Wine Speed Tasting: Reds

Every year at the Wine Blogger’s Conference, we partake in Live Wine Blogging. Basically, winemakers move from table to table, telling us about their wine in 5 minutes or less. We get to make a snap judgement and blog about it. It’s sort of like speed dating for wine and it’s equally as exhausting.

This year the Live Blogging sessions were split into two: Whites & Rosés on Friday and Reds on Saturday.  Because we had so little time to learn, ask questions, and type, the notes aren’t the best. They should, however, give you a general idea of how we felt about the wine. The reds, in general, were consistently more impressive than the whites.

Reds

Wine #1: Desert Wind Ruah, Merlot blend: 46% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Cabernet Franc
Soft and silky with structure throughout. At $20 would go great with Steak or heavier food.Little bit of tartness on the middle.Lighter tannins and acid makes this a drink sooner rather than later. A little too green for Michelle.

Kevin: Michelle:

Wine #2: Duck Pond Red Blend: 52% Merlot, 29% Syrah, 19% Cabernet Sauvignon
Wahluke Slope, Washington (Columbia Valley)
Slightly tannic, ready to drink now and rather fruit forward.  ~$15

Our rating:

Wine #3: Mollydooker Velvet Glove, 100% Shiraz single vineyard
Nice and well rounded. Surprisingly, much lower in alcohol than other Mollydooker wines.  2010 Velvet Glove will join the rest of the Mollydooker line with a screwcap.  Wine is thick and coats the glass, but the fruit is not as up front as a more traditional californian shiraz. Drinking this ruins your glass for anything else, it’s so thick. It’s also not an easy wine to get through – better off sipped over a period of time. Coffee and chocolate flavors. $185/bottle

Our rating:

Wine #4: Trio Vintners 2007 Riot Red Table Wine: 52% Sangiovese, 36% Syrah, 12% Mourvedre
Columbia Valley, WA
Light, easy-drinking, pleasant berries. Strong acid and nice overall flavor. Mouvedre smooths out the Sangiovese. Well done Italian blend. Different from others, yet tasty..

Our rating:

Wine #5: Ponzi 2008 Pinot Noir
Willamette Valley, Oregon
Almost a little effervescence and bubbles on initial taste. 11 Mo in French oak. $35 a bottle.Kind of a basic level Pinot. Newly bottled  and not the best.  Everyone agreed later that there was something wrong with this wine. It shouldn’t have been bubbly. From Michelle’s perspective, it was definitely too bright and fruity for an Oregon Pinot Noir, lacking earth.

Our review: Review withheld due to the fact we believe it was a bad bottle.

Wine #6: Stoller JV Pinot Noir 2007
Dundee Hills, Oregon
Heavy terroir and earthiness on the nose. Sustainable winery that is an old turkey farm that was transitioned to winery. Burgundy was referenced as a similar area. 10 mo in oak, mostly neutral. This is a great example of what new world grown pinot noir can taste like. Turned earth and subtle cherries all over the palate. $25

Our rating:

Wine #7: Cornerstone Stepping Stone 2008 Napa Valley Cabernet Franc

Tons of tannins and acidity. Acid is flavor, tannins are a feeling. According to Craig, “Acidity is what makes a wine live.” This would age well (might even benefit). Very balanced with lots of tannins and acid, but happily lacking in vegetal flavors. $30 bottle. 600 cases.

Our rating:

Wine #8: Sequel by Longshadows 2007 Columbia Valley Syrah (98%syrah with 2% cabernet)
Washington state
We have very few notes on this one – just a rating. It’s worth mentioning that we did pick this up at a charity auction (and paid a pretty penny) because the Sequel line has such a great reputation.

Our rating:

Wine #9: Solena Estates 2008 Pinot Noir
Hyland Vineyard, McMinnville, Oregon
Solena Estates was Michelle’s big find at the Conference. She fell in love with the consistently earthy pinot noirs they produce. 2008 is set to be best  vintage ever from Oregon. Earthy with an acidic finish, but still plenty of fruit up front. Single vineyard designates is primary focus. Volcanic soil. $50

Our rating:

Wine #10: Concannon 2007 Petit Syrah
Livermore Valley, CA
Nice bing cherry and acid on the finish. Big wine – called the “little monster.” 12 mo american oak. plus 6 months in large 58 year old large barrels. 4 months since bottled, but still ready to drink. Bottle itself seems to weigh a ton. Vineyard is in a conservancy land trust near the San Francisco Bay. Made us crave steak. $15/bottle

Our rating:

Wine #12: Jordan 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon blend: 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot., 5% Petite Verdot, 1% Malbec
Napa Valley, CA
Decanted. Balanced and not as fruit forward as we first expected. Earthiness is in the mid palate with fruit up front and tart fruit on the finish.  $52

Our rating:

Wine Speed Tasting: Whites and Pinks

Every year at the Wine Blogger’s Conference, we partake in Live Wine Blogging. Basically, winemakers move from table to table, telling us about their wine in 5 minutes or less. We get to make a snap judgement and blog about it. It’s sort of like speed dating for wine and it’s equally as exhausting.

This year the Live Blogging sessions were split into two: Whites & Rosés on Friday and Reds on Saturday.  Because we had so little time to learn, ask questions, and type, the notes aren’t the best. They should, however, give you a general idea of how we felt about the wine.

Whites & Rosés

Wine #1: Pithy Little Wine Company, Sangiovese Rosé with 2% Syrah
Jeff and Felicia, San Luis Obispo, CA, with grapes from all over the state. Nice melon and spice characteristics. Blood orange was mentioned as possible characteristic as well. Finishes quick but has the acid on the finish. Watermelony, summery, some spice on the finish. Flat rate wine shipping.
Our rating:

Wine #2: Ortman Family Wines 2007 Edna Valley Chardonnay
Pasadena / Paso Robles
Family owned winery. Well-balanced chardonnay with a little butteriness. 25% New French Oak, 20-40% malolactic fermentation. A little too much oak for Michelle’s taste. 1500 cases.
Our rating:

Wine #3: Pepperwood Grove California Chardonnay in a box, non vintage
Pepperwood Grove is a familiar label by Sebastiani that added box wines just a few months ago. It’s not too oaky, which was surprising. 88% chardonnay, 10% chenin blanc,  splash of viognier. Clarksburg and Interior valley grapes and  6 months oak staving.
Cost is ~$19 for 3L.
Michelle: Kevin

Wine #4: Desert Wind Winery 2009 Viognier
Prosser, WA
Viognier is my favorite grape and this one was a standout during the speed tasting. In fact, I decided I really enjoy Washington state Viognier in general. This was flowery, fruit loopy (as it should be) and light, with spices on the finish. Slightly oily mouthfeel (in a good way).  ~$15
Our rating:

Wine #5: Long Shadows Poets Leap Riesling, 2009 Columbia Valley
German winemaker comes to walla walla to get grapes and sticks around. Full of slate, with a little bit of sweetness. Acidic.
Our rating:

Wine #6: Octavin Big House White in a box
Familiar brand – also available by the bottle.  ~21.99 for the box. Fairly enjoyable. A crazy mix of grapes: 51% Malvasia Bianca, 14% Muscat Canelli, 13% Viognier, 10% Gruner Veltliner, 5% Pinot Gris, and 4% Riesling. Kevin judged this assuming it was a Chardonnay and gave it a low score. However, since it’s not a Chardonnay, I actually gave it a decent rating. I tend to prefer boxed reds, and this is the first boxed white I’ve tried that I think I could sit around and enjoy periodically. Is it an award winner? No. But it’s fun for a hot day after you’ve mowed the yard.
Michelle’s rating:

Wine #7: Maryhill Winery 2008 Viognier
Winery in Walla Walla.
Oaky and creamy at first, cotton candy on the finish. Used 1 barrel of neutral oak to bring in oak flavoring.
Our rating:

Wine #8: Hogue 2008 Genesis Chardonnay, Washington
Hogue was the 19th winery in Washington state – now there are a lot more. Unoaked chardonnay. From sunny side in Yakima valley. 13.9% ABV. Chablis style with nice, crisp flavors. Good light summer wine. $16.00/bottle, but look for specials. Nationally available.
Our rating:

Wine #9: Buty Winery 2008 White Blend: muscadelle, semillon, sauvignon blanc
I tend to shy away from muscadelle – it’s just not one of my favorite grapes. That said, this wasn’t bad. Used oak. High acid. Goal is to be distinctive in Washington.  $23 retail.
Our rating:

Wine #10: Dusted Valley Ramblin’ Rosé
This was my second favorite wine of the speed tasting (after the Desert Wind Viognier).  The wine is made up of 52% mourvedre, 29% counoise, 16% syrah, and 2%viognier. 273 cases produced. Spends 16 hours on skins. No malolactic fermentation – all stainless to get life and crispness. . ~$18 retail. This is all younger fruit farmed specifically for use in the rosé. Has a lot of heft.
Our rating:

Wine #11: DeLille Cellars 2008 Chaleur Estate Blanc: blend of 62% Sauvignon Blanc, 38% Semillon
White Bordouex style inspired wines. Old world traditionalist in the new world. Whole berry press grapes. Will be racked in barrels. Acid does help balance the wood but too oaky for Michelle.  60% new french oak. $34.
Michelle: Kevin: 

Wine #12: Duck Pond Cellars 2008 Pinot Gris
Dundee, Oregon
Vanilla and spice, Stainless steel and  2% barrel fermentation. Made dry to keep alcohol content low. Nice standard Pinot Gris. Fresh flavors and light acid. ~$15
Our rating:

Wines of Chile: Sauvignon Blanc

Every quarter or so, Kevin and I get a big box of sample wines from the marketing/PR team behind Wines of Chile. The box comes with some information on the wines and an invitation to a really cool virtual tasting. Kevin and I, along with countless other wine bloggers, participate in a video webinar of sorts. Video cameras are set up in Chile and in New York. In Chile, we have the winemakers responsible for whichever wines we’ve been sent. In New York, we have a moderator. And spread out across the United States, we have a lot of wine bloggers, all connected through web conferencing software.

In the webinar chat and on Twitter, we chat about the wines and ask questions (Twitter transcript). Our moderator reads the questions and feeds them to the winemakers. In the end, we have quite the virtual conversation.

And now, the wines …

Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc Reserva 2009, Casablanca Valley: Very traditional sauvignon blanc, filled with flavors of ruby red grapefruit, with tons of citrus front and back. There were a lot of pleasant green notes, and a minerality to the wine. It was one of our top three favorites and I know it’s available locally.

Ventisquero Quelat Sauvignon Blanc 2009, Casablanca Valley: I was not blown away by this one, but Kevin didn’t mind it as much. This was much heavier than the previous sauvignon blanc. We both found it to be laced with green pepper, and even the winemaker commented on the jalapeno. The pepper did fade a bit after the bottle was open a while, but it still wasn’t my thing.
Michelle: Kevin: :>

Undurraga T.H. (Terroir Hunter) Sauvignon Blanc 2009, Leyda Valley: More peppers! This time there was green chile pepper – again, it’s not my thing. It was tempered a bit though and the wine was a bit too heavy for me on its own. It didn’t pair well with the quiche we had for dinner, but I suspect it might be food friendly – with the right kind of food.  Kevin thought the pepper was a treat and it reminded him slightly of a pepper vodka he tried from [possibly] Hangar One.
Michelle: Kevin: :>

Valdivieso Single Vineyard Wild Fermented Sauvignon Blanc 2009, Leyda Valley: There was no typicity on this wine and the nose (to me) was distinctly of nail polish remover. Here’s the thing – it was Wild Fermented. In other words, the winemaker (we think) went out of his way to create something different. However, all the wine bloggers were sort of stymied by this wine, so Wines of Chile are sending out another bottle, in case this one was bad.
Our review? The jury is still out.

Santa Rita Medalla Real Sauvignon Blanc 2009, Leyda Valley: At first I really like this one, as there was the traditional grapefruit and grassiness that I’m found of. Then I was hit by the tomato. No kidding. Kevin called it tomato vines combined with green beans. We had it again the next night and it wasn’t very drinkable, as if the tomatos had 100% invaded the wine.

Cono Sur Organic Sauvignon Blanc 2009, San Antonio Valley: Kevin and I are big fans of Cono Sur wines over all and found this one to be as good as we expected. It was easy to drink and held up over two evenings. Kevin called it a lawn mowing wine, so stay clear of our house when he has the mower out. This had a brightness to it, was very food friendly (paired well with our quiche), and even seemed to have a touch of creamsicle flavoring.

Haras de Pirque, Haras Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2009, Maipo Valley: Hands down, this was my favorite wine of the evening. There was a bit of the traditional sauvignon blanc flavors, with grassiness and minerality. But there was also a creaminess. This wine also paired well with our quiche and was easy to drink.

Casa Silva Cool Coast Sauvignon Blanc 2009, Paredones Estate, Colchagua Valley: Kevin noted a spicy flavor to our last sauvignon blanc. I found it grapefruity, but not grasse. Initially, I thought it was a bit sour but after a few sips that faded and I found the same spice as Kevin.
:>

Ventosa Vineyards Tocaice

I have no idea where I got this wine. I found it in my refrigerator last night and declared it the “wine of the evening.”  I suspect it came home with me from the 2008 Wine Bloggers Conference as a gift from my friend Lenn of the New York Cork Report.

Why do I suspect it came from Lenn? Because it came from the Finger Lakes of upstate New York. I’m really torn, here, between waxing on about the Finger Lakes region and telling you about the grape, so let me do just a little of both.

The Finger Lakes aren’t that far from here. Get in your car, drive 8 hours toward Canada, and veer off a little near Rochester. You’ll find yourself in the lovely and relaxing Finger Lakes region of New York. Kevin and I have been to Seneca Lake, as it’s an easy drive from Rochester. There are three lakes that look like fingers in an aerial shot, Seneca, Keuka, and Cayuga. Oneida is not an official Finger Lake but is often thought of as the thumb anyway.

There are countless wineries up there. Seneca Lake alone has over 35 wineries. In fact, this year’s wine blogger TasteCamp is being held in the Finger Lakes in May. We’re missing it due to various siblings graduating from college. (Some things are more important than wine, you know.) Seeing as how it’s an easy drive, I highly recommend you get in your car one Friday morning and take an impromptu long weekend on Seneca Lake.

2007 Ventosa Vineyards Tocaice Ice Wine, Seneca Lake / Finger Lakes, NY

The Tocaice is an ice wine made from the Tocai Friulano grape. Known as an Italian grape, it is commonly grown in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. Recently, the EU ruled that the Italian wine must now be referred to as Friulano in order to prevent confusion with a similar Hungarian grape, known as Tokaji. For some reason, the fact the grape had to basically change its name has always made me sympathetic towards it.

It’s still predominantly grown in Italy but you can find a smattering of the grape in Argentina. I was rather surprised to pull this out of my ‘fridge last evening to see it was a Friulano from the Finger Lakes. Apparently Ventosa Vineyards has an eye towards the Italian, with several Italian style wines and plantings of both Friulano and Sangiovese on property.

This is, of course, a dessert wine. It’s sweet, with 37 Brix and 16.2 Residual Sugar. Since we’ve had this a few years, I came across some sugar crystals in my glass, which always makes me laugh. When we first opened it, we were pretty much assaulted by the scent of green apples rushing out of the bottle. That receded a bit and we were able to pick out the floral and apricots.

Being an ice wine, this is particularly viscous. I was impressed by the balance though – there was enough acidity from the grape to balance out the sweetness. I’ve run into the occasional ice wine that is more like mead than anything else. This was definitely a well thought out dessert wine. Sipping this wine, Kevin and I both found a lot of apple. But as I spent some time with it, I also found apricots and peaches in there. Considering our unseasonably warm weather right now (no complaints) and the breeze blowing through the windows last evening, this was the perfect nightcap on balmy spring night.

Shel: Kevin:

#OTBN: 2005 Lazarre Pinot Noir

This past Saturday was Open That Bottle Night. I’d forgotten about it, until I saw a bunch of tweets on Saturday night. OTBN asks that you take that special bottle of wine you’ve been saving for a special occasion, and just open it. No occasion is ever special enough, right? I’m particularly bad at hanging onto wine for a special occasion, so OTBN is a good exercise for me, and I never regret it.

Last year we opened a Staglin Family 20th Anniversary Cabernet Sauvignon. This year, we dived into my Pinot Noir collection. Every year I find some small little Pinot Noir vintner and invest in 3 bottles. I know 3 bottles isn’t a lot, but it is to my pocketbook. Generally these pinots aren’t cheap. Last year, when I met Adam Lazarre and fell head over heels for his Hahn wines, I knew I’d found my pinot investment for the year. Adam, in addition to his winemaking responsibilities at Villa San Juliette, also has his own label that is exclusively pinot noir. I immediately ordered my 3 bottles.

2005 Lazarre Pinot Noir Sierra Madre Vineyard, Santa Maria Valley
~$40 (I can’t quite remember), special ordered from The Party Source

This particular pinot, of which there were only 112 cases made, is from Santa Maria Valley. Santa Maria, considered part of California’s Central Coast, is one of the state’s coolest grape-growing regions and offers one of the longest seasons between bud and harvest. It’s a superstar region for both Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Maybe it’s because I have a “wine crush” on Adam Lazarre. (Leave me alone. I can still have crushes.) But I’ve always found his Pinot Noirs to have a bit of sex appeal, and they do tend to send me reeling into hyperbole. This bottle was no exception.

It’s a bit young and would benefit from some more time in the bottle. That’s fine with me, considering I’ve got two more bottles maturing in my basement.  It also would have benefited from some air. Since I remembered OTBN at the last minute, we pretty much opened and poured at 10 pm on Saturday night. So with our first taste, the wine was still a bit tight. That said, it was still enjoyable, with a lot of earthiness. Our first night with this wine made me think of the Latin dances I learn in ballroom. They are all sexy and just this side of wild, with all of the passion starting at the earth and working it’s way up to the hips.

The next night we finished the bottle and it had taken the time to open up a bit. Why do I think I still need to age the other 2 bottles? Because even on night two, this pinot was a bit wild and untamed. It lost a bit of the earthiness and instead was silky, like the perfect lingerie. To continue the ridiculous analogy I started above, our second night with this wine was more like an Argentine Tango, a dance that started in the bordellos of South America.

Adam’s wines seem to affect me on an emotional level. As many wines as I drink, that really doesn’t happen very often. It’s also why I’d give my left arm to afford the Morton’s wine dinner next week, featuring Villa San Juliette.

Our review: