2001 Bonny Doon Vineyard Le Cigare Volant

Bonny Doon Flagship Holds Up Over Time

It should come as no surprise, dear reader, that I like Bonny Doon Vineyard. In an interview this summer I namedropped BDV’s head honcho, Randall Grahm, as someone I really admire in California winemaking.

Le Cigare Volant is the flagship wine from Bonny Doon. A Châteauneuf-du-Pape-style blend of grenache, syrah, mourvèdre, viognier, cinsault, and carignane, this is the southern Rhône-inspired wine that gave the Rhône Ranger his famous nom de nick.

A few months back, I had the pleasure of meeting Randall at BDV’s Santa Cruz tasting room, and he poured vintage after vintage of this mainstay. I think the 2001 might have been my favorite of all the Volants I tried.

Tall, Dark, and Handsome

The 2001 Le Cigare Volant from Bonny Doon is the first recipient of my heretofore-un-awarded Tall, Dark, and Handsome badge. A dark, ruby red at its core, the wine lightens and gets a bit tawny to the edges, but it’s still a bold, dark presence in the glass.

Notes of leather mix with a smoky raspberry aroma on the nose, mingling with plum and other dark fruit. The wine is medium-bodied and exceptionally balanced. Full of lush, fleshy fruit, the wine has a smokiness that is unmistakable and, for those who will enjoy it, intoxicating. And not just intoxicating because it’s alcoholic, smart guy.

This wine has held up beautifully over the last nine years, and feels no where near its peak. It could drink well for another decade, certainly, but it’s incredibly delicious now, and highly recommended. And at about $20-$30 a bottle, it’s a complete steal.

Verdict: 92/100

NV Pepperwood Grove Big Green Box California Chardonnay

Boxes Still Suck

I’m trying, folks. Really, really trying.

I want to find boxed wine I like. I want to join the eco-friendly, cost-savvy, antiflavor elite-shunning Brave New World™ of alternative packaging. I’ve tried Octavins and cubes and boxes and little 500ml foil-lined wax paper “juice packs” and all kinds of stuff. It’s not selling me, and I’m not buying it.

So here we go. I tried again. I wanted badly to like this stuff. It comes in a 3L box! It costs $19, which is less than $5/bottle! It has some viognier in it!!

Fuck me, it just isn’t any good.

NV Pepperwood Grove Big Green Box California Chardonnay

NV Pepperwood Grove Big Green Box California Chardonnay

The 3L Big Green Box is pretty. It’s an obvious play towards the millennial generation, with its sans-serif fonts and almost Apple-like design aesthetic. Plus, I pretty much think all box wine efforts are, at least at some level, about wooing millennials.

The wine is non-vintage California juice, and made up of 88% chardonnay, 10% chenin blanc, and 2% viognier. It gives off a light golden glow in the glass. I don’t know if it’s the room I was in at the time, but it seemed almost iridescent. I’m praying I imagined that.

On the nose—and I’m not making this up now, this was my first impression, jotted into my invaluable Evernote account at the moment I first drank the wine—I get heat and feet. Alcohol sting, a musty gym locker odor, and not much you actually want from a chardonnay-focused wine.

The wine is medium-bodied, with a very short, acidic finish. There is something of a pear aroma on the palate, but in general, this reminds me of Welch’s white grape juice, with the nostril-stinging, throat-irritating burn of alcohol. Yum

Y’know what? On second thought, I don’t want to like boxed wine. I like glass bottles just fine, thank you.

Verdict: sub-70/100
Price Point: $4.25 (per bottle equivalent)

2007 TRÉ Cellars California Merlot

Modern ‘Market Merlot Makes Mark

I’m trying out a few new things here, as a milestone approaches.1 What milestone? A question best answered tomorrow, but in the meantime I have a supermarket merlot to tell you about.

This is the fourth in a series of four wines I received from a PR firm on behalf of TRÉ Cellars. The first three were a mixed bag, with the cab and syrah finding no sanctuary here, but the chardonnay surprising me quite a bit by being downright good. And now we come to the end.

And now we come to the merlot.

Do I have to go into it? Do I have to describe my general feelings about merlot? Must I quote Sideways for the like thousandth time? Well, to be honest—no, no I don’t. Why?

Because this stuff is pretty good.

Will it blow you away? No. If you really can’t stand merlot, will you love this? No. But if instead of having a verifiable hate for the grape, you simply don’t come across many merlots that are all that yummy these days, this might be one for you to try. And at approximately a Hamilton, the experiment won’t hurt if it doesn’t work out.

So, the wine? A bright ruby red at its core, it does tan slightly to the edges. Doesn’t turn brown or anything, but the lightening to the edges is not wholly red. The nose is pleasant, perhaps inherently so, with notes of raspberry bush and bright cherry, and just a hint of dried herbs.2

The palate, too, is pleasant,3 and features notes of raspberry and rhubarb. The TRÉ Merlot is medium-bodied, and pretty easy drinking for a merlot. Very New World-ish.4

All in all, another TRÉ that is easy for me to recommend. Should be available at your local supermarket.5

Verdict: B-

(full disclosure: I received this bottle as a press sample from Folsom & Associates)

2007 TRE Cellars California Merlot

2007 TRE Cellars California Merlot

Footnotes

  1. Between the alliteration in the headlines, and the use of footnotes, I hope people don’t start to think of me as affected. I also hope I can keep coming up with alliterations ↩
  2. The specific herb, however, I couldn’t quite place. My bad. ↩
  3. Though uninspiring. ↩
  4. Or, y’know, modern. ↩
  5. But then again, maybe not. ↩