Summer = Vacations...

Wow, so blogging in the summertime is a tricky affair. As a government employee, I'm blessed with a low wage but copious amounts of vacation and comp time. My wife and I have been putting that to good use this summer, and the results are showing in my meager blog postings. Our latest trip was out to Portland, Oregon and through the Willamette Valley wine country - I'll cover that in my next post. This post, I want to do a couple mini-reviews on a few of the more interesting wines we've had this summer...


I arranged the bottles in no particular order, so I may as well start left-to-right...


2006 Strauss Samling 88 (Scheurebe)
I think the important things to remember from that name are "Strauss" (the winery) and "Scheurebe" (the grape). Weingut Strauss ("Weingut" is the German way of saying "winery" or "vineyard") is an Austrian vineyard that makes a variety of interesting wines, one of which is from the Scheurebe grape.

The Scheurebe is a cross between Riesling and Sylvaner, and my immediate thought upon first tasting it was if Germans were to make Viogniers, this is what it would taste like. It has a flowery, peachy sweet nose that really jumps out of the glass at you, and some of that peach comes through to the tongue, with a stony mineraliness and a nice lemon acidity to it. It's sweet yet dry, which I find refreshing in German/Austrian wines as so many of them seem to contain a hint (if not more) of residual sugar. The Scheurebe also had an appealing golden yellow color in the glass, which added to its allure. Purchased for $12 at Finewine.Com in Gaithersburg, MD, I'd say this wine had Good Quality-to-Price Ratio (QPR). And if you bought it somewhere that wasn't Maryland, you'd pay several bucks less for it which would make it a great "alternative summer wine"!


2005 Pisano Cisplatino Tannat Merlot
Always bravely going where few have gone before (vinologically speaking), I picked up a wine from Uruguay a while back. I bet most Americans would have trouble naming the appropriate continent that Uruguay is located on (South America), much less point to it on a map. But regardless of where it's located (in between Argentina and Brazil along the Atlantic Coast), the important thing here is that they make some pretty good wine!

So the real reason I picked this up is because I saw that it was made with 60% Tannat (and 40% Merlot). I have encountered Tannat a couple of times in the past: it is a major player in wines from the Cahors region of Southwestern France; it is also grown at a handful of vineyards in Virginia, particularly at Hillsborough where they blend it into their Ruby wine (all of their wines are named after gemstones). But the interesting thing about Tannat (undoubtedly named due to its high tannin levels) is that, much like Malbec in Argentina or Carmenere in Chile, it has found a perfect home in South America - specifically in Uruguay, where it is considered the national grape.

Getting on to the wine - it had a very pleasant nose, spicy, some tobacco perhaps. The wine was lighter in color than I was expecting, given the whole tannat=tannin thing. It most closely resembled a grenache, actually. On the tongue was the spice, with black pepper and bright berries. I think this wine was around $12 at Total Wine in McLean, VA, and for that price I'd give it a Good QPR - mainly because it's "different", and I always like trying new wines.


2004 Mas de Guiot Cabernet-Syrah
I'm not sure what made me pick up this bottle in the store, but it sure as heck wasn't the label - I don't believe they could make this wine appear any less interesting if they made a deliberate attempt to do so. The French seem particularly afflicted with "lame label syndrome" - one of the many traditions that I think they need to change if they want to become more competitive in a global wine market... Anyway, I'm glad I grabbed a bottle despite the label, because it ended up being really good!

The wine was made from 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Syrah, and came from the heart of Southern Rhône near Nîmes. It had a big nose of black pepper and ripe cherries. On the tongue there was the ripe cherries in front giving way to deeper blackberry and tobacco, with a black pepper / spice finish. It had great tannin structure, and excellent overall balance. Kind of gave me the impression of a superb Argentinian Cab for some reason. For $16 at Total Wine, I'd give this a Very Good QPR.


2004 Hillsborough Opal
Hillsborough is one of our favorite Virginia wineries; they produce all blends, and as I just mentioned above each is named after a gemstone. The Opal is a blend of Viognier and Chardonnay, making for a crisp, medium-bodied white wine. It had a "timid nose" (to use wine snob speak), but quite a bit of flavor: lemon citrus, red apple, pineapple, and perhaps some peach notes. It was a bit sweeter than I was expecting, but it the cornucopia of fruit pulled it off somehow.

I didn't write down a price, but being a small boutique Virginia winery I'm guessing this was in the low $20s. Given that, I'd give this wine an "OK" QPR - you could probably find something similar for less, but probably not from Virginia. I think Virginia is starting to craft really distinctive wines with certain varietals, and Viognier is definitely a grape that is starting to thrive here. So the Opal should probably get some extra QPR points simply for being an interesting Virginia wine.


2005 Hacienda Araucano Carmenére
First off, I obviously need to apologize for the picture quality - it was late (and dark), I was trying not to flash out the cool watermarked image on the label, and I just snapped a single picture and hoped for the best. Clearly, the best is not what occurred. But you can see it well enough to identify it in a store sometime I bet...

So - another Chilean Carmenére: I told you before that I just love these wines! If you've never heard of Carmenere and what to learn a bit more about it, you can read my past post about Anakena, another Chilean Carmenére.

This Carmenére was also quite good. I misplaced my tasting notes, which were written on some scratch piece of paper while watching a movie, so I can't tell you exactly how it was good, but trust me that it was. :-)

This wine was purchased for $13 at Rodman's, and for that price I'd say the Araucano (like virtually every Chilean Carmenére that I've had) has Very Good QPR. It definitely gets a spot on my "buy again" list!

OK, mini catch-up post complete - more regularly scheduled wine commentary on the way!

We Have the Facts And Are Voting Pink!

Pink is definitely shaping up to be THE color for wine this summer. Both Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast have run cover stories on rosés, and the general media at large have picked up on this trend and run stories in newspapers across the US, so rosé - your time is now!

Catavino's Virtual Rosé Wine Tasting last month really piqued my interest in pink, and I plan to continue my exploration of rosés this summer. As I mentioned in my previous rosé tasting notes, I'd been a bit traumatized by White Zinfandel in the past, so it's taken me a while to come around to the notion that not all pink wine is wretchingly sweet. Once I overcame that roadblock, I've really started enjoying rosés!

The bottle
So I admit, I bought this wine for no reason other than it had a really cool bottle. Seriously, check that out - how cool is that?! I'm all for more interesting bottles, as long as they still fit within a wine rack, and just as importantly, fit within a refrigerator! (I'm frequently annoyed with Rieslings and Gewurztraminers in their tall skinny bottles that only fit cock-eyed in the fridge).

So anyway, I really liked the shape bottle. I did look beyond the bottle shape enough to note that this wine came from Côtes de Provence, France before purchasing it - I figured the French abhor sweet table wine, so I was pretty safe in avoiding anything remotely resembling White Zinfandel. Plus, Wine Enthusiast claimed that 8% of all the world's rosé was produced in Provence, so I figured they'd be a pretty safe bet.

But back to the bottle - not only was it a funky shape, it also had a raised sun and palm tree on the glass: again, trés cool. I've mentioned before that I'm a total sucker for wine bottles with raised images... See, I wasn't kidding. We're going to have to keep this one and make it into an oil candle or something.

The Label
Besides stating that it was from Provence, in typical French style the label was very unhelpful in conveying any useful information about the wine (grapes used, brief tasting notes, pairing suggestions, etc).

What I'd really like to start seeing on wine bottles is a website address! In a recent post, Winedeb mentioned that she found a web address on the cork - perfect location! If you're in a restaurant and you find something you like, you can just take the cork home with you as a "business card" of sorts. Why don't more wineries do this?? I'm sure the corks must cost a little more, but I think the cost would be more than offset by increased sales as people would be much more likely to be able to find the same wine again. I think this would be particularly helpful with French, Spanish or Italian wines - I always have a tricky time trying to Google for particular wines from non-English speaking countries, so having their web address would really help (even if I had to have Google translate the page, at least I'd be starting off in the right spot!)

Since its label was so unhelpful, I went online hoping to at least find out if this wine was made from Grenache, Cinsault, or Syrah grapes - all of which are likely given its Provence appellation. But alas, a few minutes of searching turned up no pertinent information, so I'll just have to live in ignorance...

Tasting the Pink
This 12.5% alcohol 2006 Roque Martin rosé was purchased for $10 at Rodmans. As you can kind of tell in the photo, it was a nice dark salmon color. My first impression was that there wasn't much on the nose - this may have been because it was too cold, as I started getting notes of light berries, maybe strawberry, afterwards. First impression of the taste was similar - it made me think of Dr. Deb's recent description of a wine as "gravel with a twist of lemon". This wine was very minerally, with nice acidity and a slight citrus edge to it. It hardly had any fruit (although I started tasting berries a bit later) although it still came off with a hint of sweetness.

Overall Recommendation
This wine was thankfully not too sweet, so would work as either a summer sipper or paired with light fare, maybe even fish. I was not overly impressed by this wine though, and for $10 I would have to say it has just average quality-to-price ratio. I'm going to have to keep looking for the "perfect pink", and hopefully can find a favorite or two by the end o the summer!

Wine Blogging Wednesday #33 - Entry #3

Yes, I really went all out for this, my inaugural Wine Blogging Wednesday (WBW) event, and tasted THREE qualifying wines. As I've mentioned in my previous entires, the theme for this month's WBW was "Mid-Priced wines from the Midi" (i.e., $15-$30 bottles of wine from the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France, also known as the Midi). You can read all about it at the WBW#33 host's blog, Doktor Weingolb.

Saving what I hoped would be the best for last, my third entry into WBW#33 was a 2004 Domaine Le Pas de l'Escalette "Les Clapas". The label proclaimed it was from the Coteaux du Languedoc AOC, and it also mentioned Terrasses du Larzac. A little research determined that Terrasses du Larzac was one of the Northern-most regions of the Languedoc-Rousillon in Southern France (I guess that just makes it Middle France?). This wine was produced by the same winemakers as my Entry #1 for WBW#33, only this wine costs an additional $5 per bottle ($20 at FineWine.com in Gathersburg, MD) and carries that added designation of "Terrasses du Larzac".

Wine Labels
A good rule of thumb I've learned when reading labels is "the more specific the label, the better the wine". For example, you may see bottles labeled as simply a "California" Cabernet Sauvignon - this is likely of lower quality than a "Sonoma County" Cabernet Sauvignon, or better yet - a "Russian River Valley" Cabernet Sauvignon from Sonoma County, CA. And the best yet is often when the label designates a specific vineyard - this is about as specific as you can get. Thus I was excited to taste a wine that should be "one step up" from my WBW#33 Entry #1 wine.

Tasting Notes
Most of the time, Kris and I see pretty eye-to-eye when it comes to wine. This is obviously quite fortunate as it makes splitting a bottle much easier! This wine was a bit of an exception however; I don't know if seasonal allergies just had me stuffed up a bit so that I was missing out, but Kris was a lot more impressed with this wine than I was.

I thought the nose was quite subdued, with hints of old leather and spices. Kris was gushing over all of the bright, young fruit on the nose, which I missed completely. On the tongue, Kris continued to taste the fruit, whereas I enjoyed the tangy spiciness of this wine. We both agreed that it had very nice complexity, especially for grenache, with nice tannin structure.

As we drank it with dinner, the wine really started to open up, and *then* I was able to start picking up some of the fruit. By this point the wine was over half gone, and we were kicking ourselves for not decanting it in the beginning. I bet if we had, I'd have had a similar initial reaction as Kris.

Overall Recommendation
This was a very enjoyable wine, but at $20, this is several bucks above our usual $8-$14 nightly bottle. Considering that, I have to rate this wine as "OK quality-to-price ratio" - the quality was there, but the price was a bit high. Kris pointed out that it was probably pretty hard to get this much complexity into wines of this style, so for her it was a good QPR. Although she could have found a bottle she enjoyed more for less, she thought that this Les Clapas was a great example of what could be done with Rhône-style blends at a much more affordable price than a Chateauneuf du Pape.

In terms of this month's WBW theme, we both really enjoyed exploring wines from the Midi, and will definitely consider Languedoc-Roussillon wines in a restaurant or for adding to our cellar! Thanks for the great theme Marcus!

Wine Blogging Wednesday #33 - Entry #2

For my second entry into Wine Blogging Wednesday (WBW) #33, I tried out a "vin doux naturel" from the Banyuls region of Languedoc- Roussillon, France. As I described in my first WBW#33 entry, the theme for this month was "Mid-Priced wines from the Midi" (i.e., $15-$30 bottles of wine from the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France, also known as the Midi. You can read all about it at the WBW#33 host's blog, Doktor Weingolb.

The wine I selected for Entry #2 was a 2003 Banyuls Rimage Les Clos de Paulilles, purchased for $16 (for a 500 mL bottle) at Total Wine in McLean, VA. The Banyuls region is located in the far south of France near to the border with Spain/Catalonia. "Rimage" is a Catalan word meaning vintage, so much like a vintage Port all grapes for this wine came from a single declared year (2003, in this case). Also like a vintage Port, this wine has been fortified: neutral grape alcohol is added in a process known as mutage to halt fermentation, allowing some of the natural sugars to remain in the wine. The Clos de Paulilles Banyuls was made from 100% Grenache (noir) grapes.

Tasting Notes
Rusted red in color, this Banyuls had a bit of an astringent nose (not too surprising given its 16% alcohol; this is less than many Ports however, which can be in the 20% alcohol range). You'd think this may make the wine "hot" on the tongue, but it was quite smooth. On the palate were flavors of dried cherries and dried cranberries (my wife wasn't so sure about the cranberries) - the point here is "dried" since this was a rich, intense wine, almost syrupy sweet due to the concentration of fruit flavor. I also detected a hint of berries and chocolate.

Overall Recommendation
I'm a big fan of tawny Ports, so I was interested in trying something a little different, which the 2003 Banyuls Rimage Les Clos de Paulilles most certainly was. When judged on it's own however, I would only give this Good Quality-to-price Ratio (QPR). I was definitely enjoying the wine, but for the $16 price tag I can get a 750 mL bottle of a nice tawny that I would enjoy as much or more.

But then I broke out some Green & Black's 70% Cocoa Dark Chocolate. YUM!! I frequently attempt to match red wine and chocolate, but I have to say I think this is one of the most perfect matches I have yet tasted. Once the dark chocolate entered the picture, the QPR shot up to "Great". If you're interested in trying Banyuls, do yourself a favor and make sure you've got a good bar of dark chocolate in the house!

I also think the 2003 Banyuls Rimage Les Clos de Paulilles would make an interesting choice for someone looking for a red dessert wine that hasn't found what they were looking for in a Port. The slightly lower alcohol level helps ease the burn, which is what I think turns a lot of people off of Port initially. So consider this a Port Alternative for non-Port drinkers.

Wine Blogging Wednesday #33 - Entry #1

We popped open this bottle of vino specifically for entry into this month's "Wine Blogging Wednesday" (WBW), the 33rd such event since its inception in September of 2004. The idea is that everyone in the wine blogosphere finds a bottle that satisfies that month's theme, then everyone drinks them and we all compare notes!

This month's WBW is being hosted by Marcus over at Doktor Weingolb. The theme is "Midi-priced Wines for the Midi" meaning wines from the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France (often called "the Midi") that cost between $15-$30. For more information on "the rules", check out Doktor Weingolb's explanation of WBW #33. You don't need a wine blog to be able to participate - Marcus will be setting up a comment area where you can post your tasting notes directly to his site, so please join in! As with all things "wine", the more the merrier...

Wines from Languedoc-Roussillon
So this is the part of the post where I'd normally go into too much detail about where the wine comes from, or how its made, that sort of thing. However, since this is a WBW wine, Marcus has already done all of that background research for me! Check out all of the WBW#33 posts on Doktor Weingolb to learn more than you ever wanted to know about wines from the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France. Being a wine-geek, I can't let myself off quite that easily though, so I'll recap.

The Languedoc -Roussillon region is in Southern France, stretching along the Mediterranean coast from near the Spanish border to just south of the Rhône. From the geography alone, I'm thinking this would be a fantastic place to visit - wineries and beaches in the same trip!

Within the Languedoc-Roussillon region, there is a mind-boggling number of subregions and appellations - luckily, Marcus has compiled a truly exhaustive list of all L-R regions.

If you actually click on that link, you'll notice that a lot of the names are preceded by "VdP", which stands for "Vin de Pays". This is literally translated as "wines of the country", and is a step or two up from the generic "table wine" designation allowed by France's strict wine labeling laws. Similar to my recent discussion about Super Tuscans, VdP wines are ones that "breaks the rules" of their appellation by creating wines with grapes or techniques not allowed in that region. Recognizing that the end result of many of these wines are quite spectacular, the "Vin de Pays" designation was created to recognize wines superior to simple "table wines" that would otherwise not be allowed under current wine law.

Domaine Le Pas de L'Escalette le 1er Pas Rouge
While I typically seem to be a fan of non-conformist rule-breakers, I apparently didn't end up with a VdP wine for WBW #33 - my 2005 Domaine Le Pas de L'Escalette appears to come under the Appellation d'Origine de Contrôlée (AOC) Coteaux du Languedoc. This wine was purchased at FineWine.com in Gaithersburg, MD directly from the winemaker during their recent French winetasting event. (I also purchased the slightly more expensive Domaine Le Pas de L'Escalette Les Clapas Rouge for $20, which I also hope to taste and submit for WBW#33!)

This wine was 13.5% alcohol, and made from Grenache, Carignan, Cinsault and Syrah - all grapes near and dear to me from my experience with Santa Barbara's Rhone Rangers (predominantly California winemakers, especially from Paso Robles / Santa Barbara, creating wines in the Rhône / Southern France style).

Tasting Notes
The wine was bright, light cherry in color. It had a fruity and spicy nose - so much so that I would have never thought of the wine as French (French wines always seem a little more subdued to me). The spice on the nose continues enthusiastically through to the palate, with smooth tannins and a fair amount of fruit.

Overall Recommendation
I see this wine as a good "transition wine" for white drinkers looking to try out some red. It is very approachable, yet has some depth with its fruit and spice to hold your interest. However, you may have been able to tell by the lack of specificity in my tasting notes that I was not totally digging this wine. It's not that it was bad - it was quite good, in fact - but at $15, I'm looking for more. So I would have to say that this wine has "just OK" QPR (quality-to-price ratio). Thus I would not classify this as one of the "wine bargains" that Doktor Weingolb has convinced me that the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France is capable of producing. Stay tuned for tasting notes from this wine's big brother, the Les Clapas Rouge - at $20, I think it may bump up the QPR rating quite a bit! I also have a "vin doux naturel" from the Banyuls - kind of like a Languedoc-Roussillon version of Port (more on that in a few days!).

2005 Chateau du Cèdre Héritage Cahors

The temperature dropped a bit tonight, making my thoughts turn from rosés back to more familiar territory - big, bold reds. Tonight's bottle is the first we've opened from our "Meet the French Winemakers" winetasting event at FineWine.com in Gaithersburg, MD that I wrote up last month - yay! The bottle was purchased for $12 (although it usually goes for $15).

First off - a warning: this post is really long. If you're interested in my tidbits of wine trivia, read on! I am always fascinated to learn more about the grapes, regions, etc of the wines I drink, so I often feel like writing about them. However, if the wine geek thing isn't for you and you're mainly looking for my tasting notes from this bottle, just skim all the way down to the bottom.

Cahors
This wine comes from the Cahors region of Southwestern France. Being a French wine ignoramus, I had never heard of Cahors before. It made me feel a little better to flip through some wine books and note that Cahors doesn't even show up in the index of most of them, and when it does show up in the text it's mainly as a footnote or minor reference. So Cahors appears to be an under-appreciated (or at least under-publicized) winemaking region.

Despite this, apparently Cahors has a long winemaking history, and centuries ago wines from Cahors surpassed the popularity of its more famous neighbor to the East, Bordeaux. Even the Romans partook of the "black wines" of Cahors, so named because wine from this region has historically been very deep and dark in color, characteristics of its major grape varietals Malbec (also known here as Auxerrois or Côt) and the more obscure Tannat. In fact, the parade of little-known grape varietals doesn't stop there - Negrette, Mauzac, and Fer Servadou have also been planted in Cahors for centuries. But Malbec is the true star of Cahors - in fact, all wines from Cahors must legally contain at least 70% Malbec. The balance is usually made up with Merlot, or sometimes Tannat, although some of the more unusual varieties may also make their way into the mix.

First tangent of this post - Hillsborough
What I find most interesting about this list of little-known varietals is that two of them, Tannat and Fer Servadou, are planted and used in blends from one of my favorite Virginia wineries, Hillsborough. I attended a barrel-blending seminar at Hillsborough once, and we were able to sample each of these varietals (as well as the more familiar Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot) straight from the barrel, before they had been blended together into the "gemstone" wines that Hillsborough produces. It was very interesting to see what specific qualities each of these grapes might bring to the final blend; we then measured out the various varietals in the approximate proportions they would be present in the final blends, and got a pre-taste of what the final product would be. Fun!

Second quasi-tangent of the post - Malbec
I have somewhat recently become very interested in the Malbec grape. This has coincided precisely with my somewhat recent interest in South American wines, as Malbec has found a near-perfect climatological fit with the Mendoza region of Argentina. In fact, I thought that Malbec was all but extinct in its native France - it is apparently something of a Bordeaux reject, having once been more popular but now grown only sparsely. However, to paraphrase Mark Twain: "the reports of Malbec's demise in France have been greatly exaggerated"; Malbec is still very much alive and doing quite well in the next region over, Cahors.

Wine temperature and decanting tangent
Since I have recently been experimenting with wine temperature for the recent rosé tastings, I decided to give it a go for a red. Traditional wisdom says that reds are supposed to be consumed at "room temperature". But whose room? Located where? Turns out that this idea of room temperature probably originated in drafty old chateaus, where "room temperature" was most likely 65°F, rather than the 70°F or so that most folks keep their homes at today. The end result is that most of us probably drink red wine slightly too warm (and whites and rosés slightly too cold due to refrigeration) . This isn't usually a big deal, but can come into play if the wine is particularly big and "hot" (high alcohol).

When I first popped open this bottle and took a whiff, I could feel the prickly sensation of alcohol interfering with my appreciation of the wine's aromas. Upon tasting, I thought the wine had a little extra burn as well. After probing the bottle with my wine thermometer, turns out the wine was at about 69°F. Although only 13% alcohol, I figured chilling it a couple of degrees in the fridge couldn't hurt - the lower temp should reduce some of the volatilization of alcohol, masking that "prickly effect" a bit. I took it out after about 5 minutes or so, and the wine had dropped down to 64°F. The "pricklies" had now disappeared from both the nose and taste - placebo effect? Maybe - we left my wife's glass of wine out for the five minutes we were chilling the bottle, and her glass seemed to have mellowed quite a bit as well. So did the temperature matter? Maybe not.

This lead us to thinking that perhaps we should decant it. First off, a confession - my wife and I are decanting junkies. Initially I thought decanting was only for presentation, or for removing sediment from really old, expensive wine - the kind Kris and I would rarely if ever be opening at our dinner table. So what was the point? I have since discovered that decanting is so much more than that, and I'd say we decant the majority of red wines we drink. Decanting can make a young wine better, and a good older wine great.

The main purpose of decanting is to allow oxygen to contact the wine, opening it up and softening it a bit. This is especially the case for wines with a lot of tannins (such as this Cahors). Sure, you could also simply open the bottle and let it "breathe" for a while, or swirl it around in your glass and wait a while - a decanter just makes this happen a whole lot faster as it increases the surface area dramatically.

So I strongly recommend you experiment with decanting. My wife and I would pour one glass straight from the bottle, and pour a second glass from the decanter and serve them "blind" to each other to see if we could tell the difference. In some cases, decanting did virtually nothing for the wine. In most cases, there was a slight noticeable improvement in the flavor and texture of the wine, but in a few cases the change was so dramatic it was like having two completely separate wines. After a while, we learned to identify which wines tasted like they could benefit from decanting, and have found that our gut feeling on this is now usually correct. (Just FYI - the decanter in the picture is our "mini-decanter" (375 mL) - gets the job done but doesn't take up as much space on the table as our regular-sized decanter (750mL))

Finally, the tasting!
Having exhausted my supply of tangents for the evening, I'm ready to get down to business. The 2005 Chateau du Cèdre Héritage Cahors had a nose of dark cherries and plums. Had I been blind tasting this wine, my first thoughts would have immediately been "Wow - Argentinian!" I now know that I thought this because this Cahors is made from a blend 90% Malbec and 10% Merlot, and Malbec is something of an Argentinian specialty.

The defining characteristic of this wine is its big, smooth tannins. I'm a big fan of tannins, and they were well balanced in this wine, so I very much enjoyed it. The tannins here were also somewhat chalky, and the overall effect of the dark fruit and tannins reminded me of bitter chocolate. Have you ever tasted dark chocolate with a large percentage of cacao, say 75% or more? That almost dusty feeling it leaves in your mouth is what I'm talking about here. This may not sound pleasant, but in this case it's a good thing!

Overall Recommendation
I would definitely recommend you check this wine out. I really enjoy this style of wine, and it's kind of fun to taste wine from a lesser-known region of France. Plus, because of its relative obscurity, it seems that there are some good Cahors wine deals to be found. At $12, I thought this wine had an excellent quality-to-price ratio (at the regular $15 price, it would still have a pretty good QPR). I'm also happy to have discovered another region outside of Mendoza, Argentina producing quality Malbecs. Actually, that would be an interesting Wine Blogging Wednesday - the Malbecs of Cahors vs. the Malbecs of Mendoza!

Final Tangent - Valentré Bridge
I have to sneak in one more tangent. Another thing I liked about this wine was the bottle. The green glass contains the raised relief image of a very cool looking bridge all around the bottom of the bottle. I discovered that this bridge is the Valentré Bridge, symbol of the town of Cahors, that was begun in 1308 and finished in 1378.

I must admit, I'm a total sucker for this sort of thing, having always loved the raised Papal emblem on the necks of bottles of Châteauneuf-du-Pape wine. I wish this practice would become more popular!

Catavino Virtual Rosé Tasting!

I have been looking forward to this tasting ever since I heard about Catavino's Virtual Rosé Tasting a week or so ago. Ryan and Gabriella at Catavino want to encourage folks to explore wines of the "Iberian Peninsula" - for the geographically-challenged, this means Spain and Portugal. The rules that Catavino set for this virtual tasting are pretty simple - pick out a Spanish or Portuguese rosé, and compare it to a rosé from virtually anywhere else. You don't even need a blog to join in on the fun - you can post your comments directly to Catavino's forum!

I chose to compare a Spanish Navarra rosado with a French Côte-du-Rhône rosé, mainly because I conveniently had both wines in my collection - no need to drive to Virginia! I also thought: Northern Spain, Southern France - the wines should be similar, yes?

The Spanish wine was a 2006 Viña Rubican Rosado from the Navarra region of Northern Spain. According to Catavino, Spain classifies rosé wines into two categories: rosados and claretes. Rosados are apparently what we typically think of as rosés - light to dark pink in color. Claretes aren't so much a rosé as a very light red wine. How does light red differ from dark pink? I have no idea - but now you know what I know.

The French wine was a 2006 Domaine Guy Mousset Cuvée Réservée Rosé from Côtes-du-Rhône. I would love to give you more information about it (love to find out more myself!) but I have the hardest time finding out anything about specific French wines on the 'Net. With any American wine, Google to the rescue - I can learn what varietals are in it, probably even find tasting notes and technical data from the winery. But with the French wines - nothing. The only link I could find to this wine is on Cellar Tracker. So, I'm not even sure which grapes this wine was made from. I see this as yet another hurdle French wine has in gaining widespread acceptance with American wine drinkers, particularly younger wine drinkers. We demand more information about our products, and the French wine labels and limited online data are unable to satisfy our demands.

Anyway, on to the good part - the tasting!

I didn't even need to open the bottles to immediately notice a distinct difference between the two: the color. Here are two different shots that highlight this - the French rosé has a light salmon color, while the Spanish rosado has a deeper, redish-purple color.

OK, so I probably should have rotated that top picture so that the rosé was always on the left, rosado on the right, but you get the idea. I found myself liking the color of the rosé more - it just looked more elegant in the glass. You'll also notice from the first picture in this post that the two rosés came in differently shaped bottles: the Spanish rosado came in a high-shouldered Bordeaux style bottle, while the French rosé came in a more gently-sloped Rhône style bottle.

As for the nose: the rosado smelled, well, kind of grapey. Actually, if you've ever taken a tour of a winery, it reminded me of the room where they store all of the aging oak barrels - damp, slightly sweet, and a thick grapey aroma. It also reminded me a bit of the smell of port. The rosé had a much lighter, sweeter nose, with hints of strawberries and citrus.

For the actual tasting, I admit - I went full-bore wine geek on this one. I used a wine thermometer. The absolute height of wine snobbery, I know, but I was inspired by Winedeb at Deb's Key West Wine & Garden blog. I always like how inviting her pictures of whites and rosés look - seeing as how she's in Key West, the bottles get a nice layer of condensation on them probably immediately after taking them outside. They also heat up pretty fast, so after she's done photographing them for her blog she sticks them back in the fridge to cool down again before tasting, and uses a wine thermometer every now and then to check and see if they've chilled enough to be enjoyable.

So, I was digging through my kitchen drawer of wine toys, and lo-and-behold: I actually own a wine thermometer! After reading Winedeb's posts, I had to try it out and see how/if the temperature affected the taste of the rosés. After my two bottles were done with their photo shoot, both were at 54° F. Judging from my wine books, this should be the perfect temperature to drink them at: most books seem to say that 50°-55° is right around where you want to serve rosés.

In the mouth, all of the light, sweet strawberry and citrus on the nose of the French rosé completely vanished. I was really just getting textures at this point rather than flavors - medium to full-bodied with some bitterness across the back of my tongue, and a slight creaminess to it. There was something annoying me about this wine though, and after letting it sit in my mouth awhile I decided it was the strong oakiness to it. I've never really been a fan of big oak, preferring "No Oak Chardonnays" fermented in stainless steel tanks to their often over-oaked brethren. So I wasn't too happy when some oak showed up in this rosé, but if you like oaky Chards then this wouldn't be a turn-off for you. The French rosé was otherwise pretty tasty. The Spanish rosado had a very different flavor. There was a tanginess to it, somewhat lemony. It has less body than the French, but more acidity.

By this point the wine had warmed up a bit - 57° F said my trusty thermometer. Both wines now seemed to have a bigger, sweeter nose. I thought I started smelling some vanilla in the rosé, while the rosado had an aroma like a dark red rose. A little bit of fruit flavor also crept in to the taste of the rosado, almost a sour cherry - still quite tangy.

Overall, both Kris and I liked both wines better when they were a bit warmer - warmer than you are apparently "supposed" to serve rosés. I liked to color of the French wine better, but enjoyed the uniqueness of the rosado, and definitely preferred the flavor of the Spanish wine over the French. We had some Parado cheese and crackers as an appetizer, and the rosado went perfectly with this tangy cheese. However, with our dinner of grilled salmon, the French wine paired much better.

Final recommendation - I enjoyed trying these wines side-by-side, but neither offered me what I'm looking for in a rosé. When I think rosé, I think picnic wine - something to sip on a warm summer day while out in the yard or playing croquet or something. Neither of these wines were "refreshing" enough to do that for me. I know, rosés are supposedly the "new thing" in wine, and I'm probably still a little gun-shy from White Zinfandel to have a completely open mind on rosés. I also just don't know enough about rosés to have some idea of what to expect when I pop the bottle. Because of this, I think I feel safer with whites for warm weather enjoyment and meals as I have a better understanding of what the wine is going to taste like.

However, both of these wines were still quite tasty in their own very different ways, and I think I'll keep trying out different rosés this summer. From my experience thus far, I think there are probably better rosé values out there than the wines in this tasting. Both of these wines were purchased for $9 at Total Wine in McLean. For one dollar less per bottle, a couple weeks ago I tasted a 2006 Anakena Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé from Rapel Valley, Chile that fit my "summer rosé" criteria perfectly. I recommend going out and giving that one a shot. Perhaps I'll pick up another next time I'm out, and pair the Anakena off against another Euro rosé, and see who comes out on top!

2005 Chateau Montet Bordeaux Sauvignon

"Bordeaux" had always been synonymous with "red wine" in my mind. As I have admitted before, I am definitely a French wine neophyte. Living in California, I was always able to find a Californian (or Oregonian or Washington State) wine to suit the occasion or my mood. Out here on the East Coast, the selection of West Coast wines is a bit stunted, and I've had to begin to expand my wine repertoire.

I was thus surprised to stumble upon this tasty "white Bordeaux". I guess it seems pretty obvious that white grapes are grown alongside their more familiar red Bordeaux cousins of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petite Verdot and Malbec. But I had never thought of white wine coming out of Bordeaux.

And since I'd never thought about it, I had to learn a bit more about it. I'm a big fan of "full grape disclosure" on wine labels - I want to know which grapes were used in the bottle of wine I'm drinking. Apparently aside from the red grapes I listed above, Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon and Muscadelle are also grown in the Bordeaux region and used for white wine. Just like red Bordeaux wine, whites are usually (always?) a blend of two or all three of the white grapes listed.

Based on its name (and taste), I'm thinking that the 2005 Chateau Montet Bordeaux Sauvignon is mainly or completely Sauvignon Blanc. This wine was purchased for $8 at Total Wine in McLean, VA. This wine has a very nice, crisp taste. A little minerally, in a sort of Perrier sort of way (without the bubbles obviously), it also had some subtle fruit flavors, probably grapefruit.

We first had this wine with a Steampot dinner (take-out steamed crab, shrimp, other yummy seafood). This wine paired *perfectly*, with that slight citrusy grapefruit adding nicely to the seafood. We liked it so much that this became our 2nd white "house wine", displacing the Banrock Station Sémillon Chardonnay blend that had previously held the honor. The Banrock Station wine is a bit sweeter, which tends to pair better with spicier foods like Thai or Indian, but I really enjoy the "clean", crisp taste of the Chateau Montet Bordeaux Sauvignon.

Overall recommendation - the 2005 Chateau Montet Boreaux Sauvignon makes for a pleasant drinking, clean and crisp summer white. For $8, it has a high quality-to-price ratio, and I'd recommend giving it a shot!

Overwhelmed at today's tasting

Wow - there were a lot of people at FineWine.com Gaithersburg's French Wine Tasting event today! I think even FineWine.com were pretty blown away by the turn-out As it turned out, there were 11 French winemakers present, pouring a total of 24 wines! I'm not sure how long this link will be remain live, but here's a list of *most* of the wines poured (two winemakers signed up too late to be included on the list).

As a transplanted Californian, I am a French wine neophyte, so I was looking forward to this opportunity to directly compare between wines from different regions of France. Represented were Burgundy, Loire Valley, Northern and Southern Rhône, Cahors & Madiran, Bordeaux, Alsace, and Langeudoc.

First off, I want to mention that Kris and I escaped with only a $265 dent into our bank account - I was very impressed with our restraint, given that we tasted some absolutely fabulous wines! Since I doubt anyone is interested in reading tasting notes from 24 wines in a row, I think I'll mention my general impressions of the event, and will post about the wines as we drink them :)

This was the first tasting I've ever done where I've consciously spit. I admit, I did swallow on some of the truly spectacular offerrings, but I probably only drank the equivalent of one full glass even though I tasted 24 different wines. It wasn't easy - with so many people crammed into a realtively small store, the spit buckets were few and far between. We ended up carrying an extra glass with us as a "spit glass", which we periodically dumped into a bucket as we came across one.

With so many great-sounding wines, I really wanted to be able to fully appreciate them, so spitting was key. The wines were arranged by winemaker, obviously, since the winemakers themselves were present. Although predominantly a "red guy", I'm struggling to appreciate whites and really wanted to give them their fair share of attention. Thus we ended up making two loops - first to taste the whites, then to taste the reds (with one final stop for a yummy late harvest + botrytis dessert wine). This made for a rather long tasting, as we had to wait in line not once but twice for each winemaker, but overall I'm glad we did it because it allowed for a more direct comparison of more similar wines.

My overall impression of the event was that it was a bit overwhelming - between the hordes of people and the often thick accents of the winemakers, it was very difficult to glean much information about the wines I was tasting beyond the descriptions I had printed out from FineWine.com's website. I think the fact that it was a free wine tasting, combined with decent advertising and the most beautiful weather we've had since last fall all came together and created a "perfect storm" of wine consumers descending upon the store. I'm very glad I attended - I left with some great wines! - I just wish I would have had more time to talk with the winemakers and expand my (incredibly limited) knowledge of French wines.

Here's a quick list of the wines we ended up purchasing - as I mentioned, I'll put up tasting notes from when we actually crack open the bottle, not the ones I took during this tasting event:

Whites (see, I'm giving whites a fair chance!)

• 2005 Dom Jean-Luc Mader Gewurztraminer (Alsace) - $17
  
• 2005 Dom Jean-Luc Mader Pinot Gris (Alsace) - $17
  
• 2005 Dom Berthet-Rayne Côtes du Rhône Blanc (Côtes du Rhône) - $13
  
• 2006 Ch Les Arromans Entre-deux-Mers (Bordeaux) - $10
  

Reds

• 2005 Dom Berthet-Rayne Chateauneuf du Pape Rouge (CdP) - $27
  **My favorite wine of the day! I just love strong, smooth CdPs...
• 2001 Ch Mondesir-Gazin Blaye (Bordeaux) - $23
  **Very tasty - a "close second" in the running, but hard to beat a CdP for me.
• 2005 Dom Renée Bouvier Le Chapitre Bourgogne Rouge (Burgundy) - $20
• 2004 Dom Le Pas de l'Escalette Les Clapas Rouge (Languedoc) - $20
  **Perfect timing! A Coteaux du Languedoc just in time for this month's WBW!
• 2005 Dom Le Pas de l'Escalette le 1er Pas Rouge (Languedoc) - $15
• 2004 Ch Les Arromans Rouge Cuvée Prestige (Bordeaux) - $14
  **We bought two - seems like it could have excellent aging potential.
• 2005 Dom Berthet-Rayne Côtes du Rhône Rouge (Côtes du Rhône) - $13
  **We also bought two of these - excellent Quality-Price Ratio.
• 2005 Ch Les Cedres Heritage Cahors (Cahors) - $12
  **Again, we bought two - excellent QPR!

In case anyone's adding up our purchases, we also bought the Frascati Superiore that I just reviewed for $12, as well as a Cateller Cava Brut (sparkling Spanish wine) for $14. All in all, not a bad haul! Looking forward to breaking in to them and writing them up in the weeks / months to come.