August 23rd, 2010

Hot Summer, Cool Wine, Vivo Portugal!

2008 JM Fonseca Twin Vines Vinho Verde

They say the summer’s been hot. Has the summer been hot for you?

Here in the Bay Area, the summer of 2010 will end up going down as maybe the coldest in a half-century. No 100+ degree days, only a handful of days over 90, even in the East Bay valleys, notorious for their triple-digit July and August heat waves.

But still, you don’t all live here. More likely than not, you, the person reading this, does not live in the greater Bay Area, and perhaps your summer has been really freakin’ hot. If that’s the case, read on. If it isn’t, read on as well.

What? I’m not about to suggest you go read someone else’s wine blog.

2008 JM Fonseca Twin Vines Vinho Verde

2008 JM Fonseca Twin Vines Vinho Verde

That’s the bottle. Pretty, yes?

So’s the wine. If you haven’t had a Vinho Verde before, you probably should. From Portugal’s Minho region, in the northern part of the country, these light white wines are blends of alvarinho, treixadura, loureiro, and other local white grape varieties. They’re crisp and refreshing, generally. And for the people tired of reading my reviews of wine that costs over a hundred dollars a bottle, Vinho Verde tends to be rather cheap.

So what’s the deal with JM Fonseca’s Twin Vines? It’s a very light yellow in the glass, pretty and almost clear. On the nose, pear and a pleasant grassiness match up with a light nuttiness, perhaps almond? It’s nice, and subtle, whatever it is.

The wine is light-bodied and crisp, and features a touch of frizzante. What is frizzante, you ask? It’s a light bubbliness. This isn’t sparkling wine, of course, but there is a touch of sparkle on your tongue when you drink it. The finish is short, and the pear and nuttiness from the nose round out the palate.

This isn’t mind-blowing wine. Nor is it meant to be. On a hot day, this kind of bright, crisp, flavorful white wine is just what the meteorologist ordered.

Oh, and the cost? Not bad at $5-$10 per bottle. Not bad at all.

Verdict: B

Tags: 2008, albarino, B, JM Fonseca, loureiro, treixadura, Vinho Verde

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July 22nd, 2010

Growing Portuguese Grapes in Monterey County

2009 Bonny Doon Vinho Grinho

I like Portuguese wine.

I like Randall Grahm.

So it’s no surprise that I like this wine. I don’t love it, not yet, but there’s so much to like about it, I’m still pretty excited.

By now, chances are you know the tale. Maybe you’ve even heard me tell it. The tale of the Rhône Ranger, Randall Grahm, who twenty-some odd years ago starting really going to town growing Rhône varieties in California, which had been dominated by the noble species of Bordeaux and Burgundy to that point.

But now, everybody’s growing grenache and syrah. OK, maybe not everybody, but still, the two grapes—especially syrah—are incredibly easy to find in California wine now. Randall doesn’t seem the type to do much laurels-resting, so where’s he headed next?

Portugal.

I don’t know of anyone in California—and please, please correct me if I’m wrong—making wine that is over 50% loureiro. Besides Bonny Doon, that is.

At 56% loureiro and 44% alvarinho (I use albariño’s Portuguese spelling here for obvious reasons), Bonny Doon’s Vinho Grinho (VEEN-yo GREEN-yo) is California’s first attempt1 at Portugal’s venerable Vinho Verde white wine. The grapes hail from BD’s Ca’ del Solo estate vineyards in Monterey County.

And it’s pretty damn good. It will kind of depend on what you’re looking for in a white, of course, but this was something I enjoyed, and my wife actually kind of raved about.

The wine is almost clear, light yellow in the glass. Kind of sauv blancish if you’ve never seen a Vinho Verde before, and kind of Vinho Verdesque if you have. The nose features pine and green herbs, but not heavy, very light in the air.

The wine is actually a bit fuller-bodied than I expected, but I would still characterize it as “light-to-medium” bodied. Minty herbs that reflect the aromas on the nose are greeted by a pleasant green apple note on the palate. The wine is not particularly acidic, and finishes pretty short, but it’s not meant to be big or bombastic.

I hope this is an example of things to come for California winemaking, just as Randall’s adoption of the south of France was in the 1980s. The world could use more wine from Portuguese grapes.

Verdict: B

2009 Bonny Doon Vinho Grinho

2009 Bonny Doon Vinho Grinho

Footnotes

  1. again, that I know of ↩
Tags: 2009, albarino, B, Bonny Doon Vineyard, loureiro, Monterey County

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May 24th, 2010

A Supermarket Surprise

2008 TRÉ Chardonnay

I do love being surprised by wine.

Sometimes, the surprise comes in the form of some new aroma, flavor or texture I’ve yet to come across. Other times, I get surprised to discover an area of the world that I did not take to be a wine growing region makes some truly righteous juice.

And still other times, I have my preconceived notions about price and quality utterly shattered. Just stomped. That, perhaps, is the most fun, because I get to share that surprise with you, and there’s a better chance you can end up sharing in it.

The 2008 TRÉ Chardonnay is 100% Monterey County chard. It should be available for $9.95 at your local store (your mileage will vary on that note, of course). And, frankly, it’s pretty damn good chardonnay.

The wine is a bright lemon yellow in the glass. I originally wanted to call it “straw” but that didn’t seem right. My wife suggested I hold up a lemon next to the glass, and voilà, that was exactly the color. The nose is primarily made up of an apple note, along with some grass and minerality that seemed almost sauvignon blanc-ish, but there is still something on the nose that leaves you no doubt this is chardonnay.

The wine is medium bodied, and something in here bites back ever so slightly (though, “heat” isn’t the right word—this wine clocks in at 12.5% ABV and feels like it). In general, the wine is clean and crisp on the palate. Notes of lemon zest and green apple mingle with a subtle, pleasant oaky roundness. The wine is in no way over-oaked, but it has touched wood and been bettered by it.

All in all, my expectations were admittedly a bit low when I popped the cork on the TRÉ Chardonnay, but I was pleasantly surprised over and over again. Easily recommended, especially when you consider the sub-$10 price point.

Verdict: B

(Full disclosure: I was sent this bottle as a press sample from Folsom & Associates)

2008 TRE Chardonnay

2008 TRE Chardonnay

Tags: 2008, B, chardonnay, Guglielmo Winery, Monterey County, Tre Cellars

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May 20th, 2010

You Have Never Tasted A White Dessert Wine Like This

2000 Ferrari-Carano Eldorado Gold

You really haven’t. And, that’s not necessarily a good thing. The 2000 Eldorado Gold is the older cousin of one of the best white dessert wines I’ve ever had. But it couldn’t be less like its relative.

The vinoteca at Ferrari-Carano

The vinoteca at Ferrari-Carano

Everything about this place is visually stunning. Moving on.

OK, you know how sometimes siblings look nothing alike? My brother and I don’t look much alike, at least at first glance. Billy and Alec Baldwin look hardly similar. And the girl in that 90s doo-wop longhaired pop outfit “Hanson” looks very little like her brothers.

Same here. While the 2007 Eldorado Gold bellows out its message of world peace, goodwill towards all, and honey and vanilla, the 2000 has an entirely different agenda.

Peppers.

The wine is a tawny gold in the glass, more than a shade darker than its younger. On the nose are—and no, I’m not making this up—pimento, manzanilla olive, and jalapeno. Yeah, I thought I was crazy too, but try it and see.

The palate offers up those same notes, but with at least an appearance of the sweetness one expects from a botrytized, Sauternes-style dessert wine. Think pepper jelly, which is really quite nice.

Of all the wines I’ve had, this one as much as or more than any other comes off as “I might like it, but others will not.” Maybe you’re one of those others, maybe not. It’s worth a shot if you can get your hands on it. Just be prepared.

It’s like nothing else you’ve tried.

Verdict: B

(photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnjoh/ / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Tags: 2000, B, Dry Creek Valley, Ferrari-Carano, sauvignon blanc, semillon

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May 7th, 2010

Spain Keeps Surprising Me

2008 Bodegas Vina Mein Ribeiro Blanco

I’m still working my way around the world.

I think when you start drinking wine, if you’re like me, you start with the domestic stuff. It’s simply always been easier for me to get ahold of Californian wine here in California than anything else.

Easy first stop is, of course, France. They’re just known for wine, the French (oh, you knew that already? sorry). I found my way next, to Italy. Then Portugal. Then Spain. Spanish wine is still something I’m wrapping my head (palate, actually) around.

For instance, I really don’t like Priorat. At all. But whenever I try it, I keep feeling like, somewhere out in my future is the Priorat that will turn me on to Priorat. Aren’t I supposed to like high-alcohol powerbombs? I am American, after all.

This Vina Mein from D.O. Ribeiro is a good example of something I don’t fully understand. It’s a blend of a half dozen grapes that, until trying this, I had never had before, plus azal tinto. I feel like that’s almost criminal. The wine is 80% treixadura, 10% godello, 5% loureiro, and “1% to 2% each” of albarino, torrontes, albillo, and caino (aka azal tinto).

The wine is almost clear in the glass, but there is a bit of yellow, and the lightest hint of green. Yeah, green. The nose of the wine is outdoors… it smells like flowers after a spring rain, like wet stone and like linens drying on a line. The palate doesn’t offer up a lot that stands out immediately. There’s a bit of fresh mint and other herbs in here… all bright and clean. The wine is light-bodied and smooth, but not particularly crisp.

Mostly mineral and herb, the wine is something I hope to like better in the future. It’s hard to tell in situations like this whether the wine is good or bad, or if it’s just something too new to me.

To be fair, how many people have had wines made predominantly of treixadura (aka trajadura)?

Verdict: B

2008 Bodegas Vina Mein Ribeiro Blanco

2008 Bodegas Vina Mein Ribeiro Blanco

Tags: 2008, albarino, albillo, azal tinto, B, Bodegas Vina Mein, godello, Ribeiro, torrontes, treixadura

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