Today we look at a 2008 100% montepulciano from Abruzzo, Italy. I picked it up at Premiere Wine in Delaware for $35.
Whoa. This is one of those “serious” wines that makes you pause.
What do I have here?
What exactly is going on? Read the rest of this entry »
Today, it’s a 2009 pinot noir from Willamette Valley, Oregon, which I purchased online for $34.
I have a crush on Athena Pappas. Unfortunately, today’s pinot noir is named after her HUSBAND, Stewart Read the rest of this entry »
Today we review a 2010 pinot noir from California’s Santa Lucia Highlands. I bought it tonight for $45.
Pinot noir often delivers elegant, light-on-its feet and earthy layers of spicy red fruit. The more you pay, the more elegance and complexity you usually get, and sometimes, the less “light on its feet” the wine gets, which can be wonderful.
This medium-bodied pinot from Siduri‘s Sierra Mar vineyard is giving me strong Read the rest of this entry »
Today we review a $35 Bordeaux from Total Wine.
Dry. Tight. Serious. Great texture and mouth-feel. Chateau Garraud isn’t fooling around. It is 69% merlot, 26% cabernet franc, and 5% cabernet sauvignon. It smells of earth and alcohol, with traces of blackberries and licorice. The taste: lots of mouth-drying tannins and oak. Faint traces of rhubarb and tart cranberry. Not much fruit. It’s elegant, and extremely subtle, but not very friendly. The taste is so tight that it’s hard to appreciate what little complexity is being offered.
If you want a good example of the austere, no-nonsense reds from Bordeaux, Chateau Garraud 2009 is a nice choice, if you aren’t worried about the price. But for $35, I want either more sex appeal, more flat-out delicious taste, or more complexity. Although it is very good, at $35 I believe it is simply overpriced.
Not recommended.
EDIT: I also tried the previous vintage. The 2008 was much cheaper, at around $20, but was also much less drinkable than the 2009 reviewed here, with literally no fruit and not much else to redeem it. Not a viable purchase.
Today we look at a 2009 pinot from California that costs $32-$40. I found it at Total Wine for $36.
La Crema has been making good pinot noir for a long time. They have various “levels” of pinot, including Sonoma Coast, Anderson Valley, Monterey (which we reviewed right here), and Russian River (today’s wine under review). Prices for these varieties range from $17 to $90. Ouch.
The $36 Russian River pinot is ballsy. Medium bodied, verging on full bodied. Crack it open and buckle up — tart spices are about to invade your taste buds. But first, when you smell it, you’ll get a nose full of clove and cinnamon, along with a brambly garden aroma of roses and mushrooms.
On your tongue, there isn’t much cherry, which I usually expect from a California pinot noir. Instead, there’s cola, alcohol, tart blackberry, and a kind of spicy pine forest taste with espresso-ish tannins. It’s hard to describe. It’s that “complex, beautiful-yet-kickass expensive California pinot” taste. And it’s calling you back for more. Dammit!
Recommended.
Hi! Today
we break all the rules here at Wineguider by reviewing a 2002 Napa Valley cabernet that you probably can’t find at your local store. Why? Because it saved my Napa Valley wine tasting trip. It cost me $50, but the price is $60 these days.
When you visit Napa, it’s all very beautiful, but after several wineries you begin to realize something: many of the reds taste similar. Cabernet, merlot, zinfandel, syrah, sometimes even pinot noir, all have this typical oaky California thing.
Not Van Der Heyden. We arrived at their tiny operation after enjoying two full days of sumptuous country clubbish dark-wooded wine bars. The tasting room at Van Der Heyden was a trailer. Hound dogs lay on the porch. Cats roamed. I started whistling the theme from Sanford & Son. Should we even get out of the car? We took a chance and went in. Soon, a short Dutchman appeared and started talking very fast. I could understand his longer-than-usual aging process, and a few other things, as he explained, basically, “here is why we make the best wine.” Oh really, I thought.
Then, as I realized we were speaking with Mr. Van Der Heyden, I tasted his merlot. “Hmmm… wow.” And the chardonnay. “Jesus.” (I usually hate California chardonnay.) Then the cabernet sauvignon, the subject of this review: Rich. Different. Exciting. Like a warm raspberry, cranberry and rhubarb pie, it was not a dry red, but it wasn’t blatantly sweet either. It had moderate tannins, with restrained oak. He was right. This was the best red wine we tasted on that trip. Including the fancy tasting at Beringer, where you sample their $100-plus bottles. Van Der Heyden’s cab was 50 bucks. And it rocked, because it had a complexity all its own. I hereby award it a “Best of the Best” designation. Finally, his cabernet dessert wine (“Late Harvest”) was out of control. Pornographic. So good, I feared chronic addiction, especially because its price was over $100.
It’s pretty hard to find this wine, because it is sold mostly right out of that trailer. And through their mailing list. If you want something special, call them at 800-948-WINE and order a bottle (and maybe that dessert wine). I think you’ll be glad you did.
Highly recommended.
Today it’s a 2007 California chardonnay that will cost you $40 at Total Wine, up to $50 elsewhere.
This wine is famous. It comes from a Napa Valley winery that was founded in 1882. (That’s not a typo.) Chateau Montelena is also THE white wine that put California whites on the map — in 1976, the 1973 vintage of this wine stunned everybody by trampling a bunch of great French whites to win the Paris Tasting, a/k/a the Judgement of Paris.
So, this 2007 chardonnay has a lovely floral aroma. It tastes like an extremely elegant version of the familiar California chardonnay. The typical super-oak quality is replaced by subtle notes of oak. The typical buttery thing is replaced by smoothness, a really pleasant mouthfeel. Besides that unfortunate “California chard” taste, you get hints of mellow pineapple, vanilla, and a spicy, minerally finish. It has a LOT of character, so it should be paired with something spicy or bold. It is crying out, “spicy chicken dish” to me right now.
However, this wine is $40 at Total Wine, and costs more just about everywhere else. With its pedigree, it should be expensive, but I would not pay $40 again for it. Then again, most California chardonnays hit me with an unnatural, weird kind of non-wine flavor, so I admit that I am not a neutral judge of this animal. (No other wines do this, and I love chardonnays from other parts of the world.) I say, there are much more satisfying white wines you can buy for around $25. However, if you are living in a Groundhog Day-like cycle of California chardonnays and only California chardonnays, then you should definitely check out Chateau Montelena, because it’s one of the best.
Not recommended.
Merry Christmas! Today we check out a 2006 California cabernet that will cost you somewhere between $40 and $60.
I paid $47 for this cab at Costco, but I’ve found it ranging from $38 to $70. Wow.
This is a very pretty cab. It’s only 13.5% alcohol, so it’s not fire-breathing. It’s lighter and has fewer tannins than some of the big boys from California. But it’s more elegant, so you can pair Jordan Alexander Valley with all kinds of food — it’s not just a red meat wine.
The aroma offers strong alcohol, cloves, vanilla, and a mix of cedar and red/black raspberries, like a pinot noir. You’ll taste mainly oak and black raspberries. It tastes young, so storing this wine for a few years will likely deliver a more sublime experience. It isn’t pure cabernet sauvignon: it’s 19.5% merlot, 4.5% petit verdot and 1% malbec. Any downside? Sure. For its price, it is, like this review, a little boring.
At $45, this wine is a go. I probably wouldn’t pay $50 or more for it, but I might if I wanted a delicious red wine that has a fresh take on traditional California cab traits, and is also light on its feet. Recommended.
We continue our special California chardonnay week with this coveted $42 wine from Napa Valley’s 2007 vintage.
Bias alert! I’m doing this series because I don’t generally like California chardonnays — so if I can recommend one, it’s probably good enough for most people. I am not a normal, impartial judge of this kind of wine.
Am I crazy?? This $42 (sometimes $53) (but look here — just $32.98) chardonnay, thought to be one of the best in the U.S., isn’t good enough?? The wine that I actually saw two grown men fight over in an Atlanta liquor store that had only 1 bottle left (one of whom turned out to be my dentist!)??
First, Cakebread was better than this week’s previous (low-dollar) contenders. We had high hopes, because this chard was one of the best in Napa Valley when I visited Cakebread‘s winery in 2004. But it seems oakier and more buttery now. Our first drink made us grimace uncontrollably. It tasted like the fake, clogged-up stuff you get when you absentmindedly order “white wine” at some stupid work-related event. The smell was VERY oaky and buttery. Decanting didn’t help — still tasted like an improved version of Clos du Bois, which we dissed here.
But on day 2, things improved a lot. NOW this golden boy began to act right — a smell of honeysuckles and a taste of (acidic) lemon/lime, countered by (sweet) honeydew melon and cantaloupe. And a hint of oak, which combined with the citrus to zap your tongue with a mildly spicy “zing!” Wow — a natural-tasting, balanced, white wine.
Then there’s the price. I would highly recommend this wine at $23. But at $42, or $53, or whatever, I expect a near-orgasmic experience. So far, only pinot noirs at this price level have earned a recommendation from your Wineguider. Unfortunately, at $42 this golden boy is:
Not recommended.
Next!
Today we review a 2007 Oregon pinot noir that will set you back $40.
So here we have Domaine Serene’s “Yamhill Cuvee” pinot noir. It costs $15 less than their Evenstad Reserve pinot, and guess what? It may be just as satisfying.
So what first hits you about the Yamhill Cuvee? Its aromas are lovely, but they won’t blow you away. Upon first taste, you will know that you are drinking a very good red wine, but no single flavor leaps out: dark red fruits, oak and a little bit of floral, a little bit of earthiness. The texture? Nice. Spicy? A bit, sure.
To be honest, nothing really leaps out. This is the kind of artistic offering that takes you beyond the normal reactions to wine. You vault over things like “hey, it tastes like blackberries and raspberries,” and you instead arrive at, “that’s it, I’m getting that used Ferrari,” or “where’s the laptop, I’m going to book tickets to China and walk the Great Wall,” or “let’s get drunk and fool around in the downstairs bathroom.” This wine doesn’t just taste good. It inspires.
Let it breathe for an hour, have it with some good cheese and light crackers, and buckle up — you’re going to be hit with a really fun, totally involving experience. So good that it’s hard for me to believe it costs only $40. This is the first wine I’ve awarded both a “Best Value” and a “Best of the Best” designation. I hope you get a chance to try it.
Highly recommended.
Today we review an Oregon pinot noir that costs $36 a bottle.
Well, well, well, another fussy, prissy review from your Wineguider, where an excellent red wine is nevertheless panned. What the hell is wrong with me? Basically, I love great pinot noir, and I want your experiences with “the good stuff” to be seriously rewarding. Ponzi is rewarding, yes, but I think there are better pinot noirs that you can buy in the $35 price range. The qualities of this panned, not-recommended wine:
So clearly, if you buy the 2007 Ponzi pinot noir, you are going to be happy. Yet, I sit here and pan it. But only because of the $36 price tag. So, in my next few reviews, I promise to recommend what I think are even better pinot noirs in this price range. I’ve been checking out Ponzi, on and off, for over 12 years. This 2007 pinot noir is the best that I have ever tasted. And it is:
Not recommended.
Today I respond to a guy on the west coast with a blog called Beyond the Bottle. He reviewed Oregon’s Lange vineyards, maker of some seriously great pinot noir. He rated them a 2 out of 5. (???) His reason: the tasting was $10 and they wouldn’t refund his money if he bought their wine.
Let’s get one thing straight: $10 for a tasting at Lange is worth it. Big time. They let you try 5 different wines, and it’s serious stuff — up to $60 a bottle. The five tastes add up to more than a full glass. Now, what would a full glass of Lange wine cost you at a restaurant? Definitely more than ten bucks — probably $13 or $15.
Plus, buying a tasting at Lange lets you hear from the people who make the wine, or at least people who work with the winemaker. That’s worth a lot to me. I mean, imagine test-driving a Porsche with one of their head engineers. I remember my first tasting at Lange was hosted by. . . drum roll please . . . Don Lange.
Anyway, the blogger accused Lange of “highway robbery” and didn’t mention how any of their wines tasted. Read his review here.
He disabled comments, so I sent him an email:
“Hi,
I see you are somewhat upset after visiting Lange, which you rate a 2 out of 5. Sorry about that. After visiting Oregon and its wine country several times, I believe Lange is one of the finest wineries in the state. For my money (wink wink, let’s remember what’s really important here), they are in fact the single best. Their pinot noir introduced me to the concept of really high end wine, and in my journies since then (12 years) they have yet to be bettered.
I am sorry that you were so put off by having to pay for their wine that you were not able to actually review their wine. For example, their $17 pinot noir is sort of weak and disappointing, their reserve pinot is more robust and even more disappointing because it costs more and doesn’t taste that great, their Estate pinot noir is again more robust but also very mature, dry, and almost challenging, their Three Hills Cuvee pinot noir is a violent orgasm of multiple pleasurable flavors in your mouth, and their Freedom Hill pinot, at a very dear $60, is perhaps the single best wine at this price in the known universe, with layers, and layers, of deep, sensual complexity.
With this winery, it really is all about the wine. I figure, if I spend $10 on tastings, who cares? In fact it appears you are so interested in receiving something for nothing that you were briefly incapacitated. Tell you what, why don’t you let me paypal you 20 bucks to cover your first visit, and a return visit, and go back and just open your mind and your palate to the actual wine that Lange is producing — I am sure that your readers would greatly benefit.
Cheers,
Andy”
If he replies, I’ll seek permission to post it.
Today we review a 2006 Oregon pinot noir by Domaine Serene called “Evenstad Reserve,” which costs $55 a bottle. (UPDATE: As of 2013 the retail price is $65, but you can find it at Total Wine for under $50.)
With this wine, you are entering the big leagues. It may not be immediately delicious to everyone, but give it a few minutes. Your first impression will be a reserved feeling of “quality”. After a while, I predict, you will be addicted. Bring it to a party and heads WILL turn, if the guests know about wine. However such a move is risky – Lou might pour half the bottle into the oversized glass of the 20 year-old he’s hitting on, causing you to burst into tears.
This pinot has a gently spicy and very layered taste. It smells incredible. I know a woman who can’t drink red wine due to an allergy, and she is very happy to simply take in the aroma of this wine. Once sipped, you are endlessly entertained by various flavors, like waves arriving on a beach: a hint of cedar, some raspberry, cranberry, and strawberry, oak, fresh spices, and pure pinot magic. For all its delicacy and complexity, this is a fairly big, medium-bodied wine that shows a deep, dark, ruby red. Finally, it does not have the stinky barnyard flavors and aromas that many admittedly good pinots have.
This wine wants to breathe for a while before being enjoyed. It’s best when slightly chilled, as in, refrigerate for 20 minutes before drinking. The Evenstad Reserve is highly recommended and is a “Best of the Best”.
Enjoy!
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