2009 Intelligent Design Cuvée Blanc

Minerals and Acid: White Wine’s Best

I think it’s incredibly important for every wine drinker, of every level of experience and knowledge, to learn what they like. I can tell you all about what I taste in a wine, I can talk about the balance, the acid and the sugar, the alcohol and the tannin, and on and on. But, as Jim Morris of Michel-Schlumberger once told my wife Heather and me, while we sat and sipped his winery’s stellar pinot blanc, “There are two kinds of wine in this world: yummy wine and yucky wine. Drink the yummy wine.”

Jim’s right, of course. While it’s a simplified view of wine that doesn’t make for compelling wine writing, the long and short of wine is enjoyment. Do you (or I, or anyone else) enjoy the wine you (or I, or that other person) are drinking?

2009 Intelligent Design Cuvee Blanc

It takes time to learn what you like, of course. There are plenty of people out there just drinking wine willy-nilly, making no mind of what it is about a specific wine they like. Is it the fruit? The acid? The alcohol? The astringent texture? The long finish? Is there nothing in particular that they do like, they just find the wine inoffensive?

Ambivalence is the most sinister emotion of the heart. Its darkenss sneaks up on us, takes us unaware, and makes us feel, well, nothing. And nothing is worse than nothing.

I say all this to bring up the following point: I know what I like. And when it comes to white wine, I know I like minerality, and chalk. I like acid, and crisp, clean flavor notes.

Luckily for me, this wine delivers on all those points.

The 2009 Intelligent Design Cuveé Blanc from Wesley Ashley Wines is a Central Coast blend of 50% viognier, 30% rousanne, and 20% grenache blanc.

The Rhône varietal blend expertly balances a not-insignificant 14.1% alcohol by volume. In the glass, it’s a lemony straw yellow, with the faintest hint of green. On the nose is a wonderful mix of fruit (apple and lemon), a custardy element, and some grassy, floral elements. My wife commented that the wine “almost smelled like beer,” and I think there is an herby, hoppy element to the floral notes on the nose.

The wine is light bodied, crisp and clean. Not much fruit on the palate, but great acid and some nice grassy notes. The finish is long, with tight, crisp mineral and chalk notes. There’s even this slight skinless almond note on the finish, really cool and different.

This wine is excellent. It’s really awesome, and more than that, it’s right up my alley. If you’re a big oaky-buttery chardonnay person when it comes to white wine, maybe this won’t be up yours.

But if your taste buds tingle and your mouth waters at the sounds of “mineral,” “chalk,” and “acid” when it comes to your white wine… well, what are you waiting for? Intelligent Design is the natural selection for your obviously-evolved palate.

Price Point: $34

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)