Posts belonging to Category Syrah



Hey Mr Covid19! We’re Still Drinking Wines!!

IS THAT ALL YOU GOT MR. CORONA?

Not Impressed. Not By a Long Shot. We Are Hunkering down and drinking wine and..and..and..so much more!!

tBoW and pals – and the occasional drifter – are spending more time on zoom than an Easter/Passover congregant. Thanks to the Desert Wine Shop – who shipped us a case for $154 including shipping – we have plenty of libations with which to celebrate the High Holy Days. Of course we also have a cellar. I mean a proper one; not a bedroom stuffed to the gills with cases of indeterminate labels. WORD: those cases have been curated by the indomitable Krisses…so you can be certain those boxes are filled with obscure delights…the kind one might find in shops like these https://shopobscuraantiques.com/ once featured on the TV show Oddities [ed. find entire seasons on youtube].

We are still accumulating wines for the long haul. As the history of pathogens has shown humankind for 700 years, this shit don’t just disappear. Now we have the anthropocene to consider [ed. for a heavy dose of pandemic history and microbial science you can read all about it here]. Thanks to pal CarltheBrain – CtB-  for the info. For sheer entertainment – while drinking worthwhile wines – check out the daily press briefings from the White House. How soon before the Big Cheeto comes to the podium looking like Iron Man above?

Here is how we have been entertaining ourselves and staying sane.

2018 Chateau d’Oupia Minervois Les Heretiques $10.56: Absolutely incredible. The perfect tBoW wine. Balanced? Check. Tasty fruit backed by some grit? Check. Balanced? Already said that. OK. How about the wine is true to the region? Super check. This is important. Light to middleweight. How often do we taste a wine that is reminiscent of somewhere other than it was grown? Too often. This is mostly (100%) Carignane from the Languedoc where tBoW visited in 2001. Yup. One month before Nine Eleven. The wine growing region 20 years was still regarded as chump change in the world of French super locales, i.e., Burgundy and Bordeaux. The mini-locales included Minervois, Corbières and Coteaux-du-Languedoc. Château d’Oupia is the winery. Who knew the site is legendary! We can tell you the wine meets the hype…and that is before we knew there was any hype. We called Katie at Desert Wine Shop grabbed another quad.

2009 Esprit de Tablas $45. The Tablas Creek winery was iconic. The first major site/venture in the USA to NOT plant Cabernet and Bordeaux varietals. Chose to go with Rhone grapes that suited the weather! Duh. And they started a nursery with vines imported from the Rhone. But one must wait on these collectible wines…and that can sooo haaaard. tBoW often failed and pulled a cork on a tough, tannic monster “before its time.” Then we had to “aerate” like a Brooklyn launderer. Had to purchase multiple kinds of aerators to do it better and faster. Thankfully we found other wines like Burgundies and Altopiemonteses to distract ourselves. Now it is time to clear the TC remainders. Today the tough tannic monster is a much softer patch of heavy sweet grass. Color is dark. Weight is middle to heavy. Flavors? Sappy but short of syrup. These wines were too ripe when harvested. And still too ripe! Double duh. Towards the earthy style. Find friends who always wanted to drink well-aged classic collectible wines from California. And drink up!

2018 A.A. Baadenhorst The Curator $8.06. Another Katie pick. Red Blend from South Africa. Already tBoW is skeptical. I texted KrisB “easily most memorable wine I have had from South Africa.” KrisB response? – “those are words seldom associated with South African wine.” The wine is pleasant. Even enjoyable. I wouldn’t chill it like the Spanish summer red wine the color of vampiric blood. slugged down on the balcony of a Sevilla hotel in July. Before I could text Katie…Mrs. tBoW said “nice label kinda art deco you think?” But…but…the wine itself is so…what’s that word? MEH. What is the problem with South African wines? Start with Pinotage…”a red wine grape that is South Africa’s signature variety. It was bred there in 1925 as a gutsy cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault.” A nation blended two grapes so it could have its own “unique signature” grape? DUMB. Mrs. tBoW likes it. Red wines do not always agree with her, esp the kind of wines we favor which have balancing acid that brings out nuances when well made. OK. This is quaffable. Inoffensive drink. The Shania Twain of reds. The perfect “food wine” for any season. Let’s get more, she suggests. 2 more from DWS! Now I am at a half case!

2015 Domaine Tortochot Morey St Denis $35: Still young. Early middle age like KrisB and Ikorb. Great color deep ruby. Complex flavors. Cherries more than beets. Supremely balanced with a slight tilt to elegance. Think Jane Fonda in Barbarella…[ed. watched the movie recently]. Could go another 3 years ez. Burgundy. King of wines. Medieval. Vineyards passed down thru the family for centuries. Hard to say no when the right offer comes. So we do not…say no.

Dr. John wants to help us all cast a demonic spell on Mr Covid19. Might work. Nobody knows. Give a listen. Gris gris gumbo ya ya.

 

Two Trophy Rhone Wines…RRUFFFF!

A Tale of Two Trophies and some Late MidMod Musical Nostalgia

Remember Rhone? Rike Resterday!

Astro the Jetson’s hound filed this report about two rines from the Rhone. Kate Finn sweetheart of the Desert Wine Shop on 111 in Rancho Mirage put the Rhone idea in our head. We were unable to shake it. Result? Popped two corks on long standing cellar dwellers soon as the occasion arose; within 48 hours.

These two wines are highly reputed from the days when we were readily influenced by “label reputation.” The two wines [ed: the labels are Big Rep trophies] retain alot of cachet today. Both wines are for “trophy hunters.” Fortunately, tBoW tasters learned decades ago it is better to drink what we like and leave the trophies to the hunters. Fact of things are we are fans of two red grapes from the Rhone; Grenache and Mourvedre. Both are from Southern Rhone and neither are in these bottles.

What is our problem with Syrah? Too much body. The wines made from Syrah are often deep and tannic. Like drinking crayons. These wines are from the Northern Rhone with the big collector names and prices to match. Here is a decent site to learn more on your own about the “fabled” Rhone. [https://www.thewinecellarinsider.com/wine-topics/wine-educational-questions/grapes-for-wine-making-flavor-characteristics-explained/guide-to-rhone-valley-wine-grapes-for-red-and-white-wine/]

Grenache is from the Southern Rhone. It is the grape we would favor even though regional practices favor making wines in the “big” style. We much prefer the Spanish wines made from “Garnacha.” Mourvedre is the other Southern Rhone staple. It is inherently more lean and the regional winemakers tend to leave it that way. Unfortunately, Mourvedre (moor-ved) is the lowest priority grape to be bottled within the tradition driven wine region [ed: Is there a wine region NOT driven by tradition?].

tBow prefers delicacy over fruit bomb. So that pretty much takes Northern Rhone RED wines off the table. Both wines reviewed below hail from the Northern Rhone [ed. Please refrain form using the word “hail” when discussing wine.]. We leave it to the Field Mouse to expound on the merits of WHITE Rhone grapes (Viognier, Grenache others?) and white wines in general from the Rhone [insert Mouse links]. Finally, the red wines in the South commonly blend their red wines with white grapes. [ed: hhhnnnhhh.] As my godmother would have said “so that!”

2007 Cornas Coteaux Tardieu-Laurent 13%. Could not find this bottle online. A Wine Speculator reviewer wrote “kaleidoscope of spice, fruit, toast and mineral notes develop together.” Makes you dizzy, right? Much lesser tasters thought the wine was fruity with plenty of tannin. In our humble view the wine was free of HINTS and NUANCES. The bottle was cool from our superb cellar tomb so we had to impatiently let it sit awhile. Very spicy, some ash and sweet pepper.

2012 St. Cosme Cote Rotie 12.5%. $80 online. One can still find this hot ticket label in every prestige wine shop; from a more recent vintage. This particular bottle is available online. Barbecue capable. 100% Syrah. We would pair this with some flash grilled skirt steak and plenty grilled veggies. Medium to light weight, almost creamy.

This is what happens when one buys trophy labels. Taste enough trophies and you may conclude better to win the trophy than to taste it. The cupboard is bare now. Thanks Kate. We still love the shop and plan to visit before temps get unpleasantly deadly this summer.

Now for some late midcentury trophy hunter music!

Tahoe 2018: World Class Fishin’ & Winein’

Lake Tahoe is a World Class Winter AND Summer Resort


Crystal clear view from Tahoe City on North Shore to Heavenly Valley Ski Resort on South Shore Eleven Miles Across the lake

Young people live and ski around the lake all Winter. When they are ready for babies they come for a couple weeks in the summer. When you are no longer crazy enough to race down a mountain for the pure thrill you come back in the summer. Sleeping in is the aim. The thrill comes when you can sleep again at 3:00 while enjoying the Alpine view.

For excitement tBoW gets up at 6:15 with the sun and drives down the Truckee River on the road to Reno. The trick is to catch some trout waiting for breakfast as the sun comes up. This rainbow fought like an Attorney General trying to stay in office. However, a few hours later he was helping feed the needy just rising at 8:30 [tBoW not Sessions].

Once the word got out tBoW caught a couple fish the early morning meditative moments were replaced with family ‘n friends time. No problem. Everybody wants to go fishin! The next day with PeeWee on the river with me a 15 foot rubber raft floated by on the opposite bank. It was Lewis & Clark in the 21st century. Three men in their 30s, two tossing fly lines in every 5 seconds, while one guy in the middle handled the fast flow and the large rocks with two oars and his scraggly beard. A 19th century mirage outfitted by Patagonia. Fantastic. Video posted below.

tBoW made sure dinner on the cabin deck or in one Tahoe’s fine restaurants was paired with wines worth attention.

We brought two bottles of Tablas Creek that had been in the cellar since release. TC is our first favorite vineyard winery in California. There is no question they have the vision and the dedication to execute that. For the record we would like to embarrass our favorite domestic winemaker – who sources all his juice – once again with this link. Back to TC and aging “big reds.” You may find the story to be familiar.

2009 Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel: For many years the Esprit line was the winery’s top end red. This is the FIRST TC top-end red we have opened that was ready to drink. We have opened earlier vintages of Esprit before a decade had passed and found them to be “challenging.” Toffee flavors, soft, knitted well (wine snob speak). Delicious with Halibut and veggies on the deck. It was remarkable.

2007 Tablas Creek Panoplie: Two years older than the Esprit, one of the earliest Panoplie line that succeeded the Esprit [maybe Jason Haas will see this and tell us the thinking behind going one step higher]. Not so good. A bit firm, not well knitted (more wine snob speak), I did not finish my glass. I had risotto with veggies and some shellfish. Just not ready.

We opened the Panoplie at Garwoods in Carnelian Bay. This restaurant has long been known for having the best site for dining on the North Shore and the worst food. No longer. The birthday dinner and the company were outstanding. We addressed the Panoplie fail by ordering the Scharfenburger Rose sparkler. Perfect.

Why do wine-os wait so long to pull the corks on their most reputed – even cherished – wines? One reason is because the wines are not ready. The only way to know if a wine is ready is to take your best guess and pull that cork! Figure a wine built for aging should be ready after a decade but sometimes not! So we play with the region – Burgs (Pinot Noir) should not need as much time as Bordeaux (Cabernet). This is much to simple. We know our wines. There must be other factors. Bring out those bottles you are holding onto for emotional reasons. Take a stab at mystery.

Other wines and dines worth mentioning…

2008 Beronia Rioja: We ordered this off the list at one of two very good restaurants we visited. Soule Domaine is located where Kings Beach hits state line in a very quaint log cabin built by Charlie Chaplin [good story]. We brought our own red – following – however we did find this delightful Rioja on the list; the “last” bottle in the bin. The wine list had very interesting selections. At $53 this seemed like a good value. Sam the host knew the label and showed restrained excitement. The waiter encouraged us by offering to waive corkage if we order the Beronia off their list. Everyone was happy and the Slovenian cork was pulled next!

2015 Burja Reddo ~$35 Hi Time Wine in Costa Mesa. The gal who “found” the wine in Slovenian thought it was the best offered. She could not describe even tho’ she tasted in Slovenia. Do you know where is Slovenia? OK. How about the Vipava Valley. Here is the winery website. Time for our local wine snob shop Woodland Hills Wine Company to host a regional tasting! This wine was very fruity with enough acid to keep the flab out. Very berry somewhere between cran- and boysen-. Buy it again? Not likely.

Watch these guys fling their fly lines lashing the river to give up her stubborn trout. Not bad for taking it from 60 yards away with a cell phone. Thanks to YoungUn PeeWee.

The Paul Lato Origin Story

The King of Santa Rita

This was going to a more ambitious tale of how amateur wine know-it-alls and cognoscenti – aka Dotore and tBoW – discovered Paul Lato at the 2004 Santa Barbara Wine Festival where he was tucked in a corner with just about the worst table possible at a premier tasting where tasters/buyers thronged like a Killer Whales pod on the hunt. Before looking – NSFWL!

There are dozens of links to reviews of Mr. Lato that fawn over his wines; even after he lost his focus on low alcohol and restrained fruit and went B-I-G in a very Santa Maria way. Here are a couple of links fyi with tBoW’s quickie evals.

“We’ve heard there is an epidemic outbreak on Clavius.”

2018 Santa Maria Sun “Ingratiating recycled history, writer’s creative tie-in how 911 (twin towers) influenced Paul’s reassessment, dated 2018 but obviously dates closer to 2005.” There goes my timeline.

2014 wakahawka wine reviews (online) “He’s a terrific cook, young life in Communist bloc countries, nice photo where his resemblance to Paul Giamatti in Sideways is evident; origin of Spanish word Duende which is difficult to translate but best pairs with “dream” and is what he named his early wines.”

2015 KCET coverage “Lato is anointed by Parker, Paul’s preferred vineyards,an upcoming dinner (long gone), Santa Barbara is home.” Thud.

“I’m sorry I am not at liberty to discuss that.”

FRESH POV FROM TBOW: The scene is the 2004 Santa Barbara Futures Wine Fest located in Santa Barbara’s magnificent El Paseo. Great place to get stoned. This is our third go-round where winemakers can only show if they agree to cut the market price by 20% for the “futures” sale. The Pinot Noir market is steaming in the Central Coast, especially Santa Rita Hills. All the Big Names are represented: Sea Smoke (6 deep at tiny pouring table), Clendenen, Tolmach plus Santa Rita wannnabes like Jaffurs, Babcock, Melville and many many more.

We are already tired of the high alcohol overbearing fruit style that plagues the region. Curse of Parkerism. We wander into the rear room where access to shrimp and mussels and cheese is only 1 or 2 slackers deep. At the eastern end of the buffet, next to the kitchen entry/exit, waiters and busboys moving in and out like a late night ride to Vegas – vroom, whoosh, scuze mee – is a single table where a balding guy with a slight paunch stands patiently. No crowd here. Did he sneak in? Was there one table left?

“All we know is it was buried here 4 million years ago.”

Paul pours his 2003 Duende Pinot Noir. Nice. Thirteen percent. Radical. Delicious. So not Santa Rita. Fruit is clear as a mountain spring filled with fairies. We head to the buyers table and grab half a case each. That’s the story. Next year Dotore and I had to get past Clendenen and Tolmach to snag a pour. WORD. Alcohol was already creeping up past 14%.

Last time tBoW purchased Lato Wine it was half a case out of Paul’s trunk in Calabasas; the 2006 Cinematique Syrah at $60. 15%. Thick and ornery as Trump’s White House staff. Undrinkable early on and over several years. Saved one to see if it would come around. We cracked it recently. Past a decade this wine is lovely. Clearly New World but not clearly Santa Rita. And it tasted pretty good. Color rich, flavors in balance. Just needed some time. Paul will always be cool. Even when faced with a bottle of Merlot.

‘Tis the Season: Five Wine Truths

santa-sleighVINOWEBIn Vino Veritas must be the vanity plate on Santa’s sleigh. It is also a muy popular phrase among the cogniscenti du vin. Something about truth and wine. This blog is hardly averse when it comes to understanding more about our wine tastes and habits. Here is what the vines told us at a recent holiday party.

antica07WEB ayres10WEB Lesson #1: Palates change, or at least they should if you prefer truth to hype. The truth here is we are done with Oregon wines. We plan to drink thru what’s in the cellar. Not a knock on Oregon Pinot Noir. Just a move in a new direction.

2007 Antica Terra Willamette Valley Pinot Noir and 2010 Ayres Ribbon Ridge Pioneer Pinot Noir: Five years ago these Oregon Pinot Noir wines were at the top of our list. Had to have them. Nummy num nums. So delicious. So manipulated. Both wines are quite enjoyable. Antica still seems to the be the top PN in the New World per the party guests. We just see no further reason to purchase wines from the region.

latourmersault05WEB Lesson #2: Pierce the veil of personal bias. Consider all the data. As Inspector Clouseau might say “I suspect no one and I suspect everyone.” I suspect me. 2005 Louis Latour Mersault-Charmes Premier Cru: Forget the pedigree of the producer and especially the wine press. This bottle had everything going for it when purchased: big name producer, big name vineyard, should have checked the vintage, and deeply discounted. The most important red flag was the wine shop, now out of business. We had never bought a decent bottle from the site. The wine was flat. Over the hill. Some said premox. Some said too cold. When it warmed up it was chalk and dust with little fruit. Buy the wine you like, note wines you are supposed to like. More signals “The family-run company of Maison Louis Latour is one of the most highly-respected négociant-éléveurs in Burgundy. Renowned throughout the world for the quality of its red and white wines, the company has built a reputation for tradition and innovation. This Domaine has the largest Grand Cru property in the Cote d’Or with a total of 28,63 hectares (71,58 acres).” Large vineyards is not necessarily a detractor BUT a smaller vineyard is often associated with smaller producers who are more concerned with quality than quantity.

ranchero-vig-10WEB Lesson #3: Look at the small producer who is reasonably inspired. Amy Jean Butler is a case in point. From her website: “Founded by way of endless infatuation and intellectual curiosity, Ranchero Cellars is my just reward for years of making wine for others. I have lived and breathed winemaking on all levels – from the storied and venerated Napa institutions, to the intrepid Paso Robles startup – and have come to understand that this is where I belong. Over the past 16 years I have fallen in love with certain vineyards, particular varieties, specific styles and methods.” This is what inspiration reads like. And she signs off “XOXO Amy.” 2010 Ranchero Cellars Viognier: This 4 y.o. Viognier wine from Paso Robles is delicious. It has improved with a couple years. Proof that the New World/Old World distinction which we constantly cite has little meaning in the hands of a true winemaker.

santelenamag06WEBLesson #4: Cabernet is not Napa. 2006 Sant’ Elena Cabernet Sauvignon: An Italian red from the Friuli region in Northeastern Italy. Delightful. Served in mag so it has soft tannins 8 years later. Middle weight tasting just fine. There is another lesson here: if you know the wine and not the region, and the price is right ($40 for the mag), then give it a try.

stcosme12WEB Lesson #5: If spooked by too much information when considering a new prestigious brand, start at the intro level. St Cosme is a value label from the Cotes du Rhone. The label is intimidating with an ancient hut obviously hand illustrated. Old shit. Too much for us. We don’t know what to do… flight or fight! Recent release wines can purchased from $14 to $80. The site is ancient as in 15th century. Romans get a mention. 2011 St Cosme Cotes du Rhone: The entry level wine that is 100% Syrah. We worried it might be “hot” [ed. high alcohol], too big being from Gigondas a region we imagine is noted for “size” [ed. too rich]. What we got was a fairly exotic red wine that failed to meet any of our weenie-shaped fears. Great value too. Wine tasting can be so silly!

Please excuse this sentimental moment. Nat King Cole and Frank’s World are hard to resist.