2007 TRÉ Cellars California Syrah

I Just Don’t Know Why Anyone Would Drink This

I get supermarket wine, I really do.

Not everyone lives near a wine shop. Not everyone wants to bother with an additional trip to a wine shop to buy their wine. Many people just drink wine, and all they want to do is drink something familiar and inoffensive that won’t break the bank.

I was sent several bottles of an admittedly supermarket-grade wine (it was right there in their literature) to review here on Notes. One was a chardonnay that really pleasantly surprised me, and one was a cabernet sauvignon I couldn’t find much to say good things about.

There are two more bottles. This is one of them. It is far, far more the latter than the former.

The 2007 TRÉ Cellars California Syrah is the TRÉ in the pink label. Its grapes come from some of the most prestigious growing regions across California. The TRÉ Cellars motto is “Three generations of winemakers. Three brothers continuing the family legacy. Three unique characters, sharing a common vision, To create the perfect wine to be enjoyed as ‘One of Life’s Simple Pleasures.’”

None of this tells you anything about what’s in the bottle, of course.

In the glass, the syrah is a dark maroon red at its core, with lightening, pinker-but-still-red edges. The nose offers some interesting aromas, including strawberry, stewed cherry, and red apple skin. Not something I’m writing home about, but the nose certainly had me in the mood for a fruit-forward, young-drinking, quality wine.

Oops.

The wine is medium-to-full bodied, with harsh, unforgiving tannins and a hint of raspberry. But that’s not the main flavor note. It’s not what I walked away from still tasting, still thinking about in this wine. No no, the fruit is there—I just question whether anyone will know when they taste the note that dominated the bouquet on the palate. What aroma-slash-flavor is this, you ask?

Pen ink.

Yeah. Pen ink. A little metallic, a bit oddly minty, the 2007 TRÉ Cellars California Syrah tastes like pen ink. I guess I can’t judge people if they like this—but I certainly wouldn’t be able to understand them.

Verdict: sub-70/100

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

2007 TRE Cellars California Syrah

2007 TRE Cellars California Syrah

2007 Leviathan

Color Me Converted

Statue of Bacchus

Ah, the “Napa Cult Wine.” The perennially-overpriced subject of scorn and ridicule the internet over. Everyone’s tired of Napa fruit and paying the Napa markup. There’s nothing new under the sun, everyone out there is overrated anyway, so forth and so on and et cetera ad nauseum.

Anyone from Napa still reading? I think all that’s horsehockey, by the way. Just wanted to get everyone on the same page.

Still, of the Napa Cult Wines I’ve had, the 2007 Leviathan is the first one to truly live up to all the hype. And what hype there is for this wine!

Some background: Leviathan is a garage wine project from husband-and-wife duo, winemaker Andy Erickson (Screaming Eagle, Staglin, Hartwell, Favia, Ovid, Dancing Hares, Jonata, Dalla Valle, Arietta) and viticulturalist Anie Favia (Screaming Eagle, Favia, and Abreu). Erickson has an MS in Enology from UC Davis, and cut his teeth in the 1990s at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars.

The Napa pedigree on these two is second-to-none. So what about the wine?

40% cabernet franc, 30% cabernet sauvignon, 16% syrah, and 14% merlot, all Napa juice. It’s maybe the best red blend I’ve had. Ever.

In the glass, the wine is gorgeous, with a brilliant garnet core and only slightly lighter ruby edges. On the nose is some really awesome fruit, like blackcurrant, raspberry, and ripe red cherry, but it’s all muted and held in check by a bit of nutmeg and allspice.

This is as full-bodied as wine gets, without getting sickly sweet and syrupy like dessert wine. The tannins are soft and lush, and everything here is in such balance, that I didn’t notice any of the heat. And at 14.5%, I was expecting it. Blackberry and raspberry are the main notes on the palate, and the wine does remain fantasically fruity.

If you’re an anti-flavor fascist, you won’t care for this wine. But if you still love juice for being juice (even if only sometimes) then you need to try this. It isn’t even that expensive, available for $40–$50 from numerous online retailers. Sure, that’s no drop in the bucket, but this isn’t an “everyday” drinker. The tannins and balance lead me to believe you could easily get 5+ years of aging out of it if you wanted, but it tastes so fucking good right now, I wouldn’t bother.

I’m a convert to the cult of Leviathan. This is crazy, silly good juice.

Verdict: 97/100

(photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mamjodh/ / CC BY 2.0)

Scrumptious Spanish Sipper

2008 Altos del Cuco Monastrell / Syrah / Tempranillo

What the hell is Monastrell?

After thinking for a bit that I’d hit my 42nd variety en route to the Wine Century Club, a quick search dans le Goog reveals it instead to be a synonym for Mourvedre. The most famous such synonym, in my opinion, is Syrah/Shiraz, but I’ve discovered a few during my journey to try to nail down 100 different wine varieties, including Zinfandel/Primitivo, and Tempranillo/Tinta Roriz.

Add Mourvedre/Monastrell to the list. Which is good in at least one way: I don’t feel as bad for never having even heard of Monastrell before this wine hit my doorstep.

OK, so on to the wine itself, which, for purposes of always trying to toss as much information down your gullet as I can, hails from D.O. Yecla, Spain, and retails for damn near pennies. The varietal breakdown is 40% Monastrell, 30% Syrah, 30% Tempranillo. If the wine had a major identity crisis, that would be 40% Mourvedre, 30% Shiraz, 30% Tinta Roriz. But I digress.

The wine is very opaque in the glass, nearly black at the core but fading to a very nice ruby red at the edges. The nose is full of fruit, of black cherry jam and raspberries. On the palate, the Altos del Cuco is medium-bodied, young and vibrant. The black cherry jam makes itself known here, and there’s also a mild spice of some sort that does well to balance out the fruitiness and keep this from being a ridiculous fruitstrosity.

Not the best wine in the world, but eminently drinkable, and thoroughly enjoyable. This is party wine, frankly, and while it may not pair easily with lots of food, it’s the perfect before- or after-dinner wine to imbibe with friends.

And you can do so much worse at this price point.

Verdict: B+

(full disclosure: I received this wine as a press sample from Opici Import Company)

2008 Altos del Cuco

2008 Altos del Cuco