Posts belonging to Category Dundee Hills



Is It Spring Yet?

Izit Spring Yet? tBoW Finds a Secret Wine Shop with a Delicioso Red Burg!

What a long and wintry Spring it has been. Long. And Winterrrryyyyy. Normally tBoW would hunker down in his wine cellar with a screwpull and a couple of goblets. Or even better invite over some pals [ed. The Large? Mr Story? Dotoré? the Glass Jar??] and pull corks together.

secret spot in Truckee

But not this Winter/Spring. Everyone is rained out or washed away or buried under an avalanche. Dark times? Perhaps. Can this be remedied? Certainly. tBoW is already planning his sunny wine tasting [ed. aka The Tasting Story or a Storied Tasting] for some time in April or May; soon as the temp tops 80⁰ during sunlight and stays above 70⁰ after the sun goes down while the jazz is still playing.

Mrs. tBoW will make appetizers. Veggies will get grilled. And at some point fish and meat will hit the refurbished BBQ.

BUTTTTT…What will be on the tasting list? This is where the balance must be delicately struck.

Mr. Story is a wine tasting novice. He certainly is fond of THE grape and THE cheese. He welcomes a gentle hand to guide him in the ways of value. Mr. Story loves value as do all tBoW tasters. He shuns costly items in general. His nose is already developed for sniffing out the hyped-up cybersecurity patch. Now he must learn the ways of detecting hyped-up wines. tBoW tries to make that decision tree very simple. NO WINES OVER $20! [ed. Note the Large came up with the U20 and the U10 designation – wines under $20 and $10. Such is value!]

Of course, this rally cry must be adjusted for inflation. And the exceptional find. [ed> please continue]

secret wine shop on 111

The mission was to golf three times in three days. And play some poker at the local Native Peoples casinos. In between those activities we had hours to fill so we went to the Desert Wine Shop in Palm Desert on Highway 111 (can be a fun ride from downtown Palm Springs thru an endless rush of towns east all the way to La Quinta).

Desert Wine is exactly the kind of wine shop we love. Hole-in-the-wall stacked with cases that allow just enough room to walk and p-e-r-u-s-e. And bingo. We had a strike like a native rainbow down the Truckee River on the road to Reno!

2016 Domaine Gachot Monot Cotes De Nuits Village $35. Yes. It is a VALUE Burgundy. Imported by Kermit Lynch. Always consider the importer when gauging the pedigree. Kermit is always at or near the top of importers worth recalling. How good was this wine? Good enough I had to keep it away from host IGTY. Lush but not full. Swoozy but not zaftig. Balanced like Cardi B on a unicycle. Cherry side of flavors. Perfect weight. Tannins? Guess I missed that call. Just about perfect. So delicious tBoW could not recall his last red Burgundy this good [ed. tBoW has given up on white Burgs LINK]. How could I pay $35 for wine if it out of bounds on the price/value ratio? I called the shop Friday so I could grab what was left in the store – one bottle – on the way out of town. Find it and buy a case. Split it with me. Now I have to check in Kermit’s newsletter to see if he ever listed this luscious drink.

Willamette Valley VIneyards Pinot Noir Whole Cluster $20 (good as a U20). You will never read about hints in tBoW. As refreshing as liquid fruit salad in a glass, this wine is ruby in color and opens with lively aromas of ripe cherry, blackberry and cocoa with a hint of earthiness. IGTY served this as his GO-TO pinot. Actually quite delicious! And at this price point a real steal; three vineyards covering ~1500 acres; been going since 1970s. Read about them here.

Back to the desert…..Ring-a-ding-ding!!

Pinot versus Pinot

Hit me!! Good god!

Hit me!! Good god!

It’s the BEST of the New World versus the BEST of the Old World… considering VALUE ev kerse. It should be expressly clear by now that Pinot Noir is the second greatest grape among vinifera; the greatest being Nebbiolo, ev kerse [ed. stop that you idjit].

Recent pullage has tested the claim. We pulled corks on two very fine and exceptional Pinot Noir wines at great value from the Willamette Valley which is the top growing region for Pinot Noir in the New World [ed. FYI that includes New Zealand, Ontario and Pennsylvania]. We tasted one red Burgundy with comparable age from Auxey Duresses which is a lesser known and lesser regarded region among 100 point fiends. The Burg blew the Willamette wines off the chart. This is not to say the Oregon wines were not good. They were wonderful.

Let us delay no further. There is reporting to be completed. But there is more. We opened the Burg with a Chablis at the same time. They fit like Kerry and Hagel [ed. they like each other?]. Kismet in a glass.

wahle08WEB2008 Wahle Vineyards and Cellars Holmes Hill Pinot Noir $30 (in 2010). Lovely, masculine, middle weight, refined not delicate. Dark red color. Great nose. Definitely New World. Bought this at the 2010 Portland Indie Wine Fest – once the finest wine festival on the West Coast. Dotoré picked this out from many candidates. In its middle age with plenty of youthful spirit [ed. like Dotoré]. Too friendly to be brooding although there is definitely some weight here. We stole much inspiration from this excellent site. Words you will never read on tBoW that you will read, apparently, on the Pinot File: “Upon returning to Oregon he discovered that his family transition plan had stalled and this was a life-changing event for him.” Something you will read on the tBoW site: Cellartracker rates this wine 88.5 points. Dopes! If this isn’t moronic… This is a 100 point wine for at least a dozen reasons. Oh. You want me to list them? 1. The wine is well made. 2. It has finesse. 3. It isn’t Cabernet. 4. Wahle is a physician who it looks like never practiced. The only MD who went to med school so he could make wine when he got out. 13.6%

couer-08WEB2008 Coeur de Terre Vineyard Estate McMinnville Willamette Valley Pinot Noir $30: The premium bottle from the “premium” vintage. Another Indie Wine Fest purchase. Understand we tasted dozens of Willamette wines. This and the Wahle wines are not from what we would come to understand is ideal premium wine country in Willamette. That would be Ribbon Ridge. Whatever. This wine is six years in the bottle. The nose is not full of oak. Smells like teen Pinot. The flavors are smooooth and black cherry. mainly, the weight and balance complement. You want firm and full Willamette Pinot Noir made with careful restraint, this is it. 13.8%

auxey09WEB2009 Auxey-Duresses Moulin Aux Clos Moines Monopole $36: Same price point for the Oregon wines. This is stunning Pinot Noir. For the rest of us schlubs who have never ever tasted DRC RC this has to be as good as. The balance is pinpoint delicado. Neither fruity nor forest floor. Fazzinating. Red cherries with a kick of kirsch. Showing the range of Pinot from Burgundy. And this is a less glam community. The Pinot fruit is so Old World I grew callouses holding the glass. The producer is just another guy. Got this from EnoFineWine. I found the wine at a SoCal shop but I ain’t telling. Really should get more. Really. 13%

Here is something we challenge anyone to accomplish with New World Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, same meal, same evening.

chablis-picq-12WEB2012 Gilbert Pica Chablis En Vaudecorse $28 (EoFineWine): Just enough spine to complement the green pineappley fruit. Served it too warm and it was great. Chilled it down and it was super. Let it lose the chill again and… you know. Just delicious. Even Mrs. tBoW who is a die hard unapologetic New World kind of gal loved these wines back to back and mixed in. Red then white then red then white. What a donnybrook. Like Germany and Argentina in a friendly. Try and put a New World Chard next to a California Pinot Noir at the same time. You’re wincing! 13%

DO NOT WATCH THIS CLIP OF JAMES BROWN FREAKING THE FLAMES OUT WITH HIS MOVES. And recall… Mick Jagger had to follow him.

The Wonder of Willamette Pinot Noir

Big Table Farm impressed

Big Table Farm impressed

We got our mission. Find the “Pinot in the City” event and taste the best of wines there. It was better than Disneyland. And when we were done, like Capt Willard grabbing Corporal Lance on his way out of the Montegnard stronghold, through the dazed tribesmen and ex-soldiers, Dotoré led tBoW away from the madness into a new hell. The afternoon was approaching 100 degrees; cooler than inside the grand ballrooms where the tasting had wound down.

We had driven far. Faced down native hordes. Exercised tradecraft. Fulfilled our mission. We were good soldiers. We fared better than Col Kurtz and the unfortunate water buffalo at the end of the great film. Auteurs may discuss how CGI will never capture the authentic horror of a live slaughter from multiple angles. Our attention was on the emblematic tasting we had just survived. (more…)

Cabernet/Pinot/NFL Showdown: Hello September!

Saddle Peak Sorbet served on ice block

Saddle Peak Sorbet served on ice block

Which MINDSET will dominate? Big bold Napa Cabernet, New and Old World Pinot Noir or the NFL season debut? If I hear one more network announcer ask an athlete about his mindset I will slash my wrists with a rusty cork puller from Safeway. While we LOVE college football it seems the nation loves the National Football Greed. If Dotoré did not buy into a season long pool we would have zero reason to track any of it. (more…)

Wine-Napped! The Case of the 13 Bottle Case

the man amidst the problem

the man amidst the problem

“The system won’t let us do that sir” said the creamy voice on the phone. “We can ship your one remaining bottle for $10.” Wine crime is a real world phenomenon what with the fraudulent labeling scandal and auction house travesties. Unfortunately we are compelled to report a lesser but no less aggravating kind of wine crime. In fact, it really isn’t a crime as much as it is a matter of cheap software meets a scrambling warehouse crew. It is, nevertheless, a deal breaker. We are taking about a case of winenapping. Bottles already paid for that held hostage in a Pacific Northwest warehouse until a ransom can be paid for their release! (more…)