WINE - Red, White, or Other - Discussed Here!

[SonicMan46]

Well, just made a visit to our local Total Wine Store and added a couple of cases of reds to my modest basement cellar - nothing as fancy as Grand Cru Burgundy - these days, I'm a 'value shopper' and pretty much confine my purchases to California, Oregon, Washington State, South American (Argentina/Chile), Australia, & New Zealand w/ an occasional exception - this time the average bottle price was about $18 - w/ 4 from California & 4 from elsewhere:

Markham Merlot 2012 - always reliable in a good vintage year and decent value.
Martin Ray Pinot Noir 2012 from Santa Barbara County (SBC) - a pioneering winery for this varietal in California.
Meiomi Pinot Noir 2013 - a new one on the block & a tri-county blend (SBC, Monterey, & Sonoma County) - excellent value.
Sobon Estate Zinfandel 2012 from Fiddletown - this winery makes a lot of different vineyard Zinfandels @ good prices.
Morgon Village Beaujolais 2011 by Georges Duboeuf - get an occasional urge for a more complex Village offering.
Jip Jip Rocks Shiraz 2012 from Padthaway - tasted last night; wonderfully extracted and perfumed; near Limestone Coast.
Shotfire Shiraz 2012 by Thorne-Clark from the Barossa Valley - perennial favorite along w/ Shingleback's offerings.
Trapiche Malbec 2011- Broquel offering from Mendoza Argentina (believe a 91 rating in Wine Spectator).  Dave

[The new erato]

Great wine & an excellent match! Dave

The Latour 83 that a friend brought worked pretty good as well!

[SonicMan46]

The Latour 83 that a friend brought worked pretty good as well!

Yet another pleasant treat!

We had an old friend over to dinner tonight (a retired colleague of mine who use to share purchases of Bordeaux & Vintage Port futures w/ me - ended a long time ago as we got older) - but as a house gift he presented me w/ a half bottle of the port below - I'll let it sit nearly flat for a few days and then decant (like I've done so many times over the years) - should be quite pleasant - I no longer have a vintage Port collection, so will be a treat.  Dave

[The new erato]

Somehow a Musar 74 got opened too, as well as a Chateau Climens Barsac 76 (not shown here as the remains are in the fridge for tonight).

[Brian]

Cooked a wonderful birthday dinner with friends in Houston last night. All pictures expand when clicked.



A 2011 savagnin from the Jura, by Julien Labet. I brought it back from Paris for the occasion. Grassy, lemony, and crisp, like an NZ sauvignon blanc, but with a much thicker, fuller mouthfeel. The wine was a deeper but more faded yellow, and opaque - couldn't see through it at all. Not earth-shattering, but very, very, very good. I wish I had 8-10 more bottles.

The pairings...



Arugula and fennel salad; pomegranate seeds; lemon and roasted shallot vinaigrette



Saffron risotto with fresh steamed mussels

[Brian]

Wine review generator http://phrasegenerator.com/wine

[Sergeant Rock]

Wine review generator http://phrasegenerator.com/wine

Chateau Dubois combines melancholy flouride midtones and a snap-crackle-pop pepper finish in their 2007 Cabernet.

Just what I want, a melancholy wine 

Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

That looks fantastic. Love mussels and saffron. Mrs. Rock puts both in her paella.

Sarge

[Brian]

Last night - probably my new favorite white wine ever - from Sarge's backyard, no less! (No doubt he'll soon have a dozen recommendations for me!) Feth-Wehrhof Weissburgunder '13, a white wine that is as drinkable as water, but without ever insulting your palate or intelligence. Flavor balance - a little peachy, not too acidic, not at all tropical, but also not cloyingly or pleadingly sweet - is perfect for my taste, with a tiny measure of bubbles and a big amount of sediment (tartrates). I could probably have had two or three bottles by myself, but it was great shared with my family. Volker Feth runs a very old-fashioned operation in Florsheim-Dalsheim, Germany, and doesn't export, so I'm very lucky indeed that my parents spent a day hanging out with him and buying way too many of his wines. Wait, strike that. Not nearly enough of his wines.

Label very similar to this Google Image result, but with Weissburgunder instead of Riesling:

[The new erato]

I'm bringing this thread up again as this wine reminded me why I find wine such an endlessly fascinating subject:

Brundlmayer Riesling Heiligenstein 2013. Tight, intense and focused. Apples and citrus, some vegetal notes with someoriental spices coming to the foreground as it warms up in the glass. Outstanding finish and focus.

[Bogey]

About to open this one.  Nothing to pair it with except a great book and a beautiful late afternoon on the back porch.  I'll report back.

[mc ukrneal]

About to open this one.  Nothing to pair it with except a great book and a beautiful late afternoon on the back porch.  I'll report back.

Don't know this particular year, but those I've had have been 1) very good and 2) Excellent with food.

[Bogey]

Don't know this particular year, but those I've had have been 1) very good and 2) Excellent with food.

I ended up having another glass with dinner.  Half a bottle in and I am very impressed.

[jlaurson]

Stocked up on most Feth-Wehrhof wines from this year, to taste and compare... if Sarge says "Aye!", then there must be something to it.

Liked the Pinot Noir Winzersekt considerably (if not outrageously, though much better on the second bottle than the first) and the Riesling not very much at all on first trying (too much residual sugar which I found carried an odd, unwanted flavor for too long... but this, too, was considerably more quaffable on a second, different occasion and location).

Blimey... now I forgot how much I liked the others I've killed (1)... but now I have a Schwarzriesling getting temperature and it will be consumed tonight. (2)

Otherwise have had a string of luck with some more well known and some lesser known South and South-east-Styrian wines, mostly white... and one Lagrein (South Tyrol, obviously) which bowled me over and will be top notch in a few years. Also the brother-in-law of Wittmann (if that's what he is), Ansgar Clüsserath, whose 2011 Riesling vom Schiefer was good-if-ordinary THEN... but turned out VERY nice in 2015... so I got a few 2013 or 2014 (the latter, I think) and put them right in the cellar.

Polz has provided one hit after another... up to the magnificent "Therese", which is one of the wines with special meaning for me and my better half, having once tipped a night in Innsbruck from "very lovely" to "near unforgettable".

Ah, it was the Rieslingspaetlese Trocken, I think, that I had from Feth-Wehrhof and it tasted more promising than excellent... which is to say: I'm quite optimistic of getting great value for it, a year or two from now.

Other than that, I'm just back from a bike-tour through the Burgenland (and bits of Hungary) around lake Fertő and hitting the Esterhaza and Esterhazy castles and Haydn's living quarters in Fertőd (next to Esterhaza).

None of the wines struck us as particularly great or even very good... though a few Winzersekte/Frizzante were good (3)... and one red (4) that I had, was, too. The rest was fine, but nothing one would spend time talking about before serving someone else.


(1) Riesling, Spaetlese. Still tight, not quite there yet, but bound to be good in a year or two.
(2) Schwarzriesling was a pleasant surprise. Pinot-Noir-esque, with the drinkability of Vernatsch without being quite so bloody cloying and shallow and insipid as Vernatsch.
(3) holzhammerwein: Sauvignon-Blanc Frizzante. 5,- Euro / bottle
(4) "Carpe Notte" Zweigelt, Barrique 8,- Euro / bottle

[SonicMan46]

Susan & I just returned from a 4-night trip to the Charlottesville, Virginia area - had not been there in 4-5 years and wanted to see how some of the restorations were progressing on several of the early President's houses (mainly Poplar Forest & Montpelier) and to visit some wineries in the area - we went to the 7 below on the map and brought back a mixed case (10 of the bottles shown below) - for those in the area who may be interested in Virginian wines, the second edition of the book below was published in 2014, so should be up to date - I'm about to start the read.  Dave

 

 

 

[Bogey]

So, what are you pairing with Holiday dinners, folks?

[The new erato]

I wish I knew.

I have a Smith Woodhouse LBV 2003 lined up for the sweet stuff, as well as a Mugnier Nuits Saint Georges Marechales 2009 for red. Also a Legras Presidence Grand Cru Vieilles Vignes Brut 2005 for the bubbly stuff, but there will be more when the inspiration hits me.

[Bogey]

I wish I knew.

I have a Smith Woodhouse LBV 2003 lined up for the sweet stuff, as well as a Mugnier Nuits Saint Georges Marechales 2009 for red. Also a Legras Presidence Grand Cru Vieilles Vignes Brut 2005 for the bubbly stuff, but there will be more when the inspiration hits me.

Post pics when they happen! 

[Brian]

So, what are you pairing with Holiday dinners, folks?

My parents are Germanophiles, and not the biggest wine buffs in the world (Mom drinks only whites due to migraines), so I am bringing a few affordable Germanic bottles.

- Moric Blaufrankisch, 2013, from Burgenland, Austria. Should be a nice earthy, spicy red - I haven't tried it yet, but am assuming it will do well with roast meat.
- Navarro Edelzwicker and Gewurztraminer. Two superb homages to the Alsace from one of California's coolest, most approachable family wineries. Navarro (in the cool Anderson Valley) specializes in German styles and a very good pinot noir "methode a l'ancienne" (get the unfiltered bottling!). If you're ever interested in trying a case, they often run sales where cases ship for $0.01.

-

My oenophile friends up here in Dallas will be treated nicer when we do our Christmas friend get-together.

- Cantina Valpane barbera "Perlydia" '05
- A&G Fantino barolo Bussia vigne vecchie '01

[SonicMan46]

So, what are you pairing with Holiday dinners, folks?

We'll be doing about Christmas and New Year's Eves celebrations at home w/ snack dinners (this time - paddlefish caviar, smoked salmon & trout, double Gloucester with stilton cheese w/ appropriate spreads, crackers, toast) and some sparkling wine (in the basement, several from New York State and California - might splurge on a more expensive French champagne for New Year's Eve).  Dave