin de France with no mention of vintage or grape. 14% ABV.
Savoury nose of tarry plum and blackberry (but no jam or prune), spice, pipe tobacco and cured pork. Full-bodied and full of ripe fruit that’s balanced by smooth acidity and round tannins and nuanced by mineral, cocoa and smoke flavours, which isn’t to say the wine couldn’t be deeper, longer or more complex. Still, this is far from a bomb – not quite as dry or rustic as a Primitivo but closer in style and food-friendliness to those southern Italians than to some of the sweet, overripe, overconcentrated and searingly alcoholic Zins coming out of the Golden State these days. Decent overall, especially at the LCBO price. (Buy again? If in Ontario and in the mood for a civilized Zin, sure.)
Zinfandel 2008, Fiddletown AVA, Old Vine, Eschen-Rinaldi Vineyard, Easton ($36.50, 12131340)
100% Zinfandel from one of the oldest, if not the oldest, currently producing vineyard in California, some of whose vines date back to the original 1865 planting. Dry-farmed without the use of synthetic chemicals. Matured in French oak. 4,800 bottles made. 14.5% ABV.
Blueberry, boysenberry, dried herbs, granite dust, peppery spice, discreet oak. More medium- than full-bodied. Savoury and dry. The fruit is earthy, freshened by bright acidity and deepened by subtle wood and a mineral substrate with a ferrous vein. The stealth tannins come out on the long, heady but not hot finish. Compared with the interchangeable fruit- and oak-heavy Zins that rule the market, this is terroir-driven, admirably restrained, somewhat old-fashioned and definitely contemplation-worthy, the kind of wine that could bring Zinfandel lovers turned skeptics back into the fold. (Buy again? Done!)
Judgement Embarrass
“Here you go,” says the SAQ wine advisor, holding out a glass. “The bottle’s been open about four or five hours. If you guess what it is, I’ll be impressed.”
Deep garnet-purple right up to the rim: obviously a young wine. Outgoing nose of plum, bramble, stones and sweet oak with a pronounced herbal note (garrigueish but with some tarragon thrown in). A sip and it’s clear we’re looking at a medium-bodied, warm-climate red. The mouth-filling, sweet-ripe fruit is plushed by round tannins, deepened by dark minerals and buoyed by welcome if soft acidity. Vanilla-caramel overtones and a faint alcoholic flare mark the sustained finish. Oakier and more fruit-forward than I like but not bad.
“The weight and garrigue have me thinking Languedoc,” I say. “Or Spain? Maybe one of the newfangled blends of traditional and international varieties. Still, the oak sticks out in a way it usually doesn’t with those wines…”
“What do you think it goes for?”
“Around $30.”
A smile on his face, he goes into the back room and returns with a half-full bottle of…
Moon landing
Cuvée de la Luna 2009, California, Valley of the Moon ($25.60, 11306136)
A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (86%), Merlot (8%), Malbec (5%) and Cabernet Franc (1%) from vineyards in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma Mountain and Dry Creek Valley. Fermented in stainless steel. Matured 24 months in French, American and Hungarian oak barrels. 14% ABV.
Plum and cherry but no cassis, a light overlay of smoky oak, hints of dark spices. Sun-ripe but dry. Plush textured. Verging on full-bodied. There’s enough acidity and tannic structure to keep things focused and dark minerals to avoid monotonality. A surprising umami note joins the excpected oak on a decent finish. An admirable restraint is showing here – this isn’t a fruit bomb – and the winemaking is textbook. Unfortunately, textbooks don’t teach you how to add soul. (Buy again? If in the mood for a $25 industrially produced New World Cabernet Sauvignon, maybe.)
The good, the bad and… the ugly truth
Chardonnay 2011, Napa Valley, Stags’ Leap ($35.00, 00747444)
100% Chardonnay. A blend of estate-grown and purchased grapes. Hand-picked and whole cluster-pressed. A quarter of the wine was fermented in new French oak, a quarter in stainless steel and the rest in used oak. Malolactic fermentation was prevented. Matured six months on the lees with weekly stirring. 13.5% ABV per SAQ.com, 14.1% per the label.
A pretty promising nose, especially for a CalChard: citrus, pear, understated peach, stones, subtle oak, a whiff of alcohol. A let-down in the mouth. The good: middleweight; clean fruit, mostly grapefruit and green apple, with the expected tropical mix only hinted at; it’s not devoid of acidity; there are actually some minerals albeit vaguely metallic ones; the oak is a minor player; it’s butter-free. The bad: lacks precision; the minerals and acidity don’t coalesce into a structure, so the wine’s a little flabby; an odd bitter note lingers; the alcohol flares lightly on the finish. In short, a wine that’s less than the sum of its parts. It’s not terrible – certainly far more drinkable than some of the butter bomb Chards coming out of the Golden State – but, if you’re like me, you won’t be keen to have a second glass. The ugly truth: hard to justify when $35 gets you an all-singing, all-dancing white Burg. (Buy again? No.)
Qupé doll
Syrah 2011, Central Coast, Qupé Wine Cellars ($25.30, 00866335)
Mostly or entirely Syrah from various vineyards, mostly cool-climate, between Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara. A third of the bunches are left whole. All the grapes are given 24 to 48 hours’ cold maceration, followed by fermentaiton in open vats with two punch-downs a day. After 15 days, the wine is transferred into oak barrels (20 to 25% new), where it spends 18 months. Fined with egg whites before bottling. 13.5% ABV.
Enticing, savoury, juicy nose with a candied edge: boysenberry, strawberry, spice, dried herbs, faint leather and sandalwood. Medium-bodied and silky textured. Not fruit-driven (the ripe fruit is definitely there but it’s only one in a complex of flavours that includes dark minerals, wood, spice and earth) and not what you’d call a structured wine, though there are some fine tannins and coursing acidity. An appealing astringent sourness marks the finish, a little like you can get on Sangioveses, along with a lingering black olive note. Definitely New World and not plumbing great depths but varietally correct and ultimately enjoyable. I sometimes dismiss Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noirs with an “I can’t believe it’s not Syrah.” Well, while this isn’t an “I can’t believe it’s not Pinot Noir,” it’s a step in that direction. (Buy again? Sure, though there’s not a lot left in the system.)
MWG April 13th tasting (5/5): Napa seconds
A trio of Cabernet Sauvignons, all arguably Napa Valley equivalents of a second wine.
Napanook 2009, Napa Valley, Dominus Estate ($61.00, 11650439)
Dry-farmed Cabernet Sauvignon (87%), Petit Verdot (8%) and Cabernet Franc (5%) selected for its more accessible, earlier maturing characteristics. Manually harvested. Fermented on a lot-by-lot basis with gentle pump-overs. Vertical low-pressure pressing followed by racking into French oak barrels (20% new) for 18 months’ maturation. Fined with egg whites. 14.5% ABV.
Odd nose: smoke, sea salt, background red and black fruit, eventually red meat. Rich and sleek. The fruit is pure and beautiful but doesn’t have much to say.The tannins are less prominent than expected. Balance and dimension – breadth, depth and length – it’s got, up to a point. So, in its way impeccable but also faceless, a little like those Bordeaux blend Tuscans that taste like they could have been made anywhere. Let’s give it the benefit of the doubt and saying it’s passing through a phase. (Buy again? Well…)
Cabernet Sauvignon 2009, Le Petit Vice, Napa Valley, Vice Versa Wines ($60.00, 11089725)
The winery’s owner, Patrice Breton, hails from Quebec. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. Manually harvested. Destemmed. Fermented on the skins in stainless steel tanks for 25 days and cold-soaked for five days. Matured 23 months in 100% French oak barrels (80% new). Unfiltered and unfined. 15.3% ABV.
Red currant jam, a hint of dill and quite a bit of pickle (high volatile acidity). Started out odd, with plastic overtones marring the fruit. In time, the wine came around: the fruit clean and ripe, brightened by a fresh current of acidity, darkened by a tannic undertow, nicely framed by minerals, with the oak an element, not a looming presence. The sustained finish is kirschy but not hot. The big boy of the three. (Buy again? Well…)
Cabernet Sauvignon 2010, Napa Valley, Stags’ Leap Winery ($49.25, 00962837)
100% Cabernet Sauvignon according to the SAQ. The winery’s useless website provides zero technical information about its products. 13.9% ABV.
Elegant, textbook Cab nose: cassis and blackberry with an underlay of oak and graphite and hints of mint, green pepper and cedar. Smooth and rich with pure dark fruit, bright acidity and resolved tannins. Good length. The QPR winner of the trio. (Buy again? Well…)
Well, what? Assuming you’re not allergic to the fruit-forward style, all three wines are enjoyable. But they’re also somewhat short on personality, not to mention wow factor (the same criticism has been levelled at Bordeaux second wines, let us note). That said, the real issue here – as so often is the case with California wines – is bang for the buck: the least expensive bottle was $50 and the other two cost 20% more, for wines that most people around the table liked but didn’t get excited about. Buy again? If you’re a fan of Cal Cabs and money isn’t an issue, sure. My $60 will be going toward two or three bottles of more characterful, alive, versatile and exciting wines, many of them natural, from the Jura, the Loire, the Languedoc, Galicia, Dão, Sicily, Puglia, the Peloponnese, Austria…
MWG April 13th tasting (4/5): Twixt Old World and New
Syrah 2009, Syrocco, Domaine des Ouleb Thaleb ($20.60, 11375561)
A joint venture between Crozes-Hermitage-based winemaker Alain Graillot and Morocco’s largest wine producer, Thalvin. This 100% young-vine Syrah is made with grapes grown mainly in vineyards near the winery, which is located between Rabat and Casablanca and about 40 km inland from Morocco’s Atlantic coast. The vineyards are manually weeded and ploughed and no herbicides and fungicides are used. In 2009, the grapes were fully destemmed and fermented in closed concrete vats with daily pump-overs. Total maceration time was ten days. The wine then spent seven and a half months in tanks followed by seven and half months in French oak barrels (50% new, 50% second vintage). Lightly filtered before bottling. 13.5% ABV.
Rich, berries, smoke, sweat, hint of animale, eventually cola. Velvety and liqueur-ish, the ripe almost sweet fruit saved from bombdom by the tonic acidity, soft if puckery tannins and savoury edge. Slow-fade finish. Not as pure, complex or deep as Graillot’s Rhône Syrahs but enjoyable in its own right. The best wine from this project to date. (Buy again? Sure.)
Syrah 2010, No. 2, Central Victoria, Graillot Australia ($41.50, 11844815)
A joint venture between Alain Graillot and Bidbendum’s Robert Walters. Two cuvées are made – this second wine and the flagship Graillot Syrah – and 2010 was the first vintage of each. Both are 100% Syrah from organically farmed (though not certified as such) ten-year-old vines. The winemaking is identical for both cuvées: mostly destemmed but about 10% whole bunches; fermented in small open tanks with native yeasts; aged in a mix of old and new oak barrels. The batches for the cuvées are selected on a barrel by barrel basis and, as it turned out, in 2010 the oakiest batches went into the second wine (still only about 10% new oak). Screwcapped. 13% ABV.
“Wet rubber-clad dog” was one taster’s description of the initially dominant smell (probably related to screwed-up screwcapping). I also got plum, bacon, pepper and tomato sauce. Rich, dense and intense but still more Syrah- than Shiraz-like. The ripe fruit is structured with round tannins and welcome acidity. A minerally substrate grounds and deepens the wine. Long finish with faint chocolate notes. Ready to go. (Buy again? Not at the current asking price.)
Syrah 2009, Le Pousseur, Central Coast, Bonny Doon ($26.80, 10961016)
100% Syrah made from purchased grapes grown in three Central Coast vineyards. Each vineyard’s production is manually harvested and fermented separately. Indigenous yeasts. Maturation in French oak barrels. Both tartaric acid and sulphur dioxide are added. Screwcapped. 13.5% ABV.
Rich and savoury nose: red meat, leather, dusty minerals, plum, background oak and a whiff of alcohol. Plush yet fluid. Full of ripe fruit but not a bomb. Fine tannins and juicy acidity. It all adds up to a vin plaisir, albeit a slightly pricey one. (Buy again? Maybe.)
Syrah 2009, Les Côtes de l’Ouest, California, Terre Rouge ($23.20, 00897124)
98% Syrah, about 60% coming from a Sierra foothills vineyard and the rest from various mountain sites, and 2% Viognier. The grapes were lightly crushed, co-fermented in large tanks with regular pump-overs. Matured 17 months in French oak barrels (20% new). 14.5% ABV.
Herbs, earth, blackberry liqueur with a red meat note. Pure and, despite the high alcohol, balanced. There’s a certain depth of flavour (though not of structure), a vein of slatey minerals and a clean, lightly astringent finish. The most Rhône-ish of the bunch. If this were under $20, it’d be a certifiable QPR winner. (Buy again? Sure.)
New arrivals from Glou (5/5)
Located near Templeton in the Paso Robles AVA, AmByth Estate acquired its land in 2001 and planted its first vines in 2004. With daytime temperatures reaching 100ºF (38ºC) or higher in the summer, the owners wisely decided to focus on southern European grape varieties. As hot as it gets at midday, cool Pacific winds bring the night temperatures down to around 50ºF (10ºC), helping to preserve the grapes’ acid balance and prevent overripeness. The estate is certified organic and biodynamic and its 20 acres (8 ha) of vineyards and olive groves are dry-farmed. Winemaking uses natural yeasts and no added anything, except sulphur (no sulphur in the 2012s). The wines are bottled unfiltered and unfined. The estate has begun experimenting with amphoras. Total annual wine production is around 1,000 cases.
Red Table Wine 2011, Paso Robles, AmByth Estate ($34.55, Glou, 6 bottles/case)
Having only small quantities of fruit in frosty springed 2011, the estate decided to concoct a one-off table wine from lots that didn’t make it into the regular cuvées. A crazy blend of Grenache (20%), Mourvèdre (19%), Sangiovese (19%), Tempranillo (18%), Grenache Blanc (10%), Counoise (7%), Syrah (5%) and Marsanne (2%), all from estate vineyards. 14 ppm sulphur was added. 138 cases were made; as of this posting, Glou has only one left. 13.3% ABV.
Savoury nose of red and black fruit (a bit Chambord-like), hay stubble, ink. Medium-bodied with good acidity, slender yet pleasantly raspy tannins and clean fruit, neither candied nor heavy. Tastes of the earth. Very drinkable. (Buy again? Yes but…)
Adamo 2009, Paso Robles, AmByth Estate ($47.00, Glou, 6 bottles/case)
Grenache (59%) Mourvèdre (17%), Syrah (13%) and Counoise (11%). Lightly stomped with the stems. Part of the GSM was fermented in a new French oak barrel, part in a neutral barrel; all was given two weeks’ maceration. The remaining GSM and the Cournoise were open-top fermented with regular punch-downs. 90 cases made. 13% ABV.
Red and black berries, lightly candied, along with some dusty garrigue notes. Soft-textured, pure and, for a Southern Californian, restrained, an impression only heightened by the bright acidity and sinewy tannins. Long, lightly astringent finish. Not a lot of depth but a really enjoyable surface. Ready to go. (Buy again? Yes but…)
With their lean fruit, strong acidity, reasonable alcohol levels, overall poise and great savour, these are some of the freshest, food-friendliest, most non-palate-clobbering (digeste, as the French succinctly say) Rhône-style wines from the New World I’ve tasted. Why the “yes buts” then? In a word, QPR, which is low relative to the wines’ Old World counterparts. But that’s true for many Californians these days, let alone micro-production natural wines from artisanal producers. Relative to other Golden State wines, they’re not overpriced (e.g. $47 Adamo vs. $49 Cigare Volant).
Brett happens 