#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:

My New Signature Wine: Bombshell Red

Every now and then, I find a wine that’s a lot of fun and will actually appeal to all of my wine friends – the snobs, the not-so-snobby, and the ones who drink because they like to drink.

Kevin Keith, of Dep’s Fine Wines, tweeted about a special last Friday on the Bombshell Red by Airfield Estates. I was instantly intrigued by the name and when I got to the store, well, the label actually sold me. (Yeah, I fell for the label.)

There was some serious wine to back up the label though. Before I rushed off with a bottle, I tried the Airfield Cabernet that was on the tasting table. It was quite good, so I was encouraged. But we tried the Bombshell Red the other night and I can promise, this is the wine I’m giving anyone who asks me to bring them a bottle.

Airfield Estates Bombshell Red 2008, Yakima Valley, Washington
$15.99 (Dep’s Fine Wine)

I admit to being a little partial. Like the wine, I’m a curvy redhead, and this is certainly a voluptuous wine. A blend of 41% Syrah, 35% Merlot, 11% Cabernet, 5% Sangiovese, 4% Malbec, and 3% Cabernet Franc, those curves come from just about everywhere. This is a fun wine, with a lot of fruit and spice on the nose that echos on the palate.  There is a bunch of upfront jammy goodness, including some blackberries and some cinnamon toast to smooth it all out. Just to balance out the wine, there is a bit of tannin on the finish. We think this table wine would pair nicely with pizza or even a dry rub BBQ.

I’m heading out to Seattle in March for a non-wine-related conference. If I have time, I plan on renting a car and heading out to Prosser to visit Airfield Estates. If that doesn’t work out, you can bet I’ll be dropping by their winery on my way to the 2010 Wine Bloggers Conference in Walla Walla this summer.

My review:

Drink Pink: 2007 Montes Cherub

As part of my own little Drink Pink
initiative, I’ve opened several rosés and wines that donate to Breast Cancer research in the last month. Truthfully, a lot of them have been disappointing. So instead of posting each not-so-great wine on its own, I’ll do a wrap-up next week.

For today, I’m sharing my all-time favorite pink with you. I originally
reviewed this wine back around Valentine’s Day, but it’s worth sharing.
This one is over and above my favorite rosé. It’s also really affordable, coming in around $14.00.

2007 Montes Cherub Rosé of Syrah

The cherub is actually a cartoon rendering by Ralph Steadman of Alfredo Vidaurre, a founding partner of the Montes winery.

Montes is a Chilean winery and this wine comes from their Archangel estate in the Colchagua Valley, close to the Pacific Ocean. This particular rosé is 100% syrah. The color is a ruby red, but still obviously a rosé. The particular color comes from the juice and the skins having a one night
stand. I’m not kidding. It’s called a vin de nuit – the wine spends one night only in contact with the red-grape skins.

On the nose I got, appropriately, roses. I still hate the cliche of roses on a rosé, but sometimes it happens. (A rose is rosé by any other name?) Of course, the scent wasn’t just floral, there was some undefinably red fruits on there too.

The taste and texture are what won me over. It’s a rich, ripe wine, filled with crisp cherries and raspberries. It’s also a wine with heft, dry without
tannins. There’s a lot of structure and balance and it completely fills up your mouth. There’s a long, pleasing aftertaste that still manages
to be gentle. I would go so far as to say this rosé is sophisticated.

At under $15, it’s also a great deal. Montes makes some great wines, including the equally affordable Montes Folly and the not-so-affordable but excellent Purple Angel.

The real endorsement? Even Kevin likes this wine, and as he likes to say, he’s still looking for his inner pink.

Rating:

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Parts of this post originally posted on Feb 13, 2009

Sparkling Wine with Dinner

Tomorrow night, the Dilly Cafe (Dilly Deli) in Mariemont is hosting a wine dinner with sparkling wine vintners Domain Chandon. At last check, there were still about 8 seats left and at $65, the price is pretty reasonable.

Now, I’d be perfectly happy to only drink sparkling wine (including champagne, prosecco, cava, and others) for the rest of my life. It is my favorite type of wine, closely followed by pinot noir. But to get you in the mood for a sparkling wine dinner, I thought I’d talk a little about a seminar we took in Disney, with Moët & Chandon, Domaine Chandon’s parent company. Moët & Chandon, based in France, makes champagne. Domaine Chandon, in Napa, makes sparkling wine using the traditional champagne method. Only sparkling wine made in the Champagne region of France can actually be called “champagne.” For our purposes, I’m just going to go with “bubbly.”

Our instructor was Seth Box, Director of Education for Moët & Chandon USA. One of the first things he did was to preemptively correct the class’s pronunciation. Despite the fact that folks everywhere pronounce it Mo-AY and Chandon, it’s actually Mo-ETT. That, folks, is what those two little dots mean over the e.

Champagne, and sparkling wine in the champagne method, can be made from three grapes: Pinot Noir gives the wine backbone and structure, Chardonnay lends elegance, and the Pinot Meunier picks up the slack as a workhorse grape. I find this interesting, as I really enjoy Pinot Meunier on its own. In fact, I think Domain Chandon might make one of the few Pinot Meunier-only wines available on our retail shelves.

Seth pretty much told us to just enjoy our samples while he talked
about Moët & Chandon and bubbly in general. I thought I’d touch on
some of the more interesting points he shared before I dive into our
review of the wines.

• Why are bubbly hangovers so bad? It’s for one of two reasons: either you drank too much, in which case you probably earned your hangover, or your drank bad bubby. No kidding folks. Drink too many bottles of $5 Andre and you’re going to feel it for a reason. According to Seth, the cheaper bubblies are suffering from poor workmanship. The grapes are squeezed too hard, releasing histamines into the wine. The histamines are then fermented. It’s a sign. Drink. Better. Wine.
• Store your bubbly upright. Kevin and I keep ours upright in our pantry, where it’s dark and there’s no vibration. But don’t store it too long. Seth commented that “It’s a British thing to sit on wine until you’re almost dead.” Most non vintage bubblies have aged at the winery and are ready to drink now.
• There are ~250 million bubbles in a bottle of champagne. That’s a lot of bubbles folks. The cork can come out of the bottle at up to 65 miles per hour, due to the pressure built up behind the cork.

On to the wines. We tried three, all Moët & Chandon Non-Vintage. I enjoyed all three, but definitely preferred the second glass.

Rosé (Brut): According to Seth, this pink wine was the best of our three for food pairing, because the contact with the red grape skins (thus the pink) lends a little bit of tannins to the wine. This wine had some strawberries, light cherries, and a good texture.

Michelle: Kevin

Imperial (Extra Dry): You might know this wine as White Star. Until recently, it was known world-over as Imperial, except in the US. They changed the name domestically so that you could order your favorite sparkler by the same name, no matter where you land. I’ve always been a fan of White Star, er, Imperial. It has more of the dry, bread-y flavors I prefer in a good bubbly, and it’s not very sweet.

Michelle & Kevin:

Nectar Imperial (Demi-Sec): This was by far the sweetest. I’m not a huge fan of sweet bubbly, so this one was my least favorite. I made a very unscientific observations at the Dessert & Champagne booth, however. I noticed this wine was being poured more frequently than the other bubblies and that it was almost always chosen by women. Seth noted that this wine pairs well with strong cheeses, such as cheddar, gouda, and chevre.

Michelle & Kevin:

The Dilly Cafe dinner (full menu) on Tuesday begins with a reception at 6:30 pm and dinner at 7 pm. Again, it’s a Domain Chandon wine dinner, which is located in Napa and owned by Moët & Chandon. In fact, Domaine Chandon has a special place in my heart as the first winery I ever visited in Napa, back in 2004. There was no doubt in my mind that we were going to begin that trip with some sparkling wine. I recommend you give Domaine Chandon a try as well. You can RSVP by calling 513.561.5233.

Drink Pink: Mulderbosch Rosé of Cabernet Sauvignon

As part of my own little Drink Pink
initiative, I opened another rosé the other night. It was no Belle Glos, but it was pretty good.

2009 Mulderbosch Rosé, Stellenbosch, South Africa
$10.99, Dep’s Fine Wines (formerly Liquor Direct)

The Mulderbosch Rosé is made from Cabernet Sauvignon. Because it’s made from a hefty grape, so to speak, it’s a fairly hefty rosé, and would handle food nicely. In fact, the back of the bottle recommends crab cakes, chicken satay, spring rolls with ginger, herb rubbed turkey, ratatouille, and fruit-glazed pork chops.

The nose was lovely, filled with roses, strawberries, and cherries.

I found it started out a little like drinking a Sweet Tart candy. Now, I love Sweet Tarts, but I’m surprised when I find them in my wine. There was also a lot of tart cherry and pomegranate. As the wine warmed up a little, I noticed a slightly herbal finish, gradually supplanting all that tartness.

It’s a good wine, especially for the price.

Our review:

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Drink Pink: 2008 Belle Glos Pinot Noir Blanc

As part of my own little Drink Pink initiative, I dived into my first rosé of the month. I'll tell you right now, it will be hard for any other rosé to live up to this one. I apparently started at the top.

2008 Belle Glos Pinot Noir Blanc, Mendocino County, California
$18.99, Water Tower Fine Wines

Have you heard of Caymus? They're rather well known for their Cabernet. So well known, in fact, that in order to focus on some rather nice Pinot Noir, the winemaker had to open a separate winery. In 2001, that's how Belle Glos came to be. 

Belle Glos is distinctive for its wax-dipped bottles, a la Maker's Mark. The Pinot Noirs all have a dark red wax, but this rosé sports a brilliant pink. It's actually a gorgeous bottle. I had to have it as soon as I saw it in the store. (The wax has a pull tab, making it easy to remove from the top.)

The wine has a wonderful aroma of flowers and wild strawberries. You can see in the photo that the wine itself is almost a jewel-tone. The rosé is made from pinot noir, which is my favorite red grape.

I've never said this about a rosé before, but this is a sexy rosé. It makes sense, as pinot noir can be one of the most sensuous wines around, but rosé? My hats off to the winemaker. This has a lot of big dark berries and just a kiss of strawberry.

This isn't one of those light, prissy rosés; this wine has some heft to it. We drank it solo, but I bet it would also prove to be an excellent food wine, holding up to some heavier pairings.

Perhaps the biggest recommendation for this wine is that Kevin had several glasses and he likes to say he hasn't "found his inner pink." He's usually not a fan of rosés, but I think this one won him over. I also think it's worth the $18.99.

Enjoy!

Our review:

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Drink Pink: 2007 Hope Estate Pink Awareness Shiraz Reserve

As part of my pledge to Drink Pink this month, I picked up a bottle of the Hope Estate Shiraz. A portion of the proceeds from each bottle is donated to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. The Hunter Valley “Pink Awareness” Shiraz Reserve will
generate a $60,000 donation to the NBCF. This donation will be used to
help educate women for early detection and for much needed research in finding a cure.

Hope Estate 'Pink Awareness' Shiraz Reserve, Hunter Valley, Australia
Party Town, ~$12.99

While this wine may have a big purpose, it doesn't have a big punch. The nose is loaded with a lot of red fruit, which is fairly typical for an Aussie shiraz. It follows through with all that red fruit on the palate as well. There's a large amount of deep plum and dark cherry. On the finish, there's some kick – with a little bit of spice and cinnamon.

This wine isn't overly tannic – the tannins are almost soft, in fact. The alcohol level on this one is only 13.5%, which I consider blessedly low for an Aussie red. However, I do expect my Shiraz to pack a bit of a wallop and this one didn't. It's more of a gentle Shiraz.

Our rating:

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Review: 2007 Schloss Gobelsburg Gruner Veltliner

So, have you heard of Grüner Veltliner? Don't worry – I hadn't heard of it either until a couple years ago, when I participated in a Terry Theise trade tasting. I had many Grüner Veltliners that day, and I still wasn't sold on the white grape that accounts for ~36% of all the grapes grown in Austria.

At the time, I didn't like Grüner Veltliner because it seemed to be oily – not just on the finish, but the entire mouthfeel. What I didn't know was how food friendly Grüner Veltliner can be – in fact, it carries a reputation of being a wine to enjoy with food. I've since read that you can even pair it with asparagus.

We were at MicroWines a few months ago, and David convinced me to bring home a bottle without trying it first. He promised I would love it. Since I trust David & Jenn (the staff at MicroWines), I bought it. Over the weekend, we got around to trying it.

Weingut Schloss Gobelsburg "Gobelsburger" Grüner Veltliner 2007
$15.99, MicroWines

The Gobelsburger Grüner Veltliner is a Terry Theise selection. Terry Theise is this man who brings in only the very best of the small European vintners, imported through Michael Skurnik. If the back label lists either of those names, you know you're in good hands – and good vines. This is actually a second-label from the Schloss Gobelsburg winery and not one of their
"premier" wines. It's made partially from estate grapes and partially from
purchased grapes.

Weingut Schloss Gobelsburg, Austria

In his 2008 catalog, Theise describes the Weingut Schloss Gobelsburg winemaker, Michael Moosbrugger, as someone who is searching for the soul of the wine. Theise goes on to describe this particular wine as "an alarm clock that wakes you up with the songs of a thousand birds; wonderfully sorrely and nettle-y and spearminty; less body and more brilliance than ‘06, and still absurdly fine in its class."

I do not know if I found all of that in this wine, but I certainly enjoyed it. We tried this Grüner Veltliner on its own, without food. I don't have Theise's gift for words, but I thought the wine was well-balanced, laced with bright clear notes and the tartness of Granny Smith apples. We even detected some underlying butterscotch, giving this wine a fullness we hadn't expected. As for that oiliness I don't like? Maybe my palate has improved with age. I detected it, but only on the finish, and it was appropriate, without being overdone. We drank this on a hot summer evening, but it would have been equally as pleasant on a Sunday morning with brunch. It's that kind of wine.

Michael Skurnik comments that winemaker Moosbrugger's "special genius seems to lie in the making of very pretty fine-grained wines at the “low” end of his range—no small gift." I would agree. My experience with the Gobelsburger has made me want to re-explore Grüner Veltliner.

Our review:

Review: 2003 MacRostie Carneros Pinot Noir

We picked up the 2003 MacRostie Pinot Noir at Cork and Bottle back during their spring clearance sale. It was only $14.99 (regularly $27.99). Since it was on clearance, and a 2003 vintage, we knew we had better drink it soon. MacRostie is a Sonoma winery with vineyards in the Carneros region. They try to use sustainable farming practices and were just certified as Sonoma Green Business.

This was a surprising wine. We first opened it on Friday night and tried to enjoy it with a Papa Murphy's pizza. Something didn't work right thought – maybe the sauce was too tangy? – but it was a bad pairing. Almost everything goes with pizza, so that was surprise #1. (In this case I blame the pizza and not the wine.)

I was initially disheartened by the wine, but again, I think it was the pizza pairing. I thought it was dry on the back of the throat, more dirt than earthiness, and not very much fruit at all. I poured another glass well after dinner and was pleasantly surprised (surprise #2). There was more earthiness, as well as some nice cherry fruit.

We didn't finish the bottle so we sealed it up and stored it in the refrigerator. We remembered it last night so we tried it again. We were a little wary – 4 nights is a bit extreme for us – but this was the third surprise. The wine was actually better. In fact, it had taken on sort of a chocolate quality. I grabbed some dark chocolate pieces to compare and it was quite a nice pairing.

The MacRostie was an easy-to-drink Pinot Noir (pizza aside) that I'd buy again. I'd be interested in trying a more recent vintage.

Our overall score:

WBC09 – Live Wine Tasting

While Michelle is in Chicago at BlogHer, I'm (Kevin) representing our blog at the Wine Bloggers Conference in Sonoma.

We're about to do a live "speed tasting." 6 Minutes per wine maker to explain a bottle of their wine. Then switch to the next group of 10 attentive tasters. Post will be updated with pics when I get a chance. 18 tables, 3 winemakers are stuck in traffic from San Francisco. We are delayed as IT is called to fix the wifi.

Round 1: Schramsburg 2006 Blanc de Blancs

Winery started in 1965. 4 areas are used for grapes to create the bubbly. Sweet fruity flavor upfront with a little apple. Small amount of yeastines and not trying to be French style. On lees for 2 years and I think our table lucked out with the best way to start a tasting. Retail $36.

Round 2: 07 Lilly Hills Zin from Bella Vineyards. Syrah and Petite Syrah in the blend as well. 15% Abv. Earthy and leathery on the palate and about the opposite of the last thing we tried. Overall it needs  alittle more time in bottle to relax. Retail at $38

Round 3: 2007 River of Skulls from Twisted Oak. Smoother than last year, higher Syrah percentage. Mourvedre. $35 at retail.

Round 4: 07 Barbarra from Northwest Wine Academy. Sweet flavor and little depth. Would work better with food.

Round 5: 08 Fish Eye Pinot Gris. Central Valley grapes. Going for year after year consistency. I am still not a huge Pinot Gris fan, but this has a open and acceptable flavor profile. $6.99 retail for 750. $14.99 for the 3L. I'd bring this to a party without heavy wine drinkers and I think there would be no problem.

Round 6: Pinot Evil. $20 for a 3L box. Nice basic Pinot. Would recommend for when hosting a party or to have an everyday red available for drinking.

Round 7: 07 Cab Sauv from Cupcake. 2 different vineyards combining for 85 CS, 12 Syrah, Petit Sytah for the rest. Going for an adult treat. Good again this year a little warm on the finish, but plenty of fruit to balance. Used Cab Sauv to make cupcake frosting on the paired cupcakes for after the tasting.

Round 8: 05 Snows Lake 2 Blend. Nice tannic, CS shows through, needs time to open up a little. Very deep wine with great food potential. $45 retail and worth it. 14.2% AbV doesn't overwhelm and is very nice.

Round 9: 07 Petite Syrah from Line 39. Very light with alot of tannins. At $10 this would be a great introduction to the varietal to anyone who is starting on red wines.

Round 10: 07 Ancient Vine Mouv from Cline Cellars. Nice spicy and earthy. Cline has nice sandy soil that lends to growing this varietal. 25% new American oak keeps the flavor pure. 15% AbV does not overwhealm the rest of it. 10,000 cases made yearly. $16

Round 11 (two left): 07 Chard from Tandem. Very buttery and subdued oak. Chewy flavor and a nice example of Cali Chard. 2000 ft elevation Dijon 809 clone used in making the wine. Balanced, but not my style of chard. $54 retail.

Round 12: 07 Estate Chard from Foggy Bridge. Winery to open in San Fran next year. Balanced and 1/2 malo and 1/2 stainless. Crisp finish and good acid. 190 cases and $18 a bottle. Malo balances the wine and makes this a nice value Chard.

This will be prettied up later, but another great tasting at the WBC!